web02.fireside.fm Fri, 01 May 2026 19:18:18 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Hybrid Ministry - Episodes Tagged with “Student Ministry” https://www.hybridministry.xyz/tags/student%20ministry Thu, 09 Apr 2026 05:00:00 -0500 Hybrid Ministry is complicated and hard. Or is it? How do pastors and youth pastors create a vibrant extension, not replacement, of what's already happening during their weekly church services? To cater in a digital ministry way to an online focused ministry audience. Reaching Millennials, Gen Z and even Gen Alpha is going to require us to rethink some of the ways we do church. Follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick en-us episodic Digital Discipleship made easy Nick Clason Hybrid Ministry is complicated and hard. Or is it? How do pastors and youth pastors create a vibrant extension, not replacement, of what's already happening during their weekly church services? To cater in a digital ministry way to an online focused ministry audience. Reaching Millennials, Gen Z and even Gen Alpha is going to require us to rethink some of the ways we do church. Follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick no Digital, Online Church, Hybrid Ministry, Church, Meta, Gen Z, Millennials, Digital Marketing, Church Marketing, Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Nick Clason, Digital Ministry, Church Social Media, Youth Ministry Social Media, YouTube for Church, YouTube for Youth Ministry, TikTok for Churches, TikTok for Youth Ministry, Instagram for Churches, Instagram for Youth Ministry, Facebook for Church, Facebook for Youth Ministry, Cell Phone Usage at Church Nick Clason nickclason@hybridministry.xyz Episode 196: Lock-Ins: Ministry Gold or Total Disaster? https://www.hybridministry.xyz/196 f5e38c94-7322-4aa4-b0d6-311b9d51f619 Thu, 09 Apr 2026 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 196 Lock-Ins: Ministry Gold or Total Disaster? full Nick Clason Lock-ins... is there a more polarizing youth ministry topic? Should you do them? Are they valuable? Or are they the worst idea ever? In this episode, two youth pastors go head to head, and you get to decide! 20:08 no Lock-ins... is there a more polarizing youth ministry topic? Should you do them? Are they valuable? Or are they the worst idea ever? In this episode, two youth pastors go head to head, and you get to decide! Take Advantage of Andrew's FREE Lock-in Planning Session: https://www.hybridministry.xyz/contact [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link 🌸 SPRING SEASONAL SOCIAL PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/spring-seasonal-151263940?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/196 //Lock-In Survival Guide https://www.patreon.com/posts/10-year-veterans-146449370?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //HYBRID MINISTRY MEGA GUIDE Everything I've ever learned in one blog post [FOR FREE!] https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-ministry-151264417?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Pro or Anti Lock-in? 02:16 The Argument Against Lock-ins 05:14 The Busy Youth Worker’s Guide to Social Media 06:12 The Argument For Lock-ins 09:11 What Do You do if Kids don’t like boardgames? 10:56 Are Lock-ins only effective for Middle Schoolers? 12:16 What are the “risks” vs the “rewards” of a lock-in? 14:29 Do Lock-ins affect your Sunday morning attendance? 16:43 The Final Argument FOR Lock-ins 18:00 The Final Argument AGAINST Lock-ins 19:09 You decide - who won? -------------- TRANSCRIPT Nick Clason (00:01.102) Well, what is up everybody? Here I am this morning with Andrew and my new friend Ellen. Good morning everyone. How are we doing this morning? Ellen Partridge (00:10.995) Doing good. Nick Clason (00:12.802) Hey, are you guys, do you have coffee yet in your systems or is that long gone? All right, okay. They're doing pretty good, right, Michigan State? Andrew Jansen (00:12.964) Doing fantastic. Ellen Partridge (00:16.771) We're on the first cut. Go Spartans. Yeah, not as good as Michigan, which is a bummer, but... Andrew Jansen (00:23.46) They're doing good. Nick Clason (00:25.73) Mm, yeah. And this will drop after March Madness, so we'll all know. Comment down below, like how Michigan did. know, Michigan State, not Michigan. But I'm excited because today we are debating pro lock-in versus anti lock-in. And based on the two people that you see on your screen here, you can probably already tell who's pro lock-in. Andrew Jansen (00:33.591) it. Nick Clason (00:50.9) and who's anti-lock-in. And so I'm just so excited for you guys to get to, not only get to know these two amazing people, but also hear their positions on this. And so by random draw that happened off screen that you're gonna have to trust me because I'm a pastor and I get paid to tell the truth. Ellen, you get to go first. So one minute on the clock for you. Just introduce yourself, help the people understand your context, where you're at, how long you've been in ministry, all these types of things. Ellen, are you ready? Ellen Partridge (01:18.751) Absolutely. I'm ready. Nick Clason (01:21.58) Alright, take it away. Ellen Partridge (01:23.455) All right, everyone, my name is Ellen Partridge. I serve as the central pastor of students at Thornton Apple Valley Church. We are centralized out of Hastings at Michigan, southwest Michigan. And we are a multi-site church, but I've been in ministry for very close to two decades now. And we're in a rural context and a multi-site context. So things are a little bit different for us versus just the single site. And when I think about lock-ins, the thing that always comes to mind is the Halt analogy. If you're hungry, if you're angry, if you're tired, what are the things you shouldn't do, which is make decisions. And so we're gonna put students in a room where they are locked in together. You got the ones who, I have a kid in my youth ministry who at camp asked me if I could move our bedtime up to 9 p.m. I let him know that wasn't a thing, but you've got those kind of kids, and then you've got the kids who have snuck in. all their energy drinks and are going to be up till four in the morning. And those kids that are up are going to be picking on the kids that don't want to be up, that want to be sleeping. And then you've got a lot of that interpersonal conflict that is going on within that. And you're putting that all into a giant space where you're having to entertain them and or keep track of them as they are, you know, coming up with all of these grand ideas of how they're going to use their time. And I remember back to my youth group days, our youth ministry actually met in a old YMCA building, and for some reason, they did not lock the doors to the locker rooms, and then that locker room led to a empty pool. And I can't confirm or deny if there were children conceived in that pool, but there probably were. And it was coming from opportunities where we did lock-ins and they let us all throughout this building with lots of classrooms, lots of spaces that should have been locked that were not. And so from that perspective of hungry, angry, tired, lack of ability to, you know, keep an eye on all the students and all the places, I am very anti-lock-in. Nick Clason (03:43.896) Well, there you go. Andrew, she blew past introductions just straight into arguments. Brother, she's coming for you, right? Like she is coming in hot. So, Ellen, great argument. Man, I hope no students, babies were conceived in that pool. I don't ever want to swim there. Andrew. Andrew Jansen (03:49.24) yeah, just right past it. Yeah, she went right past it and that's okay. She's coming in hot, yeah, for sure. It's okay. Ellen Partridge (04:10.12) Me too. Andrew Jansen (04:12.365) Yeah, it's gross. Nick Clason (04:13.838) Tell us why Ellen's wrong and why lock-ins are a great idea. But first, give us a little bit of intro as you go. Are you ready, my friend? Let's go, take it away. Andrew Jansen (04:28.345) ready. Yeah, hit it. My name is Andrew Janssen. I am a middle school pastor in Manhattan, Kansas. Sorry, a couple years ago, we did play Michigan State and I know you probably knew that but we have nothing to talk about sports wise, hardly at all right now. So that's okay. But I love K State. I love serving in Manhattan. I am 36 years old. I've been a youth pastor for 10 years and I really love getting to be in Manhattan, getting to work with college students that invest in middle schoolers. That's kind of my passion. And man, I love lock-ins. just, it works within the context of our church is about 1900 people and we work with multi buildings on our campus, but not multi-site, but. It is just set up in a really easy way to execute and make lock-ins happen. And especially in our season right now where we have, and it changes, we have college students that graduate, but we have like 17, 18 youth coaches right now. And a lot of them enjoy staying up super late. And so it just really worked in this season to be able to have enough people there for a safe lock-in to happen. Middle schoolers are crazy and love staying up all night, love getting to be like, you can be at the church besides Sunday and Wednesday. And just, it was just really, really awesome. We did a New Year's Eve lock in and they just have so much fun. There's opportunities for fellowship, board games, long extended times that maybe you don't get that opportunity to play through an entire game of exploding kittens or taco cat. Mahomes cheese pizza, not taco cat goat cheese pizza. We all know Mahomes is the goat. But we play taco cat Mahomes cheese pizza and you get through two rounds and it's time for youth group to start. So we get to play through those games, have those conversations and invest in the students moving forward. Nick Clason (06:40.494) Great. All right, well there you have it. Like there's, each of you have laid down the gauntlet with your position, right? Andrews is based upon board games. Ellen's is based upon pools being present. And so with those two things in mind, plus everything else, do either of you have a question for the other that we can debate in a little bit more of an open forum? Andrew Jansen (06:55.097) You Ellen Partridge (07:10.974) All Andrea, I got one for you. So what do you do with the kids who are not your board game kids? What are your other activities that you're able to do? Because it sounds like you're pretty board game heavy. So how are you keeping the other kids occupied that are not interested in your board games? Andrew Jansen (07:27.929) Absolutely. I have, I try to make sure that every single second is accounted for at a lock-in. We have intentional time where it's like, they get to choose. We have our youth building has like carpet ball, foosball, ping pong. We have not a Nintendo switch too, but two Nintendo switches, which is kind of confusing, definitely. But so we have like Mario Kart and Smash Bros going. Nick Clason (07:49.902) That could be confusing, Andrew Jansen (07:56.882) I really try to get them away from screens as much as I can because we all know that battle. yeah, trying to have every single second with like some sort of activity, some sort of competition tournament. The last time I was on with Nick, we talked about the Assassin's like meta ongoing game that happens throughout the evening and having things like that where there isn't an opportunity to be bored. really, really is effective with middle schoolers. Because once you were right, once they're bored and exploring and they find a pool and we know what happens next, like there's just something about an empty pool. So, but with middle schoolers, that's not so much like the sneaking off and having that happen. I think that's more of a high school situation, but I just try to make sure every single second is accounted for. And that kind of helps with, you know, not having that boredom. board game time for the students that don't like board games. Ellen Partridge (08:57.362) And notice you keep saying middle school. You're not mentioning high school. So are you saying that lock-ins are only good for middle school or would you do one with high school? Nick Clason (09:06.072) Good question. Andrew Jansen (09:06.325) I would, that is a great question. I would do a, I would do a high school lock in for sure. I think that you do run that risk. They are a little bit more like, I can kind of put on the dad voice like the, Hey, what are you doing? And they'll just like freeze as a middle schooler. They still, you know, we'll listen to authority when it yells at them. So with high school, they're kind of a little bit more independent, a little bit more calloused and a little bit more. Like on their own I consider I always use this analogy of like middle schoolers are like dogs and high schoolers are like cats Like dogs are just happy that you're there and happy that you see them high schoolers. You kind of have to earn that relational like equity and I would say yes have a lock-in with high schoolers, but only do it if you have the resources and the adult volunteers and also if you're like this group is just like, this is a crazy group of high schoolers. It's not always a green light for that specific group of high schoolers if you just feel like that wouldn't be good. Does that make sense? Ellen Partridge (10:16.934) Yeah, it's good argument. Nick Clason (10:18.464) Andrew, you got a question for Ellen? Andrew Jansen (10:22.763) Yes, what do you feel is, like, I want you to tell me what is the, like, risk reward trade off where you feel like, hey, this is too risky to have a lock in for this type of reward. Ellen Partridge (10:35.422) Mmm. Ellen Partridge (10:45.35) Yeah, it's a great question. I would just say I'm a big fan of like doing late night activities, hanging out super late. The thing that gets me and where I feel like the risk comes in is once you hit that one, two, three, four a.m. that even, and you mentioned that you've got college leaders. I don't live in a college town and so I mostly have adult leaders. And so for me, I know my adult leaders are not gonna be on their A game coming into that situation. And so for me, the risk in my context is a lot higher that my leaders are gonna start maybe losing their minds or going stir crazy or sleep deprivation is gonna kick in. And it's gonna lead to students, because they're curious, ending up doing things that they don't need to do. And so for me, I would rather do a thing where it's like, hey, we're hanging out till midnight. Your parents are picking you up. and then maybe we do something again the next morning because then I know they're getting sleep, my leaders are getting sleep, and it also means that I'm not putting them at risk, I'm not putting my leaders at risk. And so for me, there doesn't seem to be necessarily, yes, there's the connection reward, but I wonder if that's always overshadowed by the sleep deprivation, the angry, hangry situations that can come up and also, I worry for my adult leaders that they're gonna say something out of their own sleep deprivation or frustration after telling the same kid eight times not to do something, that it may end up ultimately hurting a relationship that was good, and then they make a good relationship with someone that they had a bad relationship with, and so you're kind of at a net zero, is kind of how I look at Nick Clason (12:32.078) I just feel like the ultimate fact that like, I would rather sleep in my bed at two o'clock in the morning. Like that's my strongest argument for anti-lock-in. Just shooting straight. Plus I enjoy Saturdays and if I am doing a lock-in, I don't know. Also, Andrew, question for you. Do you ever notice that your Sunday morning attendance is affected post a lock-in weekend? Andrew Jansen (12:32.345) Definitely fair. Andrew Jansen (13:02.165) for sure. I mean, I tell my youth coaches, like, hey, you were just at church for 15 hours. It's OK for you to sleep in. I'll be there because I work there. And students, a lot of times parents will bring them and they might fall asleep or something during a message. Nick Clason (13:04.027) hahahaha Nick Clason (13:13.787) Yeah Yeah. Yeah. Nick Clason (13:28.622) Yeah. Andrew Jansen (13:29.079) Yeah, think it happens. There are definitely repercussions to having a lock-in, but I just think that there's just a lot of... I've seen so many good things and good conversations and relationships start at lock-ins, and it's just with a certain unchurched group of students, it's just an easy invite. It's just an easy win to get them there. Nick Clason (13:45.091) Yeah. Nick Clason (13:50.382) Yeah, which and I hear you like Sunday morning, it's like, okay, like, yeah, they didn't come on Sunday morning, which is like the senior pastor's goal. But like we had a lot more effective and fruitful time than like them sitting through a sermon or whatever, like through the lock-in and you know, the times I have done lock-ins, like it's almost always one of the number one most attended events from friends. Like we get, we would have some of our biggest. Ellen Partridge (14:12.242) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason (14:16.75) numbers and biggest reach, you know, as far as outreach is concerned. So I definitely do see like both sides for sure. So those of you listening, you're about to get your opportunity to vote. Ellen, you went first last time. Andrew, we're gonna put a minute on the clock now for you. Give us your final one minute strongest argument why Y lock-ins. Are you ready, my friend? Take it away. Ellen Partridge (14:30.173) All right. Andrew Jansen (14:42.008) I'm ready. Lock-ins are definitely the easiest first step in the door with a church. If you have the right resources, if you have the right volunteers, and you have a solid game plan going into it, you know your group of students. I think middle school or high school, it is an easy invite for the unchurched students. And that is kind of the lens in which I plan a lock-in. I don't have the whole bait and switch. Like we're going to talk to them about Jesus Christ, their Lord and savior first thing, and then just have the rest of the lock in. It is, hey, building connections, being intentional and teaching the students. That's why we're doing this. Like, Hey, we're doing this so you can bring that friend, start that relationship. And so that they associate church with fun, with safe, with They feel welcome and feel like they belong. There's something different happening here. And our hope is that continues on. Nick Clason (15:47.81) Great, almost a buzzer beater, but not quite. All right, Ellen, you get the final word, final say, anti-lock-in. Go ahead, take it away. Andrew Jansen (15:50.839) Almost. Ellen Partridge (16:00.572) All right, as fun as lock-ins can be in the memories that are made, the risk of students having bad memories, whether it's a leader who loses their cool, it's another student who says something they wouldn't have said because they're sleep deprived or because they're overtired, to me just doesn't equate to the reward. I am much more on the side of let's do a long. evening event where maybe we can start at six or seven and parents are picking up at midnight. So we're still getting that opportunity to connect with them, to have those great conversations, to have an opportunity for them to invite their friends. But at the same time, when it hits two, three in the morning, our leaders and our students are home in their beds, getting the sleep and the rest that they need. And hopefully, because they had a great time. We're gonna be able to see them on Sunday morning and they're able to stay plugged into that larger church community opposed from being just separate from the youth ministry. Nick Clason (17:05.023) Nice, nice. Another almost buzzer beater. Well, there you have it, my friends. You have your pro lock-in versus your anti lock-in debate. And so you guys get to be the decision makers. Those of you watching, let us know, comment down below. But without any further ado, we're gonna get out of here. For Andrew and for Ellen, I'm Nick. Thanks for watching everyone. See you next time. youth ministry, youth pastor, church leadership, student ministry, lock-in debate, church events, youth group games, ministry strategy, church growth, outreach ideas, student engagement, youth ministry podcast, church programming, middle school ministry, high school ministry, church safety, volunteer leadership, youth events, church culture, discipleship, student leadership, ministry burnout, church innovation, youth group ideas, Christian leadership, church community, ministry risks, church events planning, youth outreach, faith conversations Lock-ins... is there a more polarizing youth ministry topic?
Should you do them?
Are they valuable?
Or are they the worst idea ever?

In this episode, two youth pastors go head to head, and you get to decide!

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SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/196

//Lock-In Survival Guide
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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Pro or Anti Lock-in?
02:16 The Argument Against Lock-ins
05:14 The Busy Youth Worker’s Guide to Social Media
06:12 The Argument For Lock-ins
09:11 What Do You do if Kids don’t like boardgames?
10:56 Are Lock-ins only effective for Middle Schoolers?
12:16 What are the “risks” vs the “rewards” of a lock-in?
14:29 Do Lock-ins affect your Sunday morning attendance?
16:43 The Final Argument FOR Lock-ins
18:00 The Final Argument AGAINST Lock-ins
19:09 You decide - who won?

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TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:01.102)
Well, what is up everybody? Here I am this morning with Andrew and my new friend Ellen. Good morning everyone. How are we doing this morning?

Ellen Partridge (00:10.995)
Doing good.

Nick Clason (00:12.802)
Hey, are you guys, do you have coffee yet in your systems or is that long gone? All right, okay. They're doing pretty good, right, Michigan State?

Andrew Jansen (00:12.964)
Doing fantastic.

Ellen Partridge (00:16.771)
We're on the first cut. Go Spartans.

Yeah, not as good as Michigan, which is a bummer, but...

Andrew Jansen (00:23.46)
They're doing good.

Nick Clason (00:25.73)
Mm, yeah. And this will drop after March Madness, so we'll all know. Comment down below, like how Michigan did. know, Michigan State, not Michigan. But I'm excited because today we are debating pro lock-in versus anti lock-in. And based on the two people that you see on your screen here, you can probably already tell who's pro lock-in.

Andrew Jansen (00:33.591)
it.

Nick Clason (00:50.9)
and who's anti-lock-in. And so I'm just so excited for you guys to get to, not only get to know these two amazing people, but also hear their positions on this. And so by random draw that happened off screen that you're gonna have to trust me because I'm a pastor and I get paid to tell the truth. Ellen, you get to go first. So one minute on the clock for you. Just introduce yourself, help the people understand your context, where you're at, how long you've been in ministry, all these types of things. Ellen, are you ready?

Ellen Partridge (01:18.751)
Absolutely. I'm ready.

Nick Clason (01:21.58)
Alright, take it away.

Ellen Partridge (01:23.455)
All right, everyone, my name is Ellen Partridge. I serve as the central pastor of students at Thornton Apple Valley Church. We are centralized out of Hastings at Michigan, southwest Michigan. And we are a multi-site church, but I've been in ministry for very close to two decades now. And we're in a rural context and a multi-site context. So things are a little bit different for us versus just the single site.

And when I think about lock-ins, the thing that always comes to mind is the Halt analogy. If you're hungry, if you're angry, if you're tired, what are the things you shouldn't do, which is make decisions. And so we're gonna put students in a room where they are locked in together. You got the ones who, I have a kid in my youth ministry who at camp asked me if I could move our bedtime up to 9 p.m. I let him know that wasn't a thing, but you've got those kind of kids, and then you've got the kids who have snuck in.

all their energy drinks and are going to be up till four in the morning. And those kids that are up are going to be picking on the kids that don't want to be up, that want to be sleeping. And then you've got a lot of that interpersonal conflict that is going on within that. And you're putting that all into a giant space where you're having to entertain them and or keep track of them as they are, you know,

coming up with all of these grand ideas of how they're going to use their time. And I remember back to my youth group days, our youth ministry actually met in a old YMCA building, and for some reason, they did not lock the doors to the locker rooms, and then that locker room led to a empty pool. And I can't confirm or deny if there were children conceived in that pool, but there probably were.

And it was coming from opportunities where we did lock-ins and they let us all throughout this building with lots of classrooms, lots of spaces that should have been locked that were not. And so from that perspective of hungry, angry, tired, lack of ability to, you know, keep an eye on all the students and all the places, I am very anti-lock-in.

Nick Clason (03:43.896)
Well, there you go. Andrew, she blew past introductions just straight into arguments. Brother, she's coming for you, right? Like she is coming in hot. So, Ellen, great argument. Man, I hope no students, babies were conceived in that pool. I don't ever want to swim there. Andrew.

Andrew Jansen (03:49.24)
yeah, just right past it. Yeah, she went right past it and that's okay.

She's coming in hot, yeah, for sure. It's okay.

Ellen Partridge (04:10.12)
Me too.

Andrew Jansen (04:12.365)
Yeah, it's gross.

Nick Clason (04:13.838)
Tell us why Ellen's wrong and why lock-ins are a great idea. But first, give us a little bit of intro as you go. Are you ready, my friend? Let's go, take it away.

Andrew Jansen (04:28.345)
ready. Yeah, hit it. My name is Andrew Janssen. I am a middle school pastor in Manhattan, Kansas. Sorry, a couple years ago, we did play Michigan State and I know you probably knew that but we have nothing to talk about sports wise, hardly at all right now. So that's okay. But I love K State. I love serving in Manhattan. I am 36 years old. I've been a youth pastor for 10 years and

I really love getting to be in Manhattan, getting to work with college students that invest in middle schoolers. That's kind of my passion. And man, I love lock-ins. just, it works within the context of our church is about 1900 people and we work with multi buildings on our campus, but not multi-site, but.

It is just set up in a really easy way to execute and make lock-ins happen. And especially in our season right now where we have, and it changes, we have college students that graduate, but we have like 17, 18 youth coaches right now. And a lot of them enjoy staying up super late. And so it just really worked in this season to be able to have enough people there for a safe lock-in to happen.

Middle schoolers are crazy and love staying up all night, love getting to be like, you can be at the church besides Sunday and Wednesday. And just, it was just really, really awesome. We did a New Year's Eve lock in and they just have so much fun. There's opportunities for fellowship, board games, long extended times that maybe you don't get that opportunity to play through an entire game of exploding kittens or taco cat.

Mahomes cheese pizza, not taco cat goat cheese pizza. We all know Mahomes is the goat. But we play taco cat Mahomes cheese pizza and you get through two rounds and it's time for youth group to start. So we get to play through those games, have those conversations and invest in the students moving forward.

Nick Clason (06:40.494)
Great. All right, well there you have it. Like there's, each of you have laid down the gauntlet with your position, right? Andrews is based upon board games. Ellen's is based upon pools being present. And so with those two things in mind, plus everything else, do either of you have a question for the other that we can debate in a little bit more of an open forum?

Andrew Jansen (06:55.097)
You

Ellen Partridge (07:10.974)
All Andrea, I got one for you. So what do you do with the kids who are not your board game kids? What are your other activities that you're able to do? Because it sounds like you're pretty board game heavy. So how are you keeping the other kids occupied that are not interested in your board games?

Andrew Jansen (07:27.929)
Absolutely. I have, I try to make sure that every single second is accounted for at a lock-in. We have intentional time where it's like, they get to choose. We have our youth building has like carpet ball, foosball, ping pong. We have not a Nintendo switch too, but two Nintendo switches, which is kind of confusing, definitely. But so we have like Mario Kart and Smash Bros going.

Nick Clason (07:49.902)
That could be confusing,

Andrew Jansen (07:56.882)
I really try to get them away from screens as much as I can because we all know that battle. yeah, trying to have every single second with like some sort of activity, some sort of competition tournament. The last time I was on with Nick, we talked about the Assassin's like meta ongoing game that happens throughout the evening and having things like that where there isn't an opportunity to be bored.

really, really is effective with middle schoolers. Because once you were right, once they're bored and exploring and they find a pool and we know what happens next, like there's just something about an empty pool. So, but with middle schoolers, that's not so much like the sneaking off and having that happen. I think that's more of a high school situation, but I just try to make sure every single second is accounted for. And that kind of helps with, you know, not having that boredom.

board game time for the students that don't like board games.

Ellen Partridge (08:57.362)
And notice you keep saying middle school. You're not mentioning high school. So are you saying that lock-ins are only good for middle school or would you do one with high school?

Nick Clason (09:06.072)
Good question.

Andrew Jansen (09:06.325)
I would, that is a great question. I would do a, I would do a high school lock in for sure. I think that you do run that risk. They are a little bit more like, I can kind of put on the dad voice like the, Hey, what are you doing? And they'll just like freeze as a middle schooler. They still, you know, we'll listen to authority when it yells at them. So with high school, they're kind of a little bit more independent, a little bit more calloused and a little bit more.

Like on their own I consider I always use this analogy of like middle schoolers are like dogs and high schoolers are like cats Like dogs are just happy that you're there and happy that you see them high schoolers. You kind of have to earn that relational like equity and I would say yes have a lock-in with high schoolers, but only do it if you have the resources and the adult volunteers and also if you're like

this group is just like, this is a crazy group of high schoolers. It's not always a green light for that specific group of high schoolers if you just feel like that wouldn't be good. Does that make sense?

Ellen Partridge (10:16.934)
Yeah, it's good argument.

Nick Clason (10:18.464)
Andrew, you got a question for Ellen?

Andrew Jansen (10:22.763)
Yes, what do you feel is, like, I want you to tell me what is the, like, risk reward trade off where you feel like, hey, this is too risky to have a lock in for this type of reward.

Ellen Partridge (10:35.422)
Mmm.

Ellen Partridge (10:45.35)
Yeah, it's a great question. I would just say I'm a big fan of like doing late night activities, hanging out super late. The thing that gets me and where I feel like the risk comes in is once you hit that one, two, three, four a.m. that even, and you mentioned that you've got college leaders. I don't live in a college town and so I mostly have adult leaders. And so for me,

I know my adult leaders are not gonna be on their A game coming into that situation. And so for me, the risk in my context is a lot higher that my leaders are gonna start maybe losing their minds or going stir crazy or sleep deprivation is gonna kick in. And it's gonna lead to students, because they're curious, ending up doing things that they don't need to do. And so for me, I would rather do a thing where it's like, hey, we're hanging out till midnight. Your parents are picking you up.

and then maybe we do something again the next morning because then I know they're getting sleep, my leaders are getting sleep, and it also means that I'm not putting them at risk, I'm not putting my leaders at risk. And so for me, there doesn't seem to be necessarily, yes, there's the connection reward, but I wonder if that's always overshadowed by the sleep deprivation, the angry, hangry situations that can come up and also,

I worry for my adult leaders that they're gonna say something out of their own sleep deprivation or frustration after telling the same kid eight times not to do something, that it may end up ultimately hurting a relationship that was good, and then they make a good relationship with someone that they had a bad relationship with, and so you're kind of at a net zero, is kind of how I look at

Nick Clason (12:32.078)
I just feel like the ultimate fact that like, I would rather sleep in my bed at two o'clock in the morning. Like that's my strongest argument for anti-lock-in. Just shooting straight. Plus I enjoy Saturdays and if I am doing a lock-in, I don't know. Also, Andrew, question for you. Do you ever notice that your Sunday morning attendance is affected post a lock-in weekend?

Andrew Jansen (12:32.345)
Definitely fair.

Andrew Jansen (13:02.165)
for sure. I mean, I tell my youth coaches, like, hey, you were just at church for 15 hours. It's OK for you to sleep in. I'll be there because I work there. And students, a lot of times parents will bring them and they might fall asleep or something during a message.

Nick Clason (13:04.027)
hahahaha

Nick Clason (13:13.787)
Yeah

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:28.622)
Yeah.

Andrew Jansen (13:29.079)
Yeah, think it happens. There are definitely repercussions to having a lock-in, but I just think that there's just a lot of... I've seen so many good things and good conversations and relationships start at lock-ins, and it's just with a certain unchurched group of students, it's just an easy invite. It's just an easy win to get them there.

Nick Clason (13:45.091)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:50.382)
Yeah, which and I hear you like Sunday morning, it's like, okay, like, yeah, they didn't come on Sunday morning, which is like the senior pastor's goal. But like we had a lot more effective and fruitful time than like them sitting through a sermon or whatever, like through the lock-in and you know, the times I have done lock-ins, like it's almost always one of the number one most attended events from friends. Like we get, we would have some of our biggest.

Ellen Partridge (14:12.242)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (14:16.75)
numbers and biggest reach, you know, as far as outreach is concerned. So I definitely do see like both sides for sure. So those of you listening, you're about to get your opportunity to vote. Ellen, you went first last time. Andrew, we're gonna put a minute on the clock now for you. Give us your final one minute strongest argument why Y lock-ins. Are you ready, my friend? Take it away.

Ellen Partridge (14:30.173)
All right.

Andrew Jansen (14:42.008)
I'm ready.

Lock-ins are definitely the easiest first step in the door with a church. If you have the right resources, if you have the right volunteers, and you have a solid game plan going into it, you know your group of students. I think middle school or high school, it is an easy invite for the unchurched students. And that is kind of the lens in which I plan a lock-in.

I don't have the whole bait and switch. Like we're going to talk to them about Jesus Christ, their Lord and savior first thing, and then just have the rest of the lock in. It is, hey, building connections, being intentional and teaching the students. That's why we're doing this. Like, Hey, we're doing this so you can bring that friend, start that relationship. And so that they associate church with fun, with safe, with

They feel welcome and feel like they belong. There's something different happening here. And our hope is that continues on.

Nick Clason (15:47.81)
Great, almost a buzzer beater, but not quite. All right, Ellen, you get the final word, final say, anti-lock-in. Go ahead, take it away.

Andrew Jansen (15:50.839)
Almost.

Ellen Partridge (16:00.572)
All right, as fun as lock-ins can be in the memories that are made, the risk of students having bad memories, whether it's a leader who loses their cool, it's another student who says something they wouldn't have said because they're sleep deprived or because they're overtired, to me just doesn't equate to the reward. I am much more on the side of let's do a long.

evening event where maybe we can start at six or seven and parents are picking up at midnight. So we're still getting that opportunity to connect with them, to have those great conversations, to have an opportunity for them to invite their friends. But at the same time, when it hits two, three in the morning, our leaders and our students are home in their beds, getting the sleep and the rest that they need. And hopefully, because they had a great time.

We're gonna be able to see them on Sunday morning and they're able to stay plugged into that larger church community opposed from being just separate from the youth ministry.

Nick Clason (17:05.023)
Nice, nice. Another almost buzzer beater. Well, there you have it, my friends. You have your pro lock-in versus your anti lock-in debate. And so you guys get to be the decision makers. Those of you watching, let us know, comment down below. But without any further ado, we're gonna get out of here. For Andrew and for Ellen, I'm Nick. Thanks for watching everyone. See you next time.

]]> Lock-ins... is there a more polarizing youth ministry topic?
Should you do them?
Are they valuable?
Or are they the worst idea ever?

In this episode, two youth pastors go head to head, and you get to decide!

Take Advantage of Andrew's FREE Lock-in Planning Session:
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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Pro or Anti Lock-in?
02:16 The Argument Against Lock-ins
05:14 The Busy Youth Worker’s Guide to Social Media
06:12 The Argument For Lock-ins
09:11 What Do You do if Kids don’t like boardgames?
10:56 Are Lock-ins only effective for Middle Schoolers?
12:16 What are the “risks” vs the “rewards” of a lock-in?
14:29 Do Lock-ins affect your Sunday morning attendance?
16:43 The Final Argument FOR Lock-ins
18:00 The Final Argument AGAINST Lock-ins
19:09 You decide - who won?

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:01.102)
Well, what is up everybody? Here I am this morning with Andrew and my new friend Ellen. Good morning everyone. How are we doing this morning?

Ellen Partridge (00:10.995)
Doing good.

Nick Clason (00:12.802)
Hey, are you guys, do you have coffee yet in your systems or is that long gone? All right, okay. They're doing pretty good, right, Michigan State?

Andrew Jansen (00:12.964)
Doing fantastic.

Ellen Partridge (00:16.771)
We're on the first cut. Go Spartans.

Yeah, not as good as Michigan, which is a bummer, but...

Andrew Jansen (00:23.46)
They're doing good.

Nick Clason (00:25.73)
Mm, yeah. And this will drop after March Madness, so we'll all know. Comment down below, like how Michigan did. know, Michigan State, not Michigan. But I'm excited because today we are debating pro lock-in versus anti lock-in. And based on the two people that you see on your screen here, you can probably already tell who's pro lock-in.

Andrew Jansen (00:33.591)
it.

Nick Clason (00:50.9)
and who's anti-lock-in. And so I'm just so excited for you guys to get to, not only get to know these two amazing people, but also hear their positions on this. And so by random draw that happened off screen that you're gonna have to trust me because I'm a pastor and I get paid to tell the truth. Ellen, you get to go first. So one minute on the clock for you. Just introduce yourself, help the people understand your context, where you're at, how long you've been in ministry, all these types of things. Ellen, are you ready?

Ellen Partridge (01:18.751)
Absolutely. I'm ready.

Nick Clason (01:21.58)
Alright, take it away.

Ellen Partridge (01:23.455)
All right, everyone, my name is Ellen Partridge. I serve as the central pastor of students at Thornton Apple Valley Church. We are centralized out of Hastings at Michigan, southwest Michigan. And we are a multi-site church, but I've been in ministry for very close to two decades now. And we're in a rural context and a multi-site context. So things are a little bit different for us versus just the single site.

And when I think about lock-ins, the thing that always comes to mind is the Halt analogy. If you're hungry, if you're angry, if you're tired, what are the things you shouldn't do, which is make decisions. And so we're gonna put students in a room where they are locked in together. You got the ones who, I have a kid in my youth ministry who at camp asked me if I could move our bedtime up to 9 p.m. I let him know that wasn't a thing, but you've got those kind of kids, and then you've got the kids who have snuck in.

all their energy drinks and are going to be up till four in the morning. And those kids that are up are going to be picking on the kids that don't want to be up, that want to be sleeping. And then you've got a lot of that interpersonal conflict that is going on within that. And you're putting that all into a giant space where you're having to entertain them and or keep track of them as they are, you know,

coming up with all of these grand ideas of how they're going to use their time. And I remember back to my youth group days, our youth ministry actually met in a old YMCA building, and for some reason, they did not lock the doors to the locker rooms, and then that locker room led to a empty pool. And I can't confirm or deny if there were children conceived in that pool, but there probably were.

And it was coming from opportunities where we did lock-ins and they let us all throughout this building with lots of classrooms, lots of spaces that should have been locked that were not. And so from that perspective of hungry, angry, tired, lack of ability to, you know, keep an eye on all the students and all the places, I am very anti-lock-in.

Nick Clason (03:43.896)
Well, there you go. Andrew, she blew past introductions just straight into arguments. Brother, she's coming for you, right? Like she is coming in hot. So, Ellen, great argument. Man, I hope no students, babies were conceived in that pool. I don't ever want to swim there. Andrew.

Andrew Jansen (03:49.24)
yeah, just right past it. Yeah, she went right past it and that's okay.

She's coming in hot, yeah, for sure. It's okay.

Ellen Partridge (04:10.12)
Me too.

Andrew Jansen (04:12.365)
Yeah, it's gross.

Nick Clason (04:13.838)
Tell us why Ellen's wrong and why lock-ins are a great idea. But first, give us a little bit of intro as you go. Are you ready, my friend? Let's go, take it away.

Andrew Jansen (04:28.345)
ready. Yeah, hit it. My name is Andrew Janssen. I am a middle school pastor in Manhattan, Kansas. Sorry, a couple years ago, we did play Michigan State and I know you probably knew that but we have nothing to talk about sports wise, hardly at all right now. So that's okay. But I love K State. I love serving in Manhattan. I am 36 years old. I've been a youth pastor for 10 years and

I really love getting to be in Manhattan, getting to work with college students that invest in middle schoolers. That's kind of my passion. And man, I love lock-ins. just, it works within the context of our church is about 1900 people and we work with multi buildings on our campus, but not multi-site, but.

It is just set up in a really easy way to execute and make lock-ins happen. And especially in our season right now where we have, and it changes, we have college students that graduate, but we have like 17, 18 youth coaches right now. And a lot of them enjoy staying up super late. And so it just really worked in this season to be able to have enough people there for a safe lock-in to happen.

Middle schoolers are crazy and love staying up all night, love getting to be like, you can be at the church besides Sunday and Wednesday. And just, it was just really, really awesome. We did a New Year's Eve lock in and they just have so much fun. There's opportunities for fellowship, board games, long extended times that maybe you don't get that opportunity to play through an entire game of exploding kittens or taco cat.

Mahomes cheese pizza, not taco cat goat cheese pizza. We all know Mahomes is the goat. But we play taco cat Mahomes cheese pizza and you get through two rounds and it's time for youth group to start. So we get to play through those games, have those conversations and invest in the students moving forward.

Nick Clason (06:40.494)
Great. All right, well there you have it. Like there's, each of you have laid down the gauntlet with your position, right? Andrews is based upon board games. Ellen's is based upon pools being present. And so with those two things in mind, plus everything else, do either of you have a question for the other that we can debate in a little bit more of an open forum?

Andrew Jansen (06:55.097)
You

Ellen Partridge (07:10.974)
All Andrea, I got one for you. So what do you do with the kids who are not your board game kids? What are your other activities that you're able to do? Because it sounds like you're pretty board game heavy. So how are you keeping the other kids occupied that are not interested in your board games?

Andrew Jansen (07:27.929)
Absolutely. I have, I try to make sure that every single second is accounted for at a lock-in. We have intentional time where it's like, they get to choose. We have our youth building has like carpet ball, foosball, ping pong. We have not a Nintendo switch too, but two Nintendo switches, which is kind of confusing, definitely. But so we have like Mario Kart and Smash Bros going.

Nick Clason (07:49.902)
That could be confusing,

Andrew Jansen (07:56.882)
I really try to get them away from screens as much as I can because we all know that battle. yeah, trying to have every single second with like some sort of activity, some sort of competition tournament. The last time I was on with Nick, we talked about the Assassin's like meta ongoing game that happens throughout the evening and having things like that where there isn't an opportunity to be bored.

really, really is effective with middle schoolers. Because once you were right, once they're bored and exploring and they find a pool and we know what happens next, like there's just something about an empty pool. So, but with middle schoolers, that's not so much like the sneaking off and having that happen. I think that's more of a high school situation, but I just try to make sure every single second is accounted for. And that kind of helps with, you know, not having that boredom.

board game time for the students that don't like board games.

Ellen Partridge (08:57.362)
And notice you keep saying middle school. You're not mentioning high school. So are you saying that lock-ins are only good for middle school or would you do one with high school?

Nick Clason (09:06.072)
Good question.

Andrew Jansen (09:06.325)
I would, that is a great question. I would do a, I would do a high school lock in for sure. I think that you do run that risk. They are a little bit more like, I can kind of put on the dad voice like the, Hey, what are you doing? And they'll just like freeze as a middle schooler. They still, you know, we'll listen to authority when it yells at them. So with high school, they're kind of a little bit more independent, a little bit more calloused and a little bit more.

Like on their own I consider I always use this analogy of like middle schoolers are like dogs and high schoolers are like cats Like dogs are just happy that you're there and happy that you see them high schoolers. You kind of have to earn that relational like equity and I would say yes have a lock-in with high schoolers, but only do it if you have the resources and the adult volunteers and also if you're like

this group is just like, this is a crazy group of high schoolers. It's not always a green light for that specific group of high schoolers if you just feel like that wouldn't be good. Does that make sense?

Ellen Partridge (10:16.934)
Yeah, it's good argument.

Nick Clason (10:18.464)
Andrew, you got a question for Ellen?

Andrew Jansen (10:22.763)
Yes, what do you feel is, like, I want you to tell me what is the, like, risk reward trade off where you feel like, hey, this is too risky to have a lock in for this type of reward.

Ellen Partridge (10:35.422)
Mmm.

Ellen Partridge (10:45.35)
Yeah, it's a great question. I would just say I'm a big fan of like doing late night activities, hanging out super late. The thing that gets me and where I feel like the risk comes in is once you hit that one, two, three, four a.m. that even, and you mentioned that you've got college leaders. I don't live in a college town and so I mostly have adult leaders. And so for me,

I know my adult leaders are not gonna be on their A game coming into that situation. And so for me, the risk in my context is a lot higher that my leaders are gonna start maybe losing their minds or going stir crazy or sleep deprivation is gonna kick in. And it's gonna lead to students, because they're curious, ending up doing things that they don't need to do. And so for me, I would rather do a thing where it's like, hey, we're hanging out till midnight. Your parents are picking you up.

and then maybe we do something again the next morning because then I know they're getting sleep, my leaders are getting sleep, and it also means that I'm not putting them at risk, I'm not putting my leaders at risk. And so for me, there doesn't seem to be necessarily, yes, there's the connection reward, but I wonder if that's always overshadowed by the sleep deprivation, the angry, hangry situations that can come up and also,

I worry for my adult leaders that they're gonna say something out of their own sleep deprivation or frustration after telling the same kid eight times not to do something, that it may end up ultimately hurting a relationship that was good, and then they make a good relationship with someone that they had a bad relationship with, and so you're kind of at a net zero, is kind of how I look at

Nick Clason (12:32.078)
I just feel like the ultimate fact that like, I would rather sleep in my bed at two o'clock in the morning. Like that's my strongest argument for anti-lock-in. Just shooting straight. Plus I enjoy Saturdays and if I am doing a lock-in, I don't know. Also, Andrew, question for you. Do you ever notice that your Sunday morning attendance is affected post a lock-in weekend?

Andrew Jansen (12:32.345)
Definitely fair.

Andrew Jansen (13:02.165)
for sure. I mean, I tell my youth coaches, like, hey, you were just at church for 15 hours. It's OK for you to sleep in. I'll be there because I work there. And students, a lot of times parents will bring them and they might fall asleep or something during a message.

Nick Clason (13:04.027)
hahahaha

Nick Clason (13:13.787)
Yeah

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:28.622)
Yeah.

Andrew Jansen (13:29.079)
Yeah, think it happens. There are definitely repercussions to having a lock-in, but I just think that there's just a lot of... I've seen so many good things and good conversations and relationships start at lock-ins, and it's just with a certain unchurched group of students, it's just an easy invite. It's just an easy win to get them there.

Nick Clason (13:45.091)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:50.382)
Yeah, which and I hear you like Sunday morning, it's like, okay, like, yeah, they didn't come on Sunday morning, which is like the senior pastor's goal. But like we had a lot more effective and fruitful time than like them sitting through a sermon or whatever, like through the lock-in and you know, the times I have done lock-ins, like it's almost always one of the number one most attended events from friends. Like we get, we would have some of our biggest.

Ellen Partridge (14:12.242)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (14:16.75)
numbers and biggest reach, you know, as far as outreach is concerned. So I definitely do see like both sides for sure. So those of you listening, you're about to get your opportunity to vote. Ellen, you went first last time. Andrew, we're gonna put a minute on the clock now for you. Give us your final one minute strongest argument why Y lock-ins. Are you ready, my friend? Take it away.

Ellen Partridge (14:30.173)
All right.

Andrew Jansen (14:42.008)
I'm ready.

Lock-ins are definitely the easiest first step in the door with a church. If you have the right resources, if you have the right volunteers, and you have a solid game plan going into it, you know your group of students. I think middle school or high school, it is an easy invite for the unchurched students. And that is kind of the lens in which I plan a lock-in.

I don't have the whole bait and switch. Like we're going to talk to them about Jesus Christ, their Lord and savior first thing, and then just have the rest of the lock in. It is, hey, building connections, being intentional and teaching the students. That's why we're doing this. Like, Hey, we're doing this so you can bring that friend, start that relationship. And so that they associate church with fun, with safe, with

They feel welcome and feel like they belong. There's something different happening here. And our hope is that continues on.

Nick Clason (15:47.81)
Great, almost a buzzer beater, but not quite. All right, Ellen, you get the final word, final say, anti-lock-in. Go ahead, take it away.

Andrew Jansen (15:50.839)
Almost.

Ellen Partridge (16:00.572)
All right, as fun as lock-ins can be in the memories that are made, the risk of students having bad memories, whether it's a leader who loses their cool, it's another student who says something they wouldn't have said because they're sleep deprived or because they're overtired, to me just doesn't equate to the reward. I am much more on the side of let's do a long.

evening event where maybe we can start at six or seven and parents are picking up at midnight. So we're still getting that opportunity to connect with them, to have those great conversations, to have an opportunity for them to invite their friends. But at the same time, when it hits two, three in the morning, our leaders and our students are home in their beds, getting the sleep and the rest that they need. And hopefully, because they had a great time.

We're gonna be able to see them on Sunday morning and they're able to stay plugged into that larger church community opposed from being just separate from the youth ministry.

Nick Clason (17:05.023)
Nice, nice. Another almost buzzer beater. Well, there you have it, my friends. You have your pro lock-in versus your anti lock-in debate. And so you guys get to be the decision makers. Those of you watching, let us know, comment down below. But without any further ado, we're gonna get out of here. For Andrew and for Ellen, I'm Nick. Thanks for watching everyone. See you next time.

]]> Episode 191: Can a Youth Night Work Without a Game? https://www.hybridministry.xyz/191 61960077-2c3a-4811-8a8d-a3e6aa2d6729 Thu, 05 Mar 2026 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 191 Can a Youth Night Work Without a Game? full Nick Clason In this 4th and Final Episode of my Creative Programming Playlist we’re continuing on with the 3 challenges, from home this week because of this insane (?) winter storm! CHALLENGE #1 No Repeat Order And while last week we had no speaker, what if this week we have NO GAME?! CHALLENGE #2 I’m creating a DYM Game from Scratch, and this one idea be the best one I’ve made so far CHALLENGE #3 And as always, we’ll be telling you how it went and giving it all away! 17:12 no In this 4th and Final Episode of my Creative Programming Playlist we’re continuing on with the 3 challenges, from home this week because of this insane (?) winter storm! CHALLENGE #1 No Repeat Order And while last week we had no speaker, what if this week we have NO GAME?! CHALLENGE #2 I’m creating a DYM Game from Scratch, and this one idea be the best one I’ve made so far CHALLENGE #3 And as always, we’ll be telling you how it went and giving it all away! ACCESS TO BRACKET & RECAP EPISODE https://www.patreon.com/posts/no-game-recap-152046269?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/191 🌸 SPRING SEASONAL SOCIAL PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/spring-seasonal-151263940?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry FREE EBOOK https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link //EPIC THINGS https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-student-ministry-bracket-of-epic-things/games-3974.html //WORLD’S GREATEST DONUT DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/kids-ministry/games-8745.html VIDEO: https://youtu.be/5ryhkIRyDb4?si=liWxUitEuO2JZBm8 //ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS MOVIE https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-ultimate-christmas-movie-showdown/christmas/christmas-games-9784.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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Final Programming Episode 01:10 Programming with No Game! 05:20 Waiting on my Team 05:57 Bracket Launch Program 11:41 Why Hybrid? 13:44 From Scratch Game? (Or Resource) 16:10 Time to Evaluate -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00;00;01;25 - 00;00;02;24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well, in this fourth 00;00;03;00 - 00;00;03;06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and 00;00;03;06 - 00;00;03;16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry final 00;00;03;18 - 00;00;11;29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry episode of my Creative Programing playlist, we're continuing on with the three challenges that we've been working on 00;00;11;29 - 00;00;28;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry this week, from my home office or guest bedroom, or normal side of the recording of the hybrid ministry show. Because of this insane question mark winter storm that Texas has experienced. I haven't been in the office all week and Sunday services were canceled. 00;00;28;06 - 00;00;34;27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's crazy, but we're doing these three challenges with no repeat order. And while last week we had no speaker, 00;00;34;29 - 00;00;39;27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry this week I want to show you what it might be like if we have no traditional game. 00;00;39;29 - 00;00;53;08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Again, question mark. And I'm going to somehow create a game from scratch and submit it to dym, I have an idea of what I think I might want to do, but you can be the judge if this actually counts. 00;00;53;08 - 00;01;01;20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if I actually succeed in the challenge. And as always, we're going to recap and then let you know how it went. What went bad, what you need to do differently. All of 00;01;01;24 - 00;01;11;04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry that coming up on this week's episode of the fourth and final installment of the Programing Playlist Challenge. Welcome, everyone, to the Hybrid Ministry show. 00;01;11;06 - 00;01;16;09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we are here on the Hybrid Ministry show, attempting to round out the challenges. 00;01;16;09 - 00;01;23;24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The first three videos, I was able to successfully complete each week's challenge, and today we're going to try and do the same thing. 00;01;23;27 - 00;01;41;16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, challenge number one, of course, is avoiding doing the same order. And so far we've done in week one, we did our kind of standard order of two songs. The first part of the message, a table talk, the announcements, then the game bumper video message, part two response song and a small message wrap. 00;01;41;19 - 00;01;56;03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Week two. We completely did the order wrong. And so we started with the message. A table talk did two songs in the middle, followed by announcements and games, followed by a bumper, followed by, the second part of the message kind of sandwiched in the night. And then week 00;01;56;07 - 00;02;13;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry three, no speaker because we pre filmed our message. So we did announcements followed by song, followed by the first part of the message, followed by a table talk followed by game, followed by the second part of the message in table talk, followed by two more songs, third part of the message table talk, a response song and a message wrap, and dismiss. 00;02;13;10 - 00;02;13;21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so 00;02;13;26 - 00;02;30;03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry this week I'm going to give you a little bit of context, but I'm going to try and do a fourth order and a completely different element than what we've done so far. It's going to it's going to like I ended the last video, so we're going to throw this one into a tizz, And that's exactly what we're going to do. 00;02;30;03 - 00;02;48;06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So for a bit of context, every single year around spring break we do a thing called spring break hangs. And what that is, is it's all of our office days. So we don't work on Fridays, but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday we do some sort of hangout for students. So it could be something simple like meet up at a coffee shop, meet up at an ice cream shop. 00;02;48;13 - 00;02;50;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Sometimes we pay, sometimes they 00;02;50;12 - 00;03;15;17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry pay. And so yesterday, our Wednesday night programing for the week during this Texas snowstorm got canceled. So we threw together an emergency meeting with, myself and our students team. And as we were hopping off the call, one of my guys goes, hey, do we have plans yet for spring break? hangs well, I have a group of students who helped plan an outreach event and they want to do a tournament deal in the middle of the week. 00;03;15;17 - 00;03;32;01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so that's sort of like the anchor and then a round I said around it, let's go ahead and let's make a plan. And one of the plans that they came up with was they wanted to do a movie night. And so what we're going to do is in addition to doing spring break hangs every year, 00;03;32;06 - 00;03;38;26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry we also do a march bracket every year to kind of come alongside March Madness and all that type of stuff. 00;03;38;26 - 00;03;48;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I've talked about it before and, you know, I'm going to give this resource that I'm about to create away. Over on the DYM site, I have the epic 00;03;48;13 - 00;03;58;06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry student ministry bracket of epic things, which is very dated. It's it's 7 or 8 years old now, the number one seed, Chip and Joanna Gaines. So I will tell you how dated that feels. 00;03;58;08 - 00;04;13;15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Then I've also, over on the site, have The World's Greatest Donut, which actually have an episode link right here at top screen. You can go see, that event that we did, how we launched that event, and then how you can, have that event kind of going on in the background. And we've also done a Christmas movie bracket. 00;04;13;15 - 00;04;32;23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so for this one, we're going to do a movie bracket. And then that's going to determine the movie that we watch on the night of spring break hangs. And so one of the things that, I'm going to do is I'm going to actually, I think I want to create four different regions. So almost like four different categories. 00;04;32;25 - 00;04;36;24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We'll do a 16 team bracket, even though in regular March Madness, I do a 00;04;36;27 - 00;04;49;26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry 64 team bracket with four regions, 16 teams in each region. We'll do a 16 team bracket 4 regions. Four movies in each bracket. And so I'll kind of categorize it. And what I actually did was I told my team, I said, 00;04;49;29 - 00;04;53;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry hey, 10:00, this was the last night. 00;04;53;05 - 00;05;14;03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So I said, by 10:00 tomorrow I want to start working on this send me 16 movies doesn't have to matter. The order sent to me by 10:00. So I'll let you know who responded by ten. And then I'm going to take their movies. We're going to compile it into ChatGPT, and we're going to ask them to spit out like the ones that you know, which are commonly commonly included and stuff like that, and maybe even help us categorize it a little bit. 00;05;14;03 - 00;05;21;15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So I'll let you know how my team does here if they meet the deadline by 10:00 or not. 00;05;21;18 - 00;05;29;15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Four out of six, which I'm one of the four. So I guess three out of five of my team members, follow the instructions. If Ben and Kaleigh 00;05;29;17 - 00;05;39;29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry ever see this, they might be mortified. Or they might just giggle and think it's funny. But we compiled their lists and came up with seeds and came up with some regions. 00;05;39;29 - 00;05;56;28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so for the night, what I want to do is I want to treat our night a little bit like a selection show. So I'm going to hop in & I'm going to start creating some of that programing on Planning Center. And I'll catch you on the other side. 00;05;57;00 - 00;05;57;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry There's 00;05;57;10 - 00;06;06;13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry no traditional game in the sense, but we are going to play kind of a quasi sort of like hybrid game in the middle of it. So we're 00;06;06;13 - 00;06;19;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry going to start with a hype song. And then as soon as that's done, we're going to fire the selection show, bumper video. So again, I'm trying to kind of emulate like the selection Sunday night selection show of March Madness. 00;06;19;10 - 00;06;38;26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so as you can see, this Movie Madness logo here looks very much like, March Madness logo. And then myself and one of my coworkers, Allie, we're going to get up on stage and we're going to kind of have on like, jackets or like blazers, like people who are, you know, who are revealing stuff like on ESPN or whatever. 00;06;38;28 - 00;07;05;16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And we are going to welcome the room. And we're not like, we're not going to break character. We're going to be, you know, in character, doing the thing the whole time. Welcome the room live on stage. And then we're also going to, reveal that we are launching a brand new, spring bracket. We're not revealing that the choice of movie is what's going to be played on movie night, but we're going to reveal that we are, in fact, having a bracket, and then we're going to cut to a field reporter. 00;07;05;16 - 00;07;34;21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this we're going to video ahead of time. I haven't done this yet, but just right now, I came up with the idea, we're going to video ahead of time. Another one of our staff people, Kaleigh and she's going to, announce the Pixar region. And so for us, we're going with, inside out as the number one seed versus Wall-E, and then Toy Story versus monsters, Inc. she's going to give a little bit of breakdown analysis on it, and then she's going to predict winners of each of those matchups, and then she's going to predict a winner of the winners. 00;07;34;21 - 00;07;52;12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So she says, like inside out, it's going to be Wall-E. And Toy Story is going to beat Monsters Inc and then Inside Out versus Toy Story. She believes Inside Out is going to win, hypothetically, right? She'll say something like, that's just my opinion, but you guys get an opportunity to vote right now on Instagram or YouTube. Login right now, a scan QR code on the screen. 00;07;52;12 - 00;08;08;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we'll edit all of that and put that all together. And then that will cut back to me and Allie and we'll kind of like talk about that a little bit, announce the next region, which is going to be the hero region. And we're going to be announcing this one over with a little bit of a game. 00;08;08;10 - 00;08;29;07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we're going to cut to Eli and Cody, and then they're going to, play like an emoji. Guess game, which I'm actually going to include inside the pack of this. I'm going to include an emoji guess game as a part of like the launch. So Spider-Man across Spider-Verse versus Big Hero six and Avengers Endgame versus The Lego Movie. 00;08;29;07 - 00;08;49;25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then, the winner of that, they'll what we'll do then is we'll have them, go like head to head, and we'll have them, like, thinking, so, like, who's going to who's going to win, who's going to get it right, Eli or Cody or neither. And then we'll like pause the video and let them vote on sidekick. 00;08;50;01 - 00;09;10;20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then we'll come back and play the results. So that'll kind of be they'll kind of satisfy as like our game. Right. But it's all a part of this greater like selection show. And then that will that end into our brand new series. Are you turn bumper and then Ben, one of our associates who did not send in a list, by the way, is going to preach first half of his message 00;09;10;23 - 00;09;12;01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry in with a table talk. 00;09;12;03 - 00;09;32;02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then we're going to come back out of that into a commercial. And Ben is going to do the commercial, and he's going to do the comedy region. And this one I'm kind of doing like dad jokes or like, I don't know, like really cliche thing. So he and this is also going to sort of satisfy as like the announcement section of our night. 00;09;32;02 - 00;09;51;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So like, we're doing, they won't of spring break anxiety. We're doing ice cream. Day two, we're doing a thing called activate. It's like live, immersive, like games. Day three is our tournament thing. And then day four is the movie night. And so he's going to say like day one, we're doing ice cream, which is soft and squishy. 00;09;51;05 - 00;10;16;06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Speaking of soft and squishy, the first in our comedy region, Shrek day two had to activate where you're going to have to activate your Megamind, which is the second movie in our comedy night. Day three, we're hosting an invite style tournament where you're going to have to unlock your athletic inner prowess and kung fu skills, just like, seed number three, which is Kung Fu Panda in the comedy region. 00;10;16;06 - 00;10;36;13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And finally, day four is our movie night. Will we be watching this fourth movie here? Despicable me voting is now live on YouTube and Instagram. Head on over. So we'll kind of like build that up, play that up. And so it's going to be three different prerecorded video segments Kaylie's Field Report Eli and Cody's game. And then Ben's kind of like announcement thing. 00;10;36;15 - 00;10;55;02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And that's going to put every single one of our staff people on screen or on stage for the night. And then back to me and Ali. Remember like, man, spring break hanging sound like fun. And that leads us to our final region, the legend region, which is How to Train Your Dragon versus The Princess Bride and Rogue One versus The Sandlot. 00;10;55;10 - 00;11;14;15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Cast your vote online now you know, blah blah blah, yada yada yada. And then we will, and then we will go into Ben's message and actually right here as I'm explaining this, I'm going to move the bumper because Ben's going to earlier. He's going to come in after an emoji, video. So he can come in with that. 00;11;14;19 - 00;11;31;13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That'll already be a video. And then this will allow that to allow them to fire the bumper. He'll come in, he'll do the rest of his message table talk, and then we'll have two response songs at the end. And then me and Ali back on. The selection show will essentially serve as the messenger app. And the dismissal, for the night. 00;11;31;13 - 00;11;47;14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So that's kind of how we're going to launch this thing and let it go. Know that, like part of our reasoning strategy behind this is a it's going this is why I like the idea of hybrid, right? This is taking an in-person moment or movie night and pairing it with online online voting on YouTube and so and and Instagram. 00;11;47;16 - 00;12;08;27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this pushes people to our social channels and to our social pages. And so we get followers, we push our people to our online presence. If they're interacting with it, then the algorithm is going to feed them more of what we have, and it's going to, create like the in-person moment. So every week we get an opportunity then to be like, here's how you guys voted and all that stuff. 00;12;08;29 - 00;12;26;25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And as always, we have printed paper versions that students without phones can print. And by the way, I'm giving you this entire resource for free. The movie emoji Guesses, as well as the entire bracket like assets that you'll need for, launching and doing this in 00;12;26;25 - 00;12;35;25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry your own ministry. You can grab it now. You can do it for an in-person movie night, or you can just do it because it's fun to have something else going on in the background. 00;12;36;00 - 00;12;52;03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And, you can make this a part of your youth ministry. And so I have tons of these. I'm going to submit this to you. I by the end of the day, it'll be hopefully on there. But you can save money if you just hop on over and become a $4 per tier, $4 per month hybrid hero member to you. 00;12;52;03 - 00;13;12;28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's like if this resource ends up on you, I am for like seven bucks, let's say, like your hybrid hero is going to get you this this resource, along with the previous four resources, all for free. You're going to save money going over there. And I'm going to give you the different ideas and times when we lean into something creative like this. 00;13;12;28 - 00;13;35;02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right? No game. Right? No traditional game. We're doing a whole selection style show, but we're still like doing an entire youth ministry 80 minutes long. We got worship, teaching and like fun elements all woven throughout, launching this brand new thing and announcing an event coming up like this is an example of the creative programing that we're trying to lean into in our context and want to help encourage you to. 00;13;35;02 - 00;13;47;19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And that is the whole purpose of my, thing. So I'm going to hop in the lab. 00;13;47;22 - 00;14;10;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right. Welcome to Movie Madness. This is kind of meant to mirror March Madness, but whether you do this in March or not, this is just a great thing to run in the background of your youth ministry and also promote your social media, so you don't need to do anything with it aside from just launch it on your social media and let students vote, or you can let it drive towards something bigger. 00;14;10;10 - 00;14;33;27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like for us, we're going to let this drive toward a spring break hangout movie night in our context. And so the way that is kind of set up is that we have curated, at our on our team, amongst our staff, 16 different movies. And then they're in four different regions. So we have the, the Pixar region, the hero region, we have the comedy region, and then we have the legend region. 00;14;33;27 - 00;14;53;02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then each of those, they will face off against each other in a head to head voting style event. Students will vote. We typically, staff at where it's like one night we launch a big thing and we make a whole ordeal out of it. And then the voting happens on social media. So we typically let them vote on like, Instagram stories. 00;14;53;02 - 00;15;14;09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And we also, push towards like a thing like YouTube. And so, you can take some of these graphics that I have created and then you can post them onto your stories. And then each week you as you meet back together with your students, you reveal who won voting wise from last week and who's moving on to the next week until you crown an ultimate champion. 00;15;14;09 - 00;15;33;28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like I said, you can allow this to be a part of your programing each and every single week and make a big deal out of it. Or you can just have fun on your social media. There are widescreen videos and graphics and fonts and templates, so that you can advance it custom in your context. You can print out some some papers. 00;15;34;05 - 00;15;52;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Students can vote on paper, you can have them vote on social media or you can use something like the voting feature inside Kick and vote just in the room and have students go one by one. We will do a combination kind of of all three in our context. And then at the end, we'll crown one champion from each of these four regions. 00;15;52;05 - 00;16;12;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And that will be how we decide which movie we're going to be watching in our spring break hangout movie night. So, thank you for checking this resource out. I hope it's helpful to you, and I hope you have fun as you crown a movie champions through this movie madness resource. Well, that is the video, the one you just saw. 00;16;12;10 - 00;16;24;19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's the video that I'm going to include in the how to play, resource on download youth miss you. You let me know. Comment down below. Did I complete the challenge? Is this bracket resource? Is this 00;16;24;22 - 00;16;32;26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry enough? Is this considered a game or not? From scratch? I think it is, but you can decide. And so I'm going 00;16;32;26 - 00;16;35;00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry to go ahead and give myself a check mark for this. 00;16;35;00 - 00;16;53;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yes. And then we've also went ahead and we have, we have recap the night and I let you know how it went over on my Patreon link down below if you want to subscribe to that for hours per month, you'll get this resource completely for free. Or you can head over to the museum and see if it's available on the site yet. 00;16;53;05 - 00;17;09;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If not, I got the free early release version of it. And that's linked in the podcast episode that dropped on Monday over on my Patreon. Guys, thanks so much for being here for this. For part, how I program my youth ministry has been a super fun ride. I've had a blast doing it. But until next time. 00;17;09;10 - 00;17;11;16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And as always, my friends, don't forget stay happy. youth ministry, student ministry, programming, youth service, youth ministry games, youth ministry creativity, planning center, fun, ideas, valentines game, love game In this 4th and Final Episode of my Creative Programming Playlist we’re continuing on with the 3 challenges, from home this week because of this insane (?) winter storm!

CHALLENGE #1 No Repeat Order
And while last week we had no speaker, what if this week we have NO GAME?!

CHALLENGE #2 I’m creating a DYM Game from Scratch, and this one idea be the best one I’ve made so far
CHALLENGE #3 And as always, we’ll be telling you how it went and giving it all away!

ACCESS TO BRACKET & RECAP EPISODE
https://www.patreon.com/posts/no-game-recap-152046269?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/191

🌸 SPRING SEASONAL SOCIAL PACK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/spring-seasonal-151263940?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

FREE EBOOK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

//EPIC THINGS
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-student-ministry-bracket-of-epic-things/games-3974.html
//WORLD’S GREATEST DONUT
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/kids-ministry/games-8745.html
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/5ryhkIRyDb4?si=liWxUitEuO2JZBm8
//ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS MOVIE
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-ultimate-christmas-movie-showdown/christmas/christmas-games-9784.html

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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Final Programming Episode
01:10 Programming with No Game!
05:20 Waiting on my Team
05:57 Bracket Launch Program
11:41 Why Hybrid?
13:44 From Scratch Game? (Or Resource)
16:10 Time to Evaluate

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;01;25 - 00;00;02;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, in this fourth

00;00;03;00 - 00;00;03;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and

00;00;03;06 - 00;00;03;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
final

00;00;03;18 - 00;00;11;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
episode of my Creative Programing playlist, we're continuing on with the three challenges that we've been working on

00;00;11;29 - 00;00;28;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this week, from my home office or guest bedroom, or normal side of the recording of the hybrid ministry show. Because of this insane question mark winter storm that Texas has experienced. I haven't been in the office all week and Sunday services were canceled.

00;00;28;06 - 00;00;34;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's crazy, but we're doing these three challenges with no repeat order. And while last week we had no speaker,

00;00;34;29 - 00;00;39;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this week I want to show you what it might be like if we have no traditional game.

00;00;39;29 - 00;00;53;08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, question mark. And I'm going to somehow create a game from scratch and submit it to dym, I have an idea of what I think I might want to do, but you can be the judge if this actually counts.

00;00;53;08 - 00;01;01;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if I actually succeed in the challenge. And as always, we're going to recap and then let you know how it went. What went bad, what you need to do differently. All of

00;01;01;24 - 00;01;11;04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that coming up on this week's episode of the fourth and final installment of the Programing Playlist Challenge. Welcome, everyone, to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00;01;11;06 - 00;01;16;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we are here on the Hybrid Ministry show, attempting to round out the challenges.

00;01;16;09 - 00;01;23;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The first three videos, I was able to successfully complete each week's challenge, and today we're going to try and do the same thing.

00;01;23;27 - 00;01;41;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, challenge number one, of course, is avoiding doing the same order. And so far we've done in week one, we did our kind of standard order of two songs. The first part of the message, a table talk, the announcements, then the game bumper video message, part two response song and a small message wrap.

00;01;41;19 - 00;01;56;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Week two. We completely did the order wrong. And so we started with the message. A table talk did two songs in the middle, followed by announcements and games, followed by a bumper, followed by, the second part of the message kind of sandwiched in the night. And then week

00;01;56;07 - 00;02;13;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
three, no speaker because we pre filmed our message. So we did announcements followed by song, followed by the first part of the message, followed by a table talk followed by game, followed by the second part of the message in table talk, followed by two more songs, third part of the message table talk, a response song and a message wrap, and dismiss.

00;02;13;10 - 00;02;13;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so

00;02;13;26 - 00;02;30;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this week I'm going to give you a little bit of context, but I'm going to try and do a fourth order and a completely different element than what we've done so far. It's going to it's going to like I ended the last video, so we're going to throw this one into a tizz, And that's exactly what we're going to do.

00;02;30;03 - 00;02;48;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So for a bit of context, every single year around spring break we do a thing called spring break hangs. And what that is, is it's all of our office days. So we don't work on Fridays, but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday we do some sort of hangout for students. So it could be something simple like meet up at a coffee shop, meet up at an ice cream shop.

00;02;48;13 - 00;02;50;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Sometimes we pay, sometimes they

00;02;50;12 - 00;03;15;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pay. And so yesterday, our Wednesday night programing for the week during this Texas snowstorm got canceled. So we threw together an emergency meeting with, myself and our students team. And as we were hopping off the call, one of my guys goes, hey, do we have plans yet for spring break? hangs well, I have a group of students who helped plan an outreach event and they want to do a tournament deal in the middle of the week.

00;03;15;17 - 00;03;32;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's sort of like the anchor and then a round I said around it, let's go ahead and let's make a plan. And one of the plans that they came up with was they wanted to do a movie night. And so what we're going to do is in addition to doing spring break hangs every year,

00;03;32;06 - 00;03;38;26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we also do a march bracket every year to kind of come alongside March Madness and all that type of stuff.

00;03;38;26 - 00;03;48;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I've talked about it before and, you know, I'm going to give this resource that I'm about to create away. Over on the DYM site, I have the epic

00;03;48;13 - 00;03;58;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
student ministry bracket of epic things, which is very dated. It's it's 7 or 8 years old now, the number one seed, Chip and Joanna Gaines. So I will tell you how dated that feels.

00;03;58;08 - 00;04;13;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Then I've also, over on the site, have The World's Greatest Donut, which actually have an episode link right here at top screen. You can go see, that event that we did, how we launched that event, and then how you can, have that event kind of going on in the background. And we've also done a Christmas movie bracket.

00;04;13;15 - 00;04;32;23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so for this one, we're going to do a movie bracket. And then that's going to determine the movie that we watch on the night of spring break hangs. And so one of the things that, I'm going to do is I'm going to actually, I think I want to create four different regions. So almost like four different categories.

00;04;32;25 - 00;04;36;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We'll do a 16 team bracket, even though in regular March Madness, I do a

00;04;36;27 - 00;04;49;26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
64 team bracket with four regions, 16 teams in each region. We'll do a 16 team bracket 4 regions. Four movies in each bracket. And so I'll kind of categorize it. And what I actually did was I told my team, I said,

00;04;49;29 - 00;04;53;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
hey, 10:00, this was the last night.

00;04;53;05 - 00;05;14;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I said, by 10:00 tomorrow I want to start working on this send me 16 movies doesn't have to matter. The order sent to me by 10:00. So I'll let you know who responded by ten. And then I'm going to take their movies. We're going to compile it into ChatGPT, and we're going to ask them to spit out like the ones that you know, which are commonly commonly included and stuff like that, and maybe even help us categorize it a little bit.

00;05;14;03 - 00;05;21;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I'll let you know how my team does here if they meet the deadline by 10:00 or not.

00;05;21;18 - 00;05;29;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Four out of six, which I'm one of the four. So I guess three out of five of my team members, follow the instructions. If Ben and Kaleigh

00;05;29;17 - 00;05;39;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
ever see this, they might be mortified. Or they might just giggle and think it's funny. But we compiled their lists and came up with seeds and came up with some regions.

00;05;39;29 - 00;05;56;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so for the night, what I want to do is I want to treat our night a little bit like a selection show. So I'm going to hop in & I'm going to start creating some of that programing on Planning Center. And I'll catch you on the other side.

00;05;57;00 - 00;05;57;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There's

00;05;57;10 - 00;06;06;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
no traditional game in the sense, but we are going to play kind of a quasi sort of like hybrid game in the middle of it. So we're

00;06;06;13 - 00;06;19;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
going to start with a hype song. And then as soon as that's done, we're going to fire the selection show, bumper video. So again, I'm trying to kind of emulate like the selection Sunday night selection show of March Madness.

00;06;19;10 - 00;06;38;26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so as you can see, this Movie Madness logo here looks very much like, March Madness logo. And then myself and one of my coworkers, Allie, we're going to get up on stage and we're going to kind of have on like, jackets or like blazers, like people who are, you know, who are revealing stuff like on ESPN or whatever.

00;06;38;28 - 00;07;05;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we are going to welcome the room. And we're not like, we're not going to break character. We're going to be, you know, in character, doing the thing the whole time. Welcome the room live on stage. And then we're also going to, reveal that we are launching a brand new, spring bracket. We're not revealing that the choice of movie is what's going to be played on movie night, but we're going to reveal that we are, in fact, having a bracket, and then we're going to cut to a field reporter.

00;07;05;16 - 00;07;34;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this we're going to video ahead of time. I haven't done this yet, but just right now, I came up with the idea, we're going to video ahead of time. Another one of our staff people, Kaleigh and she's going to, announce the Pixar region. And so for us, we're going with, inside out as the number one seed versus Wall-E, and then Toy Story versus monsters, Inc. she's going to give a little bit of breakdown analysis on it, and then she's going to predict winners of each of those matchups, and then she's going to predict a winner of the winners.

00;07;34;21 - 00;07;52;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So she says, like inside out, it's going to be Wall-E. And Toy Story is going to beat Monsters Inc and then Inside Out versus Toy Story. She believes Inside Out is going to win, hypothetically, right? She'll say something like, that's just my opinion, but you guys get an opportunity to vote right now on Instagram or YouTube. Login right now, a scan QR code on the screen.

00;07;52;12 - 00;08;08;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we'll edit all of that and put that all together. And then that will cut back to me and Allie and we'll kind of like talk about that a little bit, announce the next region, which is going to be the hero region. And we're going to be announcing this one over with a little bit of a game.

00;08;08;10 - 00;08;29;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're going to cut to Eli and Cody, and then they're going to, play like an emoji. Guess game, which I'm actually going to include inside the pack of this. I'm going to include an emoji guess game as a part of like the launch. So Spider-Man across Spider-Verse versus Big Hero six and Avengers Endgame versus The Lego Movie.

00;08;29;07 - 00;08;49;25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, the winner of that, they'll what we'll do then is we'll have them, go like head to head, and we'll have them, like, thinking, so, like, who's going to who's going to win, who's going to get it right, Eli or Cody or neither. And then we'll like pause the video and let them vote on sidekick.

00;08;50;01 - 00;09;10;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we'll come back and play the results. So that'll kind of be they'll kind of satisfy as like our game. Right. But it's all a part of this greater like selection show. And then that will that end into our brand new series. Are you turn bumper and then Ben, one of our associates who did not send in a list, by the way, is going to preach first half of his message

00;09;10;23 - 00;09;12;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in with a table talk.

00;09;12;03 - 00;09;32;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we're going to come back out of that into a commercial. And Ben is going to do the commercial, and he's going to do the comedy region. And this one I'm kind of doing like dad jokes or like, I don't know, like really cliche thing. So he and this is also going to sort of satisfy as like the announcement section of our night.

00;09;32;02 - 00;09;51;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So like, we're doing, they won't of spring break anxiety. We're doing ice cream. Day two, we're doing a thing called activate. It's like live, immersive, like games. Day three is our tournament thing. And then day four is the movie night. And so he's going to say like day one, we're doing ice cream, which is soft and squishy.

00;09;51;05 - 00;10;16;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Speaking of soft and squishy, the first in our comedy region, Shrek day two had to activate where you're going to have to activate your Megamind, which is the second movie in our comedy night. Day three, we're hosting an invite style tournament where you're going to have to unlock your athletic inner prowess and kung fu skills, just like, seed number three, which is Kung Fu Panda in the comedy region.

00;10;16;06 - 00;10;36;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And finally, day four is our movie night. Will we be watching this fourth movie here? Despicable me voting is now live on YouTube and Instagram. Head on over. So we'll kind of like build that up, play that up. And so it's going to be three different prerecorded video segments Kaylie's Field Report Eli and Cody's game. And then Ben's kind of like announcement thing.

00;10;36;15 - 00;10;55;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's going to put every single one of our staff people on screen or on stage for the night. And then back to me and Ali. Remember like, man, spring break hanging sound like fun. And that leads us to our final region, the legend region, which is How to Train Your Dragon versus The Princess Bride and Rogue One versus The Sandlot.

00;10;55;10 - 00;11;14;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Cast your vote online now you know, blah blah blah, yada yada yada. And then we will, and then we will go into Ben's message and actually right here as I'm explaining this, I'm going to move the bumper because Ben's going to earlier. He's going to come in after an emoji, video. So he can come in with that.

00;11;14;19 - 00;11;31;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That'll already be a video. And then this will allow that to allow them to fire the bumper. He'll come in, he'll do the rest of his message table talk, and then we'll have two response songs at the end. And then me and Ali back on. The selection show will essentially serve as the messenger app. And the dismissal, for the night.

00;11;31;13 - 00;11;47;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that's kind of how we're going to launch this thing and let it go. Know that, like part of our reasoning strategy behind this is a it's going this is why I like the idea of hybrid, right? This is taking an in-person moment or movie night and pairing it with online online voting on YouTube and so and and Instagram.

00;11;47;16 - 00;12;08;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this pushes people to our social channels and to our social pages. And so we get followers, we push our people to our online presence. If they're interacting with it, then the algorithm is going to feed them more of what we have, and it's going to, create like the in-person moment. So every week we get an opportunity then to be like, here's how you guys voted and all that stuff.

00;12;08;29 - 00;12;26;25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as always, we have printed paper versions that students without phones can print. And by the way, I'm giving you this entire resource for free. The movie emoji Guesses, as well as the entire bracket like assets that you'll need for, launching and doing this in

00;12;26;25 - 00;12;35;25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your own ministry. You can grab it now. You can do it for an in-person movie night, or you can just do it because it's fun to have something else going on in the background.

00;12;36;00 - 00;12;52;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, you can make this a part of your youth ministry. And so I have tons of these. I'm going to submit this to you. I by the end of the day, it'll be hopefully on there. But you can save money if you just hop on over and become a $4 per tier, $4 per month hybrid hero member to you.

00;12;52;03 - 00;13;12;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's like if this resource ends up on you, I am for like seven bucks, let's say, like your hybrid hero is going to get you this this resource, along with the previous four resources, all for free. You're going to save money going over there. And I'm going to give you the different ideas and times when we lean into something creative like this.

00;13;12;28 - 00;13;35;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right? No game. Right? No traditional game. We're doing a whole selection style show, but we're still like doing an entire youth ministry 80 minutes long. We got worship, teaching and like fun elements all woven throughout, launching this brand new thing and announcing an event coming up like this is an example of the creative programing that we're trying to lean into in our context and want to help encourage you to.

00;13;35;02 - 00;13;47;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that is the whole purpose of my, thing. So I'm going to hop in the lab.

00;13;47;22 - 00;14;10;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. Welcome to Movie Madness. This is kind of meant to mirror March Madness, but whether you do this in March or not, this is just a great thing to run in the background of your youth ministry and also promote your social media, so you don't need to do anything with it aside from just launch it on your social media and let students vote, or you can let it drive towards something bigger.

00;14;10;10 - 00;14;33;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like for us, we're going to let this drive toward a spring break hangout movie night in our context. And so the way that is kind of set up is that we have curated, at our on our team, amongst our staff, 16 different movies. And then they're in four different regions. So we have the, the Pixar region, the hero region, we have the comedy region, and then we have the legend region.

00;14;33;27 - 00;14;53;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then each of those, they will face off against each other in a head to head voting style event. Students will vote. We typically, staff at where it's like one night we launch a big thing and we make a whole ordeal out of it. And then the voting happens on social media. So we typically let them vote on like, Instagram stories.

00;14;53;02 - 00;15;14;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we also, push towards like a thing like YouTube. And so, you can take some of these graphics that I have created and then you can post them onto your stories. And then each week you as you meet back together with your students, you reveal who won voting wise from last week and who's moving on to the next week until you crown an ultimate champion.

00;15;14;09 - 00;15;33;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I said, you can allow this to be a part of your programing each and every single week and make a big deal out of it. Or you can just have fun on your social media. There are widescreen videos and graphics and fonts and templates, so that you can advance it custom in your context. You can print out some some papers.

00;15;34;05 - 00;15;52;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Students can vote on paper, you can have them vote on social media or you can use something like the voting feature inside Kick and vote just in the room and have students go one by one. We will do a combination kind of of all three in our context. And then at the end, we'll crown one champion from each of these four regions.

00;15;52;05 - 00;16;12;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that will be how we decide which movie we're going to be watching in our spring break hangout movie night. So, thank you for checking this resource out. I hope it's helpful to you, and I hope you have fun as you crown a movie champions through this movie madness resource. Well, that is the video, the one you just saw.

00;16;12;10 - 00;16;24;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's the video that I'm going to include in the how to play, resource on download youth miss you. You let me know. Comment down below. Did I complete the challenge? Is this bracket resource? Is this

00;16;24;22 - 00;16;32;26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
enough? Is this considered a game or not? From scratch? I think it is, but you can decide. And so I'm going

00;16;32;26 - 00;16;35;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to go ahead and give myself a check mark for this.

00;16;35;00 - 00;16;53;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yes. And then we've also went ahead and we have, we have recap the night and I let you know how it went over on my Patreon link down below if you want to subscribe to that for hours per month, you'll get this resource completely for free. Or you can head over to the museum and see if it's available on the site yet.

00;16;53;05 - 00;17;09;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If not, I got the free early release version of it. And that's linked in the podcast episode that dropped on Monday over on my Patreon. Guys, thanks so much for being here for this. For part, how I program my youth ministry has been a super fun ride. I've had a blast doing it. But until next time.

00;17;09;10 - 00;17;11;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as always, my friends, don't forget stay happy.

]]> In this 4th and Final Episode of my Creative Programming Playlist we’re continuing on with the 3 challenges, from home this week because of this insane (?) winter storm!

CHALLENGE #1 No Repeat Order
And while last week we had no speaker, what if this week we have NO GAME?!

CHALLENGE #2 I’m creating a DYM Game from Scratch, and this one idea be the best one I’ve made so far
CHALLENGE #3 And as always, we’ll be telling you how it went and giving it all away!

ACCESS TO BRACKET & RECAP EPISODE
https://www.patreon.com/posts/no-game-recap-152046269?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/191

🌸 SPRING SEASONAL SOCIAL PACK
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//EPIC THINGS
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-student-ministry-bracket-of-epic-things/games-3974.html
//WORLD’S GREATEST DONUT
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/kids-ministry/games-8745.html
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/5ryhkIRyDb4?si=liWxUitEuO2JZBm8
//ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS MOVIE
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-ultimate-christmas-movie-showdown/christmas/christmas-games-9784.html

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🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
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https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Final Programming Episode
01:10 Programming with No Game!
05:20 Waiting on my Team
05:57 Bracket Launch Program
11:41 Why Hybrid?
13:44 From Scratch Game? (Or Resource)
16:10 Time to Evaluate

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;01;25 - 00;00;02;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, in this fourth

00;00;03;00 - 00;00;03;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and

00;00;03;06 - 00;00;03;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
final

00;00;03;18 - 00;00;11;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
episode of my Creative Programing playlist, we're continuing on with the three challenges that we've been working on

00;00;11;29 - 00;00;28;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this week, from my home office or guest bedroom, or normal side of the recording of the hybrid ministry show. Because of this insane question mark winter storm that Texas has experienced. I haven't been in the office all week and Sunday services were canceled.

00;00;28;06 - 00;00;34;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's crazy, but we're doing these three challenges with no repeat order. And while last week we had no speaker,

00;00;34;29 - 00;00;39;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this week I want to show you what it might be like if we have no traditional game.

00;00;39;29 - 00;00;53;08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, question mark. And I'm going to somehow create a game from scratch and submit it to dym, I have an idea of what I think I might want to do, but you can be the judge if this actually counts.

00;00;53;08 - 00;01;01;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if I actually succeed in the challenge. And as always, we're going to recap and then let you know how it went. What went bad, what you need to do differently. All of

00;01;01;24 - 00;01;11;04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that coming up on this week's episode of the fourth and final installment of the Programing Playlist Challenge. Welcome, everyone, to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00;01;11;06 - 00;01;16;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we are here on the Hybrid Ministry show, attempting to round out the challenges.

00;01;16;09 - 00;01;23;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The first three videos, I was able to successfully complete each week's challenge, and today we're going to try and do the same thing.

00;01;23;27 - 00;01;41;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, challenge number one, of course, is avoiding doing the same order. And so far we've done in week one, we did our kind of standard order of two songs. The first part of the message, a table talk, the announcements, then the game bumper video message, part two response song and a small message wrap.

00;01;41;19 - 00;01;56;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Week two. We completely did the order wrong. And so we started with the message. A table talk did two songs in the middle, followed by announcements and games, followed by a bumper, followed by, the second part of the message kind of sandwiched in the night. And then week

00;01;56;07 - 00;02;13;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
three, no speaker because we pre filmed our message. So we did announcements followed by song, followed by the first part of the message, followed by a table talk followed by game, followed by the second part of the message in table talk, followed by two more songs, third part of the message table talk, a response song and a message wrap, and dismiss.

00;02;13;10 - 00;02;13;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so

00;02;13;26 - 00;02;30;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this week I'm going to give you a little bit of context, but I'm going to try and do a fourth order and a completely different element than what we've done so far. It's going to it's going to like I ended the last video, so we're going to throw this one into a tizz, And that's exactly what we're going to do.

00;02;30;03 - 00;02;48;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So for a bit of context, every single year around spring break we do a thing called spring break hangs. And what that is, is it's all of our office days. So we don't work on Fridays, but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday we do some sort of hangout for students. So it could be something simple like meet up at a coffee shop, meet up at an ice cream shop.

00;02;48;13 - 00;02;50;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Sometimes we pay, sometimes they

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pay. And so yesterday, our Wednesday night programing for the week during this Texas snowstorm got canceled. So we threw together an emergency meeting with, myself and our students team. And as we were hopping off the call, one of my guys goes, hey, do we have plans yet for spring break? hangs well, I have a group of students who helped plan an outreach event and they want to do a tournament deal in the middle of the week.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's sort of like the anchor and then a round I said around it, let's go ahead and let's make a plan. And one of the plans that they came up with was they wanted to do a movie night. And so what we're going to do is in addition to doing spring break hangs every year,

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we also do a march bracket every year to kind of come alongside March Madness and all that type of stuff.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I've talked about it before and, you know, I'm going to give this resource that I'm about to create away. Over on the DYM site, I have the epic

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
student ministry bracket of epic things, which is very dated. It's it's 7 or 8 years old now, the number one seed, Chip and Joanna Gaines. So I will tell you how dated that feels.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Then I've also, over on the site, have The World's Greatest Donut, which actually have an episode link right here at top screen. You can go see, that event that we did, how we launched that event, and then how you can, have that event kind of going on in the background. And we've also done a Christmas movie bracket.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so for this one, we're going to do a movie bracket. And then that's going to determine the movie that we watch on the night of spring break hangs. And so one of the things that, I'm going to do is I'm going to actually, I think I want to create four different regions. So almost like four different categories.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We'll do a 16 team bracket, even though in regular March Madness, I do a

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
64 team bracket with four regions, 16 teams in each region. We'll do a 16 team bracket 4 regions. Four movies in each bracket. And so I'll kind of categorize it. And what I actually did was I told my team, I said,

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
hey, 10:00, this was the last night.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I said, by 10:00 tomorrow I want to start working on this send me 16 movies doesn't have to matter. The order sent to me by 10:00. So I'll let you know who responded by ten. And then I'm going to take their movies. We're going to compile it into ChatGPT, and we're going to ask them to spit out like the ones that you know, which are commonly commonly included and stuff like that, and maybe even help us categorize it a little bit.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I'll let you know how my team does here if they meet the deadline by 10:00 or not.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Four out of six, which I'm one of the four. So I guess three out of five of my team members, follow the instructions. If Ben and Kaleigh

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
ever see this, they might be mortified. Or they might just giggle and think it's funny. But we compiled their lists and came up with seeds and came up with some regions.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so for the night, what I want to do is I want to treat our night a little bit like a selection show. So I'm going to hop in & I'm going to start creating some of that programing on Planning Center. And I'll catch you on the other side.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There's

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
no traditional game in the sense, but we are going to play kind of a quasi sort of like hybrid game in the middle of it. So we're

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
going to start with a hype song. And then as soon as that's done, we're going to fire the selection show, bumper video. So again, I'm trying to kind of emulate like the selection Sunday night selection show of March Madness.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so as you can see, this Movie Madness logo here looks very much like, March Madness logo. And then myself and one of my coworkers, Allie, we're going to get up on stage and we're going to kind of have on like, jackets or like blazers, like people who are, you know, who are revealing stuff like on ESPN or whatever.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we are going to welcome the room. And we're not like, we're not going to break character. We're going to be, you know, in character, doing the thing the whole time. Welcome the room live on stage. And then we're also going to, reveal that we are launching a brand new, spring bracket. We're not revealing that the choice of movie is what's going to be played on movie night, but we're going to reveal that we are, in fact, having a bracket, and then we're going to cut to a field reporter.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this we're going to video ahead of time. I haven't done this yet, but just right now, I came up with the idea, we're going to video ahead of time. Another one of our staff people, Kaleigh and she's going to, announce the Pixar region. And so for us, we're going with, inside out as the number one seed versus Wall-E, and then Toy Story versus monsters, Inc. she's going to give a little bit of breakdown analysis on it, and then she's going to predict winners of each of those matchups, and then she's going to predict a winner of the winners.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So she says, like inside out, it's going to be Wall-E. And Toy Story is going to beat Monsters Inc and then Inside Out versus Toy Story. She believes Inside Out is going to win, hypothetically, right? She'll say something like, that's just my opinion, but you guys get an opportunity to vote right now on Instagram or YouTube. Login right now, a scan QR code on the screen.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we'll edit all of that and put that all together. And then that will cut back to me and Allie and we'll kind of like talk about that a little bit, announce the next region, which is going to be the hero region. And we're going to be announcing this one over with a little bit of a game.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're going to cut to Eli and Cody, and then they're going to, play like an emoji. Guess game, which I'm actually going to include inside the pack of this. I'm going to include an emoji guess game as a part of like the launch. So Spider-Man across Spider-Verse versus Big Hero six and Avengers Endgame versus The Lego Movie.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, the winner of that, they'll what we'll do then is we'll have them, go like head to head, and we'll have them, like, thinking, so, like, who's going to who's going to win, who's going to get it right, Eli or Cody or neither. And then we'll like pause the video and let them vote on sidekick.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we'll come back and play the results. So that'll kind of be they'll kind of satisfy as like our game. Right. But it's all a part of this greater like selection show. And then that will that end into our brand new series. Are you turn bumper and then Ben, one of our associates who did not send in a list, by the way, is going to preach first half of his message

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in with a table talk.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we're going to come back out of that into a commercial. And Ben is going to do the commercial, and he's going to do the comedy region. And this one I'm kind of doing like dad jokes or like, I don't know, like really cliche thing. So he and this is also going to sort of satisfy as like the announcement section of our night.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So like, we're doing, they won't of spring break anxiety. We're doing ice cream. Day two, we're doing a thing called activate. It's like live, immersive, like games. Day three is our tournament thing. And then day four is the movie night. And so he's going to say like day one, we're doing ice cream, which is soft and squishy.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Speaking of soft and squishy, the first in our comedy region, Shrek day two had to activate where you're going to have to activate your Megamind, which is the second movie in our comedy night. Day three, we're hosting an invite style tournament where you're going to have to unlock your athletic inner prowess and kung fu skills, just like, seed number three, which is Kung Fu Panda in the comedy region.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And finally, day four is our movie night. Will we be watching this fourth movie here? Despicable me voting is now live on YouTube and Instagram. Head on over. So we'll kind of like build that up, play that up. And so it's going to be three different prerecorded video segments Kaylie's Field Report Eli and Cody's game. And then Ben's kind of like announcement thing.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's going to put every single one of our staff people on screen or on stage for the night. And then back to me and Ali. Remember like, man, spring break hanging sound like fun. And that leads us to our final region, the legend region, which is How to Train Your Dragon versus The Princess Bride and Rogue One versus The Sandlot.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Cast your vote online now you know, blah blah blah, yada yada yada. And then we will, and then we will go into Ben's message and actually right here as I'm explaining this, I'm going to move the bumper because Ben's going to earlier. He's going to come in after an emoji, video. So he can come in with that.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That'll already be a video. And then this will allow that to allow them to fire the bumper. He'll come in, he'll do the rest of his message table talk, and then we'll have two response songs at the end. And then me and Ali back on. The selection show will essentially serve as the messenger app. And the dismissal, for the night.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that's kind of how we're going to launch this thing and let it go. Know that, like part of our reasoning strategy behind this is a it's going this is why I like the idea of hybrid, right? This is taking an in-person moment or movie night and pairing it with online online voting on YouTube and so and and Instagram.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this pushes people to our social channels and to our social pages. And so we get followers, we push our people to our online presence. If they're interacting with it, then the algorithm is going to feed them more of what we have, and it's going to, create like the in-person moment. So every week we get an opportunity then to be like, here's how you guys voted and all that stuff.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as always, we have printed paper versions that students without phones can print. And by the way, I'm giving you this entire resource for free. The movie emoji Guesses, as well as the entire bracket like assets that you'll need for, launching and doing this in

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your own ministry. You can grab it now. You can do it for an in-person movie night, or you can just do it because it's fun to have something else going on in the background.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, you can make this a part of your youth ministry. And so I have tons of these. I'm going to submit this to you. I by the end of the day, it'll be hopefully on there. But you can save money if you just hop on over and become a $4 per tier, $4 per month hybrid hero member to you.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's like if this resource ends up on you, I am for like seven bucks, let's say, like your hybrid hero is going to get you this this resource, along with the previous four resources, all for free. You're going to save money going over there. And I'm going to give you the different ideas and times when we lean into something creative like this.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right? No game. Right? No traditional game. We're doing a whole selection style show, but we're still like doing an entire youth ministry 80 minutes long. We got worship, teaching and like fun elements all woven throughout, launching this brand new thing and announcing an event coming up like this is an example of the creative programing that we're trying to lean into in our context and want to help encourage you to.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that is the whole purpose of my, thing. So I'm going to hop in the lab.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. Welcome to Movie Madness. This is kind of meant to mirror March Madness, but whether you do this in March or not, this is just a great thing to run in the background of your youth ministry and also promote your social media, so you don't need to do anything with it aside from just launch it on your social media and let students vote, or you can let it drive towards something bigger.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like for us, we're going to let this drive toward a spring break hangout movie night in our context. And so the way that is kind of set up is that we have curated, at our on our team, amongst our staff, 16 different movies. And then they're in four different regions. So we have the, the Pixar region, the hero region, we have the comedy region, and then we have the legend region.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then each of those, they will face off against each other in a head to head voting style event. Students will vote. We typically, staff at where it's like one night we launch a big thing and we make a whole ordeal out of it. And then the voting happens on social media. So we typically let them vote on like, Instagram stories.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we also, push towards like a thing like YouTube. And so, you can take some of these graphics that I have created and then you can post them onto your stories. And then each week you as you meet back together with your students, you reveal who won voting wise from last week and who's moving on to the next week until you crown an ultimate champion.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I said, you can allow this to be a part of your programing each and every single week and make a big deal out of it. Or you can just have fun on your social media. There are widescreen videos and graphics and fonts and templates, so that you can advance it custom in your context. You can print out some some papers.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Students can vote on paper, you can have them vote on social media or you can use something like the voting feature inside Kick and vote just in the room and have students go one by one. We will do a combination kind of of all three in our context. And then at the end, we'll crown one champion from each of these four regions.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that will be how we decide which movie we're going to be watching in our spring break hangout movie night. So, thank you for checking this resource out. I hope it's helpful to you, and I hope you have fun as you crown a movie champions through this movie madness resource. Well, that is the video, the one you just saw.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's the video that I'm going to include in the how to play, resource on download youth miss you. You let me know. Comment down below. Did I complete the challenge? Is this bracket resource? Is this

00;16;24;22 - 00;16;32;26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
enough? Is this considered a game or not? From scratch? I think it is, but you can decide. And so I'm going

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to go ahead and give myself a check mark for this.

00;16;35;00 - 00;16;53;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yes. And then we've also went ahead and we have, we have recap the night and I let you know how it went over on my Patreon link down below if you want to subscribe to that for hours per month, you'll get this resource completely for free. Or you can head over to the museum and see if it's available on the site yet.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If not, I got the free early release version of it. And that's linked in the podcast episode that dropped on Monday over on my Patreon. Guys, thanks so much for being here for this. For part, how I program my youth ministry has been a super fun ride. I've had a blast doing it. But until next time.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as always, my friends, don't forget stay happy.

]]> Episode 190: Programming Youth Group With NO SPEAKER?! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/190 98f6e70c-1714-483a-85d5-c573f4d7ee33 Thu, 26 Feb 2026 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 190 Programming Youth Group With NO SPEAKER?! full Nick Clason Today we’re programming with NO SPEAKER?! While still complete these 3 challenges No Order Repeating Creating a from-scratch DYM game And finally, not only will I recap that game - But I’ll recap the entire night. And give you that game, for free! 14:07 no Today we’re programming with NO SPEAKER?! While still complete these 3 challenges No Order Repeating Creating a from Scratch DYM game And finally, not only will I recap that game - But I’ll recap the entire night. And give you that game, for free! ACCESS TO EXTREME GO FOR GOLD GAME & RECAP EPISODE https://www.patreon.com/posts/no-speaker-recap-151394635?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/190 ❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry FREE EBOOK https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link COACHING https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Programming with no Speaker 01:34 Hybrid Ministry - Stretch Goals 02:47 Why Post to YouTube? 04:29 No Repeat Order 08:09 Custom Game - LIVE Demonstration 13:09 So, how did it go? -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00;00;01;03 - 00;00;01;55 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well. Hello. 00;00;01;59 - 00;00;02;48 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And good morning. 00;00;02;48 - 00;00;05;52 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Today we are programing our Wednesday night with 00;00;05;52 - 00;00;06;26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry no 00;00;06;26 - 00;00;07;06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry speaker. 00;00;07;06 - 00;00;08;30 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yeah, you heard that right. 00;00;08;30 - 00;00;13;06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We're also still in this playlist completing these three challenges, 00;00;13;06 - 00;00;23;42 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry which are no repeated order. We're going to create a game from scratch on win. And finally I'm going to recap the entire night, let you know how it went. And not only am I going to 00;00;23;42 - 00;00;24;12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry recap 00;00;24;12 - 00;00;24;43 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry the night 00;00;24;43 - 00;00;28;57 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and the game that I created, but I'm also going to give you the game for free. 00;00;28;58 - 00;00;31;08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So stick around to the end of the video so that you can see 00;00;31;08 - 00;00;36;52 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry how you can get access that. Welcome everybody to the Hybrid Ministry Show. 00;00;36;57 - 00;00;48;15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Welcome, everybody, to the hybrid ministry show. And, first order of business is we have to map out service order and we can't let the order repeat. So if 00;00;48;19 - 00;00;58;17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry you look in here on screen, you'll see that on the left here, this is, week one service order. And if you look here on the right, this is week two's service order. 00;00;58;17 - 00;01;03;06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we're going to go ahead and we're going to make a completely different service order. But 00;01;03;11 - 00;01;36;49 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry yes you heard it right because for the entire teaching topic we discussed in last week's video links right here that I will not actually be present. I won a or I don't even know, like I guess I won or was given, a free trip with my wife to get away kid free, for like, pastor and wives retreat and so the week that I'm programing is the week that I will be absent and we're going to be during and in the middle of our sex and dating and relationships 00;01;36;56 - 00;01;37;19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry series. 00;01;37;19 - 00;01;51;41 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So, we talked about a little bit last week, but this was the original order. But because of my trip, this is how we reshuffled things a little bit. And so we're going to be playing the already prerecorded video 00;01;51;46 - 00;01;58;01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry from this week in the room. And here's the thing. Like some of you, you may not know this, but 00;01;58;01 - 00;01;58;38 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry we 00;01;58;38 - 00;02;00;44 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry already have recorded 00;02;00;51 - 00;02;01;52 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry these teaching topics. 00;02;02;06 - 00;02;04;02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry sat down, went into our studio, 00;02;04;02 - 00;02;05;51 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and this is a big part of our 00;02;05;51 - 00;02;06;18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry hybrid 00;02;06;28 - 00;02;11;43 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry ministry strategy. And and what I recommend, like if you download my seasonal social media 00;02;11;43 - 00;02;18;03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry pack, which is free for Patreon members, by the way, and Patreon is only $4 a month, $48 for the year. 00;02;18;08 - 00;02;23;14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you download my pack, I recommend that you get active on social media and that you post like three 00;02;23;19 - 00;02;24;25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry times per week. 00;02;24;29 - 00;02;36;33 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But then, in the towards the end of the book, I challenge you, to consider a stretch goal. And a great stretch goal is to record and post all of 00;02;36;38 - 00;02;42;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry your messages to YouTube or to, some sort of long form platform. 00;02;42;15 - 00;02;50;38 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I guess I say some other long form platform is if YouTube isn't the option like it is, the option is the number one social media for for students. 00;02;50;43 - 00;02;57;01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But that what that does, is it gives you a multiplicity of options. 00;02;57;01 - 00;02;57;26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Number one. 00;02;57;31 - 00;03;03;42 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It creates a long, long form library of content like a long tail library of content. So, 00;03;03;50 - 00;03;04;45 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry messages from 00;03;04;50 - 00;03;09;43 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry multiple years back are still relevant, because hopefully we're teaching the truth of God's word. 00;03;09;49 - 00;03;18;06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry someone can go back in and and get an answer to something or to to study a topic on something that we've already done in the past. We've done the work we put the work in. 00;03;18;11 - 00;03;19;38 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Secondarily, 00;03;19;43 - 00;03;26;38 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry our leaders, like many of our leaders, lead the discussion based off of the message. But they don't come on Wednesday night when we preach it live. 00;03;26;38 - 00;03;31;58 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so therefore, having the video allows them to still hear the content, even if they're not able to make it in the room. 00;03;32;07 - 00;03;44;36 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's also a tool for parents. We're going to be using it during this series. I'm going to be sending it out ahead of time to parents being like, hey, listen, here we go. Like, this is all we're talking about in case you want to know, in case you want to get in front of it, in case you want to have conversations with the students. 00;03;44;40 - 00;03;51;57 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so it gives us tons of great options. But the other option that you're seeing today is that it's going to give us the option 00;03;52;09 - 00;03;57;21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry like, I don't have to get a guest speaker. I don't to get a pinch hitter. Like, I can still speak and I can still, 00;03;57;26 - 00;03;59;16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry messaging for youth group, and, 00;03;59;21 - 00;04;03;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry we can be off to the races without needing to do anything like crazy on that. 00;04;03;05 - 00;04;03;17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And 00;04;03;21 - 00;04;03;37 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry so 00;04;03;47 - 00;04;06;38 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry it's really helpful to us. It's really beneficial. And so 00;04;06;38 - 00;04;18;22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry that might be something that you would consider down the road. That might be something that you might even consider. Now I got some coaching options down below my link tree. Go ahead and take a look at that. See if there's something you want. I can I can walk you through how we do that. 00;04;18;27 - 00;04;19;58 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry today specifically, 00;04;20;02 - 00;04;27;26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry you know, week one we went two songs opening announcements, games receive message response song 00;04;27;30 - 00;04;36;35 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry we two we went message songs, games rest of message and then songs. So we need a now third 00;04;36;40 - 00;04;36;58 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry order. 00;04;37;05 - 00;04;39;33 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry this is the just preset order. 00;04;39;33 - 00;04;40;40 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we're going to 00;04;40;45 - 00;04;46;13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry we're going to mess with it and we're going to put in a new order. And as a reminder, I'm going to open here with 00;04;46;22 - 00;04;59;13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry welcome announcements game. The game is going to be the custom game that I'm going to create. And today, we'll see in a minute because I got to hop in the lab and I'll let you know how that spits out 00;04;59;13 - 00;05;00;20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry on the other side of things. 00;05;00;24 - 00;05;00;45 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But 00;05;00;53 - 00;05;01;43 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry today 00;05;01;47 - 00;05;04;41 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm thinking about doing some sort of 00;05;04;51 - 00;05;11;48 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Winter Olympic themed game. We will be in the middle or towards the very end of the Winter Olympics by February 18th. 00;05;11;54 - 00;05;20;45 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so I think that that would be, a fun kind of like way to to celebrate that and, to lean into that just a little bit. So, 00;05;20;50 - 00;05;26;56 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry so anyway, that's one thing about, and then here I'm programing, I'm gonna do a song, and then I'm going to do, 00;05;27;10 - 00;05;31;22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry first part of the message, and I think I'm going to try and break my message up into three parts. 00;05;31;22 - 00;05;32;47 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So part one 00;05;32;57 - 00;05;37;51 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry but typically I'm at like 12 minutes. So we're going to do like four minute, four minute chunks. 00;05;37;56 - 00;05;42;58 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we'll do a four minute chunk and then a four minute table talk. 00;05;43;03 - 00;05;43;35 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Another. 00;05;43;43 - 00;05;47;53 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Some actually actually okay. So I'm changing my order already. So I'm going to do the opening song. 00;05;48;01 - 00;05;51;03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry no I like I like opening with a game for this on 00;05;51;08 - 00;06;01;02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry it gets like a live element of the room. So we'll do part one, table two. I'm just trying to keep like I want to honestly kind of do the band a bunch. 00;06;01;07 - 00;06;02;39 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But so I kind of wanted to 00;06;02;46 - 00;06;03;50 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry not get, 00;06;03;55 - 00;06;06;25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry stuck into this rut of it, be like 00;06;06;25 - 00;06;07;08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry song 00;06;07;08 - 00;06;08;44 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry message, song message. 00;06;08;48 - 00;06;11;58 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yeah, I'm going to move the game down here. That's what I'll do. 00;06;12;07 - 00;06;16;55 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry yeah, then we'll be able to. It won't be so choppy. I don't think anymore. 00;06;17;00 - 00;06;36;59 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right, so here we go. Here's what I ended up coming up with. So instead of doing just games at the beginning, we do welcome announcements. And then that's going to lead into a worship song. And then after the song they're going to move into part one of the message, which will then, go for a minute and then end with, table talk there for a couple minutes. 00;06;36;59 - 00;06;59;32 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry After the table talk, Ali and Kayla, you're going to get up. They're going to play the game that I made from scratch. Then after that, they're going to lead it into part two of the message with another table talk. And then out of that the band is going to come up and do two songs. And then after that last part, I'm going to do the final part of the message, and then there's going to be a message wrap and dismissal from, my, my number two associate. 00;06;59;32 - 00;07;22;32 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So the only other thing here that is worth considering is, you know, there's only 52 minutes of total service time. That in part is because a video message goes a lot quicker than a live spoken message. So I am considering and I think I'm going to do it. I am actually just considering here, adding one last response song. 00;07;22;37 - 00;07;37;35 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Our band typically does three songs in this particular week. I'm going to, see if they can go ahead and do two, four songs. And so it'll go part three of The Message, which also there will be a table talk in there. I didn't add. So let's go and see what that does. A table. 00;07;37;40 - 00;07;39;20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So now we're at like 61 minutes. 00;07;39;20 - 00;07;42;59 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry that's not bad. And even if we did happen to kill this response song, 00;07;43;03 - 00;07;53;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry we're at 56 again. Not bad, but I think I'm going to leave it there. And so we're going to go with we're going to go with four songs this night instead of five or instead of three. 00;07;53;10 - 00;08;00;47 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And yeah. And now look boom. Challenge number one completed completely different order. Now, 00;08;00;47 - 00;08;07;24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry about to hop in the lab and I'm going to go and create a custom game. We'll see you on the other side. 00;08;07;29 - 00;08;13;23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Another. 00;08;13;28 - 00;08;21;27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Welcome, everybody to the extreme. Go for gold trivia. I invited one of my buddies, Ben, 00;08;21;32 - 00;08;38;44 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry in here. Wearing a Timberwolves shirt. Not Timberwolves fan. Mavs. We're going to see how this game works. So in the like how to play instructions there. There are two ways to play. Traditional question. Answer. Nice question answer. Question answer. It's just simple. 00;08;38;46 - 00;08;59;21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You guys got this. I'm not going to tell you how to play that, but I want to show you how we might play the Extreme Edition. I like it. I like going for gold extreme. So the instructions go like this. Read the question. I think they'll be the first to buzz in. Choose either answer or challenge. All right. 00;08;59;21 - 00;09;20;20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So whoever buzzes in first, it's like truth or dare. Yeah. Answer a challenge. And then step four you can win for your side of the room. So let's say you're playing for the right side of the room. And I'm playing for the left side of the room. And then you guys figure out whatever prize you want pizza for the that side or Nintendo Switch two points or AirPods for everyone, right? 00;09;20;25 - 00;09;46;51 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That'd be crazy. So one of my favorite ways to do this is to take a water bottle, right? If you don't have like, an amazing formalized buzzer. Have a water bottle in the middle. And, what will happen is whoever grabs what about first, then that's then. It's like the Cup game. Yeah. Yeah. And then they choose, you know, either, they choose either answer or challenge. 00;09;46;51 - 00;09;50;55 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yeah. Okay, so first question. 00;09;51;00 - 00;10;14;30 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we're up here, contestants. Which sport made debut at the 2026 Winter Olympics? I buzzed in. Yeah. And on this one, I know. Because I'm just a massive Olympics fan. So I'm going to say the answer is B ski mo. Am I right? What do you think? No. Well I made the game so I guess I'm right. 00;10;14;35 - 00;10;35;41 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Okay. Now that's I would get a point. All right however. Wait how do you. What is mountaineering. Sorry. I don't know. That was that. That's unreal. That's. Yeah. I'll let you watch the Olympics on NBC starting in February and February 12th. Yeah. Eskimo mountaineering is. But now then. All right, so I got a point. So one point for the left side of the room. 00;10;35;41 - 00;10;42;13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Okay, now let's go back to this year. Okay, here we go. Next question. 00;10;42;18 - 00;11;05;44 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Which country has participated in every Winter games since they began in 1924? Canada, France, United States then grabs the buzzer. But this time around, Ben is going to choose. Choose Canada. No, you're going to say, oh, you got shoes? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's right, that's right. You're going to choose. Oh, I'm gonna choose challenge. All right. So what you haven't seen yet is I've created two spoons. 00;11;05;45 - 00;11;29;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well, I saw one was sugar. You can use anything. You can do worse. You sour sauce and Worcestershire, however you say. Sure, sure, sure. And Coca-Cola, you can do vinegar and water. Yeah. You could do caramel onion, caramel apple. Like, whatever you boil oil. There you go. Yeah. Canola oil. Yeah. Get all the oils, kill someone or help them live. 00;11;29;15 - 00;11;53;11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So how this would work then is so since he buzzed in as you can smell it, I didn't know if since he buzzed in as the challenger or he his go is to, stomp the room. Okay. So if if he like if he successfully stomps the room based off his reaction, he gets two points to my one just for answering straight up. 00;11;53;26 - 00;12;07;55 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Okay, if he's unsuccessful in that, then, you know. So here we go. The game host would then say, all right, ready? Three. Two. One. 00;12;08;00 - 00;12;35;44 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Okay, so based off of our reaction, one of us have so one of us has sugar. And so how we're going to play in our room then, we're big sidekicks fans. Oh, yeah. So who got so the double vote? Whoever you think. Got it. And then if Ben was able to, like. So if he was able to successfully stumped the room, why don't you tell the people what you had at sugar? 00;12;35;49 - 00;12;53;53 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yeah, I had, so, yeah, that was like you. Really? Yeah. Did I see it in your app? Yeah. Just try not to cry. That was horrific. So let's say he did something, and let's say everyone voted that that he had the salt, even though I had the salt. So as blind for the your contestants to. Yeah. As mine for your contestants too. 00;12;53;53 - 00;13;10;47 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So it's really just all about your reaction. Yeah. And then you'd move on to question three. Easy. Go on. So forth. So that's how you play the Extreme Edition. That's how we're going to play this on February 18th. Hope you guys enjoyed. Bless up. See you next time. See ya. 00;13;10;52 - 00;13;34;11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So there you have it. That's actually the game that I'm going to include in the submission. It's usually like on the do I am game page, the actual like resource page taken of how to play. So that's how we're going to play it. Go either way. So New order unlocked. New game from scratch. And as a reminder, the Hybrid Heroes Patreon tier $4 per month, 00;13;34;21 - 00;13;43;40 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry $48 per year is where I will be debriefing this and every other week in this, playlists series and giving away the game. 00;13;43;41 - 00;14;00;48 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So, if you listen to the podcast, the Dropbox link to this game is included for free. Or if it's over on D, I am of course, you can go grab it over there for a couple of bucks. So all three challenges completed. Next week is the final week and we are going to throw it absolutely into a tiers. 00;14;00;48 - 00;14;07;11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That video is going to be linked right here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends don't forget to stay hybrid. youth ministry, student ministry, programming, youth service, youth ministry games, youth ministry creativity, planning center, fun, ideas, valentines game, love game Today we’re programming with NO SPEAKER?!
While still complete these 3 challenges
No Order Repeating
Creating a from Scratch DYM game
And finally, not only will I recap that game - But I’ll recap the entire night.
And give you that game, for free!

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Programming with no Speaker
01:34 Hybrid Ministry - Stretch Goals
02:47 Why Post to YouTube?
04:29 No Repeat Order
08:09 Custom Game - LIVE Demonstration
13:09 So, how did it go?

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;01;03 - 00;00;01;55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well. Hello.

00;00;01;59 - 00;00;02;48
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And good morning.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Today we are programing our Wednesday night with

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
no

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
speaker.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah, you heard that right.

00;00;08;30 - 00;00;13;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're also still in this playlist completing these three challenges,

00;00;13;06 - 00;00;23;42
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
which are no repeated order. We're going to create a game from scratch on win. And finally I'm going to recap the entire night, let you know how it went. And not only am I going to

00;00;23;42 - 00;00;24;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
recap

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the night

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and the game that I created, but I'm also going to give you the game for free.

00;00;28;58 - 00;00;31;08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So stick around to the end of the video so that you can see

00;00;31;08 - 00;00;36;52
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
how you can get access that. Welcome everybody to the Hybrid Ministry Show.

00;00;36;57 - 00;00;48;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, everybody, to the hybrid ministry show. And, first order of business is we have to map out service order and we can't let the order repeat. So if

00;00;48;19 - 00;00;58;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you look in here on screen, you'll see that on the left here, this is, week one service order. And if you look here on the right, this is week two's service order.

00;00;58;17 - 00;01;03;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're going to go ahead and we're going to make a completely different service order. But

00;01;03;11 - 00;01;36;49
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
yes you heard it right because for the entire teaching topic we discussed in last week's video links right here that I will not actually be present. I won a or I don't even know, like I guess I won or was given, a free trip with my wife to get away kid free, for like, pastor and wives retreat and so the week that I'm programing is the week that I will be absent and we're going to be during and in the middle of our sex and dating and relationships

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
series.

00;01;37;19 - 00;01;51;41
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, we talked about a little bit last week, but this was the original order. But because of my trip, this is how we reshuffled things a little bit. And so we're going to be playing the already prerecorded video

00;01;51;46 - 00;01;58;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
from this week in the room. And here's the thing. Like some of you, you may not know this, but

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
already have recorded

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
these teaching topics.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
sat down, went into our studio,

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and this is a big part of our

00;02;05;51 - 00;02;06;18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
hybrid

00;02;06;28 - 00;02;11;43
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
ministry strategy. And and what I recommend, like if you download my seasonal social media

00;02;11;43 - 00;02;18;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pack, which is free for Patreon members, by the way, and Patreon is only $4 a month, $48 for the year.

00;02;18;08 - 00;02;23;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you download my pack, I recommend that you get active on social media and that you post like three

00;02;23;19 - 00;02;24;25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
times per week.

00;02;24;29 - 00;02;36;33
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then, in the towards the end of the book, I challenge you, to consider a stretch goal. And a great stretch goal is to record and post all of

00;02;36;38 - 00;02;42;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your messages to YouTube or to, some sort of long form platform.

00;02;42;15 - 00;02;50;38
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I guess I say some other long form platform is if YouTube isn't the option like it is, the option is the number one social media for for students.

00;02;50;43 - 00;02;57;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But that what that does, is it gives you a multiplicity of options.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Number one.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It creates a long, long form library of content like a long tail library of content. So,

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
messages from

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
multiple years back are still relevant, because hopefully we're teaching the truth of God's word.

00;03;09;49 - 00;03;18;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
someone can go back in and and get an answer to something or to to study a topic on something that we've already done in the past. We've done the work we put the work in.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Secondarily,

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
our leaders, like many of our leaders, lead the discussion based off of the message. But they don't come on Wednesday night when we preach it live.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so therefore, having the video allows them to still hear the content, even if they're not able to make it in the room.

00;03;32;07 - 00;03;44;36
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's also a tool for parents. We're going to be using it during this series. I'm going to be sending it out ahead of time to parents being like, hey, listen, here we go. Like, this is all we're talking about in case you want to know, in case you want to get in front of it, in case you want to have conversations with the students.

00;03;44;40 - 00;03;51;57
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so it gives us tons of great options. But the other option that you're seeing today is that it's going to give us the option

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like, I don't have to get a guest speaker. I don't to get a pinch hitter. Like, I can still speak and I can still,

00;03;57;26 - 00;03;59;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
messaging for youth group, and,

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we can be off to the races without needing to do anything like crazy on that.

00;04;03;05 - 00;04;03;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it's really helpful to us. It's really beneficial. And so

00;04;06;38 - 00;04;18;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that might be something that you would consider down the road. That might be something that you might even consider. Now I got some coaching options down below my link tree. Go ahead and take a look at that. See if there's something you want. I can I can walk you through how we do that.

00;04;18;27 - 00;04;19;58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
today specifically,

00;04;20;02 - 00;04;27;26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you know, week one we went two songs opening announcements, games receive message response song

00;04;27;30 - 00;04;36;35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we two we went message songs, games rest of message and then songs. So we need a now third

00;04;36;40 - 00;04;36;58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
order.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this is the just preset order.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we're going to

00;04;40;45 - 00;04;46;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we're going to mess with it and we're going to put in a new order. And as a reminder, I'm going to open here with

00;04;46;22 - 00;04;59;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
welcome announcements game. The game is going to be the custom game that I'm going to create. And today, we'll see in a minute because I got to hop in the lab and I'll let you know how that spits out

00;04;59;13 - 00;05;00;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
on the other side of things.

00;05;00;24 - 00;05;00;45
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But

00;05;00;53 - 00;05;01;43
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
today

00;05;01;47 - 00;05;04;41
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm thinking about doing some sort of

00;05;04;51 - 00;05;11;48
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Winter Olympic themed game. We will be in the middle or towards the very end of the Winter Olympics by February 18th.

00;05;11;54 - 00;05;20;45
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I think that that would be, a fun kind of like way to to celebrate that and, to lean into that just a little bit. So,

00;05;20;50 - 00;05;26;56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so anyway, that's one thing about, and then here I'm programing, I'm gonna do a song, and then I'm going to do,

00;05;27;10 - 00;05;31;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
first part of the message, and I think I'm going to try and break my message up into three parts.

00;05;31;22 - 00;05;32;47
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So part one

00;05;32;57 - 00;05;37;51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
but typically I'm at like 12 minutes. So we're going to do like four minute, four minute chunks.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we'll do a four minute chunk and then a four minute table talk.

00;05;43;03 - 00;05;43;35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Another.

00;05;43;43 - 00;05;47;53
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some actually actually okay. So I'm changing my order already. So I'm going to do the opening song.

00;05;48;01 - 00;05;51;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
no I like I like opening with a game for this on

00;05;51;08 - 00;06;01;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it gets like a live element of the room. So we'll do part one, table two. I'm just trying to keep like I want to honestly kind of do the band a bunch.

00;06;01;07 - 00;06;02;39
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But so I kind of wanted to

00;06;02;46 - 00;06;03;50
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
not get,

00;06;03;55 - 00;06;06;25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
stuck into this rut of it, be like

00;06;06;25 - 00;06;07;08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
song

00;06;07;08 - 00;06;08;44
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
message, song message.

00;06;08;48 - 00;06;11;58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah, I'm going to move the game down here. That's what I'll do.

00;06;12;07 - 00;06;16;55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
yeah, then we'll be able to. It won't be so choppy. I don't think anymore.

00;06;17;00 - 00;06;36;59
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right, so here we go. Here's what I ended up coming up with. So instead of doing just games at the beginning, we do welcome announcements. And then that's going to lead into a worship song. And then after the song they're going to move into part one of the message, which will then, go for a minute and then end with, table talk there for a couple minutes.

00;06;36;59 - 00;06;59;32
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
After the table talk, Ali and Kayla, you're going to get up. They're going to play the game that I made from scratch. Then after that, they're going to lead it into part two of the message with another table talk. And then out of that the band is going to come up and do two songs. And then after that last part, I'm going to do the final part of the message, and then there's going to be a message wrap and dismissal from, my, my number two associate.

00;06;59;32 - 00;07;22;32
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So the only other thing here that is worth considering is, you know, there's only 52 minutes of total service time. That in part is because a video message goes a lot quicker than a live spoken message. So I am considering and I think I'm going to do it. I am actually just considering here, adding one last response song.

00;07;22;37 - 00;07;37;35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our band typically does three songs in this particular week. I'm going to, see if they can go ahead and do two, four songs. And so it'll go part three of The Message, which also there will be a table talk in there. I didn't add. So let's go and see what that does. A table.

00;07;37;40 - 00;07;39;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So now we're at like 61 minutes.

00;07;39;20 - 00;07;42;59
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that's not bad. And even if we did happen to kill this response song,

00;07;43;03 - 00;07;53;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we're at 56 again. Not bad, but I think I'm going to leave it there. And so we're going to go with we're going to go with four songs this night instead of five or instead of three.

00;07;53;10 - 00;08;00;47
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And yeah. And now look boom. Challenge number one completed completely different order. Now,

00;08;00;47 - 00;08;07;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
about to hop in the lab and I'm going to go and create a custom game. We'll see you on the other side.

00;08;07;29 - 00;08;13;23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Another.

00;08;13;28 - 00;08;21;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, everybody to the extreme. Go for gold trivia. I invited one of my buddies, Ben,

00;08;21;32 - 00;08;38;44
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in here. Wearing a Timberwolves shirt. Not Timberwolves fan. Mavs. We're going to see how this game works. So in the like how to play instructions there. There are two ways to play. Traditional question. Answer. Nice question answer. Question answer. It's just simple.

00;08;38;46 - 00;08;59;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You guys got this. I'm not going to tell you how to play that, but I want to show you how we might play the Extreme Edition. I like it. I like going for gold extreme. So the instructions go like this. Read the question. I think they'll be the first to buzz in. Choose either answer or challenge. All right.

00;08;59;21 - 00;09;20;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So whoever buzzes in first, it's like truth or dare. Yeah. Answer a challenge. And then step four you can win for your side of the room. So let's say you're playing for the right side of the room. And I'm playing for the left side of the room. And then you guys figure out whatever prize you want pizza for the that side or Nintendo Switch two points or AirPods for everyone, right?

00;09;20;25 - 00;09;46;51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That'd be crazy. So one of my favorite ways to do this is to take a water bottle, right? If you don't have like, an amazing formalized buzzer. Have a water bottle in the middle. And, what will happen is whoever grabs what about first, then that's then. It's like the Cup game. Yeah. Yeah. And then they choose, you know, either, they choose either answer or challenge.

00;09;46;51 - 00;09;50;55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. Okay, so first question.

00;09;51;00 - 00;10;14;30
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we're up here, contestants. Which sport made debut at the 2026 Winter Olympics? I buzzed in. Yeah. And on this one, I know. Because I'm just a massive Olympics fan. So I'm going to say the answer is B ski mo. Am I right? What do you think? No. Well I made the game so I guess I'm right.

00;10;14;35 - 00;10;35;41
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. Now that's I would get a point. All right however. Wait how do you. What is mountaineering. Sorry. I don't know. That was that. That's unreal. That's. Yeah. I'll let you watch the Olympics on NBC starting in February and February 12th. Yeah. Eskimo mountaineering is. But now then. All right, so I got a point. So one point for the left side of the room.

00;10;35;41 - 00;10;42;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay, now let's go back to this year. Okay, here we go. Next question.

00;10;42;18 - 00;11;05;44
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Which country has participated in every Winter games since they began in 1924? Canada, France, United States then grabs the buzzer. But this time around, Ben is going to choose. Choose Canada. No, you're going to say, oh, you got shoes? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's right, that's right. You're going to choose. Oh, I'm gonna choose challenge. All right. So what you haven't seen yet is I've created two spoons.

00;11;05;45 - 00;11;29;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, I saw one was sugar. You can use anything. You can do worse. You sour sauce and Worcestershire, however you say. Sure, sure, sure. And Coca-Cola, you can do vinegar and water. Yeah. You could do caramel onion, caramel apple. Like, whatever you boil oil. There you go. Yeah. Canola oil. Yeah. Get all the oils, kill someone or help them live.

00;11;29;15 - 00;11;53;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So how this would work then is so since he buzzed in as you can smell it, I didn't know if since he buzzed in as the challenger or he his go is to, stomp the room. Okay. So if if he like if he successfully stomps the room based off his reaction, he gets two points to my one just for answering straight up.

00;11;53;26 - 00;12;07;55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay, if he's unsuccessful in that, then, you know. So here we go. The game host would then say, all right, ready? Three. Two. One.

00;12;08;00 - 00;12;35;44
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay, so based off of our reaction, one of us have so one of us has sugar. And so how we're going to play in our room then, we're big sidekicks fans. Oh, yeah. So who got so the double vote? Whoever you think. Got it. And then if Ben was able to, like. So if he was able to successfully stumped the room, why don't you tell the people what you had at sugar?

00;12;35;49 - 00;12;53;53
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah, I had, so, yeah, that was like you. Really? Yeah. Did I see it in your app? Yeah. Just try not to cry. That was horrific. So let's say he did something, and let's say everyone voted that that he had the salt, even though I had the salt. So as blind for the your contestants to. Yeah. As mine for your contestants too.

00;12;53;53 - 00;13;10;47
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's really just all about your reaction. Yeah. And then you'd move on to question three. Easy. Go on. So forth. So that's how you play the Extreme Edition. That's how we're going to play this on February 18th. Hope you guys enjoyed. Bless up. See you next time. See ya.

00;13;10;52 - 00;13;34;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So there you have it. That's actually the game that I'm going to include in the submission. It's usually like on the do I am game page, the actual like resource page taken of how to play. So that's how we're going to play it. Go either way. So New order unlocked. New game from scratch. And as a reminder, the Hybrid Heroes Patreon tier $4 per month,

00;13;34;21 - 00;13;43;40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
$48 per year is where I will be debriefing this and every other week in this, playlists series and giving away the game.

00;13;43;41 - 00;14;00;48
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, if you listen to the podcast, the Dropbox link to this game is included for free. Or if it's over on D, I am of course, you can go grab it over there for a couple of bucks. So all three challenges completed. Next week is the final week and we are going to throw it absolutely into a tiers.

00;14;00;48 - 00;14;07;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That video is going to be linked right here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Today we’re programming with NO SPEAKER?!
While still complete these 3 challenges
No Order Repeating
Creating a from Scratch DYM game
And finally, not only will I recap that game - But I’ll recap the entire night.
And give you that game, for free!

ACCESS TO EXTREME GO FOR GOLD GAME & RECAP EPISODE
https://www.patreon.com/posts/no-speaker-recap-151394635?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/190

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

HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

FREE EBOOK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

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

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
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Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Programming with no Speaker
01:34 Hybrid Ministry - Stretch Goals
02:47 Why Post to YouTube?
04:29 No Repeat Order
08:09 Custom Game - LIVE Demonstration
13:09 So, how did it go?

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;01;03 - 00;00;01;55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well. Hello.

00;00;01;59 - 00;00;02;48
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And good morning.

00;00;02;48 - 00;00;05;52
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Today we are programing our Wednesday night with

00;00;05;52 - 00;00;06;26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
no

00;00;06;26 - 00;00;07;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
speaker.

00;00;07;06 - 00;00;08;30
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah, you heard that right.

00;00;08;30 - 00;00;13;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're also still in this playlist completing these three challenges,

00;00;13;06 - 00;00;23;42
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
which are no repeated order. We're going to create a game from scratch on win. And finally I'm going to recap the entire night, let you know how it went. And not only am I going to

00;00;23;42 - 00;00;24;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
recap

00;00;24;12 - 00;00;24;43
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the night

00;00;24;43 - 00;00;28;57
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and the game that I created, but I'm also going to give you the game for free.

00;00;28;58 - 00;00;31;08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So stick around to the end of the video so that you can see

00;00;31;08 - 00;00;36;52
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
how you can get access that. Welcome everybody to the Hybrid Ministry Show.

00;00;36;57 - 00;00;48;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, everybody, to the hybrid ministry show. And, first order of business is we have to map out service order and we can't let the order repeat. So if

00;00;48;19 - 00;00;58;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you look in here on screen, you'll see that on the left here, this is, week one service order. And if you look here on the right, this is week two's service order.

00;00;58;17 - 00;01;03;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're going to go ahead and we're going to make a completely different service order. But

00;01;03;11 - 00;01;36;49
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
yes you heard it right because for the entire teaching topic we discussed in last week's video links right here that I will not actually be present. I won a or I don't even know, like I guess I won or was given, a free trip with my wife to get away kid free, for like, pastor and wives retreat and so the week that I'm programing is the week that I will be absent and we're going to be during and in the middle of our sex and dating and relationships

00;01;36;56 - 00;01;37;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
series.

00;01;37;19 - 00;01;51;41
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, we talked about a little bit last week, but this was the original order. But because of my trip, this is how we reshuffled things a little bit. And so we're going to be playing the already prerecorded video

00;01;51;46 - 00;01;58;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
from this week in the room. And here's the thing. Like some of you, you may not know this, but

00;01;58;01 - 00;01;58;38
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we

00;01;58;38 - 00;02;00;44
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
already have recorded

00;02;00;51 - 00;02;01;52
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
these teaching topics.

00;02;02;06 - 00;02;04;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
sat down, went into our studio,

00;02;04;02 - 00;02;05;51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and this is a big part of our

00;02;05;51 - 00;02;06;18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
hybrid

00;02;06;28 - 00;02;11;43
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
ministry strategy. And and what I recommend, like if you download my seasonal social media

00;02;11;43 - 00;02;18;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pack, which is free for Patreon members, by the way, and Patreon is only $4 a month, $48 for the year.

00;02;18;08 - 00;02;23;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you download my pack, I recommend that you get active on social media and that you post like three

00;02;23;19 - 00;02;24;25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
times per week.

00;02;24;29 - 00;02;36;33
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then, in the towards the end of the book, I challenge you, to consider a stretch goal. And a great stretch goal is to record and post all of

00;02;36;38 - 00;02;42;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your messages to YouTube or to, some sort of long form platform.

00;02;42;15 - 00;02;50;38
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I guess I say some other long form platform is if YouTube isn't the option like it is, the option is the number one social media for for students.

00;02;50;43 - 00;02;57;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But that what that does, is it gives you a multiplicity of options.

00;02;57;01 - 00;02;57;26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Number one.

00;02;57;31 - 00;03;03;42
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It creates a long, long form library of content like a long tail library of content. So,

00;03;03;50 - 00;03;04;45
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
messages from

00;03;04;50 - 00;03;09;43
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
multiple years back are still relevant, because hopefully we're teaching the truth of God's word.

00;03;09;49 - 00;03;18;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
someone can go back in and and get an answer to something or to to study a topic on something that we've already done in the past. We've done the work we put the work in.

00;03;18;11 - 00;03;19;38
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Secondarily,

00;03;19;43 - 00;03;26;38
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
our leaders, like many of our leaders, lead the discussion based off of the message. But they don't come on Wednesday night when we preach it live.

00;03;26;38 - 00;03;31;58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so therefore, having the video allows them to still hear the content, even if they're not able to make it in the room.

00;03;32;07 - 00;03;44;36
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's also a tool for parents. We're going to be using it during this series. I'm going to be sending it out ahead of time to parents being like, hey, listen, here we go. Like, this is all we're talking about in case you want to know, in case you want to get in front of it, in case you want to have conversations with the students.

00;03;44;40 - 00;03;51;57
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so it gives us tons of great options. But the other option that you're seeing today is that it's going to give us the option

00;03;52;09 - 00;03;57;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like, I don't have to get a guest speaker. I don't to get a pinch hitter. Like, I can still speak and I can still,

00;03;57;26 - 00;03;59;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
messaging for youth group, and,

00;03;59;21 - 00;04;03;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we can be off to the races without needing to do anything like crazy on that.

00;04;03;05 - 00;04;03;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And

00;04;03;21 - 00;04;03;37
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so

00;04;03;47 - 00;04;06;38
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it's really helpful to us. It's really beneficial. And so

00;04;06;38 - 00;04;18;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that might be something that you would consider down the road. That might be something that you might even consider. Now I got some coaching options down below my link tree. Go ahead and take a look at that. See if there's something you want. I can I can walk you through how we do that.

00;04;18;27 - 00;04;19;58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
today specifically,

00;04;20;02 - 00;04;27;26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you know, week one we went two songs opening announcements, games receive message response song

00;04;27;30 - 00;04;36;35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we two we went message songs, games rest of message and then songs. So we need a now third

00;04;36;40 - 00;04;36;58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
order.

00;04;37;05 - 00;04;39;33
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this is the just preset order.

00;04;39;33 - 00;04;40;40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we're going to

00;04;40;45 - 00;04;46;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we're going to mess with it and we're going to put in a new order. And as a reminder, I'm going to open here with

00;04;46;22 - 00;04;59;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
welcome announcements game. The game is going to be the custom game that I'm going to create. And today, we'll see in a minute because I got to hop in the lab and I'll let you know how that spits out

00;04;59;13 - 00;05;00;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
on the other side of things.

00;05;00;24 - 00;05;00;45
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But

00;05;00;53 - 00;05;01;43
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
today

00;05;01;47 - 00;05;04;41
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm thinking about doing some sort of

00;05;04;51 - 00;05;11;48
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Winter Olympic themed game. We will be in the middle or towards the very end of the Winter Olympics by February 18th.

00;05;11;54 - 00;05;20;45
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I think that that would be, a fun kind of like way to to celebrate that and, to lean into that just a little bit. So,

00;05;20;50 - 00;05;26;56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so anyway, that's one thing about, and then here I'm programing, I'm gonna do a song, and then I'm going to do,

00;05;27;10 - 00;05;31;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
first part of the message, and I think I'm going to try and break my message up into three parts.

00;05;31;22 - 00;05;32;47
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So part one

00;05;32;57 - 00;05;37;51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
but typically I'm at like 12 minutes. So we're going to do like four minute, four minute chunks.

00;05;37;56 - 00;05;42;58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we'll do a four minute chunk and then a four minute table talk.

00;05;43;03 - 00;05;43;35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Another.

00;05;43;43 - 00;05;47;53
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some actually actually okay. So I'm changing my order already. So I'm going to do the opening song.

00;05;48;01 - 00;05;51;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
no I like I like opening with a game for this on

00;05;51;08 - 00;06;01;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it gets like a live element of the room. So we'll do part one, table two. I'm just trying to keep like I want to honestly kind of do the band a bunch.

00;06;01;07 - 00;06;02;39
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But so I kind of wanted to

00;06;02;46 - 00;06;03;50
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
not get,

00;06;03;55 - 00;06;06;25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
stuck into this rut of it, be like

00;06;06;25 - 00;06;07;08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
song

00;06;07;08 - 00;06;08;44
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
message, song message.

00;06;08;48 - 00;06;11;58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah, I'm going to move the game down here. That's what I'll do.

00;06;12;07 - 00;06;16;55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
yeah, then we'll be able to. It won't be so choppy. I don't think anymore.

00;06;17;00 - 00;06;36;59
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right, so here we go. Here's what I ended up coming up with. So instead of doing just games at the beginning, we do welcome announcements. And then that's going to lead into a worship song. And then after the song they're going to move into part one of the message, which will then, go for a minute and then end with, table talk there for a couple minutes.

00;06;36;59 - 00;06;59;32
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
After the table talk, Ali and Kayla, you're going to get up. They're going to play the game that I made from scratch. Then after that, they're going to lead it into part two of the message with another table talk. And then out of that the band is going to come up and do two songs. And then after that last part, I'm going to do the final part of the message, and then there's going to be a message wrap and dismissal from, my, my number two associate.

00;06;59;32 - 00;07;22;32
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So the only other thing here that is worth considering is, you know, there's only 52 minutes of total service time. That in part is because a video message goes a lot quicker than a live spoken message. So I am considering and I think I'm going to do it. I am actually just considering here, adding one last response song.

00;07;22;37 - 00;07;37;35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our band typically does three songs in this particular week. I'm going to, see if they can go ahead and do two, four songs. And so it'll go part three of The Message, which also there will be a table talk in there. I didn't add. So let's go and see what that does. A table.

00;07;37;40 - 00;07;39;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So now we're at like 61 minutes.

00;07;39;20 - 00;07;42;59
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that's not bad. And even if we did happen to kill this response song,

00;07;43;03 - 00;07;53;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we're at 56 again. Not bad, but I think I'm going to leave it there. And so we're going to go with we're going to go with four songs this night instead of five or instead of three.

00;07;53;10 - 00;08;00;47
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And yeah. And now look boom. Challenge number one completed completely different order. Now,

00;08;00;47 - 00;08;07;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
about to hop in the lab and I'm going to go and create a custom game. We'll see you on the other side.

00;08;07;29 - 00;08;13;23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Another.

00;08;13;28 - 00;08;21;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, everybody to the extreme. Go for gold trivia. I invited one of my buddies, Ben,

00;08;21;32 - 00;08;38;44
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in here. Wearing a Timberwolves shirt. Not Timberwolves fan. Mavs. We're going to see how this game works. So in the like how to play instructions there. There are two ways to play. Traditional question. Answer. Nice question answer. Question answer. It's just simple.

00;08;38;46 - 00;08;59;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You guys got this. I'm not going to tell you how to play that, but I want to show you how we might play the Extreme Edition. I like it. I like going for gold extreme. So the instructions go like this. Read the question. I think they'll be the first to buzz in. Choose either answer or challenge. All right.

00;08;59;21 - 00;09;20;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So whoever buzzes in first, it's like truth or dare. Yeah. Answer a challenge. And then step four you can win for your side of the room. So let's say you're playing for the right side of the room. And I'm playing for the left side of the room. And then you guys figure out whatever prize you want pizza for the that side or Nintendo Switch two points or AirPods for everyone, right?

00;09;20;25 - 00;09;46;51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That'd be crazy. So one of my favorite ways to do this is to take a water bottle, right? If you don't have like, an amazing formalized buzzer. Have a water bottle in the middle. And, what will happen is whoever grabs what about first, then that's then. It's like the Cup game. Yeah. Yeah. And then they choose, you know, either, they choose either answer or challenge.

00;09;46;51 - 00;09;50;55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. Okay, so first question.

00;09;51;00 - 00;10;14;30
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we're up here, contestants. Which sport made debut at the 2026 Winter Olympics? I buzzed in. Yeah. And on this one, I know. Because I'm just a massive Olympics fan. So I'm going to say the answer is B ski mo. Am I right? What do you think? No. Well I made the game so I guess I'm right.

00;10;14;35 - 00;10;35;41
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. Now that's I would get a point. All right however. Wait how do you. What is mountaineering. Sorry. I don't know. That was that. That's unreal. That's. Yeah. I'll let you watch the Olympics on NBC starting in February and February 12th. Yeah. Eskimo mountaineering is. But now then. All right, so I got a point. So one point for the left side of the room.

00;10;35;41 - 00;10;42;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay, now let's go back to this year. Okay, here we go. Next question.

00;10;42;18 - 00;11;05;44
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Which country has participated in every Winter games since they began in 1924? Canada, France, United States then grabs the buzzer. But this time around, Ben is going to choose. Choose Canada. No, you're going to say, oh, you got shoes? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's right, that's right. You're going to choose. Oh, I'm gonna choose challenge. All right. So what you haven't seen yet is I've created two spoons.

00;11;05;45 - 00;11;29;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, I saw one was sugar. You can use anything. You can do worse. You sour sauce and Worcestershire, however you say. Sure, sure, sure. And Coca-Cola, you can do vinegar and water. Yeah. You could do caramel onion, caramel apple. Like, whatever you boil oil. There you go. Yeah. Canola oil. Yeah. Get all the oils, kill someone or help them live.

00;11;29;15 - 00;11;53;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So how this would work then is so since he buzzed in as you can smell it, I didn't know if since he buzzed in as the challenger or he his go is to, stomp the room. Okay. So if if he like if he successfully stomps the room based off his reaction, he gets two points to my one just for answering straight up.

00;11;53;26 - 00;12;07;55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay, if he's unsuccessful in that, then, you know. So here we go. The game host would then say, all right, ready? Three. Two. One.

00;12;08;00 - 00;12;35;44
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay, so based off of our reaction, one of us have so one of us has sugar. And so how we're going to play in our room then, we're big sidekicks fans. Oh, yeah. So who got so the double vote? Whoever you think. Got it. And then if Ben was able to, like. So if he was able to successfully stumped the room, why don't you tell the people what you had at sugar?

00;12;35;49 - 00;12;53;53
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah, I had, so, yeah, that was like you. Really? Yeah. Did I see it in your app? Yeah. Just try not to cry. That was horrific. So let's say he did something, and let's say everyone voted that that he had the salt, even though I had the salt. So as blind for the your contestants to. Yeah. As mine for your contestants too.

00;12;53;53 - 00;13;10;47
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's really just all about your reaction. Yeah. And then you'd move on to question three. Easy. Go on. So forth. So that's how you play the Extreme Edition. That's how we're going to play this on February 18th. Hope you guys enjoyed. Bless up. See you next time. See ya.

00;13;10;52 - 00;13;34;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So there you have it. That's actually the game that I'm going to include in the submission. It's usually like on the do I am game page, the actual like resource page taken of how to play. So that's how we're going to play it. Go either way. So New order unlocked. New game from scratch. And as a reminder, the Hybrid Heroes Patreon tier $4 per month,

00;13;34;21 - 00;13;43;40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
$48 per year is where I will be debriefing this and every other week in this, playlists series and giving away the game.

00;13;43;41 - 00;14;00;48
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, if you listen to the podcast, the Dropbox link to this game is included for free. Or if it's over on D, I am of course, you can go grab it over there for a couple of bucks. So all three challenges completed. Next week is the final week and we are going to throw it absolutely into a tiers.

00;14;00;48 - 00;14;07;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That video is going to be linked right here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 189: I Intentionally Programmed Youth Group “Wrong” https://www.hybridministry.xyz/189 b64c4049-0c4d-4944-b593-329fc9808ad1 Thu, 19 Feb 2026 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 189 I Intentionally Programmed Youth Group “Wrong” full Nick Clason I’m designing my real youth ministry program, with these 3 rules. -Order Doesn’t Repeat And today I'm intentionally going to do it WRONG!! I'm also making a different, from scratch, DYM Game for EACH week And I’m going to tell you how to get a FREE early copy of it Finally, I'll evaluate how it all went! Join us! 7:40 no I’m designing my real youth ministry program, with these 3 rules. 1 Order Doesn’t Repeat And today I'm intentionally going to do it WRONG!! 2 I'm also making a different, from scratch, DYM Game for EACH week And I’m going to tell you how to get a FREE early copy of it 3 Finally, I'll evaluate how it all went! Join us! ACCESS TO FREE GAME & RECAP EPISODE https://www.patreon.com/posts/we-went-there-150912245?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/189 ❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Programming Wrong 00:37 New Order 03:08 Consistency with Social Media = Solved! 04:14 A Student Asked me for this Game! 06:21 Creating the Game & the GRAND REVEAL! -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00;00;00;52 - 00;00;27;34 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm designing my real youth ministry program in this playlist around these three different rules for the next month. Rule number one is that the order does not repeat, and today I'm intentionally giving a wrong order. We're also going to be making a different DIY and game from scratch every single week. And I'm going to tell you how you can get this game for free and get it early before it releases on the site. 00;00;27;36 - 00;01;05;37 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And step three, I'm going to evaluate and reflect how it went. Welcome, everybody to part two of the Hybrid Minstrel Show Programing challenge. Well hello everybody, and welcome back to, this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show. You know, in this episode, we are going to be programing a service. Wrong. And here's why. It's wrong, so to speak, is that there's kind of like a standard assumed order for, for instance, if I pull open, the February 11th service plan, which I'm filming this on January 15th, so still a full month out. 00;01;05;42 - 00;01;25;34 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry There's already like a basic service order kind of mapped out. And like this is very similar to what we did in that last week's video is going to be linked up right here at the top screen. If you've not seen that one, there's a free game and that one as well. That's kind of like our standard order. And and actually after that video, we had to shift our order a little bit because I'm going to be out of town. 00;01;25;39 - 00;01;41;52 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I don't want to be out of town on, the week of this message, the text message. And so, I'm going to teach this one in the room, and then, we'll do something different for when I'm out of town. Stay tuned for next week's video, but I'm going to do something, we're going to do it completely wrong. 00;01;41;52 - 00;02;02;00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, I'm going to go ahead and instead of opening with worship, which is kind of like the assumed beginning of everything, we're going to actually open with the introduction of the message, I'm going to come up here and I'm going to do the first couple minutes of the message, let's say. 00;02;02;05 - 00;02;27;28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm over here with my Google doc and a split screen we're going to open and we're going straight for it. We're going straight for the message right off the top rope. And like I said, we're talking about sex. So it's going to be a little bit of a heavy topic, which also makes my table talk a little bit tricky because, I got to trust tables and students to handle that discussion with proper amount of care. 00;02;27;33 - 00;02;49;45 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But then we are going to, after the table talk. We're going to do worship, right? Jammed right there in the middle. And so we'll do the opener followed by a couple of songs. Then we're going to put the game in the announcements after worship last night. Date of recording in January. We have a January Wednesday workshop. 00;02;49;53 - 00;03;03;51 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So that means worship has to be at the very top. And then we just miss everybody and they can go to different places in the building. So everyone worships and then they're split up as part this month. We're not going to be doing that. And so I have a little bit more flexibility with where and when we put worship. 00;03;03;51 - 00;03;26;09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we'll go ahead and do the welcome and announcements here. And this is going to be the game. We're going to do a Four Corners trivia game. You know last night yesterday was actually I was in my car, on my way driving to work, and I was thinking about this video and, you know, last week I created the the game that if you go back to last week's video, you can grab a free copy of it. 00;03;26;14 - 00;03;44;17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry There are Patreon, $24 a month for eight hours for the year. Not only is it going to give you all these games and these, you know, bonus podcasts, but it's also going to give you, unlocking the free seasonal social media package. Whenever I leave cohorts, the number one culprit of people not being able to do social media, consistently is just timing and scheduling. 00;03;44;17 - 00;04;00;48 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so therefore, my pack will be the timing, the consistency in scheduling for you. And then you can infuse your own creative juices. Like, I have a resident right now who's, doing a disc golf shot over the roof of our building one every day until he makes it like there's incredible creativity. Sometimes you don't have time for that. 00;04;00;48 - 00;04;19;57 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So have my pack. Let it run kind of on autopilot in the background. And then when you have an idea like that or volunteer resident, then hop on in and use it and scrap the stuff that I have. But my mind helps keep you regular. It's kind of like fiber. Anyway, so I had a student come on to me yesterday because I've been thinking all day, was my game going to be what's my game going to be? 00;04;19;57 - 00;04;35;36 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And she said, can we play one of those four corners games where you go to a different corner and if you're wrong, you're out. And I'm thinking like loot and lunacy. I'm thinking like dead cat style. We've I even have some on the site already. They're just like basic trivia games. And so that's actually the game that I'm going to do. 00;04;35;36 - 00;04;55;46 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We're going to, create a custom, for February. So maybe, maybe football and super Bowl themed, maybe like love or like pink or heart themed. But something kind of like themed for February. Around this four corner trivia style game. Like I said, I have a few on the store already. I'll link those down below, but this one for free for my Patreon members. 00;04;55;46 - 00;05;18;03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you want to hear that, hop on over and you can get a free trial. And then you can get this week's, game complete for free. Dropbox link will just be in the podcast episode that did go ahead and drop on Monday. So for Chronos, trivia is going to be Ali and Cody. And then coming out of that, we're going to go ahead and do the bumper video, pull the students back together just a little bit, and then we'll do the rest of the message here. 00;05;18;08 - 00;05;37;12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm not going to include a table talk. I will probably have some sort of interactive pieces and elements. Table talks in all in throughout my message, just like we talked about last week. And my message here, and pray. And then the band is going to end with a response song. So we essentially sandwiched the teaching. 00;05;37;12 - 00;05;56;12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And part of as it is, is a heavy topic. I want to hit it right off the rev the top rev top rope, and then kind of like kind of like let them come up for air for a minute, worship and game and fun and then bring it back home to kind of round out the night. And so this is going to be our service order for this week. 00;05;56;17 - 00;06;15;20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's wrong. You don't normally just open with the message. But but we're going to and we'll let you know how it goes. And so, I need to hop into the lab. I need to cook up this game. But different order than last week. So that challenge is done. But to do the game and evaluation is complete. 00;06;15;24 - 00;06;27;13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It happened on Monday over on my Patreon. So let me do this game and then I'll I'll give you a little preview of it. Here in just a minute. 00;06;27;18 - 00;06;48;48 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, sometimes just like that, it is, 441 I would like to go home. It's Thursday. I was at a retreat all week, but I want to show you what we came up with here. Came up with a game called Dynamic Duos. So it's all things, like, paired well together, like peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, Batman and Robin, or different like duos are found throughout the Bible. 00;06;48;48 - 00;07;17;07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's trivia based game, all kind of like a red and pink themed for Valentine's Day and love. And then, the students will go to the corner that they believe the correct answer is they're incorrect. They're out. If they're correct, they remain in and then they get to play the next round. Super simple trivia game, but get students up and moving four corners, and then we're going to probably go ahead and award the winner and their table some sort of prize or food package or best seats in the house like we had talked a little bit about last week. 00;07;17;07 - 00;07;35;13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So that's the video. And challenge two is now complete. Don't forget, level three challenge link down below in my Patreon if you want to hear how it went. This is Thursday. It happened yesterday. This is how we programed it. And the link down below will take you to the recap episode. So all three challenges met for this week. 00;07;35;24 - 00;07;39;47 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So thanks for being here my friends. But until next time. And as always, don't forget to stay high. youth ministry, student ministry, programming, youth service, youth ministry games, youth ministry creativity, planning center, fun, ideas, valentines game, love game I’m designing my real youth ministry program, with these 3 rules.

1 Order Doesn’t Repeat

And today I'm intentionally going to do it WRONG!!

2 I'm also making a different, from scratch, DYM Game for EACH week

And I’m going to tell you how to get a FREE early copy of it

3 Finally, I'll evaluate how it all went!

Join us!

ACCESS TO FREE GAME & RECAP EPISODE
https://www.patreon.com/posts/we-went-there-150912245?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/189

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

HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Programming Wrong
00:37 New Order
03:08 Consistency with Social Media = Solved!
04:14 A Student Asked me for this Game!
06:21 Creating the Game & the GRAND REVEAL!

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;52 - 00;00;27;34
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm designing my real youth ministry program in this playlist around these three different rules for the next month. Rule number one is that the order does not repeat, and today I'm intentionally giving a wrong order. We're also going to be making a different DIY and game from scratch every single week. And I'm going to tell you how you can get this game for free and get it early before it releases on the site.

00;00;27;36 - 00;01;05;37
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And step three, I'm going to evaluate and reflect how it went. Welcome, everybody to part two of the Hybrid Minstrel Show Programing challenge. Well hello everybody, and welcome back to, this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show. You know, in this episode, we are going to be programing a service. Wrong. And here's why. It's wrong, so to speak, is that there's kind of like a standard assumed order for, for instance, if I pull open, the February 11th service plan, which I'm filming this on January 15th, so still a full month out.

00;01;05;42 - 00;01;25;34
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There's already like a basic service order kind of mapped out. And like this is very similar to what we did in that last week's video is going to be linked up right here at the top screen. If you've not seen that one, there's a free game and that one as well. That's kind of like our standard order. And and actually after that video, we had to shift our order a little bit because I'm going to be out of town.

00;01;25;39 - 00;01;41;52
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I don't want to be out of town on, the week of this message, the text message. And so, I'm going to teach this one in the room, and then, we'll do something different for when I'm out of town. Stay tuned for next week's video, but I'm going to do something, we're going to do it completely wrong.

00;01;41;52 - 00;02;02;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, I'm going to go ahead and instead of opening with worship, which is kind of like the assumed beginning of everything, we're going to actually open with the introduction of the message, I'm going to come up here and I'm going to do the first couple minutes of the message, let's say.

00;02;02;05 - 00;02;27;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm over here with my Google doc and a split screen we're going to open and we're going straight for it. We're going straight for the message right off the top rope. And like I said, we're talking about sex. So it's going to be a little bit of a heavy topic, which also makes my table talk a little bit tricky because, I got to trust tables and students to handle that discussion with proper amount of care.

00;02;27;33 - 00;02;49;45
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then we are going to, after the table talk. We're going to do worship, right? Jammed right there in the middle. And so we'll do the opener followed by a couple of songs. Then we're going to put the game in the announcements after worship last night. Date of recording in January. We have a January Wednesday workshop.

00;02;49;53 - 00;03;03;51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that means worship has to be at the very top. And then we just miss everybody and they can go to different places in the building. So everyone worships and then they're split up as part this month. We're not going to be doing that. And so I have a little bit more flexibility with where and when we put worship.

00;03;03;51 - 00;03;26;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we'll go ahead and do the welcome and announcements here. And this is going to be the game. We're going to do a Four Corners trivia game. You know last night yesterday was actually I was in my car, on my way driving to work, and I was thinking about this video and, you know, last week I created the the game that if you go back to last week's video, you can grab a free copy of it.

00;03;26;14 - 00;03;44;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There are Patreon, $24 a month for eight hours for the year. Not only is it going to give you all these games and these, you know, bonus podcasts, but it's also going to give you, unlocking the free seasonal social media package. Whenever I leave cohorts, the number one culprit of people not being able to do social media, consistently is just timing and scheduling.

00;03;44;17 - 00;04;00;48
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so therefore, my pack will be the timing, the consistency in scheduling for you. And then you can infuse your own creative juices. Like, I have a resident right now who's, doing a disc golf shot over the roof of our building one every day until he makes it like there's incredible creativity. Sometimes you don't have time for that.

00;04;00;48 - 00;04;19;57
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So have my pack. Let it run kind of on autopilot in the background. And then when you have an idea like that or volunteer resident, then hop on in and use it and scrap the stuff that I have. But my mind helps keep you regular. It's kind of like fiber. Anyway, so I had a student come on to me yesterday because I've been thinking all day, was my game going to be what's my game going to be?

00;04;19;57 - 00;04;35;36
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And she said, can we play one of those four corners games where you go to a different corner and if you're wrong, you're out. And I'm thinking like loot and lunacy. I'm thinking like dead cat style. We've I even have some on the site already. They're just like basic trivia games. And so that's actually the game that I'm going to do.

00;04;35;36 - 00;04;55;46
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're going to, create a custom, for February. So maybe, maybe football and super Bowl themed, maybe like love or like pink or heart themed. But something kind of like themed for February. Around this four corner trivia style game. Like I said, I have a few on the store already. I'll link those down below, but this one for free for my Patreon members.

00;04;55;46 - 00;05;18;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you want to hear that, hop on over and you can get a free trial. And then you can get this week's, game complete for free. Dropbox link will just be in the podcast episode that did go ahead and drop on Monday. So for Chronos, trivia is going to be Ali and Cody. And then coming out of that, we're going to go ahead and do the bumper video, pull the students back together just a little bit, and then we'll do the rest of the message here.

00;05;18;08 - 00;05;37;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm not going to include a table talk. I will probably have some sort of interactive pieces and elements. Table talks in all in throughout my message, just like we talked about last week. And my message here, and pray. And then the band is going to end with a response song. So we essentially sandwiched the teaching.

00;05;37;12 - 00;05;56;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And part of as it is, is a heavy topic. I want to hit it right off the rev the top rev top rope, and then kind of like kind of like let them come up for air for a minute, worship and game and fun and then bring it back home to kind of round out the night. And so this is going to be our service order for this week.

00;05;56;17 - 00;06;15;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's wrong. You don't normally just open with the message. But but we're going to and we'll let you know how it goes. And so, I need to hop into the lab. I need to cook up this game. But different order than last week. So that challenge is done. But to do the game and evaluation is complete.

00;06;15;24 - 00;06;27;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It happened on Monday over on my Patreon. So let me do this game and then I'll I'll give you a little preview of it. Here in just a minute.

00;06;27;18 - 00;06;48;48
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, sometimes just like that, it is, 441 I would like to go home. It's Thursday. I was at a retreat all week, but I want to show you what we came up with here. Came up with a game called Dynamic Duos. So it's all things, like, paired well together, like peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, Batman and Robin, or different like duos are found throughout the Bible.

00;06;48;48 - 00;07;17;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's trivia based game, all kind of like a red and pink themed for Valentine's Day and love. And then, the students will go to the corner that they believe the correct answer is they're incorrect. They're out. If they're correct, they remain in and then they get to play the next round. Super simple trivia game, but get students up and moving four corners, and then we're going to probably go ahead and award the winner and their table some sort of prize or food package or best seats in the house like we had talked a little bit about last week.

00;07;17;07 - 00;07;35;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that's the video. And challenge two is now complete. Don't forget, level three challenge link down below in my Patreon if you want to hear how it went. This is Thursday. It happened yesterday. This is how we programed it. And the link down below will take you to the recap episode. So all three challenges met for this week.

00;07;35;24 - 00;07;39;47
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So thanks for being here my friends. But until next time. And as always, don't forget to stay high.

]]> I’m designing my real youth ministry program, with these 3 rules.

1 Order Doesn’t Repeat

And today I'm intentionally going to do it WRONG!!

2 I'm also making a different, from scratch, DYM Game for EACH week

And I’m going to tell you how to get a FREE early copy of it

3 Finally, I'll evaluate how it all went!

Join us!

ACCESS TO FREE GAME & RECAP EPISODE
https://www.patreon.com/posts/we-went-there-150912245?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/189

❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
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HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE!
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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Programming Wrong
00:37 New Order
03:08 Consistency with Social Media = Solved!
04:14 A Student Asked me for this Game!
06:21 Creating the Game & the GRAND REVEAL!

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TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;52 - 00;00;27;34
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm designing my real youth ministry program in this playlist around these three different rules for the next month. Rule number one is that the order does not repeat, and today I'm intentionally giving a wrong order. We're also going to be making a different DIY and game from scratch every single week. And I'm going to tell you how you can get this game for free and get it early before it releases on the site.

00;00;27;36 - 00;01;05;37
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And step three, I'm going to evaluate and reflect how it went. Welcome, everybody to part two of the Hybrid Minstrel Show Programing challenge. Well hello everybody, and welcome back to, this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show. You know, in this episode, we are going to be programing a service. Wrong. And here's why. It's wrong, so to speak, is that there's kind of like a standard assumed order for, for instance, if I pull open, the February 11th service plan, which I'm filming this on January 15th, so still a full month out.

00;01;05;42 - 00;01;25;34
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There's already like a basic service order kind of mapped out. And like this is very similar to what we did in that last week's video is going to be linked up right here at the top screen. If you've not seen that one, there's a free game and that one as well. That's kind of like our standard order. And and actually after that video, we had to shift our order a little bit because I'm going to be out of town.

00;01;25;39 - 00;01;41;52
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I don't want to be out of town on, the week of this message, the text message. And so, I'm going to teach this one in the room, and then, we'll do something different for when I'm out of town. Stay tuned for next week's video, but I'm going to do something, we're going to do it completely wrong.

00;01;41;52 - 00;02;02;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, I'm going to go ahead and instead of opening with worship, which is kind of like the assumed beginning of everything, we're going to actually open with the introduction of the message, I'm going to come up here and I'm going to do the first couple minutes of the message, let's say.

00;02;02;05 - 00;02;27;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm over here with my Google doc and a split screen we're going to open and we're going straight for it. We're going straight for the message right off the top rope. And like I said, we're talking about sex. So it's going to be a little bit of a heavy topic, which also makes my table talk a little bit tricky because, I got to trust tables and students to handle that discussion with proper amount of care.

00;02;27;33 - 00;02;49;45
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then we are going to, after the table talk. We're going to do worship, right? Jammed right there in the middle. And so we'll do the opener followed by a couple of songs. Then we're going to put the game in the announcements after worship last night. Date of recording in January. We have a January Wednesday workshop.

00;02;49;53 - 00;03;03;51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that means worship has to be at the very top. And then we just miss everybody and they can go to different places in the building. So everyone worships and then they're split up as part this month. We're not going to be doing that. And so I have a little bit more flexibility with where and when we put worship.

00;03;03;51 - 00;03;26;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we'll go ahead and do the welcome and announcements here. And this is going to be the game. We're going to do a Four Corners trivia game. You know last night yesterday was actually I was in my car, on my way driving to work, and I was thinking about this video and, you know, last week I created the the game that if you go back to last week's video, you can grab a free copy of it.

00;03;26;14 - 00;03;44;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There are Patreon, $24 a month for eight hours for the year. Not only is it going to give you all these games and these, you know, bonus podcasts, but it's also going to give you, unlocking the free seasonal social media package. Whenever I leave cohorts, the number one culprit of people not being able to do social media, consistently is just timing and scheduling.

00;03;44;17 - 00;04;00;48
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so therefore, my pack will be the timing, the consistency in scheduling for you. And then you can infuse your own creative juices. Like, I have a resident right now who's, doing a disc golf shot over the roof of our building one every day until he makes it like there's incredible creativity. Sometimes you don't have time for that.

00;04;00;48 - 00;04;19;57
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So have my pack. Let it run kind of on autopilot in the background. And then when you have an idea like that or volunteer resident, then hop on in and use it and scrap the stuff that I have. But my mind helps keep you regular. It's kind of like fiber. Anyway, so I had a student come on to me yesterday because I've been thinking all day, was my game going to be what's my game going to be?

00;04;19;57 - 00;04;35;36
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And she said, can we play one of those four corners games where you go to a different corner and if you're wrong, you're out. And I'm thinking like loot and lunacy. I'm thinking like dead cat style. We've I even have some on the site already. They're just like basic trivia games. And so that's actually the game that I'm going to do.

00;04;35;36 - 00;04;55;46
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're going to, create a custom, for February. So maybe, maybe football and super Bowl themed, maybe like love or like pink or heart themed. But something kind of like themed for February. Around this four corner trivia style game. Like I said, I have a few on the store already. I'll link those down below, but this one for free for my Patreon members.

00;04;55;46 - 00;05;18;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you want to hear that, hop on over and you can get a free trial. And then you can get this week's, game complete for free. Dropbox link will just be in the podcast episode that did go ahead and drop on Monday. So for Chronos, trivia is going to be Ali and Cody. And then coming out of that, we're going to go ahead and do the bumper video, pull the students back together just a little bit, and then we'll do the rest of the message here.

00;05;18;08 - 00;05;37;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm not going to include a table talk. I will probably have some sort of interactive pieces and elements. Table talks in all in throughout my message, just like we talked about last week. And my message here, and pray. And then the band is going to end with a response song. So we essentially sandwiched the teaching.

00;05;37;12 - 00;05;56;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And part of as it is, is a heavy topic. I want to hit it right off the rev the top rev top rope, and then kind of like kind of like let them come up for air for a minute, worship and game and fun and then bring it back home to kind of round out the night. And so this is going to be our service order for this week.

00;05;56;17 - 00;06;15;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's wrong. You don't normally just open with the message. But but we're going to and we'll let you know how it goes. And so, I need to hop into the lab. I need to cook up this game. But different order than last week. So that challenge is done. But to do the game and evaluation is complete.

00;06;15;24 - 00;06;27;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It happened on Monday over on my Patreon. So let me do this game and then I'll I'll give you a little preview of it. Here in just a minute.

00;06;27;18 - 00;06;48;48
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, sometimes just like that, it is, 441 I would like to go home. It's Thursday. I was at a retreat all week, but I want to show you what we came up with here. Came up with a game called Dynamic Duos. So it's all things, like, paired well together, like peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, Batman and Robin, or different like duos are found throughout the Bible.

00;06;48;48 - 00;07;17;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's trivia based game, all kind of like a red and pink themed for Valentine's Day and love. And then, the students will go to the corner that they believe the correct answer is they're incorrect. They're out. If they're correct, they remain in and then they get to play the next round. Super simple trivia game, but get students up and moving four corners, and then we're going to probably go ahead and award the winner and their table some sort of prize or food package or best seats in the house like we had talked a little bit about last week.

00;07;17;07 - 00;07;35;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that's the video. And challenge two is now complete. Don't forget, level three challenge link down below in my Patreon if you want to hear how it went. This is Thursday. It happened yesterday. This is how we programed it. And the link down below will take you to the recap episode. So all three challenges met for this week.

00;07;35;24 - 00;07;39;47
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So thanks for being here my friends. But until next time. And as always, don't forget to stay high.

]]> Episode 188: How I Planned Youth Group - 3 Weekly Challenges https://www.hybridministry.xyz/188 f44f5bdc-8af2-43cc-810a-e98cdf02faaf Thu, 12 Feb 2026 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 188 How I Planned Youth Group - 3 Weekly Challenges full Nick Clason Can I design a compelling youth night from scratch each week with a different order - while also creating a brand-new DYM game from scratch? Oh - And stick around to the end of the video, because I’m going to tell you how you can get this game that’s not even public yet in the pipeline, FOR FREE! Let’s find out! 12:16 no <p>Can I design a compelling youth night from scratch each week with a different order - while also creating a brand-new DYM game from scratch?</p> <p>Oh - And stick around to the end of the video, because I’m going to tell you how you can get this game that’s not even public yet in the pipeline, FOR FREE!</p> <p>Let’s find out!</p> <p>ACCESS TO FREE GAME &amp; RECAP EPISODE<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-game-winter-150284516?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;utm_content=join_link" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-game-winter-150284516?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;amp;utm_content=join_link</a></p> <p><strong>SHOW NOTES</strong><br> Shownotes &amp; Transcripts<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/188" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/188</a></p> <p>❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;utm_content=join_link" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;amp;utm_content=join_link</a></p> <p>HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE!<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry</a></p> <p>YOUTH MINISTRY LEADER COHORT (It's FREE!)<br> <a href="https://www.ymlcohort.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.ymlcohort.com/</a></p> <p>👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK<br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉</strong><br> We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!<br> The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!<br> <a href="https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em><br> //VIDIQ<br> <a href="https://vidiq.com/hybrid" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://vidiq.com/hybrid</a></p> <p>//BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755</a></p> <p>//OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> 🕰️<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00 The Programming Challenges<br> 01:49 Why we break our messages into 2 parts<br> 03:11 Determining Service Order for Feb 4th<br> 03:36 How we account for phones<br> 03:48 Adapting a YouTube transcript for an in-room talk<br> 04:30 Using Sidekick to create interaction<br> 05:34 Did we just stumble into a game? <br> 05:58 Programming the Rest of the Night<br> 06:35 Pro-Tip #1: Bumper Videos<br> 07:12 Pro-Tip #2: Message Wraps<br> 07:28 I know what you’re thinking…<br> 08:14 Evaluations &amp; Recap<br> 09:51 Creating a Game from Scratch<br> 11:22 Become a Hybrid Hero - Get the Game for FREE!</p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> 00;00;01;06 - 00;00;29;52<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Well, good morning and welcome to my office. Today I'm going to show you how I create a creative youth ministry program for our mid-week services. You know, I was helping lead a youth ministry leader cohort, which was started by my friend Dairy Prince. They're free, by the way. Check them out if you want. Link down below. But ten out of ten youth pastors believe that creative programing is essential for a good youth ministry.</p> <p>00;00;29;54 - 00;00;47;49<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I try and challenge myself to create something like that. And so I want to take you into the lab this morning. I'm going to turn this camera around and show you my screen, and just give you an opportunity to kind of get inside my brain. Not that my brain is anything special, but it wouldn't really be that interesting.</p> <p>00;00;47;49 - 00;01;13;30<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So we're going to spice this up a little bit. This is my real youth ministry programing that I'm going to be experimenting and messing with over the next four weeks, and I have created for myself three. I almost had four, but three different challenges over these next four weeks. Challenge number one is the order must not repeat. I'm going to do a different service flow and different service order every single week.</p> <p>00;01;13;34 - 00;01;32;18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> The challenge number two in that is I'm going to create a custom from scratch submitted to download Youth Ministry. Game number three is that then I am going to hop on and I'm going to tell you exactly how it went. So this is the front side creation. And then challenge and run through is I have to evaluate it.</p> <p>00;01;32;18 - 00;01;54;51<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And we're going to do that in my bonus podcast. And if you listen to my bonus podcast I will include the custom game for free before it's ever even on the store at diam. You can go get that over on my Patreon. It's time to dive in! Welcome everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show! The February 4th is going to be the first week of Our God guys and girls.</p> <p>00;01;54;51 - 00;02;15;35<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Basically like the sex series in Planning Center. You'll see over here is, just like our basic template. We got song bumper welcome announcements game. Now, you know, one of the things I said, challenge number one was I want to do different order. Like I try to keep our students, like, on their toes. A little bit. One of the things that I challenge myself to do is to not preach my entire message.</p> <p>00;02;15;35 - 00;02;35;22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And, and this trickles down to the rest of our entire team to not preach their entire message in one shot. Like, if I preach 30 minutes to students, I don't think that that's effective. They're losing it at the end of 30 minutes. You know what I mean? However, a it is incumbent upon me to make it actually interactive and interesting, but maybe I can buy more time.</p> <p>00;02;35;22 - 00;02;54;10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I can buy more speaking time if I don't keep it all together. And so because of that, we kind of you are talking to like two parts, an opening and a closing. And sometimes I can just be like an opening illustration, but other times it could be like two thirds of the talk and then we just close with like the final third or final, you know, a little snippet there at the end.</p> <p>00;02;54;15 - 00;03;12;11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so we keep on hold our service order very loosely, like we don't want to ever really get stuck in a rut. And so I'm going to show you like kind of a basic service order today. But in the coming weeks, like we're going to be really like messing things up. So, we'll start with a couple songs.</p> <p>00;03;12;11 - 00;03;29;12<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Our kids love worship. And so, the countdown video will end and the band of band stage, and they're going to, they're going to get it and we're going to, we're going to even put in here like hype song. Then we have a bumper video. I've created it from God, guys and girls. It's very short, but we're going to make it happen.</p> <p>00;03;29;12 - 00;03;48;09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And then we're going to do the intro. And again, I'm going to say ten minutes or so, I'll do an opening, and then we sit around tables and there's like a little placard in the middle that we actually link, like a YouVersion live events to that they can follow along with on their phones. That's one of the ways that we try to redeem phones in our room rather than villainize them.</p> <p>00;03;48;14 - 00;04;11;00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So we film all of our messages ahead of time on a teleprompter. I'm actually doing that a little bit later this afternoon. But this right here is my this was from this was the original that Jerry wrote. This is my adaptation to it for YouTube. And then this is going to be my in room version. So I made a copy of it and my say in room message oh one relationships.</p> <p>00;04;11;01 - 00;04;37;00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And now this like some of this stuff is like very YouTube like focus, right? I'm going to talk about roller coasters and maybe that will actually give me a little bit of an idea for a game later. I'll see. And we're going to use our handy dandy sidekick. So this was last night's presentation on June 17th.</p> <p>00;04;37;09 - 00;04;55;03<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Now this is going to we're going to build, I don't know, I'm making this top five roller coaster ranking thing. I don't actually know what it is. We're going to make it up. So that's going to be kind of like how I program it to be interactive. Right? So this is going to be a voting thing.</p> <p>00;04;55;08 - 00;05;18;49<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And then I'm going to do my top five roller coaster ranking. Think like my number one is Guardians. Tron might be my number to my threes are I called vortex which no longer exists Kings Island, Diamondback, Top Thrill Dragster, Cedar Point, and then that transitions me into this statement. I think we can all agree our least favorite roller coaster is a teenage dating scene.</p> <p>00;05;18;49 - 00;05;34;28<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So I need to find in here a good spot for a table talk. Good. So we're going to turn this section into a table talk. Table talk.</p> <p>00;05;34;33 - 00;05;51;47<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I'm thinking maybe a roller coaster game. I don't know, like, I mean, we could do like, a real or fake roller coaster. That's pretty basic. Like a basketball game where someone does like this with, like, the roller coaster thing, and you all kind of, like, follow, like, I'm trying to think if there's a way to, like, maybe make something like that, I don't know, I got I got to start kind of like noodling on it.</p> <p>00;05;51;47 - 00;06;12;25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So I don't, I don't have anything yet. We're going to come back and that's just a placeholder though. So we're going to do, intro to the message table talk announcements. It's the Wednesday before our winter weekend. So Wednesday, two days later, our winter weekend starts. So this is the final push for signups for that. And then roller coaster game maybe.</p> <p>00;06;12;25 - 00;06;29;08<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But we're going to link the announcements and the game after the table talk. So instead of the message table talk and then, Cody and Kelly, they're going to come up and they're going to interrupt the table talk and they're going to give our announcements, move on into the roller coaster game. And then and then that's going to be that.</p> <p>00;06;29;08 - 00;06;50;34<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So you'll notice so far. Well, actually I have the bumper video up here. I'm going to move it. So I like coming in after worship. I think it's pretty easy to come in after worship. I think it's hard to come in after a game when they're like, riled up a little bit more. So I like a bumper video to give us that, like that moment.</p> <p>00;06;50;34 - 00;07;12;35<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> All right, to buy us some of that space. And so I'm actually going to, come in after the song into the opening message table talk announcements, roller coaster game, and then do the bumper video here. And then this is where I'm going to do the rest of my message. We're going to delete this table talk, and we're just going to do a woven all through in here table talks.</p> <p>00;07;12;39 - 00;07;33;08<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And then one final piece that I sometimes like to add is after a song is like a bit of a message rap. So I got a girl. My name Ali. She'll do a good job with that. She can give a little bit of, like, a final bow and dismissal. Now you're like, this isn't creative programing, Nick.</p> <p>00;07;33;08 - 00;07;54;21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And, like, I get it, right. Like, the elements that you might not know, is, are digital notes, the QR code where they can scan, as well as our interaction here with sidekick, and then really the game that you're going to see me create here in, you know, maybe a couple of hours. And so, I'll bring you back when I'm ready to create this game.</p> <p>00;07;54;26 - 00;08;15;43<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> The other piece is like, I will go through here and, try to find moments of interactive ness, make sure that I have good illustrations. Make sure that I'm using sidekick if I'm able to, bring students up on stage, if I can, and find different, like, things with that. And so, the final kind of product of that.</p> <p>00;08;15;43 - 00;08;41;10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Right. We're going to review that, in our our recap pod, which is member of my paid tier, Hybrid heroes, Patreon membership. It's only $4 a month, and that $4 per month, what it gets you is a weekly bonus recap podcast, right? Like in just a minute, I'm going to sit down and then we'll talk about January 7th and it's going to release on the this following Monday.</p> <p>00;08;41;15 - 00;08;59;57<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Talking about what we did in our program, we played a game called, New Year's New Year in Review Rumble. It was part of the download Youth Ministry membership. And it was like an okay game, but I would give it I'll give it like a B. And I'm going to tell you what worked in our context and what we failed at that.</p> <p>00;08;59;57 - 00;09;17;05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> That made it a B, and how we maybe could have punched it up a little bit better. And we do that every single week over on Patreon. Only $4 a month. And you can use, like, your, you can use your, like, professional development budget money for that because it only nets out to like $48 a year.</p> <p>00;09;17;19 - 00;09;35;41<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Or if you don't have that as a youth ministry, again, it's only $4 a month. So maybe even out of your own personal pocket, a cup of coffee in your office instead of getting it from Starbucks one time per month. And there is that cost savings. And in addition to that, like for this playlist alone, you're going to get all the games I make.</p> <p>00;09;35;41 - 00;09;56;09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> You're going to get them completely for free. I'm going to give you a Dropbox link in the podcast description and my monthly social media pack, which usually costs $17.99. It's free for Hybrid Hero members, so let's figure out where I go in this direction with this game thing. Well, all right, welcome back. As you can see, it's now daytime.</p> <p>00;09;56;09 - 00;10;13;57<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And I think I got a game concept idea. Challenge number one was accomplished by creating a new order. It's the first order. So because it's first order, it's a new order. And I have been racking my brain all day on games. And I think I finally came up with a game. Got it from Big Brother. Shout out to Big Brother.</p> <p>00;10;13;57 - 00;10;31;49<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> It's going to be like kind of like trivia based, but musical chairs where like one less or like spoons where like one less option is still like available every single time. So you have to run, get the correct answer and then bring it back to the front of the room. I'm going to go in the lab. I'm going to create this.</p> <p>00;10;31;49 - 00;10;40;01<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> We're going to time lapse this thing and and we'll let you know how goes.</p> <p>00;10;40;06 - 00;11;00;22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So we ended up going with a game called No Way or No Seat. So it's like musical chairs. Meet octave from Big Brother plus Bible trivia. So well you're going to end up having is like at least ten contestants. We have 16 tables in our room, so we'll spin the wheel and we'll do table numbers, and then they'll send a contestant from their table.</p> <p>00;11;00;34 - 00;11;15;12<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And then the winning person will win something like snacks or something like that for their table. It's always an easy, huge win. Or we sometimes take out a couple of tables and put in some couches and call it the best seats in the house and give them pizza or drinks or snacks or whatever. And so that's what we're going to end up doing.</p> <p>00;11;15;12 - 00;11;38;53<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I just made this game and, I'll let you know exactly how it goes. In fact, I've already let you know how it goes. It's going to be linked on my Patreon right here. That dropped last Monday. And so if you want $4 per month, not only will you get my seasonal social media pack my weekly recaps of how my creative programing is going, but you'll also get access to this game that I just created.</p> <p>00;11;38;58 - 00;11;55;05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> It is going into the Divine Pipeline as we speak, but it is probably not there yet unless something crazy happens. So, if you want this game for free, or not for weeks, you can do this $4 a month. But you know what I mean. Like, you get a lot of other stuff, and this is included as a perk to it, so go check that out.</p> <p>00;11;55;05 - 00;12;16;40<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So challenge two is now complete. Challenge three is actually already complete on my Patreon. In the next episode, we are going to talk about what happens if I break programing whole new deal. I am game challenge, whole new flow in order as well as a whole new recap. Be sure to check that out my friends. But until next time, and as always, don't forget to stay hydrated. </p> youth ministry, student ministry, programming, youth service, youth ministry games, youth ministry creativity, planning center, fun, ideas Can I design a compelling youth night from scratch each week with a different order - while also creating a brand-new DYM game from scratch?

Oh - And stick around to the end of the video, because I’m going to tell you how you can get this game that’s not even public yet in the pipeline, FOR FREE!

Let’s find out!

ACCESS TO FREE GAME & RECAP EPISODE
https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-game-winter-150284516?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/188

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

HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

YOUTH MINISTRY LEADER COHORT (It's FREE!)
https://www.ymlcohort.com/

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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Programming Challenges
01:49 Why we break our messages into 2 parts
03:11 Determining Service Order for Feb 4th
03:36 How we account for phones
03:48 Adapting a YouTube transcript for an in-room talk
04:30 Using Sidekick to create interaction
05:34 Did we just stumble into a game?
05:58 Programming the Rest of the Night
06:35 Pro-Tip #1: Bumper Videos
07:12 Pro-Tip #2: Message Wraps
07:28 I know what you’re thinking…
08:14 Evaluations & Recap
09:51 Creating a Game from Scratch
11:22 Become a Hybrid Hero - Get the Game for FREE!

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;01;06 - 00;00;29;52
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, good morning and welcome to my office. Today I'm going to show you how I create a creative youth ministry program for our mid-week services. You know, I was helping lead a youth ministry leader cohort, which was started by my friend Dairy Prince. They're free, by the way. Check them out if you want. Link down below. But ten out of ten youth pastors believe that creative programing is essential for a good youth ministry.

00;00;29;54 - 00;00;47;49
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I try and challenge myself to create something like that. And so I want to take you into the lab this morning. I'm going to turn this camera around and show you my screen, and just give you an opportunity to kind of get inside my brain. Not that my brain is anything special, but it wouldn't really be that interesting.

00;00;47;49 - 00;01;13;30
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we're going to spice this up a little bit. This is my real youth ministry programing that I'm going to be experimenting and messing with over the next four weeks, and I have created for myself three. I almost had four, but three different challenges over these next four weeks. Challenge number one is the order must not repeat. I'm going to do a different service flow and different service order every single week.

00;01;13;34 - 00;01;32;18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The challenge number two in that is I'm going to create a custom from scratch submitted to download Youth Ministry. Game number three is that then I am going to hop on and I'm going to tell you exactly how it went. So this is the front side creation. And then challenge and run through is I have to evaluate it.

00;01;32;18 - 00;01;54;51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we're going to do that in my bonus podcast. And if you listen to my bonus podcast I will include the custom game for free before it's ever even on the store at diam. You can go get that over on my Patreon. It's time to dive in! Welcome everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show! The February 4th is going to be the first week of Our God guys and girls.

00;01;54;51 - 00;02;15;35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Basically like the sex series in Planning Center. You'll see over here is, just like our basic template. We got song bumper welcome announcements game. Now, you know, one of the things I said, challenge number one was I want to do different order. Like I try to keep our students, like, on their toes. A little bit. One of the things that I challenge myself to do is to not preach my entire message.

00;02;15;35 - 00;02;35;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, and this trickles down to the rest of our entire team to not preach their entire message in one shot. Like, if I preach 30 minutes to students, I don't think that that's effective. They're losing it at the end of 30 minutes. You know what I mean? However, a it is incumbent upon me to make it actually interactive and interesting, but maybe I can buy more time.

00;02;35;22 - 00;02;54;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can buy more speaking time if I don't keep it all together. And so because of that, we kind of you are talking to like two parts, an opening and a closing. And sometimes I can just be like an opening illustration, but other times it could be like two thirds of the talk and then we just close with like the final third or final, you know, a little snippet there at the end.

00;02;54;15 - 00;03;12;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we keep on hold our service order very loosely, like we don't want to ever really get stuck in a rut. And so I'm going to show you like kind of a basic service order today. But in the coming weeks, like we're going to be really like messing things up. So, we'll start with a couple songs.

00;03;12;11 - 00;03;29;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our kids love worship. And so, the countdown video will end and the band of band stage, and they're going to, they're going to get it and we're going to, we're going to even put in here like hype song. Then we have a bumper video. I've created it from God, guys and girls. It's very short, but we're going to make it happen.

00;03;29;12 - 00;03;48;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we're going to do the intro. And again, I'm going to say ten minutes or so, I'll do an opening, and then we sit around tables and there's like a little placard in the middle that we actually link, like a YouVersion live events to that they can follow along with on their phones. That's one of the ways that we try to redeem phones in our room rather than villainize them.

00;03;48;14 - 00;04;11;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we film all of our messages ahead of time on a teleprompter. I'm actually doing that a little bit later this afternoon. But this right here is my this was from this was the original that Jerry wrote. This is my adaptation to it for YouTube. And then this is going to be my in room version. So I made a copy of it and my say in room message oh one relationships.

00;04;11;01 - 00;04;37;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And now this like some of this stuff is like very YouTube like focus, right? I'm going to talk about roller coasters and maybe that will actually give me a little bit of an idea for a game later. I'll see. And we're going to use our handy dandy sidekick. So this was last night's presentation on June 17th.

00;04;37;09 - 00;04;55;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now this is going to we're going to build, I don't know, I'm making this top five roller coaster ranking thing. I don't actually know what it is. We're going to make it up. So that's going to be kind of like how I program it to be interactive. Right? So this is going to be a voting thing.

00;04;55;08 - 00;05;18;49
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then I'm going to do my top five roller coaster ranking. Think like my number one is Guardians. Tron might be my number to my threes are I called vortex which no longer exists Kings Island, Diamondback, Top Thrill Dragster, Cedar Point, and then that transitions me into this statement. I think we can all agree our least favorite roller coaster is a teenage dating scene.

00;05;18;49 - 00;05;34;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I need to find in here a good spot for a table talk. Good. So we're going to turn this section into a table talk. Table talk.

00;05;34;33 - 00;05;51;47
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm thinking maybe a roller coaster game. I don't know, like, I mean, we could do like, a real or fake roller coaster. That's pretty basic. Like a basketball game where someone does like this with, like, the roller coaster thing, and you all kind of, like, follow, like, I'm trying to think if there's a way to, like, maybe make something like that, I don't know, I got I got to start kind of like noodling on it.

00;05;51;47 - 00;06;12;25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I don't, I don't have anything yet. We're going to come back and that's just a placeholder though. So we're going to do, intro to the message table talk announcements. It's the Wednesday before our winter weekend. So Wednesday, two days later, our winter weekend starts. So this is the final push for signups for that. And then roller coaster game maybe.

00;06;12;25 - 00;06;29;08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But we're going to link the announcements and the game after the table talk. So instead of the message table talk and then, Cody and Kelly, they're going to come up and they're going to interrupt the table talk and they're going to give our announcements, move on into the roller coaster game. And then and then that's going to be that.

00;06;29;08 - 00;06;50;34
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you'll notice so far. Well, actually I have the bumper video up here. I'm going to move it. So I like coming in after worship. I think it's pretty easy to come in after worship. I think it's hard to come in after a game when they're like, riled up a little bit more. So I like a bumper video to give us that, like that moment.

00;06;50;34 - 00;07;12;35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right, to buy us some of that space. And so I'm actually going to, come in after the song into the opening message table talk announcements, roller coaster game, and then do the bumper video here. And then this is where I'm going to do the rest of my message. We're going to delete this table talk, and we're just going to do a woven all through in here table talks.

00;07;12;39 - 00;07;33;08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then one final piece that I sometimes like to add is after a song is like a bit of a message rap. So I got a girl. My name Ali. She'll do a good job with that. She can give a little bit of, like, a final bow and dismissal. Now you're like, this isn't creative programing, Nick.

00;07;33;08 - 00;07;54;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, like, I get it, right. Like, the elements that you might not know, is, are digital notes, the QR code where they can scan, as well as our interaction here with sidekick, and then really the game that you're going to see me create here in, you know, maybe a couple of hours. And so, I'll bring you back when I'm ready to create this game.

00;07;54;26 - 00;08;15;43
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The other piece is like, I will go through here and, try to find moments of interactive ness, make sure that I have good illustrations. Make sure that I'm using sidekick if I'm able to, bring students up on stage, if I can, and find different, like, things with that. And so, the final kind of product of that.

00;08;15;43 - 00;08;41;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. We're going to review that, in our our recap pod, which is member of my paid tier, Hybrid heroes, Patreon membership. It's only $4 a month, and that $4 per month, what it gets you is a weekly bonus recap podcast, right? Like in just a minute, I'm going to sit down and then we'll talk about January 7th and it's going to release on the this following Monday.

00;08;41;15 - 00;08;59;57
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Talking about what we did in our program, we played a game called, New Year's New Year in Review Rumble. It was part of the download Youth Ministry membership. And it was like an okay game, but I would give it I'll give it like a B. And I'm going to tell you what worked in our context and what we failed at that.

00;08;59;57 - 00;09;17;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That made it a B, and how we maybe could have punched it up a little bit better. And we do that every single week over on Patreon. Only $4 a month. And you can use, like, your, you can use your, like, professional development budget money for that because it only nets out to like $48 a year.

00;09;17;19 - 00;09;35;41
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or if you don't have that as a youth ministry, again, it's only $4 a month. So maybe even out of your own personal pocket, a cup of coffee in your office instead of getting it from Starbucks one time per month. And there is that cost savings. And in addition to that, like for this playlist alone, you're going to get all the games I make.

00;09;35;41 - 00;09;56;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're going to get them completely for free. I'm going to give you a Dropbox link in the podcast description and my monthly social media pack, which usually costs $17.99. It's free for Hybrid Hero members, so let's figure out where I go in this direction with this game thing. Well, all right, welcome back. As you can see, it's now daytime.

00;09;56;09 - 00;10;13;57
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think I got a game concept idea. Challenge number one was accomplished by creating a new order. It's the first order. So because it's first order, it's a new order. And I have been racking my brain all day on games. And I think I finally came up with a game. Got it from Big Brother. Shout out to Big Brother.

00;10;13;57 - 00;10;31;49
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's going to be like kind of like trivia based, but musical chairs where like one less or like spoons where like one less option is still like available every single time. So you have to run, get the correct answer and then bring it back to the front of the room. I'm going to go in the lab. I'm going to create this.

00;10;31;49 - 00;10;40;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're going to time lapse this thing and and we'll let you know how goes.

00;10;40;06 - 00;11;00;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we ended up going with a game called No Way or No Seat. So it's like musical chairs. Meet octave from Big Brother plus Bible trivia. So well you're going to end up having is like at least ten contestants. We have 16 tables in our room, so we'll spin the wheel and we'll do table numbers, and then they'll send a contestant from their table.

00;11;00;34 - 00;11;15;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the winning person will win something like snacks or something like that for their table. It's always an easy, huge win. Or we sometimes take out a couple of tables and put in some couches and call it the best seats in the house and give them pizza or drinks or snacks or whatever. And so that's what we're going to end up doing.

00;11;15;12 - 00;11;38;53
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I just made this game and, I'll let you know exactly how it goes. In fact, I've already let you know how it goes. It's going to be linked on my Patreon right here. That dropped last Monday. And so if you want $4 per month, not only will you get my seasonal social media pack my weekly recaps of how my creative programing is going, but you'll also get access to this game that I just created.

00;11;38;58 - 00;11;55;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It is going into the Divine Pipeline as we speak, but it is probably not there yet unless something crazy happens. So, if you want this game for free, or not for weeks, you can do this $4 a month. But you know what I mean. Like, you get a lot of other stuff, and this is included as a perk to it, so go check that out.

00;11;55;05 - 00;12;16;40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So challenge two is now complete. Challenge three is actually already complete on my Patreon. In the next episode, we are going to talk about what happens if I break programing whole new deal. I am game challenge, whole new flow in order as well as a whole new recap. Be sure to check that out my friends. But until next time, and as always, don't forget to stay hydrated.

]]> Can I design a compelling youth night from scratch each week with a different order - while also creating a brand-new DYM game from scratch?

Oh - And stick around to the end of the video, because I’m going to tell you how you can get this game that’s not even public yet in the pipeline, FOR FREE!

Let’s find out!

ACCESS TO FREE GAME & RECAP EPISODE
https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-game-winter-150284516?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/188

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

HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

YOUTH MINISTRY LEADER COHORT (It's FREE!)
https://www.ymlcohort.com/

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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Programming Challenges
01:49 Why we break our messages into 2 parts
03:11 Determining Service Order for Feb 4th
03:36 How we account for phones
03:48 Adapting a YouTube transcript for an in-room talk
04:30 Using Sidekick to create interaction
05:34 Did we just stumble into a game?
05:58 Programming the Rest of the Night
06:35 Pro-Tip #1: Bumper Videos
07:12 Pro-Tip #2: Message Wraps
07:28 I know what you’re thinking…
08:14 Evaluations & Recap
09:51 Creating a Game from Scratch
11:22 Become a Hybrid Hero - Get the Game for FREE!

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;01;06 - 00;00;29;52
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, good morning and welcome to my office. Today I'm going to show you how I create a creative youth ministry program for our mid-week services. You know, I was helping lead a youth ministry leader cohort, which was started by my friend Dairy Prince. They're free, by the way. Check them out if you want. Link down below. But ten out of ten youth pastors believe that creative programing is essential for a good youth ministry.

00;00;29;54 - 00;00;47;49
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I try and challenge myself to create something like that. And so I want to take you into the lab this morning. I'm going to turn this camera around and show you my screen, and just give you an opportunity to kind of get inside my brain. Not that my brain is anything special, but it wouldn't really be that interesting.

00;00;47;49 - 00;01;13;30
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we're going to spice this up a little bit. This is my real youth ministry programing that I'm going to be experimenting and messing with over the next four weeks, and I have created for myself three. I almost had four, but three different challenges over these next four weeks. Challenge number one is the order must not repeat. I'm going to do a different service flow and different service order every single week.

00;01;13;34 - 00;01;32;18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The challenge number two in that is I'm going to create a custom from scratch submitted to download Youth Ministry. Game number three is that then I am going to hop on and I'm going to tell you exactly how it went. So this is the front side creation. And then challenge and run through is I have to evaluate it.

00;01;32;18 - 00;01;54;51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we're going to do that in my bonus podcast. And if you listen to my bonus podcast I will include the custom game for free before it's ever even on the store at diam. You can go get that over on my Patreon. It's time to dive in! Welcome everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show! The February 4th is going to be the first week of Our God guys and girls.

00;01;54;51 - 00;02;15;35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Basically like the sex series in Planning Center. You'll see over here is, just like our basic template. We got song bumper welcome announcements game. Now, you know, one of the things I said, challenge number one was I want to do different order. Like I try to keep our students, like, on their toes. A little bit. One of the things that I challenge myself to do is to not preach my entire message.

00;02;15;35 - 00;02;35;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, and this trickles down to the rest of our entire team to not preach their entire message in one shot. Like, if I preach 30 minutes to students, I don't think that that's effective. They're losing it at the end of 30 minutes. You know what I mean? However, a it is incumbent upon me to make it actually interactive and interesting, but maybe I can buy more time.

00;02;35;22 - 00;02;54;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can buy more speaking time if I don't keep it all together. And so because of that, we kind of you are talking to like two parts, an opening and a closing. And sometimes I can just be like an opening illustration, but other times it could be like two thirds of the talk and then we just close with like the final third or final, you know, a little snippet there at the end.

00;02;54;15 - 00;03;12;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we keep on hold our service order very loosely, like we don't want to ever really get stuck in a rut. And so I'm going to show you like kind of a basic service order today. But in the coming weeks, like we're going to be really like messing things up. So, we'll start with a couple songs.

00;03;12;11 - 00;03;29;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our kids love worship. And so, the countdown video will end and the band of band stage, and they're going to, they're going to get it and we're going to, we're going to even put in here like hype song. Then we have a bumper video. I've created it from God, guys and girls. It's very short, but we're going to make it happen.

00;03;29;12 - 00;03;48;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we're going to do the intro. And again, I'm going to say ten minutes or so, I'll do an opening, and then we sit around tables and there's like a little placard in the middle that we actually link, like a YouVersion live events to that they can follow along with on their phones. That's one of the ways that we try to redeem phones in our room rather than villainize them.

00;03;48;14 - 00;04;11;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we film all of our messages ahead of time on a teleprompter. I'm actually doing that a little bit later this afternoon. But this right here is my this was from this was the original that Jerry wrote. This is my adaptation to it for YouTube. And then this is going to be my in room version. So I made a copy of it and my say in room message oh one relationships.

00;04;11;01 - 00;04;37;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And now this like some of this stuff is like very YouTube like focus, right? I'm going to talk about roller coasters and maybe that will actually give me a little bit of an idea for a game later. I'll see. And we're going to use our handy dandy sidekick. So this was last night's presentation on June 17th.

00;04;37;09 - 00;04;55;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now this is going to we're going to build, I don't know, I'm making this top five roller coaster ranking thing. I don't actually know what it is. We're going to make it up. So that's going to be kind of like how I program it to be interactive. Right? So this is going to be a voting thing.

00;04;55;08 - 00;05;18;49
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then I'm going to do my top five roller coaster ranking. Think like my number one is Guardians. Tron might be my number to my threes are I called vortex which no longer exists Kings Island, Diamondback, Top Thrill Dragster, Cedar Point, and then that transitions me into this statement. I think we can all agree our least favorite roller coaster is a teenage dating scene.

00;05;18;49 - 00;05;34;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I need to find in here a good spot for a table talk. Good. So we're going to turn this section into a table talk. Table talk.

00;05;34;33 - 00;05;51;47
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm thinking maybe a roller coaster game. I don't know, like, I mean, we could do like, a real or fake roller coaster. That's pretty basic. Like a basketball game where someone does like this with, like, the roller coaster thing, and you all kind of, like, follow, like, I'm trying to think if there's a way to, like, maybe make something like that, I don't know, I got I got to start kind of like noodling on it.

00;05;51;47 - 00;06;12;25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I don't, I don't have anything yet. We're going to come back and that's just a placeholder though. So we're going to do, intro to the message table talk announcements. It's the Wednesday before our winter weekend. So Wednesday, two days later, our winter weekend starts. So this is the final push for signups for that. And then roller coaster game maybe.

00;06;12;25 - 00;06;29;08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But we're going to link the announcements and the game after the table talk. So instead of the message table talk and then, Cody and Kelly, they're going to come up and they're going to interrupt the table talk and they're going to give our announcements, move on into the roller coaster game. And then and then that's going to be that.

00;06;29;08 - 00;06;50;34
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you'll notice so far. Well, actually I have the bumper video up here. I'm going to move it. So I like coming in after worship. I think it's pretty easy to come in after worship. I think it's hard to come in after a game when they're like, riled up a little bit more. So I like a bumper video to give us that, like that moment.

00;06;50;34 - 00;07;12;35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right, to buy us some of that space. And so I'm actually going to, come in after the song into the opening message table talk announcements, roller coaster game, and then do the bumper video here. And then this is where I'm going to do the rest of my message. We're going to delete this table talk, and we're just going to do a woven all through in here table talks.

00;07;12;39 - 00;07;33;08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then one final piece that I sometimes like to add is after a song is like a bit of a message rap. So I got a girl. My name Ali. She'll do a good job with that. She can give a little bit of, like, a final bow and dismissal. Now you're like, this isn't creative programing, Nick.

00;07;33;08 - 00;07;54;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, like, I get it, right. Like, the elements that you might not know, is, are digital notes, the QR code where they can scan, as well as our interaction here with sidekick, and then really the game that you're going to see me create here in, you know, maybe a couple of hours. And so, I'll bring you back when I'm ready to create this game.

00;07;54;26 - 00;08;15;43
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The other piece is like, I will go through here and, try to find moments of interactive ness, make sure that I have good illustrations. Make sure that I'm using sidekick if I'm able to, bring students up on stage, if I can, and find different, like, things with that. And so, the final kind of product of that.

00;08;15;43 - 00;08;41;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. We're going to review that, in our our recap pod, which is member of my paid tier, Hybrid heroes, Patreon membership. It's only $4 a month, and that $4 per month, what it gets you is a weekly bonus recap podcast, right? Like in just a minute, I'm going to sit down and then we'll talk about January 7th and it's going to release on the this following Monday.

00;08;41;15 - 00;08;59;57
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Talking about what we did in our program, we played a game called, New Year's New Year in Review Rumble. It was part of the download Youth Ministry membership. And it was like an okay game, but I would give it I'll give it like a B. And I'm going to tell you what worked in our context and what we failed at that.

00;08;59;57 - 00;09;17;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That made it a B, and how we maybe could have punched it up a little bit better. And we do that every single week over on Patreon. Only $4 a month. And you can use, like, your, you can use your, like, professional development budget money for that because it only nets out to like $48 a year.

00;09;17;19 - 00;09;35;41
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or if you don't have that as a youth ministry, again, it's only $4 a month. So maybe even out of your own personal pocket, a cup of coffee in your office instead of getting it from Starbucks one time per month. And there is that cost savings. And in addition to that, like for this playlist alone, you're going to get all the games I make.

00;09;35;41 - 00;09;56;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're going to get them completely for free. I'm going to give you a Dropbox link in the podcast description and my monthly social media pack, which usually costs $17.99. It's free for Hybrid Hero members, so let's figure out where I go in this direction with this game thing. Well, all right, welcome back. As you can see, it's now daytime.

00;09;56;09 - 00;10;13;57
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think I got a game concept idea. Challenge number one was accomplished by creating a new order. It's the first order. So because it's first order, it's a new order. And I have been racking my brain all day on games. And I think I finally came up with a game. Got it from Big Brother. Shout out to Big Brother.

00;10;13;57 - 00;10;31;49
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's going to be like kind of like trivia based, but musical chairs where like one less or like spoons where like one less option is still like available every single time. So you have to run, get the correct answer and then bring it back to the front of the room. I'm going to go in the lab. I'm going to create this.

00;10;31;49 - 00;10;40;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're going to time lapse this thing and and we'll let you know how goes.

00;10;40;06 - 00;11;00;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we ended up going with a game called No Way or No Seat. So it's like musical chairs. Meet octave from Big Brother plus Bible trivia. So well you're going to end up having is like at least ten contestants. We have 16 tables in our room, so we'll spin the wheel and we'll do table numbers, and then they'll send a contestant from their table.

00;11;00;34 - 00;11;15;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the winning person will win something like snacks or something like that for their table. It's always an easy, huge win. Or we sometimes take out a couple of tables and put in some couches and call it the best seats in the house and give them pizza or drinks or snacks or whatever. And so that's what we're going to end up doing.

00;11;15;12 - 00;11;38;53
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I just made this game and, I'll let you know exactly how it goes. In fact, I've already let you know how it goes. It's going to be linked on my Patreon right here. That dropped last Monday. And so if you want $4 per month, not only will you get my seasonal social media pack my weekly recaps of how my creative programing is going, but you'll also get access to this game that I just created.

00;11;38;58 - 00;11;55;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It is going into the Divine Pipeline as we speak, but it is probably not there yet unless something crazy happens. So, if you want this game for free, or not for weeks, you can do this $4 a month. But you know what I mean. Like, you get a lot of other stuff, and this is included as a perk to it, so go check that out.

00;11;55;05 - 00;12;16;40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So challenge two is now complete. Challenge three is actually already complete on my Patreon. In the next episode, we are going to talk about what happens if I break programing whole new deal. I am game challenge, whole new flow in order as well as a whole new recap. Be sure to check that out my friends. But until next time, and as always, don't forget to stay hydrated.

]]> Episode 186: He Built an AI Sniper Game… Then Gave Away the Prompt https://www.hybridministry.xyz/186 85e5037f-5f19-41c0-aaec-8b69bbb204da Thu, 29 Jan 2026 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 186 He Built an AI Sniper Game… Then Gave Away the Prompt full Nick Clason In this episode I sit down with the evil genius, who built an entire custom app using AI. And we're giving you the prompt FOR FREE! You take our prompt, implement it in your context, and you have a fun, custom sniper game for your next summer camp, winter retrat or d-now! 22:19 no In this episode I sit down with the evil genius, who built an entire custom app using AI. And we're giving you the prompt FOR FREE! You take our prompt, implement it in your context, and you have a fun, custom sniper game for your next summer camp, winter retrat or d-now! [FREE] AI SNIPER APP BUILDER https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-ai-sniper-147099707?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/186 ❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 We're giving you this game’s code! 00:40 The Sniper Humble Beginnings 03:27 How We Used Sniper 06:20 Can we build a custom app using AI?! 08:25 What Does Custom AI App Builder this Cost? 12:55 Some Features or Potential glitches to be aware of 14:55 Our Sniper Rules 17:15 Sniper vs. Assassin 18:15 Final Words of Wisdom? -------------- TRANSCRIPT Nick Clason (00:00.929) Well, what's up everyone? Here I am with the world's biggest Mavericks fan, Ben Hurlburt, willing to lose bets no matter how bad they are. Ben Hurlburt (00:05.998) That's right, you know it. Google it, it, and you'll than your favorite player. Ben Hurlburt (00:14.03) Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah. Nick Clason (00:15.775) That's also true. But me and Ben actually worked together at Cross Creek Church, which is great. And I didn't know that Ben was a genius at artificial intelligence. So before we dive into all that, why don't you just tell me where you first started playing the original inception of these sniper games and... Ben Hurlburt (00:23.746) Have a Nick Clason (00:41.601) how like what the rules are and like all that type of stuff in case, know, someone wants to use or utilize this in their like own ministry context. Ben Hurlburt (00:51.468) Yeah, so I started this. I didn't start this, but I started playing the game of sniper at Texas A when I was in college. honestly, it wasn't even a game. was it was just a bunch of friends in a group chat. who thought it was really funny whenever we would see each other in person as a, like not in our normal context. So like we all went to church together, but A has a huge campus. So we thought it was really funny whenever we see each other on campus. So we just like take a picture of each other from like really far away and then not say anything like to them in person. We just sent the picture of them and it was kind of like, yo, they were there and where'd they go? And it started off just kind of, you know, like, ha ha, I saw you in person. And then it got a lot. more competitive as it went on. People didn't want to be sniped, if you will. We had certain buildings where it was like, no, don't snipe me in there. I could be doing something with, I could be on something job related, because you've got all these job fairs and stuff like that all the time. So people didn't want to be distracted. So it kind of morphed from this just kind of funny, ha ha, I saw you in person to getting really really competitive and while it never became like a fully fledged game it always the sport management major in me always saw like the untapped potential for like some crazy stupid like game that people could play on their phones and actually like you know you're still kind of behind the screen but it's all about what's actually happening in front of you so yeah Nick Clason (02:28.375) Yeah. All right. So the basic premise though, is you have a group of people, a pool of players, so to speak, and your goal is to capture them via a picture of using your cell phone. Like basic, simple, right? Yeah, so easy. And then like enter fall 2025, where we work. Because we're the youth ministry and we're the only fun ones, it's our job to run Ben Hurlburt (02:33.326) Yeah. Ben Hurlburt (02:40.0) Right. Yeah. So easy. Ben Hurlburt (02:50.093) Thank you. Nick Clason (02:57.227) fantasy football for the whole staff. we have like, for context, we have, it's not just like a Yahoo league of like eight people. There's like 30 people in three different leagues. And it's like a big thing, which reminds me that I still need to send a recap email about the end of the season. But I've really fallen off here at the end of the year. But we're playing, what'd say? Ben Hurlburt (02:59.424) Right, of course. Ben Hurlburt (03:07.662) Yeah. Ben Hurlburt (03:18.798) It wasn't close. Yeah, sorry. I was like, it just wasn't close. Like, you just ran away with it. Nick Clason (03:23.753) Yeah. And we got to figure out, and we tried this year even, right? We threw a wrinkle in it to try to make, because what we're describing is there's three different leagues and the leagues compete against each other. And every year one league jumps out into like first place of like the points and that's it. They stay. And we don't know how to like make it closer, make the race like actually interesting, which this sniper game was our attempt to make it interesting. So like, Ben Hurlburt (03:41.218) And they stay. Yeah. Ben Hurlburt (03:48.471) Okay. Nick Clason (03:54.823) Essentially, we created, what did we call, do we call them assassins in the league? There were two dormant players in every league that, yeah, they drafted players and then they held them hostage, because it's all points-based, so it's not like wins and loss-based. If I drafted someone in Ben's league, for example, that player's points didn't count toward the league total overall. However, Ben Hurlburt (04:19.566) Thank Nick Clason (04:21.951) we have this big conference that happens in the middle of the fall, like the first week of November. We invite a bunch of other pastors and church planters to our campus and the entire staff is sort of pulling it off together. And so we were like, what if we created a sniper game to release these held hostage players into the overall player pool? Because like, for example, and again, the Colts fell off too, just like I fell off in fantasy football. Like Jonathan Taylor at this point was the MVP of the league. And then, yeah, but since then has done nothing, just like the actual team. so anyway, we're like, well, what if we give Jonathan Taylor's points, Saquon Barkley's points, whoever was on these, these hostage, you know, players back into the pool and the way that you release them is by playing this sniper game. And we were like, talking it out, right? And I was like, it'd be really cool if I didn't have to like manually score this because I do have to manually score the fantasy football. Like I have to go in, have to write everyone's score into a spreadsheet and let Excel do its thing. And you were like, what if we built our own custom app using AI? And I like laughed at you. I was like, we're not gonna be able to do that. Like, what do you think this is? Like the year 3000? Like, no. Ben Hurlburt (05:45.186) Yeah. Nick Clason (05:47.959) And I think one night you abandoned all of your husband duties and you just went, yeah, you're like, I'm gonna prove that this can happen. So tell us that story. Ben Hurlburt (06:02.424) So I think we were just sitting there watching, my wife, Makayla and I were sitting there watching some movie and I just, don't know, I just, the entire day I was sitting there thinking like, I swear I can pull this off. Like, this isn't going to be that hard. And the movie didn't really, and the movie didn't really have me locked in. So I was like, yo, you cool if I just like look at this for like five minutes or something, Makayla? She was like, yeah, as long as it's only five minutes. And then it- Nick Clason (06:14.074) It's gotta be a way, yeah. Nick Clason (06:26.611) And five minutes turned into what? Ben Hurlburt (06:28.93) Five hours. yeah, so I just basically started doing some research online, trying to like find a way because like, I'll be so honest, like I can't like generate code. Like I wouldn't know the first thing about any of that. Like I'm a sport management major for God sakes. But yeah. Nick Clason (06:48.221) and a worship leader and a youth pastor. Like, we don't know what we're doing, yeah. Ben Hurlburt (06:52.398) Expertise is not in that field. you know, so I was like, you know, I know what I need though. Like I can see the app in my head, like digital native. Like I know what this thing needs. So I was like, let's just see if one of these like AI app like things work. AI app generator things works. And it did. Base 44, dude. It was insane. I just started cooking like just. Nick Clason (07:11.884) Yeah. Ben Hurlburt (07:20.832) like create like four different tabs like make sure that like each one has this specific function. I even you even get a like color designer I was like yo this is great for the graphic design I'm part of my part of my brain I scratched that itch so yeah I mean Nick Clason (07:37.143) Now, bass, bass 44, is it free or is there a free version of it or how like, yeah, so talk about that a little bit. Ben Hurlburt (07:42.016) No. Ben Hurlburt (07:45.902) I think there is a free version of it. The only problem is, and there were a couple of important things, is once you create the app, it's not like something you can download on the App Store. It's weird what the definition of app is, at least in my head, considering I'm thinking of the App Store. But it's everything is like, it's more so of a website than it is actually like an app as we would think it. So part of the reason that like, Nick Clason (07:57.569) Right. Nick Clason (08:10.987) Yeah, yeah. Ben Hurlburt (08:15.948) I felt the need to have to pay for it is that the URL might not remain in your possession. And it could be in the middle of the game, right? Like somebody else that is on base 44 with the subscription could come up with the URL or just anybody who creates a URL in general. could be taken. So I was like, nah, we have to pay for that. That alone is worth it. And the other one is you could give it more prompts. It opens to more statistics things. Nick Clason (08:54.347) Mm-hmm. Ben Hurlburt (08:57.644) like being able to analyze like actually how the app is performing as opposed to just like typing in what I would like for it to do. Nick Clason (09:04.617) Yeah, and I think too, if I remember right, you were able to build it and you were able to see it, but then in order to allow others in it or something like that, like we needed to unlock it behind some sort of paywall, which I think, mean, like for example, I think the cost was in the realm of like 20 something dollars, right? So like. Ben Hurlburt (09:27.921) right yeah Nick Clason (09:30.389) And we use this for three days, like the same length of like a winter retreat or like a D-NOW or like a summer camp. So if this was something that A, you you allowed your students to have phones and most of them did have phones, but then B, you had that same amount of time, like you could unlock it for just a couple of dollars, right? 20 bucks, whatever. And then use Ben's prompt, which I've included link in the description. Go check it out if you want to go grab it, to build something. you with your, you and you tweak it for yourself with your own context and whatever in mind, but like, build something for $20 that's custom that can be used exclusively by your people. Like Ben said, it wasn't like an app store app, but it was like a web app. Right. And so you just, yeah. you sit in it, like there was some, glitched a little, but bro, I mean, people used it. Like some people were absolutely like spamming this game, like the entire conference. Like every time I checked it, there was activity. It was. Ben Hurlburt (10:11.404) It works really well. Nick Clason (10:26.775) And it was a really fun way to infuse a little bit of life, right? Because not everyone at the conference used it. I think that's the other thing was like, if you wanted to do something like this, could maybe let students sign up for it and only the ones signed up are playing it. And it just happens in the background. You do the rest of your programming for your Dean hour, your winter retreat, and whoever has the phone or whoever is able to or. Ben Hurlburt (10:33.346) Yeah. Nick Clason (10:52.053) your student leadership team or your staff or like there's all kinds of different adaptations because that's we had church planters and other pastors and we didn't invite them or even let them know that it was happening unless they saw us like take our phone out and like sneak behind a wall to try and take a picture. So it's a great way to build camaraderie with a smaller subset of people you know if that's something you want to do and that's that's exactly what happened like in our context. Ben Hurlburt (11:17.388) Yeah, no, it was honestly a lot of fun. I think some of the glitches came from stuff that you could probably take care of in person, like Nick was talking about. one of the worst things was that in my head I was like, yo, I don't know if somebody fully gets that. participating in this app means that somebody could take a picture of you at any point in time. And I was like, I don't want to get any invasion of privacy. Like that wouldn't be great. so I had this, like, you had to opt in button and whenever like, Nick Clason (11:45.909) Right. Ben Hurlburt (11:52.782) Sometimes it wouldn't, like it couldn't click. One of our friends, Miranda's phone, it just wouldn't scroll down to be able to click opt-in because of the version of her iPhone was a little bit older. something like that though, that I did on the app could have totally been something that in person, if your students are playing it, you can just have them be like, yo, I'm like. by agreeing to play this game like I'm just gonna happen. Another thing too is, and this was probably the best thing about this app, and I know I was thinking of just for adults, but for students could also be a thing. You can program the app to shut down. at certain times of day. And I didn't really test it out a lot, I mean, just given what it was capable of, might even be, you might even be able to like geo locate where the app is functioning. At a minimum, you have control over when the app is up, when the app is down, you can just shut it off. And you know, you have like, just like a kill switch at all points in time, which is like housed through like your base 44, like, like home site. So like if you don't want your kids playing that once they've left the church, like they won't if you make that call. So yeah. Nick Clason (13:08.288) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason (13:18.359) Yeah. And like, and then just for, for everyone else's sake, like here's how we put the rules in, right? Like here are the rules that we tried to operate by. So it was a three day conference, then put like a start, a start and stop time on those three days. Uh, so that people weren't like getting tagged at home, which I don't know that anyone in our staff would have done that, but you never know. People get crazy. Um, we said, Ben Hurlburt (13:26.382) you Ben Hurlburt (13:43.266) Yeah. Yeah. Nick Clason (13:46.071) We said you were not allowed to play the game during main sessions or breakouts, so main content times. And the other thing that was cool was you could report a photo. if I took a picture of you while you're leading worship, for example, someone can report that and negate the points that it would have given to that team because... Ben Hurlburt (13:54.051) Yeah. Ben Hurlburt (14:01.512) Okay, I can do that, Nick Clason (14:12.683) they were doing it outside of the boundaries. And so that was another thing was there was like a self regular, or not like a self, but like a team regulation, right? Kind of woven into the app. And again, Ben wrote all that into the code or into the prompt there. And so, and then we also said like bathrooms and offices were off limits. So you had like your safe zone, which remember like our team, like our students team, like all, how many are there? Six of us? We were all playing and we were all just like, Ben Hurlburt (14:38.893) Thanks a lot. Nick Clason (14:41.895) hold up in our own offices because we were all killing each other. And so we all just like went to our office to like gain safety. And then like I'd like be walking to the bathroom, like holding my phone like at people so that like they wouldn't like take pictures of me. And like one time I came out of the bathroom and like our resident and intern, they like used it against me. Like the resident was like, Hey, can you come here and look at this for a second? And so like I walked towards him and then the intern was like behind me and like Ben Hurlburt (14:46.167) I'm Nick Clason (15:11.905) got me taking a picture or got a picture of me. Like those two turds, totally got me. And then I think was the last one was you couldn't be looking at the camera. Ben Hurlburt (15:17.57) Yes. Yeah. Ben Hurlburt (15:23.498) you can't be like, you can't be looking at either the person taking the photo or I mean, they're right there or the camera. Nick Clason (15:29.289) Yeah, so you can basically have a shield if you look at if someone's trying to take a picture of you you catch them with your eyeballs like that doesn't count. Ben Hurlburt (15:38.018) Yeah, it wouldn't be any fun if like you and I were just like sitting here like talking and just like taking a picture of the whole time. Yeah, but I will say like one thing that like I know that assassin is like really really popular. One thing I do like about sniper apparent like opposed to assassin is that once you're out an assassin like Nick Clason (15:42.436) Spamming each other with pictures. Yeah, exactly Ben Hurlburt (15:59.968) unless like someone like brings you back to life or some weird like immunity thing happens like you're out. And like I remember playing Assassin in college twice and one time I made it pretty far but the first time like I had like a friend that get let into my house like on the first day and I was just like well I was so excited to play this and now like like Nick Clason (16:06.251) Yeah. Nick Clason (16:21.537) Yeah. Ben Hurlburt (16:22.892) dead like there's nothing I can do so like I would say that sniper gives you the opportunity like kids keep playing like and I get it I'm telling you it got competitive at work like the younger people on staff were going crazy over this thing so yeah Nick Clason (16:31.446) Yeah. Nick Clason (16:41.471) Yeah. Yeah. It was super fun. agree. Anything else that you learned that you would maybe do differently or any words of wisdom if anyone were to try to take your prompt and put in base 44, either on the creating of the app side of things or just the gameplay side of things that maybe we discovered throughout the game. We'll make an adjustment on this next year if we did it or something like that. Ben Hurlburt (17:09.098) well, the first thing is that prompt that like you're going to get is like the initial starting prompt. likely if you're going to want to go a certain direction with it, you, you might need to add some tweaks. I can't remember everything that's in it right now. but like, There's a lot that that is in it, but you will inevitably need to make some changes make some tweaks In order to like get this thing up and running so in some way it's definitely like it's it's yours like you created it but one thing I would say is like put yourself and Like the best Jesse Eisenberg social network Nick Clason (17:37.078) Yeah. Ben Hurlburt (17:53.71) programming mindset that you can for two hours and then just never flip back into it and whatever you come up with will be a really great game, really great product. So, yeah. Nick Clason (18:04.043) Yeah, I will say one thing that was helpful for us, I felt like on all sides, gameplay sides and administratively keeping score was we forced people, remember we forced people to use their actual name as their handle rather than like Dragonslayer17 because if you're Dragonslayer17, but I have no clue that that's your name, I can't know to tag you. And so you don't have to do that, but that was something that I... Ben Hurlburt (18:14.465) You Ben Hurlburt (18:20.278) That's right. Thank Nick Clason (18:33.463) I required them, I was like, if you don't use your actual name as your handle, I won't give you points because I'm not gonna be able to chase down everyone's hair, brain, screen name that they come up with, you know, from their AOL instant messenger days. Ben Hurlburt (18:46.917) Yeah, I just remembered like a whole side of this whenever like we had it so that When you took the picture of somebody, can't just like take a picture and upload it. You have to be able to tag them. Like there's a drop down. You can type into it and pull up somebody's like, like account name. But the fun thing to it that I felt like we could have dived into more. And I don't know if other people did was I had a whole social media function to it. as opposed to like the picture just going in and just registering as a point. Nick Clason (18:59.797) Right. Nick Clason (19:20.726) Right. Ben Hurlburt (19:21.644) kind of went into this Instagram-esque feed where other people, that was where you could report the post, where we like talked about that. But you could also like comment on them if they were funny, you could like them, react to them. And I thought that was a cool way to like keep people ingrained, especially given how much people on social media anyway, so. Nick Clason (19:28.289) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason (19:42.815) Yeah, no doubt. And that, yeah, you're right. I would, that's where I'd log in and I'd be like, Holy smokes. Like Eli and Miranda have been like doing nothing but playing this game. So. Ben Hurlburt (19:50.392) Right. Yeah, that's what I'm doing. Nick Clason (19:55.553) But shout out to them. So all right, anything else? Anything else that we're missing before we cut people loose to go make this game for themselves? Ben Hurlburt (19:57.688) Yeah. Ben Hurlburt (20:04.312) I'm sure there are, if it feels intimidating, don't. Just, mean, honestly, Base 44, it was so easy. Like I, and if it didn't do what I wanted it to do, I'd be like, you didn't do what I wanted you to do. Try it again. like it, 95 % of the time that fixed the problem. So it was, it was so user friendly. It's chat GPT, but it makes an app for you. So it, mean, we're not paid, this isn't a sponsor, but I would totally use base 44. It was so simple. Nick Clason (20:35.637) Yeah, and Bass44, if you're listening, sponsor us. Ben Hurlburt (20:39.214) That would be great. Nick Clason (20:40.439) All right, everyone. Well, until next time, and as always, Ben, thanks for being here. See you guys soon. Ben Hurlburt (20:46.702) See you guys! ai, artificial intelligence, ai game, ai prompt, ai prompts, ai generated images, ai image generation, ai tools, ai apps, ai development, no code ai, ai automation, sniper game, youth ministry, student ministry, tech podcast, social media podcast, ai creativity, ai innovation, game design, experimental ai, midjourney, chatgpt, openai, ai creator, viral ai ,ai trends, technology podcast, ai discussion, base44 In this episode I sit down with the evil genius, who built an entire custom app using AI.
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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 We're giving you this game’s code!
00:40 The Sniper Humble Beginnings
03:27 How We Used Sniper
06:20 Can we build a custom app using AI?!
08:25 What Does Custom AI App Builder this Cost?
12:55 Some Features or Potential glitches to be aware of
14:55 Our Sniper Rules
17:15 Sniper vs. Assassin
18:15 Final Words of Wisdom?

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:00.929)
Well, what's up everyone? Here I am with the world's biggest Mavericks fan, Ben Hurlburt, willing to lose bets no matter how bad they are.

Ben Hurlburt (00:05.998)
That's right, you know it. Google it, it, and you'll than your favorite player.

Ben Hurlburt (00:14.03)
Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah.

Nick Clason (00:15.775)
That's also true. But me and Ben actually worked together at Cross Creek Church, which is great. And I didn't know that Ben was a genius at artificial intelligence. So before we dive into all that, why don't you just tell me where you first started playing the original inception of these sniper games and...

Ben Hurlburt (00:23.746)
Have a

Nick Clason (00:41.601)
how like what the rules are and like all that type of stuff in case, know, someone wants to use or utilize this in their like own ministry context.

Ben Hurlburt (00:51.468)
Yeah, so I started this. I didn't start this, but I started playing the game of sniper at Texas A when I was in college. honestly, it wasn't even a game. was it was just a bunch of friends in a group chat.

who thought it was really funny whenever we would see each other in person as a, like not in our normal context. So like we all went to church together, but A has a huge campus. So we thought it was really funny whenever we see each other on campus. So we just like take a picture of each other from like really far away and then not say anything like to them in person. We just sent the picture of them and it was kind of like, yo, they were there and where'd they go? And it started off just kind of, you know, like, ha ha, I saw you in person. And then it got a lot.

more competitive as it went on. People didn't want to be sniped, if you will. We had certain buildings where it was like, no, don't snipe me in there. I could be doing something with, I could be on something job related, because you've got all these job fairs and stuff like that all the time. So people didn't want to be distracted. So it kind of morphed from this just kind of funny, ha ha, I saw you in person to getting

really really competitive and while it never became like a fully fledged game it always the sport management major in me always saw like the untapped potential for like some crazy stupid like game that people could play on their phones and actually like you know you're still kind of behind the screen but it's all about what's actually happening in front of you so yeah

Nick Clason (02:28.375)
Yeah. All right. So the basic premise though, is you have a group of people, a pool of players, so to speak, and your goal is to capture them via a picture of using your cell phone. Like basic, simple, right? Yeah, so easy. And then like enter fall 2025, where we work. Because we're the youth ministry and we're the only fun ones, it's our job to run

Ben Hurlburt (02:33.326)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (02:40.0)
Right. Yeah. So easy.

Ben Hurlburt (02:50.093)
Thank you.

Nick Clason (02:57.227)
fantasy football for the whole staff. we have like, for context, we have, it's not just like a Yahoo league of like eight people. There's like 30 people in three different leagues. And it's like a big thing, which reminds me that I still need to send a recap email about the end of the season. But I've really fallen off here at the end of the year. But we're playing, what'd say?

Ben Hurlburt (02:59.424)
Right, of course.

Ben Hurlburt (03:07.662)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (03:18.798)
It wasn't close. Yeah, sorry. I was like, it just wasn't close. Like, you just ran away with it.

Nick Clason (03:23.753)
Yeah.

And we got to figure out, and we tried this year even, right? We threw a wrinkle in it to try to make, because what we're describing is there's three different leagues and the leagues compete against each other. And every year one league jumps out into like first place of like the points and that's it. They stay. And we don't know how to like make it closer, make the race like actually interesting, which this sniper game was our attempt to make it interesting. So like,

Ben Hurlburt (03:41.218)
And they stay. Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (03:48.471)
Okay.

Nick Clason (03:54.823)
Essentially, we created, what did we call, do we call them assassins in the league? There were two dormant players in every league that, yeah, they drafted players and then they held them hostage, because it's all points-based, so it's not like wins and loss-based. If I drafted someone in Ben's league, for example, that player's points didn't count toward the league total overall. However,

Ben Hurlburt (04:19.566)
Thank

Nick Clason (04:21.951)
we have this big conference that happens in the middle of the fall, like the first week of November. We invite a bunch of other pastors and church planters to our campus and the entire staff is sort of pulling it off together. And so we were like, what if we created a sniper game to release these held hostage players into the overall player pool? Because like, for example, and again,

the Colts fell off too, just like I fell off in fantasy football. Like Jonathan Taylor at this point was the MVP of the league. And then, yeah, but since then has done nothing, just like the actual team. so anyway, we're like, well, what if we give Jonathan Taylor's points, Saquon Barkley's points, whoever was on these, these hostage, you know, players back into the pool and the way that you release them is by playing this sniper game. And we were like,

talking it out, right? And I was like, it'd be really cool if I didn't have to like manually score this because I do have to manually score the fantasy football. Like I have to go in, have to write everyone's score into a spreadsheet and let Excel do its thing. And you were like, what if we built our own custom app using AI? And I like laughed at you. I was like, we're not gonna be able to do that. Like, what do you think this is? Like the year 3000? Like, no.

Ben Hurlburt (05:45.186)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (05:47.959)
And I think one night you abandoned all of your husband duties and you just went, yeah, you're like, I'm gonna prove that this can happen. So tell us that story.

Ben Hurlburt (06:02.424)
So I think we were just sitting there watching, my wife, Makayla and I were sitting there watching some movie and I just, don't know, I just, the entire day I was sitting there thinking like, I swear I can pull this off. Like, this isn't going to be that hard. And the movie didn't really, and the movie didn't really have me locked in. So I was like, yo, you cool if I just like look at this for like five minutes or something, Makayla? She was like, yeah, as long as it's only five minutes. And then it-

Nick Clason (06:14.074)
It's gotta be a way, yeah.

Nick Clason (06:26.611)
And five minutes turned into what?

Ben Hurlburt (06:28.93)
Five hours. yeah, so I just basically started doing some research online, trying to like find a way because like, I'll be so honest, like I can't like generate code. Like I wouldn't know the first thing about any of that. Like I'm a sport management major for God sakes. But yeah.

Nick Clason (06:48.221)
and a worship leader and a youth pastor. Like, we don't know what we're doing, yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (06:52.398)
Expertise is not in that field. you know, so I was like, you know, I know what I need though. Like I can see the app in my head, like digital native. Like I know what this thing needs. So I was like, let's just see if one of these like AI app like things work. AI app generator things works. And it did. Base 44, dude. It was insane. I just started cooking like just.

Nick Clason (07:11.884)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (07:20.832)
like create like four different tabs like make sure that like each one has this specific function. I even you even get a like color designer I was like yo this is great for the graphic design I'm part of my part of my brain I scratched that itch so yeah I mean

Nick Clason (07:37.143)
Now, bass, bass 44, is it free or is there a free version of it or how like, yeah, so talk about that a little bit.

Ben Hurlburt (07:42.016)
No.

Ben Hurlburt (07:45.902)
I think there is a free version of it. The only problem is, and there were a couple of important things, is once you create the app, it's not like something you can download on the App Store. It's weird what the definition of app is, at least in my head, considering I'm thinking of the App Store. But it's everything is like, it's more so of a website than it is actually like an app as we would think it. So part of the reason that like,

Nick Clason (07:57.569)
Right.

Nick Clason (08:10.987)
Yeah, yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (08:15.948)
I felt the need to have to pay for it is that the URL might not remain in your possession.

And it could be in the middle of the game, right? Like somebody else that is on base 44 with the subscription could come up with the URL or just anybody who creates a URL in general. could be taken. So I was like, nah, we have to pay for that. That alone is worth it. And the other one is you could give it more prompts. It opens to more statistics things.

Nick Clason (08:54.347)
Mm-hmm.

Ben Hurlburt (08:57.644)
like being able to analyze like actually how the app is performing as opposed to just like typing in what I would like for it to do.

Nick Clason (09:04.617)
Yeah, and I think too, if I remember right, you were able to build it and you were able to see it, but then in order to allow others in it or something like that, like we needed to unlock it behind some sort of paywall, which I think, mean, like for example, I think the cost was in the realm of like 20 something dollars, right? So like.

Ben Hurlburt (09:27.921)
right yeah

Nick Clason (09:30.389)
And we use this for three days, like the same length of like a winter retreat or like a D-NOW or like a summer camp. So if this was something that A, you you allowed your students to have phones and most of them did have phones, but then B, you had that same amount of time, like you could unlock it for just a couple of dollars, right? 20 bucks, whatever. And then use Ben's prompt, which I've included link in the description. Go check it out if you want to go grab it, to build something.

you with your, you and you tweak it for yourself with your own context and whatever in mind, but like, build something for $20 that's custom that can be used exclusively by your people. Like Ben said, it wasn't like an app store app, but it was like a web app. Right. And so you just, yeah. you sit in it, like there was some, glitched a little, but bro, I mean, people used it. Like some people were absolutely like spamming this game, like the entire conference. Like every time I checked it, there was activity. It was.

Ben Hurlburt (10:11.404)
It works really well.

Nick Clason (10:26.775)
And it was a really fun way to infuse a little bit of life, right? Because not everyone at the conference used it. I think that's the other thing was like, if you wanted to do something like this, could maybe let students sign up for it and only the ones signed up are playing it. And it just happens in the background. You do the rest of your programming for your Dean hour, your winter retreat, and whoever has the phone or whoever is able to or.

Ben Hurlburt (10:33.346)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (10:52.053)
your student leadership team or your staff or like there's all kinds of different adaptations because that's we had church planters and other pastors and we didn't invite them or even let them know that it was happening unless they saw us like take our phone out and like sneak behind a wall to try and take a picture. So it's a great way to build camaraderie with a smaller subset of people you know if that's something you want to do and that's that's exactly what happened like in our context.

Ben Hurlburt (11:17.388)
Yeah, no, it was honestly a lot of fun. I think some of the glitches came from stuff that you could probably take care of in person, like Nick was talking about. one of the worst things was that in my head I was like, yo, I don't know if somebody fully gets that.

participating in this app means that somebody could take a picture of you at any point in time. And I was like, I don't want to get any invasion of privacy. Like that wouldn't be great. so I had this, like, you had to opt in button and whenever like,

Nick Clason (11:45.909)
Right.

Ben Hurlburt (11:52.782)
Sometimes it wouldn't, like it couldn't click. One of our friends, Miranda's phone, it just wouldn't scroll down to be able to click opt-in because of the version of her iPhone was a little bit older. something like that though, that I did on the app could have totally been something that in person, if your students are playing it, you can just have them be like, yo, I'm like.

by agreeing to play this game like I'm just gonna happen. Another thing too is, and this was probably the best thing about this app, and I know I was thinking of just for adults, but for students could also be a thing. You can program the app to shut down.

at certain times of day. And I didn't really test it out a lot, I mean, just given what it was capable of, might even be, you might even be able to like geo locate where the app is functioning. At a minimum, you have control over when the app is up, when the app is down, you can just shut it off. And you know, you have like, just like a kill switch at all points in time, which is like housed through like your base 44, like,

like home site. So like if you don't want your kids playing that once they've left the church, like they won't if you make that call. So yeah.

Nick Clason (13:08.288)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (13:18.359)
Yeah. And like, and then just for, for everyone else's sake, like here's how we put the rules in, right? Like here are the rules that we tried to operate by. So it was a three day conference, then put like a start, a start and stop time on those three days. Uh, so that people weren't like getting tagged at home, which I don't know that anyone in our staff would have done that, but you never know. People get crazy. Um, we said,

Ben Hurlburt (13:26.382)
you

Ben Hurlburt (13:43.266)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:46.071)
We said you were not allowed to play the game during main sessions or breakouts, so main content times. And the other thing that was cool was you could report a photo. if I took a picture of you while you're leading worship, for example, someone can report that and negate the points that it would have given to that team because...

Ben Hurlburt (13:54.051)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (14:01.512)
Okay, I can do that,

Nick Clason (14:12.683)
they were doing it outside of the boundaries. And so that was another thing was there was like a self regular, or not like a self, but like a team regulation, right? Kind of woven into the app. And again, Ben wrote all that into the code or into the prompt there. And so, and then we also said like bathrooms and offices were off limits. So you had like your safe zone, which remember like our team, like our students team, like all, how many are there? Six of us? We were all playing and we were all just like,

Ben Hurlburt (14:38.893)
Thanks a lot.

Nick Clason (14:41.895)
hold up in our own offices because we were all killing each other. And so we all just like went to our office to like gain safety. And then like I'd like be walking to the bathroom, like holding my phone like at people so that like they wouldn't like take pictures of me. And like one time I came out of the bathroom and like our resident and intern, they like used it against me. Like the resident was like, Hey, can you come here and look at this for a second? And so like I walked towards him and then the intern was like behind me and like

Ben Hurlburt (14:46.167)
I'm

Nick Clason (15:11.905)
got me taking a picture or got a picture of me. Like those two turds, totally got me. And then I think was the last one was you couldn't be looking at the camera.

Ben Hurlburt (15:17.57)
Yes. Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (15:23.498)
you can't be like, you can't be looking at either the person taking the photo or I mean, they're right there or the camera.

Nick Clason (15:29.289)
Yeah, so you can basically have a shield if you look at if someone's trying to take a picture of you you catch them with your eyeballs like that doesn't count.

Ben Hurlburt (15:38.018)
Yeah, it wouldn't be any fun if like you and I were just like sitting here like talking and just like taking a picture of the whole time. Yeah, but I will say like one thing that like I know that assassin is like really really popular. One thing I do like about sniper apparent like opposed to assassin is that once you're out an assassin like

Nick Clason (15:42.436)
Spamming each other with pictures. Yeah, exactly

Ben Hurlburt (15:59.968)
unless like someone like brings you back to life or some weird like immunity thing happens like you're out. And like I remember playing Assassin in college twice and one time I made it pretty far but the first time like I had like a friend that get let into my house like on the first day and I was just like well I was so excited to play this and now like like

Nick Clason (16:06.251)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (16:21.537)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (16:22.892)
dead like there's nothing I can do so like I would say that sniper gives you the opportunity like kids keep playing like and I get it I'm telling you it got competitive at work like the younger people on staff were going crazy over this thing so yeah

Nick Clason (16:31.446)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (16:41.471)
Yeah. Yeah. It was super fun. agree. Anything else that you learned that you would maybe do differently or any words of wisdom if anyone were to try to take your prompt and put in base 44, either on the creating of the app side of things or just the gameplay side of things that maybe we discovered throughout the game. We'll make an adjustment on this next year if we did it or something like that.

Ben Hurlburt (17:09.098)
well, the first thing is that prompt that like you're going to get is like the initial starting prompt. likely if you're going to want to go a certain direction with it, you, you might need to add some tweaks. I can't remember everything that's in it right now. but like,

There's a lot that that is in it, but you will inevitably need to make some changes make some tweaks In order to like get this thing up and running so in some way it's definitely like it's it's yours like you created it but one thing I would say is like put yourself and Like the best Jesse Eisenberg social network

Nick Clason (17:37.078)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (17:53.71)
programming mindset that you can for two hours and then just never flip back into it and whatever you come up with will be a really great game, really great product. So, yeah.

Nick Clason (18:04.043)
Yeah, I will say one thing that was helpful for us, I felt like on all sides, gameplay sides and administratively keeping score was we forced people, remember we forced people to use their actual name as their handle rather than like Dragonslayer17 because if you're Dragonslayer17, but I have no clue that that's your name, I can't know to tag you. And so you don't have to do that, but that was something that I...

Ben Hurlburt (18:14.465)
You

Ben Hurlburt (18:20.278)
That's right.

Thank

Nick Clason (18:33.463)
I required them, I was like, if you don't use your actual name as your handle, I won't give you points because I'm not gonna be able to chase down everyone's hair, brain, screen name that they come up with, you know, from their AOL instant messenger days.

Ben Hurlburt (18:46.917)
Yeah, I just remembered like a whole side of this whenever like we had it so that

When you took the picture of somebody, can't just like take a picture and upload it. You have to be able to tag them. Like there's a drop down. You can type into it and pull up somebody's like, like account name. But the fun thing to it that I felt like we could have dived into more. And I don't know if other people did was I had a whole social media function to it. as opposed to like the picture just going in and just registering as a point.

Nick Clason (18:59.797)
Right.

Nick Clason (19:20.726)
Right.

Ben Hurlburt (19:21.644)
kind of went into this Instagram-esque feed where other people, that was where you could report the post, where we like talked about that. But you could also like comment on them if they were funny, you could like them, react to them. And I thought that was a cool way to like keep people ingrained, especially given how much people on social media anyway, so.

Nick Clason (19:28.289)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (19:42.815)
Yeah, no doubt. And that, yeah, you're right. I would, that's where I'd log in and I'd be like, Holy smokes. Like Eli and Miranda have been like doing nothing but playing this game. So.

Ben Hurlburt (19:50.392)
Right.

Yeah, that's what I'm doing.

Nick Clason (19:55.553)
But shout out to them. So all right, anything else? Anything else that we're missing before we cut people loose to go make this game for themselves?

Ben Hurlburt (19:57.688)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (20:04.312)
I'm sure there are, if it feels intimidating, don't.

Just, mean, honestly, Base 44, it was so easy. Like I, and if it didn't do what I wanted it to do, I'd be like, you didn't do what I wanted you to do. Try it again. like it, 95 % of the time that fixed the problem. So it was, it was so user friendly. It's chat GPT, but it makes an app for you. So it, mean, we're not paid, this isn't a sponsor, but I would totally use base 44. It was so simple.

Nick Clason (20:35.637)
Yeah, and Bass44, if you're listening, sponsor us.

Ben Hurlburt (20:39.214)
That would be great.

Nick Clason (20:40.439)
All right, everyone. Well, until next time, and as always, Ben, thanks for being here. See you guys soon.

Ben Hurlburt (20:46.702)
See you guys!

]]> In this episode I sit down with the evil genius, who built an entire custom app using AI.
And we're giving you the prompt FOR FREE!
You take our prompt, implement it in your context, and you have a fun, custom sniper game for your next summer camp, winter retrat or d-now!

[FREE] AI SNIPER APP BUILDER
https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-ai-sniper-147099707?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/186

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

HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
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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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 We're giving you this game’s code!
00:40 The Sniper Humble Beginnings
03:27 How We Used Sniper
06:20 Can we build a custom app using AI?!
08:25 What Does Custom AI App Builder this Cost?
12:55 Some Features or Potential glitches to be aware of
14:55 Our Sniper Rules
17:15 Sniper vs. Assassin
18:15 Final Words of Wisdom?

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:00.929)
Well, what's up everyone? Here I am with the world's biggest Mavericks fan, Ben Hurlburt, willing to lose bets no matter how bad they are.

Ben Hurlburt (00:05.998)
That's right, you know it. Google it, it, and you'll than your favorite player.

Ben Hurlburt (00:14.03)
Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah.

Nick Clason (00:15.775)
That's also true. But me and Ben actually worked together at Cross Creek Church, which is great. And I didn't know that Ben was a genius at artificial intelligence. So before we dive into all that, why don't you just tell me where you first started playing the original inception of these sniper games and...

Ben Hurlburt (00:23.746)
Have a

Nick Clason (00:41.601)
how like what the rules are and like all that type of stuff in case, know, someone wants to use or utilize this in their like own ministry context.

Ben Hurlburt (00:51.468)
Yeah, so I started this. I didn't start this, but I started playing the game of sniper at Texas A when I was in college. honestly, it wasn't even a game. was it was just a bunch of friends in a group chat.

who thought it was really funny whenever we would see each other in person as a, like not in our normal context. So like we all went to church together, but A has a huge campus. So we thought it was really funny whenever we see each other on campus. So we just like take a picture of each other from like really far away and then not say anything like to them in person. We just sent the picture of them and it was kind of like, yo, they were there and where'd they go? And it started off just kind of, you know, like, ha ha, I saw you in person. And then it got a lot.

more competitive as it went on. People didn't want to be sniped, if you will. We had certain buildings where it was like, no, don't snipe me in there. I could be doing something with, I could be on something job related, because you've got all these job fairs and stuff like that all the time. So people didn't want to be distracted. So it kind of morphed from this just kind of funny, ha ha, I saw you in person to getting

really really competitive and while it never became like a fully fledged game it always the sport management major in me always saw like the untapped potential for like some crazy stupid like game that people could play on their phones and actually like you know you're still kind of behind the screen but it's all about what's actually happening in front of you so yeah

Nick Clason (02:28.375)
Yeah. All right. So the basic premise though, is you have a group of people, a pool of players, so to speak, and your goal is to capture them via a picture of using your cell phone. Like basic, simple, right? Yeah, so easy. And then like enter fall 2025, where we work. Because we're the youth ministry and we're the only fun ones, it's our job to run

Ben Hurlburt (02:33.326)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (02:40.0)
Right. Yeah. So easy.

Ben Hurlburt (02:50.093)
Thank you.

Nick Clason (02:57.227)
fantasy football for the whole staff. we have like, for context, we have, it's not just like a Yahoo league of like eight people. There's like 30 people in three different leagues. And it's like a big thing, which reminds me that I still need to send a recap email about the end of the season. But I've really fallen off here at the end of the year. But we're playing, what'd say?

Ben Hurlburt (02:59.424)
Right, of course.

Ben Hurlburt (03:07.662)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (03:18.798)
It wasn't close. Yeah, sorry. I was like, it just wasn't close. Like, you just ran away with it.

Nick Clason (03:23.753)
Yeah.

And we got to figure out, and we tried this year even, right? We threw a wrinkle in it to try to make, because what we're describing is there's three different leagues and the leagues compete against each other. And every year one league jumps out into like first place of like the points and that's it. They stay. And we don't know how to like make it closer, make the race like actually interesting, which this sniper game was our attempt to make it interesting. So like,

Ben Hurlburt (03:41.218)
And they stay. Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (03:48.471)
Okay.

Nick Clason (03:54.823)
Essentially, we created, what did we call, do we call them assassins in the league? There were two dormant players in every league that, yeah, they drafted players and then they held them hostage, because it's all points-based, so it's not like wins and loss-based. If I drafted someone in Ben's league, for example, that player's points didn't count toward the league total overall. However,

Ben Hurlburt (04:19.566)
Thank

Nick Clason (04:21.951)
we have this big conference that happens in the middle of the fall, like the first week of November. We invite a bunch of other pastors and church planters to our campus and the entire staff is sort of pulling it off together. And so we were like, what if we created a sniper game to release these held hostage players into the overall player pool? Because like, for example, and again,

the Colts fell off too, just like I fell off in fantasy football. Like Jonathan Taylor at this point was the MVP of the league. And then, yeah, but since then has done nothing, just like the actual team. so anyway, we're like, well, what if we give Jonathan Taylor's points, Saquon Barkley's points, whoever was on these, these hostage, you know, players back into the pool and the way that you release them is by playing this sniper game. And we were like,

talking it out, right? And I was like, it'd be really cool if I didn't have to like manually score this because I do have to manually score the fantasy football. Like I have to go in, have to write everyone's score into a spreadsheet and let Excel do its thing. And you were like, what if we built our own custom app using AI? And I like laughed at you. I was like, we're not gonna be able to do that. Like, what do you think this is? Like the year 3000? Like, no.

Ben Hurlburt (05:45.186)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (05:47.959)
And I think one night you abandoned all of your husband duties and you just went, yeah, you're like, I'm gonna prove that this can happen. So tell us that story.

Ben Hurlburt (06:02.424)
So I think we were just sitting there watching, my wife, Makayla and I were sitting there watching some movie and I just, don't know, I just, the entire day I was sitting there thinking like, I swear I can pull this off. Like, this isn't going to be that hard. And the movie didn't really, and the movie didn't really have me locked in. So I was like, yo, you cool if I just like look at this for like five minutes or something, Makayla? She was like, yeah, as long as it's only five minutes. And then it-

Nick Clason (06:14.074)
It's gotta be a way, yeah.

Nick Clason (06:26.611)
And five minutes turned into what?

Ben Hurlburt (06:28.93)
Five hours. yeah, so I just basically started doing some research online, trying to like find a way because like, I'll be so honest, like I can't like generate code. Like I wouldn't know the first thing about any of that. Like I'm a sport management major for God sakes. But yeah.

Nick Clason (06:48.221)
and a worship leader and a youth pastor. Like, we don't know what we're doing, yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (06:52.398)
Expertise is not in that field. you know, so I was like, you know, I know what I need though. Like I can see the app in my head, like digital native. Like I know what this thing needs. So I was like, let's just see if one of these like AI app like things work. AI app generator things works. And it did. Base 44, dude. It was insane. I just started cooking like just.

Nick Clason (07:11.884)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (07:20.832)
like create like four different tabs like make sure that like each one has this specific function. I even you even get a like color designer I was like yo this is great for the graphic design I'm part of my part of my brain I scratched that itch so yeah I mean

Nick Clason (07:37.143)
Now, bass, bass 44, is it free or is there a free version of it or how like, yeah, so talk about that a little bit.

Ben Hurlburt (07:42.016)
No.

Ben Hurlburt (07:45.902)
I think there is a free version of it. The only problem is, and there were a couple of important things, is once you create the app, it's not like something you can download on the App Store. It's weird what the definition of app is, at least in my head, considering I'm thinking of the App Store. But it's everything is like, it's more so of a website than it is actually like an app as we would think it. So part of the reason that like,

Nick Clason (07:57.569)
Right.

Nick Clason (08:10.987)
Yeah, yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (08:15.948)
I felt the need to have to pay for it is that the URL might not remain in your possession.

And it could be in the middle of the game, right? Like somebody else that is on base 44 with the subscription could come up with the URL or just anybody who creates a URL in general. could be taken. So I was like, nah, we have to pay for that. That alone is worth it. And the other one is you could give it more prompts. It opens to more statistics things.

Nick Clason (08:54.347)
Mm-hmm.

Ben Hurlburt (08:57.644)
like being able to analyze like actually how the app is performing as opposed to just like typing in what I would like for it to do.

Nick Clason (09:04.617)
Yeah, and I think too, if I remember right, you were able to build it and you were able to see it, but then in order to allow others in it or something like that, like we needed to unlock it behind some sort of paywall, which I think, mean, like for example, I think the cost was in the realm of like 20 something dollars, right? So like.

Ben Hurlburt (09:27.921)
right yeah

Nick Clason (09:30.389)
And we use this for three days, like the same length of like a winter retreat or like a D-NOW or like a summer camp. So if this was something that A, you you allowed your students to have phones and most of them did have phones, but then B, you had that same amount of time, like you could unlock it for just a couple of dollars, right? 20 bucks, whatever. And then use Ben's prompt, which I've included link in the description. Go check it out if you want to go grab it, to build something.

you with your, you and you tweak it for yourself with your own context and whatever in mind, but like, build something for $20 that's custom that can be used exclusively by your people. Like Ben said, it wasn't like an app store app, but it was like a web app. Right. And so you just, yeah. you sit in it, like there was some, glitched a little, but bro, I mean, people used it. Like some people were absolutely like spamming this game, like the entire conference. Like every time I checked it, there was activity. It was.

Ben Hurlburt (10:11.404)
It works really well.

Nick Clason (10:26.775)
And it was a really fun way to infuse a little bit of life, right? Because not everyone at the conference used it. I think that's the other thing was like, if you wanted to do something like this, could maybe let students sign up for it and only the ones signed up are playing it. And it just happens in the background. You do the rest of your programming for your Dean hour, your winter retreat, and whoever has the phone or whoever is able to or.

Ben Hurlburt (10:33.346)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (10:52.053)
your student leadership team or your staff or like there's all kinds of different adaptations because that's we had church planters and other pastors and we didn't invite them or even let them know that it was happening unless they saw us like take our phone out and like sneak behind a wall to try and take a picture. So it's a great way to build camaraderie with a smaller subset of people you know if that's something you want to do and that's that's exactly what happened like in our context.

Ben Hurlburt (11:17.388)
Yeah, no, it was honestly a lot of fun. I think some of the glitches came from stuff that you could probably take care of in person, like Nick was talking about. one of the worst things was that in my head I was like, yo, I don't know if somebody fully gets that.

participating in this app means that somebody could take a picture of you at any point in time. And I was like, I don't want to get any invasion of privacy. Like that wouldn't be great. so I had this, like, you had to opt in button and whenever like,

Nick Clason (11:45.909)
Right.

Ben Hurlburt (11:52.782)
Sometimes it wouldn't, like it couldn't click. One of our friends, Miranda's phone, it just wouldn't scroll down to be able to click opt-in because of the version of her iPhone was a little bit older. something like that though, that I did on the app could have totally been something that in person, if your students are playing it, you can just have them be like, yo, I'm like.

by agreeing to play this game like I'm just gonna happen. Another thing too is, and this was probably the best thing about this app, and I know I was thinking of just for adults, but for students could also be a thing. You can program the app to shut down.

at certain times of day. And I didn't really test it out a lot, I mean, just given what it was capable of, might even be, you might even be able to like geo locate where the app is functioning. At a minimum, you have control over when the app is up, when the app is down, you can just shut it off. And you know, you have like, just like a kill switch at all points in time, which is like housed through like your base 44, like,

like home site. So like if you don't want your kids playing that once they've left the church, like they won't if you make that call. So yeah.

Nick Clason (13:08.288)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (13:18.359)
Yeah. And like, and then just for, for everyone else's sake, like here's how we put the rules in, right? Like here are the rules that we tried to operate by. So it was a three day conference, then put like a start, a start and stop time on those three days. Uh, so that people weren't like getting tagged at home, which I don't know that anyone in our staff would have done that, but you never know. People get crazy. Um, we said,

Ben Hurlburt (13:26.382)
you

Ben Hurlburt (13:43.266)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:46.071)
We said you were not allowed to play the game during main sessions or breakouts, so main content times. And the other thing that was cool was you could report a photo. if I took a picture of you while you're leading worship, for example, someone can report that and negate the points that it would have given to that team because...

Ben Hurlburt (13:54.051)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (14:01.512)
Okay, I can do that,

Nick Clason (14:12.683)
they were doing it outside of the boundaries. And so that was another thing was there was like a self regular, or not like a self, but like a team regulation, right? Kind of woven into the app. And again, Ben wrote all that into the code or into the prompt there. And so, and then we also said like bathrooms and offices were off limits. So you had like your safe zone, which remember like our team, like our students team, like all, how many are there? Six of us? We were all playing and we were all just like,

Ben Hurlburt (14:38.893)
Thanks a lot.

Nick Clason (14:41.895)
hold up in our own offices because we were all killing each other. And so we all just like went to our office to like gain safety. And then like I'd like be walking to the bathroom, like holding my phone like at people so that like they wouldn't like take pictures of me. And like one time I came out of the bathroom and like our resident and intern, they like used it against me. Like the resident was like, Hey, can you come here and look at this for a second? And so like I walked towards him and then the intern was like behind me and like

Ben Hurlburt (14:46.167)
I'm

Nick Clason (15:11.905)
got me taking a picture or got a picture of me. Like those two turds, totally got me. And then I think was the last one was you couldn't be looking at the camera.

Ben Hurlburt (15:17.57)
Yes. Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (15:23.498)
you can't be like, you can't be looking at either the person taking the photo or I mean, they're right there or the camera.

Nick Clason (15:29.289)
Yeah, so you can basically have a shield if you look at if someone's trying to take a picture of you you catch them with your eyeballs like that doesn't count.

Ben Hurlburt (15:38.018)
Yeah, it wouldn't be any fun if like you and I were just like sitting here like talking and just like taking a picture of the whole time. Yeah, but I will say like one thing that like I know that assassin is like really really popular. One thing I do like about sniper apparent like opposed to assassin is that once you're out an assassin like

Nick Clason (15:42.436)
Spamming each other with pictures. Yeah, exactly

Ben Hurlburt (15:59.968)
unless like someone like brings you back to life or some weird like immunity thing happens like you're out. And like I remember playing Assassin in college twice and one time I made it pretty far but the first time like I had like a friend that get let into my house like on the first day and I was just like well I was so excited to play this and now like like

Nick Clason (16:06.251)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (16:21.537)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (16:22.892)
dead like there's nothing I can do so like I would say that sniper gives you the opportunity like kids keep playing like and I get it I'm telling you it got competitive at work like the younger people on staff were going crazy over this thing so yeah

Nick Clason (16:31.446)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (16:41.471)
Yeah. Yeah. It was super fun. agree. Anything else that you learned that you would maybe do differently or any words of wisdom if anyone were to try to take your prompt and put in base 44, either on the creating of the app side of things or just the gameplay side of things that maybe we discovered throughout the game. We'll make an adjustment on this next year if we did it or something like that.

Ben Hurlburt (17:09.098)
well, the first thing is that prompt that like you're going to get is like the initial starting prompt. likely if you're going to want to go a certain direction with it, you, you might need to add some tweaks. I can't remember everything that's in it right now. but like,

There's a lot that that is in it, but you will inevitably need to make some changes make some tweaks In order to like get this thing up and running so in some way it's definitely like it's it's yours like you created it but one thing I would say is like put yourself and Like the best Jesse Eisenberg social network

Nick Clason (17:37.078)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (17:53.71)
programming mindset that you can for two hours and then just never flip back into it and whatever you come up with will be a really great game, really great product. So, yeah.

Nick Clason (18:04.043)
Yeah, I will say one thing that was helpful for us, I felt like on all sides, gameplay sides and administratively keeping score was we forced people, remember we forced people to use their actual name as their handle rather than like Dragonslayer17 because if you're Dragonslayer17, but I have no clue that that's your name, I can't know to tag you. And so you don't have to do that, but that was something that I...

Ben Hurlburt (18:14.465)
You

Ben Hurlburt (18:20.278)
That's right.

Thank

Nick Clason (18:33.463)
I required them, I was like, if you don't use your actual name as your handle, I won't give you points because I'm not gonna be able to chase down everyone's hair, brain, screen name that they come up with, you know, from their AOL instant messenger days.

Ben Hurlburt (18:46.917)
Yeah, I just remembered like a whole side of this whenever like we had it so that

When you took the picture of somebody, can't just like take a picture and upload it. You have to be able to tag them. Like there's a drop down. You can type into it and pull up somebody's like, like account name. But the fun thing to it that I felt like we could have dived into more. And I don't know if other people did was I had a whole social media function to it. as opposed to like the picture just going in and just registering as a point.

Nick Clason (18:59.797)
Right.

Nick Clason (19:20.726)
Right.

Ben Hurlburt (19:21.644)
kind of went into this Instagram-esque feed where other people, that was where you could report the post, where we like talked about that. But you could also like comment on them if they were funny, you could like them, react to them. And I thought that was a cool way to like keep people ingrained, especially given how much people on social media anyway, so.

Nick Clason (19:28.289)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (19:42.815)
Yeah, no doubt. And that, yeah, you're right. I would, that's where I'd log in and I'd be like, Holy smokes. Like Eli and Miranda have been like doing nothing but playing this game. So.

Ben Hurlburt (19:50.392)
Right.

Yeah, that's what I'm doing.

Nick Clason (19:55.553)
But shout out to them. So all right, anything else? Anything else that we're missing before we cut people loose to go make this game for themselves?

Ben Hurlburt (19:57.688)
Yeah.

Ben Hurlburt (20:04.312)
I'm sure there are, if it feels intimidating, don't.

Just, mean, honestly, Base 44, it was so easy. Like I, and if it didn't do what I wanted it to do, I'd be like, you didn't do what I wanted you to do. Try it again. like it, 95 % of the time that fixed the problem. So it was, it was so user friendly. It's chat GPT, but it makes an app for you. So it, mean, we're not paid, this isn't a sponsor, but I would totally use base 44. It was so simple.

Nick Clason (20:35.637)
Yeah, and Bass44, if you're listening, sponsor us.

Ben Hurlburt (20:39.214)
That would be great.

Nick Clason (20:40.439)
All right, everyone. Well, until next time, and as always, Ben, thanks for being here. See you guys soon.

Ben Hurlburt (20:46.702)
See you guys!

]]> Episode 185: This Disney Trip Accidentally Gave Me My Best Camp Game Ever https://www.hybridministry.xyz/185 c71a6145-3033-4802-b80e-4a9a800e039d Thu, 22 Jan 2026 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 185 This Disney Trip Accidentally Gave Me My Best Camp Game Ever full Nick Clason I stumbled into this camp idea, and I'm going to give it to you today! How I discovered it, what I've done that's worked, and how you can adapt it for your context. This is a great Winter Retreat, Summer Camp or D-Now game concept that runs in the background of your student ministry event! 9:25 no I stumbled into this camp idea, and I'm going to give it to you today! How I discovered it, what I've done that's worked, and how you can adapt it for your context. This is a great Winter Retreat, Summer Camp or D-Now game concept that runs in the background of your student ministry event! My Game Cheat Sheet: https://www.patreon.com/posts/object-hunt-146629811?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/185 ❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry DONUT BRACKET VIDEO: https://youtu.be/5ryhkIRyDb4?si=HGPeqL4k03WGceod 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 The Accidental Disney Game 00:28 How we stumbled into this… 01:29 How to Play 05:27 Cheat Sheet 06:13 Winter Social Media 07:04 My Recommendations -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00;00;00;10 - 00;00;25;42 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I was at Disney with my family, and every single day my wife and kids, we were obsessed with finding this one hidden thing somewhere littered all throughout our resort. And halfway through the shift, I realized that this would be a perfect camp, winter retreat or D now game option and make sure that you stick around to the end of this video, because I'm going to share with you a cheat sheet so that you can win at this in your context. 00;00;25;50 - 00;00;46;02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Welcome, everybody, to the Hybrid Ministership. So like I said there, I was at Disney and they had this like niche like almost like hard to figure out. Like the orange bird. Like, you know, I'm talking about you'll see here on screen if you're watching here on YouTube, they had this thing hidden just like a printed out like cutout of this of this bird. 00;00;46;07 - 00;01;04;34 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you had to find it every day, and then you'd return to, like, the activity center. And all you would do is you tell them where you found them. And the first day they gave you, like a little prize for finding it. But they redid it every single day. And about halfway through the trip, I was sitting there thinking to myself, you know what? 00;01;04;39 - 00;01;31;01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This would make an amazing camp game. And I actually put that application to the test. But here's what made this idea work in student ministry, right? The anticipation, obviously, like, where am I going to find it the next day? Plus, it's an easy, low hanging opportunity to engage kids who might be bored during free time. So let me explain this game to all right. 00;01;31;01 - 00;01;50;21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we'll do a side by side comparison. So at Disney you needed to find some sort of object. Obviously as I said it was the orange bird for them. But in our ministry context we actually have like a a designed platypus. His name is Pugsley the platypus. And this was designed just by an illustrator that we found on Fiverr. 00;01;50;21 - 00;02;09;09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'll link his details down below if you want to check out his work. But he designed this for us. And so we get these little custom pins with the different like design adaptation printed for all of our different like events throughout the year. So he'd make us like a custom one for for camping. But you know, you're able to lean in pretty hard with different platypus stuff. 00;02;09;09 - 00;02;29;56 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like here's some some cards that we have made in the artwork, and you can just get random like platypus designs of stuffed animals. Of course, there's there's Perry the Platypus and they got all sorts of like Perry the Platypus merch and mugs. And so we've leaned in really hard with the platypus being our mascot, which linked right here at the top of the video, I explained these bracket style ideas talk about in that video. 00;02;29;57 - 00;02;51;19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Donuts have done Christmas brackets. We did a bracket on voting on the best mascot, and so it landed on on a platypus. And we've leaned in and over all the years. And so for us, we hid just a card like a cutout of our platypus Pugsley. All throughout camp, we've even done it in different moments, like, all throughout, like our midweek as well. 00;02;51;24 - 00;03;11;15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The rule, though, for this game is that it's very simple. One new spot once per day. So in Disney, they'd hide it somewhere along the property near the resort like clubhouse area, and we'd have to go find it like the day we found it. I think the picture you see here on screen, it was in the laundry room like we had we we were looking for hours for this thing at camp. 00;03;11;15 - 00;03;25;12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Same concept. We just hide it. New spot every single day. And you can lean into this as much as you want. You can make it a big deal and send all the kids out to find it. First one to find it wins, or you can just have it kind of playing in the background, which is what I like to do. 00;03;25;17 - 00;03;47;00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Just have it rotating through your announcement slides, reminding them that it's an option. As well as giving them like reminders, maybe in like their little notebooks or something, and then just giving them a few extra, incentives or bonus points or prizes to find it. So what happens if you do find it if you win, right. So at Disney they gave us like a button, you know, imagine like a politician running for office. 00;03;47;15 - 00;04;03;48 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then every day you could put a new sticker on your button indicating that you found it the next day until you got all the stickers filled up on your button. Assuming that you stayed at Disney for those amount of days at camp, we gave like a little stamp in the camp book, so it was like the Monday. 00;04;03;53 - 00;04;25;17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Did you find this, this thing on Monday? Did you find this thing on Tuesday? Did you find this thing on on, you know, Wednesday. And here's the hack. Okay. The hack is if you have some sort of like, merch table, first aid station or Lost and Found that's manned by a volunteer. So like, we have an entire, like, team of rec people, that run all of our rec and then also help us, like sell t shirts and merch at our merch table. 00;04;25;31 - 00;04;46;50 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we just say, bring, a picture or explain where you found the the platypus at the merch table, and we'll give you some sort of reward for it. Here's why this scales and works well, not just at Disney like it did for us, right? It it's an easy thing to do if you're not at a park that day for whatever reason, and you're just having an extra resort day. 00;04;46;50 - 00;05;05;27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But here's why this works at camps, dinos retreats, summer camps. Because you know that if you give your your kids a big bucket of free time, you might have different things like Gaga ball nine square in there, basketball tournaments and all those types of things. But you might also have kids who just aren't really interested in participating in those things. 00;05;05;27 - 00;05;27;20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this will give you an opportunity to help, give them something else to do. It's not athletic, it's not active. But it still is. At least like it brings about the anticipation. And it gives them a task to do with their friends to work together, and still stay engaged in some of the stuff that you're offering at your youth retreat, summer camp denial or winter retreat. 00;05;27;20 - 00;05;43;43 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this works whether you're at your church, whether you're at a camp, or even like a rented retreat space. And I'm actually going to give you a cheat sheet, it's going to be linked down below. As I said at the beginning, and I'm going to give you a variety of gameplay options, as well as a list and a slew of prize options as well. 00;05;43;43 - 00;06;01;37 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But first, here's the thing. You know, you come together. You found this YouTube video. You're on track to create an amazing winter retreat, an amazing camp, an amazing dinner. But you're still busy because you show up Monday morning. And once you've already posted your recap, slideshow, or video of the event, you're still scrambling to try to figure out what you're going to do on social media. 00;06;01;37 - 00;06;27;25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well, here the Hybrid ministry show we have a solution for the busy youth pastor. In fact, a couple months ago I was as busy as I've ever been, and I put my seasonal social media pack to the test. Here's what I found out. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a man. 00;06;27;31 - 00;06;48;06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. 00;06;48;06 - 00;07;09;31 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. But mine will at least keep you moving in the right direction. So as I said, you can get a lot of these in the description down below, with the cheat sheet. 00;07;09;31 - 00;07;27;38 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But like if you were to play this at a summer camp, my recommendation would be create a new daily hiding spot for your thing every single day. But if you are like a winter retreat, say it's only like three days long. Then maybe especially on your middle day. Like, say it's a Saturday, maybe at noon. Have a break and create a new hiding spot for it. 00;07;27;38 - 00;07;46;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So there's four opportunities to find your hidden object. And, you know, here's the thing. Like maybe consider adding that as a note in your schedule. Like object will be hidden in a new location starting after lunch on this day. And you can put a little note or little sticker on the on the lanyard schedule or on your notebook schedule. 00;07;46;10 - 00;08;06;37 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you're in a dinner type situation, I would, make it similar to that as well. Like ask them or let them know, like when you're going to be hiding it and maybe putting it in in different locations at different times so that you can have them find it in more, more moments than just 1 or 2 spots per day, like a camp, you can do one per day, but maybe the deny you need to live in it up a bit. 00;08;06;37 - 00;08;21;41 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And, you know, here's the fact you can actually even include an idea like this, like your weekly youth group gathering. So every single Sunday or every single Wednesday when students show up, your, object is hidden in a new place and you need to create a little bit of infrastructure, like, what do you do if you find it, what do you get if you find it? 00;08;21;41 - 00;08;38;24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what can you create that's sustainable in the long run? That would actually keep people interested in something like that. I have all sorts of different price ideas, as well as links in art linked down below in the description in the show notes. Check that out and hopefully it's helpful to you. Maybe something. I'm not just here to sell things. 00;08;38;24 - 00;08;55;15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I actually want to help. If you want your ministry to feel alive. Between the big events, between the dinners in the winter, retreats, in the summer camps like this, hybrid stuff matters, which quick personal plug. I'm not over here trying to get rich off of any of this. In fact, if that were my goal, I would be failing miserably. 00;08;55;15 - 00;09;19;25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But I'm a real life boots on the ground youth pastor who who runs a youth ministry on a day to day basis. In my own context. And like I said, I have created resources that would be helpful and beneficial to me that I've used, and I just want to give them back to you. And so if you're interested in figuring out how to continue to to stay alive and post on a regular basis in your youth ministry, then check out, this channel, subscribe, like, share it with a friend. 00;09;19;34 - 00;09;24;29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But until next time, my friends. And as always, I just want to remind you to not forget to stay hybrid. youth group game, camp game ideas, youth ministry, retreat games, DNOW activities, summer camp game, winter retreat game, youth pastors, student ministry, easy camp games, church camp activities, youth group activities, interactive games for teens, church game ideas, youth group fun, ministry resources, youth engagement ideas, small group games, student leader games, church youth event, low prep games, teen ministry activities, summer camp ideas, winter camp activities, ministry training, youth leader tips I stumbled into this camp idea, and I'm going to give it to you today!
How I discovered it, what I've done that's worked, and how you can adapt it for your context.
This is a great Winter Retreat, Summer Camp or D-Now game concept that runs in the background of your student ministry event!

My Game Cheat Sheet:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/object-hunt-146629811?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/185

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

HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

DONUT BRACKET VIDEO:
https://youtu.be/5ryhkIRyDb4?si=HGPeqL4k03WGceod

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Accidental Disney Game
00:28 How we stumbled into this…
01:29 How to Play
05:27 Cheat Sheet
06:13 Winter Social Media
07:04 My Recommendations

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;10 - 00;00;25;42
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I was at Disney with my family, and every single day my wife and kids, we were obsessed with finding this one hidden thing somewhere littered all throughout our resort. And halfway through the shift, I realized that this would be a perfect camp, winter retreat or D now game option and make sure that you stick around to the end of this video, because I'm going to share with you a cheat sheet so that you can win at this in your context.

00;00;25;50 - 00;00;46;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, everybody, to the Hybrid Ministership. So like I said there, I was at Disney and they had this like niche like almost like hard to figure out. Like the orange bird. Like, you know, I'm talking about you'll see here on screen if you're watching here on YouTube, they had this thing hidden just like a printed out like cutout of this of this bird.

00;00;46;07 - 00;01;04;34
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you had to find it every day, and then you'd return to, like, the activity center. And all you would do is you tell them where you found them. And the first day they gave you, like a little prize for finding it. But they redid it every single day. And about halfway through the trip, I was sitting there thinking to myself, you know what?

00;01;04;39 - 00;01;31;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This would make an amazing camp game. And I actually put that application to the test. But here's what made this idea work in student ministry, right? The anticipation, obviously, like, where am I going to find it the next day? Plus, it's an easy, low hanging opportunity to engage kids who might be bored during free time. So let me explain this game to all right.

00;01;31;01 - 00;01;50;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we'll do a side by side comparison. So at Disney you needed to find some sort of object. Obviously as I said it was the orange bird for them. But in our ministry context we actually have like a a designed platypus. His name is Pugsley the platypus. And this was designed just by an illustrator that we found on Fiverr.

00;01;50;21 - 00;02;09;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'll link his details down below if you want to check out his work. But he designed this for us. And so we get these little custom pins with the different like design adaptation printed for all of our different like events throughout the year. So he'd make us like a custom one for for camping. But you know, you're able to lean in pretty hard with different platypus stuff.

00;02;09;09 - 00;02;29;56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like here's some some cards that we have made in the artwork, and you can just get random like platypus designs of stuffed animals. Of course, there's there's Perry the Platypus and they got all sorts of like Perry the Platypus merch and mugs. And so we've leaned in really hard with the platypus being our mascot, which linked right here at the top of the video, I explained these bracket style ideas talk about in that video.

00;02;29;57 - 00;02;51;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Donuts have done Christmas brackets. We did a bracket on voting on the best mascot, and so it landed on on a platypus. And we've leaned in and over all the years. And so for us, we hid just a card like a cutout of our platypus Pugsley. All throughout camp, we've even done it in different moments, like, all throughout, like our midweek as well.

00;02;51;24 - 00;03;11;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The rule, though, for this game is that it's very simple. One new spot once per day. So in Disney, they'd hide it somewhere along the property near the resort like clubhouse area, and we'd have to go find it like the day we found it. I think the picture you see here on screen, it was in the laundry room like we had we we were looking for hours for this thing at camp.

00;03;11;15 - 00;03;25;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Same concept. We just hide it. New spot every single day. And you can lean into this as much as you want. You can make it a big deal and send all the kids out to find it. First one to find it wins, or you can just have it kind of playing in the background, which is what I like to do.

00;03;25;17 - 00;03;47;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just have it rotating through your announcement slides, reminding them that it's an option. As well as giving them like reminders, maybe in like their little notebooks or something, and then just giving them a few extra, incentives or bonus points or prizes to find it. So what happens if you do find it if you win, right. So at Disney they gave us like a button, you know, imagine like a politician running for office.

00;03;47;15 - 00;04;03;48
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then every day you could put a new sticker on your button indicating that you found it the next day until you got all the stickers filled up on your button. Assuming that you stayed at Disney for those amount of days at camp, we gave like a little stamp in the camp book, so it was like the Monday.

00;04;03;53 - 00;04;25;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Did you find this, this thing on Monday? Did you find this thing on Tuesday? Did you find this thing on on, you know, Wednesday. And here's the hack. Okay. The hack is if you have some sort of like, merch table, first aid station or Lost and Found that's manned by a volunteer. So like, we have an entire, like, team of rec people, that run all of our rec and then also help us, like sell t shirts and merch at our merch table.

00;04;25;31 - 00;04;46;50
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we just say, bring, a picture or explain where you found the the platypus at the merch table, and we'll give you some sort of reward for it. Here's why this scales and works well, not just at Disney like it did for us, right? It it's an easy thing to do if you're not at a park that day for whatever reason, and you're just having an extra resort day.

00;04;46;50 - 00;05;05;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's why this works at camps, dinos retreats, summer camps. Because you know that if you give your your kids a big bucket of free time, you might have different things like Gaga ball nine square in there, basketball tournaments and all those types of things. But you might also have kids who just aren't really interested in participating in those things.

00;05;05;27 - 00;05;27;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this will give you an opportunity to help, give them something else to do. It's not athletic, it's not active. But it still is. At least like it brings about the anticipation. And it gives them a task to do with their friends to work together, and still stay engaged in some of the stuff that you're offering at your youth retreat, summer camp denial or winter retreat.

00;05;27;20 - 00;05;43;43
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this works whether you're at your church, whether you're at a camp, or even like a rented retreat space. And I'm actually going to give you a cheat sheet, it's going to be linked down below. As I said at the beginning, and I'm going to give you a variety of gameplay options, as well as a list and a slew of prize options as well.

00;05;43;43 - 00;06;01;37
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But first, here's the thing. You know, you come together. You found this YouTube video. You're on track to create an amazing winter retreat, an amazing camp, an amazing dinner. But you're still busy because you show up Monday morning. And once you've already posted your recap, slideshow, or video of the event, you're still scrambling to try to figure out what you're going to do on social media.

00;06;01;37 - 00;06;27;25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, here the Hybrid ministry show we have a solution for the busy youth pastor. In fact, a couple months ago I was as busy as I've ever been, and I put my seasonal social media pack to the test. Here's what I found out. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a man.

00;06;27;31 - 00;06;48;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do.

00;06;48;06 - 00;07;09;31
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. But mine will at least keep you moving in the right direction. So as I said, you can get a lot of these in the description down below, with the cheat sheet.

00;07;09;31 - 00;07;27;38
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like if you were to play this at a summer camp, my recommendation would be create a new daily hiding spot for your thing every single day. But if you are like a winter retreat, say it's only like three days long. Then maybe especially on your middle day. Like, say it's a Saturday, maybe at noon. Have a break and create a new hiding spot for it.

00;07;27;38 - 00;07;46;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So there's four opportunities to find your hidden object. And, you know, here's the thing. Like maybe consider adding that as a note in your schedule. Like object will be hidden in a new location starting after lunch on this day. And you can put a little note or little sticker on the on the lanyard schedule or on your notebook schedule.

00;07;46;10 - 00;08;06;37
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're in a dinner type situation, I would, make it similar to that as well. Like ask them or let them know, like when you're going to be hiding it and maybe putting it in in different locations at different times so that you can have them find it in more, more moments than just 1 or 2 spots per day, like a camp, you can do one per day, but maybe the deny you need to live in it up a bit.

00;08;06;37 - 00;08;21;41
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, you know, here's the fact you can actually even include an idea like this, like your weekly youth group gathering. So every single Sunday or every single Wednesday when students show up, your, object is hidden in a new place and you need to create a little bit of infrastructure, like, what do you do if you find it, what do you get if you find it?

00;08;21;41 - 00;08;38;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what can you create that's sustainable in the long run? That would actually keep people interested in something like that. I have all sorts of different price ideas, as well as links in art linked down below in the description in the show notes. Check that out and hopefully it's helpful to you. Maybe something. I'm not just here to sell things.

00;08;38;24 - 00;08;55;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I actually want to help. If you want your ministry to feel alive. Between the big events, between the dinners in the winter, retreats, in the summer camps like this, hybrid stuff matters, which quick personal plug. I'm not over here trying to get rich off of any of this. In fact, if that were my goal, I would be failing miserably.

00;08;55;15 - 00;09;19;25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I'm a real life boots on the ground youth pastor who who runs a youth ministry on a day to day basis. In my own context. And like I said, I have created resources that would be helpful and beneficial to me that I've used, and I just want to give them back to you. And so if you're interested in figuring out how to continue to to stay alive and post on a regular basis in your youth ministry, then check out, this channel, subscribe, like, share it with a friend.

00;09;19;34 - 00;09;24;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But until next time, my friends. And as always, I just want to remind you to not forget to stay hybrid.

]]> I stumbled into this camp idea, and I'm going to give it to you today!
How I discovered it, what I've done that's worked, and how you can adapt it for your context.
This is a great Winter Retreat, Summer Camp or D-Now game concept that runs in the background of your student ministry event!

My Game Cheat Sheet:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/object-hunt-146629811?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/185

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

HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

DONUT BRACKET VIDEO:
https://youtu.be/5ryhkIRyDb4?si=HGPeqL4k03WGceod

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Accidental Disney Game
00:28 How we stumbled into this…
01:29 How to Play
05:27 Cheat Sheet
06:13 Winter Social Media
07:04 My Recommendations

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TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;10 - 00;00;25;42
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I was at Disney with my family, and every single day my wife and kids, we were obsessed with finding this one hidden thing somewhere littered all throughout our resort. And halfway through the shift, I realized that this would be a perfect camp, winter retreat or D now game option and make sure that you stick around to the end of this video, because I'm going to share with you a cheat sheet so that you can win at this in your context.

00;00;25;50 - 00;00;46;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, everybody, to the Hybrid Ministership. So like I said there, I was at Disney and they had this like niche like almost like hard to figure out. Like the orange bird. Like, you know, I'm talking about you'll see here on screen if you're watching here on YouTube, they had this thing hidden just like a printed out like cutout of this of this bird.

00;00;46;07 - 00;01;04;34
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you had to find it every day, and then you'd return to, like, the activity center. And all you would do is you tell them where you found them. And the first day they gave you, like a little prize for finding it. But they redid it every single day. And about halfway through the trip, I was sitting there thinking to myself, you know what?

00;01;04;39 - 00;01;31;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This would make an amazing camp game. And I actually put that application to the test. But here's what made this idea work in student ministry, right? The anticipation, obviously, like, where am I going to find it the next day? Plus, it's an easy, low hanging opportunity to engage kids who might be bored during free time. So let me explain this game to all right.

00;01;31;01 - 00;01;50;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we'll do a side by side comparison. So at Disney you needed to find some sort of object. Obviously as I said it was the orange bird for them. But in our ministry context we actually have like a a designed platypus. His name is Pugsley the platypus. And this was designed just by an illustrator that we found on Fiverr.

00;01;50;21 - 00;02;09;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'll link his details down below if you want to check out his work. But he designed this for us. And so we get these little custom pins with the different like design adaptation printed for all of our different like events throughout the year. So he'd make us like a custom one for for camping. But you know, you're able to lean in pretty hard with different platypus stuff.

00;02;09;09 - 00;02;29;56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like here's some some cards that we have made in the artwork, and you can just get random like platypus designs of stuffed animals. Of course, there's there's Perry the Platypus and they got all sorts of like Perry the Platypus merch and mugs. And so we've leaned in really hard with the platypus being our mascot, which linked right here at the top of the video, I explained these bracket style ideas talk about in that video.

00;02;29;57 - 00;02;51;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Donuts have done Christmas brackets. We did a bracket on voting on the best mascot, and so it landed on on a platypus. And we've leaned in and over all the years. And so for us, we hid just a card like a cutout of our platypus Pugsley. All throughout camp, we've even done it in different moments, like, all throughout, like our midweek as well.

00;02;51;24 - 00;03;11;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The rule, though, for this game is that it's very simple. One new spot once per day. So in Disney, they'd hide it somewhere along the property near the resort like clubhouse area, and we'd have to go find it like the day we found it. I think the picture you see here on screen, it was in the laundry room like we had we we were looking for hours for this thing at camp.

00;03;11;15 - 00;03;25;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Same concept. We just hide it. New spot every single day. And you can lean into this as much as you want. You can make it a big deal and send all the kids out to find it. First one to find it wins, or you can just have it kind of playing in the background, which is what I like to do.

00;03;25;17 - 00;03;47;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just have it rotating through your announcement slides, reminding them that it's an option. As well as giving them like reminders, maybe in like their little notebooks or something, and then just giving them a few extra, incentives or bonus points or prizes to find it. So what happens if you do find it if you win, right. So at Disney they gave us like a button, you know, imagine like a politician running for office.

00;03;47;15 - 00;04;03;48
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then every day you could put a new sticker on your button indicating that you found it the next day until you got all the stickers filled up on your button. Assuming that you stayed at Disney for those amount of days at camp, we gave like a little stamp in the camp book, so it was like the Monday.

00;04;03;53 - 00;04;25;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Did you find this, this thing on Monday? Did you find this thing on Tuesday? Did you find this thing on on, you know, Wednesday. And here's the hack. Okay. The hack is if you have some sort of like, merch table, first aid station or Lost and Found that's manned by a volunteer. So like, we have an entire, like, team of rec people, that run all of our rec and then also help us, like sell t shirts and merch at our merch table.

00;04;25;31 - 00;04;46;50
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we just say, bring, a picture or explain where you found the the platypus at the merch table, and we'll give you some sort of reward for it. Here's why this scales and works well, not just at Disney like it did for us, right? It it's an easy thing to do if you're not at a park that day for whatever reason, and you're just having an extra resort day.

00;04;46;50 - 00;05;05;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's why this works at camps, dinos retreats, summer camps. Because you know that if you give your your kids a big bucket of free time, you might have different things like Gaga ball nine square in there, basketball tournaments and all those types of things. But you might also have kids who just aren't really interested in participating in those things.

00;05;05;27 - 00;05;27;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this will give you an opportunity to help, give them something else to do. It's not athletic, it's not active. But it still is. At least like it brings about the anticipation. And it gives them a task to do with their friends to work together, and still stay engaged in some of the stuff that you're offering at your youth retreat, summer camp denial or winter retreat.

00;05;27;20 - 00;05;43;43
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this works whether you're at your church, whether you're at a camp, or even like a rented retreat space. And I'm actually going to give you a cheat sheet, it's going to be linked down below. As I said at the beginning, and I'm going to give you a variety of gameplay options, as well as a list and a slew of prize options as well.

00;05;43;43 - 00;06;01;37
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But first, here's the thing. You know, you come together. You found this YouTube video. You're on track to create an amazing winter retreat, an amazing camp, an amazing dinner. But you're still busy because you show up Monday morning. And once you've already posted your recap, slideshow, or video of the event, you're still scrambling to try to figure out what you're going to do on social media.

00;06;01;37 - 00;06;27;25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, here the Hybrid ministry show we have a solution for the busy youth pastor. In fact, a couple months ago I was as busy as I've ever been, and I put my seasonal social media pack to the test. Here's what I found out. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a man.

00;06;27;31 - 00;06;48;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do.

00;06;48;06 - 00;07;09;31
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. But mine will at least keep you moving in the right direction. So as I said, you can get a lot of these in the description down below, with the cheat sheet.

00;07;09;31 - 00;07;27;38
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like if you were to play this at a summer camp, my recommendation would be create a new daily hiding spot for your thing every single day. But if you are like a winter retreat, say it's only like three days long. Then maybe especially on your middle day. Like, say it's a Saturday, maybe at noon. Have a break and create a new hiding spot for it.

00;07;27;38 - 00;07;46;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So there's four opportunities to find your hidden object. And, you know, here's the thing. Like maybe consider adding that as a note in your schedule. Like object will be hidden in a new location starting after lunch on this day. And you can put a little note or little sticker on the on the lanyard schedule or on your notebook schedule.

00;07;46;10 - 00;08;06;37
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're in a dinner type situation, I would, make it similar to that as well. Like ask them or let them know, like when you're going to be hiding it and maybe putting it in in different locations at different times so that you can have them find it in more, more moments than just 1 or 2 spots per day, like a camp, you can do one per day, but maybe the deny you need to live in it up a bit.

00;08;06;37 - 00;08;21;41
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, you know, here's the fact you can actually even include an idea like this, like your weekly youth group gathering. So every single Sunday or every single Wednesday when students show up, your, object is hidden in a new place and you need to create a little bit of infrastructure, like, what do you do if you find it, what do you get if you find it?

00;08;21;41 - 00;08;38;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what can you create that's sustainable in the long run? That would actually keep people interested in something like that. I have all sorts of different price ideas, as well as links in art linked down below in the description in the show notes. Check that out and hopefully it's helpful to you. Maybe something. I'm not just here to sell things.

00;08;38;24 - 00;08;55;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I actually want to help. If you want your ministry to feel alive. Between the big events, between the dinners in the winter, retreats, in the summer camps like this, hybrid stuff matters, which quick personal plug. I'm not over here trying to get rich off of any of this. In fact, if that were my goal, I would be failing miserably.

00;08;55;15 - 00;09;19;25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I'm a real life boots on the ground youth pastor who who runs a youth ministry on a day to day basis. In my own context. And like I said, I have created resources that would be helpful and beneficial to me that I've used, and I just want to give them back to you. And so if you're interested in figuring out how to continue to to stay alive and post on a regular basis in your youth ministry, then check out, this channel, subscribe, like, share it with a friend.

00;09;19;34 - 00;09;24;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But until next time, my friends. And as always, I just want to remind you to not forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 183: Multi-Day Youth Group Game for Winter Retreats & DNows (Rules, Setup, & Free Files) https://www.hybridministry.xyz/183 3472ad85-ae11-45ee-b285-ac8a9748bb23 Thu, 08 Jan 2026 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 183 Multi-Day Youth Group Game for Winter Retreats & DNows (Rules, Setup, & Free Files) full Nick Clason In this special, interview style episode, Nick Clason sits down with Jay Reynolds to discuss a game concept that Jay used for every session during a recent Winter Retreat. This video is just in time for DNow season where you can program games that build over multiple days and can last the duration of your entire winter retreat, summer camp or disciple now event! Jay shares next level expert tips to make sure you win! 29:06 no In this special, interview style episode, Nick Clason sits down with Jay Reynolds to discuss a game concept that Jay used for every session during a recent Winter Retreat. This video is just in time for DNow season where you can program games that build over multiple days and can last the duration of your entire winter retreat, summer camp or disciple now event! Jay shares next level expert tips to make sure you win! BECOME A HYBRID HERO https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/183 THE FLOOR FILES (Courtesy of Jay!) https://www.patreon.com/posts/youth-retreat-147249016?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link FREE E-BOOK https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019 9 FREE GAMES! https://www.patreon.com/posts/142425755 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 -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! 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Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Retreat Games that Extend the whole Weekend 02:21 Exploring the Game Show 'The Floor' 05:17 Adapting 'The Floor' for Retreats 08:07 Randomization and Contestant Selection 10:40 Categories and Audience Participation 12:13 Prizes and Momentum Building 14:17 Logistics and Setup Tips 17:01 Category Hacks 19:43 Did Jay really just do that?! 21:50 Next-Level Set-up Hacks 25:15 Final Thoughts and Encouragement -------------- TRANSCRIPT Nick Clason (00:01.075) Alright, what's up everyone? I'm here with my friend Jay. Jay, how we doing this morning, bro? Jay Reynolds (00:07.379) Man, I'm good, I'm good. It's almost, it's looking like it might want to snow outside. So I might figure out some, hanging in some snow later. Nick Clason (00:15.672) Doesn't snow a lot in Raleigh? Like is that a thing that you deal with very often? Jay Reynolds (00:20.085) No, really never. it basically I'm from the north and I've lived down here if you spill a cup of ice They shut the schools down. It's so it's yeah. It's a big deal around here Nick Clason (00:22.424) Ha Nick Clason (00:28.62) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, mean, certainly that's how it goes in Texas as well. But I'm with you. I'm also from the North. So I know what it was like, but the more years I'm here, like the more I'm forgetting, you know what I mean? Like, I'm like, man, it's cold, you know? And I was back home Thanksgiving, during, you know, in Minnesota in November. It was cold. It was a cold experience. And they're like, you're from here. And I'm like, not anymore. So. Jay Reynolds (00:56.969) Yeah, yeah. My in-laws live in Buffalo, and so I just recently spent Thanksgiving in Buffalo. yeah, 20, know, 24 degrees and a wind blowing feels like, you know, seven, you know? And yeah, so. Nick Clason (00:58.149) Ha ha! Nick Clason (01:02.652) yeah. Nick Clason (01:07.808) Yeah, dude. Well, I appreciate you hopping on. I posted a thing in the DIY and Facebook group asking for like retreat games and things that kind of like you could go back to. And you responded with a comment about like you tried to emulate a game show called The Floor. that what it's called? All right. So for people like me who who don't know what you're talking about, like explain this game show to me like I'm a five year old. Jay Reynolds (01:29.119) yeah, yeah, yeah. Jay Reynolds (01:36.501) Yeah. Okay. Wonderful. So, um, it's a game show. I watch it on Hulu. I don't know which network technically has it. Um, but on Hulu it's, uh, Rob Lowe is the host and it's called the floor. And it's basically, I mean, it's, it's a nice floor setup. It's like all led, whatever. And basically the floors is made up of a hundred boxes. And for the game show, every box, so a hundred people have like their specialty category. Maybe it's like, Star Wars characters, you know, or maybe it's like cereal brands or maybe it's like college football teams in the SEC. I don't know. Like it's just everybody comes with their specialty and what you need to do is you basically challenge somebody, you know, it's like it's randomized, you know, it's one to a hundred and it's like, say it lands on, you know, 49 and say their category is cats, you know, and they get to choose who do they want to challenge. and their box 49 is connected to a bunch of other boxes. And so they basically challenge somebody and let's say they challenge somebody it's bridges. I don't know. I'm just making stuff up here, right? But it's just all random categories and then they go up to the front and they challenge. And what the challenge looks like is there's basically a picture on the screen and they just have to guess what it is. So it's pretty simple kind of trivia. Nick Clason (02:46.264) K-E-A-A. Nick Clason (02:58.071) Hmm. Jay Reynolds (03:00.885) And now in the game show they have like each contestant, know when they're battling they have 45 seconds And so if they're like thinking a lot of time like, you know, what is that? Like their own 45 seconds is kind of like going down on the clock think of like when you play chess There's like that like your own time clock So that's how it's played in the game You know on the game show And when I saw that I was like, man, I think I could play that Nick Clason (03:19.51) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nick Clason (03:24.791) Okay. Jay Reynolds (03:28.985) in like a retreat weekend, you know? And so now I have asked multiple times, Nick, with my leadership, can I get an LED floor so that I could really play this game? And of course, what do you think my answer I got is? Nick Clason (03:31.105) Yeah. Nick Clason (03:41.623) Yeah. They probably were like if we had the budget yes, but right now You know the Lord hasn't blessed our our church with the funds to do an LED floor. That'd be my guess Jay Reynolds (03:52.234) Yeah. That's you are 100 % correct. You're 100 % correct. So, so thinking so since I was not, you know, recipient of a blessing of an LED floor, but I still had this, this gumption to want to play this game. So I figured it out. I was like, okay, I can't do a hundred. Like, you know, in programming, you know, there's programming, you're like, man, that game would be a banger, but it might be like three hours long. And it's just like, do I have that amount of time? No, but Nick Clason (04:04.811) Right. Nick Clason (04:20.247) Yeah. Jay Reynolds (04:24.181) What I decided to do is how can I make it manageable and reproducible in my context? And so when we go off to retreat with middle schoolers, we take over a whole campground and we basically use a gym. We convert the gym to like our main auditorium. And so what I did is just use some painter's tape and I created boxes on the ground, basically built a frame and then did 16 boxes. Nick Clason (04:29.645) Yeah. Nick Clason (04:37.006) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason (04:46.445) Okay. Jay Reynolds (04:51.393) And so basically I narrowed down 16 categories. And in that, what I did was I just chose simple categories, just like I mentioned before, simple ones that middle schoolers would want to get into, know, thinking through food, snacks, know, common pop culture type stuff, things that the whole crowd will get into. And so basically what I did was like, okay, 16 boxes, I can do about four, five questions per round and kind of see how it goes. Nick Clason (04:54.604) Yeah. Nick Clason (05:04.758) Right, right, right. Nick Clason (05:19.085) Yeah. Jay Reynolds (05:20.987) Originally when I played it, I was like, okay, I'm just going to pick 16 kids. It's going to be the same 16 kids. You know, when I start the game, what I mentioned is once you win against somebody else, then you take over their box. Right. So in 16 boxes, if you're number 16 and you play against someone who's 15, now you take over their category, right? And, and there's one less person they get kicked out. and then your goal is to take over the whole floor. Nick Clason (05:34.673) gotcha, okay. Nick Clason (05:44.877) Yeah. Nick Clason (05:50.922) Right, gotcha, okay, interesting, that's fun. Totally, yeah. So, you take over the cat, I've been looking it up here while you've been talking, like the setup on the game show looks amazing. So, I can imagine how you can set up 16, how do you, in a retreat type setting, how do you determine your 16 contestants? Jay Reynolds (05:53.097) Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah. Jay Reynolds (06:13.577) Yeah, so completely random, you know? And what I really did was I just randomized and just picked 16 kids. I mean, some ways that you could do that. And so I would suggest 16 because it's an easy multiple, right? You can do four questions each time and you can carry it through, say, a typical retreat. Maybe there's four main sessions. You know, you could play around with that. If you only have three sessions that maybe you do nine or do some type of multiple of that. Nick Clason (06:16.824) Yeah. Nick Clason (06:26.732) Right. Nick Clason (06:41.346) Right, right, right. Jay Reynolds (06:42.005) But I would say in a typical four sessions, four questions is pretty good and you get the crowd all into it. But how to pick kids. Here's what I originally thought. I would just pick 16 kids and the same kids that were in their box on Friday night would be the same kids playing throughout. But as I thought about it, in my retreat, we had a couple hundred kids and I was like, how should I do this? So. Nick Clason (06:58.862) Mmm. Nick Clason (07:04.503) Right, right, right. Jay Reynolds (07:07.475) I just completely randomized it. It was kind of like a game day decision. And the only people that stayed was if they won out. So Friday night, whoever won, you know, now they had like the large and basically what does it mean to win on like the first session for question? There's 16 boxes. They didn't take over the whole floor, but whoever has the largest section, right? So it's four questions. So it's just like, if they have three, you know, they own like three other boxes, you know, Nick Clason (07:10.935) Yeah. Nick Clason (07:15.63) Mmm. Jay Reynolds (07:37.481) then they have the largest section, they win. And so I would give some type of prize for the night. And the way that the show works is they would do like eight or nine boxes, you know, and you win. And whoever has the most boxes like connected, you know, the largest area on the floor, they would win like a high dollar prize. Right. So I just mimic that. And I was like, here's like tons of candy to like go back in your cabin, that type of thing. And so there was intrigued to win for that night. Nick Clason (07:41.558) Ahem. Nick Clason (07:55.98) Right, right. Jay Reynolds (08:06.557) or that session, even if you don't win the overall. Does that make sense? Yeah. Nick Clason (08:06.657) Right. Nick Clason (08:10.412) Yeah, yeah. So, okay, so and then you're randomizing, you're calling up a couple contestants to go head to head and then are you just asking like trivia questions to them back and forth or like where are you sourcing your questions from? Jay Reynolds (08:26.709) Yeah, great question. So what I did is out of 16, I built like basically in Pro Presenter, I built 16 categories and it's all picture related. And so behind them, there's a big old screen, you know, and let's just say it was a serials, you know, like cereal, like, and so they just have to guess, oh, that's Reese Puffs, that's Honey Nut Cheerios. And what I did instead of like, playing like chess, how the game show is like each has your own 45 seconds. It's a whole lot to manage. Nick Clason (08:38.829) Yeah. Nick Clason (08:43.095) Right. Nick Clason (08:56.385) Yeah. Jay Reynolds (08:56.629) I just put one timer up and so I flipped a little bit of the game show and I made it whoever has the most correct in 45 seconds. And I encourage high crowd participation, right? And so like the kids up there and you know sometimes a kid would get a little bit of stage fright and they're like, oh, I know what that is. That is definitely, you know, Lucky Charms, but I can't, I just can't think of what the name is, but the whole crowd's yelling Lucky Charms, you know? Nick Clason (09:01.912) Gotcha. Nick Clason (09:06.229) Okay. Nick Clason (09:10.37) There you go. Nick Clason (09:14.733) Right? Nick Clason (09:25.599) Right. Jay Reynolds (09:26.365) And so it keeps the whole crowd engaged while at the same time, know, so, you know, a good game, I believe it's just like, it's not just for the contestants on stage, but it gets the whole crowd also into it. Nick Clason (09:29.41) Yeah. Nick Clason (09:37.87) Yeah, and I love that, that you encourage crowd participation rather than try to stifle it because then that makes, that means everyone in the room is able to join in and participate. And yeah, it's not just for the people up there. It's beautiful. Jay Reynolds (09:42.441) Yeah. Yeah. Jay Reynolds (09:48.944) Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And that's where a lot of the prizes, I tried to make them like, maybe there was like, actually, I think that's the year I gave away like some panda hats and like, so I may have like made like a panda shirt or something. That was kind of our little subtle branding. And so that just kind of went with it. It was like, oh, this was for you, but it's also paired with like five bags of candy to share with your cabin. You know what I mean? And so. Nick Clason (09:59.468) Okay. Nick Clason (10:05.015) Right. Nick Clason (10:12.192) Nice, yeah. So there's more incentive for the people in the crowd. Like if their buddy's up there, they might get to, yeah, that's awesome. Jay Reynolds (10:16.915) Yep. Exactly. Yeah. You know, and so that just cries a call a lot of crowd participation. Here's what I didn't expect, but something awesome that happened. So in 45 seconds, you know, you sometimes go into it thinking like, this game is going to be great. This kid's going to get like eight. This kid may get seven, like clear winner. That didn't always happen. Like this kid got eight. This other kid got eight. Time ended. Now I'm like in the moment, like, well, what do I do? Right. Nick Clason (10:26.519) Yeah. Nick Clason (10:36.173) Yeah. Nick Clason (10:41.165) Mmm. Nick Clason (10:44.801) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jay Reynolds (10:45.649) And so, so here's what I did. Like I'll just give a little secret sauce so you don't have to think through it if you play this. And so I just like, okay, you guys tie. How do we end this? And so I basically just put my hand out and you know, and then for the contestants hand behind the back, you know, go to the next one, the first one, you know, high five and answer correctly. Then they got to choose and that was created in the whole, like the whole room, like this anticipation who's going to get it, you know? Nick Clason (10:51.308) Yeah. Nick Clason (11:07.362) Yeah they win. Nick Clason (11:13.527) Yeah. Jay Reynolds (11:14.173) And then it's like the one kid that happened to and they guessed they were so confident and they got it wrong, you know? But then the other kid got it, right? And it just creates like kind of like this little bit of storybook kind of ending whenever they tie. And so it just works, you know, pretty well. Nick Clason (11:20.758) Yeah, dude Nick Clason (11:27.297) Yeah. Nick Clason (11:30.7) Yeah dude, that's awesome. Okay so, a kid wins the majority of the board Friday night. So Saturday morning let's say, you come back to play it again. You're getting random contestants. Now if someone was on the board but they weren't selected or they weren't eliminated, did you swap them out with new contestants? So you just had the people who like, so like one carryover from Friday night and then everyone else was new? Jay Reynolds (11:37.78) Yes. Jay Reynolds (11:52.467) Yep. Nick Clason (12:00.672) on the board on Saturday? Is that how you handled it? Okay, great. Jay Reynolds (12:03.285) That's how I handled it, right? And so some of that, you know, sometimes when you play a game, it's like, oh yeah, that kid, you know, gets participated, but somebody wins before they get there, right? And it's just like, it's kind of that concept. And you know, what, what I had a little bit of the workflow is that every kid who had a box, I gave them basically like piece of paper. I'm number one, two, you know, whatever their number was that went with the box. And so that also helped for, you know, like in the moment there's all these kids around. It's like, oh, it, Nick Clason (12:23.18) Right, right, right, yeah. Right. Jay Reynolds (12:32.445) chose number 12, you know, to be able to cue the folks in the back and be able to set up Prober Center, everything correctly. It was like, we got number 12, you know, coming on up, you know? And, and so it's like while they're traveling, it's able to kind of like cue some of the tech team. So they're able to get the next things all set up. But with that, it was all new kids. Like if you want now when it come to Saturday night and Sunday morning, Nick Clason (12:44.834) Yeah, yeah. Nick Clason (12:49.656) Right. Jay Reynolds (12:58.471) If you won Friday night, you were still on the board, you know, unless you lost, you know? And so, so it is basically kind of like you win, you get to stay in the game and earn the right to keep going. Nick Clason (13:01.186) Right. Right, right, right. Nick Clason (13:08.04) Yeah. Yeah, I think that part's really cool. So did you have a kid make it all the way through or did like a winner from Friday end up getting eliminated on Saturday and you kind of kept daisy chaining it all the way to the end? Jay Reynolds (13:20.529) I think it was... We may have had, at least a Saturday night, we have Friday winter and Saturday morning winter into it. I can't remember Sunday morning. May have had a couple. Because we didn't play it this year, we played it last year. And so I'm a little bit of a year plus removed from like into it. But it just created a cool environment. But also like some of the dynamics, let's say like it was number 15, they beat 16, they beat, you know... Nick Clason (13:29.966) Okay, that's cool. That's cool. Nick Clason (13:35.134) Yeah, yeah. Right. Jay Reynolds (13:49.253) 14, you know, and they had like their pocket, like all the way on the end. Well, the next day we showed up, it was, um, Hey, do you want to like play or do you want to kind of go back and just like sit in your leg little area? And so that's kind of where like, we'll just sit in our area. Okay. Let's throw up a randomizer. What do we get next? Number two, right? They're almost the other side of the floor. And so, you know, it may have been like, Oh, you didn't win, you know, or you didn't play that day or that, that session. Nick Clason (13:52.631) Right. Nick Clason (14:01.506) Right. Nick Clason (14:11.555) Right? Nick Clason (14:18.454) Yeah, to win, but you survived because you weren't on that part of the floor. I get it. Jay Reynolds (14:20.989) Exactly. So some of that, and if you watch the game show, that's how like people will play. Like, I won like three rounds. I have a small little section, but I'm like in an aisle. I'm like all the way in the corner. Maybe it's better. go back and then, know, but it's also like, I'm playing for the category, right? Now let me talk a little bit about categories, you know, cause I, I chose all that myself, the game show, like you, you go in saying, this is my category. And it's like, you're almost like, Nick Clason (14:33.986) Yeah. Nick Clason (14:41.399) Okay, yeah. Jay Reynolds (14:49.393) You're bringing category to the game show. Nick Clason (14:52.01) Yeah, like that's you're an expert in that category is how it works on the game show you're saying Jay Reynolds (14:54.835) Yeah. Yes. But in my context, I don't know. And I'm like, to keep things to be able to be randomized, I was basically like, here's your category. You are now an expert. You know, like you are now an expert on dogs, you know, or you are now an expert on fruit, you know, you are now in and it was all common stuff that's in their world. And so so instead of it being as eclectic as what you might experience, like watching the game show, as I just made it more actually slide on the side of common. Nick Clason (15:01.859) Mm-hmm. Gotcha, okay, cool, cool, cool. Right. Nick Clason (15:14.296) Right. Nick Clason (15:20.429) Sure. Jay Reynolds (15:23.477) and that most people are going to know what it is, right? Because when you think through audience engagement, actually, the more eclectic it gets, the more you minimize participation, right? And so in this context, it's like playing other games, like if you play um or pie in the face type games, it's like you actually want some of those topics that people are going to know. Nick Clason (15:28.417) Right. Mm-hmm. Nick Clason (15:36.302) 100%, yeah. Jay Reynolds (15:49.353) you know, car brands, type of thing, know, shoe brands, you know, like some of those things. And it just creates a higher engagement, which ends up being a better experience for the entire audience. Nick Clason (15:51.586) Yeah. Nick Clason (15:59.982) Yeah, okay, so one like just last little point of clarification I have is when you get two contestants, do you have them bounce back and forth like you say a carb brand, I say a carb brand until the one person can't remember or do you give them each 45 seconds and they have to list as many as they can and then the other person goes. Jay Reynolds (16:18.355) Yeah, no, great question. in using the slides, you know, and for us, we had a screen right behind us. So it's easy for them to see, easy for the whole crowd to see that type of thing. And it was basically like a, you know, person A is person B. So A, know, it's just like, that's let's say it's animals like, that's a panda, you know, next person, person B. that's a, that's an eagle person A. that's a dolphin. You know, that's a shark, you know. Nick Clason (16:30.843) yeah, that's right. Nick Clason (16:41.366) Okay. Gotcha. So it's not like a speed thing against him. It's like, person A, this slide is yours and you either get it or you don't. Got it. Okay. Cool, cool, Jay Reynolds (16:50.517) Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, if it takes you a second, know, like animals is pretty easy, you know, but, know, when you get into like, and I think like for, was it like cereals? I may have had a picture of the cereal. I may have had the box and kind of canvad out the name of it or something like that, but make it so it's recognizable. But you're like, it takes you a minute or not a minute, but it takes you a few moments to think about it. You know, the overall timer was 45 seconds. Nick Clason (17:06.71) Right, right. Jay Reynolds (17:17.053) and was just whoever got the most correct, but it was just back and forth, back and forth, that type of thing. Yeah. Nick Clason (17:19.286) Yeah. That's awesome. I love it. Okay. Now you told me when we were texting back and forth, like, do you still have the purpose under file? Like, is that something that, that, you could get and we could give to people who are listening? Yeah, that'd be amazing. Jay Reynolds (17:34.581) Dude, I'd love to, you know? And so, yeah, and I use ProPresenter and so, you know, it's all built in ProPresenter, but I, man, I think it's all built in folders. So if you don't use, you know, if somebody's listening and they wanna try it out, I think I have folders that are all like the images. And I built, I built the floor off 16, but I built like two other categories. So if like something happened, like they, or something glitches, you know, things like that. So I think I technically built like. Nick Clason (17:51.714) Yeah. Nick Clason (18:01.27) Right, you gotta fall back, yeah. Okay. Jay Reynolds (18:03.317) 18 categories. But man, I would gladly share it, you know. Nick Clason (18:07.818) Yeah, that'd be super cool. Yeah, so we'll get that from you and we'll link it down below. I think the thing I like the most about this is that you can make this the game for your D now, your winter retreat, your fall retreat, whatever, and you can just go back to it. And as opposed to every session, let's say you got four sessions over the course of a weekend, you don't have to come up with four things. This thing carries you all weekend long. the more they know it or get to understand the rules of it, by the end of it, the hype level is probably gonna be raising every single time they do it. So maybe Friday night, it's basic understanding and basic learning, but by the end of it, people get the rules, they're locked into it, and they're trying to carry home the ultimate floor champion moniker, if they get to take home that final prize or whatever. I think those are some of my favorite styles of games, things that can just, that well that you can kind of keep going back to. And so that's what I love about it. And I did not understand it at all when we were texting. So as you've described it more, I'm more more into it. And even my wheels now are turning. I'm like, all right, we got a winter retreat coming up. Do we incorporate this? Or do we bring this with us to summer camp or something like that? Because this sounds super fun, super amazing. And just a great way to like, build the competition and build the camaraderie. Jay Reynolds (19:37.181) Yeah. And I think, you know, that's exactly it, man. You know, and if you think through like and how we set it up, like I think we just set up like two or three, you know, or maybe it's like two blocks and just like right as a center aisle. But let's just talk a little bit about that. Like I use painter's tape so that way it's not messing with the floor at all. Super cheap. But then what I did to make it easier is like think through if you were playing like that, that kids like dock game, you have to build boxes. Nick Clason (19:49.485) Yeah. Nick Clason (19:55.319) Right, and cheap. Nick Clason (20:05.709) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jay Reynolds (20:06.451) Yeah. So think of it in that a whole frame on the outside was just solid lines to be able to build it. But on the inside, it was all like, you know, just think through each box by itself, because then when you have some volunteers like, box eight takes over seven, you know, and now you pull that one strip between the two. Now, you know, it's all box eight, right? You know? And so that just makes it easier logistically, because if you run long strips, Nick Clason (20:11.607) Right. Nick Clason (20:16.91) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason (20:26.163) Mmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nick Clason (20:32.558) Totally. Jay Reynolds (20:34.451) like across multiple boxes on the interior, then like, now I have to like weirdly pick up like. Yeah, and that will be logistically, you know, that's like something like, I didn't think of it until I was in the in the in the situation. Now it's an issue is that think through like small like so the boxes say, you know, two or three feet wide, you know, just the interior pieces are all single pieces. Nick Clason (20:40.788) Yeah, cut it and yeah. Nick Clason (20:50.124) Right, yeah. Nick Clason (20:59.852) Yeah. Jay Reynolds (21:00.393) So it's a little bit longer to set up, not much, but a little bit longer to set up, but much easier for flow by game flow. Nick Clason (21:08.046) Yeah, I got you. Okay, so then, you know, seven overtakes eight. On Saturday morning, do you redraw, like, the seven box, or has seven still overtaken eight on Saturday morning for that morning's board? Does that make sense? Jay Reynolds (21:24.713) Yeah. Say seven takes over eight. And so now, yeah. And so basically your goal is to win the whole floor, you know? And so, ultimately, you know, and so now you get down to it is like, let's just say you winner keeps winning and they keep staying, they keep playing all this kind of stuff. And now you get down to it. They have 15 boxes, you know? And so let's just say it's one against number now, like let's say nine that won everything. One didn't. Nick Clason (21:31.458) The whole thing, yeah. Nick Clason (21:40.097) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason (21:51.063) Yeah. Jay Reynolds (21:52.319) play at all. And it's just the kid who just got in that day and they just sat and watched nine keep winning, keep winning. And they get up there and then one who's had no action the entire time. They beat this person who's won everything. It's like a David and glide style matchup. And then they win that round. They win it all, you know? And so that's the other thing. What's intriguing about it. It's like, you know, some games it's like, if you're, could have the sheer advantage. Nick Clason (21:56.278) Yeah. Yeah. Nick Clason (22:09.918) moment yeah yeah that's cool that's cool Jay Reynolds (22:21.885) or you keep winning and then now it like builds all this momentum. It's nice because it's almost, it's like there's neutralizers built into this game all the way throughout, you know? And it could just be like, just luck of the draw. Like, I don't know, I don't eat cereal. I only eat toast. Like I don't even know. And then that kid who's like, man, just sat, I randomly got chosen. You know, the kid who's like, man, I don't know it. I just eat cereal every day. I don't even know why I'm here, but I know this. And then I ended up winning everything, you know? Nick Clason (22:29.238) Yeah. Yeah. Nick Clason (22:37.857) you Nick Clason (22:47.351) Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. Jay Reynolds (22:50.813) And so that's the cool thing that makes it so easy and fun and all that kind of stuff. Nick Clason (22:57.43) Yeah, that's amazing. Nice. All right, bro. That really does sound super fun, super cool. So any last final parting words about retreats or games or this game in particular before we hit stop and close out the recording? Jay Reynolds (23:15.219) Yeah, dude, I think the last thing I'd say as far as for playing this game, because it builds on itself, you know, think through, I think how I played it was Friday night. I think I only did three questions, you know, because of Friday night, you have the rules, you have all this kind of stuff and not just the rules for this game, but, know, just think through your retreat overall. What is all of it, you know, entail? And so, you know, we did maybe three questions and then that allowed us to choose which other session do we want to do five, you know? Nick Clason (23:25.954) Okay. Nick Clason (23:33.197) Right. Jay Reynolds (23:43.517) And so just think through some of that from a momentum standpoint on how you want to play it. The other thing from a momentum is let your, you know, your session prizes build. So Friday night, maybe it is like a, you know, hat in like two bags of candy, you know, but then Saturday morning, you know, I think we did prizes that like relate. We were going to do like some, some, I don't know, pool games and things like that. So we gave away like beach towels, you know, Nick Clason (23:43.725) Mm. Nick Clason (23:47.447) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason (23:54.669) Mmm. Nick Clason (24:12.436) Okay. Yeah. Jay Reynolds (24:12.871) and candy, right? And so it just kind of built and it just seemed that, you know, as the game builds, because it's over multiple sessions, that if you have budget and that's how you kind of ministry works, I would encourage you to think through, let your prizes build also, you know, and because that is just going to intuitively kind of go in with the whole game, you know, that type of thing. And so for me, my style is I always get other leaders involved, you know, small group leaders, things like that. I'm like, Hey, pick two kids to play, pick two kids to play. Nick Clason (24:26.935) Yeah. Nick Clason (24:32.673) yeah that makes sense Nick Clason (24:40.8) huh. Jay Reynolds (24:42.687) You know, and so, you know, that's how I help in the randomization, you know, but I'm getting other leaders involved in that process. That also helps like in a ministry. it's not like, Jay just picked his favorite kids to play to try to win, you know, well, no, I picked this leader and that lead, you know, and so it's like, I try to, so depending on how the structure is set up, getting other voices involved, help to take away like what could be speculation. Does that make sense? Yeah. Nick Clason (25:04.513) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason (25:09.408) Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. Yeah, I love it, man. Well, I, again, I appreciate your time. I thought this was a great conversation, great game. Like, and that one of the things I think is so, like interesting in the world of youth pastors, cause I did this too once where I was like watching a game show, you know, just at home with my wife and I was like, I can make that into a game. You know what mean? And that's just the way our brain, we never turn off, we never stop thinking, we never stop ideating. And so I've never heard of this concept before, I've never even heard of this game show, but you're so right. It's a perfect youth ministry game and I love the fact that it can span the whole thing. And that's exactly what I was looking for, for all these different conversations, all these different ideas. And so again, really appreciate you hopping on and we'll throw the link to your. Jay Reynolds (25:33.036) yeah. Never. Never. Jay Reynolds (25:48.627) Yeah. Yeah. Nick Clason (25:57.634) your files and stuff like that down below. really appreciate you giving that away and that'll be super helpful for anyone who wants to take it and run with it. Jay Reynolds (26:05.683) Yeah, feel free. And hey, if one of your listeners wants to try it out and they get a little confused or want to kind of process through a little bit more, dude, feel free. You know, they can reach out and connect me with them. I'd love to kind of just help walk alongside someone who's trying to, you know, trying something new in their context, trying something to see what it would work. And I hope for folks who try it. Nick Clason (26:14.851) Yeah. Jay Reynolds (26:25.683) Man, hope you end of the day, if you're gonna play game like this, it's just as much as you having fun with your kids, with your students having fun, because that's kind of the momentum that really builds and getting them all into it. Nick Clason (26:36.364) Yeah, perfect. All right, Jay. Well, I appreciate it, And everyone else, thanks for listening. And we'll talk again soon. See you. Jay Reynolds (26:43.455) Cool, great chat man, take care. retreat games, youth ministry, game show, audience engagement, trivia games, youth retreats, interactive games, fun activities, group games, community building, disciple now, summer camp, dnow, games that build, games that last multiple sessions, youth ministry, student ministry, youth group In this special, interview style episode, Nick Clason sits down with Jay Reynolds to discuss a game concept that Jay used for every session during a recent Winter Retreat. This video is just in time for DNow season where you can program games that build over multiple days and can last the duration of your entire winter retreat, summer camp or disciple now event!
Jay shares next level expert tips to make sure you win!

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Retreat Games that Extend the whole Weekend
02:21 Exploring the Game Show 'The Floor'
05:17 Adapting 'The Floor' for Retreats
08:07 Randomization and Contestant Selection
10:40 Categories and Audience Participation
12:13 Prizes and Momentum Building
14:17 Logistics and Setup Tips
17:01 Category Hacks
19:43 Did Jay really just do that?!
21:50 Next-Level Set-up Hacks
25:15 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

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TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:01.075)
Alright, what's up everyone? I'm here with my friend Jay. Jay, how we doing this morning, bro?

Jay Reynolds (00:07.379)
Man, I'm good, I'm good. It's almost, it's looking like it might want to snow outside. So I might figure out some, hanging in some snow later.

Nick Clason (00:15.672)
Doesn't snow a lot in Raleigh? Like is that a thing that you deal with very often?

Jay Reynolds (00:20.085)
No, really never. it basically I'm from the north and I've lived down here if you spill a cup of ice They shut the schools down. It's so it's yeah. It's a big deal around here

Nick Clason (00:22.424)
Ha

Nick Clason (00:28.62)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, mean, certainly that's how it goes in Texas as well. But I'm with you. I'm also from the North. So I know what it was like, but the more years I'm here, like the more I'm forgetting, you know what I mean? Like, I'm like, man, it's cold, you know? And I was back home Thanksgiving, during, you know, in Minnesota in November. It was cold. It was a cold experience. And they're like, you're from here. And I'm like, not anymore. So.

Jay Reynolds (00:56.969)
Yeah, yeah. My in-laws live in Buffalo, and so I just recently spent Thanksgiving in Buffalo. yeah, 20, know, 24 degrees and a wind blowing feels like, you know, seven, you know? And yeah, so.

Nick Clason (00:58.149)
Ha ha!

Nick Clason (01:02.652)
yeah.

Nick Clason (01:07.808)
Yeah, dude. Well, I appreciate you hopping on. I posted a thing in the DIY and Facebook group asking for like retreat games and things that kind of like you could go back to. And you responded with a comment about like you tried to emulate a game show called The Floor. that what it's called? All right. So for people like me who who don't know what you're talking about, like explain this game show to me like I'm a five year old.

Jay Reynolds (01:29.119)
yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jay Reynolds (01:36.501)
Yeah. Okay. Wonderful. So, um, it's a game show. I watch it on Hulu. I don't know which network technically has it. Um, but on Hulu it's, uh, Rob Lowe is the host and it's called the floor. And it's basically, I mean, it's, it's a nice floor setup. It's like all led, whatever. And basically the floors is made up of a hundred boxes. And for the game show, every box, so a hundred people have like their specialty category. Maybe it's like,

Star Wars characters, you know, or maybe it's like cereal brands or maybe it's like college football teams in the SEC. I don't know. Like it's just everybody comes with their specialty and what you need to do is you basically challenge somebody, you know, it's like it's randomized, you know, it's one to a hundred and it's like, say it lands on, you know, 49 and say their category is cats, you know, and they get to choose who do they want to challenge.

and their box 49 is connected to a bunch of other boxes. And so they basically challenge somebody and let's say they challenge somebody it's bridges. I don't know. I'm just making stuff up here, right? But it's just all random categories and then they go up to the front and they challenge. And what the challenge looks like is there's basically a picture on the screen and they just have to guess what it is. So it's pretty simple kind of trivia.

Nick Clason (02:46.264)
K-E-A-A.

Nick Clason (02:58.071)
Hmm.

Jay Reynolds (03:00.885)
And now in the game show they have like each contestant, know when they're battling they have 45 seconds And so if they're like thinking a lot of time like, you know, what is that? Like their own 45 seconds is kind of like going down on the clock think of like when you play chess There's like that like your own time clock So that's how it's played in the game You know on the game show And when I saw that I was like, man, I think I could play that

Nick Clason (03:19.51)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason (03:24.791)
Okay.

Jay Reynolds (03:28.985)
in like a retreat weekend, you know? And so now I have asked multiple times, Nick, with my leadership, can I get an LED floor so that I could really play this game? And of course, what do you think my answer I got is?

Nick Clason (03:31.105)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (03:41.623)
Yeah.

They probably were like if we had the budget yes, but right now You know the Lord hasn't blessed our our church with the funds to do an LED floor. That'd be my guess

Jay Reynolds (03:52.234)
Yeah.

That's you are 100 % correct. You're 100 % correct. So, so thinking so since I was not, you know, recipient of a blessing of an LED floor, but I still had this, this gumption to want to play this game. So I figured it out. I was like, okay, I can't do a hundred. Like, you know, in programming, you know, there's programming, you're like, man, that game would be a banger, but it might be like three hours long. And it's just like, do I have that amount of time? No, but

Nick Clason (04:04.811)
Right.

Nick Clason (04:20.247)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (04:24.181)
What I decided to do is how can I make it manageable and reproducible in my context? And so when we go off to retreat with middle schoolers, we take over a whole campground and we basically use a gym. We convert the gym to like our main auditorium. And so what I did is just use some painter's tape and I created boxes on the ground, basically built a frame and then did 16 boxes.

Nick Clason (04:29.645)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (04:37.006)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (04:46.445)
Okay.

Jay Reynolds (04:51.393)
And so basically I narrowed down 16 categories. And in that, what I did was I just chose simple categories, just like I mentioned before, simple ones that middle schoolers would want to get into, know, thinking through food, snacks, know, common pop culture type stuff, things that the whole crowd will get into. And so basically what I did was like, okay, 16 boxes, I can do about four, five questions per round and kind of see how it goes.

Nick Clason (04:54.604)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (05:04.758)
Right, right, right.

Nick Clason (05:19.085)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (05:20.987)
Originally when I played it, I was like, okay, I'm just going to pick 16 kids. It's going to be the same 16 kids. You know, when I start the game, what I mentioned is once you win against somebody else, then you take over their box. Right. So in 16 boxes, if you're number 16 and you play against someone who's 15, now you take over their category, right? And, and there's one less person they get kicked out. and then your goal is to take over the whole floor.

Nick Clason (05:34.673)
gotcha, okay.

Nick Clason (05:44.877)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (05:50.922)
Right, gotcha, okay, interesting, that's fun. Totally, yeah. So, you take over the cat, I've been looking it up here while you've been talking, like the setup on the game show looks amazing. So, I can imagine how you can set up 16, how do you, in a retreat type setting, how do you determine your 16 contestants?

Jay Reynolds (05:53.097)
Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (06:13.577)
Yeah, so completely random, you know? And what I really did was I just randomized and just picked 16 kids. I mean, some ways that you could do that. And so I would suggest 16 because it's an easy multiple, right? You can do four questions each time and you can carry it through, say, a typical retreat. Maybe there's four main sessions. You know, you could play around with that. If you only have three sessions that maybe you do nine or do some type of multiple of that.

Nick Clason (06:16.824)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (06:26.732)
Right.

Nick Clason (06:41.346)
Right, right, right.

Jay Reynolds (06:42.005)
But I would say in a typical four sessions, four questions is pretty good and you get the crowd all into it. But how to pick kids. Here's what I originally thought. I would just pick 16 kids and the same kids that were in their box on Friday night would be the same kids playing throughout. But as I thought about it, in my retreat, we had a couple hundred kids and I was like, how should I do this? So.

Nick Clason (06:58.862)
Mmm.

Nick Clason (07:04.503)
Right, right, right.

Jay Reynolds (07:07.475)
I just completely randomized it. It was kind of like a game day decision. And the only people that stayed was if they won out. So Friday night, whoever won, you know, now they had like the large and basically what does it mean to win on like the first session for question? There's 16 boxes. They didn't take over the whole floor, but whoever has the largest section, right? So it's four questions. So it's just like, if they have three, you know, they own like three other boxes, you know,

Nick Clason (07:10.935)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (07:15.63)
Mmm.

Jay Reynolds (07:37.481)
then they have the largest section, they win. And so I would give some type of prize for the night. And the way that the show works is they would do like eight or nine boxes, you know, and you win. And whoever has the most boxes like connected, you know, the largest area on the floor, they would win like a high dollar prize. Right. So I just mimic that. And I was like, here's like tons of candy to like go back in your cabin, that type of thing. And so there was intrigued to win for that night.

Nick Clason (07:41.558)
Ahem.

Nick Clason (07:55.98)
Right, right.

Jay Reynolds (08:06.557)
or that session, even if you don't win the overall. Does that make sense? Yeah.

Nick Clason (08:06.657)
Right.

Nick Clason (08:10.412)
Yeah, yeah. So, okay, so and then you're randomizing, you're calling up a couple contestants to go head to head and then are you just asking like trivia questions to them back and forth or like where are you sourcing your questions from?

Jay Reynolds (08:26.709)
Yeah, great question. So what I did is out of 16, I built like basically in Pro Presenter, I built 16 categories and it's all picture related. And so behind them, there's a big old screen, you know, and let's just say it was a serials, you know, like cereal, like, and so they just have to guess, oh, that's Reese Puffs, that's Honey Nut Cheerios. And what I did instead of like, playing like chess, how the game show is like each has your own 45 seconds. It's a whole lot to manage.

Nick Clason (08:38.829)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (08:43.095)
Right.

Nick Clason (08:56.385)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (08:56.629)
I just put one timer up and so I flipped a little bit of the game show and I made it whoever has the most correct in 45 seconds. And I encourage high crowd participation, right? And so like the kids up there and you know sometimes a kid would get a little bit of stage fright and they're like, oh, I know what that is. That is definitely, you know, Lucky Charms, but I can't, I just can't think of what the name is, but the whole crowd's yelling Lucky Charms, you know?

Nick Clason (09:01.912)
Gotcha.

Nick Clason (09:06.229)
Okay.

Nick Clason (09:10.37)
There you go.

Nick Clason (09:14.733)
Right?

Nick Clason (09:25.599)
Right.

Jay Reynolds (09:26.365)
And so it keeps the whole crowd engaged while at the same time, know, so, you know, a good game, I believe it's just like, it's not just for the contestants on stage, but it gets the whole crowd also into it.

Nick Clason (09:29.41)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (09:37.87)
Yeah, and I love that, that you encourage crowd participation rather than try to stifle it because then that makes, that means everyone in the room is able to join in and participate. And yeah, it's not just for the people up there. It's beautiful.

Jay Reynolds (09:42.441)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (09:48.944)
Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And that's where a lot of the prizes, I tried to make them like, maybe there was like, actually, I think that's the year I gave away like some panda hats and like, so I may have like made like a panda shirt or something. That was kind of our little subtle branding. And so that just kind of went with it. It was like, oh, this was for you, but it's also paired with like five bags of candy to share with your cabin. You know what I mean? And so.

Nick Clason (09:59.468)
Okay.

Nick Clason (10:05.015)
Right.

Nick Clason (10:12.192)
Nice, yeah. So there's more incentive for the people in the crowd. Like if their buddy's up there, they might get to, yeah, that's awesome.

Jay Reynolds (10:16.915)
Yep. Exactly. Yeah. You know, and so that just cries a call a lot of crowd participation. Here's what I didn't expect, but something awesome that happened. So in 45 seconds, you know, you sometimes go into it thinking like, this game is going to be great. This kid's going to get like eight. This kid may get seven, like clear winner. That didn't always happen. Like this kid got eight. This other kid got eight. Time ended. Now I'm like in the moment, like, well, what do I do? Right.

Nick Clason (10:26.519)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (10:36.173)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (10:41.165)
Mmm.

Nick Clason (10:44.801)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jay Reynolds (10:45.649)
And so, so here's what I did. Like I'll just give a little secret sauce so you don't have to think through it if you play this. And so I just like, okay, you guys tie. How do we end this? And so I basically just put my hand out and you know, and then for the contestants hand behind the back, you know, go to the next one, the first one, you know, high five and answer correctly. Then they got to choose and that was created in the whole, like the whole room, like this anticipation who's going to get it, you know?

Nick Clason (10:51.308)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (11:07.362)
Yeah they win.

Nick Clason (11:13.527)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (11:14.173)
And then it's like the one kid that happened to and they guessed they were so confident and they got it wrong, you know? But then the other kid got it, right? And it just creates like kind of like this little bit of storybook kind of ending whenever they tie. And so it just works, you know, pretty well.

Nick Clason (11:20.758)
Yeah, dude

Nick Clason (11:27.297)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (11:30.7)
Yeah dude, that's awesome. Okay so, a kid wins the majority of the board Friday night. So Saturday morning let's say, you come back to play it again. You're getting random contestants. Now if someone was on the board but they weren't selected or they weren't eliminated, did you swap them out with new contestants? So you just had the people who like, so like one carryover from Friday night and then everyone else was new?

Jay Reynolds (11:37.78)
Yes.

Jay Reynolds (11:52.467)
Yep.

Nick Clason (12:00.672)
on the board on Saturday? Is that how you handled it? Okay, great.

Jay Reynolds (12:03.285)
That's how I handled it, right? And so some of that, you know, sometimes when you play a game, it's like, oh yeah, that kid, you know, gets participated, but somebody wins before they get there, right? And it's just like, it's kind of that concept. And you know, what, what I had a little bit of the workflow is that every kid who had a box, I gave them basically like piece of paper. I'm number one, two, you know, whatever their number was that went with the box. And so that also helped for, you know, like in the moment there's all these kids around. It's like, oh, it,

Nick Clason (12:23.18)
Right, right, right, yeah. Right.

Jay Reynolds (12:32.445)
chose number 12, you know, to be able to cue the folks in the back and be able to set up Prober Center, everything correctly. It was like, we got number 12, you know, coming on up, you know? And, and so it's like while they're traveling, it's able to kind of like cue some of the tech team. So they're able to get the next things all set up. But with that, it was all new kids. Like if you want now when it come to Saturday night and Sunday morning,

Nick Clason (12:44.834)
Yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason (12:49.656)
Right.

Jay Reynolds (12:58.471)
If you won Friday night, you were still on the board, you know, unless you lost, you know? And so, so it is basically kind of like you win, you get to stay in the game and earn the right to keep going.

Nick Clason (13:01.186)
Right. Right, right, right.

Nick Clason (13:08.04)
Yeah. Yeah, I think that part's really cool. So did you have a kid make it all the way through or did like a winner from Friday end up getting eliminated on Saturday and you kind of kept daisy chaining it all the way to the end?

Jay Reynolds (13:20.529)
I think it was... We may have had, at least a Saturday night, we have Friday winter and Saturday morning winter into it. I can't remember Sunday morning. May have had a couple. Because we didn't play it this year, we played it last year. And so I'm a little bit of a year plus removed from like into it. But it just created a cool environment. But also like some of the dynamics, let's say like it was number 15, they beat 16, they beat, you know...

Nick Clason (13:29.966)
Okay, that's cool. That's cool.

Nick Clason (13:35.134)
Yeah, yeah. Right.

Jay Reynolds (13:49.253)
14, you know, and they had like their pocket, like all the way on the end. Well, the next day we showed up, it was, um, Hey, do you want to like play or do you want to kind of go back and just like sit in your leg little area? And so that's kind of where like, we'll just sit in our area. Okay. Let's throw up a randomizer. What do we get next? Number two, right? They're almost the other side of the floor. And so, you know, it may have been like, Oh, you didn't win, you know, or you didn't play that day or that, that session.

Nick Clason (13:52.631)
Right.

Nick Clason (14:01.506)
Right.

Nick Clason (14:11.555)
Right?

Nick Clason (14:18.454)
Yeah, to win, but you survived because you weren't on that part of the floor. I get it.

Jay Reynolds (14:20.989)
Exactly. So some of that, and if you watch the game show, that's how like people will play. Like, I won like three rounds. I have a small little section, but I'm like in an aisle. I'm like all the way in the corner. Maybe it's better. go back and then, know, but it's also like, I'm playing for the category, right? Now let me talk a little bit about categories, you know, cause I, I chose all that myself, the game show, like you, you go in saying, this is my category. And it's like, you're almost like,

Nick Clason (14:33.986)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (14:41.399)
Okay, yeah.

Jay Reynolds (14:49.393)
You're bringing category to the game show.

Nick Clason (14:52.01)
Yeah, like that's you're an expert in that category is how it works on the game show you're saying

Jay Reynolds (14:54.835)
Yeah. Yes. But in my context, I don't know. And I'm like, to keep things to be able to be randomized, I was basically like, here's your category. You are now an expert. You know, like you are now an expert on dogs, you know, or you are now an expert on fruit, you know, you are now in and it was all common stuff that's in their world. And so so instead of it being as eclectic as what you might experience, like watching the game show, as I just made it more actually slide on the side of common.

Nick Clason (15:01.859)
Mm-hmm.

Gotcha, okay, cool, cool, cool.

Right.

Nick Clason (15:14.296)
Right.

Nick Clason (15:20.429)
Sure.

Jay Reynolds (15:23.477)
and that most people are going to know what it is, right? Because when you think through audience engagement, actually, the more eclectic it gets, the more you minimize participation, right? And so in this context, it's like playing other games, like if you play um or pie in the face type games, it's like you actually want some of those topics that people are going to know.

Nick Clason (15:28.417)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (15:36.302)
100%, yeah.

Jay Reynolds (15:49.353)
you know, car brands, type of thing, know, shoe brands, you know, like some of those things. And it just creates a higher engagement, which ends up being a better experience for the entire audience.

Nick Clason (15:51.586)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (15:59.982)
Yeah, okay, so one like just last little point of clarification I have is when you get two contestants, do you have them bounce back and forth like you say a carb brand, I say a carb brand until the one person can't remember or do you give them each 45 seconds and they have to list as many as they can and then the other person goes.

Jay Reynolds (16:18.355)
Yeah, no, great question. in using the slides, you know, and for us, we had a screen right behind us. So it's easy for them to see, easy for the whole crowd to see that type of thing. And it was basically like a, you know, person A is person B. So A, know, it's just like, that's let's say it's animals like, that's a panda, you know, next person, person B. that's a, that's an eagle person A. that's a dolphin. You know, that's a shark, you know.

Nick Clason (16:30.843)
yeah, that's right.

Nick Clason (16:41.366)
Okay. Gotcha. So it's not like a speed thing against him. It's like, person A, this slide is yours and you either get it or you don't. Got it. Okay. Cool, cool,

Jay Reynolds (16:50.517)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, if it takes you a second, know, like animals is pretty easy, you know, but, know, when you get into like, and I think like for, was it like cereals? I may have had a picture of the cereal. I may have had the box and kind of canvad out the name of it or something like that, but make it so it's recognizable. But you're like, it takes you a minute or not a minute, but it takes you a few moments to think about it. You know, the overall timer was 45 seconds.

Nick Clason (17:06.71)
Right, right.

Jay Reynolds (17:17.053)
and was just whoever got the most correct, but it was just back and forth, back and forth, that type of thing. Yeah.

Nick Clason (17:19.286)
Yeah.

That's awesome. I love it. Okay. Now you told me when we were texting back and forth, like, do you still have the purpose under file? Like, is that something that, that, you could get and we could give to people who are listening? Yeah, that'd be amazing.

Jay Reynolds (17:34.581)
Dude, I'd love to, you know? And so, yeah, and I use ProPresenter and so, you know, it's all built in ProPresenter, but I, man, I think it's all built in folders. So if you don't use, you know, if somebody's listening and they wanna try it out, I think I have folders that are all like the images. And I built, I built the floor off 16, but I built like two other categories. So if like something happened, like they, or something glitches, you know, things like that. So I think I technically built like.

Nick Clason (17:51.714)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (18:01.27)
Right, you gotta fall back, yeah. Okay.

Jay Reynolds (18:03.317)
18 categories. But man, I would gladly share it, you know.

Nick Clason (18:07.818)
Yeah, that'd be super cool. Yeah, so we'll get that from you and we'll link it down below. I think the thing I like the most about this is that you can make this the game for your D now, your winter retreat, your fall retreat, whatever, and you can just go back to it. And as opposed to every session, let's say you got four sessions over the course of a weekend, you don't have to come up with four things. This thing carries you all weekend long.

the more they know it or get to understand the rules of it, by the end of it, the hype level is probably gonna be raising every single time they do it. So maybe Friday night, it's basic understanding and basic learning, but by the end of it, people get the rules, they're locked into it, and they're trying to carry home the ultimate floor champion moniker, if they get to take home that final prize or whatever.

I think those are some of my favorite styles of games, things that can just, that well that you can kind of keep going back to. And so that's what I love about it. And I did not understand it at all when we were texting. So as you've described it more, I'm more more into it. And even my wheels now are turning. I'm like, all right, we got a winter retreat coming up. Do we incorporate this? Or do we bring this with us to summer camp or something like that? Because this sounds super fun, super amazing. And just a great way to like,

build the competition and build the camaraderie.

Jay Reynolds (19:37.181)
Yeah. And I think, you know, that's exactly it, man. You know, and if you think through like and how we set it up, like I think we just set up like two or three, you know, or maybe it's like two blocks and just like right as a center aisle. But let's just talk a little bit about that. Like I use painter's tape so that way it's not messing with the floor at all. Super cheap. But then what I did to make it easier is like think through if you were playing like that, that kids like dock game, you have to build boxes.

Nick Clason (19:49.485)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (19:55.319)
Right, and cheap.

Nick Clason (20:05.709)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jay Reynolds (20:06.451)
Yeah. So think of it in that a whole frame on the outside was just solid lines to be able to build it. But on the inside, it was all like, you know, just think through each box by itself, because then when you have some volunteers like, box eight takes over seven, you know, and now you pull that one strip between the two. Now, you know, it's all box eight, right? You know? And so that just makes it easier logistically, because if you run long strips,

Nick Clason (20:11.607)
Right.

Nick Clason (20:16.91)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (20:26.163)
Mmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason (20:32.558)
Totally.

Jay Reynolds (20:34.451)
like across multiple boxes on the interior, then like, now I have to like weirdly pick up like. Yeah, and that will be logistically, you know, that's like something like, I didn't think of it until I was in the in the in the situation. Now it's an issue is that think through like small like so the boxes say, you know, two or three feet wide, you know, just the interior pieces are all single pieces.

Nick Clason (20:40.788)
Yeah, cut it and yeah.

Nick Clason (20:50.124)
Right, yeah.

Nick Clason (20:59.852)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (21:00.393)
So it's a little bit longer to set up, not much, but a little bit longer to set up, but much easier for flow by game flow.

Nick Clason (21:08.046)
Yeah, I got you. Okay, so then, you know, seven overtakes eight. On Saturday morning, do you redraw, like, the seven box, or has seven still overtaken eight on Saturday morning for that morning's board? Does that make sense?

Jay Reynolds (21:24.713)
Yeah. Say seven takes over eight. And so now, yeah. And so basically your goal is to win the whole floor, you know? And so, ultimately, you know, and so now you get down to it is like, let's just say you winner keeps winning and they keep staying, they keep playing all this kind of stuff. And now you get down to it. They have 15 boxes, you know? And so let's just say it's one against number now, like let's say nine that won everything. One didn't.

Nick Clason (21:31.458)
The whole thing, yeah.

Nick Clason (21:40.097)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (21:51.063)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (21:52.319)
play at all. And it's just the kid who just got in that day and they just sat and watched nine keep winning, keep winning. And they get up there and then one who's had no action the entire time. They beat this person who's won everything. It's like a David and glide style matchup. And then they win that round. They win it all, you know? And so that's the other thing. What's intriguing about it. It's like, you know, some games it's like, if you're, could have the sheer advantage.

Nick Clason (21:56.278)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (22:09.918)
moment yeah yeah that's cool that's cool

Jay Reynolds (22:21.885)
or you keep winning and then now it like builds all this momentum. It's nice because it's almost, it's like there's neutralizers built into this game all the way throughout, you know? And it could just be like, just luck of the draw. Like, I don't know, I don't eat cereal. I only eat toast. Like I don't even know. And then that kid who's like, man, just sat, I randomly got chosen. You know, the kid who's like, man, I don't know it. I just eat cereal every day. I don't even know why I'm here, but I know this. And then I ended up winning everything, you know?

Nick Clason (22:29.238)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (22:37.857)
you

Nick Clason (22:47.351)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's cool.

Jay Reynolds (22:50.813)
And so that's the cool thing that makes it so easy and fun and all that kind of stuff.

Nick Clason (22:57.43)
Yeah, that's amazing. Nice. All right, bro. That really does sound super fun, super cool. So any last final parting words about retreats or games or this game in particular before we hit stop and close out the recording?

Jay Reynolds (23:15.219)
Yeah, dude, I think the last thing I'd say as far as for playing this game, because it builds on itself, you know, think through, I think how I played it was Friday night. I think I only did three questions, you know, because of Friday night, you have the rules, you have all this kind of stuff and not just the rules for this game, but, know, just think through your retreat overall. What is all of it, you know, entail? And so, you know, we did maybe three questions and then that allowed us to choose which other session do we want to do five, you know?

Nick Clason (23:25.954)
Okay.

Nick Clason (23:33.197)
Right.

Jay Reynolds (23:43.517)
And so just think through some of that from a momentum standpoint on how you want to play it. The other thing from a momentum is let your, you know, your session prizes build. So Friday night, maybe it is like a, you know, hat in like two bags of candy, you know, but then Saturday morning, you know, I think we did prizes that like relate. We were going to do like some, some, I don't know, pool games and things like that. So we gave away like beach towels, you know,

Nick Clason (23:43.725)
Mm.

Nick Clason (23:47.447)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (23:54.669)
Mmm.

Nick Clason (24:12.436)
Okay. Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (24:12.871)
and candy, right? And so it just kind of built and it just seemed that, you know, as the game builds, because it's over multiple sessions, that if you have budget and that's how you kind of ministry works, I would encourage you to think through, let your prizes build also, you know, and because that is just going to intuitively kind of go in with the whole game, you know, that type of thing. And so for me, my style is I always get other leaders involved, you know, small group leaders, things like that. I'm like, Hey, pick two kids to play, pick two kids to play.

Nick Clason (24:26.935)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (24:32.673)
yeah that makes sense

Nick Clason (24:40.8)
huh.

Jay Reynolds (24:42.687)
You know, and so, you know, that's how I help in the randomization, you know, but I'm getting other leaders involved in that process. That also helps like in a ministry. it's not like, Jay just picked his favorite kids to play to try to win, you know, well, no, I picked this leader and that lead, you know, and so it's like, I try to, so depending on how the structure is set up, getting other voices involved, help to take away like what could be speculation. Does that make sense? Yeah.

Nick Clason (25:04.513)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (25:09.408)
Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. Yeah, I love it, man. Well, I, again, I appreciate your time. I thought this was a great conversation, great game. Like, and that one of the things I think is so, like interesting in the world of youth pastors, cause I did this too once where I was like watching a game show, you know, just at home with my wife and I was like,

I can make that into a game. You know what mean? And that's just the way our brain, we never turn off, we never stop thinking, we never stop ideating. And so I've never heard of this concept before, I've never even heard of this game show, but you're so right. It's a perfect youth ministry game and I love the fact that it can span the whole thing. And that's exactly what I was looking for, for all these different conversations, all these different ideas. And so again, really appreciate you hopping on and we'll throw the link to your.

Jay Reynolds (25:33.036)
yeah.

Never. Never.

Jay Reynolds (25:48.627)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (25:57.634)
your files and stuff like that down below. really appreciate you giving that away and that'll be super helpful for anyone who wants to take it and run with it.

Jay Reynolds (26:05.683)
Yeah, feel free. And hey, if one of your listeners wants to try it out and they get a little confused or want to kind of process through a little bit more, dude, feel free. You know, they can reach out and connect me with them. I'd love to kind of just help walk alongside someone who's trying to, you know, trying something new in their context, trying something to see what it would work. And I hope for folks who try it.

Nick Clason (26:14.851)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (26:25.683)
Man, hope you end of the day, if you're gonna play game like this, it's just as much as you having fun with your kids, with your students having fun, because that's kind of the momentum that really builds and getting them all into it.

Nick Clason (26:36.364)
Yeah, perfect. All right, Jay. Well, I appreciate it, And everyone else, thanks for listening. And we'll talk again soon. See you.

Jay Reynolds (26:43.455)
Cool, great chat man, take care.

]]> In this special, interview style episode, Nick Clason sits down with Jay Reynolds to discuss a game concept that Jay used for every session during a recent Winter Retreat. This video is just in time for DNow season where you can program games that build over multiple days and can last the duration of your entire winter retreat, summer camp or disciple now event!
Jay shares next level expert tips to make sure you win!

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Retreat Games that Extend the whole Weekend
02:21 Exploring the Game Show 'The Floor'
05:17 Adapting 'The Floor' for Retreats
08:07 Randomization and Contestant Selection
10:40 Categories and Audience Participation
12:13 Prizes and Momentum Building
14:17 Logistics and Setup Tips
17:01 Category Hacks
19:43 Did Jay really just do that?!
21:50 Next-Level Set-up Hacks
25:15 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

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TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:01.075)
Alright, what's up everyone? I'm here with my friend Jay. Jay, how we doing this morning, bro?

Jay Reynolds (00:07.379)
Man, I'm good, I'm good. It's almost, it's looking like it might want to snow outside. So I might figure out some, hanging in some snow later.

Nick Clason (00:15.672)
Doesn't snow a lot in Raleigh? Like is that a thing that you deal with very often?

Jay Reynolds (00:20.085)
No, really never. it basically I'm from the north and I've lived down here if you spill a cup of ice They shut the schools down. It's so it's yeah. It's a big deal around here

Nick Clason (00:22.424)
Ha

Nick Clason (00:28.62)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, mean, certainly that's how it goes in Texas as well. But I'm with you. I'm also from the North. So I know what it was like, but the more years I'm here, like the more I'm forgetting, you know what I mean? Like, I'm like, man, it's cold, you know? And I was back home Thanksgiving, during, you know, in Minnesota in November. It was cold. It was a cold experience. And they're like, you're from here. And I'm like, not anymore. So.

Jay Reynolds (00:56.969)
Yeah, yeah. My in-laws live in Buffalo, and so I just recently spent Thanksgiving in Buffalo. yeah, 20, know, 24 degrees and a wind blowing feels like, you know, seven, you know? And yeah, so.

Nick Clason (00:58.149)
Ha ha!

Nick Clason (01:02.652)
yeah.

Nick Clason (01:07.808)
Yeah, dude. Well, I appreciate you hopping on. I posted a thing in the DIY and Facebook group asking for like retreat games and things that kind of like you could go back to. And you responded with a comment about like you tried to emulate a game show called The Floor. that what it's called? All right. So for people like me who who don't know what you're talking about, like explain this game show to me like I'm a five year old.

Jay Reynolds (01:29.119)
yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jay Reynolds (01:36.501)
Yeah. Okay. Wonderful. So, um, it's a game show. I watch it on Hulu. I don't know which network technically has it. Um, but on Hulu it's, uh, Rob Lowe is the host and it's called the floor. And it's basically, I mean, it's, it's a nice floor setup. It's like all led, whatever. And basically the floors is made up of a hundred boxes. And for the game show, every box, so a hundred people have like their specialty category. Maybe it's like,

Star Wars characters, you know, or maybe it's like cereal brands or maybe it's like college football teams in the SEC. I don't know. Like it's just everybody comes with their specialty and what you need to do is you basically challenge somebody, you know, it's like it's randomized, you know, it's one to a hundred and it's like, say it lands on, you know, 49 and say their category is cats, you know, and they get to choose who do they want to challenge.

and their box 49 is connected to a bunch of other boxes. And so they basically challenge somebody and let's say they challenge somebody it's bridges. I don't know. I'm just making stuff up here, right? But it's just all random categories and then they go up to the front and they challenge. And what the challenge looks like is there's basically a picture on the screen and they just have to guess what it is. So it's pretty simple kind of trivia.

Nick Clason (02:46.264)
K-E-A-A.

Nick Clason (02:58.071)
Hmm.

Jay Reynolds (03:00.885)
And now in the game show they have like each contestant, know when they're battling they have 45 seconds And so if they're like thinking a lot of time like, you know, what is that? Like their own 45 seconds is kind of like going down on the clock think of like when you play chess There's like that like your own time clock So that's how it's played in the game You know on the game show And when I saw that I was like, man, I think I could play that

Nick Clason (03:19.51)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason (03:24.791)
Okay.

Jay Reynolds (03:28.985)
in like a retreat weekend, you know? And so now I have asked multiple times, Nick, with my leadership, can I get an LED floor so that I could really play this game? And of course, what do you think my answer I got is?

Nick Clason (03:31.105)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (03:41.623)
Yeah.

They probably were like if we had the budget yes, but right now You know the Lord hasn't blessed our our church with the funds to do an LED floor. That'd be my guess

Jay Reynolds (03:52.234)
Yeah.

That's you are 100 % correct. You're 100 % correct. So, so thinking so since I was not, you know, recipient of a blessing of an LED floor, but I still had this, this gumption to want to play this game. So I figured it out. I was like, okay, I can't do a hundred. Like, you know, in programming, you know, there's programming, you're like, man, that game would be a banger, but it might be like three hours long. And it's just like, do I have that amount of time? No, but

Nick Clason (04:04.811)
Right.

Nick Clason (04:20.247)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (04:24.181)
What I decided to do is how can I make it manageable and reproducible in my context? And so when we go off to retreat with middle schoolers, we take over a whole campground and we basically use a gym. We convert the gym to like our main auditorium. And so what I did is just use some painter's tape and I created boxes on the ground, basically built a frame and then did 16 boxes.

Nick Clason (04:29.645)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (04:37.006)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (04:46.445)
Okay.

Jay Reynolds (04:51.393)
And so basically I narrowed down 16 categories. And in that, what I did was I just chose simple categories, just like I mentioned before, simple ones that middle schoolers would want to get into, know, thinking through food, snacks, know, common pop culture type stuff, things that the whole crowd will get into. And so basically what I did was like, okay, 16 boxes, I can do about four, five questions per round and kind of see how it goes.

Nick Clason (04:54.604)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (05:04.758)
Right, right, right.

Nick Clason (05:19.085)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (05:20.987)
Originally when I played it, I was like, okay, I'm just going to pick 16 kids. It's going to be the same 16 kids. You know, when I start the game, what I mentioned is once you win against somebody else, then you take over their box. Right. So in 16 boxes, if you're number 16 and you play against someone who's 15, now you take over their category, right? And, and there's one less person they get kicked out. and then your goal is to take over the whole floor.

Nick Clason (05:34.673)
gotcha, okay.

Nick Clason (05:44.877)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (05:50.922)
Right, gotcha, okay, interesting, that's fun. Totally, yeah. So, you take over the cat, I've been looking it up here while you've been talking, like the setup on the game show looks amazing. So, I can imagine how you can set up 16, how do you, in a retreat type setting, how do you determine your 16 contestants?

Jay Reynolds (05:53.097)
Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (06:13.577)
Yeah, so completely random, you know? And what I really did was I just randomized and just picked 16 kids. I mean, some ways that you could do that. And so I would suggest 16 because it's an easy multiple, right? You can do four questions each time and you can carry it through, say, a typical retreat. Maybe there's four main sessions. You know, you could play around with that. If you only have three sessions that maybe you do nine or do some type of multiple of that.

Nick Clason (06:16.824)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (06:26.732)
Right.

Nick Clason (06:41.346)
Right, right, right.

Jay Reynolds (06:42.005)
But I would say in a typical four sessions, four questions is pretty good and you get the crowd all into it. But how to pick kids. Here's what I originally thought. I would just pick 16 kids and the same kids that were in their box on Friday night would be the same kids playing throughout. But as I thought about it, in my retreat, we had a couple hundred kids and I was like, how should I do this? So.

Nick Clason (06:58.862)
Mmm.

Nick Clason (07:04.503)
Right, right, right.

Jay Reynolds (07:07.475)
I just completely randomized it. It was kind of like a game day decision. And the only people that stayed was if they won out. So Friday night, whoever won, you know, now they had like the large and basically what does it mean to win on like the first session for question? There's 16 boxes. They didn't take over the whole floor, but whoever has the largest section, right? So it's four questions. So it's just like, if they have three, you know, they own like three other boxes, you know,

Nick Clason (07:10.935)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (07:15.63)
Mmm.

Jay Reynolds (07:37.481)
then they have the largest section, they win. And so I would give some type of prize for the night. And the way that the show works is they would do like eight or nine boxes, you know, and you win. And whoever has the most boxes like connected, you know, the largest area on the floor, they would win like a high dollar prize. Right. So I just mimic that. And I was like, here's like tons of candy to like go back in your cabin, that type of thing. And so there was intrigued to win for that night.

Nick Clason (07:41.558)
Ahem.

Nick Clason (07:55.98)
Right, right.

Jay Reynolds (08:06.557)
or that session, even if you don't win the overall. Does that make sense? Yeah.

Nick Clason (08:06.657)
Right.

Nick Clason (08:10.412)
Yeah, yeah. So, okay, so and then you're randomizing, you're calling up a couple contestants to go head to head and then are you just asking like trivia questions to them back and forth or like where are you sourcing your questions from?

Jay Reynolds (08:26.709)
Yeah, great question. So what I did is out of 16, I built like basically in Pro Presenter, I built 16 categories and it's all picture related. And so behind them, there's a big old screen, you know, and let's just say it was a serials, you know, like cereal, like, and so they just have to guess, oh, that's Reese Puffs, that's Honey Nut Cheerios. And what I did instead of like, playing like chess, how the game show is like each has your own 45 seconds. It's a whole lot to manage.

Nick Clason (08:38.829)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (08:43.095)
Right.

Nick Clason (08:56.385)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (08:56.629)
I just put one timer up and so I flipped a little bit of the game show and I made it whoever has the most correct in 45 seconds. And I encourage high crowd participation, right? And so like the kids up there and you know sometimes a kid would get a little bit of stage fright and they're like, oh, I know what that is. That is definitely, you know, Lucky Charms, but I can't, I just can't think of what the name is, but the whole crowd's yelling Lucky Charms, you know?

Nick Clason (09:01.912)
Gotcha.

Nick Clason (09:06.229)
Okay.

Nick Clason (09:10.37)
There you go.

Nick Clason (09:14.733)
Right?

Nick Clason (09:25.599)
Right.

Jay Reynolds (09:26.365)
And so it keeps the whole crowd engaged while at the same time, know, so, you know, a good game, I believe it's just like, it's not just for the contestants on stage, but it gets the whole crowd also into it.

Nick Clason (09:29.41)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (09:37.87)
Yeah, and I love that, that you encourage crowd participation rather than try to stifle it because then that makes, that means everyone in the room is able to join in and participate. And yeah, it's not just for the people up there. It's beautiful.

Jay Reynolds (09:42.441)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (09:48.944)
Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And that's where a lot of the prizes, I tried to make them like, maybe there was like, actually, I think that's the year I gave away like some panda hats and like, so I may have like made like a panda shirt or something. That was kind of our little subtle branding. And so that just kind of went with it. It was like, oh, this was for you, but it's also paired with like five bags of candy to share with your cabin. You know what I mean? And so.

Nick Clason (09:59.468)
Okay.

Nick Clason (10:05.015)
Right.

Nick Clason (10:12.192)
Nice, yeah. So there's more incentive for the people in the crowd. Like if their buddy's up there, they might get to, yeah, that's awesome.

Jay Reynolds (10:16.915)
Yep. Exactly. Yeah. You know, and so that just cries a call a lot of crowd participation. Here's what I didn't expect, but something awesome that happened. So in 45 seconds, you know, you sometimes go into it thinking like, this game is going to be great. This kid's going to get like eight. This kid may get seven, like clear winner. That didn't always happen. Like this kid got eight. This other kid got eight. Time ended. Now I'm like in the moment, like, well, what do I do? Right.

Nick Clason (10:26.519)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (10:36.173)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (10:41.165)
Mmm.

Nick Clason (10:44.801)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jay Reynolds (10:45.649)
And so, so here's what I did. Like I'll just give a little secret sauce so you don't have to think through it if you play this. And so I just like, okay, you guys tie. How do we end this? And so I basically just put my hand out and you know, and then for the contestants hand behind the back, you know, go to the next one, the first one, you know, high five and answer correctly. Then they got to choose and that was created in the whole, like the whole room, like this anticipation who's going to get it, you know?

Nick Clason (10:51.308)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (11:07.362)
Yeah they win.

Nick Clason (11:13.527)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (11:14.173)
And then it's like the one kid that happened to and they guessed they were so confident and they got it wrong, you know? But then the other kid got it, right? And it just creates like kind of like this little bit of storybook kind of ending whenever they tie. And so it just works, you know, pretty well.

Nick Clason (11:20.758)
Yeah, dude

Nick Clason (11:27.297)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (11:30.7)
Yeah dude, that's awesome. Okay so, a kid wins the majority of the board Friday night. So Saturday morning let's say, you come back to play it again. You're getting random contestants. Now if someone was on the board but they weren't selected or they weren't eliminated, did you swap them out with new contestants? So you just had the people who like, so like one carryover from Friday night and then everyone else was new?

Jay Reynolds (11:37.78)
Yes.

Jay Reynolds (11:52.467)
Yep.

Nick Clason (12:00.672)
on the board on Saturday? Is that how you handled it? Okay, great.

Jay Reynolds (12:03.285)
That's how I handled it, right? And so some of that, you know, sometimes when you play a game, it's like, oh yeah, that kid, you know, gets participated, but somebody wins before they get there, right? And it's just like, it's kind of that concept. And you know, what, what I had a little bit of the workflow is that every kid who had a box, I gave them basically like piece of paper. I'm number one, two, you know, whatever their number was that went with the box. And so that also helped for, you know, like in the moment there's all these kids around. It's like, oh, it,

Nick Clason (12:23.18)
Right, right, right, yeah. Right.

Jay Reynolds (12:32.445)
chose number 12, you know, to be able to cue the folks in the back and be able to set up Prober Center, everything correctly. It was like, we got number 12, you know, coming on up, you know? And, and so it's like while they're traveling, it's able to kind of like cue some of the tech team. So they're able to get the next things all set up. But with that, it was all new kids. Like if you want now when it come to Saturday night and Sunday morning,

Nick Clason (12:44.834)
Yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason (12:49.656)
Right.

Jay Reynolds (12:58.471)
If you won Friday night, you were still on the board, you know, unless you lost, you know? And so, so it is basically kind of like you win, you get to stay in the game and earn the right to keep going.

Nick Clason (13:01.186)
Right. Right, right, right.

Nick Clason (13:08.04)
Yeah. Yeah, I think that part's really cool. So did you have a kid make it all the way through or did like a winner from Friday end up getting eliminated on Saturday and you kind of kept daisy chaining it all the way to the end?

Jay Reynolds (13:20.529)
I think it was... We may have had, at least a Saturday night, we have Friday winter and Saturday morning winter into it. I can't remember Sunday morning. May have had a couple. Because we didn't play it this year, we played it last year. And so I'm a little bit of a year plus removed from like into it. But it just created a cool environment. But also like some of the dynamics, let's say like it was number 15, they beat 16, they beat, you know...

Nick Clason (13:29.966)
Okay, that's cool. That's cool.

Nick Clason (13:35.134)
Yeah, yeah. Right.

Jay Reynolds (13:49.253)
14, you know, and they had like their pocket, like all the way on the end. Well, the next day we showed up, it was, um, Hey, do you want to like play or do you want to kind of go back and just like sit in your leg little area? And so that's kind of where like, we'll just sit in our area. Okay. Let's throw up a randomizer. What do we get next? Number two, right? They're almost the other side of the floor. And so, you know, it may have been like, Oh, you didn't win, you know, or you didn't play that day or that, that session.

Nick Clason (13:52.631)
Right.

Nick Clason (14:01.506)
Right.

Nick Clason (14:11.555)
Right?

Nick Clason (14:18.454)
Yeah, to win, but you survived because you weren't on that part of the floor. I get it.

Jay Reynolds (14:20.989)
Exactly. So some of that, and if you watch the game show, that's how like people will play. Like, I won like three rounds. I have a small little section, but I'm like in an aisle. I'm like all the way in the corner. Maybe it's better. go back and then, know, but it's also like, I'm playing for the category, right? Now let me talk a little bit about categories, you know, cause I, I chose all that myself, the game show, like you, you go in saying, this is my category. And it's like, you're almost like,

Nick Clason (14:33.986)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (14:41.399)
Okay, yeah.

Jay Reynolds (14:49.393)
You're bringing category to the game show.

Nick Clason (14:52.01)
Yeah, like that's you're an expert in that category is how it works on the game show you're saying

Jay Reynolds (14:54.835)
Yeah. Yes. But in my context, I don't know. And I'm like, to keep things to be able to be randomized, I was basically like, here's your category. You are now an expert. You know, like you are now an expert on dogs, you know, or you are now an expert on fruit, you know, you are now in and it was all common stuff that's in their world. And so so instead of it being as eclectic as what you might experience, like watching the game show, as I just made it more actually slide on the side of common.

Nick Clason (15:01.859)
Mm-hmm.

Gotcha, okay, cool, cool, cool.

Right.

Nick Clason (15:14.296)
Right.

Nick Clason (15:20.429)
Sure.

Jay Reynolds (15:23.477)
and that most people are going to know what it is, right? Because when you think through audience engagement, actually, the more eclectic it gets, the more you minimize participation, right? And so in this context, it's like playing other games, like if you play um or pie in the face type games, it's like you actually want some of those topics that people are going to know.

Nick Clason (15:28.417)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (15:36.302)
100%, yeah.

Jay Reynolds (15:49.353)
you know, car brands, type of thing, know, shoe brands, you know, like some of those things. And it just creates a higher engagement, which ends up being a better experience for the entire audience.

Nick Clason (15:51.586)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (15:59.982)
Yeah, okay, so one like just last little point of clarification I have is when you get two contestants, do you have them bounce back and forth like you say a carb brand, I say a carb brand until the one person can't remember or do you give them each 45 seconds and they have to list as many as they can and then the other person goes.

Jay Reynolds (16:18.355)
Yeah, no, great question. in using the slides, you know, and for us, we had a screen right behind us. So it's easy for them to see, easy for the whole crowd to see that type of thing. And it was basically like a, you know, person A is person B. So A, know, it's just like, that's let's say it's animals like, that's a panda, you know, next person, person B. that's a, that's an eagle person A. that's a dolphin. You know, that's a shark, you know.

Nick Clason (16:30.843)
yeah, that's right.

Nick Clason (16:41.366)
Okay. Gotcha. So it's not like a speed thing against him. It's like, person A, this slide is yours and you either get it or you don't. Got it. Okay. Cool, cool,

Jay Reynolds (16:50.517)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, if it takes you a second, know, like animals is pretty easy, you know, but, know, when you get into like, and I think like for, was it like cereals? I may have had a picture of the cereal. I may have had the box and kind of canvad out the name of it or something like that, but make it so it's recognizable. But you're like, it takes you a minute or not a minute, but it takes you a few moments to think about it. You know, the overall timer was 45 seconds.

Nick Clason (17:06.71)
Right, right.

Jay Reynolds (17:17.053)
and was just whoever got the most correct, but it was just back and forth, back and forth, that type of thing. Yeah.

Nick Clason (17:19.286)
Yeah.

That's awesome. I love it. Okay. Now you told me when we were texting back and forth, like, do you still have the purpose under file? Like, is that something that, that, you could get and we could give to people who are listening? Yeah, that'd be amazing.

Jay Reynolds (17:34.581)
Dude, I'd love to, you know? And so, yeah, and I use ProPresenter and so, you know, it's all built in ProPresenter, but I, man, I think it's all built in folders. So if you don't use, you know, if somebody's listening and they wanna try it out, I think I have folders that are all like the images. And I built, I built the floor off 16, but I built like two other categories. So if like something happened, like they, or something glitches, you know, things like that. So I think I technically built like.

Nick Clason (17:51.714)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (18:01.27)
Right, you gotta fall back, yeah. Okay.

Jay Reynolds (18:03.317)
18 categories. But man, I would gladly share it, you know.

Nick Clason (18:07.818)
Yeah, that'd be super cool. Yeah, so we'll get that from you and we'll link it down below. I think the thing I like the most about this is that you can make this the game for your D now, your winter retreat, your fall retreat, whatever, and you can just go back to it. And as opposed to every session, let's say you got four sessions over the course of a weekend, you don't have to come up with four things. This thing carries you all weekend long.

the more they know it or get to understand the rules of it, by the end of it, the hype level is probably gonna be raising every single time they do it. So maybe Friday night, it's basic understanding and basic learning, but by the end of it, people get the rules, they're locked into it, and they're trying to carry home the ultimate floor champion moniker, if they get to take home that final prize or whatever.

I think those are some of my favorite styles of games, things that can just, that well that you can kind of keep going back to. And so that's what I love about it. And I did not understand it at all when we were texting. So as you've described it more, I'm more more into it. And even my wheels now are turning. I'm like, all right, we got a winter retreat coming up. Do we incorporate this? Or do we bring this with us to summer camp or something like that? Because this sounds super fun, super amazing. And just a great way to like,

build the competition and build the camaraderie.

Jay Reynolds (19:37.181)
Yeah. And I think, you know, that's exactly it, man. You know, and if you think through like and how we set it up, like I think we just set up like two or three, you know, or maybe it's like two blocks and just like right as a center aisle. But let's just talk a little bit about that. Like I use painter's tape so that way it's not messing with the floor at all. Super cheap. But then what I did to make it easier is like think through if you were playing like that, that kids like dock game, you have to build boxes.

Nick Clason (19:49.485)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (19:55.319)
Right, and cheap.

Nick Clason (20:05.709)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jay Reynolds (20:06.451)
Yeah. So think of it in that a whole frame on the outside was just solid lines to be able to build it. But on the inside, it was all like, you know, just think through each box by itself, because then when you have some volunteers like, box eight takes over seven, you know, and now you pull that one strip between the two. Now, you know, it's all box eight, right? You know? And so that just makes it easier logistically, because if you run long strips,

Nick Clason (20:11.607)
Right.

Nick Clason (20:16.91)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (20:26.163)
Mmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason (20:32.558)
Totally.

Jay Reynolds (20:34.451)
like across multiple boxes on the interior, then like, now I have to like weirdly pick up like. Yeah, and that will be logistically, you know, that's like something like, I didn't think of it until I was in the in the in the situation. Now it's an issue is that think through like small like so the boxes say, you know, two or three feet wide, you know, just the interior pieces are all single pieces.

Nick Clason (20:40.788)
Yeah, cut it and yeah.

Nick Clason (20:50.124)
Right, yeah.

Nick Clason (20:59.852)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (21:00.393)
So it's a little bit longer to set up, not much, but a little bit longer to set up, but much easier for flow by game flow.

Nick Clason (21:08.046)
Yeah, I got you. Okay, so then, you know, seven overtakes eight. On Saturday morning, do you redraw, like, the seven box, or has seven still overtaken eight on Saturday morning for that morning's board? Does that make sense?

Jay Reynolds (21:24.713)
Yeah. Say seven takes over eight. And so now, yeah. And so basically your goal is to win the whole floor, you know? And so, ultimately, you know, and so now you get down to it is like, let's just say you winner keeps winning and they keep staying, they keep playing all this kind of stuff. And now you get down to it. They have 15 boxes, you know? And so let's just say it's one against number now, like let's say nine that won everything. One didn't.

Nick Clason (21:31.458)
The whole thing, yeah.

Nick Clason (21:40.097)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (21:51.063)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (21:52.319)
play at all. And it's just the kid who just got in that day and they just sat and watched nine keep winning, keep winning. And they get up there and then one who's had no action the entire time. They beat this person who's won everything. It's like a David and glide style matchup. And then they win that round. They win it all, you know? And so that's the other thing. What's intriguing about it. It's like, you know, some games it's like, if you're, could have the sheer advantage.

Nick Clason (21:56.278)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (22:09.918)
moment yeah yeah that's cool that's cool

Jay Reynolds (22:21.885)
or you keep winning and then now it like builds all this momentum. It's nice because it's almost, it's like there's neutralizers built into this game all the way throughout, you know? And it could just be like, just luck of the draw. Like, I don't know, I don't eat cereal. I only eat toast. Like I don't even know. And then that kid who's like, man, just sat, I randomly got chosen. You know, the kid who's like, man, I don't know it. I just eat cereal every day. I don't even know why I'm here, but I know this. And then I ended up winning everything, you know?

Nick Clason (22:29.238)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (22:37.857)
you

Nick Clason (22:47.351)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's cool.

Jay Reynolds (22:50.813)
And so that's the cool thing that makes it so easy and fun and all that kind of stuff.

Nick Clason (22:57.43)
Yeah, that's amazing. Nice. All right, bro. That really does sound super fun, super cool. So any last final parting words about retreats or games or this game in particular before we hit stop and close out the recording?

Jay Reynolds (23:15.219)
Yeah, dude, I think the last thing I'd say as far as for playing this game, because it builds on itself, you know, think through, I think how I played it was Friday night. I think I only did three questions, you know, because of Friday night, you have the rules, you have all this kind of stuff and not just the rules for this game, but, know, just think through your retreat overall. What is all of it, you know, entail? And so, you know, we did maybe three questions and then that allowed us to choose which other session do we want to do five, you know?

Nick Clason (23:25.954)
Okay.

Nick Clason (23:33.197)
Right.

Jay Reynolds (23:43.517)
And so just think through some of that from a momentum standpoint on how you want to play it. The other thing from a momentum is let your, you know, your session prizes build. So Friday night, maybe it is like a, you know, hat in like two bags of candy, you know, but then Saturday morning, you know, I think we did prizes that like relate. We were going to do like some, some, I don't know, pool games and things like that. So we gave away like beach towels, you know,

Nick Clason (23:43.725)
Mm.

Nick Clason (23:47.447)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (23:54.669)
Mmm.

Nick Clason (24:12.436)
Okay. Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (24:12.871)
and candy, right? And so it just kind of built and it just seemed that, you know, as the game builds, because it's over multiple sessions, that if you have budget and that's how you kind of ministry works, I would encourage you to think through, let your prizes build also, you know, and because that is just going to intuitively kind of go in with the whole game, you know, that type of thing. And so for me, my style is I always get other leaders involved, you know, small group leaders, things like that. I'm like, Hey, pick two kids to play, pick two kids to play.

Nick Clason (24:26.935)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (24:32.673)
yeah that makes sense

Nick Clason (24:40.8)
huh.

Jay Reynolds (24:42.687)
You know, and so, you know, that's how I help in the randomization, you know, but I'm getting other leaders involved in that process. That also helps like in a ministry. it's not like, Jay just picked his favorite kids to play to try to win, you know, well, no, I picked this leader and that lead, you know, and so it's like, I try to, so depending on how the structure is set up, getting other voices involved, help to take away like what could be speculation. Does that make sense? Yeah.

Nick Clason (25:04.513)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (25:09.408)
Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. Yeah, I love it, man. Well, I, again, I appreciate your time. I thought this was a great conversation, great game. Like, and that one of the things I think is so, like interesting in the world of youth pastors, cause I did this too once where I was like watching a game show, you know, just at home with my wife and I was like,

I can make that into a game. You know what mean? And that's just the way our brain, we never turn off, we never stop thinking, we never stop ideating. And so I've never heard of this concept before, I've never even heard of this game show, but you're so right. It's a perfect youth ministry game and I love the fact that it can span the whole thing. And that's exactly what I was looking for, for all these different conversations, all these different ideas. And so again, really appreciate you hopping on and we'll throw the link to your.

Jay Reynolds (25:33.036)
yeah.

Never. Never.

Jay Reynolds (25:48.627)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (25:57.634)
your files and stuff like that down below. really appreciate you giving that away and that'll be super helpful for anyone who wants to take it and run with it.

Jay Reynolds (26:05.683)
Yeah, feel free. And hey, if one of your listeners wants to try it out and they get a little confused or want to kind of process through a little bit more, dude, feel free. You know, they can reach out and connect me with them. I'd love to kind of just help walk alongside someone who's trying to, you know, trying something new in their context, trying something to see what it would work. And I hope for folks who try it.

Nick Clason (26:14.851)
Yeah.

Jay Reynolds (26:25.683)
Man, hope you end of the day, if you're gonna play game like this, it's just as much as you having fun with your kids, with your students having fun, because that's kind of the momentum that really builds and getting them all into it.

Nick Clason (26:36.364)
Yeah, perfect. All right, Jay. Well, I appreciate it, And everyone else, thanks for listening. And we'll talk again soon. See you.

Jay Reynolds (26:43.455)
Cool, great chat man, take care.

]]> Episode 182: I tried every youth ministry social media pack that exists. https://www.hybridministry.xyz/182 8deb2509-1935-48b1-9f98-914a4819123a Thu, 01 Jan 2026 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 182 I tried every youth ministry social media pack that exists. full Nick Clason I tried and evaluated every "Youth Ministry Social Media" Pack I could find on the internet. I evaluated on 4 criteria, and the verdict is in! I discovered the pack you should be using at your church in 2026 and beyond! 17:27 no I tried and evaluated every "Youth Ministry Social Media" Pack I could find on the internet. I evaluated on 4 criteria, and the verdict is in! I discovered the pack you should be using at your church in 2026 and beyond! SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/182 Social Team Checklist https://www.patreon.com/posts/social-media-138081327?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link Mic’d Kid Reel https://www.instagram.com/p/DGtLVQOxLw8/ LIFE CHURCH https://open.life.church/resources/5220-youth-social-media-graphics DYM MONTHLY SOCIAL MEDIA PACK January Pack: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/dym-january-2026-social-media-pack/social-media/instagram-10658.html Membership: https://www.dymmembership.com/ YOUTH MINISTRY DROP https://youthministrydrop.com/ SUNDAY SOCIAL https://sundaysocial.tv/social/ NUCLEUS Video: https://youtu.be/onqh7dHLwKs?si=XFtY-4Lcv32XMoH8 Nucleus Social: https://www.nucleus.church/media SERMON MULTIPLIER https://sermonmultiplier.com/ DYM Membership: https://www.dymmembership.com/ HYBRID HERO SOCIAL PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link Hybrid Heroes get this pack for $4/mo https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 The 4 Part Grading Scale 00:41 Pack 1 - Life.Church 02:14 Pack 2 - Pack 2 - DYM Monthly Member Pack 05:23 Pack 3 - Youth Ministry Drop 07:03 Pack 4 - Sunday Social 08:59 Pack 5 - Brady Shearer &amp; Nucleus 12:22 Pack 6 - Sermon Multiplier 14:44 Pack 7 - Seasonal Social Media -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:05 - 00:00:26:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I tried every youth ministry social media pack that exists or or at least that I could find through a quick Google search. And this is what I found out. Now, here's the thing. I'm going to be evaluating based on these personalization reels and shorts and cost. And we're going to see who goes and takes the cake. So I have seven different social media packs. 00:00:26:28 - 00:00:49:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I want you to stick around to the end because I do believe I have uncovered and I've found the best social media pack for youth ministries in the world. Let's go. Okay, so this first one here that I found again, just remember a quick, simple Google search. I found a life church, which is, their open platform. 00:00:49:07 - 00:01:12:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It is free, which is amazing. But one of the things I noticed when I actually clicked in on it was that it just very simply was a, a standard quick graphic pack. So this isn't even really a social media pack as much as it is some social media images to post to your social media. So is it's a ten like it's free and you can grab it. 00:01:12:20 - 00:01:34:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But if you want to edit it, like if you want to put your actual student ministry like students and pictures on there, like it's maybe like a one because it's just JPEGs. Like there's not even a Photoshop file or a Canva graphic that you can swap out their pictures with your own pictures. So, let's if you want to just post what they have, we'll give it a ten. 00:01:34:13 - 00:01:52:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But like, let's just put it out of five and then, the personalization touch because you can't edit it. It's, it's a one like you can't it's not your youth ministry at all. Unless maybe you put your like youth ministry logo just in the corner somewhere. So we're just going to stick that one. Reels and shorts. It's a zero. 00:01:52:08 - 00:02:16:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's there's no reels and shorts. Here is, it's, graphic. It's, picture. And then finally cost, we're going to give it a ten on cost, which means it's cheap. So, high on the cost meter, which means that it was free. So the total score for Life Church is 15 out of 40. The next one is the dim monthly pack. 00:02:16:15 - 00:02:37:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so kind of the story of how I found this is I've been a dim member now for probably going on ten years. And dim, like, I actually just yesterday was on a video called Four Different People, who all essentially said something along the lines of the DIY membership is the best thing that you the best youth ministry, value that exists on the internet. 00:02:37:15 - 00:03:02:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you know what? There. Right? Gold. Gold plus and platinum. They are all incredible deals. I myself am a platinum member and a part of the do I am monthly pack is, a social media pack that they give out every single month. And so from an EAS standpoint, I'm going to give it like an eight. It gives you, a post for every single day of, of the month and it gives you a monthly posting calendar. 00:03:02:16 - 00:03:21:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you just follow their posting calendar, it's easy to go. Now you do have to schedule it yourself or post it yourself. So that's why it's not a ten on ease, because you do have to have at least a little bit of infrastructure and tools to be able to post it. Personalization. I'm going to give it a three and here's why. 00:03:21:21 - 00:03:42:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Any of the just like kind of like standard graphics, like they there's not really personalized. However, they do include some story graphics where you can post like stickers with, polls or questions or comments or multiple choice. And so therefore you are at least able to do a little bit of interaction and engagement. So there is a personalization. 00:03:43:02 - 00:04:09:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It did go to zero though on reels and shorts because it's it's not a reels and shorts base package. It is a graphics based package. And this this is really important. And out of the four this might be one of the most important ones from a social media standpoint, not from a youth pastor standpoint. Maybe ease or maybe cost is the most important, but reels and shorts videos, that is really, really important on social media in 2026 and then also cost. 00:04:09:05 - 00:04:32:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm going to give it like a six. And and it's a complicated one because you can't actually get this pack standalone. You have to be a member. So the membership is expensive and I wouldn't get the membership. If you're only goal is to get this social media like, but I would get the membership because there's a million other amazing opportunities and a million other amazing resources found in there. 00:04:32:06 - 00:04:56:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So it's behind the gold, gold plus or platinum paywall. So to be completely fair, that is, like I said, the best deal in the history of youth ministry. It's 24, 70 for a month. If you pay on the annualized version of gold or it's 2999 if you pay monthly, platinum is 8325 a month, or $1,000 a year, and again thousand dollars a year for this social media pack. 00:04:56:08 - 00:05:17:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Not the best deal in youth ministry, but when you throw in national day events, youth ministry training, free ticket to doing 100 roundtables, a whole year of co-leader and their annual curriculum like bro. Yes, games, store credit, mystery items, parent resources. Now we're talking. It really is the best year in the history of youth ministry. So total score for the youth ministry doing, monthly social pack. 00:05:17:26 - 00:05:37:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm going to give it like a 17 out of 40, the youth ministry job. This is a new one. And shout out to the youth ministry drop. You're CEO is cooking. Your email like I'm getting emails from you. Like, that is amazing. Here's what I noticed, though. This is, this this is behind a paywall. 00:05:37:00 - 00:05:54:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right. So, I'm going to give it the cost. I'm going to give it an eight. It's $15 a month. You get more than just a social media pack. The ease I'm going to give it an eight as well. It's got ready to go graphics and videos. The personalization, is like a two. 00:05:54:15 - 00:06:11:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You can probably add some, like, stickers and stuff like that, just like the DUI impact to, like, stories. But I am this is the first one now that I am going to give a five. So more than zero on reels and shorts, because if you look in the description here, it offers not just graphics but also videos. 00:06:11:07 - 00:06:30:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this is the first pack that does include some videos so far that we've looked at. And so $15 a month is a great deal. Also you get more, like I said in this than just the social media pack. And so I didn't pay for it because I don't have any money for these videos. And so you can subscribe to this video for me. 00:06:30:25 - 00:06:51:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And that will actually help a lot or give it a like, or, show some love down in the comments. Or better yet, head on over to my Patreon where I give a, weekly bonus podcast episode recapping my night in youth ministry. So I can't be like Ryan Trahan and pay for all the bits in my video, but hopefully soon I can. 00:06:51:16 - 00:07:10:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So, go ahead, do those things. Subscribe, head over to Patreon. That'd be amazing. Total score for this. I'm going to give it a 23 out of 40. Moving on to the fourth one, we have the Sunday Social. Now here's how I found it. Because when I Google Search Sunday Social didn't come up. This is a church wide platform. 00:07:10:00 - 00:07:27:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's not just built for student ministry. The last ones were all just kind of built for student ministry. But this one, this one is a little bit different. This is made kind of for the rest of the church. And so therefore, I knew about it and I went and I found it, it didn't find me on my search. 00:07:27:05 - 00:07:43:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But here's what I notice. Like ease. I'm going to give it a nine. It looks like it has more powerful tools than the other ones that we've used so far. The other ones, like here is a graphic. And then this has like a scheduler and like an editable, template and like it's all kind of like web based. 00:07:43:25 - 00:08:01:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so this looks like it's got like some real, some real meat, some real, effort behind some of these tools. The personalization I'm going to give it like a three. If you look here like there are three different kind of tiers. So there's just the standard pack. Then there's the editable, add on. And so that's going to be a little bit more expensive. 00:08:01:25 - 00:08:18:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So it exists but it's not in at the base package. And then same thing with the reels and shorts. I'm going to go ahead and give it a five. It does have an option there to add in the reels and shorts add on. But again now with the personalization plus the reels and shorts. Now, we've added on quite a bit. 00:08:18:24 - 00:08:42:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That ends up getting it to be I'm going to give it a six on cost because it's about $50 a month. And so if you are a church, church wide, social media manager, $50 a month might be within your wheelhouse in a youth ministry context where it's just social media and it's just these graphics and still the personalization doesn't necessarily mean your face, your voice, your people and your pictures. 00:08:42:11 - 00:09:00:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It only if you're able to do that in an editable software like Canva or Photoshop. But it's not your actual like, pastor, you know, coming on and doing devotionals and stuff like that. So we're going to go ahead and give this a 23 out of 40. The next one I noticed were some videos here, which, oh, hey, look at that one. 00:09:00:29 - 00:09:25:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I know that guy. But Brady Shear and, Alexander Mills on their Pro Church Tools podcast and also nucleus, which is their, their brand for like websites and media. They have, social media and, options. And then we're going to get into that in just a minute. But I found Brady back in 2016, back when the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the, Warriors in the NBA finals. 00:09:25:08 - 00:09:47:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I just remember that year because my son was born, and apparently when I found Brady. But what I notice is that Brady is he's goaded on this stuff like he is the man, and I trust everything he says. And to be completely fair, I really started this podcast because I believe so much in what Brady said, and I wanted to make that clear and available for youth ministries, who he talks about youth ministries. 00:09:47:10 - 00:10:06:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In fact, this video right here that I discovered, is a video that he talks about how to do social media for youth ministry, but he does it like once a year, and I talk about it every single week. And so the I've listened to this podcast before and there's a bunch of different chapters, and he had a few, a couple philosophies behind what to do. 00:10:06:02 - 00:10:27:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So the first thing is he wants it to be student driven, which, by the way, I actually have an entire checklist and episode link down below about how you can have a student driven and student run social media where you don't actually have to lift much of a finger. And the second is, show, don't tell. Right. So, like, get on there and actually show them what it's like to be in your youth ministry. 00:10:27:18 - 00:11:00:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Don't just tell them what it's like to be a part of your youth ministry. And then these were all ideas that he had. So, make up a kid, which, by the way, he gave this idea and I went ahead and stole it. And so you can see the video of we when we mocked up a kid in our youth ministry, talked about, using disposable cameras and kind of that vintage look, creating broadcast channels for communication and just community and conversation, doing like a live performance, using like, the live feature, natively woven into some of these social media platforms and then finally Bible trivia, which sneak peek my winter season social 00:11:00:00 - 00:11:24:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry media pack has a Bible Trivia one, but then you got to know that he has. Like I said, he has a a platform, called Nucleus Social. So this is what I'm going to be though. That was just his video. Like here's some ideas how to run it. But his actual social media pack, once again similar to Sunday Social made for big church, like social media is not just youth ministry, social medias ease. 00:11:24:15 - 00:11:41:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm going to give it a nine. It has some more powerful tools and some of the other ones that we've looked at. Personalization. I'm going to go ahead and give it a five. There's some edited, edited ability. And some of these is especially if you know how to use things like, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Reels and Shorts. 00:11:41:11 - 00:12:01:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm going to give this a seven. This is the highest, this is a higher score than the Sunday social one because it's baked into the cost, not just an add on. However, you'll notice that it's about the same cost as Sunday socials. So this is Brady's like, base package. It's just it is 49. Where Sunday social. It's like it jumps up on you as you add it on. 00:12:01:08 - 00:12:20:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we're gonna go ahead and give the cost factor about a six which brings his out to 2740 which is this is probably and this one is Sunday social are probably the most beautiful like of all the packs. Like they just have professional designers on their team and they just do an amazing, amazing job with their stuff. 00:12:20:29 - 00:12:49:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This one's a new one that I just came across. I got an email from Download Youth Ministry as a part of my platinum membership that a service called The Seer. The sermon multiplier, is giving platinum members a free trial for three months, some different credits to use their platform. And so this is got a lot of some social media, components woven into it, but it's also got some other, things like AI devotionals that it can, it can create and develop for us. 00:12:49:08 - 00:13:10:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so this is the most personalized option so far. What you do is you upload a video of yourself teaching, and then it creates and spits out for you devotionals, graphics and real. So is I'm going to give it a six on these like the actual platforms. Easy. You click upload, it uploads. But here's why I didn't make it a ten. 00:13:10:22 - 00:13:30:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry On ease is because you must have a video of yourself, and not every youth pastor has a video of themselves teaching. And so I happen to that's part of our strategy. We we post all of our long form videos, to YouTube. So I had one that I could use as a test that was clean and didn't have any lower thirds that were going to get chopped off on the sides if I uploaded it. 00:13:30:22 - 00:13:45:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I also it needed to be under five megabytes, which one of my videos is like 5.8. And so that was kind of a bummer because I was like, well, I have to compress this in order to get it. And like, that's a whole nother like step. And there was no option to to do that. Woven into the dashboard, there. 00:13:45:25 - 00:14:11:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The personalization factor, I'm giving this one a ten. Like my face, my voice, my sermon clipped into social media, my quotes, that it spits out for you. Like you can't get more personalized in that reusing shorts. They do it. They give you four custom ones based off and clipped up from that video and then finally cost, I'm going to give it a seven because, if you're a platinum member, it's like a one. 00:14:11:00 - 00:14:38:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if it's just a little random added perk to it, like you weren't getting the platinum membership for this. Fantastic. But if not, it's it is a little bit expensive because it's sitting there behind the platinum membership. Now, you realize this is another feature from Download Youth Ministry. So you can pair this with the graphics pack. And now now we might be talking melding kind of these two scores together because it's a couple of different angles of social media. 00:14:38:01 - 00:15:00:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So just something to consider there. That ends up being 33 out of 40. And then the final one is the winter seasonal social media pack. Here's how I found it I actually made this one. But I do need a better SEO engineer. It. Listen, it's me. I'm the SEO engineer, which means it's not that good, but I actually got this text yesterday from a friend who said that I showed up in a ChatGPT search, so maybe something I'm doing is working. 00:15:01:04 - 00:15:20:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But here's what I noticed. Mine did pretty well versus some of these professionals. Reminder I'm not a professional. I'm a professional and paid youth pastor. But that's it. Like this whole social media thing, this is a side gig. This is my guest bedroom, before a dentist appointment that I have on a Friday on my day off. So, like, that's, you know, this is the back of my phone I'm talking into. 00:15:20:25 - 00:15:40:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But here's the thing. Here's my score. I'm going to give it a nine for ease. And I'm not just saying that because it's mine. Like I give you everything. I give you the videos and you take them and you post them, okay? However, I'm going to give it a nine because you still have to get your camera out and film yourself at some points, because I care about the personalization side of it. 00:15:40:09 - 00:15:58:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I can't just give you the graphics. If I were doing just a graphics pack, I would make it as easy as all the other ones, but I I'm asking you and your your voice as a youth pastor or your students or your volunteers to become some of the faces and some of the personalities on your social media. But that's what makes it a ten, personalization. 00:15:58:19 - 00:16:19:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like you look at my pack across my grid and my feed here, like it's not just a bunch of, like, unfazed and unnamed graphics like it is my self, my people, our student ministry. The reels and shorts. It's a ten. It is based on reels and shorts. There are more reels and static graphics. There's only one post type that is a graphic or a carousel post type. 00:16:19:17 - 00:16:50:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The rest are all based on short form vertical video, TikTok reels, YouTube shorts, and then finally the cost. I'm going to say a nine, bro. It's only $4 per month. Like we had $15. We had completely free. But all it was is like one like set of graphics, but with $4 per month, for three months of social media or you get this pack, if you don't want to become a hybrid hero member at $4 per month, this pack standalone is 1799 and $18 for three months once again. 00:16:50:17 - 00:17:11:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So my total score is 38 out of 40. And so this is how I rank the social media packs for student ministries. These are the four things that matter to me. And the ease and personalization reels and shorts and cost. And these are the four things that I tried to lean in on my pack and so if you found this video helpful, a like a subscribe, a comment, a share would be amazing. 00:17:11:24 - 00:17:25:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if you think that the Winter season social media pack would help be a game changer for you and your social media and your church's student ministry, encourage you to go check it out and grab it right now. But until next time my friends. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid. Social media, Church Social Media 2026, Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Life Church, DYM Social Media, Sermon Multiplier, Sunday Social, Nucleus, Hybrid Ministry, Nick Clason, Best Youth Ministry Social Media for 2026, Youth Ministry Social Media in 2026, TikTok for Students, Teenagers and Instagram, YouTube for Youth Ministry I tried and evaluated every "Youth Ministry Social Media" Pack I could find on the internet.
I evaluated on 4 criteria, and the verdict is in!
I discovered the pack you should be using at your church in 2026 and beyond!

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/182

Social Team Checklist
https://www.patreon.com/posts/social-media-138081327?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Mic’d Kid Reel
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGtLVQOxLw8/

LIFE CHURCH
https://open.life.church/resources/5220-youth-social-media-graphics

DYM MONTHLY SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
January Pack: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/dym-january-2026-social-media-pack/social-media/instagram-10658.html

Membership: https://www.dymmembership.com/

YOUTH MINISTRY DROP
https://youthministrydrop.com/

SUNDAY SOCIAL
https://sundaysocial.tv/social/

NUCLEUS
Video: https://youtu.be/onqh7dHLwKs?si=XFtY-4Lcv32XMoH8
Nucleus Social: https://www.nucleus.church/media

SERMON MULTIPLIER
https://sermonmultiplier.com/

DYM Membership: https://www.dymmembership.com/

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

Hybrid Heroes get this pack for $4/mo
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The 4 Part Grading Scale
00:41 Pack 1 - Life.Church
02:14 Pack 2 - Pack 2 - DYM Monthly Member Pack
05:23 Pack 3 - Youth Ministry Drop
07:03 Pack 4 - Sunday Social
08:59 Pack 5 - Brady Shearer & Nucleus
12:22 Pack 6 - Sermon Multiplier
14:44 Pack 7 - Seasonal Social Media

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:26:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I tried every youth ministry social media pack that exists or or at least that I could find through a quick Google search. And this is what I found out. Now, here's the thing. I'm going to be evaluating based on these personalization reels and shorts and cost. And we're going to see who goes and takes the cake. So I have seven different social media packs.

00:00:26:28 - 00:00:49:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I want you to stick around to the end because I do believe I have uncovered and I've found the best social media pack for youth ministries in the world. Let's go. Okay, so this first one here that I found again, just remember a quick, simple Google search. I found a life church, which is, their open platform.

00:00:49:07 - 00:01:12:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It is free, which is amazing. But one of the things I noticed when I actually clicked in on it was that it just very simply was a, a standard quick graphic pack. So this isn't even really a social media pack as much as it is some social media images to post to your social media. So is it's a ten like it's free and you can grab it.

00:01:12:20 - 00:01:34:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if you want to edit it, like if you want to put your actual student ministry like students and pictures on there, like it's maybe like a one because it's just JPEGs. Like there's not even a Photoshop file or a Canva graphic that you can swap out their pictures with your own pictures. So, let's if you want to just post what they have, we'll give it a ten.

00:01:34:13 - 00:01:52:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like, let's just put it out of five and then, the personalization touch because you can't edit it. It's, it's a one like you can't it's not your youth ministry at all. Unless maybe you put your like youth ministry logo just in the corner somewhere. So we're just going to stick that one. Reels and shorts. It's a zero.

00:01:52:08 - 00:02:16:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's there's no reels and shorts. Here is, it's, graphic. It's, picture. And then finally cost, we're going to give it a ten on cost, which means it's cheap. So, high on the cost meter, which means that it was free. So the total score for Life Church is 15 out of 40. The next one is the dim monthly pack.

00:02:16:15 - 00:02:37:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so kind of the story of how I found this is I've been a dim member now for probably going on ten years. And dim, like, I actually just yesterday was on a video called Four Different People, who all essentially said something along the lines of the DIY membership is the best thing that you the best youth ministry, value that exists on the internet.

00:02:37:15 - 00:03:02:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you know what? There. Right? Gold. Gold plus and platinum. They are all incredible deals. I myself am a platinum member and a part of the do I am monthly pack is, a social media pack that they give out every single month. And so from an EAS standpoint, I'm going to give it like an eight. It gives you, a post for every single day of, of the month and it gives you a monthly posting calendar.

00:03:02:16 - 00:03:21:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you just follow their posting calendar, it's easy to go. Now you do have to schedule it yourself or post it yourself. So that's why it's not a ten on ease, because you do have to have at least a little bit of infrastructure and tools to be able to post it. Personalization. I'm going to give it a three and here's why.

00:03:21:21 - 00:03:42:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Any of the just like kind of like standard graphics, like they there's not really personalized. However, they do include some story graphics where you can post like stickers with, polls or questions or comments or multiple choice. And so therefore you are at least able to do a little bit of interaction and engagement. So there is a personalization.

00:03:43:02 - 00:04:09:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It did go to zero though on reels and shorts because it's it's not a reels and shorts base package. It is a graphics based package. And this this is really important. And out of the four this might be one of the most important ones from a social media standpoint, not from a youth pastor standpoint. Maybe ease or maybe cost is the most important, but reels and shorts videos, that is really, really important on social media in 2026 and then also cost.

00:04:09:05 - 00:04:32:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to give it like a six. And and it's a complicated one because you can't actually get this pack standalone. You have to be a member. So the membership is expensive and I wouldn't get the membership. If you're only goal is to get this social media like, but I would get the membership because there's a million other amazing opportunities and a million other amazing resources found in there.

00:04:32:06 - 00:04:56:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's behind the gold, gold plus or platinum paywall. So to be completely fair, that is, like I said, the best deal in the history of youth ministry. It's 24, 70 for a month. If you pay on the annualized version of gold or it's 2999 if you pay monthly, platinum is 8325 a month, or $1,000 a year, and again thousand dollars a year for this social media pack.

00:04:56:08 - 00:05:17:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not the best deal in youth ministry, but when you throw in national day events, youth ministry training, free ticket to doing 100 roundtables, a whole year of co-leader and their annual curriculum like bro. Yes, games, store credit, mystery items, parent resources. Now we're talking. It really is the best year in the history of youth ministry. So total score for the youth ministry doing, monthly social pack.

00:05:17:26 - 00:05:37:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to give it like a 17 out of 40, the youth ministry job. This is a new one. And shout out to the youth ministry drop. You're CEO is cooking. Your email like I'm getting emails from you. Like, that is amazing. Here's what I noticed, though. This is, this this is behind a paywall.

00:05:37:00 - 00:05:54:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. So, I'm going to give it the cost. I'm going to give it an eight. It's $15 a month. You get more than just a social media pack. The ease I'm going to give it an eight as well. It's got ready to go graphics and videos. The personalization, is like a two.

00:05:54:15 - 00:06:11:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can probably add some, like, stickers and stuff like that, just like the DUI impact to, like, stories. But I am this is the first one now that I am going to give a five. So more than zero on reels and shorts, because if you look in the description here, it offers not just graphics but also videos.

00:06:11:07 - 00:06:30:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this is the first pack that does include some videos so far that we've looked at. And so $15 a month is a great deal. Also you get more, like I said in this than just the social media pack. And so I didn't pay for it because I don't have any money for these videos. And so you can subscribe to this video for me.

00:06:30:25 - 00:06:51:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that will actually help a lot or give it a like, or, show some love down in the comments. Or better yet, head on over to my Patreon where I give a, weekly bonus podcast episode recapping my night in youth ministry. So I can't be like Ryan Trahan and pay for all the bits in my video, but hopefully soon I can.

00:06:51:16 - 00:07:10:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, go ahead, do those things. Subscribe, head over to Patreon. That'd be amazing. Total score for this. I'm going to give it a 23 out of 40. Moving on to the fourth one, we have the Sunday Social. Now here's how I found it. Because when I Google Search Sunday Social didn't come up. This is a church wide platform.

00:07:10:00 - 00:07:27:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's not just built for student ministry. The last ones were all just kind of built for student ministry. But this one, this one is a little bit different. This is made kind of for the rest of the church. And so therefore, I knew about it and I went and I found it, it didn't find me on my search.

00:07:27:05 - 00:07:43:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's what I notice. Like ease. I'm going to give it a nine. It looks like it has more powerful tools than the other ones that we've used so far. The other ones, like here is a graphic. And then this has like a scheduler and like an editable, template and like it's all kind of like web based.

00:07:43:25 - 00:08:01:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this looks like it's got like some real, some real meat, some real, effort behind some of these tools. The personalization I'm going to give it like a three. If you look here like there are three different kind of tiers. So there's just the standard pack. Then there's the editable, add on. And so that's going to be a little bit more expensive.

00:08:01:25 - 00:08:18:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it exists but it's not in at the base package. And then same thing with the reels and shorts. I'm going to go ahead and give it a five. It does have an option there to add in the reels and shorts add on. But again now with the personalization plus the reels and shorts. Now, we've added on quite a bit.

00:08:18:24 - 00:08:42:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That ends up getting it to be I'm going to give it a six on cost because it's about $50 a month. And so if you are a church, church wide, social media manager, $50 a month might be within your wheelhouse in a youth ministry context where it's just social media and it's just these graphics and still the personalization doesn't necessarily mean your face, your voice, your people and your pictures.

00:08:42:11 - 00:09:00:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It only if you're able to do that in an editable software like Canva or Photoshop. But it's not your actual like, pastor, you know, coming on and doing devotionals and stuff like that. So we're going to go ahead and give this a 23 out of 40. The next one I noticed were some videos here, which, oh, hey, look at that one.

00:09:00:29 - 00:09:25:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I know that guy. But Brady Shear and, Alexander Mills on their Pro Church Tools podcast and also nucleus, which is their, their brand for like websites and media. They have, social media and, options. And then we're going to get into that in just a minute. But I found Brady back in 2016, back when the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the, Warriors in the NBA finals.

00:09:25:08 - 00:09:47:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I just remember that year because my son was born, and apparently when I found Brady. But what I notice is that Brady is he's goaded on this stuff like he is the man, and I trust everything he says. And to be completely fair, I really started this podcast because I believe so much in what Brady said, and I wanted to make that clear and available for youth ministries, who he talks about youth ministries.

00:09:47:10 - 00:10:06:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, this video right here that I discovered, is a video that he talks about how to do social media for youth ministry, but he does it like once a year, and I talk about it every single week. And so the I've listened to this podcast before and there's a bunch of different chapters, and he had a few, a couple philosophies behind what to do.

00:10:06:02 - 00:10:27:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So the first thing is he wants it to be student driven, which, by the way, I actually have an entire checklist and episode link down below about how you can have a student driven and student run social media where you don't actually have to lift much of a finger. And the second is, show, don't tell. Right. So, like, get on there and actually show them what it's like to be in your youth ministry.

00:10:27:18 - 00:11:00:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't just tell them what it's like to be a part of your youth ministry. And then these were all ideas that he had. So, make up a kid, which, by the way, he gave this idea and I went ahead and stole it. And so you can see the video of we when we mocked up a kid in our youth ministry, talked about, using disposable cameras and kind of that vintage look, creating broadcast channels for communication and just community and conversation, doing like a live performance, using like, the live feature, natively woven into some of these social media platforms and then finally Bible trivia, which sneak peek my winter season social

00:11:00:00 - 00:11:24:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
media pack has a Bible Trivia one, but then you got to know that he has. Like I said, he has a a platform, called Nucleus Social. So this is what I'm going to be though. That was just his video. Like here's some ideas how to run it. But his actual social media pack, once again similar to Sunday Social made for big church, like social media is not just youth ministry, social medias ease.

00:11:24:15 - 00:11:41:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to give it a nine. It has some more powerful tools and some of the other ones that we've looked at. Personalization. I'm going to go ahead and give it a five. There's some edited, edited ability. And some of these is especially if you know how to use things like, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Reels and Shorts.

00:11:41:11 - 00:12:01:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to give this a seven. This is the highest, this is a higher score than the Sunday social one because it's baked into the cost, not just an add on. However, you'll notice that it's about the same cost as Sunday socials. So this is Brady's like, base package. It's just it is 49. Where Sunday social. It's like it jumps up on you as you add it on.

00:12:01:08 - 00:12:20:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're gonna go ahead and give the cost factor about a six which brings his out to 2740 which is this is probably and this one is Sunday social are probably the most beautiful like of all the packs. Like they just have professional designers on their team and they just do an amazing, amazing job with their stuff.

00:12:20:29 - 00:12:49:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This one's a new one that I just came across. I got an email from Download Youth Ministry as a part of my platinum membership that a service called The Seer. The sermon multiplier, is giving platinum members a free trial for three months, some different credits to use their platform. And so this is got a lot of some social media, components woven into it, but it's also got some other, things like AI devotionals that it can, it can create and develop for us.

00:12:49:08 - 00:13:10:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this is the most personalized option so far. What you do is you upload a video of yourself teaching, and then it creates and spits out for you devotionals, graphics and real. So is I'm going to give it a six on these like the actual platforms. Easy. You click upload, it uploads. But here's why I didn't make it a ten.

00:13:10:22 - 00:13:30:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
On ease is because you must have a video of yourself, and not every youth pastor has a video of themselves teaching. And so I happen to that's part of our strategy. We we post all of our long form videos, to YouTube. So I had one that I could use as a test that was clean and didn't have any lower thirds that were going to get chopped off on the sides if I uploaded it.

00:13:30:22 - 00:13:45:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I also it needed to be under five megabytes, which one of my videos is like 5.8. And so that was kind of a bummer because I was like, well, I have to compress this in order to get it. And like, that's a whole nother like step. And there was no option to to do that. Woven into the dashboard, there.

00:13:45:25 - 00:14:11:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The personalization factor, I'm giving this one a ten. Like my face, my voice, my sermon clipped into social media, my quotes, that it spits out for you. Like you can't get more personalized in that reusing shorts. They do it. They give you four custom ones based off and clipped up from that video and then finally cost, I'm going to give it a seven because, if you're a platinum member, it's like a one.

00:14:11:00 - 00:14:38:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if it's just a little random added perk to it, like you weren't getting the platinum membership for this. Fantastic. But if not, it's it is a little bit expensive because it's sitting there behind the platinum membership. Now, you realize this is another feature from Download Youth Ministry. So you can pair this with the graphics pack. And now now we might be talking melding kind of these two scores together because it's a couple of different angles of social media.

00:14:38:01 - 00:15:00:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So just something to consider there. That ends up being 33 out of 40. And then the final one is the winter seasonal social media pack. Here's how I found it I actually made this one. But I do need a better SEO engineer. It. Listen, it's me. I'm the SEO engineer, which means it's not that good, but I actually got this text yesterday from a friend who said that I showed up in a ChatGPT search, so maybe something I'm doing is working.

00:15:01:04 - 00:15:20:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's what I noticed. Mine did pretty well versus some of these professionals. Reminder I'm not a professional. I'm a professional and paid youth pastor. But that's it. Like this whole social media thing, this is a side gig. This is my guest bedroom, before a dentist appointment that I have on a Friday on my day off. So, like, that's, you know, this is the back of my phone I'm talking into.

00:15:20:25 - 00:15:40:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's the thing. Here's my score. I'm going to give it a nine for ease. And I'm not just saying that because it's mine. Like I give you everything. I give you the videos and you take them and you post them, okay? However, I'm going to give it a nine because you still have to get your camera out and film yourself at some points, because I care about the personalization side of it.

00:15:40:09 - 00:15:58:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can't just give you the graphics. If I were doing just a graphics pack, I would make it as easy as all the other ones, but I I'm asking you and your your voice as a youth pastor or your students or your volunteers to become some of the faces and some of the personalities on your social media. But that's what makes it a ten, personalization.

00:15:58:19 - 00:16:19:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like you look at my pack across my grid and my feed here, like it's not just a bunch of, like, unfazed and unnamed graphics like it is my self, my people, our student ministry. The reels and shorts. It's a ten. It is based on reels and shorts. There are more reels and static graphics. There's only one post type that is a graphic or a carousel post type.

00:16:19:17 - 00:16:50:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The rest are all based on short form vertical video, TikTok reels, YouTube shorts, and then finally the cost. I'm going to say a nine, bro. It's only $4 per month. Like we had $15. We had completely free. But all it was is like one like set of graphics, but with $4 per month, for three months of social media or you get this pack, if you don't want to become a hybrid hero member at $4 per month, this pack standalone is 1799 and $18 for three months once again.

00:16:50:17 - 00:17:11:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So my total score is 38 out of 40. And so this is how I rank the social media packs for student ministries. These are the four things that matter to me. And the ease and personalization reels and shorts and cost. And these are the four things that I tried to lean in on my pack and so if you found this video helpful, a like a subscribe, a comment, a share would be amazing.

00:17:11:24 - 00:17:25:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you think that the Winter season social media pack would help be a game changer for you and your social media and your church's student ministry, encourage you to go check it out and grab it right now. But until next time my friends. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> I tried and evaluated every "Youth Ministry Social Media" Pack I could find on the internet.
I evaluated on 4 criteria, and the verdict is in!
I discovered the pack you should be using at your church in 2026 and beyond!

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/182

Social Team Checklist
https://www.patreon.com/posts/social-media-138081327?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Mic’d Kid Reel
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGtLVQOxLw8/

LIFE CHURCH
https://open.life.church/resources/5220-youth-social-media-graphics

DYM MONTHLY SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
January Pack: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/dym-january-2026-social-media-pack/social-media/instagram-10658.html

Membership: https://www.dymmembership.com/

YOUTH MINISTRY DROP
https://youthministrydrop.com/

SUNDAY SOCIAL
https://sundaysocial.tv/social/

NUCLEUS
Video: https://youtu.be/onqh7dHLwKs?si=XFtY-4Lcv32XMoH8
Nucleus Social: https://www.nucleus.church/media

SERMON MULTIPLIER
https://sermonmultiplier.com/

DYM Membership: https://www.dymmembership.com/

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

Hybrid Heroes get this pack for $4/mo
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The 4 Part Grading Scale
00:41 Pack 1 - Life.Church
02:14 Pack 2 - Pack 2 - DYM Monthly Member Pack
05:23 Pack 3 - Youth Ministry Drop
07:03 Pack 4 - Sunday Social
08:59 Pack 5 - Brady Shearer & Nucleus
12:22 Pack 6 - Sermon Multiplier
14:44 Pack 7 - Seasonal Social Media

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:26:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I tried every youth ministry social media pack that exists or or at least that I could find through a quick Google search. And this is what I found out. Now, here's the thing. I'm going to be evaluating based on these personalization reels and shorts and cost. And we're going to see who goes and takes the cake. So I have seven different social media packs.

00:00:26:28 - 00:00:49:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I want you to stick around to the end because I do believe I have uncovered and I've found the best social media pack for youth ministries in the world. Let's go. Okay, so this first one here that I found again, just remember a quick, simple Google search. I found a life church, which is, their open platform.

00:00:49:07 - 00:01:12:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It is free, which is amazing. But one of the things I noticed when I actually clicked in on it was that it just very simply was a, a standard quick graphic pack. So this isn't even really a social media pack as much as it is some social media images to post to your social media. So is it's a ten like it's free and you can grab it.

00:01:12:20 - 00:01:34:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if you want to edit it, like if you want to put your actual student ministry like students and pictures on there, like it's maybe like a one because it's just JPEGs. Like there's not even a Photoshop file or a Canva graphic that you can swap out their pictures with your own pictures. So, let's if you want to just post what they have, we'll give it a ten.

00:01:34:13 - 00:01:52:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like, let's just put it out of five and then, the personalization touch because you can't edit it. It's, it's a one like you can't it's not your youth ministry at all. Unless maybe you put your like youth ministry logo just in the corner somewhere. So we're just going to stick that one. Reels and shorts. It's a zero.

00:01:52:08 - 00:02:16:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's there's no reels and shorts. Here is, it's, graphic. It's, picture. And then finally cost, we're going to give it a ten on cost, which means it's cheap. So, high on the cost meter, which means that it was free. So the total score for Life Church is 15 out of 40. The next one is the dim monthly pack.

00:02:16:15 - 00:02:37:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so kind of the story of how I found this is I've been a dim member now for probably going on ten years. And dim, like, I actually just yesterday was on a video called Four Different People, who all essentially said something along the lines of the DIY membership is the best thing that you the best youth ministry, value that exists on the internet.

00:02:37:15 - 00:03:02:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you know what? There. Right? Gold. Gold plus and platinum. They are all incredible deals. I myself am a platinum member and a part of the do I am monthly pack is, a social media pack that they give out every single month. And so from an EAS standpoint, I'm going to give it like an eight. It gives you, a post for every single day of, of the month and it gives you a monthly posting calendar.

00:03:02:16 - 00:03:21:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you just follow their posting calendar, it's easy to go. Now you do have to schedule it yourself or post it yourself. So that's why it's not a ten on ease, because you do have to have at least a little bit of infrastructure and tools to be able to post it. Personalization. I'm going to give it a three and here's why.

00:03:21:21 - 00:03:42:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Any of the just like kind of like standard graphics, like they there's not really personalized. However, they do include some story graphics where you can post like stickers with, polls or questions or comments or multiple choice. And so therefore you are at least able to do a little bit of interaction and engagement. So there is a personalization.

00:03:43:02 - 00:04:09:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It did go to zero though on reels and shorts because it's it's not a reels and shorts base package. It is a graphics based package. And this this is really important. And out of the four this might be one of the most important ones from a social media standpoint, not from a youth pastor standpoint. Maybe ease or maybe cost is the most important, but reels and shorts videos, that is really, really important on social media in 2026 and then also cost.

00:04:09:05 - 00:04:32:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to give it like a six. And and it's a complicated one because you can't actually get this pack standalone. You have to be a member. So the membership is expensive and I wouldn't get the membership. If you're only goal is to get this social media like, but I would get the membership because there's a million other amazing opportunities and a million other amazing resources found in there.

00:04:32:06 - 00:04:56:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's behind the gold, gold plus or platinum paywall. So to be completely fair, that is, like I said, the best deal in the history of youth ministry. It's 24, 70 for a month. If you pay on the annualized version of gold or it's 2999 if you pay monthly, platinum is 8325 a month, or $1,000 a year, and again thousand dollars a year for this social media pack.

00:04:56:08 - 00:05:17:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not the best deal in youth ministry, but when you throw in national day events, youth ministry training, free ticket to doing 100 roundtables, a whole year of co-leader and their annual curriculum like bro. Yes, games, store credit, mystery items, parent resources. Now we're talking. It really is the best year in the history of youth ministry. So total score for the youth ministry doing, monthly social pack.

00:05:17:26 - 00:05:37:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to give it like a 17 out of 40, the youth ministry job. This is a new one. And shout out to the youth ministry drop. You're CEO is cooking. Your email like I'm getting emails from you. Like, that is amazing. Here's what I noticed, though. This is, this this is behind a paywall.

00:05:37:00 - 00:05:54:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. So, I'm going to give it the cost. I'm going to give it an eight. It's $15 a month. You get more than just a social media pack. The ease I'm going to give it an eight as well. It's got ready to go graphics and videos. The personalization, is like a two.

00:05:54:15 - 00:06:11:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can probably add some, like, stickers and stuff like that, just like the DUI impact to, like, stories. But I am this is the first one now that I am going to give a five. So more than zero on reels and shorts, because if you look in the description here, it offers not just graphics but also videos.

00:06:11:07 - 00:06:30:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this is the first pack that does include some videos so far that we've looked at. And so $15 a month is a great deal. Also you get more, like I said in this than just the social media pack. And so I didn't pay for it because I don't have any money for these videos. And so you can subscribe to this video for me.

00:06:30:25 - 00:06:51:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that will actually help a lot or give it a like, or, show some love down in the comments. Or better yet, head on over to my Patreon where I give a, weekly bonus podcast episode recapping my night in youth ministry. So I can't be like Ryan Trahan and pay for all the bits in my video, but hopefully soon I can.

00:06:51:16 - 00:07:10:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, go ahead, do those things. Subscribe, head over to Patreon. That'd be amazing. Total score for this. I'm going to give it a 23 out of 40. Moving on to the fourth one, we have the Sunday Social. Now here's how I found it. Because when I Google Search Sunday Social didn't come up. This is a church wide platform.

00:07:10:00 - 00:07:27:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's not just built for student ministry. The last ones were all just kind of built for student ministry. But this one, this one is a little bit different. This is made kind of for the rest of the church. And so therefore, I knew about it and I went and I found it, it didn't find me on my search.

00:07:27:05 - 00:07:43:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's what I notice. Like ease. I'm going to give it a nine. It looks like it has more powerful tools than the other ones that we've used so far. The other ones, like here is a graphic. And then this has like a scheduler and like an editable, template and like it's all kind of like web based.

00:07:43:25 - 00:08:01:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this looks like it's got like some real, some real meat, some real, effort behind some of these tools. The personalization I'm going to give it like a three. If you look here like there are three different kind of tiers. So there's just the standard pack. Then there's the editable, add on. And so that's going to be a little bit more expensive.

00:08:01:25 - 00:08:18:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it exists but it's not in at the base package. And then same thing with the reels and shorts. I'm going to go ahead and give it a five. It does have an option there to add in the reels and shorts add on. But again now with the personalization plus the reels and shorts. Now, we've added on quite a bit.

00:08:18:24 - 00:08:42:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That ends up getting it to be I'm going to give it a six on cost because it's about $50 a month. And so if you are a church, church wide, social media manager, $50 a month might be within your wheelhouse in a youth ministry context where it's just social media and it's just these graphics and still the personalization doesn't necessarily mean your face, your voice, your people and your pictures.

00:08:42:11 - 00:09:00:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It only if you're able to do that in an editable software like Canva or Photoshop. But it's not your actual like, pastor, you know, coming on and doing devotionals and stuff like that. So we're going to go ahead and give this a 23 out of 40. The next one I noticed were some videos here, which, oh, hey, look at that one.

00:09:00:29 - 00:09:25:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I know that guy. But Brady Shear and, Alexander Mills on their Pro Church Tools podcast and also nucleus, which is their, their brand for like websites and media. They have, social media and, options. And then we're going to get into that in just a minute. But I found Brady back in 2016, back when the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the, Warriors in the NBA finals.

00:09:25:08 - 00:09:47:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I just remember that year because my son was born, and apparently when I found Brady. But what I notice is that Brady is he's goaded on this stuff like he is the man, and I trust everything he says. And to be completely fair, I really started this podcast because I believe so much in what Brady said, and I wanted to make that clear and available for youth ministries, who he talks about youth ministries.

00:09:47:10 - 00:10:06:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, this video right here that I discovered, is a video that he talks about how to do social media for youth ministry, but he does it like once a year, and I talk about it every single week. And so the I've listened to this podcast before and there's a bunch of different chapters, and he had a few, a couple philosophies behind what to do.

00:10:06:02 - 00:10:27:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So the first thing is he wants it to be student driven, which, by the way, I actually have an entire checklist and episode link down below about how you can have a student driven and student run social media where you don't actually have to lift much of a finger. And the second is, show, don't tell. Right. So, like, get on there and actually show them what it's like to be in your youth ministry.

00:10:27:18 - 00:11:00:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't just tell them what it's like to be a part of your youth ministry. And then these were all ideas that he had. So, make up a kid, which, by the way, he gave this idea and I went ahead and stole it. And so you can see the video of we when we mocked up a kid in our youth ministry, talked about, using disposable cameras and kind of that vintage look, creating broadcast channels for communication and just community and conversation, doing like a live performance, using like, the live feature, natively woven into some of these social media platforms and then finally Bible trivia, which sneak peek my winter season social

00:11:00:00 - 00:11:24:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
media pack has a Bible Trivia one, but then you got to know that he has. Like I said, he has a a platform, called Nucleus Social. So this is what I'm going to be though. That was just his video. Like here's some ideas how to run it. But his actual social media pack, once again similar to Sunday Social made for big church, like social media is not just youth ministry, social medias ease.

00:11:24:15 - 00:11:41:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to give it a nine. It has some more powerful tools and some of the other ones that we've looked at. Personalization. I'm going to go ahead and give it a five. There's some edited, edited ability. And some of these is especially if you know how to use things like, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Reels and Shorts.

00:11:41:11 - 00:12:01:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to give this a seven. This is the highest, this is a higher score than the Sunday social one because it's baked into the cost, not just an add on. However, you'll notice that it's about the same cost as Sunday socials. So this is Brady's like, base package. It's just it is 49. Where Sunday social. It's like it jumps up on you as you add it on.

00:12:01:08 - 00:12:20:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're gonna go ahead and give the cost factor about a six which brings his out to 2740 which is this is probably and this one is Sunday social are probably the most beautiful like of all the packs. Like they just have professional designers on their team and they just do an amazing, amazing job with their stuff.

00:12:20:29 - 00:12:49:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This one's a new one that I just came across. I got an email from Download Youth Ministry as a part of my platinum membership that a service called The Seer. The sermon multiplier, is giving platinum members a free trial for three months, some different credits to use their platform. And so this is got a lot of some social media, components woven into it, but it's also got some other, things like AI devotionals that it can, it can create and develop for us.

00:12:49:08 - 00:13:10:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this is the most personalized option so far. What you do is you upload a video of yourself teaching, and then it creates and spits out for you devotionals, graphics and real. So is I'm going to give it a six on these like the actual platforms. Easy. You click upload, it uploads. But here's why I didn't make it a ten.

00:13:10:22 - 00:13:30:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
On ease is because you must have a video of yourself, and not every youth pastor has a video of themselves teaching. And so I happen to that's part of our strategy. We we post all of our long form videos, to YouTube. So I had one that I could use as a test that was clean and didn't have any lower thirds that were going to get chopped off on the sides if I uploaded it.

00:13:30:22 - 00:13:45:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I also it needed to be under five megabytes, which one of my videos is like 5.8. And so that was kind of a bummer because I was like, well, I have to compress this in order to get it. And like, that's a whole nother like step. And there was no option to to do that. Woven into the dashboard, there.

00:13:45:25 - 00:14:11:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The personalization factor, I'm giving this one a ten. Like my face, my voice, my sermon clipped into social media, my quotes, that it spits out for you. Like you can't get more personalized in that reusing shorts. They do it. They give you four custom ones based off and clipped up from that video and then finally cost, I'm going to give it a seven because, if you're a platinum member, it's like a one.

00:14:11:00 - 00:14:38:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if it's just a little random added perk to it, like you weren't getting the platinum membership for this. Fantastic. But if not, it's it is a little bit expensive because it's sitting there behind the platinum membership. Now, you realize this is another feature from Download Youth Ministry. So you can pair this with the graphics pack. And now now we might be talking melding kind of these two scores together because it's a couple of different angles of social media.

00:14:38:01 - 00:15:00:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So just something to consider there. That ends up being 33 out of 40. And then the final one is the winter seasonal social media pack. Here's how I found it I actually made this one. But I do need a better SEO engineer. It. Listen, it's me. I'm the SEO engineer, which means it's not that good, but I actually got this text yesterday from a friend who said that I showed up in a ChatGPT search, so maybe something I'm doing is working.

00:15:01:04 - 00:15:20:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's what I noticed. Mine did pretty well versus some of these professionals. Reminder I'm not a professional. I'm a professional and paid youth pastor. But that's it. Like this whole social media thing, this is a side gig. This is my guest bedroom, before a dentist appointment that I have on a Friday on my day off. So, like, that's, you know, this is the back of my phone I'm talking into.

00:15:20:25 - 00:15:40:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's the thing. Here's my score. I'm going to give it a nine for ease. And I'm not just saying that because it's mine. Like I give you everything. I give you the videos and you take them and you post them, okay? However, I'm going to give it a nine because you still have to get your camera out and film yourself at some points, because I care about the personalization side of it.

00:15:40:09 - 00:15:58:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can't just give you the graphics. If I were doing just a graphics pack, I would make it as easy as all the other ones, but I I'm asking you and your your voice as a youth pastor or your students or your volunteers to become some of the faces and some of the personalities on your social media. But that's what makes it a ten, personalization.

00:15:58:19 - 00:16:19:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like you look at my pack across my grid and my feed here, like it's not just a bunch of, like, unfazed and unnamed graphics like it is my self, my people, our student ministry. The reels and shorts. It's a ten. It is based on reels and shorts. There are more reels and static graphics. There's only one post type that is a graphic or a carousel post type.

00:16:19:17 - 00:16:50:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The rest are all based on short form vertical video, TikTok reels, YouTube shorts, and then finally the cost. I'm going to say a nine, bro. It's only $4 per month. Like we had $15. We had completely free. But all it was is like one like set of graphics, but with $4 per month, for three months of social media or you get this pack, if you don't want to become a hybrid hero member at $4 per month, this pack standalone is 1799 and $18 for three months once again.

00:16:50:17 - 00:17:11:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So my total score is 38 out of 40. And so this is how I rank the social media packs for student ministries. These are the four things that matter to me. And the ease and personalization reels and shorts and cost. And these are the four things that I tried to lean in on my pack and so if you found this video helpful, a like a subscribe, a comment, a share would be amazing.

00:17:11:24 - 00:17:25:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you think that the Winter season social media pack would help be a game changer for you and your social media and your church's student ministry, encourage you to go check it out and grab it right now. But until next time my friends. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 181: How I Ran Social Media While at a Conference - - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 3 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/181 00853c2f-b990-4887-8754-f2f0cf60e73d Thu, 25 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 181 How I Ran Social Media While at a Conference - - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 3 full Nick Clason A Christmas miracle for youth pastors everywhere! A few months ago I went to the DYM 100 Roundtables, and without lifting a finger, or distracting my entire experience, this is how I regularly posted on my church's social media, while in attendance for the conference! 7:24 no A Christmas miracle for youth pastors everywhere! A few months ago I went to the DYM 100 Roundtables, and without lifting a finger, or distracting my entire experience, this is how I regularly posted on my church's social media, while in attendance for the conference! BECOME A HYBRID HERO https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/181 FREE E-BOOK https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019 HYBRID HERO LINK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry WINTER PACK VLOG https://youtu.be/RkHc0cTTr6c?si=zBPsd9-JWVo2mXIn 2x GROWTH EPISODE https://youtu.be/ogDlkTHDxew?si=gfcM6cpX6McI0zxs EXCLUSIVE JOSH BOLDMAN INTERVIEW https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-josh-144080714?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link SOCIAL TEAM CHECKLIST https://www.patreon.com/posts/social-media-138081327?source=storefront 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 DYM 100 &amp; Social Media 00:17 Every Youth Ministry Needs a Strong Digital Presence 01:00 Your 2026 Social Media Framework 02:40 Two Things I've recently learned 04:38 Why Membership is Worth it 05:47 The Winter Pack 06:36 The Patreon Challenge -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:05 - 00:00:23:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Our social media did this while I was sitting at the do I am 100 conference. I barely had to work and I want to show you how, which is an incredible gift to give you on this Christmas morning. Merry Christmas everyone, and welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Merry Christmas Eve. Pastors. My name is Nicholas. And if you and I have not had a chance to meet, 00:00:23:17 - 00:00:45:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Or if you're not listening to this on the day it drops, which is Christmas, I drop every single Thursday. I haven't missed a Thursday in over three years. And it just so happens to be Christmas morning when this one drops, I want to give you one of the best gifts that I think I can give youth pastors. Most youth pastors know and see and understand the need for a strong social media and digital presence. 00:00:45:18 - 00:01:08:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If not, you should check out my completely free e-book, which is link down below and that will hopefully convince you about why you need a strong social media presence. But the gift that I can give you pastors. And then I want to give you pastors, is a plan and a framework for consistency. I was over at the DUI 100 conference and social media basically ran itself. 00:01:08:25 - 00:01:28:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, full disclosure I still grab my phone, I still download it out of our Google Drive, and I still uploaded it to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. However, those things were sitting there for me, ready to post. I didn't need anything new. I didn't need to do any extra work. When I was out there. They got the job done for me. 00:01:28:26 - 00:01:56:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And the baseline and the basis for all of that is my winter seasonal social media pack, which I want you to have now. I'll be honest, it does come with a little bit of a cost because frankly, it's a lot of work to put together. But here's how I've set the pricing structure. The pack costs $17.99, but if you become a $4 per month hybrid Hero Patreon member, you get that pack included. 00:01:56:13 - 00:02:22:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if the pack is meant to last a run of three months, $4 per month for you for three months is $12, and you get a $5 off on that pack as well. As we are trying to hit a goal this month only where we make by next week's episode. As this drops that we make 25 new members in the Hybrid Heroes Patreon tier, and if we hit that to everyone involved in the community. 00:02:22:26 - 00:02:44:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you help, or if you know someone and you share a link we will offer, I will offer a free coaching call on social media to everyone who is a part of my Hybrid Heroes paid tier member. I will help map out your strategy for you. But here's the truth I've been leading a youth ministry leader cohort. 00:02:44:14 - 00:03:05:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hybrid heroes. Deep dive kind of on why hybrid ministry, why it's important, how to keep it going. And what I realize is that this is all about behavior modification. It's not about tips and tactics. Like, you guys know what you need to know, right? And there may be some areas and some tools that I can tell you about that will help you. 00:03:05:05 - 00:03:26:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But at the end of the day, it comes down to time management and prioritization. And those are boring. Those aren't as sexy as viral reels and viral memes. I mean, the fact is, like one of the girls in our hybrid hero deep dive cohort, she had a real that had 21.2 thousand views not too long ago. Like she clearly knows what she's doing. 00:03:26:29 - 00:03:56:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry She doesn't need me. What we all realize we need is that when life gets busy, when the calendar gets overwhelming, social media is the first thing to drop. And so my pack will help you not drop it. If you have something that is done for you or mapped out for you. And as I displayed in my Winter Seasonal Social Media Pack Vlog Style Challenge eight post challenge video that is linked right here. 00:03:56:15 - 00:04:17:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Top screen. You can get it done in less than 20 minutes per week if you post all eight types. And I'm only asking you to post 3 to 5 times. So actually you can get it done in anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes per week done for you. It's also custom. It's got everything that you need and it's got a calendar that will last you December, January and February. 00:04:17:20 - 00:04:43:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then if you're a $4 a month member in March, that when that, spring pack will drop and boom, you got three more months of seasonal social media and you're just following my hybrid strategy, which also link down. Below is my episode on how following this strategy helped us to x our growth. In addition to that, you'll get all of the freebies and all the things over on my Patreon and my Patreon store. 00:04:43:09 - 00:05:06:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry My exclusive interview where I sat down with Jim, and Collider's Josh Bullman talking about the value of allowing students to disagree. That dropped a couple of weeks ago. So, you know you're going to get access to that, as well as, checklists and parent, communication guides and all sorts of things. Like I went in to doing 100, hoping to just vlog it out and map it out. 00:05:06:03 - 00:05:35:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what I realized was I got sucked into the vortex and we all get sucked into where things get busy. And I saw old friends and I didn't have time to create content. But my pack back home from my youth ministry, my pack helped carry through the types of posts and gave me something to continue to post while I was able to soak in all of the info and all of the goodies from the do I am 100 conference, and I also got this shirt out of it. 00:05:35:24 - 00:06:03:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Actually, this one didn't come from the conference. This one came from Gold Member week. Hey, speaking of that, vlog style video, check this out. Here's what I learned. During that week. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a then some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. 00:06:04:03 - 00:06:25:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on. 00:06:26:01 - 00:06:45:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. But mine will at least keep you moving in. So if you want to let your weeks be like that, where when it gets busy, you still have something that's running on autopilot for you. 00:06:45:07 - 00:07:07:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry For social media, my winter seasonal social media pack is the key to that, and it's a great gift for you on Christmas morning. And if you consider joining, you can help get us to the finish line. Progress bar is here on screen so that you can see how many paid Hybrid Hero members we've gotten over this last month as we push towards January to that 25 goal. 00:07:07:23 - 00:07:23:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So that you can unlock that free coaching opportunity. But hey my friends, hope you've had a great episode. I thank you for being here with us. And until next time. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid. Merry Christmas and we'll see you in 2026. DYM100, DownloadYouthMinistry, Josh Boldman, Nick Clason, Hybrid Ministry, youth ministry, youth pastor tips, youth pastor training, student ministry, church media, christmas youth ministry, small group leader training, programming ideas for youth ministry, social media for churches, church social media, youth ministry ideas, hybrid ministry podcast, ym programming, dym conference, doug fields, brady shearer, sean cannell,DownloadYouthMinistry,Josh Boldman,Nick Clason,Hybrid Ministry,youth ministry,youth pastor tips,youth pastor training,student ministry,church media,christmas youth ministry,small group leader training,programming ideas for youth ministry,social media for churches,church social media,youth ministry ideas,hybrid ministry podcast,ym programming,dym conference,doug fields,brady shearer,sean cannell A Christmas miracle for youth pastors everywhere!
A few months ago I went to the DYM 100 Roundtables, and without lifting a finger, or distracting my entire experience, this is how I regularly posted on my church's social media, while in attendance for the conference!

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

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

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/181

FREE E-BOOK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019

HYBRID HERO LINK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

WINTER PACK VLOG
https://youtu.be/RkHc0cTTr6c?si=zBPsd9-JWVo2mXIn

2x GROWTH EPISODE
https://youtu.be/ogDlkTHDxew?si=gfcM6cpX6McI0zxs

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

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

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/181

FREE E-BOOK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019

HYBRID HERO LINK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

WINTER PACK VLOG
https://youtu.be/RkHc0cTTr6c?si=zBPsd9-JWVo2mXIn

2x GROWTH EPISODE
https://youtu.be/ogDlkTHDxew?si=gfcM6cpX6McI0zxs

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

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

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

]]> Episode 180: Josh Boldman Taught Me THIS About Small Groups… - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 2 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/180 163d310a-d22a-4f4a-a3ca-e5fd15e957c2 Thu, 18 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 180 Josh Boldman Taught Me THIS About Small Groups… - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 2 full Nick Clason I didn't think this breakout session would have such an influence on me, but it surprisingly did! And I even got an exclusive interview with the workshop teacher to deep-dive into it! Plus, free coaching is still on the line for those who join Patreon before the month ends! 7:14 no I didn't think this breakout session would have such an influence on me, but it surprisingly did! And I even got an exclusive interview with the workshop teacher to deep-dive into it! Plus, free coaching is still on the line for those who join Patreon before the month ends! BECOME A HYBRID HERO https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/180 30 CONNECTION IDEAS https://www.patreon.com/posts/30-small-group-141961735?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-josh-144080714?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 DYM100 Thing 1 00:28 DYM100 is the Best! 01:42 Programming Shift 05:46 The Key to Social Media in 2026 06:35 December Patreon Challenge -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:40:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Regardless of where each individual question takes them. It's this bigger picture of having students being able to ask questions is actually really, really, really healthy. That line alone, plus this llama t shirt was worth the cost of the entire trip. Welcome, everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show. What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry shown in this episode, I'm detailing and outlining the three takeaways that I had from the do I am 100 conference in the last episode linked right here, we talked about programing and adding sounds and sound effects and just making our introduction a little bit more lively. 00:00:40:10 - 00:01:07:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what I saw and learned and took away from the D and 100 conference. And in this one, I'm gonna talk about a surprise breakout session that I did not expect. Now, here's the thing. Full disclosure, right? Like when I choose breakouts at a conference, more often than not, I'm choosing it based on the person. And so me and my friend Josh Bowman, like, I saw he was on the thing on the docket to lead a breakout. 00:01:07:14 - 00:01:30:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I just thought to myself, I just like this guy. I know what he's going to do is going to be good. I'm going to go support him. I would not say that the topic listed on the breakout was what interested me. What interested me was the author of the breakout, not the actual content of the breakout. Now, to be clear, I didn't disagree with the content of the breakout. 00:01:30:13 - 00:02:00:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It was essentially like how to make space for students to be able to disagree in your youth ministry. And I was like, okay, great. Like I love that. Like I'm here for that. And I think that that's a great topic. But his breakout was absolutely game changing. And like, I was shocked at not only how much I did agree, but some of the stuff he did that made me really think and wrestle with, oh man, like I'm not doing some of these things. 00:02:00:02 - 00:02:22:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so I came back from the conference and I was debriefing, and I was downloading, and I thought to myself, like, that might be my biggest takeaway from the entire conference is how to do a better job of creating space for students to disagree. And now, as this episode drops middle of December, most of us have wrapped up our our fall semester of programing. 00:02:22:23 - 00:02:48:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We got Christmas services on the horizon and, then maybe a week off after Christmas and then we're back for the New year. And this is the perfect time to break something and to add something in. And so I actually got the chance to sit down and have an exclusive conversation with Josh, who, gave the premise for his breakout of why students need to be able to have the space to disagree. 00:02:48:14 - 00:03:07:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then I ask some of the how questions, like, how do you go about instituting this change? How do you handle senior pastors? How do you handle leaders? Go ahead, take a listen in this clip. At first they were really skeptical. And we we, you know, we started like, preparing them like weeks out that this was this was coming. 00:03:07:26 - 00:03:35:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And always, you know, the small group leader is the one that has the questions. So like, really worst case scenario, they can skip it. It was kind of like, you know, like, so that's always like, how did it go? It was great. How did I because we didn't we didn't but we would always like we we started I mean, even in like some, some leader meetings or stuff, doing some kind of, some role playing type stuff where it was like, okay, hey, last week, you know, you all, we're here for last week's teaching. 00:03:35:02 - 00:04:13:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Let's imagine this was the question and somebody throw me, you throw out a couple things that maybe you think a student might have said. And it was really funny because, at first, even they were like, skittish with because they were in that moment, they were like, you want you want me to point out something you think a student would disagree with that you said, so we're going to try and figure out how to institute this better in our space to help give leaders, the comfort and the confidence to lean in and start asking some of these questions about what students might disagree with and hopefully stop trying to give students the quote, right 00:04:13:21 - 00:04:44:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry answer and start giving students the space to genuinely question and think and maybe even in some cases, disagree. You know, a couple weeks before I went to the do I am 100 conference, my church hosted a thing called the Cross Creek Collective, and I was actually on stage for it. And during that week, while I was in the middle of the busiest week of probably my year on staff, I decided I wanted to put my seasonal social media pack to the test. 00:04:44:28 - 00:05:17:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And at the end of the week, this is what I discovered. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a minute. Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. 00:05:17:18 - 00:05:34:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. 00:05:34:21 - 00:05:59:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But mine will at least keep you moving in the right direction. So the entire conversation with Josh Pullman is now over on my Patreon, as well as my winter seasonal social media pack. You can jump in for a week free trial to listen to the Boardman episode and to maybe, explore what the winter seasonal social media pack, how it could serve you in your ministry. 00:05:59:11 - 00:06:38:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But here's the fact you can't ignore social media any longer, and you need something that you can rely on when you get busy. And that's exactly what my pack is going to do. And we are moving towards trying to add 25 new free hybrid Hero members progress bars right here on the screen as of the editing date. And if we hit 25 members by the end of December, the beginning of January, then every single person who has a $4 per month Hybrid Hero member, they're going to get an exclusive free coaching call from me, included as a part of their $4 per month. 00:06:38:16 - 00:07:02:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It is such a great deal. $4 per month gets you a bonus episode, gets you all the freebies on my store, gives you all the paid things on my store, and now gets you a free coaching call $4 a month. That's all it is. It's less genuinely than a cup of coffee. And next week this episode is going to drop on Christmas Day. 00:07:02:02 - 00:07:13:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you're listening live, you'll see it in your feed on Christmas Day. If not, it's going to be linked right here on screen so you can watch that one. But until next time, and as always my friends, don't forget stay hybrid. DYM100, DownloadYouthMinistry, Josh Boldman, Nick Clason, Hybrid Ministry, youth ministry, youth pastor tips, youth pastor training, student ministry, church media, christmas youth ministry, small group leader training, programming ideas for youth ministry, social media for churches, church social media, youth ministry ideas, hybrid ministry podcast, ym programming, dym conference, doug fields, brady shearer, sean cannell,DownloadYouthMinistry,Josh Boldman,Nick Clason,Hybrid Ministry,youth ministry,youth pastor tips,youth pastor training,student ministry,church media,christmas youth ministry,small group leader training,programming ideas for youth ministry,social media for churches,church social media,youth ministry ideas,hybrid ministry podcast,ym programming,dym conference,doug fields,brady shearer,sean cannell I didn't think this breakout session would have such an influence on me, but it surprisingly did!
And I even got an exclusive interview with the workshop teacher to deep-dive into it!

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

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

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

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

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

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

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

]]> Episode 179: FREE Christmas Party Surprise! - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 1 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/179 69006dce-5b66-4906-a912-6f20a9330c48 Thu, 11 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 179 FREE Christmas Party Surprise! - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 1 full Nick Clason SHOCKING! In this episode I explore an area of adjustment I did NOT anticipate! In this series, "The DYM100 Roundtables Summary" Series I explore the 3 areas that challenged me from the DYM100 Roundtables! Plus, welcome to the December Patreon Challenge! Become a Hybrid Hero ($4/month), help us get to 25 new members, and get a FREE Coaching call in 2026! 9:12 no <p>SHOCKING!<br> In this episode I explore an area of adjustment I did NOT anticipate!</p> <p>In this series, "The DYM100 Roundtables Summary" Series I explore the 3 areas that challenged me from the DYM100 Roundtables!</p> <p>Plus, welcome to the December Patreon Challenge!<br> Become a Hybrid Hero ($4/month), help us get to 25 new members, and get a FREE Coaching call in 2026!</p> <p>🦸 BECOME A HYBRID HERO<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry</a></p> <p>❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;utm_content=join_link" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;amp;utm_content=join_link</a></p> <p><strong>SHOW NOTES</strong><br> Shownotes &amp; Transcripts<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/179" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/179</a></p> <p>FREE CHRISTMAS PARTY!<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-christmas-143594518?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;utm_content=join_link" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-christmas-143594518?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;amp;utm_content=join_link</a></p> <p>FREE SOUNDBOARD<br> <a href="https://crowdcontrolgames.com/products/gameshow-soundboard?_pos=1&amp;_psq=sound&amp;_ss=e&amp;_v=1.0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://crowdcontrolgames.com/products/gameshow-soundboard?_pos=1&amp;amp;_psq=sound&amp;amp;_ss=e&amp;amp;_v=1.0</a></p> <p>👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK<br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉</strong><br> We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!<br> The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!<br> <a href="https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em><br> //VIDIQ<br> <a href="https://vidiq.com/hybrid" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://vidiq.com/hybrid</a></p> <p>//BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755</a></p> <p>//OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> 🕰️<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00 DYM100 Thing 1<br> 00:28 DYM100 is the Best!<br> 01:42 Programming Shift<br> 05:46 The Key to Social Media in 2026<br> 06:35 December Patreon Challenge</p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:26:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I went to the DYM 100 round tables with this goal to find three things to work on and fix in my youth ministry. And today I am sharing with you the first one. Spoiler alert is not the one that I expected. Plus, stick around to the end of the episode because I am giving away a free Christmas party run sheet, complete with the resources and everything you need so you can grab that down bel</p> <p>00:00:26:29 - 00:00:33:19<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Link in the description, which will go into detail and explain at the end of this episode. Welcome everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show.</p> <p>00:00:33:19 - 00:00:44:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So I went to the do I am 100 conference where I got this notebook and of course this llama t shirt, which, you know what? When else are you going to need to get a llama t shirt?</p> <p>00:00:44:10 - 00:01:16:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> You're wearing it after the Darwin 100 conference, with the goal of coming away with three takeaways, and I was going to vlog it and take videos and explain my process. But man, if you've ever been to one of these events like you know that like you just get sucked into the vortex of friendship and community and conversations. And so I only took like 20 videos and like half of them are like receipt uploads or like videos of the van rental to make sure that they weren't going to scam me afterwards.</p> <p>00:01:16:26 - 00:01:40:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But in these next three episodes, I'm going to talk about not only things that you can use and learn and take away for, like your December Christmas parties, but also things that I and our youth ministry team are going to be thinking about on into the future of 2026 and how we do youth ministry. I also have some freebies and some stuff, going along and that I'm going to be giving away.</p> <p>00:01:40:18 - 00:02:02:09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So pay attention to the link down in the description for all of these next couple episodes. But in this episode we're going to be looking at, and the thing that I took away was programing. Okay. And like in the room, if you've ever been to a do I am 100 event, it is hosted by Doug Fields and Josh Griffin, who are both the masters at programing.</p> <p>00:02:02:09 - 00:02:21:08<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Like to the point that like I think we had we had one session with worship and it was like a special kind of like unplug, more like chapel and like spiritually charged, focused, kind of like session, but otherwise every other kind of like element within the room was done without any sort of worship or without any sort of band.</p> <p>00:02:21:16 - 00:02:46:06<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But you never felt like something was missing. Like it was an amazingly programed event. And like, I have taken pride in my own programing to the point that I have my own Patreon show every single week detailing our youth ministry programing, detailing the creativity that we're trying to do. And in a lot of ways, my 9 to 10 different damn conferences that I've been to over the years have helped shape this.</p> <p>00:02:46:06 - 00:03:05:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Like, I've taken a lot of my programing strategy and like things that matter to me from my experience at and under a do, I am conference. But in this event, I brought the rest of my team and one of my guys, his name is Ben. Ben is in charge of programing at our church and he took things that I have.</p> <p>00:03:05:06 - 00:03:38:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Seen and noticed at conferences before in the past. But he's like, we need to implement that to the point he's like, we're going to make that happen. And those things were like the sound effects included and the music that were both happening simultaneous while any event was happening. Well, announcements. Well, funny bits. While different games like all these things all happening, all with different sound effects or different, music tracks being done in the background, like the sound effects, the booth and the, the stage, the, the, the energy that was happening between the two.</p> <p>00:03:38:25 - 00:03:55:19<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> He was like, we need to find a way to do that. And that's that's the takeaway that surprised me because I've seen this before and I thought, there's no way our booth can pull it off or it's going to be too distracting. Or maybe we're trying too hard, but Ben, Ben's like, no, we can do this and we're going to pull this off.</p> <p>00:03:55:19 - 00:04:13:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So if you didn't know, I found a link down below, from Crowd Control Games. They have a free, like, audio interface. So all you got to do is load in sound effects or sound bites. You can get them off of, like, YouTube or like a website, like Motion Array, and you can upload those different sound effects.</p> <p>00:04:13:13 - 00:04:31:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so we're going to try those things. And if you head down below, link down below is a completely free Christmas guide. It's actually from an episode linked right here, the top screen, with my friend Eric with the K, who also fun fact was a roommate and a table member at my table that I was leading the, church foyer.</p> <p>00:04:31:22 - 00:04:51:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Carpet stains. But we did this episode years ago, and, I, I'm putting a little bit of a 2025 spin and refresh on it. And so there's a brand new, completely new game. That should be on the game either now or in the near future. But that's completely for free for you. Those of you that are either free or paid members over on my Patreon.</p> <p>00:04:51:25 - 00:05:17:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So you can, become a free paid member and get that complete Christmas run sheet. If you haven't already had your Christmas party yet, but you can now include. And I'm going to challenge myself in our ministry to include more sound effects and really like part of what made the conference so engaging and so entertaining was the synchronicity between the upfront people, Griffin and Doug Fields, and the booth.</p> <p>00:05:17:21 - 00:05:38:08<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Right. And so shout out to to them. And so my friend, my coworker Ben was back there and he was asking all the questions and stuff like that. And then sitting in the the Airbnb with my friend Eric later, he's like, look, you can use this thing from crowd control games, with sound effects. And so we're going to download these and we're going to start using them.</p> <p>00:05:38:08 - 00:06:05:23<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And I think it can just bring about another layer of liveliness and fun and creativity, which is already something that we're trying to do over on our Patreon. So that free Christmas party is linked down below in the show. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a minute.</p> <p>00:06:05:26 - 00:06:26:14<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do.</p> <p>00:06:26:14 - 00:06:44:12<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. But mine will at least keep you moving in. And hey, we're trying to welcome 25</p> <p>00:06:44:12 - 00:06:49:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> new paid hybrid heroes before January begins.</p> <p>00:06:49:15 - 00:07:15:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so if we hit that goal, if you help me accomplish that goal. So right now we are, like a handful of of those away, where you want to get 25 by the time January starts. If we hit that, I will offer free 30 minute social media audit and coaching session for every single person who has jumped in at the $4 per month membership tier.</p> <p>00:07:15:11 - 00:07:41:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Listen, if you put that on your church's like professional or continuing development expense account, it's $48 for the year. It will help you with creativity and programing and all the freebies that I offer through my Patreon at any given time. Or if you don't have the church budget for it, it is, less than the cost of a Starbucks latte only one time a month if it comes out of your own personal budget.</p> <p>00:07:41:10 - 00:08:11:17<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Either way is incredibly accessible. And the good news is my seasonal social media pack, which is available for everybody at the cost of $17.99, is available for those of you who are $4 a month, Hybrid Hero members is available to you included in the cost. And if we hit this 25, member benchmark, by the time January hits, I will extend a free coaching call to every single person who is in the Hybrid Heroes coaching level tier.</p> <p>00:08:11:17 - 00:08:28:22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so hopefully that is something that is, helpful to you. And so we're going to try and infuse some of our programing now with some of these things I learned from from the denim conference, just observing the programing and some of the games that they put together and some of the chaos and some of the fun.</p> <p>00:08:28:25 - 00:08:52:01<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But all of it was was changed with the audio and the sound effects and the playlists and the music choices. It was it was amazing. It was crazy. It was fun. And I want to try your hand at it and, hand the keys over to some of our students in the booth doing that. But in the next episode, I'm actually going to talk about a small group shift that I learned that, I'm passionate about.</p> <p>00:08:52:03 - 00:09:12:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But the way that Josh Bulman in a workshop presented it absolutely changed the game. And I am sitting down with him for an exclusive interview that you are not going to want to miss. That episode is linked right here on screen. So my friends, go ahead and check that out. But until next time. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid.</p> DYM100, DownloadYouthMinistry, Josh Boldman, Nick Clason, Hybrid Ministry, youth ministry, youth pastor tips, youth pastor training, student ministry, church media, christmas youth ministry, small group leader training, programming ideas for youth ministry, social media for churches, church social media, youth ministry ideas, hybrid ministry podcast, ym programming, dym conference, doug fields, brady shearer, sean cannell,DownloadYouthMinistry,Josh Boldman,Nick Clason,Hybrid Ministry,youth ministry,youth pastor tips,youth pastor training,student ministry,church media,christmas youth ministry,small group leader training,programming ideas for youth ministry,social media for churches,church social media,youth ministry ideas,hybrid ministry podcast,ym programming,dym conference,doug fields,brady shearer,sean cannell SHOCKING!
In this episode I explore an area of adjustment I did NOT anticipate!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

]]> Episode 176: Youth Leader Resource Room | 5 Components to a Great one! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/176 1591b261-b6ef-46da-8ec1-a98b23da7088 Thu, 20 Nov 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 176 Youth Leader Resource Room | 5 Components to a Great one! full Nick Clason Ever wondered what’s inside a great youth ministry volunteer room? In this episode, Nick walks through his own space—showing you everything from the snack and coffee setup to the leader resource area, check-in station, and supply closet. You’ll leave with practical ideas (and links!) to create a welcoming, well-equipped hub that keeps your leaders fueled, prepped, and connected every week. 7:25 no Ever wondered what’s inside a great youth ministry volunteer room? In this episode, Nick walks through his own space—showing you everything from the snack and coffee setup to the leader resource area, check-in station, and supply closet. You’ll leave with practical ideas (and links!) to create a welcoming, well-equipped hub that keeps your leaders fueled, prepped, and connected every week. FREE SMALL GROUP CONNECTION DOWNLOAD https://www.patreon.com/posts/30-small-group-141961735?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link 🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link 🦸 HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/176 ITEMS FOUND IN LEADER ROOM //Leader Resource Area Decks of Cards https://walmrt.us/4hs9d0u Foam Dice https://walmrt.us/4ot5h1M Playdough https://walmrt.us/3Jc5LdJ Ice Breaker Cards https://walmrt.us/47DJz5n Find &amp; Seek Scavenger Hunt https://walmrt.us/47GrZ0I //Other Items Mini Fridge https://walmrt.us/3JmGai3 Keurig https://walmrt.us/4hKuByh Microwave https://walmrt.us/3JmG223 Personal Sized Whiteboards https://walmrt.us/475rDk6 Markers https://walmrt.us/47Gs84g First Aid Kit https://walmrt.us/4oDM25D Ultimate Guest Box Template https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront Volunteer Onboarding Process Explained https://youtu.be/s8HNzfZoiX0?si=A322a3wihRACq8ZM 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Show me your volunteer rooms question! 00:23 Snacks &amp; Coffee Area 01:01 Office Supply Area 01:34 Fall Social Pack 02:48 Supply Closet 04:14 Leader Check-in Area 05:42 Leader Group Resource Tools -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In this episode, we are going to show you my church's youth ministry volunteer room as we're answering this question. Show me your volunteer rooms. We are looking to make a new volunteer headquarters and are looking for inspiration. We're talking snacks, decorations, and things leaders love. So let's go on a little field trip and I'm going to show you my church's leader workroom. 00:00:22:14 - 00:00:50:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Let's go. So this right here, just some basic, you know, and, like, common snacks, a leader fridge, which is also a spot where a lot of our people, store leftovers and food and then, of course, gotta have coffee. So this whole section here is filled with different, like, K-Cups, which I personally hate. Which is why I have pour over in my office in the next room over. 00:00:50:03 - 00:01:09:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But, this is something for our leaders, you know, Wednesday nights, Sunday morning, they come on in here, they grab a cup of coffee, they make it happen. This are here was actually paid for about one of our students, so that's pretty cool. Here's a printer. And this is where most of our, basic easy printer, printing needs can be done here. 00:01:09:23 - 00:01:34:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry There is a bigger one, in another part of the office, but we just use this one as much as we can, a microwave in case we need it. And then just some very basic, paper supplies and cards and, cutters and stapler. Hole punch, in fact, that the cutters are here. This right here is where we keep, radio for, our security and safety team when they need it, when they're looking for it. 00:01:34:12 - 00:01:51:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hey. Quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. 00:01:51:16 - 00:02:14:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's why I created this, the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed. So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. 00:02:14:28 - 00:02:35:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And did you know that monthly hybrid. Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799. Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. 00:02:35:09 - 00:03:00:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry, right here is meant to sort of be our like, supply closet, right? So like, a leader can theoretically come in here anytime they need it and then get anything that they might be looking for. 00:03:00:14 - 00:03:22:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So of course, we got markers and then we got some branded pens. And these are here are actually one of our favorite things. Like we use these like little personalized whiteboards all the time. They're really like good for games and stuff like that. These are here are like just labels, for, for check in and for printing and then down here and we just got to order. 00:03:22:14 - 00:03:40:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So don't be like, holy crap, those people are all about snacks. But this is, we just got a big Sam's order. These are our snacks. So these are what we include. Back over here. And this is, like, just the back up stock of it. This right here. I've gone over this before. This is our leader. 00:03:40:17 - 00:03:59:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They're not a leader. This is our our newcomer welcome box. And so, this is where we store a bunch of them, and then our check in team, they know to come and stock this for actually link right up here. Top left of the screen. I'll link to video where I detail an outline, our entire welcome box process. 00:03:59:12 - 00:04:16:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So this is like a leaders like go to spot everything that they could use, everything that they can need. Plus some just like backup stuff, you know, along with like first aid and, you know, necessary things. Like a kid gets an injury, we can go straight here, we can get all we need out of there. Turning the corner here. 00:04:16:02 - 00:04:35:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is our, leader check in station. So leaders are not allowed to check in until they've gone through our entire volunteer process, which I'll also link down below our volunteer process. And this vets them. Make sure that they went through all of our training and that they went through, all of the, the legal ministry safe things that they need to do. 00:04:35:22 - 00:04:51:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then they can go ahead and they can check in here. Well, we say is if it comes out of this printer here, you'll notice, manually, I'm going to print this here. We say that that green means screened. And so that means if someone in our ministry has on, like, a green lanyard, they're good to go. 00:04:51:20 - 00:05:16:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This board right here, you can see, different, this is like our weekly lessons, bottom lines. We'll also have the, like, connect group sheet right here, for our leaders as they come in on, like, a, Sunday to grab it. And then we have a monthly leader, a weekly I'm sorry leader podcast. And so, our leaders that win stuff, this is, our beginning of our cycle. 00:05:16:02 - 00:05:40:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So all these leaders are new to our team, and then this is where they can grab, their leader gift, their leader mug, all that type of stuff. This right here is our, Wednesday evening safety, safety laminated sheet, assignments. So we'll post this right here on the board. And then we'll also throw it into our leader group chat so that everyone knows where they should be and where they need to be. 00:05:40:27 - 00:06:06:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then right around here, just a couple more shelves and zoom out a little bit. A couple more shelves right here. This is just some more leader, resources. So this is like some, throw Intel, some yay or nay. We got Play-Doh in case we need it. We got some dice, we got some, break the ice games are all look down, and, I'll link a bunch of this stuff. 00:06:06:09 - 00:06:26:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Financing scavenger hunt, card game. I'll link some of these things so that you can, find them. You can buy them. You can, supply them for, for your own area if there's some that you want. And then the last thing we have here is just, a stack of cards so that if any of our leaders need to write cards to any of their students, they can go about doing that right here. 00:06:26:19 - 00:06:43:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then finally, this is new. Someone added this, in a little bit, unbeknownst to us. We kind of like it. So it says prayers and then, you can we can put some, like, individual, prayer requests right there, there on the screen. And so that's been something that we just added, which is pretty cool. 00:06:43:28 - 00:07:08:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So, just one more time as a, take a big someone's prayer and something right now zoom out. This is our leader workroom, and, no students are that. Well, everyone, thank you so much for hanging here for this entire episode. As a reminder, link down below in the description, there are different, links for different things and resources and stuff that we have, linking to different episodes describing our volunteer process. 00:07:08:04 - 00:07:25:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry A free episode like this, hopefully is incredibly helpful to you, but a payment in the form of a like or a subscribe would really make all the difference in the world. And thank you for being here for this questions playlist. The next episode is linked right here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends, don't forget stay habits. youth ministry, volunteer room ideas, church volunteers, youth leader resources, ministry tips, hybrid ministry, youth pastor, ministry organization, church leadership, volunteer check-in, leader training, youth group ideas, small group tools, ministry supplies, church setup, volunteer onboarding, ministry hacks, student ministry, church coffee bar, leader encouragement, youth ministry podcast, hybrid ministry show, ministry systems, leader space tour, church resource room Ever wondered what’s inside a great youth ministry volunteer room? In this episode, Nick walks through his own space—showing you everything from the snack and coffee setup to the leader resource area, check-in station, and supply closet. You’ll leave with practical ideas (and links!) to create a welcoming, well-equipped hub that keeps your leaders fueled, prepped, and connected every week.

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

🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

🦸 HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/176

ITEMS FOUND IN LEADER ROOM

//Leader Resource Area
Decks of Cards
https://walmrt.us/4hs9d0u

Foam Dice
https://walmrt.us/4ot5h1M

Playdough
https://walmrt.us/3Jc5LdJ

Ice Breaker Cards
https://walmrt.us/47DJz5n

Find & Seek Scavenger Hunt
https://walmrt.us/47GrZ0I

//Other Items
Mini Fridge
https://walmrt.us/3JmGai3

Keurig
https://walmrt.us/4hKuByh

Microwave
https://walmrt.us/3JmG223

Personal Sized Whiteboards
https://walmrt.us/475rDk6

Markers
https://walmrt.us/47Gs84g

First Aid Kit
https://walmrt.us/4oDM25D

Ultimate Guest Box Template
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

Volunteer Onboarding Process Explained
https://youtu.be/s8HNzfZoiX0?si=A322a3wihRACq8ZM

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Show me your volunteer rooms question!
00:23 Snacks & Coffee Area
01:01 Office Supply Area
01:34 Fall Social Pack
02:48 Supply Closet
04:14 Leader Check-in Area
05:42 Leader Group Resource Tools

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this episode, we are going to show you my church's youth ministry volunteer room as we're answering this question. Show me your volunteer rooms. We are looking to make a new volunteer headquarters and are looking for inspiration. We're talking snacks, decorations, and things leaders love. So let's go on a little field trip and I'm going to show you my church's leader workroom.

00:00:22:14 - 00:00:50:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's go. So this right here, just some basic, you know, and, like, common snacks, a leader fridge, which is also a spot where a lot of our people, store leftovers and food and then, of course, gotta have coffee. So this whole section here is filled with different, like, K-Cups, which I personally hate. Which is why I have pour over in my office in the next room over.

00:00:50:03 - 00:01:09:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But, this is something for our leaders, you know, Wednesday nights, Sunday morning, they come on in here, they grab a cup of coffee, they make it happen. This are here was actually paid for about one of our students, so that's pretty cool. Here's a printer. And this is where most of our, basic easy printer, printing needs can be done here.

00:01:09:23 - 00:01:34:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There is a bigger one, in another part of the office, but we just use this one as much as we can, a microwave in case we need it. And then just some very basic, paper supplies and cards and, cutters and stapler. Hole punch, in fact, that the cutters are here. This right here is where we keep, radio for, our security and safety team when they need it, when they're looking for it.

00:01:34:12 - 00:01:51:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey. Quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall.

00:01:51:16 - 00:02:14:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's why I created this, the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed. So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon.

00:02:14:28 - 00:02:35:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And did you know that monthly hybrid. Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799. Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting.

00:02:35:09 - 00:03:00:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry, right here is meant to sort of be our like, supply closet, right? So like, a leader can theoretically come in here anytime they need it and then get anything that they might be looking for.

00:03:00:14 - 00:03:22:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So of course, we got markers and then we got some branded pens. And these are here are actually one of our favorite things. Like we use these like little personalized whiteboards all the time. They're really like good for games and stuff like that. These are here are like just labels, for, for check in and for printing and then down here and we just got to order.

00:03:22:14 - 00:03:40:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So don't be like, holy crap, those people are all about snacks. But this is, we just got a big Sam's order. These are our snacks. So these are what we include. Back over here. And this is, like, just the back up stock of it. This right here. I've gone over this before. This is our leader.

00:03:40:17 - 00:03:59:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're not a leader. This is our our newcomer welcome box. And so, this is where we store a bunch of them, and then our check in team, they know to come and stock this for actually link right up here. Top left of the screen. I'll link to video where I detail an outline, our entire welcome box process.

00:03:59:12 - 00:04:16:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So this is like a leaders like go to spot everything that they could use, everything that they can need. Plus some just like backup stuff, you know, along with like first aid and, you know, necessary things. Like a kid gets an injury, we can go straight here, we can get all we need out of there. Turning the corner here.

00:04:16:02 - 00:04:35:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is our, leader check in station. So leaders are not allowed to check in until they've gone through our entire volunteer process, which I'll also link down below our volunteer process. And this vets them. Make sure that they went through all of our training and that they went through, all of the, the legal ministry safe things that they need to do.

00:04:35:22 - 00:04:51:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then they can go ahead and they can check in here. Well, we say is if it comes out of this printer here, you'll notice, manually, I'm going to print this here. We say that that green means screened. And so that means if someone in our ministry has on, like, a green lanyard, they're good to go.

00:04:51:20 - 00:05:16:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This board right here, you can see, different, this is like our weekly lessons, bottom lines. We'll also have the, like, connect group sheet right here, for our leaders as they come in on, like, a, Sunday to grab it. And then we have a monthly leader, a weekly I'm sorry leader podcast. And so, our leaders that win stuff, this is, our beginning of our cycle.

00:05:16:02 - 00:05:40:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So all these leaders are new to our team, and then this is where they can grab, their leader gift, their leader mug, all that type of stuff. This right here is our, Wednesday evening safety, safety laminated sheet, assignments. So we'll post this right here on the board. And then we'll also throw it into our leader group chat so that everyone knows where they should be and where they need to be.

00:05:40:27 - 00:06:06:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then right around here, just a couple more shelves and zoom out a little bit. A couple more shelves right here. This is just some more leader, resources. So this is like some, throw Intel, some yay or nay. We got Play-Doh in case we need it. We got some dice, we got some, break the ice games are all look down, and, I'll link a bunch of this stuff.

00:06:06:09 - 00:06:26:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Financing scavenger hunt, card game. I'll link some of these things so that you can, find them. You can buy them. You can, supply them for, for your own area if there's some that you want. And then the last thing we have here is just, a stack of cards so that if any of our leaders need to write cards to any of their students, they can go about doing that right here.

00:06:26:19 - 00:06:43:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then finally, this is new. Someone added this, in a little bit, unbeknownst to us. We kind of like it. So it says prayers and then, you can we can put some, like, individual, prayer requests right there, there on the screen. And so that's been something that we just added, which is pretty cool.

00:06:43:28 - 00:07:08:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, just one more time as a, take a big someone's prayer and something right now zoom out. This is our leader workroom, and, no students are that. Well, everyone, thank you so much for hanging here for this entire episode. As a reminder, link down below in the description, there are different, links for different things and resources and stuff that we have, linking to different episodes describing our volunteer process.

00:07:08:04 - 00:07:25:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
A free episode like this, hopefully is incredibly helpful to you, but a payment in the form of a like or a subscribe would really make all the difference in the world. And thank you for being here for this questions playlist. The next episode is linked right here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends, don't forget stay habits.

]]> Ever wondered what’s inside a great youth ministry volunteer room? In this episode, Nick walks through his own space—showing you everything from the snack and coffee setup to the leader resource area, check-in station, and supply closet. You’ll leave with practical ideas (and links!) to create a welcoming, well-equipped hub that keeps your leaders fueled, prepped, and connected every week.

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

🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

🦸 HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/176

ITEMS FOUND IN LEADER ROOM

//Leader Resource Area
Decks of Cards
https://walmrt.us/4hs9d0u

Foam Dice
https://walmrt.us/4ot5h1M

Playdough
https://walmrt.us/3Jc5LdJ

Ice Breaker Cards
https://walmrt.us/47DJz5n

Find & Seek Scavenger Hunt
https://walmrt.us/47GrZ0I

//Other Items
Mini Fridge
https://walmrt.us/3JmGai3

Keurig
https://walmrt.us/4hKuByh

Microwave
https://walmrt.us/3JmG223

Personal Sized Whiteboards
https://walmrt.us/475rDk6

Markers
https://walmrt.us/47Gs84g

First Aid Kit
https://walmrt.us/4oDM25D

Ultimate Guest Box Template
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

Volunteer Onboarding Process Explained
https://youtu.be/s8HNzfZoiX0?si=A322a3wihRACq8ZM

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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Show me your volunteer rooms question!
00:23 Snacks & Coffee Area
01:01 Office Supply Area
01:34 Fall Social Pack
02:48 Supply Closet
04:14 Leader Check-in Area
05:42 Leader Group Resource Tools

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this episode, we are going to show you my church's youth ministry volunteer room as we're answering this question. Show me your volunteer rooms. We are looking to make a new volunteer headquarters and are looking for inspiration. We're talking snacks, decorations, and things leaders love. So let's go on a little field trip and I'm going to show you my church's leader workroom.

00:00:22:14 - 00:00:50:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's go. So this right here, just some basic, you know, and, like, common snacks, a leader fridge, which is also a spot where a lot of our people, store leftovers and food and then, of course, gotta have coffee. So this whole section here is filled with different, like, K-Cups, which I personally hate. Which is why I have pour over in my office in the next room over.

00:00:50:03 - 00:01:09:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But, this is something for our leaders, you know, Wednesday nights, Sunday morning, they come on in here, they grab a cup of coffee, they make it happen. This are here was actually paid for about one of our students, so that's pretty cool. Here's a printer. And this is where most of our, basic easy printer, printing needs can be done here.

00:01:09:23 - 00:01:34:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There is a bigger one, in another part of the office, but we just use this one as much as we can, a microwave in case we need it. And then just some very basic, paper supplies and cards and, cutters and stapler. Hole punch, in fact, that the cutters are here. This right here is where we keep, radio for, our security and safety team when they need it, when they're looking for it.

00:01:34:12 - 00:01:51:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey. Quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall.

00:01:51:16 - 00:02:14:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's why I created this, the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed. So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon.

00:02:14:28 - 00:02:35:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And did you know that monthly hybrid. Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799. Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting.

00:02:35:09 - 00:03:00:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry, right here is meant to sort of be our like, supply closet, right? So like, a leader can theoretically come in here anytime they need it and then get anything that they might be looking for.

00:03:00:14 - 00:03:22:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So of course, we got markers and then we got some branded pens. And these are here are actually one of our favorite things. Like we use these like little personalized whiteboards all the time. They're really like good for games and stuff like that. These are here are like just labels, for, for check in and for printing and then down here and we just got to order.

00:03:22:14 - 00:03:40:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So don't be like, holy crap, those people are all about snacks. But this is, we just got a big Sam's order. These are our snacks. So these are what we include. Back over here. And this is, like, just the back up stock of it. This right here. I've gone over this before. This is our leader.

00:03:40:17 - 00:03:59:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're not a leader. This is our our newcomer welcome box. And so, this is where we store a bunch of them, and then our check in team, they know to come and stock this for actually link right up here. Top left of the screen. I'll link to video where I detail an outline, our entire welcome box process.

00:03:59:12 - 00:04:16:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So this is like a leaders like go to spot everything that they could use, everything that they can need. Plus some just like backup stuff, you know, along with like first aid and, you know, necessary things. Like a kid gets an injury, we can go straight here, we can get all we need out of there. Turning the corner here.

00:04:16:02 - 00:04:35:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is our, leader check in station. So leaders are not allowed to check in until they've gone through our entire volunteer process, which I'll also link down below our volunteer process. And this vets them. Make sure that they went through all of our training and that they went through, all of the, the legal ministry safe things that they need to do.

00:04:35:22 - 00:04:51:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then they can go ahead and they can check in here. Well, we say is if it comes out of this printer here, you'll notice, manually, I'm going to print this here. We say that that green means screened. And so that means if someone in our ministry has on, like, a green lanyard, they're good to go.

00:04:51:20 - 00:05:16:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This board right here, you can see, different, this is like our weekly lessons, bottom lines. We'll also have the, like, connect group sheet right here, for our leaders as they come in on, like, a, Sunday to grab it. And then we have a monthly leader, a weekly I'm sorry leader podcast. And so, our leaders that win stuff, this is, our beginning of our cycle.

00:05:16:02 - 00:05:40:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So all these leaders are new to our team, and then this is where they can grab, their leader gift, their leader mug, all that type of stuff. This right here is our, Wednesday evening safety, safety laminated sheet, assignments. So we'll post this right here on the board. And then we'll also throw it into our leader group chat so that everyone knows where they should be and where they need to be.

00:05:40:27 - 00:06:06:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then right around here, just a couple more shelves and zoom out a little bit. A couple more shelves right here. This is just some more leader, resources. So this is like some, throw Intel, some yay or nay. We got Play-Doh in case we need it. We got some dice, we got some, break the ice games are all look down, and, I'll link a bunch of this stuff.

00:06:06:09 - 00:06:26:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Financing scavenger hunt, card game. I'll link some of these things so that you can, find them. You can buy them. You can, supply them for, for your own area if there's some that you want. And then the last thing we have here is just, a stack of cards so that if any of our leaders need to write cards to any of their students, they can go about doing that right here.

00:06:26:19 - 00:06:43:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then finally, this is new. Someone added this, in a little bit, unbeknownst to us. We kind of like it. So it says prayers and then, you can we can put some, like, individual, prayer requests right there, there on the screen. And so that's been something that we just added, which is pretty cool.

00:06:43:28 - 00:07:08:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, just one more time as a, take a big someone's prayer and something right now zoom out. This is our leader workroom, and, no students are that. Well, everyone, thank you so much for hanging here for this entire episode. As a reminder, link down below in the description, there are different, links for different things and resources and stuff that we have, linking to different episodes describing our volunteer process.

00:07:08:04 - 00:07:25:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
A free episode like this, hopefully is incredibly helpful to you, but a payment in the form of a like or a subscribe would really make all the difference in the world. And thank you for being here for this questions playlist. The next episode is linked right here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends, don't forget stay habits.

]]> Episode 175: The Calendar that Rules Them All! [Most Skip Step 1!] https://www.hybridministry.xyz/175 b7eb79c1-7238-487b-b390-9fcaaf8707c2 Thu, 13 Nov 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 175 The Calendar that Rules Them All! [Most Skip Step 1!] full Nick Clason Struggling with youth ministry planning, church communications, or ministry calendars? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, learn the 5 levels to create the ultimate Youth Ministry Calendar that rules them all! Most skip Level 1—but stick around for the one strategy that fixes all your communication issues and grabs parents’ attention with tips, visuals, and free downloadable designs. 10:56 no Struggling with youth ministry planning, church communications, or ministry calendars? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, learn the 5 levels to create the ultimate Youth Ministry Calendar that rules them all! Most skip Level 1—but stick around for the one strategy that fixes all your communication issues and grabs parents’ attention with tips, visuals, and free downloadable designs. FREE CALENDAR TEMPLATE https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-spring-141564188?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link 🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link 🦸 HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/175 Custom Curated Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaK80OxdNPbfrvTH_6cML8VB Nucleus https://www.nucleus.church 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 At a Glance Calendars 00:44 Level 1 - Most Miss! 02:51 Level 2 - FREE Download 05:27 Level 3 06:58 Level 4 - An All Time Idea! 08:10 Level 5 - THIS RULES THEM ALL -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:07 - 00:00:24:17 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:34:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Have you been doing your planning and creation of your youth ministry calendars all wrong this whole time? Well, in today's episode, I'm going to share with you the five levels to create a solid youth ministry calendar, the one that will rule them all. While most don't make it past level one, you should stick around to the end of the video and see the whole thing because I reveal at the end the one trick that I've started adding to all of my calendars that it solves the communication problem once and for all. 00:00:34:16 - 00:01:06:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Oh, and plus there's a free calendar link down below in the YouTube video or the podcast description. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nicolas, and excited to be with you. As we're talking through the five levels of a youth ministry calendar creation. And the reason we're doing this because we're actually, and we actually are and have been in a playlist where we've been discussing different questions that I have come across on different youth pastor Facebook groups. 00:01:06:25 - 00:01:30:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And today, this one, I have, a question that says, hey everyone, I'm looking for examples of an at a glance calendar that highlight your major annual events. Pictures, please. You don't need to include spontaneous or smaller events, just the main ones that plan each year. And so we're going to be looking at what I have been passing out historically, and how we've tried to not only solve the communication problem, but it also helps with our, our visitors and all that sort of thing. 00:01:30:17 - 00:01:51:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So actually, there's a carefully curated playlist with all of those elements, calendar discussions and a welcome box that we have and communication issues linked right here. Tap the video. Go ahead and check it out on YouTube. But step number one is you need to have and this is the one that most skipped. But you need to have a reputable website okay. 00:01:51:28 - 00:02:17:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Because if you want a quote as this question says an at a glance calendar, then you need to have a website that is actually up to date that when people don't have the information that they need from your calendar, they know where they can go and what they should do. In fact, everyone in our student ministry knows and understands that like the calendar doesn't exist with this this piece of literature that they're bringing home. 00:02:17:08 - 00:02:43:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is, again, as the question as this is high level, this is simply highlights. This isn't every single thing. I've seen calendars designed with every single thing, the entire calendar for the year. But like that, that is not what we pass out. And I'm going to share multiple different reasons why. But one of the reasons is because our website handles a lot of the rest of the stuff that is going to be needed in order to communicate that. 00:02:43:05 - 00:03:04:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you need to make sure that you have a website that's actually like navigate. Well, that's decent. It's a decent guest experience and it's up to date. The second thing is you want something that's designed well. If you look at the one here on screen, this is one that we, are giving away. Link down below. The templated, the blank version. 00:03:05:01 - 00:03:29:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is within our church's approved brand color palette and guides. So like, these are the student ministry colors within our church's color palette. So that's the first step of it. The second thing is like when I'm designing it, I typically choose a font or two that are like our fonts for the year. And then I'm just gonna be honest, like, icons are fun, but like, emojis are great. 00:03:29:13 - 00:03:50:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I try to just like link an emoji to some of the different events that we have. And that does a great job for it. The other thing is, like you see off to the side, here's like I also try to create some sort of icon that goes with like this season. So for fall we've done like coffee cups or we've done football helmets for the summer, we've done suns. 00:03:50:09 - 00:04:11:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And we, you know, in the spring we've done flowers. And so it gets tricky, especially if you're trying to do different ones and you're like doing them year over year. But you'll see the one linked right here. And you can go ahead and get the templated version link down below in the description. But you want your design to be something that, like, feels a little bit familiar but doesn't feel identical because you don't want them to think I've already got this. 00:04:11:18 - 00:04:28:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like they need to understand, like, no, this is a new one. Hey, quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. 00:04:28:15 - 00:04:50:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created these the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed. 00:04:50:29 - 00:05:10:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid here? A Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast? They get this pack completely for free. So if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799. 00:05:10:25 - 00:05:37:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. And another major thing that you're going to want to do here, which is level three, is you only want to include events that you, particularly and specifically choose. 00:05:37:27 - 00:06:00:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And want to highlight. You don't want to put every single thing on your calendar. No, no, you want things that you only want at a high level. And so the way to make it visually appealing, in my opinion, and in my book, and to make it small and concise, is to not overwhelm it with information, but to only make it things that are noteworthy for families to know. 00:06:00:21 - 00:06:23:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry For example, we a lot of times say we meet every single Sunday. We meet every single Wednesday. However, these are ones you want to know about, and these are also ones that you want to know that we're not meeting because we meet every single week. But these in particular take note. We are not meeting. Additionally, and especially as it pertains to our spring calendar, we will post things about our, about our like winter weekend. 00:06:23:26 - 00:06:44:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And we'll also post, say, the dates for our summer camp communications already gone out for that. By the time this calendar gets in the hands of our students mid-year and like December. But this one is important that it just, you know, it gets on there because it's actually going to happen during this cycle, which I should say, for context, we produce three calendars per year. 00:06:44:09 - 00:07:05:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We produce a fall one, we produce a spring one, and then we also produce a summer one. And so in light of that, we're pumping out calendars three different times per year to get into the hands of students. The fourth level, and this I think, is, one of them, the most impressive, like, decisions that I ever stumbled into. 00:07:05:20 - 00:07:24:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I honestly can't even tell you how I stumbled into it. And I would say that this is the key. However, level five, is a new one that we've recently unlocked, and I think it's even better. But number four is we make this design and then we print this using like sticker mule. We print this on a magnet. 00:07:24:25 - 00:07:43:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Here's the psychology. Here's my thought behind it. Right. Everyone passes out a calendar for the year. There's the sports calendar. There's the academic calendar. And in a lot of cases, there's the youth group calendar. But what I want and maybe this is just my competitiveness, but like I want my calendar to be the thing holding on other calendars. 00:07:43:07 - 00:08:05:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. Like if you got your sports calendar, I want the youth calendar to be the thing that is keeping the sports calendar affixed to the fridge. That puts us on top of it. And they're probably going to choose sports over student ministry. But I just like to think in my own head, like, think about all of these calendars that are on magnets, that are on people's fridges, that are at the top of line, top of sight. 00:08:05:03 - 00:08:33:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And hopefully they're seeing, and remembering and keeping us again, top of mind. The fifth and final level, which I think is like the ultimate is, you'll see here. And you've probably noticed that we actually and this is helpful because of our website, we build our website and our calendar on our website, on the provider of, of nucleus, and on nucleus, what you can do is you can link in a dot ICS, which is an iCal calendar extension. 00:08:33:21 - 00:08:48:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So it's all you put in like your phone. But it's also like a shareable option out of like even a Google calendar. So we create just like a Google Calendar, we keep the Google Calendar up to date. That auto populates to our website, right? Which is like again, and I said, like, you want to make sure that your, your website is up to date. 00:08:48:27 - 00:09:09:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if people land on your website, that's information is not on your your big calendar, your highlight calendar, your magnet calendar that they do end up on your website, they're able to obtain the information that they need and that they're looking for. But then we've created a QR code where they can simply subscribe to the calendar in their phones. 00:09:09:07 - 00:09:32:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so this is, in my opinion, the penultimate, because this makes these, at a glance calendars great, but not the most crucial thing. I think a lot of youth pastors treat this calendars the most crucial thing. But what happens when students don't have access to it? What happens when they lose it? What happens when you give it to them and they accidentally set it down before they get it into the hands of their parents? 00:09:32:18 - 00:09:56:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If a parent can subscribe to our calendar, then they will never miss an event. They'll never miss an update. It will be populated onto the very device and onto the very app that they use to manage and control their entire life. Their calendar app. And what a better place than for your youth ministry and your church calendar to be on parents phones and on students phones. 00:09:56:22 - 00:10:18:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so put a QR code, put some sort of link where they can go and they can subscribe to the events. And so all of the events are exactly where they're supposed to be and where you ultimately want them to be at the end of the day, remember, the goal of this is communication so that people know what's going on and that they then also hopefully choose to attend your church and your event in your youth group. 00:10:18:04 - 00:10:39:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The the goal and this is not a beautiful calendar. Hopefully we can help you create one. And once again link down below free in the in the podcast or YouTube description. But the goal is communication at its core. And so that fifth and final layer adding adding a QR code so that people and parents can, subscribe to your church and your youth ministry calendar. 00:10:40:01 - 00:10:54:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Such a game changer. Well, hey everyone, the next episode is linked right here on the screen as well as the subscribe button. If you found this episode helpful, a payment for this free calendar would be amazing. A like a subscribe and share it with a friend. But until next time. And as always, don't forget. Stay hybrid. youth ministry, youth pastor, student ministry, hybrid ministry, church communications, church marketing, ministry calendar, ministry planning, church leadership, church growth, youth group ideas, youth group events, digital ministry, church media, church event planning, social media for churches, free ministry resources, youth pastor training, ministry systems, qr code calendar, church website design, hybrid church, next gen ministry, discipleship tools, church content creation Struggling with youth ministry planning, church communications, or ministry calendars? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, learn the 5 levels to create the ultimate Youth Ministry Calendar that rules them all! Most skip Level 1—but stick around for the one strategy that fixes all your communication issues and grabs parents’ attention with tips, visuals, and free downloadable designs.

FREE CALENDAR TEMPLATE
https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-spring-141564188?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

🦸 HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/175

Custom Curated Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaK80OxdNPbfrvTH_6cML8VB

Nucleus
https://www.nucleus.church

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 At a Glance Calendars
00:44 Level 1 - Most Miss!
02:51 Level 2 - FREE Download
05:27 Level 3
06:58 Level 4 - An All Time Idea!
08:10 Level 5 - THIS RULES THEM ALL

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:07 - 00:00:24:17
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:34:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Have you been doing your planning and creation of your youth ministry calendars all wrong this whole time? Well, in today's episode, I'm going to share with you the five levels to create a solid youth ministry calendar, the one that will rule them all. While most don't make it past level one, you should stick around to the end of the video and see the whole thing because I reveal at the end the one trick that I've started adding to all of my calendars that it solves the communication problem once and for all.

00:00:34:16 - 00:01:06:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh, and plus there's a free calendar link down below in the YouTube video or the podcast description. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nicolas, and excited to be with you. As we're talking through the five levels of a youth ministry calendar creation. And the reason we're doing this because we're actually, and we actually are and have been in a playlist where we've been discussing different questions that I have come across on different youth pastor Facebook groups.

00:01:06:25 - 00:01:30:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And today, this one, I have, a question that says, hey everyone, I'm looking for examples of an at a glance calendar that highlight your major annual events. Pictures, please. You don't need to include spontaneous or smaller events, just the main ones that plan each year. And so we're going to be looking at what I have been passing out historically, and how we've tried to not only solve the communication problem, but it also helps with our, our visitors and all that sort of thing.

00:01:30:17 - 00:01:51:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So actually, there's a carefully curated playlist with all of those elements, calendar discussions and a welcome box that we have and communication issues linked right here. Tap the video. Go ahead and check it out on YouTube. But step number one is you need to have and this is the one that most skipped. But you need to have a reputable website okay.

00:01:51:28 - 00:02:17:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because if you want a quote as this question says an at a glance calendar, then you need to have a website that is actually up to date that when people don't have the information that they need from your calendar, they know where they can go and what they should do. In fact, everyone in our student ministry knows and understands that like the calendar doesn't exist with this this piece of literature that they're bringing home.

00:02:17:08 - 00:02:43:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is, again, as the question as this is high level, this is simply highlights. This isn't every single thing. I've seen calendars designed with every single thing, the entire calendar for the year. But like that, that is not what we pass out. And I'm going to share multiple different reasons why. But one of the reasons is because our website handles a lot of the rest of the stuff that is going to be needed in order to communicate that.

00:02:43:05 - 00:03:04:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you need to make sure that you have a website that's actually like navigate. Well, that's decent. It's a decent guest experience and it's up to date. The second thing is you want something that's designed well. If you look at the one here on screen, this is one that we, are giving away. Link down below. The templated, the blank version.

00:03:05:01 - 00:03:29:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is within our church's approved brand color palette and guides. So like, these are the student ministry colors within our church's color palette. So that's the first step of it. The second thing is like when I'm designing it, I typically choose a font or two that are like our fonts for the year. And then I'm just gonna be honest, like, icons are fun, but like, emojis are great.

00:03:29:13 - 00:03:50:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I try to just like link an emoji to some of the different events that we have. And that does a great job for it. The other thing is, like you see off to the side, here's like I also try to create some sort of icon that goes with like this season. So for fall we've done like coffee cups or we've done football helmets for the summer, we've done suns.

00:03:50:09 - 00:04:11:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we, you know, in the spring we've done flowers. And so it gets tricky, especially if you're trying to do different ones and you're like doing them year over year. But you'll see the one linked right here. And you can go ahead and get the templated version link down below in the description. But you want your design to be something that, like, feels a little bit familiar but doesn't feel identical because you don't want them to think I've already got this.

00:04:11:18 - 00:04:28:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like they need to understand, like, no, this is a new one. Hey, quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet.

00:04:28:15 - 00:04:50:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created these the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed.

00:04:50:29 - 00:05:10:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid here? A Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast? They get this pack completely for free. So if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799.

00:05:10:25 - 00:05:37:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. And another major thing that you're going to want to do here, which is level three, is you only want to include events that you, particularly and specifically choose.

00:05:37:27 - 00:06:00:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And want to highlight. You don't want to put every single thing on your calendar. No, no, you want things that you only want at a high level. And so the way to make it visually appealing, in my opinion, and in my book, and to make it small and concise, is to not overwhelm it with information, but to only make it things that are noteworthy for families to know.

00:06:00:21 - 00:06:23:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For example, we a lot of times say we meet every single Sunday. We meet every single Wednesday. However, these are ones you want to know about, and these are also ones that you want to know that we're not meeting because we meet every single week. But these in particular take note. We are not meeting. Additionally, and especially as it pertains to our spring calendar, we will post things about our, about our like winter weekend.

00:06:23:26 - 00:06:44:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we'll also post, say, the dates for our summer camp communications already gone out for that. By the time this calendar gets in the hands of our students mid-year and like December. But this one is important that it just, you know, it gets on there because it's actually going to happen during this cycle, which I should say, for context, we produce three calendars per year.

00:06:44:09 - 00:07:05:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We produce a fall one, we produce a spring one, and then we also produce a summer one. And so in light of that, we're pumping out calendars three different times per year to get into the hands of students. The fourth level, and this I think, is, one of them, the most impressive, like, decisions that I ever stumbled into.

00:07:05:20 - 00:07:24:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I honestly can't even tell you how I stumbled into it. And I would say that this is the key. However, level five, is a new one that we've recently unlocked, and I think it's even better. But number four is we make this design and then we print this using like sticker mule. We print this on a magnet.

00:07:24:25 - 00:07:43:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Here's the psychology. Here's my thought behind it. Right. Everyone passes out a calendar for the year. There's the sports calendar. There's the academic calendar. And in a lot of cases, there's the youth group calendar. But what I want and maybe this is just my competitiveness, but like I want my calendar to be the thing holding on other calendars.

00:07:43:07 - 00:08:05:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Like if you got your sports calendar, I want the youth calendar to be the thing that is keeping the sports calendar affixed to the fridge. That puts us on top of it. And they're probably going to choose sports over student ministry. But I just like to think in my own head, like, think about all of these calendars that are on magnets, that are on people's fridges, that are at the top of line, top of sight.

00:08:05:03 - 00:08:33:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And hopefully they're seeing, and remembering and keeping us again, top of mind. The fifth and final level, which I think is like the ultimate is, you'll see here. And you've probably noticed that we actually and this is helpful because of our website, we build our website and our calendar on our website, on the provider of, of nucleus, and on nucleus, what you can do is you can link in a dot ICS, which is an iCal calendar extension.

00:08:33:21 - 00:08:48:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's all you put in like your phone. But it's also like a shareable option out of like even a Google calendar. So we create just like a Google Calendar, we keep the Google Calendar up to date. That auto populates to our website, right? Which is like again, and I said, like, you want to make sure that your, your website is up to date.

00:08:48:27 - 00:09:09:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if people land on your website, that's information is not on your your big calendar, your highlight calendar, your magnet calendar that they do end up on your website, they're able to obtain the information that they need and that they're looking for. But then we've created a QR code where they can simply subscribe to the calendar in their phones.

00:09:09:07 - 00:09:32:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this is, in my opinion, the penultimate, because this makes these, at a glance calendars great, but not the most crucial thing. I think a lot of youth pastors treat this calendars the most crucial thing. But what happens when students don't have access to it? What happens when they lose it? What happens when you give it to them and they accidentally set it down before they get it into the hands of their parents?

00:09:32:18 - 00:09:56:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If a parent can subscribe to our calendar, then they will never miss an event. They'll never miss an update. It will be populated onto the very device and onto the very app that they use to manage and control their entire life. Their calendar app. And what a better place than for your youth ministry and your church calendar to be on parents phones and on students phones.

00:09:56:22 - 00:10:18:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so put a QR code, put some sort of link where they can go and they can subscribe to the events. And so all of the events are exactly where they're supposed to be and where you ultimately want them to be at the end of the day, remember, the goal of this is communication so that people know what's going on and that they then also hopefully choose to attend your church and your event in your youth group.

00:10:18:04 - 00:10:39:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The the goal and this is not a beautiful calendar. Hopefully we can help you create one. And once again link down below free in the in the podcast or YouTube description. But the goal is communication at its core. And so that fifth and final layer adding adding a QR code so that people and parents can, subscribe to your church and your youth ministry calendar.

00:10:40:01 - 00:10:54:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Such a game changer. Well, hey everyone, the next episode is linked right here on the screen as well as the subscribe button. If you found this episode helpful, a payment for this free calendar would be amazing. A like a subscribe and share it with a friend. But until next time. And as always, don't forget. Stay hybrid.

]]> Struggling with youth ministry planning, church communications, or ministry calendars? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, learn the 5 levels to create the ultimate Youth Ministry Calendar that rules them all! Most skip Level 1—but stick around for the one strategy that fixes all your communication issues and grabs parents’ attention with tips, visuals, and free downloadable designs.

FREE CALENDAR TEMPLATE
https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-spring-141564188?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

🦸 HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/175

Custom Curated Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaK80OxdNPbfrvTH_6cML8VB

Nucleus
https://www.nucleus.church

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 At a Glance Calendars
00:44 Level 1 - Most Miss!
02:51 Level 2 - FREE Download
05:27 Level 3
06:58 Level 4 - An All Time Idea!
08:10 Level 5 - THIS RULES THEM ALL

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:07 - 00:00:24:17
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:34:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Have you been doing your planning and creation of your youth ministry calendars all wrong this whole time? Well, in today's episode, I'm going to share with you the five levels to create a solid youth ministry calendar, the one that will rule them all. While most don't make it past level one, you should stick around to the end of the video and see the whole thing because I reveal at the end the one trick that I've started adding to all of my calendars that it solves the communication problem once and for all.

00:00:34:16 - 00:01:06:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh, and plus there's a free calendar link down below in the YouTube video or the podcast description. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nicolas, and excited to be with you. As we're talking through the five levels of a youth ministry calendar creation. And the reason we're doing this because we're actually, and we actually are and have been in a playlist where we've been discussing different questions that I have come across on different youth pastor Facebook groups.

00:01:06:25 - 00:01:30:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And today, this one, I have, a question that says, hey everyone, I'm looking for examples of an at a glance calendar that highlight your major annual events. Pictures, please. You don't need to include spontaneous or smaller events, just the main ones that plan each year. And so we're going to be looking at what I have been passing out historically, and how we've tried to not only solve the communication problem, but it also helps with our, our visitors and all that sort of thing.

00:01:30:17 - 00:01:51:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So actually, there's a carefully curated playlist with all of those elements, calendar discussions and a welcome box that we have and communication issues linked right here. Tap the video. Go ahead and check it out on YouTube. But step number one is you need to have and this is the one that most skipped. But you need to have a reputable website okay.

00:01:51:28 - 00:02:17:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because if you want a quote as this question says an at a glance calendar, then you need to have a website that is actually up to date that when people don't have the information that they need from your calendar, they know where they can go and what they should do. In fact, everyone in our student ministry knows and understands that like the calendar doesn't exist with this this piece of literature that they're bringing home.

00:02:17:08 - 00:02:43:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is, again, as the question as this is high level, this is simply highlights. This isn't every single thing. I've seen calendars designed with every single thing, the entire calendar for the year. But like that, that is not what we pass out. And I'm going to share multiple different reasons why. But one of the reasons is because our website handles a lot of the rest of the stuff that is going to be needed in order to communicate that.

00:02:43:05 - 00:03:04:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you need to make sure that you have a website that's actually like navigate. Well, that's decent. It's a decent guest experience and it's up to date. The second thing is you want something that's designed well. If you look at the one here on screen, this is one that we, are giving away. Link down below. The templated, the blank version.

00:03:05:01 - 00:03:29:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is within our church's approved brand color palette and guides. So like, these are the student ministry colors within our church's color palette. So that's the first step of it. The second thing is like when I'm designing it, I typically choose a font or two that are like our fonts for the year. And then I'm just gonna be honest, like, icons are fun, but like, emojis are great.

00:03:29:13 - 00:03:50:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I try to just like link an emoji to some of the different events that we have. And that does a great job for it. The other thing is, like you see off to the side, here's like I also try to create some sort of icon that goes with like this season. So for fall we've done like coffee cups or we've done football helmets for the summer, we've done suns.

00:03:50:09 - 00:04:11:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we, you know, in the spring we've done flowers. And so it gets tricky, especially if you're trying to do different ones and you're like doing them year over year. But you'll see the one linked right here. And you can go ahead and get the templated version link down below in the description. But you want your design to be something that, like, feels a little bit familiar but doesn't feel identical because you don't want them to think I've already got this.

00:04:11:18 - 00:04:28:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like they need to understand, like, no, this is a new one. Hey, quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet.

00:04:28:15 - 00:04:50:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created these the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed.

00:04:50:29 - 00:05:10:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid here? A Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast? They get this pack completely for free. So if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799.

00:05:10:25 - 00:05:37:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. And another major thing that you're going to want to do here, which is level three, is you only want to include events that you, particularly and specifically choose.

00:05:37:27 - 00:06:00:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And want to highlight. You don't want to put every single thing on your calendar. No, no, you want things that you only want at a high level. And so the way to make it visually appealing, in my opinion, and in my book, and to make it small and concise, is to not overwhelm it with information, but to only make it things that are noteworthy for families to know.

00:06:00:21 - 00:06:23:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For example, we a lot of times say we meet every single Sunday. We meet every single Wednesday. However, these are ones you want to know about, and these are also ones that you want to know that we're not meeting because we meet every single week. But these in particular take note. We are not meeting. Additionally, and especially as it pertains to our spring calendar, we will post things about our, about our like winter weekend.

00:06:23:26 - 00:06:44:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we'll also post, say, the dates for our summer camp communications already gone out for that. By the time this calendar gets in the hands of our students mid-year and like December. But this one is important that it just, you know, it gets on there because it's actually going to happen during this cycle, which I should say, for context, we produce three calendars per year.

00:06:44:09 - 00:07:05:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We produce a fall one, we produce a spring one, and then we also produce a summer one. And so in light of that, we're pumping out calendars three different times per year to get into the hands of students. The fourth level, and this I think, is, one of them, the most impressive, like, decisions that I ever stumbled into.

00:07:05:20 - 00:07:24:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I honestly can't even tell you how I stumbled into it. And I would say that this is the key. However, level five, is a new one that we've recently unlocked, and I think it's even better. But number four is we make this design and then we print this using like sticker mule. We print this on a magnet.

00:07:24:25 - 00:07:43:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Here's the psychology. Here's my thought behind it. Right. Everyone passes out a calendar for the year. There's the sports calendar. There's the academic calendar. And in a lot of cases, there's the youth group calendar. But what I want and maybe this is just my competitiveness, but like I want my calendar to be the thing holding on other calendars.

00:07:43:07 - 00:08:05:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Like if you got your sports calendar, I want the youth calendar to be the thing that is keeping the sports calendar affixed to the fridge. That puts us on top of it. And they're probably going to choose sports over student ministry. But I just like to think in my own head, like, think about all of these calendars that are on magnets, that are on people's fridges, that are at the top of line, top of sight.

00:08:05:03 - 00:08:33:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And hopefully they're seeing, and remembering and keeping us again, top of mind. The fifth and final level, which I think is like the ultimate is, you'll see here. And you've probably noticed that we actually and this is helpful because of our website, we build our website and our calendar on our website, on the provider of, of nucleus, and on nucleus, what you can do is you can link in a dot ICS, which is an iCal calendar extension.

00:08:33:21 - 00:08:48:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's all you put in like your phone. But it's also like a shareable option out of like even a Google calendar. So we create just like a Google Calendar, we keep the Google Calendar up to date. That auto populates to our website, right? Which is like again, and I said, like, you want to make sure that your, your website is up to date.

00:08:48:27 - 00:09:09:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if people land on your website, that's information is not on your your big calendar, your highlight calendar, your magnet calendar that they do end up on your website, they're able to obtain the information that they need and that they're looking for. But then we've created a QR code where they can simply subscribe to the calendar in their phones.

00:09:09:07 - 00:09:32:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this is, in my opinion, the penultimate, because this makes these, at a glance calendars great, but not the most crucial thing. I think a lot of youth pastors treat this calendars the most crucial thing. But what happens when students don't have access to it? What happens when they lose it? What happens when you give it to them and they accidentally set it down before they get it into the hands of their parents?

00:09:32:18 - 00:09:56:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If a parent can subscribe to our calendar, then they will never miss an event. They'll never miss an update. It will be populated onto the very device and onto the very app that they use to manage and control their entire life. Their calendar app. And what a better place than for your youth ministry and your church calendar to be on parents phones and on students phones.

00:09:56:22 - 00:10:18:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so put a QR code, put some sort of link where they can go and they can subscribe to the events. And so all of the events are exactly where they're supposed to be and where you ultimately want them to be at the end of the day, remember, the goal of this is communication so that people know what's going on and that they then also hopefully choose to attend your church and your event in your youth group.

00:10:18:04 - 00:10:39:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The the goal and this is not a beautiful calendar. Hopefully we can help you create one. And once again link down below free in the in the podcast or YouTube description. But the goal is communication at its core. And so that fifth and final layer adding adding a QR code so that people and parents can, subscribe to your church and your youth ministry calendar.

00:10:40:01 - 00:10:54:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Such a game changer. Well, hey everyone, the next episode is linked right here on the screen as well as the subscribe button. If you found this episode helpful, a payment for this free calendar would be amazing. A like a subscribe and share it with a friend. But until next time. And as always, don't forget. Stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 172: The Cellphone Problem in Youth Groups https://www.hybridministry.xyz/172 638ad9c0-ba4b-4a3f-99e7-f1127a82e225 Thu, 23 Oct 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 172 The Cellphone Problem in Youth Groups full Nick Clason In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we tackle the cellphone problem in youth groups and reveal a 3-step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry that actually works. Instead of fighting students for their phones, you’ll learn how youth pastors can use a variety of tools to their benefit, including how to turn phones from a distraction to an actual asset. If you’re looking for practical youth ministry tips, phone management strategies, and digital discipleship tools to keep students engaged, this episode is for you. 11:51 no In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we tackle the cellphone problem in youth groups and reveal a 3-step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry that actually works. Instead of fighting students for their phones, you’ll learn how youth pastors can use a variety of tools to their benefit, including how to turn phones from a distraction to an actual asset. If you’re looking for practical youth ministry tips, phone management strategies, and digital discipleship tools to keep students engaged, this episode is for you. 🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link 🦸 HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/172 LINKS https://www.Coleader.co CODE: HybridMinistry10 Sidekick + Pro Presenter Setup https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Phones in Youth Group 00:23 How Do you Keep Kids off Phones? 00:38 Step #1 01:24 Step #2 02:15 Step #3 04:09 Idea #1 06:09 Fall Social Media Plan 07:22 Idea #2 -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:08:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In this episode, we're going to talk about my three step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry. 00:00:08:05 - 00:00:17:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But what I also want to show you is how I've turned phones from a distraction to an asset in our youth ministry. And frankly, it's 00:00:17:01 - 00:00:24:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry a lot easier than fighting kids to get rid of their phones. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry Show. 00:00:24:10 - 00:00:29:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well, hey, everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. In this episode, we are answering this question. 00:00:29:05 - 00:00:34:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What are the ways that you have been able to keep students from being on phones during lessons and smog? 00:00:34:17 - 00:00:34:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Glad you 00:00:34:26 - 00:00:51:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry asked. Here's my three step strategy. Step number one is a central parking location. Like you read the comments of this post and just about everyone has either like some charging stations solution a little like hanging basket, 00:00:51:02 - 00:00:54:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry place for them to just like, leave their phones in the middle. 00:00:54:23 - 00:01:11:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Some different pictures, some different links to different things. We even had at our church at one point in time, we had like cell phone lockers. So this is like lockers with temporary codes where you go, you put your phone in, you create your own code, and then you come back and you get it. At the end of the night, we no longer have them. 00:01:11:12 - 00:01:30:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I tell you why in a minute, but, that's an option that was like the most, like next level solution. But basically everybody does it. Like, you just make that the thing. Hey, everyone, put your phones here before we go on into the room for youth group. The other option, let's be honest, like one of the good things that they could be using on their phone is like the Bible app. 00:01:30:26 - 00:01:49:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so if you're teaching from the Bible, you're going to give them some sort of like scripture lesson, and they're going to pull their Bibles out on their phone to read it. But then you know how phones work. That's because distraction there, over there, then playing clash clans in a minute, and they're no longer reading the Bible because you stopped reading the Bible in your lesson. 00:01:49:19 - 00:02:15:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, the solution set in two is just very simply like, provide paper Bibles, like if you want kids not on their phones and you want kids in the Bible, provide paper Bibles everywhere, all throughout your space so that there's no excuse for it and or also encourage, and even like potentially bribe and reward students who do bring their paper, Bibles to youth group to engage with Scripture in that way. 00:02:15:23 - 00:02:16:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The third 00:02:16:13 - 00:02:20:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and most effective way, in my opinion, this is more of like in a small group setting. 00:02:20:04 - 00:02:25:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you're in like a large group, room, this doesn't quite work. But in a small group setting, 00:02:25:04 - 00:02:35:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm a huge fan of the idea of a thing called a group covenant. Okay. And a group covenant is essentially something that you do at the beginning of a small group term or cycle. 00:02:36:09 - 00:02:55:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you got to think about this. If you have like groups that never break for any sort of rhythm or any sort of reason, then you got to create natural kind of like start points. So, you know, beginning of the school year, maybe like beginning of the calendar year, something like that. Or in certain contexts I've worked in, we've, we had three distinct small groups cycles. 00:02:55:12 - 00:03:15:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we had the fall, the winter and then the summer. And so and then each of those ran for 12 weeks at a time or whatever. And so, during the beginning section of those, you, you have a small group covenant. So you talk about rules and expectations. What's the expectation in this group for treating one another and all those types of things? 00:03:15:21 - 00:03:20:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry However, in that the other thing that I recommend, 00:03:20:13 - 00:03:41:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry is you ask, what are we going to do about phones? And you let the students decide, and that's more powerful than you having temporary cell phone lockers. That's more powerful than you having paper Bibles. When you let the student say, decide and dictate what's going to happen with phones, that's where the wind is found. 00:03:41:10 - 00:04:07:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you just simply ask, what are we going to do about phones? They come up with it. And I've always found that students in a group covenant setting actually make stricter rules than rules that you would probably want to make for them. And so let them decide through the avenue of a group covenant, which, by the way, is one of the things I did not see in the comments of the description, however, of that of that question. 00:04:07:11 - 00:04:24:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry However, this is the hybrid ministry show, and so I would be remiss to not talk about the ways in which I have actually tried to use phones as an asset. And so in our student ministry, when I started here and this episode links right 00:04:24:00 - 00:04:31:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry here, I detailed and discussed how our hybrid ministry strategy has to our growth over the last three years. 00:04:31:29 - 00:04:55:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so when I got here, one of the moves we made was we went from rows to tables. That was a major decision and quite frankly, a thing that people had. Some issue with that at first. But now we do tables pretty much consistently. And whenever we take them away, people like you don't like rows anymore. So it's just funny to watch how people kind of change and transform over time. 00:04:55:18 - 00:05:21:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But one of the things that we're leaning into is sidekick. And so we have a poll, a QR based poll, which is one of the features of the new beta sidekick, which, by the way, if you didn't know, you can jump into co-leader or co-leader Premium plus, with code Hybrid Ministry 1001 word. They'll give you 10% off co-leader, which also gives you access to all of the sidekick stuff. 00:05:21:08 - 00:05:41:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so one of the benefits and they're still kind of working out some of the kinks, about sidekick and its relationship with the legacy version. But one of the kinks or but one of the best parts about the new version, the beta version of sidekick is, the, the poll voting. And so we use that all the time. 00:05:41:20 - 00:05:59:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so poll voting kids get their phone out their skin and they can vote. They can use it for games. They can use it for messages. We even use it sometimes in the pre-roll. I tell you what, I'm going to do that I'm going to link down below our sidekick set up because, it's still not all the way full proof yet. 00:05:59:12 - 00:06:09:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so sometimes pro presenter is a better option. And so we actually run both on two different machines, and show you how we set that up. Link down below. 00:06:09:06 - 00:06:16:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hey, quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? 00:06:16:11 - 00:06:45:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created this the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed. 00:06:45:27 - 00:07:05:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid. Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799. 00:07:05:24 - 00:07:22:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. 00:07:22:24 - 00:07:37:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The other thing that we use is a feature called Digital Notes, which is just a US leaning into the resource and the platform of the YouVersion Bible app, live event section that, YouVersion includes. 00:07:37:06 - 00:07:59:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we set up a YouVersion live events, reading plan. Or it's not even a reading plan necessarily, but a YouVersion live events to follow along with the notes every single week. And like I said, we sit at tables and so we have like a little placard, plastic about this big. It sits in the middle of the table and it says, follow along with this week's digital notes, and it's got a QR code. 00:07:59:28 - 00:08:27:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so the QR code stays the same. But then on our QR code service generator, we turn around and we change the link to that every single week. So we change the link to the newest, iteration of the digital notes of the YouVersion, events plan. And so, they can also, you know, navigate into it and find it on the YouVersion live, section of the YouVersion events, and they can follow along. 00:08:27:10 - 00:08:49:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry As you know, we're very like, video centric and hybrid ministry centric youth ministry. So we create thumbnails for all of our talks. And so all of our in-room talks also have the thumbnails that go at the top of the YouVersion live events plan. But the, other beautiful thing, frankly, about the YouVersion live events plan is you can link to things external. 00:08:49:16 - 00:09:10:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So once they're on there, you got them hooked in and you can help them follow along. You can ask them questions and they're things that they can interact with. They can highlight scripture, they can take notes. But then you can also include external links. So we have a next step like form on our website that we use. And so at the end of every single lesson we say are you ready to take a next step? 00:09:10:12 - 00:09:30:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Click here to let us know and it'll navigate them off to our website. And then the final piece in the YouVersion events is we include a Bible reading plan that relates to the topic of sorts. And so any single given week a student on the YouVersion live event plan, they are encouraged or asked at least if they want to take some sort of spiritual next step. 00:09:30:13 - 00:09:37:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And they're also fed some sort of Bible reading plan. And so I want to point that out as a way to say we have 00:09:37:13 - 00:09:55:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry use phones and sidekick gives us a sliver of that. But our digital notes really opens up a wide avenue of ways that we can help students take next steps and be more intentional and meaningful during the lesson, so that they're using their phones to follow along with what's going on. 00:09:55:15 - 00:10:15:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, I told you I made a calculated risk with tables. I also want to let you know that phones is another calculated risk. And in fact, like one of the one of the comments on this post of the question that I'm reading said, man, just let kids have their phones, stop making it a fight. And like I tend to actually agree with that guy, but I will let you know. 00:10:15:00 - 00:10:37:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like phones are still a fight and they are still a distraction. Just last week, two nights ago in our youth group, one of our leaders, one of our table leaders. So we have students that are in, senior high that are leading groups in discussions. He was playing a game on his phone, and one of our staff one up, and they said, our table leaders are allowed to play games on their phones. 00:10:37:01 - 00:10:54:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And he knew the answer to that was like, no. And so he had to go to that kid and say, hey, put your phone down. So if that's coming from one of our leaders, it's there's that much even trickle down to the rest of students. So, well, hear me say, what we do is not foolproof, all right. But it's a calculated risk that I'm willing to take. 00:10:54:01 - 00:11:12:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And one that when a student brings their friend for the first time and a mom and dad. Imagine this. Your parent, you send your kid to imagine you send your kid to a completely different denomination or different religion to go with one of their friends, and then they don't have their phones for an hour. How would you feel if you couldn't get in contact with them? 00:11:12:17 - 00:11:32:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, we're the millennial generation of of parents. We want to have contact with our children, especially if we've paid for and given them a phone. And so we try not to make that an obstacle for people to be able to come into our ministry. But again, it's a calculated risk and one that we are, used to, fighting and using. 00:11:32:11 - 00:11:48:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So let us know down below in the comments what you do in your youth ministry as it pertains to cell phones. And go ahead and subscribe what you see right here on the screen and check out the next question. Video. There's also here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends, don't forget stay happy. youth ministry, youth group, youth pastor, hybrid ministry, student ministry, youth group ideas, youth group games, discipleship, phones in youth group, cellphone problem, youth ministry tips, youth pastor training, how to keep kids off phones, youth ministry strategy, youth group teaching, paper bibles, group covenants, sidekick, pro presenter, digital notes, fall social media plan, youth leaders, church leadership, youth group discipleship, student engagement, church tech, youth ministry growth In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we tackle the cellphone problem in youth groups and reveal a 3-step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry that actually works. Instead of fighting students for their phones, you’ll learn how youth pastors can use a variety of tools to their benefit, including how to turn phones from a distraction to an actual asset. If you’re looking for practical youth ministry tips, phone management strategies, and digital discipleship tools to keep students engaged, this episode is for you.

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Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Phones in Youth Group
00:23 How Do you Keep Kids off Phones?
00:38 Step #1
01:24 Step #2
02:15 Step #3
04:09 Idea #1
06:09 Fall Social Media Plan
07:22 Idea #2

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:08:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this episode, we're going to talk about my three step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry.

00:00:08:05 - 00:00:17:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But what I also want to show you is how I've turned phones from a distraction to an asset in our youth ministry. And frankly, it's

00:00:17:01 - 00:00:24:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a lot easier than fighting kids to get rid of their phones. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry Show.

00:00:24:10 - 00:00:29:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, hey, everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. In this episode, we are answering this question.

00:00:29:05 - 00:00:34:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What are the ways that you have been able to keep students from being on phones during lessons and smog?

00:00:34:17 - 00:00:34:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Glad you

00:00:34:26 - 00:00:51:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
asked. Here's my three step strategy. Step number one is a central parking location. Like you read the comments of this post and just about everyone has either like some charging stations solution a little like hanging basket,

00:00:51:02 - 00:00:54:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
place for them to just like, leave their phones in the middle.

00:00:54:23 - 00:01:11:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some different pictures, some different links to different things. We even had at our church at one point in time, we had like cell phone lockers. So this is like lockers with temporary codes where you go, you put your phone in, you create your own code, and then you come back and you get it. At the end of the night, we no longer have them.

00:01:11:12 - 00:01:30:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I tell you why in a minute, but, that's an option that was like the most, like next level solution. But basically everybody does it. Like, you just make that the thing. Hey, everyone, put your phones here before we go on into the room for youth group. The other option, let's be honest, like one of the good things that they could be using on their phone is like the Bible app.

00:01:30:26 - 00:01:49:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you're teaching from the Bible, you're going to give them some sort of like scripture lesson, and they're going to pull their Bibles out on their phone to read it. But then you know how phones work. That's because distraction there, over there, then playing clash clans in a minute, and they're no longer reading the Bible because you stopped reading the Bible in your lesson.

00:01:49:19 - 00:02:15:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, the solution set in two is just very simply like, provide paper Bibles, like if you want kids not on their phones and you want kids in the Bible, provide paper Bibles everywhere, all throughout your space so that there's no excuse for it and or also encourage, and even like potentially bribe and reward students who do bring their paper, Bibles to youth group to engage with Scripture in that way.

00:02:15:23 - 00:02:16:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The third

00:02:16:13 - 00:02:20:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and most effective way, in my opinion, this is more of like in a small group setting.

00:02:20:04 - 00:02:25:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're in like a large group, room, this doesn't quite work. But in a small group setting,

00:02:25:04 - 00:02:35:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm a huge fan of the idea of a thing called a group covenant. Okay. And a group covenant is essentially something that you do at the beginning of a small group term or cycle.

00:02:36:09 - 00:02:55:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you got to think about this. If you have like groups that never break for any sort of rhythm or any sort of reason, then you got to create natural kind of like start points. So, you know, beginning of the school year, maybe like beginning of the calendar year, something like that. Or in certain contexts I've worked in, we've, we had three distinct small groups cycles.

00:02:55:12 - 00:03:15:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we had the fall, the winter and then the summer. And so and then each of those ran for 12 weeks at a time or whatever. And so, during the beginning section of those, you, you have a small group covenant. So you talk about rules and expectations. What's the expectation in this group for treating one another and all those types of things?

00:03:15:21 - 00:03:20:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, in that the other thing that I recommend,

00:03:20:13 - 00:03:41:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is you ask, what are we going to do about phones? And you let the students decide, and that's more powerful than you having temporary cell phone lockers. That's more powerful than you having paper Bibles. When you let the student say, decide and dictate what's going to happen with phones, that's where the wind is found.

00:03:41:10 - 00:04:07:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you just simply ask, what are we going to do about phones? They come up with it. And I've always found that students in a group covenant setting actually make stricter rules than rules that you would probably want to make for them. And so let them decide through the avenue of a group covenant, which, by the way, is one of the things I did not see in the comments of the description, however, of that of that question.

00:04:07:11 - 00:04:24:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, this is the hybrid ministry show, and so I would be remiss to not talk about the ways in which I have actually tried to use phones as an asset. And so in our student ministry, when I started here and this episode links right

00:04:24:00 - 00:04:31:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here, I detailed and discussed how our hybrid ministry strategy has to our growth over the last three years.

00:04:31:29 - 00:04:55:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when I got here, one of the moves we made was we went from rows to tables. That was a major decision and quite frankly, a thing that people had. Some issue with that at first. But now we do tables pretty much consistently. And whenever we take them away, people like you don't like rows anymore. So it's just funny to watch how people kind of change and transform over time.

00:04:55:18 - 00:05:21:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But one of the things that we're leaning into is sidekick. And so we have a poll, a QR based poll, which is one of the features of the new beta sidekick, which, by the way, if you didn't know, you can jump into co-leader or co-leader Premium plus, with code Hybrid Ministry 1001 word. They'll give you 10% off co-leader, which also gives you access to all of the sidekick stuff.

00:05:21:08 - 00:05:41:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so one of the benefits and they're still kind of working out some of the kinks, about sidekick and its relationship with the legacy version. But one of the kinks or but one of the best parts about the new version, the beta version of sidekick is, the, the poll voting. And so we use that all the time.

00:05:41:20 - 00:05:59:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so poll voting kids get their phone out their skin and they can vote. They can use it for games. They can use it for messages. We even use it sometimes in the pre-roll. I tell you what, I'm going to do that I'm going to link down below our sidekick set up because, it's still not all the way full proof yet.

00:05:59:12 - 00:06:09:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so sometimes pro presenter is a better option. And so we actually run both on two different machines, and show you how we set that up. Link down below.

00:06:09:06 - 00:06:16:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey, quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media?

00:06:16:11 - 00:06:45:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created this the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed.

00:06:45:27 - 00:07:05:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid. Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799.

00:07:05:24 - 00:07:22:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry.

00:07:22:24 - 00:07:37:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The other thing that we use is a feature called Digital Notes, which is just a US leaning into the resource and the platform of the YouVersion Bible app, live event section that, YouVersion includes.

00:07:37:06 - 00:07:59:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we set up a YouVersion live events, reading plan. Or it's not even a reading plan necessarily, but a YouVersion live events to follow along with the notes every single week. And like I said, we sit at tables and so we have like a little placard, plastic about this big. It sits in the middle of the table and it says, follow along with this week's digital notes, and it's got a QR code.

00:07:59:28 - 00:08:27:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the QR code stays the same. But then on our QR code service generator, we turn around and we change the link to that every single week. So we change the link to the newest, iteration of the digital notes of the YouVersion, events plan. And so, they can also, you know, navigate into it and find it on the YouVersion live, section of the YouVersion events, and they can follow along.

00:08:27:10 - 00:08:49:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
As you know, we're very like, video centric and hybrid ministry centric youth ministry. So we create thumbnails for all of our talks. And so all of our in-room talks also have the thumbnails that go at the top of the YouVersion live events plan. But the, other beautiful thing, frankly, about the YouVersion live events plan is you can link to things external.

00:08:49:16 - 00:09:10:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So once they're on there, you got them hooked in and you can help them follow along. You can ask them questions and they're things that they can interact with. They can highlight scripture, they can take notes. But then you can also include external links. So we have a next step like form on our website that we use. And so at the end of every single lesson we say are you ready to take a next step?

00:09:10:12 - 00:09:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Click here to let us know and it'll navigate them off to our website. And then the final piece in the YouVersion events is we include a Bible reading plan that relates to the topic of sorts. And so any single given week a student on the YouVersion live event plan, they are encouraged or asked at least if they want to take some sort of spiritual next step.

00:09:30:13 - 00:09:37:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And they're also fed some sort of Bible reading plan. And so I want to point that out as a way to say we have

00:09:37:13 - 00:09:55:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
use phones and sidekick gives us a sliver of that. But our digital notes really opens up a wide avenue of ways that we can help students take next steps and be more intentional and meaningful during the lesson, so that they're using their phones to follow along with what's going on.

00:09:55:15 - 00:10:15:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, I told you I made a calculated risk with tables. I also want to let you know that phones is another calculated risk. And in fact, like one of the one of the comments on this post of the question that I'm reading said, man, just let kids have their phones, stop making it a fight. And like I tend to actually agree with that guy, but I will let you know.

00:10:15:00 - 00:10:37:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like phones are still a fight and they are still a distraction. Just last week, two nights ago in our youth group, one of our leaders, one of our table leaders. So we have students that are in, senior high that are leading groups in discussions. He was playing a game on his phone, and one of our staff one up, and they said, our table leaders are allowed to play games on their phones.

00:10:37:01 - 00:10:54:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And he knew the answer to that was like, no. And so he had to go to that kid and say, hey, put your phone down. So if that's coming from one of our leaders, it's there's that much even trickle down to the rest of students. So, well, hear me say, what we do is not foolproof, all right. But it's a calculated risk that I'm willing to take.

00:10:54:01 - 00:11:12:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And one that when a student brings their friend for the first time and a mom and dad. Imagine this. Your parent, you send your kid to imagine you send your kid to a completely different denomination or different religion to go with one of their friends, and then they don't have their phones for an hour. How would you feel if you couldn't get in contact with them?

00:11:12:17 - 00:11:32:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, we're the millennial generation of of parents. We want to have contact with our children, especially if we've paid for and given them a phone. And so we try not to make that an obstacle for people to be able to come into our ministry. But again, it's a calculated risk and one that we are, used to, fighting and using.

00:11:32:11 - 00:11:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let us know down below in the comments what you do in your youth ministry as it pertains to cell phones. And go ahead and subscribe what you see right here on the screen and check out the next question. Video. There's also here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends, don't forget stay happy.

]]> In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we tackle the cellphone problem in youth groups and reveal a 3-step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry that actually works. Instead of fighting students for their phones, you’ll learn how youth pastors can use a variety of tools to their benefit, including how to turn phones from a distraction to an actual asset. If you’re looking for practical youth ministry tips, phone management strategies, and digital discipleship tools to keep students engaged, this episode is for you.

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Phones in Youth Group
00:23 How Do you Keep Kids off Phones?
00:38 Step #1
01:24 Step #2
02:15 Step #3
04:09 Idea #1
06:09 Fall Social Media Plan
07:22 Idea #2

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:08:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this episode, we're going to talk about my three step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry.

00:00:08:05 - 00:00:17:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But what I also want to show you is how I've turned phones from a distraction to an asset in our youth ministry. And frankly, it's

00:00:17:01 - 00:00:24:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a lot easier than fighting kids to get rid of their phones. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry Show.

00:00:24:10 - 00:00:29:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, hey, everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. In this episode, we are answering this question.

00:00:29:05 - 00:00:34:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What are the ways that you have been able to keep students from being on phones during lessons and smog?

00:00:34:17 - 00:00:34:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Glad you

00:00:34:26 - 00:00:51:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
asked. Here's my three step strategy. Step number one is a central parking location. Like you read the comments of this post and just about everyone has either like some charging stations solution a little like hanging basket,

00:00:51:02 - 00:00:54:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
place for them to just like, leave their phones in the middle.

00:00:54:23 - 00:01:11:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some different pictures, some different links to different things. We even had at our church at one point in time, we had like cell phone lockers. So this is like lockers with temporary codes where you go, you put your phone in, you create your own code, and then you come back and you get it. At the end of the night, we no longer have them.

00:01:11:12 - 00:01:30:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I tell you why in a minute, but, that's an option that was like the most, like next level solution. But basically everybody does it. Like, you just make that the thing. Hey, everyone, put your phones here before we go on into the room for youth group. The other option, let's be honest, like one of the good things that they could be using on their phone is like the Bible app.

00:01:30:26 - 00:01:49:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you're teaching from the Bible, you're going to give them some sort of like scripture lesson, and they're going to pull their Bibles out on their phone to read it. But then you know how phones work. That's because distraction there, over there, then playing clash clans in a minute, and they're no longer reading the Bible because you stopped reading the Bible in your lesson.

00:01:49:19 - 00:02:15:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, the solution set in two is just very simply like, provide paper Bibles, like if you want kids not on their phones and you want kids in the Bible, provide paper Bibles everywhere, all throughout your space so that there's no excuse for it and or also encourage, and even like potentially bribe and reward students who do bring their paper, Bibles to youth group to engage with Scripture in that way.

00:02:15:23 - 00:02:16:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The third

00:02:16:13 - 00:02:20:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and most effective way, in my opinion, this is more of like in a small group setting.

00:02:20:04 - 00:02:25:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're in like a large group, room, this doesn't quite work. But in a small group setting,

00:02:25:04 - 00:02:35:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm a huge fan of the idea of a thing called a group covenant. Okay. And a group covenant is essentially something that you do at the beginning of a small group term or cycle.

00:02:36:09 - 00:02:55:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you got to think about this. If you have like groups that never break for any sort of rhythm or any sort of reason, then you got to create natural kind of like start points. So, you know, beginning of the school year, maybe like beginning of the calendar year, something like that. Or in certain contexts I've worked in, we've, we had three distinct small groups cycles.

00:02:55:12 - 00:03:15:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we had the fall, the winter and then the summer. And so and then each of those ran for 12 weeks at a time or whatever. And so, during the beginning section of those, you, you have a small group covenant. So you talk about rules and expectations. What's the expectation in this group for treating one another and all those types of things?

00:03:15:21 - 00:03:20:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, in that the other thing that I recommend,

00:03:20:13 - 00:03:41:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is you ask, what are we going to do about phones? And you let the students decide, and that's more powerful than you having temporary cell phone lockers. That's more powerful than you having paper Bibles. When you let the student say, decide and dictate what's going to happen with phones, that's where the wind is found.

00:03:41:10 - 00:04:07:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you just simply ask, what are we going to do about phones? They come up with it. And I've always found that students in a group covenant setting actually make stricter rules than rules that you would probably want to make for them. And so let them decide through the avenue of a group covenant, which, by the way, is one of the things I did not see in the comments of the description, however, of that of that question.

00:04:07:11 - 00:04:24:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, this is the hybrid ministry show, and so I would be remiss to not talk about the ways in which I have actually tried to use phones as an asset. And so in our student ministry, when I started here and this episode links right

00:04:24:00 - 00:04:31:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here, I detailed and discussed how our hybrid ministry strategy has to our growth over the last three years.

00:04:31:29 - 00:04:55:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when I got here, one of the moves we made was we went from rows to tables. That was a major decision and quite frankly, a thing that people had. Some issue with that at first. But now we do tables pretty much consistently. And whenever we take them away, people like you don't like rows anymore. So it's just funny to watch how people kind of change and transform over time.

00:04:55:18 - 00:05:21:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But one of the things that we're leaning into is sidekick. And so we have a poll, a QR based poll, which is one of the features of the new beta sidekick, which, by the way, if you didn't know, you can jump into co-leader or co-leader Premium plus, with code Hybrid Ministry 1001 word. They'll give you 10% off co-leader, which also gives you access to all of the sidekick stuff.

00:05:21:08 - 00:05:41:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so one of the benefits and they're still kind of working out some of the kinks, about sidekick and its relationship with the legacy version. But one of the kinks or but one of the best parts about the new version, the beta version of sidekick is, the, the poll voting. And so we use that all the time.

00:05:41:20 - 00:05:59:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so poll voting kids get their phone out their skin and they can vote. They can use it for games. They can use it for messages. We even use it sometimes in the pre-roll. I tell you what, I'm going to do that I'm going to link down below our sidekick set up because, it's still not all the way full proof yet.

00:05:59:12 - 00:06:09:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so sometimes pro presenter is a better option. And so we actually run both on two different machines, and show you how we set that up. Link down below.

00:06:09:06 - 00:06:16:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey, quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media?

00:06:16:11 - 00:06:45:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created this the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed.

00:06:45:27 - 00:07:05:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid. Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799.

00:07:05:24 - 00:07:22:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry.

00:07:22:24 - 00:07:37:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The other thing that we use is a feature called Digital Notes, which is just a US leaning into the resource and the platform of the YouVersion Bible app, live event section that, YouVersion includes.

00:07:37:06 - 00:07:59:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we set up a YouVersion live events, reading plan. Or it's not even a reading plan necessarily, but a YouVersion live events to follow along with the notes every single week. And like I said, we sit at tables and so we have like a little placard, plastic about this big. It sits in the middle of the table and it says, follow along with this week's digital notes, and it's got a QR code.

00:07:59:28 - 00:08:27:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the QR code stays the same. But then on our QR code service generator, we turn around and we change the link to that every single week. So we change the link to the newest, iteration of the digital notes of the YouVersion, events plan. And so, they can also, you know, navigate into it and find it on the YouVersion live, section of the YouVersion events, and they can follow along.

00:08:27:10 - 00:08:49:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
As you know, we're very like, video centric and hybrid ministry centric youth ministry. So we create thumbnails for all of our talks. And so all of our in-room talks also have the thumbnails that go at the top of the YouVersion live events plan. But the, other beautiful thing, frankly, about the YouVersion live events plan is you can link to things external.

00:08:49:16 - 00:09:10:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So once they're on there, you got them hooked in and you can help them follow along. You can ask them questions and they're things that they can interact with. They can highlight scripture, they can take notes. But then you can also include external links. So we have a next step like form on our website that we use. And so at the end of every single lesson we say are you ready to take a next step?

00:09:10:12 - 00:09:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Click here to let us know and it'll navigate them off to our website. And then the final piece in the YouVersion events is we include a Bible reading plan that relates to the topic of sorts. And so any single given week a student on the YouVersion live event plan, they are encouraged or asked at least if they want to take some sort of spiritual next step.

00:09:30:13 - 00:09:37:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And they're also fed some sort of Bible reading plan. And so I want to point that out as a way to say we have

00:09:37:13 - 00:09:55:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
use phones and sidekick gives us a sliver of that. But our digital notes really opens up a wide avenue of ways that we can help students take next steps and be more intentional and meaningful during the lesson, so that they're using their phones to follow along with what's going on.

00:09:55:15 - 00:10:15:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, I told you I made a calculated risk with tables. I also want to let you know that phones is another calculated risk. And in fact, like one of the one of the comments on this post of the question that I'm reading said, man, just let kids have their phones, stop making it a fight. And like I tend to actually agree with that guy, but I will let you know.

00:10:15:00 - 00:10:37:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like phones are still a fight and they are still a distraction. Just last week, two nights ago in our youth group, one of our leaders, one of our table leaders. So we have students that are in, senior high that are leading groups in discussions. He was playing a game on his phone, and one of our staff one up, and they said, our table leaders are allowed to play games on their phones.

00:10:37:01 - 00:10:54:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And he knew the answer to that was like, no. And so he had to go to that kid and say, hey, put your phone down. So if that's coming from one of our leaders, it's there's that much even trickle down to the rest of students. So, well, hear me say, what we do is not foolproof, all right. But it's a calculated risk that I'm willing to take.

00:10:54:01 - 00:11:12:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And one that when a student brings their friend for the first time and a mom and dad. Imagine this. Your parent, you send your kid to imagine you send your kid to a completely different denomination or different religion to go with one of their friends, and then they don't have their phones for an hour. How would you feel if you couldn't get in contact with them?

00:11:12:17 - 00:11:32:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, we're the millennial generation of of parents. We want to have contact with our children, especially if we've paid for and given them a phone. And so we try not to make that an obstacle for people to be able to come into our ministry. But again, it's a calculated risk and one that we are, used to, fighting and using.

00:11:32:11 - 00:11:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let us know down below in the comments what you do in your youth ministry as it pertains to cell phones. And go ahead and subscribe what you see right here on the screen and check out the next question. Video. There's also here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends, don't forget stay happy.

]]> 🚨BIG ANNOUNCEMENT🚨 - The Future of Hybrid Ministry! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/emergencypod 33960e14-c705-4f65-bce7-de24b57b5011 Wed, 24 Sep 2025 15:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason full Nick Clason Hop into this EMERGENCY POD! Big News on the horizon! I've got a special guest here, my former boss, and more importantly, friend, Darren Sutton, to explain all there is about the future of the Hybrid Ministry Show! 8:04 no Hop into this EMERGENCY POD! Big News on the horizon! I've got a special guest here, my former boss, and more importantly, friend, Darren Sutton, to explain all there is about the future of the Hybrid Ministry Show! And what this Deep-Dive Cohort is all about. Deep-dive cohort link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvUGUy6e3NDPK_DQNsRettn2mhT2Pedyn8ccl8WSlSTGvAwA/viewform YMLC Cohort, Deep Dive, Hybrid Ministry, Darren Sutton, Nick Clason, Derry Prenkert, Youth Ministry leader cohort, Student Ministry, Digital Ministry Hop into this EMERGENCY POD! Big News on the horizon!

I've got a special guest here, my former boss, and more importantly, friend, Darren Sutton, to explain all there is about the future of the Hybrid Ministry Show! And what this Deep-Dive Cohort is all about.

Deep-dive cohort link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvUGUy6e3NDPK_DQNsRettn2mhT2Pedyn8ccl8WSlSTGvAwA/viewform

]]> Hop into this EMERGENCY POD! Big News on the horizon!

I've got a special guest here, my former boss, and more importantly, friend, Darren Sutton, to explain all there is about the future of the Hybrid Ministry Show! And what this Deep-Dive Cohort is all about.

Deep-dive cohort link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvUGUy6e3NDPK_DQNsRettn2mhT2Pedyn8ccl8WSlSTGvAwA/viewform

]]> Episode 164: 🚀 Fall Social Media Pack: Stop Guessing. Start Posting. https://www.hybridministry.xyz/164 cafdfc89-9bc4-41bd-8b4c-4fc274ecec9d Thu, 28 Aug 2025 15:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 164 🚀 Fall Social Media Pack: Stop Guessing. Start Posting. full Nick Clason Struggling to keep up with youth ministry social media this fall? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason unveils the Fall Social Media Pack—a done-for-you, but also fully customizable content calendar built to align with your fall kickoff event, guest strategy, YouTube channel, and in-person ministry, saving you hours every week. Learn how to post your way to better engagement on Instagram, TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts, while bridging the gap between digital discipleship and real-life impact in your church! 10:56 no Struggling to keep up with youth ministry social media this fall? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason unveils the Fall Social Media Pack—a done-for-you, but also fully customizable content calendar built to align with your fall kickoff event, guest strategy, YouTube channel, and in-person ministry, saving you hours every week. Learn how to post your way to better engagement on Instagram, TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts, while bridging the gap between digital discipleship and real-life impact in your church! 🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link 🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/164 *🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry FALL MASTERCLASS PLAYLIST https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fsa_fgbYCE&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaLfP12NPWmpBzXoCcEsAyBF COLEADER CURRICULUM (Use code HybridMinistry10 for 10% off) https://www.coleader.co ✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Fall is here! 00:14 Time to Finish Strong 03:38 Unboxing the Fall Social Pack 08:58 How to Build your Social Media to Actually last! -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:05 - 00:00:34:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Fall is here. So stop scrambling to post every single Wednesday on your social media because I've already built your social media plan. Just copy paste it. Post it. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. Welcome, everyone, to the Hybrid Ministry show. And today it's finally here. It is launch day this fall. Seasonal social media packs, similar to the summer one that I had running all summer long, is exactly what you need for your youth ministry social media. 00:00:34:03 - 00:01:00:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It is a blend of custom and done for you, content that you can pair together and best of all. If you've been following along in this fall, a masterclass for your kickoff event. If you did The World's Greatest Donut, if you did the bracket, then students are now locked into your social media. That entire playlist is linked right here at the top of the screen or in the show notes down below if you're listening on your podcast. 00:01:00:16 - 00:01:35:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so if your students are locked in to your social media now because they've been voting and discovering and determining what the world's greatest donut is in your context and in your student ministry, well, then, now you want to continue to to lean in to what's going on on your social media and like, don't forget that. Like if you also used our welcome box strategy and our magnetic calendar and like they open that box and they scan that QR code in there on your YouTube channel, like students are seeing your content on their algorithm. 00:01:35:01 - 00:01:55:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so therefore you need to keep feeding that algorithm. Unfortunately for social media, you have to continue to keep feeding it in order for it to like be successful. But fortunately for you, I have just created a seasonal three months worth of content so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. All you got to do is download this pack. 00:01:55:22 - 00:02:14:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's less than $20 or better yet, become a Patreon member for $4 a month, which, if you add that up for three months, is $12 and you get the pack for free as a part of your membership and bonus podcast every single Monday morning, you can use that to continue to add to your feed while you're doing that. 00:02:14:13 - 00:02:34:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And the social media pack is taking care of it over here. You get to go over here and deal with all the things that you have to do for fall. You have to start locking in your curriculum, which I would recommend co-leader, by the way, and you can use hybrid ministry ten for 10% off that, or you have to like build your calendar, you have to build your budget, you have to recruit new volunteers. 00:02:34:08 - 00:02:58:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, you know, like, you got this thing over here that's gnawing at you. You know, you should do it. You know, it's important. Maybe you don't, but, like, trust me, it's important. And so my pack will help take care of that. It will give you content that you can continue to post and keep that thing active. And the best thing is that when you typically download a pack, it's not very custom to you and your ministry, right? 00:02:58:07 - 00:03:23:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry When you download a pack, more often than not it's a bunch of like static and stock graphics, and we have a few of the like done for you that like, isn't tied to your context or your ministry at all. But we also have a whole section where it will be you or your students or your volunteers, your faces that people know, love and will recognize and that will help make your social media feed feel custom and personal, which is the entire goal. 00:03:23:12 - 00:03:54:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So without any further ado, what I want to do is I want to unbox this a little bit. And so in the next section, let's look at what is included. If you choose to, jump into the full seasonal social media pack. So if you are watching here on YouTube, you are seeing my screen. And so if you download the, fall seasonal social media pack from Patreon, you are going to get a folder that looks like this. 00:03:54:23 - 00:04:16:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so it says start here Hybrid Strategy Guide and then custom for you and then done for you. So in the start here PDF, it just explains what's going on with the seasonal social media pack three months of custom fall related youth ministry, social media. Just as a reminder, Patreon members for four hours a month, you get this package included in your membership. 00:04:16:27 - 00:04:41:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So consider signing up that now up to $48 a year, and you'll get four seasonal social media packs along with a bonus podcast every single Monday morning. But like I said, it's completely either done for you. It's either a section of done for You, which is just download, plug and play or custom for you. It's got some recommendations here of like maybe some microphones that you might want to consider investing in. 00:04:41:12 - 00:04:59:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like this one right here, for example, I just want to point out like this one, I mean, like, oh, here we go. Opened up. This one is 789. So like, it really is very, very like affordable and very, very cheap. Obviously it's not going to be incredibly, you know, high quality, but it will still get the job done. 00:04:59:22 - 00:05:19:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then right here, is your recommended posts per week. Okay. And so you look here, it's like September 1st and you got like your spiritual practice posts, your emoji posts, your Bible trivia posts. Okay. Or if you want to build your own calendar, you can do it down here, in this blank section of the schedule. 00:05:19:29 - 00:05:45:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Furthermore, this right here explains kind of like the strategy that I'm attempting to get you to, to participate in. So, like, why social media? Why vertical video, and all these things. This actually is available as one of the member downloads from but a year ago over on Download Youth Ministry. But I'm just including it here so that you can kind of like see and understand like the strategy and like and what I'm saying here. 00:05:45:11 - 00:06:12:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then let's look at the Dunphy section first. There are five Bible verse real videos. So, here's, you know, a bunch of different, like, verses you can post those super quick, super easy. Here's some like emoji, back to school, kind of like guessing themed, ones that you can post super again, super quick, super easy. Here are some spiritual practice videos Bible memorization, study praise. 00:06:12:27 - 00:06:33:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, share. You know, pray for a friend. And then, take the next 60s to sit in silence. And then finally, these are like some curso based videos. So, like, what do you do if you're feeling lonely? What do you do if you're feeling sad? And what do you do if you're feeling insecure? So like, those are all very simple. 00:06:33:19 - 00:06:57:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like I said, download done for you. And then over here, these are the custom ones. Right? So every single one of the custom folders gives you some instructions how to do it, what to do. These are some Bible trivia, questions. So it's got five different rounds of five different posts that you can do Bible trivia. You can either hop on screen and do it, or better yet, hand it to a student and let them do it. 00:06:57:15 - 00:07:15:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then I also give you some graphics that you can use, to just overlay it, and you can build that in like a cap cut editor or a TikTok editor. And once again, have your students do it. Here are some, like recap or like devotional type videos. They're like, you're going to be your spiritually charged pieces of content. 00:07:16:01 - 00:07:32:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Again, you can hop on camera or you can hit to student and all of these, right? I have five script ideas right here that you can use. And it's got editing notes and all the things like that. If you have like a long form version of your message, you can use link in the description, something like an opus stock pro, to clip that up. 00:07:32:28 - 00:07:50:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you can also just post that and then kind of like skip this little, folder section altogether. These are some men on the street. Would you rather fall based questions? So here's again some instructions on how to do it, what those are. And I created overlays. So all you gotta do is just go around, ask a handful of students using one of those microphones that you bought. 00:07:50:11 - 00:08:10:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Would you rather wear an itchy sweater or continually have leaves in your pocket? Would you rather be lost in a corn maze or smashed your perfectly carved pumpkin? Would you rather have, to eat leftovers for a month or risk every lawn in your neighborhood? Right. And so you see how like, those, those are great. And then finally, here are some transition invites, our videos. 00:08:10:07 - 00:08:39:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So I give you the beginning of a video and then you overlay that right here and like, boom, you have one of your students pop in and, they say, hey, you should come to youth group, like, Wednesday night. What time? All that type of stuff. And I give you five of those. And so these all are the custom sections of your, of your social media strategy because a, a completely done for you is going to rob your social media feed of you. 00:08:39:22 - 00:08:59:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I don't want to do that. And so this is about as easy as we can make it so that like it still has you in it, but it's still also like not that much work. You can clear this bar. And like I said, we can get your students up to speed on this, which is what we're going to talk about in the next section of the video. 00:08:59:20 - 00:09:39:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So remember, while we're trying to increase social media engagement on your feed, the ultimate goal in all of this is not just social media engagement, but hopefully life change in the in the life of your teenagers and of your students. And so hopefully, the more that they engage with you on social, it's also going to mean the more that they're going to engage with you in person, which is really like the impetus for this entire hybrid strategy online, which is where a lot of students are spending their time and their lives paired with your in-person moment, so that together you can create a solid hybrid environment, one that, like your students, they're they're stepping back 00:09:39:21 - 00:10:09:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and forth in between those two worlds constantly. They live in that sweet spot called hybrid. And this social pact helps bridge that gap between those two different, sometimes seemingly opposing sides of the ministry aisle. And so I want to encourage you to continue to lean into it. And best yet, the best way that I have discovered to keep this ongoing, sustainable strategy, because I want to point out, I'm encouraging you to post three times per week. 00:10:09:11 - 00:10:41:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In my context, we post ten times per week. The only way that I'm getting ten posts done per week is by creating and leaning into a fully student run, an LED social media team, and I am going to detail and outline every single step of that in the very next episode, so that you can build that for yourself so that you can pass that off and you can teach your students very simply how to become influencers in their faith, not just online, but in their faith. 00:10:41:23 - 00:10:55:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That episode is going to be the link to right here on screen. Go ahead and tap that. Head over to that video and we will see you in episode 165 for building your own social team. But until next time, and as always, my friends, do not forget to stay hybrid. hybrid ministry, youth ministry, fall social media, church social media, student ministry, fall calendar, done for you content, social media for churches, youth pastor tools, digital discipleship, church marketing, instagram for youth group, tiktok for youth ministry, youtube shorts church, social media plan, church social pack, coleader curriculum, church growth, welcome box, guest strategy, youth group ideas, fall ministry, content calendar, ministry resources, copy paste post Struggling to keep up with youth ministry social media this fall? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason unveils the Fall Social Media Pack—a done-for-you, but also fully customizable content calendar built to align with your fall kickoff event, guest strategy, YouTube channel, and in-person ministry, saving you hours every week. Learn how to post your way to better engagement on Instagram, TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts, while bridging the gap between digital discipleship and real-life impact in your church!

🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/164

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

FALL MASTERCLASS PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fsa_fgbYCE&list=PLngXlSr64YaLfP12NPWmpBzXoCcEsAyBF

COLEADER CURRICULUM
(Use code HybridMinistry10 for 10% off)
https://www.coleader.co

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Fall is here!
00:14 Time to Finish Strong
03:38 Unboxing the Fall Social Pack
08:58 How to Build your Social Media to Actually last!

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:34:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Fall is here. So stop scrambling to post every single Wednesday on your social media because I've already built your social media plan. Just copy paste it. Post it. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. Welcome, everyone, to the Hybrid Ministry show. And today it's finally here. It is launch day this fall. Seasonal social media packs, similar to the summer one that I had running all summer long, is exactly what you need for your youth ministry social media.

00:00:34:03 - 00:01:00:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It is a blend of custom and done for you, content that you can pair together and best of all. If you've been following along in this fall, a masterclass for your kickoff event. If you did The World's Greatest Donut, if you did the bracket, then students are now locked into your social media. That entire playlist is linked right here at the top of the screen or in the show notes down below if you're listening on your podcast.

00:01:00:16 - 00:01:35:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if your students are locked in to your social media now because they've been voting and discovering and determining what the world's greatest donut is in your context and in your student ministry, well, then, now you want to continue to to lean in to what's going on on your social media and like, don't forget that. Like if you also used our welcome box strategy and our magnetic calendar and like they open that box and they scan that QR code in there on your YouTube channel, like students are seeing your content on their algorithm.

00:01:35:01 - 00:01:55:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so therefore you need to keep feeding that algorithm. Unfortunately for social media, you have to continue to keep feeding it in order for it to like be successful. But fortunately for you, I have just created a seasonal three months worth of content so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. All you got to do is download this pack.

00:01:55:22 - 00:02:14:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's less than $20 or better yet, become a Patreon member for $4 a month, which, if you add that up for three months, is $12 and you get the pack for free as a part of your membership and bonus podcast every single Monday morning, you can use that to continue to add to your feed while you're doing that.

00:02:14:13 - 00:02:34:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the social media pack is taking care of it over here. You get to go over here and deal with all the things that you have to do for fall. You have to start locking in your curriculum, which I would recommend co-leader, by the way, and you can use hybrid ministry ten for 10% off that, or you have to like build your calendar, you have to build your budget, you have to recruit new volunteers.

00:02:34:08 - 00:02:58:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, you know, like, you got this thing over here that's gnawing at you. You know, you should do it. You know, it's important. Maybe you don't, but, like, trust me, it's important. And so my pack will help take care of that. It will give you content that you can continue to post and keep that thing active. And the best thing is that when you typically download a pack, it's not very custom to you and your ministry, right?

00:02:58:07 - 00:03:23:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When you download a pack, more often than not it's a bunch of like static and stock graphics, and we have a few of the like done for you that like, isn't tied to your context or your ministry at all. But we also have a whole section where it will be you or your students or your volunteers, your faces that people know, love and will recognize and that will help make your social media feed feel custom and personal, which is the entire goal.

00:03:23:12 - 00:03:54:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So without any further ado, what I want to do is I want to unbox this a little bit. And so in the next section, let's look at what is included. If you choose to, jump into the full seasonal social media pack. So if you are watching here on YouTube, you are seeing my screen. And so if you download the, fall seasonal social media pack from Patreon, you are going to get a folder that looks like this.

00:03:54:23 - 00:04:16:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so it says start here Hybrid Strategy Guide and then custom for you and then done for you. So in the start here PDF, it just explains what's going on with the seasonal social media pack three months of custom fall related youth ministry, social media. Just as a reminder, Patreon members for four hours a month, you get this package included in your membership.

00:04:16:27 - 00:04:41:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So consider signing up that now up to $48 a year, and you'll get four seasonal social media packs along with a bonus podcast every single Monday morning. But like I said, it's completely either done for you. It's either a section of done for You, which is just download, plug and play or custom for you. It's got some recommendations here of like maybe some microphones that you might want to consider investing in.

00:04:41:12 - 00:04:59:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like this one right here, for example, I just want to point out like this one, I mean, like, oh, here we go. Opened up. This one is 789. So like, it really is very, very like affordable and very, very cheap. Obviously it's not going to be incredibly, you know, high quality, but it will still get the job done.

00:04:59:22 - 00:05:19:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then right here, is your recommended posts per week. Okay. And so you look here, it's like September 1st and you got like your spiritual practice posts, your emoji posts, your Bible trivia posts. Okay. Or if you want to build your own calendar, you can do it down here, in this blank section of the schedule.

00:05:19:29 - 00:05:45:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Furthermore, this right here explains kind of like the strategy that I'm attempting to get you to, to participate in. So, like, why social media? Why vertical video, and all these things. This actually is available as one of the member downloads from but a year ago over on Download Youth Ministry. But I'm just including it here so that you can kind of like see and understand like the strategy and like and what I'm saying here.

00:05:45:11 - 00:06:12:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then let's look at the Dunphy section first. There are five Bible verse real videos. So, here's, you know, a bunch of different, like, verses you can post those super quick, super easy. Here's some like emoji, back to school, kind of like guessing themed, ones that you can post super again, super quick, super easy. Here are some spiritual practice videos Bible memorization, study praise.

00:06:12:27 - 00:06:33:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, share. You know, pray for a friend. And then, take the next 60s to sit in silence. And then finally, these are like some curso based videos. So, like, what do you do if you're feeling lonely? What do you do if you're feeling sad? And what do you do if you're feeling insecure? So like, those are all very simple.

00:06:33:19 - 00:06:57:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I said, download done for you. And then over here, these are the custom ones. Right? So every single one of the custom folders gives you some instructions how to do it, what to do. These are some Bible trivia, questions. So it's got five different rounds of five different posts that you can do Bible trivia. You can either hop on screen and do it, or better yet, hand it to a student and let them do it.

00:06:57:15 - 00:07:15:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then I also give you some graphics that you can use, to just overlay it, and you can build that in like a cap cut editor or a TikTok editor. And once again, have your students do it. Here are some, like recap or like devotional type videos. They're like, you're going to be your spiritually charged pieces of content.

00:07:16:01 - 00:07:32:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, you can hop on camera or you can hit to student and all of these, right? I have five script ideas right here that you can use. And it's got editing notes and all the things like that. If you have like a long form version of your message, you can use link in the description, something like an opus stock pro, to clip that up.

00:07:32:28 - 00:07:50:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can also just post that and then kind of like skip this little, folder section altogether. These are some men on the street. Would you rather fall based questions? So here's again some instructions on how to do it, what those are. And I created overlays. So all you gotta do is just go around, ask a handful of students using one of those microphones that you bought.

00:07:50:11 - 00:08:10:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Would you rather wear an itchy sweater or continually have leaves in your pocket? Would you rather be lost in a corn maze or smashed your perfectly carved pumpkin? Would you rather have, to eat leftovers for a month or risk every lawn in your neighborhood? Right. And so you see how like, those, those are great. And then finally, here are some transition invites, our videos.

00:08:10:07 - 00:08:39:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I give you the beginning of a video and then you overlay that right here and like, boom, you have one of your students pop in and, they say, hey, you should come to youth group, like, Wednesday night. What time? All that type of stuff. And I give you five of those. And so these all are the custom sections of your, of your social media strategy because a, a completely done for you is going to rob your social media feed of you.

00:08:39:22 - 00:08:59:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I don't want to do that. And so this is about as easy as we can make it so that like it still has you in it, but it's still also like not that much work. You can clear this bar. And like I said, we can get your students up to speed on this, which is what we're going to talk about in the next section of the video.

00:08:59:20 - 00:09:39:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So remember, while we're trying to increase social media engagement on your feed, the ultimate goal in all of this is not just social media engagement, but hopefully life change in the in the life of your teenagers and of your students. And so hopefully, the more that they engage with you on social, it's also going to mean the more that they're going to engage with you in person, which is really like the impetus for this entire hybrid strategy online, which is where a lot of students are spending their time and their lives paired with your in-person moment, so that together you can create a solid hybrid environment, one that, like your students, they're they're stepping back

00:09:39:21 - 00:10:09:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and forth in between those two worlds constantly. They live in that sweet spot called hybrid. And this social pact helps bridge that gap between those two different, sometimes seemingly opposing sides of the ministry aisle. And so I want to encourage you to continue to lean into it. And best yet, the best way that I have discovered to keep this ongoing, sustainable strategy, because I want to point out, I'm encouraging you to post three times per week.

00:10:09:11 - 00:10:41:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In my context, we post ten times per week. The only way that I'm getting ten posts done per week is by creating and leaning into a fully student run, an LED social media team, and I am going to detail and outline every single step of that in the very next episode, so that you can build that for yourself so that you can pass that off and you can teach your students very simply how to become influencers in their faith, not just online, but in their faith.

00:10:41:23 - 00:10:55:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That episode is going to be the link to right here on screen. Go ahead and tap that. Head over to that video and we will see you in episode 165 for building your own social team. But until next time, and as always, my friends, do not forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Struggling to keep up with youth ministry social media this fall? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason unveils the Fall Social Media Pack—a done-for-you, but also fully customizable content calendar built to align with your fall kickoff event, guest strategy, YouTube channel, and in-person ministry, saving you hours every week. Learn how to post your way to better engagement on Instagram, TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts, while bridging the gap between digital discipleship and real-life impact in your church!

🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/164

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

FALL MASTERCLASS PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fsa_fgbYCE&list=PLngXlSr64YaLfP12NPWmpBzXoCcEsAyBF

COLEADER CURRICULUM
(Use code HybridMinistry10 for 10% off)
https://www.coleader.co

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Fall is here!
00:14 Time to Finish Strong
03:38 Unboxing the Fall Social Pack
08:58 How to Build your Social Media to Actually last!

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:34:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Fall is here. So stop scrambling to post every single Wednesday on your social media because I've already built your social media plan. Just copy paste it. Post it. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. Welcome, everyone, to the Hybrid Ministry show. And today it's finally here. It is launch day this fall. Seasonal social media packs, similar to the summer one that I had running all summer long, is exactly what you need for your youth ministry social media.

00:00:34:03 - 00:01:00:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It is a blend of custom and done for you, content that you can pair together and best of all. If you've been following along in this fall, a masterclass for your kickoff event. If you did The World's Greatest Donut, if you did the bracket, then students are now locked into your social media. That entire playlist is linked right here at the top of the screen or in the show notes down below if you're listening on your podcast.

00:01:00:16 - 00:01:35:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if your students are locked in to your social media now because they've been voting and discovering and determining what the world's greatest donut is in your context and in your student ministry, well, then, now you want to continue to to lean in to what's going on on your social media and like, don't forget that. Like if you also used our welcome box strategy and our magnetic calendar and like they open that box and they scan that QR code in there on your YouTube channel, like students are seeing your content on their algorithm.

00:01:35:01 - 00:01:55:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so therefore you need to keep feeding that algorithm. Unfortunately for social media, you have to continue to keep feeding it in order for it to like be successful. But fortunately for you, I have just created a seasonal three months worth of content so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. All you got to do is download this pack.

00:01:55:22 - 00:02:14:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's less than $20 or better yet, become a Patreon member for $4 a month, which, if you add that up for three months, is $12 and you get the pack for free as a part of your membership and bonus podcast every single Monday morning, you can use that to continue to add to your feed while you're doing that.

00:02:14:13 - 00:02:34:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the social media pack is taking care of it over here. You get to go over here and deal with all the things that you have to do for fall. You have to start locking in your curriculum, which I would recommend co-leader, by the way, and you can use hybrid ministry ten for 10% off that, or you have to like build your calendar, you have to build your budget, you have to recruit new volunteers.

00:02:34:08 - 00:02:58:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, you know, like, you got this thing over here that's gnawing at you. You know, you should do it. You know, it's important. Maybe you don't, but, like, trust me, it's important. And so my pack will help take care of that. It will give you content that you can continue to post and keep that thing active. And the best thing is that when you typically download a pack, it's not very custom to you and your ministry, right?

00:02:58:07 - 00:03:23:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When you download a pack, more often than not it's a bunch of like static and stock graphics, and we have a few of the like done for you that like, isn't tied to your context or your ministry at all. But we also have a whole section where it will be you or your students or your volunteers, your faces that people know, love and will recognize and that will help make your social media feed feel custom and personal, which is the entire goal.

00:03:23:12 - 00:03:54:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So without any further ado, what I want to do is I want to unbox this a little bit. And so in the next section, let's look at what is included. If you choose to, jump into the full seasonal social media pack. So if you are watching here on YouTube, you are seeing my screen. And so if you download the, fall seasonal social media pack from Patreon, you are going to get a folder that looks like this.

00:03:54:23 - 00:04:16:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so it says start here Hybrid Strategy Guide and then custom for you and then done for you. So in the start here PDF, it just explains what's going on with the seasonal social media pack three months of custom fall related youth ministry, social media. Just as a reminder, Patreon members for four hours a month, you get this package included in your membership.

00:04:16:27 - 00:04:41:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So consider signing up that now up to $48 a year, and you'll get four seasonal social media packs along with a bonus podcast every single Monday morning. But like I said, it's completely either done for you. It's either a section of done for You, which is just download, plug and play or custom for you. It's got some recommendations here of like maybe some microphones that you might want to consider investing in.

00:04:41:12 - 00:04:59:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like this one right here, for example, I just want to point out like this one, I mean, like, oh, here we go. Opened up. This one is 789. So like, it really is very, very like affordable and very, very cheap. Obviously it's not going to be incredibly, you know, high quality, but it will still get the job done.

00:04:59:22 - 00:05:19:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then right here, is your recommended posts per week. Okay. And so you look here, it's like September 1st and you got like your spiritual practice posts, your emoji posts, your Bible trivia posts. Okay. Or if you want to build your own calendar, you can do it down here, in this blank section of the schedule.

00:05:19:29 - 00:05:45:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Furthermore, this right here explains kind of like the strategy that I'm attempting to get you to, to participate in. So, like, why social media? Why vertical video, and all these things. This actually is available as one of the member downloads from but a year ago over on Download Youth Ministry. But I'm just including it here so that you can kind of like see and understand like the strategy and like and what I'm saying here.

00:05:45:11 - 00:06:12:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then let's look at the Dunphy section first. There are five Bible verse real videos. So, here's, you know, a bunch of different, like, verses you can post those super quick, super easy. Here's some like emoji, back to school, kind of like guessing themed, ones that you can post super again, super quick, super easy. Here are some spiritual practice videos Bible memorization, study praise.

00:06:12:27 - 00:06:33:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, share. You know, pray for a friend. And then, take the next 60s to sit in silence. And then finally, these are like some curso based videos. So, like, what do you do if you're feeling lonely? What do you do if you're feeling sad? And what do you do if you're feeling insecure? So like, those are all very simple.

00:06:33:19 - 00:06:57:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I said, download done for you. And then over here, these are the custom ones. Right? So every single one of the custom folders gives you some instructions how to do it, what to do. These are some Bible trivia, questions. So it's got five different rounds of five different posts that you can do Bible trivia. You can either hop on screen and do it, or better yet, hand it to a student and let them do it.

00:06:57:15 - 00:07:15:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then I also give you some graphics that you can use, to just overlay it, and you can build that in like a cap cut editor or a TikTok editor. And once again, have your students do it. Here are some, like recap or like devotional type videos. They're like, you're going to be your spiritually charged pieces of content.

00:07:16:01 - 00:07:32:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, you can hop on camera or you can hit to student and all of these, right? I have five script ideas right here that you can use. And it's got editing notes and all the things like that. If you have like a long form version of your message, you can use link in the description, something like an opus stock pro, to clip that up.

00:07:32:28 - 00:07:50:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can also just post that and then kind of like skip this little, folder section altogether. These are some men on the street. Would you rather fall based questions? So here's again some instructions on how to do it, what those are. And I created overlays. So all you gotta do is just go around, ask a handful of students using one of those microphones that you bought.

00:07:50:11 - 00:08:10:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Would you rather wear an itchy sweater or continually have leaves in your pocket? Would you rather be lost in a corn maze or smashed your perfectly carved pumpkin? Would you rather have, to eat leftovers for a month or risk every lawn in your neighborhood? Right. And so you see how like, those, those are great. And then finally, here are some transition invites, our videos.

00:08:10:07 - 00:08:39:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I give you the beginning of a video and then you overlay that right here and like, boom, you have one of your students pop in and, they say, hey, you should come to youth group, like, Wednesday night. What time? All that type of stuff. And I give you five of those. And so these all are the custom sections of your, of your social media strategy because a, a completely done for you is going to rob your social media feed of you.

00:08:39:22 - 00:08:59:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I don't want to do that. And so this is about as easy as we can make it so that like it still has you in it, but it's still also like not that much work. You can clear this bar. And like I said, we can get your students up to speed on this, which is what we're going to talk about in the next section of the video.

00:08:59:20 - 00:09:39:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So remember, while we're trying to increase social media engagement on your feed, the ultimate goal in all of this is not just social media engagement, but hopefully life change in the in the life of your teenagers and of your students. And so hopefully, the more that they engage with you on social, it's also going to mean the more that they're going to engage with you in person, which is really like the impetus for this entire hybrid strategy online, which is where a lot of students are spending their time and their lives paired with your in-person moment, so that together you can create a solid hybrid environment, one that, like your students, they're they're stepping back

00:09:39:21 - 00:10:09:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and forth in between those two worlds constantly. They live in that sweet spot called hybrid. And this social pact helps bridge that gap between those two different, sometimes seemingly opposing sides of the ministry aisle. And so I want to encourage you to continue to lean into it. And best yet, the best way that I have discovered to keep this ongoing, sustainable strategy, because I want to point out, I'm encouraging you to post three times per week.

00:10:09:11 - 00:10:41:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In my context, we post ten times per week. The only way that I'm getting ten posts done per week is by creating and leaning into a fully student run, an LED social media team, and I am going to detail and outline every single step of that in the very next episode, so that you can build that for yourself so that you can pass that off and you can teach your students very simply how to become influencers in their faith, not just online, but in their faith.

00:10:41:23 - 00:10:55:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That episode is going to be the link to right here on screen. Go ahead and tap that. Head over to that video and we will see you in episode 165 for building your own social team. But until next time, and as always, my friends, do not forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 163: Event Evaluation that WORKS! How to Actually Improve Your Youth Ministry https://www.hybridministry.xyz/163 0cff7999-c380-4f27-a052-f3343a16d545 Thu, 21 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 163 Event Evaluation that WORKS! How to Actually Improve Your Youth Ministry full Nick Clason In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we’re unpacking a proven event evaluation strategy for youth ministry that will help you actually improve your events instead of just surviving them. Learn how to run a productive post-event debrief using a 3-question framework that works for digital and in-person debrief meetings alike. Plus, get access to a sample evaluation form, hear a big announcement, and upgrade your fall youth ministry strategy with intentional feedback tools. 10:23 no In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we’re unpacking a proven event evaluation strategy for youth ministry that will help you actually improve your events instead of just surviving them. Learn how to run a productive post-event debrief using a 3-question framework that works for digital and in-person debrief meetings alike. Plus, get access to a sample evaluation form, hear a big announcement, and upgrade your fall youth ministry strategy with intentional feedback tools. 🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/163 ☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=productsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link *🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Post Event Debriefs 00:25 Your Complete Fall Strategy Session 01:33 Proven Debrief Strategy 04:02 This Strategy was GENIUS!! 07:22 Your Fall Social Media Strategy is HERE! -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:06:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Post-event debriefs can feel like a roast session if we're not careful. That's why I recommend this 00:00:06:12 - 00:00:19:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry proven three part strategy for evaluating and making sure that your events not only get the proper evaluation that they deserve, but are even better on into the future 00:00:19:29 - 00:00:26:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry for your next year's event. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Minister show. 00:00:26:00 - 00:00:29:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Minister Show. 00:00:29:07 - 00:00:57:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I am your host, Nicolas. And in this episode, episode 163. If you want to head to the show notes with transcripts. Hybrid Ministry dot xyzzy slash 163. That would be incredible. And a subscribe while you there would also just do us wonders. But if you have been following along here on YouTube, we are in a playlist for your complete fall like strategy guide and strategy session for, not only your upcoming fall outreach event. 00:00:57:12 - 00:01:22:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry How we run outreach events. And it's all kind of been centered around like some principles for like, fall outreach and fall launches. But if you're looking for one, and one of my favorite kind of strategies is a, month long, ongoing, like, bracket style event, and I'm giving one away or I'm giving away an event guide, to one of my products over on download this ministry called the World's Greatest Donut Bracket Event. 00:01:23:01 - 00:01:42:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We've been walking through what those nights look like, how to include and incorporate free time, how to welcome your new guests. But now that all the dust has settled, now that all of the donut madness is over, you're ready to evaluate your event. So whether you're evaluating this particular event or just any of your fall events, this is my proven three part strategy and framework. 00:01:42:05 - 00:02:06:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I mean, I'm just going to be honest, like you've maybe heard this before. It's not unique or original to me. I've I've used it in a couple of last churches that I've worked in. But there's a few kind of like tweaks and adaptations to it. And so you might have heard this, but the first, you know, the first question worth asking in an event evaluation debrief is what went right, like, let's celebrate the wins straight out of the gate. 00:02:06:12 - 00:02:26:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like, what were the wins? What were the good things? And kind of go that route. The next question that I like to do and, you know, one of the church that I worked at, we call these questions the for hopefuls, but I like to combine these next two. And so that's why it's only three, three questions because I think these two, are cousins of one another. 00:02:26:05 - 00:02:46:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. And so, I like this one of, like the broken what was broken slash confusing. So, broken and confusing can kind of get, like I said, close to one another when you're kind of passing them out, you're like, oh, is this one broken? I'm not sure if that thing, that QR code was broken or if it was just confusing. 00:02:46:15 - 00:03:04:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. And and maybe the Q QR code was actually broken, or maybe students just don't know what they're doing, and it made it confusing. And that's kind of how I found that question to kind of land. And so just sticking those two together really like will help you in this question right here. Here's the thing I want to encourage you, don't make this personal. 00:03:04:09 - 00:03:35:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Don't take these things personal, but really like lean into these right here because this is how and this is where, and this is when and how and why you can make this event even better next year when you pull this thing together. Right. Like, this event becomes so much better when you take care of the broken and the confusing parts and you can really turn around, you can optimize, your next event or your next year's event or, some elements of this event that you're going to bring to, like the next Wednesday night, whatever the case might be like, but this is your chance to optimize it. 00:03:35:01 - 00:03:53:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Perfect. It really kind of like hone it in. And then finally, this last question, what was missing? And so it could be like, you know, while we were in the middle of the event, I thought it would have been great if we had this. We didn't think of it ahead of time. But let's next year, let's let's kind of plan to make this happen now a couple different ways that you can handle debriefs. 00:03:53:11 - 00:04:11:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I think probably the most common is just like an in person. Right. Like you get together, you talk about it with your team and you, you know, take notes and you go off to the next one. And for major events like big events like this ones you spend maybe a lot of budget money on, I would recommend doing some sort of like in-person debrief. 00:04:11:00 - 00:04:30:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry However, if you're debriefing every single event, you're never not debriefing because let's just be honest, like, if you meet once a week in youth ministry, there's always one time a week we got to get together and get a debrief. And then if you're meeting twice a week, say Wednesday night and Sunday morning, you're also getting together another time to kind of look back at Sunday morning. 00:04:30:28 - 00:04:54:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what if you're meeting Sunday night then now you're meeting three different times for three different evaluations. And so it can become a lot and it can become a lot of meetings. And sometimes it's just like, man, we just got work to do. Right. And so, one of the things that my boss, has instituted is we use base camp, and he instituted this idea, and he just cause, our debriefs sometimes, we keep them all digital. 00:04:54:21 - 00:05:19:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So it's a digital debrief. We go into base camp, into the the message board there, and he'll ask three different questions. Sometimes he'll ask, right, right. Wrong, broken, confused. Like all that. But other times he'll throw in, like a curveball or, you know, like, and I think like this question, for example, is a good example of like, missing, you know, but he'll be like, what's one thing that we could have done to really take this event over the top? 00:05:19:19 - 00:05:35:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so it just get your brain thinking in a little bit of a different category, though, it is probably like an answer to the missing question. But it's framed really well. That makes you like, think in a different kind of way, you know what I'm saying? So but what we'll do then is everyone on the team has to complete that digital debrief comment done when they're done. 00:05:35:22 - 00:05:51:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then, he'll take those and he'll, he'll archive the, the plan. So it's out of our, like, base camp. But then next year, as we're getting ready to pull that back together, he'll, he'll go grab those archive notes. Because who in the world can remember what we did a year ago, let alone a month ago? 00:05:51:17 - 00:06:16:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right, take those archive notes and add them to the upcoming plan. So then, when the upcoming plan is coming, we look back and say, what did we say last year? And like a great example of this is like at summer camp, people said like last, like not the most recent summer camp we did, but the one from the summer last summer, people said something small like, hey, we should have a lost and found, or we should have more trash cans. 00:06:16:16 - 00:06:33:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, you know, a week or two before we went, really? Hey, let's let's look back at that. Those debrief notes were like, oh, yeah, that's right. The lost and found in the trash cans. We pull those together quick. There are small things we were going to completely forget to do them, because we were so focused on all the other kind of like things and elements of camp. 00:06:33:14 - 00:06:51:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But we looked back at our debrief notes and those two little small things like, really help. Like I said, kind of like May made the difference, right? And so however you choose to do it, one of the words that my boss always kind of used was, we need a place to memorialize these thoughts, right? So like we say them, write them down for us. 00:06:51:26 - 00:07:21:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's base camp. You can use whatever kind of project management tool or software that you want to do and go ahead and take that to the races, but you should use these right? Broken slash confusing and missing. Use them in your next event evaluation. And here's the thing. If you go ahead and download my donate, event guide, come back to this episode or check this episode out right after your event is over so that you can really, truly lean in to, these questions and make your event as good as it can be, on and off into the future. 00:07:21:06 - 00:07:38:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, here's the thing. All of this has been ramping up. This is a this has been focused on one night, right? One night of like a big event, one night of like bring your friends. And you know, we talked about in the first episode, but the the spiritual CPR strategy. So cultivate and then plant and then reap. That's a cultivate event. 00:07:38:22 - 00:08:06:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's a cultivate night. How do you then carry on that momentum on into the next coming weeks? One of the elements, one of the small slivers component, but one that I really think has been super huge in our student ministry around, reaching, frankly, reaching more students, and reaching more lost students in an effort to be, both like planting seeds of like, spirituality as well as just like having fun is, is through using, the means of social media. 00:08:06:18 - 00:08:26:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so obviously, here I am. It's a hybrid ministry podcast. You probably saw that one coming, but that's been a hugely beneficial and hugely big piece in our overall strategy. And it's become one of our primary evangelism mechanisms. And next week I am dropping the fall seasonal social media pack. Now here's how this is going to work next Thursday. 00:08:26:08 - 00:08:47:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you're subscribed, you're going to get it as soon as it drops. It's over on my Patreon. So is Patreon.com slash hybrid ministry. And over there there is a tier of podcast, a bonus weekly podcast where I'm just detailing an outline, all of my events, and all of our Wednesday nights, our programing, what's going well, what we're doing on social media, moves are making changes that we got going on. 00:08:47:29 - 00:09:03:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Here's the thing. This week at time of of filming that one, this episode drops. So at time of filming, my boss actually just submitted his resignation. So I'm actually stepping into a new role and I'm stepping into a new seat. And so I'm going to have the opportunity to share some of that with you. And I'm really excited. 00:09:03:13 - 00:09:34:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But that podcast that patrons hear is $4 per month. Now, here's the thing. The seasonal social media pack is like 1799, and it is meant to last for three months. So if you do the math, you actually come out ahead on the, on the tier. And so what I would recommend right now, if you're listening to this week leading into launch, go over to Patreon, give me the $4 per month, getting in on that tier, and then you will get everything in the store, not just this upcoming seasonal pack, but you can grab the summer pack. 00:09:34:13 - 00:10:02:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then, on Thursday, you can grab the fall pack, and there's actually a free week trial there, for you to check it out. So click the link down below. Become what we call a hybrid hero at that $4 per month tier. So excited to do that. And we're going to be dropping not only that pack next week and kind of walking through what that is, but then we're also going to start looking at how can you build and create a social media team within the the gathering in your in your context as is, that's fully and completely run by teenagers? 00:10:02:02 - 00:10:19:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm going to walk you how we did it and how you can do it in your youth ministry to reach students, but also create momentum for your students that are attending your church in person as well. So once again, thank you guys so much for being here. I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did like it, subscribe, share with the friend. 00:10:19:10 - 00:10:23:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But until next time and as always, don't forget to stay hybrid. youth ministry, event evaluation, youth ministry strategy, post-event debrief, youth group events, church event planning, ministry improvement, digital ministry, hybrid ministry, youth pastor tools, ministry evaluation form, fall ministry planning, student ministry, youth event feedback, youth group planning, youth ministry ideas, ministry checklist, church leadership, event debrief questions, what worked what broke what was missing, next gen ministry, youth ministry resources, volunteer training In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we’re unpacking a proven event evaluation strategy for youth ministry that will help you actually improve your events instead of just surviving them. Learn how to run a productive post-event debrief using a 3-question framework that works for digital and in-person debrief meetings alike. Plus, get access to a sample evaluation form, hear a big announcement, and upgrade your fall youth ministry strategy with intentional feedback tools.

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/163

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Post Event Debriefs
00:25 Your Complete Fall Strategy Session
01:33 Proven Debrief Strategy
04:02 This Strategy was GENIUS!!
07:22 Your Fall Social Media Strategy is HERE!

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:06:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Post-event debriefs can feel like a roast session if we're not careful. That's why I recommend this

00:00:06:12 - 00:00:19:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
proven three part strategy for evaluating and making sure that your events not only get the proper evaluation that they deserve, but are even better on into the future

00:00:19:29 - 00:00:26:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
for your next year's event. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Minister show.

00:00:26:00 - 00:00:29:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Minister Show.

00:00:29:07 - 00:00:57:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I am your host, Nicolas. And in this episode, episode 163. If you want to head to the show notes with transcripts. Hybrid Ministry dot xyzzy slash 163. That would be incredible. And a subscribe while you there would also just do us wonders. But if you have been following along here on YouTube, we are in a playlist for your complete fall like strategy guide and strategy session for, not only your upcoming fall outreach event.

00:00:57:12 - 00:01:22:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How we run outreach events. And it's all kind of been centered around like some principles for like, fall outreach and fall launches. But if you're looking for one, and one of my favorite kind of strategies is a, month long, ongoing, like, bracket style event, and I'm giving one away or I'm giving away an event guide, to one of my products over on download this ministry called the World's Greatest Donut Bracket Event.

00:01:23:01 - 00:01:42:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We've been walking through what those nights look like, how to include and incorporate free time, how to welcome your new guests. But now that all the dust has settled, now that all of the donut madness is over, you're ready to evaluate your event. So whether you're evaluating this particular event or just any of your fall events, this is my proven three part strategy and framework.

00:01:42:05 - 00:02:06:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I mean, I'm just going to be honest, like you've maybe heard this before. It's not unique or original to me. I've I've used it in a couple of last churches that I've worked in. But there's a few kind of like tweaks and adaptations to it. And so you might have heard this, but the first, you know, the first question worth asking in an event evaluation debrief is what went right, like, let's celebrate the wins straight out of the gate.

00:02:06:12 - 00:02:26:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, what were the wins? What were the good things? And kind of go that route. The next question that I like to do and, you know, one of the church that I worked at, we call these questions the for hopefuls, but I like to combine these next two. And so that's why it's only three, three questions because I think these two, are cousins of one another.

00:02:26:05 - 00:02:46:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And so, I like this one of, like the broken what was broken slash confusing. So, broken and confusing can kind of get, like I said, close to one another when you're kind of passing them out, you're like, oh, is this one broken? I'm not sure if that thing, that QR code was broken or if it was just confusing.

00:02:46:15 - 00:03:04:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And and maybe the Q QR code was actually broken, or maybe students just don't know what they're doing, and it made it confusing. And that's kind of how I found that question to kind of land. And so just sticking those two together really like will help you in this question right here. Here's the thing I want to encourage you, don't make this personal.

00:03:04:09 - 00:03:35:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't take these things personal, but really like lean into these right here because this is how and this is where, and this is when and how and why you can make this event even better next year when you pull this thing together. Right. Like, this event becomes so much better when you take care of the broken and the confusing parts and you can really turn around, you can optimize, your next event or your next year's event or, some elements of this event that you're going to bring to, like the next Wednesday night, whatever the case might be like, but this is your chance to optimize it.

00:03:35:01 - 00:03:53:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Perfect. It really kind of like hone it in. And then finally, this last question, what was missing? And so it could be like, you know, while we were in the middle of the event, I thought it would have been great if we had this. We didn't think of it ahead of time. But let's next year, let's let's kind of plan to make this happen now a couple different ways that you can handle debriefs.

00:03:53:11 - 00:04:11:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think probably the most common is just like an in person. Right. Like you get together, you talk about it with your team and you, you know, take notes and you go off to the next one. And for major events like big events like this ones you spend maybe a lot of budget money on, I would recommend doing some sort of like in-person debrief.

00:04:11:00 - 00:04:30:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, if you're debriefing every single event, you're never not debriefing because let's just be honest, like, if you meet once a week in youth ministry, there's always one time a week we got to get together and get a debrief. And then if you're meeting twice a week, say Wednesday night and Sunday morning, you're also getting together another time to kind of look back at Sunday morning.

00:04:30:28 - 00:04:54:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what if you're meeting Sunday night then now you're meeting three different times for three different evaluations. And so it can become a lot and it can become a lot of meetings. And sometimes it's just like, man, we just got work to do. Right. And so, one of the things that my boss, has instituted is we use base camp, and he instituted this idea, and he just cause, our debriefs sometimes, we keep them all digital.

00:04:54:21 - 00:05:19:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's a digital debrief. We go into base camp, into the the message board there, and he'll ask three different questions. Sometimes he'll ask, right, right. Wrong, broken, confused. Like all that. But other times he'll throw in, like a curveball or, you know, like, and I think like this question, for example, is a good example of like, missing, you know, but he'll be like, what's one thing that we could have done to really take this event over the top?

00:05:19:19 - 00:05:35:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so it just get your brain thinking in a little bit of a different category, though, it is probably like an answer to the missing question. But it's framed really well. That makes you like, think in a different kind of way, you know what I'm saying? So but what we'll do then is everyone on the team has to complete that digital debrief comment done when they're done.

00:05:35:22 - 00:05:51:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, he'll take those and he'll, he'll archive the, the plan. So it's out of our, like, base camp. But then next year, as we're getting ready to pull that back together, he'll, he'll go grab those archive notes. Because who in the world can remember what we did a year ago, let alone a month ago?

00:05:51:17 - 00:06:16:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right, take those archive notes and add them to the upcoming plan. So then, when the upcoming plan is coming, we look back and say, what did we say last year? And like a great example of this is like at summer camp, people said like last, like not the most recent summer camp we did, but the one from the summer last summer, people said something small like, hey, we should have a lost and found, or we should have more trash cans.

00:06:16:16 - 00:06:33:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, you know, a week or two before we went, really? Hey, let's let's look back at that. Those debrief notes were like, oh, yeah, that's right. The lost and found in the trash cans. We pull those together quick. There are small things we were going to completely forget to do them, because we were so focused on all the other kind of like things and elements of camp.

00:06:33:14 - 00:06:51:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But we looked back at our debrief notes and those two little small things like, really help. Like I said, kind of like May made the difference, right? And so however you choose to do it, one of the words that my boss always kind of used was, we need a place to memorialize these thoughts, right? So like we say them, write them down for us.

00:06:51:26 - 00:07:21:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's base camp. You can use whatever kind of project management tool or software that you want to do and go ahead and take that to the races, but you should use these right? Broken slash confusing and missing. Use them in your next event evaluation. And here's the thing. If you go ahead and download my donate, event guide, come back to this episode or check this episode out right after your event is over so that you can really, truly lean in to, these questions and make your event as good as it can be, on and off into the future.

00:07:21:06 - 00:07:38:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, here's the thing. All of this has been ramping up. This is a this has been focused on one night, right? One night of like a big event, one night of like bring your friends. And you know, we talked about in the first episode, but the the spiritual CPR strategy. So cultivate and then plant and then reap. That's a cultivate event.

00:07:38:22 - 00:08:06:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a cultivate night. How do you then carry on that momentum on into the next coming weeks? One of the elements, one of the small slivers component, but one that I really think has been super huge in our student ministry around, reaching, frankly, reaching more students, and reaching more lost students in an effort to be, both like planting seeds of like, spirituality as well as just like having fun is, is through using, the means of social media.

00:08:06:18 - 00:08:26:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so obviously, here I am. It's a hybrid ministry podcast. You probably saw that one coming, but that's been a hugely beneficial and hugely big piece in our overall strategy. And it's become one of our primary evangelism mechanisms. And next week I am dropping the fall seasonal social media pack. Now here's how this is going to work next Thursday.

00:08:26:08 - 00:08:47:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're subscribed, you're going to get it as soon as it drops. It's over on my Patreon. So is Patreon.com slash hybrid ministry. And over there there is a tier of podcast, a bonus weekly podcast where I'm just detailing an outline, all of my events, and all of our Wednesday nights, our programing, what's going well, what we're doing on social media, moves are making changes that we got going on.

00:08:47:29 - 00:09:03:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Here's the thing. This week at time of of filming that one, this episode drops. So at time of filming, my boss actually just submitted his resignation. So I'm actually stepping into a new role and I'm stepping into a new seat. And so I'm going to have the opportunity to share some of that with you. And I'm really excited.

00:09:03:13 - 00:09:34:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But that podcast that patrons hear is $4 per month. Now, here's the thing. The seasonal social media pack is like 1799, and it is meant to last for three months. So if you do the math, you actually come out ahead on the, on the tier. And so what I would recommend right now, if you're listening to this week leading into launch, go over to Patreon, give me the $4 per month, getting in on that tier, and then you will get everything in the store, not just this upcoming seasonal pack, but you can grab the summer pack.

00:09:34:13 - 00:10:02:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, on Thursday, you can grab the fall pack, and there's actually a free week trial there, for you to check it out. So click the link down below. Become what we call a hybrid hero at that $4 per month tier. So excited to do that. And we're going to be dropping not only that pack next week and kind of walking through what that is, but then we're also going to start looking at how can you build and create a social media team within the the gathering in your in your context as is, that's fully and completely run by teenagers?

00:10:02:02 - 00:10:19:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to walk you how we did it and how you can do it in your youth ministry to reach students, but also create momentum for your students that are attending your church in person as well. So once again, thank you guys so much for being here. I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did like it, subscribe, share with the friend.

00:10:19:10 - 00:10:23:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But until next time and as always, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we’re unpacking a proven event evaluation strategy for youth ministry that will help you actually improve your events instead of just surviving them. Learn how to run a productive post-event debrief using a 3-question framework that works for digital and in-person debrief meetings alike. Plus, get access to a sample evaluation form, hear a big announcement, and upgrade your fall youth ministry strategy with intentional feedback tools.

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/163

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Post Event Debriefs
00:25 Your Complete Fall Strategy Session
01:33 Proven Debrief Strategy
04:02 This Strategy was GENIUS!!
07:22 Your Fall Social Media Strategy is HERE!

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:06:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Post-event debriefs can feel like a roast session if we're not careful. That's why I recommend this

00:00:06:12 - 00:00:19:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
proven three part strategy for evaluating and making sure that your events not only get the proper evaluation that they deserve, but are even better on into the future

00:00:19:29 - 00:00:26:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
for your next year's event. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Minister show.

00:00:26:00 - 00:00:29:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Minister Show.

00:00:29:07 - 00:00:57:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I am your host, Nicolas. And in this episode, episode 163. If you want to head to the show notes with transcripts. Hybrid Ministry dot xyzzy slash 163. That would be incredible. And a subscribe while you there would also just do us wonders. But if you have been following along here on YouTube, we are in a playlist for your complete fall like strategy guide and strategy session for, not only your upcoming fall outreach event.

00:00:57:12 - 00:01:22:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How we run outreach events. And it's all kind of been centered around like some principles for like, fall outreach and fall launches. But if you're looking for one, and one of my favorite kind of strategies is a, month long, ongoing, like, bracket style event, and I'm giving one away or I'm giving away an event guide, to one of my products over on download this ministry called the World's Greatest Donut Bracket Event.

00:01:23:01 - 00:01:42:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We've been walking through what those nights look like, how to include and incorporate free time, how to welcome your new guests. But now that all the dust has settled, now that all of the donut madness is over, you're ready to evaluate your event. So whether you're evaluating this particular event or just any of your fall events, this is my proven three part strategy and framework.

00:01:42:05 - 00:02:06:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I mean, I'm just going to be honest, like you've maybe heard this before. It's not unique or original to me. I've I've used it in a couple of last churches that I've worked in. But there's a few kind of like tweaks and adaptations to it. And so you might have heard this, but the first, you know, the first question worth asking in an event evaluation debrief is what went right, like, let's celebrate the wins straight out of the gate.

00:02:06:12 - 00:02:26:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, what were the wins? What were the good things? And kind of go that route. The next question that I like to do and, you know, one of the church that I worked at, we call these questions the for hopefuls, but I like to combine these next two. And so that's why it's only three, three questions because I think these two, are cousins of one another.

00:02:26:05 - 00:02:46:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And so, I like this one of, like the broken what was broken slash confusing. So, broken and confusing can kind of get, like I said, close to one another when you're kind of passing them out, you're like, oh, is this one broken? I'm not sure if that thing, that QR code was broken or if it was just confusing.

00:02:46:15 - 00:03:04:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And and maybe the Q QR code was actually broken, or maybe students just don't know what they're doing, and it made it confusing. And that's kind of how I found that question to kind of land. And so just sticking those two together really like will help you in this question right here. Here's the thing I want to encourage you, don't make this personal.

00:03:04:09 - 00:03:35:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't take these things personal, but really like lean into these right here because this is how and this is where, and this is when and how and why you can make this event even better next year when you pull this thing together. Right. Like, this event becomes so much better when you take care of the broken and the confusing parts and you can really turn around, you can optimize, your next event or your next year's event or, some elements of this event that you're going to bring to, like the next Wednesday night, whatever the case might be like, but this is your chance to optimize it.

00:03:35:01 - 00:03:53:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Perfect. It really kind of like hone it in. And then finally, this last question, what was missing? And so it could be like, you know, while we were in the middle of the event, I thought it would have been great if we had this. We didn't think of it ahead of time. But let's next year, let's let's kind of plan to make this happen now a couple different ways that you can handle debriefs.

00:03:53:11 - 00:04:11:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think probably the most common is just like an in person. Right. Like you get together, you talk about it with your team and you, you know, take notes and you go off to the next one. And for major events like big events like this ones you spend maybe a lot of budget money on, I would recommend doing some sort of like in-person debrief.

00:04:11:00 - 00:04:30:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, if you're debriefing every single event, you're never not debriefing because let's just be honest, like, if you meet once a week in youth ministry, there's always one time a week we got to get together and get a debrief. And then if you're meeting twice a week, say Wednesday night and Sunday morning, you're also getting together another time to kind of look back at Sunday morning.

00:04:30:28 - 00:04:54:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what if you're meeting Sunday night then now you're meeting three different times for three different evaluations. And so it can become a lot and it can become a lot of meetings. And sometimes it's just like, man, we just got work to do. Right. And so, one of the things that my boss, has instituted is we use base camp, and he instituted this idea, and he just cause, our debriefs sometimes, we keep them all digital.

00:04:54:21 - 00:05:19:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's a digital debrief. We go into base camp, into the the message board there, and he'll ask three different questions. Sometimes he'll ask, right, right. Wrong, broken, confused. Like all that. But other times he'll throw in, like a curveball or, you know, like, and I think like this question, for example, is a good example of like, missing, you know, but he'll be like, what's one thing that we could have done to really take this event over the top?

00:05:19:19 - 00:05:35:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so it just get your brain thinking in a little bit of a different category, though, it is probably like an answer to the missing question. But it's framed really well. That makes you like, think in a different kind of way, you know what I'm saying? So but what we'll do then is everyone on the team has to complete that digital debrief comment done when they're done.

00:05:35:22 - 00:05:51:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, he'll take those and he'll, he'll archive the, the plan. So it's out of our, like, base camp. But then next year, as we're getting ready to pull that back together, he'll, he'll go grab those archive notes. Because who in the world can remember what we did a year ago, let alone a month ago?

00:05:51:17 - 00:06:16:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right, take those archive notes and add them to the upcoming plan. So then, when the upcoming plan is coming, we look back and say, what did we say last year? And like a great example of this is like at summer camp, people said like last, like not the most recent summer camp we did, but the one from the summer last summer, people said something small like, hey, we should have a lost and found, or we should have more trash cans.

00:06:16:16 - 00:06:33:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, you know, a week or two before we went, really? Hey, let's let's look back at that. Those debrief notes were like, oh, yeah, that's right. The lost and found in the trash cans. We pull those together quick. There are small things we were going to completely forget to do them, because we were so focused on all the other kind of like things and elements of camp.

00:06:33:14 - 00:06:51:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But we looked back at our debrief notes and those two little small things like, really help. Like I said, kind of like May made the difference, right? And so however you choose to do it, one of the words that my boss always kind of used was, we need a place to memorialize these thoughts, right? So like we say them, write them down for us.

00:06:51:26 - 00:07:21:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's base camp. You can use whatever kind of project management tool or software that you want to do and go ahead and take that to the races, but you should use these right? Broken slash confusing and missing. Use them in your next event evaluation. And here's the thing. If you go ahead and download my donate, event guide, come back to this episode or check this episode out right after your event is over so that you can really, truly lean in to, these questions and make your event as good as it can be, on and off into the future.

00:07:21:06 - 00:07:38:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, here's the thing. All of this has been ramping up. This is a this has been focused on one night, right? One night of like a big event, one night of like bring your friends. And you know, we talked about in the first episode, but the the spiritual CPR strategy. So cultivate and then plant and then reap. That's a cultivate event.

00:07:38:22 - 00:08:06:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a cultivate night. How do you then carry on that momentum on into the next coming weeks? One of the elements, one of the small slivers component, but one that I really think has been super huge in our student ministry around, reaching, frankly, reaching more students, and reaching more lost students in an effort to be, both like planting seeds of like, spirituality as well as just like having fun is, is through using, the means of social media.

00:08:06:18 - 00:08:26:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so obviously, here I am. It's a hybrid ministry podcast. You probably saw that one coming, but that's been a hugely beneficial and hugely big piece in our overall strategy. And it's become one of our primary evangelism mechanisms. And next week I am dropping the fall seasonal social media pack. Now here's how this is going to work next Thursday.

00:08:26:08 - 00:08:47:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're subscribed, you're going to get it as soon as it drops. It's over on my Patreon. So is Patreon.com slash hybrid ministry. And over there there is a tier of podcast, a bonus weekly podcast where I'm just detailing an outline, all of my events, and all of our Wednesday nights, our programing, what's going well, what we're doing on social media, moves are making changes that we got going on.

00:08:47:29 - 00:09:03:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Here's the thing. This week at time of of filming that one, this episode drops. So at time of filming, my boss actually just submitted his resignation. So I'm actually stepping into a new role and I'm stepping into a new seat. And so I'm going to have the opportunity to share some of that with you. And I'm really excited.

00:09:03:13 - 00:09:34:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But that podcast that patrons hear is $4 per month. Now, here's the thing. The seasonal social media pack is like 1799, and it is meant to last for three months. So if you do the math, you actually come out ahead on the, on the tier. And so what I would recommend right now, if you're listening to this week leading into launch, go over to Patreon, give me the $4 per month, getting in on that tier, and then you will get everything in the store, not just this upcoming seasonal pack, but you can grab the summer pack.

00:09:34:13 - 00:10:02:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, on Thursday, you can grab the fall pack, and there's actually a free week trial there, for you to check it out. So click the link down below. Become what we call a hybrid hero at that $4 per month tier. So excited to do that. And we're going to be dropping not only that pack next week and kind of walking through what that is, but then we're also going to start looking at how can you build and create a social media team within the the gathering in your in your context as is, that's fully and completely run by teenagers?

00:10:02:02 - 00:10:19:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to walk you how we did it and how you can do it in your youth ministry to reach students, but also create momentum for your students that are attending your church in person as well. So once again, thank you guys so much for being here. I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did like it, subscribe, share with the friend.

00:10:19:10 - 00:10:23:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But until next time and as always, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 162: 10 Free Time Stations for Youth Ministry - Fun, Easy & FREE! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/162 1f16d97f-ed7f-4687-b8dc-360c7e8cdb6f Thu, 14 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 162 10 Free Time Stations for Youth Ministry - Fun, Easy & FREE! full Nick Clason Looking for fun, easy, and totally free youth ministry ideas that actually engage students? In this episode of The Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason shares 10 high-energy, low-prep free time station ideas—from donut decorating to Mario Kart tournaments, 9 Square, Gaga Ball, social challenges, and more—all designed to boost student engagement and connection. If you're a youth pastor craving creative youth group games, fall event strategy, or hybrid ministry tips that work, this episode is packed with stealable ideas and a bonus resource you don’t want to miss! 13:31 no <p>Looking for fun, easy, and totally free youth ministry ideas that actually engage students? In this episode of The Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason shares 10 high-energy, low-prep free time station ideas—from donut decorating to Mario Kart tournaments, 9 Square, Gaga Ball, social challenges, and more—all designed to boost student engagement and connection. If you're a youth pastor craving creative youth group games, fall event strategy, or hybrid ministry tips that work, this episode is packed with stealable ideas and a bonus resource you don’t want to miss!</p> <p>🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"<br> GUIDE: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut</a><br> DYM: <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html</a></p> <p><strong>SHOW NOTES</strong><br> Shownotes &amp; Transcripts<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/162" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/162</a></p> <p><strong>☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK</strong><br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;utm_campaign=productshare_creator&amp;utm_content=join_link" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;amp;utm_campaign=productshare_creator&amp;amp;utm_content=join_link</a></p> <p>*<em>🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! *</em><br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry</a></p> <p>USE CODE: “HYBRIDMINISTRY” FOR 10% OFF<br> COLEADER.CO</p> <p>GAGA BALL vs 9 SQUARE RECOMMENDATIONS!<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZuiyBdjX6c" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZuiyBdjX6c</a><br> SOCIAL CHALLENGE 4-PART FRAMEWORK<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&amp;amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s</a></p> <p>✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU<br> Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms</a></p> <p>📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching</a></p> <p>👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK<br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉</strong><br> We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!<br> The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!<br> <a href="https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em><br> //VIDIQ<br> <a href="https://vidiq.com/hybrid" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://vidiq.com/hybrid</a></p> <p>//BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>//OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> 🕰️<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00 This Strategy Make Him say what?!<br> 00:36 The Freetime Strategy Explained<br> 06:25 Donut Tattoos<br> 06:39 Scavenger Hunt - Hybridized!<br> 09:19 Board Games<br> 09:36 Decorating<br> 09:52 Steal The (Fill in the Blank)<br> 10:29 Kajabi Can Can<br> 11:14 Big Screen Mario Kart Tourney<br> 11:37 9-Square<br> 11:44 Gaga Ball<br> 12:09 The Social Challenge</p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong></p> <p>00:00:00:03 - 00:00:19:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Your students don't want to sit through another 90 minute program. Can we be honest? Do you? In this episode, I'm going to break down my outreach event strategy, which when I shared it with my friend Eric with the kids, he had this to say about it. I love that thank you notes. That's something I'm gonna steal for future videos.</p> <p>00:00:19:27 - 00:00:52:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> In this episode, I'm going to hit you with ten ideas that you are definitely going to want to head over to my YouTube channel so that you can screenshot these and use them for your upcoming fall outreach event. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show! Well, hey everyone, welcome to episode 162 of the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nick Claussen, and I'm going to be talking about one of the, strategies that we have for our outreach events that we've sort of stumbled into, and it's a little bit unique.</p> <p>00:00:52:26 - 00:01:14:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> You know, you heard what my friend Eric had to say about it, but essentially what it is, is it's creating moments of free time for your students. And so what I mean by that is we're not taking the full 90 minute block, or we're not taking the full 120 minute block of programing time that you have for your youth ministry and scheduling every single minute and making every single student do every single thing the entire time.</p> <p>00:01:15:00 - 00:01:35:19<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But instead, what we're doing is we're opening up a window of time within our night, within our program to allow your students to kind of, like, choose their own adventure and do what they want to do. Now, if you're going to be using linked right here, the, download from the World's Greatest Donut Event Guide that we've been talking about, like, that's what, we've done before.</p> <p>00:01:35:19 - 00:01:54:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And I want, you know, if you're looking for something to do, I want you to consider maybe doing that event and you can incorporate these ideas, this strategy, into your upcoming fall outreach event. And so, go ahead and go grab that download. It's completely free. It's going to point you to a resource over On demand that you can use and implement.</p> <p>00:01:54:07 - 00:02:22:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And these ideas are things that you can use, borrow, steal, and include in your upcoming fall outreach event. But the the philosophy behind it is, as we talked about a couple episodes ago, this is a cultivate in the spiritual CPR. This is a cultivate night. We're we're inviting friends were hanging out. We're just, kind of letting our hair down, kicking our feet up and hanging out with students and helping them see that church doesn't have to be confusing.</p> <p>00:02:22:00 - 00:02:44:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Church doesn't have to be weird. But the other reason that this is advantageous is very simply, when you have a message included in your night, you don't have as much time to program. When you don't include your message, you have more time to program. And here's what we do. Oftentimes, we're still like plugging through our scope and sequence like we use Collider.</p> <p>00:02:44:04 - 00:03:07:24<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> In fact, if you use Code hybrid ministry, I'll give you 10% off Collider for a year. So go check that out. They just dropped roadmaps. The first part of roadmaps year three. Really excited about the the judges series included in that. But, we'll just kind of keep plugging along in what we, you know, for a message that we should have taught on the night our outreach event is Worcester, upload it to YouTube.</p> <p>00:03:08:01 - 00:03:30:01<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And then our Sunday morning curriculum is derived off of our Wednesday night curriculum. And so we'll still have that conversation on Sunday morning, even though we didn't have the message on Wednesday night. And it's just on YouTube. And so at the end of the night, a lot of times we'll just show a little teaser clip and say, hey, this is over on YouTube, go check it out, scan this QR code if you want to subscribe to our YouTube channel.</p> <p>00:03:30:08 - 00:03:55:28<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And they're off to the races. And I mean the whole the whole good news right about these, this donut event is that it's getting students onto your social media, which at the end of this completely free fall masterclass playlist, I'm going to teach you how to build a social media team run completely by students that helps them create content not only for other students in your ministry, but create content with other students in your ministry.</p> <p>00:03:55:28 - 00:04:15:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so having this free time event opens up all of these things, opens up more options. And, you know, one of the things that we'll do is we'll, offer anywhere from like four or 5 or 6 different, like, things, little stations. And they have anywhere from 30 to maybe 45 minutes on the longer end to do whatever them that they want.</p> <p>00:04:15:18 - 00:04:36:06<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But one of the things that we've done to kind of encourage them or highlight what's available is we'll create a little passport or like a punch card, or if they go to a station and complete it, they'll get a little sticker for it. And what that does is it just helps them. First of all, give gives your students, and anyone who's new like a little map of your area, what's included where what's going on?</p> <p>00:04:36:06 - 00:04:53:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> What can we do right now? And then we'll say, hey, if you, complete if you go to all six stations, come and submit this card back in and we will give you a candy bar. And then we'll also put your, you know, name or your passport in, a drawing for the grand prize at the end of the night or something like that.</p> <p>00:04:53:27 - 00:05:11:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so, you know, if students are maybe not interested in all six of the things, and that's one of the reasons why we do it is because we know, like, not every single student is going to want to do every single type of game that you do. And so we'll include like some artsy and crafty type things. But then we'll also include some really, really active type things.</p> <p>00:05:11:27 - 00:05:30:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so some students may be like, I'm more artsy. I don't want to do that active thing at all. And they're going to opt out of doing every single thing on the passport. But other kids, they might want to try to do all of it. And so they're going to try to run to every single station. So it just it it communicates what's available and it gives students an option to just win something.</p> <p>00:05:30:13 - 00:05:47:14<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And that's just a fun way to kind of program it. I try to program the amount of time, like if we got 5 or 6 stations, I want to give them 30 to 35 minutes. I want there to be nearly not enough time for them to do everything, because when they leave, I want them to have in their mind like, oh my word, that event was so fun.</p> <p>00:05:47:14 - 00:06:03:23<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I didn't even get to everything. And that's kind of like the vibe I want them to get in the car with with their parents, right? And when they're parents, like, how was it there? Like it was awesome. There is so much to do, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's kind of the vibe that we're going for. So if you're here on YouTube, these are going to flash up here on the screen.</p> <p>00:06:04:01 - 00:06:24:29<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> These are free time stations that are high fun, but they're low prep. And some of these we've done before, others of them are ideas that I have for future ones. And if you're doing the World's Greatest Donut Event launch guide, you can use some of these. These are ones that we actually have pulled together, for the donut event starting with.</p> <p>00:06:24:29 - 00:06:50:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> The first one is we had a donut temporary tattoo parlor. And so we can have students come in and just get a temporary donut tattoo. Right. And it's like you're doing the scavenger hunt. Like, one of the things I've done is, a future idea is like, we've done a scavenger hunt is one of the clues on the scavenger hunt was to have to go and prove that you got a donut tattoo, so it's like you kind of kill two birds with one stone.</p> <p>00:06:50:00 - 00:07:10:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> They come to the scavenger hunt, which is a second idea, by the way. Come to the scavenger hunt. One of the one of the clues is you know, go to the donut tattoo thing and they prove that they've done it. And so in addition to it, we like I try to hybridize my scavenger hunt, which, if you didn't know by the way, I have a weekly bonus podcast over on Patreon.</p> <p>00:07:10:00 - 00:07:36:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> It's only $4 a month, and I want you to think about that. Investment of $4 is like your creative programing assistant. Like, here's my question is $50 per year worth it for you to have? Almost like a programing and social media consultant and coach? Because that's essentially what this $4 tier would do. It's going to give you, for $48 for you, 12 times four.</p> <p>00:07:36:07 - 00:07:57:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> It's going to give you, someone who's just doing this on the front lines and is evaluating everything that I'm doing and boots on the ground. I'm not just like some, you know, youth ministry content guy. Like, these are things I'm actually doing. And I'll, I'll coach you through just by the evaluation of my own strategy, how it's going, what's going well, what's not going as well.</p> <p>00:07:57:00 - 00:08:15:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And you can just steal all that I'm doing and bonus points, at the end of this episode, I'm going to be dropping a product that's $17. That's going to be incredibly valuable to you as you continue to lean in on social media. That's going to be free if you're already a $4 tier member of the Hybrid Heroes podcast.</p> <p>00:08:15:27 - 00:08:33:28<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But I try to hybridize, and this is an example of thing I'll talk about on my podcast, The Scavenger Hunt. So, for example, we say, hey, prove to us that you voted on the first round of the donuts, because remember, at this event we're launching the bracket. And so we're doing donuts, seed number one versus donuts. Seed number 16.</p> <p>00:08:33:28 - 00:08:53:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Donuts number eight versus donut seed number nine. Prove to us that you voted. And so, they can either vote with paper printouts which is the most boring, or they go on Instagram or YouTube and cast a poll style vote. Another one I'll do is I'll say, like in our most recent uploaded YouTube video, what was on so-and-so's shirt?</p> <p>00:08:53:10 - 00:09:15:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> What color was so-and-so's hat, who's teaching like or whatever? And so that'll also encourage them to pull their phones out. If they don't have a phone, go find someone who does have a phone and look at our YouTube channel. And then, you know, bonus points if you subscribe, like all those types of things, like, I'm trying to kind of lean into not only the other stations like the donut tattoo station, but also some of our hybrid ideas.</p> <p>00:09:15:26 - 00:09:32:22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so Scavenger Hunt is one of my all time favorite stations. Another one is just simple, right? Like create a board game station. Like we already have a bunch of board games in our cafe. In our game room. We'll just lay those on a table and say, you can go do board games. And here's the thing so low prep on your part.</p> <p>00:09:32:22 - 00:09:53:19<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> You don't have to do anything with it. We in this donut event, we've done donut decorating for like a couple nights ago in our youth ministry, it was National Sugar Cookie Day. We did sugar cookie decorating like you could do some sort of food decorating or craft decorating of sorts. One of the one of my all time favorite active games is steal the Bacon.</p> <p>00:09:53:19 - 00:10:10:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so in this event, we just do steal the donut. You can buy a big donut plush on Amazon, or you can just very simply like throw anything out there, like a piece of, like we've done, like I've done like a duck tape night before. And I took a piece of cardboard and I duct taped all around the cardboard, and we played steal the duct Tape.</p> <p>00:10:11:03 - 00:10:27:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Like, whatever theme event you're doing, like, steal that thing for, like, a steal the bacon style game where you have ten people on one side, ten people on the other, or however many. Right. And you can number them off. So this is one, this is one, this is two. This is two. When you call that number, they run on into the middle.</p> <p>00:10:27:22 - 00:10:45:14<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Another one of our all time favorite active games is we call it One of our volunteers labeled it here called poison, but I've grown up calling it Kajabi can can just with the big trash can in the middle. And you try to not touch the trash can by holding someone's, you know, hands and dragging them into the trash can.</p> <p>00:10:45:14 - 00:11:08:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> You want to be the last person standing. Here's a pro tip grab dog rope. Chew toys so that you're not holding someone's like, wrist and like, crushing their knuckles because inevitably you're going to have like a senior guy football player next to like, a seventh grade girl. And he's going to destroy her hand. So give them both, like, dog rope, chew toys to hang onto with, like the ropes on the end.</p> <p>00:11:08:23 - 00:11:29:24<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> She's got a rope here. He's got rope here. And of course, if you break the chain, you're also out. Another thing that we've done before, and I'm just going to be honest, I don't know how well it worked, but we did like, big screen Mario Kart video game, tournament video games, and Mario Kart always a hit. The part that I'm not sure that worked was the tournament aspect.</p> <p>00:11:29:24 - 00:11:45:17<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Like it was kind of chaotic and didn't really know who's next and who's in line and, you know, whatever. But it was still fun. Overall, we have in our space, we have like a nine square, so we'll just say eight. You can you know, play nine square if you want. So that's an option. Gaga ball. That's an option.</p> <p>00:11:45:17 - 00:12:04:29<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And if you don't know like I recommend two portable versions. And so maybe you're in like a shared space. But for an event like this, you can drag those out and set them up. Link down. Below is my, recommended nine square option and my recommended Gaga ball option. So those are things you make a little financial investment here on the front side, but then you can use this whenever you have a big event like this.</p> <p>00:12:04:29 - 00:12:23:29<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And those can be a part of your station, some of the things that you offer. And then finally the social challenge. So social challenge I'm going to teach you how to do that here in a couple episodes. So make sure that you're subscribed. But the social challenge is we some social media content with our students, by our students every single Wednesday night.</p> <p>00:12:24:01 - 00:12:43:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And in the link below, I am going to share with you exactly how you can, build your own social media team and the exact strategy that we use. And like I said in a couple episodes, I'm going to flesh out a full class on how to build out a social media team based on student ministry volunteers and what that does.</p> <p>00:12:43:13 - 00:13:03:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> That just helps kind of continue to create those hybrid connections. You're doing it via social media. And like I said on August 28th, we're dropping something big that is going to help you get that social media team up and off the ground. So you're definitely going to want to make sure that you're subscribed. But for the next video here, we are going to now talk about we've done this donut event.</p> <p>00:13:03:09 - 00:13:25:05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> We've welcome new students. We've included free time stations. Now let's look at event evaluation. How do we know whether or not we hit the mark? How do we know whether or not this event was successful? How do we know whether or not the budget money that we spent with, whether the juice there was worth the squeeze? We're going to answer all of those questions on the video that's linked right here on screen.</p> <p>00:13:25:05 - 00:13:31:06<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So make sure that you tap into that and until next time, and as always my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid. </p> youth ministry, youth ministry podcast, hybrid ministry, Nick Clason, student ministry, youth pastor tips, youth group games, free time stations, fall youth ministry, youth group strategy, engaging students, youth event ideas, church games, donut game, passport game, low prep games, teen ministry, youth group fun, youth pastor resources, download youth ministry, youth group planning, 9 square, gaga ball, social media strategy, church outreach, youth group connection Looking for fun, easy, and totally free youth ministry ideas that actually engage students? In this episode of The Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason shares 10 high-energy, low-prep free time station ideas—from donut decorating to Mario Kart tournaments, 9 Square, Gaga Ball, social challenges, and more—all designed to boost student engagement and connection. If you're a youth pastor craving creative youth group games, fall event strategy, or hybrid ministry tips that work, this episode is packed with stealable ideas and a bonus resource you don’t want to miss!

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/162

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
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COLEADER.CO

GAGA BALL vs 9 SQUARE RECOMMENDATIONS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZuiyBdjX6c
SOCIAL CHALLENGE 4-PART FRAMEWORK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

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

//BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 This Strategy Make Him say what?!
00:36 The Freetime Strategy Explained
06:25 Donut Tattoos
06:39 Scavenger Hunt - Hybridized!
09:19 Board Games
09:36 Decorating
09:52 Steal The (Fill in the Blank)
10:29 Kajabi Can Can
11:14 Big Screen Mario Kart Tourney
11:37 9-Square
11:44 Gaga Ball
12:09 The Social Challenge

--------------
TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:19:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Your students don't want to sit through another 90 minute program. Can we be honest? Do you? In this episode, I'm going to break down my outreach event strategy, which when I shared it with my friend Eric with the kids, he had this to say about it. I love that thank you notes. That's something I'm gonna steal for future videos.

00:00:19:27 - 00:00:52:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this episode, I'm going to hit you with ten ideas that you are definitely going to want to head over to my YouTube channel so that you can screenshot these and use them for your upcoming fall outreach event. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show! Well, hey everyone, welcome to episode 162 of the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nick Claussen, and I'm going to be talking about one of the, strategies that we have for our outreach events that we've sort of stumbled into, and it's a little bit unique.

00:00:52:26 - 00:01:14:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, you heard what my friend Eric had to say about it, but essentially what it is, is it's creating moments of free time for your students. And so what I mean by that is we're not taking the full 90 minute block, or we're not taking the full 120 minute block of programing time that you have for your youth ministry and scheduling every single minute and making every single student do every single thing the entire time.

00:01:15:00 - 00:01:35:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But instead, what we're doing is we're opening up a window of time within our night, within our program to allow your students to kind of, like, choose their own adventure and do what they want to do. Now, if you're going to be using linked right here, the, download from the World's Greatest Donut Event Guide that we've been talking about, like, that's what, we've done before.

00:01:35:19 - 00:01:54:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I want, you know, if you're looking for something to do, I want you to consider maybe doing that event and you can incorporate these ideas, this strategy, into your upcoming fall outreach event. And so, go ahead and go grab that download. It's completely free. It's going to point you to a resource over On demand that you can use and implement.

00:01:54:07 - 00:02:22:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And these ideas are things that you can use, borrow, steal, and include in your upcoming fall outreach event. But the the philosophy behind it is, as we talked about a couple episodes ago, this is a cultivate in the spiritual CPR. This is a cultivate night. We're we're inviting friends were hanging out. We're just, kind of letting our hair down, kicking our feet up and hanging out with students and helping them see that church doesn't have to be confusing.

00:02:22:00 - 00:02:44:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Church doesn't have to be weird. But the other reason that this is advantageous is very simply, when you have a message included in your night, you don't have as much time to program. When you don't include your message, you have more time to program. And here's what we do. Oftentimes, we're still like plugging through our scope and sequence like we use Collider.

00:02:44:04 - 00:03:07:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, if you use Code hybrid ministry, I'll give you 10% off Collider for a year. So go check that out. They just dropped roadmaps. The first part of roadmaps year three. Really excited about the the judges series included in that. But, we'll just kind of keep plugging along in what we, you know, for a message that we should have taught on the night our outreach event is Worcester, upload it to YouTube.

00:03:08:01 - 00:03:30:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then our Sunday morning curriculum is derived off of our Wednesday night curriculum. And so we'll still have that conversation on Sunday morning, even though we didn't have the message on Wednesday night. And it's just on YouTube. And so at the end of the night, a lot of times we'll just show a little teaser clip and say, hey, this is over on YouTube, go check it out, scan this QR code if you want to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

00:03:30:08 - 00:03:55:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And they're off to the races. And I mean the whole the whole good news right about these, this donut event is that it's getting students onto your social media, which at the end of this completely free fall masterclass playlist, I'm going to teach you how to build a social media team run completely by students that helps them create content not only for other students in your ministry, but create content with other students in your ministry.

00:03:55:28 - 00:04:15:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so having this free time event opens up all of these things, opens up more options. And, you know, one of the things that we'll do is we'll, offer anywhere from like four or 5 or 6 different, like, things, little stations. And they have anywhere from 30 to maybe 45 minutes on the longer end to do whatever them that they want.

00:04:15:18 - 00:04:36:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But one of the things that we've done to kind of encourage them or highlight what's available is we'll create a little passport or like a punch card, or if they go to a station and complete it, they'll get a little sticker for it. And what that does is it just helps them. First of all, give gives your students, and anyone who's new like a little map of your area, what's included where what's going on?

00:04:36:06 - 00:04:53:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What can we do right now? And then we'll say, hey, if you, complete if you go to all six stations, come and submit this card back in and we will give you a candy bar. And then we'll also put your, you know, name or your passport in, a drawing for the grand prize at the end of the night or something like that.

00:04:53:27 - 00:05:11:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, you know, if students are maybe not interested in all six of the things, and that's one of the reasons why we do it is because we know, like, not every single student is going to want to do every single type of game that you do. And so we'll include like some artsy and crafty type things. But then we'll also include some really, really active type things.

00:05:11:27 - 00:05:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so some students may be like, I'm more artsy. I don't want to do that active thing at all. And they're going to opt out of doing every single thing on the passport. But other kids, they might want to try to do all of it. And so they're going to try to run to every single station. So it just it it communicates what's available and it gives students an option to just win something.

00:05:30:13 - 00:05:47:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's just a fun way to kind of program it. I try to program the amount of time, like if we got 5 or 6 stations, I want to give them 30 to 35 minutes. I want there to be nearly not enough time for them to do everything, because when they leave, I want them to have in their mind like, oh my word, that event was so fun.

00:05:47:14 - 00:06:03:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I didn't even get to everything. And that's kind of like the vibe I want them to get in the car with with their parents, right? And when they're parents, like, how was it there? Like it was awesome. There is so much to do, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's kind of the vibe that we're going for. So if you're here on YouTube, these are going to flash up here on the screen.

00:06:04:01 - 00:06:24:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are free time stations that are high fun, but they're low prep. And some of these we've done before, others of them are ideas that I have for future ones. And if you're doing the World's Greatest Donut Event launch guide, you can use some of these. These are ones that we actually have pulled together, for the donut event starting with.

00:06:24:29 - 00:06:50:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The first one is we had a donut temporary tattoo parlor. And so we can have students come in and just get a temporary donut tattoo. Right. And it's like you're doing the scavenger hunt. Like, one of the things I've done is, a future idea is like, we've done a scavenger hunt is one of the clues on the scavenger hunt was to have to go and prove that you got a donut tattoo, so it's like you kind of kill two birds with one stone.

00:06:50:00 - 00:07:10:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They come to the scavenger hunt, which is a second idea, by the way. Come to the scavenger hunt. One of the one of the clues is you know, go to the donut tattoo thing and they prove that they've done it. And so in addition to it, we like I try to hybridize my scavenger hunt, which, if you didn't know by the way, I have a weekly bonus podcast over on Patreon.

00:07:10:00 - 00:07:36:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's only $4 a month, and I want you to think about that. Investment of $4 is like your creative programing assistant. Like, here's my question is $50 per year worth it for you to have? Almost like a programing and social media consultant and coach? Because that's essentially what this $4 tier would do. It's going to give you, for $48 for you, 12 times four.

00:07:36:07 - 00:07:57:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's going to give you, someone who's just doing this on the front lines and is evaluating everything that I'm doing and boots on the ground. I'm not just like some, you know, youth ministry content guy. Like, these are things I'm actually doing. And I'll, I'll coach you through just by the evaluation of my own strategy, how it's going, what's going well, what's not going as well.

00:07:57:00 - 00:08:15:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can just steal all that I'm doing and bonus points, at the end of this episode, I'm going to be dropping a product that's $17. That's going to be incredibly valuable to you as you continue to lean in on social media. That's going to be free if you're already a $4 tier member of the Hybrid Heroes podcast.

00:08:15:27 - 00:08:33:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I try to hybridize, and this is an example of thing I'll talk about on my podcast, The Scavenger Hunt. So, for example, we say, hey, prove to us that you voted on the first round of the donuts, because remember, at this event we're launching the bracket. And so we're doing donuts, seed number one versus donuts. Seed number 16.

00:08:33:28 - 00:08:53:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Donuts number eight versus donut seed number nine. Prove to us that you voted. And so, they can either vote with paper printouts which is the most boring, or they go on Instagram or YouTube and cast a poll style vote. Another one I'll do is I'll say, like in our most recent uploaded YouTube video, what was on so-and-so's shirt?

00:08:53:10 - 00:09:15:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What color was so-and-so's hat, who's teaching like or whatever? And so that'll also encourage them to pull their phones out. If they don't have a phone, go find someone who does have a phone and look at our YouTube channel. And then, you know, bonus points if you subscribe, like all those types of things, like, I'm trying to kind of lean into not only the other stations like the donut tattoo station, but also some of our hybrid ideas.

00:09:15:26 - 00:09:32:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so Scavenger Hunt is one of my all time favorite stations. Another one is just simple, right? Like create a board game station. Like we already have a bunch of board games in our cafe. In our game room. We'll just lay those on a table and say, you can go do board games. And here's the thing so low prep on your part.

00:09:32:22 - 00:09:53:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You don't have to do anything with it. We in this donut event, we've done donut decorating for like a couple nights ago in our youth ministry, it was National Sugar Cookie Day. We did sugar cookie decorating like you could do some sort of food decorating or craft decorating of sorts. One of the one of my all time favorite active games is steal the Bacon.

00:09:53:19 - 00:10:10:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so in this event, we just do steal the donut. You can buy a big donut plush on Amazon, or you can just very simply like throw anything out there, like a piece of, like we've done, like I've done like a duck tape night before. And I took a piece of cardboard and I duct taped all around the cardboard, and we played steal the duct Tape.

00:10:11:03 - 00:10:27:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, whatever theme event you're doing, like, steal that thing for, like, a steal the bacon style game where you have ten people on one side, ten people on the other, or however many. Right. And you can number them off. So this is one, this is one, this is two. This is two. When you call that number, they run on into the middle.

00:10:27:22 - 00:10:45:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Another one of our all time favorite active games is we call it One of our volunteers labeled it here called poison, but I've grown up calling it Kajabi can can just with the big trash can in the middle. And you try to not touch the trash can by holding someone's, you know, hands and dragging them into the trash can.

00:10:45:14 - 00:11:08:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You want to be the last person standing. Here's a pro tip grab dog rope. Chew toys so that you're not holding someone's like, wrist and like, crushing their knuckles because inevitably you're going to have like a senior guy football player next to like, a seventh grade girl. And he's going to destroy her hand. So give them both, like, dog rope, chew toys to hang onto with, like the ropes on the end.

00:11:08:23 - 00:11:29:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
She's got a rope here. He's got rope here. And of course, if you break the chain, you're also out. Another thing that we've done before, and I'm just going to be honest, I don't know how well it worked, but we did like, big screen Mario Kart video game, tournament video games, and Mario Kart always a hit. The part that I'm not sure that worked was the tournament aspect.

00:11:29:24 - 00:11:45:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like it was kind of chaotic and didn't really know who's next and who's in line and, you know, whatever. But it was still fun. Overall, we have in our space, we have like a nine square, so we'll just say eight. You can you know, play nine square if you want. So that's an option. Gaga ball. That's an option.

00:11:45:17 - 00:12:04:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you don't know like I recommend two portable versions. And so maybe you're in like a shared space. But for an event like this, you can drag those out and set them up. Link down. Below is my, recommended nine square option and my recommended Gaga ball option. So those are things you make a little financial investment here on the front side, but then you can use this whenever you have a big event like this.

00:12:04:29 - 00:12:23:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And those can be a part of your station, some of the things that you offer. And then finally the social challenge. So social challenge I'm going to teach you how to do that here in a couple episodes. So make sure that you're subscribed. But the social challenge is we some social media content with our students, by our students every single Wednesday night.

00:12:24:01 - 00:12:43:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in the link below, I am going to share with you exactly how you can, build your own social media team and the exact strategy that we use. And like I said in a couple episodes, I'm going to flesh out a full class on how to build out a social media team based on student ministry volunteers and what that does.

00:12:43:13 - 00:13:03:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That just helps kind of continue to create those hybrid connections. You're doing it via social media. And like I said on August 28th, we're dropping something big that is going to help you get that social media team up and off the ground. So you're definitely going to want to make sure that you're subscribed. But for the next video here, we are going to now talk about we've done this donut event.

00:13:03:09 - 00:13:25:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We've welcome new students. We've included free time stations. Now let's look at event evaluation. How do we know whether or not we hit the mark? How do we know whether or not this event was successful? How do we know whether or not the budget money that we spent with, whether the juice there was worth the squeeze? We're going to answer all of those questions on the video that's linked right here on screen.

00:13:25:05 - 00:13:31:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So make sure that you tap into that and until next time, and as always my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Looking for fun, easy, and totally free youth ministry ideas that actually engage students? In this episode of The Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason shares 10 high-energy, low-prep free time station ideas—from donut decorating to Mario Kart tournaments, 9 Square, Gaga Ball, social challenges, and more—all designed to boost student engagement and connection. If you're a youth pastor craving creative youth group games, fall event strategy, or hybrid ministry tips that work, this episode is packed with stealable ideas and a bonus resource you don’t want to miss!

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/162

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

USE CODE: “HYBRIDMINISTRY” FOR 10% OFF
COLEADER.CO

GAGA BALL vs 9 SQUARE RECOMMENDATIONS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZuiyBdjX6c
SOCIAL CHALLENGE 4-PART FRAMEWORK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 This Strategy Make Him say what?!
00:36 The Freetime Strategy Explained
06:25 Donut Tattoos
06:39 Scavenger Hunt - Hybridized!
09:19 Board Games
09:36 Decorating
09:52 Steal The (Fill in the Blank)
10:29 Kajabi Can Can
11:14 Big Screen Mario Kart Tourney
11:37 9-Square
11:44 Gaga Ball
12:09 The Social Challenge

--------------
TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:19:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Your students don't want to sit through another 90 minute program. Can we be honest? Do you? In this episode, I'm going to break down my outreach event strategy, which when I shared it with my friend Eric with the kids, he had this to say about it. I love that thank you notes. That's something I'm gonna steal for future videos.

00:00:19:27 - 00:00:52:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this episode, I'm going to hit you with ten ideas that you are definitely going to want to head over to my YouTube channel so that you can screenshot these and use them for your upcoming fall outreach event. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show! Well, hey everyone, welcome to episode 162 of the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nick Claussen, and I'm going to be talking about one of the, strategies that we have for our outreach events that we've sort of stumbled into, and it's a little bit unique.

00:00:52:26 - 00:01:14:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, you heard what my friend Eric had to say about it, but essentially what it is, is it's creating moments of free time for your students. And so what I mean by that is we're not taking the full 90 minute block, or we're not taking the full 120 minute block of programing time that you have for your youth ministry and scheduling every single minute and making every single student do every single thing the entire time.

00:01:15:00 - 00:01:35:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But instead, what we're doing is we're opening up a window of time within our night, within our program to allow your students to kind of, like, choose their own adventure and do what they want to do. Now, if you're going to be using linked right here, the, download from the World's Greatest Donut Event Guide that we've been talking about, like, that's what, we've done before.

00:01:35:19 - 00:01:54:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I want, you know, if you're looking for something to do, I want you to consider maybe doing that event and you can incorporate these ideas, this strategy, into your upcoming fall outreach event. And so, go ahead and go grab that download. It's completely free. It's going to point you to a resource over On demand that you can use and implement.

00:01:54:07 - 00:02:22:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And these ideas are things that you can use, borrow, steal, and include in your upcoming fall outreach event. But the the philosophy behind it is, as we talked about a couple episodes ago, this is a cultivate in the spiritual CPR. This is a cultivate night. We're we're inviting friends were hanging out. We're just, kind of letting our hair down, kicking our feet up and hanging out with students and helping them see that church doesn't have to be confusing.

00:02:22:00 - 00:02:44:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Church doesn't have to be weird. But the other reason that this is advantageous is very simply, when you have a message included in your night, you don't have as much time to program. When you don't include your message, you have more time to program. And here's what we do. Oftentimes, we're still like plugging through our scope and sequence like we use Collider.

00:02:44:04 - 00:03:07:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, if you use Code hybrid ministry, I'll give you 10% off Collider for a year. So go check that out. They just dropped roadmaps. The first part of roadmaps year three. Really excited about the the judges series included in that. But, we'll just kind of keep plugging along in what we, you know, for a message that we should have taught on the night our outreach event is Worcester, upload it to YouTube.

00:03:08:01 - 00:03:30:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then our Sunday morning curriculum is derived off of our Wednesday night curriculum. And so we'll still have that conversation on Sunday morning, even though we didn't have the message on Wednesday night. And it's just on YouTube. And so at the end of the night, a lot of times we'll just show a little teaser clip and say, hey, this is over on YouTube, go check it out, scan this QR code if you want to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

00:03:30:08 - 00:03:55:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And they're off to the races. And I mean the whole the whole good news right about these, this donut event is that it's getting students onto your social media, which at the end of this completely free fall masterclass playlist, I'm going to teach you how to build a social media team run completely by students that helps them create content not only for other students in your ministry, but create content with other students in your ministry.

00:03:55:28 - 00:04:15:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so having this free time event opens up all of these things, opens up more options. And, you know, one of the things that we'll do is we'll, offer anywhere from like four or 5 or 6 different, like, things, little stations. And they have anywhere from 30 to maybe 45 minutes on the longer end to do whatever them that they want.

00:04:15:18 - 00:04:36:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But one of the things that we've done to kind of encourage them or highlight what's available is we'll create a little passport or like a punch card, or if they go to a station and complete it, they'll get a little sticker for it. And what that does is it just helps them. First of all, give gives your students, and anyone who's new like a little map of your area, what's included where what's going on?

00:04:36:06 - 00:04:53:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What can we do right now? And then we'll say, hey, if you, complete if you go to all six stations, come and submit this card back in and we will give you a candy bar. And then we'll also put your, you know, name or your passport in, a drawing for the grand prize at the end of the night or something like that.

00:04:53:27 - 00:05:11:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, you know, if students are maybe not interested in all six of the things, and that's one of the reasons why we do it is because we know, like, not every single student is going to want to do every single type of game that you do. And so we'll include like some artsy and crafty type things. But then we'll also include some really, really active type things.

00:05:11:27 - 00:05:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so some students may be like, I'm more artsy. I don't want to do that active thing at all. And they're going to opt out of doing every single thing on the passport. But other kids, they might want to try to do all of it. And so they're going to try to run to every single station. So it just it it communicates what's available and it gives students an option to just win something.

00:05:30:13 - 00:05:47:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's just a fun way to kind of program it. I try to program the amount of time, like if we got 5 or 6 stations, I want to give them 30 to 35 minutes. I want there to be nearly not enough time for them to do everything, because when they leave, I want them to have in their mind like, oh my word, that event was so fun.

00:05:47:14 - 00:06:03:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I didn't even get to everything. And that's kind of like the vibe I want them to get in the car with with their parents, right? And when they're parents, like, how was it there? Like it was awesome. There is so much to do, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's kind of the vibe that we're going for. So if you're here on YouTube, these are going to flash up here on the screen.

00:06:04:01 - 00:06:24:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are free time stations that are high fun, but they're low prep. And some of these we've done before, others of them are ideas that I have for future ones. And if you're doing the World's Greatest Donut Event launch guide, you can use some of these. These are ones that we actually have pulled together, for the donut event starting with.

00:06:24:29 - 00:06:50:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The first one is we had a donut temporary tattoo parlor. And so we can have students come in and just get a temporary donut tattoo. Right. And it's like you're doing the scavenger hunt. Like, one of the things I've done is, a future idea is like, we've done a scavenger hunt is one of the clues on the scavenger hunt was to have to go and prove that you got a donut tattoo, so it's like you kind of kill two birds with one stone.

00:06:50:00 - 00:07:10:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They come to the scavenger hunt, which is a second idea, by the way. Come to the scavenger hunt. One of the one of the clues is you know, go to the donut tattoo thing and they prove that they've done it. And so in addition to it, we like I try to hybridize my scavenger hunt, which, if you didn't know by the way, I have a weekly bonus podcast over on Patreon.

00:07:10:00 - 00:07:36:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's only $4 a month, and I want you to think about that. Investment of $4 is like your creative programing assistant. Like, here's my question is $50 per year worth it for you to have? Almost like a programing and social media consultant and coach? Because that's essentially what this $4 tier would do. It's going to give you, for $48 for you, 12 times four.

00:07:36:07 - 00:07:57:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's going to give you, someone who's just doing this on the front lines and is evaluating everything that I'm doing and boots on the ground. I'm not just like some, you know, youth ministry content guy. Like, these are things I'm actually doing. And I'll, I'll coach you through just by the evaluation of my own strategy, how it's going, what's going well, what's not going as well.

00:07:57:00 - 00:08:15:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can just steal all that I'm doing and bonus points, at the end of this episode, I'm going to be dropping a product that's $17. That's going to be incredibly valuable to you as you continue to lean in on social media. That's going to be free if you're already a $4 tier member of the Hybrid Heroes podcast.

00:08:15:27 - 00:08:33:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I try to hybridize, and this is an example of thing I'll talk about on my podcast, The Scavenger Hunt. So, for example, we say, hey, prove to us that you voted on the first round of the donuts, because remember, at this event we're launching the bracket. And so we're doing donuts, seed number one versus donuts. Seed number 16.

00:08:33:28 - 00:08:53:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Donuts number eight versus donut seed number nine. Prove to us that you voted. And so, they can either vote with paper printouts which is the most boring, or they go on Instagram or YouTube and cast a poll style vote. Another one I'll do is I'll say, like in our most recent uploaded YouTube video, what was on so-and-so's shirt?

00:08:53:10 - 00:09:15:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What color was so-and-so's hat, who's teaching like or whatever? And so that'll also encourage them to pull their phones out. If they don't have a phone, go find someone who does have a phone and look at our YouTube channel. And then, you know, bonus points if you subscribe, like all those types of things, like, I'm trying to kind of lean into not only the other stations like the donut tattoo station, but also some of our hybrid ideas.

00:09:15:26 - 00:09:32:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so Scavenger Hunt is one of my all time favorite stations. Another one is just simple, right? Like create a board game station. Like we already have a bunch of board games in our cafe. In our game room. We'll just lay those on a table and say, you can go do board games. And here's the thing so low prep on your part.

00:09:32:22 - 00:09:53:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You don't have to do anything with it. We in this donut event, we've done donut decorating for like a couple nights ago in our youth ministry, it was National Sugar Cookie Day. We did sugar cookie decorating like you could do some sort of food decorating or craft decorating of sorts. One of the one of my all time favorite active games is steal the Bacon.

00:09:53:19 - 00:10:10:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so in this event, we just do steal the donut. You can buy a big donut plush on Amazon, or you can just very simply like throw anything out there, like a piece of, like we've done, like I've done like a duck tape night before. And I took a piece of cardboard and I duct taped all around the cardboard, and we played steal the duct Tape.

00:10:11:03 - 00:10:27:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, whatever theme event you're doing, like, steal that thing for, like, a steal the bacon style game where you have ten people on one side, ten people on the other, or however many. Right. And you can number them off. So this is one, this is one, this is two. This is two. When you call that number, they run on into the middle.

00:10:27:22 - 00:10:45:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Another one of our all time favorite active games is we call it One of our volunteers labeled it here called poison, but I've grown up calling it Kajabi can can just with the big trash can in the middle. And you try to not touch the trash can by holding someone's, you know, hands and dragging them into the trash can.

00:10:45:14 - 00:11:08:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You want to be the last person standing. Here's a pro tip grab dog rope. Chew toys so that you're not holding someone's like, wrist and like, crushing their knuckles because inevitably you're going to have like a senior guy football player next to like, a seventh grade girl. And he's going to destroy her hand. So give them both, like, dog rope, chew toys to hang onto with, like the ropes on the end.

00:11:08:23 - 00:11:29:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
She's got a rope here. He's got rope here. And of course, if you break the chain, you're also out. Another thing that we've done before, and I'm just going to be honest, I don't know how well it worked, but we did like, big screen Mario Kart video game, tournament video games, and Mario Kart always a hit. The part that I'm not sure that worked was the tournament aspect.

00:11:29:24 - 00:11:45:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like it was kind of chaotic and didn't really know who's next and who's in line and, you know, whatever. But it was still fun. Overall, we have in our space, we have like a nine square, so we'll just say eight. You can you know, play nine square if you want. So that's an option. Gaga ball. That's an option.

00:11:45:17 - 00:12:04:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you don't know like I recommend two portable versions. And so maybe you're in like a shared space. But for an event like this, you can drag those out and set them up. Link down. Below is my, recommended nine square option and my recommended Gaga ball option. So those are things you make a little financial investment here on the front side, but then you can use this whenever you have a big event like this.

00:12:04:29 - 00:12:23:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And those can be a part of your station, some of the things that you offer. And then finally the social challenge. So social challenge I'm going to teach you how to do that here in a couple episodes. So make sure that you're subscribed. But the social challenge is we some social media content with our students, by our students every single Wednesday night.

00:12:24:01 - 00:12:43:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in the link below, I am going to share with you exactly how you can, build your own social media team and the exact strategy that we use. And like I said in a couple episodes, I'm going to flesh out a full class on how to build out a social media team based on student ministry volunteers and what that does.

00:12:43:13 - 00:13:03:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That just helps kind of continue to create those hybrid connections. You're doing it via social media. And like I said on August 28th, we're dropping something big that is going to help you get that social media team up and off the ground. So you're definitely going to want to make sure that you're subscribed. But for the next video here, we are going to now talk about we've done this donut event.

00:13:03:09 - 00:13:25:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We've welcome new students. We've included free time stations. Now let's look at event evaluation. How do we know whether or not we hit the mark? How do we know whether or not this event was successful? How do we know whether or not the budget money that we spent with, whether the juice there was worth the squeeze? We're going to answer all of those questions on the video that's linked right here on screen.

00:13:25:05 - 00:13:31:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So make sure that you tap into that and until next time, and as always my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 161: How to Welcome New Students in Youth Ministry Without Overwhelming Them https://www.hybridministry.xyz/161 b01c36bc-0f81-44bf-bf45-b88c666b4fcb Thu, 07 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 161 How to Welcome New Students in Youth Ministry Without Overwhelming Them full Nick Clason Welcoming new students to your youth ministry shouldn’t feel like a firehose of information—this episode unpacks how to create an intentional, low-pressure first-time guest follow-up system. We’ll explore the psychology behind making guests feel valued, how to use a youth group welcome box, and why timing your church guest process matters. Plus, get a walkthrough of our youth ministry calendar, a peek at our welcome video strategy, and how to keep student connections alive on social media all fall long! 6:33 no Welcoming new students to your youth ministry shouldn’t feel like a firehose of information—this episode unpacks how to create an intentional, low-pressure first-time guest follow-up system. We’ll explore the psychology behind making guests feel valued, how to use a youth group welcome box, and why timing your church guest process matters. Plus, get a walkthrough of our youth ministry calendar, a peek at our welcome video strategy, and how to keep student connections alive on social media all fall long! 🗓️NEW CALENDAR + The Ultimate Guest Box https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/161 ☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=productsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link *🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry WELCOME BOX VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzUQ-DwS32g&amp;t=27s WELCOME VIDEO https://youtu.be/RRKGELKuJsc?si=Yb5RyayhDa-cQsQj ✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 How to Wow New Students 00:26 The psychology of the Welcome Guest Box 02:12 Why We Mail a Box 04:21 The Hybrid Part of the Box -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:17 - 00:00:23:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You got new students showing up to your youth ministry, to your fall kickoff events. Are you ready to wow them or just hand them a stale pizza coupon? In this episode, we are going to detail an outline my full guest Strategy Newcomers Welcome box. It is linked down below if you want to check it out. And of course, as always, there are chapters listed down below. 00:00:23:25 - 00:00:47:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Welcome my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Minister Show. If you not haven't had a chance to meet yet. My name is Nick. In a 15 year youth ministry veteran, and in recent years I've stumbled into this idea of a welcome guest box. In fact, we detailed and outlined it in this episode, linked right here on screen or down below if you want to go check that out. 00:00:47:17 - 00:01:11:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And the fact of the matter is that we have discovered that the psychology behind creating an intentional follow up box is threefold. First of all, you want the students who come to your youth ministry for the very first time. You want them to feel like a million bucks. You want to roll out the red carpet for them, and you want them to feel like you have thought about them and that you have, you know, you've planned to have them there. 00:01:11:01 - 00:01:30:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry However, like in recent years, we've discovered more and more with this generation that it's an overwhelming experience to walk into a youth ministry for the very first time. And so imagine walking into a place it's completely foreign, completely new, completely wild and completely crazy. And then you're like, here, here's this, and here's this, and here's this. And here's this. 00:01:30:18 - 00:01:52:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you're like, swag ING them out. And like, that's a great notion. However, in the moment they're just figuring out like, where's the bathroom? Meanwhile, they have to hold and track and keep all this stuff that you're just like loading them up with. And they're awkward because they're holding it, but like nobody else has it. And like, if you want them to truly get involved in your youth ministry, you want them like jumping into things like Gaga Ball and Nine square. 00:01:52:29 - 00:02:08:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But like, they have things that they have to keep track of and like they don't know where's a safe place to actually lay it down. And so therefore, that's why we've pivoted to recently in our student ministry, sending a guest welcome box. And so they come, we gather all their information. We say, hey, thank you so much. So glad you're here. 00:02:08:27 - 00:02:26:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We pair them up with someone new and then we treat them just like any other normal student. Meanwhile, a few days later, they'll get on their doorstep a welcome box branded all the things, helping welcome them to our student ministry. And in that moment, they're then able to be completely swagged out and have all of the things that they need. 00:02:26:22 - 00:02:57:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But they're able to do it in a less threatening environment. They're able to do it at home. And so we love this strategy. And again, as I said in the previous episode, I've given a full breakdown of it. You can go check that out. And I also include some artwork for it. But in this episode, I'm going to include the artwork for my 2025 FA calendars so that you can include and you can start using that to start laying out and dishing out your full 2025 calendar. 00:02:57:08 - 00:03:20:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Because again, if you're in this masterclass, which you are, this is video part two of the Fall Masterclass for Youth Ministry. Last week we talked about the world's Greatest Donut Kickoff event. And if you if that event did its job and new students came, then those students came to your youth ministry. And then now you're going to use today's episode, this welcome box to send out and welcome the new students to your ministry. 00:03:20:10 - 00:03:55:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, this first time or this, this calendar that's included in the welcome box, it is free for all members of my Patreon. If not, you can jump on and you can grab it for just a few bucks. I think it's like 3 or $4 over there on Patreon. But if you become a member, which is only $4 per month, not only do you get access to every single thing on my store, including like my seasonal social media packs, the welcome box from that past episode, and this fall calendar, but you also get a weekly bonus podcast where I go through what we do in our youth ministry and in our kickoff events, 00:03:55:12 - 00:04:16:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and it's basically like your weekly debrief meeting. Even if you don't have a team around you, it's always helpful to have someone else's voice and to just hear those things, to kind of get those ideas going in your in your brain and like in your creative juices. And so that's the value of, again, $4 per month is the, bonus podcast. 00:04:16:25 - 00:04:35:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But here's the other reason that I love this welcome box idea is because as soon as you open it up, we have a gigantic QR code, right when they open it up and at the top it says Welcome video and they scan it and it takes him to our YouTube channel. And so it's a welcome video from me and other people on our team. 00:04:35:07 - 00:04:56:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And, if you're following this fall playlist last week, you also got them on your social media. So they hopefully went and checked out your social media last week because voting for the donuts was on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, whatever you have. And then this video also takes them to YouTube. So now it's the second social media touchpoint for them in as many days. 00:04:56:20 - 00:05:15:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if they're going to continue on, with this donut thing, if they're going to continue on to see this thing through, if they're going to keep coming back, they're going to interact with your social media more and more. And as we talked about in the previous video over the summer, the key to social media in youth ministry is not like a one time amazing viral video. 00:05:15:09 - 00:05:35:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The key is many micro connections over time so that they get used to and they get familiar with your brand and your social media, which is why it's so important to not only stay custom on social media, but also to stay, regular and consistent on social media, which is what my seasonal social media pack was meant to do over the summer. 00:05:35:18 - 00:05:58:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And big news in four episodes. The final episode of this fall, when we are launching our fall seasonal social media pack, we want to help you when creating not only custom content, but also creating serving opportunities for your students to to level up and lead these social media teams. And so now you might be thinking like, okay, so we got the world's greatest donut event, and now we got this welcome box. 00:05:58:20 - 00:06:21:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry How do I know if any of these things are actually hitting, if we're actually making any discernible difference in the life of our student? I'm glad you asked, because in the next episode, we're going to talk about one of the key components of this, fall kickoff event. And it's the fact that we include we alluded to a little bit in last episode, but we include this moment of like 45 minutes of free time for students to do whatever they want. 00:06:21:14 - 00:06:33:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That video is going to be linked here on screen. Make sure that you're subscribed. If you're watching this live, so that you don't miss when that episode drops next Thursday. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hydrated. youth ministry, new students, youth group welcome ideas, youth pastor tips, first time guest, student ministry, youth group strategy, welcoming students, youth group follow up, church welcome box, youth ministry calendar, hybrid ministry, student guest plan, youth group retention, youth ministry growth, teen ministry, youth leader tools, guest experience, youth pastor training, church guest process, first time visitor ideas, youth group systems Welcoming new students to your youth ministry shouldn’t feel like a firehose of information—this episode unpacks how to create an intentional, low-pressure first-time guest follow-up system. We’ll explore the psychology behind making guests feel valued, how to use a youth group welcome box, and why timing your church guest process matters. Plus, get a walkthrough of our youth ministry calendar, a peek at our welcome video strategy, and how to keep student connections alive on social media all fall long!

🗓️NEW CALENDAR + The Ultimate Guest Box
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

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Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/161

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
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WELCOME BOX VIDEO
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WELCOME VIDEO
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Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
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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!
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🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
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//BEST DYM RESOURCES
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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 How to Wow New Students
00:26 The psychology of the Welcome Guest Box
02:12 Why We Mail a Box
04:21 The Hybrid Part of the Box

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:17 - 00:00:23:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You got new students showing up to your youth ministry, to your fall kickoff events. Are you ready to wow them or just hand them a stale pizza coupon? In this episode, we are going to detail an outline my full guest Strategy Newcomers Welcome box. It is linked down below if you want to check it out. And of course, as always, there are chapters listed down below.

00:00:23:25 - 00:00:47:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Minister Show. If you not haven't had a chance to meet yet. My name is Nick. In a 15 year youth ministry veteran, and in recent years I've stumbled into this idea of a welcome guest box. In fact, we detailed and outlined it in this episode, linked right here on screen or down below if you want to go check that out.

00:00:47:17 - 00:01:11:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the fact of the matter is that we have discovered that the psychology behind creating an intentional follow up box is threefold. First of all, you want the students who come to your youth ministry for the very first time. You want them to feel like a million bucks. You want to roll out the red carpet for them, and you want them to feel like you have thought about them and that you have, you know, you've planned to have them there.

00:01:11:01 - 00:01:30:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, like in recent years, we've discovered more and more with this generation that it's an overwhelming experience to walk into a youth ministry for the very first time. And so imagine walking into a place it's completely foreign, completely new, completely wild and completely crazy. And then you're like, here, here's this, and here's this, and here's this. And here's this.

00:01:30:18 - 00:01:52:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you're like, swag ING them out. And like, that's a great notion. However, in the moment they're just figuring out like, where's the bathroom? Meanwhile, they have to hold and track and keep all this stuff that you're just like loading them up with. And they're awkward because they're holding it, but like nobody else has it. And like, if you want them to truly get involved in your youth ministry, you want them like jumping into things like Gaga Ball and Nine square.

00:01:52:29 - 00:02:08:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like, they have things that they have to keep track of and like they don't know where's a safe place to actually lay it down. And so therefore, that's why we've pivoted to recently in our student ministry, sending a guest welcome box. And so they come, we gather all their information. We say, hey, thank you so much. So glad you're here.

00:02:08:27 - 00:02:26:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We pair them up with someone new and then we treat them just like any other normal student. Meanwhile, a few days later, they'll get on their doorstep a welcome box branded all the things, helping welcome them to our student ministry. And in that moment, they're then able to be completely swagged out and have all of the things that they need.

00:02:26:22 - 00:02:57:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But they're able to do it in a less threatening environment. They're able to do it at home. And so we love this strategy. And again, as I said in the previous episode, I've given a full breakdown of it. You can go check that out. And I also include some artwork for it. But in this episode, I'm going to include the artwork for my 2025 FA calendars so that you can include and you can start using that to start laying out and dishing out your full 2025 calendar.

00:02:57:08 - 00:03:20:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because again, if you're in this masterclass, which you are, this is video part two of the Fall Masterclass for Youth Ministry. Last week we talked about the world's Greatest Donut Kickoff event. And if you if that event did its job and new students came, then those students came to your youth ministry. And then now you're going to use today's episode, this welcome box to send out and welcome the new students to your ministry.

00:03:20:10 - 00:03:55:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, this first time or this, this calendar that's included in the welcome box, it is free for all members of my Patreon. If not, you can jump on and you can grab it for just a few bucks. I think it's like 3 or $4 over there on Patreon. But if you become a member, which is only $4 per month, not only do you get access to every single thing on my store, including like my seasonal social media packs, the welcome box from that past episode, and this fall calendar, but you also get a weekly bonus podcast where I go through what we do in our youth ministry and in our kickoff events,

00:03:55:12 - 00:04:16:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and it's basically like your weekly debrief meeting. Even if you don't have a team around you, it's always helpful to have someone else's voice and to just hear those things, to kind of get those ideas going in your in your brain and like in your creative juices. And so that's the value of, again, $4 per month is the, bonus podcast.

00:04:16:25 - 00:04:35:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's the other reason that I love this welcome box idea is because as soon as you open it up, we have a gigantic QR code, right when they open it up and at the top it says Welcome video and they scan it and it takes him to our YouTube channel. And so it's a welcome video from me and other people on our team.

00:04:35:07 - 00:04:56:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, if you're following this fall playlist last week, you also got them on your social media. So they hopefully went and checked out your social media last week because voting for the donuts was on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, whatever you have. And then this video also takes them to YouTube. So now it's the second social media touchpoint for them in as many days.

00:04:56:20 - 00:05:15:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if they're going to continue on, with this donut thing, if they're going to continue on to see this thing through, if they're going to keep coming back, they're going to interact with your social media more and more. And as we talked about in the previous video over the summer, the key to social media in youth ministry is not like a one time amazing viral video.

00:05:15:09 - 00:05:35:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The key is many micro connections over time so that they get used to and they get familiar with your brand and your social media, which is why it's so important to not only stay custom on social media, but also to stay, regular and consistent on social media, which is what my seasonal social media pack was meant to do over the summer.

00:05:35:18 - 00:05:58:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And big news in four episodes. The final episode of this fall, when we are launching our fall seasonal social media pack, we want to help you when creating not only custom content, but also creating serving opportunities for your students to to level up and lead these social media teams. And so now you might be thinking like, okay, so we got the world's greatest donut event, and now we got this welcome box.

00:05:58:20 - 00:06:21:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How do I know if any of these things are actually hitting, if we're actually making any discernible difference in the life of our student? I'm glad you asked, because in the next episode, we're going to talk about one of the key components of this, fall kickoff event. And it's the fact that we include we alluded to a little bit in last episode, but we include this moment of like 45 minutes of free time for students to do whatever they want.

00:06:21:14 - 00:06:33:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That video is going to be linked here on screen. Make sure that you're subscribed. If you're watching this live, so that you don't miss when that episode drops next Thursday. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hydrated.

]]> Welcoming new students to your youth ministry shouldn’t feel like a firehose of information—this episode unpacks how to create an intentional, low-pressure first-time guest follow-up system. We’ll explore the psychology behind making guests feel valued, how to use a youth group welcome box, and why timing your church guest process matters. Plus, get a walkthrough of our youth ministry calendar, a peek at our welcome video strategy, and how to keep student connections alive on social media all fall long!

🗓️NEW CALENDAR + The Ultimate Guest Box
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/161

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

WELCOME BOX VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzUQ-DwS32g&t=27s

WELCOME VIDEO
https://youtu.be/RRKGELKuJsc?si=Yb5RyayhDa-cQsQj

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 How to Wow New Students
00:26 The psychology of the Welcome Guest Box
02:12 Why We Mail a Box
04:21 The Hybrid Part of the Box

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:17 - 00:00:23:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You got new students showing up to your youth ministry, to your fall kickoff events. Are you ready to wow them or just hand them a stale pizza coupon? In this episode, we are going to detail an outline my full guest Strategy Newcomers Welcome box. It is linked down below if you want to check it out. And of course, as always, there are chapters listed down below.

00:00:23:25 - 00:00:47:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Minister Show. If you not haven't had a chance to meet yet. My name is Nick. In a 15 year youth ministry veteran, and in recent years I've stumbled into this idea of a welcome guest box. In fact, we detailed and outlined it in this episode, linked right here on screen or down below if you want to go check that out.

00:00:47:17 - 00:01:11:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the fact of the matter is that we have discovered that the psychology behind creating an intentional follow up box is threefold. First of all, you want the students who come to your youth ministry for the very first time. You want them to feel like a million bucks. You want to roll out the red carpet for them, and you want them to feel like you have thought about them and that you have, you know, you've planned to have them there.

00:01:11:01 - 00:01:30:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, like in recent years, we've discovered more and more with this generation that it's an overwhelming experience to walk into a youth ministry for the very first time. And so imagine walking into a place it's completely foreign, completely new, completely wild and completely crazy. And then you're like, here, here's this, and here's this, and here's this. And here's this.

00:01:30:18 - 00:01:52:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you're like, swag ING them out. And like, that's a great notion. However, in the moment they're just figuring out like, where's the bathroom? Meanwhile, they have to hold and track and keep all this stuff that you're just like loading them up with. And they're awkward because they're holding it, but like nobody else has it. And like, if you want them to truly get involved in your youth ministry, you want them like jumping into things like Gaga Ball and Nine square.

00:01:52:29 - 00:02:08:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like, they have things that they have to keep track of and like they don't know where's a safe place to actually lay it down. And so therefore, that's why we've pivoted to recently in our student ministry, sending a guest welcome box. And so they come, we gather all their information. We say, hey, thank you so much. So glad you're here.

00:02:08:27 - 00:02:26:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We pair them up with someone new and then we treat them just like any other normal student. Meanwhile, a few days later, they'll get on their doorstep a welcome box branded all the things, helping welcome them to our student ministry. And in that moment, they're then able to be completely swagged out and have all of the things that they need.

00:02:26:22 - 00:02:57:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But they're able to do it in a less threatening environment. They're able to do it at home. And so we love this strategy. And again, as I said in the previous episode, I've given a full breakdown of it. You can go check that out. And I also include some artwork for it. But in this episode, I'm going to include the artwork for my 2025 FA calendars so that you can include and you can start using that to start laying out and dishing out your full 2025 calendar.

00:02:57:08 - 00:03:20:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because again, if you're in this masterclass, which you are, this is video part two of the Fall Masterclass for Youth Ministry. Last week we talked about the world's Greatest Donut Kickoff event. And if you if that event did its job and new students came, then those students came to your youth ministry. And then now you're going to use today's episode, this welcome box to send out and welcome the new students to your ministry.

00:03:20:10 - 00:03:55:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, this first time or this, this calendar that's included in the welcome box, it is free for all members of my Patreon. If not, you can jump on and you can grab it for just a few bucks. I think it's like 3 or $4 over there on Patreon. But if you become a member, which is only $4 per month, not only do you get access to every single thing on my store, including like my seasonal social media packs, the welcome box from that past episode, and this fall calendar, but you also get a weekly bonus podcast where I go through what we do in our youth ministry and in our kickoff events,

00:03:55:12 - 00:04:16:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and it's basically like your weekly debrief meeting. Even if you don't have a team around you, it's always helpful to have someone else's voice and to just hear those things, to kind of get those ideas going in your in your brain and like in your creative juices. And so that's the value of, again, $4 per month is the, bonus podcast.

00:04:16:25 - 00:04:35:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's the other reason that I love this welcome box idea is because as soon as you open it up, we have a gigantic QR code, right when they open it up and at the top it says Welcome video and they scan it and it takes him to our YouTube channel. And so it's a welcome video from me and other people on our team.

00:04:35:07 - 00:04:56:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, if you're following this fall playlist last week, you also got them on your social media. So they hopefully went and checked out your social media last week because voting for the donuts was on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, whatever you have. And then this video also takes them to YouTube. So now it's the second social media touchpoint for them in as many days.

00:04:56:20 - 00:05:15:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if they're going to continue on, with this donut thing, if they're going to continue on to see this thing through, if they're going to keep coming back, they're going to interact with your social media more and more. And as we talked about in the previous video over the summer, the key to social media in youth ministry is not like a one time amazing viral video.

00:05:15:09 - 00:05:35:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The key is many micro connections over time so that they get used to and they get familiar with your brand and your social media, which is why it's so important to not only stay custom on social media, but also to stay, regular and consistent on social media, which is what my seasonal social media pack was meant to do over the summer.

00:05:35:18 - 00:05:58:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And big news in four episodes. The final episode of this fall, when we are launching our fall seasonal social media pack, we want to help you when creating not only custom content, but also creating serving opportunities for your students to to level up and lead these social media teams. And so now you might be thinking like, okay, so we got the world's greatest donut event, and now we got this welcome box.

00:05:58:20 - 00:06:21:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How do I know if any of these things are actually hitting, if we're actually making any discernible difference in the life of our student? I'm glad you asked, because in the next episode, we're going to talk about one of the key components of this, fall kickoff event. And it's the fact that we include we alluded to a little bit in last episode, but we include this moment of like 45 minutes of free time for students to do whatever they want.

00:06:21:14 - 00:06:33:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That video is going to be linked here on screen. Make sure that you're subscribed. If you're watching this live, so that you don't miss when that episode drops next Thursday. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hydrated.

]]> Episode 160: My #1 Fall Outreach Event for Youth Ministry + Free Donut Game Download! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/160 0b9cc50e-0d99-422e-9f28-1fc70d24ebd7 Thu, 31 Jul 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 160 My #1 Fall Outreach Event for Youth Ministry + Free Donut Game Download! full Nick Clason The ultimate fall youth ministry outreach event that actually gets students to show up—plus grab a free donut event download to boost your next youth group outreach. Whether you're planning fall events, student ministry games, or looking for fresh youth group outreach ideas, this episode breaks down how to win students with Sonlife's classic CPR strategy: Win, Build, Equip. Don’t miss this youth pastor resource that combines social media, donuts, and brackets into one unforgettable church outreach event! 10:11 no The ultimate fall youth ministry outreach event that actually gets students to show up—plus grab a free donut event download to boost your next youth group outreach. Whether you're planning fall events, student ministry games, or looking for fresh youth group outreach ideas, this episode breaks down how to win students with Sonlife's classic CPR strategy: Win, Build, Equip. Don’t miss this youth pastor resource that combines social media, donuts, and brackets into one unforgettable church outreach event! 🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/160 ☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=productsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link *🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Best Event Ever? 00:20 Youth Ministry CPR? 05:16 Why I use this Event Type Constantly! -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:07 - 00:00:26:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Planning a fall youth ministry kickoff event. Don't get lost in the pumpkin patch. Instead, plan an event that students actually show up for and one that returns dividends down the road. How? Glad you asked. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey, everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet. 00:00:26:15 - 00:00:50:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry My name is Nick Klassen, a 15 year youth ministry veteran. And in this episode, I want to share with you my all time favorite event archetype for youth ministry fall kickoffs. In fact, included in the link down below is everything that you're going to need, including shopping lists, graphics, and, the rundown in order to execute and pull this entire event off. 00:00:50:06 - 00:01:11:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But before we dive into that, I do want to talk just a little bit of youth ministry, philosophy and strategy. So if you're only here for the event guide, hit the chapter mark down below and jump to that part of the episode. But for the rest of us, like I want to ask this question like, is doing an event like, what is the purpose of doing an event in youth ministry? 00:01:11:14 - 00:01:32:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, I grew up under the tutelage of a ministry philosophy called Sun Life. Shout out to Sun Life. And they're still around. But, they are not as predominant or as prevalent as I remember them being when I was in middle school or high school. You know, my dad was a youth pastor, and he was closely associated and affiliated with them. 00:01:32:24 - 00:02:10:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so thus I went to like student based trainings and conferences. And they have a ministry philosophy called, spiritual CPR. And each of the letters in that are like an acronym for different things. So the C in spiritual CPR is like cultivate this idea of building and investing in a relationship. Like think about a friendship. And probably one of the things I remember the most from this was like, if you had a neighbor and like every single time you're outside, like gardening or getting the mail and you like bumped into your neighbor, and you're trying to, like, share your faith with them and share the gospel with them, like you probably wouldn't every 00:02:10:24 - 00:02:28:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry single time you talk to them, like, hey, if you died tonight, would you know exactly where you're going to be? And the sun life kind of strategy then implemented that back over into student ministry and is like, hey, every time you have an event, every time you especially have like an outreach event, like you don't have to necessarily share the gospel. 00:02:28:16 - 00:02:46:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Part of it is trust building and cultivating that ongoing relationship. And that might be a polarizing opinion, but that's sort of like the strategy and the philosophy that I've, you know, seen my youth ministries kind of thrive under and that I've sort of like adopted as a youth pastor, and also one that I grew up in as like a teenager. 00:02:46:11 - 00:03:09:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, like, this event is a cultivate style event. It's one where the goal is to like, cultivate and build relationships. Meanwhile, the P then stands for plant and that's like a regular like youth night. That's one where like you will, you know, obviously like teach a Bible lesson from Scripture and you're going to kind of be planting the seeds of like faith in about Jesus and like about what people understand. 00:03:09:04 - 00:03:25:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then finally, the R stands for reap. And so CPR, cultivate, plant reap. It's going to kind of have that like gardening kind of metaphor. But the reap right is like a farmer when it's time to harvest like they go out and they actually like take the dividends, take the yield from the harvest of what they cultivated the soil with. 00:03:26:00 - 00:03:53:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Of what, like they planted and then how that grew and then what was officially time for them to take that. And so this style of event that I'm about to share with you is a like a classic cultivate type of event, an event where the goal is to like just build a relationship and earn trust. And I especially think like a lot of times, I don't know about you, a lot of times I feel like youth pastors think the goal is to like earn trust with like the first time guest and like, well, we want to do that. 00:03:53:22 - 00:04:23:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I think more than that, the goal is to build trust with the student who's bringing their friend who already calls your church home. It's like that student wants to know, like, can I bring my friend to something at the church? And it not be weird and it not backfire on me and my church, not do something that makes me or my friend feel a little bit uncomfortable or like, because what you're asking someone a student to do is you're asking them to lay down a pretty amazing amount of social capital in order to bring their friend to this event. 00:04:23:10 - 00:04:40:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And we say it all the time as youth pastors, right? Bring your friends, bring your friends, bring your friends. It's like a common youth ministry sort of moniker. And so one of the things I like to do, and I only do these probably 3 or 4 times per year, is a strictly cultivate event. And now you might be thinking like you don't have curriculum, you don't have content. 00:04:40:13 - 00:05:04:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's one of the reasons why I link down below my hybrid strategy. Like recommends filming your messages. And so we've done before where like we didn't have the message, but we still had like a message for that week. It's still tied to our Sunday morning curriculum. And so like as students were leaving, we'd share like just a little clip and say, hey, this is on YouTube, scan this QR code, just go subscribe to our YouTube. 00:05:04:07 - 00:05:28:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it's a great way to kind of accomplish both of the things that you're looking for. So with all that being said, with that philosophy sort of late as a groundwork, what's the best fall outreach event idea for youth ministries? Let's check it out. So some of my favorite Cultivate Event style of outreach events are centered around and, predicated on this idea of a bracket. 00:05:28:13 - 00:05:46:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, if you've, you know, been new to my channel at any length of time, you can go back and look at some of these former episodes linked here on screen or down in the show notes. But I've detailed an outline these bracket ideas several different times. In fact, I have an episode strictly dedicated to this exact event that I'm going to kind of like rehash here. 00:05:46:29 - 00:06:10:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Again, it's this, world's greatest donut bracket. In fact, there's an entire a product centered around this on Download Youth Ministry. And here's a couple of the reasons why I like this style of of that. First and foremost, when I feel like when youth ministries get larger than 30 to 40, you basically have to just create like a themed gathering or a themed party of sorts. 00:06:10:09 - 00:06:29:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, like, whatever that party is like, you just kind of like chop that check in and like rehash it and like reuse it in different ways. But like, we do all sorts of different things. And actually this is the start of a master class like fall, fall youth Ministry Masterclass playlist. This is episode number one here on YouTube. 00:06:29:00 - 00:06:47:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm going to be giving you a A completely for free. But like step number one is having an a, an amazing kickoff event. And so at these kickoff events, this particular one is going to be donut themed. And so as we take this donut themed event, what are the ways that we utilize it and use it throughout this this night. 00:06:47:11 - 00:07:02:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now here's again, here's the reasons I like these bracket style events. Number one, it's a voting style event. And so, it's like a winner advances and the loser is out. But you can use it for multiple weeks in a row. I love things that like, can carry on throughout. So like this might be a great like launch night. 00:07:02:29 - 00:07:22:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You're going to launch all 16 of the different like donut options. But in the coming weeks you're going to vote them out. And so that has and promotes a carryover effect for students who may want to like bring their friends to this event. But then the friends come back and then again in the weeks that follow. Those events are those nights, I'm sorry are going to be more like standard youth ministry night. 00:07:22:02 - 00:07:49:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You're going to be teaching a message, you're going to be having a small group. You're going to be having discussion around what the Bible has to say. Meanwhile, this kind of donut themed thing is going on in the background. The other reason I like it is because it promotes social media. And again, you're going to want to subscribe because at the end of this five part masterclass, we are going to be talking about how to continue not only with this spark of social media, but how to then carry that on into a more regular rhythm, and one that you as a youth pastor, you may have to get up off the ground, but then you 00:07:49:28 - 00:08:11:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry fully hand it off to students because, you see, this world's greatest donut event is all meant to and aimed at pushing students to go check out your social channels, whether it's YouTube, TikTok, or over there on Instagram. So in the event guide, you're going to get a full service order. So we have a five minute countdown timer. It's a world's greatest donut themed countdown timer. 00:08:11:15 - 00:08:30:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It is available in the Download Youth Ministry link, again included in the show. Notes down below. And then at the beginning we like welcomed people. We told them that it was time to like, start voting, and we gave away some door prizes and some giveaways. We did some worship songs, and then we played a game called Guess That Donut. 00:08:30:19 - 00:08:48:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then we gave the winner like a big box of, like a dozen of, like, custom craft, like, you know, special curated donuts. And then we played the donut on a string game. That's where, like, you have a friend up above, like on a chair or on the stage with, like, a donut on a string. 00:08:48:02 - 00:09:09:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then the person down below has to be the first one to eat it. That's a super fun game. And then we and we're going to detail this fully in a future episode. Again, make sure you're subscribed. But we give our students like open kind of like rec free time in the middle of our event. So we have all sorts of different things in there like donut decorating, find the donut, steal the donut, donut tattoo stations again. 00:09:09:07 - 00:09:30:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Subscribe. We're going to go over that in the future episode. Then we called everybody back in and we gave away a grand prize of sorts. And so as you're looking ahead and as you're thinking about planning, I have like links, I have downloads, I have what you need in order to take this event to the next level that is downloaded and available for you completely for free. 00:09:30:12 - 00:09:54:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Go check out my free donut event guide. Go grab the World's Greatest Donut Guide, over on Download Youth Ministry and start planning your fall kickoff and your fall calendar, so that you have an event that is going to not only be amazing and fun and sweet, obviously, because donuts are amazing, but also you're going to start creating and building the groundwork for a strong hybrid and a strong social media presence. 00:09:54:24 - 00:10:10:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this is the perfect way to kick off your school year with this. And again, reminder at the end of this playlist, I'm going to be dropping something huge that you are not going to want to miss out on. So make sure that you're subscribed. And until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid. youth ministry, fall youth event, outreach ideas, youth group games, donut game, student ministry, youth pastor tips, church outreach, free youth ministry game, fall event ideas, win students, youth group planning, youth group growth, donut bracket, hybrid ministry, youth group donuts, student outreach, church games, youth pastor resources, youth event ideas, engaging youth, teen ministry games, fall calendar youth ministry The ultimate fall youth ministry outreach event that actually gets students to show up—plus grab a free donut event download to boost your next youth group outreach. Whether you're planning fall events, student ministry games, or looking for fresh youth group outreach ideas, this episode breaks down how to win students with Sonlife's classic CPR strategy: Win, Build, Equip. Don’t miss this youth pastor resource that combines social media, donuts, and brackets into one unforgettable church outreach event!

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

SHOW NOTES
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https://www.hybridministry.xyz/160

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

//BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Best Event Ever?
00:20 Youth Ministry CPR?
05:16 Why I use this Event Type Constantly!

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:07 - 00:00:26:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Planning a fall youth ministry kickoff event. Don't get lost in the pumpkin patch. Instead, plan an event that students actually show up for and one that returns dividends down the road. How? Glad you asked. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey, everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet.

00:00:26:15 - 00:00:50:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My name is Nick Klassen, a 15 year youth ministry veteran. And in this episode, I want to share with you my all time favorite event archetype for youth ministry fall kickoffs. In fact, included in the link down below is everything that you're going to need, including shopping lists, graphics, and, the rundown in order to execute and pull this entire event off.

00:00:50:06 - 00:01:11:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But before we dive into that, I do want to talk just a little bit of youth ministry, philosophy and strategy. So if you're only here for the event guide, hit the chapter mark down below and jump to that part of the episode. But for the rest of us, like I want to ask this question like, is doing an event like, what is the purpose of doing an event in youth ministry?

00:01:11:14 - 00:01:32:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, I grew up under the tutelage of a ministry philosophy called Sun Life. Shout out to Sun Life. And they're still around. But, they are not as predominant or as prevalent as I remember them being when I was in middle school or high school. You know, my dad was a youth pastor, and he was closely associated and affiliated with them.

00:01:32:24 - 00:02:10:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so thus I went to like student based trainings and conferences. And they have a ministry philosophy called, spiritual CPR. And each of the letters in that are like an acronym for different things. So the C in spiritual CPR is like cultivate this idea of building and investing in a relationship. Like think about a friendship. And probably one of the things I remember the most from this was like, if you had a neighbor and like every single time you're outside, like gardening or getting the mail and you like bumped into your neighbor, and you're trying to, like, share your faith with them and share the gospel with them, like you probably wouldn't every

00:02:10:24 - 00:02:28:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
single time you talk to them, like, hey, if you died tonight, would you know exactly where you're going to be? And the sun life kind of strategy then implemented that back over into student ministry and is like, hey, every time you have an event, every time you especially have like an outreach event, like you don't have to necessarily share the gospel.

00:02:28:16 - 00:02:46:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Part of it is trust building and cultivating that ongoing relationship. And that might be a polarizing opinion, but that's sort of like the strategy and the philosophy that I've, you know, seen my youth ministries kind of thrive under and that I've sort of like adopted as a youth pastor, and also one that I grew up in as like a teenager.

00:02:46:11 - 00:03:09:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, like, this event is a cultivate style event. It's one where the goal is to like, cultivate and build relationships. Meanwhile, the P then stands for plant and that's like a regular like youth night. That's one where like you will, you know, obviously like teach a Bible lesson from Scripture and you're going to kind of be planting the seeds of like faith in about Jesus and like about what people understand.

00:03:09:04 - 00:03:25:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then finally, the R stands for reap. And so CPR, cultivate, plant reap. It's going to kind of have that like gardening kind of metaphor. But the reap right is like a farmer when it's time to harvest like they go out and they actually like take the dividends, take the yield from the harvest of what they cultivated the soil with.

00:03:26:00 - 00:03:53:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Of what, like they planted and then how that grew and then what was officially time for them to take that. And so this style of event that I'm about to share with you is a like a classic cultivate type of event, an event where the goal is to like just build a relationship and earn trust. And I especially think like a lot of times, I don't know about you, a lot of times I feel like youth pastors think the goal is to like earn trust with like the first time guest and like, well, we want to do that.

00:03:53:22 - 00:04:23:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think more than that, the goal is to build trust with the student who's bringing their friend who already calls your church home. It's like that student wants to know, like, can I bring my friend to something at the church? And it not be weird and it not backfire on me and my church, not do something that makes me or my friend feel a little bit uncomfortable or like, because what you're asking someone a student to do is you're asking them to lay down a pretty amazing amount of social capital in order to bring their friend to this event.

00:04:23:10 - 00:04:40:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we say it all the time as youth pastors, right? Bring your friends, bring your friends, bring your friends. It's like a common youth ministry sort of moniker. And so one of the things I like to do, and I only do these probably 3 or 4 times per year, is a strictly cultivate event. And now you might be thinking like you don't have curriculum, you don't have content.

00:04:40:13 - 00:05:04:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's one of the reasons why I link down below my hybrid strategy. Like recommends filming your messages. And so we've done before where like we didn't have the message, but we still had like a message for that week. It's still tied to our Sunday morning curriculum. And so like as students were leaving, we'd share like just a little clip and say, hey, this is on YouTube, scan this QR code, just go subscribe to our YouTube.

00:05:04:07 - 00:05:28:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's a great way to kind of accomplish both of the things that you're looking for. So with all that being said, with that philosophy sort of late as a groundwork, what's the best fall outreach event idea for youth ministries? Let's check it out. So some of my favorite Cultivate Event style of outreach events are centered around and, predicated on this idea of a bracket.

00:05:28:13 - 00:05:46:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, if you've, you know, been new to my channel at any length of time, you can go back and look at some of these former episodes linked here on screen or down in the show notes. But I've detailed an outline these bracket ideas several different times. In fact, I have an episode strictly dedicated to this exact event that I'm going to kind of like rehash here.

00:05:46:29 - 00:06:10:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, it's this, world's greatest donut bracket. In fact, there's an entire a product centered around this on Download Youth Ministry. And here's a couple of the reasons why I like this style of of that. First and foremost, when I feel like when youth ministries get larger than 30 to 40, you basically have to just create like a themed gathering or a themed party of sorts.

00:06:10:09 - 00:06:29:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, like, whatever that party is like, you just kind of like chop that check in and like rehash it and like reuse it in different ways. But like, we do all sorts of different things. And actually this is the start of a master class like fall, fall youth Ministry Masterclass playlist. This is episode number one here on YouTube.

00:06:29:00 - 00:06:47:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to be giving you a A completely for free. But like step number one is having an a, an amazing kickoff event. And so at these kickoff events, this particular one is going to be donut themed. And so as we take this donut themed event, what are the ways that we utilize it and use it throughout this this night.

00:06:47:11 - 00:07:02:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now here's again, here's the reasons I like these bracket style events. Number one, it's a voting style event. And so, it's like a winner advances and the loser is out. But you can use it for multiple weeks in a row. I love things that like, can carry on throughout. So like this might be a great like launch night.

00:07:02:29 - 00:07:22:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're going to launch all 16 of the different like donut options. But in the coming weeks you're going to vote them out. And so that has and promotes a carryover effect for students who may want to like bring their friends to this event. But then the friends come back and then again in the weeks that follow. Those events are those nights, I'm sorry are going to be more like standard youth ministry night.

00:07:22:02 - 00:07:49:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're going to be teaching a message, you're going to be having a small group. You're going to be having discussion around what the Bible has to say. Meanwhile, this kind of donut themed thing is going on in the background. The other reason I like it is because it promotes social media. And again, you're going to want to subscribe because at the end of this five part masterclass, we are going to be talking about how to continue not only with this spark of social media, but how to then carry that on into a more regular rhythm, and one that you as a youth pastor, you may have to get up off the ground, but then you

00:07:49:28 - 00:08:11:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
fully hand it off to students because, you see, this world's greatest donut event is all meant to and aimed at pushing students to go check out your social channels, whether it's YouTube, TikTok, or over there on Instagram. So in the event guide, you're going to get a full service order. So we have a five minute countdown timer. It's a world's greatest donut themed countdown timer.

00:08:11:15 - 00:08:30:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It is available in the Download Youth Ministry link, again included in the show. Notes down below. And then at the beginning we like welcomed people. We told them that it was time to like, start voting, and we gave away some door prizes and some giveaways. We did some worship songs, and then we played a game called Guess That Donut.

00:08:30:19 - 00:08:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we gave the winner like a big box of, like a dozen of, like, custom craft, like, you know, special curated donuts. And then we played the donut on a string game. That's where, like, you have a friend up above, like on a chair or on the stage with, like, a donut on a string.

00:08:48:02 - 00:09:09:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the person down below has to be the first one to eat it. That's a super fun game. And then we and we're going to detail this fully in a future episode. Again, make sure you're subscribed. But we give our students like open kind of like rec free time in the middle of our event. So we have all sorts of different things in there like donut decorating, find the donut, steal the donut, donut tattoo stations again.

00:09:09:07 - 00:09:30:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Subscribe. We're going to go over that in the future episode. Then we called everybody back in and we gave away a grand prize of sorts. And so as you're looking ahead and as you're thinking about planning, I have like links, I have downloads, I have what you need in order to take this event to the next level that is downloaded and available for you completely for free.

00:09:30:12 - 00:09:54:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Go check out my free donut event guide. Go grab the World's Greatest Donut Guide, over on Download Youth Ministry and start planning your fall kickoff and your fall calendar, so that you have an event that is going to not only be amazing and fun and sweet, obviously, because donuts are amazing, but also you're going to start creating and building the groundwork for a strong hybrid and a strong social media presence.

00:09:54:24 - 00:10:10:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this is the perfect way to kick off your school year with this. And again, reminder at the end of this playlist, I'm going to be dropping something huge that you are not going to want to miss out on. So make sure that you're subscribed. And until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> The ultimate fall youth ministry outreach event that actually gets students to show up—plus grab a free donut event download to boost your next youth group outreach. Whether you're planning fall events, student ministry games, or looking for fresh youth group outreach ideas, this episode breaks down how to win students with Sonlife's classic CPR strategy: Win, Build, Equip. Don’t miss this youth pastor resource that combines social media, donuts, and brackets into one unforgettable church outreach event!

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/160

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Best Event Ever?
00:20 Youth Ministry CPR?
05:16 Why I use this Event Type Constantly!

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:07 - 00:00:26:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Planning a fall youth ministry kickoff event. Don't get lost in the pumpkin patch. Instead, plan an event that students actually show up for and one that returns dividends down the road. How? Glad you asked. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey, everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet.

00:00:26:15 - 00:00:50:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My name is Nick Klassen, a 15 year youth ministry veteran. And in this episode, I want to share with you my all time favorite event archetype for youth ministry fall kickoffs. In fact, included in the link down below is everything that you're going to need, including shopping lists, graphics, and, the rundown in order to execute and pull this entire event off.

00:00:50:06 - 00:01:11:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But before we dive into that, I do want to talk just a little bit of youth ministry, philosophy and strategy. So if you're only here for the event guide, hit the chapter mark down below and jump to that part of the episode. But for the rest of us, like I want to ask this question like, is doing an event like, what is the purpose of doing an event in youth ministry?

00:01:11:14 - 00:01:32:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, I grew up under the tutelage of a ministry philosophy called Sun Life. Shout out to Sun Life. And they're still around. But, they are not as predominant or as prevalent as I remember them being when I was in middle school or high school. You know, my dad was a youth pastor, and he was closely associated and affiliated with them.

00:01:32:24 - 00:02:10:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so thus I went to like student based trainings and conferences. And they have a ministry philosophy called, spiritual CPR. And each of the letters in that are like an acronym for different things. So the C in spiritual CPR is like cultivate this idea of building and investing in a relationship. Like think about a friendship. And probably one of the things I remember the most from this was like, if you had a neighbor and like every single time you're outside, like gardening or getting the mail and you like bumped into your neighbor, and you're trying to, like, share your faith with them and share the gospel with them, like you probably wouldn't every

00:02:10:24 - 00:02:28:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
single time you talk to them, like, hey, if you died tonight, would you know exactly where you're going to be? And the sun life kind of strategy then implemented that back over into student ministry and is like, hey, every time you have an event, every time you especially have like an outreach event, like you don't have to necessarily share the gospel.

00:02:28:16 - 00:02:46:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Part of it is trust building and cultivating that ongoing relationship. And that might be a polarizing opinion, but that's sort of like the strategy and the philosophy that I've, you know, seen my youth ministries kind of thrive under and that I've sort of like adopted as a youth pastor, and also one that I grew up in as like a teenager.

00:02:46:11 - 00:03:09:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, like, this event is a cultivate style event. It's one where the goal is to like, cultivate and build relationships. Meanwhile, the P then stands for plant and that's like a regular like youth night. That's one where like you will, you know, obviously like teach a Bible lesson from Scripture and you're going to kind of be planting the seeds of like faith in about Jesus and like about what people understand.

00:03:09:04 - 00:03:25:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then finally, the R stands for reap. And so CPR, cultivate, plant reap. It's going to kind of have that like gardening kind of metaphor. But the reap right is like a farmer when it's time to harvest like they go out and they actually like take the dividends, take the yield from the harvest of what they cultivated the soil with.

00:03:26:00 - 00:03:53:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Of what, like they planted and then how that grew and then what was officially time for them to take that. And so this style of event that I'm about to share with you is a like a classic cultivate type of event, an event where the goal is to like just build a relationship and earn trust. And I especially think like a lot of times, I don't know about you, a lot of times I feel like youth pastors think the goal is to like earn trust with like the first time guest and like, well, we want to do that.

00:03:53:22 - 00:04:23:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think more than that, the goal is to build trust with the student who's bringing their friend who already calls your church home. It's like that student wants to know, like, can I bring my friend to something at the church? And it not be weird and it not backfire on me and my church, not do something that makes me or my friend feel a little bit uncomfortable or like, because what you're asking someone a student to do is you're asking them to lay down a pretty amazing amount of social capital in order to bring their friend to this event.

00:04:23:10 - 00:04:40:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we say it all the time as youth pastors, right? Bring your friends, bring your friends, bring your friends. It's like a common youth ministry sort of moniker. And so one of the things I like to do, and I only do these probably 3 or 4 times per year, is a strictly cultivate event. And now you might be thinking like you don't have curriculum, you don't have content.

00:04:40:13 - 00:05:04:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's one of the reasons why I link down below my hybrid strategy. Like recommends filming your messages. And so we've done before where like we didn't have the message, but we still had like a message for that week. It's still tied to our Sunday morning curriculum. And so like as students were leaving, we'd share like just a little clip and say, hey, this is on YouTube, scan this QR code, just go subscribe to our YouTube.

00:05:04:07 - 00:05:28:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's a great way to kind of accomplish both of the things that you're looking for. So with all that being said, with that philosophy sort of late as a groundwork, what's the best fall outreach event idea for youth ministries? Let's check it out. So some of my favorite Cultivate Event style of outreach events are centered around and, predicated on this idea of a bracket.

00:05:28:13 - 00:05:46:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, if you've, you know, been new to my channel at any length of time, you can go back and look at some of these former episodes linked here on screen or down in the show notes. But I've detailed an outline these bracket ideas several different times. In fact, I have an episode strictly dedicated to this exact event that I'm going to kind of like rehash here.

00:05:46:29 - 00:06:10:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, it's this, world's greatest donut bracket. In fact, there's an entire a product centered around this on Download Youth Ministry. And here's a couple of the reasons why I like this style of of that. First and foremost, when I feel like when youth ministries get larger than 30 to 40, you basically have to just create like a themed gathering or a themed party of sorts.

00:06:10:09 - 00:06:29:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, like, whatever that party is like, you just kind of like chop that check in and like rehash it and like reuse it in different ways. But like, we do all sorts of different things. And actually this is the start of a master class like fall, fall youth Ministry Masterclass playlist. This is episode number one here on YouTube.

00:06:29:00 - 00:06:47:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to be giving you a A completely for free. But like step number one is having an a, an amazing kickoff event. And so at these kickoff events, this particular one is going to be donut themed. And so as we take this donut themed event, what are the ways that we utilize it and use it throughout this this night.

00:06:47:11 - 00:07:02:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now here's again, here's the reasons I like these bracket style events. Number one, it's a voting style event. And so, it's like a winner advances and the loser is out. But you can use it for multiple weeks in a row. I love things that like, can carry on throughout. So like this might be a great like launch night.

00:07:02:29 - 00:07:22:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're going to launch all 16 of the different like donut options. But in the coming weeks you're going to vote them out. And so that has and promotes a carryover effect for students who may want to like bring their friends to this event. But then the friends come back and then again in the weeks that follow. Those events are those nights, I'm sorry are going to be more like standard youth ministry night.

00:07:22:02 - 00:07:49:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're going to be teaching a message, you're going to be having a small group. You're going to be having discussion around what the Bible has to say. Meanwhile, this kind of donut themed thing is going on in the background. The other reason I like it is because it promotes social media. And again, you're going to want to subscribe because at the end of this five part masterclass, we are going to be talking about how to continue not only with this spark of social media, but how to then carry that on into a more regular rhythm, and one that you as a youth pastor, you may have to get up off the ground, but then you

00:07:49:28 - 00:08:11:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
fully hand it off to students because, you see, this world's greatest donut event is all meant to and aimed at pushing students to go check out your social channels, whether it's YouTube, TikTok, or over there on Instagram. So in the event guide, you're going to get a full service order. So we have a five minute countdown timer. It's a world's greatest donut themed countdown timer.

00:08:11:15 - 00:08:30:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It is available in the Download Youth Ministry link, again included in the show. Notes down below. And then at the beginning we like welcomed people. We told them that it was time to like, start voting, and we gave away some door prizes and some giveaways. We did some worship songs, and then we played a game called Guess That Donut.

00:08:30:19 - 00:08:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we gave the winner like a big box of, like a dozen of, like, custom craft, like, you know, special curated donuts. And then we played the donut on a string game. That's where, like, you have a friend up above, like on a chair or on the stage with, like, a donut on a string.

00:08:48:02 - 00:09:09:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the person down below has to be the first one to eat it. That's a super fun game. And then we and we're going to detail this fully in a future episode. Again, make sure you're subscribed. But we give our students like open kind of like rec free time in the middle of our event. So we have all sorts of different things in there like donut decorating, find the donut, steal the donut, donut tattoo stations again.

00:09:09:07 - 00:09:30:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Subscribe. We're going to go over that in the future episode. Then we called everybody back in and we gave away a grand prize of sorts. And so as you're looking ahead and as you're thinking about planning, I have like links, I have downloads, I have what you need in order to take this event to the next level that is downloaded and available for you completely for free.

00:09:30:12 - 00:09:54:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Go check out my free donut event guide. Go grab the World's Greatest Donut Guide, over on Download Youth Ministry and start planning your fall kickoff and your fall calendar, so that you have an event that is going to not only be amazing and fun and sweet, obviously, because donuts are amazing, but also you're going to start creating and building the groundwork for a strong hybrid and a strong social media presence.

00:09:54:24 - 00:10:10:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this is the perfect way to kick off your school year with this. And again, reminder at the end of this playlist, I'm going to be dropping something huge that you are not going to want to miss out on. So make sure that you're subscribed. And until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 155: The Secret Sauce to Consistent Summer Engagement https://www.hybridministry.xyz/155 35b1d4fd-91ec-4113-acbc-2dc376af63e6 Thu, 26 Jun 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 155 The Secret Sauce to Consistent Summer Engagement full Nick Clason Consistency is hard—unless you steal my system. In this episode, I break down my exact weekly summer content rhythm for youth ministry using the ☀️ Summer Seasonal Social Media Pack: 1 spiritual reel, 1 fun reel, 1 carousel, and some bonus hybrid magic. You’ll get the full template, schedule, and content—so you can stay consistent, connected, and (mostly) sane all summer long. 8:09 no Consistency is hard—unless you steal my system. In this episode, I break down my exact weekly summer content rhythm for youth ministry using the ☀️ Summer Seasonal Social Media Pack: 1 spiritual reel, 1 fun reel, 1 carousel, and some bonus hybrid magic. You’ll get the full template, schedule, and content—so you can stay consistent, connected, and (mostly) sane all summer long. ☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=productsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link *🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/155 ✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Dodgeball in a Cornfield &amp; Summer Youth Ministry 00:55 My Secret Sauce Strategy 01:46 Monday’s Post 03:17 Wednesday’s Post 04:25 Friday’s Post 05:08 Bonus Ideas 06:11 Amazing Deal -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:06 - 00:00:29:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Consistency is hard unless you have a system. So steal mine if I'm giving you permission. So can we just be honest? Like summer youth ministry is kind of like playing dodgeball in a cornfield. No walls, no rules. Just pure chaos. You're leaders gone. You're students at camp. You simply trying to keep your Instagram feed, not looking like a ghost town. 00:00:29:08 - 00:00:56:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well, in this video, I'm going to share with you my weekly social media strategy and how I grew a YouTube channel, along with several other social accounts to over 900 subscribers, completely organically. And best yet, it's actually all available to you. Link in the description. For less than a cost of a weekly cup of Starbucks. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. 00:00:56:24 - 00:01:18:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet you. My name is Nick Clayton and in the trenches youth pastor currently serving on assignment in the DFW Dallas Fort Worth area. And I've been passionate about this thing. Digital ministry. I'm trying to make it, possible, accessible and frankly, easy for all of us. 00:01:18:22 - 00:01:45:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I have a full proof system that I actually I want to share with you. And like I said in the open, steal it, man, it is yours. And so every single Monday, I post some sort of spiritual real. My goal, my goal is to post two pieces of content per day. However, what I recommend for most churches and most youth pastors who, maybe don't have as big of a team or as much experience with content is to post three reels per week. 00:01:45:12 - 00:02:04:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you are following my proposed and recommended secret sauce strategy, it would be posting some sort of spiritual reel per day. Now, if you prefilled your messages, or even if you like, capture your video live in the room somehow, then I recommend posting it into something like an opus clip. There's a link down below for you to check out. 00:02:04:25 - 00:02:28:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Opus clip where I'll take your message and I'll just chop it up for you using I super easy, super great. The other good thing is, if you do have some sort of like long form message version of your, of your message, if you're teaching in some way, shape or form, when you upload that to like YouTube shorts, you can link a featured video to the short and it can link out to your long form of that. 00:02:28:28 - 00:02:57:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so that's what that's what we do. If you don't have either a, the capacity to sit down ahead of time film, that's what we do and that's what I recommend or B, capture it live in the room when you're teaching, then see if you download my social media pack. I actually have, but a bunch of different scripts to help you get through the summer of videos that you can just shoot on your phone selfie style and edit directly in something like a TikTok editor, an Instagram Reels editor, or even something like Cap Cut. 00:02:57:15 - 00:03:16:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so that's what I would recommend you doing on Monday. And listen, if you're going to steal this, you're just going to grab my strategy. The number one way that you could give back to this channel is a very simple like or a subscribe. It really it costs you nothing over on YouTube or on your podcast catcher. And it really does help us out a whole bunch. 00:03:17:01 - 00:03:35:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Moving on. The second style of post I recommend that you do is do something fun. You know, I think a lot of times in youth ministry we feel like we have to be serious all the time, especially when it comes to what's going on on social media. But the fact of the matter is that think about your personal social media habits, whatever platform it is for you. 00:03:35:23 - 00:03:56:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Maybe it's Instagram, maybe it's TikTok, maybe it's YouTube, maybe it's even something like Reddit or Facebook. You know, I feel a lot of youth pastors on Facebook. Why do you get on social media? Maybe you always get on to, like, do your devotions in a low key sort of sense of the way, hoping that your church that you follow is going to post scripture and, and some sort of reels like that. 00:03:57:01 - 00:04:15:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Or if you're like me, you get on to laugh, to be entertained. Maybe I'm a huge basketball fan. I get on to, watch basketball content. And sometimes, sometimes I'm just going to be very honest with you. Sometimes I even I even get in arguments about my favorite team. So, that's a confession I'm willing to make, but post something fun. 00:04:15:12 - 00:04:48:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And in this downloaded pack, I include some done for you fun content, emoji guesses, or transition hook style videos. Things to have fun with your students. And then Friday, go ahead and post some sort of carousel post. Post a Bible verse or post, something spiritual like what to do if you're facing anxiety. You know, I, I posted that, recently, actually, this link right up here at the top of the screen is, from a video what I posted using my weekly summer content pack and the carousel post performed incredibly well. 00:04:48:08 - 00:05:02:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Go back and listen to that one. You'll see the ways that people were responding to it and says what to do when I'm facing anxiety, what to do when I'm struggling with anger, what to do when I'm struggling with lust, and we feel some of those in there completely done for you. Grab them, download them, post them to your feed and use them. 00:05:02:24 - 00:05:38:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And they're there for you and they're there for the taking. But I also recommend, in addition to some of these things that I've given to you, I've included some of my bonus content. And every week we get together with some of our students and we do man on the street interview style videos, or we do, tier rankings, or we do a guessing game called seven questions like, and we'll get students together on camera, either me versus them, them versus a staff person or them versus each other with podcast microphones or just a little like Bluetooth connected to your phone's sort of microphone, and which interview them we like, have fun, chatting it 00:05:38:26 - 00:05:57:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry up with students, hearing their opinion, and then also like kind of messing around with them on on the edit, which is another really kind of like fun way to create content not only for your students, but also with your students and all of that, all of that. The good news is included in my summer seasonal social media pack. 00:05:57:20 - 00:06:20:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's it. That's my one week. You take that, you repeat, you rinse, you repeat. You do it again, copy it, steal it, and implement it in your ministry. But hold on a second. I got an amazing deal for you on the other side. Check it out. So there's a lot going on this summer, I get it. And you want to stay active even when you're doing slip and slide kickball. 00:06:20:16 - 00:06:42:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This isn't a metaphor. I really own this, and someone's probably definitely gotten hurt on it before. So here's the deal I don't spend six hours a day. I don't spend six hours a week on all of this. I've put all of this together. So all you need to do is hit the link in the description and go download the Summer Seasonal Social Media pack. 00:06:42:02 - 00:07:01:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It has my weekly proposed schedule for you for the summer. It also has some pre-made templates, things like man on the street, questions, graphics. All you got to do is overlay that in an editor and you can do it directly on your phone, or even in something a little bit more upgraded, like an Adobe Premiere Pro or a DaVinci resolve. 00:07:01:09 - 00:07:21:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then half of the post that you're going to get are completely done for you. Plug and play and you're off to the races. The other 50% is custom, because I don't think that a fully downloadable, where it removes your face and removes your voice and it removes your personality. I don't think that's a good strategy for social media in 2025. 00:07:21:07 - 00:07:40:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so the good news about my pack is that I still allow you to be the voice, to be the face, to create content with and for your students. And you and your students are featured on your social platforms. But I've done all the heavy lifting on their scripts and graphics and templates and, telling you exactly what to do. 00:07:40:02 - 00:08:04:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All you gotta do is follow my instructions, put a cell phone camera and you are off to the races. The result? Consistency, engagement, and not fumbling the bag on your social media feeds this summer. Listen, I got you a link down in the description. Thank you guys so much for being here on the Hybrid Ministry Show as we attempt to make digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible. 00:08:04:10 - 00:08:08:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid. youth ministry, youth pastor, student ministry, church social media, summer social media, consistent content, hybrid ministry, church growth, social media strategy, youth group, summer engagement, church reels, Instagram for churches, TikTok for ministry, Brady Shearer, Pro Church Tools, ministry marketing, social media pack, done for you content, seasonal content, youth group tips, digital discipleship, church communication, summer ministry Consistency is hard—unless you steal my system. In this episode, I break down my exact weekly summer content rhythm for youth ministry using the ☀️ Summer Seasonal Social Media Pack: 1 spiritual reel, 1 fun reel, 1 carousel, and some bonus hybrid magic. You’ll get the full template, schedule, and content—so you can stay consistent, connected, and (mostly) sane all summer long.

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/155

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Dodgeball in a Cornfield & Summer Youth Ministry
00:55 My Secret Sauce Strategy
01:46 Monday’s Post
03:17 Wednesday’s Post
04:25 Friday’s Post
05:08 Bonus Ideas
06:11 Amazing Deal

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:06 - 00:00:29:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Consistency is hard unless you have a system. So steal mine if I'm giving you permission. So can we just be honest? Like summer youth ministry is kind of like playing dodgeball in a cornfield. No walls, no rules. Just pure chaos. You're leaders gone. You're students at camp. You simply trying to keep your Instagram feed, not looking like a ghost town.

00:00:29:08 - 00:00:56:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, in this video, I'm going to share with you my weekly social media strategy and how I grew a YouTube channel, along with several other social accounts to over 900 subscribers, completely organically. And best yet, it's actually all available to you. Link in the description. For less than a cost of a weekly cup of Starbucks. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00:00:56:24 - 00:01:18:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet you. My name is Nick Clayton and in the trenches youth pastor currently serving on assignment in the DFW Dallas Fort Worth area. And I've been passionate about this thing. Digital ministry. I'm trying to make it, possible, accessible and frankly, easy for all of us.

00:01:18:22 - 00:01:45:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I have a full proof system that I actually I want to share with you. And like I said in the open, steal it, man, it is yours. And so every single Monday, I post some sort of spiritual real. My goal, my goal is to post two pieces of content per day. However, what I recommend for most churches and most youth pastors who, maybe don't have as big of a team or as much experience with content is to post three reels per week.

00:01:45:12 - 00:02:04:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you are following my proposed and recommended secret sauce strategy, it would be posting some sort of spiritual reel per day. Now, if you prefilled your messages, or even if you like, capture your video live in the room somehow, then I recommend posting it into something like an opus clip. There's a link down below for you to check out.

00:02:04:25 - 00:02:28:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Opus clip where I'll take your message and I'll just chop it up for you using I super easy, super great. The other good thing is, if you do have some sort of like long form message version of your, of your message, if you're teaching in some way, shape or form, when you upload that to like YouTube shorts, you can link a featured video to the short and it can link out to your long form of that.

00:02:28:28 - 00:02:57:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's what that's what we do. If you don't have either a, the capacity to sit down ahead of time film, that's what we do and that's what I recommend or B, capture it live in the room when you're teaching, then see if you download my social media pack. I actually have, but a bunch of different scripts to help you get through the summer of videos that you can just shoot on your phone selfie style and edit directly in something like a TikTok editor, an Instagram Reels editor, or even something like Cap Cut.

00:02:57:15 - 00:03:16:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's what I would recommend you doing on Monday. And listen, if you're going to steal this, you're just going to grab my strategy. The number one way that you could give back to this channel is a very simple like or a subscribe. It really it costs you nothing over on YouTube or on your podcast catcher. And it really does help us out a whole bunch.

00:03:17:01 - 00:03:35:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Moving on. The second style of post I recommend that you do is do something fun. You know, I think a lot of times in youth ministry we feel like we have to be serious all the time, especially when it comes to what's going on on social media. But the fact of the matter is that think about your personal social media habits, whatever platform it is for you.

00:03:35:23 - 00:03:56:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Maybe it's Instagram, maybe it's TikTok, maybe it's YouTube, maybe it's even something like Reddit or Facebook. You know, I feel a lot of youth pastors on Facebook. Why do you get on social media? Maybe you always get on to, like, do your devotions in a low key sort of sense of the way, hoping that your church that you follow is going to post scripture and, and some sort of reels like that.

00:03:57:01 - 00:04:15:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or if you're like me, you get on to laugh, to be entertained. Maybe I'm a huge basketball fan. I get on to, watch basketball content. And sometimes, sometimes I'm just going to be very honest with you. Sometimes I even I even get in arguments about my favorite team. So, that's a confession I'm willing to make, but post something fun.

00:04:15:12 - 00:04:48:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in this downloaded pack, I include some done for you fun content, emoji guesses, or transition hook style videos. Things to have fun with your students. And then Friday, go ahead and post some sort of carousel post. Post a Bible verse or post, something spiritual like what to do if you're facing anxiety. You know, I, I posted that, recently, actually, this link right up here at the top of the screen is, from a video what I posted using my weekly summer content pack and the carousel post performed incredibly well.

00:04:48:08 - 00:05:02:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Go back and listen to that one. You'll see the ways that people were responding to it and says what to do when I'm facing anxiety, what to do when I'm struggling with anger, what to do when I'm struggling with lust, and we feel some of those in there completely done for you. Grab them, download them, post them to your feed and use them.

00:05:02:24 - 00:05:38:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And they're there for you and they're there for the taking. But I also recommend, in addition to some of these things that I've given to you, I've included some of my bonus content. And every week we get together with some of our students and we do man on the street interview style videos, or we do, tier rankings, or we do a guessing game called seven questions like, and we'll get students together on camera, either me versus them, them versus a staff person or them versus each other with podcast microphones or just a little like Bluetooth connected to your phone's sort of microphone, and which interview them we like, have fun, chatting it

00:05:38:26 - 00:05:57:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
up with students, hearing their opinion, and then also like kind of messing around with them on on the edit, which is another really kind of like fun way to create content not only for your students, but also with your students and all of that, all of that. The good news is included in my summer seasonal social media pack.

00:05:57:20 - 00:06:20:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's it. That's my one week. You take that, you repeat, you rinse, you repeat. You do it again, copy it, steal it, and implement it in your ministry. But hold on a second. I got an amazing deal for you on the other side. Check it out. So there's a lot going on this summer, I get it. And you want to stay active even when you're doing slip and slide kickball.

00:06:20:16 - 00:06:42:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This isn't a metaphor. I really own this, and someone's probably definitely gotten hurt on it before. So here's the deal I don't spend six hours a day. I don't spend six hours a week on all of this. I've put all of this together. So all you need to do is hit the link in the description and go download the Summer Seasonal Social Media pack.

00:06:42:02 - 00:07:01:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It has my weekly proposed schedule for you for the summer. It also has some pre-made templates, things like man on the street, questions, graphics. All you got to do is overlay that in an editor and you can do it directly on your phone, or even in something a little bit more upgraded, like an Adobe Premiere Pro or a DaVinci resolve.

00:07:01:09 - 00:07:21:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then half of the post that you're going to get are completely done for you. Plug and play and you're off to the races. The other 50% is custom, because I don't think that a fully downloadable, where it removes your face and removes your voice and it removes your personality. I don't think that's a good strategy for social media in 2025.

00:07:21:07 - 00:07:40:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the good news about my pack is that I still allow you to be the voice, to be the face, to create content with and for your students. And you and your students are featured on your social platforms. But I've done all the heavy lifting on their scripts and graphics and templates and, telling you exactly what to do.

00:07:40:02 - 00:08:04:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All you gotta do is follow my instructions, put a cell phone camera and you are off to the races. The result? Consistency, engagement, and not fumbling the bag on your social media feeds this summer. Listen, I got you a link down in the description. Thank you guys so much for being here on the Hybrid Ministry Show as we attempt to make digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible.

00:08:04:10 - 00:08:08:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Consistency is hard—unless you steal my system. In this episode, I break down my exact weekly summer content rhythm for youth ministry using the ☀️ Summer Seasonal Social Media Pack: 1 spiritual reel, 1 fun reel, 1 carousel, and some bonus hybrid magic. You’ll get the full template, schedule, and content—so you can stay consistent, connected, and (mostly) sane all summer long.

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Dodgeball in a Cornfield & Summer Youth Ministry
00:55 My Secret Sauce Strategy
01:46 Monday’s Post
03:17 Wednesday’s Post
04:25 Friday’s Post
05:08 Bonus Ideas
06:11 Amazing Deal

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:06 - 00:00:29:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Consistency is hard unless you have a system. So steal mine if I'm giving you permission. So can we just be honest? Like summer youth ministry is kind of like playing dodgeball in a cornfield. No walls, no rules. Just pure chaos. You're leaders gone. You're students at camp. You simply trying to keep your Instagram feed, not looking like a ghost town.

00:00:29:08 - 00:00:56:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, in this video, I'm going to share with you my weekly social media strategy and how I grew a YouTube channel, along with several other social accounts to over 900 subscribers, completely organically. And best yet, it's actually all available to you. Link in the description. For less than a cost of a weekly cup of Starbucks. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00:00:56:24 - 00:01:18:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet you. My name is Nick Clayton and in the trenches youth pastor currently serving on assignment in the DFW Dallas Fort Worth area. And I've been passionate about this thing. Digital ministry. I'm trying to make it, possible, accessible and frankly, easy for all of us.

00:01:18:22 - 00:01:45:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I have a full proof system that I actually I want to share with you. And like I said in the open, steal it, man, it is yours. And so every single Monday, I post some sort of spiritual real. My goal, my goal is to post two pieces of content per day. However, what I recommend for most churches and most youth pastors who, maybe don't have as big of a team or as much experience with content is to post three reels per week.

00:01:45:12 - 00:02:04:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you are following my proposed and recommended secret sauce strategy, it would be posting some sort of spiritual reel per day. Now, if you prefilled your messages, or even if you like, capture your video live in the room somehow, then I recommend posting it into something like an opus clip. There's a link down below for you to check out.

00:02:04:25 - 00:02:28:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Opus clip where I'll take your message and I'll just chop it up for you using I super easy, super great. The other good thing is, if you do have some sort of like long form message version of your, of your message, if you're teaching in some way, shape or form, when you upload that to like YouTube shorts, you can link a featured video to the short and it can link out to your long form of that.

00:02:28:28 - 00:02:57:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's what that's what we do. If you don't have either a, the capacity to sit down ahead of time film, that's what we do and that's what I recommend or B, capture it live in the room when you're teaching, then see if you download my social media pack. I actually have, but a bunch of different scripts to help you get through the summer of videos that you can just shoot on your phone selfie style and edit directly in something like a TikTok editor, an Instagram Reels editor, or even something like Cap Cut.

00:02:57:15 - 00:03:16:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's what I would recommend you doing on Monday. And listen, if you're going to steal this, you're just going to grab my strategy. The number one way that you could give back to this channel is a very simple like or a subscribe. It really it costs you nothing over on YouTube or on your podcast catcher. And it really does help us out a whole bunch.

00:03:17:01 - 00:03:35:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Moving on. The second style of post I recommend that you do is do something fun. You know, I think a lot of times in youth ministry we feel like we have to be serious all the time, especially when it comes to what's going on on social media. But the fact of the matter is that think about your personal social media habits, whatever platform it is for you.

00:03:35:23 - 00:03:56:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Maybe it's Instagram, maybe it's TikTok, maybe it's YouTube, maybe it's even something like Reddit or Facebook. You know, I feel a lot of youth pastors on Facebook. Why do you get on social media? Maybe you always get on to, like, do your devotions in a low key sort of sense of the way, hoping that your church that you follow is going to post scripture and, and some sort of reels like that.

00:03:57:01 - 00:04:15:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or if you're like me, you get on to laugh, to be entertained. Maybe I'm a huge basketball fan. I get on to, watch basketball content. And sometimes, sometimes I'm just going to be very honest with you. Sometimes I even I even get in arguments about my favorite team. So, that's a confession I'm willing to make, but post something fun.

00:04:15:12 - 00:04:48:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in this downloaded pack, I include some done for you fun content, emoji guesses, or transition hook style videos. Things to have fun with your students. And then Friday, go ahead and post some sort of carousel post. Post a Bible verse or post, something spiritual like what to do if you're facing anxiety. You know, I, I posted that, recently, actually, this link right up here at the top of the screen is, from a video what I posted using my weekly summer content pack and the carousel post performed incredibly well.

00:04:48:08 - 00:05:02:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Go back and listen to that one. You'll see the ways that people were responding to it and says what to do when I'm facing anxiety, what to do when I'm struggling with anger, what to do when I'm struggling with lust, and we feel some of those in there completely done for you. Grab them, download them, post them to your feed and use them.

00:05:02:24 - 00:05:38:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And they're there for you and they're there for the taking. But I also recommend, in addition to some of these things that I've given to you, I've included some of my bonus content. And every week we get together with some of our students and we do man on the street interview style videos, or we do, tier rankings, or we do a guessing game called seven questions like, and we'll get students together on camera, either me versus them, them versus a staff person or them versus each other with podcast microphones or just a little like Bluetooth connected to your phone's sort of microphone, and which interview them we like, have fun, chatting it

00:05:38:26 - 00:05:57:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
up with students, hearing their opinion, and then also like kind of messing around with them on on the edit, which is another really kind of like fun way to create content not only for your students, but also with your students and all of that, all of that. The good news is included in my summer seasonal social media pack.

00:05:57:20 - 00:06:20:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's it. That's my one week. You take that, you repeat, you rinse, you repeat. You do it again, copy it, steal it, and implement it in your ministry. But hold on a second. I got an amazing deal for you on the other side. Check it out. So there's a lot going on this summer, I get it. And you want to stay active even when you're doing slip and slide kickball.

00:06:20:16 - 00:06:42:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This isn't a metaphor. I really own this, and someone's probably definitely gotten hurt on it before. So here's the deal I don't spend six hours a day. I don't spend six hours a week on all of this. I've put all of this together. So all you need to do is hit the link in the description and go download the Summer Seasonal Social Media pack.

00:06:42:02 - 00:07:01:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It has my weekly proposed schedule for you for the summer. It also has some pre-made templates, things like man on the street, questions, graphics. All you got to do is overlay that in an editor and you can do it directly on your phone, or even in something a little bit more upgraded, like an Adobe Premiere Pro or a DaVinci resolve.

00:07:01:09 - 00:07:21:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then half of the post that you're going to get are completely done for you. Plug and play and you're off to the races. The other 50% is custom, because I don't think that a fully downloadable, where it removes your face and removes your voice and it removes your personality. I don't think that's a good strategy for social media in 2025.

00:07:21:07 - 00:07:40:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the good news about my pack is that I still allow you to be the voice, to be the face, to create content with and for your students. And you and your students are featured on your social platforms. But I've done all the heavy lifting on their scripts and graphics and templates and, telling you exactly what to do.

00:07:40:02 - 00:08:04:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All you gotta do is follow my instructions, put a cell phone camera and you are off to the races. The result? Consistency, engagement, and not fumbling the bag on your social media feeds this summer. Listen, I got you a link down in the description. Thank you guys so much for being here on the Hybrid Ministry Show as we attempt to make digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible.

00:08:04:10 - 00:08:08:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 151: Gaga Ball vs 9-Square https://www.hybridministry.xyz/151 1c149181-0dcb-4cb8-ad5f-4c38e83692af Thu, 29 May 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 151 Gaga Ball vs 9-Square full Nick Clason Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game! 9:02 no Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game! 9-SQUARE https://walmrt.us/4lFQtMq GAGA BALL https://walmrt.us/42T5weo ☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=productsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link *🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/151 🦸 BECOME A HYBRID HERO https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Gaga Ball vs 9-Square 00:26 Pros &amp; Cons of Gaga Ball in Youth Ministry 02:53 Pros &amp; Cons of 9-Square 05:43 Making Your Decision -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game 00:00:26:28 - 00:00:52:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hey, everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. Today we are going to be exploring Gaga ball versus nine square. And let's just imagine that you only have a limited number of budget. And you're making a decision between either Gaga Ball or nine square. What do you choose and why? And I got links listed down below for both of them so that you can make your purchase based on and after this video. 00:00:52:08 - 00:01:22:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So let's hop in. Gaga ball. What are the pros and the cons of Gaga Ball? I would say Gaga Ball is super fun. It's fast paced, it's upbeat. It's a good time for everyone who's involved. And one of the other pros in that is it's almost an unlimited capacity. I've seen it before in different youth ministry settings of run or like even camps where there's been what seems to be almost 50 kids all kind of flooded into the Gaga ball, center. 00:01:22:19 - 00:01:44:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They're like, you can get so many kids now. The game does kind of take forever, but you can facilitate a game with a high number of students. And so those are just a couple of the pros of Gaga ball. I would say a couple of the cons would be, it does take up quite a bit of like floor space, like the footprint of a Gaga ball pit is pretty massive. 00:01:44:13 - 00:02:06:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you have to commit a pretty large section of your space, a pretty large section of your floor to gaga ball in unless you get a, portable one. It's pretty permanent, and there's really nothing else you can do in that space. The other thing I'll say about Gaga Ball is, in my experience, it does tend to lean a little bit more middle school. 00:02:06:27 - 00:02:36:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It can get a little bit rowdy. And if kids aren't taking the game seriously or they're not getting out when they should, it can get a little bit chaotic kicking. It can get a little bit rowdy, and that's just something that you have to be aware of and something that you have to manage. If you look at the link that I posted down below though, however, I actually recommend an inflatable and deflate a bull Gaga ball pit because depending upon your space, especially if you have to tear it down, you can put it up every week with like just a blower. 00:02:36:13 - 00:02:54:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Think like, you know, moon bounce type style blower blows up and then it comes right back down. And what that also does is it gives you the flexibility to have it up when you want it, when you need it. But then you can also take it down when you don't want it or you don't need it there anymore. 00:02:54:13 - 00:03:22:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Let's talk about nine Square. What are the pros? The pros. Same thing is gaga ball. It's a super fun game. Like, it really is. But the thing that I think, makes nine squares slightly different than Gaga Ball is, there is a little bit more. Not a ton, but a little bit more strategy involved. I think it's, it requires a little bit more, strategy, a little bit more thought, than Gaga ball, which can be a little like once you get down to the end and Gaga ball, there's some strategy. 00:03:22:12 - 00:03:40:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But at first it's just kind of like, just get people out. But yeah, nine square, I think does have a little bit more strategy. Not to mention it's not as space consuming on your footprint as Gaga ball. Now it still is. Like, don't get me wrong. Like they both take up a fair bit of space. But they're both great. 00:03:40:14 - 00:04:02:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like free time. Get to get the games out ahead of time before youth ministry starts. Style of games. The cons to Gaga ball or I'm sorry, the cons to nine square are that you can only play with nine people at a time. Now, you know, in our context right now, like, nine square is more popular than Gaga ball. 00:04:02:02 - 00:04:21:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, that line into the nine square, like arena, like it's always moving and that that doesn't seem to be much of a problem. And people will wait like several like, you know, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten people deep, to get in back into the game. But that is a con. Is that an Gaga ball? 00:04:21:04 - 00:04:40:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like up to like, 50 people, depending on the size of your pet. Can start in a game. Nine square. It's only nine at a time. The con, though, on the flip side, is that if you don't have nine to fill it on a regular basis, then it's also not quite the same. You're playing like four, you're playing like six, like, it's just it's not quite the same. 00:04:40:22 - 00:05:00:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like having the full nine, in my opinion, is really like the best way, to play nine square. And so if you're youth ministry was maybe struggle to fill nine on a regular basis or, you know, like there's just not nine kids on a constant basis on any given, you know, Wednesday night or Sunday that are actually going to happen in play, maybe it's not worth it for you. 00:05:00:10 - 00:05:24:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Maybe guy eyeballs more, you know, the way to go or something like that. Again, link down below for my nine square recommendation. And this is called Castle Squares. And the reason I like castle squares is just like the Gaga ball pit. It is portable and take down a ball as well. In our space we have a castle squares, and we have like a full nine square, like arena and the full nine square arena. 00:05:24:23 - 00:05:49:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's great. But we don't ever take it down. It's just it's too much of a pain to do that. But the castle squares instead of having, like, all the individual poles down, it only has the four on the corners. And then just up at the top, it uses straps to create your nine spaces. And so you know, I used to work at a church that I would set up the Gaga ball pit in the nine square pit every single week, set them up and then tear them down. 00:05:49:21 - 00:06:06:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I would I would set them up like middle of the day. We met on Wednesday nights, on Wednesdays, and then I would have our volunteers tear them down when it was over and put them back for me, at the end of the night. And so if you have the space and you have the budget, I would recommend, getting both of these there. 00:06:06:16 - 00:06:24:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They're both fantastic. And they're also both very, like, nimble and portable. You're not going to be committing this corner of your room for the rest of your life to either be nine square, either be the Gaga ball corner. You can take it, then you can move it. You can share space with the rest of the congregation. 00:06:24:21 - 00:06:42:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then if it just comes down to like, you only have budget for one or the other, every context is a little bit different. The current context that I'm in right now, they would vote nine square, but the context that came from, back in Chicago, they would vote Gaga ball. So you kind of got to know your students. 00:06:42:00 - 00:07:01:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You kind of got to know your audience. I would say if you have maybe more high school audience, or a more strategy based audience nine square. If you have a little bit rowdier audience, a little bit more chaotic of an audience, maybe lean Gaga ball, and just make the decision kind of based on your context and based on your students. 00:07:01:04 - 00:07:19:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But like I said, links to both of these down below. If you're on the fence, if you're thinking about it, these are both two products that I have used that I recommend, and that really are good for both setting up and being able to tear down and leaving your space flexible for other things throughout the week. Hey man, I hope that this episode was helpful. 00:07:19:10 - 00:07:27:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Give us a like, give us a subscribe, share it with a friend. And until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to choose to stay hybrid. gaga ball, 9 square in the air, youth group games, best games for youth ministry, youth ministry game ideas, student ministry, church youth group, gaga ball vs 9 square, youth pastor tips, church games, youth group equipment, how to choose youth group games, budget youth ministry games, Nick Clason, Hybrid Ministry, fun church games, youth group setup, gaga ball review, 9 square review, student ministry tools, youth group must haves Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game!

9-SQUARE
https://walmrt.us/4lFQtMq

GAGA BALL
https://walmrt.us/42T5weo

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/151

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

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Gaga Ball vs 9-Square
00:26 Pros & Cons of Gaga Ball in Youth Ministry
02:53 Pros & Cons of 9-Square
05:43 Making Your Decision

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game

00:00:26:28 - 00:00:52:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. Today we are going to be exploring Gaga ball versus nine square. And let's just imagine that you only have a limited number of budget. And you're making a decision between either Gaga Ball or nine square. What do you choose and why? And I got links listed down below for both of them so that you can make your purchase based on and after this video.

00:00:52:08 - 00:01:22:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let's hop in. Gaga ball. What are the pros and the cons of Gaga Ball? I would say Gaga Ball is super fun. It's fast paced, it's upbeat. It's a good time for everyone who's involved. And one of the other pros in that is it's almost an unlimited capacity. I've seen it before in different youth ministry settings of run or like even camps where there's been what seems to be almost 50 kids all kind of flooded into the Gaga ball, center.

00:01:22:19 - 00:01:44:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're like, you can get so many kids now. The game does kind of take forever, but you can facilitate a game with a high number of students. And so those are just a couple of the pros of Gaga ball. I would say a couple of the cons would be, it does take up quite a bit of like floor space, like the footprint of a Gaga ball pit is pretty massive.

00:01:44:13 - 00:02:06:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you have to commit a pretty large section of your space, a pretty large section of your floor to gaga ball in unless you get a, portable one. It's pretty permanent, and there's really nothing else you can do in that space. The other thing I'll say about Gaga Ball is, in my experience, it does tend to lean a little bit more middle school.

00:02:06:27 - 00:02:36:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It can get a little bit rowdy. And if kids aren't taking the game seriously or they're not getting out when they should, it can get a little bit chaotic kicking. It can get a little bit rowdy, and that's just something that you have to be aware of and something that you have to manage. If you look at the link that I posted down below though, however, I actually recommend an inflatable and deflate a bull Gaga ball pit because depending upon your space, especially if you have to tear it down, you can put it up every week with like just a blower.

00:02:36:13 - 00:02:54:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Think like, you know, moon bounce type style blower blows up and then it comes right back down. And what that also does is it gives you the flexibility to have it up when you want it, when you need it. But then you can also take it down when you don't want it or you don't need it there anymore.

00:02:54:13 - 00:03:22:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's talk about nine Square. What are the pros? The pros. Same thing is gaga ball. It's a super fun game. Like, it really is. But the thing that I think, makes nine squares slightly different than Gaga Ball is, there is a little bit more. Not a ton, but a little bit more strategy involved. I think it's, it requires a little bit more, strategy, a little bit more thought, than Gaga ball, which can be a little like once you get down to the end and Gaga ball, there's some strategy.

00:03:22:12 - 00:03:40:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But at first it's just kind of like, just get people out. But yeah, nine square, I think does have a little bit more strategy. Not to mention it's not as space consuming on your footprint as Gaga ball. Now it still is. Like, don't get me wrong. Like they both take up a fair bit of space. But they're both great.

00:03:40:14 - 00:04:02:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like free time. Get to get the games out ahead of time before youth ministry starts. Style of games. The cons to Gaga ball or I'm sorry, the cons to nine square are that you can only play with nine people at a time. Now, you know, in our context right now, like, nine square is more popular than Gaga ball.

00:04:02:02 - 00:04:21:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, that line into the nine square, like arena, like it's always moving and that that doesn't seem to be much of a problem. And people will wait like several like, you know, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten people deep, to get in back into the game. But that is a con. Is that an Gaga ball?

00:04:21:04 - 00:04:40:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like up to like, 50 people, depending on the size of your pet. Can start in a game. Nine square. It's only nine at a time. The con, though, on the flip side, is that if you don't have nine to fill it on a regular basis, then it's also not quite the same. You're playing like four, you're playing like six, like, it's just it's not quite the same.

00:04:40:22 - 00:05:00:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like having the full nine, in my opinion, is really like the best way, to play nine square. And so if you're youth ministry was maybe struggle to fill nine on a regular basis or, you know, like there's just not nine kids on a constant basis on any given, you know, Wednesday night or Sunday that are actually going to happen in play, maybe it's not worth it for you.

00:05:00:10 - 00:05:24:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Maybe guy eyeballs more, you know, the way to go or something like that. Again, link down below for my nine square recommendation. And this is called Castle Squares. And the reason I like castle squares is just like the Gaga ball pit. It is portable and take down a ball as well. In our space we have a castle squares, and we have like a full nine square, like arena and the full nine square arena.

00:05:24:23 - 00:05:49:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's great. But we don't ever take it down. It's just it's too much of a pain to do that. But the castle squares instead of having, like, all the individual poles down, it only has the four on the corners. And then just up at the top, it uses straps to create your nine spaces. And so you know, I used to work at a church that I would set up the Gaga ball pit in the nine square pit every single week, set them up and then tear them down.

00:05:49:21 - 00:06:06:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I would I would set them up like middle of the day. We met on Wednesday nights, on Wednesdays, and then I would have our volunteers tear them down when it was over and put them back for me, at the end of the night. And so if you have the space and you have the budget, I would recommend, getting both of these there.

00:06:06:16 - 00:06:24:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're both fantastic. And they're also both very, like, nimble and portable. You're not going to be committing this corner of your room for the rest of your life to either be nine square, either be the Gaga ball corner. You can take it, then you can move it. You can share space with the rest of the congregation.

00:06:24:21 - 00:06:42:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then if it just comes down to like, you only have budget for one or the other, every context is a little bit different. The current context that I'm in right now, they would vote nine square, but the context that came from, back in Chicago, they would vote Gaga ball. So you kind of got to know your students.

00:06:42:00 - 00:07:01:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You kind of got to know your audience. I would say if you have maybe more high school audience, or a more strategy based audience nine square. If you have a little bit rowdier audience, a little bit more chaotic of an audience, maybe lean Gaga ball, and just make the decision kind of based on your context and based on your students.

00:07:01:04 - 00:07:19:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like I said, links to both of these down below. If you're on the fence, if you're thinking about it, these are both two products that I have used that I recommend, and that really are good for both setting up and being able to tear down and leaving your space flexible for other things throughout the week. Hey man, I hope that this episode was helpful.

00:07:19:10 - 00:07:27:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give us a like, give us a subscribe, share it with a friend. And until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to choose to stay hybrid.

]]> Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game!

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Gaga Ball vs 9-Square
00:26 Pros & Cons of Gaga Ball in Youth Ministry
02:53 Pros & Cons of 9-Square
05:43 Making Your Decision

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Two legendary youth ministry games. One epic showdown. Will Gaga Ball’s chaos reign supreme? Or will the high-flying strategy of 9 Square take the crown? Stick around as we settle the score once and for all — and help YOU pick the ultimate youth group game

00:00:26:28 - 00:00:52:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. Today we are going to be exploring Gaga ball versus nine square. And let's just imagine that you only have a limited number of budget. And you're making a decision between either Gaga Ball or nine square. What do you choose and why? And I got links listed down below for both of them so that you can make your purchase based on and after this video.

00:00:52:08 - 00:01:22:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let's hop in. Gaga ball. What are the pros and the cons of Gaga Ball? I would say Gaga Ball is super fun. It's fast paced, it's upbeat. It's a good time for everyone who's involved. And one of the other pros in that is it's almost an unlimited capacity. I've seen it before in different youth ministry settings of run or like even camps where there's been what seems to be almost 50 kids all kind of flooded into the Gaga ball, center.

00:01:22:19 - 00:01:44:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're like, you can get so many kids now. The game does kind of take forever, but you can facilitate a game with a high number of students. And so those are just a couple of the pros of Gaga ball. I would say a couple of the cons would be, it does take up quite a bit of like floor space, like the footprint of a Gaga ball pit is pretty massive.

00:01:44:13 - 00:02:06:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you have to commit a pretty large section of your space, a pretty large section of your floor to gaga ball in unless you get a, portable one. It's pretty permanent, and there's really nothing else you can do in that space. The other thing I'll say about Gaga Ball is, in my experience, it does tend to lean a little bit more middle school.

00:02:06:27 - 00:02:36:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It can get a little bit rowdy. And if kids aren't taking the game seriously or they're not getting out when they should, it can get a little bit chaotic kicking. It can get a little bit rowdy, and that's just something that you have to be aware of and something that you have to manage. If you look at the link that I posted down below though, however, I actually recommend an inflatable and deflate a bull Gaga ball pit because depending upon your space, especially if you have to tear it down, you can put it up every week with like just a blower.

00:02:36:13 - 00:02:54:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Think like, you know, moon bounce type style blower blows up and then it comes right back down. And what that also does is it gives you the flexibility to have it up when you want it, when you need it. But then you can also take it down when you don't want it or you don't need it there anymore.

00:02:54:13 - 00:03:22:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's talk about nine Square. What are the pros? The pros. Same thing is gaga ball. It's a super fun game. Like, it really is. But the thing that I think, makes nine squares slightly different than Gaga Ball is, there is a little bit more. Not a ton, but a little bit more strategy involved. I think it's, it requires a little bit more, strategy, a little bit more thought, than Gaga ball, which can be a little like once you get down to the end and Gaga ball, there's some strategy.

00:03:22:12 - 00:03:40:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But at first it's just kind of like, just get people out. But yeah, nine square, I think does have a little bit more strategy. Not to mention it's not as space consuming on your footprint as Gaga ball. Now it still is. Like, don't get me wrong. Like they both take up a fair bit of space. But they're both great.

00:03:40:14 - 00:04:02:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like free time. Get to get the games out ahead of time before youth ministry starts. Style of games. The cons to Gaga ball or I'm sorry, the cons to nine square are that you can only play with nine people at a time. Now, you know, in our context right now, like, nine square is more popular than Gaga ball.

00:04:02:02 - 00:04:21:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, that line into the nine square, like arena, like it's always moving and that that doesn't seem to be much of a problem. And people will wait like several like, you know, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten people deep, to get in back into the game. But that is a con. Is that an Gaga ball?

00:04:21:04 - 00:04:40:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like up to like, 50 people, depending on the size of your pet. Can start in a game. Nine square. It's only nine at a time. The con, though, on the flip side, is that if you don't have nine to fill it on a regular basis, then it's also not quite the same. You're playing like four, you're playing like six, like, it's just it's not quite the same.

00:04:40:22 - 00:05:00:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like having the full nine, in my opinion, is really like the best way, to play nine square. And so if you're youth ministry was maybe struggle to fill nine on a regular basis or, you know, like there's just not nine kids on a constant basis on any given, you know, Wednesday night or Sunday that are actually going to happen in play, maybe it's not worth it for you.

00:05:00:10 - 00:05:24:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Maybe guy eyeballs more, you know, the way to go or something like that. Again, link down below for my nine square recommendation. And this is called Castle Squares. And the reason I like castle squares is just like the Gaga ball pit. It is portable and take down a ball as well. In our space we have a castle squares, and we have like a full nine square, like arena and the full nine square arena.

00:05:24:23 - 00:05:49:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's great. But we don't ever take it down. It's just it's too much of a pain to do that. But the castle squares instead of having, like, all the individual poles down, it only has the four on the corners. And then just up at the top, it uses straps to create your nine spaces. And so you know, I used to work at a church that I would set up the Gaga ball pit in the nine square pit every single week, set them up and then tear them down.

00:05:49:21 - 00:06:06:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I would I would set them up like middle of the day. We met on Wednesday nights, on Wednesdays, and then I would have our volunteers tear them down when it was over and put them back for me, at the end of the night. And so if you have the space and you have the budget, I would recommend, getting both of these there.

00:06:06:16 - 00:06:24:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're both fantastic. And they're also both very, like, nimble and portable. You're not going to be committing this corner of your room for the rest of your life to either be nine square, either be the Gaga ball corner. You can take it, then you can move it. You can share space with the rest of the congregation.

00:06:24:21 - 00:06:42:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then if it just comes down to like, you only have budget for one or the other, every context is a little bit different. The current context that I'm in right now, they would vote nine square, but the context that came from, back in Chicago, they would vote Gaga ball. So you kind of got to know your students.

00:06:42:00 - 00:07:01:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You kind of got to know your audience. I would say if you have maybe more high school audience, or a more strategy based audience nine square. If you have a little bit rowdier audience, a little bit more chaotic of an audience, maybe lean Gaga ball, and just make the decision kind of based on your context and based on your students.

00:07:01:04 - 00:07:19:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like I said, links to both of these down below. If you're on the fence, if you're thinking about it, these are both two products that I have used that I recommend, and that really are good for both setting up and being able to tear down and leaving your space flexible for other things throughout the week. Hey man, I hope that this episode was helpful.

00:07:19:10 - 00:07:27:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give us a like, give us a subscribe, share it with a friend. And until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to choose to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 149: Youth Ministry in the Summer? Should You Shut It Down or Show Up Strong? https://www.hybridministry.xyz/149 1566b6ef-5529-4852-b275-e6563591ac44 Thu, 15 May 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 149 Youth Ministry in the Summer? Should You Shut It Down or Show Up Strong? full Nick Clason Summer is coming, and youth pastors everywhere are asking—do we keep programming or hit pause? In this video, we’ll break down the pros and cons of both options and help you decide what’s right for your ministry this summer. Stick around till the end for a FREE resource: 100 social media ideas to keep students engaged—even if you hit pause. Plus 3 tips for summer ministry, regardless of the direction you choose 13:59 no Summer is coming, and youth pastors everywhere are asking—do we keep programming or hit pause? In this video, we’ll break down the pros and cons of both options and help you decide what’s right for your ministry this summer. Stick around till the end for a FREE resource: 100 social media ideas to keep students engaged—even if you hit pause. Plus 3 tips for summer ministry, regardless of the direction you choose ☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=productsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link 🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/149 //AVOID BURNOUT WITH DERRY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do3WGIctHDs&amp;t=43s //SOCIAL CHALLENGE PLAYLIST https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s //100 IDEAS https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis ✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Youth Ministry in the Summer? 00:56 PROS: Meeting in the Summer 03:50 Lock in Your Social Media this Summer! 05:18 CONS: Meeting in the Summer 06:45 PROS: Taking a Summer Programming Break 08:24 CONS: Taking a Summer Programming Break 09:32 Tip #1 11:13 Tip #2 12:05 Tip #3 -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Summer is coming, whether you like it or not, and youth pastors everywhere are trying to decide whether they should hit pause on their programing or whether they should keep going strong. I want to encourage you in this video, we're going to explore the pros of keeping your programing going and contrast it with the cons of what it would look like if you chose to take a little bit of a break. 00:00:22:12 - 00:00:43:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Make sure that you stick around for the entire video, because at the end, I have a hundred social media ideas for you to go ahead and take and adopt in your ministry, especially if we choose to hit pause as well as three tips for an amazing summer, regardless of the decision that you choose. Don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss a single one of our episodes. 00:00:43:08 - 00:01:04:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, as we are leading into summer and during the entire course of the summer, and as always, there are chapters listed down below so that you can hop ahead to the part of the show that makes the most sense to you. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Minister Show. What's up everyone? Welcome to the Hybrid Minister Show. In this episode, we're going to compare and contrast summer programing versus taking a break. 00:01:04:08 - 00:01:27:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So let's not waste any time. What are the pros of staying engaged with having summer programing in your youth ministry? Well, the first pro I would say is that students, sports schedules and students extracurricular vehicular activities tend to take a little bit more of a dip. And so historically, youth ministries have been going strong through the summer. And I'm sorry if they've been going strong through the school year. 00:01:27:23 - 00:01:48:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then they take a break during the summer, they match the students schedules. So while students are going strong during the school year, we're going strong during the school year when students tend to take a dip. We would also take a dip. And I think it's worthwhile to consider while student schedules take a little bit of a dip, what if our programing ramps up or at least doesn't go anywhere? 00:01:48:10 - 00:02:10:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Why? Because you may or may not have some students who are so busy during the school year that they're just simply not able to make a Wednesday night or Sunday night. But you have in programing, you do have an opportunity to now catch them when their schedule does tend to take a break. I remember one time, it was the very first week of our summer schedule, and it was the first time that I ever chose to stay to stay engaged during the summer. 00:02:10:23 - 00:02:31:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I looked out across the audience and I saw a student who I hadn't seen for the entire time of my duration and my tenure as a youth pastor at that church. And I had messaged with her mom, and her mom was lamenting the fact that, you know, her dance schedule didn't line up with what our student ministry was, and our student sister had just made a change from Wednesday to Sunday. 00:02:31:01 - 00:02:47:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And at that same time, when our student ministry made that change, her dance schedule also made that exact same change. And so she was so bummed out that we shifted from Wednesday to Sunday because her dance schedule had just shifted from Wednesday to Sunday. So she missed literally the entire school year. But I looked out and boom, there she was. 00:02:47:20 - 00:03:08:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I was like, man, had we not chosen to meet, she still wouldn't have been there. And so I know that you as a youth pastor, you have a heart to reach and capture your students. And so staying engaged in your programing during the summer can offer and allow you to have that sort of opportunity. The other thing that summer programing does is, honestly, it gives you a chance to try out some creative ideas. 00:03:08:28 - 00:03:28:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In fact, if you didn't know this, I have a, Patreon account where I, weekly share what we're doing in our youth ministry. And it's just $4 a month, which is $1 per episode, where I detail and breakdown everything I'm doing to be creative and stay hybrid. And so this summer, I'm going to be taking you along on that journey. 00:03:28:05 - 00:03:51:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I would love to encourage you if you're one that wants to increase your creativity in your youth ministry, lean into your social media and your digital presence. Come hang out with us over on Patreon, and we're going to be giving that out $1 per week for, the bonus podcast episodes. But it gives you a chance to to be a little bit creative, to try something different that maybe, I don't know, before wouldn't have worked on. 00:03:51:11 - 00:04:26:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This episode is actually brought to you by my very own Patreon. The Patreon is my bonus podcast community, and I call those people over there who are subscribers. They're my hybrid heroes, and what we do over on my Patreon is a every single resource that I've created, and my shop is free for all Patreon members, along with a weekly bonus podcast episode and the cost right now to join my Patreon, I may go up, but right now legacy members can get it for $4 a month. 00:04:26:20 - 00:04:50:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So every single time I create a resource that's just through my Patreon that costs money for people who want to go on to my shop and buy something, you get it for free as a patron member, plus a weekly bonus podcast where I talk about what I do on social media every week. I talk about what I do in my programing every week to try and keep it creative and hybrid, and how we're using sidekick over there. 00:04:51:01 - 00:05:09:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In fact, this week I talk, for example, about how I didn't even have a tech person to run Pro presenter. I ran a game from the stage on my computer with name picker on sidekick by myself on my computer. It's amazing. I'll tell you how I do all that type of stuff on my Patreon, so go check it out. 00:05:09:21 - 00:05:29:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Link down below in the description where it says become a Hybrid Hero. Click that link and check it out. Hey, you get a free week trial if you're interested in it. Back to the show. All right, so what are the cons? Well, the cons are of course, that you don't get a break in your programing. If you go straight into your school, you're programing into your summer programing. 00:05:29:20 - 00:05:50:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You don't get any little bit of a rest. And, additionally speaking, neither do your leaders. And so that, of course, is the con. And that's probably one of the major players in this decision is you've been working hard all September, from September through May all school year. And, and you're maybe looking forward to getting a little bit of a break, maybe a little bit of a breather. 00:05:50:11 - 00:06:14:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And, staying strong with your programing throughout the summer doesn't really give you that option. And in addition to that, because school year and, like fall based launches and the start, you know, post Labor Day and welcome back and back to school Sunday and all the things that go along with traditional church ministry, especially as it pertains to launching strong and launching hard in the fall. 00:06:14:29 - 00:06:31:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You might need to be recruiting leaders. Not taking a break over the summer may not give you as much space to retool and get ready to launch strong in the fall. Or at least that may be some of what you're thinking and some of what, you know, you, you kind of have going on in, in your mind there. 00:06:31:14 - 00:06:52:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, I just want to encourage you, like, as you're kind of debating through this, like if your priority is having a strong, school year based student ministry, end of summer Rob's from that. I can imagine where that might be a con. Let let's take a look then, here at some of the pros and the cons of, choosing to take a break during the summer. 00:06:52:26 - 00:07:11:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So the pros are that if you do feel like you're running just so hard and so fast and so strong, all during the school year, the summer definitely does offer a little bit of a reprieve. You know, burnout is real among youth pastors. Shout out to my friend dairy. Link down below or right here on YouTube at the top of the screen. 00:07:12:03 - 00:07:48:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry On my episode with him where I interviewed, how does he avoid burnout? It is a fantastic episode, and what I'll just say is, if taking time off during the summer is a way to help you avoid, burning out, then it's more advantageous to not meet during the summer so that you can tend to your soul. But I would just say, maybe it's worthwhile to go take a look at that episode from Derry and see if during this next school year, if there are some practices and some principles that he laid out, that you can actually apply so that when next summer rolls around, if you are considering maybe, not breaking for 00:07:48:00 - 00:08:07:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry your programing as opposed to breaking that, you won't be so tired and so burnout by the time you get on the doorstep of summer. So that you can maybe show up for your students. Another pro, of course, is that you do give an opportunity to give your leaders a break. So if you you know how important it is to lean on leaders. 00:08:07:27 - 00:08:24:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And leaders really are the backbone of student ministry. If you, don't meet during the summer, obviously you don't need your leaders to be there. If you do meet during the summer, you kind of need your leaders to show up, you know what I'm saying? So, that that is one of the pros of choosing to take a break during the summer. 00:08:24:00 - 00:08:50:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The cons, of course, are like, just think about this. Do you really want to go three months without meeting, like, just like basketball? Student ministry is a momentum game. And so, taking three months off, especially when you probably got, a high level, high flying thing, like camp or a mission trip, woven throughout the programing of your summer to just do that and then come back and not have anything for several months. 00:08:51:01 - 00:09:17:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like, that's really a con that is worth considering. Like, do you really want to come back and then just be like, all right, see you guys after Labor Day? Like for me personally, that feels like a little bit long and a little bit of an arduous, break. The other thing, of course, is that you're not meeting during summer students most available seasons is the pro, to the reason why you maybe should consider keeping summer programing going. 00:09:17:08 - 00:09:38:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so those are both sides. You can probably tell that objectively speaking, we do choose to meet during the summer. We retool, we scale it back. We we're very creative. We do things that are very different. And so let me just give you three tips, regardless of which decision you're going to, land on which which camp you fallen for this debate. 00:09:38:23 - 00:10:00:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Three tips to help you program amazing things, or at least, do amazing youth ministry during the summer, whether you're meeting or not. So tip number one is follow your church's guide. If you have regular, say, midweek or regular Sunday night activities, church wide kids, ministry ministries, all the things and they take a break, then perhaps consider also taking a break. 00:10:00:21 - 00:10:18:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If if you're the only group that meets on campus when you meet, then that's not as big of a deal. But but consider following your church's lead. However, unlike the last video in this playlist where I talked about the importance of following your church's lead as a as it pertains to promotion, that's like a level like, absolutely. 00:10:18:06 - 00:10:43:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Do not deviate from your church's plan on this one. I would say I think things can be a little bit different because while some of the offerings for Kids Ministry and some of the offerings for adult ministry may be a little more elective based or a little more optional, if this is your main meeting time, then if you do choose to meet during the summer while the rest of your church takes time off, then stand strong on that and and communicate the importance of meeting when students are more available. 00:10:43:28 - 00:11:11:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Again, you don't have to do as wholesale or full scale of a programing. You can scale it back, you can throw some creative options. Again, I'm going to give you some of those and some of what we're doing, in our student ministry. But you can you can kind of pull back the, the, the programing, intensity a little bit so that you can have some fun and just make it a little bit more of a casual hangout, but the tip is, if you're sure you like, follow, follow your church's lead. 00:11:11:01 - 00:11:27:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you're unsure which direction to lean on this debate. The second tip I have for you is if you do take a break, and even if you don't, but if you definitely if you do lean in harder than on social media, because you may not be meeting on a Wednesday night or a Sunday night or whatever night you choose to meet, so you have more time in the office. 00:11:27:10 - 00:11:48:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So lean harder into social media, which is linked down below. The freebie tease at the beginning of the video. A hundred different topic ideas for you, for different concepts that, you can use on social media. So for us, I have a four part social media, strategy and social challenge guide, a whole playlist detailed for free, listed down below in the description. 00:11:48:25 - 00:12:08:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Go check that out one episode per video, but this freebie gives you 100 different topic ideas to help you lean into some of the creativity and some of the social media, ideas. And then you can continue to kind of show up where your students are, even if you choose not to meet. And then the third and final idea is just simply this it's summer, man. 00:12:08:15 - 00:12:26:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Have fun. Like if you do choose to meet, have fun while you do. If you don't have fun, do it on social media. Have a blast with your students creating content both for them and also consider doing it with them. And the thing about summer that's so fun. And one of the things that we do is we try to kind of ride the National Day trend. 00:12:26:10 - 00:12:46:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you didn't know there is a National day every single day, multiple national days. So this summer, for example, we're choosing like, beautiful Grandparent Day where we're going to play Extreme Bingo, and National Cheesecake Day is going to round out our summer, you know, programing. And and Leon Day, which is, June 25th. It is the, backwards. 00:12:46:24 - 00:13:08:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, Leon spelled backwards is Noel. So June 25th is when crafters start getting their Christmas supplies out. Last summer we did like National Avocado Day, and we celebrated some holidays like that. And so there's always an option of a thing that you can just kind of trend. So if we don't, we don't female our midweek throughout the, the the regular school year. 00:13:08:00 - 00:13:26:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But during the summer we do we kind of have fun with it. It also is a fun way to kind of create some social media content around it. We'll go around, interview people and ask them, you know, things about each of those topics or whatever, and kind of do a man on the street style video and again, some of that is detailed in that line down below in that 100 free thing. 00:13:26:15 - 00:13:47:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So go ahead and and grab that freebie so that you don't neglect in that you don't avoid social media this summer. Hey, everyone. Coming up in the next episode is the fourth and final installment of this versus playlist, where we're going to be looking at digital ministry versus in-person ministry. And if you're watching this, after its release, it's going to be linked right here on the screen. 00:13:47:29 - 00:13:54:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you're watching this live, it'll be releasing next Thursday. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget stay hybrid. youth ministry,student ministry,nick clason,hybrid ministry,youth pastor summer break,summer youth group ideas,church summer programming,student ministry strategy,should youth group meet in summer,youth leader tips,church leadership,youth group calendar,summer sabbatical,derry sabbatical card,free youth ministry resources,social media for youth pastors,how to lead youth ministry,youth group content ideas,100 youth ministry ideas,patreon hybrid ministry,summer youth series Summer is coming, and youth pastors everywhere are asking—do we keep programming or hit pause? In this video, we’ll break down the pros and cons of both options and help you decide what’s right for your ministry this summer. Stick around till the end for a FREE resource: 100 social media ideas to keep students engaged—even if you hit pause.
Plus 3 tips for summer ministry, regardless of the direction you choose

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BEST DYM RESOURCES
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OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
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//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Youth Ministry in the Summer?
00:56 PROS: Meeting in the Summer
03:50 Lock in Your Social Media this Summer!
05:18 CONS: Meeting in the Summer
06:45 PROS: Taking a Summer Programming Break
08:24 CONS: Taking a Summer Programming Break
09:32 Tip #1
11:13 Tip #2
12:05 Tip #3

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Summer is coming, whether you like it or not, and youth pastors everywhere are trying to decide whether they should hit pause on their programing or whether they should keep going strong. I want to encourage you in this video, we're going to explore the pros of keeping your programing going and contrast it with the cons of what it would look like if you chose to take a little bit of a break.

00:00:22:12 - 00:00:43:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Make sure that you stick around for the entire video, because at the end, I have a hundred social media ideas for you to go ahead and take and adopt in your ministry, especially if we choose to hit pause as well as three tips for an amazing summer, regardless of the decision that you choose. Don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss a single one of our episodes.

00:00:43:08 - 00:01:04:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, as we are leading into summer and during the entire course of the summer, and as always, there are chapters listed down below so that you can hop ahead to the part of the show that makes the most sense to you. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Minister Show. What's up everyone? Welcome to the Hybrid Minister Show. In this episode, we're going to compare and contrast summer programing versus taking a break.

00:01:04:08 - 00:01:27:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let's not waste any time. What are the pros of staying engaged with having summer programing in your youth ministry? Well, the first pro I would say is that students, sports schedules and students extracurricular vehicular activities tend to take a little bit more of a dip. And so historically, youth ministries have been going strong through the summer. And I'm sorry if they've been going strong through the school year.

00:01:27:23 - 00:01:48:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then they take a break during the summer, they match the students schedules. So while students are going strong during the school year, we're going strong during the school year when students tend to take a dip. We would also take a dip. And I think it's worthwhile to consider while student schedules take a little bit of a dip, what if our programing ramps up or at least doesn't go anywhere?

00:01:48:10 - 00:02:10:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Why? Because you may or may not have some students who are so busy during the school year that they're just simply not able to make a Wednesday night or Sunday night. But you have in programing, you do have an opportunity to now catch them when their schedule does tend to take a break. I remember one time, it was the very first week of our summer schedule, and it was the first time that I ever chose to stay to stay engaged during the summer.

00:02:10:23 - 00:02:31:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I looked out across the audience and I saw a student who I hadn't seen for the entire time of my duration and my tenure as a youth pastor at that church. And I had messaged with her mom, and her mom was lamenting the fact that, you know, her dance schedule didn't line up with what our student ministry was, and our student sister had just made a change from Wednesday to Sunday.

00:02:31:01 - 00:02:47:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And at that same time, when our student ministry made that change, her dance schedule also made that exact same change. And so she was so bummed out that we shifted from Wednesday to Sunday because her dance schedule had just shifted from Wednesday to Sunday. So she missed literally the entire school year. But I looked out and boom, there she was.

00:02:47:20 - 00:03:08:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I was like, man, had we not chosen to meet, she still wouldn't have been there. And so I know that you as a youth pastor, you have a heart to reach and capture your students. And so staying engaged in your programing during the summer can offer and allow you to have that sort of opportunity. The other thing that summer programing does is, honestly, it gives you a chance to try out some creative ideas.

00:03:08:28 - 00:03:28:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, if you didn't know this, I have a, Patreon account where I, weekly share what we're doing in our youth ministry. And it's just $4 a month, which is $1 per episode, where I detail and breakdown everything I'm doing to be creative and stay hybrid. And so this summer, I'm going to be taking you along on that journey.

00:03:28:05 - 00:03:51:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I would love to encourage you if you're one that wants to increase your creativity in your youth ministry, lean into your social media and your digital presence. Come hang out with us over on Patreon, and we're going to be giving that out $1 per week for, the bonus podcast episodes. But it gives you a chance to to be a little bit creative, to try something different that maybe, I don't know, before wouldn't have worked on.

00:03:51:11 - 00:04:26:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This episode is actually brought to you by my very own Patreon. The Patreon is my bonus podcast community, and I call those people over there who are subscribers. They're my hybrid heroes, and what we do over on my Patreon is a every single resource that I've created, and my shop is free for all Patreon members, along with a weekly bonus podcast episode and the cost right now to join my Patreon, I may go up, but right now legacy members can get it for $4 a month.

00:04:26:20 - 00:04:50:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So every single time I create a resource that's just through my Patreon that costs money for people who want to go on to my shop and buy something, you get it for free as a patron member, plus a weekly bonus podcast where I talk about what I do on social media every week. I talk about what I do in my programing every week to try and keep it creative and hybrid, and how we're using sidekick over there.

00:04:51:01 - 00:05:09:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, this week I talk, for example, about how I didn't even have a tech person to run Pro presenter. I ran a game from the stage on my computer with name picker on sidekick by myself on my computer. It's amazing. I'll tell you how I do all that type of stuff on my Patreon, so go check it out.

00:05:09:21 - 00:05:29:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Link down below in the description where it says become a Hybrid Hero. Click that link and check it out. Hey, you get a free week trial if you're interested in it. Back to the show. All right, so what are the cons? Well, the cons are of course, that you don't get a break in your programing. If you go straight into your school, you're programing into your summer programing.

00:05:29:20 - 00:05:50:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You don't get any little bit of a rest. And, additionally speaking, neither do your leaders. And so that, of course, is the con. And that's probably one of the major players in this decision is you've been working hard all September, from September through May all school year. And, and you're maybe looking forward to getting a little bit of a break, maybe a little bit of a breather.

00:05:50:11 - 00:06:14:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, staying strong with your programing throughout the summer doesn't really give you that option. And in addition to that, because school year and, like fall based launches and the start, you know, post Labor Day and welcome back and back to school Sunday and all the things that go along with traditional church ministry, especially as it pertains to launching strong and launching hard in the fall.

00:06:14:29 - 00:06:31:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You might need to be recruiting leaders. Not taking a break over the summer may not give you as much space to retool and get ready to launch strong in the fall. Or at least that may be some of what you're thinking and some of what, you know, you, you kind of have going on in, in your mind there.

00:06:31:14 - 00:06:52:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, I just want to encourage you, like, as you're kind of debating through this, like if your priority is having a strong, school year based student ministry, end of summer Rob's from that. I can imagine where that might be a con. Let let's take a look then, here at some of the pros and the cons of, choosing to take a break during the summer.

00:06:52:26 - 00:07:11:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So the pros are that if you do feel like you're running just so hard and so fast and so strong, all during the school year, the summer definitely does offer a little bit of a reprieve. You know, burnout is real among youth pastors. Shout out to my friend dairy. Link down below or right here on YouTube at the top of the screen.

00:07:12:03 - 00:07:48:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
On my episode with him where I interviewed, how does he avoid burnout? It is a fantastic episode, and what I'll just say is, if taking time off during the summer is a way to help you avoid, burning out, then it's more advantageous to not meet during the summer so that you can tend to your soul. But I would just say, maybe it's worthwhile to go take a look at that episode from Derry and see if during this next school year, if there are some practices and some principles that he laid out, that you can actually apply so that when next summer rolls around, if you are considering maybe, not breaking for

00:07:48:00 - 00:08:07:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your programing as opposed to breaking that, you won't be so tired and so burnout by the time you get on the doorstep of summer. So that you can maybe show up for your students. Another pro, of course, is that you do give an opportunity to give your leaders a break. So if you you know how important it is to lean on leaders.

00:08:07:27 - 00:08:24:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And leaders really are the backbone of student ministry. If you, don't meet during the summer, obviously you don't need your leaders to be there. If you do meet during the summer, you kind of need your leaders to show up, you know what I'm saying? So, that that is one of the pros of choosing to take a break during the summer.

00:08:24:00 - 00:08:50:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The cons, of course, are like, just think about this. Do you really want to go three months without meeting, like, just like basketball? Student ministry is a momentum game. And so, taking three months off, especially when you probably got, a high level, high flying thing, like camp or a mission trip, woven throughout the programing of your summer to just do that and then come back and not have anything for several months.

00:08:51:01 - 00:09:17:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, that's really a con that is worth considering. Like, do you really want to come back and then just be like, all right, see you guys after Labor Day? Like for me personally, that feels like a little bit long and a little bit of an arduous, break. The other thing, of course, is that you're not meeting during summer students most available seasons is the pro, to the reason why you maybe should consider keeping summer programing going.

00:09:17:08 - 00:09:38:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so those are both sides. You can probably tell that objectively speaking, we do choose to meet during the summer. We retool, we scale it back. We we're very creative. We do things that are very different. And so let me just give you three tips, regardless of which decision you're going to, land on which which camp you fallen for this debate.

00:09:38:23 - 00:10:00:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Three tips to help you program amazing things, or at least, do amazing youth ministry during the summer, whether you're meeting or not. So tip number one is follow your church's guide. If you have regular, say, midweek or regular Sunday night activities, church wide kids, ministry ministries, all the things and they take a break, then perhaps consider also taking a break.

00:10:00:21 - 00:10:18:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If if you're the only group that meets on campus when you meet, then that's not as big of a deal. But but consider following your church's lead. However, unlike the last video in this playlist where I talked about the importance of following your church's lead as a as it pertains to promotion, that's like a level like, absolutely.

00:10:18:06 - 00:10:43:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Do not deviate from your church's plan on this one. I would say I think things can be a little bit different because while some of the offerings for Kids Ministry and some of the offerings for adult ministry may be a little more elective based or a little more optional, if this is your main meeting time, then if you do choose to meet during the summer while the rest of your church takes time off, then stand strong on that and and communicate the importance of meeting when students are more available.

00:10:43:28 - 00:11:11:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, you don't have to do as wholesale or full scale of a programing. You can scale it back, you can throw some creative options. Again, I'm going to give you some of those and some of what we're doing, in our student ministry. But you can you can kind of pull back the, the, the programing, intensity a little bit so that you can have some fun and just make it a little bit more of a casual hangout, but the tip is, if you're sure you like, follow, follow your church's lead.

00:11:11:01 - 00:11:27:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're unsure which direction to lean on this debate. The second tip I have for you is if you do take a break, and even if you don't, but if you definitely if you do lean in harder than on social media, because you may not be meeting on a Wednesday night or a Sunday night or whatever night you choose to meet, so you have more time in the office.

00:11:27:10 - 00:11:48:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So lean harder into social media, which is linked down below. The freebie tease at the beginning of the video. A hundred different topic ideas for you, for different concepts that, you can use on social media. So for us, I have a four part social media, strategy and social challenge guide, a whole playlist detailed for free, listed down below in the description.

00:11:48:25 - 00:12:08:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Go check that out one episode per video, but this freebie gives you 100 different topic ideas to help you lean into some of the creativity and some of the social media, ideas. And then you can continue to kind of show up where your students are, even if you choose not to meet. And then the third and final idea is just simply this it's summer, man.

00:12:08:15 - 00:12:26:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Have fun. Like if you do choose to meet, have fun while you do. If you don't have fun, do it on social media. Have a blast with your students creating content both for them and also consider doing it with them. And the thing about summer that's so fun. And one of the things that we do is we try to kind of ride the National Day trend.

00:12:26:10 - 00:12:46:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you didn't know there is a National day every single day, multiple national days. So this summer, for example, we're choosing like, beautiful Grandparent Day where we're going to play Extreme Bingo, and National Cheesecake Day is going to round out our summer, you know, programing. And and Leon Day, which is, June 25th. It is the, backwards.

00:12:46:24 - 00:13:08:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, Leon spelled backwards is Noel. So June 25th is when crafters start getting their Christmas supplies out. Last summer we did like National Avocado Day, and we celebrated some holidays like that. And so there's always an option of a thing that you can just kind of trend. So if we don't, we don't female our midweek throughout the, the the regular school year.

00:13:08:00 - 00:13:26:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But during the summer we do we kind of have fun with it. It also is a fun way to kind of create some social media content around it. We'll go around, interview people and ask them, you know, things about each of those topics or whatever, and kind of do a man on the street style video and again, some of that is detailed in that line down below in that 100 free thing.

00:13:26:15 - 00:13:47:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So go ahead and and grab that freebie so that you don't neglect in that you don't avoid social media this summer. Hey, everyone. Coming up in the next episode is the fourth and final installment of this versus playlist, where we're going to be looking at digital ministry versus in-person ministry. And if you're watching this, after its release, it's going to be linked right here on the screen.

00:13:47:29 - 00:13:54:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're watching this live, it'll be releasing next Thursday. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> Summer is coming, and youth pastors everywhere are asking—do we keep programming or hit pause? In this video, we’ll break down the pros and cons of both options and help you decide what’s right for your ministry this summer. Stick around till the end for a FREE resource: 100 social media ideas to keep students engaged—even if you hit pause.
Plus 3 tips for summer ministry, regardless of the direction you choose

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/149

//AVOID BURNOUT WITH DERRY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do3WGIctHDs&t=43s

//SOCIAL CHALLENGE PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

//100 IDEAS
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Youth Ministry in the Summer?
00:56 PROS: Meeting in the Summer
03:50 Lock in Your Social Media this Summer!
05:18 CONS: Meeting in the Summer
06:45 PROS: Taking a Summer Programming Break
08:24 CONS: Taking a Summer Programming Break
09:32 Tip #1
11:13 Tip #2
12:05 Tip #3

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Summer is coming, whether you like it or not, and youth pastors everywhere are trying to decide whether they should hit pause on their programing or whether they should keep going strong. I want to encourage you in this video, we're going to explore the pros of keeping your programing going and contrast it with the cons of what it would look like if you chose to take a little bit of a break.

00:00:22:12 - 00:00:43:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Make sure that you stick around for the entire video, because at the end, I have a hundred social media ideas for you to go ahead and take and adopt in your ministry, especially if we choose to hit pause as well as three tips for an amazing summer, regardless of the decision that you choose. Don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss a single one of our episodes.

00:00:43:08 - 00:01:04:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, as we are leading into summer and during the entire course of the summer, and as always, there are chapters listed down below so that you can hop ahead to the part of the show that makes the most sense to you. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Minister Show. What's up everyone? Welcome to the Hybrid Minister Show. In this episode, we're going to compare and contrast summer programing versus taking a break.

00:01:04:08 - 00:01:27:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let's not waste any time. What are the pros of staying engaged with having summer programing in your youth ministry? Well, the first pro I would say is that students, sports schedules and students extracurricular vehicular activities tend to take a little bit more of a dip. And so historically, youth ministries have been going strong through the summer. And I'm sorry if they've been going strong through the school year.

00:01:27:23 - 00:01:48:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then they take a break during the summer, they match the students schedules. So while students are going strong during the school year, we're going strong during the school year when students tend to take a dip. We would also take a dip. And I think it's worthwhile to consider while student schedules take a little bit of a dip, what if our programing ramps up or at least doesn't go anywhere?

00:01:48:10 - 00:02:10:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Why? Because you may or may not have some students who are so busy during the school year that they're just simply not able to make a Wednesday night or Sunday night. But you have in programing, you do have an opportunity to now catch them when their schedule does tend to take a break. I remember one time, it was the very first week of our summer schedule, and it was the first time that I ever chose to stay to stay engaged during the summer.

00:02:10:23 - 00:02:31:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I looked out across the audience and I saw a student who I hadn't seen for the entire time of my duration and my tenure as a youth pastor at that church. And I had messaged with her mom, and her mom was lamenting the fact that, you know, her dance schedule didn't line up with what our student ministry was, and our student sister had just made a change from Wednesday to Sunday.

00:02:31:01 - 00:02:47:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And at that same time, when our student ministry made that change, her dance schedule also made that exact same change. And so she was so bummed out that we shifted from Wednesday to Sunday because her dance schedule had just shifted from Wednesday to Sunday. So she missed literally the entire school year. But I looked out and boom, there she was.

00:02:47:20 - 00:03:08:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I was like, man, had we not chosen to meet, she still wouldn't have been there. And so I know that you as a youth pastor, you have a heart to reach and capture your students. And so staying engaged in your programing during the summer can offer and allow you to have that sort of opportunity. The other thing that summer programing does is, honestly, it gives you a chance to try out some creative ideas.

00:03:08:28 - 00:03:28:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, if you didn't know this, I have a, Patreon account where I, weekly share what we're doing in our youth ministry. And it's just $4 a month, which is $1 per episode, where I detail and breakdown everything I'm doing to be creative and stay hybrid. And so this summer, I'm going to be taking you along on that journey.

00:03:28:05 - 00:03:51:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I would love to encourage you if you're one that wants to increase your creativity in your youth ministry, lean into your social media and your digital presence. Come hang out with us over on Patreon, and we're going to be giving that out $1 per week for, the bonus podcast episodes. But it gives you a chance to to be a little bit creative, to try something different that maybe, I don't know, before wouldn't have worked on.

00:03:51:11 - 00:04:26:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This episode is actually brought to you by my very own Patreon. The Patreon is my bonus podcast community, and I call those people over there who are subscribers. They're my hybrid heroes, and what we do over on my Patreon is a every single resource that I've created, and my shop is free for all Patreon members, along with a weekly bonus podcast episode and the cost right now to join my Patreon, I may go up, but right now legacy members can get it for $4 a month.

00:04:26:20 - 00:04:50:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So every single time I create a resource that's just through my Patreon that costs money for people who want to go on to my shop and buy something, you get it for free as a patron member, plus a weekly bonus podcast where I talk about what I do on social media every week. I talk about what I do in my programing every week to try and keep it creative and hybrid, and how we're using sidekick over there.

00:04:51:01 - 00:05:09:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, this week I talk, for example, about how I didn't even have a tech person to run Pro presenter. I ran a game from the stage on my computer with name picker on sidekick by myself on my computer. It's amazing. I'll tell you how I do all that type of stuff on my Patreon, so go check it out.

00:05:09:21 - 00:05:29:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Link down below in the description where it says become a Hybrid Hero. Click that link and check it out. Hey, you get a free week trial if you're interested in it. Back to the show. All right, so what are the cons? Well, the cons are of course, that you don't get a break in your programing. If you go straight into your school, you're programing into your summer programing.

00:05:29:20 - 00:05:50:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You don't get any little bit of a rest. And, additionally speaking, neither do your leaders. And so that, of course, is the con. And that's probably one of the major players in this decision is you've been working hard all September, from September through May all school year. And, and you're maybe looking forward to getting a little bit of a break, maybe a little bit of a breather.

00:05:50:11 - 00:06:14:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, staying strong with your programing throughout the summer doesn't really give you that option. And in addition to that, because school year and, like fall based launches and the start, you know, post Labor Day and welcome back and back to school Sunday and all the things that go along with traditional church ministry, especially as it pertains to launching strong and launching hard in the fall.

00:06:14:29 - 00:06:31:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You might need to be recruiting leaders. Not taking a break over the summer may not give you as much space to retool and get ready to launch strong in the fall. Or at least that may be some of what you're thinking and some of what, you know, you, you kind of have going on in, in your mind there.

00:06:31:14 - 00:06:52:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, I just want to encourage you, like, as you're kind of debating through this, like if your priority is having a strong, school year based student ministry, end of summer Rob's from that. I can imagine where that might be a con. Let let's take a look then, here at some of the pros and the cons of, choosing to take a break during the summer.

00:06:52:26 - 00:07:11:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So the pros are that if you do feel like you're running just so hard and so fast and so strong, all during the school year, the summer definitely does offer a little bit of a reprieve. You know, burnout is real among youth pastors. Shout out to my friend dairy. Link down below or right here on YouTube at the top of the screen.

00:07:12:03 - 00:07:48:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
On my episode with him where I interviewed, how does he avoid burnout? It is a fantastic episode, and what I'll just say is, if taking time off during the summer is a way to help you avoid, burning out, then it's more advantageous to not meet during the summer so that you can tend to your soul. But I would just say, maybe it's worthwhile to go take a look at that episode from Derry and see if during this next school year, if there are some practices and some principles that he laid out, that you can actually apply so that when next summer rolls around, if you are considering maybe, not breaking for

00:07:48:00 - 00:08:07:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your programing as opposed to breaking that, you won't be so tired and so burnout by the time you get on the doorstep of summer. So that you can maybe show up for your students. Another pro, of course, is that you do give an opportunity to give your leaders a break. So if you you know how important it is to lean on leaders.

00:08:07:27 - 00:08:24:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And leaders really are the backbone of student ministry. If you, don't meet during the summer, obviously you don't need your leaders to be there. If you do meet during the summer, you kind of need your leaders to show up, you know what I'm saying? So, that that is one of the pros of choosing to take a break during the summer.

00:08:24:00 - 00:08:50:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The cons, of course, are like, just think about this. Do you really want to go three months without meeting, like, just like basketball? Student ministry is a momentum game. And so, taking three months off, especially when you probably got, a high level, high flying thing, like camp or a mission trip, woven throughout the programing of your summer to just do that and then come back and not have anything for several months.

00:08:51:01 - 00:09:17:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, that's really a con that is worth considering. Like, do you really want to come back and then just be like, all right, see you guys after Labor Day? Like for me personally, that feels like a little bit long and a little bit of an arduous, break. The other thing, of course, is that you're not meeting during summer students most available seasons is the pro, to the reason why you maybe should consider keeping summer programing going.

00:09:17:08 - 00:09:38:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so those are both sides. You can probably tell that objectively speaking, we do choose to meet during the summer. We retool, we scale it back. We we're very creative. We do things that are very different. And so let me just give you three tips, regardless of which decision you're going to, land on which which camp you fallen for this debate.

00:09:38:23 - 00:10:00:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Three tips to help you program amazing things, or at least, do amazing youth ministry during the summer, whether you're meeting or not. So tip number one is follow your church's guide. If you have regular, say, midweek or regular Sunday night activities, church wide kids, ministry ministries, all the things and they take a break, then perhaps consider also taking a break.

00:10:00:21 - 00:10:18:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If if you're the only group that meets on campus when you meet, then that's not as big of a deal. But but consider following your church's lead. However, unlike the last video in this playlist where I talked about the importance of following your church's lead as a as it pertains to promotion, that's like a level like, absolutely.

00:10:18:06 - 00:10:43:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Do not deviate from your church's plan on this one. I would say I think things can be a little bit different because while some of the offerings for Kids Ministry and some of the offerings for adult ministry may be a little more elective based or a little more optional, if this is your main meeting time, then if you do choose to meet during the summer while the rest of your church takes time off, then stand strong on that and and communicate the importance of meeting when students are more available.

00:10:43:28 - 00:11:11:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, you don't have to do as wholesale or full scale of a programing. You can scale it back, you can throw some creative options. Again, I'm going to give you some of those and some of what we're doing, in our student ministry. But you can you can kind of pull back the, the, the programing, intensity a little bit so that you can have some fun and just make it a little bit more of a casual hangout, but the tip is, if you're sure you like, follow, follow your church's lead.

00:11:11:01 - 00:11:27:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're unsure which direction to lean on this debate. The second tip I have for you is if you do take a break, and even if you don't, but if you definitely if you do lean in harder than on social media, because you may not be meeting on a Wednesday night or a Sunday night or whatever night you choose to meet, so you have more time in the office.

00:11:27:10 - 00:11:48:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So lean harder into social media, which is linked down below. The freebie tease at the beginning of the video. A hundred different topic ideas for you, for different concepts that, you can use on social media. So for us, I have a four part social media, strategy and social challenge guide, a whole playlist detailed for free, listed down below in the description.

00:11:48:25 - 00:12:08:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Go check that out one episode per video, but this freebie gives you 100 different topic ideas to help you lean into some of the creativity and some of the social media, ideas. And then you can continue to kind of show up where your students are, even if you choose not to meet. And then the third and final idea is just simply this it's summer, man.

00:12:08:15 - 00:12:26:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Have fun. Like if you do choose to meet, have fun while you do. If you don't have fun, do it on social media. Have a blast with your students creating content both for them and also consider doing it with them. And the thing about summer that's so fun. And one of the things that we do is we try to kind of ride the National Day trend.

00:12:26:10 - 00:12:46:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you didn't know there is a National day every single day, multiple national days. So this summer, for example, we're choosing like, beautiful Grandparent Day where we're going to play Extreme Bingo, and National Cheesecake Day is going to round out our summer, you know, programing. And and Leon Day, which is, June 25th. It is the, backwards.

00:12:46:24 - 00:13:08:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, Leon spelled backwards is Noel. So June 25th is when crafters start getting their Christmas supplies out. Last summer we did like National Avocado Day, and we celebrated some holidays like that. And so there's always an option of a thing that you can just kind of trend. So if we don't, we don't female our midweek throughout the, the the regular school year.

00:13:08:00 - 00:13:26:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But during the summer we do we kind of have fun with it. It also is a fun way to kind of create some social media content around it. We'll go around, interview people and ask them, you know, things about each of those topics or whatever, and kind of do a man on the street style video and again, some of that is detailed in that line down below in that 100 free thing.

00:13:26:15 - 00:13:47:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So go ahead and and grab that freebie so that you don't neglect in that you don't avoid social media this summer. Hey, everyone. Coming up in the next episode is the fourth and final installment of this versus playlist, where we're going to be looking at digital ministry versus in-person ministry. And if you're watching this, after its release, it's going to be linked right here on the screen.

00:13:47:29 - 00:13:54:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're watching this live, it'll be releasing next Thursday. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 141: How I Plan Events with Kaylen Adams https://www.hybridministry.xyz/141 f992a4dd-81ca-4648-8551-3cda7ef24ce7 Thu, 20 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 141 How I Plan Events with Kaylen Adams full Nick Clason This episode of the *Hybrid Ministry Show* kicks off the "How I..." playlist with a deep dive into event planning with guest Kaylen Adams, an expert in coordination and logistics. Kaylen shares her step-by-step approach to organizing youth ministry events, covering everything from volunteer recruitment and communication to detailed schedules and contingency planning. Whether you're a youth pastor who struggles with organization or looking to refine your event strategy, this conversation is packed with practical insights to help you run seamless, high-impact events. 31:35 no <p>This episode of the <em>Hybrid Ministry Show</em> kicks off the "How I..." playlist with a deep dive into event planning with guest Kaylen Adams, an expert in coordination and logistics. Kaylen shares her step-by-step approach to organizing youth ministry events, covering everything from volunteer recruitment and communication to detailed schedules and contingency planning. Whether you're a youth pastor who struggles with organization or looking to refine your event strategy, this conversation is packed with practical insights to help you run seamless, high-impact events.</p> <p>🦸BECOME A HYBRID HERO<br> patreon.com/hybridministry</p> <p>✅ CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms</a></p> <p><strong>SHOW NOTES</strong><br> Shownotes &amp; Transcripts<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/141" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/141</a></p> <p>👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK<br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a></p> <p>CONNECT WITH KAYLEN ON SOCIAL<br> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kaylen.maltais" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/kaylen.maltais</a><br> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kmaltais_/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/kmaltais_/</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉</strong><br> We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!<br> The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!<br> <a href="https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em><br> VIDIQ<br> <a href="https://vidiq.com/hybrid" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://vidiq.com/hybrid</a></p> <p>BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> 🕰️<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00 How I Plan Events like a Pro!<br> 01:10 Kaylen, who are you?<br> 05:06 What Lanes did you own?<br> 07:03 How can you help someone think?<br> 08:07 How did you communicate?<br> 11:54 How did you determine call times?<br> 16:30 How do you recruit for an event?<br> 20:05 How many jobs do you give a leader?<br> 21:24 How do you calculate for food?<br> 24:21 What Else?<br> 26:28 What if my church doesn't do all that? <br> 28:34 Keep People's Personalities in Mind</p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> For what is up everybody? Today I am going to introduce you and have you in for a treat, because I am going to be interviewing one of my friends and coworkers, Kaylen Adams, who's fantastic at event planning. This is going to be the start of a new little playlist series on my podcast, and here on YouTube, where I am going to introduce you to some of the people that I know who do things the best in youth ministry and particular lanes.</p> <p>00:00:25:00 - 00:00:46:05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And Kaylen is the queen of event coordination and event management. Not only is she like, really fun and have a really good mind, but she is fantastic at getting volunteers, recruiting them. And when a volunteer comes in just feeling like they know exactly what to do. And you will. If you implement these things, you will look like a rock star.</p> <p>00:00:46:09 - 00:01:04:05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So if you're a typical youth worker who's not very organized, this episode is for you because it will help you and if you think that all hope is lost on you, then this is a great, podcast to send to a volunteer or a high level admin who might step in and help you with some of the logistical things, but you are in for a treat regardless.</p> <p>00:01:04:10 - 00:01:31:06<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> With my interview today with my friend and coworker Kaylen Adams. What's up everyone? Here we are. I am with Kaylen Adams. Which yes, you don't even find that on your name on here because that's how that's how new this is. So it is formerly known as Maltais, not hyphenated. Straight up Adams. Which means you just got married and,</p> <p>00:01:31:08 - 00:01:52:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And you might not know Kaylen, but I know Kaylen. I worked with Kaylen. Worked in the past tense. We are still on staff together, but she has switched departments, so now she's in the kids department. And the reason I ask Kaylen on here is, what was it last weekend? Two weekends ago, we had our high school weekend.</p> <p>00:01:52:02 - 00:02:14:01<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And you still worked with me then, and, oh, my gosh, Kaylen crushed it. Like, you guys don't have any idea. And as she was, like, literally crushing every, like, logistical and administrative detail of the weekend, in the back of my mind, I was like, we got to get Kaylen on so I can ask her, how do you plan for these big events?</p> <p>00:02:14:01 - 00:02:38:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So why don't you give us just kind of a quick overview? Kaylen, first of all, like a 20 or 30 second like synopsis of who you are, how we ended up working together. But then, like, what did you oversee, at these events? Like what particular? Like lanes and areas and avenues. And then I just think what you did is such a helpful tool to many of the youth passers that I've ever seen or worked with. And so I just think this would be helpful to get out, you know, to people. Yeah. Yeah. </p> <p>00:02:38:10 - 00:03:02:13<br> Kaylen Adams<br> So we've started working together because I, I went to college at the University of Wyoming and I got a degree in human resources management and entrepreneurship with minors in hospitality anthropology. There you go. So so that was. Yeah. Yeah. And so I did that.</p> <p>00:03:02:13 - 00:03:29:13<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Fell in love with ministry there. And then around like my senior year, I learned the opportunity to do a residency in Texas, which I hate sweating. So my family was like, I was like, I think because I love Jesus, I don't know. So I applied and I ended up getting hired in January. And so after I graduated, I moved to Texas, and I did a residency at Cross Creek Church and guest services.</p> <p>00:03:29:15 - 00:03:50:22<br> Kaylen Adams<br> But I love that, like ministerial aspect. And I still was kind of doing some of more of that support ministry with it. So needed and very, very special. Big shout out to everybody in support ministries. And so that's when I transitioned into students and I kind of brought a lot of my guest services and undergrad knowledge, which infuse that into what I was doing.</p> <p>00:03:50:22 - 00:04:08:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And students. Yeah. So then like for the first little bit, I remember you're like, I don't really know exactly what you guys want me to do. And we were like, just keep doing like, I mean, like, you guys don't understand. Like, Kaylen was just she just knew what to do. Like, even if she didn't know what to do, she pretend like she knew what to do.</p> <p>00:04:08:00 - 00:04:30:06<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And it seemed like she's known what she she's doing. But it was this last high school weekend where, like, you were pulling out, like, spreadsheets and folders and instructions and, even, like, I remember distinctly I was talking with you about our t shirt order number, and, like, our student registration was, like, lower than anticipated. And you were like, no, we're going to need this many t shirts.</p> <p>00:04:30:06 - 00:04:50:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And I was like, why? And you're like, because of all of our volunteers. And I was like, do you really like, do you really think that? And your confidence, you're like, absolutely. And you were right, by the way. So what like lanes did you let's talk about specifically our high school weekend, which for those of you who don't know the context, it's like a D now without the spending the night element.</p> <p>00:04:50:22 - 00:05:10:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So it's like two days on campus. Yeah. Like Friday night, Saturday until like 3:00. And so it's probably like our second biggest event next to, like, a thing like summer camp, right? So yeah, in that event, what particularly did you own, like, what were those areas? And I just want to ask you kind of pepper you questions.</p> <p>00:05:10:02 - 00:05:33:02<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Yeah. In that in those arenas. Well so this was we originally had one winter we to middle school and high school. Was it split into middle school night high school. Well for middle school night Darren, the student pastor at Rush Creek pitched and I met my boss, so he. Yeah. So he did a lot of the the directional things for that division.</p> <p>00:05:33:02 - 00:05:56:21<br> Kaylen Adams<br> And then programing. And I took everything else and like, did the logistics of the event planned it all. So by the time high school weekend came around, because I wasn't middle school night, so I didn't play a part at all, which is relevant because when we played high school night, we did a lot of the same stuff. We just like copy and paste a lot of the stuff that worked and made it a little more, for high school and that middle school.</p> <p>00:05:56:23 - 00:06:20:20<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Oh yeah. And then we had known, like, what worked and what didn't. So we're check in by the time we got to high school again. Yeah, that's good. But yeah, by the time we got there, Nick you did programing. So like everything that you were sitting in a session and watching and experiencing. Nick was all in of planning and talking to the people, like worship people and yeah, yeah, I did everything outside of that.</p> <p>00:06:20:22 - 00:06:44:20<br> Kaylen Adams<br> So and how we move through the timelines, you know, when were kids eating, where were they going to be, what activities were they going to be doing. And then we had food making sure we had enough food, making sure. Yeah, we had t shirts. And there they were out and that, you know, we gave away a little like pin to all of our students, like, you made sure that that was where it needed to get and left, you know, passing out our note sheets and pens.</p> <p>00:06:44:20 - 00:07:08:09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And, I mean, you just you thought of like, every detail. So, like, I know your background helps you with that, but like, imagine you're talking to someone who's not as organized as you like. So you come by that naturally, which is what was just like a marvel to behold. But like what? What would you tell someone? Or how would you encourage someone to think if they're like planning something like that?</p> <p>00:07:08:09 - 00:07:29:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Like what? What's the way that you help us get inside your brain for some of the logistics? </p> <p>Kaylen Adams<br> Well, when you're planning an event, yes, for a job, for ministry, ever. You write down all of your ideas like, no one is like, I'm just taking this all right here. I will accept it later. It's going to be there like you always write it down.</p> <p>00:07:29:11 - 00:07:54:20<br> Kaylen Adams<br> You make it through for you. And I just thought, you know, would probably be really helpful for a volunteers to see that map. Like, I don't know why I would keep it from them. They should know, like how we got from point A to point B, because by the time we're at point B and we're doing the thing, they deeply understand what they're doing and not only do what I'm telling them to do, they can actually take initiative and do the things that I missed.</p> <p>00:07:54:22 - 00:08:13:05<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Yeah. And so that's a huge part of it is just like, if I were a volunteer, what would I want to know? So I could do my job? Well, I feel good about it. Yeah. So then how how did you go about communicating? Like, did you have a meeting? Did you send them a text? Did you send them an email?</p> <p>00:08:13:05 - 00:08:31:03<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Like what? Because that's probably, I would imagine, a lot of stuff. And I think again, most youth pastors are like, I don't either have the time or be want to overwhelm my volunteers, or maybe see just another reason I didn't actually write it down. It is all in my head. So, I mean, I would say probably for all of us.</p> <p>00:08:31:06 - 00:08:55:12<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Step one is get it out of your head onto paper somehow. And then two, how did you communicate it? Yeah. So I communicated a couple different ways. So the only time that I was texting volunteers instructions or anything was a, when I was recruiting them. Okay. I never sent them like, all the information they needed individually because I needed them all to be kind of in one part.</p> <p>00:08:55:12 - 00:09:16:24<br> Kaylen Adams<br> So I knew who was getting one information and it always the same. Yeah. If I ever was giving instructions, it was in a group chat or a group of people that had a specialized role. Those came last minute. They weren't actually accounted for. Next time we did an event, I probably would account for them in advance. So I'm not texting information because for the smaller like you're saying, the.</p> <p>00:09:17:01 - 00:09:51:02<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Yeah, the smaller, more specialized groups groupings of people. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I like to create an escape room. We had game masters and we didn't know about that until like pretty close to the event. I probably would have included them into all the mass event communication before that time. Got it as okay. Got it. Yeah. Okay. So and then and then putting together all this information, I'm kind of stockpiling it in a folder called Volunteer Prep, and I'm organizing it by like, this document, they need to know this document.</p> <p>00:09:51:02 - 00:10:11:16<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> They need to know if they don't really need to know that, I'll pull it back. What are those documents? Can you give us just a few examples, like pull back the curtain a little bit? </p> <p>Kaylen Adams<br> Yeah, yeah. So I'll make a volunteer schedule that's like five position. And then I sang people to that position per day. So it's not by time blocks, it's by day and what they're doing okay.</p> <p>00:10:11:16 - 00:10:28:21<br> Kaylen Adams<br> And then I have a document a volunteer job description. They need to know what they're doing, why they're doing how they do it. Yeah. And then I do a document. If we're doing anything outside or in a weird space, I'll do an aerial map and I'll make, like, different stations and positions of where they're going to be.</p> <p>00:10:28:23 - 00:10:51:09<br> Kaylen Adams<br> I'll give them a service order so they can see just how we do, how the whole day is going to go through. They even see like how different session parts are going to work, like what sounds work. It's going to do all the stuff because they help with transitions, like really help because it's easier to be like, hey, after they do a million little miracles, I need you to come out here rather than at 737.</p> <p>00:10:51:09 - 00:11:11:20<br> Kaylen Adams<br> I need you to. Yeah. The more like more like, big landmarks on a map. Yeah. Once you get this song, then this is your cue to come out and help set up for lunch, like, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. That's why the service order is so important. And for them to see what's in Planning Center is for that.</p> <p>00:11:11:20 - 00:11:34:07<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> We updated everything for the whole event kind of revolves around that. And you're doing the same for your volunteers. And so because then I would imagine, correct me if I'm wrong, you're able to be like, hey, if you're in charge of lunch, like, these are your three areas or meals, I guess, like these are your three. So like Friday night dinner, Saturday morning breakfast and, you know, Saturday lunch.</p> <p>00:11:34:07 - 00:11:56:08<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Like at this time you need to be here for this. Because if we say lunch is at 12, let's say I'm imagining you're having your volunteer get there at 11:15 or 11:30 or something like that. So how do you real quick answer this question for me. How do you determine, what time to to call for them? Like, yeah.</p> <p>00:11:56:10 - 00:12:18:11<br> Kaylen Adams<br> So when it comes to like food stuff because you're dealing with catering and vendors usually like I wouldn't have that start. So we had lunch at like, what was it this year? 12 I think it started and I don't remember the exact time. I just know we had it and it was ready. And that's why you're here. We had food dropped off at like 1115.</p> <p>00:12:18:16 - 00:12:41:10<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Okay. So plenty of time. And most of that was not because I was worried about my volunteers because they knew what to do. And we're not in like the biggest space ever is to account for vendors being late or not knowing where to park and, stuff. Yeah. When it comes to other transitions, they're a lot tighter windows and they're a lot quicker usually it was like the song before something started.</p> <p>00:12:41:10 - 00:13:04:10<br> Kaylen Adams<br> I would send them to go do something, but again, that's also because their space isn't really big and any materials they needed or resources. I set out in a central location, a table in the main space. We all were operating out of the auditorium, and I labeled everything with all the different times that it's going to be needed, and even put under, like during this song, you should take that, this place.</p> <p>00:13:04:10 - 00:13:25:17<br> Kaylen Adams<br> So my volunteers knew to flock to that table when transition times are happening. Yeah, that was so good. So then are you. So you're just labeling those like yeah, color you label like for anything. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You label like crazy. If you think like oh that'd be really obvious for someone to know it's now you should label.</p> <p>00:13:25:23 - 00:13:45:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Because again, your brain versus reality. Right. Like it makes sense in your brain, our brain as we're planning the events. But it might not make sense to volunteer. Yeah, because they're just dropping in. Right. You know. Yeah. After work. Right. They've been at work all day and their mind is in a million other places.</p> <p>00:13:45:10 - 00:14:06:24<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so like, they're, you know, giving up their time and they're willing and they're helpful and all those things. But like I like that. I like what you're saying, like, almost, almost dummy proof it. Right? Not that they're dumb, but, like, make it so simple. Okay. Yeah. Do it. Yeah. Well, my volunteers, they do best when they're confident.</p> <p>00:14:06:24 - 00:14:24:06<br> Kaylen Adams<br> When they're confident, they are empowered to take initiative, make decisions, do something really well when they're not confident in whether or not they're in the right place, holding the right thing, putting it where it should be. Then you have a lot of lag and you have a lot of like question. And that's when things start to like frame fall apart.</p> <p>00:14:24:09 - 00:14:59:24<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Yeah. So your job as an event coordinator is just to how can I give my volunteers the most confidence they need in this decision. That's good. Okay. So then anything else on what you tell volunteers? I want to maybe go a different direction if you feel like you've kind of got everything in that lack thing is leading up to the event, you want to send out the longest email of your life, and then is where all of the equipment I talked about keeping in that volunteer folder and you go through, you give an overview and you kind of describe how the event's going, and they need to read those attachments.</p> <p>00:14:59:24 - 00:15:26:05<br> Kaylen Adams<br> I sent it all beforehand because that's our big meeting, and they can refer back to you and have in writing. And then by the time we are at the event, like 30 minutes an hour before the start, that meeting is a refresher or a question. That's not the entire meeting. Yeah, yeah. And then the other thing you did, which I thought was brilliant, was you, taped all those attachments to a wall of one of our leader workrooms.</p> <p>00:15:26:07 - 00:15:47:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So, yeah, if they didn't want to, you know, fight with their email to find it again, they could just go reference quickly off a printed copy. So again, you don't like you think about your dummy proofing it like, yes, you communicated it in the email. And this is one of the concepts I talk about in communication a lot is like, we live in like a Netflix culture, so people live it with like an on demand mindset.</p> <p>00:15:47:10 - 00:16:05:03<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so you sent it on like a Thursday at 3:30 p.m., but like, they were in the middle of like a business meeting. And so it wasn't in their mind then, but it will be in their mind when they show up on Friday at six. But like they've gotten 27 more emails since then and so. Oh yeah, where is that?</p> <p>00:16:05:03 - 00:16:24:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And I think it's brilliant to put it somewhere just quick and accessible and maybe even another hack that we didn't even do or think about, but like maybe even having like a static like landing page or like QR code that they could like scan and pull open, like in a, just a tab in their safari. And then that gives them access to everything, you know, that they need.</p> <p>00:16:24:23 - 00:16:58:15<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But yeah, I think that was that was so smart. So then how do you go about, like, help us get in your brain because, you know, you had a couple volunteers there that I was like, oh, like, I wouldn't have thought that they would be here. Not because they did, like a bad job or they're just they weren't like as maybe like involved or like, maybe they're only serving like once a month or once every other, week, like in our student ministry and like, you had the, like, in charge of, like, food or like certain like, you know, snack type areas, like, how did you go through and think, who am</p> <p>00:16:58:15 - 00:17:16:22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I going to recruit? Because I thought that was one of the other really special things was like, you asked a very particular or like, dedicated ask for like just very, again, very specific volunteers. You didn't I didn't feel like you did like an all call, though. You maybe you did to kind of pick up anyone who might be interested.</p> <p>00:17:16:22 - 00:17:39:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But then I think you went particularly after, like certain names or certain individuals. How did you how did you like, think about them to, to ask them and like what goes into you? You know, determining this person would be good for that. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you definitely do an all call because, well, we are desperate for people to help.</p> <p>00:17:39:13 - 00:18:06:02<br> Kaylen Adams<br> We're not gonna act like or not, but, honestly, I just kind of go with a philosophy of I'll never say no for somebody like, you know, I think sometimes we do that even if we say that we're not like, well, they only serve on Sundays and they're very particular about their job. And I'm like, yes. But they also probably like high school is I don't know, maybe the chances are, and so I just kind of like we always have conversations for like, oh, that person would be like, so good at this.</p> <p>00:18:06:02 - 00:18:27:03<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Or if only they do it. And I usually take that person and then ask, yeah, like I make a list of all. Yeah. As I am planning events and I just keep people's personalities in mind like I, we see them work all Sunday and we see them work Wednesday. And you kind of see like what things kind of light them up and what things they're like, oh can I do anything else but that.</p> <p>00:18:27:07 - 00:18:42:18<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Yeah. And so I just kind of catalog that and that way. And I do kind of mentally. But it wouldn't hurt to like make a list of people like I love reaching out to this person for this. This is this. And I've noticed that they've done events. We have volunteers that really get fired up for events like that.</p> <p>00:18:42:18 - 00:19:02:24<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Just being a part of a big beast of a programing thing, like kind of lights them up and exciting. And so I have people that I regularly reach out with, like Kyra Allen Love. She's one of our checking people. I remember when I came in, she was on like some sort of kind of understanding that she was only going to volunteer a couple times because she had some things going on.</p> <p>00:19:02:24 - 00:19:26:20<br> Kaylen Adams<br> And I just remember, like, she was so stoked to do this back to school bash experience. That was like a Wednesday night special because, like, I definitely would love to do events and she's been my event checking person every single time I day. Yeah, yeah that's good. Yeah. She loves it. So you have like a you're very in tune to to them like just ongoing right.</p> <p>00:19:26:20 - 00:19:44:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Like you're keeping an eye as you're doing your job. And so that makes it easier obviously. Then when you go to to think and yeah I like that it is not creepy but it is. No. Yeah. But I think that's part of the that again I when I saw some of those people that was like interesting but also awesome and like that was all kudos to you right.</p> <p>00:19:44:20 - 00:20:01:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Like I'll kudos you because like I wouldn't have thought to ask that person. Like I would have thrown a link in our leader group chat. Hey, you know, want to volunteer? They did it. And now I'm desperate, you know? And, so yeah, I was we were more than fully staffed, you know, for. Yeah. And so that was the other thing.</p> <p>00:20:01:11 - 00:20:20:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Like how, like how many jobs do you try to give a leader? Like how many are you trying to, like, let people do double duty? Or like, hey, you're in charge of like, food and like, that's your job the whole weekend. Like, how do you make those decisions? </p> <p>Kaylen Adams<br> Yeah, some of our jobs, like, they feel very crucial and important because they are.</p> <p>00:20:20:13 - 00:20:40:05<br> Kaylen Adams<br> But they're not crucial. Important in that they happen the entire time of the program. Like right there. Yeah. There are a window a very important window. But then and. Yeah, and you have to remember, when you're dealing with these volunteers, they're adults with full time jobs are like at the leaders, if they're they're at your event, they are high capacity.</p> <p>00:20:40:07 - 00:21:01:24<br> Kaylen Adams<br> They don't do well, bored or sitting and doing nothing. They want to do something. And if they're doing something that morale is high and they'll probably do another event because they're like, that was awesome though. So yeah, it's good. Yeah. So I assign generally like 2 or 3 roles throughout the service order to people. So they're like constantly transitioning and moving to do so.</p> <p>00:21:02:01 - 00:21:22:02<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Yeah. And that comes back to your like schedule your map. And you're like you're thinking that ahead. Like okay. Do they after this window closes they can go to this, but then they maybe can't do this next thing because they're going to be busy doing that. Like, again, that's the next level stuff, Kaylen, that you're like, you're very good at.</p> <p>00:21:22:02 - 00:21:44:02<br> Kaylen Adams<br> So, okay, so then, let's talk a little bit about like, food. Okay. How do you determine, how much to order? Like, is it just as simple as, like, as many as there are registered. How do you account for, like, walk ins at an event like this where we do leave registration open all the way up until you know, it starts.</p> <p>00:21:44:02 - 00:22:05:20<br> Kaylen Adams<br> And so theoretically, a kid could walk in and do you have enough food for them, like how do you how do you kind of try and manage that or think about that? Yeah. It all it does depend on how, big of an invite event. This is like I think high school weekend was an invite like, but we didn't like push super hard and say like my friends going for it.</p> <p>00:22:05:22 - 00:22:25:12<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Yeah, yeah. So always keep that in mind. Yes. You keep the registration number, but you also want to account for all of the adults in the building. Don't forget yourself or your staff then volunteers. And if you're providing food for tech and worship or if they're doing their own thing so that all is in that number. Yeah.</p> <p>00:22:25:14 - 00:22:49:00<br> Kaylen Adams<br> But registration, I just kind of. I don't want to have too big of a margin because then we're spending a lot of money on food. But things that I can give out is like door prizes, like pizza. I'm a little more willing to have extra of because we could have done or do to make their night, but like, same with, you know, because no one wants like a cold, soggy sandwich by the end of like 12 of them.</p> <p>00:22:49:06 - 00:23:10:08<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Yeah. So I would be a little bit more tight on food like that. And also keep in mind that everyone's like, kids are so hungry they're going to eat three slices of pizza. You keep in mind the girls, because girls don't eat as much food as boys. And, like, I definitely like they're just there's camping retreat food.</p> <p>00:23:10:08 - 00:23:32:14<br> Kaylen Adams<br> That is great because you're hungry, but it's not a lot of kids. First choice. Really like one of it. Yeah, they'll like maybe one and a half will split with a friend. Yeah. So just keep that in mind. Like the ratio is not as monstrous as you think. Yeah, I think the ratio I've tried to use for pizza is, two and a half times your number.</p> <p>00:23:32:14 - 00:23:51:06<br> Kaylen Adams<br> So, like, think you're big number of all the people including tech and worship and check in and staff and everyone. And then you multiply it by two and a half. That'll give you the total number of slices that you need. And then you can divide that by eight, because that's how many slices of pizza are in, your pizza box.</p> <p>00:23:51:06 - 00:24:06:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And then that'll give you a number with a decimal. And you can either round up around whatever you, you know, feel. And what's really nice is like, you know, you do the random picker thing, like, with their name. And for those who don't know, you picked the names and then they just get a random prize for doing nothing.</p> <p>00:24:06:03 - 00:24:22:03<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Yeah, that great. Pick that food leftovers too, because you don't want to bank on having extra if you're just kind of guessing because kids might be really hungry and you don't have it, and then you just lost a prize for a game. Yeah. So you want that to be like a random moment that if they don't get it, they have no idea.</p> <p>00:24:22:05 - 00:24:48:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. All right. Let's see what else. What else do you what else do you think about for an event that I'm not thinking even to, like, ask you? Listen, you have to know if your church has any sort of, like, admin team, administrative volunteers that help put these things together with your operations at all, like your facilities and your finance people or whatever it might be.</p> <p>00:24:48:04 - 00:25:09:00<br> Kaylen Adams<br> You need to meet with them, like way ahead of time. So I see way ahead of time. Yeah. So I start meeting with people. We've been cutting it kind of close and cutting it close to meeting two months in advance. Okay. So you need to some of us that might be like, oh, that's when I start thinking about it.</p> <p>00:25:09:02 - 00:25:34:17<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Yeah. No. Especially if it's like a really big event. Which high school weekend is a really big event for us? We need to start planning that month in advance. And depending on, like, the capacity of your team, that could fluctuate a little bit. Like if it's just you and one other person, I would say probably start looking at that at like six months and having if you have a couple other people who can share that, you could maybe do a little bit less.</p> <p>00:25:34:19 - 00:25:59:21<br> Kaylen Adams<br> But you definitely need to start meeting with administrative people on your church staff that are handling this, because their personalities are a lot different than yours. As a ministry person, you're used to pivoting and being creative and all the things and pulling it off at the last minute. Yeah, they are not. They love systems and processes and if you break their system, it's going to be really, really hard to get them to like be on the same wavelength with you.</p> <p>00:26:00:01 - 00:26:22:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Good. Yeah, yeah. And like in our particular, you know, setting, we have like our facilities people like they set everything up for us, which is fantastic. But to your point, like, only if we're on top of it, if we slide in in the ninth hour and we're like, this is what we want, they're like, yo, we're already on to like, stuff for like later, next weekend.</p> <p>00:26:22:11 - 00:26:43:23<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Like we've already, you know, planned our day. So, you know, to her point like, and whether you know so like, here's the thing I do know if like you're listening, you're like, okay, I don't work at a church anywhere near that. Has any of that. Like, I am the operations, I am the admin. And what I would say is, lean into your volunteers if you're like that sounds fantastic.</p> <p>00:26:43:23 - 00:27:15:12<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I would love that. But I don't have anyone that works for me with me on my team. Anything like that like that doesn't mean you can't do it, and it doesn't mean you still can't delegate and dish out. You just may have to do that more of like a volunteer capacity. So find a mother. Or like someone who, like, works in like an administrative like role that has a little bit of, bandwidth and margin and like, ask them, you know, like, I'm sure if I'm saying that many of you right now, as you're listening, you're like, oh, yeah, I could probably ask so and so, like that person's come into your mind like, let</p> <p>00:27:15:12 - 00:27:33:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> that person be your Kaylen for your event. And like, yes, we had the luxury of like Kaylen being on our team payroll, but like, you know, it doesn't it doesn't, they don't have to be right. And like. Yeah, setting up you can. I mean, we employ teenagers, like, students to, like, come early and do stuff like that.</p> <p>00:27:33:00 - 00:28:00:12<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And, you know, we call them what we call them. Simps. Yet SMPs student is tone texting is for like, student oh my gosh. Okay. Do not disturb do that anyway. Ministry student minutes protege. Protege. Yeah yeah yeah. Protege. Yeah. And so anyway, we employ them, they, get free camp, and stuff like that, but they come early in, like, sets, set things up.</p> <p>00:28:00:12 - 00:28:25:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So, like, they can be like facilities team. So again, as we're saying it like, don't don't be like I had never be there like you for sure can like employ volunteers and people that'll do it for free. And they like to to Kaylen's point. Yeah they do. That might not be your gifting. And you're like, no one would ever want to run administrative or set chairs up like some people genuinely do.</p> <p>00:28:25:02 - 00:28:47:19<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so don't rob other people of being able to serve your youth ministry, God's kingdom, whatever. By not asking them. What else Kaylen. Anything else or do we hit it all. I just would in mind people's personalities. You're going to have people who, when they're planning events, they just run just like that's just their personality and that's how they work best.</p> <p>00:28:47:19 - 00:29:06:12<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so they're going to ask a lot of questions and they're going to want to meet with you last minute and their vibe might kind of like make you kind of thrown off because you're like, I thought we had all this plan. Why do you need to meet and double check? They've probably done a great job. They just want to make sure that they've done everything you need to help you.</p> <p>00:29:06:14 - 00:29:25:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so if you have someone in your life who's like that, just remember, like, just have your questions kind of written out of what you know, that they text and have those input ready for them. And that's going to help those meetings a lot quicker. I had a at one churches I worked at, I had a volunteer like that.</p> <p>00:29:25:20 - 00:29:47:23<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Her name was Sarah. And the way that I would think logistically when I was planning things because, like, I was a one man band, we had a church secretary 20 hours a week that served the entire church. Right. So, like, I could get some stuff, you know, to for her to do for the youth ministry, but not like she wasn't like, there to, like at my beck and call for everything.</p> <p>00:29:48:00 - 00:30:12:16<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so as I was like dishing things off to volunteers and whatnot, like my, my filter in my head was always like, what would Sarah want to know? Right? It's I think that's a good like a good way to think about it is like, think about the volunteer who has the most questions for you. And then ask the question like, would the amount of information that I'm sending up, would it satisfy that person?</p> <p>00:30:12:16 - 00:30:37:12<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And if yes, then you're on the right track. If not, then you probably need more detail. So yeah. Yeah, I love that. Cool. Kaylen, is that it? Do we hit it? Yeah. There's our all events for future and for always going to be planned, do you think? I think I think so well, yeah probably. All right. Well hey, this was how I plan events with Kaylen.</p> <p>00:30:37:14 - 00:30:57:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Not Morty's Kaylen Adams. And, she's awesome. So, Kaylen, I mean, like, can people, like, follow you, like, on social media or anything if they want to? Yeah. Yeah. Where, where where can they find you? It's funny. I have to, like, go double check. Well, I can't fake my name. Oh, wait. What is it? Now that I just had to change my social media handles?</p> <p>00:30:57:18 - 00:31:22:13<br> Kaylen Adams<br> Because I just got mail? I know well, and Instagram is actually really hard to change your last name on, so it hasn't been changed yet. My handle, but my name on there stage so you can find me at K Maltese Underscore on Instagram. It's cmake lta s underscore on Instagram Facebook Palin Adams look me up. I think that's all in I'm on because I'm old and TikTok that's okay.</p> <p>00:31:22:17 - 00:31:32:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> It's banned anyway. So actually it's back. I don't know if you heard but oh all right people. Well I'm signing off for Kayla and this is Nick. Talk to you next time. Stay hybrid guys. </p> youth ministry, youth pastor, church event planning, church leadership, student ministry, hybrid ministry, church communication, volunteer management, event coordination, church growth, church social media, youth group ideas, ministry podcast, digital ministry, church marketing, sermon planning, discipleship, church strategy, youth ministry training, church media, church tech, ministry leadership This episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show kicks off the "How I..." playlist with a deep dive into event planning with guest Kaylen Adams, an expert in coordination and logistics. Kaylen shares her step-by-step approach to organizing youth ministry events, covering everything from volunteer recruitment and communication to detailed schedules and contingency planning. Whether you're a youth pastor who struggles with organization or looking to refine your event strategy, this conversation is packed with practical insights to help you run seamless, high-impact events.

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 How I Plan Events like a Pro!
01:10 Kaylen, who are you?
05:06 What Lanes did you own?
07:03 How can you help someone think?
08:07 How did you communicate?
11:54 How did you determine call times?
16:30 How do you recruit for an event?
20:05 How many jobs do you give a leader?
21:24 How do you calculate for food?
24:21 What Else?
26:28 What if my church doesn't do all that?
28:34 Keep People's Personalities in Mind

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For what is up everybody? Today I am going to introduce you and have you in for a treat, because I am going to be interviewing one of my friends and coworkers, Kaylen Adams, who's fantastic at event planning. This is going to be the start of a new little playlist series on my podcast, and here on YouTube, where I am going to introduce you to some of the people that I know who do things the best in youth ministry and particular lanes.

00:00:25:00 - 00:00:46:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And Kaylen is the queen of event coordination and event management. Not only is she like, really fun and have a really good mind, but she is fantastic at getting volunteers, recruiting them. And when a volunteer comes in just feeling like they know exactly what to do. And you will. If you implement these things, you will look like a rock star.

00:00:46:09 - 00:01:04:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're a typical youth worker who's not very organized, this episode is for you because it will help you and if you think that all hope is lost on you, then this is a great, podcast to send to a volunteer or a high level admin who might step in and help you with some of the logistical things, but you are in for a treat regardless.

00:01:04:10 - 00:01:31:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
With my interview today with my friend and coworker Kaylen Adams. What's up everyone? Here we are. I am with Kaylen Adams. Which yes, you don't even find that on your name on here because that's how that's how new this is. So it is formerly known as Maltais, not hyphenated. Straight up Adams. Which means you just got married and,

00:01:31:08 - 00:01:52:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you might not know Kaylen, but I know Kaylen. I worked with Kaylen. Worked in the past tense. We are still on staff together, but she has switched departments, so now she's in the kids department. And the reason I ask Kaylen on here is, what was it last weekend? Two weekends ago, we had our high school weekend.

00:01:52:02 - 00:02:14:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you still worked with me then, and, oh, my gosh, Kaylen crushed it. Like, you guys don't have any idea. And as she was, like, literally crushing every, like, logistical and administrative detail of the weekend, in the back of my mind, I was like, we got to get Kaylen on so I can ask her, how do you plan for these big events?

00:02:14:01 - 00:02:38:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So why don't you give us just kind of a quick overview? Kaylen, first of all, like a 20 or 30 second like synopsis of who you are, how we ended up working together. But then, like, what did you oversee, at these events? Like what particular? Like lanes and areas and avenues. And then I just think what you did is such a helpful tool to many of the youth passers that I've ever seen or worked with. And so I just think this would be helpful to get out, you know, to people. Yeah. Yeah.

00:02:38:10 - 00:03:02:13
Kaylen Adams
So we've started working together because I, I went to college at the University of Wyoming and I got a degree in human resources management and entrepreneurship with minors in hospitality anthropology. There you go. So so that was. Yeah. Yeah. And so I did that.

00:03:02:13 - 00:03:29:13
Kaylen Adams
Fell in love with ministry there. And then around like my senior year, I learned the opportunity to do a residency in Texas, which I hate sweating. So my family was like, I was like, I think because I love Jesus, I don't know. So I applied and I ended up getting hired in January. And so after I graduated, I moved to Texas, and I did a residency at Cross Creek Church and guest services.

00:03:29:15 - 00:03:50:22
Kaylen Adams
But I love that, like ministerial aspect. And I still was kind of doing some of more of that support ministry with it. So needed and very, very special. Big shout out to everybody in support ministries. And so that's when I transitioned into students and I kind of brought a lot of my guest services and undergrad knowledge, which infuse that into what I was doing.

00:03:50:22 - 00:04:08:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And students. Yeah. So then like for the first little bit, I remember you're like, I don't really know exactly what you guys want me to do. And we were like, just keep doing like, I mean, like, you guys don't understand. Like, Kaylen was just she just knew what to do. Like, even if she didn't know what to do, she pretend like she knew what to do.

00:04:08:00 - 00:04:30:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it seemed like she's known what she she's doing. But it was this last high school weekend where, like, you were pulling out, like, spreadsheets and folders and instructions and, even, like, I remember distinctly I was talking with you about our t shirt order number, and, like, our student registration was, like, lower than anticipated. And you were like, no, we're going to need this many t shirts.

00:04:30:06 - 00:04:50:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I was like, why? And you're like, because of all of our volunteers. And I was like, do you really like, do you really think that? And your confidence, you're like, absolutely. And you were right, by the way. So what like lanes did you let's talk about specifically our high school weekend, which for those of you who don't know the context, it's like a D now without the spending the night element.

00:04:50:22 - 00:05:10:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's like two days on campus. Yeah. Like Friday night, Saturday until like 3:00. And so it's probably like our second biggest event next to, like, a thing like summer camp, right? So yeah, in that event, what particularly did you own, like, what were those areas? And I just want to ask you kind of pepper you questions.

00:05:10:02 - 00:05:33:02
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. In that in those arenas. Well so this was we originally had one winter we to middle school and high school. Was it split into middle school night high school. Well for middle school night Darren, the student pastor at Rush Creek pitched and I met my boss, so he. Yeah. So he did a lot of the the directional things for that division.

00:05:33:02 - 00:05:56:21
Kaylen Adams
And then programing. And I took everything else and like, did the logistics of the event planned it all. So by the time high school weekend came around, because I wasn't middle school night, so I didn't play a part at all, which is relevant because when we played high school night, we did a lot of the same stuff. We just like copy and paste a lot of the stuff that worked and made it a little more, for high school and that middle school.

00:05:56:23 - 00:06:20:20
Kaylen Adams
Oh yeah. And then we had known, like, what worked and what didn't. So we're check in by the time we got to high school again. Yeah, that's good. But yeah, by the time we got there, Nick you did programing. So like everything that you were sitting in a session and watching and experiencing. Nick was all in of planning and talking to the people, like worship people and yeah, yeah, I did everything outside of that.

00:06:20:22 - 00:06:44:20
Kaylen Adams
So and how we move through the timelines, you know, when were kids eating, where were they going to be, what activities were they going to be doing. And then we had food making sure we had enough food, making sure. Yeah, we had t shirts. And there they were out and that, you know, we gave away a little like pin to all of our students, like, you made sure that that was where it needed to get and left, you know, passing out our note sheets and pens.

00:06:44:20 - 00:07:08:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, I mean, you just you thought of like, every detail. So, like, I know your background helps you with that, but like, imagine you're talking to someone who's not as organized as you like. So you come by that naturally, which is what was just like a marvel to behold. But like what? What would you tell someone? Or how would you encourage someone to think if they're like planning something like that?

00:07:08:09 - 00:07:29:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like what? What's the way that you help us get inside your brain for some of the logistics?

Kaylen Adams
Well, when you're planning an event, yes, for a job, for ministry, ever. You write down all of your ideas like, no one is like, I'm just taking this all right here. I will accept it later. It's going to be there like you always write it down.

00:07:29:11 - 00:07:54:20
Kaylen Adams
You make it through for you. And I just thought, you know, would probably be really helpful for a volunteers to see that map. Like, I don't know why I would keep it from them. They should know, like how we got from point A to point B, because by the time we're at point B and we're doing the thing, they deeply understand what they're doing and not only do what I'm telling them to do, they can actually take initiative and do the things that I missed.

00:07:54:22 - 00:08:13:05
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. And so that's a huge part of it is just like, if I were a volunteer, what would I want to know? So I could do my job? Well, I feel good about it. Yeah. So then how how did you go about communicating? Like, did you have a meeting? Did you send them a text? Did you send them an email?

00:08:13:05 - 00:08:31:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like what? Because that's probably, I would imagine, a lot of stuff. And I think again, most youth pastors are like, I don't either have the time or be want to overwhelm my volunteers, or maybe see just another reason I didn't actually write it down. It is all in my head. So, I mean, I would say probably for all of us.

00:08:31:06 - 00:08:55:12
Kaylen Adams
Step one is get it out of your head onto paper somehow. And then two, how did you communicate it? Yeah. So I communicated a couple different ways. So the only time that I was texting volunteers instructions or anything was a, when I was recruiting them. Okay. I never sent them like, all the information they needed individually because I needed them all to be kind of in one part.

00:08:55:12 - 00:09:16:24
Kaylen Adams
So I knew who was getting one information and it always the same. Yeah. If I ever was giving instructions, it was in a group chat or a group of people that had a specialized role. Those came last minute. They weren't actually accounted for. Next time we did an event, I probably would account for them in advance. So I'm not texting information because for the smaller like you're saying, the.

00:09:17:01 - 00:09:51:02
Kaylen Adams
Yeah, the smaller, more specialized groups groupings of people. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I like to create an escape room. We had game masters and we didn't know about that until like pretty close to the event. I probably would have included them into all the mass event communication before that time. Got it as okay. Got it. Yeah. Okay. So and then and then putting together all this information, I'm kind of stockpiling it in a folder called Volunteer Prep, and I'm organizing it by like, this document, they need to know this document.

00:09:51:02 - 00:10:11:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They need to know if they don't really need to know that, I'll pull it back. What are those documents? Can you give us just a few examples, like pull back the curtain a little bit?

Kaylen Adams
Yeah, yeah. So I'll make a volunteer schedule that's like five position. And then I sang people to that position per day. So it's not by time blocks, it's by day and what they're doing okay.

00:10:11:16 - 00:10:28:21
Kaylen Adams
And then I have a document a volunteer job description. They need to know what they're doing, why they're doing how they do it. Yeah. And then I do a document. If we're doing anything outside or in a weird space, I'll do an aerial map and I'll make, like, different stations and positions of where they're going to be.

00:10:28:23 - 00:10:51:09
Kaylen Adams
I'll give them a service order so they can see just how we do, how the whole day is going to go through. They even see like how different session parts are going to work, like what sounds work. It's going to do all the stuff because they help with transitions, like really help because it's easier to be like, hey, after they do a million little miracles, I need you to come out here rather than at 737.

00:10:51:09 - 00:11:11:20
Kaylen Adams
I need you to. Yeah. The more like more like, big landmarks on a map. Yeah. Once you get this song, then this is your cue to come out and help set up for lunch, like, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. That's why the service order is so important. And for them to see what's in Planning Center is for that.

00:11:11:20 - 00:11:34:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We updated everything for the whole event kind of revolves around that. And you're doing the same for your volunteers. And so because then I would imagine, correct me if I'm wrong, you're able to be like, hey, if you're in charge of lunch, like, these are your three areas or meals, I guess, like these are your three. So like Friday night dinner, Saturday morning breakfast and, you know, Saturday lunch.

00:11:34:07 - 00:11:56:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like at this time you need to be here for this. Because if we say lunch is at 12, let's say I'm imagining you're having your volunteer get there at 11:15 or 11:30 or something like that. So how do you real quick answer this question for me. How do you determine, what time to to call for them? Like, yeah.

00:11:56:10 - 00:12:18:11
Kaylen Adams
So when it comes to like food stuff because you're dealing with catering and vendors usually like I wouldn't have that start. So we had lunch at like, what was it this year? 12 I think it started and I don't remember the exact time. I just know we had it and it was ready. And that's why you're here. We had food dropped off at like 1115.

00:12:18:16 - 00:12:41:10
Kaylen Adams
Okay. So plenty of time. And most of that was not because I was worried about my volunteers because they knew what to do. And we're not in like the biggest space ever is to account for vendors being late or not knowing where to park and, stuff. Yeah. When it comes to other transitions, they're a lot tighter windows and they're a lot quicker usually it was like the song before something started.

00:12:41:10 - 00:13:04:10
Kaylen Adams
I would send them to go do something, but again, that's also because their space isn't really big and any materials they needed or resources. I set out in a central location, a table in the main space. We all were operating out of the auditorium, and I labeled everything with all the different times that it's going to be needed, and even put under, like during this song, you should take that, this place.

00:13:04:10 - 00:13:25:17
Kaylen Adams
So my volunteers knew to flock to that table when transition times are happening. Yeah, that was so good. So then are you. So you're just labeling those like yeah, color you label like for anything. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You label like crazy. If you think like oh that'd be really obvious for someone to know it's now you should label.

00:13:25:23 - 00:13:45:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Because again, your brain versus reality. Right. Like it makes sense in your brain, our brain as we're planning the events. But it might not make sense to volunteer. Yeah, because they're just dropping in. Right. You know. Yeah. After work. Right. They've been at work all day and their mind is in a million other places.

00:13:45:10 - 00:14:06:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so like, they're, you know, giving up their time and they're willing and they're helpful and all those things. But like I like that. I like what you're saying, like, almost, almost dummy proof it. Right? Not that they're dumb, but, like, make it so simple. Okay. Yeah. Do it. Yeah. Well, my volunteers, they do best when they're confident.

00:14:06:24 - 00:14:24:06
Kaylen Adams
When they're confident, they are empowered to take initiative, make decisions, do something really well when they're not confident in whether or not they're in the right place, holding the right thing, putting it where it should be. Then you have a lot of lag and you have a lot of like question. And that's when things start to like frame fall apart.

00:14:24:09 - 00:14:59:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. So your job as an event coordinator is just to how can I give my volunteers the most confidence they need in this decision. That's good. Okay. So then anything else on what you tell volunteers? I want to maybe go a different direction if you feel like you've kind of got everything in that lack thing is leading up to the event, you want to send out the longest email of your life, and then is where all of the equipment I talked about keeping in that volunteer folder and you go through, you give an overview and you kind of describe how the event's going, and they need to read those attachments.

00:14:59:24 - 00:15:26:05
Kaylen Adams
I sent it all beforehand because that's our big meeting, and they can refer back to you and have in writing. And then by the time we are at the event, like 30 minutes an hour before the start, that meeting is a refresher or a question. That's not the entire meeting. Yeah, yeah. And then the other thing you did, which I thought was brilliant, was you, taped all those attachments to a wall of one of our leader workrooms.

00:15:26:07 - 00:15:47:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, yeah, if they didn't want to, you know, fight with their email to find it again, they could just go reference quickly off a printed copy. So again, you don't like you think about your dummy proofing it like, yes, you communicated it in the email. And this is one of the concepts I talk about in communication a lot is like, we live in like a Netflix culture, so people live it with like an on demand mindset.

00:15:47:10 - 00:16:05:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you sent it on like a Thursday at 3:30 p.m., but like, they were in the middle of like a business meeting. And so it wasn't in their mind then, but it will be in their mind when they show up on Friday at six. But like they've gotten 27 more emails since then and so. Oh yeah, where is that?

00:16:05:03 - 00:16:24:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think it's brilliant to put it somewhere just quick and accessible and maybe even another hack that we didn't even do or think about, but like maybe even having like a static like landing page or like QR code that they could like scan and pull open, like in a, just a tab in their safari. And then that gives them access to everything, you know, that they need.

00:16:24:23 - 00:16:58:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But yeah, I think that was that was so smart. So then how do you go about, like, help us get in your brain because, you know, you had a couple volunteers there that I was like, oh, like, I wouldn't have thought that they would be here. Not because they did, like a bad job or they're just they weren't like as maybe like involved or like, maybe they're only serving like once a month or once every other, week, like in our student ministry and like, you had the, like, in charge of, like, food or like certain like, you know, snack type areas, like, how did you go through and think, who am

00:16:58:15 - 00:17:16:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I going to recruit? Because I thought that was one of the other really special things was like, you asked a very particular or like, dedicated ask for like just very, again, very specific volunteers. You didn't I didn't feel like you did like an all call, though. You maybe you did to kind of pick up anyone who might be interested.

00:17:16:22 - 00:17:39:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then I think you went particularly after, like certain names or certain individuals. How did you how did you like, think about them to, to ask them and like what goes into you? You know, determining this person would be good for that. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you definitely do an all call because, well, we are desperate for people to help.

00:17:39:13 - 00:18:06:02
Kaylen Adams
We're not gonna act like or not, but, honestly, I just kind of go with a philosophy of I'll never say no for somebody like, you know, I think sometimes we do that even if we say that we're not like, well, they only serve on Sundays and they're very particular about their job. And I'm like, yes. But they also probably like high school is I don't know, maybe the chances are, and so I just kind of like we always have conversations for like, oh, that person would be like, so good at this.

00:18:06:02 - 00:18:27:03
Kaylen Adams
Or if only they do it. And I usually take that person and then ask, yeah, like I make a list of all. Yeah. As I am planning events and I just keep people's personalities in mind like I, we see them work all Sunday and we see them work Wednesday. And you kind of see like what things kind of light them up and what things they're like, oh can I do anything else but that.

00:18:27:07 - 00:18:42:18
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. And so I just kind of catalog that and that way. And I do kind of mentally. But it wouldn't hurt to like make a list of people like I love reaching out to this person for this. This is this. And I've noticed that they've done events. We have volunteers that really get fired up for events like that.

00:18:42:18 - 00:19:02:24
Kaylen Adams
Just being a part of a big beast of a programing thing, like kind of lights them up and exciting. And so I have people that I regularly reach out with, like Kyra Allen Love. She's one of our checking people. I remember when I came in, she was on like some sort of kind of understanding that she was only going to volunteer a couple times because she had some things going on.

00:19:02:24 - 00:19:26:20
Kaylen Adams
And I just remember, like, she was so stoked to do this back to school bash experience. That was like a Wednesday night special because, like, I definitely would love to do events and she's been my event checking person every single time I day. Yeah, yeah that's good. Yeah. She loves it. So you have like a you're very in tune to to them like just ongoing right.

00:19:26:20 - 00:19:44:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like you're keeping an eye as you're doing your job. And so that makes it easier obviously. Then when you go to to think and yeah I like that it is not creepy but it is. No. Yeah. But I think that's part of the that again I when I saw some of those people that was like interesting but also awesome and like that was all kudos to you right.

00:19:44:20 - 00:20:01:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I'll kudos you because like I wouldn't have thought to ask that person. Like I would have thrown a link in our leader group chat. Hey, you know, want to volunteer? They did it. And now I'm desperate, you know? And, so yeah, I was we were more than fully staffed, you know, for. Yeah. And so that was the other thing.

00:20:01:11 - 00:20:20:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like how, like how many jobs do you try to give a leader? Like how many are you trying to, like, let people do double duty? Or like, hey, you're in charge of like, food and like, that's your job the whole weekend. Like, how do you make those decisions?

Kaylen Adams
Yeah, some of our jobs, like, they feel very crucial and important because they are.

00:20:20:13 - 00:20:40:05
Kaylen Adams
But they're not crucial. Important in that they happen the entire time of the program. Like right there. Yeah. There are a window a very important window. But then and. Yeah, and you have to remember, when you're dealing with these volunteers, they're adults with full time jobs are like at the leaders, if they're they're at your event, they are high capacity.

00:20:40:07 - 00:21:01:24
Kaylen Adams
They don't do well, bored or sitting and doing nothing. They want to do something. And if they're doing something that morale is high and they'll probably do another event because they're like, that was awesome though. So yeah, it's good. Yeah. So I assign generally like 2 or 3 roles throughout the service order to people. So they're like constantly transitioning and moving to do so.

00:21:02:01 - 00:21:22:02
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. And that comes back to your like schedule your map. And you're like you're thinking that ahead. Like okay. Do they after this window closes they can go to this, but then they maybe can't do this next thing because they're going to be busy doing that. Like, again, that's the next level stuff, Kaylen, that you're like, you're very good at.

00:21:22:02 - 00:21:44:02
Kaylen Adams
So, okay, so then, let's talk a little bit about like, food. Okay. How do you determine, how much to order? Like, is it just as simple as, like, as many as there are registered. How do you account for, like, walk ins at an event like this where we do leave registration open all the way up until you know, it starts.

00:21:44:02 - 00:22:05:20
Kaylen Adams
And so theoretically, a kid could walk in and do you have enough food for them, like how do you how do you kind of try and manage that or think about that? Yeah. It all it does depend on how, big of an invite event. This is like I think high school weekend was an invite like, but we didn't like push super hard and say like my friends going for it.

00:22:05:22 - 00:22:25:12
Kaylen Adams
Yeah, yeah. So always keep that in mind. Yes. You keep the registration number, but you also want to account for all of the adults in the building. Don't forget yourself or your staff then volunteers. And if you're providing food for tech and worship or if they're doing their own thing so that all is in that number. Yeah.

00:22:25:14 - 00:22:49:00
Kaylen Adams
But registration, I just kind of. I don't want to have too big of a margin because then we're spending a lot of money on food. But things that I can give out is like door prizes, like pizza. I'm a little more willing to have extra of because we could have done or do to make their night, but like, same with, you know, because no one wants like a cold, soggy sandwich by the end of like 12 of them.

00:22:49:06 - 00:23:10:08
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. So I would be a little bit more tight on food like that. And also keep in mind that everyone's like, kids are so hungry they're going to eat three slices of pizza. You keep in mind the girls, because girls don't eat as much food as boys. And, like, I definitely like they're just there's camping retreat food.

00:23:10:08 - 00:23:32:14
Kaylen Adams
That is great because you're hungry, but it's not a lot of kids. First choice. Really like one of it. Yeah, they'll like maybe one and a half will split with a friend. Yeah. So just keep that in mind. Like the ratio is not as monstrous as you think. Yeah, I think the ratio I've tried to use for pizza is, two and a half times your number.

00:23:32:14 - 00:23:51:06
Kaylen Adams
So, like, think you're big number of all the people including tech and worship and check in and staff and everyone. And then you multiply it by two and a half. That'll give you the total number of slices that you need. And then you can divide that by eight, because that's how many slices of pizza are in, your pizza box.

00:23:51:06 - 00:24:06:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then that'll give you a number with a decimal. And you can either round up around whatever you, you know, feel. And what's really nice is like, you know, you do the random picker thing, like, with their name. And for those who don't know, you picked the names and then they just get a random prize for doing nothing.

00:24:06:03 - 00:24:22:03
Kaylen Adams
Yeah, that great. Pick that food leftovers too, because you don't want to bank on having extra if you're just kind of guessing because kids might be really hungry and you don't have it, and then you just lost a prize for a game. Yeah. So you want that to be like a random moment that if they don't get it, they have no idea.

00:24:22:05 - 00:24:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. All right. Let's see what else. What else do you what else do you think about for an event that I'm not thinking even to, like, ask you? Listen, you have to know if your church has any sort of, like, admin team, administrative volunteers that help put these things together with your operations at all, like your facilities and your finance people or whatever it might be.

00:24:48:04 - 00:25:09:00
Kaylen Adams
You need to meet with them, like way ahead of time. So I see way ahead of time. Yeah. So I start meeting with people. We've been cutting it kind of close and cutting it close to meeting two months in advance. Okay. So you need to some of us that might be like, oh, that's when I start thinking about it.

00:25:09:02 - 00:25:34:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. No. Especially if it's like a really big event. Which high school weekend is a really big event for us? We need to start planning that month in advance. And depending on, like, the capacity of your team, that could fluctuate a little bit. Like if it's just you and one other person, I would say probably start looking at that at like six months and having if you have a couple other people who can share that, you could maybe do a little bit less.

00:25:34:19 - 00:25:59:21
Kaylen Adams
But you definitely need to start meeting with administrative people on your church staff that are handling this, because their personalities are a lot different than yours. As a ministry person, you're used to pivoting and being creative and all the things and pulling it off at the last minute. Yeah, they are not. They love systems and processes and if you break their system, it's going to be really, really hard to get them to like be on the same wavelength with you.

00:26:00:01 - 00:26:22:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Good. Yeah, yeah. And like in our particular, you know, setting, we have like our facilities people like they set everything up for us, which is fantastic. But to your point, like, only if we're on top of it, if we slide in in the ninth hour and we're like, this is what we want, they're like, yo, we're already on to like, stuff for like later, next weekend.

00:26:22:11 - 00:26:43:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like we've already, you know, planned our day. So, you know, to her point like, and whether you know so like, here's the thing I do know if like you're listening, you're like, okay, I don't work at a church anywhere near that. Has any of that. Like, I am the operations, I am the admin. And what I would say is, lean into your volunteers if you're like that sounds fantastic.

00:26:43:23 - 00:27:15:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I would love that. But I don't have anyone that works for me with me on my team. Anything like that like that doesn't mean you can't do it, and it doesn't mean you still can't delegate and dish out. You just may have to do that more of like a volunteer capacity. So find a mother. Or like someone who, like, works in like an administrative like role that has a little bit of, bandwidth and margin and like, ask them, you know, like, I'm sure if I'm saying that many of you right now, as you're listening, you're like, oh, yeah, I could probably ask so and so, like that person's come into your mind like, let

00:27:15:12 - 00:27:33:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that person be your Kaylen for your event. And like, yes, we had the luxury of like Kaylen being on our team payroll, but like, you know, it doesn't it doesn't, they don't have to be right. And like. Yeah, setting up you can. I mean, we employ teenagers, like, students to, like, come early and do stuff like that.

00:27:33:00 - 00:28:00:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, you know, we call them what we call them. Simps. Yet SMPs student is tone texting is for like, student oh my gosh. Okay. Do not disturb do that anyway. Ministry student minutes protege. Protege. Yeah yeah yeah. Protege. Yeah. And so anyway, we employ them, they, get free camp, and stuff like that, but they come early in, like, sets, set things up.

00:28:00:12 - 00:28:25:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, like, they can be like facilities team. So again, as we're saying it like, don't don't be like I had never be there like you for sure can like employ volunteers and people that'll do it for free. And they like to to Kaylen's point. Yeah they do. That might not be your gifting. And you're like, no one would ever want to run administrative or set chairs up like some people genuinely do.

00:28:25:02 - 00:28:47:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so don't rob other people of being able to serve your youth ministry, God's kingdom, whatever. By not asking them. What else Kaylen. Anything else or do we hit it all. I just would in mind people's personalities. You're going to have people who, when they're planning events, they just run just like that's just their personality and that's how they work best.

00:28:47:19 - 00:29:06:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so they're going to ask a lot of questions and they're going to want to meet with you last minute and their vibe might kind of like make you kind of thrown off because you're like, I thought we had all this plan. Why do you need to meet and double check? They've probably done a great job. They just want to make sure that they've done everything you need to help you.

00:29:06:14 - 00:29:25:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you have someone in your life who's like that, just remember, like, just have your questions kind of written out of what you know, that they text and have those input ready for them. And that's going to help those meetings a lot quicker. I had a at one churches I worked at, I had a volunteer like that.

00:29:25:20 - 00:29:47:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Her name was Sarah. And the way that I would think logistically when I was planning things because, like, I was a one man band, we had a church secretary 20 hours a week that served the entire church. Right. So, like, I could get some stuff, you know, to for her to do for the youth ministry, but not like she wasn't like, there to, like at my beck and call for everything.

00:29:48:00 - 00:30:12:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so as I was like dishing things off to volunteers and whatnot, like my, my filter in my head was always like, what would Sarah want to know? Right? It's I think that's a good like a good way to think about it is like, think about the volunteer who has the most questions for you. And then ask the question like, would the amount of information that I'm sending up, would it satisfy that person?

00:30:12:16 - 00:30:37:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if yes, then you're on the right track. If not, then you probably need more detail. So yeah. Yeah, I love that. Cool. Kaylen, is that it? Do we hit it? Yeah. There's our all events for future and for always going to be planned, do you think? I think I think so well, yeah probably. All right. Well hey, this was how I plan events with Kaylen.

00:30:37:14 - 00:30:57:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not Morty's Kaylen Adams. And, she's awesome. So, Kaylen, I mean, like, can people, like, follow you, like, on social media or anything if they want to? Yeah. Yeah. Where, where where can they find you? It's funny. I have to, like, go double check. Well, I can't fake my name. Oh, wait. What is it? Now that I just had to change my social media handles?

00:30:57:18 - 00:31:22:13
Kaylen Adams
Because I just got mail? I know well, and Instagram is actually really hard to change your last name on, so it hasn't been changed yet. My handle, but my name on there stage so you can find me at K Maltese Underscore on Instagram. It's cmake lta s underscore on Instagram Facebook Palin Adams look me up. I think that's all in I'm on because I'm old and TikTok that's okay.

00:31:22:17 - 00:31:32:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's banned anyway. So actually it's back. I don't know if you heard but oh all right people. Well I'm signing off for Kayla and this is Nick. Talk to you next time. Stay hybrid guys.

]]> This episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show kicks off the "How I..." playlist with a deep dive into event planning with guest Kaylen Adams, an expert in coordination and logistics. Kaylen shares her step-by-step approach to organizing youth ministry events, covering everything from volunteer recruitment and communication to detailed schedules and contingency planning. Whether you're a youth pastor who struggles with organization or looking to refine your event strategy, this conversation is packed with practical insights to help you run seamless, high-impact events.

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 How I Plan Events like a Pro!
01:10 Kaylen, who are you?
05:06 What Lanes did you own?
07:03 How can you help someone think?
08:07 How did you communicate?
11:54 How did you determine call times?
16:30 How do you recruit for an event?
20:05 How many jobs do you give a leader?
21:24 How do you calculate for food?
24:21 What Else?
26:28 What if my church doesn't do all that?
28:34 Keep People's Personalities in Mind

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For what is up everybody? Today I am going to introduce you and have you in for a treat, because I am going to be interviewing one of my friends and coworkers, Kaylen Adams, who's fantastic at event planning. This is going to be the start of a new little playlist series on my podcast, and here on YouTube, where I am going to introduce you to some of the people that I know who do things the best in youth ministry and particular lanes.

00:00:25:00 - 00:00:46:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And Kaylen is the queen of event coordination and event management. Not only is she like, really fun and have a really good mind, but she is fantastic at getting volunteers, recruiting them. And when a volunteer comes in just feeling like they know exactly what to do. And you will. If you implement these things, you will look like a rock star.

00:00:46:09 - 00:01:04:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're a typical youth worker who's not very organized, this episode is for you because it will help you and if you think that all hope is lost on you, then this is a great, podcast to send to a volunteer or a high level admin who might step in and help you with some of the logistical things, but you are in for a treat regardless.

00:01:04:10 - 00:01:31:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
With my interview today with my friend and coworker Kaylen Adams. What's up everyone? Here we are. I am with Kaylen Adams. Which yes, you don't even find that on your name on here because that's how that's how new this is. So it is formerly known as Maltais, not hyphenated. Straight up Adams. Which means you just got married and,

00:01:31:08 - 00:01:52:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you might not know Kaylen, but I know Kaylen. I worked with Kaylen. Worked in the past tense. We are still on staff together, but she has switched departments, so now she's in the kids department. And the reason I ask Kaylen on here is, what was it last weekend? Two weekends ago, we had our high school weekend.

00:01:52:02 - 00:02:14:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you still worked with me then, and, oh, my gosh, Kaylen crushed it. Like, you guys don't have any idea. And as she was, like, literally crushing every, like, logistical and administrative detail of the weekend, in the back of my mind, I was like, we got to get Kaylen on so I can ask her, how do you plan for these big events?

00:02:14:01 - 00:02:38:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So why don't you give us just kind of a quick overview? Kaylen, first of all, like a 20 or 30 second like synopsis of who you are, how we ended up working together. But then, like, what did you oversee, at these events? Like what particular? Like lanes and areas and avenues. And then I just think what you did is such a helpful tool to many of the youth passers that I've ever seen or worked with. And so I just think this would be helpful to get out, you know, to people. Yeah. Yeah.

00:02:38:10 - 00:03:02:13
Kaylen Adams
So we've started working together because I, I went to college at the University of Wyoming and I got a degree in human resources management and entrepreneurship with minors in hospitality anthropology. There you go. So so that was. Yeah. Yeah. And so I did that.

00:03:02:13 - 00:03:29:13
Kaylen Adams
Fell in love with ministry there. And then around like my senior year, I learned the opportunity to do a residency in Texas, which I hate sweating. So my family was like, I was like, I think because I love Jesus, I don't know. So I applied and I ended up getting hired in January. And so after I graduated, I moved to Texas, and I did a residency at Cross Creek Church and guest services.

00:03:29:15 - 00:03:50:22
Kaylen Adams
But I love that, like ministerial aspect. And I still was kind of doing some of more of that support ministry with it. So needed and very, very special. Big shout out to everybody in support ministries. And so that's when I transitioned into students and I kind of brought a lot of my guest services and undergrad knowledge, which infuse that into what I was doing.

00:03:50:22 - 00:04:08:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And students. Yeah. So then like for the first little bit, I remember you're like, I don't really know exactly what you guys want me to do. And we were like, just keep doing like, I mean, like, you guys don't understand. Like, Kaylen was just she just knew what to do. Like, even if she didn't know what to do, she pretend like she knew what to do.

00:04:08:00 - 00:04:30:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it seemed like she's known what she she's doing. But it was this last high school weekend where, like, you were pulling out, like, spreadsheets and folders and instructions and, even, like, I remember distinctly I was talking with you about our t shirt order number, and, like, our student registration was, like, lower than anticipated. And you were like, no, we're going to need this many t shirts.

00:04:30:06 - 00:04:50:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I was like, why? And you're like, because of all of our volunteers. And I was like, do you really like, do you really think that? And your confidence, you're like, absolutely. And you were right, by the way. So what like lanes did you let's talk about specifically our high school weekend, which for those of you who don't know the context, it's like a D now without the spending the night element.

00:04:50:22 - 00:05:10:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's like two days on campus. Yeah. Like Friday night, Saturday until like 3:00. And so it's probably like our second biggest event next to, like, a thing like summer camp, right? So yeah, in that event, what particularly did you own, like, what were those areas? And I just want to ask you kind of pepper you questions.

00:05:10:02 - 00:05:33:02
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. In that in those arenas. Well so this was we originally had one winter we to middle school and high school. Was it split into middle school night high school. Well for middle school night Darren, the student pastor at Rush Creek pitched and I met my boss, so he. Yeah. So he did a lot of the the directional things for that division.

00:05:33:02 - 00:05:56:21
Kaylen Adams
And then programing. And I took everything else and like, did the logistics of the event planned it all. So by the time high school weekend came around, because I wasn't middle school night, so I didn't play a part at all, which is relevant because when we played high school night, we did a lot of the same stuff. We just like copy and paste a lot of the stuff that worked and made it a little more, for high school and that middle school.

00:05:56:23 - 00:06:20:20
Kaylen Adams
Oh yeah. And then we had known, like, what worked and what didn't. So we're check in by the time we got to high school again. Yeah, that's good. But yeah, by the time we got there, Nick you did programing. So like everything that you were sitting in a session and watching and experiencing. Nick was all in of planning and talking to the people, like worship people and yeah, yeah, I did everything outside of that.

00:06:20:22 - 00:06:44:20
Kaylen Adams
So and how we move through the timelines, you know, when were kids eating, where were they going to be, what activities were they going to be doing. And then we had food making sure we had enough food, making sure. Yeah, we had t shirts. And there they were out and that, you know, we gave away a little like pin to all of our students, like, you made sure that that was where it needed to get and left, you know, passing out our note sheets and pens.

00:06:44:20 - 00:07:08:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, I mean, you just you thought of like, every detail. So, like, I know your background helps you with that, but like, imagine you're talking to someone who's not as organized as you like. So you come by that naturally, which is what was just like a marvel to behold. But like what? What would you tell someone? Or how would you encourage someone to think if they're like planning something like that?

00:07:08:09 - 00:07:29:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like what? What's the way that you help us get inside your brain for some of the logistics?

Kaylen Adams
Well, when you're planning an event, yes, for a job, for ministry, ever. You write down all of your ideas like, no one is like, I'm just taking this all right here. I will accept it later. It's going to be there like you always write it down.

00:07:29:11 - 00:07:54:20
Kaylen Adams
You make it through for you. And I just thought, you know, would probably be really helpful for a volunteers to see that map. Like, I don't know why I would keep it from them. They should know, like how we got from point A to point B, because by the time we're at point B and we're doing the thing, they deeply understand what they're doing and not only do what I'm telling them to do, they can actually take initiative and do the things that I missed.

00:07:54:22 - 00:08:13:05
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. And so that's a huge part of it is just like, if I were a volunteer, what would I want to know? So I could do my job? Well, I feel good about it. Yeah. So then how how did you go about communicating? Like, did you have a meeting? Did you send them a text? Did you send them an email?

00:08:13:05 - 00:08:31:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like what? Because that's probably, I would imagine, a lot of stuff. And I think again, most youth pastors are like, I don't either have the time or be want to overwhelm my volunteers, or maybe see just another reason I didn't actually write it down. It is all in my head. So, I mean, I would say probably for all of us.

00:08:31:06 - 00:08:55:12
Kaylen Adams
Step one is get it out of your head onto paper somehow. And then two, how did you communicate it? Yeah. So I communicated a couple different ways. So the only time that I was texting volunteers instructions or anything was a, when I was recruiting them. Okay. I never sent them like, all the information they needed individually because I needed them all to be kind of in one part.

00:08:55:12 - 00:09:16:24
Kaylen Adams
So I knew who was getting one information and it always the same. Yeah. If I ever was giving instructions, it was in a group chat or a group of people that had a specialized role. Those came last minute. They weren't actually accounted for. Next time we did an event, I probably would account for them in advance. So I'm not texting information because for the smaller like you're saying, the.

00:09:17:01 - 00:09:51:02
Kaylen Adams
Yeah, the smaller, more specialized groups groupings of people. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I like to create an escape room. We had game masters and we didn't know about that until like pretty close to the event. I probably would have included them into all the mass event communication before that time. Got it as okay. Got it. Yeah. Okay. So and then and then putting together all this information, I'm kind of stockpiling it in a folder called Volunteer Prep, and I'm organizing it by like, this document, they need to know this document.

00:09:51:02 - 00:10:11:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They need to know if they don't really need to know that, I'll pull it back. What are those documents? Can you give us just a few examples, like pull back the curtain a little bit?

Kaylen Adams
Yeah, yeah. So I'll make a volunteer schedule that's like five position. And then I sang people to that position per day. So it's not by time blocks, it's by day and what they're doing okay.

00:10:11:16 - 00:10:28:21
Kaylen Adams
And then I have a document a volunteer job description. They need to know what they're doing, why they're doing how they do it. Yeah. And then I do a document. If we're doing anything outside or in a weird space, I'll do an aerial map and I'll make, like, different stations and positions of where they're going to be.

00:10:28:23 - 00:10:51:09
Kaylen Adams
I'll give them a service order so they can see just how we do, how the whole day is going to go through. They even see like how different session parts are going to work, like what sounds work. It's going to do all the stuff because they help with transitions, like really help because it's easier to be like, hey, after they do a million little miracles, I need you to come out here rather than at 737.

00:10:51:09 - 00:11:11:20
Kaylen Adams
I need you to. Yeah. The more like more like, big landmarks on a map. Yeah. Once you get this song, then this is your cue to come out and help set up for lunch, like, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. That's why the service order is so important. And for them to see what's in Planning Center is for that.

00:11:11:20 - 00:11:34:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We updated everything for the whole event kind of revolves around that. And you're doing the same for your volunteers. And so because then I would imagine, correct me if I'm wrong, you're able to be like, hey, if you're in charge of lunch, like, these are your three areas or meals, I guess, like these are your three. So like Friday night dinner, Saturday morning breakfast and, you know, Saturday lunch.

00:11:34:07 - 00:11:56:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like at this time you need to be here for this. Because if we say lunch is at 12, let's say I'm imagining you're having your volunteer get there at 11:15 or 11:30 or something like that. So how do you real quick answer this question for me. How do you determine, what time to to call for them? Like, yeah.

00:11:56:10 - 00:12:18:11
Kaylen Adams
So when it comes to like food stuff because you're dealing with catering and vendors usually like I wouldn't have that start. So we had lunch at like, what was it this year? 12 I think it started and I don't remember the exact time. I just know we had it and it was ready. And that's why you're here. We had food dropped off at like 1115.

00:12:18:16 - 00:12:41:10
Kaylen Adams
Okay. So plenty of time. And most of that was not because I was worried about my volunteers because they knew what to do. And we're not in like the biggest space ever is to account for vendors being late or not knowing where to park and, stuff. Yeah. When it comes to other transitions, they're a lot tighter windows and they're a lot quicker usually it was like the song before something started.

00:12:41:10 - 00:13:04:10
Kaylen Adams
I would send them to go do something, but again, that's also because their space isn't really big and any materials they needed or resources. I set out in a central location, a table in the main space. We all were operating out of the auditorium, and I labeled everything with all the different times that it's going to be needed, and even put under, like during this song, you should take that, this place.

00:13:04:10 - 00:13:25:17
Kaylen Adams
So my volunteers knew to flock to that table when transition times are happening. Yeah, that was so good. So then are you. So you're just labeling those like yeah, color you label like for anything. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You label like crazy. If you think like oh that'd be really obvious for someone to know it's now you should label.

00:13:25:23 - 00:13:45:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Because again, your brain versus reality. Right. Like it makes sense in your brain, our brain as we're planning the events. But it might not make sense to volunteer. Yeah, because they're just dropping in. Right. You know. Yeah. After work. Right. They've been at work all day and their mind is in a million other places.

00:13:45:10 - 00:14:06:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so like, they're, you know, giving up their time and they're willing and they're helpful and all those things. But like I like that. I like what you're saying, like, almost, almost dummy proof it. Right? Not that they're dumb, but, like, make it so simple. Okay. Yeah. Do it. Yeah. Well, my volunteers, they do best when they're confident.

00:14:06:24 - 00:14:24:06
Kaylen Adams
When they're confident, they are empowered to take initiative, make decisions, do something really well when they're not confident in whether or not they're in the right place, holding the right thing, putting it where it should be. Then you have a lot of lag and you have a lot of like question. And that's when things start to like frame fall apart.

00:14:24:09 - 00:14:59:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. So your job as an event coordinator is just to how can I give my volunteers the most confidence they need in this decision. That's good. Okay. So then anything else on what you tell volunteers? I want to maybe go a different direction if you feel like you've kind of got everything in that lack thing is leading up to the event, you want to send out the longest email of your life, and then is where all of the equipment I talked about keeping in that volunteer folder and you go through, you give an overview and you kind of describe how the event's going, and they need to read those attachments.

00:14:59:24 - 00:15:26:05
Kaylen Adams
I sent it all beforehand because that's our big meeting, and they can refer back to you and have in writing. And then by the time we are at the event, like 30 minutes an hour before the start, that meeting is a refresher or a question. That's not the entire meeting. Yeah, yeah. And then the other thing you did, which I thought was brilliant, was you, taped all those attachments to a wall of one of our leader workrooms.

00:15:26:07 - 00:15:47:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, yeah, if they didn't want to, you know, fight with their email to find it again, they could just go reference quickly off a printed copy. So again, you don't like you think about your dummy proofing it like, yes, you communicated it in the email. And this is one of the concepts I talk about in communication a lot is like, we live in like a Netflix culture, so people live it with like an on demand mindset.

00:15:47:10 - 00:16:05:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you sent it on like a Thursday at 3:30 p.m., but like, they were in the middle of like a business meeting. And so it wasn't in their mind then, but it will be in their mind when they show up on Friday at six. But like they've gotten 27 more emails since then and so. Oh yeah, where is that?

00:16:05:03 - 00:16:24:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think it's brilliant to put it somewhere just quick and accessible and maybe even another hack that we didn't even do or think about, but like maybe even having like a static like landing page or like QR code that they could like scan and pull open, like in a, just a tab in their safari. And then that gives them access to everything, you know, that they need.

00:16:24:23 - 00:16:58:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But yeah, I think that was that was so smart. So then how do you go about, like, help us get in your brain because, you know, you had a couple volunteers there that I was like, oh, like, I wouldn't have thought that they would be here. Not because they did, like a bad job or they're just they weren't like as maybe like involved or like, maybe they're only serving like once a month or once every other, week, like in our student ministry and like, you had the, like, in charge of, like, food or like certain like, you know, snack type areas, like, how did you go through and think, who am

00:16:58:15 - 00:17:16:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I going to recruit? Because I thought that was one of the other really special things was like, you asked a very particular or like, dedicated ask for like just very, again, very specific volunteers. You didn't I didn't feel like you did like an all call, though. You maybe you did to kind of pick up anyone who might be interested.

00:17:16:22 - 00:17:39:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then I think you went particularly after, like certain names or certain individuals. How did you how did you like, think about them to, to ask them and like what goes into you? You know, determining this person would be good for that. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you definitely do an all call because, well, we are desperate for people to help.

00:17:39:13 - 00:18:06:02
Kaylen Adams
We're not gonna act like or not, but, honestly, I just kind of go with a philosophy of I'll never say no for somebody like, you know, I think sometimes we do that even if we say that we're not like, well, they only serve on Sundays and they're very particular about their job. And I'm like, yes. But they also probably like high school is I don't know, maybe the chances are, and so I just kind of like we always have conversations for like, oh, that person would be like, so good at this.

00:18:06:02 - 00:18:27:03
Kaylen Adams
Or if only they do it. And I usually take that person and then ask, yeah, like I make a list of all. Yeah. As I am planning events and I just keep people's personalities in mind like I, we see them work all Sunday and we see them work Wednesday. And you kind of see like what things kind of light them up and what things they're like, oh can I do anything else but that.

00:18:27:07 - 00:18:42:18
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. And so I just kind of catalog that and that way. And I do kind of mentally. But it wouldn't hurt to like make a list of people like I love reaching out to this person for this. This is this. And I've noticed that they've done events. We have volunteers that really get fired up for events like that.

00:18:42:18 - 00:19:02:24
Kaylen Adams
Just being a part of a big beast of a programing thing, like kind of lights them up and exciting. And so I have people that I regularly reach out with, like Kyra Allen Love. She's one of our checking people. I remember when I came in, she was on like some sort of kind of understanding that she was only going to volunteer a couple times because she had some things going on.

00:19:02:24 - 00:19:26:20
Kaylen Adams
And I just remember, like, she was so stoked to do this back to school bash experience. That was like a Wednesday night special because, like, I definitely would love to do events and she's been my event checking person every single time I day. Yeah, yeah that's good. Yeah. She loves it. So you have like a you're very in tune to to them like just ongoing right.

00:19:26:20 - 00:19:44:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like you're keeping an eye as you're doing your job. And so that makes it easier obviously. Then when you go to to think and yeah I like that it is not creepy but it is. No. Yeah. But I think that's part of the that again I when I saw some of those people that was like interesting but also awesome and like that was all kudos to you right.

00:19:44:20 - 00:20:01:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I'll kudos you because like I wouldn't have thought to ask that person. Like I would have thrown a link in our leader group chat. Hey, you know, want to volunteer? They did it. And now I'm desperate, you know? And, so yeah, I was we were more than fully staffed, you know, for. Yeah. And so that was the other thing.

00:20:01:11 - 00:20:20:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like how, like how many jobs do you try to give a leader? Like how many are you trying to, like, let people do double duty? Or like, hey, you're in charge of like, food and like, that's your job the whole weekend. Like, how do you make those decisions?

Kaylen Adams
Yeah, some of our jobs, like, they feel very crucial and important because they are.

00:20:20:13 - 00:20:40:05
Kaylen Adams
But they're not crucial. Important in that they happen the entire time of the program. Like right there. Yeah. There are a window a very important window. But then and. Yeah, and you have to remember, when you're dealing with these volunteers, they're adults with full time jobs are like at the leaders, if they're they're at your event, they are high capacity.

00:20:40:07 - 00:21:01:24
Kaylen Adams
They don't do well, bored or sitting and doing nothing. They want to do something. And if they're doing something that morale is high and they'll probably do another event because they're like, that was awesome though. So yeah, it's good. Yeah. So I assign generally like 2 or 3 roles throughout the service order to people. So they're like constantly transitioning and moving to do so.

00:21:02:01 - 00:21:22:02
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. And that comes back to your like schedule your map. And you're like you're thinking that ahead. Like okay. Do they after this window closes they can go to this, but then they maybe can't do this next thing because they're going to be busy doing that. Like, again, that's the next level stuff, Kaylen, that you're like, you're very good at.

00:21:22:02 - 00:21:44:02
Kaylen Adams
So, okay, so then, let's talk a little bit about like, food. Okay. How do you determine, how much to order? Like, is it just as simple as, like, as many as there are registered. How do you account for, like, walk ins at an event like this where we do leave registration open all the way up until you know, it starts.

00:21:44:02 - 00:22:05:20
Kaylen Adams
And so theoretically, a kid could walk in and do you have enough food for them, like how do you how do you kind of try and manage that or think about that? Yeah. It all it does depend on how, big of an invite event. This is like I think high school weekend was an invite like, but we didn't like push super hard and say like my friends going for it.

00:22:05:22 - 00:22:25:12
Kaylen Adams
Yeah, yeah. So always keep that in mind. Yes. You keep the registration number, but you also want to account for all of the adults in the building. Don't forget yourself or your staff then volunteers. And if you're providing food for tech and worship or if they're doing their own thing so that all is in that number. Yeah.

00:22:25:14 - 00:22:49:00
Kaylen Adams
But registration, I just kind of. I don't want to have too big of a margin because then we're spending a lot of money on food. But things that I can give out is like door prizes, like pizza. I'm a little more willing to have extra of because we could have done or do to make their night, but like, same with, you know, because no one wants like a cold, soggy sandwich by the end of like 12 of them.

00:22:49:06 - 00:23:10:08
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. So I would be a little bit more tight on food like that. And also keep in mind that everyone's like, kids are so hungry they're going to eat three slices of pizza. You keep in mind the girls, because girls don't eat as much food as boys. And, like, I definitely like they're just there's camping retreat food.

00:23:10:08 - 00:23:32:14
Kaylen Adams
That is great because you're hungry, but it's not a lot of kids. First choice. Really like one of it. Yeah, they'll like maybe one and a half will split with a friend. Yeah. So just keep that in mind. Like the ratio is not as monstrous as you think. Yeah, I think the ratio I've tried to use for pizza is, two and a half times your number.

00:23:32:14 - 00:23:51:06
Kaylen Adams
So, like, think you're big number of all the people including tech and worship and check in and staff and everyone. And then you multiply it by two and a half. That'll give you the total number of slices that you need. And then you can divide that by eight, because that's how many slices of pizza are in, your pizza box.

00:23:51:06 - 00:24:06:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then that'll give you a number with a decimal. And you can either round up around whatever you, you know, feel. And what's really nice is like, you know, you do the random picker thing, like, with their name. And for those who don't know, you picked the names and then they just get a random prize for doing nothing.

00:24:06:03 - 00:24:22:03
Kaylen Adams
Yeah, that great. Pick that food leftovers too, because you don't want to bank on having extra if you're just kind of guessing because kids might be really hungry and you don't have it, and then you just lost a prize for a game. Yeah. So you want that to be like a random moment that if they don't get it, they have no idea.

00:24:22:05 - 00:24:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. All right. Let's see what else. What else do you what else do you think about for an event that I'm not thinking even to, like, ask you? Listen, you have to know if your church has any sort of, like, admin team, administrative volunteers that help put these things together with your operations at all, like your facilities and your finance people or whatever it might be.

00:24:48:04 - 00:25:09:00
Kaylen Adams
You need to meet with them, like way ahead of time. So I see way ahead of time. Yeah. So I start meeting with people. We've been cutting it kind of close and cutting it close to meeting two months in advance. Okay. So you need to some of us that might be like, oh, that's when I start thinking about it.

00:25:09:02 - 00:25:34:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. No. Especially if it's like a really big event. Which high school weekend is a really big event for us? We need to start planning that month in advance. And depending on, like, the capacity of your team, that could fluctuate a little bit. Like if it's just you and one other person, I would say probably start looking at that at like six months and having if you have a couple other people who can share that, you could maybe do a little bit less.

00:25:34:19 - 00:25:59:21
Kaylen Adams
But you definitely need to start meeting with administrative people on your church staff that are handling this, because their personalities are a lot different than yours. As a ministry person, you're used to pivoting and being creative and all the things and pulling it off at the last minute. Yeah, they are not. They love systems and processes and if you break their system, it's going to be really, really hard to get them to like be on the same wavelength with you.

00:26:00:01 - 00:26:22:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Good. Yeah, yeah. And like in our particular, you know, setting, we have like our facilities people like they set everything up for us, which is fantastic. But to your point, like, only if we're on top of it, if we slide in in the ninth hour and we're like, this is what we want, they're like, yo, we're already on to like, stuff for like later, next weekend.

00:26:22:11 - 00:26:43:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like we've already, you know, planned our day. So, you know, to her point like, and whether you know so like, here's the thing I do know if like you're listening, you're like, okay, I don't work at a church anywhere near that. Has any of that. Like, I am the operations, I am the admin. And what I would say is, lean into your volunteers if you're like that sounds fantastic.

00:26:43:23 - 00:27:15:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I would love that. But I don't have anyone that works for me with me on my team. Anything like that like that doesn't mean you can't do it, and it doesn't mean you still can't delegate and dish out. You just may have to do that more of like a volunteer capacity. So find a mother. Or like someone who, like, works in like an administrative like role that has a little bit of, bandwidth and margin and like, ask them, you know, like, I'm sure if I'm saying that many of you right now, as you're listening, you're like, oh, yeah, I could probably ask so and so, like that person's come into your mind like, let

00:27:15:12 - 00:27:33:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that person be your Kaylen for your event. And like, yes, we had the luxury of like Kaylen being on our team payroll, but like, you know, it doesn't it doesn't, they don't have to be right. And like. Yeah, setting up you can. I mean, we employ teenagers, like, students to, like, come early and do stuff like that.

00:27:33:00 - 00:28:00:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, you know, we call them what we call them. Simps. Yet SMPs student is tone texting is for like, student oh my gosh. Okay. Do not disturb do that anyway. Ministry student minutes protege. Protege. Yeah yeah yeah. Protege. Yeah. And so anyway, we employ them, they, get free camp, and stuff like that, but they come early in, like, sets, set things up.

00:28:00:12 - 00:28:25:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, like, they can be like facilities team. So again, as we're saying it like, don't don't be like I had never be there like you for sure can like employ volunteers and people that'll do it for free. And they like to to Kaylen's point. Yeah they do. That might not be your gifting. And you're like, no one would ever want to run administrative or set chairs up like some people genuinely do.

00:28:25:02 - 00:28:47:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so don't rob other people of being able to serve your youth ministry, God's kingdom, whatever. By not asking them. What else Kaylen. Anything else or do we hit it all. I just would in mind people's personalities. You're going to have people who, when they're planning events, they just run just like that's just their personality and that's how they work best.

00:28:47:19 - 00:29:06:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so they're going to ask a lot of questions and they're going to want to meet with you last minute and their vibe might kind of like make you kind of thrown off because you're like, I thought we had all this plan. Why do you need to meet and double check? They've probably done a great job. They just want to make sure that they've done everything you need to help you.

00:29:06:14 - 00:29:25:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you have someone in your life who's like that, just remember, like, just have your questions kind of written out of what you know, that they text and have those input ready for them. And that's going to help those meetings a lot quicker. I had a at one churches I worked at, I had a volunteer like that.

00:29:25:20 - 00:29:47:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Her name was Sarah. And the way that I would think logistically when I was planning things because, like, I was a one man band, we had a church secretary 20 hours a week that served the entire church. Right. So, like, I could get some stuff, you know, to for her to do for the youth ministry, but not like she wasn't like, there to, like at my beck and call for everything.

00:29:48:00 - 00:30:12:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so as I was like dishing things off to volunteers and whatnot, like my, my filter in my head was always like, what would Sarah want to know? Right? It's I think that's a good like a good way to think about it is like, think about the volunteer who has the most questions for you. And then ask the question like, would the amount of information that I'm sending up, would it satisfy that person?

00:30:12:16 - 00:30:37:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if yes, then you're on the right track. If not, then you probably need more detail. So yeah. Yeah, I love that. Cool. Kaylen, is that it? Do we hit it? Yeah. There's our all events for future and for always going to be planned, do you think? I think I think so well, yeah probably. All right. Well hey, this was how I plan events with Kaylen.

00:30:37:14 - 00:30:57:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not Morty's Kaylen Adams. And, she's awesome. So, Kaylen, I mean, like, can people, like, follow you, like, on social media or anything if they want to? Yeah. Yeah. Where, where where can they find you? It's funny. I have to, like, go double check. Well, I can't fake my name. Oh, wait. What is it? Now that I just had to change my social media handles?

00:30:57:18 - 00:31:22:13
Kaylen Adams
Because I just got mail? I know well, and Instagram is actually really hard to change your last name on, so it hasn't been changed yet. My handle, but my name on there stage so you can find me at K Maltese Underscore on Instagram. It's cmake lta s underscore on Instagram Facebook Palin Adams look me up. I think that's all in I'm on because I'm old and TikTok that's okay.

00:31:22:17 - 00:31:32:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's banned anyway. So actually it's back. I don't know if you heard but oh all right people. Well I'm signing off for Kayla and this is Nick. Talk to you next time. Stay hybrid guys.

]]> Episode 140: Social Media that [ACTUALLY] Works | Engage Don’t Broadcast https://www.hybridministry.xyz/140 3815c12b-3eeb-46b4-be2b-c534d7f60b8c Thu, 13 Mar 2025 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 140 Social Media that [ACTUALLY] Works | Engage Don’t Broadcast full Nick Clason Struggling to make social media actually work for your youth ministry or overall church? In this episode, we’re breaking down a 3-step strategy to move from just broadcasting announcements to real engagement that inspires and connects. If your social feed is just a wall of static graphics, it’s time to rethink your approach—let’s build a social media presence that truly makes an impact! 14:12 no <p>🦸BECOME A HYBRID HERO<br> patreon.com/hybridministry</p> <p>✅ CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms</a></p> <p><strong>======================================</strong><br> <strong>DESCRIPTION</strong><br> Struggling to make social media actually work for your youth ministry or overall church? In this episode, we’re breaking down a 3-step strategy to move from just broadcasting announcements to real engagement that inspires and connects. If your social feed is just a wall of static graphics, it’s time to rethink your approach—let’s build a social media presence that truly makes an impact!</p> <p><strong>📓 SHOWNOTES</strong><br> <a href="http://www.hybridministry.xyz/140" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.hybridministry.xyz/140</a></p> <p>PLAYLIST<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_NBW-9fOP4&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaIUQ25aqwTI5__iga2uAe0c" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_NBW-9fOP4&amp;amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaIUQ25aqwTI5__iga2uAe0c</a></p> <p>//DYM LIVE STREAM<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/9EMnJc05ln8?si=-Ivo6HMSdhFu-7AI" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/live/9EMnJc05ln8?si=-Ivo6HMSdhFu-7AI</a></p> <p>//NUCLEUS<br> <a href="https://www.nucleus.church" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.nucleus.church</a></p> <p>//CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms</a></p> <p>//HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>//STUDIO EPISODE<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/studio" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/studio</a></p> <p>//BECOME A HYBRID HERO<br> patreon.com/hybridministry</p> <p>👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK<br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉<br> We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!<br> The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!<br> <a href="https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!<br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affiliate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em><br> VIDIQ<br> <a href="https://vidiq.com/hybrid" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://vidiq.com/hybrid</a></p> <p>BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p>//SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup</a></p> <p>⌚TIMECODES<br> 00:00 Is your Church Social Media on Life Support?<br> 01:50 Stop Ignoring Digital Ministry<br> 04:17 Step #1<br> 06:23 Step #2<br> 09:43 Step #3</p> <p><strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:24<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Is your social media account</p> <p>00:00:02:24 - 00:00:03:06<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> on</p> <p>00:00:03:06 - 00:00:10:17<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> life support, like just a bunch of pre downloaded graphics or things that you've made in Canva?</p> <p>00:00:10:17 - 00:00:28:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> If it is, rest assured you're probably in the majority of other youth workers or even church communications social media managers who know that there's more for social, but you just don't have the capacity or the bandwidth or maybe the desire to take it to that next level.</p> <p>00:00:28:26 - 00:00:58:19<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But in this video I want to do is I want to help you take your social media from broadcasting a message to engaging the message and in the video playlists that we've been currently in, linked right here at the top of the screen. If you're watching here on YouTube, we've been talking about communicating in your church, communicating with better church announcements, and one of the key elements and areas I think a lot of churches wrongfully default to is posting their announcements to social media.</p> <p>00:00:58:21 - 00:01:26:06<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And that's where you just broadcasting about you. But I want to shift your strategy to engagement. Social media's invention. Social media is existence. Its best existence is not for information transfer. However, it is a good spot for inspiration along with entertainment. So give me a like if you've ever had your social media account look like this that you're seeing here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube or give me a sub if</p> <p>00:01:26:06 - 00:01:26:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> these</p> <p>00:01:27:00 - 00:01:35:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> announcement based posts have actually returned and yielded good results for you, the fact is, it probably have it.</p> <p>00:01:35:10 - 00:01:44:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And that's why in this video, I want to lay out my three step social media strategy. And as always, here in the hybrid Ministry show, there are</p> <p>00:01:44:13 - 00:01:45:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> chapters</p> <p>00:01:45:11 - 00:01:56:29<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> linked down below. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry show flavor. Welcome back to the Hybrid Ministry Show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Clayson.</p> <p>00:01:57:02 - 00:02:26:09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and I've always known and seen the importance of a social or a digital media existence and a present presence. However, Covid really, really ushered that in. And as sort of a result of what Covid did, not only like around me, but in me, I decided like, man, I really like I see churches going a certain direction up and down a certain path and like, I want to be a voice that has something to say about it.</p> <p>00:02:26:09 - 00:02:40:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And interestingly enough, I was on a livestream not too long ago. If you want to go check it out with, download Youth Ministry. And Josh was like, why are you the guy we're talking to you? And I said, it's interesting because I just started recording videos in</p> <p>00:02:40:11 - 00:02:40:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> my guest</p> <p>00:02:40:21 - 00:02:41:05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> bedroom</p> <p>00:02:41:05 - 00:02:47:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> early in the morning, and, here I am now on a live stream answering more questions to other people.</p> <p>00:02:47:13 - 00:03:16:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And it but it was because I was so passionate about this idea of social and digital media. And so, I don't think that when we're just posting announcements that we're doing, first of all, any service to our social platforms, to the algorithms, nor are we really serving our audience, especially on social in a, discovery era where people, stumble upon accounts that they've never seen before.</p> <p>00:03:16:24 - 00:03:29:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But your Canva graphic for the chili cook off, that's only getting a handful of likes that that's not being discovered by anybody new, nor even probably your current church</p> <p>00:03:29:27 - 00:03:30:12<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> members.</p> <p>00:03:30:12 - 00:03:30:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so</p> <p>00:03:30:21 - 00:03:43:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> you really just making double the amount of work for you. And we've been discussing that in the last three videos about more effective communication, where I laid out better communication strategies for all churches and youth ministries.</p> <p>00:03:43:27 - 00:03:55:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But in this video, what I want to do is I want to say, okay, so if that's what you're supposed to do, if you're supposed to kind of leaning on email and leaning on your website and leaning on social for inspiration and entertainment,</p> <p>00:03:55:27 - 00:03:56:09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> what</p> <p>00:03:56:21 - 00:03:58:22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> exactly should you be posting?</p> <p>00:03:58:22 - 00:04:03:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I'm glad you have three steps for everyone and their social media is is, three steps.</p> <p>00:04:03:26 - 00:04:21:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Social media checklist. Step number one is make sure that your website is up to date. I've said that in every single video so far that we've been in this playlist. And it's true because when you take away social as an avenue for announcements or when you</p> <p>00:04:21:00 - 00:04:21:15<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> reduce</p> <p>00:04:21:15 - 00:04:21:24<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> your amount</p> <p>00:04:21:24 - 00:04:30:07<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> of stage announcements, there's still has to be a full bodied, one stop, robust shop for your church people to fall to.</p> <p>00:04:30:07 - 00:04:49:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And I think the best spot for that is your church website. And the first video we talked about the difference between Netflix TV and cable TV. And so when your website is a great spot, it can be a Netflix type location, an on demand type location rather than</p> <p>00:04:49:02 - 00:04:52:06<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> hopefully they see the graphic that has the info on social media.</p> <p>00:04:52:06 - 00:05:18:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Hopefully they they saved the email that you sent with the registration link. Hopefully there just have a photograph or you know, whatever the the audio version of that is memory from your staged announcement to do exactly what you want them to do in that moment. And if any people don't have those things, they're just in deep trouble. However, if you have a great website, none of those things matter as much, at least on the information side, right?</p> <p>00:05:18:25 - 00:05:42:28<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> You can still inspire them with the stage announcement. You can still be witty on social media and you can still send a awesome email, but your website is the place where they can go to for that. That information that they really need to download and also move toward action them. And so as we've been talking about, I can actually if that's something anyone's interested in, I can actually do that for you.</p> <p>00:05:42:28 - 00:06:04:22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I can build a website for you one time, or you can kind of contact me to just come on and and run that on an ongoing basis, as well as even potentially we can explore what it looked like for me to run that plus your social media. But step number one, regardless of if it's me, regardless of if you use groups, which I recommend your website, just very simply needs to be up to date.</p> <p>00:06:04:22 - 00:06:27:07<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I don't care what you use, I don't care who you use, I don't care how you get there, but make sure your website is good and thorough and up to date. Okay, that's the first step in the social media strategy process. Let's move on here to step number two. So your website kind of being up to date, that sort of satisfies the first check in the process.</p> <p>00:06:27:07 - 00:06:30:17<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And that also makes what I'm going to recommend here on</p> <p>00:06:30:17 - 00:06:44:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> social, which is the second step here. The second step is you kind of want to become enamored with shorts, reels, TikTok style videos, because when your website is good,</p> <p>00:06:44:04 - 00:06:44:17<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> you don't</p> <p>00:06:44:17 - 00:06:44:28<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> have to</p> <p>00:06:44:28 - 00:06:54:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> worry about the information. So now you can leave that behind and you can now move ahead towards the era that social is really made for and meant for.</p> <p>00:06:54:10 - 00:06:58:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so, quick hit trip, quick hit, quick trip down</p> <p>00:06:58:26 - 00:06:59:29<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> history,</p> <p>00:06:59:29 - 00:07:00:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> memory lane</p> <p>00:07:00:25 - 00:07:21:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> 2020 TikTok ushered in this new era of of social called the Discovery ERA. It was made popular with an app called TikTok. It is now banned in the United States of America, at least in the App Store right now. But TikTok brought in this brand new style and archetype of video.</p> <p>00:07:21:00 - 00:07:25:29<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> In fact, it was so popular that not even four years later, according to</p> <p>00:07:25:29 - 00:07:33:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> video, 90% of the internet's traffic is found on short form, vertical based video.</p> <p>00:07:33:26 - 00:07:34:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Because</p> <p>00:07:34:20 - 00:07:49:15<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> every other platform then was trying to catch up and keep up with this brand new one called TikTok shorts. Reels. Facebook has Instagram has YouTube has some and even other like places like, Twitter.</p> <p>00:07:49:15 - 00:07:51:08<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> If you're even on there, it'll it'll</p> <p>00:07:51:08 - 00:08:08:01<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> be on a video, you'll be watching video and it'll auto scroll to the next one. They even built in the scrolling type functionality. And there's a couple pieces of relevant things with it. First of all, it's video based and it's short and it's quippy and it's fun. But secondly, like I said earlier, it said discover re era.</p> <p>00:08:08:07 - 00:08:37:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> If you jump on Reels on Instagram, if you jump on your TikTok for you page more than I think 90% of the I believe that's the stat of the videos that you're served are from people that you've never actually even met. And so that's good news for you and I. As churches and youth ministries, we can get on to other people's for you pages without buying their attention or without having them have to follow or subscribe or or know about our channel.</p> <p>00:08:37:05 - 00:09:02:09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> The key is producing good content. And so step one website. Step two start focusing on good shorts, which is why I've created down below my hybrid strategy. Got it will not only lay out my plan and what I do in my student ministry, but it will also give you different ideas and types of content that you can use for your social media and for your shorts, you know?</p> <p>00:09:02:09 - 00:09:21:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But like in our student ministry, I post ten different pieces of content, every single week. And it's all different. Kind of like styles of content. And so if you'd like more info on that, you definitely hop down and grab my free strategy guide. It will lay out how we do it, what we do, and how we capture it, how we batch record.</p> <p>00:09:21:20 - 00:09:25:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I also talked about it in my live stream, a lot of different videos on my</p> <p>00:09:25:13 - 00:09:38:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> channel. We'll kind of unpack it. And so I'm not going to, you know, bog you down with that info here on this video, but go, go check it out. Go subscribe. Go listen to some more podcasts and we'll get you covered on what exactly we do.</p> <p>00:09:38:23 - 00:09:39:28<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Moving on to</p> <p>00:09:39:28 - 00:10:05:16<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> step number three then is shorts are great, and if you don't have any capacity and you need to stop there and, and, you know, bolster your strategy and bolster your infrastructure to make that happen. And by all means do that. But then step three, the eye on the prize for all churches and youth ministries is you want your long form primary teaching content posted to YouTube.</p> <p>00:10:05:18 - 00:10:18:01<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> 90% of teenagers, according to Pew Research, are on YouTube, and so generation Z and Generation Alpha are landing in and making YouTube home. In</p> <p>00:10:18:01 - 00:10:18:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> fact,</p> <p>00:10:18:11 - 00:10:18:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> according to</p> <p>00:10:18:25 - 00:10:40:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> a book called Meet Gen Alpha by Mccrindle and Fell, they said that YouTube is actually supplanting Google as the number one primary search engine for Generation Alpha. And so you want to be on YouTube, and if you're running your church, social media for, you're like overall church, you probably have some measure, some version of a live stream.</p> <p>00:10:40:20 - 00:11:13:28<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> That's great. Put that on YouTube. If your equipment is good and working, then great. Put that on YouTube. In student ministry, if you have the ability to do that, then go ahead and put that on YouTube and anywhere else you want to put it. But you definitely have to make sure that you put it on YouTube. And then if you don't have anything, which my strategy guide will lay out exactly how we do this in our environment and in our setting, we don't have any live stream equipment, so we actually sit down before the message several weeks ahead of time, pre-record our message using like a teleprompter.</p> <p>00:11:13:28 - 00:11:33:14<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And, we've built out like a full studio, so like, I can have all that stuff linked down below. You can check out my studio episode, and you can buy any of the stuff that we have that might be helpful for you. And I also have a Patreon where I'm talking about how I implement my hybrid strategy in my, environment every single week.</p> <p>00:11:33:14 - 00:11:43:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And that podcast is $4 a month. It's one extra bonus podcast per week. Plus, literally, I think I throw in a freebie almost every single week. So</p> <p>00:11:43:13 - 00:11:52:12<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I believe that that podcast is a very nominal fee for a lot. A lot of value. And so if you want to kind of go all in on this hybrid strategy, I would recommend that.</p> <p>00:11:52:14 - 00:12:16:08<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But we sit down, we pre-record it, and then we post those to YouTube trying to answer some of life's hard questions with our titles, with our tags, and even with our thumbnails. And so again, comes for you. I can help you with that. But the goal then is to take your short content and build an audience that eventually promotes and and pushes people over to your in long form content.</p> <p>00:12:16:08 - 00:12:45:14<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> That's the that's the Mecca of your social platform. And what that does is that that reduces the anxiety, that reduces the pressure that is on your social channels to communicate your announcements. If your website's doing its job, then you're short form content, both fun and serious, can point to you and promote your long form content, which is serious, which will also then helps to help answer students big questions about life and faith, regardless of if they're in your context or not.</p> <p>00:12:45:16 - 00:13:03:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> With an eye towards and with the focus on your students or your people in your context, and then like just, you know, a next steps form or some way for them to respond to whatever sort of like message that you have put on YouTube. And what I would recommend again, is that takes us all the way back to number one.</p> <p>00:13:03:04 - 00:13:26:08<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Make sure there's a good like digital next steps form, one that's universally used and applied in all of your settings when you're teaching. And then with that link you can just post that in the comments of a YouTube video. And your website is helping serve your holistic hybrid and digital strategy. And that is my three step social media process.</p> <p>00:13:26:15 - 00:13:27:17<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Make sure your website's up</p> <p>00:13:27:17 - 00:13:46:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> to date. Lean into shorts. Start producing as many of them as you can that make realistic sense during your week? Just be. Just be consistent with it. Don't have a number in mind. And then all with an eye toward the prize of. Start posting your long form messages to YouTube and and all of that.</p> <p>00:13:46:09 - 00:14:09:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I can help with coaching. I can help by running it for you. I can help on my Patreon. I can help on this channel for free. So give me a subscribe if you would like to hear more about that topic. But until next time and as always, my friends appreciate you being here. Appreciate you trying to communicate in a digital and noisy world, but I want to encourage you to stay hybrid.</p> hybrid ministry, nick clason, youth ministry strategy, youth ministry coach, student ministry, church communication tips, ministry communication, noisy world communication, clear church messaging, church social media tips, youth ministry communication, creative church communication, effective ministry communication, digital church strategies, church engagement, ministry outreach, communication tips for churches, simplifying messages, ministry social media strategy, hybrid ministry podcast, church growth tips, two-way communication, engaging church content, digital discipleship, better church announcements, more fun church announcements 🦸BECOME A HYBRID HERO
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✅ CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

======================================
DESCRIPTION
Struggling to make social media actually work for your youth ministry or overall church? In this episode, we’re breaking down a 3-step strategy to move from just broadcasting announcements to real engagement that inspires and connects. If your social feed is just a wall of static graphics, it’s time to rethink your approach—let’s build a social media presence that truly makes an impact!

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/140

PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_NBW-9fOP4&list=PLngXlSr64YaIUQ25aqwTI5__iga2uAe0c

//DYM LIVE STREAM
https://www.youtube.com/live/9EMnJc05ln8?si=-Ivo6HMSdhFu-7AI

//NUCLEUS
https://www.nucleus.church

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

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

//STUDIO EPISODE
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/studio

//BECOME A HYBRID HERO
patreon.com/hybridministry

👉 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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We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!
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🛠️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 Is your Church Social Media on Life Support?
01:50 Stop Ignoring Digital Ministry
04:17 Step #1
06:23 Step #2
09:43 Step #3

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Is your social media account

00:00:02:24 - 00:00:03:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
on

00:00:03:06 - 00:00:10:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
life support, like just a bunch of pre downloaded graphics or things that you've made in Canva?

00:00:10:17 - 00:00:28:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If it is, rest assured you're probably in the majority of other youth workers or even church communications social media managers who know that there's more for social, but you just don't have the capacity or the bandwidth or maybe the desire to take it to that next level.

00:00:28:26 - 00:00:58:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this video I want to do is I want to help you take your social media from broadcasting a message to engaging the message and in the video playlists that we've been currently in, linked right here at the top of the screen. If you're watching here on YouTube, we've been talking about communicating in your church, communicating with better church announcements, and one of the key elements and areas I think a lot of churches wrongfully default to is posting their announcements to social media.

00:00:58:21 - 00:01:26:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's where you just broadcasting about you. But I want to shift your strategy to engagement. Social media's invention. Social media is existence. Its best existence is not for information transfer. However, it is a good spot for inspiration along with entertainment. So give me a like if you've ever had your social media account look like this that you're seeing here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube or give me a sub if

00:01:26:06 - 00:01:26:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
these

00:01:27:00 - 00:01:35:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
announcement based posts have actually returned and yielded good results for you, the fact is, it probably have it.

00:01:35:10 - 00:01:44:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's why in this video, I want to lay out my three step social media strategy. And as always, here in the hybrid Ministry show, there are

00:01:44:13 - 00:01:45:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
chapters

00:01:45:11 - 00:01:56:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
linked down below. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry show flavor. Welcome back to the Hybrid Ministry Show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Clayson.

00:01:57:02 - 00:02:26:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and I've always known and seen the importance of a social or a digital media existence and a present presence. However, Covid really, really ushered that in. And as sort of a result of what Covid did, not only like around me, but in me, I decided like, man, I really like I see churches going a certain direction up and down a certain path and like, I want to be a voice that has something to say about it.

00:02:26:09 - 00:02:40:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And interestingly enough, I was on a livestream not too long ago. If you want to go check it out with, download Youth Ministry. And Josh was like, why are you the guy we're talking to you? And I said, it's interesting because I just started recording videos in

00:02:40:11 - 00:02:40:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
my guest

00:02:40:21 - 00:02:41:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
bedroom

00:02:41:05 - 00:02:47:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
early in the morning, and, here I am now on a live stream answering more questions to other people.

00:02:47:13 - 00:03:16:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it but it was because I was so passionate about this idea of social and digital media. And so, I don't think that when we're just posting announcements that we're doing, first of all, any service to our social platforms, to the algorithms, nor are we really serving our audience, especially on social in a, discovery era where people, stumble upon accounts that they've never seen before.

00:03:16:24 - 00:03:29:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But your Canva graphic for the chili cook off, that's only getting a handful of likes that that's not being discovered by anybody new, nor even probably your current church

00:03:29:27 - 00:03:30:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
members.

00:03:30:12 - 00:03:30:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so

00:03:30:21 - 00:03:43:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you really just making double the amount of work for you. And we've been discussing that in the last three videos about more effective communication, where I laid out better communication strategies for all churches and youth ministries.

00:03:43:27 - 00:03:55:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this video, what I want to do is I want to say, okay, so if that's what you're supposed to do, if you're supposed to kind of leaning on email and leaning on your website and leaning on social for inspiration and entertainment,

00:03:55:27 - 00:03:56:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
what

00:03:56:21 - 00:03:58:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
exactly should you be posting?

00:03:58:22 - 00:04:03:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm glad you have three steps for everyone and their social media is is, three steps.

00:04:03:26 - 00:04:21:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Social media checklist. Step number one is make sure that your website is up to date. I've said that in every single video so far that we've been in this playlist. And it's true because when you take away social as an avenue for announcements or when you

00:04:21:00 - 00:04:21:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
reduce

00:04:21:15 - 00:04:21:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your amount

00:04:21:24 - 00:04:30:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of stage announcements, there's still has to be a full bodied, one stop, robust shop for your church people to fall to.

00:04:30:07 - 00:04:49:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think the best spot for that is your church website. And the first video we talked about the difference between Netflix TV and cable TV. And so when your website is a great spot, it can be a Netflix type location, an on demand type location rather than

00:04:49:02 - 00:04:52:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
hopefully they see the graphic that has the info on social media.

00:04:52:06 - 00:05:18:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hopefully they they saved the email that you sent with the registration link. Hopefully there just have a photograph or you know, whatever the the audio version of that is memory from your staged announcement to do exactly what you want them to do in that moment. And if any people don't have those things, they're just in deep trouble. However, if you have a great website, none of those things matter as much, at least on the information side, right?

00:05:18:25 - 00:05:42:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can still inspire them with the stage announcement. You can still be witty on social media and you can still send a awesome email, but your website is the place where they can go to for that. That information that they really need to download and also move toward action them. And so as we've been talking about, I can actually if that's something anyone's interested in, I can actually do that for you.

00:05:42:28 - 00:06:04:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can build a website for you one time, or you can kind of contact me to just come on and and run that on an ongoing basis, as well as even potentially we can explore what it looked like for me to run that plus your social media. But step number one, regardless of if it's me, regardless of if you use groups, which I recommend your website, just very simply needs to be up to date.

00:06:04:22 - 00:06:27:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I don't care what you use, I don't care who you use, I don't care how you get there, but make sure your website is good and thorough and up to date. Okay, that's the first step in the social media strategy process. Let's move on here to step number two. So your website kind of being up to date, that sort of satisfies the first check in the process.

00:06:27:07 - 00:06:30:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that also makes what I'm going to recommend here on

00:06:30:17 - 00:06:44:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
social, which is the second step here. The second step is you kind of want to become enamored with shorts, reels, TikTok style videos, because when your website is good,

00:06:44:04 - 00:06:44:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you don't

00:06:44:17 - 00:06:44:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
have to

00:06:44:28 - 00:06:54:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
worry about the information. So now you can leave that behind and you can now move ahead towards the era that social is really made for and meant for.

00:06:54:10 - 00:06:58:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, quick hit trip, quick hit, quick trip down

00:06:58:26 - 00:06:59:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
history,

00:06:59:29 - 00:07:00:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
memory lane

00:07:00:25 - 00:07:21:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
2020 TikTok ushered in this new era of of social called the Discovery ERA. It was made popular with an app called TikTok. It is now banned in the United States of America, at least in the App Store right now. But TikTok brought in this brand new style and archetype of video.

00:07:21:00 - 00:07:25:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, it was so popular that not even four years later, according to

00:07:25:29 - 00:07:33:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video, 90% of the internet's traffic is found on short form, vertical based video.

00:07:33:26 - 00:07:34:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because

00:07:34:20 - 00:07:49:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
every other platform then was trying to catch up and keep up with this brand new one called TikTok shorts. Reels. Facebook has Instagram has YouTube has some and even other like places like, Twitter.

00:07:49:15 - 00:07:51:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're even on there, it'll it'll

00:07:51:08 - 00:08:08:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
be on a video, you'll be watching video and it'll auto scroll to the next one. They even built in the scrolling type functionality. And there's a couple pieces of relevant things with it. First of all, it's video based and it's short and it's quippy and it's fun. But secondly, like I said earlier, it said discover re era.

00:08:08:07 - 00:08:37:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you jump on Reels on Instagram, if you jump on your TikTok for you page more than I think 90% of the I believe that's the stat of the videos that you're served are from people that you've never actually even met. And so that's good news for you and I. As churches and youth ministries, we can get on to other people's for you pages without buying their attention or without having them have to follow or subscribe or or know about our channel.

00:08:37:05 - 00:09:02:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The key is producing good content. And so step one website. Step two start focusing on good shorts, which is why I've created down below my hybrid strategy. Got it will not only lay out my plan and what I do in my student ministry, but it will also give you different ideas and types of content that you can use for your social media and for your shorts, you know?

00:09:02:09 - 00:09:21:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like in our student ministry, I post ten different pieces of content, every single week. And it's all different. Kind of like styles of content. And so if you'd like more info on that, you definitely hop down and grab my free strategy guide. It will lay out how we do it, what we do, and how we capture it, how we batch record.

00:09:21:20 - 00:09:25:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I also talked about it in my live stream, a lot of different videos on my

00:09:25:13 - 00:09:38:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
channel. We'll kind of unpack it. And so I'm not going to, you know, bog you down with that info here on this video, but go, go check it out. Go subscribe. Go listen to some more podcasts and we'll get you covered on what exactly we do.

00:09:38:23 - 00:09:39:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Moving on to

00:09:39:28 - 00:10:05:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
step number three then is shorts are great, and if you don't have any capacity and you need to stop there and, and, you know, bolster your strategy and bolster your infrastructure to make that happen. And by all means do that. But then step three, the eye on the prize for all churches and youth ministries is you want your long form primary teaching content posted to YouTube.

00:10:05:18 - 00:10:18:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
90% of teenagers, according to Pew Research, are on YouTube, and so generation Z and Generation Alpha are landing in and making YouTube home. In

00:10:18:01 - 00:10:18:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
fact,

00:10:18:11 - 00:10:18:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
according to

00:10:18:25 - 00:10:40:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a book called Meet Gen Alpha by Mccrindle and Fell, they said that YouTube is actually supplanting Google as the number one primary search engine for Generation Alpha. And so you want to be on YouTube, and if you're running your church, social media for, you're like overall church, you probably have some measure, some version of a live stream.

00:10:40:20 - 00:11:13:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's great. Put that on YouTube. If your equipment is good and working, then great. Put that on YouTube. In student ministry, if you have the ability to do that, then go ahead and put that on YouTube and anywhere else you want to put it. But you definitely have to make sure that you put it on YouTube. And then if you don't have anything, which my strategy guide will lay out exactly how we do this in our environment and in our setting, we don't have any live stream equipment, so we actually sit down before the message several weeks ahead of time, pre-record our message using like a teleprompter.

00:11:13:28 - 00:11:33:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, we've built out like a full studio, so like, I can have all that stuff linked down below. You can check out my studio episode, and you can buy any of the stuff that we have that might be helpful for you. And I also have a Patreon where I'm talking about how I implement my hybrid strategy in my, environment every single week.

00:11:33:14 - 00:11:43:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that podcast is $4 a month. It's one extra bonus podcast per week. Plus, literally, I think I throw in a freebie almost every single week. So

00:11:43:13 - 00:11:52:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I believe that that podcast is a very nominal fee for a lot. A lot of value. And so if you want to kind of go all in on this hybrid strategy, I would recommend that.

00:11:52:14 - 00:12:16:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But we sit down, we pre-record it, and then we post those to YouTube trying to answer some of life's hard questions with our titles, with our tags, and even with our thumbnails. And so again, comes for you. I can help you with that. But the goal then is to take your short content and build an audience that eventually promotes and and pushes people over to your in long form content.

00:12:16:08 - 00:12:45:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's the that's the Mecca of your social platform. And what that does is that that reduces the anxiety, that reduces the pressure that is on your social channels to communicate your announcements. If your website's doing its job, then you're short form content, both fun and serious, can point to you and promote your long form content, which is serious, which will also then helps to help answer students big questions about life and faith, regardless of if they're in your context or not.

00:12:45:16 - 00:13:03:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
With an eye towards and with the focus on your students or your people in your context, and then like just, you know, a next steps form or some way for them to respond to whatever sort of like message that you have put on YouTube. And what I would recommend again, is that takes us all the way back to number one.

00:13:03:04 - 00:13:26:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Make sure there's a good like digital next steps form, one that's universally used and applied in all of your settings when you're teaching. And then with that link you can just post that in the comments of a YouTube video. And your website is helping serve your holistic hybrid and digital strategy. And that is my three step social media process.

00:13:26:15 - 00:13:27:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Make sure your website's up

00:13:27:17 - 00:13:46:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to date. Lean into shorts. Start producing as many of them as you can that make realistic sense during your week? Just be. Just be consistent with it. Don't have a number in mind. And then all with an eye toward the prize of. Start posting your long form messages to YouTube and and all of that.

00:13:46:09 - 00:14:09:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can help with coaching. I can help by running it for you. I can help on my Patreon. I can help on this channel for free. So give me a subscribe if you would like to hear more about that topic. But until next time and as always, my friends appreciate you being here. Appreciate you trying to communicate in a digital and noisy world, but I want to encourage you to stay hybrid.

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DESCRIPTION
Struggling to make social media actually work for your youth ministry or overall church? In this episode, we’re breaking down a 3-step strategy to move from just broadcasting announcements to real engagement that inspires and connects. If your social feed is just a wall of static graphics, it’s time to rethink your approach—let’s build a social media presence that truly makes an impact!

📓 SHOWNOTES
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https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/studio

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⌚TIMECODES
00:00 Is your Church Social Media on Life Support?
01:50 Stop Ignoring Digital Ministry
04:17 Step #1
06:23 Step #2
09:43 Step #3

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Is your social media account

00:00:02:24 - 00:00:03:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
on

00:00:03:06 - 00:00:10:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
life support, like just a bunch of pre downloaded graphics or things that you've made in Canva?

00:00:10:17 - 00:00:28:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If it is, rest assured you're probably in the majority of other youth workers or even church communications social media managers who know that there's more for social, but you just don't have the capacity or the bandwidth or maybe the desire to take it to that next level.

00:00:28:26 - 00:00:58:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this video I want to do is I want to help you take your social media from broadcasting a message to engaging the message and in the video playlists that we've been currently in, linked right here at the top of the screen. If you're watching here on YouTube, we've been talking about communicating in your church, communicating with better church announcements, and one of the key elements and areas I think a lot of churches wrongfully default to is posting their announcements to social media.

00:00:58:21 - 00:01:26:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's where you just broadcasting about you. But I want to shift your strategy to engagement. Social media's invention. Social media is existence. Its best existence is not for information transfer. However, it is a good spot for inspiration along with entertainment. So give me a like if you've ever had your social media account look like this that you're seeing here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube or give me a sub if

00:01:26:06 - 00:01:26:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
these

00:01:27:00 - 00:01:35:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
announcement based posts have actually returned and yielded good results for you, the fact is, it probably have it.

00:01:35:10 - 00:01:44:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's why in this video, I want to lay out my three step social media strategy. And as always, here in the hybrid Ministry show, there are

00:01:44:13 - 00:01:45:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
chapters

00:01:45:11 - 00:01:56:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
linked down below. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry show flavor. Welcome back to the Hybrid Ministry Show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Clayson.

00:01:57:02 - 00:02:26:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and I've always known and seen the importance of a social or a digital media existence and a present presence. However, Covid really, really ushered that in. And as sort of a result of what Covid did, not only like around me, but in me, I decided like, man, I really like I see churches going a certain direction up and down a certain path and like, I want to be a voice that has something to say about it.

00:02:26:09 - 00:02:40:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And interestingly enough, I was on a livestream not too long ago. If you want to go check it out with, download Youth Ministry. And Josh was like, why are you the guy we're talking to you? And I said, it's interesting because I just started recording videos in

00:02:40:11 - 00:02:40:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
my guest

00:02:40:21 - 00:02:41:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
bedroom

00:02:41:05 - 00:02:47:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
early in the morning, and, here I am now on a live stream answering more questions to other people.

00:02:47:13 - 00:03:16:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it but it was because I was so passionate about this idea of social and digital media. And so, I don't think that when we're just posting announcements that we're doing, first of all, any service to our social platforms, to the algorithms, nor are we really serving our audience, especially on social in a, discovery era where people, stumble upon accounts that they've never seen before.

00:03:16:24 - 00:03:29:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But your Canva graphic for the chili cook off, that's only getting a handful of likes that that's not being discovered by anybody new, nor even probably your current church

00:03:29:27 - 00:03:30:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
members.

00:03:30:12 - 00:03:30:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so

00:03:30:21 - 00:03:43:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you really just making double the amount of work for you. And we've been discussing that in the last three videos about more effective communication, where I laid out better communication strategies for all churches and youth ministries.

00:03:43:27 - 00:03:55:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this video, what I want to do is I want to say, okay, so if that's what you're supposed to do, if you're supposed to kind of leaning on email and leaning on your website and leaning on social for inspiration and entertainment,

00:03:55:27 - 00:03:56:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
what

00:03:56:21 - 00:03:58:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
exactly should you be posting?

00:03:58:22 - 00:04:03:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm glad you have three steps for everyone and their social media is is, three steps.

00:04:03:26 - 00:04:21:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Social media checklist. Step number one is make sure that your website is up to date. I've said that in every single video so far that we've been in this playlist. And it's true because when you take away social as an avenue for announcements or when you

00:04:21:00 - 00:04:21:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
reduce

00:04:21:15 - 00:04:21:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your amount

00:04:21:24 - 00:04:30:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of stage announcements, there's still has to be a full bodied, one stop, robust shop for your church people to fall to.

00:04:30:07 - 00:04:49:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think the best spot for that is your church website. And the first video we talked about the difference between Netflix TV and cable TV. And so when your website is a great spot, it can be a Netflix type location, an on demand type location rather than

00:04:49:02 - 00:04:52:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
hopefully they see the graphic that has the info on social media.

00:04:52:06 - 00:05:18:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hopefully they they saved the email that you sent with the registration link. Hopefully there just have a photograph or you know, whatever the the audio version of that is memory from your staged announcement to do exactly what you want them to do in that moment. And if any people don't have those things, they're just in deep trouble. However, if you have a great website, none of those things matter as much, at least on the information side, right?

00:05:18:25 - 00:05:42:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can still inspire them with the stage announcement. You can still be witty on social media and you can still send a awesome email, but your website is the place where they can go to for that. That information that they really need to download and also move toward action them. And so as we've been talking about, I can actually if that's something anyone's interested in, I can actually do that for you.

00:05:42:28 - 00:06:04:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can build a website for you one time, or you can kind of contact me to just come on and and run that on an ongoing basis, as well as even potentially we can explore what it looked like for me to run that plus your social media. But step number one, regardless of if it's me, regardless of if you use groups, which I recommend your website, just very simply needs to be up to date.

00:06:04:22 - 00:06:27:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I don't care what you use, I don't care who you use, I don't care how you get there, but make sure your website is good and thorough and up to date. Okay, that's the first step in the social media strategy process. Let's move on here to step number two. So your website kind of being up to date, that sort of satisfies the first check in the process.

00:06:27:07 - 00:06:30:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that also makes what I'm going to recommend here on

00:06:30:17 - 00:06:44:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
social, which is the second step here. The second step is you kind of want to become enamored with shorts, reels, TikTok style videos, because when your website is good,

00:06:44:04 - 00:06:44:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you don't

00:06:44:17 - 00:06:44:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
have to

00:06:44:28 - 00:06:54:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
worry about the information. So now you can leave that behind and you can now move ahead towards the era that social is really made for and meant for.

00:06:54:10 - 00:06:58:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, quick hit trip, quick hit, quick trip down

00:06:58:26 - 00:06:59:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
history,

00:06:59:29 - 00:07:00:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
memory lane

00:07:00:25 - 00:07:21:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
2020 TikTok ushered in this new era of of social called the Discovery ERA. It was made popular with an app called TikTok. It is now banned in the United States of America, at least in the App Store right now. But TikTok brought in this brand new style and archetype of video.

00:07:21:00 - 00:07:25:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, it was so popular that not even four years later, according to

00:07:25:29 - 00:07:33:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video, 90% of the internet's traffic is found on short form, vertical based video.

00:07:33:26 - 00:07:34:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because

00:07:34:20 - 00:07:49:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
every other platform then was trying to catch up and keep up with this brand new one called TikTok shorts. Reels. Facebook has Instagram has YouTube has some and even other like places like, Twitter.

00:07:49:15 - 00:07:51:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're even on there, it'll it'll

00:07:51:08 - 00:08:08:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
be on a video, you'll be watching video and it'll auto scroll to the next one. They even built in the scrolling type functionality. And there's a couple pieces of relevant things with it. First of all, it's video based and it's short and it's quippy and it's fun. But secondly, like I said earlier, it said discover re era.

00:08:08:07 - 00:08:37:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you jump on Reels on Instagram, if you jump on your TikTok for you page more than I think 90% of the I believe that's the stat of the videos that you're served are from people that you've never actually even met. And so that's good news for you and I. As churches and youth ministries, we can get on to other people's for you pages without buying their attention or without having them have to follow or subscribe or or know about our channel.

00:08:37:05 - 00:09:02:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The key is producing good content. And so step one website. Step two start focusing on good shorts, which is why I've created down below my hybrid strategy. Got it will not only lay out my plan and what I do in my student ministry, but it will also give you different ideas and types of content that you can use for your social media and for your shorts, you know?

00:09:02:09 - 00:09:21:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like in our student ministry, I post ten different pieces of content, every single week. And it's all different. Kind of like styles of content. And so if you'd like more info on that, you definitely hop down and grab my free strategy guide. It will lay out how we do it, what we do, and how we capture it, how we batch record.

00:09:21:20 - 00:09:25:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I also talked about it in my live stream, a lot of different videos on my

00:09:25:13 - 00:09:38:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
channel. We'll kind of unpack it. And so I'm not going to, you know, bog you down with that info here on this video, but go, go check it out. Go subscribe. Go listen to some more podcasts and we'll get you covered on what exactly we do.

00:09:38:23 - 00:09:39:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Moving on to

00:09:39:28 - 00:10:05:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
step number three then is shorts are great, and if you don't have any capacity and you need to stop there and, and, you know, bolster your strategy and bolster your infrastructure to make that happen. And by all means do that. But then step three, the eye on the prize for all churches and youth ministries is you want your long form primary teaching content posted to YouTube.

00:10:05:18 - 00:10:18:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
90% of teenagers, according to Pew Research, are on YouTube, and so generation Z and Generation Alpha are landing in and making YouTube home. In

00:10:18:01 - 00:10:18:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
fact,

00:10:18:11 - 00:10:18:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
according to

00:10:18:25 - 00:10:40:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a book called Meet Gen Alpha by Mccrindle and Fell, they said that YouTube is actually supplanting Google as the number one primary search engine for Generation Alpha. And so you want to be on YouTube, and if you're running your church, social media for, you're like overall church, you probably have some measure, some version of a live stream.

00:10:40:20 - 00:11:13:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's great. Put that on YouTube. If your equipment is good and working, then great. Put that on YouTube. In student ministry, if you have the ability to do that, then go ahead and put that on YouTube and anywhere else you want to put it. But you definitely have to make sure that you put it on YouTube. And then if you don't have anything, which my strategy guide will lay out exactly how we do this in our environment and in our setting, we don't have any live stream equipment, so we actually sit down before the message several weeks ahead of time, pre-record our message using like a teleprompter.

00:11:13:28 - 00:11:33:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, we've built out like a full studio, so like, I can have all that stuff linked down below. You can check out my studio episode, and you can buy any of the stuff that we have that might be helpful for you. And I also have a Patreon where I'm talking about how I implement my hybrid strategy in my, environment every single week.

00:11:33:14 - 00:11:43:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that podcast is $4 a month. It's one extra bonus podcast per week. Plus, literally, I think I throw in a freebie almost every single week. So

00:11:43:13 - 00:11:52:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I believe that that podcast is a very nominal fee for a lot. A lot of value. And so if you want to kind of go all in on this hybrid strategy, I would recommend that.

00:11:52:14 - 00:12:16:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But we sit down, we pre-record it, and then we post those to YouTube trying to answer some of life's hard questions with our titles, with our tags, and even with our thumbnails. And so again, comes for you. I can help you with that. But the goal then is to take your short content and build an audience that eventually promotes and and pushes people over to your in long form content.

00:12:16:08 - 00:12:45:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's the that's the Mecca of your social platform. And what that does is that that reduces the anxiety, that reduces the pressure that is on your social channels to communicate your announcements. If your website's doing its job, then you're short form content, both fun and serious, can point to you and promote your long form content, which is serious, which will also then helps to help answer students big questions about life and faith, regardless of if they're in your context or not.

00:12:45:16 - 00:13:03:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
With an eye towards and with the focus on your students or your people in your context, and then like just, you know, a next steps form or some way for them to respond to whatever sort of like message that you have put on YouTube. And what I would recommend again, is that takes us all the way back to number one.

00:13:03:04 - 00:13:26:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Make sure there's a good like digital next steps form, one that's universally used and applied in all of your settings when you're teaching. And then with that link you can just post that in the comments of a YouTube video. And your website is helping serve your holistic hybrid and digital strategy. And that is my three step social media process.

00:13:26:15 - 00:13:27:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Make sure your website's up

00:13:27:17 - 00:13:46:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to date. Lean into shorts. Start producing as many of them as you can that make realistic sense during your week? Just be. Just be consistent with it. Don't have a number in mind. And then all with an eye toward the prize of. Start posting your long form messages to YouTube and and all of that.

00:13:46:09 - 00:14:09:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can help with coaching. I can help by running it for you. I can help on my Patreon. I can help on this channel for free. So give me a subscribe if you would like to hear more about that topic. But until next time and as always, my friends appreciate you being here. Appreciate you trying to communicate in a digital and noisy world, but I want to encourage you to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 139: The Best Communication Method for Your Church https://www.hybridministry.xyz/139 5d93f3a1-30d1-45df-b657-90085fff235f Thu, 06 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 139 The Best Communication Method for Your Church full Nick Clason Struggling to figure out the best way to communicate with your church? In this episode of *The Hybrid Ministry Show*, Nick Clason breaks down the most effective communication methods for parents, teens, and volunteers—backed by real stats and practical strategies. From email to social media to podcasts, find out how to make sure your church announcements actually reach the right people! 15:56 no 📊 HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ✅ CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms ====================================== DESCRIPTION Struggling to figure out the best way to communicate with your church? In this episode of The Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason breaks down the most effective communication methods for parents, teens, and volunteers—backed by real stats and practical strategies. From email to social media to podcasts, find out how to make sure your church announcements actually reach the right people! 📓 SHOWNOTES http://www.hybridministry.xyz/139 //HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book //CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms //NUCELUS https://www.nucleus.church //REMIND https://www.remind.com/ //GROUPME https://www.groupme.com //CROSSCREEK STUDENTS LEADER PODCAST https://www.youtube.com/@crosscreekstudents/podcasts 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 &amp; 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 The Best Church Communications Channels 02:14 Adult or Parent Communication Strategy 06:19 Student Communication Strategy 11:48 Volunteer Communication Strategy TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:05 - 00:00:28:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Give me a like if your church still produces a bulletin and give me a subscribe if it's completely quit producing a bulletin. You know, it's interesting. In my 14 years of youth ministry experience, the first two churches I worked at, they were all about those bulletins. Man, we printed those suckers. Every single week. Interestingly, though, the last two churches I worked at both also post Covid, which I'm wondering if that has something to do with it. 00:00:28:05 - 00:00:51:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Chose not to produce a weekly bulletin. You know, in one of the earlier on churches, there was a week where, like, the secretary was out and somehow I ended up not only producing the bulletin for me, like a graphic like design document standpoint, but then I was also in the office cutting them. And my wife, she called me, said, what are you doing at work still? 00:00:51:16 - 00:01:15:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I was like, I have to cut the bulletin. And as I was doing that, I gave myself this thought. I was like, do teenagers even read this? And now, you know, I was producing this for the rest of the church. But in my mind, and as I was having this conversation with myself, I thought, I don't think that teenagers actually read this, but they're parents, right? 00:01:15:05 - 00:01:36:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so that's why we produce these things. And so we've been in this series called communication and the Noisy World. Slinked right up here at the top of the screen. And in this video we want to talk about is the particular channels that your churches should be leaning into. We're going to explore three different audiences. We're going to explore the adults in your church. 00:01:36:21 - 00:02:09:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We're going to explore the students in your church. And then we're also going to explore the volunteers in your church and or in your ministry. And what I want to do is in each of those, I'm going to give you my favorite communication method and some statistics that back the reasons up for why you should be leaning into those channels and as always, I want to remind you that there are chapters down below or in your podcast catcher, wherever you're listening to this, so that you can hop ahead to the section of this episode that makes the most sense to you in your ministry and the context in which you're serving. 00:02:09:23 - 00:02:34:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Welcome, everybody, to the Hybrid Ministry show. So I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and so and in all of my experience of being in youth ministry, when I think about adults that I'm trying to minister to, those adults in particular are either parents or volunteers. And so in this particular section, let's chat about parents. And so these are parents of youth ministry students. 00:02:34:26 - 00:03:07:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry However, if you're a church communications person or a senior pastor watching this like these, what I'm about to share, I believe, also relates to just adults attending your church in general. Okay. Because what I'm going to say, we're going to talk about the adults in your church, the strategy that I believe that you should employ first and foremost and make your number one like major thing that you double down on, that you pour gas on, that you make work is an email strategy. 00:03:07:10 - 00:03:35:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right. Here's a couple of reasons why over 4.3 billion people globally use email. Furthermore, 99% of consumers check their email on a daily basis. This is according to HubSpot, and 73% of millennials and Gen Z, which if you're in youth ministry, those are your parents. And if you're not in youth ministry, those are the future adults of your church. 00:03:35:10 - 00:04:06:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The largest based millennials are the largest in the workforce and the largest opportunity for your your givers. Okay. They prefer email communication from brands at a rate of 73%. This is according to Adobe, so email isn't going anywhere. Now. I also, if you have been watching in the last couple of videos in this playlist, like we link just a second ago, I have been and I've always been my strategy, my hybrid strategy, whether it's for students, parents, whatever. 00:04:06:16 - 00:04:27:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry First and foremost, make sure your website is good and remains up to date. So you want your email to be how you communicate and how you maybe market certain, like classes or events or whatever. But then you want to be able to take them to your website and or you want to send an email because think about user habits. 00:04:27:23 - 00:04:48:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You're you're checking your email at lunch or on your work break, okay, on your lunch break at work and you see something from your church. You don't have time right then and there to stop and go sign up, but it jog your memory and you're there. So then you want when someone later just goes to your website because they're thinking, oh yeah, I need to go sign up for that thing after dinner. 00:04:48:06 - 00:05:19:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry When they get home from work, they need to be able to discover that relatively quickly on your church website, even if the email had a link to it, even if they don't follow that link directly. You want your website to be clear and easy to navigate, which is why I continue to recommend nucleus. And also I just want to let you know, like if your website is not exactly up to it, I can create a couple of automated things for you, like updating your church Google calendar which will also naturally update on your website. 00:05:19:24 - 00:05:36:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so if you're interested in something like that, I offer a service called Church Communications done for you. I would love to explore what that looks like to either a build a one time website or be step into some sort of partnership sort of thing. But email is the way to get Ahold of the adults in your church. 00:05:36:07 - 00:06:13:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If if billions of users are using it and 99% of people are checking their email on a daily basis, then you as a church, you have the opportunity to get in front of all of your people, which diminishes the need for those church stage based announcements and diminishes the needs for those church bulletins. Okay, and I'm not necessarily saying that you should toss those things out and not even worry about them anymore, but what I am saying is that your primary strategy should be email and then those other pieces, stage announcements, bulletins, whatever you want to say, even social media. 00:06:14:01 - 00:06:36:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They should all supplement what's going on on email. The second category of people that we're going to talk about here are teenagers, students. Okay. So this is particularly aimed for youth pastors. Once again, if you're not in that then hop down to the chapters below and jump ahead to the next one you need. As a youth pastor, you want to try to get to teenagers phones. 00:06:36:25 - 00:06:55:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now you got to think about this. All teenagers are in a little bit of a different season of life, of adopting usage on their phones. So some of them aren't yet using, like text messaging yet. Right? So that's why I say a little bit more generically. You want to get to their phones because some parents let them have Instagram and some don't. 00:06:55:05 - 00:07:16:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Some parents let them have YouTube and some don't. Some parents let them text certain people and some don't. And so in some ways, somehow we need to get on their cell phones, which is what I'm promoting trying to do by using and utilizing, our hybrid strategy in our in the current student ministry that I serve in, this is our attempt and this is our, our play to get on to students cell phones. 00:07:16:11 - 00:07:31:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so my hybrid strategy is actually linked right down below in the description or on your podcast catcher. I would love to have you check that out. It's completely free, but it helps. It helps give you my strategy and also helps you implement some pieces and parts of that so that you can start trying to get onto their phones. 00:07:32:00 - 00:07:54:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But here's some reasons why it's valuable and important for us to get to their phones. Because 69% of students of teenagers own a smartphone by the age of 12, according to Common Sense Media, and also 90% according to Pew Research. 90% of teenagers use YouTube, so there's a couple of different ways to get to their phones. Number one, social, okay. 00:07:54:13 - 00:08:26:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And short form vertical based video is still king. Going to vertical in 2024, 90% of the internet's traffic was short form, vertical based video. And so you can employ that short form, vertical based video strategy on Facebook. So I wouldn't recommend that platform necessarily for students or these other through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. And if TikTok goes ahead and gets banned, you can still employ that that video based strategy by leaning into reels and TikToks and YouTube shorts by cross posting to places like YouTube and Instagram. 00:08:26:15 - 00:08:51:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And there are, you know, there are some TikTok like alternative apps being produced, like a lemonade app. And I don't know if that's going to take or pop, but but maybe go secure your church's handle on it. And then if it does, boom, you're there. And you can continue to employ that strategy. If it takes TikTok's spot, you know, once, like certain things get shook out here with the Congress ban or, you know, whatever is going on with that. 00:08:51:20 - 00:09:10:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so the point is that short form, vertical based video while TikTok may not last forever, that strategy right now, that strategy is so, so clutch. And I actually I noticed it last night because here's the thing about that strategy. I was on Instagram and I was scrolling through stories, which are things posted by people that I follow my friends. 00:09:11:05 - 00:09:31:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's a nod back to the social Graph era of friendship based social media. And I was scrolling through and I know friends, whoever I was, I was looking at your stories. I got bored, close it out, hopped into reels which then started showing me popular and like, entertainment based and reels that are actually getting a lot of views. 00:09:31:17 - 00:09:55:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And now all of a sudden I was, I was hooked. I was there for a while and that's going from that social graph era over into that discovery based era. And that's where we want to find ourselves in student ministry like we want we can. Here's the thing, though. You can post like a discovery based thing, and you can share that link to your audience so you can post that real on to your story so that all the students who follow you, they still see it. 00:09:55:19 - 00:10:11:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Or you can even like yesterday I posted, a YouTube short, also an Instagram reel and a TikTok, and I sent the YouTube short link in our text group and I said, have you answered this crazy? Would you rather question yet? And I sent it to all the kids are sign up in our text group, which is the second. 00:10:11:10 - 00:10:32:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So socials one one way to get to their phones. The second is to get to text messages. All right. And so if you want like blasts I would recommend a service like remind. It's completely free for schools. Or if you want a group chat feature I would recommend a group me both of them listen to me. Both of them have their shortcomings I get it, okay? 00:10:32:11 - 00:10:59:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But it's a great, like, neutralizer. Okay. If you if you have Apple phones and Android phones, GroupMe can put everyone in a group, chat app without, like, the fuss of the blue bubbles and all the things, the compressed pictures that Apple won't allow to come through. Because RCS messaging, even though it's been around since 2007, like it'll do these things where it it will it will create like a level playing field. 00:10:59:01 - 00:11:18:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. And you know, if you if your church communications database has some sort of texting service, that you already pay for, then by all means use that. Don't I don't necessarily recommend remind over something like that. Or if you've already dug deep to pay for some sort of texting service and continue to use that, probably better. But that that also goes for when kids are serving. 00:11:18:01 - 00:11:34:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like if you can send them text notifications instead of just email notifications. The goal again is to get to their phones, especially if almost 70% of 12 year olds in on up have smartphones. All right. And so I know you're going to run into because I run into this too. You're going to run into kids who don't have it. 00:11:35:02 - 00:11:59:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you always do have to have a small alternative for a more analog approach. But that's that's widely okay. Right. As we're trying to communicate with teenagers. And then the last area, the last area of ministry is what about your volunteers? What about your leaders? Okay. Now, this may not be, the highest or, like, email is still going to probably be what you're going to use. 00:11:59:02 - 00:12:20:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Just like going back to the, you know, parent adult section of this video, all the stats, all the reasons that's why email still is worthwhile for you volunteers. However, I will say in the last, six months or so, me and my team, me and my boss has started recording a weekly leader podcast. Yes, you heard that right. 00:12:20:10 - 00:12:44:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Weekly. Now we batch record, so we record four at a time. It's about an hour worth of our time. And then it takes me just a minute. Like, really not very long to just edit those suckers into, a YouTube video as well as an audio only podcast. And then we post those every single Monday morning. And so we encourage our leaders to, subscribe to that and listen to it. 00:12:44:27 - 00:13:25:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We try to make it like 15, no more maximum than 15 minutes. Usually they're closer to ten minutes each. And just, we've asked them to adopt that as their normal rhythm on their way to work, on their way on Monday morning to work, habit. And so what what this does is this reduces the pressure around a once a year or a biannual or even a monthly leader meeting to communicate all the big things that we need to communicate, because you know, that you need to, hook them with inspiration, but you also need to tell them, like, boring details like, hey, when you guys are like, checking in, you need to click this 00:13:25:07 - 00:13:43:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry little button here, and you make sure you check in to both of these groups so that our metrics above all, they don't care about that stuff. But the Leader podcast gives you an avenue to share those little snippets of things. It also gives you an avenue to drip culture slowly. And so that's one of the things we've been doing. 00:13:43:02 - 00:14:04:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We've been attempting to make our culture a little more conversational and a little less teaching, and we've just been dripping that slowly on the podcast. And what's so fun is last week I sat down with some of my leaders, we do a yearly leader debrief, and I heard them starting to use some of the language that we've been putting on our leader podcast. 00:14:04:04 - 00:14:26:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In addition to gripping the information and sharing more announcements, we'll do like giveaways, we'll do leader shout outs, we'll share funny stories. And so then every week that that, posts on Monday, there's always the off chance that our leader group chat gets a little flurry of activity around whatever topic happened on the on the podcast or people are, you know, laughing about some of the things that are going on there. 00:14:26:23 - 00:14:49:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So according to Nielsen, the average podcast listener consumed up to seven a week. And so if you have people on your leader teams that are already podcast listeners, that's a super easy one. If not, you can help them adopt it. Or also, again, you can post those, video form to YouTube. YouTube also has a podcast RSS kind of section built into it that you can also use and utilize. 00:14:49:24 - 00:15:21:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so even if they're not podcast adopters, they can still access it via the video. And so with your email strategy for adults, with your get to their phones strategy for students and with your podcast strategy for leaders, then use your stage and your bulletin announcements to really hit hard and to just simply reinforce and point people back not only into those channels, but then also off to your website where they're ultimately going to take their next step, call to action sort of things. 00:15:21:07 - 00:15:42:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so in this next video, what I'm going to do is I'm going to help break down why you on social media should be focusing now more because our, our, our, information and our announcements have been taken care of how you should start focusing on engagement as opposed to simply broadcasting information. That video is going to be linked right here on screen. 00:15:42:05 - 00:15:49:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and tap that. We'd love to see you over there. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid. hybrid ministry, nick clason, youth ministry strategy, youth ministry coach, student ministry, church communication tips, ministry communication, noisy world communication, clear church messaging, church social media tips, youth ministry communication, creative church communication, effective ministry communication, digital church strategies, church engagement, ministry outreach, communication tips for churches, simplifying messages, ministry social media strategy, hybrid ministry podcast, church growth tips, two-way communication, engaging church content, digital discipleship, better church announcements, more fun church announcements 📊 HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
Struggling to figure out the best way to communicate with your church? In this episode of The Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason breaks down the most effective communication methods for parents, teens, and volunteers—backed by real stats and practical strategies. From email to social media to podcasts, find out how to make sure your church announcements actually reach the right people!

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/139

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

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

//NUCELUS
https://www.nucleus.church

//REMIND
https://www.remind.com/

//GROUPME
https://www.groupme.com

//CROSSCREEK STUDENTS LEADER PODCAST
https://www.youtube.com/@crosscreekstudents/podcasts

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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!
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🛠️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
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⌚TIMECODES
00:00 The Best Church Communications Channels
02:14 Adult or Parent Communication Strategy
06:19 Student Communication Strategy
11:48 Volunteer Communication Strategy

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:28:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give me a like if your church still produces a bulletin and give me a subscribe if it's completely quit producing a bulletin. You know, it's interesting. In my 14 years of youth ministry experience, the first two churches I worked at, they were all about those bulletins. Man, we printed those suckers. Every single week. Interestingly, though, the last two churches I worked at both also post Covid, which I'm wondering if that has something to do with it.

00:00:28:05 - 00:00:51:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Chose not to produce a weekly bulletin. You know, in one of the earlier on churches, there was a week where, like, the secretary was out and somehow I ended up not only producing the bulletin for me, like a graphic like design document standpoint, but then I was also in the office cutting them. And my wife, she called me, said, what are you doing at work still?

00:00:51:16 - 00:01:15:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I was like, I have to cut the bulletin. And as I was doing that, I gave myself this thought. I was like, do teenagers even read this? And now, you know, I was producing this for the rest of the church. But in my mind, and as I was having this conversation with myself, I thought, I don't think that teenagers actually read this, but they're parents, right?

00:01:15:05 - 00:01:36:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's why we produce these things. And so we've been in this series called communication and the Noisy World. Slinked right up here at the top of the screen. And in this video we want to talk about is the particular channels that your churches should be leaning into. We're going to explore three different audiences. We're going to explore the adults in your church.

00:01:36:21 - 00:02:09:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're going to explore the students in your church. And then we're also going to explore the volunteers in your church and or in your ministry. And what I want to do is in each of those, I'm going to give you my favorite communication method and some statistics that back the reasons up for why you should be leaning into those channels and as always, I want to remind you that there are chapters down below or in your podcast catcher, wherever you're listening to this, so that you can hop ahead to the section of this episode that makes the most sense to you in your ministry and the context in which you're serving.

00:02:09:23 - 00:02:34:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, everybody, to the Hybrid Ministry show. So I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and so and in all of my experience of being in youth ministry, when I think about adults that I'm trying to minister to, those adults in particular are either parents or volunteers. And so in this particular section, let's chat about parents. And so these are parents of youth ministry students.

00:02:34:26 - 00:03:07:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, if you're a church communications person or a senior pastor watching this like these, what I'm about to share, I believe, also relates to just adults attending your church in general. Okay. Because what I'm going to say, we're going to talk about the adults in your church, the strategy that I believe that you should employ first and foremost and make your number one like major thing that you double down on, that you pour gas on, that you make work is an email strategy.

00:03:07:10 - 00:03:35:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. Here's a couple of reasons why over 4.3 billion people globally use email. Furthermore, 99% of consumers check their email on a daily basis. This is according to HubSpot, and 73% of millennials and Gen Z, which if you're in youth ministry, those are your parents. And if you're not in youth ministry, those are the future adults of your church.

00:03:35:10 - 00:04:06:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The largest based millennials are the largest in the workforce and the largest opportunity for your your givers. Okay. They prefer email communication from brands at a rate of 73%. This is according to Adobe, so email isn't going anywhere. Now. I also, if you have been watching in the last couple of videos in this playlist, like we link just a second ago, I have been and I've always been my strategy, my hybrid strategy, whether it's for students, parents, whatever.

00:04:06:16 - 00:04:27:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
First and foremost, make sure your website is good and remains up to date. So you want your email to be how you communicate and how you maybe market certain, like classes or events or whatever. But then you want to be able to take them to your website and or you want to send an email because think about user habits.

00:04:27:23 - 00:04:48:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're you're checking your email at lunch or on your work break, okay, on your lunch break at work and you see something from your church. You don't have time right then and there to stop and go sign up, but it jog your memory and you're there. So then you want when someone later just goes to your website because they're thinking, oh yeah, I need to go sign up for that thing after dinner.

00:04:48:06 - 00:05:19:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When they get home from work, they need to be able to discover that relatively quickly on your church website, even if the email had a link to it, even if they don't follow that link directly. You want your website to be clear and easy to navigate, which is why I continue to recommend nucleus. And also I just want to let you know, like if your website is not exactly up to it, I can create a couple of automated things for you, like updating your church Google calendar which will also naturally update on your website.

00:05:19:24 - 00:05:36:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you're interested in something like that, I offer a service called Church Communications done for you. I would love to explore what that looks like to either a build a one time website or be step into some sort of partnership sort of thing. But email is the way to get Ahold of the adults in your church.

00:05:36:07 - 00:06:13:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If if billions of users are using it and 99% of people are checking their email on a daily basis, then you as a church, you have the opportunity to get in front of all of your people, which diminishes the need for those church stage based announcements and diminishes the needs for those church bulletins. Okay, and I'm not necessarily saying that you should toss those things out and not even worry about them anymore, but what I am saying is that your primary strategy should be email and then those other pieces, stage announcements, bulletins, whatever you want to say, even social media.

00:06:14:01 - 00:06:36:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They should all supplement what's going on on email. The second category of people that we're going to talk about here are teenagers, students. Okay. So this is particularly aimed for youth pastors. Once again, if you're not in that then hop down to the chapters below and jump ahead to the next one you need. As a youth pastor, you want to try to get to teenagers phones.

00:06:36:25 - 00:06:55:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now you got to think about this. All teenagers are in a little bit of a different season of life, of adopting usage on their phones. So some of them aren't yet using, like text messaging yet. Right? So that's why I say a little bit more generically. You want to get to their phones because some parents let them have Instagram and some don't.

00:06:55:05 - 00:07:16:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some parents let them have YouTube and some don't. Some parents let them text certain people and some don't. And so in some ways, somehow we need to get on their cell phones, which is what I'm promoting trying to do by using and utilizing, our hybrid strategy in our in the current student ministry that I serve in, this is our attempt and this is our, our play to get on to students cell phones.

00:07:16:11 - 00:07:31:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so my hybrid strategy is actually linked right down below in the description or on your podcast catcher. I would love to have you check that out. It's completely free, but it helps. It helps give you my strategy and also helps you implement some pieces and parts of that so that you can start trying to get onto their phones.

00:07:32:00 - 00:07:54:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's some reasons why it's valuable and important for us to get to their phones. Because 69% of students of teenagers own a smartphone by the age of 12, according to Common Sense Media, and also 90% according to Pew Research. 90% of teenagers use YouTube, so there's a couple of different ways to get to their phones. Number one, social, okay.

00:07:54:13 - 00:08:26:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And short form vertical based video is still king. Going to vertical in 2024, 90% of the internet's traffic was short form, vertical based video. And so you can employ that short form, vertical based video strategy on Facebook. So I wouldn't recommend that platform necessarily for students or these other through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. And if TikTok goes ahead and gets banned, you can still employ that that video based strategy by leaning into reels and TikToks and YouTube shorts by cross posting to places like YouTube and Instagram.

00:08:26:15 - 00:08:51:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And there are, you know, there are some TikTok like alternative apps being produced, like a lemonade app. And I don't know if that's going to take or pop, but but maybe go secure your church's handle on it. And then if it does, boom, you're there. And you can continue to employ that strategy. If it takes TikTok's spot, you know, once, like certain things get shook out here with the Congress ban or, you know, whatever is going on with that.

00:08:51:20 - 00:09:10:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the point is that short form, vertical based video while TikTok may not last forever, that strategy right now, that strategy is so, so clutch. And I actually I noticed it last night because here's the thing about that strategy. I was on Instagram and I was scrolling through stories, which are things posted by people that I follow my friends.

00:09:11:05 - 00:09:31:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a nod back to the social Graph era of friendship based social media. And I was scrolling through and I know friends, whoever I was, I was looking at your stories. I got bored, close it out, hopped into reels which then started showing me popular and like, entertainment based and reels that are actually getting a lot of views.

00:09:31:17 - 00:09:55:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And now all of a sudden I was, I was hooked. I was there for a while and that's going from that social graph era over into that discovery based era. And that's where we want to find ourselves in student ministry like we want we can. Here's the thing, though. You can post like a discovery based thing, and you can share that link to your audience so you can post that real on to your story so that all the students who follow you, they still see it.

00:09:55:19 - 00:10:11:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or you can even like yesterday I posted, a YouTube short, also an Instagram reel and a TikTok, and I sent the YouTube short link in our text group and I said, have you answered this crazy? Would you rather question yet? And I sent it to all the kids are sign up in our text group, which is the second.

00:10:11:10 - 00:10:32:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So socials one one way to get to their phones. The second is to get to text messages. All right. And so if you want like blasts I would recommend a service like remind. It's completely free for schools. Or if you want a group chat feature I would recommend a group me both of them listen to me. Both of them have their shortcomings I get it, okay?

00:10:32:11 - 00:10:59:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But it's a great, like, neutralizer. Okay. If you if you have Apple phones and Android phones, GroupMe can put everyone in a group, chat app without, like, the fuss of the blue bubbles and all the things, the compressed pictures that Apple won't allow to come through. Because RCS messaging, even though it's been around since 2007, like it'll do these things where it it will it will create like a level playing field.

00:10:59:01 - 00:11:18:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And you know, if you if your church communications database has some sort of texting service, that you already pay for, then by all means use that. Don't I don't necessarily recommend remind over something like that. Or if you've already dug deep to pay for some sort of texting service and continue to use that, probably better. But that that also goes for when kids are serving.

00:11:18:01 - 00:11:34:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like if you can send them text notifications instead of just email notifications. The goal again is to get to their phones, especially if almost 70% of 12 year olds in on up have smartphones. All right. And so I know you're going to run into because I run into this too. You're going to run into kids who don't have it.

00:11:35:02 - 00:11:59:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you always do have to have a small alternative for a more analog approach. But that's that's widely okay. Right. As we're trying to communicate with teenagers. And then the last area, the last area of ministry is what about your volunteers? What about your leaders? Okay. Now, this may not be, the highest or, like, email is still going to probably be what you're going to use.

00:11:59:02 - 00:12:20:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just like going back to the, you know, parent adult section of this video, all the stats, all the reasons that's why email still is worthwhile for you volunteers. However, I will say in the last, six months or so, me and my team, me and my boss has started recording a weekly leader podcast. Yes, you heard that right.

00:12:20:10 - 00:12:44:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Weekly. Now we batch record, so we record four at a time. It's about an hour worth of our time. And then it takes me just a minute. Like, really not very long to just edit those suckers into, a YouTube video as well as an audio only podcast. And then we post those every single Monday morning. And so we encourage our leaders to, subscribe to that and listen to it.

00:12:44:27 - 00:13:25:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We try to make it like 15, no more maximum than 15 minutes. Usually they're closer to ten minutes each. And just, we've asked them to adopt that as their normal rhythm on their way to work, on their way on Monday morning to work, habit. And so what what this does is this reduces the pressure around a once a year or a biannual or even a monthly leader meeting to communicate all the big things that we need to communicate, because you know, that you need to, hook them with inspiration, but you also need to tell them, like, boring details like, hey, when you guys are like, checking in, you need to click this

00:13:25:07 - 00:13:43:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
little button here, and you make sure you check in to both of these groups so that our metrics above all, they don't care about that stuff. But the Leader podcast gives you an avenue to share those little snippets of things. It also gives you an avenue to drip culture slowly. And so that's one of the things we've been doing.

00:13:43:02 - 00:14:04:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We've been attempting to make our culture a little more conversational and a little less teaching, and we've just been dripping that slowly on the podcast. And what's so fun is last week I sat down with some of my leaders, we do a yearly leader debrief, and I heard them starting to use some of the language that we've been putting on our leader podcast.

00:14:04:04 - 00:14:26:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In addition to gripping the information and sharing more announcements, we'll do like giveaways, we'll do leader shout outs, we'll share funny stories. And so then every week that that, posts on Monday, there's always the off chance that our leader group chat gets a little flurry of activity around whatever topic happened on the on the podcast or people are, you know, laughing about some of the things that are going on there.

00:14:26:23 - 00:14:49:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So according to Nielsen, the average podcast listener consumed up to seven a week. And so if you have people on your leader teams that are already podcast listeners, that's a super easy one. If not, you can help them adopt it. Or also, again, you can post those, video form to YouTube. YouTube also has a podcast RSS kind of section built into it that you can also use and utilize.

00:14:49:24 - 00:15:21:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so even if they're not podcast adopters, they can still access it via the video. And so with your email strategy for adults, with your get to their phones strategy for students and with your podcast strategy for leaders, then use your stage and your bulletin announcements to really hit hard and to just simply reinforce and point people back not only into those channels, but then also off to your website where they're ultimately going to take their next step, call to action sort of things.

00:15:21:07 - 00:15:42:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so in this next video, what I'm going to do is I'm going to help break down why you on social media should be focusing now more because our, our, our, information and our announcements have been taken care of how you should start focusing on engagement as opposed to simply broadcasting information. That video is going to be linked right here on screen.

00:15:42:05 - 00:15:49:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and tap that. We'd love to see you over there. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

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✅ CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU
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DESCRIPTION
Struggling to figure out the best way to communicate with your church? In this episode of The Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason breaks down the most effective communication methods for parents, teens, and volunteers—backed by real stats and practical strategies. From email to social media to podcasts, find out how to make sure your church announcements actually reach the right people!

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https://www.nucleus.church

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⌚TIMECODES
00:00 The Best Church Communications Channels
02:14 Adult or Parent Communication Strategy
06:19 Student Communication Strategy
11:48 Volunteer Communication Strategy

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:28:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give me a like if your church still produces a bulletin and give me a subscribe if it's completely quit producing a bulletin. You know, it's interesting. In my 14 years of youth ministry experience, the first two churches I worked at, they were all about those bulletins. Man, we printed those suckers. Every single week. Interestingly, though, the last two churches I worked at both also post Covid, which I'm wondering if that has something to do with it.

00:00:28:05 - 00:00:51:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Chose not to produce a weekly bulletin. You know, in one of the earlier on churches, there was a week where, like, the secretary was out and somehow I ended up not only producing the bulletin for me, like a graphic like design document standpoint, but then I was also in the office cutting them. And my wife, she called me, said, what are you doing at work still?

00:00:51:16 - 00:01:15:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I was like, I have to cut the bulletin. And as I was doing that, I gave myself this thought. I was like, do teenagers even read this? And now, you know, I was producing this for the rest of the church. But in my mind, and as I was having this conversation with myself, I thought, I don't think that teenagers actually read this, but they're parents, right?

00:01:15:05 - 00:01:36:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's why we produce these things. And so we've been in this series called communication and the Noisy World. Slinked right up here at the top of the screen. And in this video we want to talk about is the particular channels that your churches should be leaning into. We're going to explore three different audiences. We're going to explore the adults in your church.

00:01:36:21 - 00:02:09:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're going to explore the students in your church. And then we're also going to explore the volunteers in your church and or in your ministry. And what I want to do is in each of those, I'm going to give you my favorite communication method and some statistics that back the reasons up for why you should be leaning into those channels and as always, I want to remind you that there are chapters down below or in your podcast catcher, wherever you're listening to this, so that you can hop ahead to the section of this episode that makes the most sense to you in your ministry and the context in which you're serving.

00:02:09:23 - 00:02:34:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, everybody, to the Hybrid Ministry show. So I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and so and in all of my experience of being in youth ministry, when I think about adults that I'm trying to minister to, those adults in particular are either parents or volunteers. And so in this particular section, let's chat about parents. And so these are parents of youth ministry students.

00:02:34:26 - 00:03:07:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, if you're a church communications person or a senior pastor watching this like these, what I'm about to share, I believe, also relates to just adults attending your church in general. Okay. Because what I'm going to say, we're going to talk about the adults in your church, the strategy that I believe that you should employ first and foremost and make your number one like major thing that you double down on, that you pour gas on, that you make work is an email strategy.

00:03:07:10 - 00:03:35:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. Here's a couple of reasons why over 4.3 billion people globally use email. Furthermore, 99% of consumers check their email on a daily basis. This is according to HubSpot, and 73% of millennials and Gen Z, which if you're in youth ministry, those are your parents. And if you're not in youth ministry, those are the future adults of your church.

00:03:35:10 - 00:04:06:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The largest based millennials are the largest in the workforce and the largest opportunity for your your givers. Okay. They prefer email communication from brands at a rate of 73%. This is according to Adobe, so email isn't going anywhere. Now. I also, if you have been watching in the last couple of videos in this playlist, like we link just a second ago, I have been and I've always been my strategy, my hybrid strategy, whether it's for students, parents, whatever.

00:04:06:16 - 00:04:27:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
First and foremost, make sure your website is good and remains up to date. So you want your email to be how you communicate and how you maybe market certain, like classes or events or whatever. But then you want to be able to take them to your website and or you want to send an email because think about user habits.

00:04:27:23 - 00:04:48:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're you're checking your email at lunch or on your work break, okay, on your lunch break at work and you see something from your church. You don't have time right then and there to stop and go sign up, but it jog your memory and you're there. So then you want when someone later just goes to your website because they're thinking, oh yeah, I need to go sign up for that thing after dinner.

00:04:48:06 - 00:05:19:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When they get home from work, they need to be able to discover that relatively quickly on your church website, even if the email had a link to it, even if they don't follow that link directly. You want your website to be clear and easy to navigate, which is why I continue to recommend nucleus. And also I just want to let you know, like if your website is not exactly up to it, I can create a couple of automated things for you, like updating your church Google calendar which will also naturally update on your website.

00:05:19:24 - 00:05:36:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you're interested in something like that, I offer a service called Church Communications done for you. I would love to explore what that looks like to either a build a one time website or be step into some sort of partnership sort of thing. But email is the way to get Ahold of the adults in your church.

00:05:36:07 - 00:06:13:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If if billions of users are using it and 99% of people are checking their email on a daily basis, then you as a church, you have the opportunity to get in front of all of your people, which diminishes the need for those church stage based announcements and diminishes the needs for those church bulletins. Okay, and I'm not necessarily saying that you should toss those things out and not even worry about them anymore, but what I am saying is that your primary strategy should be email and then those other pieces, stage announcements, bulletins, whatever you want to say, even social media.

00:06:14:01 - 00:06:36:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They should all supplement what's going on on email. The second category of people that we're going to talk about here are teenagers, students. Okay. So this is particularly aimed for youth pastors. Once again, if you're not in that then hop down to the chapters below and jump ahead to the next one you need. As a youth pastor, you want to try to get to teenagers phones.

00:06:36:25 - 00:06:55:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now you got to think about this. All teenagers are in a little bit of a different season of life, of adopting usage on their phones. So some of them aren't yet using, like text messaging yet. Right? So that's why I say a little bit more generically. You want to get to their phones because some parents let them have Instagram and some don't.

00:06:55:05 - 00:07:16:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some parents let them have YouTube and some don't. Some parents let them text certain people and some don't. And so in some ways, somehow we need to get on their cell phones, which is what I'm promoting trying to do by using and utilizing, our hybrid strategy in our in the current student ministry that I serve in, this is our attempt and this is our, our play to get on to students cell phones.

00:07:16:11 - 00:07:31:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so my hybrid strategy is actually linked right down below in the description or on your podcast catcher. I would love to have you check that out. It's completely free, but it helps. It helps give you my strategy and also helps you implement some pieces and parts of that so that you can start trying to get onto their phones.

00:07:32:00 - 00:07:54:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's some reasons why it's valuable and important for us to get to their phones. Because 69% of students of teenagers own a smartphone by the age of 12, according to Common Sense Media, and also 90% according to Pew Research. 90% of teenagers use YouTube, so there's a couple of different ways to get to their phones. Number one, social, okay.

00:07:54:13 - 00:08:26:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And short form vertical based video is still king. Going to vertical in 2024, 90% of the internet's traffic was short form, vertical based video. And so you can employ that short form, vertical based video strategy on Facebook. So I wouldn't recommend that platform necessarily for students or these other through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. And if TikTok goes ahead and gets banned, you can still employ that that video based strategy by leaning into reels and TikToks and YouTube shorts by cross posting to places like YouTube and Instagram.

00:08:26:15 - 00:08:51:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And there are, you know, there are some TikTok like alternative apps being produced, like a lemonade app. And I don't know if that's going to take or pop, but but maybe go secure your church's handle on it. And then if it does, boom, you're there. And you can continue to employ that strategy. If it takes TikTok's spot, you know, once, like certain things get shook out here with the Congress ban or, you know, whatever is going on with that.

00:08:51:20 - 00:09:10:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the point is that short form, vertical based video while TikTok may not last forever, that strategy right now, that strategy is so, so clutch. And I actually I noticed it last night because here's the thing about that strategy. I was on Instagram and I was scrolling through stories, which are things posted by people that I follow my friends.

00:09:11:05 - 00:09:31:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a nod back to the social Graph era of friendship based social media. And I was scrolling through and I know friends, whoever I was, I was looking at your stories. I got bored, close it out, hopped into reels which then started showing me popular and like, entertainment based and reels that are actually getting a lot of views.

00:09:31:17 - 00:09:55:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And now all of a sudden I was, I was hooked. I was there for a while and that's going from that social graph era over into that discovery based era. And that's where we want to find ourselves in student ministry like we want we can. Here's the thing, though. You can post like a discovery based thing, and you can share that link to your audience so you can post that real on to your story so that all the students who follow you, they still see it.

00:09:55:19 - 00:10:11:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or you can even like yesterday I posted, a YouTube short, also an Instagram reel and a TikTok, and I sent the YouTube short link in our text group and I said, have you answered this crazy? Would you rather question yet? And I sent it to all the kids are sign up in our text group, which is the second.

00:10:11:10 - 00:10:32:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So socials one one way to get to their phones. The second is to get to text messages. All right. And so if you want like blasts I would recommend a service like remind. It's completely free for schools. Or if you want a group chat feature I would recommend a group me both of them listen to me. Both of them have their shortcomings I get it, okay?

00:10:32:11 - 00:10:59:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But it's a great, like, neutralizer. Okay. If you if you have Apple phones and Android phones, GroupMe can put everyone in a group, chat app without, like, the fuss of the blue bubbles and all the things, the compressed pictures that Apple won't allow to come through. Because RCS messaging, even though it's been around since 2007, like it'll do these things where it it will it will create like a level playing field.

00:10:59:01 - 00:11:18:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And you know, if you if your church communications database has some sort of texting service, that you already pay for, then by all means use that. Don't I don't necessarily recommend remind over something like that. Or if you've already dug deep to pay for some sort of texting service and continue to use that, probably better. But that that also goes for when kids are serving.

00:11:18:01 - 00:11:34:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like if you can send them text notifications instead of just email notifications. The goal again is to get to their phones, especially if almost 70% of 12 year olds in on up have smartphones. All right. And so I know you're going to run into because I run into this too. You're going to run into kids who don't have it.

00:11:35:02 - 00:11:59:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you always do have to have a small alternative for a more analog approach. But that's that's widely okay. Right. As we're trying to communicate with teenagers. And then the last area, the last area of ministry is what about your volunteers? What about your leaders? Okay. Now, this may not be, the highest or, like, email is still going to probably be what you're going to use.

00:11:59:02 - 00:12:20:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just like going back to the, you know, parent adult section of this video, all the stats, all the reasons that's why email still is worthwhile for you volunteers. However, I will say in the last, six months or so, me and my team, me and my boss has started recording a weekly leader podcast. Yes, you heard that right.

00:12:20:10 - 00:12:44:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Weekly. Now we batch record, so we record four at a time. It's about an hour worth of our time. And then it takes me just a minute. Like, really not very long to just edit those suckers into, a YouTube video as well as an audio only podcast. And then we post those every single Monday morning. And so we encourage our leaders to, subscribe to that and listen to it.

00:12:44:27 - 00:13:25:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We try to make it like 15, no more maximum than 15 minutes. Usually they're closer to ten minutes each. And just, we've asked them to adopt that as their normal rhythm on their way to work, on their way on Monday morning to work, habit. And so what what this does is this reduces the pressure around a once a year or a biannual or even a monthly leader meeting to communicate all the big things that we need to communicate, because you know, that you need to, hook them with inspiration, but you also need to tell them, like, boring details like, hey, when you guys are like, checking in, you need to click this

00:13:25:07 - 00:13:43:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
little button here, and you make sure you check in to both of these groups so that our metrics above all, they don't care about that stuff. But the Leader podcast gives you an avenue to share those little snippets of things. It also gives you an avenue to drip culture slowly. And so that's one of the things we've been doing.

00:13:43:02 - 00:14:04:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We've been attempting to make our culture a little more conversational and a little less teaching, and we've just been dripping that slowly on the podcast. And what's so fun is last week I sat down with some of my leaders, we do a yearly leader debrief, and I heard them starting to use some of the language that we've been putting on our leader podcast.

00:14:04:04 - 00:14:26:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In addition to gripping the information and sharing more announcements, we'll do like giveaways, we'll do leader shout outs, we'll share funny stories. And so then every week that that, posts on Monday, there's always the off chance that our leader group chat gets a little flurry of activity around whatever topic happened on the on the podcast or people are, you know, laughing about some of the things that are going on there.

00:14:26:23 - 00:14:49:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So according to Nielsen, the average podcast listener consumed up to seven a week. And so if you have people on your leader teams that are already podcast listeners, that's a super easy one. If not, you can help them adopt it. Or also, again, you can post those, video form to YouTube. YouTube also has a podcast RSS kind of section built into it that you can also use and utilize.

00:14:49:24 - 00:15:21:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so even if they're not podcast adopters, they can still access it via the video. And so with your email strategy for adults, with your get to their phones strategy for students and with your podcast strategy for leaders, then use your stage and your bulletin announcements to really hit hard and to just simply reinforce and point people back not only into those channels, but then also off to your website where they're ultimately going to take their next step, call to action sort of things.

00:15:21:07 - 00:15:42:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so in this next video, what I'm going to do is I'm going to help break down why you on social media should be focusing now more because our, our, our, information and our announcements have been taken care of how you should start focusing on engagement as opposed to simply broadcasting information. That video is going to be linked right here on screen.

00:15:42:05 - 00:15:49:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and tap that. We'd love to see you over there. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 138: Steal this Clearer (& Less Boring) Church Announcement Strategy https://www.hybridministry.xyz/138 ed99a3cf-1c5c-4d49-b761-fb16bc75aa7c Thu, 27 Feb 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 138 Steal this Clearer (& Less Boring) Church Announcement Strategy full Nick Clason Tired of your church announcements being ignored? In this episode of the *Hybrid Ministry Podcast*, we’ll show you how to create clearer and less boring announcements using three practical hacks: reduce your CTAs, centralize next steps, and inspire over inform. Stop overwhelming your audience with noise—learn how to simplify your messaging, engage your community, and make your announcements impossible to miss. 19:51 no 📊 HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ✅ CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms ====================================== DESCRIPTION Tired of your church announcements being ignored? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, we’ll show you how to create clearer and less boring announcements using three practical hacks: reduce your CTAs, centralize next steps, and inspire over inform. Stop overwhelming your audience with noise—learn how to simplify your messaging, engage your community, and make your announcements impossible to miss. 📓 SHOWNOTES http://www.hybridministry.xyz/138 //HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book //CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms //NUCELUS https://www.nucleus.church //TRANSITION STYLE VIDEOS https://share.hsforms.com/1UrHggOX1Q3mH_A3F3f8dWwnumis //HUBSPOT (For List Segmentation) https://www.hubspot.com //KIT (Formerly ConvertKit) https://partners.kit.com/x9dbnh372pji 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 &amp; 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 Steal this Church Announcement Strategy 01:48 Myth 05:44 Hack #1 08:39 Hack #2 11:17 Hack #3 13:31 The Ultimate Church Announcement Decision Making Grid 18:09 Bonus Tip TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:19 - 00:00:01:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I want you to 00:00:01:08 - 00:00:06:55 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry steal this clearer and less boring church announcement strategy. 00:00:06:55 - 00:00:21:33 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Because why? Because you've been announcing your event for several weeks, maybe even months now at this point. And give me a like, if this has ever happened to you, you get that text from that student or that church member that said, when is the event again? 00:00:21:38 - 00:00:27:51 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Or is it too late to sign up? Or when are we supposed to be there again? And you just want to pull 00:00:28:33 - 00:00:29:51 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry your hair out? But like we talked 00:00:29:51 - 00:00:30:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry about in the 00:00:30:13 - 00:00:30:40 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry last 00:00:30:40 - 00:00:41:39 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry video partying on, he has this concept called inadvertent blindness. And what he's really saying with that is he says, we really only see what we're looking for. 00:00:41:44 - 00:00:42:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so in 00:00:42:09 - 00:00:42:34 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry this 00:00:42:34 - 00:00:42:58 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry video, 00:00:42:58 - 00:01:08:50 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry how do we have clearer and less boring church announcements, ones that are actually going to, incite inspiration and not just one where you're only simply disseminating information? So in this video, what I want to do is I want to share with you the myth about church communications and church announcements. I want to share with you three hacks that will help you have clearer and better and less boring church announcements. 00:01:08:54 - 00:01:33:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm also going to share with you the ultimate church decision making grid. How do you announce what you announce so that the best and most relevant announcements are the ones that are being said from the stage and from the platform, and from the areas and the channels that you want to be saying them from. And finally, stick around to the very end of the video, because I have for you a bonus hack that may in fact change everything. 00:01:33:18 - 00:01:38:50 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And as always, if you're watching here on YouTube or wherever you're listening in the podcast catcher, there are chapters 00:01:38:50 - 00:01:56:40 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry listed down below so that you can jump ahead to the areas of the video that make the most sense to you. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. So what's the myth? Okay, the myth is this. The myth is that people don't come to your church function, your church thing. 00:01:56:44 - 00:02:24:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We assume that they're not coming to the thing because they don't know about the thing. And so therefore, what do we do? We share more information about the thing. Oh, well, it's actually at seven and we're going to have this and we're going to put it in the fellowship hall, like, and we just give them more and more boring details about it, assuming that those boring details about it are going to be what's going to help them overcome their in in the action and misinformation and get them to that event. 00:02:24:17 - 00:02:41:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's not why they're not coming. They're not coming because they don't care about it. They're not coming because they're busy and they have a schedule conflict. They're not coming because your thing is not the most important thing in their life. Sorry. Like, I hate like I'm not trying to be rude, and I'm not trying to say that to you in a way that's demeaning. 00:02:41:17 - 00:03:16:35 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But like, your thing is not as important as you think your thing is. And so the reason why people don't come to church events is not because they're missing information. But as we talked about in the last episode, credit to Brady Shear for this analogy is we got to start thinking more like movie trailers, right? So a movie trailer moves people towards inspiration, and they try to incite curiosity in such a way that when they see that movie trailer, they're like, I have to go and they'll move heaven and earth and they'll find the tickets and they'll find the theater, and they'll get to that event of their own accord. 00:03:16:39 - 00:03:36:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Our church events. First of all, we're not able to compete in a lot of times with movie trailers. Like I get it right, but we we result and we, you know, get our church announcements to a spot where we think we just need to share more information. What time, what date. And like those are really boring church announcements. 00:03:36:23 - 00:03:57:55 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And the more information that you share in that church announcement, again, we're assuming the myth is we're assuming they don't have enough information, so we'll just give them more information, when in fact, what you actually need to do is you need to inspire them. You need to move them to action through inspiration, through storytelling, through captivation of their senses and their imagination. 00:03:57:55 - 00:04:18:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you're like, dude, I'm a youth pastor. I'm a church secretary, I'm a senior pastor. I can't do any of that. And like, I get it, these are not skills that we often refine or hone in on our own. They're not disciplines that that we have maybe necessarily been been, you know, given or taught in like a seminary degree or whatever the case may be. 00:04:18:22 - 00:04:42:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But in this world with over information and with this noisy world, like, that's what we're competing. See, so like this, these, this myth. Right? This myth is the reason why, posting your announcements to social media is a bad idea because, again, this myth helps us think, oh, we need to put this information out there on the internet. 00:04:42:25 - 00:04:58:40 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We need to let them know when and where and how much dice to bring to the bunker. And I and which fellowship hall we're going to be in, like people again, they're not getting on social media for more information for information download. And if they are, I'm going to tell you where you should put that information because you should include it. 00:04:58:40 - 00:05:18:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Okay. But and we'll get to that in a second. But they're not getting on social for that. They're getting a social once again for in from Earth, not for information for inspiration and and maybe even for some humor and maybe for some entertainment. And so that's actually what I sort of push towards in my free strategy guide, which is going to be link down below. 00:05:18:26 - 00:05:39:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you haven't grabbed it, go ahead and grab it. It is, like I said, it's completely free, but it'll help lay out in detail what I do to kind of live this hybrid version of ministry and what I do on social media. But if that's not what they're looking for, and if our announcements are chock full of too much information and not enough inspiration, then what should we do instead? 00:05:39:29 - 00:06:03:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm glad you asked. That's where these three hacks are going to come in. Okay, so hack number one is reduce your CTAs, CTAs is an acronym. And it sure. It's a marketing word for reduce your calls to action. So a call to action is what you're actually asking someone to do as a result of the information. You have a bunco night. 00:06:03:36 - 00:06:27:42 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you want them to sign up for the bunco night, right. But oftentimes we're stacking multiple call to actions. Okay. So in an announcement moment in your church, we often get up there and everyone gets an opportunity that the kids in the youth and the women and the men's and then the whole church picnic, and there's just there's too many different things. 00:06:27:42 - 00:07:02:56 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, too much thing, too many things that can cause somebody brain to get overwhelmed, psychologically speaking. And therefore, instead of promoting action, it does the exact opposite. It causes paralysis and it promotes inaction. In fact, Simon Sinek, he shared this story of the salesman who was a shoe salesman, and the shoe salesman said he learned the key to selling shoes, and the key to selling shoes was anytime he would have, a person trying on shoes and he had three shoe options, they would always say no. 00:07:03:01 - 00:07:17:56 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But when he reduced it to simply just two options, right? Reducing the call to actions when he would reduce it down to just two options. And so if they had three, he would and they're like, they had two. And they're like, let me see this pair. He would say, which one of these do you want me to take away? 00:07:18:01 - 00:07:36:32 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They would remove one. He would take one away. And then that he'd bring the new pair in, and then there would be two new sets of shoes. And then he would say, which of these do you want, A or B, as opposed to which of these you want A, B or C? And he said when he had two options, he always sold. 00:07:36:32 - 00:08:02:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry When he had three they would walk away. And so the same is true in our church announcements. You your assumption and it's a faulty one. But your assumption now hates it is that the more you offer on the stage, the the better it's going to be for your church and for your people. And let's be honest, if you work on a church staff, there's the pressure of getting everyone's announcement equal airtime. 00:08:02:16 - 00:08:20:35 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so again, we're going to talk about the decision making grid of how you come to those decisions. But you need to reduce your call to actions on your stage. What do you really want the people in your auditorium in your service? What do you really want them to do? And everything else? We're going to find another way. 00:08:20:39 - 00:08:39:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We're going to find another avenue to promote it. And you might be thinking, yeah, but you just told me, I can't put that on social. And you're right. I did say that again. We'll get to it. But reduce your calls to action. And then within that okay. So reduce the number of announcements that you're sharing. But within that simplify see where they go. 00:08:39:17 - 00:09:06:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Which leads me to my second hack. Centralize everything on your website. And now you might be thinking and even assuming that you're doing that. But again credit to Brady Scheer of that pro church tools, his announcement strategy, his church website strategy, and his church website builder, which if you don't have a good church website and you want one that's good and actually easy to put together, I recommend nucleus Dot church. 00:09:06:06 - 00:09:29:56 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry His whole goal with it is to get everyone to the same centralized location. And so when you give an announcement, then people are and an announcement that's inspiring. And that one that's chock full of information. So a good announcement about a, you know, story of life change at the last women's bunco night and then someone sitting there like, I need to get to the bunco night. 00:09:29:56 - 00:09:51:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But when is it? Where is it? Like they go to the website, and the website has all of the information that they're looking for. Your announcements will be better if your website can supply them with the information that they're looking for. Because again, like I said in the last video, which is linked right up here at the top of the screen, if you're watching here on YouTube, I so we operate in a cable TV mentality. 00:09:51:29 - 00:10:22:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In order to come to the bunker, you need all this information. You need the when, the where, the why, the what, but in what. People aren't living mindset wise that way they're living in a Netflix culture. And so they're like, oh, my church has a bunco night. When is that again? And they're thinking about that, on a Thursday at 4 p.m. and so on a Thursday at 4 p.m., they need to be able to go to your church website and get all the information that they're looking for, as opposed to relying on you in the moment on Sunday to get to church. 00:10:22:27 - 00:10:45:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Bunco night information, which they're not interested in at that moment, but they may be interested later. And so you if you catch them and hook them with inspiration, they'll want to go and then later in this Netflix culture, they'll go on demand and they'll go get it on your church website, which if you're hearing this and you're like, wow, okay, so we need to overhaul our church website. 00:10:45:27 - 00:11:05:56 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That may be the case. And you may be right. And you know what? I can offer that for you. I have a service called Church Communications done for you. You don't have enough time to kind of overhaul your social media strategy on your church website. I would encourage you to take a look at the link below. I'd love to offer that to you, and we can explore what that might look like for us to walk into a partnership together. 00:11:05:56 - 00:11:39:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Because I want you to win, and I want more people to come to your church bunco night. But again, the third hack then, is, as we've been talking about, kind of in this whole video, right? Aim to inspire over inform, aim to inspire over and form a sort of been the basis of this whole video. But once again, and here I want to point out like here's what the dictionary.com definition of inspires, really, it's to fill someone with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. 00:11:39:21 - 00:12:07:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. And so a video, if you're watching here on YouTube, like this is one of my transition style videos that we do for social media. Might not seem inspiring to you, right? However, imagine a person stumbling upon it on social media because they can stumble upon your videos like this on social media. Which of these do you think performs better, this video or this standard static announcement graphic that you cooked up in Canva? 00:12:07:17 - 00:12:33:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. Which is why down below I have my social transition video pack, the ones that I recommend. I have six of those plus six cap cut meme style videos. Go ahead, download those and then start using and posting those on your social media, because this video is using the medium for what it's made for. And it may not be like inspiring, but it's entertaining and it gets it still gets the message across. 00:12:34:00 - 00:13:08:51 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry While your other one, yeah, it gives all the information, but this other one, it inspires, it promotes action. It may, you know, cause people to share it. It may be entertaining, it may cause them to laugh. And then as a result of that, like when there's a bunco night, let me go find that out. And then they head over to your church website, which is built, you know, comes done for you or you build it on your own and it has all of the relevant and pertinent information you're using now, the the broadcast channels and the platforms for what they're made for, as opposed to just simply, crushing it and pounding information down 00:13:08:56 - 00:13:33:45 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry through people's channels. Because remember, the myth that we all believe is that they just need more information. But the fact is, it's not exactly it. We need to optimize our our communications in the channels that we find ourselves so that they lean into what those channels are built for and made for. So now this leads me to the ultimate church announcement decision making grid. 00:13:33:57 - 00:13:56:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Okay. And so the question that I want you to ask yourself when you're considering putting an announcement up on the church platform, up on the church stage, is does this announcement apply to greater than 50% of the people in the room? If not, find another way. Now you might be thinking like, but I got to keep the men's ministry happy in the women's ministry happy. 00:13:56:01 - 00:14:23:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And and I will say, when you institute this church decision making, the search announcement, decision making grid. Yes. At first you are going to have some unhappy people, especially if you've been announcing everything. Okay. However, once you institute this as a policy, when someone asks you to announce such and such thing, you can say, I'm sorry, we actually only do this and you got to still be people over process in this, okay? 00:14:23:42 - 00:14:49:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But let the policy point to the policy and let the policy be the bad guy. But the reason that your announcements aren't captivating enough people is because you're getting up and you're announcing something that only pertains to 10 to 15% of the people in your population or in your congregation. And so you might be thinking like, okay, yeah, but the, the platform, the, the stage, that's the only time that we have to announce anything. 00:14:49:23 - 00:15:12:54 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So what I recommend is 50% or more okay. And then if not find another way. And so you might be thinking well what are some other ways. So here's not an exhaustive list but just a list kind of get your brain going. So you could do social media right. And if it's like an outsider event, you might even consider, doing some advertising and putting some some dollars behind like a Facebook or an Instagram ad. 00:15:12:58 - 00:15:33:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Your website is a fantastic spot to advertise things. Text messaging, emails. And let me, let me just say for a minute, like if you can do list segmentation and there are tools out there like, like a HubSpot or like a ConvertKit, and they're going to have a they're going to have a little bit of cost associated with it. 00:15:33:29 - 00:15:57:44 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you may need to put that above and beyond a thing like, you know, church community builder, planning center or whatever your church management software is. But you can create list segmentation. And so you can actually send custom emails for people based on where they actually are in your church, as opposed to just sending big church blasts. Because I think that's another reason why some of our information falls on deaf ears. 00:15:57:44 - 00:16:16:58 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We're sending irrelevant announcements to people, but we don't know how to, make our lists smaller and more custom. Right? Like, again, in the industrial age versus the digital age and the industrial age is all about numbers. So we just need to get the most amount of people on our email list and then just blast them with this information over and over again. 00:16:17:03 - 00:16:37:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But in the digital age, people want to be known for who they are as an individual. And so if we can send them customized, tailored emails that are broken down into what, marketers called lists and, segmentation of lists, that's going to, I think, perform better for you on open rates and click through rates and called actions and actually then taking those call to actions. 00:16:37:51 - 00:17:03:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But so you can use like banners on your website, you can even use printed banners, pop up banners and things like that. And nucleus actually does all of those things again for you. Okay. Now so so if it doesn't apply to greater than 50%, don't announce it. And okay. And I would say no more than two call to action zone one and two announcements. 00:17:03:05 - 00:17:25:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now again you might be like what? Like how you're trying to riot okay. Some of you you have church bulletins. You have bulletin boards like use those other means and methods. I mean, let me just say like, you know, right now we have a, high school, like, kind of retreat disciple now weekend thing coming up. We don't announce anything in store for student ministry in our main church announcement platform. 00:17:25:09 - 00:17:44:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Okay. But right now we're we're pushing and announcing our high school weekend in there. And, you might think, like, oh, Grace, you probably have, like, a lot more traction, like, we have less traction on this event signups than anything else. And it's not because people don't know about it. It's just because it's and it's ended up kind of being a bad weekend for a lot of our students. 00:17:44:04 - 00:18:12:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, again, the publicity thing is not necessarily the issue. We don't have more people coming to our events because of it. Like, we people know about what we have going on because we use and utilize these other kind of platforms and channels to, you know, to our best vantage. Okay. Now, so all those things being said, the myth plus through hacks now the decision making grid, the last little bonus tip that I have for you is when you're sharing announcements. 00:18:12:32 - 00:18:34:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Okay, here's how you can here's how you can lean into inspiration and away from away from information is share stories, use footage, and use photos, especially if you have it from previous and past events. Share a story about life changing as you're doing it. I have some some videos in the back or some photos on the back scrolling. 00:18:34:16 - 00:18:55:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is a picture from last year's bunco event. And this is. This is Sally. And Sally had an amazing time and she came for the community. But she stuck around for for the life change. And now she's a part of a group and now she's serving. And as she leading bunco night. And that's why you should come to bunco night and go to our church website to sign up for this year's bunco night. 00:18:55:25 - 00:19:15:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like something like that. So much more inspiring. Then this Thursday, 6:00 bring a dip to share and all the boring information your website can handle that it does a good job of that. And people, people know to look for it and people are looking for it in that way. And so you have all these different avenues beyond just your stage. 00:19:15:16 - 00:19:36:35 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So how do you maximize each individual avenue in 2025 so that it gets the message across in a way that is captivating and inspiring. And then the people in your church know about what's going on and actually move towards action of signing up for and attending your church's events. Well, I'm glad you asked because that's the next video here in this playlist. 00:19:36:40 - 00:19:50:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's going to be linked here on screen. So go ahead and tap that and we'll see you over in that video. But don't forget my friends. And as always to stay hybrid. hybrid ministry, nick clason, youth ministry strategy, youth ministry coach, student ministry, church communication tips, ministry communication, noisy world communication, clear church messaging, church social media tips, youth ministry communication, creative church communication, effective ministry communication, digital church strategies, church engagement, ministry outreach, communication tips for churches, simplifying messages, ministry social media strategy, hybrid ministry podcast, church growth tips, two-way communication, engaging church content, digital discipleship, better church announcements, more fun church announcements 📊 HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
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Tired of your church announcements being ignored? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, we’ll show you how to create clearer and less boring announcements using three practical hacks: reduce your CTAs, centralize next steps, and inspire over inform. Stop overwhelming your audience with noise—learn how to simplify your messaging, engage your community, and make your announcements impossible to miss.

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⌚TIMECODES
00:00 Steal this Church Announcement Strategy
01:48 Myth
05:44 Hack #1
08:39 Hack #2
11:17 Hack #3
13:31 The Ultimate Church Announcement Decision Making Grid
18:09 Bonus Tip

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:19 - 00:00:01:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I want you to

00:00:01:08 - 00:00:06:55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
steal this clearer and less boring church announcement strategy.

00:00:06:55 - 00:00:21:33
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because why? Because you've been announcing your event for several weeks, maybe even months now at this point. And give me a like, if this has ever happened to you, you get that text from that student or that church member that said, when is the event again?

00:00:21:38 - 00:00:27:51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or is it too late to sign up? Or when are we supposed to be there again? And you just want to pull

00:00:28:33 - 00:00:29:51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your hair out? But like we talked

00:00:29:51 - 00:00:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
about in the

00:00:30:13 - 00:00:30:40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
last

00:00:30:40 - 00:00:41:39
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video partying on, he has this concept called inadvertent blindness. And what he's really saying with that is he says, we really only see what we're looking for.

00:00:41:44 - 00:00:42:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so in

00:00:42:09 - 00:00:42:34
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this

00:00:42:34 - 00:00:42:58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video,

00:00:42:58 - 00:01:08:50
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
how do we have clearer and less boring church announcements, ones that are actually going to, incite inspiration and not just one where you're only simply disseminating information? So in this video, what I want to do is I want to share with you the myth about church communications and church announcements. I want to share with you three hacks that will help you have clearer and better and less boring church announcements.

00:01:08:54 - 00:01:33:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm also going to share with you the ultimate church decision making grid. How do you announce what you announce so that the best and most relevant announcements are the ones that are being said from the stage and from the platform, and from the areas and the channels that you want to be saying them from. And finally, stick around to the very end of the video, because I have for you a bonus hack that may in fact change everything.

00:01:33:18 - 00:01:38:50
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as always, if you're watching here on YouTube or wherever you're listening in the podcast catcher, there are chapters

00:01:38:50 - 00:01:56:40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
listed down below so that you can jump ahead to the areas of the video that make the most sense to you. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. So what's the myth? Okay, the myth is this. The myth is that people don't come to your church function, your church thing.

00:01:56:44 - 00:02:24:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We assume that they're not coming to the thing because they don't know about the thing. And so therefore, what do we do? We share more information about the thing. Oh, well, it's actually at seven and we're going to have this and we're going to put it in the fellowship hall, like, and we just give them more and more boring details about it, assuming that those boring details about it are going to be what's going to help them overcome their in in the action and misinformation and get them to that event.

00:02:24:17 - 00:02:41:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's not why they're not coming. They're not coming because they don't care about it. They're not coming because they're busy and they have a schedule conflict. They're not coming because your thing is not the most important thing in their life. Sorry. Like, I hate like I'm not trying to be rude, and I'm not trying to say that to you in a way that's demeaning.

00:02:41:17 - 00:03:16:35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like, your thing is not as important as you think your thing is. And so the reason why people don't come to church events is not because they're missing information. But as we talked about in the last episode, credit to Brady Shear for this analogy is we got to start thinking more like movie trailers, right? So a movie trailer moves people towards inspiration, and they try to incite curiosity in such a way that when they see that movie trailer, they're like, I have to go and they'll move heaven and earth and they'll find the tickets and they'll find the theater, and they'll get to that event of their own accord.

00:03:16:39 - 00:03:36:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our church events. First of all, we're not able to compete in a lot of times with movie trailers. Like I get it right, but we we result and we, you know, get our church announcements to a spot where we think we just need to share more information. What time, what date. And like those are really boring church announcements.

00:03:36:23 - 00:03:57:55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the more information that you share in that church announcement, again, we're assuming the myth is we're assuming they don't have enough information, so we'll just give them more information, when in fact, what you actually need to do is you need to inspire them. You need to move them to action through inspiration, through storytelling, through captivation of their senses and their imagination.

00:03:57:55 - 00:04:18:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you're like, dude, I'm a youth pastor. I'm a church secretary, I'm a senior pastor. I can't do any of that. And like, I get it, these are not skills that we often refine or hone in on our own. They're not disciplines that that we have maybe necessarily been been, you know, given or taught in like a seminary degree or whatever the case may be.

00:04:18:22 - 00:04:42:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this world with over information and with this noisy world, like, that's what we're competing. See, so like this, these, this myth. Right? This myth is the reason why, posting your announcements to social media is a bad idea because, again, this myth helps us think, oh, we need to put this information out there on the internet.

00:04:42:25 - 00:04:58:40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We need to let them know when and where and how much dice to bring to the bunker. And I and which fellowship hall we're going to be in, like people again, they're not getting on social media for more information for information download. And if they are, I'm going to tell you where you should put that information because you should include it.

00:04:58:40 - 00:05:18:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. But and we'll get to that in a second. But they're not getting on social for that. They're getting a social once again for in from Earth, not for information for inspiration and and maybe even for some humor and maybe for some entertainment. And so that's actually what I sort of push towards in my free strategy guide, which is going to be link down below.

00:05:18:26 - 00:05:39:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you haven't grabbed it, go ahead and grab it. It is, like I said, it's completely free, but it'll help lay out in detail what I do to kind of live this hybrid version of ministry and what I do on social media. But if that's not what they're looking for, and if our announcements are chock full of too much information and not enough inspiration, then what should we do instead?

00:05:39:29 - 00:06:03:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm glad you asked. That's where these three hacks are going to come in. Okay, so hack number one is reduce your CTAs, CTAs is an acronym. And it sure. It's a marketing word for reduce your calls to action. So a call to action is what you're actually asking someone to do as a result of the information. You have a bunco night.

00:06:03:36 - 00:06:27:42
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you want them to sign up for the bunco night, right. But oftentimes we're stacking multiple call to actions. Okay. So in an announcement moment in your church, we often get up there and everyone gets an opportunity that the kids in the youth and the women and the men's and then the whole church picnic, and there's just there's too many different things.

00:06:27:42 - 00:07:02:56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, too much thing, too many things that can cause somebody brain to get overwhelmed, psychologically speaking. And therefore, instead of promoting action, it does the exact opposite. It causes paralysis and it promotes inaction. In fact, Simon Sinek, he shared this story of the salesman who was a shoe salesman, and the shoe salesman said he learned the key to selling shoes, and the key to selling shoes was anytime he would have, a person trying on shoes and he had three shoe options, they would always say no.

00:07:03:01 - 00:07:17:56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But when he reduced it to simply just two options, right? Reducing the call to actions when he would reduce it down to just two options. And so if they had three, he would and they're like, they had two. And they're like, let me see this pair. He would say, which one of these do you want me to take away?

00:07:18:01 - 00:07:36:32
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They would remove one. He would take one away. And then that he'd bring the new pair in, and then there would be two new sets of shoes. And then he would say, which of these do you want, A or B, as opposed to which of these you want A, B or C? And he said when he had two options, he always sold.

00:07:36:32 - 00:08:02:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When he had three they would walk away. And so the same is true in our church announcements. You your assumption and it's a faulty one. But your assumption now hates it is that the more you offer on the stage, the the better it's going to be for your church and for your people. And let's be honest, if you work on a church staff, there's the pressure of getting everyone's announcement equal airtime.

00:08:02:16 - 00:08:20:35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so again, we're going to talk about the decision making grid of how you come to those decisions. But you need to reduce your call to actions on your stage. What do you really want the people in your auditorium in your service? What do you really want them to do? And everything else? We're going to find another way.

00:08:20:39 - 00:08:39:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're going to find another avenue to promote it. And you might be thinking, yeah, but you just told me, I can't put that on social. And you're right. I did say that again. We'll get to it. But reduce your calls to action. And then within that okay. So reduce the number of announcements that you're sharing. But within that simplify see where they go.

00:08:39:17 - 00:09:06:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Which leads me to my second hack. Centralize everything on your website. And now you might be thinking and even assuming that you're doing that. But again credit to Brady Scheer of that pro church tools, his announcement strategy, his church website strategy, and his church website builder, which if you don't have a good church website and you want one that's good and actually easy to put together, I recommend nucleus Dot church.

00:09:06:06 - 00:09:29:56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
His whole goal with it is to get everyone to the same centralized location. And so when you give an announcement, then people are and an announcement that's inspiring. And that one that's chock full of information. So a good announcement about a, you know, story of life change at the last women's bunco night and then someone sitting there like, I need to get to the bunco night.

00:09:29:56 - 00:09:51:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But when is it? Where is it? Like they go to the website, and the website has all of the information that they're looking for. Your announcements will be better if your website can supply them with the information that they're looking for. Because again, like I said in the last video, which is linked right up here at the top of the screen, if you're watching here on YouTube, I so we operate in a cable TV mentality.

00:09:51:29 - 00:10:22:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In order to come to the bunker, you need all this information. You need the when, the where, the why, the what, but in what. People aren't living mindset wise that way they're living in a Netflix culture. And so they're like, oh, my church has a bunco night. When is that again? And they're thinking about that, on a Thursday at 4 p.m. and so on a Thursday at 4 p.m., they need to be able to go to your church website and get all the information that they're looking for, as opposed to relying on you in the moment on Sunday to get to church.

00:10:22:27 - 00:10:45:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Bunco night information, which they're not interested in at that moment, but they may be interested later. And so you if you catch them and hook them with inspiration, they'll want to go and then later in this Netflix culture, they'll go on demand and they'll go get it on your church website, which if you're hearing this and you're like, wow, okay, so we need to overhaul our church website.

00:10:45:27 - 00:11:05:56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That may be the case. And you may be right. And you know what? I can offer that for you. I have a service called Church Communications done for you. You don't have enough time to kind of overhaul your social media strategy on your church website. I would encourage you to take a look at the link below. I'd love to offer that to you, and we can explore what that might look like for us to walk into a partnership together.

00:11:05:56 - 00:11:39:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because I want you to win, and I want more people to come to your church bunco night. But again, the third hack then, is, as we've been talking about, kind of in this whole video, right? Aim to inspire over inform, aim to inspire over and form a sort of been the basis of this whole video. But once again, and here I want to point out like here's what the dictionary.com definition of inspires, really, it's to fill someone with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

00:11:39:21 - 00:12:07:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And so a video, if you're watching here on YouTube, like this is one of my transition style videos that we do for social media. Might not seem inspiring to you, right? However, imagine a person stumbling upon it on social media because they can stumble upon your videos like this on social media. Which of these do you think performs better, this video or this standard static announcement graphic that you cooked up in Canva?

00:12:07:17 - 00:12:33:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Which is why down below I have my social transition video pack, the ones that I recommend. I have six of those plus six cap cut meme style videos. Go ahead, download those and then start using and posting those on your social media, because this video is using the medium for what it's made for. And it may not be like inspiring, but it's entertaining and it gets it still gets the message across.

00:12:34:00 - 00:13:08:51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
While your other one, yeah, it gives all the information, but this other one, it inspires, it promotes action. It may, you know, cause people to share it. It may be entertaining, it may cause them to laugh. And then as a result of that, like when there's a bunco night, let me go find that out. And then they head over to your church website, which is built, you know, comes done for you or you build it on your own and it has all of the relevant and pertinent information you're using now, the the broadcast channels and the platforms for what they're made for, as opposed to just simply, crushing it and pounding information down

00:13:08:56 - 00:13:33:45
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
through people's channels. Because remember, the myth that we all believe is that they just need more information. But the fact is, it's not exactly it. We need to optimize our our communications in the channels that we find ourselves so that they lean into what those channels are built for and made for. So now this leads me to the ultimate church announcement decision making grid.

00:13:33:57 - 00:13:56:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. And so the question that I want you to ask yourself when you're considering putting an announcement up on the church platform, up on the church stage, is does this announcement apply to greater than 50% of the people in the room? If not, find another way. Now you might be thinking like, but I got to keep the men's ministry happy in the women's ministry happy.

00:13:56:01 - 00:14:23:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And and I will say, when you institute this church decision making, the search announcement, decision making grid. Yes. At first you are going to have some unhappy people, especially if you've been announcing everything. Okay. However, once you institute this as a policy, when someone asks you to announce such and such thing, you can say, I'm sorry, we actually only do this and you got to still be people over process in this, okay?

00:14:23:42 - 00:14:49:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But let the policy point to the policy and let the policy be the bad guy. But the reason that your announcements aren't captivating enough people is because you're getting up and you're announcing something that only pertains to 10 to 15% of the people in your population or in your congregation. And so you might be thinking like, okay, yeah, but the, the platform, the, the stage, that's the only time that we have to announce anything.

00:14:49:23 - 00:15:12:54
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So what I recommend is 50% or more okay. And then if not find another way. And so you might be thinking well what are some other ways. So here's not an exhaustive list but just a list kind of get your brain going. So you could do social media right. And if it's like an outsider event, you might even consider, doing some advertising and putting some some dollars behind like a Facebook or an Instagram ad.

00:15:12:58 - 00:15:33:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Your website is a fantastic spot to advertise things. Text messaging, emails. And let me, let me just say for a minute, like if you can do list segmentation and there are tools out there like, like a HubSpot or like a ConvertKit, and they're going to have a they're going to have a little bit of cost associated with it.

00:15:33:29 - 00:15:57:44
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you may need to put that above and beyond a thing like, you know, church community builder, planning center or whatever your church management software is. But you can create list segmentation. And so you can actually send custom emails for people based on where they actually are in your church, as opposed to just sending big church blasts. Because I think that's another reason why some of our information falls on deaf ears.

00:15:57:44 - 00:16:16:58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're sending irrelevant announcements to people, but we don't know how to, make our lists smaller and more custom. Right? Like, again, in the industrial age versus the digital age and the industrial age is all about numbers. So we just need to get the most amount of people on our email list and then just blast them with this information over and over again.

00:16:17:03 - 00:16:37:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in the digital age, people want to be known for who they are as an individual. And so if we can send them customized, tailored emails that are broken down into what, marketers called lists and, segmentation of lists, that's going to, I think, perform better for you on open rates and click through rates and called actions and actually then taking those call to actions.

00:16:37:51 - 00:17:03:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But so you can use like banners on your website, you can even use printed banners, pop up banners and things like that. And nucleus actually does all of those things again for you. Okay. Now so so if it doesn't apply to greater than 50%, don't announce it. And okay. And I would say no more than two call to action zone one and two announcements.

00:17:03:05 - 00:17:25:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now again you might be like what? Like how you're trying to riot okay. Some of you you have church bulletins. You have bulletin boards like use those other means and methods. I mean, let me just say like, you know, right now we have a, high school, like, kind of retreat disciple now weekend thing coming up. We don't announce anything in store for student ministry in our main church announcement platform.

00:17:25:09 - 00:17:44:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. But right now we're we're pushing and announcing our high school weekend in there. And, you might think, like, oh, Grace, you probably have, like, a lot more traction, like, we have less traction on this event signups than anything else. And it's not because people don't know about it. It's just because it's and it's ended up kind of being a bad weekend for a lot of our students.

00:17:44:04 - 00:18:12:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, again, the publicity thing is not necessarily the issue. We don't have more people coming to our events because of it. Like, we people know about what we have going on because we use and utilize these other kind of platforms and channels to, you know, to our best vantage. Okay. Now, so all those things being said, the myth plus through hacks now the decision making grid, the last little bonus tip that I have for you is when you're sharing announcements.

00:18:12:32 - 00:18:34:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay, here's how you can here's how you can lean into inspiration and away from away from information is share stories, use footage, and use photos, especially if you have it from previous and past events. Share a story about life changing as you're doing it. I have some some videos in the back or some photos on the back scrolling.

00:18:34:16 - 00:18:55:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is a picture from last year's bunco event. And this is. This is Sally. And Sally had an amazing time and she came for the community. But she stuck around for for the life change. And now she's a part of a group and now she's serving. And as she leading bunco night. And that's why you should come to bunco night and go to our church website to sign up for this year's bunco night.

00:18:55:25 - 00:19:15:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like something like that. So much more inspiring. Then this Thursday, 6:00 bring a dip to share and all the boring information your website can handle that it does a good job of that. And people, people know to look for it and people are looking for it in that way. And so you have all these different avenues beyond just your stage.

00:19:15:16 - 00:19:36:35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So how do you maximize each individual avenue in 2025 so that it gets the message across in a way that is captivating and inspiring. And then the people in your church know about what's going on and actually move towards action of signing up for and attending your church's events. Well, I'm glad you asked because that's the next video here in this playlist.

00:19:36:40 - 00:19:50:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's going to be linked here on screen. So go ahead and tap that and we'll see you over in that video. But don't forget my friends. And as always to stay hybrid.

]]> 📊 HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
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✅ CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

======================================
DESCRIPTION
Tired of your church announcements being ignored? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, we’ll show you how to create clearer and less boring announcements using three practical hacks: reduce your CTAs, centralize next steps, and inspire over inform. Stop overwhelming your audience with noise—learn how to simplify your messaging, engage your community, and make your announcements impossible to miss.

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/138

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

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

//NUCELUS
https://www.nucleus.church

//TRANSITION STYLE VIDEOS
https://share.hsforms.com/1UrHggOX1Q3mH_A3F3f8dWwnumis

//HUBSPOT (For List Segmentation)
https://www.hubspot.com

//KIT (Formerly ConvertKit)
https://partners.kit.com/x9dbnh372pji

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
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⌚TIMECODES
00:00 Steal this Church Announcement Strategy
01:48 Myth
05:44 Hack #1
08:39 Hack #2
11:17 Hack #3
13:31 The Ultimate Church Announcement Decision Making Grid
18:09 Bonus Tip

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:19 - 00:00:01:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I want you to

00:00:01:08 - 00:00:06:55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
steal this clearer and less boring church announcement strategy.

00:00:06:55 - 00:00:21:33
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because why? Because you've been announcing your event for several weeks, maybe even months now at this point. And give me a like, if this has ever happened to you, you get that text from that student or that church member that said, when is the event again?

00:00:21:38 - 00:00:27:51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or is it too late to sign up? Or when are we supposed to be there again? And you just want to pull

00:00:28:33 - 00:00:29:51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your hair out? But like we talked

00:00:29:51 - 00:00:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
about in the

00:00:30:13 - 00:00:30:40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
last

00:00:30:40 - 00:00:41:39
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video partying on, he has this concept called inadvertent blindness. And what he's really saying with that is he says, we really only see what we're looking for.

00:00:41:44 - 00:00:42:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so in

00:00:42:09 - 00:00:42:34
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this

00:00:42:34 - 00:00:42:58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video,

00:00:42:58 - 00:01:08:50
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
how do we have clearer and less boring church announcements, ones that are actually going to, incite inspiration and not just one where you're only simply disseminating information? So in this video, what I want to do is I want to share with you the myth about church communications and church announcements. I want to share with you three hacks that will help you have clearer and better and less boring church announcements.

00:01:08:54 - 00:01:33:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm also going to share with you the ultimate church decision making grid. How do you announce what you announce so that the best and most relevant announcements are the ones that are being said from the stage and from the platform, and from the areas and the channels that you want to be saying them from. And finally, stick around to the very end of the video, because I have for you a bonus hack that may in fact change everything.

00:01:33:18 - 00:01:38:50
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as always, if you're watching here on YouTube or wherever you're listening in the podcast catcher, there are chapters

00:01:38:50 - 00:01:56:40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
listed down below so that you can jump ahead to the areas of the video that make the most sense to you. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. So what's the myth? Okay, the myth is this. The myth is that people don't come to your church function, your church thing.

00:01:56:44 - 00:02:24:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We assume that they're not coming to the thing because they don't know about the thing. And so therefore, what do we do? We share more information about the thing. Oh, well, it's actually at seven and we're going to have this and we're going to put it in the fellowship hall, like, and we just give them more and more boring details about it, assuming that those boring details about it are going to be what's going to help them overcome their in in the action and misinformation and get them to that event.

00:02:24:17 - 00:02:41:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's not why they're not coming. They're not coming because they don't care about it. They're not coming because they're busy and they have a schedule conflict. They're not coming because your thing is not the most important thing in their life. Sorry. Like, I hate like I'm not trying to be rude, and I'm not trying to say that to you in a way that's demeaning.

00:02:41:17 - 00:03:16:35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like, your thing is not as important as you think your thing is. And so the reason why people don't come to church events is not because they're missing information. But as we talked about in the last episode, credit to Brady Shear for this analogy is we got to start thinking more like movie trailers, right? So a movie trailer moves people towards inspiration, and they try to incite curiosity in such a way that when they see that movie trailer, they're like, I have to go and they'll move heaven and earth and they'll find the tickets and they'll find the theater, and they'll get to that event of their own accord.

00:03:16:39 - 00:03:36:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our church events. First of all, we're not able to compete in a lot of times with movie trailers. Like I get it right, but we we result and we, you know, get our church announcements to a spot where we think we just need to share more information. What time, what date. And like those are really boring church announcements.

00:03:36:23 - 00:03:57:55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the more information that you share in that church announcement, again, we're assuming the myth is we're assuming they don't have enough information, so we'll just give them more information, when in fact, what you actually need to do is you need to inspire them. You need to move them to action through inspiration, through storytelling, through captivation of their senses and their imagination.

00:03:57:55 - 00:04:18:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you're like, dude, I'm a youth pastor. I'm a church secretary, I'm a senior pastor. I can't do any of that. And like, I get it, these are not skills that we often refine or hone in on our own. They're not disciplines that that we have maybe necessarily been been, you know, given or taught in like a seminary degree or whatever the case may be.

00:04:18:22 - 00:04:42:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this world with over information and with this noisy world, like, that's what we're competing. See, so like this, these, this myth. Right? This myth is the reason why, posting your announcements to social media is a bad idea because, again, this myth helps us think, oh, we need to put this information out there on the internet.

00:04:42:25 - 00:04:58:40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We need to let them know when and where and how much dice to bring to the bunker. And I and which fellowship hall we're going to be in, like people again, they're not getting on social media for more information for information download. And if they are, I'm going to tell you where you should put that information because you should include it.

00:04:58:40 - 00:05:18:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. But and we'll get to that in a second. But they're not getting on social for that. They're getting a social once again for in from Earth, not for information for inspiration and and maybe even for some humor and maybe for some entertainment. And so that's actually what I sort of push towards in my free strategy guide, which is going to be link down below.

00:05:18:26 - 00:05:39:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you haven't grabbed it, go ahead and grab it. It is, like I said, it's completely free, but it'll help lay out in detail what I do to kind of live this hybrid version of ministry and what I do on social media. But if that's not what they're looking for, and if our announcements are chock full of too much information and not enough inspiration, then what should we do instead?

00:05:39:29 - 00:06:03:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm glad you asked. That's where these three hacks are going to come in. Okay, so hack number one is reduce your CTAs, CTAs is an acronym. And it sure. It's a marketing word for reduce your calls to action. So a call to action is what you're actually asking someone to do as a result of the information. You have a bunco night.

00:06:03:36 - 00:06:27:42
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you want them to sign up for the bunco night, right. But oftentimes we're stacking multiple call to actions. Okay. So in an announcement moment in your church, we often get up there and everyone gets an opportunity that the kids in the youth and the women and the men's and then the whole church picnic, and there's just there's too many different things.

00:06:27:42 - 00:07:02:56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, too much thing, too many things that can cause somebody brain to get overwhelmed, psychologically speaking. And therefore, instead of promoting action, it does the exact opposite. It causes paralysis and it promotes inaction. In fact, Simon Sinek, he shared this story of the salesman who was a shoe salesman, and the shoe salesman said he learned the key to selling shoes, and the key to selling shoes was anytime he would have, a person trying on shoes and he had three shoe options, they would always say no.

00:07:03:01 - 00:07:17:56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But when he reduced it to simply just two options, right? Reducing the call to actions when he would reduce it down to just two options. And so if they had three, he would and they're like, they had two. And they're like, let me see this pair. He would say, which one of these do you want me to take away?

00:07:18:01 - 00:07:36:32
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They would remove one. He would take one away. And then that he'd bring the new pair in, and then there would be two new sets of shoes. And then he would say, which of these do you want, A or B, as opposed to which of these you want A, B or C? And he said when he had two options, he always sold.

00:07:36:32 - 00:08:02:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When he had three they would walk away. And so the same is true in our church announcements. You your assumption and it's a faulty one. But your assumption now hates it is that the more you offer on the stage, the the better it's going to be for your church and for your people. And let's be honest, if you work on a church staff, there's the pressure of getting everyone's announcement equal airtime.

00:08:02:16 - 00:08:20:35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so again, we're going to talk about the decision making grid of how you come to those decisions. But you need to reduce your call to actions on your stage. What do you really want the people in your auditorium in your service? What do you really want them to do? And everything else? We're going to find another way.

00:08:20:39 - 00:08:39:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're going to find another avenue to promote it. And you might be thinking, yeah, but you just told me, I can't put that on social. And you're right. I did say that again. We'll get to it. But reduce your calls to action. And then within that okay. So reduce the number of announcements that you're sharing. But within that simplify see where they go.

00:08:39:17 - 00:09:06:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Which leads me to my second hack. Centralize everything on your website. And now you might be thinking and even assuming that you're doing that. But again credit to Brady Scheer of that pro church tools, his announcement strategy, his church website strategy, and his church website builder, which if you don't have a good church website and you want one that's good and actually easy to put together, I recommend nucleus Dot church.

00:09:06:06 - 00:09:29:56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
His whole goal with it is to get everyone to the same centralized location. And so when you give an announcement, then people are and an announcement that's inspiring. And that one that's chock full of information. So a good announcement about a, you know, story of life change at the last women's bunco night and then someone sitting there like, I need to get to the bunco night.

00:09:29:56 - 00:09:51:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But when is it? Where is it? Like they go to the website, and the website has all of the information that they're looking for. Your announcements will be better if your website can supply them with the information that they're looking for. Because again, like I said in the last video, which is linked right up here at the top of the screen, if you're watching here on YouTube, I so we operate in a cable TV mentality.

00:09:51:29 - 00:10:22:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In order to come to the bunker, you need all this information. You need the when, the where, the why, the what, but in what. People aren't living mindset wise that way they're living in a Netflix culture. And so they're like, oh, my church has a bunco night. When is that again? And they're thinking about that, on a Thursday at 4 p.m. and so on a Thursday at 4 p.m., they need to be able to go to your church website and get all the information that they're looking for, as opposed to relying on you in the moment on Sunday to get to church.

00:10:22:27 - 00:10:45:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Bunco night information, which they're not interested in at that moment, but they may be interested later. And so you if you catch them and hook them with inspiration, they'll want to go and then later in this Netflix culture, they'll go on demand and they'll go get it on your church website, which if you're hearing this and you're like, wow, okay, so we need to overhaul our church website.

00:10:45:27 - 00:11:05:56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That may be the case. And you may be right. And you know what? I can offer that for you. I have a service called Church Communications done for you. You don't have enough time to kind of overhaul your social media strategy on your church website. I would encourage you to take a look at the link below. I'd love to offer that to you, and we can explore what that might look like for us to walk into a partnership together.

00:11:05:56 - 00:11:39:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because I want you to win, and I want more people to come to your church bunco night. But again, the third hack then, is, as we've been talking about, kind of in this whole video, right? Aim to inspire over inform, aim to inspire over and form a sort of been the basis of this whole video. But once again, and here I want to point out like here's what the dictionary.com definition of inspires, really, it's to fill someone with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

00:11:39:21 - 00:12:07:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And so a video, if you're watching here on YouTube, like this is one of my transition style videos that we do for social media. Might not seem inspiring to you, right? However, imagine a person stumbling upon it on social media because they can stumble upon your videos like this on social media. Which of these do you think performs better, this video or this standard static announcement graphic that you cooked up in Canva?

00:12:07:17 - 00:12:33:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Which is why down below I have my social transition video pack, the ones that I recommend. I have six of those plus six cap cut meme style videos. Go ahead, download those and then start using and posting those on your social media, because this video is using the medium for what it's made for. And it may not be like inspiring, but it's entertaining and it gets it still gets the message across.

00:12:34:00 - 00:13:08:51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
While your other one, yeah, it gives all the information, but this other one, it inspires, it promotes action. It may, you know, cause people to share it. It may be entertaining, it may cause them to laugh. And then as a result of that, like when there's a bunco night, let me go find that out. And then they head over to your church website, which is built, you know, comes done for you or you build it on your own and it has all of the relevant and pertinent information you're using now, the the broadcast channels and the platforms for what they're made for, as opposed to just simply, crushing it and pounding information down

00:13:08:56 - 00:13:33:45
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
through people's channels. Because remember, the myth that we all believe is that they just need more information. But the fact is, it's not exactly it. We need to optimize our our communications in the channels that we find ourselves so that they lean into what those channels are built for and made for. So now this leads me to the ultimate church announcement decision making grid.

00:13:33:57 - 00:13:56:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. And so the question that I want you to ask yourself when you're considering putting an announcement up on the church platform, up on the church stage, is does this announcement apply to greater than 50% of the people in the room? If not, find another way. Now you might be thinking like, but I got to keep the men's ministry happy in the women's ministry happy.

00:13:56:01 - 00:14:23:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And and I will say, when you institute this church decision making, the search announcement, decision making grid. Yes. At first you are going to have some unhappy people, especially if you've been announcing everything. Okay. However, once you institute this as a policy, when someone asks you to announce such and such thing, you can say, I'm sorry, we actually only do this and you got to still be people over process in this, okay?

00:14:23:42 - 00:14:49:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But let the policy point to the policy and let the policy be the bad guy. But the reason that your announcements aren't captivating enough people is because you're getting up and you're announcing something that only pertains to 10 to 15% of the people in your population or in your congregation. And so you might be thinking like, okay, yeah, but the, the platform, the, the stage, that's the only time that we have to announce anything.

00:14:49:23 - 00:15:12:54
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So what I recommend is 50% or more okay. And then if not find another way. And so you might be thinking well what are some other ways. So here's not an exhaustive list but just a list kind of get your brain going. So you could do social media right. And if it's like an outsider event, you might even consider, doing some advertising and putting some some dollars behind like a Facebook or an Instagram ad.

00:15:12:58 - 00:15:33:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Your website is a fantastic spot to advertise things. Text messaging, emails. And let me, let me just say for a minute, like if you can do list segmentation and there are tools out there like, like a HubSpot or like a ConvertKit, and they're going to have a they're going to have a little bit of cost associated with it.

00:15:33:29 - 00:15:57:44
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you may need to put that above and beyond a thing like, you know, church community builder, planning center or whatever your church management software is. But you can create list segmentation. And so you can actually send custom emails for people based on where they actually are in your church, as opposed to just sending big church blasts. Because I think that's another reason why some of our information falls on deaf ears.

00:15:57:44 - 00:16:16:58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're sending irrelevant announcements to people, but we don't know how to, make our lists smaller and more custom. Right? Like, again, in the industrial age versus the digital age and the industrial age is all about numbers. So we just need to get the most amount of people on our email list and then just blast them with this information over and over again.

00:16:17:03 - 00:16:37:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in the digital age, people want to be known for who they are as an individual. And so if we can send them customized, tailored emails that are broken down into what, marketers called lists and, segmentation of lists, that's going to, I think, perform better for you on open rates and click through rates and called actions and actually then taking those call to actions.

00:16:37:51 - 00:17:03:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But so you can use like banners on your website, you can even use printed banners, pop up banners and things like that. And nucleus actually does all of those things again for you. Okay. Now so so if it doesn't apply to greater than 50%, don't announce it. And okay. And I would say no more than two call to action zone one and two announcements.

00:17:03:05 - 00:17:25:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now again you might be like what? Like how you're trying to riot okay. Some of you you have church bulletins. You have bulletin boards like use those other means and methods. I mean, let me just say like, you know, right now we have a, high school, like, kind of retreat disciple now weekend thing coming up. We don't announce anything in store for student ministry in our main church announcement platform.

00:17:25:09 - 00:17:44:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. But right now we're we're pushing and announcing our high school weekend in there. And, you might think, like, oh, Grace, you probably have, like, a lot more traction, like, we have less traction on this event signups than anything else. And it's not because people don't know about it. It's just because it's and it's ended up kind of being a bad weekend for a lot of our students.

00:17:44:04 - 00:18:12:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, again, the publicity thing is not necessarily the issue. We don't have more people coming to our events because of it. Like, we people know about what we have going on because we use and utilize these other kind of platforms and channels to, you know, to our best vantage. Okay. Now, so all those things being said, the myth plus through hacks now the decision making grid, the last little bonus tip that I have for you is when you're sharing announcements.

00:18:12:32 - 00:18:34:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay, here's how you can here's how you can lean into inspiration and away from away from information is share stories, use footage, and use photos, especially if you have it from previous and past events. Share a story about life changing as you're doing it. I have some some videos in the back or some photos on the back scrolling.

00:18:34:16 - 00:18:55:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is a picture from last year's bunco event. And this is. This is Sally. And Sally had an amazing time and she came for the community. But she stuck around for for the life change. And now she's a part of a group and now she's serving. And as she leading bunco night. And that's why you should come to bunco night and go to our church website to sign up for this year's bunco night.

00:18:55:25 - 00:19:15:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like something like that. So much more inspiring. Then this Thursday, 6:00 bring a dip to share and all the boring information your website can handle that it does a good job of that. And people, people know to look for it and people are looking for it in that way. And so you have all these different avenues beyond just your stage.

00:19:15:16 - 00:19:36:35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So how do you maximize each individual avenue in 2025 so that it gets the message across in a way that is captivating and inspiring. And then the people in your church know about what's going on and actually move towards action of signing up for and attending your church's events. Well, I'm glad you asked because that's the next video here in this playlist.

00:19:36:40 - 00:19:50:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's going to be linked here on screen. So go ahead and tap that and we'll see you over in that video. But don't forget my friends. And as always to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 137: 3 Reasons Your Announcements Aren’t Working https://www.hybridministry.xyz/137 554633e9-5d61-49a8-8efd-cc3fca04414f Thu, 20 Feb 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 137 3 Reasons Your Announcements Aren’t Working full Nick Clason Ever feel like no one’s listening to your church announcements? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason dives into the common pitfalls of church announcements, revealing three reasons why they’re not working—and offering actionable solutions to fix them. From battling “inattentional blindness” to cutting through the noise of a digital world, this episode will help you craft announcements that inspire life transformation, not just attendance. 17:54 no 📊 HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ✅ CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms ====================================== DESCRIPTION Ever feel like no one’s listening to your church announcements? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason dives into the common pitfalls of church announcements, revealing three reasons why they’re not working—and offering actionable solutions to fix them. From battling “inattentional blindness” to cutting through the noise of a digital world, this episode will help you craft announcements that inspire life transformation, not just attendance. 📓 SHOWNOTES http://www.hybridministry.xyz/137 SOLUTIONS 1) HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 2) CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 3) STEAL THIS ANNOUNCEMENT STRATEGY [VIDEO LINK] //I CREATED THIS VIDEO SO YOU WOULDN’T HAVE TO HIRE ME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OHWZFZHvaA&amp;t=19s //NUCLEUS https://www.nucleus.church //VIDEO OF TIME SPENT ONLINE https://www.instagram.com/reel/DD5zLeTMitb/?igsh=MTlpMHR5c2I5Yzl5bw== 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 &amp; 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 Nobody Knows What's Going on! 01:40 The Problem 03:58 The Goal 07:43 Reason #1 11:56 Reason #2 17:09 Reason #3 -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Do you ever feel 00:00:01:23 - 00:00:02:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry like 00:00:02:19 - 00:00:07:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry knows what's going on at your church? Like 00:00:07:00 - 00:00:14:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry you feel like nobody is ever really listened to you when you're giving the announcements? 00:00:14:04 - 00:00:16:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well, in this episode I want to talk about is the 00:00:16:20 - 00:00:28:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry problem with most church and youth ministry announcements. So if you're a youth pastor person in church communication to pastor, this will help increase 00:00:28:03 - 00:00:31:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and uptake your engagement around announcements. 00:00:31:02 - 00:00:42:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I want to talk about the ultimate goal with all church announcements. And finally, stick around because I'm going to share with you three reasons that your church announcements may not be 00:00:42:11 - 00:00:47:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry going as well as you think. Plus, one solution for each of those 00:00:47:11 - 00:00:47:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry reasons, 00:00:47:22 - 00:00:50:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry including a concept called 00:00:50:04 - 00:00:55:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry inadvertent blindness. We're going to dive into that. And I have a free 00:00:55:04 - 00:01:00:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry resource that I think can absolutely change the game for you. 00:01:00:14 - 00:01:00:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I 00:01:00:19 - 00:01:01:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry think part 00:01:01:06 - 00:01:13:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry of our problem here in 2025, in churches in North America, or let's just be honest around the world, is that we need to stop acting as churches. Look, we're in the 1990s 00:01:13:08 - 00:01:17:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and stop making boring announcements. 00:01:17:21 - 00:01:35:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Give me a like, if you've heard the stat that we as humans have a shorter attention span now than goldfish, if that's the case, then we definitely have to figure something out, because you have some great things going on at your church, and if people don't know about it, they can't get to them. 00:01:35:04 - 00:02:03:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Let's talk about it. Welcome, my friends, to the hybrid minstrel show. So what is our problem? Our ultimate problem with bad church announcements is that nobody is showing up or that, like, nobody even knows about what we have going on. I actually, I did a video, a while back called Youth Pastor or Event Coordinator. It's going to be linked right up here at the top of the screen if you're watching here on YouTube. 00:02:03:00 - 00:02:05:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But one of the things I've learned in my 14 00:02:05:07 - 00:02:25:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry years of youth ministry experience is that attendance and, just people simply showing up. That's a really important factor to planning a good event. You can have an awesome event, but if you don't have people there, it's going to be a problem. And part of people getting there is knowing that the event is happening and understanding, knowing, hearing. 00:02:25:12 - 00:02:57:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you know, like realizing that you're giving a church announcement that requires action out of them. And the video I explore this kind of tension, right? That many of us in ministry, church ministry, like, regardless of if you're in youth ministry or not, we feel about our jobs and it's this it's right. Is are we meant to be doing what we're doing to ultimately make disciples, or are we doing what we're doing to plan killer events? 00:02:57:21 - 00:03:23:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And sometimes, if you're anything like me, let's just be honest. It feels like we are our job. Like it has morphed much more into an event planner and I don't know about you, but that's not exactly why I got into youth ministry. Right? But the problem, right, that's the problem with our church announcements, is because we have an event and we want people to get to it. 00:03:23:16 - 00:03:50:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Poor attendance is the problem with bad church announcements. Okay. And so if attendance is our issue, if that's the baked in assumptions, that's the baked in desire. And when we say, nobody knows what's going on, it's because nobody is attending our events. That is the no. But that's who that is coming from. So let's take a step back then. 00:03:50:05 - 00:03:59:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Even more right than just the event, then just the good or not so good church announcement and ask ourselves, like, what is our 00:03:59:05 - 00:04:12:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry goal around this event? What is our goal by giving this announcement? All right, so our goal just like the problem or the opposite, the problem, our goal is to get more people 00:04:12:22 - 00:04:14:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry aware of and more people 00:04:14:05 - 00:04:20:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry to know about the thing, the event, the Bible study, the workshop, like whatever it is. 00:04:20:22 - 00:04:21:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. 00:04:21:15 - 00:04:28:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Is that the goal? No, it's not our goal. At least not ultimately, 00:04:28:17 - 00:04:29:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry at 00:04:29:01 - 00:04:29:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry least not 00:04:29:09 - 00:04:53:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry the meta goal. Right? Attendance is not necessary is really the goal in and of itself. But like I said, when we feel like event coordinators, it can feel like the goal, the goal in church ministry, the goal with all of your events, ultimately, the reason you're even having such and such event 00:04:53:19 - 00:04:54:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry is 00:04:54:05 - 00:04:56:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry life transformation. 00:04:56:21 - 00:05:28:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Give me a subscribe if you agree with that statement. Life transformation is the ultimate goal, not attendance. It certainly helps having people there at your event because if they're not there, how can their lives be transformed? So I'll give you that. But we have to stop making a Tennessee Ultimate goal. I have to start realizing that we're really trying to be in the business about life transformation, which is done and led down the path through disciple making. 00:05:28:17 - 00:06:08:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you have to remember that prior to the digital era, attendance was the means to accomplish that life transformation. But we live now in the digital era, and so we can reach people and we can, disseminate a message through much more efficient and effective means. Now, with cell phones and technology and podcasts and YouTube videos and social media and fill in whatever blank you want to write, you got to realize that it's getting people in the room was originally that goal towards life transformation, but that's not exactly the era that we're living in. 00:06:08:08 - 00:06:19:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So what is the goal? If the goal is life transformation, how can we accomplish that? And also, how can we accomplish that in the new digital 00:06:19:05 - 00:06:19:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry era? Right. 00:06:19:16 - 00:06:20:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Churches 00:06:20:01 - 00:06:34:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry like I referenced it in the intro, churches are operating like it's the 1990s. And here's what I mean by that. In the 1990s, if you want to do watch Seinfeld, you had to catch it live on NBC the night that it aired and debuted. 00:06:34:20 - 00:06:49:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if you didn't, then you better hope that you have a good DVR, which I don't even know if those are existed in the 90s. And then if you didn't have that, then tough luck. Mean you're going to have to catch that sucker on syndication when it comes out in the summer. 00:06:50:05 - 00:06:59:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Compare that to the drop of Stranger Things season two, where my wife and I, pretty children watched the entire season on 00:06:59:14 - 00:07:00:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry a Saturday, right? 00:07:01:04 - 00:07:06:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like it's just a completely different mindset and framework. We live in a 00:07:06:07 - 00:07:26:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Netflix culture, not a cable TV culture, and so people when you have information, they're operating under the guise of it being Netflix, but we're treating it like cable TV, like we said, this thing I'm going to share with you the key to life. Feel like cool, tell me where to find it. 00:07:26:00 - 00:07:34:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you're like, Sunday at 10:00, so only time to find it. That that's a huge cultural disconnect. 00:07:34:06 - 00:07:43:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So I have a few ideas of three different problems and a solution for each of the problem. Let's dive in. 00:07:43:10 - 00:07:57:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So one of the reasons that I think our church announcements can tend to be failing is this. This first concept here, I think, is just that we live in a culture with an oversaturation of noise. 00:07:57:01 - 00:08:20:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, there's so much noise around us. There's so much and so many things that are just simply vying for our attention. And so we as a church, we two are vying for people's attention, piling on, on, Karen, you have a podcast called Inadvertent Blindness. And what he said, he said, really? We really only see what we're looking for. 00:08:21:03 - 00:08:21:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And 00:08:21:13 - 00:08:41:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry so the fact is, if people aren't looking for your church thing, again, that Netflix versus cable TV, if they're not looking for it, like, oh, I heard there was a retreat. So I'm going on the website to find the answer to it. Right? As opposed to us who we're like, we're dishing it out. We're like, well, we announced it on Sunday. 00:08:41:05 - 00:09:01:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They weren't looking for it on Sunday. Right? It's that oversaturation of noise, inadvertent blindness. Right. So if you think about some of the noises in the world, I shared this a couple videos back. I'll share it again here. It's going to be linked on screen. If you're watching on YouTube to have you take a look. If you're in a podcast catcher, you can scroll down and click the link to our YouTube video. 00:09:01:04 - 00:09:26:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Love to have you over there. Give us a like you show it. But, show up over there. But this video here talks about how we spend our time, especially spending our time online and the online amount of time like that. We as as people, sociology, have spent time on phones and on devices has skyrocketed compared to some of the time prior to the invention of tech. 00:09:26:14 - 00:09:47:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Which, let's just be honest, it's not necessarily a surprise, but it is like it is a like factor that we have to deal with, right? In today's day and age. In 2025, people that don't know what's going on, it's probably because there's so much to pay attention to. So 00:09:47:15 - 00:09:56:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry my proposal, right, my solution is get my free hybrid strategy guide. 00:09:56:21 - 00:10:26:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's linked down below in the show notes. And the reason why that's important is because that will help you shift in some areas from a cable TV culture, where the only time that people can hear you hear the message of Jesus, hear your announcements, whatever the case may be to more of a Netflix culture and it just it encourages you to show up where people are spending their time, which is on social media. 00:10:26:14 - 00:10:46:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. Give me a segue. Right. If you've ever heard or thought this before, like, hey, we need to get the word out, let's blitz our social channels. And if all you're ever doing is blitzing your social channels with getting the word out, then you're just turning your social channels into an announcement bulletin board. And that's not what those were made for. 00:10:46:04 - 00:11:07:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you're going to have a less effective reach on those social channels because you're not using them what they were made for. Instead, send an announcement out via like a push notification, a text message, or even like update it on the calendar, right? And like and like what we do is like we encourage our parents, our students to just like, subscribe to our Google Calendar. 00:11:07:05 - 00:11:15:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so something changes. It changes on our end. It'll change on their end if they're subscribed to it in their where in their calendar, 00:11:15:02 - 00:11:27:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry which is what, like an event. That's where an event is meant to be inside a calendar, but not just on your church calendar, on your church website that you want people to go to so that they know about your event. 00:11:27:18 - 00:11:29:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You want it to somehow get to their 00:11:29:10 - 00:11:56:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry personal calendar. That's how people live their lives through their calendars. So use the things that are meant to be used for the purposes that they're made for. And you use social media for the purposes that it's made. For my hybrid strategy, God will help you knock social media out of the park and become more hybrid with some of your messages and other, channels and usages on social media. 00:11:56:12 - 00:12:20:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So the second reason that I believe that some of our church announcements are falling flat is because we as churches are living in a cable TV mentality versus a Netflix or an on demand mentality. Or like, you understand, we've been talking about that in this video. The person who, I think has helped navigate that best for churches is, Brady Scheer up at Pro Church Tools. 00:12:20:14 - 00:12:42:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And, he has a website builder called nucleus. And now, whether you use his website builder or not, and if you don't really have experience building websites, then I 100% recommend nucleus because it's a church, website builder for churches and by church like people. And so you don't have to have a ton of like, website skills to make it happen. 00:12:42:18 - 00:13:02:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like a noob like me can build a website using nucleus. But more than that, like what I want you to understand is that his concept behind it being nucleus is that every church announcement is done on the website. And so as opposed to like you getting up on the stage and 00:13:02:11 - 00:13:02:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry saying, 00:13:02:23 - 00:13:03:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry if you 00:13:03:07 - 00:13:07:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry want like information about bunco night talk to do your aunt Sally. 00:13:07:08 - 00:13:25:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if you want information about the youth retreat, talk to youth pastor Ryan. And if you want to give, you can give via, our website. You can do text to give. You can scan this QR code for Venmo. We have Apple Pay, we have Google Pay. And, if you want to know about the prayer meeting, email Chuck. 00:13:26:02 - 00:13:35:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Chuck at our church.com and the kids ministry has a big camp out thing coming up. Swing by and grab a flier in the lobby 00:13:35:18 - 00:13:36:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry like 00:13:36:04 - 00:13:36:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry there 00:13:36:14 - 00:13:50:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry were five different call to actions in that, right? There's Sally, there's the youth pastor. There's any different amalgamation of giving opportunities. There's emailing, and then there's a flier. And he said, 00:13:50:00 - 00:13:55:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry make your nucleus, make your church website, your one stop shop. 00:13:55:19 - 00:14:12:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I created a video. I'll link it down below. A couple weeks back. And the video is literally titled, I created this video so that you don't have to hire me. And in it, I talk about my three step strategy guide, which you'll get some of that in my hybrid ministry, strategy guide if you download that from earlier. 00:14:12:17 - 00:14:41:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But in the video, the three step strategy is step number one update and keep your website up to date. Your website should be a reliable one stop shop for everybody, and one of the ways to make your announcements better is to have the support of your website behind it. And so like for example, Brady uses this example all the time, like a trailer for a movie. 00:14:41:11 - 00:15:08:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry When you go to the theater, you're not like sitting there watching a trailer to a movie that you can't wait to see. And it ends with them being like, now on November 27th, it's going to be showing at 11, 1131, 115, 230. And that's going to be in theaters six theaters, seven is going to have at 315. Like, no, that's boring, but that's what we do as churches, right? 00:15:08:16 - 00:15:31:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Bunco night. Here's all the details in the fellowship hall. Bring a dip to share. It's going to be on November 27th. It's going to be at 730. If you don't have any dice, make sure you contact your aunt Sally and she'll bring you an extra pair of dice. That's boring. And so we're trying to take information and make that be the thing that captures people, people's attention. 00:15:31:18 - 00:15:52:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you know as well as I, especially for Chinese social media for that that's not what social is used for. Best, you're not going to get them hooked them with the information. And so what do we do to capture their attention? So a movie trailer is just like, you know, it like makes you like fall in love with the idea of this movie wicked. 00:15:52:09 - 00:16:12:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then when it comes out, what do you do? You go discover when it's playing. You go to the website, you figure out how to get the tickets, you wanted to do it first, and then that promoted you to action in church. We give all the information and hope that that's going to promote people to action, and it has the opposite effect. 00:16:12:12 - 00:16:38:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so if you back up your church announcements with a good website, that's always up to date, you can get on stage and make your announcements good closer to like a movie trailer. Esq knowing that your website is going to answer the questions that people are looking for. So my solution to this cable TV versus on demand world is I have a resource. 00:16:38:16 - 00:17:01:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I have a service called communications for you. It's where I will run your church communications. I will make your website. I'll keep it up to date. I can even help promote and manage some of your socials, and so you can explore more of what that looks like in the link down below. But I'm sure as I'm explaining, like you, you have a good website and all these things, you're like, that sounds great, I don't have time. 00:17:02:01 - 00:17:04:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I can make your announcements better by keeping 00:17:04:20 - 00:17:30:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry your website behind you. Good, clean and up to date. And then reason number three is very simply, your announcements are just boring. Like they're just boring. And what I have for you is an announcement strategy that I want to encourage you to start steeling for better, more crisp and clearer church announcements. 00:17:30:16 - 00:17:31:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And 00:17:31:02 - 00:17:34:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry that is going to be linked on the video in the very 00:17:34:12 - 00:17:47:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry next, video, in this, playlist and in this series. And so that's going to be right here on screen. If you see that, go ahead and tap on in so that you can get better and less boring church announcements. We'll see you over there in that video. 00:17:47:20 - 00:17:52:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And don't forget my friends as always to stay hybrid. hybrid ministry, nick clason, youth ministry strategy, youth ministry coach, student ministry, church communication tips, ministry communication, noisy world communication, clear church messaging, church social media tips, youth ministry communication, creative church communication, effective ministry communication, digital church strategies, church engagement, ministry outreach, communication tips for churches, simplifying messages, ministry social media strategy, hybrid ministry podcast, church growth tips, two-way communication, engaging church content, digital discipleship 📊 HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
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DESCRIPTION
Ever feel like no one’s listening to your church announcements? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason dives into the common pitfalls of church announcements, revealing three reasons why they’re not working—and offering actionable solutions to fix them. From battling “inattentional blindness” to cutting through the noise of a digital world, this episode will help you craft announcements that inspire life transformation, not just attendance.

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⌚TIMECODES
00:00 Nobody Knows What's Going on!
01:40 The Problem
03:58 The Goal
07:43 Reason #1
11:56 Reason #2
17:09 Reason #3

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Do you ever feel

00:00:01:23 - 00:00:02:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like

00:00:02:19 - 00:00:07:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
knows what's going on at your church? Like

00:00:07:00 - 00:00:14:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you feel like nobody is ever really listened to you when you're giving the announcements?

00:00:14:04 - 00:00:16:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, in this episode I want to talk about is the

00:00:16:20 - 00:00:28:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
problem with most church and youth ministry announcements. So if you're a youth pastor person in church communication to pastor, this will help increase

00:00:28:03 - 00:00:31:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and uptake your engagement around announcements.

00:00:31:02 - 00:00:42:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I want to talk about the ultimate goal with all church announcements. And finally, stick around because I'm going to share with you three reasons that your church announcements may not be

00:00:42:11 - 00:00:47:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
going as well as you think. Plus, one solution for each of those

00:00:47:11 - 00:00:47:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
reasons,

00:00:47:22 - 00:00:50:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
including a concept called

00:00:50:04 - 00:00:55:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
inadvertent blindness. We're going to dive into that. And I have a free

00:00:55:04 - 00:01:00:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
resource that I think can absolutely change the game for you.

00:01:00:14 - 00:01:00:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I

00:01:00:19 - 00:01:01:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
think part

00:01:01:06 - 00:01:13:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of our problem here in 2025, in churches in North America, or let's just be honest around the world, is that we need to stop acting as churches. Look, we're in the 1990s

00:01:13:08 - 00:01:17:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and stop making boring announcements.

00:01:17:21 - 00:01:35:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give me a like, if you've heard the stat that we as humans have a shorter attention span now than goldfish, if that's the case, then we definitely have to figure something out, because you have some great things going on at your church, and if people don't know about it, they can't get to them.

00:01:35:04 - 00:02:03:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's talk about it. Welcome, my friends, to the hybrid minstrel show. So what is our problem? Our ultimate problem with bad church announcements is that nobody is showing up or that, like, nobody even knows about what we have going on. I actually, I did a video, a while back called Youth Pastor or Event Coordinator. It's going to be linked right up here at the top of the screen if you're watching here on YouTube.

00:02:03:00 - 00:02:05:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But one of the things I've learned in my 14

00:02:05:07 - 00:02:25:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
years of youth ministry experience is that attendance and, just people simply showing up. That's a really important factor to planning a good event. You can have an awesome event, but if you don't have people there, it's going to be a problem. And part of people getting there is knowing that the event is happening and understanding, knowing, hearing.

00:02:25:12 - 00:02:57:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you know, like realizing that you're giving a church announcement that requires action out of them. And the video I explore this kind of tension, right? That many of us in ministry, church ministry, like, regardless of if you're in youth ministry or not, we feel about our jobs and it's this it's right. Is are we meant to be doing what we're doing to ultimately make disciples, or are we doing what we're doing to plan killer events?

00:02:57:21 - 00:03:23:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And sometimes, if you're anything like me, let's just be honest. It feels like we are our job. Like it has morphed much more into an event planner and I don't know about you, but that's not exactly why I got into youth ministry. Right? But the problem, right, that's the problem with our church announcements, is because we have an event and we want people to get to it.

00:03:23:16 - 00:03:50:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Poor attendance is the problem with bad church announcements. Okay. And so if attendance is our issue, if that's the baked in assumptions, that's the baked in desire. And when we say, nobody knows what's going on, it's because nobody is attending our events. That is the no. But that's who that is coming from. So let's take a step back then.

00:03:50:05 - 00:03:59:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Even more right than just the event, then just the good or not so good church announcement and ask ourselves, like, what is our

00:03:59:05 - 00:04:12:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
goal around this event? What is our goal by giving this announcement? All right, so our goal just like the problem or the opposite, the problem, our goal is to get more people

00:04:12:22 - 00:04:14:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
aware of and more people

00:04:14:05 - 00:04:20:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to know about the thing, the event, the Bible study, the workshop, like whatever it is.

00:04:20:22 - 00:04:21:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right.

00:04:21:15 - 00:04:28:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Is that the goal? No, it's not our goal. At least not ultimately,

00:04:28:17 - 00:04:29:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
at

00:04:29:01 - 00:04:29:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
least not

00:04:29:09 - 00:04:53:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the meta goal. Right? Attendance is not necessary is really the goal in and of itself. But like I said, when we feel like event coordinators, it can feel like the goal, the goal in church ministry, the goal with all of your events, ultimately, the reason you're even having such and such event

00:04:53:19 - 00:04:54:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is

00:04:54:05 - 00:04:56:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
life transformation.

00:04:56:21 - 00:05:28:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give me a subscribe if you agree with that statement. Life transformation is the ultimate goal, not attendance. It certainly helps having people there at your event because if they're not there, how can their lives be transformed? So I'll give you that. But we have to stop making a Tennessee Ultimate goal. I have to start realizing that we're really trying to be in the business about life transformation, which is done and led down the path through disciple making.

00:05:28:17 - 00:06:08:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you have to remember that prior to the digital era, attendance was the means to accomplish that life transformation. But we live now in the digital era, and so we can reach people and we can, disseminate a message through much more efficient and effective means. Now, with cell phones and technology and podcasts and YouTube videos and social media and fill in whatever blank you want to write, you got to realize that it's getting people in the room was originally that goal towards life transformation, but that's not exactly the era that we're living in.

00:06:08:08 - 00:06:19:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So what is the goal? If the goal is life transformation, how can we accomplish that? And also, how can we accomplish that in the new digital

00:06:19:05 - 00:06:19:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
era? Right.

00:06:19:16 - 00:06:20:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Churches

00:06:20:01 - 00:06:34:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like I referenced it in the intro, churches are operating like it's the 1990s. And here's what I mean by that. In the 1990s, if you want to do watch Seinfeld, you had to catch it live on NBC the night that it aired and debuted.

00:06:34:20 - 00:06:49:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you didn't, then you better hope that you have a good DVR, which I don't even know if those are existed in the 90s. And then if you didn't have that, then tough luck. Mean you're going to have to catch that sucker on syndication when it comes out in the summer.

00:06:50:05 - 00:06:59:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Compare that to the drop of Stranger Things season two, where my wife and I, pretty children watched the entire season on

00:06:59:14 - 00:07:00:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a Saturday, right?

00:07:01:04 - 00:07:06:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like it's just a completely different mindset and framework. We live in a

00:07:06:07 - 00:07:26:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Netflix culture, not a cable TV culture, and so people when you have information, they're operating under the guise of it being Netflix, but we're treating it like cable TV, like we said, this thing I'm going to share with you the key to life. Feel like cool, tell me where to find it.

00:07:26:00 - 00:07:34:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you're like, Sunday at 10:00, so only time to find it. That that's a huge cultural disconnect.

00:07:34:06 - 00:07:43:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I have a few ideas of three different problems and a solution for each of the problem. Let's dive in.

00:07:43:10 - 00:07:57:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So one of the reasons that I think our church announcements can tend to be failing is this. This first concept here, I think, is just that we live in a culture with an oversaturation of noise.

00:07:57:01 - 00:08:20:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, there's so much noise around us. There's so much and so many things that are just simply vying for our attention. And so we as a church, we two are vying for people's attention, piling on, on, Karen, you have a podcast called Inadvertent Blindness. And what he said, he said, really? We really only see what we're looking for.

00:08:21:03 - 00:08:21:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And

00:08:21:13 - 00:08:41:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so the fact is, if people aren't looking for your church thing, again, that Netflix versus cable TV, if they're not looking for it, like, oh, I heard there was a retreat. So I'm going on the website to find the answer to it. Right? As opposed to us who we're like, we're dishing it out. We're like, well, we announced it on Sunday.

00:08:41:05 - 00:09:01:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They weren't looking for it on Sunday. Right? It's that oversaturation of noise, inadvertent blindness. Right. So if you think about some of the noises in the world, I shared this a couple videos back. I'll share it again here. It's going to be linked on screen. If you're watching on YouTube to have you take a look. If you're in a podcast catcher, you can scroll down and click the link to our YouTube video.

00:09:01:04 - 00:09:26:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Love to have you over there. Give us a like you show it. But, show up over there. But this video here talks about how we spend our time, especially spending our time online and the online amount of time like that. We as as people, sociology, have spent time on phones and on devices has skyrocketed compared to some of the time prior to the invention of tech.

00:09:26:14 - 00:09:47:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Which, let's just be honest, it's not necessarily a surprise, but it is like it is a like factor that we have to deal with, right? In today's day and age. In 2025, people that don't know what's going on, it's probably because there's so much to pay attention to. So

00:09:47:15 - 00:09:56:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
my proposal, right, my solution is get my free hybrid strategy guide.

00:09:56:21 - 00:10:26:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's linked down below in the show notes. And the reason why that's important is because that will help you shift in some areas from a cable TV culture, where the only time that people can hear you hear the message of Jesus, hear your announcements, whatever the case may be to more of a Netflix culture and it just it encourages you to show up where people are spending their time, which is on social media.

00:10:26:14 - 00:10:46:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Give me a segue. Right. If you've ever heard or thought this before, like, hey, we need to get the word out, let's blitz our social channels. And if all you're ever doing is blitzing your social channels with getting the word out, then you're just turning your social channels into an announcement bulletin board. And that's not what those were made for.

00:10:46:04 - 00:11:07:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you're going to have a less effective reach on those social channels because you're not using them what they were made for. Instead, send an announcement out via like a push notification, a text message, or even like update it on the calendar, right? And like and like what we do is like we encourage our parents, our students to just like, subscribe to our Google Calendar.

00:11:07:05 - 00:11:15:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so something changes. It changes on our end. It'll change on their end if they're subscribed to it in their where in their calendar,

00:11:15:02 - 00:11:27:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
which is what, like an event. That's where an event is meant to be inside a calendar, but not just on your church calendar, on your church website that you want people to go to so that they know about your event.

00:11:27:18 - 00:11:29:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You want it to somehow get to their

00:11:29:10 - 00:11:56:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
personal calendar. That's how people live their lives through their calendars. So use the things that are meant to be used for the purposes that they're made for. And you use social media for the purposes that it's made. For my hybrid strategy, God will help you knock social media out of the park and become more hybrid with some of your messages and other, channels and usages on social media.

00:11:56:12 - 00:12:20:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So the second reason that I believe that some of our church announcements are falling flat is because we as churches are living in a cable TV mentality versus a Netflix or an on demand mentality. Or like, you understand, we've been talking about that in this video. The person who, I think has helped navigate that best for churches is, Brady Scheer up at Pro Church Tools.

00:12:20:14 - 00:12:42:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, he has a website builder called nucleus. And now, whether you use his website builder or not, and if you don't really have experience building websites, then I 100% recommend nucleus because it's a church, website builder for churches and by church like people. And so you don't have to have a ton of like, website skills to make it happen.

00:12:42:18 - 00:13:02:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like a noob like me can build a website using nucleus. But more than that, like what I want you to understand is that his concept behind it being nucleus is that every church announcement is done on the website. And so as opposed to like you getting up on the stage and

00:13:02:11 - 00:13:02:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
saying,

00:13:02:23 - 00:13:03:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
if you

00:13:03:07 - 00:13:07:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
want like information about bunco night talk to do your aunt Sally.

00:13:07:08 - 00:13:25:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you want information about the youth retreat, talk to youth pastor Ryan. And if you want to give, you can give via, our website. You can do text to give. You can scan this QR code for Venmo. We have Apple Pay, we have Google Pay. And, if you want to know about the prayer meeting, email Chuck.

00:13:26:02 - 00:13:35:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Chuck at our church.com and the kids ministry has a big camp out thing coming up. Swing by and grab a flier in the lobby

00:13:35:18 - 00:13:36:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like

00:13:36:04 - 00:13:36:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
there

00:13:36:14 - 00:13:50:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
were five different call to actions in that, right? There's Sally, there's the youth pastor. There's any different amalgamation of giving opportunities. There's emailing, and then there's a flier. And he said,

00:13:50:00 - 00:13:55:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
make your nucleus, make your church website, your one stop shop.

00:13:55:19 - 00:14:12:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I created a video. I'll link it down below. A couple weeks back. And the video is literally titled, I created this video so that you don't have to hire me. And in it, I talk about my three step strategy guide, which you'll get some of that in my hybrid ministry, strategy guide if you download that from earlier.

00:14:12:17 - 00:14:41:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in the video, the three step strategy is step number one update and keep your website up to date. Your website should be a reliable one stop shop for everybody, and one of the ways to make your announcements better is to have the support of your website behind it. And so like for example, Brady uses this example all the time, like a trailer for a movie.

00:14:41:11 - 00:15:08:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When you go to the theater, you're not like sitting there watching a trailer to a movie that you can't wait to see. And it ends with them being like, now on November 27th, it's going to be showing at 11, 1131, 115, 230. And that's going to be in theaters six theaters, seven is going to have at 315. Like, no, that's boring, but that's what we do as churches, right?

00:15:08:16 - 00:15:31:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Bunco night. Here's all the details in the fellowship hall. Bring a dip to share. It's going to be on November 27th. It's going to be at 730. If you don't have any dice, make sure you contact your aunt Sally and she'll bring you an extra pair of dice. That's boring. And so we're trying to take information and make that be the thing that captures people, people's attention.

00:15:31:18 - 00:15:52:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you know as well as I, especially for Chinese social media for that that's not what social is used for. Best, you're not going to get them hooked them with the information. And so what do we do to capture their attention? So a movie trailer is just like, you know, it like makes you like fall in love with the idea of this movie wicked.

00:15:52:09 - 00:16:12:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then when it comes out, what do you do? You go discover when it's playing. You go to the website, you figure out how to get the tickets, you wanted to do it first, and then that promoted you to action in church. We give all the information and hope that that's going to promote people to action, and it has the opposite effect.

00:16:12:12 - 00:16:38:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you back up your church announcements with a good website, that's always up to date, you can get on stage and make your announcements good closer to like a movie trailer. Esq knowing that your website is going to answer the questions that people are looking for. So my solution to this cable TV versus on demand world is I have a resource.

00:16:38:16 - 00:17:01:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I have a service called communications for you. It's where I will run your church communications. I will make your website. I'll keep it up to date. I can even help promote and manage some of your socials, and so you can explore more of what that looks like in the link down below. But I'm sure as I'm explaining, like you, you have a good website and all these things, you're like, that sounds great, I don't have time.

00:17:02:01 - 00:17:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can make your announcements better by keeping

00:17:04:20 - 00:17:30:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your website behind you. Good, clean and up to date. And then reason number three is very simply, your announcements are just boring. Like they're just boring. And what I have for you is an announcement strategy that I want to encourage you to start steeling for better, more crisp and clearer church announcements.

00:17:30:16 - 00:17:31:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And

00:17:31:02 - 00:17:34:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that is going to be linked on the video in the very

00:17:34:12 - 00:17:47:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
next, video, in this, playlist and in this series. And so that's going to be right here on screen. If you see that, go ahead and tap on in so that you can get better and less boring church announcements. We'll see you over there in that video.

00:17:47:20 - 00:17:52:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And don't forget my friends as always to stay hybrid.

]]> 📊 HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
Ever feel like no one’s listening to your church announcements? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason dives into the common pitfalls of church announcements, revealing three reasons why they’re not working—and offering actionable solutions to fix them. From battling “inattentional blindness” to cutting through the noise of a digital world, this episode will help you craft announcements that inspire life transformation, not just attendance.

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/137

SOLUTIONS
1) HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

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

3) STEAL THIS ANNOUNCEMENT STRATEGY
[VIDEO LINK]

//I CREATED THIS VIDEO SO YOU WOULDN’T HAVE TO HIRE ME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OHWZFZHvaA&t=19s

//NUCLEUS
https://www.nucleus.church

//VIDEO OF TIME SPENT ONLINE
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⌚TIMECODES
00:00 Nobody Knows What's Going on!
01:40 The Problem
03:58 The Goal
07:43 Reason #1
11:56 Reason #2
17:09 Reason #3

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Do you ever feel

00:00:01:23 - 00:00:02:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like

00:00:02:19 - 00:00:07:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
knows what's going on at your church? Like

00:00:07:00 - 00:00:14:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you feel like nobody is ever really listened to you when you're giving the announcements?

00:00:14:04 - 00:00:16:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, in this episode I want to talk about is the

00:00:16:20 - 00:00:28:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
problem with most church and youth ministry announcements. So if you're a youth pastor person in church communication to pastor, this will help increase

00:00:28:03 - 00:00:31:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and uptake your engagement around announcements.

00:00:31:02 - 00:00:42:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I want to talk about the ultimate goal with all church announcements. And finally, stick around because I'm going to share with you three reasons that your church announcements may not be

00:00:42:11 - 00:00:47:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
going as well as you think. Plus, one solution for each of those

00:00:47:11 - 00:00:47:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
reasons,

00:00:47:22 - 00:00:50:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
including a concept called

00:00:50:04 - 00:00:55:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
inadvertent blindness. We're going to dive into that. And I have a free

00:00:55:04 - 00:01:00:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
resource that I think can absolutely change the game for you.

00:01:00:14 - 00:01:00:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I

00:01:00:19 - 00:01:01:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
think part

00:01:01:06 - 00:01:13:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of our problem here in 2025, in churches in North America, or let's just be honest around the world, is that we need to stop acting as churches. Look, we're in the 1990s

00:01:13:08 - 00:01:17:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and stop making boring announcements.

00:01:17:21 - 00:01:35:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give me a like, if you've heard the stat that we as humans have a shorter attention span now than goldfish, if that's the case, then we definitely have to figure something out, because you have some great things going on at your church, and if people don't know about it, they can't get to them.

00:01:35:04 - 00:02:03:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's talk about it. Welcome, my friends, to the hybrid minstrel show. So what is our problem? Our ultimate problem with bad church announcements is that nobody is showing up or that, like, nobody even knows about what we have going on. I actually, I did a video, a while back called Youth Pastor or Event Coordinator. It's going to be linked right up here at the top of the screen if you're watching here on YouTube.

00:02:03:00 - 00:02:05:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But one of the things I've learned in my 14

00:02:05:07 - 00:02:25:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
years of youth ministry experience is that attendance and, just people simply showing up. That's a really important factor to planning a good event. You can have an awesome event, but if you don't have people there, it's going to be a problem. And part of people getting there is knowing that the event is happening and understanding, knowing, hearing.

00:02:25:12 - 00:02:57:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you know, like realizing that you're giving a church announcement that requires action out of them. And the video I explore this kind of tension, right? That many of us in ministry, church ministry, like, regardless of if you're in youth ministry or not, we feel about our jobs and it's this it's right. Is are we meant to be doing what we're doing to ultimately make disciples, or are we doing what we're doing to plan killer events?

00:02:57:21 - 00:03:23:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And sometimes, if you're anything like me, let's just be honest. It feels like we are our job. Like it has morphed much more into an event planner and I don't know about you, but that's not exactly why I got into youth ministry. Right? But the problem, right, that's the problem with our church announcements, is because we have an event and we want people to get to it.

00:03:23:16 - 00:03:50:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Poor attendance is the problem with bad church announcements. Okay. And so if attendance is our issue, if that's the baked in assumptions, that's the baked in desire. And when we say, nobody knows what's going on, it's because nobody is attending our events. That is the no. But that's who that is coming from. So let's take a step back then.

00:03:50:05 - 00:03:59:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Even more right than just the event, then just the good or not so good church announcement and ask ourselves, like, what is our

00:03:59:05 - 00:04:12:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
goal around this event? What is our goal by giving this announcement? All right, so our goal just like the problem or the opposite, the problem, our goal is to get more people

00:04:12:22 - 00:04:14:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
aware of and more people

00:04:14:05 - 00:04:20:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to know about the thing, the event, the Bible study, the workshop, like whatever it is.

00:04:20:22 - 00:04:21:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right.

00:04:21:15 - 00:04:28:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Is that the goal? No, it's not our goal. At least not ultimately,

00:04:28:17 - 00:04:29:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
at

00:04:29:01 - 00:04:29:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
least not

00:04:29:09 - 00:04:53:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the meta goal. Right? Attendance is not necessary is really the goal in and of itself. But like I said, when we feel like event coordinators, it can feel like the goal, the goal in church ministry, the goal with all of your events, ultimately, the reason you're even having such and such event

00:04:53:19 - 00:04:54:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is

00:04:54:05 - 00:04:56:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
life transformation.

00:04:56:21 - 00:05:28:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give me a subscribe if you agree with that statement. Life transformation is the ultimate goal, not attendance. It certainly helps having people there at your event because if they're not there, how can their lives be transformed? So I'll give you that. But we have to stop making a Tennessee Ultimate goal. I have to start realizing that we're really trying to be in the business about life transformation, which is done and led down the path through disciple making.

00:05:28:17 - 00:06:08:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you have to remember that prior to the digital era, attendance was the means to accomplish that life transformation. But we live now in the digital era, and so we can reach people and we can, disseminate a message through much more efficient and effective means. Now, with cell phones and technology and podcasts and YouTube videos and social media and fill in whatever blank you want to write, you got to realize that it's getting people in the room was originally that goal towards life transformation, but that's not exactly the era that we're living in.

00:06:08:08 - 00:06:19:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So what is the goal? If the goal is life transformation, how can we accomplish that? And also, how can we accomplish that in the new digital

00:06:19:05 - 00:06:19:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
era? Right.

00:06:19:16 - 00:06:20:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Churches

00:06:20:01 - 00:06:34:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like I referenced it in the intro, churches are operating like it's the 1990s. And here's what I mean by that. In the 1990s, if you want to do watch Seinfeld, you had to catch it live on NBC the night that it aired and debuted.

00:06:34:20 - 00:06:49:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you didn't, then you better hope that you have a good DVR, which I don't even know if those are existed in the 90s. And then if you didn't have that, then tough luck. Mean you're going to have to catch that sucker on syndication when it comes out in the summer.

00:06:50:05 - 00:06:59:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Compare that to the drop of Stranger Things season two, where my wife and I, pretty children watched the entire season on

00:06:59:14 - 00:07:00:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a Saturday, right?

00:07:01:04 - 00:07:06:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like it's just a completely different mindset and framework. We live in a

00:07:06:07 - 00:07:26:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Netflix culture, not a cable TV culture, and so people when you have information, they're operating under the guise of it being Netflix, but we're treating it like cable TV, like we said, this thing I'm going to share with you the key to life. Feel like cool, tell me where to find it.

00:07:26:00 - 00:07:34:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you're like, Sunday at 10:00, so only time to find it. That that's a huge cultural disconnect.

00:07:34:06 - 00:07:43:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I have a few ideas of three different problems and a solution for each of the problem. Let's dive in.

00:07:43:10 - 00:07:57:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So one of the reasons that I think our church announcements can tend to be failing is this. This first concept here, I think, is just that we live in a culture with an oversaturation of noise.

00:07:57:01 - 00:08:20:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, there's so much noise around us. There's so much and so many things that are just simply vying for our attention. And so we as a church, we two are vying for people's attention, piling on, on, Karen, you have a podcast called Inadvertent Blindness. And what he said, he said, really? We really only see what we're looking for.

00:08:21:03 - 00:08:21:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And

00:08:21:13 - 00:08:41:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so the fact is, if people aren't looking for your church thing, again, that Netflix versus cable TV, if they're not looking for it, like, oh, I heard there was a retreat. So I'm going on the website to find the answer to it. Right? As opposed to us who we're like, we're dishing it out. We're like, well, we announced it on Sunday.

00:08:41:05 - 00:09:01:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They weren't looking for it on Sunday. Right? It's that oversaturation of noise, inadvertent blindness. Right. So if you think about some of the noises in the world, I shared this a couple videos back. I'll share it again here. It's going to be linked on screen. If you're watching on YouTube to have you take a look. If you're in a podcast catcher, you can scroll down and click the link to our YouTube video.

00:09:01:04 - 00:09:26:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Love to have you over there. Give us a like you show it. But, show up over there. But this video here talks about how we spend our time, especially spending our time online and the online amount of time like that. We as as people, sociology, have spent time on phones and on devices has skyrocketed compared to some of the time prior to the invention of tech.

00:09:26:14 - 00:09:47:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Which, let's just be honest, it's not necessarily a surprise, but it is like it is a like factor that we have to deal with, right? In today's day and age. In 2025, people that don't know what's going on, it's probably because there's so much to pay attention to. So

00:09:47:15 - 00:09:56:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
my proposal, right, my solution is get my free hybrid strategy guide.

00:09:56:21 - 00:10:26:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's linked down below in the show notes. And the reason why that's important is because that will help you shift in some areas from a cable TV culture, where the only time that people can hear you hear the message of Jesus, hear your announcements, whatever the case may be to more of a Netflix culture and it just it encourages you to show up where people are spending their time, which is on social media.

00:10:26:14 - 00:10:46:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Give me a segue. Right. If you've ever heard or thought this before, like, hey, we need to get the word out, let's blitz our social channels. And if all you're ever doing is blitzing your social channels with getting the word out, then you're just turning your social channels into an announcement bulletin board. And that's not what those were made for.

00:10:46:04 - 00:11:07:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you're going to have a less effective reach on those social channels because you're not using them what they were made for. Instead, send an announcement out via like a push notification, a text message, or even like update it on the calendar, right? And like and like what we do is like we encourage our parents, our students to just like, subscribe to our Google Calendar.

00:11:07:05 - 00:11:15:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so something changes. It changes on our end. It'll change on their end if they're subscribed to it in their where in their calendar,

00:11:15:02 - 00:11:27:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
which is what, like an event. That's where an event is meant to be inside a calendar, but not just on your church calendar, on your church website that you want people to go to so that they know about your event.

00:11:27:18 - 00:11:29:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You want it to somehow get to their

00:11:29:10 - 00:11:56:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
personal calendar. That's how people live their lives through their calendars. So use the things that are meant to be used for the purposes that they're made for. And you use social media for the purposes that it's made. For my hybrid strategy, God will help you knock social media out of the park and become more hybrid with some of your messages and other, channels and usages on social media.

00:11:56:12 - 00:12:20:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So the second reason that I believe that some of our church announcements are falling flat is because we as churches are living in a cable TV mentality versus a Netflix or an on demand mentality. Or like, you understand, we've been talking about that in this video. The person who, I think has helped navigate that best for churches is, Brady Scheer up at Pro Church Tools.

00:12:20:14 - 00:12:42:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, he has a website builder called nucleus. And now, whether you use his website builder or not, and if you don't really have experience building websites, then I 100% recommend nucleus because it's a church, website builder for churches and by church like people. And so you don't have to have a ton of like, website skills to make it happen.

00:12:42:18 - 00:13:02:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like a noob like me can build a website using nucleus. But more than that, like what I want you to understand is that his concept behind it being nucleus is that every church announcement is done on the website. And so as opposed to like you getting up on the stage and

00:13:02:11 - 00:13:02:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
saying,

00:13:02:23 - 00:13:03:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
if you

00:13:03:07 - 00:13:07:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
want like information about bunco night talk to do your aunt Sally.

00:13:07:08 - 00:13:25:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you want information about the youth retreat, talk to youth pastor Ryan. And if you want to give, you can give via, our website. You can do text to give. You can scan this QR code for Venmo. We have Apple Pay, we have Google Pay. And, if you want to know about the prayer meeting, email Chuck.

00:13:26:02 - 00:13:35:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Chuck at our church.com and the kids ministry has a big camp out thing coming up. Swing by and grab a flier in the lobby

00:13:35:18 - 00:13:36:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like

00:13:36:04 - 00:13:36:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
there

00:13:36:14 - 00:13:50:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
were five different call to actions in that, right? There's Sally, there's the youth pastor. There's any different amalgamation of giving opportunities. There's emailing, and then there's a flier. And he said,

00:13:50:00 - 00:13:55:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
make your nucleus, make your church website, your one stop shop.

00:13:55:19 - 00:14:12:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I created a video. I'll link it down below. A couple weeks back. And the video is literally titled, I created this video so that you don't have to hire me. And in it, I talk about my three step strategy guide, which you'll get some of that in my hybrid ministry, strategy guide if you download that from earlier.

00:14:12:17 - 00:14:41:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in the video, the three step strategy is step number one update and keep your website up to date. Your website should be a reliable one stop shop for everybody, and one of the ways to make your announcements better is to have the support of your website behind it. And so like for example, Brady uses this example all the time, like a trailer for a movie.

00:14:41:11 - 00:15:08:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When you go to the theater, you're not like sitting there watching a trailer to a movie that you can't wait to see. And it ends with them being like, now on November 27th, it's going to be showing at 11, 1131, 115, 230. And that's going to be in theaters six theaters, seven is going to have at 315. Like, no, that's boring, but that's what we do as churches, right?

00:15:08:16 - 00:15:31:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Bunco night. Here's all the details in the fellowship hall. Bring a dip to share. It's going to be on November 27th. It's going to be at 730. If you don't have any dice, make sure you contact your aunt Sally and she'll bring you an extra pair of dice. That's boring. And so we're trying to take information and make that be the thing that captures people, people's attention.

00:15:31:18 - 00:15:52:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you know as well as I, especially for Chinese social media for that that's not what social is used for. Best, you're not going to get them hooked them with the information. And so what do we do to capture their attention? So a movie trailer is just like, you know, it like makes you like fall in love with the idea of this movie wicked.

00:15:52:09 - 00:16:12:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then when it comes out, what do you do? You go discover when it's playing. You go to the website, you figure out how to get the tickets, you wanted to do it first, and then that promoted you to action in church. We give all the information and hope that that's going to promote people to action, and it has the opposite effect.

00:16:12:12 - 00:16:38:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you back up your church announcements with a good website, that's always up to date, you can get on stage and make your announcements good closer to like a movie trailer. Esq knowing that your website is going to answer the questions that people are looking for. So my solution to this cable TV versus on demand world is I have a resource.

00:16:38:16 - 00:17:01:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I have a service called communications for you. It's where I will run your church communications. I will make your website. I'll keep it up to date. I can even help promote and manage some of your socials, and so you can explore more of what that looks like in the link down below. But I'm sure as I'm explaining, like you, you have a good website and all these things, you're like, that sounds great, I don't have time.

00:17:02:01 - 00:17:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can make your announcements better by keeping

00:17:04:20 - 00:17:30:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your website behind you. Good, clean and up to date. And then reason number three is very simply, your announcements are just boring. Like they're just boring. And what I have for you is an announcement strategy that I want to encourage you to start steeling for better, more crisp and clearer church announcements.

00:17:30:16 - 00:17:31:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And

00:17:31:02 - 00:17:34:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that is going to be linked on the video in the very

00:17:34:12 - 00:17:47:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
next, video, in this, playlist and in this series. And so that's going to be right here on screen. If you see that, go ahead and tap on in so that you can get better and less boring church announcements. We'll see you over there in that video.

00:17:47:20 - 00:17:52:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And don't forget my friends as always to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 130: 2024 - A Celebration of You: Hybrid Ministry Stats & Stories in Review https://www.hybridministry.xyz/130 b6148737-e982-4f12-bdb4-539d62ad5d80 Thu, 02 Jan 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 130 2024 - A Celebration of You: Hybrid Ministry Stats & Stories in Review full Nick Clason We're celebrating YOU in the 2024 "Year in Review." We'll look back at stats, shout out some of the best comment and I've put together a "Best of 2024 Highlight Reel!" Join us! 11:24 no 🎧 Become a “Hybrid Hero” https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ✅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&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaIui8LNpnlUI3yFAm9SGrLy&amp;index=5&amp;t=24s //9 Best DYM Games https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //No Prep Games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=melm8BS97es&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg&amp;index=6&amp;t=164s //Youth Ministry Planning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQXsananwI&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaKjRX2ytO0tvzo8VnF6X03t&amp;index=2&amp;t=202s //YouTube for Youth Ministry https://youtu.be/ucvXfaVRJ6E?si=aNYGzB08DV6HHD3G //Interview Series https://youtu.be/D4vE7ZqBpE?si=Hdk5X2KRnSGr6HM //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 &amp; 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 &amp; 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 &amp; 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 &amp; 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. Hybrid Ministry, Youth Ministry, Online Church,Youth Group Games, Youth Group Games for Large Groups indoor, Youth Group games for large groups, Youth Group Games indoor, Youth Ministry Games, Youth Ministry Games for Large Groups, Youth Group Games for Church, Youth Group Games for Church indoor, Youth Ministry Games Indoor, Student Ministry Games, Student Ministry Games indoor, Youth Group, Student Ministry, Youth Pastor, Church Games for Youth, digital discipleship 🎧 Become a “Hybrid Hero”
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

✅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.

]]> 🎧 Become a “Hybrid Hero”
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

✅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.

]]> Episode 128: I made this podcast so you wouldn't have to hire me https://www.hybridministry.xyz/128 f187522f-0930-4aa4-b359-0d58847b2790 Thu, 19 Dec 2024 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 128 I made this podcast so you wouldn't have to hire me full Nick Clason This episode of Hybrid Ministry is your ultimate DIY guide to building a thriving online presence—without hiring me or anyone else. From cracking the content schedule code to creating evergreen videos to simply understanding "hybrid," you’ll get practical tips, tools, and resources to dominate digital ministry in your church or youth ministry. 19:23 no 🎧 Become a “Hybrid Hero” https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ✅Let me Run Your Church Social Media https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms DESCRIPTION This episode of Hybrid Ministry is your ultimate DIY guide to building a thriving online presence—without hiring me or anyone else. From cracking the content schedule code to creating evergreen videos to simply understanding "hybrid," you’ll get practical tips, tools, and resources to dominate digital ministry in your church or youth ministry. 📓 SHOWNOTES http://www.hybridministry.xyz/128 //Become a “Hybrid Hero” https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry //Hybrid Strategy Guide https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book //VidIQ https://www.vidiq.com/hybrid //Easy and Effective Social Challenges https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s //Studio Gear https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/studio //Opus Clip https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YouTube for Youth Ministry https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl //Custom Hybrid Coaching https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching //Communications Done for You https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 &amp; 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 Church Social Media Explained 02:05 What is Hybrid Ministry? 05:55 Why Hybrid Ministry? 08:34 What is your content creation and capturing schedule? 14:04 How do you edit your videos? 15:17 If I consulted with you, how would you recommend I get started? -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Pastor, youth pastor, church 00:00:02:01 - 00:00:03:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry communications person. Are you struggling 00:00:03:25 - 00:00:06:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry to figure out digital ministry? 00:00:06:00 - 00:00:07:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well, here's the deal. 00:00:07:20 - 00:00:13:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I created this video so that you can stop googling church social media tips. 00:00:13:23 - 00:00:18:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And in fact, I created this video so that you don't have to hire me or anybody else. 00:00:18:16 - 00:00:27:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm going to show you and give you what it takes to be able to create a thriving online and digital hybrid presence. 00:00:27:22 - 00:00:30:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, here's the thing. I've been doing this podcast for 00:00:30:02 - 00:00:47:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry over two years now, and in my over two year journey of this podcast and hybrid ministry, I am helping churches do online well. But I'm also helping churches maintain their in-person presence and find that intersection, which is always the goal as we're trying to create 00:00:47:18 - 00:00:53:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry a church so that it matches and mirrors people where they are. 00:00:53:01 - 00:00:59:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And that intersection is what I like to call hybrid right there in the middle. And so we're 00:00:59:02 - 00:01:11:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry going to dive into some of the frequently asked questions here on the Hybrid Ministry show as we round out 2024 and set our sights to 2025. 00:01:11:01 - 00:01:13:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. If you not haven't had a chance to meet you. 00:01:13:27 - 00:01:24:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry My name is Nicholas, and while I've been doing this podcast for two and a half years, I've been doing ministry for 14 years. And, my journey all along the way has led me towards this hybrid 00:01:24:01 - 00:01:31:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry sort of ministry. But in this episode, we are going to tackle some of the frequently asked questions that I've gotten from people all across the internet. 00:01:31:20 - 00:01:37:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Different groups have been in cohorts. I've run workshops, so I've led asking questions like, what 00:01:37:04 - 00:01:50:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry is hybrid ministry? Why is it even important? What is your content schedule? What's your capturing schedule? How do you edit the videos? What is, what would you consult me to do if I was just getting started? And 00:01:50:01 - 00:01:52:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry we are going to walk through all of those things. 00:01:52:25 - 00:02:04:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And as always, if you're here on YouTube, don't forget there are chapters down below at the bottom of the screen so that you can jump around to the question that means the most to you. Welcome to Hybrid Ministry show. 00:02:04:17 - 00:02:16:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Question number one. We alluded to it in the intro, but what is hybrid ministry? My favorite analogy, and this is actually some of the stuff that we're exploring over on my brand new Patreon 00:02:16:18 - 00:02:16:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry page. 00:02:16:29 - 00:02:34:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And some of these questions actually came from some of our brand new Patreon members. Shout out to Jesse. Johnson. Love having you over here. But, some of these questions, are like, what is hybrid ministry? Okay. So some of the questions are like, why? What's the purpose of this? What even is it? So it's important. 00:02:34:20 - 00:02:55:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Let's get a baseline okay. Again, chapters at the bottom. If you already know this, jump ahead. But hybrid ministry is intersecting your in-person and your digital, right. We all know in Covid we had digital church only. And we know that we hated it. Struggle with it, didn't know how to engage students. Well, we missed the in-person. And so when, restrictions are lifted, we all came back to in-person. 00:02:55:26 - 00:03:02:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And we miss it. We miss community. We miss friendship. We miss praying with one another. We missed sharing meals together, 00:03:02:22 - 00:03:15:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry but we did a lot of good ministry over here too. Digitally. Right. And so, we kind of got these two buckets here. You got online only and you got in-person only. Let's let's examine 00:03:15:09 - 00:03:16:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry what each of those are good for. 00:03:16:14 - 00:03:30:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry My opinion online is a fantastic content delivery system. So emails, information announcements but also content sermons, podcasts, long form teaching courses, things like that. What is in-person good for 00:03:30:29 - 00:03:37:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry that? Online struggles with real, authentic community. Like you. You can have a version of community 00:03:37:06 - 00:03:41:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry because of in-person friendships through like a means like texting or even like chats and stuff like that. 00:03:41:27 - 00:04:03:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But I mean real in-person community, like, we all kind of hunger for it long for. And you, some people like, are in the metaverse and and that's satisfying that sort of age. They're friends with people from a distance. But but a lot of ways like real community life on life, sharing meals together, carrying one another's burdens, prayer requests, honestly, everything in like a shepherding, sort of like 00:04:03:05 - 00:04:04:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry small group space. 00:04:04:18 - 00:04:28:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But if we look at a typical Sunday morning sermon, most of it is what we can accomplish with online. And thus in lies the inherent tension. Because everything we can do on a Sunday morning can be easily replicable. And frankly, it's even a little bit more attractive, especially to people like Gen, Gen Z, millennials, even Gen Alpha to consume content, sermons and church services online. 00:04:29:05 - 00:04:45:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But what younger generations are craving and the church has to figure out how to offer it in a way that, either takes the place of Sunday morning or as an attractive alternative to what's going on Sunday morning. Is that real, deep, authentic life on life, biblical community 00:04:45:19 - 00:04:50:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and that intersection of where you're online, which you should have online. 00:04:50:15 - 00:04:59:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you if you're a mostly in-person church hybrid ministry for you is adding in online so that you can have a more robust experience of your church, if you're an online 00:04:59:10 - 00:05:13:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry only church, which are very few and far between, you should figure out how to add some more in-person type elements so that we can intersect between the two online, online, in-person intersects at that hybrid ministry spot. 00:05:13:14 - 00:05:14:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I liken it to 00:05:14:25 - 00:05:39:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Home Depot. Okay, so I can go buy something on Home Depot website completely online experience, or I can go browse the aisles completely in-person experience. But that hybrid moment happens when I pull up my phone and I look on the app and it tells me exactly where I can find that boat, exactly what aisle and exactly what bay I'm in person, but I'm experiencing it through the app digitally, and thus it creates that sort of hybrid moment. 00:05:39:13 - 00:05:55:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you're not, again, already over with us on Patreon, I would love to invite you because that's what we're doing. We're answering how I take my in-person services, and I'm sprinkling in hybrid, and I'm just literally walking you through what I'm doing on a week by week basis. Question number two 00:05:55:12 - 00:05:59:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry why? Like, why all this digital content? 00:05:59:03 - 00:06:05:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Why social media? Why YouTube? Why why why? Well, link down below is my 100% free 00:06:05:23 - 00:06:12:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry hybrid ministry strategy guide. I have been offering this now for over a year and it's gone 00:06:12:29 - 00:06:27:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry through a couple of rebrands, but the majority of what I've created in that has remained the same because social media, around the, pandemic time has actually shifted the way that it's been done. 00:06:27:09 - 00:06:29:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right? We were previously in what was known 00:06:29:06 - 00:06:37:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry as the Social Graph era, and now we're in what's called the Discovery era. Okay, so here's just a couple of things that are really important to know. 00:06:37:23 - 00:06:46:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry 95% of teenagers say that they have been, will be, or plan to be on YouTube. Now, obviously some of those are power users, and others of those are just 00:06:46:28 - 00:06:50:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry dabbling in it and looking up videos and stuff for their science fair projects. 00:06:50:09 - 00:06:54:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But the fact of the matter is, 95% of teenagers are on YouTube. 00:06:54:16 - 00:07:08:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Furthermore, according to a recent book by Mccrindle. And so it's called Meeting Gen Alpha. They say that Google number one search engine in the world is now being supplanted by Generation Alpha with, you guessed 00:07:08:04 - 00:07:12:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry it, YouTube. Also, here's the beautiful thing about YouTube. 00:07:12:14 - 00:07:23:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I got to tell you, like, like I said, I've been creating content for this podcast for over two years and I will still sometimes get I also sometimes get comments I'll get referrals, I'll get people clicking links to 00:07:23:22 - 00:07:36:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry videos that I've made even over a year ago. Right. We don't have that luxury. Oftentimes in churches we create something for the moment, and then that thing dies on our hard drive and we continue on. 00:07:36:06 - 00:07:43:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry YouTube is masterful at promoting and allowing content to live on forever. Content creation, 00:07:43:20 - 00:08:00:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry marketing specialists, they call it evergreen content. If you want to know the type of content that teenagers, Gen Alpha, Gen Z, young people in your church are searching, you can use a keyword tool like vid IQ. In fact, I have a link down below if you want to give it a shot and a trial on using it. 00:08:00:24 - 00:08:24:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you can do some research. Like what are teenagers asking? And then you go answer those questions. I'm just gonna be honest with you. Like like you should start there always. As you're planning a sermon series, right? Get some keyword research. What are people looking up online? What are the the big questions to life that they're asking. And then have that and then develop a sermon series. 00:08:24:17 - 00:08:33:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And by the way, if you develop your sermon series based off that keyword research is also going to make a fantastic YouTube video and fantastic YouTube 00:08:33:24 - 00:08:34:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry playlist. 00:08:34:04 - 00:08:42:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right. Question number three. What is your content schedule and what is your capturing of that content schedule? 00:08:42:16 - 00:08:58:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So according to a website video, 90% of the internet's traffic today and moving on is short form discovery based vertical video, TikTok style, real style YouTube short style videos. 00:08:58:06 - 00:09:10:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In fact, I have a playlist linked right here on the content that I am creating, not only for my students, but with my students. It's my easy and effective social media playlist. It is the four different 00:09:10:25 - 00:09:20:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry social media types that not only do I have students capturing, but also that I have students editing and helping create that final piece form of content. 00:09:20:20 - 00:09:23:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So my schedule is I post two days a 00:09:23:11 - 00:09:45:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry week, I'm sorry, two times a day, five days a week. So ten different pieces of content. Let me walk through it with you. So in my playlist linked back up here that I said just a second ago my easy and effective playlist. We do four different game style videos, so we do drafts, we do seven questions, we do man on the Street and we do transition and invite style videos. 00:09:45:27 - 00:10:07:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Go to that playlist to check out the full, detailed, in-depth thing along with some free templates and downloads. And then an additional piece that we do is a Stay or scroll devotional style video. So that's five different videos, one of each of those that I post every single week. Okay. And I just kind of sprinkle them throughout the pieces of my content calendar that are a little bit like stronger. 00:10:07:15 - 00:10:32:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Again, short form vertical based video is three teaching clips, and those teaching clips come as clips off of our long form teaching content. Now I'm a youth pastor. We don't have live streaming capabilities, nor do we capture our videos live in our auditorium or in our worship space. So we actually sit down direct to camera and pre-filled. More messages made for YouTube with that vid IQ research indicator. 00:10:32:20 - 00:10:50:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And we make those videos hopefully answering teenagers questions, creating evergreen content, and also playlists and sermon series that kids are asking for. And then they can go back to in the future when they're struggling with or have big questions about life, faith, God, whatever the case may be. And so that just that piece of content, we drop a different video every single week. 00:10:50:03 - 00:11:10:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It lines up just when we preach a sermon. Right? So if you're preaching a sermon this Wednesday night, you're preaching a sermon the Sunday night. Put that on video posted to YouTube. But off that YouTube video, three short form clips I use opus. I there's a link down below if you want to try out Opus Clip. It's a fantastic AI sermon short generator. 00:11:10:27 - 00:11:30:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I use it every single week in my ministry, so that's five different pieces of, easy and effective content off that playlist through different pieces of social content, using opus to clip them up. And then I got two more other pieces of content. One is our, meme Monday style video. Not video. I'm sorry meme Monday style post. 00:11:30:08 - 00:11:47:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's just about the only, non video post that I do. Not that I'm against non video post, but don't forget I'm a busy youth pastor and so I got this strategy sort of locked in. And so I don't have a lot of time to go back to the drawing board. And I got students and volunteers help them kind of keep it afloat. 00:11:47:01 - 00:12:00:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we'll reiterate and rehydrate when we need to. But for right now, this has been working for us. And then the 10th final piece of content is, anytime we meet, I get my phone out. I create little like 5 to 8 second clips, vertical video. I take it 00:12:00:24 - 00:12:04:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry into something like a TikTok. I click that auto cut button and boom! 00:12:04:22 - 00:12:15:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I then have a recap video for anytime we meet Sunday morning. Wednesday night I typically do Wednesday night. Now, like I said, my capturing is during the week. Me and anyone else on our team is going 00:12:15:27 - 00:12:23:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry to be preaching. We sit down, we pre film all of our series. Like if we do like a four part series, we film all four of those in one day. 00:12:23:06 - 00:12:41:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry One shot off teleprompter. All the things link down below is my studio guide. It has all the links to all the gear that we use. If you want to use a teleprompter or if you want to use, get a tripod, different lighting, all that type of stuff, check that out. So that's when we do those. And then on Wednesday nights when our youth ministry is going on 00:12:41:27 - 00:12:46:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry before and after, we have a social challenge that's happening every single Wednesday night. 00:12:46:19 - 00:12:53:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Students know about it. They seek it out. They want to know when and where is the social challenge happening. So two of those videos, 00:12:53:06 - 00:12:56:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Jason, seven questions. Those take place inside, behind a locked door. 00:12:56:22 - 00:13:04:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I walked over a closed door of our studio to come up with soundproofing and all those things run by volunteers and very few leaders. 00:13:04:14 - 00:13:13:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then, our other two videos are transition videos and man on the Street style videos. And so that's us being out and around in our building, in our space. So 00:13:13:06 - 00:13:25:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry it's a little bit more visible. And it also helps students sort of be gravitated towards and drawn to what we're doing here on social media. And as far as editing goes, opus II takes care of my editing for my message clips. 00:13:25:07 - 00:13:33:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I do the auto cut one on one on, Wednesday nights. I do that, like right before I start my car and get in to go home. And then the last one I have students 00:13:33:16 - 00:13:44:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry come in early, like early, early on Wednesday night. They're homeschool students, which are two of them. Fantastic. And around 2:00, 3:00 or so, submissions start till about six. 00:13:44:23 - 00:13:49:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so they're in there for 2 or 3 hours, editing videos and, you know, like we give them, you know, 00:13:49:24 - 00:14:00:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry some of them like free retreats or special incentives or we let them stay after and like eat at the leader lunch, you know, eat a leader lunch that we have or whatever. But, mostly they're just doing it because they like it. 00:14:00:14 - 00:14:03:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They're fun doing it, and it's a good time. All right. Next question. 00:14:03:28 - 00:14:14:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry How do you edit videos? Well, I just told you, like, I got students that are helping me, carry that load. I use some I but like the actual platform that I use is my preference is 00:14:14:24 - 00:14:18:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Adobe Premiere Pro. It is the most expensive of all the options. 00:14:18:29 - 00:14:22:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Final Cut Pro is another option. You can check that out if you're interested, or 00:14:22:16 - 00:14:41:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry DaVinci resolve, both of which are cheaper than Adobe Premiere Pro, primarily because Adobe Premiere Pro has a monthly subscription cost associated with it. However, what I learned, churches have paid for it for me for now. And I mean, I, you know, wish I could do something new, do something cheaper, but I don't have the bandwidth to to learn something cheaper. 00:14:41:13 - 00:14:48:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But there are cheaper options out there. You can of course you something like iMovie or Movie Maker on your windows and 00:14:48:02 - 00:14:59:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry cap cut actually has a fantastic editing platform. You can do quite a bit with it and you're going to look pretty professional. You can do that, obviously off of your film, but you can also do it off of like, just a 00:14:59:19 - 00:15:00:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry web editor. 00:15:00:25 - 00:15:17:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And, I believe that they're, like premium or pro feature fee is not too difficult to, figure out and or not to not not too expensive. Not too high barrier to entry. So if that's something you're interested, go ahead and check out cap cut. All right. 00:15:17:01 - 00:15:23:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Last question I have here from those of you, thank you so much for submitting them via our Patreon community members. 00:15:23:05 - 00:15:40:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Appreciate you guys. Love you guys. Again, if you're interested, check that out down below. Link in the show notes. Question is, if you are consulting me, what order would you start with? Doing something starting from nothing. We have all the in-person, nothing digital. Well, here's what I would do. First of all, 00:15:40:15 - 00:15:43:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry make sure your website is up to date. 00:15:43:06 - 00:16:07:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Second of all, then I would start creating this short form vertical, videos and I would start with three per week. Right. So some sort of recap video, if you can't do a clip of your message, just do a selfie style talking head recap style video of it, right. If you do have like the long form footage of it, drop it into opus clip and try, you know, get a clip spit out. 00:16:07:08 - 00:16:25:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Second video I would do is I would do some sort of educationally based, spirit promoting spiritual practice sort of video. Okay. What I mean by that is like, you can have, a video off your camera, literally any video. One time I filmed a video of a turtle walking across the street in my neighborhood. It can be that simple. 00:16:25:16 - 00:16:41:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You can do text on screen. Three things the Bible says about prayer. 1 to 3. Right? That I'll. And you can do that in any editor. You can use it in the, YouTube shorts that are the TikTok editor, the reels editor. You can bring it into something like cap cut and create it, export it and post it all those different places. 00:16:42:02 - 00:17:01:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But start creating those different types of content. And the last one is how to do some sort of fun thing, some sort of social challenge esque thing. Dress seven questions. And if those are too heavy on the edit side, which they are a little bit heavier on the edit side, they don't have to be, but they can be do man on the street, man, get a microphone, buy a cheap one. 00:17:01:14 - 00:17:17:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Again. I got some links down on my studio. Episode link down below. Buy some cheap mics and walk around and interview students in your space. Right? Like if I was doing this next week. All right, let's pretend you're watching this live end of 2024 and you come back in January. I'd walk around with a microphone. 00:17:17:05 - 00:17:18:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You or a student. 00:17:18:12 - 00:17:37:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Okay. Off of any camera? Your camera, their camera doesn't matter. Get those two little USB microphones again, link down below, grab those and then walk around. Be like, hey, what's your New Year's resolution this year? And then ask them or give them a microphone and you can do something even funny with it. Like me and a former resident of mine, Caleb, shout out to Caleb Flywheel, my ETA. 00:17:38:09 - 00:17:45:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We put our little mikes, clipped them on to like, spoons, and then we just held spoons so you can walk around with spoons if you want to, like, have some sort 00:17:45:02 - 00:17:51:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry of, like, handle thing to hold. Right. But, you know, like, what's your New Year's resolution? The other person's holding it and they answer and either they have one or they don't. 00:17:52:02 - 00:18:15:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Or have you broken your New Year's resolution yet. And you ask them, and if you get like 8 or 10 of those people answering those questions, then you drop those in somewhere, either on your phone, you can edit something like capture or bring them in something even more powerful, like Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci resolve. Whatever your editor of Choices and edit that down, post it, keep them less than 60s and you're off to the races 00:18:15:00 - 00:18:16:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and the eye on the prize. 00:18:16:25 - 00:18:35:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Okay, when I'm starting with you, the eye on the prize is to get long form videos up to YouTube. Okay, you don't have to do two times a day, five days a week like I do. You do you? I do want you to be regular, and I do want you to start getting your long form pieces of content to YouTube. 00:18:35:03 - 00:18:37:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And that's where I come in, because I can offer you 00:18:37:17 - 00:18:51:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry coaching where I'll teach you how to do it, or my communications done for you, or I'll actually do it for you. You film it, send it to me, I'll edit it. We can talk about price. We'll get to it. Both of those are linked down below in the description. 00:18:51:11 - 00:18:51:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But here on 00:18:51:23 - 00:19:10:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry screen is the definitive social media guide for churches and youth ministries in 2025. I love for you to check that video out. If you're watching here on YouTube, just go ahead and tap that screen. But for the rest of you, I hope you had a merry Christmas. If you're watching this live, no matter when you're watching it. 00:19:10:06 - 00:19:21:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Thank you to all my Patreon supporters. Appreciate you guys. It should be having some merch sent your way. Those of you who signed up before December 2nd, don't forget and as always my friends to stay hybrid. Youth Ministry, Nick Clason, Hybrid Ministry, Youth Group Social media, What to Post on Social Media, VidIQ, Pew Research, How to Reach generation Alpha, Social Media for Churches in 2025, Social media for youth groups, Student Ministry, Youth Ministry Coach, 🎧 Become a “Hybrid Hero”
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

DESCRIPTION
This episode of Hybrid Ministry is your ultimate DIY guide to building a thriving online presence—without hiring me or anyone else. From cracking the content schedule code to creating evergreen videos to simply understanding "hybrid," you’ll get practical tips, tools, and resources to dominate digital ministry in your church or youth ministry.

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/128

//Become a “Hybrid Hero”
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

//VidIQ
https://www.vidiq.com/hybrid

//Easy and Effective Social Challenges
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

//Studio Gear
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/studio

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

//YouTube for Youth Ministry
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl

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

//Communications Done for You
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

👉 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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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

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🛠️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 Church Social Media Explained
02:05 What is Hybrid Ministry?
05:55 Why Hybrid Ministry?
08:34 What is your content creation and capturing schedule?
14:04 How do you edit your videos?
15:17 If I consulted with you, how would you recommend I get started?

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Pastor, youth pastor, church

00:00:02:01 - 00:00:03:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
communications person. Are you struggling

00:00:03:25 - 00:00:06:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to figure out digital ministry?

00:00:06:00 - 00:00:07:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, here's the deal.

00:00:07:20 - 00:00:13:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I created this video so that you can stop googling church social media tips.

00:00:13:23 - 00:00:18:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in fact, I created this video so that you don't have to hire me or anybody else.

00:00:18:16 - 00:00:27:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to show you and give you what it takes to be able to create a thriving online and digital hybrid presence.

00:00:27:22 - 00:00:30:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, here's the thing. I've been doing this podcast for

00:00:30:02 - 00:00:47:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
over two years now, and in my over two year journey of this podcast and hybrid ministry, I am helping churches do online well. But I'm also helping churches maintain their in-person presence and find that intersection, which is always the goal as we're trying to create

00:00:47:18 - 00:00:53:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a church so that it matches and mirrors people where they are.

00:00:53:01 - 00:00:59:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that intersection is what I like to call hybrid right there in the middle. And so we're

00:00:59:02 - 00:01:11:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
going to dive into some of the frequently asked questions here on the Hybrid Ministry show as we round out 2024 and set our sights to 2025.

00:01:11:01 - 00:01:13:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. If you not haven't had a chance to meet you.

00:01:13:27 - 00:01:24:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My name is Nicholas, and while I've been doing this podcast for two and a half years, I've been doing ministry for 14 years. And, my journey all along the way has led me towards this hybrid

00:01:24:01 - 00:01:31:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
sort of ministry. But in this episode, we are going to tackle some of the frequently asked questions that I've gotten from people all across the internet.

00:01:31:20 - 00:01:37:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Different groups have been in cohorts. I've run workshops, so I've led asking questions like, what

00:01:37:04 - 00:01:50:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is hybrid ministry? Why is it even important? What is your content schedule? What's your capturing schedule? How do you edit the videos? What is, what would you consult me to do if I was just getting started? And

00:01:50:01 - 00:01:52:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we are going to walk through all of those things.

00:01:52:25 - 00:02:04:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as always, if you're here on YouTube, don't forget there are chapters down below at the bottom of the screen so that you can jump around to the question that means the most to you. Welcome to Hybrid Ministry show.

00:02:04:17 - 00:02:16:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Question number one. We alluded to it in the intro, but what is hybrid ministry? My favorite analogy, and this is actually some of the stuff that we're exploring over on my brand new Patreon

00:02:16:18 - 00:02:16:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
page.

00:02:16:29 - 00:02:34:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And some of these questions actually came from some of our brand new Patreon members. Shout out to Jesse. Johnson. Love having you over here. But, some of these questions, are like, what is hybrid ministry? Okay. So some of the questions are like, why? What's the purpose of this? What even is it? So it's important.

00:02:34:20 - 00:02:55:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's get a baseline okay. Again, chapters at the bottom. If you already know this, jump ahead. But hybrid ministry is intersecting your in-person and your digital, right. We all know in Covid we had digital church only. And we know that we hated it. Struggle with it, didn't know how to engage students. Well, we missed the in-person. And so when, restrictions are lifted, we all came back to in-person.

00:02:55:26 - 00:03:02:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we miss it. We miss community. We miss friendship. We miss praying with one another. We missed sharing meals together,

00:03:02:22 - 00:03:15:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
but we did a lot of good ministry over here too. Digitally. Right. And so, we kind of got these two buckets here. You got online only and you got in-person only. Let's let's examine

00:03:15:09 - 00:03:16:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
what each of those are good for.

00:03:16:14 - 00:03:30:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My opinion online is a fantastic content delivery system. So emails, information announcements but also content sermons, podcasts, long form teaching courses, things like that. What is in-person good for

00:03:30:29 - 00:03:37:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that? Online struggles with real, authentic community. Like you. You can have a version of community

00:03:37:06 - 00:03:41:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
because of in-person friendships through like a means like texting or even like chats and stuff like that.

00:03:41:27 - 00:04:03:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I mean real in-person community, like, we all kind of hunger for it long for. And you, some people like, are in the metaverse and and that's satisfying that sort of age. They're friends with people from a distance. But but a lot of ways like real community life on life, sharing meals together, carrying one another's burdens, prayer requests, honestly, everything in like a shepherding, sort of like

00:04:03:05 - 00:04:04:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
small group space.

00:04:04:18 - 00:04:28:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if we look at a typical Sunday morning sermon, most of it is what we can accomplish with online. And thus in lies the inherent tension. Because everything we can do on a Sunday morning can be easily replicable. And frankly, it's even a little bit more attractive, especially to people like Gen, Gen Z, millennials, even Gen Alpha to consume content, sermons and church services online.

00:04:29:05 - 00:04:45:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But what younger generations are craving and the church has to figure out how to offer it in a way that, either takes the place of Sunday morning or as an attractive alternative to what's going on Sunday morning. Is that real, deep, authentic life on life, biblical community

00:04:45:19 - 00:04:50:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and that intersection of where you're online, which you should have online.

00:04:50:15 - 00:04:59:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you if you're a mostly in-person church hybrid ministry for you is adding in online so that you can have a more robust experience of your church, if you're an online

00:04:59:10 - 00:05:13:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
only church, which are very few and far between, you should figure out how to add some more in-person type elements so that we can intersect between the two online, online, in-person intersects at that hybrid ministry spot.

00:05:13:14 - 00:05:14:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I liken it to

00:05:14:25 - 00:05:39:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Home Depot. Okay, so I can go buy something on Home Depot website completely online experience, or I can go browse the aisles completely in-person experience. But that hybrid moment happens when I pull up my phone and I look on the app and it tells me exactly where I can find that boat, exactly what aisle and exactly what bay I'm in person, but I'm experiencing it through the app digitally, and thus it creates that sort of hybrid moment.

00:05:39:13 - 00:05:55:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're not, again, already over with us on Patreon, I would love to invite you because that's what we're doing. We're answering how I take my in-person services, and I'm sprinkling in hybrid, and I'm just literally walking you through what I'm doing on a week by week basis. Question number two

00:05:55:12 - 00:05:59:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
why? Like, why all this digital content?

00:05:59:03 - 00:06:05:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Why social media? Why YouTube? Why why why? Well, link down below is my 100% free

00:06:05:23 - 00:06:12:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
hybrid ministry strategy guide. I have been offering this now for over a year and it's gone

00:06:12:29 - 00:06:27:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
through a couple of rebrands, but the majority of what I've created in that has remained the same because social media, around the, pandemic time has actually shifted the way that it's been done.

00:06:27:09 - 00:06:29:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right? We were previously in what was known

00:06:29:06 - 00:06:37:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
as the Social Graph era, and now we're in what's called the Discovery era. Okay, so here's just a couple of things that are really important to know.

00:06:37:23 - 00:06:46:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
95% of teenagers say that they have been, will be, or plan to be on YouTube. Now, obviously some of those are power users, and others of those are just

00:06:46:28 - 00:06:50:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
dabbling in it and looking up videos and stuff for their science fair projects.

00:06:50:09 - 00:06:54:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the fact of the matter is, 95% of teenagers are on YouTube.

00:06:54:16 - 00:07:08:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Furthermore, according to a recent book by Mccrindle. And so it's called Meeting Gen Alpha. They say that Google number one search engine in the world is now being supplanted by Generation Alpha with, you guessed

00:07:08:04 - 00:07:12:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it, YouTube. Also, here's the beautiful thing about YouTube.

00:07:12:14 - 00:07:23:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I got to tell you, like, like I said, I've been creating content for this podcast for over two years and I will still sometimes get I also sometimes get comments I'll get referrals, I'll get people clicking links to

00:07:23:22 - 00:07:36:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
videos that I've made even over a year ago. Right. We don't have that luxury. Oftentimes in churches we create something for the moment, and then that thing dies on our hard drive and we continue on.

00:07:36:06 - 00:07:43:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube is masterful at promoting and allowing content to live on forever. Content creation,

00:07:43:20 - 00:08:00:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
marketing specialists, they call it evergreen content. If you want to know the type of content that teenagers, Gen Alpha, Gen Z, young people in your church are searching, you can use a keyword tool like vid IQ. In fact, I have a link down below if you want to give it a shot and a trial on using it.

00:08:00:24 - 00:08:24:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can do some research. Like what are teenagers asking? And then you go answer those questions. I'm just gonna be honest with you. Like like you should start there always. As you're planning a sermon series, right? Get some keyword research. What are people looking up online? What are the the big questions to life that they're asking. And then have that and then develop a sermon series.

00:08:24:17 - 00:08:33:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And by the way, if you develop your sermon series based off that keyword research is also going to make a fantastic YouTube video and fantastic YouTube

00:08:33:24 - 00:08:34:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
playlist.

00:08:34:04 - 00:08:42:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. Question number three. What is your content schedule and what is your capturing of that content schedule?

00:08:42:16 - 00:08:58:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So according to a website video, 90% of the internet's traffic today and moving on is short form discovery based vertical video, TikTok style, real style YouTube short style videos.

00:08:58:06 - 00:09:10:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, I have a playlist linked right here on the content that I am creating, not only for my students, but with my students. It's my easy and effective social media playlist. It is the four different

00:09:10:25 - 00:09:20:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
social media types that not only do I have students capturing, but also that I have students editing and helping create that final piece form of content.

00:09:20:20 - 00:09:23:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So my schedule is I post two days a

00:09:23:11 - 00:09:45:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
week, I'm sorry, two times a day, five days a week. So ten different pieces of content. Let me walk through it with you. So in my playlist linked back up here that I said just a second ago my easy and effective playlist. We do four different game style videos, so we do drafts, we do seven questions, we do man on the Street and we do transition and invite style videos.

00:09:45:27 - 00:10:07:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Go to that playlist to check out the full, detailed, in-depth thing along with some free templates and downloads. And then an additional piece that we do is a Stay or scroll devotional style video. So that's five different videos, one of each of those that I post every single week. Okay. And I just kind of sprinkle them throughout the pieces of my content calendar that are a little bit like stronger.

00:10:07:15 - 00:10:32:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, short form vertical based video is three teaching clips, and those teaching clips come as clips off of our long form teaching content. Now I'm a youth pastor. We don't have live streaming capabilities, nor do we capture our videos live in our auditorium or in our worship space. So we actually sit down direct to camera and pre-filled. More messages made for YouTube with that vid IQ research indicator.

00:10:32:20 - 00:10:50:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we make those videos hopefully answering teenagers questions, creating evergreen content, and also playlists and sermon series that kids are asking for. And then they can go back to in the future when they're struggling with or have big questions about life, faith, God, whatever the case may be. And so that just that piece of content, we drop a different video every single week.

00:10:50:03 - 00:11:10:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It lines up just when we preach a sermon. Right? So if you're preaching a sermon this Wednesday night, you're preaching a sermon the Sunday night. Put that on video posted to YouTube. But off that YouTube video, three short form clips I use opus. I there's a link down below if you want to try out Opus Clip. It's a fantastic AI sermon short generator.

00:11:10:27 - 00:11:30:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I use it every single week in my ministry, so that's five different pieces of, easy and effective content off that playlist through different pieces of social content, using opus to clip them up. And then I got two more other pieces of content. One is our, meme Monday style video. Not video. I'm sorry meme Monday style post.

00:11:30:08 - 00:11:47:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's just about the only, non video post that I do. Not that I'm against non video post, but don't forget I'm a busy youth pastor and so I got this strategy sort of locked in. And so I don't have a lot of time to go back to the drawing board. And I got students and volunteers help them kind of keep it afloat.

00:11:47:01 - 00:12:00:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we'll reiterate and rehydrate when we need to. But for right now, this has been working for us. And then the 10th final piece of content is, anytime we meet, I get my phone out. I create little like 5 to 8 second clips, vertical video. I take it

00:12:00:24 - 00:12:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
into something like a TikTok. I click that auto cut button and boom!

00:12:04:22 - 00:12:15:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I then have a recap video for anytime we meet Sunday morning. Wednesday night I typically do Wednesday night. Now, like I said, my capturing is during the week. Me and anyone else on our team is going

00:12:15:27 - 00:12:23:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to be preaching. We sit down, we pre film all of our series. Like if we do like a four part series, we film all four of those in one day.

00:12:23:06 - 00:12:41:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One shot off teleprompter. All the things link down below is my studio guide. It has all the links to all the gear that we use. If you want to use a teleprompter or if you want to use, get a tripod, different lighting, all that type of stuff, check that out. So that's when we do those. And then on Wednesday nights when our youth ministry is going on

00:12:41:27 - 00:12:46:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
before and after, we have a social challenge that's happening every single Wednesday night.

00:12:46:19 - 00:12:53:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Students know about it. They seek it out. They want to know when and where is the social challenge happening. So two of those videos,

00:12:53:06 - 00:12:56:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Jason, seven questions. Those take place inside, behind a locked door.

00:12:56:22 - 00:13:04:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I walked over a closed door of our studio to come up with soundproofing and all those things run by volunteers and very few leaders.

00:13:04:14 - 00:13:13:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, our other two videos are transition videos and man on the Street style videos. And so that's us being out and around in our building, in our space. So

00:13:13:06 - 00:13:25:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it's a little bit more visible. And it also helps students sort of be gravitated towards and drawn to what we're doing here on social media. And as far as editing goes, opus II takes care of my editing for my message clips.

00:13:25:07 - 00:13:33:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I do the auto cut one on one on, Wednesday nights. I do that, like right before I start my car and get in to go home. And then the last one I have students

00:13:33:16 - 00:13:44:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
come in early, like early, early on Wednesday night. They're homeschool students, which are two of them. Fantastic. And around 2:00, 3:00 or so, submissions start till about six.

00:13:44:23 - 00:13:49:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so they're in there for 2 or 3 hours, editing videos and, you know, like we give them, you know,

00:13:49:24 - 00:14:00:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
some of them like free retreats or special incentives or we let them stay after and like eat at the leader lunch, you know, eat a leader lunch that we have or whatever. But, mostly they're just doing it because they like it.

00:14:00:14 - 00:14:03:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're fun doing it, and it's a good time. All right. Next question.

00:14:03:28 - 00:14:14:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How do you edit videos? Well, I just told you, like, I got students that are helping me, carry that load. I use some I but like the actual platform that I use is my preference is

00:14:14:24 - 00:14:18:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Adobe Premiere Pro. It is the most expensive of all the options.

00:14:18:29 - 00:14:22:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Final Cut Pro is another option. You can check that out if you're interested, or

00:14:22:16 - 00:14:41:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
DaVinci resolve, both of which are cheaper than Adobe Premiere Pro, primarily because Adobe Premiere Pro has a monthly subscription cost associated with it. However, what I learned, churches have paid for it for me for now. And I mean, I, you know, wish I could do something new, do something cheaper, but I don't have the bandwidth to to learn something cheaper.

00:14:41:13 - 00:14:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But there are cheaper options out there. You can of course you something like iMovie or Movie Maker on your windows and

00:14:48:02 - 00:14:59:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
cap cut actually has a fantastic editing platform. You can do quite a bit with it and you're going to look pretty professional. You can do that, obviously off of your film, but you can also do it off of like, just a

00:14:59:19 - 00:15:00:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
web editor.

00:15:00:25 - 00:15:17:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, I believe that they're, like premium or pro feature fee is not too difficult to, figure out and or not to not not too expensive. Not too high barrier to entry. So if that's something you're interested, go ahead and check out cap cut. All right.

00:15:17:01 - 00:15:23:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Last question I have here from those of you, thank you so much for submitting them via our Patreon community members.

00:15:23:05 - 00:15:40:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Appreciate you guys. Love you guys. Again, if you're interested, check that out down below. Link in the show notes. Question is, if you are consulting me, what order would you start with? Doing something starting from nothing. We have all the in-person, nothing digital. Well, here's what I would do. First of all,

00:15:40:15 - 00:15:43:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
make sure your website is up to date.

00:15:43:06 - 00:16:07:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Second of all, then I would start creating this short form vertical, videos and I would start with three per week. Right. So some sort of recap video, if you can't do a clip of your message, just do a selfie style talking head recap style video of it, right. If you do have like the long form footage of it, drop it into opus clip and try, you know, get a clip spit out.

00:16:07:08 - 00:16:25:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Second video I would do is I would do some sort of educationally based, spirit promoting spiritual practice sort of video. Okay. What I mean by that is like, you can have, a video off your camera, literally any video. One time I filmed a video of a turtle walking across the street in my neighborhood. It can be that simple.

00:16:25:16 - 00:16:41:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can do text on screen. Three things the Bible says about prayer. 1 to 3. Right? That I'll. And you can do that in any editor. You can use it in the, YouTube shorts that are the TikTok editor, the reels editor. You can bring it into something like cap cut and create it, export it and post it all those different places.

00:16:42:02 - 00:17:01:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But start creating those different types of content. And the last one is how to do some sort of fun thing, some sort of social challenge esque thing. Dress seven questions. And if those are too heavy on the edit side, which they are a little bit heavier on the edit side, they don't have to be, but they can be do man on the street, man, get a microphone, buy a cheap one.

00:17:01:14 - 00:17:17:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again. I got some links down on my studio. Episode link down below. Buy some cheap mics and walk around and interview students in your space. Right? Like if I was doing this next week. All right, let's pretend you're watching this live end of 2024 and you come back in January. I'd walk around with a microphone.

00:17:17:05 - 00:17:18:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You or a student.

00:17:18:12 - 00:17:37:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. Off of any camera? Your camera, their camera doesn't matter. Get those two little USB microphones again, link down below, grab those and then walk around. Be like, hey, what's your New Year's resolution this year? And then ask them or give them a microphone and you can do something even funny with it. Like me and a former resident of mine, Caleb, shout out to Caleb Flywheel, my ETA.

00:17:38:09 - 00:17:45:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We put our little mikes, clipped them on to like, spoons, and then we just held spoons so you can walk around with spoons if you want to, like, have some sort

00:17:45:02 - 00:17:51:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of, like, handle thing to hold. Right. But, you know, like, what's your New Year's resolution? The other person's holding it and they answer and either they have one or they don't.

00:17:52:02 - 00:18:15:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or have you broken your New Year's resolution yet. And you ask them, and if you get like 8 or 10 of those people answering those questions, then you drop those in somewhere, either on your phone, you can edit something like capture or bring them in something even more powerful, like Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci resolve. Whatever your editor of Choices and edit that down, post it, keep them less than 60s and you're off to the races

00:18:15:00 - 00:18:16:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and the eye on the prize.

00:18:16:25 - 00:18:35:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay, when I'm starting with you, the eye on the prize is to get long form videos up to YouTube. Okay, you don't have to do two times a day, five days a week like I do. You do you? I do want you to be regular, and I do want you to start getting your long form pieces of content to YouTube.

00:18:35:03 - 00:18:37:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's where I come in, because I can offer you

00:18:37:17 - 00:18:51:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
coaching where I'll teach you how to do it, or my communications done for you, or I'll actually do it for you. You film it, send it to me, I'll edit it. We can talk about price. We'll get to it. Both of those are linked down below in the description.

00:18:51:11 - 00:18:51:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here on

00:18:51:23 - 00:19:10:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
screen is the definitive social media guide for churches and youth ministries in 2025. I love for you to check that video out. If you're watching here on YouTube, just go ahead and tap that screen. But for the rest of you, I hope you had a merry Christmas. If you're watching this live, no matter when you're watching it.

00:19:10:06 - 00:19:21:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Thank you to all my Patreon supporters. Appreciate you guys. It should be having some merch sent your way. Those of you who signed up before December 2nd, don't forget and as always my friends to stay hybrid.

]]> 🎧 Become a “Hybrid Hero”
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

DESCRIPTION
This episode of Hybrid Ministry is your ultimate DIY guide to building a thriving online presence—without hiring me or anyone else. From cracking the content schedule code to creating evergreen videos to simply understanding "hybrid," you’ll get practical tips, tools, and resources to dominate digital ministry in your church or youth ministry.

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/128

//Become a “Hybrid Hero”
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

//VidIQ
https://www.vidiq.com/hybrid

//Easy and Effective Social Challenges
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

//Studio Gear
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/studio

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

//YouTube for Youth Ministry
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl

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

//Communications Done for You
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

👉 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

--------------
🎉 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 Church Social Media Explained
02:05 What is Hybrid Ministry?
05:55 Why Hybrid Ministry?
08:34 What is your content creation and capturing schedule?
14:04 How do you edit your videos?
15:17 If I consulted with you, how would you recommend I get started?

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Pastor, youth pastor, church

00:00:02:01 - 00:00:03:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
communications person. Are you struggling

00:00:03:25 - 00:00:06:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to figure out digital ministry?

00:00:06:00 - 00:00:07:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, here's the deal.

00:00:07:20 - 00:00:13:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I created this video so that you can stop googling church social media tips.

00:00:13:23 - 00:00:18:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in fact, I created this video so that you don't have to hire me or anybody else.

00:00:18:16 - 00:00:27:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to show you and give you what it takes to be able to create a thriving online and digital hybrid presence.

00:00:27:22 - 00:00:30:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, here's the thing. I've been doing this podcast for

00:00:30:02 - 00:00:47:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
over two years now, and in my over two year journey of this podcast and hybrid ministry, I am helping churches do online well. But I'm also helping churches maintain their in-person presence and find that intersection, which is always the goal as we're trying to create

00:00:47:18 - 00:00:53:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a church so that it matches and mirrors people where they are.

00:00:53:01 - 00:00:59:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that intersection is what I like to call hybrid right there in the middle. And so we're

00:00:59:02 - 00:01:11:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
going to dive into some of the frequently asked questions here on the Hybrid Ministry show as we round out 2024 and set our sights to 2025.

00:01:11:01 - 00:01:13:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. If you not haven't had a chance to meet you.

00:01:13:27 - 00:01:24:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My name is Nicholas, and while I've been doing this podcast for two and a half years, I've been doing ministry for 14 years. And, my journey all along the way has led me towards this hybrid

00:01:24:01 - 00:01:31:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
sort of ministry. But in this episode, we are going to tackle some of the frequently asked questions that I've gotten from people all across the internet.

00:01:31:20 - 00:01:37:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Different groups have been in cohorts. I've run workshops, so I've led asking questions like, what

00:01:37:04 - 00:01:50:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is hybrid ministry? Why is it even important? What is your content schedule? What's your capturing schedule? How do you edit the videos? What is, what would you consult me to do if I was just getting started? And

00:01:50:01 - 00:01:52:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we are going to walk through all of those things.

00:01:52:25 - 00:02:04:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as always, if you're here on YouTube, don't forget there are chapters down below at the bottom of the screen so that you can jump around to the question that means the most to you. Welcome to Hybrid Ministry show.

00:02:04:17 - 00:02:16:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Question number one. We alluded to it in the intro, but what is hybrid ministry? My favorite analogy, and this is actually some of the stuff that we're exploring over on my brand new Patreon

00:02:16:18 - 00:02:16:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
page.

00:02:16:29 - 00:02:34:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And some of these questions actually came from some of our brand new Patreon members. Shout out to Jesse. Johnson. Love having you over here. But, some of these questions, are like, what is hybrid ministry? Okay. So some of the questions are like, why? What's the purpose of this? What even is it? So it's important.

00:02:34:20 - 00:02:55:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's get a baseline okay. Again, chapters at the bottom. If you already know this, jump ahead. But hybrid ministry is intersecting your in-person and your digital, right. We all know in Covid we had digital church only. And we know that we hated it. Struggle with it, didn't know how to engage students. Well, we missed the in-person. And so when, restrictions are lifted, we all came back to in-person.

00:02:55:26 - 00:03:02:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we miss it. We miss community. We miss friendship. We miss praying with one another. We missed sharing meals together,

00:03:02:22 - 00:03:15:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
but we did a lot of good ministry over here too. Digitally. Right. And so, we kind of got these two buckets here. You got online only and you got in-person only. Let's let's examine

00:03:15:09 - 00:03:16:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
what each of those are good for.

00:03:16:14 - 00:03:30:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My opinion online is a fantastic content delivery system. So emails, information announcements but also content sermons, podcasts, long form teaching courses, things like that. What is in-person good for

00:03:30:29 - 00:03:37:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that? Online struggles with real, authentic community. Like you. You can have a version of community

00:03:37:06 - 00:03:41:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
because of in-person friendships through like a means like texting or even like chats and stuff like that.

00:03:41:27 - 00:04:03:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I mean real in-person community, like, we all kind of hunger for it long for. And you, some people like, are in the metaverse and and that's satisfying that sort of age. They're friends with people from a distance. But but a lot of ways like real community life on life, sharing meals together, carrying one another's burdens, prayer requests, honestly, everything in like a shepherding, sort of like

00:04:03:05 - 00:04:04:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
small group space.

00:04:04:18 - 00:04:28:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if we look at a typical Sunday morning sermon, most of it is what we can accomplish with online. And thus in lies the inherent tension. Because everything we can do on a Sunday morning can be easily replicable. And frankly, it's even a little bit more attractive, especially to people like Gen, Gen Z, millennials, even Gen Alpha to consume content, sermons and church services online.

00:04:29:05 - 00:04:45:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But what younger generations are craving and the church has to figure out how to offer it in a way that, either takes the place of Sunday morning or as an attractive alternative to what's going on Sunday morning. Is that real, deep, authentic life on life, biblical community

00:04:45:19 - 00:04:50:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and that intersection of where you're online, which you should have online.

00:04:50:15 - 00:04:59:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you if you're a mostly in-person church hybrid ministry for you is adding in online so that you can have a more robust experience of your church, if you're an online

00:04:59:10 - 00:05:13:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
only church, which are very few and far between, you should figure out how to add some more in-person type elements so that we can intersect between the two online, online, in-person intersects at that hybrid ministry spot.

00:05:13:14 - 00:05:14:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I liken it to

00:05:14:25 - 00:05:39:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Home Depot. Okay, so I can go buy something on Home Depot website completely online experience, or I can go browse the aisles completely in-person experience. But that hybrid moment happens when I pull up my phone and I look on the app and it tells me exactly where I can find that boat, exactly what aisle and exactly what bay I'm in person, but I'm experiencing it through the app digitally, and thus it creates that sort of hybrid moment.

00:05:39:13 - 00:05:55:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're not, again, already over with us on Patreon, I would love to invite you because that's what we're doing. We're answering how I take my in-person services, and I'm sprinkling in hybrid, and I'm just literally walking you through what I'm doing on a week by week basis. Question number two

00:05:55:12 - 00:05:59:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
why? Like, why all this digital content?

00:05:59:03 - 00:06:05:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Why social media? Why YouTube? Why why why? Well, link down below is my 100% free

00:06:05:23 - 00:06:12:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
hybrid ministry strategy guide. I have been offering this now for over a year and it's gone

00:06:12:29 - 00:06:27:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
through a couple of rebrands, but the majority of what I've created in that has remained the same because social media, around the, pandemic time has actually shifted the way that it's been done.

00:06:27:09 - 00:06:29:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right? We were previously in what was known

00:06:29:06 - 00:06:37:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
as the Social Graph era, and now we're in what's called the Discovery era. Okay, so here's just a couple of things that are really important to know.

00:06:37:23 - 00:06:46:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
95% of teenagers say that they have been, will be, or plan to be on YouTube. Now, obviously some of those are power users, and others of those are just

00:06:46:28 - 00:06:50:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
dabbling in it and looking up videos and stuff for their science fair projects.

00:06:50:09 - 00:06:54:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the fact of the matter is, 95% of teenagers are on YouTube.

00:06:54:16 - 00:07:08:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Furthermore, according to a recent book by Mccrindle. And so it's called Meeting Gen Alpha. They say that Google number one search engine in the world is now being supplanted by Generation Alpha with, you guessed

00:07:08:04 - 00:07:12:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it, YouTube. Also, here's the beautiful thing about YouTube.

00:07:12:14 - 00:07:23:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I got to tell you, like, like I said, I've been creating content for this podcast for over two years and I will still sometimes get I also sometimes get comments I'll get referrals, I'll get people clicking links to

00:07:23:22 - 00:07:36:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
videos that I've made even over a year ago. Right. We don't have that luxury. Oftentimes in churches we create something for the moment, and then that thing dies on our hard drive and we continue on.

00:07:36:06 - 00:07:43:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube is masterful at promoting and allowing content to live on forever. Content creation,

00:07:43:20 - 00:08:00:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
marketing specialists, they call it evergreen content. If you want to know the type of content that teenagers, Gen Alpha, Gen Z, young people in your church are searching, you can use a keyword tool like vid IQ. In fact, I have a link down below if you want to give it a shot and a trial on using it.

00:08:00:24 - 00:08:24:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can do some research. Like what are teenagers asking? And then you go answer those questions. I'm just gonna be honest with you. Like like you should start there always. As you're planning a sermon series, right? Get some keyword research. What are people looking up online? What are the the big questions to life that they're asking. And then have that and then develop a sermon series.

00:08:24:17 - 00:08:33:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And by the way, if you develop your sermon series based off that keyword research is also going to make a fantastic YouTube video and fantastic YouTube

00:08:33:24 - 00:08:34:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
playlist.

00:08:34:04 - 00:08:42:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. Question number three. What is your content schedule and what is your capturing of that content schedule?

00:08:42:16 - 00:08:58:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So according to a website video, 90% of the internet's traffic today and moving on is short form discovery based vertical video, TikTok style, real style YouTube short style videos.

00:08:58:06 - 00:09:10:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, I have a playlist linked right here on the content that I am creating, not only for my students, but with my students. It's my easy and effective social media playlist. It is the four different

00:09:10:25 - 00:09:20:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
social media types that not only do I have students capturing, but also that I have students editing and helping create that final piece form of content.

00:09:20:20 - 00:09:23:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So my schedule is I post two days a

00:09:23:11 - 00:09:45:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
week, I'm sorry, two times a day, five days a week. So ten different pieces of content. Let me walk through it with you. So in my playlist linked back up here that I said just a second ago my easy and effective playlist. We do four different game style videos, so we do drafts, we do seven questions, we do man on the Street and we do transition and invite style videos.

00:09:45:27 - 00:10:07:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Go to that playlist to check out the full, detailed, in-depth thing along with some free templates and downloads. And then an additional piece that we do is a Stay or scroll devotional style video. So that's five different videos, one of each of those that I post every single week. Okay. And I just kind of sprinkle them throughout the pieces of my content calendar that are a little bit like stronger.

00:10:07:15 - 00:10:32:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, short form vertical based video is three teaching clips, and those teaching clips come as clips off of our long form teaching content. Now I'm a youth pastor. We don't have live streaming capabilities, nor do we capture our videos live in our auditorium or in our worship space. So we actually sit down direct to camera and pre-filled. More messages made for YouTube with that vid IQ research indicator.

00:10:32:20 - 00:10:50:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we make those videos hopefully answering teenagers questions, creating evergreen content, and also playlists and sermon series that kids are asking for. And then they can go back to in the future when they're struggling with or have big questions about life, faith, God, whatever the case may be. And so that just that piece of content, we drop a different video every single week.

00:10:50:03 - 00:11:10:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It lines up just when we preach a sermon. Right? So if you're preaching a sermon this Wednesday night, you're preaching a sermon the Sunday night. Put that on video posted to YouTube. But off that YouTube video, three short form clips I use opus. I there's a link down below if you want to try out Opus Clip. It's a fantastic AI sermon short generator.

00:11:10:27 - 00:11:30:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I use it every single week in my ministry, so that's five different pieces of, easy and effective content off that playlist through different pieces of social content, using opus to clip them up. And then I got two more other pieces of content. One is our, meme Monday style video. Not video. I'm sorry meme Monday style post.

00:11:30:08 - 00:11:47:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's just about the only, non video post that I do. Not that I'm against non video post, but don't forget I'm a busy youth pastor and so I got this strategy sort of locked in. And so I don't have a lot of time to go back to the drawing board. And I got students and volunteers help them kind of keep it afloat.

00:11:47:01 - 00:12:00:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we'll reiterate and rehydrate when we need to. But for right now, this has been working for us. And then the 10th final piece of content is, anytime we meet, I get my phone out. I create little like 5 to 8 second clips, vertical video. I take it

00:12:00:24 - 00:12:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
into something like a TikTok. I click that auto cut button and boom!

00:12:04:22 - 00:12:15:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I then have a recap video for anytime we meet Sunday morning. Wednesday night I typically do Wednesday night. Now, like I said, my capturing is during the week. Me and anyone else on our team is going

00:12:15:27 - 00:12:23:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to be preaching. We sit down, we pre film all of our series. Like if we do like a four part series, we film all four of those in one day.

00:12:23:06 - 00:12:41:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One shot off teleprompter. All the things link down below is my studio guide. It has all the links to all the gear that we use. If you want to use a teleprompter or if you want to use, get a tripod, different lighting, all that type of stuff, check that out. So that's when we do those. And then on Wednesday nights when our youth ministry is going on

00:12:41:27 - 00:12:46:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
before and after, we have a social challenge that's happening every single Wednesday night.

00:12:46:19 - 00:12:53:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Students know about it. They seek it out. They want to know when and where is the social challenge happening. So two of those videos,

00:12:53:06 - 00:12:56:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Jason, seven questions. Those take place inside, behind a locked door.

00:12:56:22 - 00:13:04:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I walked over a closed door of our studio to come up with soundproofing and all those things run by volunteers and very few leaders.

00:13:04:14 - 00:13:13:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, our other two videos are transition videos and man on the Street style videos. And so that's us being out and around in our building, in our space. So

00:13:13:06 - 00:13:25:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it's a little bit more visible. And it also helps students sort of be gravitated towards and drawn to what we're doing here on social media. And as far as editing goes, opus II takes care of my editing for my message clips.

00:13:25:07 - 00:13:33:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I do the auto cut one on one on, Wednesday nights. I do that, like right before I start my car and get in to go home. And then the last one I have students

00:13:33:16 - 00:13:44:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
come in early, like early, early on Wednesday night. They're homeschool students, which are two of them. Fantastic. And around 2:00, 3:00 or so, submissions start till about six.

00:13:44:23 - 00:13:49:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so they're in there for 2 or 3 hours, editing videos and, you know, like we give them, you know,

00:13:49:24 - 00:14:00:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
some of them like free retreats or special incentives or we let them stay after and like eat at the leader lunch, you know, eat a leader lunch that we have or whatever. But, mostly they're just doing it because they like it.

00:14:00:14 - 00:14:03:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're fun doing it, and it's a good time. All right. Next question.

00:14:03:28 - 00:14:14:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How do you edit videos? Well, I just told you, like, I got students that are helping me, carry that load. I use some I but like the actual platform that I use is my preference is

00:14:14:24 - 00:14:18:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Adobe Premiere Pro. It is the most expensive of all the options.

00:14:18:29 - 00:14:22:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Final Cut Pro is another option. You can check that out if you're interested, or

00:14:22:16 - 00:14:41:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
DaVinci resolve, both of which are cheaper than Adobe Premiere Pro, primarily because Adobe Premiere Pro has a monthly subscription cost associated with it. However, what I learned, churches have paid for it for me for now. And I mean, I, you know, wish I could do something new, do something cheaper, but I don't have the bandwidth to to learn something cheaper.

00:14:41:13 - 00:14:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But there are cheaper options out there. You can of course you something like iMovie or Movie Maker on your windows and

00:14:48:02 - 00:14:59:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
cap cut actually has a fantastic editing platform. You can do quite a bit with it and you're going to look pretty professional. You can do that, obviously off of your film, but you can also do it off of like, just a

00:14:59:19 - 00:15:00:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
web editor.

00:15:00:25 - 00:15:17:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, I believe that they're, like premium or pro feature fee is not too difficult to, figure out and or not to not not too expensive. Not too high barrier to entry. So if that's something you're interested, go ahead and check out cap cut. All right.

00:15:17:01 - 00:15:23:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Last question I have here from those of you, thank you so much for submitting them via our Patreon community members.

00:15:23:05 - 00:15:40:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Appreciate you guys. Love you guys. Again, if you're interested, check that out down below. Link in the show notes. Question is, if you are consulting me, what order would you start with? Doing something starting from nothing. We have all the in-person, nothing digital. Well, here's what I would do. First of all,

00:15:40:15 - 00:15:43:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
make sure your website is up to date.

00:15:43:06 - 00:16:07:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Second of all, then I would start creating this short form vertical, videos and I would start with three per week. Right. So some sort of recap video, if you can't do a clip of your message, just do a selfie style talking head recap style video of it, right. If you do have like the long form footage of it, drop it into opus clip and try, you know, get a clip spit out.

00:16:07:08 - 00:16:25:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Second video I would do is I would do some sort of educationally based, spirit promoting spiritual practice sort of video. Okay. What I mean by that is like, you can have, a video off your camera, literally any video. One time I filmed a video of a turtle walking across the street in my neighborhood. It can be that simple.

00:16:25:16 - 00:16:41:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can do text on screen. Three things the Bible says about prayer. 1 to 3. Right? That I'll. And you can do that in any editor. You can use it in the, YouTube shorts that are the TikTok editor, the reels editor. You can bring it into something like cap cut and create it, export it and post it all those different places.

00:16:42:02 - 00:17:01:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But start creating those different types of content. And the last one is how to do some sort of fun thing, some sort of social challenge esque thing. Dress seven questions. And if those are too heavy on the edit side, which they are a little bit heavier on the edit side, they don't have to be, but they can be do man on the street, man, get a microphone, buy a cheap one.

00:17:01:14 - 00:17:17:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again. I got some links down on my studio. Episode link down below. Buy some cheap mics and walk around and interview students in your space. Right? Like if I was doing this next week. All right, let's pretend you're watching this live end of 2024 and you come back in January. I'd walk around with a microphone.

00:17:17:05 - 00:17:18:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You or a student.

00:17:18:12 - 00:17:37:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. Off of any camera? Your camera, their camera doesn't matter. Get those two little USB microphones again, link down below, grab those and then walk around. Be like, hey, what's your New Year's resolution this year? And then ask them or give them a microphone and you can do something even funny with it. Like me and a former resident of mine, Caleb, shout out to Caleb Flywheel, my ETA.

00:17:38:09 - 00:17:45:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We put our little mikes, clipped them on to like, spoons, and then we just held spoons so you can walk around with spoons if you want to, like, have some sort

00:17:45:02 - 00:17:51:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of, like, handle thing to hold. Right. But, you know, like, what's your New Year's resolution? The other person's holding it and they answer and either they have one or they don't.

00:17:52:02 - 00:18:15:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or have you broken your New Year's resolution yet. And you ask them, and if you get like 8 or 10 of those people answering those questions, then you drop those in somewhere, either on your phone, you can edit something like capture or bring them in something even more powerful, like Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci resolve. Whatever your editor of Choices and edit that down, post it, keep them less than 60s and you're off to the races

00:18:15:00 - 00:18:16:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and the eye on the prize.

00:18:16:25 - 00:18:35:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay, when I'm starting with you, the eye on the prize is to get long form videos up to YouTube. Okay, you don't have to do two times a day, five days a week like I do. You do you? I do want you to be regular, and I do want you to start getting your long form pieces of content to YouTube.

00:18:35:03 - 00:18:37:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's where I come in, because I can offer you

00:18:37:17 - 00:18:51:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
coaching where I'll teach you how to do it, or my communications done for you, or I'll actually do it for you. You film it, send it to me, I'll edit it. We can talk about price. We'll get to it. Both of those are linked down below in the description.

00:18:51:11 - 00:18:51:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here on

00:18:51:23 - 00:19:10:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
screen is the definitive social media guide for churches and youth ministries in 2025. I love for you to check that video out. If you're watching here on YouTube, just go ahead and tap that screen. But for the rest of you, I hope you had a merry Christmas. If you're watching this live, no matter when you're watching it.

00:19:10:06 - 00:19:21:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Thank you to all my Patreon supporters. Appreciate you guys. It should be having some merch sent your way. Those of you who signed up before December 2nd, don't forget and as always my friends to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 127: More than a Random Name Generator https://www.hybridministry.xyz/127 d3cbd103-9219-46ef-bfee-603836a855ef Thu, 12 Dec 2024 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 127 More than a Random Name Generator full Nick Clason In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, discover how to create truly interactive sermons and programming using the Random Name Generator from Sidekick made by Download Youth Ministry to engage students like never before! We’ll explore practical ways to blend creativity with technology, making your youth ministry sermons more dynamic and memorable. Ideal for leaders aiming to elevate their hybrid ministry approach in their student ministry, this episode offers key strategies to transform your youth ministry programming! 13:30 no 🎧 BONUS WEEKLY PODCAST https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry 🖥️ SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup DESCRIPTION In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, discover how to create truly interactive sermons and programming using the Random Name Generator from Sidekick made by Download Youth Ministry to engage students like never before! We’ll explore practical ways to blend creativity with technology, making your youth ministry sermons more dynamic and memorable. Ideal for leaders aiming to elevate their hybrid ministry approach in their student ministry, this episode offers key strategies to transform your youth ministry programming! 📓 SHOWNOTES http://www.hybridministry.xyz/127 //SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup //COLEADER PRICING CODE: HYBRIDMINISTRY10 https://www.sidekick.tv/pricing //[FREE] STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book //CUSTOM HYBRID COACHING https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching //CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 &amp; 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 The Most Personal Element of Sidekick to Date 01:34 #1 Creative Name Generator Idea 04:27 Operating "Pick Me" 06:04 #2 Creative Name Generator Idea 07:28 #3 Creative Name Generator Idea 08:19 Different Sound Effect Options 10:09 #4 Creative Name Generator Idea 11:26 #5 Creative Name Generator Idea -------------- 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:11:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry As we've been exploring more engaging sermons through your presentations and specifically your presentation software, we're talking about sidekick in the play, this link right 00:00:11:26 - 00:00:16:59 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry here. And this is the fourth and final video, but this feature is the feature that when I saw this 00:00:16:59 - 00:00:23:59 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry feature rolled out at the Orange Conference and I believe it was 2016 when they 00:00:23:59 - 00:00:28:47 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry showed it to me, I instantly said, and then sign me up. 00:00:28:51 - 00:00:50:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What does it take? How much does it cost? Actually, I don't care. It doesn't matter. This is what I want. And this is the feature that sidekick still has rolled out to this day, in my personal opinion. It is my necklaces favorite feature, and it is one that I believe that you can and you should be using in your presentations. 00:00:50:28 - 00:01:07:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Whether you're a youth pastor, whether you're a college minister, whether you're an adult pastor, or whether, frankly, you're a senior pastor, it is the random name picker and random name generator. And in this video and in this episode, I want to share five of my favorite ways 00:01:07:23 - 00:01:11:46 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry to creatively use the name picker. I'm going to drill deep down 00:01:11:46 - 00:01:16:51 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry into all of the features of how you can use it and utilize it, and what it has to offer. 00:01:16:57 - 00:01:24:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you're watching here on YouTube, you're going to see a live demo and a live tutorial and a screen share of it. And don't forget, as always, there 00:01:24:01 - 00:01:35:31 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry are chapters down below at the bottom of this video so that you can skip around to the ones that make the most sense to you. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry Show. 00:01:35:36 - 00:01:47:54 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So way. Number one, that I love to use the random name generator because as you know, when you're at church, you don't know which of your youth group kids are going to show up on any given week. And 00:01:47:54 - 00:02:04:52 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry so one of my favorite ways to use it is in our retreats or in our camps or within things that, that have a registration component to it, because, you know, every kid you're taking to camp, you should and you should definitely know that number because you better return with that many kids. 00:02:04:53 - 00:02:20:39 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Give me a like if you've ever worried that you lost a kid, a youth camp, and, either way, one of the things I like to do is when we have a big event and listen, what I'm about to explain is one of the things I'm going to start doing on my Patreon show. By the way, if you didn't know, we're launching a Patreon show. 00:02:20:39 - 00:02:45:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you're watching here on screen, you can see the slide. We are going to be offering bonus content, and that bonus content is going to drop once per week. And I'm very simply going to talk through all of the different ways that we are using and utilizing hybrid in our ministry, and I hope that as you sit in and as you listen, it helps you to get the creative juices going a little bit in your own brain and in your own ministry. 00:02:45:03 - 00:03:06:34 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And as you pursue hybrid, not because it's cool and not because digital and all that stuff is important, but really we're taking our in-person and our digital and we're putting it together, intersecting in most cases, at students cell phones, which gives us an opportunity to impact and influence them beyond the one hour of programing that we have scheduled per week. 00:03:06:34 - 00:03:26:52 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so that is what my Patreon is going to do, this bonus content. But when you have an event, if you have some sort of a check in system, which I know we do, I have our, church community builder, CBM, we have a, report that runs for anyone who's checked in within the last 24 hours. 00:03:26:57 - 00:03:29:54 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so what happens then is, basically 00:03:29:54 - 00:03:53:47 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry once an event has started, I can go into that report, I can download into an Excel sheet, so to speak, or like a dot CSV. I can know all the names of the students who are there. I don't have to guess about the kids who I think might be there, who I thought I saw, but I know for a fact they've checked in and then I can put their names into the random name generator, and then I can use that for raffle giveaways, prizes, and all sorts of things. 00:03:53:47 - 00:04:18:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so say that that spits out into an Excel sheet. You're looking here at an Excel sheet, and you can just highlight an entire cell. Copy. Copy that. Go over here to your name picker. Click edit. Click edit. Pick me. Go to your book editor Payson, and boom, just in case you also wanted their numbers as well. And so now we got all of the names in here. 00:04:18:32 - 00:04:42:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And and then when I go ahead and I get ready to roll this thing, you'll notice. Let me get this full screen here. If you're watching, pretend this is your projector, you're going to drag that window over to your projector. And then you are going to click present and you're good to go. And so now here I am, I want to play and I want to run this pick me game. 00:04:42:00 - 00:05:07:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, I'm going to turn it on to random. And we're going to get this thing rolling and I'm gonna see who's going to win. And it's Nikola to pitch the earbud. Believer himself. And so when you're running it right, you can do things like hide last item. So if I don't want to pitch to win, I can turn this on ahead of time so that it doesn't stop on him again, even though it did. 00:05:07:27 - 00:05:27:33 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But now he's gone and now I'm going to get a new winner. Jacob Jalen Williams himself. Right. Here's the beautiful thing. If you don't trust your tech person, you can do this from your phone. You can do this remotely from an iPad. Or you can do this remotely from even a whole different computer. And you don't even have to be on the same network as that computer. 00:05:27:37 - 00:05:28:42 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You're logged into sidekick 00:05:28:42 - 00:05:44:50 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry on your in your tech booth, and if you're logged in to sidekick from your phone or whatever device, you can run it from both. We are all in on sidekick in fact. Link down below if you want to see our setup of how we do it. To jump back and forth between pro presenter and sidekick, we haven't made the shift to be 00:05:44:50 - 00:05:47:41 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry all in with worship because that's a whole different department. 00:05:47:46 - 00:06:02:42 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I don't call the shots. If I did, we would be all in on sidekick, but since we're not, we have a video switcher. And if you want to be able to bounce back and forth between the two so that you can have the elements of purpose that you like, but all the interactive features of sidekick that you like, check that out down below. 00:06:02:42 - 00:06:29:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, idea number two, one that I really like is rather than names. We've actually done this before in this presentation, and I'm going to show you how to set it up. I did like a series or a message on labels. And so I actually, what I did was, I think I have it in here. I brought in, like, a label, like a hello, my name is type of label, and I just got it loaded. 00:06:29:40 - 00:06:56:34 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And very simply, when it was sitting there on screen and I was teaching, I used that teaching moment sort of as an opportunity to, to to cycle through and filter through some of the different types of labels that we face or that we think we face or that we see or that we feel or that we might even struggle with sometimes, as, you know, people, as teenagers, as followers of Jesus. 00:06:56:39 - 00:07:22:56 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you don't have to just let this be like a random name picker thing. Like you can also use and utilize this as an opportunity, within your teaching, within your teaching components. And so as you see here on screen, I have the hello, my name is name Tag right here. And then they are just simply filtering through, different types of labels that you or that students might struggle with. 00:07:22:56 - 00:07:37:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And that's an opportunity then to go ahead and and use that as a part of your teaching point. Now my third favorite way to go ahead and use the random name generator is, to use a thing called a Volun told 00:07:37:08 - 00:07:50:43 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry generator. And we talked about this a little bit in the, we'll, video in the last video about how you can make a definitive or declarative statement, like the person with the tallest socks, that's only one person. 00:07:50:45 - 00:08:10:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So the person with the tallest socks in your room, they come up in place. So if you don't have a set up or if you don't have check in, but you still want to use this kind of Volun told generator sort of thing, you can put generic statements about students, and then you can use that to get people to come on up as contestants for games and stuff like that. 00:08:10:08 - 00:08:29:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And again, it's just a great way to not have to do the who wants to play? And you're like, how did I pick that kid or not? Like the the random name generator is king and the random name generator decides. And what's cool, even in its customization, right, is that you can create different sound effects, right? So like, there is like a thumbs up sound effect. 00:08:29:16 - 00:08:48:58 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry There is a, kind of shrugging like middle of the road sound effect. And then there's like a party horn sound effect. So if you were playing this and you had the sort of like, like maybe a bad prize or something, you weren't so sure about that you didn't want, this is what the thumbs down sound effect sounds like. 00:08:49:02 - 00:09:06:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That. But, yeah, it's a bummer. No, no one wants is smudging. Like, that's how Thunder fans kind of feel right now anyway. But then you go ahead and you're like that. This guy's kind of mid tier. We're not not really sure if we have an, opinion yet of him or not. Really sure if winning this thing in our youth ministry, we really have an opinion of it. 00:09:06:04 - 00:09:27:42 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yet Dugas. Yeah, okay. Whatever. You know, but then, like, you win something great or like it's a grand prize or something that people really actually want. I mean, he's a front runner for MVP. Let's just be honest. He's outpacing Luke does is the Thunder are the number one seed in the West. And they are the juggernaut that everyone should be afraid of. 00:09:27:42 - 00:09:45:45 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it's led by this guy. And so you should you should have that sound. Hey give me a like if you're a, Thunder fan and please don't unsubscribe if you, do you happen to be a mavericks fan? Because we are here trying to make this hybrid ministry thing. We're trying to make it helpful to you. In fact, right here on screen. 00:09:45:45 - 00:10:04:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Don't forget Code Hybrid Ministry ten. If you've never used you. I am. Or if you've never signed up for anything with do I am before for 10% off for a year of premium, Premium or Premium Plus? You can check out the pricing link down below. We also offer custom coaching. It's my free strategy guide. Go ahead and scan that QR code, check out our Patreon. 00:10:04:02 - 00:10:25:49 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And hey, while you're here, go ahead and vote on which coffee shop is the best. My fourth idiom that I really like to do is kind of like the kind of like the the name tag one that I showed you a minute ago. So instead of it, I mean, like a teaching point, a lot of times I will create a welcome slide, right? 00:10:25:49 - 00:10:41:58 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And these slides, just like all the other ones, they're, they're highly adaptable. So you can put any slides you want. You can, add an image, you can make a color, you can add a video background from something from YouTube. Even so like we've used this video before in 00:10:41:58 - 00:10:48:42 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry previous videos here, even on this playlist. And so if you wanted it to be a video one, you could embed this YouTube video right here. 00:10:48:47 - 00:11:09:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Or you could add one of these videos from a bank of other videos that you have used before using the past. But whatever the case might be, I'll do this where like, we have like, a leader lunch. And so people have volun, or have RSVP ahead of time. And so I will, put all of their names into the generator and I will say, leader, lunch welcome. 00:11:09:10 - 00:11:27:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry With an arrow pointing to where their name is going to be here on People Picker and all the names are just filtering through. And then we may use that as a giveaway sort of feature in the, in the, you know, in the background or whatever, or not. We'll see. But those are sort of all just kind of different ways and different ideas that I like to use the name picker. 00:11:27:14 - 00:11:47:40 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then of course, number five, I'm going to share on my Patreon page. And don't forget, this is the last time that I'm going to do this. To those of you listening to the regular podcast or on YouTube, but I just, I, I'm so, so stoked and I'm so pumped about our Patreon because it is a dollar a week, $4 a month. 00:11:47:44 - 00:12:05:54 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I think it's less than the cost of a cup of coffee. But I want to get coffee with you. I want to sit down. I want to chat. Youth ministry. I want to chat. Creativity. I want to chat. How to make your programing more engaging? Because Gen Z and Gen Alpha, they want a more custom and personalized approach. 00:12:05:54 - 00:12:33:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I believe that sidekick not only in this beta version, but also in the future. Rolling out has the tools that it takes to do that. I'm challenging myself to use sidekick every single time we're in the room with our students, and I want to encourage you to try and lean into your creativity and do the same. And so I know when I hear a brainstorm that's helpful for me to just listen to someone else and then beg and borrow and steal and tweak and adapt and use different ideas. 00:12:33:14 - 00:12:56:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so that's why I want my Patreon to be is just a place for you guys to get that weekly sort of bonus content, along with, as you see here, on screen, exclusive merch and exclusive sticker for everyone who signs up before the month of December. December 2nd, they'll be yours. I'll mail it to you. You can help me choose some show and segment topics, and also some shout outs special for those over there on my Patreon page. 00:12:56:08 - 00:13:18:37 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But that number five idea that's over there going to be in this week's Patreon will drop on Monday of this week. So once again, my friends so excited that you here. Thank you for diving in deep with sidekick. The next episode we are going to be hopping into all things Christmas, Christmas parties, holiday planning, and everything that you need to know to round out the year. 00:13:18:37 - 00:13:29:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Amazingly, in your ministry. Finish strong. The Lord is equipped you for what he has you doing. But don't forget and as always my friends, to stay hybrid. download youth ministry, sidekick, youth ministry, hybrid ministry, youth pastor podcast, student ministry, youth ministry programming, name picker, wheel, Random Generator, Live voting, Youth ministry creativity, Creative Programming, ProPresenter, Youth Group, Youth Group Phones, How to handle phones in youth ministry, phones are so distracting in youth ministry, Nick Clason, Josh Boldman, Spinning Wheel 🎧 BONUS WEEKLY PODCAST
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
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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!
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🛠️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 The Most Personal Element of Sidekick to Date
01:34 #1 Creative Name Generator Idea
04:27 Operating "Pick Me"
06:04 #2 Creative Name Generator Idea
07:28 #3 Creative Name Generator Idea
08:19 Different Sound Effect Options
10:09 #4 Creative Name Generator Idea
11:26 #5 Creative Name Generator Idea

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

👉 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so what happens then is, basically

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

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

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

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

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

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're logged into sidekick

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

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
all in with worship because that's a whole different department.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
previous videos here, even on this playlist. And so if you wanted it to be a video one, you could embed this YouTube video right here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

]]> Episode 126: Youth Ministry Christmas Party Idea! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/126 b0517222-d328-4f9a-a647-b0e7128bcff2 Thu, 05 Dec 2024 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 126 Youth Ministry Christmas Party Idea! full Nick Clason 🎄 It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Ready to throw the **BEST Youth Ministry Christmas Party** ever? 🎉 In this episode, Nick Clason of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast spills the *peppermint-flavored* tea on how to make your event unforgettable! 🏆 Whether it’s the **Ultimate Christmas Movie Showdown**, hilarious games, or social media outreach, this guide has it ALL. 15:22 no 🦸‍ BECOME A HYBRID HERO https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry 🎬 THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS MOVIE SHOWDOWN https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-ultimate-christmas-movie-showdown/christmas/christmas-games-9784.html DESCRIPTION 🎄 It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Ready to throw the BEST Youth Ministry Christmas Party ever? 🎉 In this episode, Nick Clason of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast spills the peppermint-flavored tea on how to make your event unforgettable! 🏆 Whether it’s the Ultimate Christmas Movie Showdown, hilarious games, or social media outreach, this guide has it ALL. 🌟 Grab the downloadable Christmas party resource on Download Youth Ministry—complete with voting brackets, social media assets, and everything you need to pull off a high-energy, crowd-engaging event that doubles as a killer social media strategy. 🎅✨ 👇 Grab the resource now: DownloadYouthMinistry.com (https://www.downloadyouthministry.com) 🎬 Watch till the end for tips on engaging Gen Alpha and crushing it on YouTube. And as always, my friends, stay hybrid! 🚀 📓 SHOWNOTES http://www.hybridministry.xyz/126 //10% OFF CO-LEADER CODE: HYBRIDMINISTRY10 https://www.sidekick.tv/pricing //CUSTOM COACHING https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching //CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Make Your Christmas Event Pop This Year! 01:59 How to Use a Bracket? 03:56 The Ultimate Christmas Movie Showdown Explained 05:25 The 16 Movies 06:20 What's Included in the Download? 10:00 How do you Crown a Winner? 12:27 Our Hybrid December Plans 14:14 YouTube for your Youth Ministry -------------- ✍️ TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Student 00:00:01:16 - 00:00:06:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry ministry Christmas party. I mean, it is the preeminent 00:00:06:05 - 00:00:08:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry event of the year. You play 00:00:08:18 - 00:00:19:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry dozens of games, you eat even more sweets, and you serve hot chocolate. Maybe you play a Christmas movie. What if I told you that I had the 00:00:19:09 - 00:00:26:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry event that was going to make your Christmas party? Absolutely pop? Well, 00:00:26:09 - 00:00:26:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry here it is. It 00:00:26:29 - 00:00:31:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Oh. 00:00:36:02 - 00:00:40:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and incorporate this style of event, along with all of the other ways 00:00:40:29 - 00:00:50:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry that if you don't want to use it for your party, or it's a little bit too late to lead in to your party, that you can use this style of resource if you scrub ahead, 00:00:50:00 - 00:00:55:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I am going to go ahead and offer this resource to you so you can go ahead and check that out. 00:00:55:08 - 00:01:18:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you're watching here on screen, you can see that timestamp. If not, just hit the link down below in the show notes or head to Hybridministry.xyz/127. But we are going to talk Christmas party. We're going to talk outreach and we're going to talk social media. And this event has all of those. And this product has all those wrapped into one single thing. 00:01:18:21 - 00:01:18:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you're 00:01:18:27 - 00:01:23:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Oh. 00:01:23:03 - 00:01:36:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry meetings and things you have to do. You got to come up with games and lessons and and manage parents and volunteers and senior pastors and oh yeah, social media and oh yeah, the Christmas event and. Oh yeah, and oh yeah. And oh 00:01:36:03 - 00:01:36:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry yeah. 00:01:36:19 - 00:01:48:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And oh yeah. But in this event guide, you will have the ability to crush, social media outreach and your Christmas party all in one fell swoop. It is going to be amazing. 00:01:48:01 - 00:01:52:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Oh. 00:01:54:25 - 00:01:56:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Ow ow ow! Oh! 00:01:56:21 - 00:01:58:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Tis the season. Let's hop in. 00:01:58:14 - 00:02:00:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So in 00:02:00:26 - 00:02:02:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Ow ow ow! Oh! 00:02:18:19 - 00:02:25:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry here at the top of the YouTube video, I did the ultimate event guide to the World's Greatest donut that, 00:02:25:10 - 00:02:42:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And in that video you can download my event guide. It's complete with a shopping list and all those types of things. And also sends you to download Youth Ministry where you can buy this voting style event. But this has been something that has been a staple of my ministry and a staple of honestly, what I've done for years. 00:02:42:17 - 00:03:04:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And essentially I'm borrowing from the like, wave or the popularity of like a march madness bracket style voting. And so, like in our space, we have this big window that opens into like a small sort of like half court indoor gymnasium sort of deal. And we printed a custom size vinyl banner, for six, for a 16 team bracket. 00:03:04:04 - 00:03:22:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then we put, those things we just, you know, print them out on computer paper or whatever, cut them out. And we do these, like, style events 2 or 3 times throughout the year. So like I said in that video linked, just a second ago, we have done like the world's greatest donut. We have voted on the best. 00:03:22:26 - 00:03:34:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We did last March Madness. One year we have voted on the world's best, like, mascot. And then that mascot became our official student ministry mascot. Shout out to Pugsley 00:03:34:11 - 00:03:38:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry the platypus! We've done all sorts of different like voting 00:03:38:02 - 00:03:49:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and challenge based style things. It's just like a fun way to sort of like, create, competition and conversation around something for like several weeks in a row. 00:03:49:06 - 00:03:50:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And in this particular instance, we're 00:03:50:29 - 00:03:56:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry doing the ultimate Christmas movie showdown. Now, by the time that this video drops, you're 00:03:56:04 - 00:03:57:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Ow ow ow! Oh! 00:03:57:24 - 00:04:13:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Christmas party or even slightly beyond your Christmas party. But if you have not made it yet to your Christmas party, then what you can do. And this is what we did. We did a Christmas movie watch party, but we're allowing the students to vote on the Christmas movie. 00:04:13:20 - 00:04:37:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so that's what's really cool, is we actually at our costume party on the 30th of October, we revealed that the Christmas bracket was now live, and then the students could vote on it. And the best thing about this is, again, if this is already past, your party's already past. You can do something like this just very simply on social media, during sort of the holiday lull, you can do, every week is a new round or you can do it. 00:04:37:14 - 00:04:42:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Every day is a new round. And that's the thing. Like so even if like you download this now 00:04:42:22 - 00:04:52:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and then you go and you play a movie at your Christmas event next week, you can do every day on social media as a round. And there's all sorts of different ways to capture 00:04:52:24 - 00:05:04:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Elf white Christmas elf faces off against White Christmas. That's the one seed versus the 16. They're not listed there. But you know, and once the students start voting, you can tell who the overall one seed is. 00:05:04:24 - 00:05:31:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Then in the eight nine matchup we have Frosty the Snowman versus the year without a Santa Claus. Then in the four I think 13 413 matchup, we have Christmas vacation pairing off against Christmas with the Kranks Muppet Christmas Carol versus Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer, Home Alone, which is the two seed versus It's a Wonderful Life A Christmas Story, which is a seven versus Polar Express, which is a ten, the Santa Claus, which is a three, versus Jingle All the Way, which is like a 14, I think. 00:05:25:00 - 00:05:26:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Ow ow ow! Oh! 00:05:31:25 - 00:05:42:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then Santa Claus is Coming to Town versus How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the six versus, I think, 11 match up there. And so this PowerPoint file, you can very simply edit the winners. Right? So if elf beats white Christmas in the voting, you can move it ahead. And you can use that in your space to write these in. 00:06:18:28 - 00:06:20:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Ow ow ow! Oh! 00:06:20:18 - 00:06:26:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right? So if elf beats white Christmas in the voting, you can move it ahead. And you can use that in your space to write these in. 00:06:26:25 - 00:06:35:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So I have the winners sort of as like placeholders. In there that you can like, you know, make sure that you can move them on. But 00:06:35:13 - 00:06:43:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry here's the thing. Every single round in every single context is going to be different. Maybe you are a big white Christmas church, and all of your students are going to pick White Christmas. 00:06:43:25 - 00:06:52:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's great. Then go with it. Go for it. Okay. Additionally, you can, use and use this, like I said, on social media. So a couple of my 00:06:52:21 - 00:06:53:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry favorite ways to 00:06:53:12 - 00:07:03:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry do it are on Instagram Stories. And also now for Generation Alpha, who is, widely and widely adopting YouTube as one of their platforms of choice. 00:07:03:09 - 00:07:08:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You can post on your YouTube posts page section, a voting poll option with images 00:07:08:29 - 00:07:22:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and stuff like that. And so I've included some social graphics that are still. And so it's your title to your overall bracket. You can write in the winners each round and then, round one graphic, an elite eight graphic, a Final Four graphic, and a championship round graphic. 00:07:22:19 - 00:07:43:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then you just very simply stick the question sticker on that graphic. I also have social media videos which, pair and look similar to the widescreen video. So there's a title graphic with, you know, some kind of like distance sleigh bells chime in like some Christmas like, chiming things and then like a round one graphic, elite eight graphic, a final four. 00:07:43:29 - 00:07:55:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All these are videos and championship. And then there are profile cards. And so these are really fun. Every single movie, there's 16 movies. Every single movie has four different 00:07:55:00 - 00:08:05:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry profile cards, both for social media and for, your widescreen in your room. And so, for example, in round one, you might put up the Elf profile card, the very 00:08:05:17 - 00:08:11:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry first Elf profile card versus this and next to the very first white Christmas profile card. 00:08:11:07 - 00:08:31:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So like right here, if you're watching on the screen, you'll see it says like elf, released in 2003, Will Ferrell shines as buddy, a human race, as an elf who travels to New York to meet his real father. But there, like I said, there are four different profile cards because in the next round of elf advances, you will use the second, fact. 00:08:31:02 - 00:08:49:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you're not just sharing the same fact every single week, week in, week out. So this next one is about who Jon Favreau, who, helped. The movie grossed over 220 million worldwide on a $33 million budget, became a Christmas favorite. The third one's about, Will Ferrell's improv skills, and the fourth one is a fun fact that 00:08:49:09 - 00:08:55:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry his iconic walk through New York was done candidly and is capturing real reactions from New Yorkers. 00:08:55:13 - 00:08:55:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now 00:08:55:28 - 00:09:17:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry you're like, okay, that's great, but what if White Christmas wins? That's why there's four for White Christmas. Now, if White Christmas loses, you're obviously not going to be using fact two, fact 3 or 4, right. But in the event that upsets happen, in the event that that movies keep moving on, there are four because there's four rounds round one, Elite eight, Final Four, and then championship round for you to share those graphics. 00:09:17:10 - 00:09:37:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Okay. And so we have that for social media for still graphics. We have social video graphics. We also have widescreen graphics that you can use and put in your space. Along with those profile card kind of things that you can also put in your space video as well as stills. And then there's paper voting as an option. 00:09:37:18 - 00:09:52:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we'll get to the ways that you can do voting here in just a minute. There's Photoshop files. If you do happen to have Photoshop editing skills. And then finally there are some just like transparent, no background, assets like the logo and the round one, elite eight, all that type of stuff. So 00:09:52:00 - 00:09:55:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry all of that is included in this download, just a few bucks. 00:09:55:21 - 00:09:58:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And like I said, how can you go about 00:09:58:03 - 00:09:59:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Ow ow ow! Oh! 00:10:08:26 - 00:10:15:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry of my podcast, Hybrid Ministry ten as a discount code, and you get 10% off your purchase of either Premium or Premium Plus. 00:10:16:01 - 00:10:32:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But if you're using sidekick, you can use the phone connections and the voting option, and students can vote live right there directly in the room. And so you can do all of your matchups right there. And you can do that week in, week out. Now, what do you do about students who don't have phones? Well, that's one of the reasons why I included the 00:10:32:00 - 00:10:39:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry paper printable bracket so that those students aren't left out and so that they have an opportunity to also let their voice be heard. 00:10:39:12 - 00:10:57:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well, you might be thinking, well, what happens if, my Christmas party has already passed or I don't have a way to get this, done? In the amount of weeks we have leading up to our Christmas party, no problem. Download this and just post them on social media. And then when people show up to your Christmas party, you'd be like, hey, we're watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas because it was voted on by you. 00:10:57:29 - 00:11:15:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The people on social media. Congratulations to the Grinch. And so you could do this in just four days. Round one, Elite Eight, Final Four, and then the championship. And then you have your event. So if your Christmas party is in seven days, you can theoretically crush this and get this in any time of year if you want to launch it. 00:11:15:07 - 00:11:32:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, depending on when you're watching this, if you have enough time, you can launch it all through the month of December leading into your movie. Or like I said, you can do it all on social using either Instagram voting or the YouTube post. Now here's the good news about that is when you promote it in the room, like, hey, voting is live! 00:11:32:04 - 00:11:39:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry One of the things I've done, I'll show you a graphic of what we're using. It's not included in the download because it's it's custom to us. But just to give you an idea, I just 00:11:39:23 - 00:11:50:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry linked a QR code to our link tree, which has all of our different social handles. And so it says, hey, voting is still live and the winning movie will get, we'll get watch it. 00:11:50:16 - 00:11:55:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Our Christmas party on you know, December 4th or whatever. I've sent that out in our text list. We've sent it out to our parent 00:11:55:13 - 00:11:55:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Patreon. If you didn't know, we just launched a Patreon and it is going to be walking through my weekly lessons and it's, or a different bonus podcast every single week. It's $4 per month and you get a different bonus podcast per week. So essentially it nets out to a dollar or even slightly less than a dollar per podcast episode. 00:12:24:28 - 00:12:26:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Ow ow ow! Oh! 00:12:29:00 - 00:12:45:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you didn't know, we just launched a Patreon and it is going to be walking through my weekly lessons and it's, or a different bonus podcast every single week. It's $4 per month and you get a different bonus podcast per week. So essentially it nets 00:12:45:13 - 00:12:51:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry out to a dollar or even slightly less than a dollar per podcast episode. 00:12:51:02 - 00:13:08:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I think it's a very modest amount. I would love to encourage you to go over there and check it out. I think you can probably find four bucks a month in your budget, but even if you can't, I just want to let you know that, like we're going to use it to invest deeper into the podcast gear and all sorts of things like that. 00:13:08:17 - 00:13:27:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so I'd love to encourage you to go check that out. But we're going to be walking through these lessons, and this is what we're going to be talking about over on that Patreon is what what are the Christmas at the movie lessons? And then, what are the we're also doing? Like we're avoiding the big announcement time before we break into small groups. 00:13:27:01 - 00:13:46:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so our students are going to go into our sort of like small group rooms directly at the end of the countdown. And each of our rooms has a TV on a cart, which is brand new. And so we're going to link that to a YouTube playlist, and there's going to be a small group activity. There's going to be an announcement corner filmed and put there on that playlist. 00:13:46:00 - 00:13:48:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then the teaching where we may teach a 00:13:48:09 - 00:14:01:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry little bit, pause for questions, teach a little bit, pause for questions, teach a little bit, pause for some more questions. So we're really trying to lean in sort of to that kind of hybrid thing. And I'm going to detail and explain all of that what we're doing over on that Patreon. 00:14:01:27 - 00:14:10:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So I would love to have you go check that out. There's also some other kind of bonus perks and stuff like that. And as I'm describing this, you might be hearing me talk about YouTube in 00:14:10:29 - 00:14:11:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry all 00:14:11:11 - 00:14:13:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Ow ow ow! Oh! 00:14:15:20 - 00:14:16:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry YouTube, 00:14:16:00 - 00:14:22:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry because I think it's important to put spiritual and evergreen content over there on YouTube for our students. 00:14:22:26 - 00:14:43:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, Generation Alpha is now saying that YouTube is now their preferred search engine, even over Google. And so there's value to that. And, I actually offer either some custom coaching to help you level it up or communications done for you, or I'll actually just do it for you if that's something that you're interested in, go ahead and check the show notes or the link down below in the YouTube description. 00:14:43:13 - 00:15:12:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The link to right here on screen is my complete and full strategy of how we launched and developed a YouTube for youth ministry. It's the free version of that coaching, and then the coaching will take you sort of into that. More customization, but I hope that you grab this product if you have an amazing Christmas event, I hope you can use it to knock outreach out of the park, to have an amazing event, and also crush social media, whether you're using it for the event or just during the lull of the holiday season. 00:15:12:26 - 00:15:18:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Don't forget my friends and as always, to stay hybrid. Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Hybrid Ministry, Youth Group Events, Youth Ministry Hybrid Event, Youth Ministry Social Media, Youth Group Games, Youth Group Events, Youth Ministry Games Outdoors, Youth Ministry Games Indoors, Youth Ministry Games for Large Groups, Youth Ministry Games for Small Groups, Student Ministry Games for Large Groups, Student Ministry Games for small Group, Student Ministry Games Indoor, Student Ministry Games Outdoor, Youth Ministry Coach, Youth Ministry Podcast, Hybrid Ministry Podcast, Student Ministry coach, Church, Games, Ice Breaker Games, Party Games 🦸‍ BECOME A HYBRID HERO
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

🎬 THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS MOVIE SHOWDOWN
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-ultimate-christmas-movie-showdown/christmas/christmas-games-9784.html

DESCRIPTION
🎄 It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Ready to throw the BEST Youth Ministry Christmas Party ever? 🎉 In this episode, Nick Clason of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast spills the peppermint-flavored tea on how to make your event unforgettable! 🏆 Whether it’s the Ultimate Christmas Movie Showdown, hilarious games, or social media outreach, this guide has it ALL.

🌟 Grab the downloadable Christmas party resource on Download Youth Ministry—complete with voting brackets, social media assets, and everything you need to pull off a high-energy, crowd-engaging event that doubles as a killer social media strategy. 🎅✨

👇 Grab the resource now: DownloadYouthMinistry.com

🎬 Watch till the end for tips on engaging Gen Alpha and crushing it on YouTube. And as always, my friends, stay hybrid! 🚀

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/126

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

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Make Your Christmas Event Pop This Year!
01:59 How to Use a Bracket?
03:56 The Ultimate Christmas Movie Showdown Explained
05:25 The 16 Movies
06:20 What's Included in the Download?
10:00 How do you Crown a Winner?
12:27 Our Hybrid December Plans
14:14 YouTube for your Youth Ministry

--------------
✍️ TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Student

00:00:01:16 - 00:00:06:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
ministry Christmas party. I mean, it is the preeminent

00:00:06:05 - 00:00:08:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
event of the year. You play

00:00:08:18 - 00:00:19:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
dozens of games, you eat even more sweets, and you serve hot chocolate. Maybe you play a Christmas movie. What if I told you that I had the

00:00:19:09 - 00:00:26:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
event that was going to make your Christmas party? Absolutely pop? Well,

00:00:26:09 - 00:00:26:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here it is. It

00:00:26:29 - 00:00:31:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh.

00:00:36:02 - 00:00:40:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and incorporate this style of event, along with all of the other ways

00:00:40:29 - 00:00:50:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that if you don't want to use it for your party, or it's a little bit too late to lead in to your party, that you can use this style of resource if you scrub ahead,

00:00:50:00 - 00:00:55:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I am going to go ahead and offer this resource to you so you can go ahead and check that out.

00:00:55:08 - 00:01:18:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're watching here on screen, you can see that timestamp. If not, just hit the link down below in the show notes or head to Hybridministry.xyz/127. But we are going to talk Christmas party. We're going to talk outreach and we're going to talk social media. And this event has all of those. And this product has all those wrapped into one single thing.

00:01:18:21 - 00:01:18:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're

00:01:18:27 - 00:01:23:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh.

00:01:23:03 - 00:01:36:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
meetings and things you have to do. You got to come up with games and lessons and and manage parents and volunteers and senior pastors and oh yeah, social media and oh yeah, the Christmas event and. Oh yeah, and oh yeah. And oh

00:01:36:03 - 00:01:36:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
yeah.

00:01:36:19 - 00:01:48:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And oh yeah. But in this event guide, you will have the ability to crush, social media outreach and your Christmas party all in one fell swoop. It is going to be amazing.

00:01:48:01 - 00:01:52:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh.

00:01:54:25 - 00:01:56:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:01:56:21 - 00:01:58:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Tis the season. Let's hop in.

00:01:58:14 - 00:02:00:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So in

00:02:00:26 - 00:02:02:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:02:18:19 - 00:02:25:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here at the top of the YouTube video, I did the ultimate event guide to the World's Greatest donut that,

00:02:25:10 - 00:02:42:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in that video you can download my event guide. It's complete with a shopping list and all those types of things. And also sends you to download Youth Ministry where you can buy this voting style event. But this has been something that has been a staple of my ministry and a staple of honestly, what I've done for years.

00:02:42:17 - 00:03:04:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And essentially I'm borrowing from the like, wave or the popularity of like a march madness bracket style voting. And so, like in our space, we have this big window that opens into like a small sort of like half court indoor gymnasium sort of deal. And we printed a custom size vinyl banner, for six, for a 16 team bracket.

00:03:04:04 - 00:03:22:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we put, those things we just, you know, print them out on computer paper or whatever, cut them out. And we do these, like, style events 2 or 3 times throughout the year. So like I said in that video linked, just a second ago, we have done like the world's greatest donut. We have voted on the best.

00:03:22:26 - 00:03:34:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We did last March Madness. One year we have voted on the world's best, like, mascot. And then that mascot became our official student ministry mascot. Shout out to Pugsley

00:03:34:11 - 00:03:38:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the platypus! We've done all sorts of different like voting

00:03:38:02 - 00:03:49:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and challenge based style things. It's just like a fun way to sort of like, create, competition and conversation around something for like several weeks in a row.

00:03:49:06 - 00:03:50:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in this particular instance, we're

00:03:50:29 - 00:03:56:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
doing the ultimate Christmas movie showdown. Now, by the time that this video drops, you're

00:03:56:04 - 00:03:57:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:03:57:24 - 00:04:13:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Christmas party or even slightly beyond your Christmas party. But if you have not made it yet to your Christmas party, then what you can do. And this is what we did. We did a Christmas movie watch party, but we're allowing the students to vote on the Christmas movie.

00:04:13:20 - 00:04:37:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's what's really cool, is we actually at our costume party on the 30th of October, we revealed that the Christmas bracket was now live, and then the students could vote on it. And the best thing about this is, again, if this is already past, your party's already past. You can do something like this just very simply on social media, during sort of the holiday lull, you can do, every week is a new round or you can do it.

00:04:37:14 - 00:04:42:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Every day is a new round. And that's the thing. Like so even if like you download this now

00:04:42:22 - 00:04:52:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and then you go and you play a movie at your Christmas event next week, you can do every day on social media as a round. And there's all sorts of different ways to capture

00:04:52:24 - 00:05:04:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Elf white Christmas elf faces off against White Christmas. That's the one seed versus the 16. They're not listed there. But you know, and once the students start voting, you can tell who the overall one seed is.

00:05:04:24 - 00:05:31:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Then in the eight nine matchup we have Frosty the Snowman versus the year without a Santa Claus. Then in the four I think 13 413 matchup, we have Christmas vacation pairing off against Christmas with the Kranks Muppet Christmas Carol versus Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer, Home Alone, which is the two seed versus It's a Wonderful Life A Christmas Story, which is a seven versus Polar Express, which is a ten, the Santa Claus, which is a three, versus Jingle All the Way, which is like a 14, I think.

00:05:25:00 - 00:05:26:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:05:31:25 - 00:05:42:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then Santa Claus is Coming to Town versus How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the six versus, I think, 11 match up there. And so this PowerPoint file, you can very simply edit the winners. Right? So if elf beats white Christmas in the voting, you can move it ahead. And you can use that in your space to write these in.

00:06:18:28 - 00:06:20:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:06:20:18 - 00:06:26:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right? So if elf beats white Christmas in the voting, you can move it ahead. And you can use that in your space to write these in.

00:06:26:25 - 00:06:35:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I have the winners sort of as like placeholders. In there that you can like, you know, make sure that you can move them on. But

00:06:35:13 - 00:06:43:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here's the thing. Every single round in every single context is going to be different. Maybe you are a big white Christmas church, and all of your students are going to pick White Christmas.

00:06:43:25 - 00:06:52:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's great. Then go with it. Go for it. Okay. Additionally, you can, use and use this, like I said, on social media. So a couple of my

00:06:52:21 - 00:06:53:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
favorite ways to

00:06:53:12 - 00:07:03:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
do it are on Instagram Stories. And also now for Generation Alpha, who is, widely and widely adopting YouTube as one of their platforms of choice.

00:07:03:09 - 00:07:08:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can post on your YouTube posts page section, a voting poll option with images

00:07:08:29 - 00:07:22:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and stuff like that. And so I've included some social graphics that are still. And so it's your title to your overall bracket. You can write in the winners each round and then, round one graphic, an elite eight graphic, a Final Four graphic, and a championship round graphic.

00:07:22:19 - 00:07:43:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then you just very simply stick the question sticker on that graphic. I also have social media videos which, pair and look similar to the widescreen video. So there's a title graphic with, you know, some kind of like distance sleigh bells chime in like some Christmas like, chiming things and then like a round one graphic, elite eight graphic, a final four.

00:07:43:29 - 00:07:55:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All these are videos and championship. And then there are profile cards. And so these are really fun. Every single movie, there's 16 movies. Every single movie has four different

00:07:55:00 - 00:08:05:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
profile cards, both for social media and for, your widescreen in your room. And so, for example, in round one, you might put up the Elf profile card, the very

00:08:05:17 - 00:08:11:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
first Elf profile card versus this and next to the very first white Christmas profile card.

00:08:11:07 - 00:08:31:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So like right here, if you're watching on the screen, you'll see it says like elf, released in 2003, Will Ferrell shines as buddy, a human race, as an elf who travels to New York to meet his real father. But there, like I said, there are four different profile cards because in the next round of elf advances, you will use the second, fact.

00:08:31:02 - 00:08:49:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you're not just sharing the same fact every single week, week in, week out. So this next one is about who Jon Favreau, who, helped. The movie grossed over 220 million worldwide on a $33 million budget, became a Christmas favorite. The third one's about, Will Ferrell's improv skills, and the fourth one is a fun fact that

00:08:49:09 - 00:08:55:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
his iconic walk through New York was done candidly and is capturing real reactions from New Yorkers.

00:08:55:13 - 00:08:55:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now

00:08:55:28 - 00:09:17:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you're like, okay, that's great, but what if White Christmas wins? That's why there's four for White Christmas. Now, if White Christmas loses, you're obviously not going to be using fact two, fact 3 or 4, right. But in the event that upsets happen, in the event that that movies keep moving on, there are four because there's four rounds round one, Elite eight, Final Four, and then championship round for you to share those graphics.

00:09:17:10 - 00:09:37:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. And so we have that for social media for still graphics. We have social video graphics. We also have widescreen graphics that you can use and put in your space. Along with those profile card kind of things that you can also put in your space video as well as stills. And then there's paper voting as an option.

00:09:37:18 - 00:09:52:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we'll get to the ways that you can do voting here in just a minute. There's Photoshop files. If you do happen to have Photoshop editing skills. And then finally there are some just like transparent, no background, assets like the logo and the round one, elite eight, all that type of stuff. So

00:09:52:00 - 00:09:55:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
all of that is included in this download, just a few bucks.

00:09:55:21 - 00:09:58:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And like I said, how can you go about

00:09:58:03 - 00:09:59:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:10:08:26 - 00:10:15:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of my podcast, Hybrid Ministry ten as a discount code, and you get 10% off your purchase of either Premium or Premium Plus.

00:10:16:01 - 00:10:32:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if you're using sidekick, you can use the phone connections and the voting option, and students can vote live right there directly in the room. And so you can do all of your matchups right there. And you can do that week in, week out. Now, what do you do about students who don't have phones? Well, that's one of the reasons why I included the

00:10:32:00 - 00:10:39:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
paper printable bracket so that those students aren't left out and so that they have an opportunity to also let their voice be heard.

00:10:39:12 - 00:10:57:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, you might be thinking, well, what happens if, my Christmas party has already passed or I don't have a way to get this, done? In the amount of weeks we have leading up to our Christmas party, no problem. Download this and just post them on social media. And then when people show up to your Christmas party, you'd be like, hey, we're watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas because it was voted on by you.

00:10:57:29 - 00:11:15:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The people on social media. Congratulations to the Grinch. And so you could do this in just four days. Round one, Elite Eight, Final Four, and then the championship. And then you have your event. So if your Christmas party is in seven days, you can theoretically crush this and get this in any time of year if you want to launch it.

00:11:15:07 - 00:11:32:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, depending on when you're watching this, if you have enough time, you can launch it all through the month of December leading into your movie. Or like I said, you can do it all on social using either Instagram voting or the YouTube post. Now here's the good news about that is when you promote it in the room, like, hey, voting is live!

00:11:32:04 - 00:11:39:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One of the things I've done, I'll show you a graphic of what we're using. It's not included in the download because it's it's custom to us. But just to give you an idea, I just

00:11:39:23 - 00:11:50:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
linked a QR code to our link tree, which has all of our different social handles. And so it says, hey, voting is still live and the winning movie will get, we'll get watch it.

00:11:50:16 - 00:11:55:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our Christmas party on you know, December 4th or whatever. I've sent that out in our text list. We've sent it out to our parent

00:11:55:13 - 00:11:55:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Patreon. If you didn't know, we just launched a Patreon and it is going to be walking through my weekly lessons and it's, or a different bonus podcast every single week. It's $4 per month and you get a different bonus podcast per week. So essentially it nets out to a dollar or even slightly less than a dollar per podcast episode.

00:12:24:28 - 00:12:26:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:12:29:00 - 00:12:45:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you didn't know, we just launched a Patreon and it is going to be walking through my weekly lessons and it's, or a different bonus podcast every single week. It's $4 per month and you get a different bonus podcast per week. So essentially it nets

00:12:45:13 - 00:12:51:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
out to a dollar or even slightly less than a dollar per podcast episode.

00:12:51:02 - 00:13:08:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think it's a very modest amount. I would love to encourage you to go over there and check it out. I think you can probably find four bucks a month in your budget, but even if you can't, I just want to let you know that, like we're going to use it to invest deeper into the podcast gear and all sorts of things like that.

00:13:08:17 - 00:13:27:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I'd love to encourage you to go check that out. But we're going to be walking through these lessons, and this is what we're going to be talking about over on that Patreon is what what are the Christmas at the movie lessons? And then, what are the we're also doing? Like we're avoiding the big announcement time before we break into small groups.

00:13:27:01 - 00:13:46:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so our students are going to go into our sort of like small group rooms directly at the end of the countdown. And each of our rooms has a TV on a cart, which is brand new. And so we're going to link that to a YouTube playlist, and there's going to be a small group activity. There's going to be an announcement corner filmed and put there on that playlist.

00:13:46:00 - 00:13:48:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the teaching where we may teach a

00:13:48:09 - 00:14:01:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
little bit, pause for questions, teach a little bit, pause for questions, teach a little bit, pause for some more questions. So we're really trying to lean in sort of to that kind of hybrid thing. And I'm going to detail and explain all of that what we're doing over on that Patreon.

00:14:01:27 - 00:14:10:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I would love to have you go check that out. There's also some other kind of bonus perks and stuff like that. And as I'm describing this, you might be hearing me talk about YouTube in

00:14:10:29 - 00:14:11:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
all

00:14:11:11 - 00:14:13:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:14:15:20 - 00:14:16:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube,

00:14:16:00 - 00:14:22:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
because I think it's important to put spiritual and evergreen content over there on YouTube for our students.

00:14:22:26 - 00:14:43:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, Generation Alpha is now saying that YouTube is now their preferred search engine, even over Google. And so there's value to that. And, I actually offer either some custom coaching to help you level it up or communications done for you, or I'll actually just do it for you if that's something that you're interested in, go ahead and check the show notes or the link down below in the YouTube description.

00:14:43:13 - 00:15:12:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The link to right here on screen is my complete and full strategy of how we launched and developed a YouTube for youth ministry. It's the free version of that coaching, and then the coaching will take you sort of into that. More customization, but I hope that you grab this product if you have an amazing Christmas event, I hope you can use it to knock outreach out of the park, to have an amazing event, and also crush social media, whether you're using it for the event or just during the lull of the holiday season.

00:15:12:26 - 00:15:18:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't forget my friends and as always, to stay hybrid.

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

🎬 THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS MOVIE SHOWDOWN
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-ultimate-christmas-movie-showdown/christmas/christmas-games-9784.html

DESCRIPTION
🎄 It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Ready to throw the BEST Youth Ministry Christmas Party ever? 🎉 In this episode, Nick Clason of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast spills the peppermint-flavored tea on how to make your event unforgettable! 🏆 Whether it’s the Ultimate Christmas Movie Showdown, hilarious games, or social media outreach, this guide has it ALL.

🌟 Grab the downloadable Christmas party resource on Download Youth Ministry—complete with voting brackets, social media assets, and everything you need to pull off a high-energy, crowd-engaging event that doubles as a killer social media strategy. 🎅✨

👇 Grab the resource now: DownloadYouthMinistry.com

🎬 Watch till the end for tips on engaging Gen Alpha and crushing it on YouTube. And as always, my friends, stay hybrid! 🚀

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/126

//10% OFF CO-LEADER
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//CUSTOM COACHING
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Make Your Christmas Event Pop This Year!
01:59 How to Use a Bracket?
03:56 The Ultimate Christmas Movie Showdown Explained
05:25 The 16 Movies
06:20 What's Included in the Download?
10:00 How do you Crown a Winner?
12:27 Our Hybrid December Plans
14:14 YouTube for your Youth Ministry

--------------
✍️ TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Student

00:00:01:16 - 00:00:06:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
ministry Christmas party. I mean, it is the preeminent

00:00:06:05 - 00:00:08:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
event of the year. You play

00:00:08:18 - 00:00:19:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
dozens of games, you eat even more sweets, and you serve hot chocolate. Maybe you play a Christmas movie. What if I told you that I had the

00:00:19:09 - 00:00:26:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
event that was going to make your Christmas party? Absolutely pop? Well,

00:00:26:09 - 00:00:26:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here it is. It

00:00:26:29 - 00:00:31:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh.

00:00:36:02 - 00:00:40:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and incorporate this style of event, along with all of the other ways

00:00:40:29 - 00:00:50:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that if you don't want to use it for your party, or it's a little bit too late to lead in to your party, that you can use this style of resource if you scrub ahead,

00:00:50:00 - 00:00:55:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I am going to go ahead and offer this resource to you so you can go ahead and check that out.

00:00:55:08 - 00:01:18:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're watching here on screen, you can see that timestamp. If not, just hit the link down below in the show notes or head to Hybridministry.xyz/127. But we are going to talk Christmas party. We're going to talk outreach and we're going to talk social media. And this event has all of those. And this product has all those wrapped into one single thing.

00:01:18:21 - 00:01:18:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're

00:01:18:27 - 00:01:23:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh.

00:01:23:03 - 00:01:36:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
meetings and things you have to do. You got to come up with games and lessons and and manage parents and volunteers and senior pastors and oh yeah, social media and oh yeah, the Christmas event and. Oh yeah, and oh yeah. And oh

00:01:36:03 - 00:01:36:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
yeah.

00:01:36:19 - 00:01:48:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And oh yeah. But in this event guide, you will have the ability to crush, social media outreach and your Christmas party all in one fell swoop. It is going to be amazing.

00:01:48:01 - 00:01:52:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh.

00:01:54:25 - 00:01:56:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:01:56:21 - 00:01:58:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Tis the season. Let's hop in.

00:01:58:14 - 00:02:00:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So in

00:02:00:26 - 00:02:02:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:02:18:19 - 00:02:25:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here at the top of the YouTube video, I did the ultimate event guide to the World's Greatest donut that,

00:02:25:10 - 00:02:42:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in that video you can download my event guide. It's complete with a shopping list and all those types of things. And also sends you to download Youth Ministry where you can buy this voting style event. But this has been something that has been a staple of my ministry and a staple of honestly, what I've done for years.

00:02:42:17 - 00:03:04:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And essentially I'm borrowing from the like, wave or the popularity of like a march madness bracket style voting. And so, like in our space, we have this big window that opens into like a small sort of like half court indoor gymnasium sort of deal. And we printed a custom size vinyl banner, for six, for a 16 team bracket.

00:03:04:04 - 00:03:22:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we put, those things we just, you know, print them out on computer paper or whatever, cut them out. And we do these, like, style events 2 or 3 times throughout the year. So like I said in that video linked, just a second ago, we have done like the world's greatest donut. We have voted on the best.

00:03:22:26 - 00:03:34:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We did last March Madness. One year we have voted on the world's best, like, mascot. And then that mascot became our official student ministry mascot. Shout out to Pugsley

00:03:34:11 - 00:03:38:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the platypus! We've done all sorts of different like voting

00:03:38:02 - 00:03:49:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and challenge based style things. It's just like a fun way to sort of like, create, competition and conversation around something for like several weeks in a row.

00:03:49:06 - 00:03:50:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in this particular instance, we're

00:03:50:29 - 00:03:56:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
doing the ultimate Christmas movie showdown. Now, by the time that this video drops, you're

00:03:56:04 - 00:03:57:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:03:57:24 - 00:04:13:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Christmas party or even slightly beyond your Christmas party. But if you have not made it yet to your Christmas party, then what you can do. And this is what we did. We did a Christmas movie watch party, but we're allowing the students to vote on the Christmas movie.

00:04:13:20 - 00:04:37:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's what's really cool, is we actually at our costume party on the 30th of October, we revealed that the Christmas bracket was now live, and then the students could vote on it. And the best thing about this is, again, if this is already past, your party's already past. You can do something like this just very simply on social media, during sort of the holiday lull, you can do, every week is a new round or you can do it.

00:04:37:14 - 00:04:42:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Every day is a new round. And that's the thing. Like so even if like you download this now

00:04:42:22 - 00:04:52:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and then you go and you play a movie at your Christmas event next week, you can do every day on social media as a round. And there's all sorts of different ways to capture

00:04:52:24 - 00:05:04:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Elf white Christmas elf faces off against White Christmas. That's the one seed versus the 16. They're not listed there. But you know, and once the students start voting, you can tell who the overall one seed is.

00:05:04:24 - 00:05:31:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Then in the eight nine matchup we have Frosty the Snowman versus the year without a Santa Claus. Then in the four I think 13 413 matchup, we have Christmas vacation pairing off against Christmas with the Kranks Muppet Christmas Carol versus Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer, Home Alone, which is the two seed versus It's a Wonderful Life A Christmas Story, which is a seven versus Polar Express, which is a ten, the Santa Claus, which is a three, versus Jingle All the Way, which is like a 14, I think.

00:05:25:00 - 00:05:26:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:05:31:25 - 00:05:42:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then Santa Claus is Coming to Town versus How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the six versus, I think, 11 match up there. And so this PowerPoint file, you can very simply edit the winners. Right? So if elf beats white Christmas in the voting, you can move it ahead. And you can use that in your space to write these in.

00:06:18:28 - 00:06:20:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:06:20:18 - 00:06:26:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right? So if elf beats white Christmas in the voting, you can move it ahead. And you can use that in your space to write these in.

00:06:26:25 - 00:06:35:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I have the winners sort of as like placeholders. In there that you can like, you know, make sure that you can move them on. But

00:06:35:13 - 00:06:43:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here's the thing. Every single round in every single context is going to be different. Maybe you are a big white Christmas church, and all of your students are going to pick White Christmas.

00:06:43:25 - 00:06:52:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's great. Then go with it. Go for it. Okay. Additionally, you can, use and use this, like I said, on social media. So a couple of my

00:06:52:21 - 00:06:53:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
favorite ways to

00:06:53:12 - 00:07:03:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
do it are on Instagram Stories. And also now for Generation Alpha, who is, widely and widely adopting YouTube as one of their platforms of choice.

00:07:03:09 - 00:07:08:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can post on your YouTube posts page section, a voting poll option with images

00:07:08:29 - 00:07:22:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and stuff like that. And so I've included some social graphics that are still. And so it's your title to your overall bracket. You can write in the winners each round and then, round one graphic, an elite eight graphic, a Final Four graphic, and a championship round graphic.

00:07:22:19 - 00:07:43:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then you just very simply stick the question sticker on that graphic. I also have social media videos which, pair and look similar to the widescreen video. So there's a title graphic with, you know, some kind of like distance sleigh bells chime in like some Christmas like, chiming things and then like a round one graphic, elite eight graphic, a final four.

00:07:43:29 - 00:07:55:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All these are videos and championship. And then there are profile cards. And so these are really fun. Every single movie, there's 16 movies. Every single movie has four different

00:07:55:00 - 00:08:05:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
profile cards, both for social media and for, your widescreen in your room. And so, for example, in round one, you might put up the Elf profile card, the very

00:08:05:17 - 00:08:11:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
first Elf profile card versus this and next to the very first white Christmas profile card.

00:08:11:07 - 00:08:31:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So like right here, if you're watching on the screen, you'll see it says like elf, released in 2003, Will Ferrell shines as buddy, a human race, as an elf who travels to New York to meet his real father. But there, like I said, there are four different profile cards because in the next round of elf advances, you will use the second, fact.

00:08:31:02 - 00:08:49:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you're not just sharing the same fact every single week, week in, week out. So this next one is about who Jon Favreau, who, helped. The movie grossed over 220 million worldwide on a $33 million budget, became a Christmas favorite. The third one's about, Will Ferrell's improv skills, and the fourth one is a fun fact that

00:08:49:09 - 00:08:55:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
his iconic walk through New York was done candidly and is capturing real reactions from New Yorkers.

00:08:55:13 - 00:08:55:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now

00:08:55:28 - 00:09:17:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you're like, okay, that's great, but what if White Christmas wins? That's why there's four for White Christmas. Now, if White Christmas loses, you're obviously not going to be using fact two, fact 3 or 4, right. But in the event that upsets happen, in the event that that movies keep moving on, there are four because there's four rounds round one, Elite eight, Final Four, and then championship round for you to share those graphics.

00:09:17:10 - 00:09:37:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. And so we have that for social media for still graphics. We have social video graphics. We also have widescreen graphics that you can use and put in your space. Along with those profile card kind of things that you can also put in your space video as well as stills. And then there's paper voting as an option.

00:09:37:18 - 00:09:52:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we'll get to the ways that you can do voting here in just a minute. There's Photoshop files. If you do happen to have Photoshop editing skills. And then finally there are some just like transparent, no background, assets like the logo and the round one, elite eight, all that type of stuff. So

00:09:52:00 - 00:09:55:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
all of that is included in this download, just a few bucks.

00:09:55:21 - 00:09:58:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And like I said, how can you go about

00:09:58:03 - 00:09:59:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:10:08:26 - 00:10:15:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of my podcast, Hybrid Ministry ten as a discount code, and you get 10% off your purchase of either Premium or Premium Plus.

00:10:16:01 - 00:10:32:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if you're using sidekick, you can use the phone connections and the voting option, and students can vote live right there directly in the room. And so you can do all of your matchups right there. And you can do that week in, week out. Now, what do you do about students who don't have phones? Well, that's one of the reasons why I included the

00:10:32:00 - 00:10:39:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
paper printable bracket so that those students aren't left out and so that they have an opportunity to also let their voice be heard.

00:10:39:12 - 00:10:57:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, you might be thinking, well, what happens if, my Christmas party has already passed or I don't have a way to get this, done? In the amount of weeks we have leading up to our Christmas party, no problem. Download this and just post them on social media. And then when people show up to your Christmas party, you'd be like, hey, we're watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas because it was voted on by you.

00:10:57:29 - 00:11:15:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The people on social media. Congratulations to the Grinch. And so you could do this in just four days. Round one, Elite Eight, Final Four, and then the championship. And then you have your event. So if your Christmas party is in seven days, you can theoretically crush this and get this in any time of year if you want to launch it.

00:11:15:07 - 00:11:32:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, depending on when you're watching this, if you have enough time, you can launch it all through the month of December leading into your movie. Or like I said, you can do it all on social using either Instagram voting or the YouTube post. Now here's the good news about that is when you promote it in the room, like, hey, voting is live!

00:11:32:04 - 00:11:39:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One of the things I've done, I'll show you a graphic of what we're using. It's not included in the download because it's it's custom to us. But just to give you an idea, I just

00:11:39:23 - 00:11:50:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
linked a QR code to our link tree, which has all of our different social handles. And so it says, hey, voting is still live and the winning movie will get, we'll get watch it.

00:11:50:16 - 00:11:55:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our Christmas party on you know, December 4th or whatever. I've sent that out in our text list. We've sent it out to our parent

00:11:55:13 - 00:11:55:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Patreon. If you didn't know, we just launched a Patreon and it is going to be walking through my weekly lessons and it's, or a different bonus podcast every single week. It's $4 per month and you get a different bonus podcast per week. So essentially it nets out to a dollar or even slightly less than a dollar per podcast episode.

00:12:24:28 - 00:12:26:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:12:29:00 - 00:12:45:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you didn't know, we just launched a Patreon and it is going to be walking through my weekly lessons and it's, or a different bonus podcast every single week. It's $4 per month and you get a different bonus podcast per week. So essentially it nets

00:12:45:13 - 00:12:51:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
out to a dollar or even slightly less than a dollar per podcast episode.

00:12:51:02 - 00:13:08:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think it's a very modest amount. I would love to encourage you to go over there and check it out. I think you can probably find four bucks a month in your budget, but even if you can't, I just want to let you know that, like we're going to use it to invest deeper into the podcast gear and all sorts of things like that.

00:13:08:17 - 00:13:27:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I'd love to encourage you to go check that out. But we're going to be walking through these lessons, and this is what we're going to be talking about over on that Patreon is what what are the Christmas at the movie lessons? And then, what are the we're also doing? Like we're avoiding the big announcement time before we break into small groups.

00:13:27:01 - 00:13:46:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so our students are going to go into our sort of like small group rooms directly at the end of the countdown. And each of our rooms has a TV on a cart, which is brand new. And so we're going to link that to a YouTube playlist, and there's going to be a small group activity. There's going to be an announcement corner filmed and put there on that playlist.

00:13:46:00 - 00:13:48:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the teaching where we may teach a

00:13:48:09 - 00:14:01:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
little bit, pause for questions, teach a little bit, pause for questions, teach a little bit, pause for some more questions. So we're really trying to lean in sort of to that kind of hybrid thing. And I'm going to detail and explain all of that what we're doing over on that Patreon.

00:14:01:27 - 00:14:10:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I would love to have you go check that out. There's also some other kind of bonus perks and stuff like that. And as I'm describing this, you might be hearing me talk about YouTube in

00:14:10:29 - 00:14:11:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
all

00:14:11:11 - 00:14:13:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:14:15:20 - 00:14:16:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube,

00:14:16:00 - 00:14:22:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
because I think it's important to put spiritual and evergreen content over there on YouTube for our students.

00:14:22:26 - 00:14:43:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, Generation Alpha is now saying that YouTube is now their preferred search engine, even over Google. And so there's value to that. And, I actually offer either some custom coaching to help you level it up or communications done for you, or I'll actually just do it for you if that's something that you're interested in, go ahead and check the show notes or the link down below in the YouTube description.

00:14:43:13 - 00:15:12:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The link to right here on screen is my complete and full strategy of how we launched and developed a YouTube for youth ministry. It's the free version of that coaching, and then the coaching will take you sort of into that. More customization, but I hope that you grab this product if you have an amazing Christmas event, I hope you can use it to knock outreach out of the park, to have an amazing event, and also crush social media, whether you're using it for the event or just during the lull of the holiday season.

00:15:12:26 - 00:15:18:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't forget my friends and as always, to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 125: Unlock the Customizable Wheel for your Programming https://www.hybridministry.xyz/125 89f02ea2-560d-45a1-8441-bedf2562dde3 Thu, 28 Nov 2024 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 125 Unlock the Customizable Wheel for your Programming full Nick Clason In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, discover how to create truly interactive sermons and programming using Sidekick made by Download Youth Ministry to engage students like never before! We’ll explore practical ways to blend creativity with technology, making your youth ministry sermons more dynamic and memorable. Ideal for leaders aiming to elevate their hybrid ministry approach in their student ministry, this episode offers key strategies to transform your youth ministry. 16:06 no 🎧 BONUS WEEKLY PODCAST https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry 🖥️ SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup DESCRIPTION In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, discover how to create truly interactive sermons and programming using Sidekick made by Download Youth Ministry to engage students like never before! We’ll explore practical ways to blend creativity with technology, making your youth ministry sermons more dynamic and memorable. Ideal for leaders aiming to elevate their hybrid ministry approach in their student ministry, this episode offers key strategies to transform your youth ministry. 📓 SHOWNOTES http://www.hybridministry.xyz/125 //SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup //COLEADER PRICING CODE: HYBRIDMINISTRY10 https://www.sidekick.tv/pricing //[FREE] STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book //CUSTOM HYBRID COACHING https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching //CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms //ERIK W/A 'K' https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit //SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Random Spinning Wheel 01:39 Co-Leader Discount Code! 03:05 The Power of Creativity 5:00 Wheel Idea #1 08:15 Wheel Idea #2 09:22 Wheel Tech Booth Point of View 11:38 Wheel Idea #3 12:14 Customize your slide background 15:10 Wheel Idea #4 -------------- 00;00;00;00 - 00;00;27;13 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry What if I told you that you could have access to a customizable spinning wheel that is actually woven in and built into the fabric of your presentation software? Not just like from free wheel spinner.com, because, you know, if you're presenting or preaching in church that you want that wheel to come in and you want it to be seamless, you don't want to drag an ugly browser window in across your screen. 00;00;27;16 - 00;00;48;16 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry And so what if that presentation ability was available in your PowerPoint, in your profit center, on your church projector screens? Well, what if I told you that it was, you know, download and Youth Ministry has had the customizable spinning wheel available to youth pastors, but it is now available to all 00;00;48;16 - 00;00;53;01 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry people. It is woven into the new beta version of 00;00;53;01 - 00;00;54;03 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry sidekick. 00;00;54;03 - 00;01;10;25 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry And in this episode, not only are we going to explore how it's a little bit different than the legacy version of the sidekick, but we're going to look at all of the features. And so if you are watching here on YouTube, first of all, go ahead and give me a like because if you don't know, that incredibly helps us out. 00;01;10;28 - 00;01;30;13 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry But second, I would love it if you, are listening to Hop Over and you can watch a live demo as I not only build the wheel, but I show you all the different features and I want to talk through in this episode for of my most favorite ways to use and integrate the wheel into our programing, into 00;01;30;13 - 00;01;32;25 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry my lessons, into my messages. 00;01;33;02 - 00;01;42;09 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry And so much more. Hey everyone! Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid 00;01;42;09 - 00;02;10;01 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry Ministry show. My name is Nicholas and I am a 14 year Youth ministry veteran. And welcome to our playlist where we explore the best features of sidekick. And as you see here on screen, rotating through on my pre-roll announcements for the Hybrid Ministry show, which you can replicate this by simply clicking the link right here at the top of the video to go back and watch some of the more miscellaneous features available here in this playlist. 00;02;10;03 - 00;02;43;04 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry But we are talking about sidekick, and in this particular episode, we're talking about the ways that you can use the wheel. But here's what you might not know is that if you've never jumped into anything dim or Co-Leader, which is our, curriculum software that does unlock access to sidekick, my listeners get an exclusive offer if you use the code hybrid Ministry ten, you'll get 10% off Premium or Premium plus of co-leader curriculum, which, like I said, is how you gain access to sidekick. 00;02;43;11 - 00;03;04;09 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry There is a way to get sidekick ala carte as well. But if you are in youth ministry and you're looking for curriculum, I'm just telling you, Collider is the way to go. You get so much I don't even know how to download. Youth ministry is making money. But again, in addition to that, you get 10% off, if you use my code hybrid ministry ten. 00;03;04;09 - 00;03;25;22 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry So, we're going to get out of these looping announcements, and I want to show you what it looks like to have the customizable spinning wheel. Now here is the preview in the window over here. This little window down here, we're going to pretend, like I said, in the first, video in this playlist, this, sidekick is browser based. 00;03;25;24 - 00;03;42;25 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry So it's going to create a new window. You're going to drag that ugly window onto your projector screen, but then from there you're going to click full screen. It's going to be seamless. Now, if you are still using both sidekick and also pro presenter, go ahead and check the link down below in the show notes for how we have set up. 00;03;42;25 - 00;03;47;04 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry Because we are, we're all in on sidekick. And the reason that 00;03;47;04 - 00;04;10;02 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry I'm all in on sidekick is it forces me to be more creative in my programing, and I find that when I'm more creative, our students are more engaged and better engaged. And, I personally feel like that I'm doing a better job communicating and being a youth pastor and leaning in and showing up where students are, which that's one of the whole goals, is one viewer students are. 00;04;10;02 - 00;04;31;16 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry And that's what hybrid really affords us. The opportunity to do is to be where our people are. And so, if you didn't know this, we're actually starting a brand new Patreon page here on the Hybrid Ministry show, where I'm going to just rattle off what we did in youth group this week. And as I do, I'll explain all the ways we're using sidekick along with all the other things that we're doing in our youth ministry. 00;04;31;16 - 00;04;50;06 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry And so I want you to go ahead and check that out. If you haven't, you can click right here. The, the QR code that you see here on screen. I'll, I'll make that a little bit bigger for you. You can click that or you can simply head to a patreon.com/hybrid ministry and join for only $4 a month. 00;04;50;13 - 00;05;26;20 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry The bonus podcast I'm gonna release is a weekly podcast. So when you do $4 a month, that essentially nets out to $1 per week, which is crazy town. So I would love to invite you into that. But here's one of my favorite ways to use and utilize the wheel the random wheel. So in our student ministry not too long ago, we, used one of my friend Eric with a case games, and I'm not sure I don't think he got this game on to download youth ministry before the Halloween, but man, I loved the concept. 00;05;26;20 - 00;05;47;12 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry It was like a digital, like, sort of escape room sort of thing. And what Eric did, which was just like, so incredible, was like, it was like you work through rooms in your space and you had different contestants kind of do that, right now getting contestants, man, that is one of the most difficult things in youth ministry, right? 00;05;47;12 - 00;06;07;11 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry Because you've been a real like, who wants to who wants to be a volunteer, who wants to be a volunteer? And so what we did was we created a wheel that would, basically volunteer certain people. So we had our, groups broken down by grade. And so we had like sixth grade, we had seventh and eighth grade, we had ninth and 10th grade, and then we had 11th and 12th grade. 00;06;07;11 - 00;06;33;02 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry So for total, sixth year, I was the only one that was standalone. And the other, you know, six remaining grades are grouped together seventh and eighth, ninth and 10th, 11th, 12th. You get the idea. But then we said we need the whatever the wheel says person from each of these grades. So again, this is something I would go over on my Patreon page and hopefully it might help you out helping me more creative and thus ultimately more engaging. 00;06;33;06 - 00;06;53;23 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry But what we did was we just added a wheel and we said, all right, I need the sixth grader who's the tallest, I need the seventh grader who's the shortest? I need the ninth 10th grader who has the tallest socks I need the 11th 12th grader has the lowest phone battery percentage. And so if you're watching here on screen, what you do is you simply click edit Slide and right at the top all you got to do is click wheel. 00;06;53;25 - 00;07;15;02 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry You want to add the wheel. And so in pops the wheel settings right here. And so this is where you can adjust the individual items in the wheel. So if you don't want cheese because it's not relevant to what you're doing you can say tallest. And if you want highest battery percentage you say highest battery percentage where's a percent. 00;07;15;02 - 00;07;37;26 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry So there it is. If you want to add another one, you simply click Add Item. Or better yet, you can do bulk add and you can just type them all in. And so you go, tallest socks, reddest hair, biggest mustache, or whatever your criteria are. There they are. You click add three items and boom, they are off and rolling. 00;07;37;26 - 00;07;56;10 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry Now once your wheel is on the screen, you notice it's kind of covering my face here if you don't want that. So you can go up to this little corner and just simply shrink it and put it right where you want it, maybe right underneath that finger where I'm pointing. Maybe you want it huge, right? So you can make it even bigger. 00;07;56;14 - 00;08;24;23 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry You can make it even smaller. And, there's all sorts of different ways that you can kind of mess around with and use the wheel, but that's way number one. We kind of like to use the wheel as a, contestant sort of generator. All right. The other thing that I love about the wheel is, or another way, way number two that we use the wheel is we will use it sometimes as a prize wheel. 00;08;24;23 - 00;08;43;29 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry So we have a winner of a game, a standalone winner or a group of winners. And then we let that winner go ahead and, spin the wheel for an opportunity to win. So let's just say that they won pizza. And so here, I've already input my different types of pizza that I want to let them win. 00;08;44;03 - 00;09;07;00 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry And so when you go ahead and, get this thing launched, you will see that you can you have a lot of different access, right? You have a lot of different access once you get this thing up and rolling. So we're going to pretend this is our projector screen and your person, oh, your person back in your booth is going to be the one that sees this. 00;09;07;00 - 00;09;30;04 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry Or again, don't forget that. Now they have phone integration so you can run it like a remote phone, which is a pretty cool feature. So here we are. We are on our wheel right here. And this is what it looks like for the person in the booth. They'll have this start spin option. And they'll be able to see down here that the next winner is cheese. 00;09;30;11 - 00;09;51;01 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry But if I don't want it to be cheese, it can reroll and it can reroll it randomly. Or you can choose a pre-selected option so you can see all of your options here. And you can say, I don't have Hawaiian pizza, I don't have deep dish, I only have sausage. And so we're going to make them think that they have the opportunity to get sausage. 00;09;51;02 - 00;10;13;06 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry But really they don't. And so we're not doing random. We're going to do pre-selected. The pre-selected winner here is sausage. And now when we spin the wheel you're seeing it. You're hearing it. The winner is sausage right. Like I said I can now clear that. Now let's say I gave away sausage and so I don't want that anymore. 00;10;13;09 - 00;10;33;01 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry This is where I can turn on this hide. Last item. And so now sausage, which was what I give away. Now I don't have it because I gave it to this group. And I need a new prize to give away to the next group. I can't give away sausage twice. It only had it once. If I click hide last item, it will go away and it won't be an option on the wheel anymore. 00;10;33;01 - 00;10;57;16 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry So now let's just simulate that again. So I did in fact go ahead. Giveaway sausage I'm hiding the last item. Consider the last item hidden. And then we're going to clear that it's gone. And now we're like oh it needs to be pepperoni. So here we go. Give a pepperoni to the winning group. Group number two. Congratulations you one pepperoni. 00;10;57;16 - 00;11;17;12 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry Now if you're listening here on screen or you it was able to be picked up through my microphone, you will notice that they have different sound effects. So when you do the little, cheery sound effect, that's the one that pepperoni just made you. Little shrug sound effect. That's just a little kind of simple, like click sound, like, and so you can change that. 00;11;17;12 - 00;11;45;19 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry Or if it's a negative consequence, you can also do the lose sound. And so cheese now has the lose sound. And so that sounds something like this. Now that no one wants cheese. All right. This is this is the bottom line. Okay. Here is another idea that I have is, we might, in our space, do something where, we have, like, rows. 00;11;45;23 - 00;12;03;14 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry We have 16 tables. So there's four, 4x4, four tables across, four tables down 16 total. So we might do something when we have a passage of Scripture, you know, that we want people to look up. And so then we might use the wheel and say, all right, row one. You're going to look up this. Row two, you're going to look up that. 00;12;03;16 - 00;12;22;06 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry And here's what's cool is you saw my picture here. So you can also make your background custom. So right here let's say I want this slide right here to be where I put my wheel. First I got to give it a background right. So I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to make it an image background. 00;12;22;09 - 00;12;48;13 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry I'm going to upload a file. And I'm going to go navigate to these different verses of this slide that I have already made. And so boom, there's my verse slides. And so now I don't want that. I want the wheel now. And so I can say row one, row two, row three and row four. We're going to add those. 00;12;48;16 - 00;13;13;19 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry We're going to remove these. And now I can put this right here. Again don't forget Hybrid Ministry ten gets you 10% off of Premium or Premium Plus of Collider. But now I can put that right here. And I can say all right row one. You're going to go first. And then very simply right. Like as I am presenting this sucker, got to get down to it so I can show it to you. 00;13;13;19 - 00;13;42;15 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry But as I'm presenting it, I'll say, all right, row one. Here you go. Or not? Row one. Luke one goes to row one, in fact. Right. And once again, I should have selected hide winner because I can't actually have row one. That's a bummer, I missed out. What am I supposed to do? Well, your purpose in in person can actually hop back over here to edit and just very simply, either hide them and now they're going to be off my wheel or delete them and they're off my wheel either way. 00;13;42;18 - 00;14;01;14 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry Now if I hide them right, I can add them back on very simply. If, I delete them, I do have to go back in here and I have to type it all back out and do all that stuff, which as you see, is not that difficult. But it it does take a little bit more of an additional step. 00;14;01;14 - 00;14;21;22 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry Now here's the other cool thing. You might be thinking like, I don't I don't want like that background. I want like I want a video background. Great. Check this out. I don't want this background anymore. I go back in here to edit slide. I don't want it going to go over here to my slide settings. And instead of it being an image background, I can do a color background. 00;14;21;22 - 00;14;43;08 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry He's my color options right? Those are all the preloaded ones. Or I can say I want a video background. So I'm going to select video and I want it to be a YouTube embedded video, and I want it to be my video. So we're going to copy and paste that link here, paste embed that YouTube video and boom. 00;14;43;10 - 00;15;00;25 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry And I can put the wheel anywhere that I want. Now keep in mind that when it's a background, you saw it right here. Background videos will loop automatically and they do not play sounds. And so you can pull these directly off of the internet. And this is why I believe every single youth ministry should have a strong digital presence also. 00;15;00;25 - 00;15;21;25 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry Hey, why you're here, why don't you go ahead and grab my hybrid strategy guide with a little bit of a different name from this episode that I dropped a little bit over a year ago. So that was idea number three. You can give out passages for the we'll idea number four, I'm actually going to share with those of you that are on my Patreon page. 00;15;21;25 - 00;15;44;13 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry Now listen, don't forget that it's only about a dollar a week. And anyone who signs up before December 2nd, 2024 will get an exclusive free piece of merch. So you're going to get a piece of merch that's probably worth like $20. That's gonna like, pay for itself in the first five months. And I'm going to share my fourth favorite way that I 00;15;44;13 - 00;15;49;02 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry customize and use the wheel in my different teachings and in my different presentations. 00;15;49;09 - 00;16;06;08 Nick Clason| Hybrid Ministry Hey, my friends, as always, don't forget if you want to know how to use the name picker that is going to be here in the next episode, if you're watching on YouTube, that'll be right here on screen. Go hop over to Patreon page. But until next time, and as always, my friends stay hybrid. download youth ministry, sidekick, youth ministry, hybrid ministry, youth pastor podcast, student ministry, youth ministry programming, name picker, wheel, Random Generator, Live voting, Youth ministry creativity, Creative Programming, ProPresenter, Youth Group, Youth Group Phones, How to handle phones in youth ministry, phones are so distracting in youth ministry, Nick Clason, Josh Boldman, Spinning Wheel 🎧 BONUS WEEKLY PODCAST
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DESCRIPTION
In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, discover how to create truly interactive sermons and programming using Sidekick made by Download Youth Ministry to engage students like never before! We’ll explore practical ways to blend creativity with technology, making your youth ministry sermons more dynamic and memorable. Ideal for leaders aiming to elevate their hybrid ministry approach in their student ministry, this episode offers key strategies to transform your youth ministry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

]]> Episode 124: Truly Interactive Sermons | How I use Sidekick https://www.hybridministry.xyz/124 09add7a8-1440-4524-8ccf-34388a19df60 Thu, 21 Nov 2024 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 124 Truly Interactive Sermons | How I use Sidekick full Nick Clason In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, discover how to create truly interactive sermons using Sidekick made by Download Youth Ministry to engage students like never before! We’ll explore practical ways to blend creativity with technology, making your youth ministry sermons more dynamic and memorable. Ideal for leaders aiming to elevate their hybrid ministry approach in their student ministry, this episode offers key strategies to transform your youth ministry. 18:15 no <p>🎧 <strong>BONUS WEEKLY PODCAST</strong><br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry</a></p> <p>🖥️ <strong>SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE</strong><br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup</a></p> <p><strong>DESCRIPTION</strong><br> In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, discover how to create truly interactive sermons using Sidekick made by Download Youth Ministry to engage students like never before! We’ll explore practical ways to blend creativity with technology, making your youth ministry sermons more dynamic and memorable. Ideal for leaders aiming to elevate their hybrid ministry approach in their student ministry, this episode offers key strategies to transform your youth ministry.</p> <p>📓 <strong>SHOWNOTES</strong><br> <a href="http://www.hybridministry.xyz/124" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.hybridministry.xyz/124</a></p> <p>//SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup</a></p> <p>//COLEADER PRICING<br> CODE: HYBRIDMINISTRY10<br> <a href="https://www.sidekick.tv/pricing" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.sidekick.tv/pricing</a></p> <p>//[FREE] STRATEGY GUIDE<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>//CUSTOM HYBRID COACHING<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching</a></p> <p>//CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU!<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms</a></p> <p>//FINISH THE DRAWING - HELP DERRY BUY PRESENTS!<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/finish-the-drawing/games/icebreakers-8666.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/finish-the-drawing/games/icebreakers-8666.html</a></p> <p>👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK<br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉</strong><br> We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!<br> The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!<br> <a href="https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affiliate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em><br> VIDIQ<br> <a href="https://vidiq.com/hybrid" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://vidiq.com/hybrid</a></p> <p>BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p>//SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup</a></p> <p>🕰️<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00 Phone Voting in Sidekick<br> 01:53 The Creativity Challenge<br> 02:36 BIG Announcement!!<br> 04:06 Voting During Pre-Roll<br> 07:13 #1 Game Style<br> 09:39 #2 Game Style<br> 12:10 #3 Game Style<br> 15:56 Voting During Sermons<br> 17:29 The Wheel</p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:28:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Pastor. We all know the struggle that all of us in ministry face with online church and streaming and the tension between will people come and be a part of our church? Or will they just simply listen to us online? I mean, hey, listen, give me a like if anytime in the last week you have listened to another pastor sermon or any podcast of any sort, religion or otherwise, or if you've listened to a worship song on Spotify, Apple Music or on YouTube.</p> <p>00:00:29:00 - 00:00:51:12<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> You see, the fact is we live now in a digital world where, content and sermons and music and worship music and all those things are available for our consumption at the touch and at the click of a finger. So how can we utilize technology in your ministry to make your programing in your service a little bit more hybrid?</p> <p>00:00:51:19 - 00:01:11:08<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> You know, hybrid I talked about this. It's the intersection of your in-person and your digital right. It's not forsaking one for the other, but it's simply finding a way to intersect them and to meld them together in the two. And we're going to look at my favorite feature in sidekick, which I believe makes you as hybrid as it can get in today's world.</p> <p>00:01:11:13 - 00:01:31:15<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> If you are new to this playlist, we have been simply talking in the playlist linked up right here about different features of sidekick, and in the last video I kind of introduced sidekick and I showed some of the miscellaneous features, but there are three kind of core pillars and core, feature principles about sidekick that are just simply fantastic.</p> <p>00:01:31:15 - 00:01:51:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And the first one is the feature of vote. And you can pull your phone out and you can vote via QR codes. So that is what we're going to talk about today and in this video. But don't forget, if you're over here on YouTube that we do have chapters down at the bottom so that you can skip around, jump around to different sections and elements that pertain the most to you.</p> <p>00:01:51:13 - 00:02:10:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But I was talking to a friend of mine at a conference of several years back, and who's leading a workshop, and it was so well done and it was so creative. And frankly, it was pre-COVID, but it was before, and I was thinking like, man, this is more than just him getting up and talking. This is him actually engaging and interacting with his audience and drawing them in.</p> <p>00:02:10:25 - 00:02:31:05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And I asked him, like, how do you do it? And he said, honestly, I challenged myself to try and use at least once per message, a feature from sidekick that I couldn't use with something simple like a PowerPoint or Pro presenter presentation software. And in our student ministry we have gone all in on sidekick. And so I want to share that with you in this playlist.</p> <p>00:02:31:05 - 00:02:52:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But I also want to let you know that launching on December 2nd, I am going to be launching a bonus weekly podcast simply called like what have I Done this week? And talking about all the ways that our youth ministry is trying to go hybrid, utilize digital, utilize YouTube, utilize sidekick. And so that is linked down below. Or you can scan the QR code that you see here on screen.</p> <p>00:02:52:27 - 00:03:16:19<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> That is going to give you that bonus weekly podcast. But there's also going to be other perks for Patreon members. And the cost, my friends, it's only a dollar per episode per week. And so jump in on that if you find that helpful. If you're looking to, turn the dial up on your creativity, on your hybrid, on your digital, I just want to simply walk you through what we are doing on a week by week basis.</p> <p>00:03:16:19 - 00:03:39:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And as you hear what I'm doing, hopefully that just gives you other creative ideas and listen. I would love if you then would also shoot back what you're doing, because anytime I hear what someone else is doing, it causes my brain and my juices to get going and get creative. But anyone who signs up before December 2nd, which is the official launch of the Patreon show, will get an exclusive free piece of merch.</p> <p>00:03:39:04 - 00:03:58:16<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I will mail it to you and so that will be just my token of appreciation. So literally, that piece of merch will pay for itself for like six months worth of you being signed up for the, hybrid, Patreon experience. And so jump on and honestly, take my money. Can't wait to get you guys going on that.</p> <p>00:03:58:16 - 00:04:18:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But in this video, I want to talk about the different areas that you can use the voting in side. So you can include the voting slides in your pre-roll. So for example here on screen you'll see I'm going to click present. And we got a full screen window. And boom we're in our pre-roll slides. And these will rotate if you are not with us.</p> <p>00:04:18:25 - 00:04:35:07<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Last video is a rotate every few seconds. We set that up ahead of time. You can go check out how to do that there. Rotating here pretty quickly. You can slow those down, but if you wanted to add here, to that, first of all, you got to get out of your presentation window and you got to end your presentation to make your edit.</p> <p>00:04:35:09 - 00:04:54:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But then right here, if I just wanted to be like, all right, let's include a voting thing here. All you got to do is just click this voting option. Boom. And it kind of overtakes the design of the screen. And while you're here, you could use this example. Which super power would you choose? Or you could say, which kind of coffee shop is best?</p> <p>00:04:54:20 - 00:05:23:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And you can get people debating on the old Dunkin versus Starbucks versus, main, what else is out there? Whatever, whatever it is, like your local home town hipster coffee vibe. And then over here, it's, the checkmarks on the side. These are indicating correct answers. So if you don't want there to be a correct answer, even though Dunkin in this particular, case is probably the correct answer, there is no correct answer.</p> <p>00:05:23:27 - 00:05:42:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And then over here you can, you can offer this like, hey, do you want to show the QR code? So sometimes people can, scan it ahead of time and just have it on their phone, and their phone becomes like a game remote, or you can leave it being shown here on screen. You can indicate and show the live results.</p> <p>00:05:42:04 - 00:05:59:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> You can also reorder the, the votes like, the as the votes are coming in, whichever one's highest, we'll, we'll kind of jump to the top. You can either leave that or not. And then down here in the advanced settings, if you do have a correct answer, this this text here will be displayed on screen about whether it was correct or whether it wasn't.</p> <p>00:05:59:18 - 00:06:18:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so now if we look back over here at our pre-roll slides, if we get this presentation up and going, we're going to make it a little smaller. So you just pretend that this little, window here is like your, it's your it's your your your screen. Right. It's your, projector screen. You drag this over or whatever.</p> <p>00:06:18:21 - 00:06:38:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So now it's rotating through. Rotating through. Boom. Here's a poll question. You can engage and hybridize and interact with your audience during your pre-roll session there. So that's one of my favorite ways to use it. I have a poll question of every single week during our pre-roll. The the hack to that is you do got to keep the slides.</p> <p>00:06:38:11 - 00:06:44:07<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> They can't be going this fast. I make mine a 14 second rotation that gives people enough</p> <p>00:06:44:07 - 00:06:59:09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> time to read the question, realize it, go scan it and vote and maybe get it in. Because once this q QR code is off the screen, voting is closed. And so once it goes to the next slide, they can't vote anymore. So they kind of got to wait for it to rotate back around.</p> <p>00:06:59:15 - 00:07:22:29<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Sometimes if I noticed people trying to do it though, what I will do is I will pull my phone up and I will just go back using the the phone remote kind of feature. Right. So that's one way that you can utilize and use it in your ministry. The pre-roll, voting option. You can also use it probably most commonly, probably the ways that we think about the most is with your games.</p> <p>00:07:22:29 - 00:07:38:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Right. And so, I told you in the last video of our playlist linked right up here, if I haven't already done that. I have already done that. If you're watching here on YouTube, when you buy a game, you can, bring it in. And so we bought this game, finished the drawing in our youth ministry by my friend Derek.</p> <p>00:07:38:26 - 00:07:55:24<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Print it. I'll drop the link to that game down below in the show notes. Go buy it, hook his family up, give him some royalties. He needs Christmas presents. But, this is what it looks like when I import it in. And so in this particular game, what you would do is I'll go ahead and show it to you here on screen.</p> <p>00:07:55:26 - 00:08:17:09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> What you would do is you would, put one of these slides up. And a student would then have to finish the the drawing of this bus. Okay. So the way that we utilize this in our ministry was we actually probably use random name generator, which is going to be coming up here in one of these future videos.</p> <p>00:08:17:11 - 00:08:38:09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Put some students up on stage. We got four different students. And so then, we gave them this picture. We gave them a minute countdown timer on the screen, and then they drew they finished the drawing. Now, then we used a camera. We just plugged it in via our stage, portal. We use our video switcher and we switch to the camera view.</p> <p>00:08:38:09 - 00:08:58:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So that up on the screen, everyone could see the finished drawing. So all four contestants were holding their drawing up. And then we said, scan this QR code. And so students would scan the QR code. Once they scanned it, once it was on their phone for good and they could vote. Whoo hoo! One person, one person, two person to person four.</p> <p>00:08:58:27 - 00:09:28:12<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Based on that, that was a winner. You can utilize this for anything that has a subjective winner, right? Like, who do you think won this person? This person. You draw something, you build a sculpture you like, who was the loudest. You can vote it right. And once you get that QR code shown on screen and there's another thing you know, it's showing right here, or you click this little button down here in the sidekick window, show QR code and look, it makes it full and big and so everyone can gain access to it, no matter how big or how far away they are from the screen.</p> <p>00:09:28:15 - 00:09:53:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Sometimes you kind of got to zoom in with your phone and stuff like that. So we use that to then kind of declare a winner. All right. Another game option. I want to show you this one that is, sitting in here if you already, a member or a subscriber of sidekick, which if you're not, let me remind you that for my podcast listeners only, you can try out co-leader, which will be what gives you access to sidekick is a presentation software.</p> <p>00:09:53:29 - 00:10:19:09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> If you have never signed up for anything on game before by using the code Hybrid Ministry ten, and you can get an access to Premium or Premium Plus of Collider. I will put the link down below at sidekick.tv/pricing for you to compare the differences, but they'll give you either 260 Collider credits versus 520 Collider credits, along with either 25 or 75 sidekick phone voting connections.</p> <p>00:10:19:13 - 00:10:36:16<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So go check that out if that's something that you want to do, that's something that you want to learn. But if you sign up and you are a member, then in your completely free section here, I'm going to end this thing so that I can edit again. Right? So you'll notice controls change a little bit, but it's free thing.</p> <p>00:10:36:18 - 00:10:56:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> There's a game, that Josh Griffin did over at Mariner's called Zombie Apocalypse. So I hit that and, I imported it. And so here's what it is. So this is the instructions given to us by the sidekick team. It says, hey, watch Josh play this game and how he use it. Here's the instructions. Here's his supply list here to do all this thing.</p> <p>00:10:56:26 - 00:11:16:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But so if we just ran this, this is another way to utilize the voting and play game. Make this small so that we can we can see everything. But. So here we are. We're playing this zombie apocalypse apocalypse game. And, you got the the plot and all these things, and this is like super next level, right?</p> <p>00:11:16:25 - 00:11:37:14<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So this question here is which weapon will you choose? You let the students decide if they want a hammer, a lightsaber, a rubber chicken or the impossible shot bow. Okay. And then here it is. Boom. Zombie approach is good news. Live separation and anxiety and will only go to one area at a time. And one big group of survivors should split up to have a better chance of survival.</p> <p>00:11:37:14 - 00:11:59:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Each one has an either A, the baptismal, the tech booth, the playground, or the welcome booth. And then you let them vote, okay, crowd votes. And then, on one area, it kills the contestants who are there in that area. Then here's some more instructions. And they even incorporated the wheel. And so as you go through this is a a choose your own kind of adventure of a game.</p> <p>00:11:59:02 - 00:12:17:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so that's another really fun, really creative way to use and utilize sidekick to your advantage. And then there's one last way that I want to show you. And I'll go ahead I'll get it presented once again. And this is with, another game that's free in the free section, if you sign up again, don't forget Hybrid Ministry ten.</p> <p>00:12:17:05 - 00:12:32:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> It's called Where's the ball. And so in this particular game, this is the example of what I was kind of saying earlier about you can use your phone as a remote. And so this game is it got a right and wrong answer to it. Right. So like the the other ones were like more subjective. What do you think.</p> <p>00:12:32:21 - 00:12:52:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> What do you think this one is like? Here's a question. Here's the right answer. And so in this one your question that you must decide is is it a or is it be all right. And like I said in this particular case, you got to get that QR code live so that everyone can scan it on their phones, scans, skin scan, and then their phone becomes a remote.</p> <p>00:12:52:18 - 00:13:12:16<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so now the question on their phone, A or B, their phone as they're holding it, it says is it A or is it B they vote I in the booth or your booth person clicks right here, this end voting thing. And then when you click reveal correct answer, it shows the slide with the correct answer. And then it also reveals it on everyone's phones at the same time.</p> <p>00:13:12:19 - 00:13:28:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> All right. It's pretty cool. Here we go to the next one. This is which of these pickleball, balls is the correct answer? They would vote A, B, C, or D, you'd end the voting, you'd reveal the correct answer. And of course, the answer is a the phone would say correct. If they got it wrong, it would say incorrect or whatever.</p> <p>00:13:28:26 - 00:13:46:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> You said the advanced settings to be ahead of time. And I can show you how that works, because this one is a little bit more tricky to actually set up. You don't just simply click right like in this one right here. If I added a new slide and I wanted them to vote on who's the drawing, I simply click voting and then boom, I right I right to answer like who won?</p> <p>00:13:46:27 - 00:14:02:19<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And then I go down here and I do, you know, one, two three, four I unchecked the winner and we're off to the races and where's the ball. Like I said it's a little bit more intricate. So let me show you how it works. So you click edit Slide and this is voting right. So I clicked on that, I clicked Edit voting.</p> <p>00:14:02:19 - 00:14:24:05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But if it weren't there I would turn into voting. And right here at the top you got this little toggle switch that says, is this an image based question when it's not now it went away. When I turn it back on, it's this image based question. So like I said, question side answer slide. And so if I remove this you'll see that I can upload the question slide.</p> <p>00:14:24:05 - 00:14:42:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And then I can upload the answer slide. Now if you're just getting this free where's the ball. It's already included in sidekick. Go get it. Go play it. It's super fun. But if you're creating it yourself, you'll have to upload this from somewhere just on your computer, right? And you also upload the answer and then you're going to correct or select which answer is truly correct.</p> <p>00:14:43:03 - 00:14:58:01<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And then down here in the advanced settings you can either say correct or you can say sorry, or you can flame them like you're an idiot. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that if you want to keep your job, but hey, go for it. It's up to you, right? You can also add right? So here's where you would add or subtract answers.</p> <p>00:14:58:01 - 00:15:13:23<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So if there's three multiple choice or four multiple choice, or if you need to take one away and make it three again, that's where you do that. And then you just simply click which of the answers is correct. This is one of my favorite ways. We did this one time and again. This is the type of stuff you get on the Patreon.</p> <p>00:15:14:00 - 00:15:28:17<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Like I'll share this idea and maybe you can use it. We did like a pet day. We were celebrating National Kitten Day, and we had people texting via our text groups to this picture of your pet, and then we put pictures of pets on screens. Then we said, who do you think? Whose pet do you think this is?</p> <p>00:15:28:17 - 00:15:46:09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Is it you know Jake's? Is it Brie's? Is it Adam's or is it, Gracie's? And then they would just vote, like, it was a fun way to use our students and to get them and let them be kind of the heroes and the superstars of our day and of our our game. And so that was a fun way.</p> <p>00:15:46:09 - 00:16:15:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And we used this image based question kind of voting option here on sidekick. The last way, of course, that you can use it is very obviously in your messages. And so once again, this is an example of what I'll be going on going on over in our Patreon. But in this particular week, actually tonight I'm preaching on, masks, and I got just a couple of different questions, on that, I'm talking about being judgmental.</p> <p>00:16:15:22 - 00:16:33:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And, in that I'm asking questions like, you know, are you ever judgmental? Yes or no? Scan it and let me know. Another one I'm using, like, hey, so, finish the phrase sticks and stones. What? And then I put a bunch of different ridiculous answers. And of course, the answer's six. And stones may break my bones.</p> <p>00:16:33:04 - 00:16:48:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But words will never hurt. Give me a like if you knew that. Because, that means you're old, like me, and you're, in your 30s as a youth pastor. Give me a sub. If not, because that means that you're younger and that means that you're actually on YouTube. And so give me subs so that you will see some of these future videos.</p> <p>00:16:48:02 - 00:17:08:06<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But the point is, previously before sidekick, I would just say raise your hand if you know what this phrase means. Sticks and stones may break my bones, and that's an engagement. But now, in a way, to go hybrid, taking my in-person and my digital and putting at the intersection of my students phones, I say, hey, scan this QR code and finish this phrase.</p> <p>00:17:08:09 - 00:17:30:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And again, like my friend Anthony said back at that conference, I challenged myself to try and use sidekick in my message as I create at least one time per week. And so voting is a fantastic way to to utilize that and to use that. Now the another really fun custom way that sidekick, has to offer this was just voting.</p> <p>00:17:30:13 - 00:17:48:09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> The last video was just some of its miscellaneous features. The next video, which is going to be linked right here on screen. You can see it if you're watching on YouTube. Go ahead and tap that and go check that out. Is the random wheel and how you can customize it and generate it with customized, sounds and punishments and all sorts of different things.</p> <p>00:17:48:09 - 00:18:06:17<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So I want to chat through different creative ways. You can use that, perhaps in pre-roll and games, in messages and announcements, all sorts of different ways. I can't wait for you to see that. I hope that this helps you and your youth. Minutes to become more engaging, more interactive. Don't forget that's all at the Patreon is going to be about.</p> <p>00:18:06:17 - 00:18:10:01<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But as always, don't forget my friends to stay hybrid. </p> download youth ministry, sidekick, youth ministry, hybrid ministry, youth pastor podcast, student ministry, youth ministry programming, name picker, wheel, Random Generator, Live voting, Youth ministry creativity, Creative Programming, ProPresenter, Youth Group, Youth Group Phones, How to handle phones in youth ministry, phones are so distracting in youth ministry, Nick Clason, Josh Boldman 🎧 BONUS WEEKLY PODCAST
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

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

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

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

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

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

//FINISH THE DRAWING - HELP DERRY BUY PRESENTS!
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/finish-the-drawing/games/icebreakers-8666.html

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
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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
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BEST DYM RESOURCES
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OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Phone Voting in Sidekick
01:53 The Creativity Challenge
02:36 BIG Announcement!!
04:06 Voting During Pre-Roll
07:13 #1 Game Style
09:39 #2 Game Style
12:10 #3 Game Style
15:56 Voting During Sermons
17:29 The Wheel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

//FINISH THE DRAWING - HELP DERRY BUY PRESENTS!
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/finish-the-drawing/games/icebreakers-8666.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

--------------
🎉 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 Phone Voting in Sidekick
01:53 The Creativity Challenge
02:36 BIG Announcement!!
04:06 Voting During Pre-Roll
07:13 #1 Game Style
09:39 #2 Game Style
12:10 #3 Game Style
15:56 Voting During Sermons
17:29 The Wheel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

]]> Episode 123: LIVE Sidekick Demo and Review! Youth Ministry Turned Interactive https://www.hybridministry.xyz/123 8b9a811b-d7a2-4708-951d-ed02b9f41afb Thu, 14 Nov 2024 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 123 LIVE Sidekick Demo and Review! Youth Ministry Turned Interactive full Nick Clason In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we’re diving into a live demo and review of Sidekick – a powerful tool for youth ministry and interactive programming! See how Sidekick can transform your youth group experience by adding a dynamic, creative edge to your student ministry. Sidekick from Download Youth Ministry is perfect for leaders looking to engage students in fresh ways, this episode is packed with insights to level up your student ministry service! 16:20 no 🎧 BONUS WEEKLY PODCAST https://patreon.com/hybridministry 🖥️ SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup DESCRIPTION In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we’re diving into a live demo and review of Sidekick – a powerful tool for youth ministry and interactive programming! See how Sidekick can transform your youth group experience by adding a dynamic, creative edge to your student ministry. Sidekick from Download Youth Ministry is perfect for leaders looking to engage students in fresh ways, this episode is packed with insights to level up your student ministry service! 📓 SHOWNOTES http://www.hybridministry.xyz/123 //SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup //COLEADER PRICING CODE: HYBRIDMINISTRY10 https://www.sidekick.tv/pricing //[FREE] STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book //CUSTOM HYBRID COACHING https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching //CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 &amp; 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 More Engaging Services with Sidekick 02:26 New Patreon Show Starting! 04:08 Feature #1 06:48 Co-Leader Promo Code 08:23 Feature #2 11:39 Feature #3 12:12 Feature #4 13:44 Feature #5 14:07 Feature #6 14:40 Feature #7 15:35 Feature #8 -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00;00;00;00 - 00;00;04;17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Youth pastor. Collegiate minister. Senior pastor. What if I told you 00;00;04;17 - 00;00;12;28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry that there was a better presentation software out there than pro presenter PowerPoint, or whatever else you use? 00;00;12;28 - 00;00;30;19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It sounded too good to be true. Well, listen, it is made by youth pastors and is made for youth pastors. Give me a like if you think you already know what I'm talking about, because I am talking about my favorite presentation software and it's called sidekick. 00;00;30;19 - 00;01;01;29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And here's why. This is great, regardless of if you're in youth ministry or not, because it is made for interaction and it is made for customization. But there is so much more. And in this video and in this upcoming playlist, I want to share with you what those features are. This video in particular, I'm going to drop my top eight different miscellaneous features because everyone knows that sidekick has things like the voting and the wheel picker and the name picker. 00;01;01;29 - 00;01;23;20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But in this video, I'm going to share the other things that sidekick has to offer besides those obvious kind of milestone landmark, features built in woven into the presentation software. And if you're here on YouTube, as always, don't forget that there are chapters listed down below at the bottom so that you can jump ahead to what matters most to you. 00;01;23;20 - 00;01;50;02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But here's the thing in the context in which I'm currently working, we are all in on sidekick. What we've done is we have two computers now, one for pro presenter and one for sidekick. Because if you know, if you've used sidekick in the new beta version at all, you know that it runs through Google Chrome and in the previous versions, what you could do with running a software like, pro presenters, you'd have pro presenter up and running and then back behind it. 00;01;50;02 - 00;02;19;03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You could have the sidekick window and you could just toggle off the display. But now Chrome is actually more powerful than Pro Presenter. Most people I tell that they find that actually incredibly surprising. And so as a result of that, it makes switching between Chrome and Pro Presenter a little bit tricky. And so the way in which we have sort of circumvented or navigated that is we have just built two computers and we have a black magic video switcher where we can go from computer one to computer two. 00;02;19;09 - 00;02;44;24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And essentially we use Pro Presenter for just worship and lyrics, and then we use sidekick for every thing else. You know, I'm actually launching here during the course of this playlist, starting officially on December 2nd, a brand new bonus podcast. I'm going to be releasing it one time per week, going to be over on my Patreon page. And listen, Patreon, takes a little bit of a fee. 00;02;45;01 - 00;03;10;21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so the reason that I'm doing that is to just, invest back into the podcast. But I am only charging $4 per month. I think it is a small, modest fee. Essentially it is going to break down to $1 per week per additional bonus. Podcast. What I want to do with that podcast, I just simply want to share with you the creative ways that we are running our youth ministry programing and how we're making it hybrid. 00;03;10;21 - 00;03;35;24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so if you want more hybrid information, I would love to share that with you. This podcast and this YouTube video is meant to sort of like give a big broad strokes overview of what Hybrid Ministry is. But on my Patreon page, what I want to do is I just want to share an extra bonus podcast and simply chat through everything that I've done for the week and talk through the ways that we've tried to make it creative and talk through the ways in which we have tried to sort of hybridize our ministry. 00;03;35;24 - 00;04;01;29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so that podcast is starting December 2nd. And for everyone who signs up during now, if you're watching live through December 2nd, I am going to send and mail you an exclusive free piece of merch. For all who sign up between now and December 2nd. Like I said, and it basically breaks down to $1 a month. So, either scan the QR code that you see here on screen or hit the link down below in the description. 00;04;01;29 - 00;04;25;02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But let's dive in to my eight favorite features of sidekick. Let's check it out. So my first favorite feature of sidekick is its co-leader integration. And if you're watching here on screen, you might be surprised to know that you're not looking at sidekick. What you're actually going to look at when we're we're actually going to start is here on co-leader and so on. 00;04;25;02 - 00;04;50;07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Co-Leader. What you can do is, if you are a subscriber, a co-leader is a, curriculum roadmaps and, like, I guess almost, not pro presenter. What am I trying to say? Planning center replacement thing for youth pastors and for youth ministries. So here on co-leader, you can explore sort of all the different, series and topics and even, events that they have. 00;04;50;14 - 00;05;16;11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Co-Leader has a roadmap series and so sort of like their proposed curriculum. And so you can explore their you're one of roadmaps and then you can also explore their your two here of roadmaps. And but essentially on co-leader what's so cool about it. And I like co-leader it is actually become it's new is only in year two of development but it's actually become my favorite curriculum resource, because it literally does everything for you. 00;05;16;11 - 00;05;33;27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you see here on our dashboard, these are series that we have redeemed our credits for. So Co-Leader works on sort of a credit system. And so we've redeemed, this credit series, this credit on this series here called masks. And so, for example, if you're in, session one of masks, you click view session here. 00;05;34;05 - 00;05;54;29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if you look right off to the side here, sidekick, you can open in sidekick. Boom. Click that little button and it will automatically import your entire sessions. So here's our session flow. They got your graphics and all that stuff. But starting here you got your countdown. You're welcome. Your icebreaker, your game, some songs, videos and then the teaching slides. 00;05;54;29 - 00;06;13;22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so I want to show you what that looks like over here in sidekick. So if you're here in sidekick you'll see. Let's actually do a, side by side so that you can see them in comparison. Right. So from the top we have, countdown. There's your countdown. You got your, game right there. You got another game. 00;06;13;22 - 00;06;38;29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Masked celebrity. And all of this is included in your co-leader subscription. You got your, bumper video for your masks, and then you got your masks. Chameleon is the title of the message. Chameleon teaching slides right there, and you can see how all of that works together. And so by a simple click of the button, your entire youth ministry night is planned. 00;06;38;29 - 00;07;03;19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it is absolutely crazy. Now if you're a download Youth Ministry member, the co-leader is slightly different than do you? I am, but if you've never done anything in with download youth ministry before or co-leader, then I want to let my podcast listeners know that exclusively here on this podcast. I'll give you 10% off, of co-leader, so you can use the code Hybrid Ministry ten. 00;07;03;19 - 00;07;26;03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what that includes is not only will that give you access to co-leader, but that also sort of will unlock access to this presentation software called sidekick. And so included is sidekick for a year. It allows you to do the one click presentations for everything that's in co-leader. Both year one and year two of the roadmaps, and you can get an access to co-leader premium or Premium Plus. 00;07;26;03 - 00;07;48;15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Okay. And so premium includes 260 co-leader credits. Like I said, it's kind of built off that credit system. And then you get 25 sidekick phone connections. That's for voting. We'll get to that in a minute. Or the premium class which is Premium Plus, which is 520 co-leader credits and 75 sidekick phone connections. So you can explore the differences between those two plans at this link here. 00;07;48;15 - 00;08;05;27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry On screen sidekick TV pricing don't forget, if you've never used or never done anything before with sidekick or with co-leader, then if you're signing up for the first time, Hybrid Ministry ten, I'll give you 10% off. Go ahead and check that out. And so I love that 00;08;05;27 - 00;08;10;00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry about sidekick. I love that about, co-leader I love that, but it's integration. 00;08;10;01 - 00;08;10;11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So boom. 00;08;10;11 - 00;08;22;28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right here. Here's my full like rundown, my full run sheet for everything going on here in this masks series. Now that's my first favorite thing about sidekick the co-leader integration. 00;08;22;28 - 00;08;37;19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So my second favorite feature about sidekick is the YouTube video integration. Now, the thing I like about the YouTube video integration is it takes a while in sidekicks to to upload videos. 00;08;37;19 - 00;09;02;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You can drag and drop JPEGs easily, but when you go to upload a video, just it takes a minute and it's a little clunky to do, like a video, next video, next video, because you got to kind of do it one by one. So here's how it look like. So if I wanted to put a video on this slide, I'd click Edit Media videos, go browse, go find the video, upload it, wait for it to upload, and then it's it's in its spot as opposed to just a quick and easy drag and drop. 00;09;02;05 - 00;09;23;29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry However, if, I wanted to just embed a YouTube video, that's very simple, and I've actually already done that right here on this one, you'll notice here's one of my YouTube videos embedded. So if I go to present this thing, remember it's browser based. So just very simply, 00;09;24;01 - 00;09;46;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So just very simply, opens up a new window and you started hearing even the, the, what's it called? The countdown right there. But here's this video that I embedded social media right there into sidekick. I have all this functionality over here. I can pause the video, I can mute the video, I can restart the video. 00;09;46;10 - 00;10;10;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I can do all those sort of things. Let me get this smaller so that we can see both of them together. So this is my presentation window that will just go full screen. Right. But very simply, when I'm, when I'm wanting to include a video, I can embed a video. And this is embedded small, but I can also just, you know, very, very simply, very easily embed that video full screen. 00;10;10;05 - 00;10;44;00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right, as well. Now, the other thing like that we use in our youth ministry as we go hybrid taking our our in-person and our digital, we teach live messages. But then we also prefilled them for multiple reasons, because we use that as a springboard for our Sunday morning small group content. And so every Sunday morning we play a clip off of one of our message clips, even though the message was delivered live, we play the filmed version, in our room, just like a 2 to 3 minute clip to remind everyone what was said. 00;10;44;02 - 00;11;03;11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Our our leaders can look at it ahead of time. Our students who missed on Wednesday can also look at it ahead of time on YouTube. It's evergreen content. It's meant to reach students who, might be asking questions about faith, God, whatever the case might be. And so we do that. And if you're interested in exploring more about what that might look like, link down. 00;11;03;11 - 00;11;38;27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Below is a link to some custom coaching. I would love to help kind of level that game up for you, or even get you started from scratch if that's something that you're interested in. But it has been a hugely beneficial piece to us and our student ministry, having the ability to just simply embed our YouTube videos. And so for things like countdowns or for things that are like bigger files, I will actually upload those to YouTube, host them there, put them on just like a private unlisted link, and then embed that video into my sidekick presentation, as opposed to have to upload it every single time. 00;11;39;00 - 00;11;57;26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now here's the other thing I love about sidekick. It's easy to build. So let me show you very quickly. Like, while, you know, while the videos might be a little more tricky to, to pull in or builder upload, they're easy to do. They're just a little bit time consuming. That's why it's easy to just drop a YouTube video in there. 00;11;57;26 - 00;12;09;26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. But if I just want to like, add one of these JPEGs in here, all I gotta do is drag it and drop it and boom, it's uploaded and is ready to go. There it is. Okay, super simple, super easy to 00;12;09;26 - 00;12;17;19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry build. I love things like, these looping announcements. So right here, here's a bunch of different looping announcements. 00;12;17;19 - 00;12;39;04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, don't forget that the, here's the here's the countdown video again. But, you know, as always, like, don't forget Hybrid Ministry ten. Don't forget about that. That's going to be used to your advantage. If you want to check out Collider, you want to check out sidekick. Don't forget we got custom social media coaching. Scan the QR code that you see here on screen here. 00;12;39;04 - 00;12;58;09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'll make it bigger so you can go and check out my completely free e-book about how to go hybrid. Or hey, don't forget about our Patreon. We got that going on $4 a month exclusive free merch along with all these other things that you see here. Listed out exclusive sticker help to show and segment topics, super chats and shout outs. 00;12;58;09 - 00;13;22;02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right? But you can turn this right here. You can turn these announcements to be looping announcements. We use those every single week in our ministry. So you'll see right over here. If you're watching here on screen, you see this little, loop icon. That means that this, this set of announcements in this little, pocket of, of slides here is set to, rotate. 00;13;22;05 - 00;13;41;14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This one right here is not. So let me show you how you do it. Click this little gear icon. You click loop slides. You say how long you want the slides to loop for seven seconds or 10s or however long you want it to. And then you simply click close and then boom. When you click present, those will then be on a looper, which is a fantastic resource. 00;13;41;14 - 00;14;03;16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We use that every single week in our student ministry. I also want to let you know just about a couple of other things that are awesome. You have the, free option up here. So if you're co-leader, sidekick, person, these are all free different resources that you can get just like and quickly and simply, you got countdowns and games and videos and all sorts of things. 00;14;03;18 - 00;14;21;28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You can embed or import any of these into your presentation. The other thing that's really cool is when you buy something on demand, look, I've bought these things before, they will automatically upload them. So as I was saying, kind of the video thing was a little clunky to upload and maybe you don't want to upload every single one of these to a YouTube playlist and then embed those via YouTube. 00;14;22;00 - 00;14;55;19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry No sweat. No problem. Check it out. You can very simply buy something on gram and then boom, it'll be there in just a second and then you can quickly import it. Just like I did down here with this, finish the drawing game back to school. And there it is. Boom. Imported. All right, and then the other thing, man, the other thing that is so cool about, sidekick is that the you can control it from your phone simply by logging into app that sidekick.tv on your mobile device, and you can control it from anywhere in the room, including teaching. 00;14;55;24 - 00;15;19;28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You can control it from any other device, including like our, sound booth, computer, maybe running sidekick. I can go into my office, and I can control sidekick from my office. And so my office actually sits where I can see in through some glass doors into our auditorium. And so if it's on the wrong side or whatever, I can pull open on my, on my laptop home from the app, that sidekick, that TV type in and change it. 00;15;20;04 - 00;15;45;15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I've had other like staff members and volunteers to be like, are you are you controlling that right now? And that part is so stinking cool. The last thing the eighth and final piece about sidekick that I love is the voting. The voting option is the the single greatest advent. This is what makes this presentation and software so unique and so customizable. 00;15;45;21 - 00;16;13;15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And that's what we're going to talk about. Additional creative ways to use it in your games, in your countdowns, in your teaching, in all sorts of different ways to deploy and use the voting feature in sidekick. You can't do this on any other presentation software. That video is going to be linked right here on screen. Go check out our Patreon as we'll talk about multiple creative ways to deploy voting and to deploy sidekick, and simply what I am doing to lean in and be more hybrid. 00;16;13;19 - 00;16;20;00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But check that video out on screen. And don't forget, and as always, my friends, to stay hybrid. download youth ministry,sidekick,youth ministry,hybrid ministry,nick clason,youth pastor podcast,student ministry,youth ministry programming,name picker,wheel,Random Generator,Live voting,Youth ministry creativity,Creative Programming,ProPresenter,Youth Group,Youth Group Phones,How to handle phones in youth ministry,phones are so distracting in youth ministry 🎧 BONUS WEEKLY PODCAST
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DESCRIPTION
In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we’re diving into a live demo and review of Sidekick – a powerful tool for youth ministry and interactive programming! See how Sidekick can transform your youth group experience by adding a dynamic, creative edge to your student ministry. Sidekick from Download Youth Ministry is perfect for leaders looking to engage students in fresh ways, this episode is packed with insights to level up your student ministry service!

📓 SHOWNOTES
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🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 More Engaging Services with Sidekick
02:26 New Patreon Show Starting!
04:08 Feature #1
06:48 Co-Leader Promo Code
08:23 Feature #2
11:39 Feature #3
12:12 Feature #4
13:44 Feature #5
14:07 Feature #6
14:40 Feature #7
15:35 Feature #8

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;04;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Youth pastor. Collegiate minister. Senior pastor. What if I told you

00;00;04;17 - 00;00;12;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that there was a better presentation software out there than pro presenter PowerPoint, or whatever else you use?

00;00;12;28 - 00;00;30;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It sounded too good to be true. Well, listen, it is made by youth pastors and is made for youth pastors. Give me a like if you think you already know what I'm talking about, because I am talking about my favorite presentation software and it's called sidekick.

00;00;30;19 - 00;01;01;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And here's why. This is great, regardless of if you're in youth ministry or not, because it is made for interaction and it is made for customization. But there is so much more. And in this video and in this upcoming playlist, I want to share with you what those features are. This video in particular, I'm going to drop my top eight different miscellaneous features because everyone knows that sidekick has things like the voting and the wheel picker and the name picker.

00;01;01;29 - 00;01;23;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this video, I'm going to share the other things that sidekick has to offer besides those obvious kind of milestone landmark, features built in woven into the presentation software. And if you're here on YouTube, as always, don't forget that there are chapters listed down below at the bottom so that you can jump ahead to what matters most to you.

00;01;23;20 - 00;01;50;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's the thing in the context in which I'm currently working, we are all in on sidekick. What we've done is we have two computers now, one for pro presenter and one for sidekick. Because if you know, if you've used sidekick in the new beta version at all, you know that it runs through Google Chrome and in the previous versions, what you could do with running a software like, pro presenters, you'd have pro presenter up and running and then back behind it.

00;01;50;02 - 00;02;19;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You could have the sidekick window and you could just toggle off the display. But now Chrome is actually more powerful than Pro Presenter. Most people I tell that they find that actually incredibly surprising. And so as a result of that, it makes switching between Chrome and Pro Presenter a little bit tricky. And so the way in which we have sort of circumvented or navigated that is we have just built two computers and we have a black magic video switcher where we can go from computer one to computer two.

00;02;19;09 - 00;02;44;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And essentially we use Pro Presenter for just worship and lyrics, and then we use sidekick for every thing else. You know, I'm actually launching here during the course of this playlist, starting officially on December 2nd, a brand new bonus podcast. I'm going to be releasing it one time per week, going to be over on my Patreon page. And listen, Patreon, takes a little bit of a fee.

00;02;45;01 - 00;03;10;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the reason that I'm doing that is to just, invest back into the podcast. But I am only charging $4 per month. I think it is a small, modest fee. Essentially it is going to break down to $1 per week per additional bonus. Podcast. What I want to do with that podcast, I just simply want to share with you the creative ways that we are running our youth ministry programing and how we're making it hybrid.

00;03;10;21 - 00;03;35;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you want more hybrid information, I would love to share that with you. This podcast and this YouTube video is meant to sort of like give a big broad strokes overview of what Hybrid Ministry is. But on my Patreon page, what I want to do is I just want to share an extra bonus podcast and simply chat through everything that I've done for the week and talk through the ways that we've tried to make it creative and talk through the ways in which we have tried to sort of hybridize our ministry.

00;03;35;24 - 00;04;01;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that podcast is starting December 2nd. And for everyone who signs up during now, if you're watching live through December 2nd, I am going to send and mail you an exclusive free piece of merch. For all who sign up between now and December 2nd. Like I said, and it basically breaks down to $1 a month. So, either scan the QR code that you see here on screen or hit the link down below in the description.

00;04;01;29 - 00;04;25;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But let's dive in to my eight favorite features of sidekick. Let's check it out. So my first favorite feature of sidekick is its co-leader integration. And if you're watching here on screen, you might be surprised to know that you're not looking at sidekick. What you're actually going to look at when we're we're actually going to start is here on co-leader and so on.

00;04;25;02 - 00;04;50;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Co-Leader. What you can do is, if you are a subscriber, a co-leader is a, curriculum roadmaps and, like, I guess almost, not pro presenter. What am I trying to say? Planning center replacement thing for youth pastors and for youth ministries. So here on co-leader, you can explore sort of all the different, series and topics and even, events that they have.

00;04;50;14 - 00;05;16;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Co-Leader has a roadmap series and so sort of like their proposed curriculum. And so you can explore their you're one of roadmaps and then you can also explore their your two here of roadmaps. And but essentially on co-leader what's so cool about it. And I like co-leader it is actually become it's new is only in year two of development but it's actually become my favorite curriculum resource, because it literally does everything for you.

00;05;16;11 - 00;05;33;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you see here on our dashboard, these are series that we have redeemed our credits for. So Co-Leader works on sort of a credit system. And so we've redeemed, this credit series, this credit on this series here called masks. And so, for example, if you're in, session one of masks, you click view session here.

00;05;34;05 - 00;05;54;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you look right off to the side here, sidekick, you can open in sidekick. Boom. Click that little button and it will automatically import your entire sessions. So here's our session flow. They got your graphics and all that stuff. But starting here you got your countdown. You're welcome. Your icebreaker, your game, some songs, videos and then the teaching slides.

00;05;54;29 - 00;06;13;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I want to show you what that looks like over here in sidekick. So if you're here in sidekick you'll see. Let's actually do a, side by side so that you can see them in comparison. Right. So from the top we have, countdown. There's your countdown. You got your, game right there. You got another game.

00;06;13;22 - 00;06;38;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Masked celebrity. And all of this is included in your co-leader subscription. You got your, bumper video for your masks, and then you got your masks. Chameleon is the title of the message. Chameleon teaching slides right there, and you can see how all of that works together. And so by a simple click of the button, your entire youth ministry night is planned.

00;06;38;29 - 00;07;03;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it is absolutely crazy. Now if you're a download Youth Ministry member, the co-leader is slightly different than do you? I am, but if you've never done anything in with download youth ministry before or co-leader, then I want to let my podcast listeners know that exclusively here on this podcast. I'll give you 10% off, of co-leader, so you can use the code Hybrid Ministry ten.

00;07;03;19 - 00;07;26;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what that includes is not only will that give you access to co-leader, but that also sort of will unlock access to this presentation software called sidekick. And so included is sidekick for a year. It allows you to do the one click presentations for everything that's in co-leader. Both year one and year two of the roadmaps, and you can get an access to co-leader premium or Premium Plus.

00;07;26;03 - 00;07;48;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. And so premium includes 260 co-leader credits. Like I said, it's kind of built off that credit system. And then you get 25 sidekick phone connections. That's for voting. We'll get to that in a minute. Or the premium class which is Premium Plus, which is 520 co-leader credits and 75 sidekick phone connections. So you can explore the differences between those two plans at this link here.

00;07;48;15 - 00;08;05;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
On screen sidekick TV pricing don't forget, if you've never used or never done anything before with sidekick or with co-leader, then if you're signing up for the first time, Hybrid Ministry ten, I'll give you 10% off. Go ahead and check that out. And so I love that

00;08;05;27 - 00;08;10;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
about sidekick. I love that about, co-leader I love that, but it's integration.

00;08;10;01 - 00;08;10;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So boom.

00;08;10;11 - 00;08;22;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right here. Here's my full like rundown, my full run sheet for everything going on here in this masks series. Now that's my first favorite thing about sidekick the co-leader integration.

00;08;22;28 - 00;08;37;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So my second favorite feature about sidekick is the YouTube video integration. Now, the thing I like about the YouTube video integration is it takes a while in sidekicks to to upload videos.

00;08;37;19 - 00;09;02;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can drag and drop JPEGs easily, but when you go to upload a video, just it takes a minute and it's a little clunky to do, like a video, next video, next video, because you got to kind of do it one by one. So here's how it look like. So if I wanted to put a video on this slide, I'd click Edit Media videos, go browse, go find the video, upload it, wait for it to upload, and then it's it's in its spot as opposed to just a quick and easy drag and drop.

00;09;02;05 - 00;09;23;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, if, I wanted to just embed a YouTube video, that's very simple, and I've actually already done that right here on this one, you'll notice here's one of my YouTube videos embedded. So if I go to present this thing, remember it's browser based. So just very simply,

00;09;24;01 - 00;09;46;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So just very simply, opens up a new window and you started hearing even the, the, what's it called? The countdown right there. But here's this video that I embedded social media right there into sidekick. I have all this functionality over here. I can pause the video, I can mute the video, I can restart the video.

00;09;46;10 - 00;10;10;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can do all those sort of things. Let me get this smaller so that we can see both of them together. So this is my presentation window that will just go full screen. Right. But very simply, when I'm, when I'm wanting to include a video, I can embed a video. And this is embedded small, but I can also just, you know, very, very simply, very easily embed that video full screen.

00;10;10;05 - 00;10;44;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right, as well. Now, the other thing like that we use in our youth ministry as we go hybrid taking our our in-person and our digital, we teach live messages. But then we also prefilled them for multiple reasons, because we use that as a springboard for our Sunday morning small group content. And so every Sunday morning we play a clip off of one of our message clips, even though the message was delivered live, we play the filmed version, in our room, just like a 2 to 3 minute clip to remind everyone what was said.

00;10;44;02 - 00;11;03;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our our leaders can look at it ahead of time. Our students who missed on Wednesday can also look at it ahead of time on YouTube. It's evergreen content. It's meant to reach students who, might be asking questions about faith, God, whatever the case might be. And so we do that. And if you're interested in exploring more about what that might look like, link down.

00;11;03;11 - 00;11;38;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Below is a link to some custom coaching. I would love to help kind of level that game up for you, or even get you started from scratch if that's something that you're interested in. But it has been a hugely beneficial piece to us and our student ministry, having the ability to just simply embed our YouTube videos. And so for things like countdowns or for things that are like bigger files, I will actually upload those to YouTube, host them there, put them on just like a private unlisted link, and then embed that video into my sidekick presentation, as opposed to have to upload it every single time.

00;11;39;00 - 00;11;57;26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now here's the other thing I love about sidekick. It's easy to build. So let me show you very quickly. Like, while, you know, while the videos might be a little more tricky to, to pull in or builder upload, they're easy to do. They're just a little bit time consuming. That's why it's easy to just drop a YouTube video in there.

00;11;57;26 - 00;12;09;26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. But if I just want to like, add one of these JPEGs in here, all I gotta do is drag it and drop it and boom, it's uploaded and is ready to go. There it is. Okay, super simple, super easy to

00;12;09;26 - 00;12;17;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
build. I love things like, these looping announcements. So right here, here's a bunch of different looping announcements.

00;12;17;19 - 00;12;39;04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, don't forget that the, here's the here's the countdown video again. But, you know, as always, like, don't forget Hybrid Ministry ten. Don't forget about that. That's going to be used to your advantage. If you want to check out Collider, you want to check out sidekick. Don't forget we got custom social media coaching. Scan the QR code that you see here on screen here.

00;12;39;04 - 00;12;58;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'll make it bigger so you can go and check out my completely free e-book about how to go hybrid. Or hey, don't forget about our Patreon. We got that going on $4 a month exclusive free merch along with all these other things that you see here. Listed out exclusive sticker help to show and segment topics, super chats and shout outs.

00;12;58;09 - 00;13;22;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right? But you can turn this right here. You can turn these announcements to be looping announcements. We use those every single week in our ministry. So you'll see right over here. If you're watching here on screen, you see this little, loop icon. That means that this, this set of announcements in this little, pocket of, of slides here is set to, rotate.

00;13;22;05 - 00;13;41;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This one right here is not. So let me show you how you do it. Click this little gear icon. You click loop slides. You say how long you want the slides to loop for seven seconds or 10s or however long you want it to. And then you simply click close and then boom. When you click present, those will then be on a looper, which is a fantastic resource.

00;13;41;14 - 00;14;03;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We use that every single week in our student ministry. I also want to let you know just about a couple of other things that are awesome. You have the, free option up here. So if you're co-leader, sidekick, person, these are all free different resources that you can get just like and quickly and simply, you got countdowns and games and videos and all sorts of things.

00;14;03;18 - 00;14;21;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can embed or import any of these into your presentation. The other thing that's really cool is when you buy something on demand, look, I've bought these things before, they will automatically upload them. So as I was saying, kind of the video thing was a little clunky to upload and maybe you don't want to upload every single one of these to a YouTube playlist and then embed those via YouTube.

00;14;22;00 - 00;14;55;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
No sweat. No problem. Check it out. You can very simply buy something on gram and then boom, it'll be there in just a second and then you can quickly import it. Just like I did down here with this, finish the drawing game back to school. And there it is. Boom. Imported. All right, and then the other thing, man, the other thing that is so cool about, sidekick is that the you can control it from your phone simply by logging into app that sidekick.tv on your mobile device, and you can control it from anywhere in the room, including teaching.

00;14;55;24 - 00;15;19;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can control it from any other device, including like our, sound booth, computer, maybe running sidekick. I can go into my office, and I can control sidekick from my office. And so my office actually sits where I can see in through some glass doors into our auditorium. And so if it's on the wrong side or whatever, I can pull open on my, on my laptop home from the app, that sidekick, that TV type in and change it.

00;15;20;04 - 00;15;45;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I've had other like staff members and volunteers to be like, are you are you controlling that right now? And that part is so stinking cool. The last thing the eighth and final piece about sidekick that I love is the voting. The voting option is the the single greatest advent. This is what makes this presentation and software so unique and so customizable.

00;15;45;21 - 00;16;13;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's what we're going to talk about. Additional creative ways to use it in your games, in your countdowns, in your teaching, in all sorts of different ways to deploy and use the voting feature in sidekick. You can't do this on any other presentation software. That video is going to be linked right here on screen. Go check out our Patreon as we'll talk about multiple creative ways to deploy voting and to deploy sidekick, and simply what I am doing to lean in and be more hybrid.

00;16;13;19 - 00;16;20;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But check that video out on screen. And don't forget, and as always, my friends, to stay hybrid.

]]> 🎧 BONUS WEEKLY PODCAST
https://patreon.com/hybridministry

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

DESCRIPTION
In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we’re diving into a live demo and review of Sidekick – a powerful tool for youth ministry and interactive programming! See how Sidekick can transform your youth group experience by adding a dynamic, creative edge to your student ministry. Sidekick from Download Youth Ministry is perfect for leaders looking to engage students in fresh ways, this episode is packed with insights to level up your student ministry service!

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

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

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

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

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

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Some of the below links are affiliate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 More Engaging Services with Sidekick
02:26 New Patreon Show Starting!
04:08 Feature #1
06:48 Co-Leader Promo Code
08:23 Feature #2
11:39 Feature #3
12:12 Feature #4
13:44 Feature #5
14:07 Feature #6
14:40 Feature #7
15:35 Feature #8

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;04;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Youth pastor. Collegiate minister. Senior pastor. What if I told you

00;00;04;17 - 00;00;12;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that there was a better presentation software out there than pro presenter PowerPoint, or whatever else you use?

00;00;12;28 - 00;00;30;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It sounded too good to be true. Well, listen, it is made by youth pastors and is made for youth pastors. Give me a like if you think you already know what I'm talking about, because I am talking about my favorite presentation software and it's called sidekick.

00;00;30;19 - 00;01;01;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And here's why. This is great, regardless of if you're in youth ministry or not, because it is made for interaction and it is made for customization. But there is so much more. And in this video and in this upcoming playlist, I want to share with you what those features are. This video in particular, I'm going to drop my top eight different miscellaneous features because everyone knows that sidekick has things like the voting and the wheel picker and the name picker.

00;01;01;29 - 00;01;23;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this video, I'm going to share the other things that sidekick has to offer besides those obvious kind of milestone landmark, features built in woven into the presentation software. And if you're here on YouTube, as always, don't forget that there are chapters listed down below at the bottom so that you can jump ahead to what matters most to you.

00;01;23;20 - 00;01;50;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's the thing in the context in which I'm currently working, we are all in on sidekick. What we've done is we have two computers now, one for pro presenter and one for sidekick. Because if you know, if you've used sidekick in the new beta version at all, you know that it runs through Google Chrome and in the previous versions, what you could do with running a software like, pro presenters, you'd have pro presenter up and running and then back behind it.

00;01;50;02 - 00;02;19;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You could have the sidekick window and you could just toggle off the display. But now Chrome is actually more powerful than Pro Presenter. Most people I tell that they find that actually incredibly surprising. And so as a result of that, it makes switching between Chrome and Pro Presenter a little bit tricky. And so the way in which we have sort of circumvented or navigated that is we have just built two computers and we have a black magic video switcher where we can go from computer one to computer two.

00;02;19;09 - 00;02;44;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And essentially we use Pro Presenter for just worship and lyrics, and then we use sidekick for every thing else. You know, I'm actually launching here during the course of this playlist, starting officially on December 2nd, a brand new bonus podcast. I'm going to be releasing it one time per week, going to be over on my Patreon page. And listen, Patreon, takes a little bit of a fee.

00;02;45;01 - 00;03;10;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the reason that I'm doing that is to just, invest back into the podcast. But I am only charging $4 per month. I think it is a small, modest fee. Essentially it is going to break down to $1 per week per additional bonus. Podcast. What I want to do with that podcast, I just simply want to share with you the creative ways that we are running our youth ministry programing and how we're making it hybrid.

00;03;10;21 - 00;03;35;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you want more hybrid information, I would love to share that with you. This podcast and this YouTube video is meant to sort of like give a big broad strokes overview of what Hybrid Ministry is. But on my Patreon page, what I want to do is I just want to share an extra bonus podcast and simply chat through everything that I've done for the week and talk through the ways that we've tried to make it creative and talk through the ways in which we have tried to sort of hybridize our ministry.

00;03;35;24 - 00;04;01;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that podcast is starting December 2nd. And for everyone who signs up during now, if you're watching live through December 2nd, I am going to send and mail you an exclusive free piece of merch. For all who sign up between now and December 2nd. Like I said, and it basically breaks down to $1 a month. So, either scan the QR code that you see here on screen or hit the link down below in the description.

00;04;01;29 - 00;04;25;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But let's dive in to my eight favorite features of sidekick. Let's check it out. So my first favorite feature of sidekick is its co-leader integration. And if you're watching here on screen, you might be surprised to know that you're not looking at sidekick. What you're actually going to look at when we're we're actually going to start is here on co-leader and so on.

00;04;25;02 - 00;04;50;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Co-Leader. What you can do is, if you are a subscriber, a co-leader is a, curriculum roadmaps and, like, I guess almost, not pro presenter. What am I trying to say? Planning center replacement thing for youth pastors and for youth ministries. So here on co-leader, you can explore sort of all the different, series and topics and even, events that they have.

00;04;50;14 - 00;05;16;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Co-Leader has a roadmap series and so sort of like their proposed curriculum. And so you can explore their you're one of roadmaps and then you can also explore their your two here of roadmaps. And but essentially on co-leader what's so cool about it. And I like co-leader it is actually become it's new is only in year two of development but it's actually become my favorite curriculum resource, because it literally does everything for you.

00;05;16;11 - 00;05;33;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you see here on our dashboard, these are series that we have redeemed our credits for. So Co-Leader works on sort of a credit system. And so we've redeemed, this credit series, this credit on this series here called masks. And so, for example, if you're in, session one of masks, you click view session here.

00;05;34;05 - 00;05;54;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you look right off to the side here, sidekick, you can open in sidekick. Boom. Click that little button and it will automatically import your entire sessions. So here's our session flow. They got your graphics and all that stuff. But starting here you got your countdown. You're welcome. Your icebreaker, your game, some songs, videos and then the teaching slides.

00;05;54;29 - 00;06;13;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I want to show you what that looks like over here in sidekick. So if you're here in sidekick you'll see. Let's actually do a, side by side so that you can see them in comparison. Right. So from the top we have, countdown. There's your countdown. You got your, game right there. You got another game.

00;06;13;22 - 00;06;38;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Masked celebrity. And all of this is included in your co-leader subscription. You got your, bumper video for your masks, and then you got your masks. Chameleon is the title of the message. Chameleon teaching slides right there, and you can see how all of that works together. And so by a simple click of the button, your entire youth ministry night is planned.

00;06;38;29 - 00;07;03;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it is absolutely crazy. Now if you're a download Youth Ministry member, the co-leader is slightly different than do you? I am, but if you've never done anything in with download youth ministry before or co-leader, then I want to let my podcast listeners know that exclusively here on this podcast. I'll give you 10% off, of co-leader, so you can use the code Hybrid Ministry ten.

00;07;03;19 - 00;07;26;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what that includes is not only will that give you access to co-leader, but that also sort of will unlock access to this presentation software called sidekick. And so included is sidekick for a year. It allows you to do the one click presentations for everything that's in co-leader. Both year one and year two of the roadmaps, and you can get an access to co-leader premium or Premium Plus.

00;07;26;03 - 00;07;48;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. And so premium includes 260 co-leader credits. Like I said, it's kind of built off that credit system. And then you get 25 sidekick phone connections. That's for voting. We'll get to that in a minute. Or the premium class which is Premium Plus, which is 520 co-leader credits and 75 sidekick phone connections. So you can explore the differences between those two plans at this link here.

00;07;48;15 - 00;08;05;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
On screen sidekick TV pricing don't forget, if you've never used or never done anything before with sidekick or with co-leader, then if you're signing up for the first time, Hybrid Ministry ten, I'll give you 10% off. Go ahead and check that out. And so I love that

00;08;05;27 - 00;08;10;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
about sidekick. I love that about, co-leader I love that, but it's integration.

00;08;10;01 - 00;08;10;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So boom.

00;08;10;11 - 00;08;22;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right here. Here's my full like rundown, my full run sheet for everything going on here in this masks series. Now that's my first favorite thing about sidekick the co-leader integration.

00;08;22;28 - 00;08;37;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So my second favorite feature about sidekick is the YouTube video integration. Now, the thing I like about the YouTube video integration is it takes a while in sidekicks to to upload videos.

00;08;37;19 - 00;09;02;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can drag and drop JPEGs easily, but when you go to upload a video, just it takes a minute and it's a little clunky to do, like a video, next video, next video, because you got to kind of do it one by one. So here's how it look like. So if I wanted to put a video on this slide, I'd click Edit Media videos, go browse, go find the video, upload it, wait for it to upload, and then it's it's in its spot as opposed to just a quick and easy drag and drop.

00;09;02;05 - 00;09;23;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, if, I wanted to just embed a YouTube video, that's very simple, and I've actually already done that right here on this one, you'll notice here's one of my YouTube videos embedded. So if I go to present this thing, remember it's browser based. So just very simply,

00;09;24;01 - 00;09;46;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So just very simply, opens up a new window and you started hearing even the, the, what's it called? The countdown right there. But here's this video that I embedded social media right there into sidekick. I have all this functionality over here. I can pause the video, I can mute the video, I can restart the video.

00;09;46;10 - 00;10;10;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can do all those sort of things. Let me get this smaller so that we can see both of them together. So this is my presentation window that will just go full screen. Right. But very simply, when I'm, when I'm wanting to include a video, I can embed a video. And this is embedded small, but I can also just, you know, very, very simply, very easily embed that video full screen.

00;10;10;05 - 00;10;44;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right, as well. Now, the other thing like that we use in our youth ministry as we go hybrid taking our our in-person and our digital, we teach live messages. But then we also prefilled them for multiple reasons, because we use that as a springboard for our Sunday morning small group content. And so every Sunday morning we play a clip off of one of our message clips, even though the message was delivered live, we play the filmed version, in our room, just like a 2 to 3 minute clip to remind everyone what was said.

00;10;44;02 - 00;11;03;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our our leaders can look at it ahead of time. Our students who missed on Wednesday can also look at it ahead of time on YouTube. It's evergreen content. It's meant to reach students who, might be asking questions about faith, God, whatever the case might be. And so we do that. And if you're interested in exploring more about what that might look like, link down.

00;11;03;11 - 00;11;38;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Below is a link to some custom coaching. I would love to help kind of level that game up for you, or even get you started from scratch if that's something that you're interested in. But it has been a hugely beneficial piece to us and our student ministry, having the ability to just simply embed our YouTube videos. And so for things like countdowns or for things that are like bigger files, I will actually upload those to YouTube, host them there, put them on just like a private unlisted link, and then embed that video into my sidekick presentation, as opposed to have to upload it every single time.

00;11;39;00 - 00;11;57;26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now here's the other thing I love about sidekick. It's easy to build. So let me show you very quickly. Like, while, you know, while the videos might be a little more tricky to, to pull in or builder upload, they're easy to do. They're just a little bit time consuming. That's why it's easy to just drop a YouTube video in there.

00;11;57;26 - 00;12;09;26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. But if I just want to like, add one of these JPEGs in here, all I gotta do is drag it and drop it and boom, it's uploaded and is ready to go. There it is. Okay, super simple, super easy to

00;12;09;26 - 00;12;17;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
build. I love things like, these looping announcements. So right here, here's a bunch of different looping announcements.

00;12;17;19 - 00;12;39;04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, don't forget that the, here's the here's the countdown video again. But, you know, as always, like, don't forget Hybrid Ministry ten. Don't forget about that. That's going to be used to your advantage. If you want to check out Collider, you want to check out sidekick. Don't forget we got custom social media coaching. Scan the QR code that you see here on screen here.

00;12;39;04 - 00;12;58;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'll make it bigger so you can go and check out my completely free e-book about how to go hybrid. Or hey, don't forget about our Patreon. We got that going on $4 a month exclusive free merch along with all these other things that you see here. Listed out exclusive sticker help to show and segment topics, super chats and shout outs.

00;12;58;09 - 00;13;22;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right? But you can turn this right here. You can turn these announcements to be looping announcements. We use those every single week in our ministry. So you'll see right over here. If you're watching here on screen, you see this little, loop icon. That means that this, this set of announcements in this little, pocket of, of slides here is set to, rotate.

00;13;22;05 - 00;13;41;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This one right here is not. So let me show you how you do it. Click this little gear icon. You click loop slides. You say how long you want the slides to loop for seven seconds or 10s or however long you want it to. And then you simply click close and then boom. When you click present, those will then be on a looper, which is a fantastic resource.

00;13;41;14 - 00;14;03;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We use that every single week in our student ministry. I also want to let you know just about a couple of other things that are awesome. You have the, free option up here. So if you're co-leader, sidekick, person, these are all free different resources that you can get just like and quickly and simply, you got countdowns and games and videos and all sorts of things.

00;14;03;18 - 00;14;21;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can embed or import any of these into your presentation. The other thing that's really cool is when you buy something on demand, look, I've bought these things before, they will automatically upload them. So as I was saying, kind of the video thing was a little clunky to upload and maybe you don't want to upload every single one of these to a YouTube playlist and then embed those via YouTube.

00;14;22;00 - 00;14;55;19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
No sweat. No problem. Check it out. You can very simply buy something on gram and then boom, it'll be there in just a second and then you can quickly import it. Just like I did down here with this, finish the drawing game back to school. And there it is. Boom. Imported. All right, and then the other thing, man, the other thing that is so cool about, sidekick is that the you can control it from your phone simply by logging into app that sidekick.tv on your mobile device, and you can control it from anywhere in the room, including teaching.

00;14;55;24 - 00;15;19;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can control it from any other device, including like our, sound booth, computer, maybe running sidekick. I can go into my office, and I can control sidekick from my office. And so my office actually sits where I can see in through some glass doors into our auditorium. And so if it's on the wrong side or whatever, I can pull open on my, on my laptop home from the app, that sidekick, that TV type in and change it.

00;15;20;04 - 00;15;45;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I've had other like staff members and volunteers to be like, are you are you controlling that right now? And that part is so stinking cool. The last thing the eighth and final piece about sidekick that I love is the voting. The voting option is the the single greatest advent. This is what makes this presentation and software so unique and so customizable.

00;15;45;21 - 00;16;13;15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's what we're going to talk about. Additional creative ways to use it in your games, in your countdowns, in your teaching, in all sorts of different ways to deploy and use the voting feature in sidekick. You can't do this on any other presentation software. That video is going to be linked right here on screen. Go check out our Patreon as we'll talk about multiple creative ways to deploy voting and to deploy sidekick, and simply what I am doing to lean in and be more hybrid.

00;16;13;19 - 00;16;20;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But check that video out on screen. And don't forget, and as always, my friends, to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 122: Why Your Youth Ministry Follow-Up Isn't Working https://www.hybridministry.xyz/122 7e9ff220-abb7-4e9c-ae3d-6d53c625a0be Thu, 07 Nov 2024 07:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 122 Why Your Youth Ministry Follow-Up Isn't Working full Nick Clason New Visitor to your Youth Group? Yay! Now what? How do you follow-up in a way that doesn't feel weird or creepy? Good question! Let's explore it together! 14:59 no THE ULTIMATE GUEST FOLLOW UP BOX https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront DESCRIPTION New Visitor to your Youth Group? Yay! Now what? How do you follow-up in a way that doesn't feel weird or creepy? Good question! Let's explore it together! SHOWNOTES http://www.hybridministry.xyz/122 //THE ULTIMATE GUEST FOLLOW UP BOX https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront //OUR WELCOME VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neb34eYasCY //EPISODE 100 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0L-Dxhs7cI 👉 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 -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Better First Time Guest Followup 01:31 Guest Follow-Up Gone Hybrid 02:42 Where the Idea Began 05:08 Mailing Boxes Begins! 06:47 The Ultimate Welcome Box -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you have a 00:00:01:00 - 00:00:03:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry brand new student or 00:00:03:05 - 00:00:04:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry person to your church. 00:00:04:20 - 00:00:05:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hooray! 00:00:05:01 - 00:00:06:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Congratulations! That's 00:00:06:08 - 00:00:07:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry so exciting. 00:00:08:00 - 00:00:09:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now how do 00:00:09:24 - 00:00:14:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry we make sure that they return well, without seeming 00:00:14:29 - 00:00:20:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry weird or creepy or old and out of touch? 00:00:20:06 - 00:00:35:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So here's the thing. We all want our students to attend our church. We want them also to feel comfortable and then hopefully ultimately find a home at our church or in our group or with our student ministry. 00:00:35:23 - 00:01:01:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so a visitor is great, but a returning guest even better. See in this podcast, in this episode, what I want to do is I'm going to share with you our step by step guest follow up process and the physical and in-person product that we are using to turn our process hybrid. And I want to give you this box artwork. 00:01:01:17 - 00:01:02:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So go ahead and you 00:01:02:17 - 00:01:08:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry can scrub ahead. You can click the link down below in the description or go to I start talking about the box design 00:01:08:21 - 00:01:09:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry in 00:01:09:02 - 00:01:17:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry this YouTube playlist, and you can go ahead and grab that link from us and go check it out. If you're following along here on YouTube, just a reminder there are chapters 00:01:17:14 - 00:01:17:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry down 00:01:17:27 - 00:01:22:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry along at the bottom so that you can skip straight ahead to the parts of the video that make the most sense to you. 00:01:22:25 - 00:01:28:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But just as a reminder, hybrid is taking your in-person moment and your digital and finding a way to 00:01:28:10 - 00:01:31:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry intersect them together. So my 00:01:31:18 - 00:01:37:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry guess is give me a like, if you are the type of person who, when you have a student, you send them 00:01:37:00 - 00:01:37:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry a 00:01:37:10 - 00:01:40:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry postcard or go ahead and give me a 00:01:40:06 - 00:01:43:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry subscribe, if maybe not just a postcard, but 00:01:43:09 - 00:01:45:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry you're also sending a text message, right? 00:01:45:14 - 00:02:05:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So early on I would I would send postcards. That was and I still do send postcards as, the way that I was kind of trained and I even like as a youth group student received postcards and, and I still do believe in the power of the personal touch. And I, I think that mail, does actually play an important role in youth ministry. 00:02:05:05 - 00:02:25:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I think students don't receive mail very often. So I think it's helpful and beneficial for them to get it. Text messages. I do also believe they're important, especially as we talk about hybrid and the intersection of that hybrid being where, it often lands in the hands and in the palms of a student's cell phone. But I don't know about you, but I send a postcard, and it's like 00:02:27:07 - 00:02:28:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry where I send a text. 00:02:28:18 - 00:02:40:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And one time, literally, I got I sent a text from my personal cell phone number, and I got the word stop like, no, no, this was not an automated text like, this is a human being, but okay. 00:02:40:04 - 00:02:47:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Got it. I'll stop. So enter Covid when Covid hit. For those of you watching 00:02:47:19 - 00:02:50:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Linked Up, here is our 100th episode 00:02:50:05 - 00:03:07:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry where I did a recap about where this all sort of hybrid thing started, but we created this full scale and full length digital expression of youth ministry like a full, almost like YouTube variety show, Think like Jimmy Fallon, but youth ministry and YouTube. 00:03:07:26 - 00:03:10:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so our Covid experience was so 00:03:10:22 - 00:03:11:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry of our show. And so therefore we would drop a rubber duck and a postcard, but we would do a physical door drop at their, house and at their, their door. And so, I would then get students, or even parents come talk to me on the weekends and be like, thank you. 00:03:44:00 - 00:04:00:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry our show. And so therefore we would drop a rubber duck and a postcard, but we would do a physical door drop at their, house and at their, their door. And so, I would then get students, or even parents come talk to me on the weekends and be like, thank you. 00:04:00:14 - 00:04:31:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So much. I mean, long gone now were the days of the, unanswered texts or the postcards sent into a black hole. Like, now I'm getting students and parents who are actually acknowledging our efforts and acknowledging us, helping roll out the red carpet to help make them feel welcome. It was a great response, but unfortunately, due to like where I lived and how regionally drawn our churches our church was and how far students drove to to come and attend our campus, and the fact that they could do it online. 00:04:31:26 - 00:04:32:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Us they didn't have to 00:04:32:18 - 00:04:52:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry get in the car and come drive a certain distance to our church. It took me a whole day like I remember one Thursday. So our youth night was Wednesday, one Thursday I spent like 9 to 5 in the car just doing these, these door drops. And so, I was just, you know, I was like, I guess that's part of the job, right? 00:04:52:01 - 00:05:13:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I was talking to my boss and I was like, hey, like, I spent my whole Thursday driving around new, so great. And I saw him all the great things. And he's like, you spent your whole day driving. I was like, we can on. Yeah. And he's like, oh, let's, let's, let's change that. And so, what we started doing as opposed to like the physical, me getting in my car, taking it and putting it on their doorstep. 00:05:13:24 - 00:05:33:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We started, taking the same concept, getting it to their hands. But instead of me doing it, we started paying the post office to do it as if there were some sort of service that could take something from point A to point B, and that is woven all throughout the fabric of our country being it's the post office. 00:05:33:14 - 00:05:56:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we started shipping things and it was expensive. Don't get me wrong, we created like a branded box, and now it's like we had to include a little bit more than just a duck in a postcard, so that the box didn't seem boring and empty. But we started shipping it. And so, that that strategy, we kind of laid that over and carried that over, here where I work now. 00:05:56:04 - 00:06:00:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it's I started for the first probably like two years of my, my tenure here at this church 00:06:00:29 - 00:06:17:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry with text message, follow up for first time guess. And I can count on one finger, the amount of times I got a response. And that response was in those two years, the word stop. And so I said, hey, listen, maybe I'm just too old for this. 00:06:17:20 - 00:06:37:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like I'm in my mid 30s and maybe students are like, I that's weird to text the guy in the in his 30s, or maybe text messages to students who they don't have the contact info from, especially from a phone number that it's not local. I live in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth, Texas. My phone number is from Dayton, Ohio. Like there is a massive difference in those two area codes. 00:06:37:01 - 00:06:52:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so they see someone down here with an 807 area code seeing a nine, three seven area code. They don't know what to do with it. So they ghosted as they do. And so I suggest and I propose what if we bring back the boxes. And so what I want to do is I want to share with you this right here. 00:06:52:14 - 00:07:10:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is our welcome box. It's branded. It's custom for us. And so if you look on all the sides, it's got a little, it's great to meet you. It's got, you know, yay! You're here. And then the top here, says welcome, along with a return address and a spot for us to put their address. 00:07:10:15 - 00:07:30:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then on the back, it's got our social handles. And what I want to do is I want to go through step by step, item by item, and, boxes here with you. And so, one of the things that we do is every single, every single semester, but three times a year, we do like a four, we do a winter, and then we do a summer calendar. 00:07:30:04 - 00:07:50:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what we do is we make our calendars into magnets. And so you look here, this is a magnet. It's about eight inches long. And so, truth be told, this box right here is about eight inches, and it's eight inches because the magnet is eight inches. I made the decision to make the box the same size as the magnet. 00:07:50:28 - 00:08:11:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so then I made sure that everything from the size of the magnet on down would be able to fit into the box. So, we put the magnet in there. The magnet has all of our events. And you'll also notice here's an opportunity to go hybrid. This right here is just a link to subscribe to the IX or the calendar type things. 00:08:11:14 - 00:08:29:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's a calendar, extension you can get it from, like creating, a Google calendar, a calendar, a Google calendar calendar. And then you can share that out. And so that's what we did. And so students can add this and subscribe to their calendar. We haven't gotten as many of those from students, but I know we've gotten some scans from parents. 00:08:29:13 - 00:08:48:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And also we give specific and particular leader magnet. And so our leaders also can go ahead and scan that. And so that is our magnet. We also have this sticker here, and these frankly, they're just laying around. We got these for free. So these didn't really cost the anything. So so far I want to point out these. 00:08:48:07 - 00:09:08:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We already print like we already pay for these for our students. And these are already laying around. So so far we're $0 into the box. Don't worry. It gets more expensive. This right here is just a little, promo, a nod to our social media. And so down the road, we will send them this postcard that simply says, life can be hard. 00:09:08:15 - 00:09:27:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You don't have to do it alone. This is a QR code to our link tree. And then here's just a little preview of our churches, YouTube handle right there. And, probably our most popular video, which is what is anxiety? What do I do about it if I have it? And we'll just, God have to say about anxiety. 00:09:27:16 - 00:09:44:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we will send this out a couple weeks after we send the box out. This is, this is a separate pieces doesn't go in the box that sent later. This is an additional kind of piece of merch. And again, once again, we have just some stuff kind of laying around that we inherited from the old regime. 00:09:44:19 - 00:10:07:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we try to, like, get rid of it. The little guest box checklist that we have this, and like an extra piece of merch from our merch cabinet. So here's a piece of merch from our merch cabinet. Right here. This one's kind of unique. Okay, we have a lanyard. And the reason that we have a lanyard branded and all the things is that right here, we do, we do pins right? 00:10:07:29 - 00:10:29:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Kind of like, think like Disney pin trading. So we'll create pins. And this right here is our little mascot guy. We call him Pugsley the platypus, because a baby platypus is a puggle. So one of our sixth graders one year recommended that we name them Pugsley. And so thus we did. And so we have this lanyard. And I actually have a lanyard for, like, my, staff nametag lanyard. 00:10:29:22 - 00:10:51:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this is full of pins. So like summer camp, Water wars, the Back to School bash, Space Jam night, like any, any event that we deem pin worthy. So coming up, we'll have our Christmas at the movies event. We'll. We've done costume parties. Any of those, they get designed. We just found a dude on Fiverr. He designed these for us. 00:10:51:01 - 00:11:12:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then we send these, after sticker mule and sticker mule creates the pins. And so then we stick this pin. This is the, like, og original. Pugsley pin. It's just a traditional guy. He's just wearing, like, our logo on his t shirt there. And, we put the original pin on the lanyard for the students, and then, right here, this has three for free. 00:11:12:29 - 00:11:32:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this is a, redeemable coupon at our student ministry cafe. They can turn this in and get three things for free. And then, we have these life books and these life books. We've gotten them, from the Gideons, the the Bible translator and the Bible, providers. And so you can actually get these for free. 00:11:32:23 - 00:11:51:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it's just it's like the book of John with like some notes, and it's designed well and graphically. And so you've probably seen these before, and truth be told, I like these. I also like the life and Six words book, that comes from, dare to share. But these we had like three cases of these again from the old regime. 00:11:51:19 - 00:12:07:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we're like, let's go ahead and give these away. When these run out, we may reorder these. We may do a different sort of devotional, but but this is like the one sort of like devotional, sort of like spiritual peace. And then that's now the emptiness of the box and say, look down at the box there and you'll see, it's got this word right here. 00:12:07:26 - 00:12:24:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's got some copy and it simply says, hey there, we're so glad you joined us. Meet Pugsley, our platypus mascot, voted on and named by our students. We love it when students invest in student ministry. So in this box, you will find everything that you need to get started. And then it's a numbered list. You'll see one, two, three, four. 00:12:24:23 - 00:12:42:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Number one. This lanyard is a great spot to hold pins. Number two, we started you with your first one and there's more to come at our Pin events and milestones throughout the year. Number three, this life book is a great place to find out about what Jesus is all about. Number four, some other random stuff because we wanted you to know how glad we are that you joined us. 00:12:42:09 - 00:12:57:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We can't wait to get to know you. 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 the open this up 00:12:57:25 - 00:13:01:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry theoretically on their porch, on their patio, wherever they will scan it. 00:13:01:26 - 00:13:24:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then we'll take them to a video right here. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll be able to see a preview of it, but linked right here, linked below is what I want to do is I want to offer you, the art for this box if you want to start creating your own. I'll also, give you like, a detailed tutorial, like where I ordered it from, as well as the copy for the welcome video. 00:13:24:02 - 00:13:49:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you can feel free to film that, throw that on a teleprompter, memorize it however you want to film it, and you can start creating better welcome and better guest returns for your youth ministry and for your student ministry. And once again, here's the reason that I like this is because this, gets them connected to us. This at a very minimum, one of the sections on this video right here says, we're so glad that you came. 00:13:49:29 - 00:14:10:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And also welcome to our YouTube channel. And if you've been around this podcast or this YouTube playlist, any link or a YouTube channel, any length of time you know that 95% of teenagers are claiming to be and be active on YouTube. And so therefore, I think we as youth ministries should make that a priority. We and our student ministry have made it a priority. 00:14:10:21 - 00:14:27:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, I, I think that that's a fantastic way to expose, in a sort of like, non-threatening way, expose your students to your channel, then maybe next time to log in to the YouTube account. One of our video shows up because they've already watched one. Or maybe they like that video. Maybe they subscribe to that video. 00:14:27:23 - 00:14:52:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now we're in their subscriptions with all of our teachings and all of those types of things, which, by the way, I can explain and show to you how to start posting your teachings to YouTube so that they live beyond your Sunday or Wednesday services. That video is going to be linked right here on screen, and I can't wait for you to take a look at that, because we're trying to make digital discipleship here at the Hybrid Ministry Podcast easy, possible and accessible. 00:14:52:04 - 00:14:55:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So as always, don't forget to stay hybrid. Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Visitor Follow Up, Guest Follow Up, First Time Guest, Hybrid Ministry, YouTube for Youth Ministry, Youth Ministry Podcast, Youth Pastor, Youth Ministry Coach, Nick Clason THE ULTIMATE GUEST FOLLOW UP BOX
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

DESCRIPTION
New Visitor to your Youth Group?
Yay!
Now what? How do you follow-up in a way that doesn't feel weird or creepy?
Good question! Let's explore it together!

SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/122

//THE ULTIMATE GUEST FOLLOW UP BOX
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

//OUR WELCOME VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neb34eYasCY

//EPISODE 100
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0L-Dxhs7cI

👉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Better First Time Guest Followup
01:31 Guest Follow-Up Gone Hybrid
02:42 Where the Idea Began
05:08 Mailing Boxes Begins!
06:47 The Ultimate Welcome Box

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you have a

00:00:01:00 - 00:00:03:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
brand new student or

00:00:03:05 - 00:00:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
person to your church.

00:00:04:20 - 00:00:05:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hooray!

00:00:05:01 - 00:00:06:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Congratulations! That's

00:00:06:08 - 00:00:07:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so exciting.

00:00:08:00 - 00:00:09:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now how do

00:00:09:24 - 00:00:14:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we make sure that they return well, without seeming

00:00:14:29 - 00:00:20:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
weird or creepy or old and out of touch?

00:00:20:06 - 00:00:35:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's the thing. We all want our students to attend our church. We want them also to feel comfortable and then hopefully ultimately find a home at our church or in our group or with our student ministry.

00:00:35:23 - 00:01:01:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so a visitor is great, but a returning guest even better. See in this podcast, in this episode, what I want to do is I'm going to share with you our step by step guest follow up process and the physical and in-person product that we are using to turn our process hybrid. And I want to give you this box artwork.

00:01:01:17 - 00:01:02:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So go ahead and you

00:01:02:17 - 00:01:08:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
can scrub ahead. You can click the link down below in the description or go to I start talking about the box design

00:01:08:21 - 00:01:09:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in

00:01:09:02 - 00:01:17:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this YouTube playlist, and you can go ahead and grab that link from us and go check it out. If you're following along here on YouTube, just a reminder there are chapters

00:01:17:14 - 00:01:17:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
down

00:01:17:27 - 00:01:22:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
along at the bottom so that you can skip straight ahead to the parts of the video that make the most sense to you.

00:01:22:25 - 00:01:28:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But just as a reminder, hybrid is taking your in-person moment and your digital and finding a way to

00:01:28:10 - 00:01:31:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
intersect them together. So my

00:01:31:18 - 00:01:37:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
guess is give me a like, if you are the type of person who, when you have a student, you send them

00:01:37:00 - 00:01:37:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a

00:01:37:10 - 00:01:40:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
postcard or go ahead and give me a

00:01:40:06 - 00:01:43:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
subscribe, if maybe not just a postcard, but

00:01:43:09 - 00:01:45:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you're also sending a text message, right?

00:01:45:14 - 00:02:05:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So early on I would I would send postcards. That was and I still do send postcards as, the way that I was kind of trained and I even like as a youth group student received postcards and, and I still do believe in the power of the personal touch. And I, I think that mail, does actually play an important role in youth ministry.

00:02:05:05 - 00:02:25:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think students don't receive mail very often. So I think it's helpful and beneficial for them to get it. Text messages. I do also believe they're important, especially as we talk about hybrid and the intersection of that hybrid being where, it often lands in the hands and in the palms of a student's cell phone. But I don't know about you, but I send a postcard, and it's like

00:02:27:07 - 00:02:28:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
where I send a text.

00:02:28:18 - 00:02:40:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And one time, literally, I got I sent a text from my personal cell phone number, and I got the word stop like, no, no, this was not an automated text like, this is a human being, but okay.

00:02:40:04 - 00:02:47:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Got it. I'll stop. So enter Covid when Covid hit. For those of you watching

00:02:47:19 - 00:02:50:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Linked Up, here is our 100th episode

00:02:50:05 - 00:03:07:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
where I did a recap about where this all sort of hybrid thing started, but we created this full scale and full length digital expression of youth ministry like a full, almost like YouTube variety show, Think like Jimmy Fallon, but youth ministry and YouTube.

00:03:07:26 - 00:03:10:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so our Covid experience was so

00:03:10:22 - 00:03:11:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of our show. And so therefore we would drop a rubber duck and a postcard, but we would do a physical door drop at their, house and at their, their door. And so, I would then get students, or even parents come talk to me on the weekends and be like, thank you.

00:03:44:00 - 00:04:00:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
our show. And so therefore we would drop a rubber duck and a postcard, but we would do a physical door drop at their, house and at their, their door. And so, I would then get students, or even parents come talk to me on the weekends and be like, thank you.

00:04:00:14 - 00:04:31:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So much. I mean, long gone now were the days of the, unanswered texts or the postcards sent into a black hole. Like, now I'm getting students and parents who are actually acknowledging our efforts and acknowledging us, helping roll out the red carpet to help make them feel welcome. It was a great response, but unfortunately, due to like where I lived and how regionally drawn our churches our church was and how far students drove to to come and attend our campus, and the fact that they could do it online.

00:04:31:26 - 00:04:32:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Us they didn't have to

00:04:32:18 - 00:04:52:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
get in the car and come drive a certain distance to our church. It took me a whole day like I remember one Thursday. So our youth night was Wednesday, one Thursday I spent like 9 to 5 in the car just doing these, these door drops. And so, I was just, you know, I was like, I guess that's part of the job, right?

00:04:52:01 - 00:05:13:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I was talking to my boss and I was like, hey, like, I spent my whole Thursday driving around new, so great. And I saw him all the great things. And he's like, you spent your whole day driving. I was like, we can on. Yeah. And he's like, oh, let's, let's, let's change that. And so, what we started doing as opposed to like the physical, me getting in my car, taking it and putting it on their doorstep.

00:05:13:24 - 00:05:33:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We started, taking the same concept, getting it to their hands. But instead of me doing it, we started paying the post office to do it as if there were some sort of service that could take something from point A to point B, and that is woven all throughout the fabric of our country being it's the post office.

00:05:33:14 - 00:05:56:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we started shipping things and it was expensive. Don't get me wrong, we created like a branded box, and now it's like we had to include a little bit more than just a duck in a postcard, so that the box didn't seem boring and empty. But we started shipping it. And so, that that strategy, we kind of laid that over and carried that over, here where I work now.

00:05:56:04 - 00:06:00:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's I started for the first probably like two years of my, my tenure here at this church

00:06:00:29 - 00:06:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
with text message, follow up for first time guess. And I can count on one finger, the amount of times I got a response. And that response was in those two years, the word stop. And so I said, hey, listen, maybe I'm just too old for this.

00:06:17:20 - 00:06:37:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I'm in my mid 30s and maybe students are like, I that's weird to text the guy in the in his 30s, or maybe text messages to students who they don't have the contact info from, especially from a phone number that it's not local. I live in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth, Texas. My phone number is from Dayton, Ohio. Like there is a massive difference in those two area codes.

00:06:37:01 - 00:06:52:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so they see someone down here with an 807 area code seeing a nine, three seven area code. They don't know what to do with it. So they ghosted as they do. And so I suggest and I propose what if we bring back the boxes. And so what I want to do is I want to share with you this right here.

00:06:52:14 - 00:07:10:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is our welcome box. It's branded. It's custom for us. And so if you look on all the sides, it's got a little, it's great to meet you. It's got, you know, yay! You're here. And then the top here, says welcome, along with a return address and a spot for us to put their address.

00:07:10:15 - 00:07:30:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then on the back, it's got our social handles. And what I want to do is I want to go through step by step, item by item, and, boxes here with you. And so, one of the things that we do is every single, every single semester, but three times a year, we do like a four, we do a winter, and then we do a summer calendar.

00:07:30:04 - 00:07:50:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what we do is we make our calendars into magnets. And so you look here, this is a magnet. It's about eight inches long. And so, truth be told, this box right here is about eight inches, and it's eight inches because the magnet is eight inches. I made the decision to make the box the same size as the magnet.

00:07:50:28 - 00:08:11:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so then I made sure that everything from the size of the magnet on down would be able to fit into the box. So, we put the magnet in there. The magnet has all of our events. And you'll also notice here's an opportunity to go hybrid. This right here is just a link to subscribe to the IX or the calendar type things.

00:08:11:14 - 00:08:29:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's a calendar, extension you can get it from, like creating, a Google calendar, a calendar, a Google calendar calendar. And then you can share that out. And so that's what we did. And so students can add this and subscribe to their calendar. We haven't gotten as many of those from students, but I know we've gotten some scans from parents.

00:08:29:13 - 00:08:48:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And also we give specific and particular leader magnet. And so our leaders also can go ahead and scan that. And so that is our magnet. We also have this sticker here, and these frankly, they're just laying around. We got these for free. So these didn't really cost the anything. So so far I want to point out these.

00:08:48:07 - 00:09:08:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We already print like we already pay for these for our students. And these are already laying around. So so far we're $0 into the box. Don't worry. It gets more expensive. This right here is just a little, promo, a nod to our social media. And so down the road, we will send them this postcard that simply says, life can be hard.

00:09:08:15 - 00:09:27:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You don't have to do it alone. This is a QR code to our link tree. And then here's just a little preview of our churches, YouTube handle right there. And, probably our most popular video, which is what is anxiety? What do I do about it if I have it? And we'll just, God have to say about anxiety.

00:09:27:16 - 00:09:44:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we will send this out a couple weeks after we send the box out. This is, this is a separate pieces doesn't go in the box that sent later. This is an additional kind of piece of merch. And again, once again, we have just some stuff kind of laying around that we inherited from the old regime.

00:09:44:19 - 00:10:07:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we try to, like, get rid of it. The little guest box checklist that we have this, and like an extra piece of merch from our merch cabinet. So here's a piece of merch from our merch cabinet. Right here. This one's kind of unique. Okay, we have a lanyard. And the reason that we have a lanyard branded and all the things is that right here, we do, we do pins right?

00:10:07:29 - 00:10:29:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Kind of like, think like Disney pin trading. So we'll create pins. And this right here is our little mascot guy. We call him Pugsley the platypus, because a baby platypus is a puggle. So one of our sixth graders one year recommended that we name them Pugsley. And so thus we did. And so we have this lanyard. And I actually have a lanyard for, like, my, staff nametag lanyard.

00:10:29:22 - 00:10:51:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this is full of pins. So like summer camp, Water wars, the Back to School bash, Space Jam night, like any, any event that we deem pin worthy. So coming up, we'll have our Christmas at the movies event. We'll. We've done costume parties. Any of those, they get designed. We just found a dude on Fiverr. He designed these for us.

00:10:51:01 - 00:11:12:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we send these, after sticker mule and sticker mule creates the pins. And so then we stick this pin. This is the, like, og original. Pugsley pin. It's just a traditional guy. He's just wearing, like, our logo on his t shirt there. And, we put the original pin on the lanyard for the students, and then, right here, this has three for free.

00:11:12:29 - 00:11:32:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this is a, redeemable coupon at our student ministry cafe. They can turn this in and get three things for free. And then, we have these life books and these life books. We've gotten them, from the Gideons, the the Bible translator and the Bible, providers. And so you can actually get these for free.

00:11:32:23 - 00:11:51:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's just it's like the book of John with like some notes, and it's designed well and graphically. And so you've probably seen these before, and truth be told, I like these. I also like the life and Six words book, that comes from, dare to share. But these we had like three cases of these again from the old regime.

00:11:51:19 - 00:12:07:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're like, let's go ahead and give these away. When these run out, we may reorder these. We may do a different sort of devotional, but but this is like the one sort of like devotional, sort of like spiritual peace. And then that's now the emptiness of the box and say, look down at the box there and you'll see, it's got this word right here.

00:12:07:26 - 00:12:24:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's got some copy and it simply says, hey there, we're so glad you joined us. Meet Pugsley, our platypus mascot, voted on and named by our students. We love it when students invest in student ministry. So in this box, you will find everything that you need to get started. And then it's a numbered list. You'll see one, two, three, four.

00:12:24:23 - 00:12:42:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Number one. This lanyard is a great spot to hold pins. Number two, we started you with your first one and there's more to come at our Pin events and milestones throughout the year. Number three, this life book is a great place to find out about what Jesus is all about. Number four, some other random stuff because we wanted you to know how glad we are that you joined us.

00:12:42:09 - 00:12:57:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We can't wait to get to know you. 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 the open this up

00:12:57:25 - 00:13:01:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
theoretically on their porch, on their patio, wherever they will scan it.

00:13:01:26 - 00:13:24:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we'll take them to a video right here. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll be able to see a preview of it, but linked right here, linked below is what I want to do is I want to offer you, the art for this box if you want to start creating your own. I'll also, give you like, a detailed tutorial, like where I ordered it from, as well as the copy for the welcome video.

00:13:24:02 - 00:13:49:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can feel free to film that, throw that on a teleprompter, memorize it however you want to film it, and you can start creating better welcome and better guest returns for your youth ministry and for your student ministry. And once again, here's the reason that I like this is because this, gets them connected to us. This at a very minimum, one of the sections on this video right here says, we're so glad that you came.

00:13:49:29 - 00:14:10:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And also welcome to our YouTube channel. And if you've been around this podcast or this YouTube playlist, any link or a YouTube channel, any length of time you know that 95% of teenagers are claiming to be and be active on YouTube. And so therefore, I think we as youth ministries should make that a priority. We and our student ministry have made it a priority.

00:14:10:21 - 00:14:27:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, I, I think that that's a fantastic way to expose, in a sort of like, non-threatening way, expose your students to your channel, then maybe next time to log in to the YouTube account. One of our video shows up because they've already watched one. Or maybe they like that video. Maybe they subscribe to that video.

00:14:27:23 - 00:14:52:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now we're in their subscriptions with all of our teachings and all of those types of things, which, by the way, I can explain and show to you how to start posting your teachings to YouTube so that they live beyond your Sunday or Wednesday services. That video is going to be linked right here on screen, and I can't wait for you to take a look at that, because we're trying to make digital discipleship here at the Hybrid Ministry Podcast easy, possible and accessible.

00:14:52:04 - 00:14:55:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So as always, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> THE ULTIMATE GUEST FOLLOW UP BOX
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

DESCRIPTION
New Visitor to your Youth Group?
Yay!
Now what? How do you follow-up in a way that doesn't feel weird or creepy?
Good question! Let's explore it together!

SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/122

//THE ULTIMATE GUEST FOLLOW UP BOX
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

//OUR WELCOME VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neb34eYasCY

//EPISODE 100
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0L-Dxhs7cI

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
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Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Better First Time Guest Followup
01:31 Guest Follow-Up Gone Hybrid
02:42 Where the Idea Began
05:08 Mailing Boxes Begins!
06:47 The Ultimate Welcome Box

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you have a

00:00:01:00 - 00:00:03:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
brand new student or

00:00:03:05 - 00:00:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
person to your church.

00:00:04:20 - 00:00:05:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hooray!

00:00:05:01 - 00:00:06:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Congratulations! That's

00:00:06:08 - 00:00:07:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so exciting.

00:00:08:00 - 00:00:09:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now how do

00:00:09:24 - 00:00:14:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we make sure that they return well, without seeming

00:00:14:29 - 00:00:20:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
weird or creepy or old and out of touch?

00:00:20:06 - 00:00:35:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's the thing. We all want our students to attend our church. We want them also to feel comfortable and then hopefully ultimately find a home at our church or in our group or with our student ministry.

00:00:35:23 - 00:01:01:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so a visitor is great, but a returning guest even better. See in this podcast, in this episode, what I want to do is I'm going to share with you our step by step guest follow up process and the physical and in-person product that we are using to turn our process hybrid. And I want to give you this box artwork.

00:01:01:17 - 00:01:02:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So go ahead and you

00:01:02:17 - 00:01:08:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
can scrub ahead. You can click the link down below in the description or go to I start talking about the box design

00:01:08:21 - 00:01:09:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in

00:01:09:02 - 00:01:17:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this YouTube playlist, and you can go ahead and grab that link from us and go check it out. If you're following along here on YouTube, just a reminder there are chapters

00:01:17:14 - 00:01:17:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
down

00:01:17:27 - 00:01:22:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
along at the bottom so that you can skip straight ahead to the parts of the video that make the most sense to you.

00:01:22:25 - 00:01:28:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But just as a reminder, hybrid is taking your in-person moment and your digital and finding a way to

00:01:28:10 - 00:01:31:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
intersect them together. So my

00:01:31:18 - 00:01:37:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
guess is give me a like, if you are the type of person who, when you have a student, you send them

00:01:37:00 - 00:01:37:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a

00:01:37:10 - 00:01:40:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
postcard or go ahead and give me a

00:01:40:06 - 00:01:43:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
subscribe, if maybe not just a postcard, but

00:01:43:09 - 00:01:45:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you're also sending a text message, right?

00:01:45:14 - 00:02:05:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So early on I would I would send postcards. That was and I still do send postcards as, the way that I was kind of trained and I even like as a youth group student received postcards and, and I still do believe in the power of the personal touch. And I, I think that mail, does actually play an important role in youth ministry.

00:02:05:05 - 00:02:25:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think students don't receive mail very often. So I think it's helpful and beneficial for them to get it. Text messages. I do also believe they're important, especially as we talk about hybrid and the intersection of that hybrid being where, it often lands in the hands and in the palms of a student's cell phone. But I don't know about you, but I send a postcard, and it's like

00:02:27:07 - 00:02:28:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
where I send a text.

00:02:28:18 - 00:02:40:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And one time, literally, I got I sent a text from my personal cell phone number, and I got the word stop like, no, no, this was not an automated text like, this is a human being, but okay.

00:02:40:04 - 00:02:47:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Got it. I'll stop. So enter Covid when Covid hit. For those of you watching

00:02:47:19 - 00:02:50:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Linked Up, here is our 100th episode

00:02:50:05 - 00:03:07:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
where I did a recap about where this all sort of hybrid thing started, but we created this full scale and full length digital expression of youth ministry like a full, almost like YouTube variety show, Think like Jimmy Fallon, but youth ministry and YouTube.

00:03:07:26 - 00:03:10:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so our Covid experience was so

00:03:10:22 - 00:03:11:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of our show. And so therefore we would drop a rubber duck and a postcard, but we would do a physical door drop at their, house and at their, their door. And so, I would then get students, or even parents come talk to me on the weekends and be like, thank you.

00:03:44:00 - 00:04:00:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
our show. And so therefore we would drop a rubber duck and a postcard, but we would do a physical door drop at their, house and at their, their door. And so, I would then get students, or even parents come talk to me on the weekends and be like, thank you.

00:04:00:14 - 00:04:31:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So much. I mean, long gone now were the days of the, unanswered texts or the postcards sent into a black hole. Like, now I'm getting students and parents who are actually acknowledging our efforts and acknowledging us, helping roll out the red carpet to help make them feel welcome. It was a great response, but unfortunately, due to like where I lived and how regionally drawn our churches our church was and how far students drove to to come and attend our campus, and the fact that they could do it online.

00:04:31:26 - 00:04:32:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Us they didn't have to

00:04:32:18 - 00:04:52:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
get in the car and come drive a certain distance to our church. It took me a whole day like I remember one Thursday. So our youth night was Wednesday, one Thursday I spent like 9 to 5 in the car just doing these, these door drops. And so, I was just, you know, I was like, I guess that's part of the job, right?

00:04:52:01 - 00:05:13:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I was talking to my boss and I was like, hey, like, I spent my whole Thursday driving around new, so great. And I saw him all the great things. And he's like, you spent your whole day driving. I was like, we can on. Yeah. And he's like, oh, let's, let's, let's change that. And so, what we started doing as opposed to like the physical, me getting in my car, taking it and putting it on their doorstep.

00:05:13:24 - 00:05:33:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We started, taking the same concept, getting it to their hands. But instead of me doing it, we started paying the post office to do it as if there were some sort of service that could take something from point A to point B, and that is woven all throughout the fabric of our country being it's the post office.

00:05:33:14 - 00:05:56:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we started shipping things and it was expensive. Don't get me wrong, we created like a branded box, and now it's like we had to include a little bit more than just a duck in a postcard, so that the box didn't seem boring and empty. But we started shipping it. And so, that that strategy, we kind of laid that over and carried that over, here where I work now.

00:05:56:04 - 00:06:00:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's I started for the first probably like two years of my, my tenure here at this church

00:06:00:29 - 00:06:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
with text message, follow up for first time guess. And I can count on one finger, the amount of times I got a response. And that response was in those two years, the word stop. And so I said, hey, listen, maybe I'm just too old for this.

00:06:17:20 - 00:06:37:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I'm in my mid 30s and maybe students are like, I that's weird to text the guy in the in his 30s, or maybe text messages to students who they don't have the contact info from, especially from a phone number that it's not local. I live in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth, Texas. My phone number is from Dayton, Ohio. Like there is a massive difference in those two area codes.

00:06:37:01 - 00:06:52:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so they see someone down here with an 807 area code seeing a nine, three seven area code. They don't know what to do with it. So they ghosted as they do. And so I suggest and I propose what if we bring back the boxes. And so what I want to do is I want to share with you this right here.

00:06:52:14 - 00:07:10:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is our welcome box. It's branded. It's custom for us. And so if you look on all the sides, it's got a little, it's great to meet you. It's got, you know, yay! You're here. And then the top here, says welcome, along with a return address and a spot for us to put their address.

00:07:10:15 - 00:07:30:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then on the back, it's got our social handles. And what I want to do is I want to go through step by step, item by item, and, boxes here with you. And so, one of the things that we do is every single, every single semester, but three times a year, we do like a four, we do a winter, and then we do a summer calendar.

00:07:30:04 - 00:07:50:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what we do is we make our calendars into magnets. And so you look here, this is a magnet. It's about eight inches long. And so, truth be told, this box right here is about eight inches, and it's eight inches because the magnet is eight inches. I made the decision to make the box the same size as the magnet.

00:07:50:28 - 00:08:11:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so then I made sure that everything from the size of the magnet on down would be able to fit into the box. So, we put the magnet in there. The magnet has all of our events. And you'll also notice here's an opportunity to go hybrid. This right here is just a link to subscribe to the IX or the calendar type things.

00:08:11:14 - 00:08:29:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's a calendar, extension you can get it from, like creating, a Google calendar, a calendar, a Google calendar calendar. And then you can share that out. And so that's what we did. And so students can add this and subscribe to their calendar. We haven't gotten as many of those from students, but I know we've gotten some scans from parents.

00:08:29:13 - 00:08:48:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And also we give specific and particular leader magnet. And so our leaders also can go ahead and scan that. And so that is our magnet. We also have this sticker here, and these frankly, they're just laying around. We got these for free. So these didn't really cost the anything. So so far I want to point out these.

00:08:48:07 - 00:09:08:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We already print like we already pay for these for our students. And these are already laying around. So so far we're $0 into the box. Don't worry. It gets more expensive. This right here is just a little, promo, a nod to our social media. And so down the road, we will send them this postcard that simply says, life can be hard.

00:09:08:15 - 00:09:27:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You don't have to do it alone. This is a QR code to our link tree. And then here's just a little preview of our churches, YouTube handle right there. And, probably our most popular video, which is what is anxiety? What do I do about it if I have it? And we'll just, God have to say about anxiety.

00:09:27:16 - 00:09:44:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we will send this out a couple weeks after we send the box out. This is, this is a separate pieces doesn't go in the box that sent later. This is an additional kind of piece of merch. And again, once again, we have just some stuff kind of laying around that we inherited from the old regime.

00:09:44:19 - 00:10:07:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we try to, like, get rid of it. The little guest box checklist that we have this, and like an extra piece of merch from our merch cabinet. So here's a piece of merch from our merch cabinet. Right here. This one's kind of unique. Okay, we have a lanyard. And the reason that we have a lanyard branded and all the things is that right here, we do, we do pins right?

00:10:07:29 - 00:10:29:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Kind of like, think like Disney pin trading. So we'll create pins. And this right here is our little mascot guy. We call him Pugsley the platypus, because a baby platypus is a puggle. So one of our sixth graders one year recommended that we name them Pugsley. And so thus we did. And so we have this lanyard. And I actually have a lanyard for, like, my, staff nametag lanyard.

00:10:29:22 - 00:10:51:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this is full of pins. So like summer camp, Water wars, the Back to School bash, Space Jam night, like any, any event that we deem pin worthy. So coming up, we'll have our Christmas at the movies event. We'll. We've done costume parties. Any of those, they get designed. We just found a dude on Fiverr. He designed these for us.

00:10:51:01 - 00:11:12:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we send these, after sticker mule and sticker mule creates the pins. And so then we stick this pin. This is the, like, og original. Pugsley pin. It's just a traditional guy. He's just wearing, like, our logo on his t shirt there. And, we put the original pin on the lanyard for the students, and then, right here, this has three for free.

00:11:12:29 - 00:11:32:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this is a, redeemable coupon at our student ministry cafe. They can turn this in and get three things for free. And then, we have these life books and these life books. We've gotten them, from the Gideons, the the Bible translator and the Bible, providers. And so you can actually get these for free.

00:11:32:23 - 00:11:51:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's just it's like the book of John with like some notes, and it's designed well and graphically. And so you've probably seen these before, and truth be told, I like these. I also like the life and Six words book, that comes from, dare to share. But these we had like three cases of these again from the old regime.

00:11:51:19 - 00:12:07:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're like, let's go ahead and give these away. When these run out, we may reorder these. We may do a different sort of devotional, but but this is like the one sort of like devotional, sort of like spiritual peace. And then that's now the emptiness of the box and say, look down at the box there and you'll see, it's got this word right here.

00:12:07:26 - 00:12:24:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's got some copy and it simply says, hey there, we're so glad you joined us. Meet Pugsley, our platypus mascot, voted on and named by our students. We love it when students invest in student ministry. So in this box, you will find everything that you need to get started. And then it's a numbered list. You'll see one, two, three, four.

00:12:24:23 - 00:12:42:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Number one. This lanyard is a great spot to hold pins. Number two, we started you with your first one and there's more to come at our Pin events and milestones throughout the year. Number three, this life book is a great place to find out about what Jesus is all about. Number four, some other random stuff because we wanted you to know how glad we are that you joined us.

00:12:42:09 - 00:12:57:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We can't wait to get to know you. 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 the open this up

00:12:57:25 - 00:13:01:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
theoretically on their porch, on their patio, wherever they will scan it.

00:13:01:26 - 00:13:24:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we'll take them to a video right here. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll be able to see a preview of it, but linked right here, linked below is what I want to do is I want to offer you, the art for this box if you want to start creating your own. I'll also, give you like, a detailed tutorial, like where I ordered it from, as well as the copy for the welcome video.

00:13:24:02 - 00:13:49:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can feel free to film that, throw that on a teleprompter, memorize it however you want to film it, and you can start creating better welcome and better guest returns for your youth ministry and for your student ministry. And once again, here's the reason that I like this is because this, gets them connected to us. This at a very minimum, one of the sections on this video right here says, we're so glad that you came.

00:13:49:29 - 00:14:10:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And also welcome to our YouTube channel. And if you've been around this podcast or this YouTube playlist, any link or a YouTube channel, any length of time you know that 95% of teenagers are claiming to be and be active on YouTube. And so therefore, I think we as youth ministries should make that a priority. We and our student ministry have made it a priority.

00:14:10:21 - 00:14:27:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, I, I think that that's a fantastic way to expose, in a sort of like, non-threatening way, expose your students to your channel, then maybe next time to log in to the YouTube account. One of our video shows up because they've already watched one. Or maybe they like that video. Maybe they subscribe to that video.

00:14:27:23 - 00:14:52:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now we're in their subscriptions with all of our teachings and all of those types of things, which, by the way, I can explain and show to you how to start posting your teachings to YouTube so that they live beyond your Sunday or Wednesday services. That video is going to be linked right here on screen, and I can't wait for you to take a look at that, because we're trying to make digital discipleship here at the Hybrid Ministry Podcast easy, possible and accessible.

00:14:52:04 - 00:14:55:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So as always, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 121: The Student Ministry Debate: In-Person vs Digital https://www.hybridministry.xyz/121 ea3a5315-9b1b-48da-ba78-e48f9887a5f2 Thu, 31 Oct 2024 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 121 The Student Ministry Debate: In-Person vs Digital full Nick Clason Join Nick Clason and special guest, Josh Boldman, "The Best Programming Specialist" in America, on the Hybrid Ministry Podcast as they dive into "The Student Ministry Debate: In-Person vs Digital." Explore fresh youth ministry ideas and strategies for balancing hybrid ministry to effectively engage students in both student ministry settings. 47:39 no Join Nick Clason and special guest, Josh Boldman, "The Best Programming Specialist" in America, on the Hybrid Ministry Podcast as they dive into "The Student Ministry Debate: In-Person vs Digital." Explore fresh youth ministry ideas and strategies for balancing hybrid ministry to effectively engage students in both student ministry settings. 🔥 Transition &amp; CapCut Template Suggestions🔥 https://share.hsforms.com/1UrHggOX1Q3mH_A3F3f8dWwnumis 🎟️ Better Event Promotion with Erik Williams🎟️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fb_JKrNexg&amp;t=584s SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/122 Full Studio Tour Episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVT1xvh9-5k&amp;t=161s 4 Easy Social Media Ideas https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s DYM 100 https://dymtraining.com/dym100-roundtable/ Complete Guide to Crush Social Media E-Book https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/complete-guide-to-crushing-youth-ministry-social-media/admin-tools/social-media-9537.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 CONNECT WITH JOSH ON SOCIAL https://www.tiktok.com/@joshboldman https://www.instagram.com/joshboldman/ https://www.facebook.com/joshboldman https://x.com/joshboldman -------------- 🎉 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 affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 The Great Debate 01:11 The Challenge: In Person vs. Digital 02:58 Clarifying "Hybrid" 04:42 5:00 Countdown 09:12 Opening Worship Song 16:35 Host Moment &amp; Announcements 22:00 Game - Where's the Ball 30:35 Lesson: With a Killer Response Time 37:34 Online vs. In-Person: The Power of YouTube 41:54 Other Miscellaneous Hybrid Ideas -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What is up, everybody? Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. In this episode, I am going to be talking with my friend Josh Goldman. He works over at Download Youth Ministry. He does all the stuff with sidekick and he does, stuff with co-leader and Josh, honestly, I believe is one of, if not the greatest programing specialist for youth ministries in America. 00:00:23:19 - 00:00:43:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm really excited for you to hear it because some of his ideas are absolutely fantastic. But what we're gonna do is we're going to be debating between in-person and digital, and you're going to see me try to lean everything back towards hybrid. And what we're doing is he's bringing a youth ministry programing sheet and he's saying, this is what we're doing. 00:00:43:13 - 00:01:02:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry How do we make it digital? How do we, honor the people that might be watching online and more? I try to say, how can we make it hybrid? And so for those of you who are new here, hybrid is taking your in-person, taking your digital and finding a way to meet that intersection. And in most cases, I think that is at the intersection of students cell phones. 00:01:02:01 - 00:01:11:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you're going to see that this debate between digital versus in-person. So welcome to the show, the one and only Josh Boardman. 00:01:11:12 - 00:01:23:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well what's up everybody. I'm here this morning with my good friend Josh Bullman. And we have a little bit of a unique idea. So Josh, tell the people what we're doing okay. 00:01:23:01 - 00:01:30:29 Josh Boldman So as anyone watching slash listening knows, Nick Claussen is all about the hybrid ministry, right? 00:01:30:29 - 00:01:53:19 Josh Boldman Making sure that the people that are at home are still connecting with what's happening in the room. Yeah. I spent most of my ministry, like, developing, and leading services in the room. And then, you know, Covid happened and things got crazy, and we we did a full pendulum swing to where, like, we did everything online. Yeah. 00:01:53:20 - 00:02:02:13 Josh Boldman And then we came back and suddenly it was like, wait, are we still doing online or are we like, what are we doing? You know? And so it was the constant challenge of 00:02:02:13 - 00:02:11:27 Josh Boldman trying to not just, create something in the room and just stream it, right, like, make it more interactive. So yeah. So today 00:02:11:27 - 00:02:12:18 Josh Boldman what 00:02:12:18 - 00:02:19:29 Josh Boldman we're doing is I have got a service that I've created for in the room, and I'm going to walk us through it. 00:02:20:02 - 00:02:26:26 Josh Boldman And Nick is going to in real time because he has not seen it. Now you guys gotta know, I offered. I was like, 00:02:26:26 - 00:02:48:05 Josh Boldman dude, do you want this ahead? And we could just fake it? And he's like, no, no, too much integrity. Way too much. Yeah. And so he's going to try like as we go to, we're going to think through each, each section and try and figure out what is it that we can do to make this something that people who are not in the room, you know, but the students at home. 00:02:48:07 - 00:03:08:03 Josh Boldman And I'm curious, Nick, if this is, you know, maybe something we look at is, is it if they're watching live or even if they're watching later, like, how does that impact, well, your ability to participate. 00:03:08:03 - 00:03:11:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So yeah, and to be clear, like the way that I define hybrid is like it's the it's the two pieces. So your in-person plus your digital and it's like them coming 00:03:11:17 - 00:03:11:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry together. 00:03:11:27 - 00:03:19:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so there may be elements I think a little more what I might try to do is like take, take what is going on in the room and find a way 00:03:19:22 - 00:03:44:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry to allow it to exist beyond that moment. Yeah. Or find a way to intersect a student, like in a spot like their phone that will that will last beyond that, the time that you dismiss them to go home so they can take it home, like youth ministry, typically pre-digital, could only exist in the few hours that our church doors were open. 00:03:44:04 - 00:04:13:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so now we have the advantage of being able to access sometimes it's, you know, a curse versus a blessing, but we have the advantage of being able to access and have conversation with and disciple our students at a time that Wednesday night programing or Sunday morning or Sunday night programing isn't happening. And how can we take what we're doing in the room and offer it to students beyond that moment, or even in your place in what you were saying, maybe even as a replacement of it? 00:04:13:22 - 00:04:28:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So, like Josh said, I haven't seen any of this. I am a little nervous right now. Like earlier I was like, I'm fine, but now I'm a little nervous as I like get together. I got to be totally honest. I'm like, there are parts of it. Or I was like, oh, I can totally see how this is going to work. 00:04:28:05 - 00:04:42:24 Josh Boldman And then there are other parts where I'm like, I don't know what he's going to do, how this is going to. Yeah. So bear with me. Stream of consciousness. And it may not be perfect and polished, but that's okay. That's what we're here for. So all right, let's do it. What is the first part of your service? 00:04:42:24 - 00:04:44:09 Josh Boldman The five minute countdown. 00:04:44:13 - 00:04:45:20 Josh Boldman Right. Okay, so we've got 00:04:45:20 - 00:05:19:08 Josh Boldman students are in the room, they're playing nine square, they're playing gaga ball. They've got they're not paying attention to the countdown. Nobody cares what like someone spent a lot of time creating a countdown. Yeah, but ultimately no one cares about until it, like, reaches 10s. But there's there's a lot of interaction happening. And so, like, trying to think through is there is there something where we're trying to connect with students that are not in the room, or is there something we can do in the room to help students know, hey, it's not just you here. 00:05:19:08 - 00:05:43:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry There's yeah, there's more than that going on. Yeah. So 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 00:05:43:09 - 00:05:44:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry request. 00:05:44:18 - 00:05:58:07 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 00:05:58:07 - 00:06:11:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry 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. 00:06:11:03 - 00:06:22:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Because if you think about it, if if the majority of people don't start paying attention to the screen until it's down to less than a minute, they missed all of the stuff that was looping ahead of time. 00:06:22:16 - 00:06:37:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And the stuff that's looping ahead of time is the stuff that you want them to know about. And so whether it's hybrid, whether it's digital only or whether it's in person, like whatever you're announcing, I think you should leave that stuff on the screen as long as humanly possible. 00:06:37:20 - 00:06:56:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so if you're able to put a little five minute countdown in the corner or even across the middle, but I try to design my slides in such a way that I think, like, all right, I'm going to do the left corner of this time and keep stuff out of the left corner. And so then we may have like our current series graphic, we may have an upcoming events. 00:06:56:02 - 00:07:13:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like at the time of recording, we got our costume party coming up and Christmas is on the horizon. So those types of things are there. But woven in my announcements, I might try to do, well, I what we do right now is like, I advertise our online baptism 00:07:13:19 - 00:07:22:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry course, which is a YouTube playlist. And there are so many times, like almost all of my slides at this point, have a QR code to you. 00:07:22:24 - 00:07:42:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Do you remember when the QR code was dying? Like, yeah, no one used it. So lame. Like, I remember having this conversation in a church staff meeting where it was like we could put a QR code on it. And I remember some would be like, does anyone use those? And the answer was no. Yeah. And then but now 00:07:42:25 - 00:07:46:18 Josh Boldman how else would we get the menu at restaurants like this? 00:07:46:20 - 00:08:14:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I think I had the same meeting because at during Covid the question was how do we communicate things without handing things to people and passing germs? Yeah. And I suggested a QR code and I quote from our communications team, we will never use a QR code. And I kid you not, not two weeks later, what was on the screen, because it was the only way to do it and it made a comeback. 00:08:14:00 - 00:08:35:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I actually I've always thought QR codes were brilliant. They didn't get adopted early on, but now they're back and they make so much sense. So yeah, we have a subscription to like a QR code builder. I get like 160 different like unique QR codes. And so I abuse that. And so oh yeah, our baptism course, our text list like all of these things. 00:08:35:11 - 00:09:05:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so if a student during the five minute countdown, isn't playing nine square and they're kind of sitting already in the service or don't have anyone to talk to or something on the screen, does happen to sort of like catch their attention. They can pull their phone out. They can scan the QR code and they can get to it later, whether that be signing up for our text group, which will allow them access, or us access to them to send them encouraging messages or even just announcement type things, or even like discipleship related things like, hey, I'm ready to take a next step about baptism. 00:09:05:08 - 00:09:12:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Let me explore more about that through the baptism playlist. So all right, so there you go. That's what I would do. All right. 00:09:12:18 - 00:09:17:19 Josh Boldman So at zero, usually what we'll do is we'll, we'll jump right into 00:09:17:19 - 00:09:17:29 Josh Boldman the first 00:09:17:29 - 00:09:31:12 Josh Boldman song. Right. And so our, our group, we had a live band. So that was, I mean, I, you know, it's one of those things where every time you talk about having a student band, this could go one of two very different ways. 00:09:31:15 - 00:09:51:29 Josh Boldman And I will say, like, I've been really blessed to be at churches where, we had a really good, like, solid student led band that, I mean, had a, a track record of what I would say is in the neighborhood of 82%, like, okay, this is going to be a four out of five that it's going to go, well, so like so it would, it would hit pretty well. 00:09:51:29 - 00:10:08:10 Josh Boldman And that was kind of in the room that was like the, the oh, oh we're starting like you know, so everybody's like getting getting into their seats getting music hits. Yeah. Yeah. And so I mean obviously in the room you got lyrics on the screen, you got we got, you know, some cameras going and stuff like that. 00:10:08:11 - 00:10:31:02 Josh Boldman So yeah, like for, for worship on the live stream for people after like, are you like, is there anything different that you feel like you can do to set up to help again, the room feel like they're a part of what's happening at home and vice versa. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of different ideas. Let me first say, Josh, you might find this surprising. 00:10:31:13 - 00:10:55:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and the church I'm at now, I've been here two years. This is the first church in. You know, I guess by the time I moved here is, like, 12 years. So my first 12 years of ministry, I did not have a regular live worship band. Oh, yeah. Everywhere I've been prior, like, for one reason or another, the band didn't really, like, Take Root. 00:10:55:17 - 00:11:15:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I didn't try to kill it, but I also didn't have a massive like, that's not my bent. I'm not a worship guy. I can't play any instruments. And so I'm not trying to get that thing up and off the ground. And so for sure, I've had we've had worship at camps and retreats and at like one off worship nights and stuff like that, but not on like a regular, like rhythm. 00:11:15:09 - 00:11:38:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so let me just say to those of you out there in the majority of churches, right, like that, probably don't have a live stream, let's just be honest. And they may you might not even have quality like music means to pull off worship like I feel is. I mean, you know, you can be the judge of this, but I feel as though I did really good youth ministry for 12 years without a band. 00:11:38:19 - 00:12:02:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so I and I don't even know, like in a, you know, in a typical youth service, it's what it's a little more like geared towards outsiders. Oftentimes I don't know that getting up there and singing about the blood of Jesus is often the most welcoming thing for an outsider. And so sometimes you may be shooting yourself in the foot, all in an effort to try and copy what you think youth ministries should be doing, which is worship. 00:12:02:24 - 00:12:22:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you can program around worship. It's going to require a lot more creativity, which is essentially the basis of this episode. Like finding ways to be a little bit more creative with your programing and whatnot. So I'll only say that as an encouragement. Don't feel like you have to jam a worship band into like a space if it's not working. 00:12:22:12 - 00:12:47:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Not fitting the context isn't right, whatever the case may be. Yeah, I've always felt like we we were at places where we tried doing the, you know, the lyric videos, you know, that kind of thing. And it would, it would work in like seasons. But there were times we were just like, okay, this feels like we're showing them a video that they are begrudgingly watching for. 00:12:47:07 - 00:13:04:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yeah, 5.5 minutes. And then they sit down and it's like, okay, well, if it doesn't work, doesn't work. Like don't, don't force that. Yeah, that I think that probably hurts more than it helps if it feels like you're forcing it. Yeah. So take back to answer your specific question about what to do 00:13:04:07 - 00:13:11:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry about worship. Like, I will say when I'm thinking about in-person versus online, online, 00:13:11:25 - 00:13:20:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry in my opinion, is a fantastic content delivery system like podcasts, sermons can be podcasts, sermons can be YouTube videos. 00:13:20:27 - 00:13:32:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like that is what the internet is made for, right? What in person is made for that the internet can't always overcome is certain things like community. And one of those things I think it has 00:13:32:02 - 00:13:37:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry a hard time overcoming is live, in-person worship, shoulder to shoulder like 00:13:37:23 - 00:13:47:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry they're watching during Covid, watching worship online, versus watching worship in the room was a completely different experience. 00:13:47:04 - 00:14:06:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I sat in my recliner. I did not stand. I did not sing. I maybe like sung under my breath. But you know, I'm not getting up in my living room and like, worshiping like I would at church. And so that is, you know, one of the, in my opinion, advantages of in-person, I will say a couple ideas. 00:14:06:16 - 00:14:29:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry One, during Covid, our church, I thought was fantastically innovative and our worship was not just like a band on a stage. It was like they were shot almost like a music video. And especially during Covid, all the individual musicians, like, they recorded all their parts and then they sent them back and then the editors, like, spliced it all together. 00:14:29:03 - 00:14:46:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Wow. It was so good. And of course, that wasn't sustainable. But when they pulled the plug on that, I was that that wasn't a youth ministry thing. But when they pulled the plug on that, I thought that was a big, big mistake because it was very good. And they went back to like an easier route. And I felt like it. 00:14:46:01 - 00:15:09:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It took away some of what made our online presence pretty, pretty good. Oh, yeah. But for the kids in the room for the hybrid, like, hey, how do we, like, let this, this attitude of worship live beyond, I mean, very simply, like, you can create a greatest hits like Spotify playlist of all the best worship songs that you and your students that they love. 00:15:09:15 - 00:15:28:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I especially like to do this for camps or retreats. I'll create the playlist even ahead of time, and I'll like float it out and I'll sneak it out via like our text lists, our social media so that people can grab Ahold of it. And so even if in the room, if you wanted to have one of those little Spotify, it's not a QR code, but it's similar to it. 00:15:28:01 - 00:15:38:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like you scan Spotify's version of it and you can join the playlist, and, you know, even be cool. I'm come with this idea on the fly. You could create like a collaborative 00:15:38:18 - 00:15:49:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry like playlist, like our church's favorite worship songs, and it's a public playlist. And anyone with a Spotify account can go in and they can add their favorite worship songs. 00:15:49:13 - 00:16:02:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then you just got to keep that kind of front and center, like, hey, throughout the week. Like, hey, don't forget we got this, you know, collaborative worship playlist. If you know you want to worship God throughout this week, take a listen. Nice I like that. Yeah. 00:16:02:14 - 00:16:16:19 Josh Boldman Something something that we did, during Covid was we would ask at the end of the service to, say like, hey, if there are songs that really speak to you like we want to do, you know, we want to lead you in those songs. 00:16:16:19 - 00:16:29:26 Josh Boldman So it was kind of like a, hey, this week, let us know what songs you'd like to do next week, like that kind of a thing. I mean, I, I don't know that that was like super, super well-received, but it was, it was something. Right? It was at least something that that allowed a little bit back and forth. 00:16:29:29 - 00:16:39:13 Josh Boldman Yeah. So we, we, we usually do one song, ready to tap, and then we would go into our hosting time. So where we, we would have two 00:16:39:13 - 00:16:53:18 Josh Boldman volunteers, usually an adult and a student. If not it would be two adults. And you know, the I will be the first to say it was always hit or miss like every time. 00:16:53:25 - 00:17:10:02 Josh Boldman And you know, because you're always like, oh that person's personality, you know. Yeah. It's like because you get because like people who are super nervous on stage. I totally get it. But it would be like you'd sit down with them, be like, they would want to know what is the what is the content of the announcement? Right? 00:17:10:03 - 00:17:21:17 Josh Boldman It's like, okay, well, I can tell you that, like, for sure, we'll make sure you got that. And for them it was like as long as I know the information, I'm good. And it's, you know, there is there is more to this game than that, friend. But yeah, 00:17:21:17 - 00:17:28:03 Josh Boldman one of the ways that we found to kind of help that process was we started doing the wheel of announcements. 00:17:28:04 - 00:17:47:02 Josh Boldman You I love that sidekick. And and and the the best part, right is you can you can game the system. Right? You can tell it which was so we would have like, say if there were four announcements. That's too many. You know, I'd say three max. Yeah. But like so whatever number of announcements there were, we would always have one more. 00:17:47:04 - 00:18:09:18 Josh Boldman And that wheel wedge was always like, everyone gets $100, you know, whatever. And so like, you have to make sure that the person in your booth, oh, man, you have to trust that person or, that could cost you dearly. Yeah. Like, oh, man. But it was great because it really was random. Yeah, but it would. 00:18:09:18 - 00:18:29:15 Josh Boldman But especially when it would get down to the last two wedges and it was like half the wheel is everyone gets $100. And the other was like, you know, church picnic or whatever, and you spin it and it just like slowly goes. It's like, oh, you know, and it was great. Like, but it kept, you know, because the students in the room, they don't care about half the announcements you're giving. 00:18:29:15 - 00:18:43:21 Josh Boldman But it was kind of fun every time it would pass the $100 thing, you know, that they'd want to see it. And so we would just change it to a new thing every week. And sometimes it would be they'd win a prize or there would be like, you know, something embarrassing that the person on stage would have to do. 00:18:43:24 - 00:19:05:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But that's a different way to gamify it so that it's more interesting than I've episode that talked about, like, stop posting announcements to social media like, no one cares and no one is getting on social media to know what's going on in your youth ministry. They'll they you do want them to know like it's just you're using it's the wrong like medium for it. 00:19:05:17 - 00:19:30:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so a lot of times in the same way we do announcement times of this service in our church, like we do need to get these things across. Yeah. But I think that like, you know, this isn't a direct answer to the question, but like, how how do you hybridize your announcements or like, how do you get your announcements across in like a, a different way than just like the host moment or the announcement moment in your planning center service rundown? 00:19:30:00 - 00:19:49:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like you, you use the mediums all all throughout the rest of the like, all throughout the rest of your like repertoire that you have to your advantage so you can post those. I do say you can post announcements to social media. You just have to be creative with it. Like one of my favorites is. I'll follow the link down below. 00:19:49:28 - 00:20:07:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But like those transition style videos. Have you seen the one where the dudes getting speared in the back by like a bull, and then people are diving into like, their rows of chairs? Like, yep. Do those like, get your you can still tell people on social media about what's going on your church. Just make it actually creative. 00:20:07:19 - 00:20:25:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Don't just post your cooked up Canva graphic like no one. All right, you ready? You ready for some? I just thought like this. Like yes. Head right is right. So, so you could during your announcement time, you could record that video with your students, like. Yes. So that would be in the moment. You're like, hey, here's what we're gonna do. 00:20:25:24 - 00:20:43:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We got this thing coming up. We want to let everybody know about it. Here's, you know what it's going to be like, let's let's do this real quick. And yeah, just and you know what else? Like what else could you do? You could, random name generator. Your your contestant, you could, then get them up there and then what does that do. 00:20:43:01 - 00:20:44:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's a nod to your socials. 00:20:44:17 - 00:21:01:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so while you're announcing, you throw a graphic on screen that says we're social, it's guy QR codes, a link tree of all of your social handles. And the people in the room like, hey, go follow this because we're going to post this tomorrow. And that's been like, I'm going to, that's one of the things we've done in our youth ministry. 00:21:01:29 - 00:21:24:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We've created a social team and a social challenge component of every night of our youth ministry. And so students know they can go into our studio. We have a studio like it's bougie. All right, I get it. You can see the tour down below, but like, they know they can go in there and they can get on camera with their friends, and then eventually they're going to be the star on our social media. 00:21:25:02 - 00:21:50:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it helps create like a little more appetite for it than just the youth pastors being like the the talent on social media. No one wants that, right? Unless we're looking stupid. Are you saying we're not as cool as we think we are? Is that okay? It depends how you think of yourself as true. You know, if you have a, if you're like very self-aware, then you probably know you're not very cool. 00:21:50:03 - 00:21:58:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You're in your 30s or 40, to be honest. Okay. So then we transition into a game. 00:21:58:02 - 00:21:59:13 Josh Boldman And this was 00:21:59:13 - 00:22:17:10 Josh Boldman always like, so we had two different things that we we've tried off and on. One is the winner of the game gets to spin a wheel for a prize and it's just numbers on a wheel. And then we had like shoeboxes and it was like, you know, you win box number seven and then you get the box, open it up. 00:22:17:10 - 00:22:34:02 Josh Boldman And it's either a great prize or terrible prize, something like that. I love that, and I'm probably stealing that. Now that you just said that, is it. Honestly it was pretty cool. Like and that's like a YouTube video right there. That's like Ryan's world, you know. Yeah. And it wouldn't let you do is it let you not always have to keep buying awesome prizes? Josh Boldman Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yeah. Because oh man it was. And what you so like at the very beginning we would tell people like you know, so like we, we change them out every quarter or something like that and it would be like, hey, just so you know, in these 12 boxes, there are, a $10 Apple gift card. There's, you know, you know, just you tell them kind of, hey, here are a couple of the big things are in here. 00:22:55:16 - 00:23:13:12 Josh Boldman Yeah. And then just as you get it, you know, one week, person rolls, number five. Great. They get box five. So then you just take that one off the list, and so you don't even have to, like, buy a new prize every week. You just have to have it all loaded upfront and you just put like, old crap that's laying around your church into those boxes, too. 00:23:13:13 - 00:23:34:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So good, so good. Right? It could be any. I mean, just honestly, anything, it's a mug, anything good. Right? It says you're voted most likely to need coffee. Like. Oh, yeah, that one that is, the other thing that we started doing was we do we did the impossible shot. Yeah. So yeah, the deal is like the traditional 00:23:34:15 - 00:23:41:04 Josh Boldman impossible shot has always been like, if you are here for the first time or you were the person who invited that person for 00:23:41:04 - 00:23:44:12 Josh Boldman the first time, you get to take a shot at this impossibly small target. 00:23:44:19 - 00:24:07:03 Josh Boldman And if it goes through, you win a prize. But we, we started doing is the winner of the game, got to take the shot. And so it even made it, like, more, you know, your chance of winning the game was small. Yeah. And then that makes you even smaller. And we would add every week, we would add to the bucket of what do you win if you get the impossible shot. 00:24:07:03 - 00:24:23:13 Josh Boldman And so like you started out with it's a bunch of candy. Okay. Then it's like one of every candy and then it's like, all right, gift card, you know, and so you just kind of slowly build it, until somebody wins it. It was one of the things we did. But I'm curious, like, so the possible shot rate is, agrees it. 00:24:23:13 - 00:24:42:19 Josh Boldman So we would like. That's what I set up in this one was winner of the game. And the game would be like, where's the ball? We're doing doing 100. Probably by the time this is out, we will have already done it. So. Yeah. So, signed up for next year. But, one of the things that I made was a, a game called Where's the ball? 00:24:42:19 - 00:24:59:09 Josh Boldman Obscure sports edition. Yeah. And so it's like link down below. Go give Josh goodness. Yeah. No, it'll be actually, you know, it'll be free in sidekick. So if you, if you have. Yeah. It'll be one of those like click on the little free button at the top and the little red dot pops up and you're like, oh my goodness me. 00:24:59:12 - 00:25:17:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But it's like I need to look at that more frequently than I do. Yeah you do, I don't. Yeah, it's there's some good stuff in there. So the sports I've got are curling, I've got ax throwing, I've got, Oh, have you ever heard of cycle ball? No. Basically like soccer. But you play on bicycles. 00:25:17:27 - 00:25:39:14 Josh Boldman Okay. Who's the front wheel of the bike to kick the ball? It's sane. Sounds insane. And I feel as though I would die. Horribly dangerous. The other one is unicycle hockey, which is exactly what it sounds like. And it is magical. But but that is, you know, I mean, so one of the things like that, what we when I first started making the where's the ball games, right. 00:25:39:14 - 00:25:44:24 Josh Boldman That was very much you had to be in the room to make it work. But then with sidekick, we've done where it's voting 00:25:44:24 - 00:25:52:00 Josh Boldman now. And so we worked really hard, especially during Covid and after, to make it wear our, when we were live 00:25:52:00 - 00:25:59:00 Josh Boldman streaming that it was as low lag as possible. So people at home really could also vote in. 00:25:59:06 - 00:26:16:02 Josh Boldman And we got it, you know, down to like, I think you can without too much trouble. You can get the lag down to like three four seconds. Not too bad. Yeah. And so we would do that where you could see on the screen, you know, people voting, that kind of thing. Yeah. But yeah, so we did that, but then so impossible 00:26:16:02 - 00:26:16:13 Josh Boldman shot. 00:26:16:15 - 00:26:16:26 Josh Boldman That 00:26:16:26 - 00:26:18:01 Josh Boldman is a in the room 00:26:18:01 - 00:26:40:16 Josh Boldman phenomenon. Yep. Is there anything we could you can do to make that, something that someone at home feels like they're able to connect with? Or is it really just a show? The highlight. And and they get to celebrate if it happened? Yeah. I mean, like, if it's a true live stream, which again, like I said earlier, not a lot of youth ministries have like full live streaming capabilities. 00:26:40:18 - 00:27:01:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So even what we do, what I recommend to a lot of people is like most people are not interested in tuning in to your full youth service, like, so we pre-record all of our messages for YouTube into like a 12 minute, like teaching type of deal. So like that's what I would recommend. Like that's what people are getting on YouTube in the internet for. 00:27:02:01 - 00:27:12:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Is there a way to reclaim a live stream impossible shot type moment like there might be like a sort of like voting type thing. Like, do you think that they 00:27:12:07 - 00:27:21:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry can get it or not? You're going to need a moderator in your chat to like initiate that poll. So like let's say you won and it's like, congratulations to Josh. 00:27:21:10 - 00:27:40:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Will Josh hit the impossible shot yes or no? And they can vote there in the poll like in the chat or something like that. I think like YouTube or maybe Facebook has some of that like functionality built in. But what I might do like a as an alternative to the impossible shot or depending on your game. 00:27:40:27 - 00:27:50:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. Like, one of my favorite styles of games is creating like, you can do like those, like sculpture, building types of games or like, let 00:27:50:14 - 00:28:14:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry students in teams create something together. And then you can, like, take pictures of all of them and they can vote on them either. Oh, I like that on sidekick live in the room or what we've done in the past is we've said, hey, these are going to be on our Instagram Stories, go vote on them, and then we'll announce the winner on Sunday, which is like our next meeting time or what I like that I like. 00:28:14:27 - 00:28:29:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then the winning group will get a pizza party next week. Yeah. And so, you know, like, those are different. Those are just different ideas, obviously. So to answer your question, I would try to just create like, a poll type of thing. I think that's. Yeah. That's the best idea. I got the top of my head right now. 00:28:29:29 - 00:28:32:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's, but some other, like, ideas 00:28:32:06 - 00:28:56:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and let me jump in and say, in the land of prizes, another great like, free to you prize is, so we are our set up is, round tables. And so you oftentimes your table is your team in whatever sort of thing you're competing in game trivia, whatever. And so a lot of times we'll, let the winning team go sit in what we call the best seats in the house. 00:28:57:00 - 00:29:14:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we'll put some, like, couches in, like, nicer seats than, like, the tables there. And then we'll just stuff that area full of, like, snacks and drinks, and they get to sit there during like the teaching time. And oftentimes we have all the snacks and drinks on hand, and it's just couches that we have laying around, but they're nicer than tables. 00:29:14:07 - 00:29:32:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you can give students that opportunity. It's similar to like your your box of prizes type of thing. So it in the box are prizes. One of the things we learned was, I kept forgetting to refill the boxes and so, what we started putting in the boxes as as a prize was pizza party for your small group next week? 00:29:32:25 - 00:29:51:01 Josh Boldman Yeah, yeah. Like, you know. So it's always like a hey, you want it right now, but you're going to get it next year. So it would get kids to come back next week. But also if like say that small group won and they had five kids that night, next week they're going to have 15. Like it's just it's crazy because they know like oh yeah we won the prizes. 00:29:51:01 - 00:30:09:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yeah. So and then you didn't order enough pizza ever. It's just so, you know you know it's something you'll see in the Facebook group a lot is the do I on Facebook. Yeah. Yeah. How many pizzas should I order for a thing? I always order too much because then it's lunch for me for the rest of the week. 00:30:10:06 - 00:30:29:04 Josh Boldman It's like, oh, they're good. That's how it. Yeah. The secret. I think that might be embezzlement. I'm not sure now that. Yeah, whatever. It's okay. We can cut that part out. Yeah. Whatever it, So there we go from there. We might, at that point do another song. But then we're going to go to a bumper video and you answer the lesson. 00:30:29:04 - 00:30:30:28 Josh Boldman Now, the lesson that, 00:30:30:28 - 00:30:33:02 Josh Boldman I'm doing this week is going to be, 00:30:33:02 - 00:30:39:01 Josh Boldman on, Peter walking on water. Okay. And in the the idea is the big idea for it is 00:30:39:01 - 00:30:52:28 Josh Boldman that your first step is meant to be followed by a second step. So it's like, the whole idea is like momentum, things like that. So the way that we would do this and we did this, and I can, I can send you pictures of how we did it. 00:30:53:01 - 00:31:16:29 Josh Boldman We built this basically like this trough, and we covered it in plastic sheets. And then we put a tarp over that, and then we filled it with cornstarch and water, as you put it, at the right consistency. It's a it's a, it's a substance called oobleck or a non-Newtonian fluid. Okay. Which means if you just touch it it's liquid. 00:31:16:29 - 00:31:25:23 Josh Boldman But if you hit it, it's solid, like it's crazy cool seeing it, right? Yeah. And so what that means is if you again, if you get the right 00:31:25:23 - 00:31:38:10 Josh Boldman consistency, if you run on it, you can run completely on top of it. You will not see no way. But any point that you stop, you will sink right in like it's over. 00:31:38:12 - 00:31:58:28 Josh Boldman And so what we would do is, is so yeah, that's the idea. Right? So Peter, Jesus calls him out on the water. He starts walking. It's working. But then as soon as he stops, he looks down. He starts to sink. And so Jesus gives him, you know, a bit of a, a talking to and, and so then, you know, then they he reaches out, pulls Peter back up, they climb back in the boat. 00:31:59:02 - 00:32:21:17 Josh Boldman And so, what we're trying to tell the kids is like, hey, yeah, we want everybody to take a first step. You know? We all know what else we want. You. We want you to like. First step gives you momentum. Just keep taking steps like keep going. Yeah. And so, so the way we would end this service is in this is probably in the room going to be chaos. 00:32:21:19 - 00:32:40:10 Josh Boldman And I'm I'm very comfortable with that especially like because it's so it's going to end with communion. Right. And so that which is not you know I've been in different groups where, where we've done communion every week. I've done groups where we do it like literally hardly ever. And, you know, and so this was one day where we did it every week. 00:32:40:13 - 00:33:05:07 Josh Boldman And but what I would do is I would set that that, that trough up. So that students, in order to go and get the communion elements, get to run across the thing, to go get the cookie. So it's like, hey, that you're, you're chasing after Jesus, you're, you're taking this first step and you're not stopping. So like I said, you know, normally like communion is a fairly like somber time. 00:33:05:07 - 00:33:24:23 Josh Boldman This would not be that because it would be a bit chaotic. But and they'd be taking their shoes off and they, you know, running across, but then, then they get the elements and they would take them right there, and then they then they go back to their seat. And so we would one we'd have to figure out stuff for the students to do when they're back in their seat. 00:33:24:25 - 00:33:59:26 Josh Boldman Yeah. Because that, you know, it's going to take a minute. Yeah. They watching all that. But I mean, it wouldn't be like, you know, super, super engaging. But but the moment of running across, they absolutely loved it. Like, I mean, it was just the coolest thing ever. Yeah. So like but and then we would dismiss the small groups, but it's that that type of experience is, is really like a in the room thing, like because, because so one of the things I've always said about, like trying to be creative in your programing is like, you get to say yes to things that no one else ever says yes to. 00:34:00:02 - 00:34:10:06 Josh Boldman And so like this. Like, in order to do this, we had to buy like 150 pounds of, of corn starch from like a food grade service company. Like it was just like they bring it in on a 00:34:10:06 - 00:34:16:17 Josh Boldman pallet. It oh, it was crazy. Like it is absolutely insane. But no one is going to be able to do that at home. 00:34:16:24 - 00:34:34:16 Josh Boldman I mean, they do it like, and so like one of the things is we would like walk them through, like, how did how to make it at home and at a very smaller scale. Yeah. I think it is one way to do that, but I don't know, like, I feel like in that moment that having an experience like that just like, creates a core memory, right? 00:34:34:16 - 00:34:34:26 Josh Boldman It's like 00:34:34:26 - 00:34:54:15 Josh Boldman the locks in there going to remember the teaching, if ever so slightly, because of the experience. It's just kind of like try and get your thoughts on yeah. What do you do to help someone who's either experiencing it later or experiencing at home? How do they how do they lock in that same that same idea? And any thoughts there? 00:34:54:15 - 00:34:57:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yeah for sure. So, once again, like I said, 00:34:57:23 - 00:35:15:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry there are certain things that in-person that digital can't do to like replace and frankly, vice versa. But this is a prime example. So here's the here's the shame. Josh. Like, this is why you're the best youth ministry 00:35:15:20 - 00:35:21:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry programmer in America. Because this what what a title, right? 00:35:21:08 - 00:35:46:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The fact is this, like if all your students are coming to in the room is a lecture style sermon, they can get they can 100% get that online. Right. And and it'll be better. Exactly. Let's call it what it is right there online. Somebody do it better if it's just lecture style. Yeah. And so again here's our strategy. 00:35:46:04 - 00:36:04:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If we were doing that I would totally do that in the room. We don't live stream. And so instead of trying to replicate a live stream moment, now if you were in a position where you had to do that, I think, you know, what Josh's point was, is I would I would try to get a camera on the actual like trough thing so that 00:36:04:20 - 00:36:07:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry people can watch that and then maybe encourage people 00:36:07:02 - 00:36:16:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry with like, text on screen to go get some element so that they too can take, you know, communion and then give them the opportunity if they want to build it. 00:36:16:08 - 00:36:34:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They're not going to probably be able to do that, like right in the moment. Like, do they have enough corn starch? Do they have a bowl? Like, you know what I mean? Probably that. So what we would do in our context now is we would film a talk about Peter walking on water for YouTube, direct to camera, 15 minutes or less. 00:36:34:04 - 00:37:02:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Really, really highly edited. And so if I wanted to use like B-roll or anything like that from like The Chosen as I'm illustrating this Peter point, like that's going to be on screen, it's not just going to be me talking. We're going to use the medium of video that we have to our advantage and do certain things like so this isn't in the same vein, but one time I was talking about how like, God knows the big picture and on screen I said, does anyone know what this is? 00:37:02:04 - 00:37:19:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Comment down below if you know it. And there's like a super zoomed in like grainy, pixelated something or other. And then in the next frame it like zoomed out and you can see this like beautiful painted canvas. And the point I made in that was like God's painting a picture and you can't see the outcome. He's in control. 00:37:19:07 - 00:37:27:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You're. And that's just an example. And you could do that in the room with like, a slide. But that's just an example of something that you can do with a 00:37:27:15 - 00:37:29:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry video. And so I 00:37:29:03 - 00:37:42:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry wouldn't try to recreate that moment because it's probably un replicating. Right. But I would create something that at the end of the day, your bottom line was the first steps, always 00:37:42:09 - 00:37:43:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry followed by a second step. 00:37:43:20 - 00:38:08:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I think you can teach that and deliver that online for anyone who's not there. And that's again, one of the reasons we don't do like a quote live stream is because a we don't have the equipment, but if you miss out on it, you sort of feel like it's over instead. Like, what is YouTube great for? Like, I get on YouTube, I don't know about you, but I get on there when like, I have a clog in my sink and I search how to fix, clog and sink. 00:38:09:00 - 00:38:32:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like in the same way. Water heater based on YouTube and a skylight. See, I, I think I broke the law. I've admitted to doing this now twice. Yeah. Don't worry, that's the power of editing. But I'll probably leave it in. But, a student might get on and be like, ask a question. Like a tough question. Like, is such and such a sin? 00:38:32:29 - 00:38:52:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry How do I grow my faith? How do I start making disciples? How do I whatever? And so that's what I'm trying to do on YouTube, is I'm trying to title and tag my videos in such a way that, like, they're going to be found in search from a teenager or anyone for that matter, but particularly a teenager who's asking big questions about life and about faith. 00:38:52:24 - 00:38:58:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you're doing one thing in the room. But online, they're both hopefully accomplishing 00:38:58:10 - 00:39:17:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry the same ultimate goal. And that's where I would say, like the the difference of hybrid hybrid is not just digital, right? It's both. And so a good in room experience is going to like be worth its weight in gold. We don't have to try to like replace it. 00:39:17:05 - 00:39:21:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What I will say a great hybrid experience for teaching. 00:39:21:03 - 00:39:29:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry you haven't checked this out, one of my favorite resources, is like the YouVersion live events. And so in built 00:39:29:09 - 00:39:40:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry in woven into the YouVersion Bible app, there's a section called live. And so you can make it be, quote live when your service is live. And you can put your outline basically in there. 00:39:40:28 - 00:39:58:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what's great about it is you can also link Bible reading plan. So always link a Bible reading plan at the end of any message. So like in that one I would link something about taking next steps like a 4 or 5 day Bible reading plan for a student to jump into if they wanted. And we always have a next steps form. 00:39:58:14 - 00:40:00:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We have a digital next steps form that 00:40:00:04 - 00:40:14:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry just lives in perpetuity on our website. And so at the bottom second to bottom of my YouVersion live event, I put a link. So you ready to next step? Let us know. We want to take it with you. And then it's a link and it can go external. It can go external to anything. 00:40:14:04 - 00:40:36:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you can also link like camp sign ups or retreat sign ups or denial sign ups like you can you can link to anything. And that's a great way for a student hybrid to like take something and they can save that event and they can get back to it later. They can like take private notes on it. So it's something that they're in the room, but they're taking notes on their device. 00:40:36:01 - 00:40:43:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And now later, if they have a question or whatever they want to like continue on in their faith. Like, that's a fantastic we call it, 00:40:43:09 - 00:40:52:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry digital notes, like it's the YouVersion live events platform, but we like have branded it like digital notes. And as I said, it's QR code. So I just 00:40:52:04 - 00:41:01:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry swap the the same QR code and then our tables in our room we have a little like standing placard thing and it says follow along for the digital notes. 00:41:01:04 - 00:41:21:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Students can scan it and it'll pull open that week's YouVersion live event. So it changes every week based on that particular thing. So that would be a hybrid solution to like the content in the room. Your ending piece is fantastic, right? And so I don't think you want to try to like replicate that in someone's house necessarily. 00:41:21:10 - 00:41:36:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But I think you could pre film that if kids don't make it or if a kid down the road comes to your youth minister that wasn't there that night or they weren't attending your church, you and they have a question about taking a next step. You can be like, hey, this is my favorite part about putting your stuff on YouTube. 00:41:36:03 - 00:41:48:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You can like, hey, we actually have a fantastic teaching on it. I'll send you the link. It's right here. And you don't have to say, oh man, you should have been here last month. We did this really cool thing. Like they can still have access to it. So 00:41:48:27 - 00:41:57:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry some some that, I was thinking of with this particular type of thing is filming, like, a behind the scenes, like as you're making it, like. 00:41:57:05 - 00:42:12:25 Josh Boldman Yes, it could be. It could be really power, even as students have run across it, like just catching them right at the end and be like, hey, can you would you? Yeah. How do you remember this or what? What what was this experience like? And just having like, you know, featuring a couple of them I think could could go a long way for sure. 00:42:12:25 - 00:42:36:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And that's one of my strategy. Like in my, like social media calendar, like Wednesday night, which is our youth night, I film just I post like a recap video of what we did. And so for that night, that's that might be what I do is just focus on the trough moment. Right. Or if you don't have anything that's as like unique or powerful as that, you can just get a little snippets of the whole night so you can get kids playing nine square. 00:42:36:22 - 00:42:55:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Kids worship in the band, worship being the the pastor teaching. And then you take, you know, 7 to 12 clips. You put them in something like TikTok, it'll auto cut it for you and boom, you got a post that takes you less than a minute. You know, I love it. So dude. So good. Look at us. Look at that. 00:42:55:13 - 00:43:20:09 Josh Boldman We figured it out so good. This is really fun. Is that the end of your service? Yeah, well, I mean, we were dismissed as small groups. And there's something that we did there, that, you know, trying to engage outside of just the small group time was like we would send, discussion questions to parents, you know, like, or we and we had, like, a, like a reminder text sign up that was like, hey, here's what we're talking about tonight. 00:43:20:09 - 00:43:40:19 Josh Boldman Here are three questions for the ride home or for the. Yeah. You know, and so whether a kid was there and on the ride home or if, you know, they missed that night, there's still you know, their parents still got a, you know, a conversation starter of some kind, I think was pretty good. And that's the advantage I've found in pre filming as well. 00:43:40:19 - 00:44:06:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry There's so many advantages. Like at first it was like so history for us like we did just Like you a full live like YouTube show during Covid. Like it was a youth group for YouTube. But eventually as restrictions lifted, that grew tired and people didn't wanna just get on sit behind a computer, a live stream, especially during the summer of 2020, they're like, I'm just going to go out where I can't catch Covid as long as I'm outside. 00:44:06:11 - 00:44:24:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so that's, you know, that started to engagement with that and the shininess of it. You know, initially it was like this really interesting thing. But by episode 28 it's like, yeah, kind of lost some of its luster. But there is still something really cool. It's like there was a teaching component, but it was all the way at the end of the video. 00:44:24:07 - 00:44:48:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so when I came here and readjusted my thought process a little bit, I was like, the teaching is so valuable. Like, I want kids to be able to hear about the truth of Jesus, and I want them to be able to have access to it online. How can we do that? And so if some or some of the other kind of components that we did during Covid, but make it maybe a little more adaptable to 2022 and then those 2023, 24. 00:44:48:18 - 00:45:10:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so that's where we do our teaching longform on YouTube and everything else is shorts. I read something the other day, just like 90% of the internet's traffic now is shorts, TikToks or reels. And so that's what we film in our social challenges. We just film short content games or challenge style videos, and we let our students be the heroes in those stories. 00:45:10:18 - 00:45:33:23 Josh Boldman And they love it. Like when they see one of their things posted, like the text meme, like, that was really good. And I'm like, yeah, it was. Nailed it. You know, my favorite. So I, our son is 16 and, and he has this thing that is a joke that he has started thinking is very funny. That he'll, he'll, like, start talking about something he saw online. 00:45:33:23 - 00:45:52:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And my wife would be like, well, like. And he's like, oh, don't worry, you'll see it on Instagram in three months. That's hilarious. You. And he's right. And, you know, he's 100% right. Because, you know, it's funny, yesterday I got a Facebook reel sent to me, and I had seen that on TikTok and then on Instagram and now. 00:45:52:16 - 00:46:15:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Oh, so that's even like, talk about lag, as you say. I'm just now finding out that Facebook has reels. That's right tastic. No. Yeah I no I knew that but no. But yeah, it's crazy. Well so then yeah small group like and I would encourage a small group leaders have group text and all of that is like ways the end of the day. 00:46:15:26 - 00:46:38:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The reason I'm so passionate about hybrid is not like, oh, it's cool and cutting edge in technology. It's more like this is an opportunity to reach students where they are and beyond your service moments, your service times. And so you can text them on a Thursday after school and ask them how that test went. You can text them on a Monday morning, even in a group and say, hey, I'm I'm praying for a great week for you guys. 00:46:38:29 - 00:47:02:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You can send encouraging versus all things we just didn't have the ability to do before the invention of technology. And so I my challenge is just always encouraging churches and youth pastors to just not get stuck in the rut of only in-person. There's so much more that the world has to offer. And, and that the world, frankly, is already leaning into we as a church, churches has to find a way to catch up to it. 00:47:02:28 - 00:47:27:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So so good. Yeah. Sweet. Let's all we got. Anything else? Any final words, Josh? Drink your milk. You know, I feel like we've we've we've we've lost that one. You know, like, that was when, when I was little, they were like, drink your milk. You get strong bones. I don't know if that's true or not, but I don't feel like I've heard anyone tell me that in a long time, so I just want to share that. 00:47:27:27 - 00:47:34:18 Josh Boldman Okay. Everyone else. All right. I will leave you with that wisdom. Until next time, everyone stay hybrid letter. Hybrid Ministry, Youth Ministry Programming Sheet, Memorable Youth Group Lessons, Peter Walking on Water, How to Walk on Water, Youth Group Communion, Student Ministry, Digital Marketing for Churches, Youth Group Program Sheet, 5:00 Countdown, Youth Group Game, Sidekick, Download Youth Ministry, Nick Clason, Josh Boldmana Join Nick Clason and special guest, Josh Boldman, "The Best Programming Specialist" in America, on the Hybrid Ministry Podcast as they dive into "The Student Ministry Debate: In-Person vs Digital." Explore fresh youth ministry ideas and strategies for balancing hybrid ministry to effectively engage students in both student ministry settings.

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Great Debate
01:11 The Challenge: In Person vs. Digital
02:58 Clarifying "Hybrid"
04:42 5:00 Countdown
09:12 Opening Worship Song
16:35 Host Moment & Announcements
22:00 Game - Where's the Ball
30:35 Lesson: With a Killer Response Time
37:34 Online vs. In-Person: The Power of YouTube
41:54 Other Miscellaneous Hybrid Ideas

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What is up, everybody? Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. In this episode, I am going to be talking with my friend Josh Goldman. He works over at Download Youth Ministry. He does all the stuff with sidekick and he does, stuff with co-leader and Josh, honestly, I believe is one of, if not the greatest programing specialist for youth ministries in America.

00:00:23:19 - 00:00:43:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm really excited for you to hear it because some of his ideas are absolutely fantastic. But what we're gonna do is we're going to be debating between in-person and digital, and you're going to see me try to lean everything back towards hybrid. And what we're doing is he's bringing a youth ministry programing sheet and he's saying, this is what we're doing.

00:00:43:13 - 00:01:02:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How do we make it digital? How do we, honor the people that might be watching online and more? I try to say, how can we make it hybrid? And so for those of you who are new here, hybrid is taking your in-person, taking your digital and finding a way to meet that intersection. And in most cases, I think that is at the intersection of students cell phones.

00:01:02:01 - 00:01:11:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you're going to see that this debate between digital versus in-person. So welcome to the show, the one and only Josh Boardman.

00:01:11:12 - 00:01:23:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well what's up everybody. I'm here this morning with my good friend Josh Bullman. And we have a little bit of a unique idea. So Josh, tell the people what we're doing okay.

00:01:23:01 - 00:01:30:29
Josh Boldman
So as anyone watching slash listening knows, Nick Claussen is all about the hybrid ministry, right?

00:01:30:29 - 00:01:53:19
Josh Boldman
Making sure that the people that are at home are still connecting with what's happening in the room. Yeah. I spent most of my ministry, like, developing, and leading services in the room. And then, you know, Covid happened and things got crazy, and we we did a full pendulum swing to where, like, we did everything online. Yeah.

00:01:53:20 - 00:02:02:13
Josh Boldman
And then we came back and suddenly it was like, wait, are we still doing online or are we like, what are we doing? You know? And so it was the constant challenge of

00:02:02:13 - 00:02:11:27
Josh Boldman
trying to not just, create something in the room and just stream it, right, like, make it more interactive. So yeah. So today

00:02:11:27 - 00:02:12:18
Josh Boldman
what

00:02:12:18 - 00:02:19:29
Josh Boldman
we're doing is I have got a service that I've created for in the room, and I'm going to walk us through it.

00:02:20:02 - 00:02:26:26
Josh Boldman
And Nick is going to in real time because he has not seen it. Now you guys gotta know, I offered. I was like,

00:02:26:26 - 00:02:48:05
Josh Boldman
dude, do you want this ahead? And we could just fake it? And he's like, no, no, too much integrity. Way too much. Yeah. And so he's going to try like as we go to, we're going to think through each, each section and try and figure out what is it that we can do to make this something that people who are not in the room, you know, but the students at home.

00:02:48:07 - 00:03:08:03
Josh Boldman
And I'm curious, Nick, if this is, you know, maybe something we look at is, is it if they're watching live or even if they're watching later, like, how does that impact, well, your ability to participate.

00:03:08:03 - 00:03:11:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So yeah, and to be clear, like the way that I define hybrid is like it's the it's the two pieces.
So your in-person plus your digital and it's like them coming

00:03:11:17 - 00:03:11:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
together.

00:03:11:27 - 00:03:19:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so there may be elements I think a little more what I might try to do is like take, take what is going on in the room and find a way

00:03:19:22 - 00:03:44:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to allow it to exist beyond that moment. Yeah. Or find a way to intersect a student, like in a spot like their phone that will that will last beyond that, the time that you dismiss them to go home so they can take it home, like youth ministry, typically pre-digital, could only exist in the few hours that our church doors were open.

00:03:44:04 - 00:04:13:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so now we have the advantage of being able to access sometimes it's, you know, a curse versus a blessing, but we have the advantage of being able to access and have conversation with and disciple our students at a time that Wednesday night programing or Sunday morning or Sunday night programing isn't happening. And how can we take what we're doing in the room and offer it to students beyond that moment, or even in your place in what you were saying, maybe even as a replacement of it?

00:04:13:22 - 00:04:28:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, like Josh said, I haven't seen any of this. I am a little nervous right now. Like earlier I was like, I'm fine, but now I'm a little nervous as I like get together. I got to be totally honest. I'm like, there are parts of it. Or I was like, oh, I can totally see how this is going to work.

00:04:28:05 - 00:04:42:24
Josh Boldman
And then there are other parts where I'm like, I don't know what he's going to do, how this is going to. Yeah. So bear with me. Stream of consciousness. And it may not be perfect and polished, but that's okay. That's what we're here for. So all right, let's do it. What is the first part of your service?

00:04:42:24 - 00:04:44:09
Josh Boldman
The five minute countdown.

00:04:44:13 - 00:04:45:20
Josh Boldman
Right. Okay, so we've got

00:04:45:20 - 00:05:19:08
Josh Boldman
students are in the room, they're playing nine square, they're playing gaga ball. They've got they're not paying attention to the countdown. Nobody cares what like someone spent a lot of time creating a countdown. Yeah, but ultimately no one cares about until it, like, reaches 10s. But there's there's a lot of interaction happening. And so, like, trying to think through is there is there something where we're trying to connect with students that are not in the room, or is there something we can do in the room to help students know, hey, it's not just you here.

00:05:19:08 - 00:05:43:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There's yeah, there's more than that going on. Yeah. So 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

00:05:43:09 - 00:05:44:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
request.

00:05:44:18 - 00:05:58:07
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

00:05:58:07 - 00:06:11:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
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.

00:06:11:03 - 00:06:22:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because if you think about it, if if the majority of people don't start paying attention to the screen until it's down to less than a minute, they missed all of the stuff that was looping ahead of time.

00:06:22:16 - 00:06:37:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the stuff that's looping ahead of time is the stuff that you want them to know about. And so whether it's hybrid, whether it's digital only or whether it's in person, like whatever you're announcing, I think you should leave that stuff on the screen as long as humanly possible.

00:06:37:20 - 00:06:56:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you're able to put a little five minute countdown in the corner or even across the middle, but I try to design my slides in such a way that I think, like, all right, I'm going to do the left corner of this time and keep stuff out of the left corner. And so then we may have like our current series graphic, we may have an upcoming events.

00:06:56:02 - 00:07:13:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like at the time of recording, we got our costume party coming up and Christmas is on the horizon. So those types of things are there. But woven in my announcements, I might try to do, well, I what we do right now is like, I advertise our online baptism

00:07:13:19 - 00:07:22:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
course, which is a YouTube playlist. And there are so many times, like almost all of my slides at this point, have a QR code to you.

00:07:22:24 - 00:07:42:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Do you remember when the QR code was dying? Like, yeah, no one used it. So lame. Like, I remember having this conversation in a church staff meeting where it was like we could put a QR code on it. And I remember some would be like, does anyone use those? And the answer was no. Yeah. And then but now

00:07:42:25 - 00:07:46:18
Josh Boldman
how else would we get the menu at restaurants like this?

00:07:46:20 - 00:08:14:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think I had the same meeting because at during Covid the question was how do we communicate things without handing things to people and passing germs? Yeah. And I suggested a QR code and I quote from our communications team, we will never use a QR code. And I kid you not, not two weeks later, what was on the screen, because it was the only way to do it and it made a comeback.

00:08:14:00 - 00:08:35:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I actually I've always thought QR codes were brilliant. They didn't get adopted early on, but now they're back and they make so much sense. So yeah, we have a subscription to like a QR code builder. I get like 160 different like unique QR codes. And so I abuse that. And so oh yeah, our baptism course, our text list like all of these things.

00:08:35:11 - 00:09:05:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if a student during the five minute countdown, isn't playing nine square and they're kind of sitting already in the service or don't have anyone to talk to or something on the screen, does happen to sort of like catch their attention. They can pull their phone out. They can scan the QR code and they can get to it later, whether that be signing up for our text group, which will allow them access, or us access to them to send them encouraging messages or even just announcement type things, or even like discipleship related things like, hey, I'm ready to take a next step about baptism.

00:09:05:08 - 00:09:12:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let me explore more about that through the baptism playlist. So all right, so there you go. That's what I would do. All right.

00:09:12:18 - 00:09:17:19
Josh Boldman
So at zero, usually what we'll do is we'll, we'll jump right into

00:09:17:19 - 00:09:17:29
Josh Boldman
the first

00:09:17:29 - 00:09:31:12
Josh Boldman
song. Right. And so our, our group, we had a live band. So that was, I mean, I, you know, it's one of those things where every time you talk about having a student band, this could go one of two very different ways.

00:09:31:15 - 00:09:51:29
Josh Boldman
And I will say, like, I've been really blessed to be at churches where, we had a really good, like, solid student led band that, I mean, had a, a track record of what I would say is in the neighborhood of 82%, like, okay, this is going to be a four out of five that it's going to go, well, so like so it would, it would hit pretty well.

00:09:51:29 - 00:10:08:10
Josh Boldman
And that was kind of in the room that was like the, the oh, oh we're starting like you know, so everybody's like getting getting into their seats getting music hits. Yeah. Yeah. And so I mean obviously in the room you got lyrics on the screen, you got we got, you know, some cameras going and stuff like that.

00:10:08:11 - 00:10:31:02
Josh Boldman
So yeah, like for, for worship on the live stream for people after like, are you like, is there anything different that you feel like you can do to set up to help again, the room feel like they're a part of what's happening at home and vice versa. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of different ideas. Let me first say, Josh, you might find this surprising.

00:10:31:13 - 00:10:55:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and the church I'm at now, I've been here two years. This is the first church in. You know, I guess by the time I moved here is, like, 12 years. So my first 12 years of ministry, I did not have a regular live worship band. Oh, yeah. Everywhere I've been prior, like, for one reason or another, the band didn't really, like, Take Root.

00:10:55:17 - 00:11:15:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I didn't try to kill it, but I also didn't have a massive like, that's not my bent. I'm not a worship guy. I can't play any instruments. And so I'm not trying to get that thing up and off the ground. And so for sure, I've had we've had worship at camps and retreats and at like one off worship nights and stuff like that, but not on like a regular, like rhythm.

00:11:15:09 - 00:11:38:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so let me just say to those of you out there in the majority of churches, right, like that, probably don't have a live stream, let's just be honest. And they may you might not even have quality like music means to pull off worship like I feel is. I mean, you know, you can be the judge of this, but I feel as though I did really good youth ministry for 12 years without a band.

00:11:38:19 - 00:12:02:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I and I don't even know, like in a, you know, in a typical youth service, it's what it's a little more like geared towards outsiders. Oftentimes I don't know that getting up there and singing about the blood of Jesus is often the most welcoming thing for an outsider. And so sometimes you may be shooting yourself in the foot, all in an effort to try and copy what you think youth ministries should be doing, which is worship.

00:12:02:24 - 00:12:22:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you can program around worship. It's going to require a lot more creativity, which is essentially the basis of this episode. Like finding ways to be a little bit more creative with your programing and whatnot. So I'll only say that as an encouragement. Don't feel like you have to jam a worship band into like a space if it's not working.

00:12:22:12 - 00:12:47:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not fitting the context isn't right, whatever the case may be. Yeah, I've always felt like we we were at places where we tried doing the, you know, the lyric videos, you know, that kind of thing. And it would, it would work in like seasons. But there were times we were just like, okay, this feels like we're showing them a video that they are begrudgingly watching for.

00:12:47:07 - 00:13:04:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah, 5.5 minutes. And then they sit down and it's like, okay, well, if it doesn't work, doesn't work. Like don't, don't force that. Yeah, that I think that probably hurts more than it helps if it feels like you're forcing it. Yeah. So take back to answer your specific question about what to do

00:13:04:07 - 00:13:11:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
about worship. Like, I will say when I'm thinking about in-person versus online, online,

00:13:11:25 - 00:13:20:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in my opinion, is a fantastic content delivery system like podcasts, sermons can be podcasts, sermons can be YouTube videos.

00:13:20:27 - 00:13:32:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like that is what the internet is made for, right? What in person is made for that the internet can't always overcome is certain things like community. And one of those things I think it has

00:13:32:02 - 00:13:37:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a hard time overcoming is live, in-person worship, shoulder to shoulder like

00:13:37:23 - 00:13:47:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
they're watching during Covid, watching worship online, versus watching worship in the room was a completely different experience.

00:13:47:04 - 00:14:06:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I sat in my recliner. I did not stand. I did not sing. I maybe like sung under my breath. But you know, I'm not getting up in my living room and like, worshiping like I would at church. And so that is, you know, one of the, in my opinion, advantages of in-person, I will say a couple ideas.

00:14:06:16 - 00:14:29:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One, during Covid, our church, I thought was fantastically innovative and our worship was not just like a band on a stage. It was like they were shot almost like a music video. And especially during Covid, all the individual musicians, like, they recorded all their parts and then they sent them back and then the editors, like, spliced it all together.

00:14:29:03 - 00:14:46:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Wow. It was so good. And of course, that wasn't sustainable. But when they pulled the plug on that, I was that that wasn't a youth ministry thing. But when they pulled the plug on that, I thought that was a big, big mistake because it was very good. And they went back to like an easier route. And I felt like it.

00:14:46:01 - 00:15:09:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It took away some of what made our online presence pretty, pretty good. Oh, yeah. But for the kids in the room for the hybrid, like, hey, how do we, like, let this, this attitude of worship live beyond, I mean, very simply, like, you can create a greatest hits like Spotify playlist of all the best worship songs that you and your students that they love.

00:15:09:15 - 00:15:28:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I especially like to do this for camps or retreats. I'll create the playlist even ahead of time, and I'll like float it out and I'll sneak it out via like our text lists, our social media so that people can grab Ahold of it. And so even if in the room, if you wanted to have one of those little Spotify, it's not a QR code, but it's similar to it.

00:15:28:01 - 00:15:38:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like you scan Spotify's version of it and you can join the playlist, and, you know, even be cool. I'm come with this idea on the fly. You could create like a collaborative

00:15:38:18 - 00:15:49:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like playlist, like our church's favorite worship songs, and it's a public playlist. And anyone with a Spotify account can go in and they can add their favorite worship songs.

00:15:49:13 - 00:16:02:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then you just got to keep that kind of front and center, like, hey, throughout the week. Like, hey, don't forget we got this, you know, collaborative worship playlist. If you know you want to worship God throughout this week, take a listen. Nice I like that. Yeah.

00:16:02:14 - 00:16:16:19
Josh Boldman
Something something that we did, during Covid was we would ask at the end of the service to, say like, hey, if there are songs that really speak to you like we want to do, you know, we want to lead you in those songs.

00:16:16:19 - 00:16:29:26
Josh Boldman
So it was kind of like a, hey, this week, let us know what songs you'd like to do next week, like that kind of a thing. I mean, I, I don't know that that was like super, super well-received, but it was, it was something. Right? It was at least something that that allowed a little bit back and forth.

00:16:29:29 - 00:16:39:13
Josh Boldman
Yeah. So we, we, we usually do one song, ready to tap, and then we would go into our hosting time. So where we, we would have two

00:16:39:13 - 00:16:53:18
Josh Boldman
volunteers, usually an adult and a student. If not it would be two adults. And you know, the I will be the first to say it was always hit or miss like every time.

00:16:53:25 - 00:17:10:02
Josh Boldman
And you know, because you're always like, oh that person's personality, you know. Yeah. It's like because you get because like people who are super nervous on stage. I totally get it. But it would be like you'd sit down with them, be like, they would want to know what is the what is the content of the announcement? Right?

00:17:10:03 - 00:17:21:17
Josh Boldman
It's like, okay, well, I can tell you that, like, for sure, we'll make sure you got that. And for them it was like as long as I know the information, I'm good. And it's, you know, there is there is more to this game than that, friend. But yeah,

00:17:21:17 - 00:17:28:03
Josh Boldman
one of the ways that we found to kind of help that process was we started doing the wheel of announcements.

00:17:28:04 - 00:17:47:02
Josh Boldman
You I love that sidekick. And and and the the best part, right is you can you can game the system. Right? You can tell it which was so we would have like, say if there were four announcements. That's too many. You know, I'd say three max. Yeah. But like so whatever number of announcements there were, we would always have one more.

00:17:47:04 - 00:18:09:18
Josh Boldman
And that wheel wedge was always like, everyone gets $100, you know, whatever. And so like, you have to make sure that the person in your booth, oh, man, you have to trust that person or, that could cost you dearly. Yeah. Like, oh, man. But it was great because it really was random. Yeah, but it would.

00:18:09:18 - 00:18:29:15
Josh Boldman
But especially when it would get down to the last two wedges and it was like half the wheel is everyone gets $100. And the other was like, you know, church picnic or whatever, and you spin it and it just like slowly goes. It's like, oh, you know, and it was great. Like, but it kept, you know, because the students in the room, they don't care about half the announcements you're giving.

00:18:29:15 - 00:18:43:21
Josh Boldman
But it was kind of fun every time it would pass the $100 thing, you know, that they'd want to see it. And so we would just change it to a new thing every week. And sometimes it would be they'd win a prize or there would be like, you know, something embarrassing that the person on stage would have to do.

00:18:43:24 - 00:19:05:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But that's a different way to gamify it so that it's more interesting than I've episode that talked about, like, stop posting announcements to social media like, no one cares and no one is getting on social media to know what's going on in your youth ministry. They'll they you do want them to know like it's just you're using it's the wrong like medium for it.

00:19:05:17 - 00:19:30:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so a lot of times in the same way we do announcement times of this service in our church, like we do need to get these things across. Yeah. But I think that like, you know, this isn't a direct answer to the question, but like, how how do you hybridize your announcements or like, how do you get your announcements across in like a, a different way than just like the host moment or the announcement moment in your planning center service rundown?

00:19:30:00 - 00:19:49:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like you, you use the mediums all all throughout the rest of the like, all throughout the rest of your like repertoire that you have to your advantage so you can post those. I do say you can post announcements to social media. You just have to be creative with it. Like one of my favorites is. I'll follow the link down below.

00:19:49:28 - 00:20:07:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like those transition style videos. Have you seen the one where the dudes getting speared in the back by like a bull, and then people are diving into like, their rows of chairs? Like, yep. Do those like, get your you can still tell people on social media about what's going on your church. Just make it actually creative.

00:20:07:19 - 00:20:25:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't just post your cooked up Canva graphic like no one. All right, you ready? You ready for some? I just thought like this. Like yes. Head right is right. So, so you could during your announcement time, you could record that video with your students, like. Yes. So that would be in the moment. You're like, hey, here's what we're gonna do.

00:20:25:24 - 00:20:43:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We got this thing coming up. We want to let everybody know about it. Here's, you know what it's going to be like, let's let's do this real quick. And yeah, just and you know what else? Like what else could you do? You could, random name generator. Your your contestant, you could, then get them up there and then what does that do.

00:20:43:01 - 00:20:44:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a nod to your socials.

00:20:44:17 - 00:21:01:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so while you're announcing, you throw a graphic on screen that says we're social, it's guy QR codes, a link tree of all of your social handles. And the people in the room like, hey, go follow this because we're going to post this tomorrow. And that's been like, I'm going to, that's one of the things we've done in our youth ministry.

00:21:01:29 - 00:21:24:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We've created a social team and a social challenge component of every night of our youth ministry. And so students know they can go into our studio. We have a studio like it's bougie. All right, I get it. You can see the tour down below, but like, they know they can go in there and they can get on camera with their friends, and then eventually they're going to be the star on our social media.

00:21:25:02 - 00:21:50:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it helps create like a little more appetite for it than just the youth pastors being like the the talent on social media. No one wants that, right? Unless we're looking stupid. Are you saying we're not as cool as we think we are? Is that okay? It depends how you think of yourself as true. You know, if you have a, if you're like very self-aware, then you probably know you're not very cool.

00:21:50:03 - 00:21:58:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're in your 30s or 40, to be honest. Okay. So then we transition into a game.

00:21:58:02 - 00:21:59:13
Josh Boldman
And this was

00:21:59:13 - 00:22:17:10
Josh Boldman
always like, so we had two different things that we we've tried off and on. One is the winner of the game gets to spin a wheel for a prize and it's just numbers on a wheel. And then we had like shoeboxes and it was like, you know, you win box number seven and then you get the box, open it up.

00:22:17:10 - 00:22:34:02
Josh Boldman
And it's either a great prize or terrible prize, something like that. I love that, and I'm probably stealing that. Now that you just said that, is it. Honestly it was pretty cool. Like and that's like a YouTube video right there. That's like Ryan's world, you know. Yeah. And it wouldn't let you do is it let you not always have to keep buying awesome prizes?

Josh Boldman
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. Because oh man it was. And what you so like at the very beginning we would tell people like you know, so like we, we change them out every quarter or something like that and it would be like, hey, just so you know, in these 12 boxes, there are, a $10 Apple gift card. There's, you know, you know, just you tell them kind of, hey, here are a couple of the big things are in here.

00:22:55:16 - 00:23:13:12
Josh Boldman
Yeah. And then just as you get it, you know, one week, person rolls, number five. Great. They get box five. So then you just take that one off the list, and so you don't even have to, like, buy a new prize every week. You just have to have it all loaded upfront and you just put like, old crap that's laying around your church into those boxes, too.

00:23:13:13 - 00:23:34:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So good, so good. Right? It could be any. I mean, just honestly, anything, it's a mug, anything good. Right? It says you're voted most likely to need coffee. Like. Oh, yeah, that one that is, the other thing that we started doing was we do we did the impossible shot. Yeah. So yeah, the deal is like the traditional

00:23:34:15 - 00:23:41:04
Josh Boldman
impossible shot has always been like, if you are here for the first time or you were the person who invited that person for

00:23:41:04 - 00:23:44:12
Josh Boldman
the first time, you get to take a shot at this impossibly small target.

00:23:44:19 - 00:24:07:03
Josh Boldman
And if it goes through, you win a prize. But we, we started doing is the winner of the game, got to take the shot. And so it even made it, like, more, you know, your chance of winning the game was small. Yeah. And then that makes you even smaller. And we would add every week, we would add to the bucket of what do you win if you get the impossible shot.

00:24:07:03 - 00:24:23:13
Josh Boldman
And so like you started out with it's a bunch of candy. Okay. Then it's like one of every candy and then it's like, all right, gift card, you know, and so you just kind of slowly build it, until somebody wins it. It was one of the things we did. But I'm curious, like, so the possible shot rate is, agrees it.

00:24:23:13 - 00:24:42:19
Josh Boldman
So we would like. That's what I set up in this one was winner of the game. And the game would be like, where's the ball? We're doing doing 100. Probably by the time this is out, we will have already done it. So. Yeah. So, signed up for next year. But, one of the things that I made was a, a game called Where's the ball?

00:24:42:19 - 00:24:59:09
Josh Boldman
Obscure sports edition. Yeah. And so it's like link down below. Go give Josh goodness. Yeah. No, it'll be actually, you know, it'll be free in sidekick. So if you, if you have. Yeah. It'll be one of those like click on the little free button at the top and the little red dot pops up and you're like, oh my goodness me.

00:24:59:12 - 00:25:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But it's like I need to look at that more frequently than I do. Yeah you do, I don't. Yeah, it's there's some good stuff in there. So the sports I've got are curling, I've got ax throwing, I've got, Oh, have you ever heard of cycle ball? No. Basically like soccer. But you play on bicycles.

00:25:17:27 - 00:25:39:14
Josh Boldman
Okay. Who's the front wheel of the bike to kick the ball? It's sane. Sounds insane. And I feel as though I would die. Horribly dangerous. The other one is unicycle hockey, which is exactly what it sounds like. And it is magical. But but that is, you know, I mean, so one of the things like that, what we when I first started making the where's the ball games, right.

00:25:39:14 - 00:25:44:24
Josh Boldman
That was very much you had to be in the room to make it work. But then with sidekick, we've done where it's voting

00:25:44:24 - 00:25:52:00
Josh Boldman
now. And so we worked really hard, especially during Covid and after, to make it wear our, when we were live

00:25:52:00 - 00:25:59:00
Josh Boldman
streaming that it was as low lag as possible. So people at home really could also vote in.

00:25:59:06 - 00:26:16:02
Josh Boldman
And we got it, you know, down to like, I think you can without too much trouble. You can get the lag down to like three four seconds. Not too bad. Yeah. And so we would do that where you could see on the screen, you know, people voting, that kind of thing. Yeah. But yeah, so we did that, but then so impossible

00:26:16:02 - 00:26:16:13
Josh Boldman
shot.

00:26:16:15 - 00:26:16:26
Josh Boldman
That

00:26:16:26 - 00:26:18:01
Josh Boldman
is a in the room

00:26:18:01 - 00:26:40:16
Josh Boldman
phenomenon. Yep. Is there anything we could you can do to make that, something that someone at home feels like they're able to connect with? Or is it really just a show? The highlight. And and they get to celebrate if it happened? Yeah. I mean, like, if it's a true live stream, which again, like I said earlier, not a lot of youth ministries have like full live streaming capabilities.

00:26:40:18 - 00:27:01:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So even what we do, what I recommend to a lot of people is like most people are not interested in tuning in to your full youth service, like, so we pre-record all of our messages for YouTube into like a 12 minute, like teaching type of deal. So like that's what I would recommend. Like that's what people are getting on YouTube in the internet for.

00:27:02:01 - 00:27:12:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Is there a way to reclaim a live stream impossible shot type moment like there might be like a sort of like voting type thing. Like, do you think that they

00:27:12:07 - 00:27:21:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
can get it or not? You're going to need a moderator in your chat to like initiate that poll. So like let's say you won and it's like, congratulations to Josh.

00:27:21:10 - 00:27:40:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Will Josh hit the impossible shot yes or no? And they can vote there in the poll like in the chat or something like that. I think like YouTube or maybe Facebook has some of that like functionality built in. But what I might do like a as an alternative to the impossible shot or depending on your game.

00:27:40:27 - 00:27:50:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Like, one of my favorite styles of games is creating like, you can do like those, like sculpture, building types of games or like, let

00:27:50:14 - 00:28:14:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
students in teams create something together. And then you can, like, take pictures of all of them and they can vote on them either. Oh, I like that on sidekick live in the room or what we've done in the past is we've said, hey, these are going to be on our Instagram Stories, go vote on them, and then we'll announce the winner on Sunday, which is like our next meeting time or what I like that I like.

00:28:14:27 - 00:28:29:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the winning group will get a pizza party next week. Yeah. And so, you know, like, those are different. Those are just different ideas, obviously. So to answer your question, I would try to just create like, a poll type of thing. I think that's. Yeah. That's the best idea. I got the top of my head right now.

00:28:29:29 - 00:28:32:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's, but some other, like, ideas

00:28:32:06 - 00:28:56:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and let me jump in and say, in the land of prizes, another great like, free to you prize is, so we are our set up is, round tables. And so you oftentimes your table is your team in whatever sort of thing you're competing in game trivia, whatever. And so a lot of times we'll, let the winning team go sit in what we call the best seats in the house.

00:28:57:00 - 00:29:14:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we'll put some, like, couches in, like, nicer seats than, like, the tables there. And then we'll just stuff that area full of, like, snacks and drinks, and they get to sit there during like the teaching time. And oftentimes we have all the snacks and drinks on hand, and it's just couches that we have laying around, but they're nicer than tables.

00:29:14:07 - 00:29:32:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you can give students that opportunity. It's similar to like your your box of prizes type of thing. So it in the box are prizes. One of the things we learned was, I kept forgetting to refill the boxes and so, what we started putting in the boxes as as a prize was pizza party for your small group next week?

00:29:32:25 - 00:29:51:01
Josh Boldman
Yeah, yeah. Like, you know. So it's always like a hey, you want it right now, but you're going to get it next year. So it would get kids to come back next week. But also if like say that small group won and they had five kids that night, next week they're going to have 15. Like it's just it's crazy because they know like oh yeah we won the prizes.

00:29:51:01 - 00:30:09:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. So and then you didn't order enough pizza ever. It's just so, you know you know it's something you'll see in the Facebook group a lot is the do I on Facebook. Yeah. Yeah. How many pizzas should I order for a thing? I always order too much because then it's lunch for me for the rest of the week.

00:30:10:06 - 00:30:29:04
Josh Boldman
It's like, oh, they're good. That's how it. Yeah. The secret. I think that might be embezzlement. I'm not sure now that. Yeah, whatever. It's okay. We can cut that part out. Yeah. Whatever it, So there we go from there. We might, at that point do another song. But then we're going to go to a bumper video and you answer the lesson.

00:30:29:04 - 00:30:30:28
Josh Boldman
Now, the lesson that,

00:30:30:28 - 00:30:33:02
Josh Boldman
I'm doing this week is going to be,

00:30:33:02 - 00:30:39:01
Josh Boldman
on, Peter walking on water. Okay. And in the the idea is the big idea for it is

00:30:39:01 - 00:30:52:28
Josh Boldman
that your first step is meant to be followed by a second step. So it's like, the whole idea is like momentum, things like that. So the way that we would do this and we did this, and I can, I can send you pictures of how we did it.

00:30:53:01 - 00:31:16:29
Josh Boldman
We built this basically like this trough, and we covered it in plastic sheets. And then we put a tarp over that, and then we filled it with cornstarch and water, as you put it, at the right consistency. It's a it's a, it's a substance called oobleck or a non-Newtonian fluid. Okay. Which means if you just touch it it's liquid.

00:31:16:29 - 00:31:25:23
Josh Boldman
But if you hit it, it's solid, like it's crazy cool seeing it, right? Yeah. And so what that means is if you again, if you get the right

00:31:25:23 - 00:31:38:10
Josh Boldman
consistency, if you run on it, you can run completely on top of it. You will not see no way. But any point that you stop, you will sink right in like it's over.

00:31:38:12 - 00:31:58:28
Josh Boldman
And so what we would do is, is so yeah, that's the idea. Right? So Peter, Jesus calls him out on the water. He starts walking. It's working. But then as soon as he stops, he looks down. He starts to sink. And so Jesus gives him, you know, a bit of a, a talking to and, and so then, you know, then they he reaches out, pulls Peter back up, they climb back in the boat.

00:31:59:02 - 00:32:21:17
Josh Boldman
And so, what we're trying to tell the kids is like, hey, yeah, we want everybody to take a first step. You know? We all know what else we want. You. We want you to like. First step gives you momentum. Just keep taking steps like keep going. Yeah. And so, so the way we would end this service is in this is probably in the room going to be chaos.

00:32:21:19 - 00:32:40:10
Josh Boldman
And I'm I'm very comfortable with that especially like because it's so it's going to end with communion. Right. And so that which is not you know I've been in different groups where, where we've done communion every week. I've done groups where we do it like literally hardly ever. And, you know, and so this was one day where we did it every week.

00:32:40:13 - 00:33:05:07
Josh Boldman
And but what I would do is I would set that that, that trough up. So that students, in order to go and get the communion elements, get to run across the thing, to go get the cookie. So it's like, hey, that you're, you're chasing after Jesus, you're, you're taking this first step and you're not stopping. So like I said, you know, normally like communion is a fairly like somber time.

00:33:05:07 - 00:33:24:23
Josh Boldman
This would not be that because it would be a bit chaotic. But and they'd be taking their shoes off and they, you know, running across, but then, then they get the elements and they would take them right there, and then they then they go back to their seat. And so we would one we'd have to figure out stuff for the students to do when they're back in their seat.

00:33:24:25 - 00:33:59:26
Josh Boldman
Yeah. Because that, you know, it's going to take a minute. Yeah. They watching all that. But I mean, it wouldn't be like, you know, super, super engaging. But but the moment of running across, they absolutely loved it. Like, I mean, it was just the coolest thing ever. Yeah. So like but and then we would dismiss the small groups, but it's that that type of experience is, is really like a in the room thing, like because, because so one of the things I've always said about, like trying to be creative in your programing is like, you get to say yes to things that no one else ever says yes to.

00:34:00:02 - 00:34:10:06
Josh Boldman
And so like this. Like, in order to do this, we had to buy like 150 pounds of, of corn starch from like a food grade service company. Like it was just like they bring it in on a

00:34:10:06 - 00:34:16:17
Josh Boldman
pallet. It oh, it was crazy. Like it is absolutely insane. But no one is going to be able to do that at home.

00:34:16:24 - 00:34:34:16
Josh Boldman
I mean, they do it like, and so like one of the things is we would like walk them through, like, how did how to make it at home and at a very smaller scale. Yeah. I think it is one way to do that, but I don't know, like, I feel like in that moment that having an experience like that just like, creates a core memory, right?

00:34:34:16 - 00:34:34:26
Josh Boldman
It's like

00:34:34:26 - 00:34:54:15
Josh Boldman
the locks in there going to remember the teaching, if ever so slightly, because of the experience. It's just kind of like try and get your thoughts on yeah. What do you do to help someone who's either experiencing it later or experiencing at home? How do they how do they lock in that same that same idea? And any thoughts there?

00:34:54:15 - 00:34:57:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah for sure. So, once again, like I said,

00:34:57:23 - 00:35:15:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
there are certain things that in-person that digital can't do to like replace and frankly, vice versa. But this is a prime example. So here's the here's the shame. Josh. Like, this is why you're the best youth ministry

00:35:15:20 - 00:35:21:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
programmer in America. Because this what what a title, right?

00:35:21:08 - 00:35:46:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The fact is this, like if all your students are coming to in the room is a lecture style sermon, they can get they can 100% get that online. Right. And and it'll be better. Exactly. Let's call it what it is right there online. Somebody do it better if it's just lecture style. Yeah. And so again here's our strategy.

00:35:46:04 - 00:36:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If we were doing that I would totally do that in the room. We don't live stream. And so instead of trying to replicate a live stream moment, now if you were in a position where you had to do that, I think, you know, what Josh's point was, is I would I would try to get a camera on the actual like trough thing so that

00:36:04:20 - 00:36:07:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
people can watch that and then maybe encourage people

00:36:07:02 - 00:36:16:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
with like, text on screen to go get some element so that they too can take, you know, communion and then give them the opportunity if they want to build it.

00:36:16:08 - 00:36:34:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're not going to probably be able to do that, like right in the moment. Like, do they have enough corn starch? Do they have a bowl? Like, you know what I mean? Probably that. So what we would do in our context now is we would film a talk about Peter walking on water for YouTube, direct to camera, 15 minutes or less.

00:36:34:04 - 00:37:02:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Really, really highly edited. And so if I wanted to use like B-roll or anything like that from like The Chosen as I'm illustrating this Peter point, like that's going to be on screen, it's not just going to be me talking. We're going to use the medium of video that we have to our advantage and do certain things like so this isn't in the same vein, but one time I was talking about how like, God knows the big picture and on screen I said, does anyone know what this is?

00:37:02:04 - 00:37:19:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Comment down below if you know it. And there's like a super zoomed in like grainy, pixelated something or other. And then in the next frame it like zoomed out and you can see this like beautiful painted canvas. And the point I made in that was like God's painting a picture and you can't see the outcome. He's in control.

00:37:19:07 - 00:37:27:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're. And that's just an example. And you could do that in the room with like, a slide. But that's just an example of something that you can do with a

00:37:27:15 - 00:37:29:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video. And so I

00:37:29:03 - 00:37:42:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
wouldn't try to recreate that moment because it's probably un replicating. Right. But I would create something that at the end of the day, your bottom line was the first steps, always

00:37:42:09 - 00:37:43:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
followed by a second step.

00:37:43:20 - 00:38:08:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think you can teach that and deliver that online for anyone who's not there. And that's again, one of the reasons we don't do like a quote live stream is because a we don't have the equipment, but if you miss out on it, you sort of feel like it's over instead. Like, what is YouTube great for? Like, I get on YouTube, I don't know about you, but I get on there when like, I have a clog in my sink and I search how to fix, clog and sink.

00:38:09:00 - 00:38:32:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like in the same way. Water heater based on YouTube and a skylight. See, I, I think I broke the law. I've admitted to doing this now twice. Yeah. Don't worry, that's the power of editing. But I'll probably leave it in. But, a student might get on and be like, ask a question. Like a tough question. Like, is such and such a sin?

00:38:32:29 - 00:38:52:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How do I grow my faith? How do I start making disciples? How do I whatever? And so that's what I'm trying to do on YouTube, is I'm trying to title and tag my videos in such a way that, like, they're going to be found in search from a teenager or anyone for that matter, but particularly a teenager who's asking big questions about life and about faith.

00:38:52:24 - 00:38:58:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you're doing one thing in the room. But online, they're both hopefully accomplishing

00:38:58:10 - 00:39:17:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the same ultimate goal. And that's where I would say, like the the difference of hybrid hybrid is not just digital, right? It's both. And so a good in room experience is going to like be worth its weight in gold. We don't have to try to like replace it.

00:39:17:05 - 00:39:21:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What I will say a great hybrid experience for teaching.

00:39:21:03 - 00:39:29:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you haven't checked this out, one of my favorite resources, is like the YouVersion live events. And so in built

00:39:29:09 - 00:39:40:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in woven into the YouVersion Bible app, there's a section called live. And so you can make it be, quote live when your service is live. And you can put your outline basically in there.

00:39:40:28 - 00:39:58:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what's great about it is you can also link Bible reading plan. So always link a Bible reading plan at the end of any message. So like in that one I would link something about taking next steps like a 4 or 5 day Bible reading plan for a student to jump into if they wanted. And we always have a next steps form.

00:39:58:14 - 00:40:00:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We have a digital next steps form that

00:40:00:04 - 00:40:14:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
just lives in perpetuity on our website. And so at the bottom second to bottom of my YouVersion live event, I put a link. So you ready to next step? Let us know. We want to take it with you. And then it's a link and it can go external. It can go external to anything.

00:40:14:04 - 00:40:36:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you can also link like camp sign ups or retreat sign ups or denial sign ups like you can you can link to anything. And that's a great way for a student hybrid to like take something and they can save that event and they can get back to it later. They can like take private notes on it. So it's something that they're in the room, but they're taking notes on their device.

00:40:36:01 - 00:40:43:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And now later, if they have a question or whatever they want to like continue on in their faith. Like, that's a fantastic we call it,

00:40:43:09 - 00:40:52:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
digital notes, like it's the YouVersion live events platform, but we like have branded it like digital notes. And as I said, it's QR code. So I just

00:40:52:04 - 00:41:01:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
swap the the same QR code and then our tables in our room we have a little like standing placard thing and it says follow along for the digital notes.

00:41:01:04 - 00:41:21:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Students can scan it and it'll pull open that week's YouVersion live event. So it changes every week based on that particular thing. So that would be a hybrid solution to like the content in the room. Your ending piece is fantastic, right? And so I don't think you want to try to like replicate that in someone's house necessarily.

00:41:21:10 - 00:41:36:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I think you could pre film that if kids don't make it or if a kid down the road comes to your youth minister that wasn't there that night or they weren't attending your church, you and they have a question about taking a next step. You can be like, hey, this is my favorite part about putting your stuff on YouTube.

00:41:36:03 - 00:41:48:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can like, hey, we actually have a fantastic teaching on it. I'll send you the link. It's right here. And you don't have to say, oh man, you should have been here last month. We did this really cool thing. Like they can still have access to it. So

00:41:48:27 - 00:41:57:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
some some that, I was thinking of with this particular type of thing is filming, like, a behind the scenes, like as you're making it, like.

00:41:57:05 - 00:42:12:25
Josh Boldman
Yes, it could be. It could be really power, even as students have run across it, like just catching them right at the end and be like, hey, can you would you? Yeah. How do you remember this or what? What what was this experience like? And just having like, you know, featuring a couple of them I think could could go a long way for sure.

00:42:12:25 - 00:42:36:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's one of my strategy. Like in my, like social media calendar, like Wednesday night, which is our youth night, I film just I post like a recap video of what we did. And so for that night, that's that might be what I do is just focus on the trough moment. Right. Or if you don't have anything that's as like unique or powerful as that, you can just get a little snippets of the whole night so you can get kids playing nine square.

00:42:36:22 - 00:42:55:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Kids worship in the band, worship being the the pastor teaching. And then you take, you know, 7 to 12 clips. You put them in something like TikTok, it'll auto cut it for you and boom, you got a post that takes you less than a minute. You know, I love it. So dude. So good. Look at us. Look at that.

00:42:55:13 - 00:43:20:09
Josh Boldman
We figured it out so good. This is really fun. Is that the end of your service? Yeah, well, I mean, we were dismissed as small groups. And there's something that we did there, that, you know, trying to engage outside of just the small group time was like we would send, discussion questions to parents, you know, like, or we and we had, like, a, like a reminder text sign up that was like, hey, here's what we're talking about tonight.

00:43:20:09 - 00:43:40:19
Josh Boldman
Here are three questions for the ride home or for the. Yeah. You know, and so whether a kid was there and on the ride home or if, you know, they missed that night, there's still you know, their parents still got a, you know, a conversation starter of some kind, I think was pretty good. And that's the advantage I've found in pre filming as well.

00:43:40:19 - 00:44:06:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There's so many advantages. Like at first it was like so history for us like we did just Like you a full live like YouTube show during Covid. Like it was a youth group for YouTube. But eventually as restrictions lifted, that grew tired and people didn't wanna just get on sit behind a computer, a live stream, especially during the summer of 2020, they're like, I'm just going to go out where I can't catch Covid as long as I'm outside.

00:44:06:11 - 00:44:24:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's, you know, that started to engagement with that and the shininess of it. You know, initially it was like this really interesting thing. But by episode 28 it's like, yeah, kind of lost some of its luster. But there is still something really cool. It's like there was a teaching component, but it was all the way at the end of the video.

00:44:24:07 - 00:44:48:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when I came here and readjusted my thought process a little bit, I was like, the teaching is so valuable. Like, I want kids to be able to hear about the truth of Jesus, and I want them to be able to have access to it online. How can we do that? And so if some or some of the other kind of components that we did during Covid, but make it maybe a little more adaptable to 2022 and then those 2023, 24.

00:44:48:18 - 00:45:10:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's where we do our teaching longform on YouTube and everything else is shorts. I read something the other day, just like 90% of the internet's traffic now is shorts, TikToks or reels. And so that's what we film in our social challenges. We just film short content games or challenge style videos, and we let our students be the heroes in those stories.

00:45:10:18 - 00:45:33:23
Josh Boldman
And they love it. Like when they see one of their things posted, like the text meme, like, that was really good. And I'm like, yeah, it was. Nailed it. You know, my favorite. So I, our son is 16 and, and he has this thing that is a joke that he has started thinking is very funny. That he'll, he'll, like, start talking about something he saw online.

00:45:33:23 - 00:45:52:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And my wife would be like, well, like. And he's like, oh, don't worry, you'll see it on Instagram in three months. That's hilarious. You. And he's right. And, you know, he's 100% right. Because, you know, it's funny, yesterday I got a Facebook reel sent to me, and I had seen that on TikTok and then on Instagram and now.

00:45:52:16 - 00:46:15:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh, so that's even like, talk about lag, as you say. I'm just now finding out that Facebook has reels. That's right tastic. No. Yeah I no I knew that but no. But yeah, it's crazy. Well so then yeah small group like and I would encourage a small group leaders have group text and all of that is like ways the end of the day.

00:46:15:26 - 00:46:38:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The reason I'm so passionate about hybrid is not like, oh, it's cool and cutting edge in technology. It's more like this is an opportunity to reach students where they are and beyond your service moments, your service times. And so you can text them on a Thursday after school and ask them how that test went. You can text them on a Monday morning, even in a group and say, hey, I'm I'm praying for a great week for you guys.

00:46:38:29 - 00:47:02:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can send encouraging versus all things we just didn't have the ability to do before the invention of technology. And so I my challenge is just always encouraging churches and youth pastors to just not get stuck in the rut of only in-person. There's so much more that the world has to offer. And, and that the world, frankly, is already leaning into we as a church, churches has to find a way to catch up to it.

00:47:02:28 - 00:47:27:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So so good. Yeah. Sweet. Let's all we got. Anything else? Any final words, Josh? Drink your milk. You know, I feel like we've we've we've we've lost that one. You know, like, that was when, when I was little, they were like, drink your milk. You get strong bones. I don't know if that's true or not, but I don't feel like I've heard anyone tell me that in a long time, so I just want to share that.

00:47:27:27 - 00:47:34:18
Josh Boldman
Okay. Everyone else. All right. I will leave you with that wisdom. Until next time, everyone stay hybrid letter.

]]> Join Nick Clason and special guest, Josh Boldman, "The Best Programming Specialist" in America, on the Hybrid Ministry Podcast as they dive into "The Student Ministry Debate: In-Person vs Digital." Explore fresh youth ministry ideas and strategies for balancing hybrid ministry to effectively engage students in both student ministry settings.

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Great Debate
01:11 The Challenge: In Person vs. Digital
02:58 Clarifying "Hybrid"
04:42 5:00 Countdown
09:12 Opening Worship Song
16:35 Host Moment & Announcements
22:00 Game - Where's the Ball
30:35 Lesson: With a Killer Response Time
37:34 Online vs. In-Person: The Power of YouTube
41:54 Other Miscellaneous Hybrid Ideas

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What is up, everybody? Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. In this episode, I am going to be talking with my friend Josh Goldman. He works over at Download Youth Ministry. He does all the stuff with sidekick and he does, stuff with co-leader and Josh, honestly, I believe is one of, if not the greatest programing specialist for youth ministries in America.

00:00:23:19 - 00:00:43:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm really excited for you to hear it because some of his ideas are absolutely fantastic. But what we're gonna do is we're going to be debating between in-person and digital, and you're going to see me try to lean everything back towards hybrid. And what we're doing is he's bringing a youth ministry programing sheet and he's saying, this is what we're doing.

00:00:43:13 - 00:01:02:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How do we make it digital? How do we, honor the people that might be watching online and more? I try to say, how can we make it hybrid? And so for those of you who are new here, hybrid is taking your in-person, taking your digital and finding a way to meet that intersection. And in most cases, I think that is at the intersection of students cell phones.

00:01:02:01 - 00:01:11:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you're going to see that this debate between digital versus in-person. So welcome to the show, the one and only Josh Boardman.

00:01:11:12 - 00:01:23:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well what's up everybody. I'm here this morning with my good friend Josh Bullman. And we have a little bit of a unique idea. So Josh, tell the people what we're doing okay.

00:01:23:01 - 00:01:30:29
Josh Boldman
So as anyone watching slash listening knows, Nick Claussen is all about the hybrid ministry, right?

00:01:30:29 - 00:01:53:19
Josh Boldman
Making sure that the people that are at home are still connecting with what's happening in the room. Yeah. I spent most of my ministry, like, developing, and leading services in the room. And then, you know, Covid happened and things got crazy, and we we did a full pendulum swing to where, like, we did everything online. Yeah.

00:01:53:20 - 00:02:02:13
Josh Boldman
And then we came back and suddenly it was like, wait, are we still doing online or are we like, what are we doing? You know? And so it was the constant challenge of

00:02:02:13 - 00:02:11:27
Josh Boldman
trying to not just, create something in the room and just stream it, right, like, make it more interactive. So yeah. So today

00:02:11:27 - 00:02:12:18
Josh Boldman
what

00:02:12:18 - 00:02:19:29
Josh Boldman
we're doing is I have got a service that I've created for in the room, and I'm going to walk us through it.

00:02:20:02 - 00:02:26:26
Josh Boldman
And Nick is going to in real time because he has not seen it. Now you guys gotta know, I offered. I was like,

00:02:26:26 - 00:02:48:05
Josh Boldman
dude, do you want this ahead? And we could just fake it? And he's like, no, no, too much integrity. Way too much. Yeah. And so he's going to try like as we go to, we're going to think through each, each section and try and figure out what is it that we can do to make this something that people who are not in the room, you know, but the students at home.

00:02:48:07 - 00:03:08:03
Josh Boldman
And I'm curious, Nick, if this is, you know, maybe something we look at is, is it if they're watching live or even if they're watching later, like, how does that impact, well, your ability to participate.

00:03:08:03 - 00:03:11:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So yeah, and to be clear, like the way that I define hybrid is like it's the it's the two pieces.
So your in-person plus your digital and it's like them coming

00:03:11:17 - 00:03:11:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
together.

00:03:11:27 - 00:03:19:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so there may be elements I think a little more what I might try to do is like take, take what is going on in the room and find a way

00:03:19:22 - 00:03:44:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to allow it to exist beyond that moment. Yeah. Or find a way to intersect a student, like in a spot like their phone that will that will last beyond that, the time that you dismiss them to go home so they can take it home, like youth ministry, typically pre-digital, could only exist in the few hours that our church doors were open.

00:03:44:04 - 00:04:13:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so now we have the advantage of being able to access sometimes it's, you know, a curse versus a blessing, but we have the advantage of being able to access and have conversation with and disciple our students at a time that Wednesday night programing or Sunday morning or Sunday night programing isn't happening. And how can we take what we're doing in the room and offer it to students beyond that moment, or even in your place in what you were saying, maybe even as a replacement of it?

00:04:13:22 - 00:04:28:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, like Josh said, I haven't seen any of this. I am a little nervous right now. Like earlier I was like, I'm fine, but now I'm a little nervous as I like get together. I got to be totally honest. I'm like, there are parts of it. Or I was like, oh, I can totally see how this is going to work.

00:04:28:05 - 00:04:42:24
Josh Boldman
And then there are other parts where I'm like, I don't know what he's going to do, how this is going to. Yeah. So bear with me. Stream of consciousness. And it may not be perfect and polished, but that's okay. That's what we're here for. So all right, let's do it. What is the first part of your service?

00:04:42:24 - 00:04:44:09
Josh Boldman
The five minute countdown.

00:04:44:13 - 00:04:45:20
Josh Boldman
Right. Okay, so we've got

00:04:45:20 - 00:05:19:08
Josh Boldman
students are in the room, they're playing nine square, they're playing gaga ball. They've got they're not paying attention to the countdown. Nobody cares what like someone spent a lot of time creating a countdown. Yeah, but ultimately no one cares about until it, like, reaches 10s. But there's there's a lot of interaction happening. And so, like, trying to think through is there is there something where we're trying to connect with students that are not in the room, or is there something we can do in the room to help students know, hey, it's not just you here.

00:05:19:08 - 00:05:43:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There's yeah, there's more than that going on. Yeah. So 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

00:05:43:09 - 00:05:44:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
request.

00:05:44:18 - 00:05:58:07
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

00:05:58:07 - 00:06:11:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
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.

00:06:11:03 - 00:06:22:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because if you think about it, if if the majority of people don't start paying attention to the screen until it's down to less than a minute, they missed all of the stuff that was looping ahead of time.

00:06:22:16 - 00:06:37:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the stuff that's looping ahead of time is the stuff that you want them to know about. And so whether it's hybrid, whether it's digital only or whether it's in person, like whatever you're announcing, I think you should leave that stuff on the screen as long as humanly possible.

00:06:37:20 - 00:06:56:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you're able to put a little five minute countdown in the corner or even across the middle, but I try to design my slides in such a way that I think, like, all right, I'm going to do the left corner of this time and keep stuff out of the left corner. And so then we may have like our current series graphic, we may have an upcoming events.

00:06:56:02 - 00:07:13:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like at the time of recording, we got our costume party coming up and Christmas is on the horizon. So those types of things are there. But woven in my announcements, I might try to do, well, I what we do right now is like, I advertise our online baptism

00:07:13:19 - 00:07:22:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
course, which is a YouTube playlist. And there are so many times, like almost all of my slides at this point, have a QR code to you.

00:07:22:24 - 00:07:42:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Do you remember when the QR code was dying? Like, yeah, no one used it. So lame. Like, I remember having this conversation in a church staff meeting where it was like we could put a QR code on it. And I remember some would be like, does anyone use those? And the answer was no. Yeah. And then but now

00:07:42:25 - 00:07:46:18
Josh Boldman
how else would we get the menu at restaurants like this?

00:07:46:20 - 00:08:14:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think I had the same meeting because at during Covid the question was how do we communicate things without handing things to people and passing germs? Yeah. And I suggested a QR code and I quote from our communications team, we will never use a QR code. And I kid you not, not two weeks later, what was on the screen, because it was the only way to do it and it made a comeback.

00:08:14:00 - 00:08:35:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I actually I've always thought QR codes were brilliant. They didn't get adopted early on, but now they're back and they make so much sense. So yeah, we have a subscription to like a QR code builder. I get like 160 different like unique QR codes. And so I abuse that. And so oh yeah, our baptism course, our text list like all of these things.

00:08:35:11 - 00:09:05:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if a student during the five minute countdown, isn't playing nine square and they're kind of sitting already in the service or don't have anyone to talk to or something on the screen, does happen to sort of like catch their attention. They can pull their phone out. They can scan the QR code and they can get to it later, whether that be signing up for our text group, which will allow them access, or us access to them to send them encouraging messages or even just announcement type things, or even like discipleship related things like, hey, I'm ready to take a next step about baptism.

00:09:05:08 - 00:09:12:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let me explore more about that through the baptism playlist. So all right, so there you go. That's what I would do. All right.

00:09:12:18 - 00:09:17:19
Josh Boldman
So at zero, usually what we'll do is we'll, we'll jump right into

00:09:17:19 - 00:09:17:29
Josh Boldman
the first

00:09:17:29 - 00:09:31:12
Josh Boldman
song. Right. And so our, our group, we had a live band. So that was, I mean, I, you know, it's one of those things where every time you talk about having a student band, this could go one of two very different ways.

00:09:31:15 - 00:09:51:29
Josh Boldman
And I will say, like, I've been really blessed to be at churches where, we had a really good, like, solid student led band that, I mean, had a, a track record of what I would say is in the neighborhood of 82%, like, okay, this is going to be a four out of five that it's going to go, well, so like so it would, it would hit pretty well.

00:09:51:29 - 00:10:08:10
Josh Boldman
And that was kind of in the room that was like the, the oh, oh we're starting like you know, so everybody's like getting getting into their seats getting music hits. Yeah. Yeah. And so I mean obviously in the room you got lyrics on the screen, you got we got, you know, some cameras going and stuff like that.

00:10:08:11 - 00:10:31:02
Josh Boldman
So yeah, like for, for worship on the live stream for people after like, are you like, is there anything different that you feel like you can do to set up to help again, the room feel like they're a part of what's happening at home and vice versa. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of different ideas. Let me first say, Josh, you might find this surprising.

00:10:31:13 - 00:10:55:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and the church I'm at now, I've been here two years. This is the first church in. You know, I guess by the time I moved here is, like, 12 years. So my first 12 years of ministry, I did not have a regular live worship band. Oh, yeah. Everywhere I've been prior, like, for one reason or another, the band didn't really, like, Take Root.

00:10:55:17 - 00:11:15:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I didn't try to kill it, but I also didn't have a massive like, that's not my bent. I'm not a worship guy. I can't play any instruments. And so I'm not trying to get that thing up and off the ground. And so for sure, I've had we've had worship at camps and retreats and at like one off worship nights and stuff like that, but not on like a regular, like rhythm.

00:11:15:09 - 00:11:38:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so let me just say to those of you out there in the majority of churches, right, like that, probably don't have a live stream, let's just be honest. And they may you might not even have quality like music means to pull off worship like I feel is. I mean, you know, you can be the judge of this, but I feel as though I did really good youth ministry for 12 years without a band.

00:11:38:19 - 00:12:02:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I and I don't even know, like in a, you know, in a typical youth service, it's what it's a little more like geared towards outsiders. Oftentimes I don't know that getting up there and singing about the blood of Jesus is often the most welcoming thing for an outsider. And so sometimes you may be shooting yourself in the foot, all in an effort to try and copy what you think youth ministries should be doing, which is worship.

00:12:02:24 - 00:12:22:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you can program around worship. It's going to require a lot more creativity, which is essentially the basis of this episode. Like finding ways to be a little bit more creative with your programing and whatnot. So I'll only say that as an encouragement. Don't feel like you have to jam a worship band into like a space if it's not working.

00:12:22:12 - 00:12:47:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not fitting the context isn't right, whatever the case may be. Yeah, I've always felt like we we were at places where we tried doing the, you know, the lyric videos, you know, that kind of thing. And it would, it would work in like seasons. But there were times we were just like, okay, this feels like we're showing them a video that they are begrudgingly watching for.

00:12:47:07 - 00:13:04:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah, 5.5 minutes. And then they sit down and it's like, okay, well, if it doesn't work, doesn't work. Like don't, don't force that. Yeah, that I think that probably hurts more than it helps if it feels like you're forcing it. Yeah. So take back to answer your specific question about what to do

00:13:04:07 - 00:13:11:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
about worship. Like, I will say when I'm thinking about in-person versus online, online,

00:13:11:25 - 00:13:20:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in my opinion, is a fantastic content delivery system like podcasts, sermons can be podcasts, sermons can be YouTube videos.

00:13:20:27 - 00:13:32:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like that is what the internet is made for, right? What in person is made for that the internet can't always overcome is certain things like community. And one of those things I think it has

00:13:32:02 - 00:13:37:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a hard time overcoming is live, in-person worship, shoulder to shoulder like

00:13:37:23 - 00:13:47:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
they're watching during Covid, watching worship online, versus watching worship in the room was a completely different experience.

00:13:47:04 - 00:14:06:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I sat in my recliner. I did not stand. I did not sing. I maybe like sung under my breath. But you know, I'm not getting up in my living room and like, worshiping like I would at church. And so that is, you know, one of the, in my opinion, advantages of in-person, I will say a couple ideas.

00:14:06:16 - 00:14:29:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One, during Covid, our church, I thought was fantastically innovative and our worship was not just like a band on a stage. It was like they were shot almost like a music video. And especially during Covid, all the individual musicians, like, they recorded all their parts and then they sent them back and then the editors, like, spliced it all together.

00:14:29:03 - 00:14:46:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Wow. It was so good. And of course, that wasn't sustainable. But when they pulled the plug on that, I was that that wasn't a youth ministry thing. But when they pulled the plug on that, I thought that was a big, big mistake because it was very good. And they went back to like an easier route. And I felt like it.

00:14:46:01 - 00:15:09:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It took away some of what made our online presence pretty, pretty good. Oh, yeah. But for the kids in the room for the hybrid, like, hey, how do we, like, let this, this attitude of worship live beyond, I mean, very simply, like, you can create a greatest hits like Spotify playlist of all the best worship songs that you and your students that they love.

00:15:09:15 - 00:15:28:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I especially like to do this for camps or retreats. I'll create the playlist even ahead of time, and I'll like float it out and I'll sneak it out via like our text lists, our social media so that people can grab Ahold of it. And so even if in the room, if you wanted to have one of those little Spotify, it's not a QR code, but it's similar to it.

00:15:28:01 - 00:15:38:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like you scan Spotify's version of it and you can join the playlist, and, you know, even be cool. I'm come with this idea on the fly. You could create like a collaborative

00:15:38:18 - 00:15:49:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like playlist, like our church's favorite worship songs, and it's a public playlist. And anyone with a Spotify account can go in and they can add their favorite worship songs.

00:15:49:13 - 00:16:02:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then you just got to keep that kind of front and center, like, hey, throughout the week. Like, hey, don't forget we got this, you know, collaborative worship playlist. If you know you want to worship God throughout this week, take a listen. Nice I like that. Yeah.

00:16:02:14 - 00:16:16:19
Josh Boldman
Something something that we did, during Covid was we would ask at the end of the service to, say like, hey, if there are songs that really speak to you like we want to do, you know, we want to lead you in those songs.

00:16:16:19 - 00:16:29:26
Josh Boldman
So it was kind of like a, hey, this week, let us know what songs you'd like to do next week, like that kind of a thing. I mean, I, I don't know that that was like super, super well-received, but it was, it was something. Right? It was at least something that that allowed a little bit back and forth.

00:16:29:29 - 00:16:39:13
Josh Boldman
Yeah. So we, we, we usually do one song, ready to tap, and then we would go into our hosting time. So where we, we would have two

00:16:39:13 - 00:16:53:18
Josh Boldman
volunteers, usually an adult and a student. If not it would be two adults. And you know, the I will be the first to say it was always hit or miss like every time.

00:16:53:25 - 00:17:10:02
Josh Boldman
And you know, because you're always like, oh that person's personality, you know. Yeah. It's like because you get because like people who are super nervous on stage. I totally get it. But it would be like you'd sit down with them, be like, they would want to know what is the what is the content of the announcement? Right?

00:17:10:03 - 00:17:21:17
Josh Boldman
It's like, okay, well, I can tell you that, like, for sure, we'll make sure you got that. And for them it was like as long as I know the information, I'm good. And it's, you know, there is there is more to this game than that, friend. But yeah,

00:17:21:17 - 00:17:28:03
Josh Boldman
one of the ways that we found to kind of help that process was we started doing the wheel of announcements.

00:17:28:04 - 00:17:47:02
Josh Boldman
You I love that sidekick. And and and the the best part, right is you can you can game the system. Right? You can tell it which was so we would have like, say if there were four announcements. That's too many. You know, I'd say three max. Yeah. But like so whatever number of announcements there were, we would always have one more.

00:17:47:04 - 00:18:09:18
Josh Boldman
And that wheel wedge was always like, everyone gets $100, you know, whatever. And so like, you have to make sure that the person in your booth, oh, man, you have to trust that person or, that could cost you dearly. Yeah. Like, oh, man. But it was great because it really was random. Yeah, but it would.

00:18:09:18 - 00:18:29:15
Josh Boldman
But especially when it would get down to the last two wedges and it was like half the wheel is everyone gets $100. And the other was like, you know, church picnic or whatever, and you spin it and it just like slowly goes. It's like, oh, you know, and it was great. Like, but it kept, you know, because the students in the room, they don't care about half the announcements you're giving.

00:18:29:15 - 00:18:43:21
Josh Boldman
But it was kind of fun every time it would pass the $100 thing, you know, that they'd want to see it. And so we would just change it to a new thing every week. And sometimes it would be they'd win a prize or there would be like, you know, something embarrassing that the person on stage would have to do.

00:18:43:24 - 00:19:05:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But that's a different way to gamify it so that it's more interesting than I've episode that talked about, like, stop posting announcements to social media like, no one cares and no one is getting on social media to know what's going on in your youth ministry. They'll they you do want them to know like it's just you're using it's the wrong like medium for it.

00:19:05:17 - 00:19:30:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so a lot of times in the same way we do announcement times of this service in our church, like we do need to get these things across. Yeah. But I think that like, you know, this isn't a direct answer to the question, but like, how how do you hybridize your announcements or like, how do you get your announcements across in like a, a different way than just like the host moment or the announcement moment in your planning center service rundown?

00:19:30:00 - 00:19:49:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like you, you use the mediums all all throughout the rest of the like, all throughout the rest of your like repertoire that you have to your advantage so you can post those. I do say you can post announcements to social media. You just have to be creative with it. Like one of my favorites is. I'll follow the link down below.

00:19:49:28 - 00:20:07:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like those transition style videos. Have you seen the one where the dudes getting speared in the back by like a bull, and then people are diving into like, their rows of chairs? Like, yep. Do those like, get your you can still tell people on social media about what's going on your church. Just make it actually creative.

00:20:07:19 - 00:20:25:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't just post your cooked up Canva graphic like no one. All right, you ready? You ready for some? I just thought like this. Like yes. Head right is right. So, so you could during your announcement time, you could record that video with your students, like. Yes. So that would be in the moment. You're like, hey, here's what we're gonna do.

00:20:25:24 - 00:20:43:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We got this thing coming up. We want to let everybody know about it. Here's, you know what it's going to be like, let's let's do this real quick. And yeah, just and you know what else? Like what else could you do? You could, random name generator. Your your contestant, you could, then get them up there and then what does that do.

00:20:43:01 - 00:20:44:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a nod to your socials.

00:20:44:17 - 00:21:01:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so while you're announcing, you throw a graphic on screen that says we're social, it's guy QR codes, a link tree of all of your social handles. And the people in the room like, hey, go follow this because we're going to post this tomorrow. And that's been like, I'm going to, that's one of the things we've done in our youth ministry.

00:21:01:29 - 00:21:24:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We've created a social team and a social challenge component of every night of our youth ministry. And so students know they can go into our studio. We have a studio like it's bougie. All right, I get it. You can see the tour down below, but like, they know they can go in there and they can get on camera with their friends, and then eventually they're going to be the star on our social media.

00:21:25:02 - 00:21:50:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it helps create like a little more appetite for it than just the youth pastors being like the the talent on social media. No one wants that, right? Unless we're looking stupid. Are you saying we're not as cool as we think we are? Is that okay? It depends how you think of yourself as true. You know, if you have a, if you're like very self-aware, then you probably know you're not very cool.

00:21:50:03 - 00:21:58:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're in your 30s or 40, to be honest. Okay. So then we transition into a game.

00:21:58:02 - 00:21:59:13
Josh Boldman
And this was

00:21:59:13 - 00:22:17:10
Josh Boldman
always like, so we had two different things that we we've tried off and on. One is the winner of the game gets to spin a wheel for a prize and it's just numbers on a wheel. And then we had like shoeboxes and it was like, you know, you win box number seven and then you get the box, open it up.

00:22:17:10 - 00:22:34:02
Josh Boldman
And it's either a great prize or terrible prize, something like that. I love that, and I'm probably stealing that. Now that you just said that, is it. Honestly it was pretty cool. Like and that's like a YouTube video right there. That's like Ryan's world, you know. Yeah. And it wouldn't let you do is it let you not always have to keep buying awesome prizes?

Josh Boldman
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. Because oh man it was. And what you so like at the very beginning we would tell people like you know, so like we, we change them out every quarter or something like that and it would be like, hey, just so you know, in these 12 boxes, there are, a $10 Apple gift card. There's, you know, you know, just you tell them kind of, hey, here are a couple of the big things are in here.

00:22:55:16 - 00:23:13:12
Josh Boldman
Yeah. And then just as you get it, you know, one week, person rolls, number five. Great. They get box five. So then you just take that one off the list, and so you don't even have to, like, buy a new prize every week. You just have to have it all loaded upfront and you just put like, old crap that's laying around your church into those boxes, too.

00:23:13:13 - 00:23:34:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So good, so good. Right? It could be any. I mean, just honestly, anything, it's a mug, anything good. Right? It says you're voted most likely to need coffee. Like. Oh, yeah, that one that is, the other thing that we started doing was we do we did the impossible shot. Yeah. So yeah, the deal is like the traditional

00:23:34:15 - 00:23:41:04
Josh Boldman
impossible shot has always been like, if you are here for the first time or you were the person who invited that person for

00:23:41:04 - 00:23:44:12
Josh Boldman
the first time, you get to take a shot at this impossibly small target.

00:23:44:19 - 00:24:07:03
Josh Boldman
And if it goes through, you win a prize. But we, we started doing is the winner of the game, got to take the shot. And so it even made it, like, more, you know, your chance of winning the game was small. Yeah. And then that makes you even smaller. And we would add every week, we would add to the bucket of what do you win if you get the impossible shot.

00:24:07:03 - 00:24:23:13
Josh Boldman
And so like you started out with it's a bunch of candy. Okay. Then it's like one of every candy and then it's like, all right, gift card, you know, and so you just kind of slowly build it, until somebody wins it. It was one of the things we did. But I'm curious, like, so the possible shot rate is, agrees it.

00:24:23:13 - 00:24:42:19
Josh Boldman
So we would like. That's what I set up in this one was winner of the game. And the game would be like, where's the ball? We're doing doing 100. Probably by the time this is out, we will have already done it. So. Yeah. So, signed up for next year. But, one of the things that I made was a, a game called Where's the ball?

00:24:42:19 - 00:24:59:09
Josh Boldman
Obscure sports edition. Yeah. And so it's like link down below. Go give Josh goodness. Yeah. No, it'll be actually, you know, it'll be free in sidekick. So if you, if you have. Yeah. It'll be one of those like click on the little free button at the top and the little red dot pops up and you're like, oh my goodness me.

00:24:59:12 - 00:25:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But it's like I need to look at that more frequently than I do. Yeah you do, I don't. Yeah, it's there's some good stuff in there. So the sports I've got are curling, I've got ax throwing, I've got, Oh, have you ever heard of cycle ball? No. Basically like soccer. But you play on bicycles.

00:25:17:27 - 00:25:39:14
Josh Boldman
Okay. Who's the front wheel of the bike to kick the ball? It's sane. Sounds insane. And I feel as though I would die. Horribly dangerous. The other one is unicycle hockey, which is exactly what it sounds like. And it is magical. But but that is, you know, I mean, so one of the things like that, what we when I first started making the where's the ball games, right.

00:25:39:14 - 00:25:44:24
Josh Boldman
That was very much you had to be in the room to make it work. But then with sidekick, we've done where it's voting

00:25:44:24 - 00:25:52:00
Josh Boldman
now. And so we worked really hard, especially during Covid and after, to make it wear our, when we were live

00:25:52:00 - 00:25:59:00
Josh Boldman
streaming that it was as low lag as possible. So people at home really could also vote in.

00:25:59:06 - 00:26:16:02
Josh Boldman
And we got it, you know, down to like, I think you can without too much trouble. You can get the lag down to like three four seconds. Not too bad. Yeah. And so we would do that where you could see on the screen, you know, people voting, that kind of thing. Yeah. But yeah, so we did that, but then so impossible

00:26:16:02 - 00:26:16:13
Josh Boldman
shot.

00:26:16:15 - 00:26:16:26
Josh Boldman
That

00:26:16:26 - 00:26:18:01
Josh Boldman
is a in the room

00:26:18:01 - 00:26:40:16
Josh Boldman
phenomenon. Yep. Is there anything we could you can do to make that, something that someone at home feels like they're able to connect with? Or is it really just a show? The highlight. And and they get to celebrate if it happened? Yeah. I mean, like, if it's a true live stream, which again, like I said earlier, not a lot of youth ministries have like full live streaming capabilities.

00:26:40:18 - 00:27:01:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So even what we do, what I recommend to a lot of people is like most people are not interested in tuning in to your full youth service, like, so we pre-record all of our messages for YouTube into like a 12 minute, like teaching type of deal. So like that's what I would recommend. Like that's what people are getting on YouTube in the internet for.

00:27:02:01 - 00:27:12:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Is there a way to reclaim a live stream impossible shot type moment like there might be like a sort of like voting type thing. Like, do you think that they

00:27:12:07 - 00:27:21:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
can get it or not? You're going to need a moderator in your chat to like initiate that poll. So like let's say you won and it's like, congratulations to Josh.

00:27:21:10 - 00:27:40:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Will Josh hit the impossible shot yes or no? And they can vote there in the poll like in the chat or something like that. I think like YouTube or maybe Facebook has some of that like functionality built in. But what I might do like a as an alternative to the impossible shot or depending on your game.

00:27:40:27 - 00:27:50:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Like, one of my favorite styles of games is creating like, you can do like those, like sculpture, building types of games or like, let

00:27:50:14 - 00:28:14:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
students in teams create something together. And then you can, like, take pictures of all of them and they can vote on them either. Oh, I like that on sidekick live in the room or what we've done in the past is we've said, hey, these are going to be on our Instagram Stories, go vote on them, and then we'll announce the winner on Sunday, which is like our next meeting time or what I like that I like.

00:28:14:27 - 00:28:29:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the winning group will get a pizza party next week. Yeah. And so, you know, like, those are different. Those are just different ideas, obviously. So to answer your question, I would try to just create like, a poll type of thing. I think that's. Yeah. That's the best idea. I got the top of my head right now.

00:28:29:29 - 00:28:32:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's, but some other, like, ideas

00:28:32:06 - 00:28:56:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and let me jump in and say, in the land of prizes, another great like, free to you prize is, so we are our set up is, round tables. And so you oftentimes your table is your team in whatever sort of thing you're competing in game trivia, whatever. And so a lot of times we'll, let the winning team go sit in what we call the best seats in the house.

00:28:57:00 - 00:29:14:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we'll put some, like, couches in, like, nicer seats than, like, the tables there. And then we'll just stuff that area full of, like, snacks and drinks, and they get to sit there during like the teaching time. And oftentimes we have all the snacks and drinks on hand, and it's just couches that we have laying around, but they're nicer than tables.

00:29:14:07 - 00:29:32:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you can give students that opportunity. It's similar to like your your box of prizes type of thing. So it in the box are prizes. One of the things we learned was, I kept forgetting to refill the boxes and so, what we started putting in the boxes as as a prize was pizza party for your small group next week?

00:29:32:25 - 00:29:51:01
Josh Boldman
Yeah, yeah. Like, you know. So it's always like a hey, you want it right now, but you're going to get it next year. So it would get kids to come back next week. But also if like say that small group won and they had five kids that night, next week they're going to have 15. Like it's just it's crazy because they know like oh yeah we won the prizes.

00:29:51:01 - 00:30:09:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. So and then you didn't order enough pizza ever. It's just so, you know you know it's something you'll see in the Facebook group a lot is the do I on Facebook. Yeah. Yeah. How many pizzas should I order for a thing? I always order too much because then it's lunch for me for the rest of the week.

00:30:10:06 - 00:30:29:04
Josh Boldman
It's like, oh, they're good. That's how it. Yeah. The secret. I think that might be embezzlement. I'm not sure now that. Yeah, whatever. It's okay. We can cut that part out. Yeah. Whatever it, So there we go from there. We might, at that point do another song. But then we're going to go to a bumper video and you answer the lesson.

00:30:29:04 - 00:30:30:28
Josh Boldman
Now, the lesson that,

00:30:30:28 - 00:30:33:02
Josh Boldman
I'm doing this week is going to be,

00:30:33:02 - 00:30:39:01
Josh Boldman
on, Peter walking on water. Okay. And in the the idea is the big idea for it is

00:30:39:01 - 00:30:52:28
Josh Boldman
that your first step is meant to be followed by a second step. So it's like, the whole idea is like momentum, things like that. So the way that we would do this and we did this, and I can, I can send you pictures of how we did it.

00:30:53:01 - 00:31:16:29
Josh Boldman
We built this basically like this trough, and we covered it in plastic sheets. And then we put a tarp over that, and then we filled it with cornstarch and water, as you put it, at the right consistency. It's a it's a, it's a substance called oobleck or a non-Newtonian fluid. Okay. Which means if you just touch it it's liquid.

00:31:16:29 - 00:31:25:23
Josh Boldman
But if you hit it, it's solid, like it's crazy cool seeing it, right? Yeah. And so what that means is if you again, if you get the right

00:31:25:23 - 00:31:38:10
Josh Boldman
consistency, if you run on it, you can run completely on top of it. You will not see no way. But any point that you stop, you will sink right in like it's over.

00:31:38:12 - 00:31:58:28
Josh Boldman
And so what we would do is, is so yeah, that's the idea. Right? So Peter, Jesus calls him out on the water. He starts walking. It's working. But then as soon as he stops, he looks down. He starts to sink. And so Jesus gives him, you know, a bit of a, a talking to and, and so then, you know, then they he reaches out, pulls Peter back up, they climb back in the boat.

00:31:59:02 - 00:32:21:17
Josh Boldman
And so, what we're trying to tell the kids is like, hey, yeah, we want everybody to take a first step. You know? We all know what else we want. You. We want you to like. First step gives you momentum. Just keep taking steps like keep going. Yeah. And so, so the way we would end this service is in this is probably in the room going to be chaos.

00:32:21:19 - 00:32:40:10
Josh Boldman
And I'm I'm very comfortable with that especially like because it's so it's going to end with communion. Right. And so that which is not you know I've been in different groups where, where we've done communion every week. I've done groups where we do it like literally hardly ever. And, you know, and so this was one day where we did it every week.

00:32:40:13 - 00:33:05:07
Josh Boldman
And but what I would do is I would set that that, that trough up. So that students, in order to go and get the communion elements, get to run across the thing, to go get the cookie. So it's like, hey, that you're, you're chasing after Jesus, you're, you're taking this first step and you're not stopping. So like I said, you know, normally like communion is a fairly like somber time.

00:33:05:07 - 00:33:24:23
Josh Boldman
This would not be that because it would be a bit chaotic. But and they'd be taking their shoes off and they, you know, running across, but then, then they get the elements and they would take them right there, and then they then they go back to their seat. And so we would one we'd have to figure out stuff for the students to do when they're back in their seat.

00:33:24:25 - 00:33:59:26
Josh Boldman
Yeah. Because that, you know, it's going to take a minute. Yeah. They watching all that. But I mean, it wouldn't be like, you know, super, super engaging. But but the moment of running across, they absolutely loved it. Like, I mean, it was just the coolest thing ever. Yeah. So like but and then we would dismiss the small groups, but it's that that type of experience is, is really like a in the room thing, like because, because so one of the things I've always said about, like trying to be creative in your programing is like, you get to say yes to things that no one else ever says yes to.

00:34:00:02 - 00:34:10:06
Josh Boldman
And so like this. Like, in order to do this, we had to buy like 150 pounds of, of corn starch from like a food grade service company. Like it was just like they bring it in on a

00:34:10:06 - 00:34:16:17
Josh Boldman
pallet. It oh, it was crazy. Like it is absolutely insane. But no one is going to be able to do that at home.

00:34:16:24 - 00:34:34:16
Josh Boldman
I mean, they do it like, and so like one of the things is we would like walk them through, like, how did how to make it at home and at a very smaller scale. Yeah. I think it is one way to do that, but I don't know, like, I feel like in that moment that having an experience like that just like, creates a core memory, right?

00:34:34:16 - 00:34:34:26
Josh Boldman
It's like

00:34:34:26 - 00:34:54:15
Josh Boldman
the locks in there going to remember the teaching, if ever so slightly, because of the experience. It's just kind of like try and get your thoughts on yeah. What do you do to help someone who's either experiencing it later or experiencing at home? How do they how do they lock in that same that same idea? And any thoughts there?

00:34:54:15 - 00:34:57:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah for sure. So, once again, like I said,

00:34:57:23 - 00:35:15:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
there are certain things that in-person that digital can't do to like replace and frankly, vice versa. But this is a prime example. So here's the here's the shame. Josh. Like, this is why you're the best youth ministry

00:35:15:20 - 00:35:21:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
programmer in America. Because this what what a title, right?

00:35:21:08 - 00:35:46:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The fact is this, like if all your students are coming to in the room is a lecture style sermon, they can get they can 100% get that online. Right. And and it'll be better. Exactly. Let's call it what it is right there online. Somebody do it better if it's just lecture style. Yeah. And so again here's our strategy.

00:35:46:04 - 00:36:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If we were doing that I would totally do that in the room. We don't live stream. And so instead of trying to replicate a live stream moment, now if you were in a position where you had to do that, I think, you know, what Josh's point was, is I would I would try to get a camera on the actual like trough thing so that

00:36:04:20 - 00:36:07:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
people can watch that and then maybe encourage people

00:36:07:02 - 00:36:16:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
with like, text on screen to go get some element so that they too can take, you know, communion and then give them the opportunity if they want to build it.

00:36:16:08 - 00:36:34:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're not going to probably be able to do that, like right in the moment. Like, do they have enough corn starch? Do they have a bowl? Like, you know what I mean? Probably that. So what we would do in our context now is we would film a talk about Peter walking on water for YouTube, direct to camera, 15 minutes or less.

00:36:34:04 - 00:37:02:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Really, really highly edited. And so if I wanted to use like B-roll or anything like that from like The Chosen as I'm illustrating this Peter point, like that's going to be on screen, it's not just going to be me talking. We're going to use the medium of video that we have to our advantage and do certain things like so this isn't in the same vein, but one time I was talking about how like, God knows the big picture and on screen I said, does anyone know what this is?

00:37:02:04 - 00:37:19:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Comment down below if you know it. And there's like a super zoomed in like grainy, pixelated something or other. And then in the next frame it like zoomed out and you can see this like beautiful painted canvas. And the point I made in that was like God's painting a picture and you can't see the outcome. He's in control.

00:37:19:07 - 00:37:27:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're. And that's just an example. And you could do that in the room with like, a slide. But that's just an example of something that you can do with a

00:37:27:15 - 00:37:29:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video. And so I

00:37:29:03 - 00:37:42:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
wouldn't try to recreate that moment because it's probably un replicating. Right. But I would create something that at the end of the day, your bottom line was the first steps, always

00:37:42:09 - 00:37:43:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
followed by a second step.

00:37:43:20 - 00:38:08:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think you can teach that and deliver that online for anyone who's not there. And that's again, one of the reasons we don't do like a quote live stream is because a we don't have the equipment, but if you miss out on it, you sort of feel like it's over instead. Like, what is YouTube great for? Like, I get on YouTube, I don't know about you, but I get on there when like, I have a clog in my sink and I search how to fix, clog and sink.

00:38:09:00 - 00:38:32:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like in the same way. Water heater based on YouTube and a skylight. See, I, I think I broke the law. I've admitted to doing this now twice. Yeah. Don't worry, that's the power of editing. But I'll probably leave it in. But, a student might get on and be like, ask a question. Like a tough question. Like, is such and such a sin?

00:38:32:29 - 00:38:52:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How do I grow my faith? How do I start making disciples? How do I whatever? And so that's what I'm trying to do on YouTube, is I'm trying to title and tag my videos in such a way that, like, they're going to be found in search from a teenager or anyone for that matter, but particularly a teenager who's asking big questions about life and about faith.

00:38:52:24 - 00:38:58:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you're doing one thing in the room. But online, they're both hopefully accomplishing

00:38:58:10 - 00:39:17:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the same ultimate goal. And that's where I would say, like the the difference of hybrid hybrid is not just digital, right? It's both. And so a good in room experience is going to like be worth its weight in gold. We don't have to try to like replace it.

00:39:17:05 - 00:39:21:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What I will say a great hybrid experience for teaching.

00:39:21:03 - 00:39:29:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you haven't checked this out, one of my favorite resources, is like the YouVersion live events. And so in built

00:39:29:09 - 00:39:40:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in woven into the YouVersion Bible app, there's a section called live. And so you can make it be, quote live when your service is live. And you can put your outline basically in there.

00:39:40:28 - 00:39:58:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what's great about it is you can also link Bible reading plan. So always link a Bible reading plan at the end of any message. So like in that one I would link something about taking next steps like a 4 or 5 day Bible reading plan for a student to jump into if they wanted. And we always have a next steps form.

00:39:58:14 - 00:40:00:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We have a digital next steps form that

00:40:00:04 - 00:40:14:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
just lives in perpetuity on our website. And so at the bottom second to bottom of my YouVersion live event, I put a link. So you ready to next step? Let us know. We want to take it with you. And then it's a link and it can go external. It can go external to anything.

00:40:14:04 - 00:40:36:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you can also link like camp sign ups or retreat sign ups or denial sign ups like you can you can link to anything. And that's a great way for a student hybrid to like take something and they can save that event and they can get back to it later. They can like take private notes on it. So it's something that they're in the room, but they're taking notes on their device.

00:40:36:01 - 00:40:43:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And now later, if they have a question or whatever they want to like continue on in their faith. Like, that's a fantastic we call it,

00:40:43:09 - 00:40:52:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
digital notes, like it's the YouVersion live events platform, but we like have branded it like digital notes. And as I said, it's QR code. So I just

00:40:52:04 - 00:41:01:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
swap the the same QR code and then our tables in our room we have a little like standing placard thing and it says follow along for the digital notes.

00:41:01:04 - 00:41:21:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Students can scan it and it'll pull open that week's YouVersion live event. So it changes every week based on that particular thing. So that would be a hybrid solution to like the content in the room. Your ending piece is fantastic, right? And so I don't think you want to try to like replicate that in someone's house necessarily.

00:41:21:10 - 00:41:36:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I think you could pre film that if kids don't make it or if a kid down the road comes to your youth minister that wasn't there that night or they weren't attending your church, you and they have a question about taking a next step. You can be like, hey, this is my favorite part about putting your stuff on YouTube.

00:41:36:03 - 00:41:48:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can like, hey, we actually have a fantastic teaching on it. I'll send you the link. It's right here. And you don't have to say, oh man, you should have been here last month. We did this really cool thing. Like they can still have access to it. So

00:41:48:27 - 00:41:57:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
some some that, I was thinking of with this particular type of thing is filming, like, a behind the scenes, like as you're making it, like.

00:41:57:05 - 00:42:12:25
Josh Boldman
Yes, it could be. It could be really power, even as students have run across it, like just catching them right at the end and be like, hey, can you would you? Yeah. How do you remember this or what? What what was this experience like? And just having like, you know, featuring a couple of them I think could could go a long way for sure.

00:42:12:25 - 00:42:36:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's one of my strategy. Like in my, like social media calendar, like Wednesday night, which is our youth night, I film just I post like a recap video of what we did. And so for that night, that's that might be what I do is just focus on the trough moment. Right. Or if you don't have anything that's as like unique or powerful as that, you can just get a little snippets of the whole night so you can get kids playing nine square.

00:42:36:22 - 00:42:55:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Kids worship in the band, worship being the the pastor teaching. And then you take, you know, 7 to 12 clips. You put them in something like TikTok, it'll auto cut it for you and boom, you got a post that takes you less than a minute. You know, I love it. So dude. So good. Look at us. Look at that.

00:42:55:13 - 00:43:20:09
Josh Boldman
We figured it out so good. This is really fun. Is that the end of your service? Yeah, well, I mean, we were dismissed as small groups. And there's something that we did there, that, you know, trying to engage outside of just the small group time was like we would send, discussion questions to parents, you know, like, or we and we had, like, a, like a reminder text sign up that was like, hey, here's what we're talking about tonight.

00:43:20:09 - 00:43:40:19
Josh Boldman
Here are three questions for the ride home or for the. Yeah. You know, and so whether a kid was there and on the ride home or if, you know, they missed that night, there's still you know, their parents still got a, you know, a conversation starter of some kind, I think was pretty good. And that's the advantage I've found in pre filming as well.

00:43:40:19 - 00:44:06:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There's so many advantages. Like at first it was like so history for us like we did just Like you a full live like YouTube show during Covid. Like it was a youth group for YouTube. But eventually as restrictions lifted, that grew tired and people didn't wanna just get on sit behind a computer, a live stream, especially during the summer of 2020, they're like, I'm just going to go out where I can't catch Covid as long as I'm outside.

00:44:06:11 - 00:44:24:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's, you know, that started to engagement with that and the shininess of it. You know, initially it was like this really interesting thing. But by episode 28 it's like, yeah, kind of lost some of its luster. But there is still something really cool. It's like there was a teaching component, but it was all the way at the end of the video.

00:44:24:07 - 00:44:48:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when I came here and readjusted my thought process a little bit, I was like, the teaching is so valuable. Like, I want kids to be able to hear about the truth of Jesus, and I want them to be able to have access to it online. How can we do that? And so if some or some of the other kind of components that we did during Covid, but make it maybe a little more adaptable to 2022 and then those 2023, 24.

00:44:48:18 - 00:45:10:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's where we do our teaching longform on YouTube and everything else is shorts. I read something the other day, just like 90% of the internet's traffic now is shorts, TikToks or reels. And so that's what we film in our social challenges. We just film short content games or challenge style videos, and we let our students be the heroes in those stories.

00:45:10:18 - 00:45:33:23
Josh Boldman
And they love it. Like when they see one of their things posted, like the text meme, like, that was really good. And I'm like, yeah, it was. Nailed it. You know, my favorite. So I, our son is 16 and, and he has this thing that is a joke that he has started thinking is very funny. That he'll, he'll, like, start talking about something he saw online.

00:45:33:23 - 00:45:52:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And my wife would be like, well, like. And he's like, oh, don't worry, you'll see it on Instagram in three months. That's hilarious. You. And he's right. And, you know, he's 100% right. Because, you know, it's funny, yesterday I got a Facebook reel sent to me, and I had seen that on TikTok and then on Instagram and now.

00:45:52:16 - 00:46:15:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh, so that's even like, talk about lag, as you say. I'm just now finding out that Facebook has reels. That's right tastic. No. Yeah I no I knew that but no. But yeah, it's crazy. Well so then yeah small group like and I would encourage a small group leaders have group text and all of that is like ways the end of the day.

00:46:15:26 - 00:46:38:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The reason I'm so passionate about hybrid is not like, oh, it's cool and cutting edge in technology. It's more like this is an opportunity to reach students where they are and beyond your service moments, your service times. And so you can text them on a Thursday after school and ask them how that test went. You can text them on a Monday morning, even in a group and say, hey, I'm I'm praying for a great week for you guys.

00:46:38:29 - 00:47:02:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can send encouraging versus all things we just didn't have the ability to do before the invention of technology. And so I my challenge is just always encouraging churches and youth pastors to just not get stuck in the rut of only in-person. There's so much more that the world has to offer. And, and that the world, frankly, is already leaning into we as a church, churches has to find a way to catch up to it.

00:47:02:28 - 00:47:27:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So so good. Yeah. Sweet. Let's all we got. Anything else? Any final words, Josh? Drink your milk. You know, I feel like we've we've we've we've lost that one. You know, like, that was when, when I was little, they were like, drink your milk. You get strong bones. I don't know if that's true or not, but I don't feel like I've heard anyone tell me that in a long time, so I just want to share that.

00:47:27:27 - 00:47:34:18
Josh Boldman
Okay. Everyone else. All right. I will leave you with that wisdom. Until next time, everyone stay hybrid letter.

]]> Episode 119: How Churches Can Use Social Media (Ideas & Examples) Part 4 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/119 4d9b0796-e6cc-4d0c-b9a2-a4d756692e53 Thu, 17 Oct 2024 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 119 How Churches Can Use Social Media (Ideas & Examples) Part 4 full Nick Clason The Fourth and Final Easy & Effective Social Media Idea for Churches and Youth Ministries! 10:43 no 💡100 Topics Ideas &amp; Templates💡 https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis 🔥 Transition &amp; CapCut Template Suggestions🔥 https://share.hsforms.com/1UrHggOX1Q3mH_A3F3f8dWwnumis ========= DESCRIPTION My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing! In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders. //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/119 ====================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //Social Challenge 4 Part Playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s //Custom Coaching https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 💡100 Topics Ideas &amp; Templates💡 https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis 🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥 https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz 🆓 FREEBIES 🆓 Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies! 🔗 https://linktr.ee/clasonnick 🛠️TOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Easy Social Media for Churches #4 03:38 Bonus Idea 05:09 My Social Calendar TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:05:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Easy social media idea with examples. Part four. This is 00:00:05:21 - 00:00:13:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry the fourth and final installment of the playlist that we are currently in. Here on YouTube. Giving you 00:00:13:04 - 00:00:20:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry as a youth pastor the four easiest idea with a bonus tip. 00:00:20:09 - 00:00:31:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, what we've been doing is we've been tracking through all of the different, social media, frameworks that I use in our student ministry that I have set students off to do. 00:00:31:08 - 00:00:44:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And that's the part that's easy. You know, these these games with these challenges, they may not be easy, but now that I have students owning it and that I have students running it, it is making my life and my job 00:00:44:11 - 00:00:52:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry as a youth pastor incredibly easy. And so the fourth and final idea, the fourth and final piece of this installment is 00:00:52:24 - 00:00:58:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry transition videos paired with cap cut style memes. 00:00:58:09 - 00:01:11:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now link right here. At the top of the video is a, episode I had with one of my friends, Erik with a K, and we talked about events and better event promotion, and I said, this is the only, 00:01:11:07 - 00:01:22:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry way really to do event promotion on social media, because when you think about event promotion, more often than not you are thinking about, posting a graphic and letting people know about your event. 00:01:22:15 - 00:01:35:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But those don't do very well on social for the, you know, and for the for the first and second part, people go on social media to be entertained, to laugh, to whatever. And so these transition style videos where it starts with the 00:01:35:00 - 00:01:41:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry video of something else and the most popular one I can think about is like a, a bull, ramming a guy during the running of the bulls. 00:01:41:19 - 00:02:15:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then all these people cutting right there to jumping into the back of some chairs and jumping into the back of some furniture at your church and inviting people in your, following you on social media, whatever, inviting them to church. And so these style videos are, a great way to, again, just like the other three that we've been talking about, to send your students out to batch record to tell them, hey, when, you know, when I say, go do this, jump here, do this, this back flip, like, whatever, whatever the the video demands of it. 00:02:15:28 - 00:02:32:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. And if you start looking for those videos on social media, you'll be able to find those videos on social media. And so, those transition style videos paired with cap cut style videos and so link down below, is a link that will take 00:02:32:04 - 00:02:35:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry you to my six favorite of each of those styles, 00:02:35:09 - 00:02:42:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry six of my favorite cap cut meme style videos, and six of my favorite transition based style videos. 00:02:42:09 - 00:03:06:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But I also want to let you know that if you hop, down in the link in the description, you will get all of my topic ideas and all of my other templates that I've been talking about and teasing through the first three videos of this playlist. And so if you take each of those two free downloadable links, and then you go and you start filming content not just for your students, but with your students, that's really like the differentiate. 00:03:06:25 - 00:03:07:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's really 00:03:07:17 - 00:03:32:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry what we're trying to encourage youth pastors and people in there. And people like running church social media to do film content with people, in your church film content, especially with your students, especially with the next generation. You do that for a while. Then you can begin to start to build up enough team, enough volunteer base to start handing some of these things off so that it's being done for you. 00:03:32:03 - 00:03:50:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And all you're doing then is worrying about your posting schedule. Now for the bonus tip. The bonus idea that I have is one of my all time favorite videos, and this one is, you can do it with students, or you can do it with yourself as a youth pastor. And I think that sometimes that makes the most sense. 00:03:50:21 - 00:04:09:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But, it's a framework. And I saw it somewhere, somehow on a social media platform. But you're scrolling through and immediately when you get there, the person's just pointing like this, right? And they're pointing to a text on screen that says stay or scroll. And then underneath it, it says, why? Says stay your scroll, read Scripture with me. 00:04:09:18 - 00:04:41:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then what you do is you read, portion of Scripture for 60s or less. And if you get done reading the scripture, you also, you also then just kind of give them like a little devotional idea, a little devotional thought on like, why you like the verse wise, challenging how it encourages people. And it's a really great way to integrate spiritual practice and spiritual content because like, think about you're physically reading scripture with, the people on your feed, the people that are following you. 00:04:41:13 - 00:05:07:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if you think about the idea of hybrid taking your in-person and taking your digital and melding them together with the two, it's taking what you do in-person, which is teaching the Bible and sharing Jesus. And, you know, sharing his word and his truth and his gospel, and you're telling, and you're you're bringing that into the everyday moments in the everyday life components of your students and your followers on social media. 00:05:07:17 - 00:05:09:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's a fantastic, 00:05:09:20 - 00:05:25:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry devotional tool. Now, now that I have given you not only the four that you can do with your students, but that bonus tip of stay or scroll if you look here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube, I post two times per day. And so if every time you're with your students, you're having them batch record. 00:05:25:26 - 00:05:37:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if they're doing, night where they're, you know, capturing a bunch of “Drafts,” if they get 5 or 6, if you go to, you know, “Seven Questions,” they get 5 or 6 the next week. If they do “Man on the Street,” they do 5 or 6. 00:05:37:02 - 00:05:39:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then if they do these transition style videos, they get 5 or 6. 00:05:39:28 - 00:05:42:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Cap cut memes you give a couple 5 or 6, whatever. 00:05:42:25 - 00:05:56:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you also, can sit down and do a bunch of these, “Stay or Scroll” videos, get, you know, as many as you can in one sitting with, four staff members. I was able to get like, 20, a couple weeks back. So you can get them pretty quick. 00:05:56:14 - 00:06:12:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you. So you just start batch recording them. If you think about it, for me, I post five days a week because I work five days a week. I don't post on my days off. It's just like a margin thing. You could. It's not that big of a deal if you do. But, you know, I like to be off and be all the way off from work. 00:06:12:22 - 00:06:32:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, I post, three message clips per week, and then I post one of these other five things that we've talked about one draft, one seven questions, one transition video, one man on the street, and then one stay or scroll. So you add all those together. That's eight I post five days a week, twice a day. 00:06:32:24 - 00:07:00:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That leaves me with two additional spots. One thing that I also do is and it's not video based, but I do a meme Monday. All right. I'm just as I'm scrolling social media, I ask other people in our team also, as they're scrolling social media to screenshot memes and put them in a meme folder. And so I have a meme folder with probably over 200 memes, and I just go in there and I just pick my favorite ones, download them, you know, move them to a new folder that says posted or archived or whatever. 00:07:00:24 - 00:07:19:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So I don't, you know, use the same ones and consecutive weeks. And then I add so that fills in that additional spot there. And then the last spot is, when we meet on Wednesday nights, I walk around with my camera and I film little, snippets and little clips, and then I just bring that into cap cut. 00:07:19:11 - 00:07:32:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry No. So no cap. I bring them to TikTok, add all those clips, click a little button, they're called auto cut. And then, TikTok will create for me a little recap style video based on the clips that I have provided. And that's just like a recap video 00:07:32:12 - 00:07:35:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry of our Wednesday night programing. So you add all those together. 00:07:35:13 - 00:07:42:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The the four easy social media ideas run by my student ministry team who are both capturing it and now editing it, the 00:07:42:12 - 00:07:43:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry stay or scroll, which 00:07:43:11 - 00:07:47:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry they can also edit that one. It's a really easy one to edit. And then my three 00:07:47:05 - 00:07:48:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry message clips and then 00:07:48:23 - 00:07:52:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Meme Monday and then, the recap video, there's all 00:07:52:06 - 00:07:54:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry ten of my clips and then I interspersed throughout the week. 00:07:54:17 - 00:08:11:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I don't do it like, you know, Meme Monday, obviously I post on Monday, my message clips, I post about same days. I do a Thursday because we had just preached on on Wednesday. I do it on Sunday because that's the connect group topic for that day. And then I do it again on Tuesday as just a reminder like, hey, don't forget this what we had talked about. 00:08:11:20 - 00:08:32:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then the following Thursday I post again the new one because we had a new message on any given Wednesday. But all those other ones, those stay or scroll draft, seven questions, man on the Street and transition videos. I move those all throughout my week like I have kind of my my standing pillars like every day. You know, like Sunday is a teaching, Monday is Meme Monday. 00:08:32:21 - 00:08:50:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Tuesday is another teaching clip. Wednesday is the recap, video and then Thursday is another teaching clip. So any of those five, I just sprinkle them throughout any of those other places. And so I try to post like one draft per week. I try to post like one seven questions per week. I try to post like one man on the street per week. 00:08:50:19 - 00:09:07:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if I've already posted one, then you know, on Sunday. Then when I get to Monday, I'm not going to do double duty and post another draft. I'll go get one of the other ones. And the beautiful thing is, I store all of that stuff in Google Drive, and I know I created just like an archive folder. And so when I've posted it, I move it into archive. 00:09:07:08 - 00:09:10:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so any of the ones that are an archive, I've already done, any 00:09:10:03 - 00:09:25:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry of the ones that are not in archive, I I know I'm free to post and then I post it and I move it to archive and that's it. I don't use a scheduling tool. I still post to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and I do those all directly from my phone. 00:09:25:16 - 00:09:43:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So I'll go on Google Drive on my phone, download the video, and then go post it in all three places. I may copy and paste the caption as I'm going and post it in all three places. And then and then I delete it off my phone, you know, to keep, keep phone storage clean so that is my easy idea for you. 00:09:43:21 - 00:10:05:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry These transition style videos are really fun. They're really like, kind of a, fun thing to do with your students and also fun to edit. They're just goofy and they're funny, and, students love it. So I hope this is helpful to you. I hope this playlist was helpful to you. But as you're moving on and as you're beginning to implement this strategy, I just I wonder if you are thinking like, okay, that's great. 00:10:05:29 - 00:10:30:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now how do I get more people here to my events? Well, I talked about it earlier. Me and my friend Erik sat down and we talked through a two part episode. It's going to be linked right here. His video on his channel about how to program, an outreach event for your student ministry, and then this video right here on my channel, which is how you use social media to promote, that said event in your student ministry. 00:10:30:25 - 00:10:40:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You go check both of those videos. If you haven't yet, give him a subscribe and go follow his channel. But until next time. And as always, don't forget my friends to stay hybrid. Easy Social Media Ideas for Churches, Student Ministry, Social Media Strategy, Church Social Media Strategy, Youth Group Social media Ideas, DO more for less work, Youth Ministry Social Media Ideas, Youth Ministry Social Media Examples, Hybrid Ministry, Nick Clason 💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

🔥 Transition & CapCut Template Suggestions🔥
https://share.hsforms.com/1UrHggOX1Q3mH_A3F3f8dWwnumis

=========
DESCRIPTION
My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing!
In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders.

//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/119
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//Social Challenge 4 Part Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

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

💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

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

Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies!

🔗 https://linktr.ee/clasonnick

🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100

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

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Easy Social Media for Churches #4
03:38 Bonus Idea
05:09 My Social Calendar

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:05:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Easy social media idea with examples. Part four. This is

00:00:05:21 - 00:00:13:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the fourth and final installment of the playlist that we are currently in. Here on YouTube. Giving you

00:00:13:04 - 00:00:20:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
as a youth pastor the four easiest idea with a bonus tip.

00:00:20:09 - 00:00:31:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, what we've been doing is we've been tracking through all of the different, social media, frameworks that I use in our student ministry that I have set students off to do.

00:00:31:08 - 00:00:44:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's the part that's easy. You know, these these games with these challenges, they may not be easy, but now that I have students owning it and that I have students running it, it is making my life and my job

00:00:44:11 - 00:00:52:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
as a youth pastor incredibly easy. And so the fourth and final idea, the fourth and final piece of this installment is

00:00:52:24 - 00:00:58:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
transition videos paired with cap cut style memes.

00:00:58:09 - 00:01:11:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now link right here. At the top of the video is a, episode I had with one of my friends, Erik with a K, and we talked about events and better event promotion, and I said, this is the only,

00:01:11:07 - 00:01:22:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
way really to do event promotion on social media, because when you think about event promotion, more often than not you are thinking about, posting a graphic and letting people know about your event.

00:01:22:15 - 00:01:35:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But those don't do very well on social for the, you know, and for the for the first and second part, people go on social media to be entertained, to laugh, to whatever. And so these transition style videos where it starts with the

00:01:35:00 - 00:01:41:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video of something else and the most popular one I can think about is like a, a bull, ramming a guy during the running of the bulls.

00:01:41:19 - 00:02:15:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then all these people cutting right there to jumping into the back of some chairs and jumping into the back of some furniture at your church and inviting people in your, following you on social media, whatever, inviting them to church. And so these style videos are, a great way to, again, just like the other three that we've been talking about, to send your students out to batch record to tell them, hey, when, you know, when I say, go do this, jump here, do this, this back flip, like, whatever, whatever the the video demands of it.

00:02:15:28 - 00:02:32:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And if you start looking for those videos on social media, you'll be able to find those videos on social media. And so, those transition style videos paired with cap cut style videos and so link down below, is a link that will take

00:02:32:04 - 00:02:35:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you to my six favorite of each of those styles,

00:02:35:09 - 00:02:42:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
six of my favorite cap cut meme style videos, and six of my favorite transition based style videos.

00:02:42:09 - 00:03:06:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I also want to let you know that if you hop, down in the link in the description, you will get all of my topic ideas and all of my other templates that I've been talking about and teasing through the first three videos of this playlist. And so if you take each of those two free downloadable links, and then you go and you start filming content not just for your students, but with your students, that's really like the differentiate.

00:03:06:25 - 00:03:07:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's really

00:03:07:17 - 00:03:32:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
what we're trying to encourage youth pastors and people in there. And people like running church social media to do film content with people, in your church film content, especially with your students, especially with the next generation. You do that for a while. Then you can begin to start to build up enough team, enough volunteer base to start handing some of these things off so that it's being done for you.

00:03:32:03 - 00:03:50:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And all you're doing then is worrying about your posting schedule. Now for the bonus tip. The bonus idea that I have is one of my all time favorite videos, and this one is, you can do it with students, or you can do it with yourself as a youth pastor. And I think that sometimes that makes the most sense.

00:03:50:21 - 00:04:09:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But, it's a framework. And I saw it somewhere, somehow on a social media platform. But you're scrolling through and immediately when you get there, the person's just pointing like this, right? And they're pointing to a text on screen that says stay or scroll. And then underneath it, it says, why? Says stay your scroll, read Scripture with me.

00:04:09:18 - 00:04:41:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then what you do is you read, portion of Scripture for 60s or less. And if you get done reading the scripture, you also, you also then just kind of give them like a little devotional idea, a little devotional thought on like, why you like the verse wise, challenging how it encourages people. And it's a really great way to integrate spiritual practice and spiritual content because like, think about you're physically reading scripture with, the people on your feed, the people that are following you.

00:04:41:13 - 00:05:07:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you think about the idea of hybrid taking your in-person and taking your digital and melding them together with the two, it's taking what you do in-person, which is teaching the Bible and sharing Jesus. And, you know, sharing his word and his truth and his gospel, and you're telling, and you're you're bringing that into the everyday moments in the everyday life components of your students and your followers on social media.

00:05:07:17 - 00:05:09:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's a fantastic,

00:05:09:20 - 00:05:25:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
devotional tool. Now, now that I have given you not only the four that you can do with your students, but that bonus tip of stay or scroll if you look here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube, I post two times per day. And so if every time you're with your students, you're having them batch record.

00:05:25:26 - 00:05:37:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if they're doing, night where they're, you know, capturing a bunch of “Drafts,” if they get 5 or 6, if you go to, you know, “Seven Questions,” they get 5 or 6 the next week. If they do “Man on the Street,” they do 5 or 6.

00:05:37:02 - 00:05:39:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then if they do these transition style videos, they get 5 or 6.

00:05:39:28 - 00:05:42:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Cap cut memes you give a couple 5 or 6, whatever.

00:05:42:25 - 00:05:56:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you also, can sit down and do a bunch of these, “Stay or Scroll” videos, get, you know, as many as you can in one sitting with, four staff members. I was able to get like, 20, a couple weeks back. So you can get them pretty quick.

00:05:56:14 - 00:06:12:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you. So you just start batch recording them. If you think about it, for me, I post five days a week because I work five days a week. I don't post on my days off. It's just like a margin thing. You could. It's not that big of a deal if you do. But, you know, I like to be off and be all the way off from work.

00:06:12:22 - 00:06:32:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, I post, three message clips per week, and then I post one of these other five things that we've talked about one draft, one seven questions, one transition video, one man on the street, and then one stay or scroll. So you add all those together. That's eight I post five days a week, twice a day.

00:06:32:24 - 00:07:00:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That leaves me with two additional spots. One thing that I also do is and it's not video based, but I do a meme Monday. All right. I'm just as I'm scrolling social media, I ask other people in our team also, as they're scrolling social media to screenshot memes and put them in a meme folder. And so I have a meme folder with probably over 200 memes, and I just go in there and I just pick my favorite ones, download them, you know, move them to a new folder that says posted or archived or whatever.

00:07:00:24 - 00:07:19:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I don't, you know, use the same ones and consecutive weeks. And then I add so that fills in that additional spot there. And then the last spot is, when we meet on Wednesday nights, I walk around with my camera and I film little, snippets and little clips, and then I just bring that into cap cut.

00:07:19:11 - 00:07:32:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
No. So no cap. I bring them to TikTok, add all those clips, click a little button, they're called auto cut. And then, TikTok will create for me a little recap style video based on the clips that I have provided. And that's just like a recap video

00:07:32:12 - 00:07:35:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of our Wednesday night programing. So you add all those together.

00:07:35:13 - 00:07:42:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The the four easy social media ideas run by my student ministry team who are both capturing it and now editing it, the

00:07:42:12 - 00:07:43:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
stay or scroll, which

00:07:43:11 - 00:07:47:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
they can also edit that one. It's a really easy one to edit. And then my three

00:07:47:05 - 00:07:48:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
message clips and then

00:07:48:23 - 00:07:52:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Meme Monday and then, the recap video, there's all

00:07:52:06 - 00:07:54:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
ten of my clips and then I interspersed throughout the week.

00:07:54:17 - 00:08:11:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I don't do it like, you know, Meme Monday, obviously I post on Monday, my message clips, I post about same days. I do a Thursday because we had just preached on on Wednesday. I do it on Sunday because that's the connect group topic for that day. And then I do it again on Tuesday as just a reminder like, hey, don't forget this what we had talked about.

00:08:11:20 - 00:08:32:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the following Thursday I post again the new one because we had a new message on any given Wednesday. But all those other ones, those stay or scroll draft, seven questions, man on the Street and transition videos. I move those all throughout my week like I have kind of my my standing pillars like every day. You know, like Sunday is a teaching, Monday is Meme Monday.

00:08:32:21 - 00:08:50:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Tuesday is another teaching clip. Wednesday is the recap, video and then Thursday is another teaching clip. So any of those five, I just sprinkle them throughout any of those other places. And so I try to post like one draft per week. I try to post like one seven questions per week. I try to post like one man on the street per week.

00:08:50:19 - 00:09:07:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if I've already posted one, then you know, on Sunday. Then when I get to Monday, I'm not going to do double duty and post another draft. I'll go get one of the other ones. And the beautiful thing is, I store all of that stuff in Google Drive, and I know I created just like an archive folder. And so when I've posted it, I move it into archive.

00:09:07:08 - 00:09:10:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so any of the ones that are an archive, I've already done, any

00:09:10:03 - 00:09:25:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of the ones that are not in archive, I I know I'm free to post and then I post it and I move it to archive and that's it. I don't use a scheduling tool. I still post to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and I do those all directly from my phone.

00:09:25:16 - 00:09:43:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I'll go on Google Drive on my phone, download the video, and then go post it in all three places. I may copy and paste the caption as I'm going and post it in all three places. And then and then I delete it off my phone, you know, to keep, keep phone storage clean so that is my easy idea for you.

00:09:43:21 - 00:10:05:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These transition style videos are really fun. They're really like, kind of a, fun thing to do with your students and also fun to edit. They're just goofy and they're funny, and, students love it. So I hope this is helpful to you. I hope this playlist was helpful to you. But as you're moving on and as you're beginning to implement this strategy, I just I wonder if you are thinking like, okay, that's great.

00:10:05:29 - 00:10:30:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now how do I get more people here to my events? Well, I talked about it earlier. Me and my friend Erik sat down and we talked through a two part episode. It's going to be linked right here. His video on his channel about how to program, an outreach event for your student ministry, and then this video right here on my channel, which is how you use social media to promote, that said event in your student ministry.

00:10:30:25 - 00:10:40:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You go check both of those videos. If you haven't yet, give him a subscribe and go follow his channel. But until next time. And as always, don't forget my friends to stay hybrid.

]]> 💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

🔥 Transition & CapCut Template Suggestions🔥
https://share.hsforms.com/1UrHggOX1Q3mH_A3F3f8dWwnumis

=========
DESCRIPTION
My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing!
In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders.

//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/119
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//Social Challenge 4 Part Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

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

💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

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

Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies!

🔗 https://linktr.ee/clasonnick

🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100

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

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Easy Social Media for Churches #4
03:38 Bonus Idea
05:09 My Social Calendar

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:05:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Easy social media idea with examples. Part four. This is

00:00:05:21 - 00:00:13:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the fourth and final installment of the playlist that we are currently in. Here on YouTube. Giving you

00:00:13:04 - 00:00:20:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
as a youth pastor the four easiest idea with a bonus tip.

00:00:20:09 - 00:00:31:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, what we've been doing is we've been tracking through all of the different, social media, frameworks that I use in our student ministry that I have set students off to do.

00:00:31:08 - 00:00:44:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's the part that's easy. You know, these these games with these challenges, they may not be easy, but now that I have students owning it and that I have students running it, it is making my life and my job

00:00:44:11 - 00:00:52:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
as a youth pastor incredibly easy. And so the fourth and final idea, the fourth and final piece of this installment is

00:00:52:24 - 00:00:58:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
transition videos paired with cap cut style memes.

00:00:58:09 - 00:01:11:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now link right here. At the top of the video is a, episode I had with one of my friends, Erik with a K, and we talked about events and better event promotion, and I said, this is the only,

00:01:11:07 - 00:01:22:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
way really to do event promotion on social media, because when you think about event promotion, more often than not you are thinking about, posting a graphic and letting people know about your event.

00:01:22:15 - 00:01:35:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But those don't do very well on social for the, you know, and for the for the first and second part, people go on social media to be entertained, to laugh, to whatever. And so these transition style videos where it starts with the

00:01:35:00 - 00:01:41:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video of something else and the most popular one I can think about is like a, a bull, ramming a guy during the running of the bulls.

00:01:41:19 - 00:02:15:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then all these people cutting right there to jumping into the back of some chairs and jumping into the back of some furniture at your church and inviting people in your, following you on social media, whatever, inviting them to church. And so these style videos are, a great way to, again, just like the other three that we've been talking about, to send your students out to batch record to tell them, hey, when, you know, when I say, go do this, jump here, do this, this back flip, like, whatever, whatever the the video demands of it.

00:02:15:28 - 00:02:32:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And if you start looking for those videos on social media, you'll be able to find those videos on social media. And so, those transition style videos paired with cap cut style videos and so link down below, is a link that will take

00:02:32:04 - 00:02:35:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you to my six favorite of each of those styles,

00:02:35:09 - 00:02:42:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
six of my favorite cap cut meme style videos, and six of my favorite transition based style videos.

00:02:42:09 - 00:03:06:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I also want to let you know that if you hop, down in the link in the description, you will get all of my topic ideas and all of my other templates that I've been talking about and teasing through the first three videos of this playlist. And so if you take each of those two free downloadable links, and then you go and you start filming content not just for your students, but with your students, that's really like the differentiate.

00:03:06:25 - 00:03:07:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's really

00:03:07:17 - 00:03:32:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
what we're trying to encourage youth pastors and people in there. And people like running church social media to do film content with people, in your church film content, especially with your students, especially with the next generation. You do that for a while. Then you can begin to start to build up enough team, enough volunteer base to start handing some of these things off so that it's being done for you.

00:03:32:03 - 00:03:50:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And all you're doing then is worrying about your posting schedule. Now for the bonus tip. The bonus idea that I have is one of my all time favorite videos, and this one is, you can do it with students, or you can do it with yourself as a youth pastor. And I think that sometimes that makes the most sense.

00:03:50:21 - 00:04:09:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But, it's a framework. And I saw it somewhere, somehow on a social media platform. But you're scrolling through and immediately when you get there, the person's just pointing like this, right? And they're pointing to a text on screen that says stay or scroll. And then underneath it, it says, why? Says stay your scroll, read Scripture with me.

00:04:09:18 - 00:04:41:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then what you do is you read, portion of Scripture for 60s or less. And if you get done reading the scripture, you also, you also then just kind of give them like a little devotional idea, a little devotional thought on like, why you like the verse wise, challenging how it encourages people. And it's a really great way to integrate spiritual practice and spiritual content because like, think about you're physically reading scripture with, the people on your feed, the people that are following you.

00:04:41:13 - 00:05:07:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you think about the idea of hybrid taking your in-person and taking your digital and melding them together with the two, it's taking what you do in-person, which is teaching the Bible and sharing Jesus. And, you know, sharing his word and his truth and his gospel, and you're telling, and you're you're bringing that into the everyday moments in the everyday life components of your students and your followers on social media.

00:05:07:17 - 00:05:09:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's a fantastic,

00:05:09:20 - 00:05:25:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
devotional tool. Now, now that I have given you not only the four that you can do with your students, but that bonus tip of stay or scroll if you look here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube, I post two times per day. And so if every time you're with your students, you're having them batch record.

00:05:25:26 - 00:05:37:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if they're doing, night where they're, you know, capturing a bunch of “Drafts,” if they get 5 or 6, if you go to, you know, “Seven Questions,” they get 5 or 6 the next week. If they do “Man on the Street,” they do 5 or 6.

00:05:37:02 - 00:05:39:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then if they do these transition style videos, they get 5 or 6.

00:05:39:28 - 00:05:42:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Cap cut memes you give a couple 5 or 6, whatever.

00:05:42:25 - 00:05:56:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you also, can sit down and do a bunch of these, “Stay or Scroll” videos, get, you know, as many as you can in one sitting with, four staff members. I was able to get like, 20, a couple weeks back. So you can get them pretty quick.

00:05:56:14 - 00:06:12:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you. So you just start batch recording them. If you think about it, for me, I post five days a week because I work five days a week. I don't post on my days off. It's just like a margin thing. You could. It's not that big of a deal if you do. But, you know, I like to be off and be all the way off from work.

00:06:12:22 - 00:06:32:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, I post, three message clips per week, and then I post one of these other five things that we've talked about one draft, one seven questions, one transition video, one man on the street, and then one stay or scroll. So you add all those together. That's eight I post five days a week, twice a day.

00:06:32:24 - 00:07:00:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That leaves me with two additional spots. One thing that I also do is and it's not video based, but I do a meme Monday. All right. I'm just as I'm scrolling social media, I ask other people in our team also, as they're scrolling social media to screenshot memes and put them in a meme folder. And so I have a meme folder with probably over 200 memes, and I just go in there and I just pick my favorite ones, download them, you know, move them to a new folder that says posted or archived or whatever.

00:07:00:24 - 00:07:19:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I don't, you know, use the same ones and consecutive weeks. And then I add so that fills in that additional spot there. And then the last spot is, when we meet on Wednesday nights, I walk around with my camera and I film little, snippets and little clips, and then I just bring that into cap cut.

00:07:19:11 - 00:07:32:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
No. So no cap. I bring them to TikTok, add all those clips, click a little button, they're called auto cut. And then, TikTok will create for me a little recap style video based on the clips that I have provided. And that's just like a recap video

00:07:32:12 - 00:07:35:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of our Wednesday night programing. So you add all those together.

00:07:35:13 - 00:07:42:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The the four easy social media ideas run by my student ministry team who are both capturing it and now editing it, the

00:07:42:12 - 00:07:43:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
stay or scroll, which

00:07:43:11 - 00:07:47:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
they can also edit that one. It's a really easy one to edit. And then my three

00:07:47:05 - 00:07:48:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
message clips and then

00:07:48:23 - 00:07:52:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Meme Monday and then, the recap video, there's all

00:07:52:06 - 00:07:54:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
ten of my clips and then I interspersed throughout the week.

00:07:54:17 - 00:08:11:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I don't do it like, you know, Meme Monday, obviously I post on Monday, my message clips, I post about same days. I do a Thursday because we had just preached on on Wednesday. I do it on Sunday because that's the connect group topic for that day. And then I do it again on Tuesday as just a reminder like, hey, don't forget this what we had talked about.

00:08:11:20 - 00:08:32:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the following Thursday I post again the new one because we had a new message on any given Wednesday. But all those other ones, those stay or scroll draft, seven questions, man on the Street and transition videos. I move those all throughout my week like I have kind of my my standing pillars like every day. You know, like Sunday is a teaching, Monday is Meme Monday.

00:08:32:21 - 00:08:50:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Tuesday is another teaching clip. Wednesday is the recap, video and then Thursday is another teaching clip. So any of those five, I just sprinkle them throughout any of those other places. And so I try to post like one draft per week. I try to post like one seven questions per week. I try to post like one man on the street per week.

00:08:50:19 - 00:09:07:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if I've already posted one, then you know, on Sunday. Then when I get to Monday, I'm not going to do double duty and post another draft. I'll go get one of the other ones. And the beautiful thing is, I store all of that stuff in Google Drive, and I know I created just like an archive folder. And so when I've posted it, I move it into archive.

00:09:07:08 - 00:09:10:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so any of the ones that are an archive, I've already done, any

00:09:10:03 - 00:09:25:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of the ones that are not in archive, I I know I'm free to post and then I post it and I move it to archive and that's it. I don't use a scheduling tool. I still post to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and I do those all directly from my phone.

00:09:25:16 - 00:09:43:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I'll go on Google Drive on my phone, download the video, and then go post it in all three places. I may copy and paste the caption as I'm going and post it in all three places. And then and then I delete it off my phone, you know, to keep, keep phone storage clean so that is my easy idea for you.

00:09:43:21 - 00:10:05:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These transition style videos are really fun. They're really like, kind of a, fun thing to do with your students and also fun to edit. They're just goofy and they're funny, and, students love it. So I hope this is helpful to you. I hope this playlist was helpful to you. But as you're moving on and as you're beginning to implement this strategy, I just I wonder if you are thinking like, okay, that's great.

00:10:05:29 - 00:10:30:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now how do I get more people here to my events? Well, I talked about it earlier. Me and my friend Erik sat down and we talked through a two part episode. It's going to be linked right here. His video on his channel about how to program, an outreach event for your student ministry, and then this video right here on my channel, which is how you use social media to promote, that said event in your student ministry.

00:10:30:25 - 00:10:40:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You go check both of those videos. If you haven't yet, give him a subscribe and go follow his channel. But until next time. And as always, don't forget my friends to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 118: How Churches Can Use Social Media (Ideas & Examples) Part 3 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/118 93f3a519-283f-4a83-95d4-31b9db8e2f0d Thu, 10 Oct 2024 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 118 How Churches Can Use Social Media (Ideas & Examples) Part 3 full Nick Clason My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing! In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders. //SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/118 14:02 no 💡100 Topics Ideas &amp; Templates💡 https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis 🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥 https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ========= DESCRIPTION My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing! In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders. //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/117 ====================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //Social Challenge 4 Part Playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s //Custom Coaching https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 💡100 Topics Ideas &amp; Templates💡 https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis //Giphy https://giphy.com/ //Studio Tour &amp; Gear Links https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVT1xvh9-5k&amp;t=557s 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz 🆓 FREEBIES 🆓 Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies! 🔗 https://linktr.ee/clasonnick 🛠️TOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Easy Social Media for Churches #3 01:41 How to Play 05:59 How to Add more Volunteers 07:10 1C 09:11 2C 10:45 3C 13:39 Easy Social Media Idea #4 TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Easy social media idea for 00:00:02:17 - 00:00:06:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry churches and youth ministries. Part three. In 00:00:06:11 - 00:00:15:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry this video, I'm going to share with you one of, if not the easiest way to start creating custom social media content for you and your 00:00:15:06 - 00:00:23:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry church, in your youth ministry, with you, with your leaders, with your students. This is a continuation of the video playlist which is linked right 00:00:23:01 - 00:00:23:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry here. 00:00:23:10 - 00:00:27:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is part three out of four of what I do in my four 00:00:27:20 - 00:00:31:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry part social media strategy. For me and my churches. 00:00:31:08 - 00:00:37:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and this is easily the best 00:00:37:02 - 00:00:55:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry strategy and the one that we have seen the most traction with not only creating good custom social media content for our church and our student ministry, but also with adding people to our social media team so that I have less on my plate as a youth pastor to do, and there's more ministry being passed off and handed off to our students. 00:00:55:27 - 00:01:17:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I'm also going to share with you in this video my three part proven three C formula for adding student volunteers to our social media team. And as always, if you're here on YouTube, don't forget that there are chapters included at the bottom of this video so that you can go ahead and skip around. But my social challenge idea number three is called man on the Street. 00:01:17:21 - 00:01:41:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now you don't have to call it man on the street, but essentially you've seen these style videos. It's interview style videos where you have someone walking around with a microphone and they're interviewing someone and asking them any sort of question and the comedy in it, or the interesting part in it is really just in the person's answers and or in the interaction or in the banter that may or may or may not go on between the two people. 00:01:41:11 - 00:01:46:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry One of the wins that we've seen, how we do it in our student ministry, is we create 4 00:01:46:03 - 00:01:58:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry to 5 questions for any given night, in any given like season. So for example, a couple months back it was back to school. So we did a bunch of back to school sort of themed questions like, what's the worst cafeteria food you've ever had? 00:01:58:26 - 00:02:06:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What's the worst lunch food you've ever eaten? What's the what's your like number one thing on your back to school shopping list? And we ask 00:02:06:18 - 00:02:11:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry all five questions to like as many people in that night as we can three, four, 00:02:11:22 - 00:02:17:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry five, six, seven interviews. And then what you do is you just take one of those questions and you spice up all the answers. 00:02:17:27 - 00:02:33:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You may include them all. You may choose to leave some out if they're not as interesting or as good. And then you can also create like, just some interesting things in the edit. The power I believe on this is the power is done in the edit. And I have 00:02:33:07 - 00:02:37:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry found that this video in particular is one that students really enjoy editing. 00:02:37:20 - 00:02:53:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now it is a little bit more complicated because, if you're doing it in something like Adobe Premiere Pro, you may just end up with a lot of different layers. And if you're not a skilled editor or if you don't have experience in editing something like this, you may just get turned around. So this one is tougher to hand off to volunteers. 00:02:53:22 - 00:03:04:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Which is why in the last video, my seven questions video, is where I want to encourage students to start that one seems like, easy first kind of starting spot, but this one students can really let their creativity 00:03:04:24 - 00:03:15:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry run wild. And so what we do is we just do like five different questions seasonally based. And so as this video drops mid-October, you might do some Halloween, you might do some Thanksgiving videos. 00:03:15:22 - 00:03:16:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you might 00:03:16:21 - 00:03:39:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry do like what are what is the best Halloween candy? What is the worst Halloween? Cat candy or, like, thing you've ever gotten in your bucket as you've gone trick or treating? What is your, least favorite Thanksgiving food? You get to the Thanksgiving table and you see it on the table and you're like, oh man, I can't believe that that is being served right now. 00:03:39:04 - 00:03:46:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What are you going to be asking for for Christmas? And then what is the worst road trip you've ever taken around Christmas or 00:03:46:24 - 00:03:55:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry something like that? Right. There's five questions you ask all five of those, and then you ask as many people as you can. You can do this with the gear list link 00:03:55:17 - 00:03:57:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry down below in the template. 00:03:57:22 - 00:03:58:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's the one that's 00:03:58:16 - 00:04:13:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry been included in all of these videos. It's got my Photoshop template for the last two videos. It's got gear recommendations, it's got topic recommendations. And you can take those topics and you can use them for seven questions. You can take them and use them for drafts, or you can take them and curate and curtail them to be working for you. 00:04:13:23 - 00:04:35:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this man on the street style video. Now, go ahead and give me a like if this video so far has provided value and go ahead and give me a subscribe if this is something that you might think that you might start implementing in your student ministry. But like I said, the power is in the edit. So the more like gifts, B-roll or sound effects that you can create as people are giving answers, you can zoom 00:04:35:02 - 00:04:37:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry in, you can zoom out, you can do like, 00:04:37:12 - 00:04:39:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry like one of my favorite resources. 00:04:39:25 - 00:05:01:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I'll link it down below in the description is Giphy g I p h y.com and we can search GIFs there. And I've just sent students there and they will find GIFs, to kind of add on screen as people are giving answers and sometimes so much so that there's like so many GIFs on the screen that we don't even see the people, like answering the questions. 00:05:01:10 - 00:05:17:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But this is, again, this is a great way for students to kind of let their creativity run wild. Now, here's the other thing that man on the street does. So if you're watching our last two videos, we talked about drafts and we talked about seven questions. Those are stationary videos. Those often they take place for us in our studio. 00:05:17:28 - 00:05:38:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you haven't seen our studio tour, go ahead, check out the link down below for that. But those happen in our studio. Those happen in a different section of the building. The good news about men on the street style videos is it forces us to get out of our studio, and it forces us to go be on the streets, go be all throughout the different spaces of our youth ministry. 00:05:38:19 - 00:06:06:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we have an outdoor sports basketball court, so they may be out there. We have an indoor rec room. They may be in there. We have a cafe, they may be in there in the lobby or whatever. And so, they're much more visible. And here's the good news about the visibility once they're visible and once they're doing it, we start to see a, a drastic uptick in people, and their interest level in joining our social media team. 00:06:06:08 - 00:06:27:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They're like, hey, can I do this? Can I help, can I join? And so one of the markers, one of the values in, for us and for our student ministry, you know, the apostle Paul says, you shouldn't be a youth pastor. You shouldn't be the only one doing ministry. You should be handing the work of ministry off to equip the saints for works and acts of service. 00:06:27:26 - 00:06:28:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so 00:06:28:06 - 00:06:47:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry that's our goal, not only just with the dots, but also with students as well. And so that needs to be our goal. That needs to be what we are aiming to do. And so, as we are growing and building these teams, less and less falls on your plate. You have to create the structure and the scaffolding, and you have to keep that train kind of moving down the tracks. 00:06:47:22 - 00:06:49:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But ultimately you can hand 00:06:49:11 - 00:07:07:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry some of these things off. And this area in particular, a student ministry is something that students actually are interested in doing. No shade, no offense to get services and holding doors open and greeting people, but students love the opportunity. Or at least in general, students love the opportunity to get on camera, be on camera, or run the camera. 00:07:07:29 - 00:07:33:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So with all that being said, here is my proven three C strategy for building a good student volunteer team. The first C is calendar. Actually calendar it out. And what I mean by that, I just use an Excel template and I, you know, have like week one, week two, week three, week four. Now most students get turned around by what any of that means. 00:07:33:14 - 00:07:48:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What is week one was week two, you know. So if you have typically any given like let's say your youth night is Wednesday night, any given month you have four Wednesdays in the month, but occasionally you'll have a fifth. And the fifth is what throws everybody off. Because 00:07:48:05 - 00:07:52:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry if you schedule people once a month, they think they serve every four. 00:07:52:09 - 00:08:12:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But if there's a fifth actually is every five, or if they serve every other week, then they may serve every other week. But you throw a fifth in there. And now that messes up when they're landing. And so for clarity, I like to just call it, if you're doing, you know, every other, first and third, second and fourth. 00:08:12:13 - 00:08:26:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right. And then you got figure out where your fifths are. So I like to do first, third and fifth. Okay. And I'll just explain to them, hey, if you're a fifth that means you'll do a first, a third, a fifth that'll feel like every other. But then when it rolls back around to the first, you're actually going to do two weeks in a row. 00:08:26:22 - 00:08:42:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Just brace for that. Just understand that, okay. And then like okay, they get it in theory. All right. I've even literally pulled up my Google calendar and I've showed them like this when it says August 7th. That's week one when it says August 14th, that's week two and it says 21st. That's week three, which is 28. That's week four. 00:08:42:03 - 00:09:00:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then we we go to September. And I'm like, now you try it in September. Which one are the weeks you're serving if you're on week one and three for example. And like once they get that understanding it makes sense. Also, I can recommend some sort of scheduling feature, you know, for my tech team, I use planning center services for the rest of our team. 00:09:00:14 - 00:09:30:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We use Church Community Builder, which is our church's database. Whatever you use, whatever you have, if you can send some sort of invitation for them to serve, that would be great. But that leads me to my second see in my building a strong volunteer team is contact. How are you going to contact them? See, here's what happens. A lot of times in churches is especially when serving with students, we want students to serve even in our greater teams on our church, like our tech team or worship team or our greeting team. 00:09:30:23 - 00:09:54:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But we treat them once again, those teams like adults, and we should and we should start working them towards that. However, in most cases when you're scheduling adults, you're scheduling them through email. Most students do. They have an email. It's not a regular discipline of them checking it very often, if at all. And so in Planning Center and it also church community builder, both of them have integration for text messages. 00:09:54:05 - 00:10:11:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And most students are receiving text messages at this point. And then if students are not, we have to get to their parents. Right? And we say, okay, well, you have a phone, so I'm going to send this to your parents and you're going to get notified via your parents mobile. Whatever. Now, I handle that on an individual basis with every single student. 00:10:11:25 - 00:10:31:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's much more than just fill out this form, I'll put you on and I'll show you like I have that conversation. Let them know your first and third, and then I'll. I get from them what I need in order to contact them effectively and in my mind to contact every student effectively, I need to text them. And in both cases, both planning center and church community builder. 00:10:31:03 - 00:10:49:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I need to know their cell phone carrier. It's a weird question. Most students know the answer to it. It's like, is it AT&amp;T? Is it Verizon? Is it T-Mobile? Once I put that in, I'm able to schedule them and they're able to get text message notifications for when they're scheduled. And then the last piece of it, the third key is conflicts. 00:10:49:25 - 00:11:07:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What do you do when you can't come to church. Set the expectation now. So I say your schedule first and third I'm going to text you. You're going to get a notification. Either accept it or decline it. Coach them up, train them how you want them to do that, and then say, if you can't make it, I need you to find yourself a sub. 00:11:07:04 - 00:11:28:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's how I prefer to do it. You don't have to do it. That way. If you want them to tell you about conflicts and decline and you go find their sub, that's fine. It just adds work back straight to your play as opposed to them finding a sub on their own and then letting you know, hey, I'm not going to be there and I got so-and-so to fill in for me, then all your bases are covered. 00:11:28:26 - 00:11:42:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so when you're building a social media team, you kind of have two prongs to it. You have your capturing or your filming of it, and then you also have your editing of it. And so you can truly have like an infinite number of volunteers 00:11:42:19 - 00:11:47:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry we've found for like, seven questions, just our videos. It's good to have a camera operator. 00:11:47:22 - 00:12:12:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If we're doing separate microphones, it's good to have a microphone operator. We've also found it's good to have like a director, someone who's telling the people on, the talent, so to speak, what they're doing. We've even found it's good to have, TV, off, off camera that the people. So if I'm on camera playing the game, there's a TV right over there, and it's keeping track of the number of questions is even got the scripts like on a slide for them. 00:12:12:08 - 00:12:28:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So it's good to have a person running that. And then the last, like I said, we're in a studio. And so there are people in the hallway kind of waiting. It's good to have a host, a person out in the hallway, a person making sure that they're quiet so that when you're filming, you're not getting like the audio bleed over or whatever. 00:12:28:11 - 00:12:46:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you can have up to five people on that week. All right. And then if you have five people that week and say five people on the week that you do drafts and you might not need as many when you're doing man on the Street or the other video that we're going to look at in my fourth and final installment of, church social media that is done easy for you. 00:12:46:21 - 00:13:05:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But you can theoretically see how you can get to ten, 12, 15 different people. And then you add editors on top of that. When are they coming into the office? Do they have the gear at home? Can they edit it on something like cap cut on their app, on their phone, and then deliver that content back to you so that you can post it? 00:13:05:18 - 00:13:21:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Or can you even have them just in charge of the posting calendar and the posting schedule, and you can just hand those things off to it. So again, the point is the sky's the limit if you only have 2 or 3 students who are on your team, you just have them work every week, right? Or you do these every other week and that's when they serve. 00:13:21:14 - 00:13:38:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then the athletes that you don't have anything for social media. But as you're building your team, you need to work through that three see framework, the calendar. How are you going to communicate it? Where are you going to print it? Where are they going to see it? How are you going to handle first, third, fifth Sundays? How are you going to contact them and how are you going to handle conflicts? 00:13:38:11 - 00:13:58:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now moving on to our fourth and final video in this playlist. In this strategy, we are going to link it right here on screen. So you can go ahead and take a look at that fourth and final easy social media idea for churches and for youth ministries. Don't forget, we had the Hybrid Ministry show are trying to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. 00:13:58:12 - 00:14:02:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So as always, don't forget to stay hybrid. Easy Social Media Ideas for Churches, Student Ministry, Social Media Strategy, Church Social Media Strategy, Youth Group Social media Ideas, DO more for less work, Youth Ministry Social Media Ideas, Youth Ministry Social Media Examples, Hybrid Ministry, Nick Clason 💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

=========
DESCRIPTION
My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing!
In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders.

//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/117
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//Social Challenge 4 Part Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

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

💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

//Giphy
https://giphy.com/

//Studio Tour & Gear Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVT1xvh9-5k&t=557s

👉 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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🛠️TOOLS
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VIDIQ
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BEST DYM RESOURCES
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//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Easy Social Media for Churches #3
01:41 How to Play
05:59 How to Add more Volunteers
07:10 1C
09:11 2C
10:45 3C
13:39 Easy Social Media Idea #4

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Easy social media idea for

00:00:02:17 - 00:00:06:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
churches and youth ministries. Part three. In

00:00:06:11 - 00:00:15:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this video, I'm going to share with you one of, if not the easiest way to start creating custom social media content for you and your

00:00:15:06 - 00:00:23:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
church, in your youth ministry, with you, with your leaders, with your students. This is a continuation of the video playlist which is linked right

00:00:23:01 - 00:00:23:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here.

00:00:23:10 - 00:00:27:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is part three out of four of what I do in my four

00:00:27:20 - 00:00:31:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
part social media strategy. For me and my churches.

00:00:31:08 - 00:00:37:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and this is easily the best

00:00:37:02 - 00:00:55:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
strategy and the one that we have seen the most traction with not only creating good custom social media content for our church and our student ministry, but also with adding people to our social media team so that I have less on my plate as a youth pastor to do, and there's more ministry being passed off and handed off to our students.

00:00:55:27 - 00:01:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'm also going to share with you in this video my three part proven three C formula for adding student volunteers to our social media team. And as always, if you're here on YouTube, don't forget that there are chapters included at the bottom of this video so that you can go ahead and skip around. But my social challenge idea number three is called man on the Street.

00:01:17:21 - 00:01:41:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now you don't have to call it man on the street, but essentially you've seen these style videos. It's interview style videos where you have someone walking around with a microphone and they're interviewing someone and asking them any sort of question and the comedy in it, or the interesting part in it is really just in the person's answers and or in the interaction or in the banter that may or may or may not go on between the two people.

00:01:41:11 - 00:01:46:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One of the wins that we've seen, how we do it in our student ministry, is we create 4

00:01:46:03 - 00:01:58:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to 5 questions for any given night, in any given like season. So for example, a couple months back it was back to school. So we did a bunch of back to school sort of themed questions like, what's the worst cafeteria food you've ever had?

00:01:58:26 - 00:02:06:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What's the worst lunch food you've ever eaten? What's the what's your like number one thing on your back to school shopping list? And we ask

00:02:06:18 - 00:02:11:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
all five questions to like as many people in that night as we can three, four,

00:02:11:22 - 00:02:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
five, six, seven interviews. And then what you do is you just take one of those questions and you spice up all the answers.

00:02:17:27 - 00:02:33:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You may include them all. You may choose to leave some out if they're not as interesting or as good. And then you can also create like, just some interesting things in the edit. The power I believe on this is the power is done in the edit. And I have

00:02:33:07 - 00:02:37:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
found that this video in particular is one that students really enjoy editing.

00:02:37:20 - 00:02:53:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now it is a little bit more complicated because, if you're doing it in something like Adobe Premiere Pro, you may just end up with a lot of different layers. And if you're not a skilled editor or if you don't have experience in editing something like this, you may just get turned around. So this one is tougher to hand off to volunteers.

00:02:53:22 - 00:03:04:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Which is why in the last video, my seven questions video, is where I want to encourage students to start that one seems like, easy first kind of starting spot, but this one students can really let their creativity

00:03:04:24 - 00:03:15:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
run wild. And so what we do is we just do like five different questions seasonally based. And so as this video drops mid-October, you might do some Halloween, you might do some Thanksgiving videos.

00:03:15:22 - 00:03:16:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you might

00:03:16:21 - 00:03:39:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
do like what are what is the best Halloween candy? What is the worst Halloween? Cat candy or, like, thing you've ever gotten in your bucket as you've gone trick or treating? What is your, least favorite Thanksgiving food? You get to the Thanksgiving table and you see it on the table and you're like, oh man, I can't believe that that is being served right now.

00:03:39:04 - 00:03:46:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What are you going to be asking for for Christmas? And then what is the worst road trip you've ever taken around Christmas or

00:03:46:24 - 00:03:55:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
something like that? Right. There's five questions you ask all five of those, and then you ask as many people as you can. You can do this with the gear list link

00:03:55:17 - 00:03:57:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
down below in the template.

00:03:57:22 - 00:03:58:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's the one that's

00:03:58:16 - 00:04:13:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
been included in all of these videos. It's got my Photoshop template for the last two videos. It's got gear recommendations, it's got topic recommendations. And you can take those topics and you can use them for seven questions. You can take them and use them for drafts, or you can take them and curate and curtail them to be working for you.

00:04:13:23 - 00:04:35:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this man on the street style video. Now, go ahead and give me a like if this video so far has provided value and go ahead and give me a subscribe if this is something that you might think that you might start implementing in your student ministry. But like I said, the power is in the edit. So the more like gifts, B-roll or sound effects that you can create as people are giving answers, you can zoom

00:04:35:02 - 00:04:37:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in, you can zoom out, you can do like,

00:04:37:12 - 00:04:39:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like one of my favorite resources.

00:04:39:25 - 00:05:01:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'll link it down below in the description is Giphy g I p h y.com and we can search GIFs there. And I've just sent students there and they will find GIFs, to kind of add on screen as people are giving answers and sometimes so much so that there's like so many GIFs on the screen that we don't even see the people, like answering the questions.

00:05:01:10 - 00:05:17:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But this is, again, this is a great way for students to kind of let their creativity run wild. Now, here's the other thing that man on the street does. So if you're watching our last two videos, we talked about drafts and we talked about seven questions. Those are stationary videos. Those often they take place for us in our studio.

00:05:17:28 - 00:05:38:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you haven't seen our studio tour, go ahead, check out the link down below for that. But those happen in our studio. Those happen in a different section of the building. The good news about men on the street style videos is it forces us to get out of our studio, and it forces us to go be on the streets, go be all throughout the different spaces of our youth ministry.

00:05:38:19 - 00:06:06:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we have an outdoor sports basketball court, so they may be out there. We have an indoor rec room. They may be in there. We have a cafe, they may be in there in the lobby or whatever. And so, they're much more visible. And here's the good news about the visibility once they're visible and once they're doing it, we start to see a, a drastic uptick in people, and their interest level in joining our social media team.

00:06:06:08 - 00:06:27:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're like, hey, can I do this? Can I help, can I join? And so one of the markers, one of the values in, for us and for our student ministry, you know, the apostle Paul says, you shouldn't be a youth pastor. You shouldn't be the only one doing ministry. You should be handing the work of ministry off to equip the saints for works and acts of service.

00:06:27:26 - 00:06:28:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so

00:06:28:06 - 00:06:47:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that's our goal, not only just with the dots, but also with students as well. And so that needs to be our goal. That needs to be what we are aiming to do. And so, as we are growing and building these teams, less and less falls on your plate. You have to create the structure and the scaffolding, and you have to keep that train kind of moving down the tracks.

00:06:47:22 - 00:06:49:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But ultimately you can hand

00:06:49:11 - 00:07:07:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
some of these things off. And this area in particular, a student ministry is something that students actually are interested in doing. No shade, no offense to get services and holding doors open and greeting people, but students love the opportunity. Or at least in general, students love the opportunity to get on camera, be on camera, or run the camera.

00:07:07:29 - 00:07:33:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So with all that being said, here is my proven three C strategy for building a good student volunteer team. The first C is calendar. Actually calendar it out. And what I mean by that, I just use an Excel template and I, you know, have like week one, week two, week three, week four. Now most students get turned around by what any of that means.

00:07:33:14 - 00:07:48:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What is week one was week two, you know. So if you have typically any given like let's say your youth night is Wednesday night, any given month you have four Wednesdays in the month, but occasionally you'll have a fifth. And the fifth is what throws everybody off. Because

00:07:48:05 - 00:07:52:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
if you schedule people once a month, they think they serve every four.

00:07:52:09 - 00:08:12:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if there's a fifth actually is every five, or if they serve every other week, then they may serve every other week. But you throw a fifth in there. And now that messes up when they're landing. And so for clarity, I like to just call it, if you're doing, you know, every other, first and third, second and fourth.

00:08:12:13 - 00:08:26:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. And then you got figure out where your fifths are. So I like to do first, third and fifth. Okay. And I'll just explain to them, hey, if you're a fifth that means you'll do a first, a third, a fifth that'll feel like every other. But then when it rolls back around to the first, you're actually going to do two weeks in a row.

00:08:26:22 - 00:08:42:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just brace for that. Just understand that, okay. And then like okay, they get it in theory. All right. I've even literally pulled up my Google calendar and I've showed them like this when it says August 7th. That's week one when it says August 14th, that's week two and it says 21st. That's week three, which is 28. That's week four.

00:08:42:03 - 00:09:00:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we we go to September. And I'm like, now you try it in September. Which one are the weeks you're serving if you're on week one and three for example. And like once they get that understanding it makes sense. Also, I can recommend some sort of scheduling feature, you know, for my tech team, I use planning center services for the rest of our team.

00:09:00:14 - 00:09:30:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We use Church Community Builder, which is our church's database. Whatever you use, whatever you have, if you can send some sort of invitation for them to serve, that would be great. But that leads me to my second see in my building a strong volunteer team is contact. How are you going to contact them? See, here's what happens. A lot of times in churches is especially when serving with students, we want students to serve even in our greater teams on our church, like our tech team or worship team or our greeting team.

00:09:30:23 - 00:09:54:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But we treat them once again, those teams like adults, and we should and we should start working them towards that. However, in most cases when you're scheduling adults, you're scheduling them through email. Most students do. They have an email. It's not a regular discipline of them checking it very often, if at all. And so in Planning Center and it also church community builder, both of them have integration for text messages.

00:09:54:05 - 00:10:11:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And most students are receiving text messages at this point. And then if students are not, we have to get to their parents. Right? And we say, okay, well, you have a phone, so I'm going to send this to your parents and you're going to get notified via your parents mobile. Whatever. Now, I handle that on an individual basis with every single student.

00:10:11:25 - 00:10:31:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's much more than just fill out this form, I'll put you on and I'll show you like I have that conversation. Let them know your first and third, and then I'll. I get from them what I need in order to contact them effectively and in my mind to contact every student effectively, I need to text them. And in both cases, both planning center and church community builder.

00:10:31:03 - 00:10:49:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I need to know their cell phone carrier. It's a weird question. Most students know the answer to it. It's like, is it AT&T? Is it Verizon? Is it T-Mobile? Once I put that in, I'm able to schedule them and they're able to get text message notifications for when they're scheduled. And then the last piece of it, the third key is conflicts.

00:10:49:25 - 00:11:07:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What do you do when you can't come to church. Set the expectation now. So I say your schedule first and third I'm going to text you. You're going to get a notification. Either accept it or decline it. Coach them up, train them how you want them to do that, and then say, if you can't make it, I need you to find yourself a sub.

00:11:07:04 - 00:11:28:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's how I prefer to do it. You don't have to do it. That way. If you want them to tell you about conflicts and decline and you go find their sub, that's fine. It just adds work back straight to your play as opposed to them finding a sub on their own and then letting you know, hey, I'm not going to be there and I got so-and-so to fill in for me, then all your bases are covered.

00:11:28:26 - 00:11:42:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when you're building a social media team, you kind of have two prongs to it. You have your capturing or your filming of it, and then you also have your editing of it. And so you can truly have like an infinite number of volunteers

00:11:42:19 - 00:11:47:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we've found for like, seven questions, just our videos. It's good to have a camera operator.

00:11:47:22 - 00:12:12:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If we're doing separate microphones, it's good to have a microphone operator. We've also found it's good to have like a director, someone who's telling the people on, the talent, so to speak, what they're doing. We've even found it's good to have, TV, off, off camera that the people. So if I'm on camera playing the game, there's a TV right over there, and it's keeping track of the number of questions is even got the scripts like on a slide for them.

00:12:12:08 - 00:12:28:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's good to have a person running that. And then the last, like I said, we're in a studio. And so there are people in the hallway kind of waiting. It's good to have a host, a person out in the hallway, a person making sure that they're quiet so that when you're filming, you're not getting like the audio bleed over or whatever.

00:12:28:11 - 00:12:46:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you can have up to five people on that week. All right. And then if you have five people that week and say five people on the week that you do drafts and you might not need as many when you're doing man on the Street or the other video that we're going to look at in my fourth and final installment of, church social media that is done easy for you.

00:12:46:21 - 00:13:05:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But you can theoretically see how you can get to ten, 12, 15 different people. And then you add editors on top of that. When are they coming into the office? Do they have the gear at home? Can they edit it on something like cap cut on their app, on their phone, and then deliver that content back to you so that you can post it?

00:13:05:18 - 00:13:21:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or can you even have them just in charge of the posting calendar and the posting schedule, and you can just hand those things off to it. So again, the point is the sky's the limit if you only have 2 or 3 students who are on your team, you just have them work every week, right? Or you do these every other week and that's when they serve.

00:13:21:14 - 00:13:38:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the athletes that you don't have anything for social media. But as you're building your team, you need to work through that three see framework, the calendar. How are you going to communicate it? Where are you going to print it? Where are they going to see it? How are you going to handle first, third, fifth Sundays? How are you going to contact them and how are you going to handle conflicts?

00:13:38:11 - 00:13:58:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now moving on to our fourth and final video in this playlist. In this strategy, we are going to link it right here on screen. So you can go ahead and take a look at that fourth and final easy social media idea for churches and for youth ministries. Don't forget, we had the Hybrid Ministry show are trying to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible.

00:13:58:12 - 00:14:02:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So as always, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> 💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

=========
DESCRIPTION
My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing!
In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders.

//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/117
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//Social Challenge 4 Part Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

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

💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

//Giphy
https://giphy.com/

//Studio Tour & Gear Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVT1xvh9-5k&t=557s

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

Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies!

🔗 https://linktr.ee/clasonnick

🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100

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

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Easy Social Media for Churches #3
01:41 How to Play
05:59 How to Add more Volunteers
07:10 1C
09:11 2C
10:45 3C
13:39 Easy Social Media Idea #4

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Easy social media idea for

00:00:02:17 - 00:00:06:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
churches and youth ministries. Part three. In

00:00:06:11 - 00:00:15:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this video, I'm going to share with you one of, if not the easiest way to start creating custom social media content for you and your

00:00:15:06 - 00:00:23:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
church, in your youth ministry, with you, with your leaders, with your students. This is a continuation of the video playlist which is linked right

00:00:23:01 - 00:00:23:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here.

00:00:23:10 - 00:00:27:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is part three out of four of what I do in my four

00:00:27:20 - 00:00:31:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
part social media strategy. For me and my churches.

00:00:31:08 - 00:00:37:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and this is easily the best

00:00:37:02 - 00:00:55:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
strategy and the one that we have seen the most traction with not only creating good custom social media content for our church and our student ministry, but also with adding people to our social media team so that I have less on my plate as a youth pastor to do, and there's more ministry being passed off and handed off to our students.

00:00:55:27 - 00:01:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'm also going to share with you in this video my three part proven three C formula for adding student volunteers to our social media team. And as always, if you're here on YouTube, don't forget that there are chapters included at the bottom of this video so that you can go ahead and skip around. But my social challenge idea number three is called man on the Street.

00:01:17:21 - 00:01:41:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now you don't have to call it man on the street, but essentially you've seen these style videos. It's interview style videos where you have someone walking around with a microphone and they're interviewing someone and asking them any sort of question and the comedy in it, or the interesting part in it is really just in the person's answers and or in the interaction or in the banter that may or may or may not go on between the two people.

00:01:41:11 - 00:01:46:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One of the wins that we've seen, how we do it in our student ministry, is we create 4

00:01:46:03 - 00:01:58:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to 5 questions for any given night, in any given like season. So for example, a couple months back it was back to school. So we did a bunch of back to school sort of themed questions like, what's the worst cafeteria food you've ever had?

00:01:58:26 - 00:02:06:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What's the worst lunch food you've ever eaten? What's the what's your like number one thing on your back to school shopping list? And we ask

00:02:06:18 - 00:02:11:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
all five questions to like as many people in that night as we can three, four,

00:02:11:22 - 00:02:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
five, six, seven interviews. And then what you do is you just take one of those questions and you spice up all the answers.

00:02:17:27 - 00:02:33:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You may include them all. You may choose to leave some out if they're not as interesting or as good. And then you can also create like, just some interesting things in the edit. The power I believe on this is the power is done in the edit. And I have

00:02:33:07 - 00:02:37:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
found that this video in particular is one that students really enjoy editing.

00:02:37:20 - 00:02:53:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now it is a little bit more complicated because, if you're doing it in something like Adobe Premiere Pro, you may just end up with a lot of different layers. And if you're not a skilled editor or if you don't have experience in editing something like this, you may just get turned around. So this one is tougher to hand off to volunteers.

00:02:53:22 - 00:03:04:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Which is why in the last video, my seven questions video, is where I want to encourage students to start that one seems like, easy first kind of starting spot, but this one students can really let their creativity

00:03:04:24 - 00:03:15:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
run wild. And so what we do is we just do like five different questions seasonally based. And so as this video drops mid-October, you might do some Halloween, you might do some Thanksgiving videos.

00:03:15:22 - 00:03:16:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you might

00:03:16:21 - 00:03:39:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
do like what are what is the best Halloween candy? What is the worst Halloween? Cat candy or, like, thing you've ever gotten in your bucket as you've gone trick or treating? What is your, least favorite Thanksgiving food? You get to the Thanksgiving table and you see it on the table and you're like, oh man, I can't believe that that is being served right now.

00:03:39:04 - 00:03:46:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What are you going to be asking for for Christmas? And then what is the worst road trip you've ever taken around Christmas or

00:03:46:24 - 00:03:55:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
something like that? Right. There's five questions you ask all five of those, and then you ask as many people as you can. You can do this with the gear list link

00:03:55:17 - 00:03:57:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
down below in the template.

00:03:57:22 - 00:03:58:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's the one that's

00:03:58:16 - 00:04:13:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
been included in all of these videos. It's got my Photoshop template for the last two videos. It's got gear recommendations, it's got topic recommendations. And you can take those topics and you can use them for seven questions. You can take them and use them for drafts, or you can take them and curate and curtail them to be working for you.

00:04:13:23 - 00:04:35:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this man on the street style video. Now, go ahead and give me a like if this video so far has provided value and go ahead and give me a subscribe if this is something that you might think that you might start implementing in your student ministry. But like I said, the power is in the edit. So the more like gifts, B-roll or sound effects that you can create as people are giving answers, you can zoom

00:04:35:02 - 00:04:37:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in, you can zoom out, you can do like,

00:04:37:12 - 00:04:39:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like one of my favorite resources.

00:04:39:25 - 00:05:01:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'll link it down below in the description is Giphy g I p h y.com and we can search GIFs there. And I've just sent students there and they will find GIFs, to kind of add on screen as people are giving answers and sometimes so much so that there's like so many GIFs on the screen that we don't even see the people, like answering the questions.

00:05:01:10 - 00:05:17:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But this is, again, this is a great way for students to kind of let their creativity run wild. Now, here's the other thing that man on the street does. So if you're watching our last two videos, we talked about drafts and we talked about seven questions. Those are stationary videos. Those often they take place for us in our studio.

00:05:17:28 - 00:05:38:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you haven't seen our studio tour, go ahead, check out the link down below for that. But those happen in our studio. Those happen in a different section of the building. The good news about men on the street style videos is it forces us to get out of our studio, and it forces us to go be on the streets, go be all throughout the different spaces of our youth ministry.

00:05:38:19 - 00:06:06:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we have an outdoor sports basketball court, so they may be out there. We have an indoor rec room. They may be in there. We have a cafe, they may be in there in the lobby or whatever. And so, they're much more visible. And here's the good news about the visibility once they're visible and once they're doing it, we start to see a, a drastic uptick in people, and their interest level in joining our social media team.

00:06:06:08 - 00:06:27:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're like, hey, can I do this? Can I help, can I join? And so one of the markers, one of the values in, for us and for our student ministry, you know, the apostle Paul says, you shouldn't be a youth pastor. You shouldn't be the only one doing ministry. You should be handing the work of ministry off to equip the saints for works and acts of service.

00:06:27:26 - 00:06:28:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so

00:06:28:06 - 00:06:47:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that's our goal, not only just with the dots, but also with students as well. And so that needs to be our goal. That needs to be what we are aiming to do. And so, as we are growing and building these teams, less and less falls on your plate. You have to create the structure and the scaffolding, and you have to keep that train kind of moving down the tracks.

00:06:47:22 - 00:06:49:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But ultimately you can hand

00:06:49:11 - 00:07:07:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
some of these things off. And this area in particular, a student ministry is something that students actually are interested in doing. No shade, no offense to get services and holding doors open and greeting people, but students love the opportunity. Or at least in general, students love the opportunity to get on camera, be on camera, or run the camera.

00:07:07:29 - 00:07:33:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So with all that being said, here is my proven three C strategy for building a good student volunteer team. The first C is calendar. Actually calendar it out. And what I mean by that, I just use an Excel template and I, you know, have like week one, week two, week three, week four. Now most students get turned around by what any of that means.

00:07:33:14 - 00:07:48:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What is week one was week two, you know. So if you have typically any given like let's say your youth night is Wednesday night, any given month you have four Wednesdays in the month, but occasionally you'll have a fifth. And the fifth is what throws everybody off. Because

00:07:48:05 - 00:07:52:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
if you schedule people once a month, they think they serve every four.

00:07:52:09 - 00:08:12:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if there's a fifth actually is every five, or if they serve every other week, then they may serve every other week. But you throw a fifth in there. And now that messes up when they're landing. And so for clarity, I like to just call it, if you're doing, you know, every other, first and third, second and fourth.

00:08:12:13 - 00:08:26:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. And then you got figure out where your fifths are. So I like to do first, third and fifth. Okay. And I'll just explain to them, hey, if you're a fifth that means you'll do a first, a third, a fifth that'll feel like every other. But then when it rolls back around to the first, you're actually going to do two weeks in a row.

00:08:26:22 - 00:08:42:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just brace for that. Just understand that, okay. And then like okay, they get it in theory. All right. I've even literally pulled up my Google calendar and I've showed them like this when it says August 7th. That's week one when it says August 14th, that's week two and it says 21st. That's week three, which is 28. That's week four.

00:08:42:03 - 00:09:00:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we we go to September. And I'm like, now you try it in September. Which one are the weeks you're serving if you're on week one and three for example. And like once they get that understanding it makes sense. Also, I can recommend some sort of scheduling feature, you know, for my tech team, I use planning center services for the rest of our team.

00:09:00:14 - 00:09:30:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We use Church Community Builder, which is our church's database. Whatever you use, whatever you have, if you can send some sort of invitation for them to serve, that would be great. But that leads me to my second see in my building a strong volunteer team is contact. How are you going to contact them? See, here's what happens. A lot of times in churches is especially when serving with students, we want students to serve even in our greater teams on our church, like our tech team or worship team or our greeting team.

00:09:30:23 - 00:09:54:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But we treat them once again, those teams like adults, and we should and we should start working them towards that. However, in most cases when you're scheduling adults, you're scheduling them through email. Most students do. They have an email. It's not a regular discipline of them checking it very often, if at all. And so in Planning Center and it also church community builder, both of them have integration for text messages.

00:09:54:05 - 00:10:11:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And most students are receiving text messages at this point. And then if students are not, we have to get to their parents. Right? And we say, okay, well, you have a phone, so I'm going to send this to your parents and you're going to get notified via your parents mobile. Whatever. Now, I handle that on an individual basis with every single student.

00:10:11:25 - 00:10:31:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's much more than just fill out this form, I'll put you on and I'll show you like I have that conversation. Let them know your first and third, and then I'll. I get from them what I need in order to contact them effectively and in my mind to contact every student effectively, I need to text them. And in both cases, both planning center and church community builder.

00:10:31:03 - 00:10:49:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I need to know their cell phone carrier. It's a weird question. Most students know the answer to it. It's like, is it AT&T? Is it Verizon? Is it T-Mobile? Once I put that in, I'm able to schedule them and they're able to get text message notifications for when they're scheduled. And then the last piece of it, the third key is conflicts.

00:10:49:25 - 00:11:07:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What do you do when you can't come to church. Set the expectation now. So I say your schedule first and third I'm going to text you. You're going to get a notification. Either accept it or decline it. Coach them up, train them how you want them to do that, and then say, if you can't make it, I need you to find yourself a sub.

00:11:07:04 - 00:11:28:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's how I prefer to do it. You don't have to do it. That way. If you want them to tell you about conflicts and decline and you go find their sub, that's fine. It just adds work back straight to your play as opposed to them finding a sub on their own and then letting you know, hey, I'm not going to be there and I got so-and-so to fill in for me, then all your bases are covered.

00:11:28:26 - 00:11:42:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when you're building a social media team, you kind of have two prongs to it. You have your capturing or your filming of it, and then you also have your editing of it. And so you can truly have like an infinite number of volunteers

00:11:42:19 - 00:11:47:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we've found for like, seven questions, just our videos. It's good to have a camera operator.

00:11:47:22 - 00:12:12:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If we're doing separate microphones, it's good to have a microphone operator. We've also found it's good to have like a director, someone who's telling the people on, the talent, so to speak, what they're doing. We've even found it's good to have, TV, off, off camera that the people. So if I'm on camera playing the game, there's a TV right over there, and it's keeping track of the number of questions is even got the scripts like on a slide for them.

00:12:12:08 - 00:12:28:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's good to have a person running that. And then the last, like I said, we're in a studio. And so there are people in the hallway kind of waiting. It's good to have a host, a person out in the hallway, a person making sure that they're quiet so that when you're filming, you're not getting like the audio bleed over or whatever.

00:12:28:11 - 00:12:46:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you can have up to five people on that week. All right. And then if you have five people that week and say five people on the week that you do drafts and you might not need as many when you're doing man on the Street or the other video that we're going to look at in my fourth and final installment of, church social media that is done easy for you.

00:12:46:21 - 00:13:05:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But you can theoretically see how you can get to ten, 12, 15 different people. And then you add editors on top of that. When are they coming into the office? Do they have the gear at home? Can they edit it on something like cap cut on their app, on their phone, and then deliver that content back to you so that you can post it?

00:13:05:18 - 00:13:21:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or can you even have them just in charge of the posting calendar and the posting schedule, and you can just hand those things off to it. So again, the point is the sky's the limit if you only have 2 or 3 students who are on your team, you just have them work every week, right? Or you do these every other week and that's when they serve.

00:13:21:14 - 00:13:38:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the athletes that you don't have anything for social media. But as you're building your team, you need to work through that three see framework, the calendar. How are you going to communicate it? Where are you going to print it? Where are they going to see it? How are you going to handle first, third, fifth Sundays? How are you going to contact them and how are you going to handle conflicts?

00:13:38:11 - 00:13:58:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now moving on to our fourth and final video in this playlist. In this strategy, we are going to link it right here on screen. So you can go ahead and take a look at that fourth and final easy social media idea for churches and for youth ministries. Don't forget, we had the Hybrid Ministry show are trying to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible.

00:13:58:12 - 00:14:02:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So as always, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 117: How Churches Can Use Social Media (Ideas & Examples) Part 2 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/117 257bdea1-fe74-4f86-9ff8-3009ef2df3f3 Thu, 03 Oct 2024 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 117 How Churches Can Use Social Media (Ideas & Examples) Part 2 full Nick Clason My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing! In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders. //SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/117 15:50 no 💡100 Topics Ideas &amp; Templates💡 https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis 🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥 https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ========= DESCRIPTION My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing! In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders. //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/117 ====================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //Social Challenge 4 Part Playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s //Custom Coaching https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 💡100 Topics Ideas &amp; Templates💡 https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis //Studio Tour &amp; Gear Links https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVT1xvh9-5k&amp;t=557s //Free Stock Photography https://unsplash.com/ https://www.pexels.com/ 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz 🆓 FREEBIES 🆓 Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies! 🔗 https://linktr.ee/clasonnick 🛠️TOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Easy Social Idea #2 02:14 Easy for Viewers to Play 03:43 How I use the Seven Questions Photoshop Template 10:56 How I use the Drafts Photoshop Template TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Easy social 00:00:01:28 - 00:00:06:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry media ideas for churches and youth ministries. Idea number two, 00:00:06:10 - 00:00:14:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry which is a continuation of the video playlist, is linked right here at the top of the screen. I'm going to show you and tell you how I get 00:00:14:02 - 00:00:23:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry more done by doing less. You know, we explored, in the last video, the first part of my four part church social challenge framework. 00:00:23:16 - 00:00:31:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And in this video, I am going to tell you exactly how we capture these videos with the results that you see here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube. 00:00:31:29 - 00:00:42:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then I'm also going to show you how I set up the Photoshop template for this game type along with the game type included in the last video, and it's going to be here all shown on screen. 00:00:42:18 - 00:01:00:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you're listening, you may want to hop over to the YouTube channel for this one. And as always, over here on YouTube, there are chapters included at the bottom of this video so that you can skip around to the parts that are most relevant to you. But social challenge idea number two, that we do in our church and in our student ministry is a game called 00:01:00:24 - 00:01:02:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry name of the game is seven questions. 00:01:02:20 - 00:01:23:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now here's the deal about seven questions. Seven questions is essentially a guessing game. So you have two contestants and they sit across from each other or next to each other on screen. And one contestant has something in their brain. Think honestly. Think like 20 questions. But we just reduced it down to seven. So contestant number one, they're going to have something in their brain. 00:01:23:18 - 00:01:25:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Let's just pretend the thing in their brain 00:01:25:07 - 00:01:59:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry is, a green snowflake mug, as you see here on screen that I'm drinking my coffee out of this morning. And so they're going to say, I am thinking of a thing. And so then the next person has seven questions to try and guess what thing they are guessing. And so they'll ask them yes or no based questions as they ask them either a checkmark for yes answers will show up on the screen, or a x for wrong answers was a checkmark for yes answers and an X for no answers will show up on the screen because it's just going to be keeping track one, 2345, 00:01:59:22 - 00:02:14:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry six, seven on screen. Of how many questions have been asked by the seventh question, they need to submit their guess. And then at the very end of the video, the person will say, let us know down below in the comments how you did. Now, here's one of the reasons that I love 00:02:15:11 - 00:02:21:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry this game. If I'm thinking about hybrid, and if I'm thinking about, melding my in-person along with my digital together. 00:02:21:27 - 00:02:37:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I like this game because the way that we open it up and here's the script for it. Feel free to copy it. It goes like this. The name of the game is seven questions. If you want to play along, go ahead and close your eyes. The answer is going to be right here on screen. Category is thing. Here we go. 00:02:37:29 - 00:02:38:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then the 00:02:38:09 - 00:02:42:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry other person will start asking them yes or no questions. And so in theory, if someone's scrolling through 00:02:42:24 - 00:02:49:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry social media and they're encouraged to play along, or at least given the option to play along in their set, and they're being told to close 00:02:49:10 - 00:02:56:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry their eyes. If they close their eyes, the, green mug will pop up on the screen with the eyes closed, and so you won't actually see it. 00:02:56:20 - 00:03:08:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'll add some sort of sound effect to let it know that it's gone, and then they can open their eyes again, and they can try and guess the item along with the other person on the in the game in real life, who is, trying to guess it 00:03:08:17 - 00:03:17:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry now, just like the draft style, videos that we do, these are a fantastic way to get students mingling together to invite them, to be a part 00:03:17:06 - 00:03:18:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry of our social media. 00:03:18:15 - 00:03:19:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All kinds of different 00:03:19:09 - 00:03:25:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry setups and gear recommendations are also included in the templated link that was in the last episode. It's also going to be included. Same 00:03:25:07 - 00:03:33:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry link in this episode. And so, viewers can, play along. The people in the room get to play along. People in the studio that we have are 00:03:33:28 - 00:03:40:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry getting a chance to kind of like, run the room and run audio and run video and edit all of these things. 00:03:40:10 - 00:03:43:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But what I want to do is I want to show you how I have 00:03:43:03 - 00:04:01:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry created a template. And so if you are watching, here on YouTube, you'll get an opportunity to see I'm going to be, sharing my screen and what you're going to be seeing, right here in just a couple seconds. Is my, screen with the Photoshop template. 00:04:01:07 - 00:04:03:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so right here, this is 00:04:03:07 - 00:04:21:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry the template that I use. And so the very first thing here in Photoshop is I have this layer right here. And it's just like a TikTok template layer. And so I use that for this as well as if you look right here on screen, this is our draft template. I just have that on screen so that I know where the elements for social media are. 00:04:21:28 - 00:04:41:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. I know that TikTok, Instagram, YouTube shorts, their menu options are right aligned. Right? So the follow button, the like button, the comment and all the stuff on the right side of the screen. So I try to stay on the left side of the screen. And I also know down here at the bottom is where the text or the captions or any of the other comments will kind of pop up along with the menu. 00:04:41:08 - 00:05:11:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So I try to kind of stay away from there. I just downloaded this this template off of Google. If you download this template for me, it'll be included right here in this Photoshop file as the, bottommost layer. I just have it title as layer one because I haven't changed it yet. But you, if you're not going to use this template that I have, or if you don't have Photoshop, you can just grab something off of Google to kind of put that in at the base of whatever editor you're using something on, and maybe Canva or something and something even on your phone. 00:05:11:03 - 00:05:29:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Or if you are using your phone, you may not be able to import a layer like this, but if you are using your phone, just know to kind of stay away from the the left and the bottom right. Those are sort of like the danger zones, so to speak, of, of of social media, of Instagram Reels, of TikTok and all that type of stuff. 00:05:29:20 - 00:05:50:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So anyway, so this is what my template right here looks like. Like I said, it's for the game seven questions. And so, I'll have student A and student B and let me just give you a little hack. If you're recording these in bulk, which we typically do, I make the student say their name. And then I also make the student spell it because when the student comes back on, I do want their name to be on screen. 00:05:50:10 - 00:06:05:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry First name? Only. And when I do that, I want their name to be on screen and I want it to be spelled correctly. And so if I don't know any of their names, or if I didn't know exactly how to spell it, having them spell it helps me make sure that I get their name exactly right on the template. 00:06:05:19 - 00:06:40:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's just a little hack for running the room. But I cut all that out. I don't include, like, my name is Nick. Nick, I take that part, I might say my name is Nick. Cut. And Nick, and then the next person, my name is Caleb. Caleb cut out the Caleb and then say name game seven questions or I may just cut all the name stuff out together and jump right there to where it says the name of the game is Seven questions, because my name and his name is going to be on the screen together and therefore we don't have to, you know, worry about getting that across the in kind of name tag 00:06:40:19 - 00:07:00:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry thing right here matters. Now you'll notice that they're behind some of these other layers. And that's okay because in Photoshop, what we're going to do when we jump over here into premiere, we get to adjust where they are and what like layer they're at. So in this particular one, you'll notice that the students names are beneath the layers. 00:07:00:09 - 00:07:21:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But all all I need to do if I want to, raise those up is I need to just grab these layers and I'm going to give myself just a little bit more, visual space on this. I can just elevate those all the way to the top. And so now those are on the top. Everything in Photoshop, everything in Adobe is kind of layers, dependent and layers based. 00:07:21:14 - 00:07:38:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And now as I go through, they are on top. I also just so you know, because they are sort of in the way I only keep them for the first little bit, and then once they start asking questions, I actually cut them. And so here's me cutting the names out of the, the thing that I'm editing. And so name name name name name. 00:07:38:27 - 00:08:01:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then they're gone. So anyway, all that to be said, I have just this template, these, 123456, seven numbers. If you're watching here on screen, off to the left side, out of the way of any, text or icons on screen. And then I also have, X's and I have them labeled over here in my panel. 00:08:01:12 - 00:08:22:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. X1, x2, x3 x4 x5 x6 x7. But right beneath them. Watch if I hide this layer just with the eyeball tool. Beneath it is a check mark tool. And so depending on what their answer is, I will then pull over either an X or a check when they ask the question. So here in the game they're asking a question. 00:08:22:14 - 00:08:49:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And all these are right ones. And so when they ask it, we just pull in, check one right here. From, from this, from this Photoshop layer, file over here on the left hand side. And so in order to get that in there, you finish editing your thing. So in this particular instance, in the seven questions, the thing that they're thinking of was a dog. 00:08:49:02 - 00:09:07:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so I put a picture of a dog here on screen. And you just swap that out for whatever, the item is in the person's brain. And so then I save this file, save as, and, I would go in here to, where my file is stored on my hard drive. So in this particular case, this is what you would see in your download. 00:09:07:21 - 00:09:27:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Look, something like that. Go over here into Adobe Premiere Pro, and I am going to drag this item into my, project bin over here. When I do, it gives me an import layer option in Adobe Premiere Pro. And if I hit this little drop down menu, I can do merge all layers, and that will just bring the whole thing in as an image all together. 00:09:27:13 - 00:09:49:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Merged layers, individual layers or sequence. You're going to want to hit individual layers, and it's going to break every single thing up into an individual layer. So now when I open it up, you'll see if I just preview these, here's my numbers, here's my checks. All the way down through here is layer one. There's my TikTok layer. I don't need that but just going to be in there. 00:09:49:17 - 00:10:07:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Questions seven. So I'm using that to kind of I'm going to animate those layers in. So right here you'll see they come in right here and we do some animations on those as they like fly in or flicker in paired with like a sound effect. Here's their, their names. And those are going to be in alphabetical order. 00:10:07:08 - 00:10:28:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So n would be for Nick would be in alphabetical order here. In this in this Adobe Premiere Pro thing, it would be wherever N would go in the alphabetical list. And then here's all my X's and again it's alphabetical order. And so X1X2X2X4X5X7 depending on if they get it right or wrong. You can add sound effects down here. 00:10:28:18 - 00:10:46:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You can get them from three three places stuff like that. You can also, you want to keep it, like I said, under a minute. So I tend to cut out any of the thinking or if the thinking is funny in any way, I might put a sound effect or zoom in on their face, or put some sort of, like, funny thing on screen to kind of keep the video moving. 00:10:46:04 - 00:11:06:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But that's all you got to do, right? So if you are editing with, Adobe products, this is how simple it is. And you can just take and borrow this template and use it to edit your videos. Now, in the last video we talked about drafts, and this is my draft template, which is a little bit more intensive out of the simple in sheer fact, because there are ten things as opposed to only seven things. 00:11:06:23 - 00:11:25:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Same concept. So we're going to save all these things. The only thing that's different is I use circles here. So zoomed in on screen you'll see those. And this is apparently from a breakfast draft and also leftovers of a Bible hero's draft. But this person picked bacon. And so what you'll notice here is that this got this little arrow. 00:11:25:15 - 00:11:43:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What that is, is that's called a clipping mask. And so what I've done is I just snagged this picture off of Google, or you can do a royalty free site like pexels.com or unsplash.com. Links to those down below in the show notes. But you just simply right click and you can create a clipping mask over this circle that's here. 00:11:43:00 - 00:12:06:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. And so in all of these cases, the circles are already in existence. And so if you go through and I hide these things, this is a numbers with a circle base, underneath all of them. And so I just copy and paste a picture. And so what I do just to kind of show you how it's done, I might do so for, doing coffee products. 00:12:06:24 - 00:12:27:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I might do a coffee mug. Find a coffee mug here. And choose this one. This one seems cool. Copy. And so if I'm replacing out this template, I don't want bacon anymore. I select that layer. It's not selected over here in the layer selection panel. If I delete it, I release and got rid of the clipping mask. 00:12:27:28 - 00:12:44:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And now ellipse one is the one that is highlighted. And so you're going to want to make sure that that happens. Otherwise there's just so many layers that you're going to kind of get lost I'll paste this in here. And now this layer is on top of my ellipse layer as I hit command T to transform and adjust the size. 00:12:44:01 - 00:13:01:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm just going to adjust to size right over top of the circles here. Zoom back in so I can get it where I want it to be. There it is. And and then, I'm going to accept the changes and now it's right here, but it's not in its clipped mask. So I'm going to right click on that. 00:13:01:05 - 00:13:20:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I'm going to click Create Clipping Mask. And I can then still adjust what is visible there on screen by hitting command and adjusting the size ever so slightly. And then one thing that you're going to want to do is label this really well. So this is the layer. Layer two is the layer that you're going to bring in on top of it over in premiere. 00:13:20:09 - 00:13:34:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So let's say I'm the first person. So I just label it in for Nick. And then one and so then that way I know that it's n one and that's my mug option. And as long as it stays in this template, when you bring it over in premiere, it's going to be exactly where you want it to stay. 00:13:35:05 - 00:13:57:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, if I wanted to change names, that's the beautiful thing about Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro is that, if I, have brought this over here, let's say back to our seven questions. If I brought these in with names, but I got the names wrong. All I got to do is go back here into my student A, student B, all I got to do is just change this. 00:13:57:17 - 00:14:20:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If I wanted to change this name to Caleb and then click File Save As and drop it here, replace. Now back over here and promote Premiere Pro. That name is going to update here in just a second. It may take a minute, but it'll update over to Caleb. And so that's something I think that's pretty cool. 00:14:20:27 - 00:14:41:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know what? This is actually from an old this is from, a different layer. So let me so this student B was updated to Caleb. So let me pull that in. Look now it says Caleb. So or now this will actually work if you're watching, if I change it back to student B and then I click File Save as replacing that sucker. 00:14:42:01 - 00:15:06:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now over here. Watch. There went you might you might not have seen it because it happens so fast. That's the beautiful thing about Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop. So as I quit sharing my screen here, I just very simply want to say to all of you that these right here, especially seven questions, are really easy one, to get students who have absolutely no editing skills to get going on editing. 00:15:06:02 - 00:15:26:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They're quick. They're they're easy to edit because they're under a minute. Usually. And so I can hand one of these over to them, and I can show them how to drag and drop the layers and make sure that they're in the right spot, add some sound effects. And off we go to the races. Now moving on. We are in our four part, my Church's Social Challenge videos. 00:15:26:17 - 00:15:46:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry These are how I get more things done with students. We're going to move on to the third video type in our strategy. And that video is linked right here on screen. So go ahead and click that video and we'll see you over there. Don't forget that we are making digital discipleship easy possible. And accessible. So as always don't forget to stay hybrid. Easy Social Media Ideas for Churches, Student Ministry, Social Media Strategy, Church Social Media Strategy, Youth Group Social media Ideas, DO more for less work, Youth Ministry Social Media Ideas, Youth Ministry Social Media Examples, Hybrid Ministry, Nick Clason 💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
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My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing!
In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders.

//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
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📓SHOWNOTES
//Social Challenge 4 Part Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

//Custom Coaching
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https://www.pexels.com/

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Easy Social Idea #2
02:14 Easy for Viewers to Play
03:43 How I use the Seven Questions Photoshop Template
10:56 How I use the Drafts Photoshop Template

TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Easy social

00:00:01:28 - 00:00:06:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
media ideas for churches and youth ministries. Idea number two,

00:00:06:10 - 00:00:14:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
which is a continuation of the video playlist, is linked right here at the top of the screen. I'm going to show you and tell you how I get

00:00:14:02 - 00:00:23:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
more done by doing less. You know, we explored, in the last video, the first part of my four part church social challenge framework.

00:00:23:16 - 00:00:31:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in this video, I am going to tell you exactly how we capture these videos with the results that you see here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube.

00:00:31:29 - 00:00:42:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then I'm also going to show you how I set up the Photoshop template for this game type along with the game type included in the last video, and it's going to be here all shown on screen.

00:00:42:18 - 00:01:00:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're listening, you may want to hop over to the YouTube channel for this one. And as always, over here on YouTube, there are chapters included at the bottom of this video so that you can skip around to the parts that are most relevant to you. But social challenge idea number two, that we do in our church and in our student ministry is a game called

00:01:00:24 - 00:01:02:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
name of the game is seven questions.

00:01:02:20 - 00:01:23:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now here's the deal about seven questions. Seven questions is essentially a guessing game. So you have two contestants and they sit across from each other or next to each other on screen. And one contestant has something in their brain. Think honestly. Think like 20 questions. But we just reduced it down to seven. So contestant number one, they're going to have something in their brain.

00:01:23:18 - 00:01:25:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's just pretend the thing in their brain

00:01:25:07 - 00:01:59:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is, a green snowflake mug, as you see here on screen that I'm drinking my coffee out of this morning. And so they're going to say, I am thinking of a thing. And so then the next person has seven questions to try and guess what thing they are guessing. And so they'll ask them yes or no based questions as they ask them either a checkmark for yes answers will show up on the screen, or a x for wrong answers was a checkmark for yes answers and an X for no answers will show up on the screen because it's just going to be keeping track one, 2345,

00:01:59:22 - 00:02:14:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
six, seven on screen. Of how many questions have been asked by the seventh question, they need to submit their guess. And then at the very end of the video, the person will say, let us know down below in the comments how you did. Now, here's one of the reasons that I love

00:02:15:11 - 00:02:21:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this game. If I'm thinking about hybrid, and if I'm thinking about, melding my in-person along with my digital together.

00:02:21:27 - 00:02:37:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I like this game because the way that we open it up and here's the script for it. Feel free to copy it. It goes like this. The name of the game is seven questions. If you want to play along, go ahead and close your eyes. The answer is going to be right here on screen. Category is thing. Here we go.

00:02:37:29 - 00:02:38:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the

00:02:38:09 - 00:02:42:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
other person will start asking them yes or no questions. And so in theory, if someone's scrolling through

00:02:42:24 - 00:02:49:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
social media and they're encouraged to play along, or at least given the option to play along in their set, and they're being told to close

00:02:49:10 - 00:02:56:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
their eyes. If they close their eyes, the, green mug will pop up on the screen with the eyes closed, and so you won't actually see it.

00:02:56:20 - 00:03:08:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'll add some sort of sound effect to let it know that it's gone, and then they can open their eyes again, and they can try and guess the item along with the other person on the in the game in real life, who is, trying to guess it

00:03:08:17 - 00:03:17:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
now, just like the draft style, videos that we do, these are a fantastic way to get students mingling together to invite them, to be a part

00:03:17:06 - 00:03:18:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of our social media.

00:03:18:15 - 00:03:19:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All kinds of different

00:03:19:09 - 00:03:25:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
setups and gear recommendations are also included in the templated link that was in the last episode. It's also going to be included. Same

00:03:25:07 - 00:03:33:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
link in this episode. And so, viewers can, play along. The people in the room get to play along. People in the studio that we have are

00:03:33:28 - 00:03:40:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
getting a chance to kind of like, run the room and run audio and run video and edit all of these things.

00:03:40:10 - 00:03:43:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But what I want to do is I want to show you how I have

00:03:43:03 - 00:04:01:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
created a template. And so if you are watching, here on YouTube, you'll get an opportunity to see I'm going to be, sharing my screen and what you're going to be seeing, right here in just a couple seconds. Is my, screen with the Photoshop template.

00:04:01:07 - 00:04:03:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so right here, this is

00:04:03:07 - 00:04:21:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the template that I use. And so the very first thing here in Photoshop is I have this layer right here. And it's just like a TikTok template layer. And so I use that for this as well as if you look right here on screen, this is our draft template. I just have that on screen so that I know where the elements for social media are.

00:04:21:28 - 00:04:41:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. I know that TikTok, Instagram, YouTube shorts, their menu options are right aligned. Right? So the follow button, the like button, the comment and all the stuff on the right side of the screen. So I try to stay on the left side of the screen. And I also know down here at the bottom is where the text or the captions or any of the other comments will kind of pop up along with the menu.

00:04:41:08 - 00:05:11:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I try to kind of stay away from there. I just downloaded this this template off of Google. If you download this template for me, it'll be included right here in this Photoshop file as the, bottommost layer. I just have it title as layer one because I haven't changed it yet. But you, if you're not going to use this template that I have, or if you don't have Photoshop, you can just grab something off of Google to kind of put that in at the base of whatever editor you're using something on, and maybe Canva or something and something even on your phone.

00:05:11:03 - 00:05:29:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or if you are using your phone, you may not be able to import a layer like this, but if you are using your phone, just know to kind of stay away from the the left and the bottom right. Those are sort of like the danger zones, so to speak, of, of of social media, of Instagram Reels, of TikTok and all that type of stuff.

00:05:29:20 - 00:05:50:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So anyway, so this is what my template right here looks like. Like I said, it's for the game seven questions. And so, I'll have student A and student B and let me just give you a little hack. If you're recording these in bulk, which we typically do, I make the student say their name. And then I also make the student spell it because when the student comes back on, I do want their name to be on screen.

00:05:50:10 - 00:06:05:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
First name? Only. And when I do that, I want their name to be on screen and I want it to be spelled correctly. And so if I don't know any of their names, or if I didn't know exactly how to spell it, having them spell it helps me make sure that I get their name exactly right on the template.

00:06:05:19 - 00:06:40:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's just a little hack for running the room. But I cut all that out. I don't include, like, my name is Nick. Nick, I take that part, I might say my name is Nick. Cut. And Nick, and then the next person, my name is Caleb. Caleb cut out the Caleb and then say name game seven questions or I may just cut all the name stuff out together and jump right there to where it says the name of the game is Seven questions, because my name and his name is going to be on the screen together and therefore we don't have to, you know, worry about getting that across the in kind of name tag

00:06:40:19 - 00:07:00:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
thing right here matters. Now you'll notice that they're behind some of these other layers. And that's okay because in Photoshop, what we're going to do when we jump over here into premiere, we get to adjust where they are and what like layer they're at. So in this particular one, you'll notice that the students names are beneath the layers.

00:07:00:09 - 00:07:21:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But all all I need to do if I want to, raise those up is I need to just grab these layers and I'm going to give myself just a little bit more, visual space on this. I can just elevate those all the way to the top. And so now those are on the top. Everything in Photoshop, everything in Adobe is kind of layers, dependent and layers based.

00:07:21:14 - 00:07:38:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And now as I go through, they are on top. I also just so you know, because they are sort of in the way I only keep them for the first little bit, and then once they start asking questions, I actually cut them. And so here's me cutting the names out of the, the thing that I'm editing. And so name name name name name.

00:07:38:27 - 00:08:01:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then they're gone. So anyway, all that to be said, I have just this template, these, 123456, seven numbers. If you're watching here on screen, off to the left side, out of the way of any, text or icons on screen. And then I also have, X's and I have them labeled over here in my panel.

00:08:01:12 - 00:08:22:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. X1, x2, x3 x4 x5 x6 x7. But right beneath them. Watch if I hide this layer just with the eyeball tool. Beneath it is a check mark tool. And so depending on what their answer is, I will then pull over either an X or a check when they ask the question. So here in the game they're asking a question.

00:08:22:14 - 00:08:49:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And all these are right ones. And so when they ask it, we just pull in, check one right here. From, from this, from this Photoshop layer, file over here on the left hand side. And so in order to get that in there, you finish editing your thing. So in this particular instance, in the seven questions, the thing that they're thinking of was a dog.

00:08:49:02 - 00:09:07:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I put a picture of a dog here on screen. And you just swap that out for whatever, the item is in the person's brain. And so then I save this file, save as, and, I would go in here to, where my file is stored on my hard drive. So in this particular case, this is what you would see in your download.

00:09:07:21 - 00:09:27:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Look, something like that. Go over here into Adobe Premiere Pro, and I am going to drag this item into my, project bin over here. When I do, it gives me an import layer option in Adobe Premiere Pro. And if I hit this little drop down menu, I can do merge all layers, and that will just bring the whole thing in as an image all together.

00:09:27:13 - 00:09:49:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Merged layers, individual layers or sequence. You're going to want to hit individual layers, and it's going to break every single thing up into an individual layer. So now when I open it up, you'll see if I just preview these, here's my numbers, here's my checks. All the way down through here is layer one. There's my TikTok layer. I don't need that but just going to be in there.

00:09:49:17 - 00:10:07:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Questions seven. So I'm using that to kind of I'm going to animate those layers in. So right here you'll see they come in right here and we do some animations on those as they like fly in or flicker in paired with like a sound effect. Here's their, their names. And those are going to be in alphabetical order.

00:10:07:08 - 00:10:28:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So n would be for Nick would be in alphabetical order here. In this in this Adobe Premiere Pro thing, it would be wherever N would go in the alphabetical list. And then here's all my X's and again it's alphabetical order. And so X1X2X2X4X5X7 depending on if they get it right or wrong. You can add sound effects down here.

00:10:28:18 - 00:10:46:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can get them from three three places stuff like that. You can also, you want to keep it, like I said, under a minute. So I tend to cut out any of the thinking or if the thinking is funny in any way, I might put a sound effect or zoom in on their face, or put some sort of, like, funny thing on screen to kind of keep the video moving.

00:10:46:04 - 00:11:06:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But that's all you got to do, right? So if you are editing with, Adobe products, this is how simple it is. And you can just take and borrow this template and use it to edit your videos. Now, in the last video we talked about drafts, and this is my draft template, which is a little bit more intensive out of the simple in sheer fact, because there are ten things as opposed to only seven things.

00:11:06:23 - 00:11:25:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Same concept. So we're going to save all these things. The only thing that's different is I use circles here. So zoomed in on screen you'll see those. And this is apparently from a breakfast draft and also leftovers of a Bible hero's draft. But this person picked bacon. And so what you'll notice here is that this got this little arrow.

00:11:25:15 - 00:11:43:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What that is, is that's called a clipping mask. And so what I've done is I just snagged this picture off of Google, or you can do a royalty free site like pexels.com or unsplash.com. Links to those down below in the show notes. But you just simply right click and you can create a clipping mask over this circle that's here.

00:11:43:00 - 00:12:06:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And so in all of these cases, the circles are already in existence. And so if you go through and I hide these things, this is a numbers with a circle base, underneath all of them. And so I just copy and paste a picture. And so what I do just to kind of show you how it's done, I might do so for, doing coffee products.

00:12:06:24 - 00:12:27:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I might do a coffee mug. Find a coffee mug here. And choose this one. This one seems cool. Copy. And so if I'm replacing out this template, I don't want bacon anymore. I select that layer. It's not selected over here in the layer selection panel. If I delete it, I release and got rid of the clipping mask.

00:12:27:28 - 00:12:44:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And now ellipse one is the one that is highlighted. And so you're going to want to make sure that that happens. Otherwise there's just so many layers that you're going to kind of get lost I'll paste this in here. And now this layer is on top of my ellipse layer as I hit command T to transform and adjust the size.

00:12:44:01 - 00:13:01:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm just going to adjust to size right over top of the circles here. Zoom back in so I can get it where I want it to be. There it is. And and then, I'm going to accept the changes and now it's right here, but it's not in its clipped mask. So I'm going to right click on that.

00:13:01:05 - 00:13:20:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'm going to click Create Clipping Mask. And I can then still adjust what is visible there on screen by hitting command and adjusting the size ever so slightly. And then one thing that you're going to want to do is label this really well. So this is the layer. Layer two is the layer that you're going to bring in on top of it over in premiere.

00:13:20:09 - 00:13:34:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let's say I'm the first person. So I just label it in for Nick. And then one and so then that way I know that it's n one and that's my mug option. And as long as it stays in this template, when you bring it over in premiere, it's going to be exactly where you want it to stay.

00:13:35:05 - 00:13:57:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, if I wanted to change names, that's the beautiful thing about Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro is that, if I, have brought this over here, let's say back to our seven questions. If I brought these in with names, but I got the names wrong. All I got to do is go back here into my student A, student B, all I got to do is just change this.

00:13:57:17 - 00:14:20:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If I wanted to change this name to Caleb and then click File Save As and drop it here, replace. Now back over here and promote Premiere Pro. That name is going to update here in just a second. It may take a minute, but it'll update over to Caleb. And so that's something I think that's pretty cool.

00:14:20:27 - 00:14:41:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know what? This is actually from an old this is from, a different layer. So let me so this student B was updated to Caleb. So let me pull that in. Look now it says Caleb. So or now this will actually work if you're watching, if I change it back to student B and then I click File Save as replacing that sucker.

00:14:42:01 - 00:15:06:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now over here. Watch. There went you might you might not have seen it because it happens so fast. That's the beautiful thing about Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop. So as I quit sharing my screen here, I just very simply want to say to all of you that these right here, especially seven questions, are really easy one, to get students who have absolutely no editing skills to get going on editing.

00:15:06:02 - 00:15:26:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're quick. They're they're easy to edit because they're under a minute. Usually. And so I can hand one of these over to them, and I can show them how to drag and drop the layers and make sure that they're in the right spot, add some sound effects. And off we go to the races. Now moving on. We are in our four part, my Church's Social Challenge videos.

00:15:26:17 - 00:15:46:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are how I get more things done with students. We're going to move on to the third video type in our strategy. And that video is linked right here on screen. So go ahead and click that video and we'll see you over there. Don't forget that we are making digital discipleship easy possible. And accessible. So as always don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> 💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

=========
DESCRIPTION
My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing!
In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders.

//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/117
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//Social Challenge 4 Part Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B6Qeaa_hPA&list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

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

💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

//Studio Tour & Gear Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVT1xvh9-5k&t=557s

//Free Stock Photography
https://unsplash.com/
https://www.pexels.com/

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

Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies!

🔗 https://linktr.ee/clasonnick

🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100

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

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Easy Social Idea #2
02:14 Easy for Viewers to Play
03:43 How I use the Seven Questions Photoshop Template
10:56 How I use the Drafts Photoshop Template

TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Easy social

00:00:01:28 - 00:00:06:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
media ideas for churches and youth ministries. Idea number two,

00:00:06:10 - 00:00:14:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
which is a continuation of the video playlist, is linked right here at the top of the screen. I'm going to show you and tell you how I get

00:00:14:02 - 00:00:23:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
more done by doing less. You know, we explored, in the last video, the first part of my four part church social challenge framework.

00:00:23:16 - 00:00:31:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in this video, I am going to tell you exactly how we capture these videos with the results that you see here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube.

00:00:31:29 - 00:00:42:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then I'm also going to show you how I set up the Photoshop template for this game type along with the game type included in the last video, and it's going to be here all shown on screen.

00:00:42:18 - 00:01:00:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're listening, you may want to hop over to the YouTube channel for this one. And as always, over here on YouTube, there are chapters included at the bottom of this video so that you can skip around to the parts that are most relevant to you. But social challenge idea number two, that we do in our church and in our student ministry is a game called

00:01:00:24 - 00:01:02:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
name of the game is seven questions.

00:01:02:20 - 00:01:23:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now here's the deal about seven questions. Seven questions is essentially a guessing game. So you have two contestants and they sit across from each other or next to each other on screen. And one contestant has something in their brain. Think honestly. Think like 20 questions. But we just reduced it down to seven. So contestant number one, they're going to have something in their brain.

00:01:23:18 - 00:01:25:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's just pretend the thing in their brain

00:01:25:07 - 00:01:59:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is, a green snowflake mug, as you see here on screen that I'm drinking my coffee out of this morning. And so they're going to say, I am thinking of a thing. And so then the next person has seven questions to try and guess what thing they are guessing. And so they'll ask them yes or no based questions as they ask them either a checkmark for yes answers will show up on the screen, or a x for wrong answers was a checkmark for yes answers and an X for no answers will show up on the screen because it's just going to be keeping track one, 2345,

00:01:59:22 - 00:02:14:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
six, seven on screen. Of how many questions have been asked by the seventh question, they need to submit their guess. And then at the very end of the video, the person will say, let us know down below in the comments how you did. Now, here's one of the reasons that I love

00:02:15:11 - 00:02:21:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this game. If I'm thinking about hybrid, and if I'm thinking about, melding my in-person along with my digital together.

00:02:21:27 - 00:02:37:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I like this game because the way that we open it up and here's the script for it. Feel free to copy it. It goes like this. The name of the game is seven questions. If you want to play along, go ahead and close your eyes. The answer is going to be right here on screen. Category is thing. Here we go.

00:02:37:29 - 00:02:38:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the

00:02:38:09 - 00:02:42:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
other person will start asking them yes or no questions. And so in theory, if someone's scrolling through

00:02:42:24 - 00:02:49:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
social media and they're encouraged to play along, or at least given the option to play along in their set, and they're being told to close

00:02:49:10 - 00:02:56:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
their eyes. If they close their eyes, the, green mug will pop up on the screen with the eyes closed, and so you won't actually see it.

00:02:56:20 - 00:03:08:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'll add some sort of sound effect to let it know that it's gone, and then they can open their eyes again, and they can try and guess the item along with the other person on the in the game in real life, who is, trying to guess it

00:03:08:17 - 00:03:17:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
now, just like the draft style, videos that we do, these are a fantastic way to get students mingling together to invite them, to be a part

00:03:17:06 - 00:03:18:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of our social media.

00:03:18:15 - 00:03:19:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All kinds of different

00:03:19:09 - 00:03:25:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
setups and gear recommendations are also included in the templated link that was in the last episode. It's also going to be included. Same

00:03:25:07 - 00:03:33:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
link in this episode. And so, viewers can, play along. The people in the room get to play along. People in the studio that we have are

00:03:33:28 - 00:03:40:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
getting a chance to kind of like, run the room and run audio and run video and edit all of these things.

00:03:40:10 - 00:03:43:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But what I want to do is I want to show you how I have

00:03:43:03 - 00:04:01:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
created a template. And so if you are watching, here on YouTube, you'll get an opportunity to see I'm going to be, sharing my screen and what you're going to be seeing, right here in just a couple seconds. Is my, screen with the Photoshop template.

00:04:01:07 - 00:04:03:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so right here, this is

00:04:03:07 - 00:04:21:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the template that I use. And so the very first thing here in Photoshop is I have this layer right here. And it's just like a TikTok template layer. And so I use that for this as well as if you look right here on screen, this is our draft template. I just have that on screen so that I know where the elements for social media are.

00:04:21:28 - 00:04:41:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. I know that TikTok, Instagram, YouTube shorts, their menu options are right aligned. Right? So the follow button, the like button, the comment and all the stuff on the right side of the screen. So I try to stay on the left side of the screen. And I also know down here at the bottom is where the text or the captions or any of the other comments will kind of pop up along with the menu.

00:04:41:08 - 00:05:11:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I try to kind of stay away from there. I just downloaded this this template off of Google. If you download this template for me, it'll be included right here in this Photoshop file as the, bottommost layer. I just have it title as layer one because I haven't changed it yet. But you, if you're not going to use this template that I have, or if you don't have Photoshop, you can just grab something off of Google to kind of put that in at the base of whatever editor you're using something on, and maybe Canva or something and something even on your phone.

00:05:11:03 - 00:05:29:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or if you are using your phone, you may not be able to import a layer like this, but if you are using your phone, just know to kind of stay away from the the left and the bottom right. Those are sort of like the danger zones, so to speak, of, of of social media, of Instagram Reels, of TikTok and all that type of stuff.

00:05:29:20 - 00:05:50:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So anyway, so this is what my template right here looks like. Like I said, it's for the game seven questions. And so, I'll have student A and student B and let me just give you a little hack. If you're recording these in bulk, which we typically do, I make the student say their name. And then I also make the student spell it because when the student comes back on, I do want their name to be on screen.

00:05:50:10 - 00:06:05:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
First name? Only. And when I do that, I want their name to be on screen and I want it to be spelled correctly. And so if I don't know any of their names, or if I didn't know exactly how to spell it, having them spell it helps me make sure that I get their name exactly right on the template.

00:06:05:19 - 00:06:40:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's just a little hack for running the room. But I cut all that out. I don't include, like, my name is Nick. Nick, I take that part, I might say my name is Nick. Cut. And Nick, and then the next person, my name is Caleb. Caleb cut out the Caleb and then say name game seven questions or I may just cut all the name stuff out together and jump right there to where it says the name of the game is Seven questions, because my name and his name is going to be on the screen together and therefore we don't have to, you know, worry about getting that across the in kind of name tag

00:06:40:19 - 00:07:00:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
thing right here matters. Now you'll notice that they're behind some of these other layers. And that's okay because in Photoshop, what we're going to do when we jump over here into premiere, we get to adjust where they are and what like layer they're at. So in this particular one, you'll notice that the students names are beneath the layers.

00:07:00:09 - 00:07:21:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But all all I need to do if I want to, raise those up is I need to just grab these layers and I'm going to give myself just a little bit more, visual space on this. I can just elevate those all the way to the top. And so now those are on the top. Everything in Photoshop, everything in Adobe is kind of layers, dependent and layers based.

00:07:21:14 - 00:07:38:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And now as I go through, they are on top. I also just so you know, because they are sort of in the way I only keep them for the first little bit, and then once they start asking questions, I actually cut them. And so here's me cutting the names out of the, the thing that I'm editing. And so name name name name name.

00:07:38:27 - 00:08:01:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then they're gone. So anyway, all that to be said, I have just this template, these, 123456, seven numbers. If you're watching here on screen, off to the left side, out of the way of any, text or icons on screen. And then I also have, X's and I have them labeled over here in my panel.

00:08:01:12 - 00:08:22:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. X1, x2, x3 x4 x5 x6 x7. But right beneath them. Watch if I hide this layer just with the eyeball tool. Beneath it is a check mark tool. And so depending on what their answer is, I will then pull over either an X or a check when they ask the question. So here in the game they're asking a question.

00:08:22:14 - 00:08:49:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And all these are right ones. And so when they ask it, we just pull in, check one right here. From, from this, from this Photoshop layer, file over here on the left hand side. And so in order to get that in there, you finish editing your thing. So in this particular instance, in the seven questions, the thing that they're thinking of was a dog.

00:08:49:02 - 00:09:07:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I put a picture of a dog here on screen. And you just swap that out for whatever, the item is in the person's brain. And so then I save this file, save as, and, I would go in here to, where my file is stored on my hard drive. So in this particular case, this is what you would see in your download.

00:09:07:21 - 00:09:27:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Look, something like that. Go over here into Adobe Premiere Pro, and I am going to drag this item into my, project bin over here. When I do, it gives me an import layer option in Adobe Premiere Pro. And if I hit this little drop down menu, I can do merge all layers, and that will just bring the whole thing in as an image all together.

00:09:27:13 - 00:09:49:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Merged layers, individual layers or sequence. You're going to want to hit individual layers, and it's going to break every single thing up into an individual layer. So now when I open it up, you'll see if I just preview these, here's my numbers, here's my checks. All the way down through here is layer one. There's my TikTok layer. I don't need that but just going to be in there.

00:09:49:17 - 00:10:07:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Questions seven. So I'm using that to kind of I'm going to animate those layers in. So right here you'll see they come in right here and we do some animations on those as they like fly in or flicker in paired with like a sound effect. Here's their, their names. And those are going to be in alphabetical order.

00:10:07:08 - 00:10:28:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So n would be for Nick would be in alphabetical order here. In this in this Adobe Premiere Pro thing, it would be wherever N would go in the alphabetical list. And then here's all my X's and again it's alphabetical order. And so X1X2X2X4X5X7 depending on if they get it right or wrong. You can add sound effects down here.

00:10:28:18 - 00:10:46:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can get them from three three places stuff like that. You can also, you want to keep it, like I said, under a minute. So I tend to cut out any of the thinking or if the thinking is funny in any way, I might put a sound effect or zoom in on their face, or put some sort of, like, funny thing on screen to kind of keep the video moving.

00:10:46:04 - 00:11:06:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But that's all you got to do, right? So if you are editing with, Adobe products, this is how simple it is. And you can just take and borrow this template and use it to edit your videos. Now, in the last video we talked about drafts, and this is my draft template, which is a little bit more intensive out of the simple in sheer fact, because there are ten things as opposed to only seven things.

00:11:06:23 - 00:11:25:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Same concept. So we're going to save all these things. The only thing that's different is I use circles here. So zoomed in on screen you'll see those. And this is apparently from a breakfast draft and also leftovers of a Bible hero's draft. But this person picked bacon. And so what you'll notice here is that this got this little arrow.

00:11:25:15 - 00:11:43:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What that is, is that's called a clipping mask. And so what I've done is I just snagged this picture off of Google, or you can do a royalty free site like pexels.com or unsplash.com. Links to those down below in the show notes. But you just simply right click and you can create a clipping mask over this circle that's here.

00:11:43:00 - 00:12:06:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And so in all of these cases, the circles are already in existence. And so if you go through and I hide these things, this is a numbers with a circle base, underneath all of them. And so I just copy and paste a picture. And so what I do just to kind of show you how it's done, I might do so for, doing coffee products.

00:12:06:24 - 00:12:27:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I might do a coffee mug. Find a coffee mug here. And choose this one. This one seems cool. Copy. And so if I'm replacing out this template, I don't want bacon anymore. I select that layer. It's not selected over here in the layer selection panel. If I delete it, I release and got rid of the clipping mask.

00:12:27:28 - 00:12:44:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And now ellipse one is the one that is highlighted. And so you're going to want to make sure that that happens. Otherwise there's just so many layers that you're going to kind of get lost I'll paste this in here. And now this layer is on top of my ellipse layer as I hit command T to transform and adjust the size.

00:12:44:01 - 00:13:01:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm just going to adjust to size right over top of the circles here. Zoom back in so I can get it where I want it to be. There it is. And and then, I'm going to accept the changes and now it's right here, but it's not in its clipped mask. So I'm going to right click on that.

00:13:01:05 - 00:13:20:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'm going to click Create Clipping Mask. And I can then still adjust what is visible there on screen by hitting command and adjusting the size ever so slightly. And then one thing that you're going to want to do is label this really well. So this is the layer. Layer two is the layer that you're going to bring in on top of it over in premiere.

00:13:20:09 - 00:13:34:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let's say I'm the first person. So I just label it in for Nick. And then one and so then that way I know that it's n one and that's my mug option. And as long as it stays in this template, when you bring it over in premiere, it's going to be exactly where you want it to stay.

00:13:35:05 - 00:13:57:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, if I wanted to change names, that's the beautiful thing about Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro is that, if I, have brought this over here, let's say back to our seven questions. If I brought these in with names, but I got the names wrong. All I got to do is go back here into my student A, student B, all I got to do is just change this.

00:13:57:17 - 00:14:20:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If I wanted to change this name to Caleb and then click File Save As and drop it here, replace. Now back over here and promote Premiere Pro. That name is going to update here in just a second. It may take a minute, but it'll update over to Caleb. And so that's something I think that's pretty cool.

00:14:20:27 - 00:14:41:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know what? This is actually from an old this is from, a different layer. So let me so this student B was updated to Caleb. So let me pull that in. Look now it says Caleb. So or now this will actually work if you're watching, if I change it back to student B and then I click File Save as replacing that sucker.

00:14:42:01 - 00:15:06:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now over here. Watch. There went you might you might not have seen it because it happens so fast. That's the beautiful thing about Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop. So as I quit sharing my screen here, I just very simply want to say to all of you that these right here, especially seven questions, are really easy one, to get students who have absolutely no editing skills to get going on editing.

00:15:06:02 - 00:15:26:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're quick. They're they're easy to edit because they're under a minute. Usually. And so I can hand one of these over to them, and I can show them how to drag and drop the layers and make sure that they're in the right spot, add some sound effects. And off we go to the races. Now moving on. We are in our four part, my Church's Social Challenge videos.

00:15:26:17 - 00:15:46:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are how I get more things done with students. We're going to move on to the third video type in our strategy. And that video is linked right here on screen. So go ahead and click that video and we'll see you over there. Don't forget that we are making digital discipleship easy possible. And accessible. So as always don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 116: How Churches Can Use Social Media (Ideas & Examples) https://www.hybridministry.xyz/116 3524513e-16a4-4659-b87f-21a24b5c307c Thu, 26 Sep 2024 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 116 How Churches Can Use Social Media (Ideas & Examples) full Nick Clason My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing! In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders. //SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/116 16:04 no 💡100 Topics Ideas &amp; Templates💡 https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis 🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥 https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ========= DESCRIPTION My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing! In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders. //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/116 ====================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //Custom Coaching https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching //Caleb Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPXShFfsJsM&amp;t=520s 💡100 Topics Ideas &amp; Templates💡 https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis //Studio Tour &amp; Gear Links https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVT1xvh9-5k&amp;t=557s 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz 🆓 FREEBIES 🆓 Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies! 🔗 https://linktr.ee/clasonnick 🛠️TOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 2024 Social Media Strategy 01:28 Create Content With Your Students 02:05 How it all began 06:00 Video #1 09:44 How to Edit 12:49 How to Capture the Videos TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:06:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Easy social media ideas for churches and for youth ministries. 00:00:06:13 - 00:00:18:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nick place, and we are looking to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. My strategy for social media in 2024, 00:00:18:14 - 00:00:24:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and it's looking like beyond if you didn't know this. Short form vertical based videos or reels? 00:00:24:13 - 00:00:32:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry TikToks YouTube shorts account for 90% of the internet's traffic, which is just a wildly high 00:00:32:05 - 00:00:51:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry statistic. And so people are getting on the internet to consume these styles of videos. And so we as churches, as communicators, as people who want to have an impact in our world, we need to be on these platforms. And so if you do want to be on social media, I recommend taking that strategic approach, posting those types of videos. 00:00:51:09 - 00:00:59:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I also recommend not just posting only spiritual content. So one of the funnest things to do is post content that is just fun, 00:00:59:24 - 00:01:04:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry interesting, funny, like a game of some sort, and then hook people kind 00:01:04:08 - 00:01:08:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry of with that sort of piece of content and then hopefully drive them deeper down your funnel, 00:01:08:27 - 00:01:16:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry which you will eventually get them to more spiritual content and, and hopefully you'll get them to a long form version of your spiritual content, which from there you can hopefully, 00:01:16:28 - 00:01:21:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry just like you would live in the room, just like you would live with the sermon. 00:01:21:12 - 00:01:30:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Prompt them to take some sort of meaningful next step closer to Jesus. My new favorite phenomenon for churches and for youth ministries is to create content 00:01:30:06 - 00:01:32:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry with my students, not just content 00:01:32:29 - 00:01:34:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry for my students. 00:01:34:21 - 00:01:52:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Generation Z and subsequently Generation Alpha are looking for the personal touch. They've they've grown up under the rise of customization generation. Alpha is going to be growing up under the rise of personalization with algorithms and AI and things that can make life just very tailored to them. 00:01:52:19 - 00:01:55:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so they don't want to necessarily get on their social media and see a 00:01:55:26 - 00:02:00:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry bunch of stuff that I have done for them. They would rather get on social media and see a bunch of stuff 00:02:00:28 - 00:02:04:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry that they have had an opportunity to participate in. 00:02:04:02 - 00:02:09:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so a couple years ago, my resident Caleb, linked right here is my interview with him. 00:02:09:07 - 00:02:24:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And in it, we actually talked for a little while about this concept called the social challenge. And so where this came birthed out of is in our student ministry, we have a very, very vibrant YouTube channel. It's probably the social media platform that 00:02:24:02 - 00:02:37:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I pour the most gas on. If you want to see our strategy link down below is my completely free e-book strategy guide, detailing and outline every single thing I do from silly posting videos, long form version, pieces of content. 00:02:37:13 - 00:02:43:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It will help you take an adapter and make that possible in your context. But we were talking through a 00:02:43:20 - 00:02:48:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry YouTube channel, which is mostly just teaching videos, and he wanted to include more students 00:02:48:08 - 00:02:56:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry on our longform, teaching videos section of YouTube. You know, YouTube is broken into different like containers. You got you got 00:02:56:02 - 00:02:59:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry posts and you got shorts and you got videos and you got lives. 00:02:59:18 - 00:03:01:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so he's like, I want more students. I 00:03:01:24 - 00:03:18:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry think it'd be good if there were more students on the video portion. And not just us staff, people with teaching videos. And I was like, okay, great. So he invented this thing called the social Challenge. And the social challenge became a huge win for us in our student ministry in multiple arenas. 00:03:18:25 - 00:03:31:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But early on, it would just be him or maybe him, and like another one of our students or him and another one of our interns filming some, some students doing some sort of challenge, just think like any sort of 00:03:31:02 - 00:03:36:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry youth group game. And then they would just capture it on camera. And so that was on a Wednesday night. 00:03:36:14 - 00:03:40:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Our team, we don't work on Fridays. And so he would come into the office 00:03:40:27 - 00:03:53:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry on Thursday and he would edit all day long to try and get that thing ready to go. And then from there, he would get that thing posted and off he would go, putting our students on, on the YouTube channel. Well, 00:03:53:14 - 00:04:01:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry over time, that just became hefty every single week with a Thursday all day edit like that was the only thing he had like really bandwidth for it to do. 00:04:01:17 - 00:04:08:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry On Thursday. And so we let that thing run for about a semester. And then we made an adjustment. And I said, what if we, 00:04:08:00 - 00:04:17:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Because in the meantime, we were filming short form, vertical based video content with our staff, and we would film like once a month, and we would get together and we would do some of these ideas. 00:04:17:00 - 00:04:22:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And one of the ones I'm about to share with you here in just a minute, and we would, we were filming for us 00:04:22:20 - 00:04:35:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and I was like, what if we put students behind that camera? And so that's what we did. And so my favorite, we do in our studio. Mr.. Now we've honed it in where we do four different types of social challenges. 00:04:35:06 - 00:04:44:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so most months are made up of four different weeks and so on week one we'll do this week two do that, week three we'll do that. Link four we'll do that. Or we'll just do 00:04:44:17 - 00:04:49:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry whatever is running low. And so I have every single thing, every single piece of content stored 00:04:49:04 - 00:04:56:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry in a Google Drive. And I can see as I post daily, I can see which of these pieces of content I'm running 00:04:56:01 - 00:05:01:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry out of, and then thus which ones we need to film more of on the next Wednesday night. 00:05:01:02 - 00:05:04:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Some of the other advantages youth pastors that this has had 00:05:04:18 - 00:05:14:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry is this has created a space in our student ministry for students to come and let their voice be heard, and for them to actually get a chance to be on social media themselves. And then 00:05:14:14 - 00:05:18:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry they're actually looking for it later on down the road, like, when are you going to post my video? 00:05:19:02 - 00:05:23:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Let me know. And it was funny, last week I actually pulled a kid aside and said, hey, I'm 00:05:23:10 - 00:05:35:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry posting yours tomorrow. And so then he texted me. I didn't send him the link or anything like that, but he texted me. He's like, that was good, you know, typical seventh grade boy. But, he he reached out of his own accord. 00:05:35:08 - 00:05:56:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. Once he saw his video had been posted online. And so it's had some major wins for us in the room. It's actually made like our in person, a little bit more, intimate, like it's made our students actually get to interact with and know each other a little bit more. And so that's our current adaptation. We just batch record our students any given Wednesday 00:05:56:13 - 00:06:03:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry night, with these different for social media ideas, I'm going to share with you in this video playlist. 00:06:03:20 - 00:06:22:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The first video idea that we do, it's called drafts. Now, you've probably seen or heard these before in if you've ever been on social media, all kinds of different people have done them. And I'm not, you know, claiming to be the the author of this idea, we have no doubt seen, we're taking 00:06:22:25 - 00:06:28:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry this, you know, from other people, we've seen it done elsewhere, and we've adapted it to our culture 00:06:28:07 - 00:06:29:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and to our context. 00:06:29:23 - 00:06:31:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But essentially what it is is you choose, like 00:06:31:27 - 00:06:58:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry any topic, literally any topic in the world that has at least ten or more options. And the reason you need ten or more is because it's it's sort of treated like a, like sports or like a basketball type thing where you draft somebody, to your starting five. And so if you and if you and I were doing this, you might go first in any particular category, let's just say, 00:06:58:12 - 00:07:10:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry let's just say basketball players, you know, for example, by the way, link down below in the description I have shared with you, like over 100 different draft topic ideas 00:07:10:02 - 00:07:10:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry as well as a 00:07:10:25 - 00:07:19:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry gear resource list. So go ahead and click that link and go grab it. You can just have it and then you can take these and kind of copy and paste them and implement them into your church and into 00:07:19:17 - 00:07:27:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry your social media strategy. But if you're going first, maybe you're Michael Jordan guy. So you take Michael Jordan, but then you go to me and it'd be my pick. 00:07:27:15 - 00:07:45:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And the only thing I couldn't take is Michael Jordan. I could take any other basketball player I wanted to. I could take LeBron James. I can also take Bronny James. It doesn't matter. I could take whoever I want. So I'll go LeBron. And then back to you. You might think that the third greatest player of all time is like Magic Johnson. 00:07:45:08 - 00:08:02:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And that's fair. I'll go ahead and give you like thumbs up on that. Come back to me. I'll probably take like Larry Bird or something like that. Back over to you. Let's say you take, maybe you're a big Bulls guy. Maybe you take Scottie Pippen. Great. That's fine. I don't agree with that necessarily. But I appreciate you trying back over to me. 00:08:02:23 - 00:08:18:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I probably go doctor J. Or Wilt Chamberlain maybe. I think, and as I'm doing this, I'm commentating it, right. I'm like, you know, I'm thinking this thing that, and so I'll go ahead. I'll take I'll take, I'll, I'll end up taking wilt. No no no no no no. What am I doing? I'll take Shaq I'll take Shaq back over to you. 00:08:18:17 - 00:08:33:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you're like, all right, fine, I'll take Kobe. Great. That's great. Back over to me now. I'll take wilt okay. And I'm not now like building a team to play with. And you can set those parameters because I can't have Will and Shaq playing on the same team that both centers. Right. Back over to you. Maybe you're going to take like a modern guy. 00:08:33:09 - 00:08:47:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Maybe you're going to go like Kevin Durant or something like that. And I think that would be fair. Back over to me if I wanted to take a modern guy. Though I don't think he's, top ten of all time, but I do think it's great. Shaq good. So Alexander represent Oklahoma City Thunder. That's my favorite basketball team. 00:08:48:00 - 00:09:11:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then what you do then is you'd say, hey, let us know. Comment down below who you think won okay. Now in that particular case, everyone watching would definitely say that I won. But maybe you got some big, Bulls fans, some some people from Chicago watching your content. Maybe they would say that you won, and they would say that you picked all the goats and Kobe Bryant and Scottie Pippen and all the other people, right? 00:09:11:15 - 00:09:11:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like, 00:09:11:24 - 00:09:18:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry whatever the case might be, but you just literally go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Another option you can do is you can snake it in 00:09:18:24 - 00:09:27:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry so if you don't know, it's like, first person, second person, second person, first person, first person, second person, second person. That's the concept of a snake draft. 00:09:27:23 - 00:09:28:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I don't 00:09:28:02 - 00:09:44:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I don't do that as much in like a two person draft because, it's just like 12X2X2X2X2, and then it ends with one. I'd rather just kind of do the bounce back, but either way, your choice, your decision, you figure out which you prefer. And then 00:09:44:11 - 00:09:51:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I need to edit that sucker. And so typically when I do it with anyone on my staff, those drafts end up being like, five minutes, 00:09:51:12 - 00:09:54:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry because there's a fair bit of banter. 00:09:54:07 - 00:10:00:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And we're sort of like, gassing people for, like, what they said, or slamming them for how bad we thought the choices were. 00:10:00:26 - 00:10:08:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And either way, we're kind of going back and forth, making fun of each other. And so that you have you have some decisions to make 00:10:08:10 - 00:10:18:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry in the editing process, right? You got to get it down for me, I try to get every video under 60s because YouTube shorts is cap is 60s. 00:10:18:06 - 00:10:26:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so if I can get it under 60, then that means I can post it on YouTube shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels and Facebook Reels all four places. 00:10:26:05 - 00:10:39:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, if you don't want to use YouTube shorts though, if you're trying to reach teenagers, can I please implore you to consider using it? 95% of teenagers are on YouTube, and so if you are in youth ministry, you should definitely be using YouTube, and thus you should also 00:10:39:20 - 00:10:41:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry be using YouTube shorts. 00:10:41:10 - 00:10:49:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But if you don't want to use YouTube, then you can make it longer because those other platforms allow for longer, time segments of videos. And you can 00:10:49:26 - 00:10:58:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry edit it directly on your phone. My edits, it look like this. If you're watching here on YouTube. I'll also share with you my Photoshop template in that, 00:10:58:08 - 00:11:07:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry free downloadable document where I am sharing, you know, all the different hundreds of ideas of draft, topics and content that you can use. 00:11:07:28 - 00:11:29:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But, if you don't have Photoshop, you can literally design this, in anything. You can design it on TikTok, in the TikTok editor. You can design it on an app like Cap Cut for the free version or the paid version. You can use it on Instagram Reels. Editor. Like it's literally the sky is the limit on where you can edit it. 00:11:29:03 - 00:11:30:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I like to edit in 00:11:30:08 - 00:11:43:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Adobe Premiere Pro, so I use Adobe Photoshop, and then I import those files into Adobe Premiere Pro and the good news in all of this is that for a while I started doing it. And then, homeschool kids are 00:11:43:09 - 00:11:50:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry the best in our student ministry because they obviously they they don't go to school for as long during the day when they do homeschool. 00:11:51:00 - 00:11:52:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I can have 00:11:52:03 - 00:12:04:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry them come in and they can use, one of our spare computers that has Adobe Premiere Pro loaded on it. And I've been just teaching them how to use Adobe Photoshop, how to use Adobe Premiere Pro. 00:12:04:16 - 00:12:12:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I had a student, I kid you not, who he took all of, one of our other, like, video tape adaptations. 00:12:12:03 - 00:12:13:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We had like, like 12 00:12:13:29 - 00:12:21:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry of them, and he edited every single one of them, like in one sitting. He he came in. It was like 00:12:21:04 - 00:12:27:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry his maybe fifth time in, And so he had to, like, learn and get up to speed on that fifth time. I mean, he just 00:12:27:27 - 00:12:31:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry crushed them to the point where he was loving editing. 00:12:31:00 - 00:12:36:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then he said to me, hey, can I come in tomorrow? And I was like, bro, you've done them all. 00:12:36:00 - 00:13:00:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And before I was getting students to come in and edit, I was editing them all myself, every single one. And so I was always behind. I never was caught up and he got me completely caught up. And now the other good news in all of this is that in addition to students editing it and getting them posted, I've also had students begin to take ownership and leadership in the room of where we're filming this thing. 00:13:00:00 - 00:13:17:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we've actually built a full studio. You can see link down below, our studio tour and all the gear that we use, but sometimes we just use like a camera on the back of a cell phone and like external microphones. Other times we use like full podcast studio type microphones and run that into like a focus right camera. 00:13:17:22 - 00:13:38:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And we filmed it off our Sony ZV ten. Again, all of that is linked in that, studio tour episode. If you want to look at any of that purchase, any of that. And then if you do have your phone, you can just edit it directly off your phone. If you do it off of a camera, you got to take out the SD card and then download it and then go edit it in some sort of software on your computer. 00:13:38:06 - 00:14:02:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Again, either one of those strategies is fine. You decide what you want, you can do a really heavy edit, or you can do a really minimal edit like either of those. Either of those strategies works, and you can kind of do whatever works best for you and your, your time frame. Right. But once those students, edit those, I also have students capturing them or I have them running the room. 00:14:02:08 - 00:14:23:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I have them, getting students in place. I have them literally running, like, action and, like, clapping their hands. And, it was actually really helpful because one week when we were filming a bunch of, these draft style videos, the camera audio cut out, but I got all the mic audio, but I was like, how am I going to sync up empty words? 00:14:23:08 - 00:14:49:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry To real audio? And because of the claps, I was able to find the clap on the camera, link up that spike, and then they were able to be to be linked. And so, I at this point in time, like this, this strategy, this four part video strategy, students are running it on Wednesday nights capturing the videos, and then students are editing it and all I'm doing is overseeing it and posting it. 00:14:49:17 - 00:14:51:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so my guess would be, if you're in 00:14:51:05 - 00:15:15:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry youth ministry and you want to create content with your students, that this is what you're looking for because you may not feel equipped, you may not feel like you have, what it takes or even the knowledge behind social media in your students. They do, they do. And if you're willing to build the infrastructure enough to then be able to hand that over to them, I think that's a fantastic model and it takes more work off of your 00:15:15:02 - 00:15:16:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry plate. 00:15:16:04 - 00:15:38:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so if you're interested in exploring, how to do that or even just looking for maybe like some some next steps, I offer a coaching link down below. Reach out about that is really affordable, is really cheap, and I would love to help you get that up and running. Now on to easy social media video idea number two. 00:15:38:21 - 00:15:57:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm glad that you asked because I'm sure you were looking for it. It's actually going to be linked here on screen in the very next video, which I have here on my channel. So go ahead and tap that. Go check that one out. And without any further ado, we will see you over there because we are making digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible. 00:15:57:27 - 00:16:02:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so as always, don't ever forget to stay hybrid. Easy Social Media Ideas for Churches, Student Ministry, Social Media Strategy, Church Social Media Strategy, Youth Group Social media Ideas, DO more for less work, Youth Ministry Social Media Ideas, Youth Ministry Social Media Examples, Hybrid Ministry, Nick Clason 💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥
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=========
DESCRIPTION
My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing!
In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders.

//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/116
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//Custom Coaching
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

//Caleb Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPXShFfsJsM&t=520s

💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

//Studio Tour & Gear Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVT1xvh9-5k&t=557s

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 2024 Social Media Strategy
01:28 Create Content With Your Students
02:05 How it all began
06:00 Video #1
09:44 How to Edit
12:49 How to Capture the Videos

TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:06:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Easy social media ideas for churches and for youth ministries.

00:00:06:13 - 00:00:18:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nick place, and we are looking to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. My strategy for social media in 2024,

00:00:18:14 - 00:00:24:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and it's looking like beyond if you didn't know this. Short form vertical based videos or reels?

00:00:24:13 - 00:00:32:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
TikToks YouTube shorts account for 90% of the internet's traffic, which is just a wildly high

00:00:32:05 - 00:00:51:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
statistic. And so people are getting on the internet to consume these styles of videos. And so we as churches, as communicators, as people who want to have an impact in our world, we need to be on these platforms. And so if you do want to be on social media, I recommend taking that strategic approach, posting those types of videos.

00:00:51:09 - 00:00:59:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I also recommend not just posting only spiritual content. So one of the funnest things to do is post content that is just fun,

00:00:59:24 - 00:01:04:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
interesting, funny, like a game of some sort, and then hook people kind

00:01:04:08 - 00:01:08:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of with that sort of piece of content and then hopefully drive them deeper down your funnel,

00:01:08:27 - 00:01:16:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
which you will eventually get them to more spiritual content and, and hopefully you'll get them to a long form version of your spiritual content, which from there you can hopefully,

00:01:16:28 - 00:01:21:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
just like you would live in the room, just like you would live with the sermon.

00:01:21:12 - 00:01:30:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Prompt them to take some sort of meaningful next step closer to Jesus. My new favorite phenomenon for churches and for youth ministries is to create content

00:01:30:06 - 00:01:32:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
with my students, not just content

00:01:32:29 - 00:01:34:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
for my students.

00:01:34:21 - 00:01:52:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Generation Z and subsequently Generation Alpha are looking for the personal touch. They've they've grown up under the rise of customization generation. Alpha is going to be growing up under the rise of personalization with algorithms and AI and things that can make life just very tailored to them.

00:01:52:19 - 00:01:55:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so they don't want to necessarily get on their social media and see a

00:01:55:26 - 00:02:00:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
bunch of stuff that I have done for them. They would rather get on social media and see a bunch of stuff

00:02:00:28 - 00:02:04:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that they have had an opportunity to participate in.

00:02:04:02 - 00:02:09:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so a couple years ago, my resident Caleb, linked right here is my interview with him.

00:02:09:07 - 00:02:24:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in it, we actually talked for a little while about this concept called the social challenge. And so where this came birthed out of is in our student ministry, we have a very, very vibrant YouTube channel. It's probably the social media platform that

00:02:24:02 - 00:02:37:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I pour the most gas on. If you want to see our strategy link down below is my completely free e-book strategy guide, detailing and outline every single thing I do from silly posting videos, long form version, pieces of content.

00:02:37:13 - 00:02:43:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It will help you take an adapter and make that possible in your context. But we were talking through a

00:02:43:20 - 00:02:48:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube channel, which is mostly just teaching videos, and he wanted to include more students

00:02:48:08 - 00:02:56:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
on our longform, teaching videos section of YouTube. You know, YouTube is broken into different like containers. You got you got

00:02:56:02 - 00:02:59:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
posts and you got shorts and you got videos and you got lives.

00:02:59:18 - 00:03:01:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so he's like, I want more students. I

00:03:01:24 - 00:03:18:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
think it'd be good if there were more students on the video portion. And not just us staff, people with teaching videos. And I was like, okay, great. So he invented this thing called the social Challenge. And the social challenge became a huge win for us in our student ministry in multiple arenas.

00:03:18:25 - 00:03:31:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But early on, it would just be him or maybe him, and like another one of our students or him and another one of our interns filming some, some students doing some sort of challenge, just think like any sort of

00:03:31:02 - 00:03:36:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
youth group game. And then they would just capture it on camera. And so that was on a Wednesday night.

00:03:36:14 - 00:03:40:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our team, we don't work on Fridays. And so he would come into the office

00:03:40:27 - 00:03:53:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
on Thursday and he would edit all day long to try and get that thing ready to go. And then from there, he would get that thing posted and off he would go, putting our students on, on the YouTube channel. Well,

00:03:53:14 - 00:04:01:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
over time, that just became hefty every single week with a Thursday all day edit like that was the only thing he had like really bandwidth for it to do.

00:04:01:17 - 00:04:08:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
On Thursday. And so we let that thing run for about a semester. And then we made an adjustment. And I said, what if we,

00:04:08:00 - 00:04:17:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because in the meantime, we were filming short form, vertical based video content with our staff, and we would film like once a month, and we would get together and we would do some of these ideas.

00:04:17:00 - 00:04:22:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And one of the ones I'm about to share with you here in just a minute, and we would, we were filming for us

00:04:22:20 - 00:04:35:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and I was like, what if we put students behind that camera? And so that's what we did. And so my favorite, we do in our studio. Mr.. Now we've honed it in where we do four different types of social challenges.

00:04:35:06 - 00:04:44:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so most months are made up of four different weeks and so on week one we'll do this week two do that, week three we'll do that. Link four we'll do that. Or we'll just do

00:04:44:17 - 00:04:49:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
whatever is running low. And so I have every single thing, every single piece of content stored

00:04:49:04 - 00:04:56:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in a Google Drive. And I can see as I post daily, I can see which of these pieces of content I'm running

00:04:56:01 - 00:05:01:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
out of, and then thus which ones we need to film more of on the next Wednesday night.

00:05:01:02 - 00:05:04:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some of the other advantages youth pastors that this has had

00:05:04:18 - 00:05:14:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is this has created a space in our student ministry for students to come and let their voice be heard, and for them to actually get a chance to be on social media themselves. And then

00:05:14:14 - 00:05:18:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
they're actually looking for it later on down the road, like, when are you going to post my video?

00:05:19:02 - 00:05:23:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let me know. And it was funny, last week I actually pulled a kid aside and said, hey, I'm

00:05:23:10 - 00:05:35:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
posting yours tomorrow. And so then he texted me. I didn't send him the link or anything like that, but he texted me. He's like, that was good, you know, typical seventh grade boy. But, he he reached out of his own accord.

00:05:35:08 - 00:05:56:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Once he saw his video had been posted online. And so it's had some major wins for us in the room. It's actually made like our in person, a little bit more, intimate, like it's made our students actually get to interact with and know each other a little bit more. And so that's our current adaptation. We just batch record our students any given Wednesday

00:05:56:13 - 00:06:03:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
night, with these different for social media ideas, I'm going to share with you in this video playlist.

00:06:03:20 - 00:06:22:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The first video idea that we do, it's called drafts. Now, you've probably seen or heard these before in if you've ever been on social media, all kinds of different people have done them. And I'm not, you know, claiming to be the the author of this idea, we have no doubt seen, we're taking

00:06:22:25 - 00:06:28:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this, you know, from other people, we've seen it done elsewhere, and we've adapted it to our culture

00:06:28:07 - 00:06:29:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and to our context.

00:06:29:23 - 00:06:31:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But essentially what it is is you choose, like

00:06:31:27 - 00:06:58:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
any topic, literally any topic in the world that has at least ten or more options. And the reason you need ten or more is because it's it's sort of treated like a, like sports or like a basketball type thing where you draft somebody, to your starting five. And so if you and if you and I were doing this, you might go first in any particular category, let's just say,

00:06:58:12 - 00:07:10:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
let's just say basketball players, you know, for example, by the way, link down below in the description I have shared with you, like over 100 different draft topic ideas

00:07:10:02 - 00:07:10:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
as well as a

00:07:10:25 - 00:07:19:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
gear resource list. So go ahead and click that link and go grab it. You can just have it and then you can take these and kind of copy and paste them and implement them into your church and into

00:07:19:17 - 00:07:27:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your social media strategy. But if you're going first, maybe you're Michael Jordan guy. So you take Michael Jordan, but then you go to me and it'd be my pick.

00:07:27:15 - 00:07:45:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the only thing I couldn't take is Michael Jordan. I could take any other basketball player I wanted to. I could take LeBron James. I can also take Bronny James. It doesn't matter. I could take whoever I want. So I'll go LeBron. And then back to you. You might think that the third greatest player of all time is like Magic Johnson.

00:07:45:08 - 00:08:02:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's fair. I'll go ahead and give you like thumbs up on that. Come back to me. I'll probably take like Larry Bird or something like that. Back over to you. Let's say you take, maybe you're a big Bulls guy. Maybe you take Scottie Pippen. Great. That's fine. I don't agree with that necessarily. But I appreciate you trying back over to me.

00:08:02:23 - 00:08:18:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I probably go doctor J. Or Wilt Chamberlain maybe. I think, and as I'm doing this, I'm commentating it, right. I'm like, you know, I'm thinking this thing that, and so I'll go ahead. I'll take I'll take, I'll, I'll end up taking wilt. No no no no no no. What am I doing? I'll take Shaq I'll take Shaq back over to you.

00:08:18:17 - 00:08:33:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you're like, all right, fine, I'll take Kobe. Great. That's great. Back over to me now. I'll take wilt okay. And I'm not now like building a team to play with. And you can set those parameters because I can't have Will and Shaq playing on the same team that both centers. Right. Back over to you. Maybe you're going to take like a modern guy.

00:08:33:09 - 00:08:47:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Maybe you're going to go like Kevin Durant or something like that. And I think that would be fair. Back over to me if I wanted to take a modern guy. Though I don't think he's, top ten of all time, but I do think it's great. Shaq good. So Alexander represent Oklahoma City Thunder. That's my favorite basketball team.

00:08:48:00 - 00:09:11:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then what you do then is you'd say, hey, let us know. Comment down below who you think won okay. Now in that particular case, everyone watching would definitely say that I won. But maybe you got some big, Bulls fans, some some people from Chicago watching your content. Maybe they would say that you won, and they would say that you picked all the goats and Kobe Bryant and Scottie Pippen and all the other people, right?

00:09:11:15 - 00:09:11:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like,

00:09:11:24 - 00:09:18:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
whatever the case might be, but you just literally go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Another option you can do is you can snake it in

00:09:18:24 - 00:09:27:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so if you don't know, it's like, first person, second person, second person, first person, first person, second person, second person. That's the concept of a snake draft.

00:09:27:23 - 00:09:28:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I don't

00:09:28:02 - 00:09:44:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I don't do that as much in like a two person draft because, it's just like 12X2X2X2X2, and then it ends with one. I'd rather just kind of do the bounce back, but either way, your choice, your decision, you figure out which you prefer. And then

00:09:44:11 - 00:09:51:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I need to edit that sucker. And so typically when I do it with anyone on my staff, those drafts end up being like, five minutes,

00:09:51:12 - 00:09:54:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
because there's a fair bit of banter.

00:09:54:07 - 00:10:00:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we're sort of like, gassing people for, like, what they said, or slamming them for how bad we thought the choices were.

00:10:00:26 - 00:10:08:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And either way, we're kind of going back and forth, making fun of each other. And so that you have you have some decisions to make

00:10:08:10 - 00:10:18:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in the editing process, right? You got to get it down for me, I try to get every video under 60s because YouTube shorts is cap is 60s.

00:10:18:06 - 00:10:26:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if I can get it under 60, then that means I can post it on YouTube shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels and Facebook Reels all four places.

00:10:26:05 - 00:10:39:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, if you don't want to use YouTube shorts though, if you're trying to reach teenagers, can I please implore you to consider using it? 95% of teenagers are on YouTube, and so if you are in youth ministry, you should definitely be using YouTube, and thus you should also

00:10:39:20 - 00:10:41:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
be using YouTube shorts.

00:10:41:10 - 00:10:49:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if you don't want to use YouTube, then you can make it longer because those other platforms allow for longer, time segments of videos. And you can

00:10:49:26 - 00:10:58:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
edit it directly on your phone. My edits, it look like this. If you're watching here on YouTube. I'll also share with you my Photoshop template in that,

00:10:58:08 - 00:11:07:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
free downloadable document where I am sharing, you know, all the different hundreds of ideas of draft, topics and content that you can use.

00:11:07:28 - 00:11:29:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But, if you don't have Photoshop, you can literally design this, in anything. You can design it on TikTok, in the TikTok editor. You can design it on an app like Cap Cut for the free version or the paid version. You can use it on Instagram Reels. Editor. Like it's literally the sky is the limit on where you can edit it.

00:11:29:03 - 00:11:30:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I like to edit in

00:11:30:08 - 00:11:43:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Adobe Premiere Pro, so I use Adobe Photoshop, and then I import those files into Adobe Premiere Pro and the good news in all of this is that for a while I started doing it. And then, homeschool kids are

00:11:43:09 - 00:11:50:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the best in our student ministry because they obviously they they don't go to school for as long during the day when they do homeschool.

00:11:51:00 - 00:11:52:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I can have

00:11:52:03 - 00:12:04:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
them come in and they can use, one of our spare computers that has Adobe Premiere Pro loaded on it. And I've been just teaching them how to use Adobe Photoshop, how to use Adobe Premiere Pro.

00:12:04:16 - 00:12:12:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I had a student, I kid you not, who he took all of, one of our other, like, video tape adaptations.

00:12:12:03 - 00:12:13:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We had like, like 12

00:12:13:29 - 00:12:21:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of them, and he edited every single one of them, like in one sitting. He he came in. It was like

00:12:21:04 - 00:12:27:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
his maybe fifth time in, And so he had to, like, learn and get up to speed on that fifth time. I mean, he just

00:12:27:27 - 00:12:31:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
crushed them to the point where he was loving editing.

00:12:31:00 - 00:12:36:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then he said to me, hey, can I come in tomorrow? And I was like, bro, you've done them all.

00:12:36:00 - 00:13:00:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And before I was getting students to come in and edit, I was editing them all myself, every single one. And so I was always behind. I never was caught up and he got me completely caught up. And now the other good news in all of this is that in addition to students editing it and getting them posted, I've also had students begin to take ownership and leadership in the room of where we're filming this thing.

00:13:00:00 - 00:13:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we've actually built a full studio. You can see link down below, our studio tour and all the gear that we use, but sometimes we just use like a camera on the back of a cell phone and like external microphones. Other times we use like full podcast studio type microphones and run that into like a focus right camera.

00:13:17:22 - 00:13:38:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we filmed it off our Sony ZV ten. Again, all of that is linked in that, studio tour episode. If you want to look at any of that purchase, any of that. And then if you do have your phone, you can just edit it directly off your phone. If you do it off of a camera, you got to take out the SD card and then download it and then go edit it in some sort of software on your computer.

00:13:38:06 - 00:14:02:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, either one of those strategies is fine. You decide what you want, you can do a really heavy edit, or you can do a really minimal edit like either of those. Either of those strategies works, and you can kind of do whatever works best for you and your, your time frame. Right. But once those students, edit those, I also have students capturing them or I have them running the room.

00:14:02:08 - 00:14:23:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I have them, getting students in place. I have them literally running, like, action and, like, clapping their hands. And, it was actually really helpful because one week when we were filming a bunch of, these draft style videos, the camera audio cut out, but I got all the mic audio, but I was like, how am I going to sync up empty words?

00:14:23:08 - 00:14:49:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
To real audio? And because of the claps, I was able to find the clap on the camera, link up that spike, and then they were able to be to be linked. And so, I at this point in time, like this, this strategy, this four part video strategy, students are running it on Wednesday nights capturing the videos, and then students are editing it and all I'm doing is overseeing it and posting it.

00:14:49:17 - 00:14:51:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so my guess would be, if you're in

00:14:51:05 - 00:15:15:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
youth ministry and you want to create content with your students, that this is what you're looking for because you may not feel equipped, you may not feel like you have, what it takes or even the knowledge behind social media in your students. They do, they do. And if you're willing to build the infrastructure enough to then be able to hand that over to them, I think that's a fantastic model and it takes more work off of your

00:15:15:02 - 00:15:16:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
plate.

00:15:16:04 - 00:15:38:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you're interested in exploring, how to do that or even just looking for maybe like some some next steps, I offer a coaching link down below. Reach out about that is really affordable, is really cheap, and I would love to help you get that up and running. Now on to easy social media video idea number two.

00:15:38:21 - 00:15:57:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm glad that you asked because I'm sure you were looking for it. It's actually going to be linked here on screen in the very next video, which I have here on my channel. So go ahead and tap that. Go check that one out. And without any further ado, we will see you over there because we are making digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible.

00:15:57:27 - 00:16:02:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so as always, don't ever forget to stay hybrid.

]]> 💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

=========
DESCRIPTION
My New Favorites (And Easy Way) to create a lot of social media content for your church and youth ministry without losing your life to editing and capturing!
In this 4 part series playlist I will share with you 4 different types of video content for your church and your social media and how to start creating content with your students, teenagers, youth group and church attenders.

//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/116
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//Custom Coaching
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

//Caleb Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPXShFfsJsM&t=520s

💡100 Topics Ideas & Templates💡
https://share.hsforms.com/1JOHqd4XOTbC5ZgfXB85BCwnumis

//Studio Tour & Gear Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVT1xvh9-5k&t=557s

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
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Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

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🛠️TOOLS
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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

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 2024 Social Media Strategy
01:28 Create Content With Your Students
02:05 How it all began
06:00 Video #1
09:44 How to Edit
12:49 How to Capture the Videos

TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:06:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Easy social media ideas for churches and for youth ministries.

00:00:06:13 - 00:00:18:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nick place, and we are looking to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. My strategy for social media in 2024,

00:00:18:14 - 00:00:24:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and it's looking like beyond if you didn't know this. Short form vertical based videos or reels?

00:00:24:13 - 00:00:32:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
TikToks YouTube shorts account for 90% of the internet's traffic, which is just a wildly high

00:00:32:05 - 00:00:51:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
statistic. And so people are getting on the internet to consume these styles of videos. And so we as churches, as communicators, as people who want to have an impact in our world, we need to be on these platforms. And so if you do want to be on social media, I recommend taking that strategic approach, posting those types of videos.

00:00:51:09 - 00:00:59:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I also recommend not just posting only spiritual content. So one of the funnest things to do is post content that is just fun,

00:00:59:24 - 00:01:04:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
interesting, funny, like a game of some sort, and then hook people kind

00:01:04:08 - 00:01:08:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of with that sort of piece of content and then hopefully drive them deeper down your funnel,

00:01:08:27 - 00:01:16:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
which you will eventually get them to more spiritual content and, and hopefully you'll get them to a long form version of your spiritual content, which from there you can hopefully,

00:01:16:28 - 00:01:21:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
just like you would live in the room, just like you would live with the sermon.

00:01:21:12 - 00:01:30:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Prompt them to take some sort of meaningful next step closer to Jesus. My new favorite phenomenon for churches and for youth ministries is to create content

00:01:30:06 - 00:01:32:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
with my students, not just content

00:01:32:29 - 00:01:34:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
for my students.

00:01:34:21 - 00:01:52:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Generation Z and subsequently Generation Alpha are looking for the personal touch. They've they've grown up under the rise of customization generation. Alpha is going to be growing up under the rise of personalization with algorithms and AI and things that can make life just very tailored to them.

00:01:52:19 - 00:01:55:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so they don't want to necessarily get on their social media and see a

00:01:55:26 - 00:02:00:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
bunch of stuff that I have done for them. They would rather get on social media and see a bunch of stuff

00:02:00:28 - 00:02:04:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that they have had an opportunity to participate in.

00:02:04:02 - 00:02:09:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so a couple years ago, my resident Caleb, linked right here is my interview with him.

00:02:09:07 - 00:02:24:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in it, we actually talked for a little while about this concept called the social challenge. And so where this came birthed out of is in our student ministry, we have a very, very vibrant YouTube channel. It's probably the social media platform that

00:02:24:02 - 00:02:37:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I pour the most gas on. If you want to see our strategy link down below is my completely free e-book strategy guide, detailing and outline every single thing I do from silly posting videos, long form version, pieces of content.

00:02:37:13 - 00:02:43:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It will help you take an adapter and make that possible in your context. But we were talking through a

00:02:43:20 - 00:02:48:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube channel, which is mostly just teaching videos, and he wanted to include more students

00:02:48:08 - 00:02:56:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
on our longform, teaching videos section of YouTube. You know, YouTube is broken into different like containers. You got you got

00:02:56:02 - 00:02:59:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
posts and you got shorts and you got videos and you got lives.

00:02:59:18 - 00:03:01:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so he's like, I want more students. I

00:03:01:24 - 00:03:18:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
think it'd be good if there were more students on the video portion. And not just us staff, people with teaching videos. And I was like, okay, great. So he invented this thing called the social Challenge. And the social challenge became a huge win for us in our student ministry in multiple arenas.

00:03:18:25 - 00:03:31:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But early on, it would just be him or maybe him, and like another one of our students or him and another one of our interns filming some, some students doing some sort of challenge, just think like any sort of

00:03:31:02 - 00:03:36:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
youth group game. And then they would just capture it on camera. And so that was on a Wednesday night.

00:03:36:14 - 00:03:40:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our team, we don't work on Fridays. And so he would come into the office

00:03:40:27 - 00:03:53:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
on Thursday and he would edit all day long to try and get that thing ready to go. And then from there, he would get that thing posted and off he would go, putting our students on, on the YouTube channel. Well,

00:03:53:14 - 00:04:01:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
over time, that just became hefty every single week with a Thursday all day edit like that was the only thing he had like really bandwidth for it to do.

00:04:01:17 - 00:04:08:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
On Thursday. And so we let that thing run for about a semester. And then we made an adjustment. And I said, what if we,

00:04:08:00 - 00:04:17:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because in the meantime, we were filming short form, vertical based video content with our staff, and we would film like once a month, and we would get together and we would do some of these ideas.

00:04:17:00 - 00:04:22:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And one of the ones I'm about to share with you here in just a minute, and we would, we were filming for us

00:04:22:20 - 00:04:35:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and I was like, what if we put students behind that camera? And so that's what we did. And so my favorite, we do in our studio. Mr.. Now we've honed it in where we do four different types of social challenges.

00:04:35:06 - 00:04:44:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so most months are made up of four different weeks and so on week one we'll do this week two do that, week three we'll do that. Link four we'll do that. Or we'll just do

00:04:44:17 - 00:04:49:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
whatever is running low. And so I have every single thing, every single piece of content stored

00:04:49:04 - 00:04:56:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in a Google Drive. And I can see as I post daily, I can see which of these pieces of content I'm running

00:04:56:01 - 00:05:01:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
out of, and then thus which ones we need to film more of on the next Wednesday night.

00:05:01:02 - 00:05:04:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some of the other advantages youth pastors that this has had

00:05:04:18 - 00:05:14:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is this has created a space in our student ministry for students to come and let their voice be heard, and for them to actually get a chance to be on social media themselves. And then

00:05:14:14 - 00:05:18:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
they're actually looking for it later on down the road, like, when are you going to post my video?

00:05:19:02 - 00:05:23:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let me know. And it was funny, last week I actually pulled a kid aside and said, hey, I'm

00:05:23:10 - 00:05:35:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
posting yours tomorrow. And so then he texted me. I didn't send him the link or anything like that, but he texted me. He's like, that was good, you know, typical seventh grade boy. But, he he reached out of his own accord.

00:05:35:08 - 00:05:56:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Once he saw his video had been posted online. And so it's had some major wins for us in the room. It's actually made like our in person, a little bit more, intimate, like it's made our students actually get to interact with and know each other a little bit more. And so that's our current adaptation. We just batch record our students any given Wednesday

00:05:56:13 - 00:06:03:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
night, with these different for social media ideas, I'm going to share with you in this video playlist.

00:06:03:20 - 00:06:22:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The first video idea that we do, it's called drafts. Now, you've probably seen or heard these before in if you've ever been on social media, all kinds of different people have done them. And I'm not, you know, claiming to be the the author of this idea, we have no doubt seen, we're taking

00:06:22:25 - 00:06:28:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this, you know, from other people, we've seen it done elsewhere, and we've adapted it to our culture

00:06:28:07 - 00:06:29:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and to our context.

00:06:29:23 - 00:06:31:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But essentially what it is is you choose, like

00:06:31:27 - 00:06:58:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
any topic, literally any topic in the world that has at least ten or more options. And the reason you need ten or more is because it's it's sort of treated like a, like sports or like a basketball type thing where you draft somebody, to your starting five. And so if you and if you and I were doing this, you might go first in any particular category, let's just say,

00:06:58:12 - 00:07:10:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
let's just say basketball players, you know, for example, by the way, link down below in the description I have shared with you, like over 100 different draft topic ideas

00:07:10:02 - 00:07:10:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
as well as a

00:07:10:25 - 00:07:19:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
gear resource list. So go ahead and click that link and go grab it. You can just have it and then you can take these and kind of copy and paste them and implement them into your church and into

00:07:19:17 - 00:07:27:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your social media strategy. But if you're going first, maybe you're Michael Jordan guy. So you take Michael Jordan, but then you go to me and it'd be my pick.

00:07:27:15 - 00:07:45:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the only thing I couldn't take is Michael Jordan. I could take any other basketball player I wanted to. I could take LeBron James. I can also take Bronny James. It doesn't matter. I could take whoever I want. So I'll go LeBron. And then back to you. You might think that the third greatest player of all time is like Magic Johnson.

00:07:45:08 - 00:08:02:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's fair. I'll go ahead and give you like thumbs up on that. Come back to me. I'll probably take like Larry Bird or something like that. Back over to you. Let's say you take, maybe you're a big Bulls guy. Maybe you take Scottie Pippen. Great. That's fine. I don't agree with that necessarily. But I appreciate you trying back over to me.

00:08:02:23 - 00:08:18:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I probably go doctor J. Or Wilt Chamberlain maybe. I think, and as I'm doing this, I'm commentating it, right. I'm like, you know, I'm thinking this thing that, and so I'll go ahead. I'll take I'll take, I'll, I'll end up taking wilt. No no no no no no. What am I doing? I'll take Shaq I'll take Shaq back over to you.

00:08:18:17 - 00:08:33:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you're like, all right, fine, I'll take Kobe. Great. That's great. Back over to me now. I'll take wilt okay. And I'm not now like building a team to play with. And you can set those parameters because I can't have Will and Shaq playing on the same team that both centers. Right. Back over to you. Maybe you're going to take like a modern guy.

00:08:33:09 - 00:08:47:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Maybe you're going to go like Kevin Durant or something like that. And I think that would be fair. Back over to me if I wanted to take a modern guy. Though I don't think he's, top ten of all time, but I do think it's great. Shaq good. So Alexander represent Oklahoma City Thunder. That's my favorite basketball team.

00:08:48:00 - 00:09:11:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then what you do then is you'd say, hey, let us know. Comment down below who you think won okay. Now in that particular case, everyone watching would definitely say that I won. But maybe you got some big, Bulls fans, some some people from Chicago watching your content. Maybe they would say that you won, and they would say that you picked all the goats and Kobe Bryant and Scottie Pippen and all the other people, right?

00:09:11:15 - 00:09:11:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like,

00:09:11:24 - 00:09:18:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
whatever the case might be, but you just literally go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Another option you can do is you can snake it in

00:09:18:24 - 00:09:27:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so if you don't know, it's like, first person, second person, second person, first person, first person, second person, second person. That's the concept of a snake draft.

00:09:27:23 - 00:09:28:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I don't

00:09:28:02 - 00:09:44:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I don't do that as much in like a two person draft because, it's just like 12X2X2X2X2, and then it ends with one. I'd rather just kind of do the bounce back, but either way, your choice, your decision, you figure out which you prefer. And then

00:09:44:11 - 00:09:51:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I need to edit that sucker. And so typically when I do it with anyone on my staff, those drafts end up being like, five minutes,

00:09:51:12 - 00:09:54:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
because there's a fair bit of banter.

00:09:54:07 - 00:10:00:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we're sort of like, gassing people for, like, what they said, or slamming them for how bad we thought the choices were.

00:10:00:26 - 00:10:08:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And either way, we're kind of going back and forth, making fun of each other. And so that you have you have some decisions to make

00:10:08:10 - 00:10:18:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in the editing process, right? You got to get it down for me, I try to get every video under 60s because YouTube shorts is cap is 60s.

00:10:18:06 - 00:10:26:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if I can get it under 60, then that means I can post it on YouTube shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels and Facebook Reels all four places.

00:10:26:05 - 00:10:39:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, if you don't want to use YouTube shorts though, if you're trying to reach teenagers, can I please implore you to consider using it? 95% of teenagers are on YouTube, and so if you are in youth ministry, you should definitely be using YouTube, and thus you should also

00:10:39:20 - 00:10:41:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
be using YouTube shorts.

00:10:41:10 - 00:10:49:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if you don't want to use YouTube, then you can make it longer because those other platforms allow for longer, time segments of videos. And you can

00:10:49:26 - 00:10:58:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
edit it directly on your phone. My edits, it look like this. If you're watching here on YouTube. I'll also share with you my Photoshop template in that,

00:10:58:08 - 00:11:07:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
free downloadable document where I am sharing, you know, all the different hundreds of ideas of draft, topics and content that you can use.

00:11:07:28 - 00:11:29:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But, if you don't have Photoshop, you can literally design this, in anything. You can design it on TikTok, in the TikTok editor. You can design it on an app like Cap Cut for the free version or the paid version. You can use it on Instagram Reels. Editor. Like it's literally the sky is the limit on where you can edit it.

00:11:29:03 - 00:11:30:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I like to edit in

00:11:30:08 - 00:11:43:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Adobe Premiere Pro, so I use Adobe Photoshop, and then I import those files into Adobe Premiere Pro and the good news in all of this is that for a while I started doing it. And then, homeschool kids are

00:11:43:09 - 00:11:50:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the best in our student ministry because they obviously they they don't go to school for as long during the day when they do homeschool.

00:11:51:00 - 00:11:52:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I can have

00:11:52:03 - 00:12:04:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
them come in and they can use, one of our spare computers that has Adobe Premiere Pro loaded on it. And I've been just teaching them how to use Adobe Photoshop, how to use Adobe Premiere Pro.

00:12:04:16 - 00:12:12:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I had a student, I kid you not, who he took all of, one of our other, like, video tape adaptations.

00:12:12:03 - 00:12:13:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We had like, like 12

00:12:13:29 - 00:12:21:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of them, and he edited every single one of them, like in one sitting. He he came in. It was like

00:12:21:04 - 00:12:27:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
his maybe fifth time in, And so he had to, like, learn and get up to speed on that fifth time. I mean, he just

00:12:27:27 - 00:12:31:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
crushed them to the point where he was loving editing.

00:12:31:00 - 00:12:36:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then he said to me, hey, can I come in tomorrow? And I was like, bro, you've done them all.

00:12:36:00 - 00:13:00:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And before I was getting students to come in and edit, I was editing them all myself, every single one. And so I was always behind. I never was caught up and he got me completely caught up. And now the other good news in all of this is that in addition to students editing it and getting them posted, I've also had students begin to take ownership and leadership in the room of where we're filming this thing.

00:13:00:00 - 00:13:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we've actually built a full studio. You can see link down below, our studio tour and all the gear that we use, but sometimes we just use like a camera on the back of a cell phone and like external microphones. Other times we use like full podcast studio type microphones and run that into like a focus right camera.

00:13:17:22 - 00:13:38:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we filmed it off our Sony ZV ten. Again, all of that is linked in that, studio tour episode. If you want to look at any of that purchase, any of that. And then if you do have your phone, you can just edit it directly off your phone. If you do it off of a camera, you got to take out the SD card and then download it and then go edit it in some sort of software on your computer.

00:13:38:06 - 00:14:02:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, either one of those strategies is fine. You decide what you want, you can do a really heavy edit, or you can do a really minimal edit like either of those. Either of those strategies works, and you can kind of do whatever works best for you and your, your time frame. Right. But once those students, edit those, I also have students capturing them or I have them running the room.

00:14:02:08 - 00:14:23:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I have them, getting students in place. I have them literally running, like, action and, like, clapping their hands. And, it was actually really helpful because one week when we were filming a bunch of, these draft style videos, the camera audio cut out, but I got all the mic audio, but I was like, how am I going to sync up empty words?

00:14:23:08 - 00:14:49:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
To real audio? And because of the claps, I was able to find the clap on the camera, link up that spike, and then they were able to be to be linked. And so, I at this point in time, like this, this strategy, this four part video strategy, students are running it on Wednesday nights capturing the videos, and then students are editing it and all I'm doing is overseeing it and posting it.

00:14:49:17 - 00:14:51:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so my guess would be, if you're in

00:14:51:05 - 00:15:15:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
youth ministry and you want to create content with your students, that this is what you're looking for because you may not feel equipped, you may not feel like you have, what it takes or even the knowledge behind social media in your students. They do, they do. And if you're willing to build the infrastructure enough to then be able to hand that over to them, I think that's a fantastic model and it takes more work off of your

00:15:15:02 - 00:15:16:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
plate.

00:15:16:04 - 00:15:38:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you're interested in exploring, how to do that or even just looking for maybe like some some next steps, I offer a coaching link down below. Reach out about that is really affordable, is really cheap, and I would love to help you get that up and running. Now on to easy social media video idea number two.

00:15:38:21 - 00:15:57:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm glad that you asked because I'm sure you were looking for it. It's actually going to be linked here on screen in the very next video, which I have here on my channel. So go ahead and tap that. Go check that one out. And without any further ado, we will see you over there because we are making digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible.

00:15:57:27 - 00:16:02:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so as always, don't ever forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 092: 🖐️ 5 Secret Benefits of Filming YouTube Videos for Youth Ministries https://www.hybridministry.xyz/092 05087092-0158-4127-b402-401393069189 Thu, 11 Apr 2024 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 092 🖐️ 5 Secret Benefits of Filming YouTube Videos for Youth Ministries full Nick Clason 📹YouTube is the perfect platform for youth pastors and youth ministries. Why? * 95% of youth group teenagers are on YouTube * YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, powered by Google * YouTube plays to the skillset of all youth pastors In this video, let's help you start sitting down in front of the camera and filming messages and content for your youth group! 19:23 no <h3>💥 [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Video Editing for Youth Pastors💥</h3> <p><a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/editing" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/editing</a></p> <h3>🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥</h3> <p><a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p><strong>======================================</strong><br> <strong>DESCRIPTION</strong><br> 📹YouTube is the perfect platform for youth pastors and youth ministries.<br> Why?</p> <ul> <li>95% of youth group teenagers are on YouTube</li> <li>YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, powered by Google</li> <li>YouTube plays to the skillset of all youth pastors</li> </ul> <p>In this video, let's help you start sitting down in front of the camera and filming messages and content for your youth group!<br> Follow along as we unpack the best practices guide of YouTube for Youth Pastors:<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl</a><br> <strong>======================================</strong><br> 📓<strong>SHOWNOTES</strong><br> //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS<br> <a href="http://www.hybridministry.xyz/092" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.hybridministry.xyz/092</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE VIDEO<br> <a href="https://youtu.be/3bq5CGstZmE" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtu.be/3bq5CGstZmE</a></p> <p>//GET STARTED FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>//SONY ZVE-10<br> <a href="https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv</a></p> <p>//SEAN CANNEL &amp; THINK MEDIA<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@seanTHiNKs" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@seanTHiNKs</a></p> <p>//FULL-PROOF TIME MANAGEMENT GUIDE<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8&amp;t=189s" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8&amp;amp;t=189s</a></p> <p>//YOUVERSION LIVE EVENTS<br> <a href="https://my.bible.com/events" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://my.bible.com/events</a></p> <p>//TELEPROMPTER<br> <a href="https://walmrt.us/4a6ZJU1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://walmrt.us/4a6ZJU1</a></p> <p>//TOP 5 YOUTH CURRICULUMS: RANKED!<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQXsananwI" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQXsananwI</a></p> <p>//WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN<br> [Link Placeholder]</p> <p>//SIDEKICK<br> <a href="http://www.sidekick.tv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.sidekick.tv</a></p> <p>FREE VIDEO EDITING OPTIONS<br> //CAPCUT<br> <a href="https://www.capcut.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.capcut.com</a></p> <p>//DAVINCI RESOLVE</p> <h2><a href="https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/event/davinciresolvedownload" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/event/davinciresolvedownload</a></h2> <p>👉 <strong>STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK</strong><br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a><br> <strong>======================================</strong></p> <p><strong>🆓 FREEBIES 🆓</strong><br> 📅 "<strong>The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy</strong>"<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>🖥️ "<strong>My 9 Favorite DYM Resources</strong>"<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>📨 <strong>Full Proof Recruiting Email</strong><br> EMAIL: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email</a></p> <p>🍩 <strong>"FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"</strong><br> GUIDE: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut</a></p> <p><strong>😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"</strong><br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook</a></p> <p><strong>📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"</strong><br> <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis</a></p> <p><strong>======================================</strong><br> 🛠️<strong>TOOLS</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em></p> <p>SONY ZVE-10<br> <a href="https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv</a></p> <p>BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p>AUTO POD<br> <a href="https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv</a></p> <p>TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING<br> <a href="https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> 🕰️<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00 Why Youth Pastors should Pre-Film their Messages<br> 02:10 Leveling Up Your YouTube Gear<br> 06:54 Adding Shownotes to your YouTube Videos<br> 10:31 Top 5 Benefits of Pre-Filming Your Messages to YouTube</p> <p><strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:31:03<br> Nick Clason<br> Youth Pastor, Let me guess, you have a desire for the students that you have been entrusted to in your care to come, to learn, know, love and follow Jesus. And let me guess, part of that strategy, part of that way that you hope students do that is to show up for them and to be there when they have difficult and tough questions to help them answer and make sense of life which is around them.</p> <p>00:00:31:04 - 00:00:57:13<br> Nick Clason<br> Well, according to Pew Research, 95% of teenagers have used will use or plan to use the platform of YouTube. And so from the most conservative parents in your church who would never even imagine letting their kids enter the World Wide Web to all the way to the least restrictive parents who gave their kids a phone and let them have wild access to the Internet.</p> <p>00:00:57:15 - 00:01:21:28<br> Nick Clason<br> YouTube is a great strategy and a great platform for students and student ministry. Like if in your youth ministry context, you're using YouTube, subscribe if you're not and hey, either way, hit the bell because we're in a playlist called YouTube for Youth Ministries. But how do we start posting content to YouTube? Like you might know these stats, You might know it's important.</p> <p>00:01:21:28 - 00:01:44:06<br> Nick Clason<br> You might know students are on the you might know it's a really accessible platform, but how do you actually begin filming editing, recording and posting videos to YouTube? Well, this is the perfect video because in it I want to share with you what gear you can use to start leveling up your YouTube game with simply just shooting on your cell phone.</p> <p>00:01:44:06 - 00:02:07:27<br> Nick Clason<br> I also want to talk about how you can manage your time to fit in the process of filming YouTube videos and posting it. I'm also going to give you some next steps directly out of this video so that you can start doing some side benefits for you. And then finally, how to actually edit your video so that it looks good and professional and fits the vibe that's going on YouTube.</p> <p>00:02:08:03 - 00:02:33:28<br> Nick Clason<br> Welcome to the Hybrid ministry show. So if you're anything like me and you work at church, you look around your youth room and you compare it to the auditorium or the main church room that the rest of the or the rest of your, you know, big church is using where your pastors preaching on Sunday morning and you probably look and think, man, I don't have the gear to capture my services and post them on YouTube.</p> <p>00:02:34:00 - 00:03:05:24<br> Nick Clason<br> And the answer to that is probably unequivocally 100% accurate. You probably don't. Right. But I actually have linked right here on screen my 100% completely free e-book, which is called 40 done for you posting tools, which really, honestly maybe needs a new title because what it ultimately is, is my complete philosophy as well as strategy guide for leveling up your YouTube and your social media game.</p> <p>00:03:05:24 - 00:03:32:00<br> Nick Clason<br> It's all about creating custom content for YouTube. And so one of the elements in that e-book, if you click it and if you download it, is a link to a blog that I have created called YouTube Gear on a Budget. And simply what it is is it will help you level up your YouTube gear if you choose to shoot video on your phone that is of course the most expensive piece is that camera piece.</p> <p>00:03:32:03 - 00:04:04:25<br> Nick Clason<br> But you can level up your game for less than $100 by adding in some external microphones. I have linked on in the e-book. Bluetooth wireless microphones, a shotgun style microphone for Android. The same thing's for for iPhones as well. Also, just like a phone based tripod, you can get a tabletop one that's a little shorter or you can get a full, full length standing tripod as well as a basic ring light that so, you know, your videos look decent with lighting.</p> <p>00:04:05:01 - 00:04:27:25<br> Nick Clason<br> You can also take care of most of that by just filming in a space that has some good lighting. And then if you do want to go the next layer beyond just $100 or less, if you want to stop shooting on your phone and you want to start shooting on a good camera, the one that I recommend that was recommended to me by Sean Cannell via his YouTube channel, check out and Think Media.</p> <p>00:04:27:27 - 00:04:50:29<br> Nick Clason<br> If you haven't had a chance. He is a YouTube guru, but the Sony ZVE-10. It’s a Great camera. We bought it along with the lens for about $700 in our student ministry space one time purchase. But now we're using it and we're using it for everything. We're using it for long form videos as well as vertically shot and vertically based videos.</p> <p>00:04:51:04 - 00:05:15:19<br> Nick Clason<br> But one of the pieces, one of the challenges for most youth pastors is that we're running from fire to fire to fire to fire and meeting to meeting to me and to meeting this kid, kid who needs counseling, counseling, counseling, counseling, all the different things, all the different demands of our space and our time. We're linked right here at the top of this video is my 100% completely free, foolproof strategy for good time management.</p> <p>00:05:15:19 - 00:05:38:26<br> Nick Clason<br> And here's the honest truth that frankly, like there are always going to be issues, are always going to be struggles, are always going to be fires and things that pop up on your calendar. But if you manage your time and just a little sneak peek like you are 100% completely in charge of your time and your time management.</p> <p>00:05:38:26 - 00:06:02:17<br> Nick Clason<br> And so if you don't make a priority and a space in your calendar to sit down and pre film your messages, just like we're talking about here, like you are not going to be able to to start posting content to YouTube, you have to make it a priority just like you make sitting down and crafting a Wednesday night program a priority.</p> <p>00:06:02:23 - 00:06:25:04<br> Nick Clason<br> You also have to make sitting down and pre filming your messages a priority. So you're probably going to have to get several weeks in advance on this, both on your teaching scope and curriculum, which link down below. I have link to my five favorite teaching curriculum, so go check that out. And in a video that we've dropped not too long ago, you can check that out if you're interested in something like that.</p> <p>00:06:25:06 - 00:06:58:24<br> Nick Clason<br> But your plan, your curriculum, and then you'll write out your teaching and then you'll sit down and you'll deliver the message direct to camera, all because you told your time what was going to happen to it. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't counsel students and mute their senior pastor and plan for your Wednesday night, but if pre filming your message is if getting the message of Jesus and the message of hope out on the Internet, on YouTube is important to you, then you need to determine when you're going to place that that thing on your calendar to do it.</p> <p>00:06:58:26 - 00:07:21:11<br> Nick Clason<br> Now, just like this YouTube video, all YouTube videos have a description section. And so when you are preaching or teaching or delivering some piece of content direct to camera on screen, you can always say down below in the description are links. And so for every single video that I post on my student Ministry's YouTube channel, we post two links.</p> <p>00:07:21:11 - 00:07:45:00<br> Nick Clason<br> The first link is a next steps digital type connect card. And I think about if you live in the room and you want to challenge students to take the next step of getting baptized, or if you're alive in the room and they prayed to receive Christ or they just need some sort of prayer, you might point them to a physical connect card in the seatback in front of them, or at the middle of like a table or something like that.</p> <p>00:07:45:00 - 00:08:07:07<br> Nick Clason<br> If you're sitting around tables in your space on the same way, you can offer a digital version. And I mean, let's be honest, if they fill out a physical connect card, probably you are taking that caption that information digitally somehow, whether that be in your church management system, in software, or if it's just by tracking that information via something more basic like Excel.</p> <p>00:08:07:08 - 00:08:31:29<br> Nick Clason<br> Nonetheless, you take it from a physical moment to digital. And so if you can offer a digital based connect card, then you know that you are going to be getting that information and you're going to be cutting out that middleman portion. The other thing that I offer in our digital are link in our description in most of our YouTube videos is what we call our digital Notes platform.</p> <p>00:08:31:29 - 00:08:53:20<br> Nick Clason<br> And our digital notes is simply using the free, by the way, free YouVersion live events. And so if you've ever used that before, it's a thing that you can create. And on the back end on you version of the Bible app, you create a live service. And so I set our digital notes to go quote unquote live.</p> <p>00:08:53:20 - 00:09:24:27<br> Nick Clason<br> So it's discovered in the live kind of panel of your you you version Bible app. It's when you discover when your church is live. And so I set that for when we're teaching our message live same day same time. However it does at the end give you a small URL. And so then the play, the digital notes plan, the live event can be clicked on and accessed at any time, regardless of if it is quote unquote live in the version Bible app.</p> <p>00:09:24:29 - 00:09:45:16<br> Nick Clason<br> And so you can put text, you can put images, you can put Bible passages, and then they, the followers along, they can create private notes based off of all of those things. They can save them so that they can kind of archive them and come back later. But one of my favorite pieces to the digital notes is that you can create an external link.</p> <p>00:09:45:16 - 00:10:09:01<br> Nick Clason<br> And so again, if a student is following along, live in the room or on YouTube at the end, they can they can have a live link to go out to Digital Connect card. They can have a live link to go out to camp signups. They can have a live link to go out to whatever you want it to be, whatever sort of call to action, whatever sort of next step your message may be pointing students toward.</p> <p>00:10:09:03 - 00:10:38:21<br> Nick Clason<br> The other thing is, of course, it is on you version. And so you can also link Bible reading plans directly in there as well. And so think about it. What if you had a whole message on the importance of reading the Bible and getting in God's Word? And then what if you actually had a Bible reading plan that they could start reading that night or the next morning that they could start enjoying and begin reading to help them follow through on what you were talking about?</p> <p>00:10:38:23 - 00:11:04:15<br> Nick Clason<br> So obviously, in addition, right, like in addition to posting videos to YouTube to reach more students for 95% of teenagers have or will plan to spend some of their time or at least use the app in some way, shape or form. There are, I think, five additional like benefits to sitting down and pre filming your talks direct to camera benefit number one is more practice.</p> <p>00:11:04:15 - 00:11:22:23<br> Nick Clason<br> It gives you an opportunity to engage with your content more frequently than just getting up and teaching it live on a Wednesday night or Sunday morning or whenever that might be. And so by the time you do actually get around on Wednesday night or Sunday morning to deliver your content, direct camera, you've already delivered it at least once.</p> <p>00:11:22:23 - 00:11:56:02<br> Nick Clason<br> And if you need more takes, maybe two or three, and so you're much more familiar with the content and the concepts that you were teaching. Benefit number two is, of course, you're going to be forced to get ahead. You're going to be forced to to be working ahead in your delivery of of this content and preparation. So my workflow goes, I sit down and I write it all out and not linked in my $100 or less leveling up guide.</p> <p>00:11:56:05 - 00:12:17:19<br> Nick Clason<br> But one that is recommended potentially you may have to get a beefier tripod is using a using a teleprompter holder. And so you can get a teleprompter and you can use an iPad with the free teleprompter app. But so I sit down, I prep my message and I script it out and I may script it word for word.</p> <p>00:12:17:22 - 00:12:48:25<br> Nick Clason<br> 2000 or 2500 words is usually a good length for YouTube. It helps me hopefully shoot in under the 15 minute mark. That's always my goal on time. Write it all out and then deliver it Direct camera. That's where I include things like subscribe and cards linked up at the top and end screens like I write and spell every single thing out word for word, so that then the teleprompter will just kind of do its thing and flow right in front of me and I just read it directly there.</p> <p>00:12:48:28 - 00:13:17:08<br> Nick Clason<br> It does take a little bit of work to get used to it. It is a skill that's not exactly natural. You can do it. But, you know, I'm just letting you know, get get used to it. Then also I have I then take the the manuscript, the full YouTube manuscript, and I use Google Drive. And so I create a new copy of that an in a different folder, and I rename it live talk notes.</p> <p>00:13:17:12 - 00:13:50:08<br> Nick Clason<br> And so then I go back through that and I add highlights and I add all of those types of things, like, you know, yellow is, is like on screen or slide. Green is like any scripture or whatever, any video clips because like I may not actually like show a video clip on when I'm filming it to YouTube. If I do, it might just be some B-roll over top of the background as opposed to like showing a full on like video clip, like stop, pause the room, watch screen, come back type of thing, video clips and interactive elements.</p> <p>00:13:50:08 - 00:14:09:00<br> Nick Clason<br> I add all those things, but I do it in a completely different document. I adapt it from the manuscript to more of like an outline type style. And then as I'm doing that, I'm also building slides and putting it into a thing like Sidekick, where I can use integrated tools like the wheel and name Picker and the live voting elements and all those types of things.</p> <p>00:14:09:00 - 00:14:34:10<br> Nick Clason<br> More info link down below on Sidekick Sidekick.tv And so my workflow is my head. I write it, I deliver it, direct camera, and then I also readapt it to be taught in the room in between. When I shoot it and readapt it is when we're editing it or posting it, we're adding thumbnails or adding time codes, all the YouTube type things that need to take place.</p> <p>00:14:34:10 - 00:15:05:04<br> Nick Clason<br> So that is live. Usually the Monday before what we we posted on Monday and then deliver it live in the room on Wednesday. And then our students discuss it again on the following Sunday morning. So that whole week on social, our focus is, you know, Monday it drops, Wednesdays are live teaching and then Sunday they discuss it and then woven all throughout there are you know several different like kind of teaching videos social media type clips.</p> <p>00:15:05:06 - 00:15:32:29<br> Nick Clason<br> Benefit number three is it will help you create evergreen type content. Evergreen content is just a marketing word for content that is always relevant. In fact, last night I had a student from a former ministry and a former church that's going through a difficult and tough time. So hey, like I'm having a hard time. Like things are rough, you know, and some have had some some bad news and some kind of tragedy hit their family.</p> <p>00:15:32:29 - 00:16:07:10<br> Nick Clason<br> And so we don't even have this live yet. Like we're getting these back right now from our editor. But we are about to launch into a series called When Bad Things Happen. I have a link actually down below if you're interested in that series that is available on ym360 curriculum site. But we taught it as a student ministry team and like I said, it's not live on YouTube yet, but I was sending her the links to our direct drop box like videos so or Google Drive videos so that she could watch it.</p> <p>00:16:07:12 - 00:16:32:07<br> Nick Clason<br> And that's again like that's one of the benefits of filming your content is that when someone's going through a hard time who lives a thousand miles away, you can send them stuff like this that might be able to help them get through it and navigate through life. You see, this isn't just a vanity thing. Like you can help students, you can help care for students, shepherds, students, disciple students, teach students.</p> <p>00:16:32:07 - 00:16:55:16<br> Nick Clason<br> When you film, you're content. That's what you want to do. Live in the room, right? The difference is church is often built like a organization that's trying to capture people through a cable TV style of of marketing as opposed to an OnDemand style of marketing. And when you preach from your messages, you can start to wade into that quote unquote, on demand type of messaging.</p> <p>00:16:55:16 - 00:17:13:11<br> Nick Clason<br> So when someone's going through a hard time or when someone needs a guide to how to use the Bible or whatever it is that you have taught that you know is valuable, you can send them to your YouTube channel for a link to evergreen content, to content that matters. And so benefit number four, of course, is it's the antidote.</p> <p>00:17:13:11 - 00:17:37:02<br> Nick Clason<br> It is the cure to travel sports. Not entirely like that. Kids still traveling to baseball, but if you film your messages while they're still going to be traveling to baseball, would you rather them travel to baseball, miss out on church altogether, or would you rather them travel to baseball and still have the opportunity to catch up on the series, to hear the message to learn the thing?</p> <p>00:17:37:02 - 00:18:03:04<br> Nick Clason<br> Like I think we would all take option two. I mean, maybe we all like option three, which is like nuking travel baseball so that it never happens again. But since that's probably not going to be an option, we'll settle for option number two and options are an option. But side benefit number five of pre filming your messages is Sean Cannell the guru of YouTube, has a strategy called Ask specific questions.</p> <p>00:18:03:04 - 00:18:32:06<br> Nick Clason<br> ASQ or actually not ask answer specific questions. So think about it, right? You can answer your students specific questions. For example, how do I respond when bad things happen? Boom, That's a teaching series. Answer that question posted to YouTube. The goal is not necessarily to go viral and be caught and seen by other students in other states and other student ministries, though that can be something that happens.</p> <p>00:18:32:06 - 00:18:54:22<br> Nick Clason<br> But that's not the goal, right? The goal is to create content that is going to be helpful and beneficial to answer specific questions about God, about faith, about theology to the students that God has entrusted into you and into your care. Once you've shot the content, you now move into the hardest space of all of this process, probably, which is editing.</p> <p>00:18:54:25 - 00:19:19:10<br> Nick Clason<br> And there are some three different ways that you can do it. Cap Cut, DaVinci Resolve. Those are linked down below in the description, but also linked right here on screen is the best editing tools in the best editing apps, how to edit, how to level up your editing and why editing on videos does actually matter. So go ahead.</p> <p>00:19:19:10 - 00:19:35:04<br> Nick Clason<br> Take a look at that video. We love to catch you over there as we're continuing on our YouTube for Youth Ministry playlist. But don't forget and as always, stay hybrid. </p> YouTube, YouTube for Youth Ministry, YouTube Shorts for Youth Ministry, YouTube Thumbnails for Youth Ministry, YouTube for Student Ministry, Sean Cannell, YouTube Gear on a Budget, Start Posting Videos on Social Media, Youth Pastor, Hybrid Ministry, Student Ministry, Youth Group, How do I post my Youth Group Messages on the internet? 💥 [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Video Editing for Youth Pastors💥

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DESCRIPTION
📹YouTube is the perfect platform for youth pastors and youth ministries.
Why?

  • 95% of youth group teenagers are on YouTube
  • YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, powered by Google
  • YouTube plays to the skillset of all youth pastors

In this video, let's help you start sitting down in front of the camera and filming messages and content for your youth group!
Follow along as we unpack the best practices guide of YouTube for Youth Pastors:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/092

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/3bq5CGstZmE

//GET STARTED FOR UNDER $100
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

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

//SEAN CANNEL & THINK MEDIA
https://www.youtube.com/@seanTHiNKs

//FULL-PROOF TIME MANAGEMENT GUIDE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8&t=189s

//YOUVERSION LIVE EVENTS
https://my.bible.com/events

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

//TOP 5 YOUTH CURRICULUMS: RANKED!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQXsananwI

//WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN
[Link Placeholder]

//SIDEKICK
http://www.sidekick.tv

FREE VIDEO EDITING OPTIONS
//CAPCUT
https://www.capcut.com

//DAVINCI RESOLVE

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/event/davinciresolvedownload

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
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🛠️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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Why Youth Pastors should Pre-Film their Messages
02:10 Leveling Up Your YouTube Gear
06:54 Adding Shownotes to your YouTube Videos
10:31 Top 5 Benefits of Pre-Filming Your Messages to YouTube

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:31:03
Nick Clason
Youth Pastor, Let me guess, you have a desire for the students that you have been entrusted to in your care to come, to learn, know, love and follow Jesus. And let me guess, part of that strategy, part of that way that you hope students do that is to show up for them and to be there when they have difficult and tough questions to help them answer and make sense of life which is around them.

00:00:31:04 - 00:00:57:13
Nick Clason
Well, according to Pew Research, 95% of teenagers have used will use or plan to use the platform of YouTube. And so from the most conservative parents in your church who would never even imagine letting their kids enter the World Wide Web to all the way to the least restrictive parents who gave their kids a phone and let them have wild access to the Internet.

00:00:57:15 - 00:01:21:28
Nick Clason
YouTube is a great strategy and a great platform for students and student ministry. Like if in your youth ministry context, you're using YouTube, subscribe if you're not and hey, either way, hit the bell because we're in a playlist called YouTube for Youth Ministries. But how do we start posting content to YouTube? Like you might know these stats, You might know it's important.

00:01:21:28 - 00:01:44:06
Nick Clason
You might know students are on the you might know it's a really accessible platform, but how do you actually begin filming editing, recording and posting videos to YouTube? Well, this is the perfect video because in it I want to share with you what gear you can use to start leveling up your YouTube game with simply just shooting on your cell phone.

00:01:44:06 - 00:02:07:27
Nick Clason
I also want to talk about how you can manage your time to fit in the process of filming YouTube videos and posting it. I'm also going to give you some next steps directly out of this video so that you can start doing some side benefits for you. And then finally, how to actually edit your video so that it looks good and professional and fits the vibe that's going on YouTube.

00:02:08:03 - 00:02:33:28
Nick Clason
Welcome to the Hybrid ministry show. So if you're anything like me and you work at church, you look around your youth room and you compare it to the auditorium or the main church room that the rest of the or the rest of your, you know, big church is using where your pastors preaching on Sunday morning and you probably look and think, man, I don't have the gear to capture my services and post them on YouTube.

00:02:34:00 - 00:03:05:24
Nick Clason
And the answer to that is probably unequivocally 100% accurate. You probably don't. Right. But I actually have linked right here on screen my 100% completely free e-book, which is called 40 done for you posting tools, which really, honestly maybe needs a new title because what it ultimately is, is my complete philosophy as well as strategy guide for leveling up your YouTube and your social media game.

00:03:05:24 - 00:03:32:00
Nick Clason
It's all about creating custom content for YouTube. And so one of the elements in that e-book, if you click it and if you download it, is a link to a blog that I have created called YouTube Gear on a Budget. And simply what it is is it will help you level up your YouTube gear if you choose to shoot video on your phone that is of course the most expensive piece is that camera piece.

00:03:32:03 - 00:04:04:25
Nick Clason
But you can level up your game for less than $100 by adding in some external microphones. I have linked on in the e-book. Bluetooth wireless microphones, a shotgun style microphone for Android. The same thing's for for iPhones as well. Also, just like a phone based tripod, you can get a tabletop one that's a little shorter or you can get a full, full length standing tripod as well as a basic ring light that so, you know, your videos look decent with lighting.

00:04:05:01 - 00:04:27:25
Nick Clason
You can also take care of most of that by just filming in a space that has some good lighting. And then if you do want to go the next layer beyond just $100 or less, if you want to stop shooting on your phone and you want to start shooting on a good camera, the one that I recommend that was recommended to me by Sean Cannell via his YouTube channel, check out and Think Media.

00:04:27:27 - 00:04:50:29
Nick Clason
If you haven't had a chance. He is a YouTube guru, but the Sony ZVE-10. It’s a Great camera. We bought it along with the lens for about $700 in our student ministry space one time purchase. But now we're using it and we're using it for everything. We're using it for long form videos as well as vertically shot and vertically based videos.

00:04:51:04 - 00:05:15:19
Nick Clason
But one of the pieces, one of the challenges for most youth pastors is that we're running from fire to fire to fire to fire and meeting to meeting to me and to meeting this kid, kid who needs counseling, counseling, counseling, counseling, all the different things, all the different demands of our space and our time. We're linked right here at the top of this video is my 100% completely free, foolproof strategy for good time management.

00:05:15:19 - 00:05:38:26
Nick Clason
And here's the honest truth that frankly, like there are always going to be issues, are always going to be struggles, are always going to be fires and things that pop up on your calendar. But if you manage your time and just a little sneak peek like you are 100% completely in charge of your time and your time management.

00:05:38:26 - 00:06:02:17
Nick Clason
And so if you don't make a priority and a space in your calendar to sit down and pre film your messages, just like we're talking about here, like you are not going to be able to to start posting content to YouTube, you have to make it a priority just like you make sitting down and crafting a Wednesday night program a priority.

00:06:02:23 - 00:06:25:04
Nick Clason
You also have to make sitting down and pre filming your messages a priority. So you're probably going to have to get several weeks in advance on this, both on your teaching scope and curriculum, which link down below. I have link to my five favorite teaching curriculum, so go check that out. And in a video that we've dropped not too long ago, you can check that out if you're interested in something like that.

00:06:25:06 - 00:06:58:24
Nick Clason
But your plan, your curriculum, and then you'll write out your teaching and then you'll sit down and you'll deliver the message direct to camera, all because you told your time what was going to happen to it. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't counsel students and mute their senior pastor and plan for your Wednesday night, but if pre filming your message is if getting the message of Jesus and the message of hope out on the Internet, on YouTube is important to you, then you need to determine when you're going to place that that thing on your calendar to do it.

00:06:58:26 - 00:07:21:11
Nick Clason
Now, just like this YouTube video, all YouTube videos have a description section. And so when you are preaching or teaching or delivering some piece of content direct to camera on screen, you can always say down below in the description are links. And so for every single video that I post on my student Ministry's YouTube channel, we post two links.

00:07:21:11 - 00:07:45:00
Nick Clason
The first link is a next steps digital type connect card. And I think about if you live in the room and you want to challenge students to take the next step of getting baptized, or if you're alive in the room and they prayed to receive Christ or they just need some sort of prayer, you might point them to a physical connect card in the seatback in front of them, or at the middle of like a table or something like that.

00:07:45:00 - 00:08:07:07
Nick Clason
If you're sitting around tables in your space on the same way, you can offer a digital version. And I mean, let's be honest, if they fill out a physical connect card, probably you are taking that caption that information digitally somehow, whether that be in your church management system, in software, or if it's just by tracking that information via something more basic like Excel.

00:08:07:08 - 00:08:31:29
Nick Clason
Nonetheless, you take it from a physical moment to digital. And so if you can offer a digital based connect card, then you know that you are going to be getting that information and you're going to be cutting out that middleman portion. The other thing that I offer in our digital are link in our description in most of our YouTube videos is what we call our digital Notes platform.

00:08:31:29 - 00:08:53:20
Nick Clason
And our digital notes is simply using the free, by the way, free YouVersion live events. And so if you've ever used that before, it's a thing that you can create. And on the back end on you version of the Bible app, you create a live service. And so I set our digital notes to go quote unquote live.

00:08:53:20 - 00:09:24:27
Nick Clason
So it's discovered in the live kind of panel of your you you version Bible app. It's when you discover when your church is live. And so I set that for when we're teaching our message live same day same time. However it does at the end give you a small URL. And so then the play, the digital notes plan, the live event can be clicked on and accessed at any time, regardless of if it is quote unquote live in the version Bible app.

00:09:24:29 - 00:09:45:16
Nick Clason
And so you can put text, you can put images, you can put Bible passages, and then they, the followers along, they can create private notes based off of all of those things. They can save them so that they can kind of archive them and come back later. But one of my favorite pieces to the digital notes is that you can create an external link.

00:09:45:16 - 00:10:09:01
Nick Clason
And so again, if a student is following along, live in the room or on YouTube at the end, they can they can have a live link to go out to Digital Connect card. They can have a live link to go out to camp signups. They can have a live link to go out to whatever you want it to be, whatever sort of call to action, whatever sort of next step your message may be pointing students toward.

00:10:09:03 - 00:10:38:21
Nick Clason
The other thing is, of course, it is on you version. And so you can also link Bible reading plans directly in there as well. And so think about it. What if you had a whole message on the importance of reading the Bible and getting in God's Word? And then what if you actually had a Bible reading plan that they could start reading that night or the next morning that they could start enjoying and begin reading to help them follow through on what you were talking about?

00:10:38:23 - 00:11:04:15
Nick Clason
So obviously, in addition, right, like in addition to posting videos to YouTube to reach more students for 95% of teenagers have or will plan to spend some of their time or at least use the app in some way, shape or form. There are, I think, five additional like benefits to sitting down and pre filming your talks direct to camera benefit number one is more practice.

00:11:04:15 - 00:11:22:23
Nick Clason
It gives you an opportunity to engage with your content more frequently than just getting up and teaching it live on a Wednesday night or Sunday morning or whenever that might be. And so by the time you do actually get around on Wednesday night or Sunday morning to deliver your content, direct camera, you've already delivered it at least once.

00:11:22:23 - 00:11:56:02
Nick Clason
And if you need more takes, maybe two or three, and so you're much more familiar with the content and the concepts that you were teaching. Benefit number two is, of course, you're going to be forced to get ahead. You're going to be forced to to be working ahead in your delivery of of this content and preparation. So my workflow goes, I sit down and I write it all out and not linked in my $100 or less leveling up guide.

00:11:56:05 - 00:12:17:19
Nick Clason
But one that is recommended potentially you may have to get a beefier tripod is using a using a teleprompter holder. And so you can get a teleprompter and you can use an iPad with the free teleprompter app. But so I sit down, I prep my message and I script it out and I may script it word for word.

00:12:17:22 - 00:12:48:25
Nick Clason
2000 or 2500 words is usually a good length for YouTube. It helps me hopefully shoot in under the 15 minute mark. That's always my goal on time. Write it all out and then deliver it Direct camera. That's where I include things like subscribe and cards linked up at the top and end screens like I write and spell every single thing out word for word, so that then the teleprompter will just kind of do its thing and flow right in front of me and I just read it directly there.

00:12:48:28 - 00:13:17:08
Nick Clason
It does take a little bit of work to get used to it. It is a skill that's not exactly natural. You can do it. But, you know, I'm just letting you know, get get used to it. Then also I have I then take the the manuscript, the full YouTube manuscript, and I use Google Drive. And so I create a new copy of that an in a different folder, and I rename it live talk notes.

00:13:17:12 - 00:13:50:08
Nick Clason
And so then I go back through that and I add highlights and I add all of those types of things, like, you know, yellow is, is like on screen or slide. Green is like any scripture or whatever, any video clips because like I may not actually like show a video clip on when I'm filming it to YouTube. If I do, it might just be some B-roll over top of the background as opposed to like showing a full on like video clip, like stop, pause the room, watch screen, come back type of thing, video clips and interactive elements.

00:13:50:08 - 00:14:09:00
Nick Clason
I add all those things, but I do it in a completely different document. I adapt it from the manuscript to more of like an outline type style. And then as I'm doing that, I'm also building slides and putting it into a thing like Sidekick, where I can use integrated tools like the wheel and name Picker and the live voting elements and all those types of things.

00:14:09:00 - 00:14:34:10
Nick Clason
More info link down below on Sidekick Sidekick.tv And so my workflow is my head. I write it, I deliver it, direct camera, and then I also readapt it to be taught in the room in between. When I shoot it and readapt it is when we're editing it or posting it, we're adding thumbnails or adding time codes, all the YouTube type things that need to take place.

00:14:34:10 - 00:15:05:04
Nick Clason
So that is live. Usually the Monday before what we we posted on Monday and then deliver it live in the room on Wednesday. And then our students discuss it again on the following Sunday morning. So that whole week on social, our focus is, you know, Monday it drops, Wednesdays are live teaching and then Sunday they discuss it and then woven all throughout there are you know several different like kind of teaching videos social media type clips.

00:15:05:06 - 00:15:32:29
Nick Clason
Benefit number three is it will help you create evergreen type content. Evergreen content is just a marketing word for content that is always relevant. In fact, last night I had a student from a former ministry and a former church that's going through a difficult and tough time. So hey, like I'm having a hard time. Like things are rough, you know, and some have had some some bad news and some kind of tragedy hit their family.

00:15:32:29 - 00:16:07:10
Nick Clason
And so we don't even have this live yet. Like we're getting these back right now from our editor. But we are about to launch into a series called When Bad Things Happen. I have a link actually down below if you're interested in that series that is available on ym360 curriculum site. But we taught it as a student ministry team and like I said, it's not live on YouTube yet, but I was sending her the links to our direct drop box like videos so or Google Drive videos so that she could watch it.

00:16:07:12 - 00:16:32:07
Nick Clason
And that's again like that's one of the benefits of filming your content is that when someone's going through a hard time who lives a thousand miles away, you can send them stuff like this that might be able to help them get through it and navigate through life. You see, this isn't just a vanity thing. Like you can help students, you can help care for students, shepherds, students, disciple students, teach students.

00:16:32:07 - 00:16:55:16
Nick Clason
When you film, you're content. That's what you want to do. Live in the room, right? The difference is church is often built like a organization that's trying to capture people through a cable TV style of of marketing as opposed to an OnDemand style of marketing. And when you preach from your messages, you can start to wade into that quote unquote, on demand type of messaging.

00:16:55:16 - 00:17:13:11
Nick Clason
So when someone's going through a hard time or when someone needs a guide to how to use the Bible or whatever it is that you have taught that you know is valuable, you can send them to your YouTube channel for a link to evergreen content, to content that matters. And so benefit number four, of course, is it's the antidote.

00:17:13:11 - 00:17:37:02
Nick Clason
It is the cure to travel sports. Not entirely like that. Kids still traveling to baseball, but if you film your messages while they're still going to be traveling to baseball, would you rather them travel to baseball, miss out on church altogether, or would you rather them travel to baseball and still have the opportunity to catch up on the series, to hear the message to learn the thing?

00:17:37:02 - 00:18:03:04
Nick Clason
Like I think we would all take option two. I mean, maybe we all like option three, which is like nuking travel baseball so that it never happens again. But since that's probably not going to be an option, we'll settle for option number two and options are an option. But side benefit number five of pre filming your messages is Sean Cannell the guru of YouTube, has a strategy called Ask specific questions.

00:18:03:04 - 00:18:32:06
Nick Clason
ASQ or actually not ask answer specific questions. So think about it, right? You can answer your students specific questions. For example, how do I respond when bad things happen? Boom, That's a teaching series. Answer that question posted to YouTube. The goal is not necessarily to go viral and be caught and seen by other students in other states and other student ministries, though that can be something that happens.

00:18:32:06 - 00:18:54:22
Nick Clason
But that's not the goal, right? The goal is to create content that is going to be helpful and beneficial to answer specific questions about God, about faith, about theology to the students that God has entrusted into you and into your care. Once you've shot the content, you now move into the hardest space of all of this process, probably, which is editing.

00:18:54:25 - 00:19:19:10
Nick Clason
And there are some three different ways that you can do it. Cap Cut, DaVinci Resolve. Those are linked down below in the description, but also linked right here on screen is the best editing tools in the best editing apps, how to edit, how to level up your editing and why editing on videos does actually matter. So go ahead.

00:19:19:10 - 00:19:35:04
Nick Clason
Take a look at that video. We love to catch you over there as we're continuing on our YouTube for Youth Ministry playlist. But don't forget and as always, stay hybrid.

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DESCRIPTION
📹YouTube is the perfect platform for youth pastors and youth ministries.
Why?

  • 95% of youth group teenagers are on YouTube
  • YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, powered by Google
  • YouTube plays to the skillset of all youth pastors

In this video, let's help you start sitting down in front of the camera and filming messages and content for your youth group!
Follow along as we unpack the best practices guide of YouTube for Youth Pastors:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
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//GET STARTED FOR UNDER $100
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//SONY ZVE-10
https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv

//SEAN CANNEL & THINK MEDIA
https://www.youtube.com/@seanTHiNKs

//FULL-PROOF TIME MANAGEMENT GUIDE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8&t=189s

//YOUVERSION LIVE EVENTS
https://my.bible.com/events

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

//TOP 5 YOUTH CURRICULUMS: RANKED!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQXsananwI

//WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN
[Link Placeholder]

//SIDEKICK
http://www.sidekick.tv

FREE VIDEO EDITING OPTIONS
//CAPCUT
https://www.capcut.com

//DAVINCI RESOLVE

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/event/davinciresolvedownload

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

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

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TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Why Youth Pastors should Pre-Film their Messages
02:10 Leveling Up Your YouTube Gear
06:54 Adding Shownotes to your YouTube Videos
10:31 Top 5 Benefits of Pre-Filming Your Messages to YouTube

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:31:03
Nick Clason
Youth Pastor, Let me guess, you have a desire for the students that you have been entrusted to in your care to come, to learn, know, love and follow Jesus. And let me guess, part of that strategy, part of that way that you hope students do that is to show up for them and to be there when they have difficult and tough questions to help them answer and make sense of life which is around them.

00:00:31:04 - 00:00:57:13
Nick Clason
Well, according to Pew Research, 95% of teenagers have used will use or plan to use the platform of YouTube. And so from the most conservative parents in your church who would never even imagine letting their kids enter the World Wide Web to all the way to the least restrictive parents who gave their kids a phone and let them have wild access to the Internet.

00:00:57:15 - 00:01:21:28
Nick Clason
YouTube is a great strategy and a great platform for students and student ministry. Like if in your youth ministry context, you're using YouTube, subscribe if you're not and hey, either way, hit the bell because we're in a playlist called YouTube for Youth Ministries. But how do we start posting content to YouTube? Like you might know these stats, You might know it's important.

00:01:21:28 - 00:01:44:06
Nick Clason
You might know students are on the you might know it's a really accessible platform, but how do you actually begin filming editing, recording and posting videos to YouTube? Well, this is the perfect video because in it I want to share with you what gear you can use to start leveling up your YouTube game with simply just shooting on your cell phone.

00:01:44:06 - 00:02:07:27
Nick Clason
I also want to talk about how you can manage your time to fit in the process of filming YouTube videos and posting it. I'm also going to give you some next steps directly out of this video so that you can start doing some side benefits for you. And then finally, how to actually edit your video so that it looks good and professional and fits the vibe that's going on YouTube.

00:02:08:03 - 00:02:33:28
Nick Clason
Welcome to the Hybrid ministry show. So if you're anything like me and you work at church, you look around your youth room and you compare it to the auditorium or the main church room that the rest of the or the rest of your, you know, big church is using where your pastors preaching on Sunday morning and you probably look and think, man, I don't have the gear to capture my services and post them on YouTube.

00:02:34:00 - 00:03:05:24
Nick Clason
And the answer to that is probably unequivocally 100% accurate. You probably don't. Right. But I actually have linked right here on screen my 100% completely free e-book, which is called 40 done for you posting tools, which really, honestly maybe needs a new title because what it ultimately is, is my complete philosophy as well as strategy guide for leveling up your YouTube and your social media game.

00:03:05:24 - 00:03:32:00
Nick Clason
It's all about creating custom content for YouTube. And so one of the elements in that e-book, if you click it and if you download it, is a link to a blog that I have created called YouTube Gear on a Budget. And simply what it is is it will help you level up your YouTube gear if you choose to shoot video on your phone that is of course the most expensive piece is that camera piece.

00:03:32:03 - 00:04:04:25
Nick Clason
But you can level up your game for less than $100 by adding in some external microphones. I have linked on in the e-book. Bluetooth wireless microphones, a shotgun style microphone for Android. The same thing's for for iPhones as well. Also, just like a phone based tripod, you can get a tabletop one that's a little shorter or you can get a full, full length standing tripod as well as a basic ring light that so, you know, your videos look decent with lighting.

00:04:05:01 - 00:04:27:25
Nick Clason
You can also take care of most of that by just filming in a space that has some good lighting. And then if you do want to go the next layer beyond just $100 or less, if you want to stop shooting on your phone and you want to start shooting on a good camera, the one that I recommend that was recommended to me by Sean Cannell via his YouTube channel, check out and Think Media.

00:04:27:27 - 00:04:50:29
Nick Clason
If you haven't had a chance. He is a YouTube guru, but the Sony ZVE-10. It’s a Great camera. We bought it along with the lens for about $700 in our student ministry space one time purchase. But now we're using it and we're using it for everything. We're using it for long form videos as well as vertically shot and vertically based videos.

00:04:51:04 - 00:05:15:19
Nick Clason
But one of the pieces, one of the challenges for most youth pastors is that we're running from fire to fire to fire to fire and meeting to meeting to me and to meeting this kid, kid who needs counseling, counseling, counseling, counseling, all the different things, all the different demands of our space and our time. We're linked right here at the top of this video is my 100% completely free, foolproof strategy for good time management.

00:05:15:19 - 00:05:38:26
Nick Clason
And here's the honest truth that frankly, like there are always going to be issues, are always going to be struggles, are always going to be fires and things that pop up on your calendar. But if you manage your time and just a little sneak peek like you are 100% completely in charge of your time and your time management.

00:05:38:26 - 00:06:02:17
Nick Clason
And so if you don't make a priority and a space in your calendar to sit down and pre film your messages, just like we're talking about here, like you are not going to be able to to start posting content to YouTube, you have to make it a priority just like you make sitting down and crafting a Wednesday night program a priority.

00:06:02:23 - 00:06:25:04
Nick Clason
You also have to make sitting down and pre filming your messages a priority. So you're probably going to have to get several weeks in advance on this, both on your teaching scope and curriculum, which link down below. I have link to my five favorite teaching curriculum, so go check that out. And in a video that we've dropped not too long ago, you can check that out if you're interested in something like that.

00:06:25:06 - 00:06:58:24
Nick Clason
But your plan, your curriculum, and then you'll write out your teaching and then you'll sit down and you'll deliver the message direct to camera, all because you told your time what was going to happen to it. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't counsel students and mute their senior pastor and plan for your Wednesday night, but if pre filming your message is if getting the message of Jesus and the message of hope out on the Internet, on YouTube is important to you, then you need to determine when you're going to place that that thing on your calendar to do it.

00:06:58:26 - 00:07:21:11
Nick Clason
Now, just like this YouTube video, all YouTube videos have a description section. And so when you are preaching or teaching or delivering some piece of content direct to camera on screen, you can always say down below in the description are links. And so for every single video that I post on my student Ministry's YouTube channel, we post two links.

00:07:21:11 - 00:07:45:00
Nick Clason
The first link is a next steps digital type connect card. And I think about if you live in the room and you want to challenge students to take the next step of getting baptized, or if you're alive in the room and they prayed to receive Christ or they just need some sort of prayer, you might point them to a physical connect card in the seatback in front of them, or at the middle of like a table or something like that.

00:07:45:00 - 00:08:07:07
Nick Clason
If you're sitting around tables in your space on the same way, you can offer a digital version. And I mean, let's be honest, if they fill out a physical connect card, probably you are taking that caption that information digitally somehow, whether that be in your church management system, in software, or if it's just by tracking that information via something more basic like Excel.

00:08:07:08 - 00:08:31:29
Nick Clason
Nonetheless, you take it from a physical moment to digital. And so if you can offer a digital based connect card, then you know that you are going to be getting that information and you're going to be cutting out that middleman portion. The other thing that I offer in our digital are link in our description in most of our YouTube videos is what we call our digital Notes platform.

00:08:31:29 - 00:08:53:20
Nick Clason
And our digital notes is simply using the free, by the way, free YouVersion live events. And so if you've ever used that before, it's a thing that you can create. And on the back end on you version of the Bible app, you create a live service. And so I set our digital notes to go quote unquote live.

00:08:53:20 - 00:09:24:27
Nick Clason
So it's discovered in the live kind of panel of your you you version Bible app. It's when you discover when your church is live. And so I set that for when we're teaching our message live same day same time. However it does at the end give you a small URL. And so then the play, the digital notes plan, the live event can be clicked on and accessed at any time, regardless of if it is quote unquote live in the version Bible app.

00:09:24:29 - 00:09:45:16
Nick Clason
And so you can put text, you can put images, you can put Bible passages, and then they, the followers along, they can create private notes based off of all of those things. They can save them so that they can kind of archive them and come back later. But one of my favorite pieces to the digital notes is that you can create an external link.

00:09:45:16 - 00:10:09:01
Nick Clason
And so again, if a student is following along, live in the room or on YouTube at the end, they can they can have a live link to go out to Digital Connect card. They can have a live link to go out to camp signups. They can have a live link to go out to whatever you want it to be, whatever sort of call to action, whatever sort of next step your message may be pointing students toward.

00:10:09:03 - 00:10:38:21
Nick Clason
The other thing is, of course, it is on you version. And so you can also link Bible reading plans directly in there as well. And so think about it. What if you had a whole message on the importance of reading the Bible and getting in God's Word? And then what if you actually had a Bible reading plan that they could start reading that night or the next morning that they could start enjoying and begin reading to help them follow through on what you were talking about?

00:10:38:23 - 00:11:04:15
Nick Clason
So obviously, in addition, right, like in addition to posting videos to YouTube to reach more students for 95% of teenagers have or will plan to spend some of their time or at least use the app in some way, shape or form. There are, I think, five additional like benefits to sitting down and pre filming your talks direct to camera benefit number one is more practice.

00:11:04:15 - 00:11:22:23
Nick Clason
It gives you an opportunity to engage with your content more frequently than just getting up and teaching it live on a Wednesday night or Sunday morning or whenever that might be. And so by the time you do actually get around on Wednesday night or Sunday morning to deliver your content, direct camera, you've already delivered it at least once.

00:11:22:23 - 00:11:56:02
Nick Clason
And if you need more takes, maybe two or three, and so you're much more familiar with the content and the concepts that you were teaching. Benefit number two is, of course, you're going to be forced to get ahead. You're going to be forced to to be working ahead in your delivery of of this content and preparation. So my workflow goes, I sit down and I write it all out and not linked in my $100 or less leveling up guide.

00:11:56:05 - 00:12:17:19
Nick Clason
But one that is recommended potentially you may have to get a beefier tripod is using a using a teleprompter holder. And so you can get a teleprompter and you can use an iPad with the free teleprompter app. But so I sit down, I prep my message and I script it out and I may script it word for word.

00:12:17:22 - 00:12:48:25
Nick Clason
2000 or 2500 words is usually a good length for YouTube. It helps me hopefully shoot in under the 15 minute mark. That's always my goal on time. Write it all out and then deliver it Direct camera. That's where I include things like subscribe and cards linked up at the top and end screens like I write and spell every single thing out word for word, so that then the teleprompter will just kind of do its thing and flow right in front of me and I just read it directly there.

00:12:48:28 - 00:13:17:08
Nick Clason
It does take a little bit of work to get used to it. It is a skill that's not exactly natural. You can do it. But, you know, I'm just letting you know, get get used to it. Then also I have I then take the the manuscript, the full YouTube manuscript, and I use Google Drive. And so I create a new copy of that an in a different folder, and I rename it live talk notes.

00:13:17:12 - 00:13:50:08
Nick Clason
And so then I go back through that and I add highlights and I add all of those types of things, like, you know, yellow is, is like on screen or slide. Green is like any scripture or whatever, any video clips because like I may not actually like show a video clip on when I'm filming it to YouTube. If I do, it might just be some B-roll over top of the background as opposed to like showing a full on like video clip, like stop, pause the room, watch screen, come back type of thing, video clips and interactive elements.

00:13:50:08 - 00:14:09:00
Nick Clason
I add all those things, but I do it in a completely different document. I adapt it from the manuscript to more of like an outline type style. And then as I'm doing that, I'm also building slides and putting it into a thing like Sidekick, where I can use integrated tools like the wheel and name Picker and the live voting elements and all those types of things.

00:14:09:00 - 00:14:34:10
Nick Clason
More info link down below on Sidekick Sidekick.tv And so my workflow is my head. I write it, I deliver it, direct camera, and then I also readapt it to be taught in the room in between. When I shoot it and readapt it is when we're editing it or posting it, we're adding thumbnails or adding time codes, all the YouTube type things that need to take place.

00:14:34:10 - 00:15:05:04
Nick Clason
So that is live. Usually the Monday before what we we posted on Monday and then deliver it live in the room on Wednesday. And then our students discuss it again on the following Sunday morning. So that whole week on social, our focus is, you know, Monday it drops, Wednesdays are live teaching and then Sunday they discuss it and then woven all throughout there are you know several different like kind of teaching videos social media type clips.

00:15:05:06 - 00:15:32:29
Nick Clason
Benefit number three is it will help you create evergreen type content. Evergreen content is just a marketing word for content that is always relevant. In fact, last night I had a student from a former ministry and a former church that's going through a difficult and tough time. So hey, like I'm having a hard time. Like things are rough, you know, and some have had some some bad news and some kind of tragedy hit their family.

00:15:32:29 - 00:16:07:10
Nick Clason
And so we don't even have this live yet. Like we're getting these back right now from our editor. But we are about to launch into a series called When Bad Things Happen. I have a link actually down below if you're interested in that series that is available on ym360 curriculum site. But we taught it as a student ministry team and like I said, it's not live on YouTube yet, but I was sending her the links to our direct drop box like videos so or Google Drive videos so that she could watch it.

00:16:07:12 - 00:16:32:07
Nick Clason
And that's again like that's one of the benefits of filming your content is that when someone's going through a hard time who lives a thousand miles away, you can send them stuff like this that might be able to help them get through it and navigate through life. You see, this isn't just a vanity thing. Like you can help students, you can help care for students, shepherds, students, disciple students, teach students.

00:16:32:07 - 00:16:55:16
Nick Clason
When you film, you're content. That's what you want to do. Live in the room, right? The difference is church is often built like a organization that's trying to capture people through a cable TV style of of marketing as opposed to an OnDemand style of marketing. And when you preach from your messages, you can start to wade into that quote unquote, on demand type of messaging.

00:16:55:16 - 00:17:13:11
Nick Clason
So when someone's going through a hard time or when someone needs a guide to how to use the Bible or whatever it is that you have taught that you know is valuable, you can send them to your YouTube channel for a link to evergreen content, to content that matters. And so benefit number four, of course, is it's the antidote.

00:17:13:11 - 00:17:37:02
Nick Clason
It is the cure to travel sports. Not entirely like that. Kids still traveling to baseball, but if you film your messages while they're still going to be traveling to baseball, would you rather them travel to baseball, miss out on church altogether, or would you rather them travel to baseball and still have the opportunity to catch up on the series, to hear the message to learn the thing?

00:17:37:02 - 00:18:03:04
Nick Clason
Like I think we would all take option two. I mean, maybe we all like option three, which is like nuking travel baseball so that it never happens again. But since that's probably not going to be an option, we'll settle for option number two and options are an option. But side benefit number five of pre filming your messages is Sean Cannell the guru of YouTube, has a strategy called Ask specific questions.

00:18:03:04 - 00:18:32:06
Nick Clason
ASQ or actually not ask answer specific questions. So think about it, right? You can answer your students specific questions. For example, how do I respond when bad things happen? Boom, That's a teaching series. Answer that question posted to YouTube. The goal is not necessarily to go viral and be caught and seen by other students in other states and other student ministries, though that can be something that happens.

00:18:32:06 - 00:18:54:22
Nick Clason
But that's not the goal, right? The goal is to create content that is going to be helpful and beneficial to answer specific questions about God, about faith, about theology to the students that God has entrusted into you and into your care. Once you've shot the content, you now move into the hardest space of all of this process, probably, which is editing.

00:18:54:25 - 00:19:19:10
Nick Clason
And there are some three different ways that you can do it. Cap Cut, DaVinci Resolve. Those are linked down below in the description, but also linked right here on screen is the best editing tools in the best editing apps, how to edit, how to level up your editing and why editing on videos does actually matter. So go ahead.

00:19:19:10 - 00:19:35:04
Nick Clason
Take a look at that video. We love to catch you over there as we're continuing on our YouTube for Youth Ministry playlist. But don't forget and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 090: 🐿️ When to Split High School and Middle School Youth Group https://www.hybridministry.xyz/090 dd81d119-6c2c-4b4c-a23c-3a16893a6318 Thu, 28 Mar 2024 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 090 🐿️ When to Split High School and Middle School Youth Group full Nick Clason 🐿️ Middle School and High School Students What are the factors that need to be considered when deciding whether or not you’re ready to split them? And what are some creative hacks to getting around it, if you’re not ready or able yet? 11:20 no <h3>⚡ [FREE] Hybrid Reach More Students Strategy Guide⚡</h3> <p><a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p><strong>======================================</strong><br> <strong>DESCRIPTION</strong><br> 🐿️ Middle School and High School Students<br> What are the factors that need to be considered when deciding whether or not you’re ready to split them?<br> And what are some creative hacks to getting around it, if you’re not ready or able yet?<br> <strong>======================================</strong><br> 📓<strong>SHOWNOTES</strong><br> //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS<br> <a href="http://www.hybridministry.xyz/090" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.hybridministry.xyz/090</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE VIDEO</p> <p>📅 "<strong>The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy</strong>"<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>⚡ <strong>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS</strong><br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <hr> <p>👉 <strong>STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK</strong><br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a></p> <p><strong>======================================</strong></p> <p><strong>🆓 FREEBIES 🆓</strong><br> 📅 "<strong>The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy</strong>"<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>🖥️ "<strong>My 9 Favorite DYM Resources</strong>"<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>📨 <strong>Full Proof Recruiting Email</strong><br> EMAIL: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email</a></p> <p>🍩 <strong>"FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"</strong><br> GUIDE: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut</a></p> <p><strong>😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"</strong><br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook</a></p> <p><strong>📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"</strong><br> <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis</a></p> <p><strong>======================================</strong><br> 🛠️<strong>TOOLS</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em></p> <p>//BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p>AUTO POD<br> <a href="https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv</a></p> <p>TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING<br> <a href="https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> 🕰️<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00 Sharing Youth Rooms with Outside Groups<br> 01:08 3 Factors to Consider Before Splitting Middle and High School<br> 03:54 The Pros to Making the Split<br> 05:23 The Cons of Making the Split<br> 06:59 Four Creative Hacks to Reimagining the Split</p> <p><strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> 00;00;00;00 - 00;00;01;28<br> Nick Clason<br> Youth pastors.</p> <p>00;00;01;28 - 00;00;28;59<br> Nick Clason<br> Have you ever had a high school student say to you, “I don't want to come to youth group with that middle schooler!” Give us a like if you know, a high school student who has done that and maybe subscribe if you've actually never heard that. And then the rest of us who have liked the video because we've had high school students do that will either know that you're lying or we're going to be super jealous because you and me all know that in the back of our heads, right?</p> <p>00;00;29;00 - 00;00;56;35<br> Nick Clason<br> Like we may or may not have the bandwidth or the time to split up the middle school and the high school students. And so, in today's video. We're going to explore the best, most premium and optimal time and way to split up your middle school and your high school students. We’ll talk about the three factors to consider. We will ask two clarifying questions in each of the sections.</p> <p>00;00;56;40 - 00;01;20;09<br> Nick Clason<br> The top two pros, the top two cons, and finally, some creative hacks to get around making the big switch. If you know you're not ready for or don't have the time for it, factor number one is your size. Like you have to consider how big is your group? What is your average group's critical mass. That’s question number one?</p> <p>00;01;20;12 - 00;01;49;42<br> Nick Clason<br> Then number two in the sized question is what momentum will be lost by splitting up your students? The other factor you have to consider is your bandwidth. For example, like do you have the bandwidth to split middle school and high school? When I was working at church early on in my ministry, I determined that we had a big enough critical mass and that we could withstand this switch.</p> <p>00;01;49;47 - 00;02;06;55<br> Nick Clason<br> But then we had to switch and I had to add to my calendar and my schedule another night to meet. And I ended up deciding to make that decision. In that season of life. It was the right move and it was the right call. So we did middle school on Wednesday night and we did high school on Sunday night.</p> <p>00;02;06;56 - 00;02;30;02<br> Nick Clason<br> Prior to that, we did both of them together on Wednesday night. So Sunday night was a new addition. And looking back, I don't know actually, cause I only ended up running it for a year prior to then me moving on to a different church. I don't know if it was the right decision. You have to measure and know what your bandwidth is and if you have the bandwidth to split.</p> <p>00;02;30;02 - 00;02;53;35<br> Nick Clason<br> And I would recommend right here the top of this video is a video where we talked about time management and go through that. And that little exercise might actually help give you some clarification on do you truly have the bandwidth. Also, the second question under bandwidth is do you potentially have a volunteer to help you own that other piece, the other split piece as you navigate?</p> <p>00;02;53;35 - 00;03;19;25<br> Nick Clason<br> And then the third factor, of course, is space. Does your space in your church, does it accommodate it? And the second question is what constraints is this going to put on your space? So, for example, I worked at a church that didn't have a lot of space, even though it was a big church, big a big multi-site church in in Chicago area.</p> <p>00;03;19;29 - 00;03;45;36<br> Nick Clason<br> But other ministries had other nights of the week that they had things going on, like our groups ministry met and our junior home ministry met and are like grief share. I can't remember all the different ones, but there's always a different ministry on a different night of the week. And so our decision to either have junior high and high school together or split up was going to either demand two nights a week for our space or just one.</p> <p>00;03;45;36 - 00;04;10;57<br> Nick Clason<br> And then that that dictated how and when the other ministries in your space met. So a couple of pros for splitting up middle school and high school. Again, if if your size, if your bandwidth and if your space will all kind of accommodate it and if all those factors that you asked this question swirl around are working together, pro number one, of course, is like developmentally</p> <p>00;04;11;51 - 00;04;28;39<br> Nick Clason<br> splitting middle school and high school seems to be appropriate. I mean, you just think about it. I think of that sixth grade boy in your group and then think of that 12th grade girl, like developmentally speaking. They're just in two different spots and this is no shade thrown on that sixth grade boy or that 12th grade girl.</p> <p>00;04;28;44 - 00;05;13;44<br> Nick Clason<br> But, you know, they each need different things, their need. They need to be challenged in a different way. And so splitting them up will help you as a youth pastor, be able to navigate that well, to be able to really, truly give and provide for each of those people individually what they need and what they're looking for. Pro Number two is that probably the high school students preference, it may not be the middle school students preference on the top, but underneath that it may actually be the best thing for a middle school student to give them their own space, to just simply be a middle schooler and not have high schoolers looking over frustratedly</p> <p>00;05;13;45 - 00;05;37;36<br> Nick Clason<br> or condemningly or even just being annoyed. And the high school students may want their own space to kind of lean into and be uniquely high school students. But the cons, of course, are it is more taxing on you as the individual or on you in your time or on you and your space. And so you may be in a context that has multiple staff and so that may be the solution.</p> <p>00;05;37;36 - 00;06;03;36<br> Nick Clason<br> One of you runs one night and run one of you runs another night. But if you are your own person and if you do not have the staff to accommodate something like this, then it is going to be more taxing and another con I honestly would say is that it's not necessarily it doesn't necessarily give students a realistic view and or picture of the rest of life in the rest of the world.</p> <p>00;06;03;36 - 00;06;27;24<br> Nick Clason<br> Like right now, I am a 34 year old youth pastor at a church and there is not one other 34 year old on my staff. As far as I know, I could be wrong and I might not be thinking about a certain person, but the fact of the matter is like I interact with Boomers and Xers and us another Millennials that is now my exact age and also some people that are Gen Z and so on.</p> <p>00;06;27;24 - 00;06;57;17<br> Nick Clason<br> Our staff, we have an age range all the way from 20 up to like 60, 65 ish, right? Like we have a big span of age. And so sometimes like segmenting down our ministries, while they may be developmentally good or they may also be like preferences of certain ages at the high school students and middle school students, it may not be what is best for them, and it may not give them the most realistic picture of what their future life is going to be.</p> <p>00;06;57;22 - 00;07;27;11<br> Nick Clason<br> Which leads me to my third idea three creative hacks to kind of get around this. If you don't have the bandwidth and if you're not quite yet ready to split middle school and high school, the first one is stagger your programing. So maybe you have your students meet all within the same time block Which I would probably recommend for like parent’s sake, If they have a middle school student and a high school student, they don't have to drop off and pick up at different time.</p> <p>00;07;27;11 - 00;07;54;21<br> Nick Clason<br> So if it's like 6 to 8, they drop off both students. But then inside the building, middle schoolers are in this element of your service and high schoolers are in this element of the service, and then they switch and then high school switch to this element while middle schoolers then switch to that element. That is a way for you to lean into a good volunteer, to be able to run the additional space so that you can be teaching or running the game or wherever you need to be in those moments.</p> <p>00;07;54;26 - 00;08;17;15<br> Nick Clason<br> But it will also give middle school and high school students their own unique difference set up and their own unique, different space. Another creative hack answer that I have is consider the idea of going hybrid and you're like, Wait a minute, that doesn't do anything for the space. And in some ways you're 100% right, but leaves right here in mind 100% completely free e-book.</p> <p>00;08;17;15 - 00;08;41;53<br> Nick Clason<br> I will lead you through how to develop out a hybrid strategy and the bedrock. The baseline for my hybrid strategy is begin pre filming your talks ahead of time, pre film talks, and then post them to YouTube. And then from there, as you maybe clip up a few of those using a service link down below like Opus.Pro to give you AI generated shorts, reels and TikToks</p> <p>00;08;42;07 - 00;09;03;08<br> Nick Clason<br> You can sprinkle those in throughout your week. And then the last piece of it is you can then add in and then use an element of fun into your social media and you can use your students to do that. And so perhaps an element of your creative staggered programing is creating a space for your students. Come together and get on video and make content with you.</p> <p>00;09;03;08 - 00;09;29;31<br> Nick Clason<br> And you might be thinking like, Wait a minute, do they want to do that? And the answer to those yes, Generation Z and Generation Alpha, they live in a a publisher type of generation with a publisher type of mindset. And most of us have been raised in an industrial age where we create content and or we create an environment that we then sit down and we produce it and or deliver it to people.</p> <p>00;09;29;31 - 00;09;52;08<br> Nick Clason<br> And then we assume that they want to just sit and consume it. And the tables are turned in that day and age. And so the advantage is, while digital is the language of teenagers, you can include them in your strategy. Another hack I have for you is that you can make your small groups like more age and more gender graded.</p> <p>00;09;52;08 - 00;10;14;09<br> Nick Clason<br> And so if you don't have the bandwidth yet to split apart your big middle school and high school group, when you break them down into small groups, whether that be on a different night of the week or even the same night that they're all together. When you do that, you then give them that space. And so maybe you teach to a large room and you do have to sort of hit the middle somewhere between that sixth grade and that 12th grader.</p> <p>00;10;14;14 - 00;10;52;16<br> Nick Clason<br> But when they break down into their small groups, they're more age appropriate and they're more age and grade and gender graded. And then finally, an idea could be simply to just lean in to the age discrepancy. You know, there's an age discrepancy. You know, it may not be ideal and or it may not be everyone's preference, but if you lean into it and if you let the middle schoolers have the high schoolers have a little bit more fun, and then if you lean into the high schoolers and allow them to see that they have an opportunity to step up and be leaders to these middle school students, it can be a win win for you</p> <p>00;10;52;16 - 00;11;15;30<br> Nick Clason<br> and for your youth ministry, which is why I have linked right here on the screen youth group Growth. How do we reach Generation Alpha and Generation Z in this new world that we find our selves in? So go ahead. Take a look at that video. And don't forget that we trying to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible.</p> <p>00;11;15;42 - 00;11;19;04<br> Nick Clason<br> So as always, stay hybrid. </p> When to split high school and middle school students, When to split high school and middle school ministries, Junior High Youth Ministry, High School Youth Ministry, Hybrid Ministry, Nick Clason, Youth Pastor Podcast, Rethinking Youth Ministry, How to Grow your Youth Ministry, Student Ministry Podcast, Church Youth Group, Youth Group, Student Ministry ⚡ [FREE] Hybrid Reach More Students Strategy Guide⚡

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======================================
DESCRIPTION
🐿️ Middle School and High School Students
What are the factors that need to be considered when deciding whether or not you’re ready to split them?
And what are some creative hacks to getting around it, if you’re not ready or able yet?
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/090

//YOUTUBE VIDEO

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

⚡ 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

======================================
🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Sharing Youth Rooms with Outside Groups
01:08 3 Factors to Consider Before Splitting Middle and High School
03:54 The Pros to Making the Split
05:23 The Cons of Making the Split
06:59 Four Creative Hacks to Reimagining the Split

TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;01;28
Nick Clason
Youth pastors.

00;00;01;28 - 00;00;28;59
Nick Clason
Have you ever had a high school student say to you, “I don't want to come to youth group with that middle schooler!” Give us a like if you know, a high school student who has done that and maybe subscribe if you've actually never heard that. And then the rest of us who have liked the video because we've had high school students do that will either know that you're lying or we're going to be super jealous because you and me all know that in the back of our heads, right?

00;00;29;00 - 00;00;56;35
Nick Clason
Like we may or may not have the bandwidth or the time to split up the middle school and the high school students. And so, in today's video. We're going to explore the best, most premium and optimal time and way to split up your middle school and your high school students. We’ll talk about the three factors to consider. We will ask two clarifying questions in each of the sections.

00;00;56;40 - 00;01;20;09
Nick Clason
The top two pros, the top two cons, and finally, some creative hacks to get around making the big switch. If you know you're not ready for or don't have the time for it, factor number one is your size. Like you have to consider how big is your group? What is your average group's critical mass. That’s question number one?

00;01;20;12 - 00;01;49;42
Nick Clason
Then number two in the sized question is what momentum will be lost by splitting up your students? The other factor you have to consider is your bandwidth. For example, like do you have the bandwidth to split middle school and high school? When I was working at church early on in my ministry, I determined that we had a big enough critical mass and that we could withstand this switch.

00;01;49;47 - 00;02;06;55
Nick Clason
But then we had to switch and I had to add to my calendar and my schedule another night to meet. And I ended up deciding to make that decision. In that season of life. It was the right move and it was the right call. So we did middle school on Wednesday night and we did high school on Sunday night.

00;02;06;56 - 00;02;30;02
Nick Clason
Prior to that, we did both of them together on Wednesday night. So Sunday night was a new addition. And looking back, I don't know actually, cause I only ended up running it for a year prior to then me moving on to a different church. I don't know if it was the right decision. You have to measure and know what your bandwidth is and if you have the bandwidth to split.

00;02;30;02 - 00;02;53;35
Nick Clason
And I would recommend right here the top of this video is a video where we talked about time management and go through that. And that little exercise might actually help give you some clarification on do you truly have the bandwidth. Also, the second question under bandwidth is do you potentially have a volunteer to help you own that other piece, the other split piece as you navigate?

00;02;53;35 - 00;03;19;25
Nick Clason
And then the third factor, of course, is space. Does your space in your church, does it accommodate it? And the second question is what constraints is this going to put on your space? So, for example, I worked at a church that didn't have a lot of space, even though it was a big church, big a big multi-site church in in Chicago area.

00;03;19;29 - 00;03;45;36
Nick Clason
But other ministries had other nights of the week that they had things going on, like our groups ministry met and our junior home ministry met and are like grief share. I can't remember all the different ones, but there's always a different ministry on a different night of the week. And so our decision to either have junior high and high school together or split up was going to either demand two nights a week for our space or just one.

00;03;45;36 - 00;04;10;57
Nick Clason
And then that that dictated how and when the other ministries in your space met. So a couple of pros for splitting up middle school and high school. Again, if if your size, if your bandwidth and if your space will all kind of accommodate it and if all those factors that you asked this question swirl around are working together, pro number one, of course, is like developmentally

00;04;11;51 - 00;04;28;39
Nick Clason
splitting middle school and high school seems to be appropriate. I mean, you just think about it. I think of that sixth grade boy in your group and then think of that 12th grade girl, like developmentally speaking. They're just in two different spots and this is no shade thrown on that sixth grade boy or that 12th grade girl.

00;04;28;44 - 00;05;13;44
Nick Clason
But, you know, they each need different things, their need. They need to be challenged in a different way. And so splitting them up will help you as a youth pastor, be able to navigate that well, to be able to really, truly give and provide for each of those people individually what they need and what they're looking for. Pro Number two is that probably the high school students preference, it may not be the middle school students preference on the top, but underneath that it may actually be the best thing for a middle school student to give them their own space, to just simply be a middle schooler and not have high schoolers looking over frustratedly

00;05;13;45 - 00;05;37;36
Nick Clason
or condemningly or even just being annoyed. And the high school students may want their own space to kind of lean into and be uniquely high school students. But the cons, of course, are it is more taxing on you as the individual or on you in your time or on you and your space. And so you may be in a context that has multiple staff and so that may be the solution.

00;05;37;36 - 00;06;03;36
Nick Clason
One of you runs one night and run one of you runs another night. But if you are your own person and if you do not have the staff to accommodate something like this, then it is going to be more taxing and another con I honestly would say is that it's not necessarily it doesn't necessarily give students a realistic view and or picture of the rest of life in the rest of the world.

00;06;03;36 - 00;06;27;24
Nick Clason
Like right now, I am a 34 year old youth pastor at a church and there is not one other 34 year old on my staff. As far as I know, I could be wrong and I might not be thinking about a certain person, but the fact of the matter is like I interact with Boomers and Xers and us another Millennials that is now my exact age and also some people that are Gen Z and so on.

00;06;27;24 - 00;06;57;17
Nick Clason
Our staff, we have an age range all the way from 20 up to like 60, 65 ish, right? Like we have a big span of age. And so sometimes like segmenting down our ministries, while they may be developmentally good or they may also be like preferences of certain ages at the high school students and middle school students, it may not be what is best for them, and it may not give them the most realistic picture of what their future life is going to be.

00;06;57;22 - 00;07;27;11
Nick Clason
Which leads me to my third idea three creative hacks to kind of get around this. If you don't have the bandwidth and if you're not quite yet ready to split middle school and high school, the first one is stagger your programing. So maybe you have your students meet all within the same time block Which I would probably recommend for like parent’s sake, If they have a middle school student and a high school student, they don't have to drop off and pick up at different time.

00;07;27;11 - 00;07;54;21
Nick Clason
So if it's like 6 to 8, they drop off both students. But then inside the building, middle schoolers are in this element of your service and high schoolers are in this element of the service, and then they switch and then high school switch to this element while middle schoolers then switch to that element. That is a way for you to lean into a good volunteer, to be able to run the additional space so that you can be teaching or running the game or wherever you need to be in those moments.

00;07;54;26 - 00;08;17;15
Nick Clason
But it will also give middle school and high school students their own unique difference set up and their own unique, different space. Another creative hack answer that I have is consider the idea of going hybrid and you're like, Wait a minute, that doesn't do anything for the space. And in some ways you're 100% right, but leaves right here in mind 100% completely free e-book.

00;08;17;15 - 00;08;41;53
Nick Clason
I will lead you through how to develop out a hybrid strategy and the bedrock. The baseline for my hybrid strategy is begin pre filming your talks ahead of time, pre film talks, and then post them to YouTube. And then from there, as you maybe clip up a few of those using a service link down below like Opus.Pro to give you AI generated shorts, reels and TikToks

00;08;42;07 - 00;09;03;08
Nick Clason
You can sprinkle those in throughout your week. And then the last piece of it is you can then add in and then use an element of fun into your social media and you can use your students to do that. And so perhaps an element of your creative staggered programing is creating a space for your students. Come together and get on video and make content with you.

00;09;03;08 - 00;09;29;31
Nick Clason
And you might be thinking like, Wait a minute, do they want to do that? And the answer to those yes, Generation Z and Generation Alpha, they live in a a publisher type of generation with a publisher type of mindset. And most of us have been raised in an industrial age where we create content and or we create an environment that we then sit down and we produce it and or deliver it to people.

00;09;29;31 - 00;09;52;08
Nick Clason
And then we assume that they want to just sit and consume it. And the tables are turned in that day and age. And so the advantage is, while digital is the language of teenagers, you can include them in your strategy. Another hack I have for you is that you can make your small groups like more age and more gender graded.

00;09;52;08 - 00;10;14;09
Nick Clason
And so if you don't have the bandwidth yet to split apart your big middle school and high school group, when you break them down into small groups, whether that be on a different night of the week or even the same night that they're all together. When you do that, you then give them that space. And so maybe you teach to a large room and you do have to sort of hit the middle somewhere between that sixth grade and that 12th grader.

00;10;14;14 - 00;10;52;16
Nick Clason
But when they break down into their small groups, they're more age appropriate and they're more age and grade and gender graded. And then finally, an idea could be simply to just lean in to the age discrepancy. You know, there's an age discrepancy. You know, it may not be ideal and or it may not be everyone's preference, but if you lean into it and if you let the middle schoolers have the high schoolers have a little bit more fun, and then if you lean into the high schoolers and allow them to see that they have an opportunity to step up and be leaders to these middle school students, it can be a win win for you

00;10;52;16 - 00;11;15;30
Nick Clason
and for your youth ministry, which is why I have linked right here on the screen youth group Growth. How do we reach Generation Alpha and Generation Z in this new world that we find our selves in? So go ahead. Take a look at that video. And don't forget that we trying to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible.

00;11;15;42 - 00;11;19;04
Nick Clason
So as always, stay hybrid.

]]> ⚡ [FREE] Hybrid Reach More Students Strategy Guide⚡

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
🐿️ Middle School and High School Students
What are the factors that need to be considered when deciding whether or not you’re ready to split them?
And what are some creative hacks to getting around it, if you’re not ready or able yet?
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/090

//YOUTUBE VIDEO

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

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

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

======================================
🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Sharing Youth Rooms with Outside Groups
01:08 3 Factors to Consider Before Splitting Middle and High School
03:54 The Pros to Making the Split
05:23 The Cons of Making the Split
06:59 Four Creative Hacks to Reimagining the Split

TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;01;28
Nick Clason
Youth pastors.

00;00;01;28 - 00;00;28;59
Nick Clason
Have you ever had a high school student say to you, “I don't want to come to youth group with that middle schooler!” Give us a like if you know, a high school student who has done that and maybe subscribe if you've actually never heard that. And then the rest of us who have liked the video because we've had high school students do that will either know that you're lying or we're going to be super jealous because you and me all know that in the back of our heads, right?

00;00;29;00 - 00;00;56;35
Nick Clason
Like we may or may not have the bandwidth or the time to split up the middle school and the high school students. And so, in today's video. We're going to explore the best, most premium and optimal time and way to split up your middle school and your high school students. We’ll talk about the three factors to consider. We will ask two clarifying questions in each of the sections.

00;00;56;40 - 00;01;20;09
Nick Clason
The top two pros, the top two cons, and finally, some creative hacks to get around making the big switch. If you know you're not ready for or don't have the time for it, factor number one is your size. Like you have to consider how big is your group? What is your average group's critical mass. That’s question number one?

00;01;20;12 - 00;01;49;42
Nick Clason
Then number two in the sized question is what momentum will be lost by splitting up your students? The other factor you have to consider is your bandwidth. For example, like do you have the bandwidth to split middle school and high school? When I was working at church early on in my ministry, I determined that we had a big enough critical mass and that we could withstand this switch.

00;01;49;47 - 00;02;06;55
Nick Clason
But then we had to switch and I had to add to my calendar and my schedule another night to meet. And I ended up deciding to make that decision. In that season of life. It was the right move and it was the right call. So we did middle school on Wednesday night and we did high school on Sunday night.

00;02;06;56 - 00;02;30;02
Nick Clason
Prior to that, we did both of them together on Wednesday night. So Sunday night was a new addition. And looking back, I don't know actually, cause I only ended up running it for a year prior to then me moving on to a different church. I don't know if it was the right decision. You have to measure and know what your bandwidth is and if you have the bandwidth to split.

00;02;30;02 - 00;02;53;35
Nick Clason
And I would recommend right here the top of this video is a video where we talked about time management and go through that. And that little exercise might actually help give you some clarification on do you truly have the bandwidth. Also, the second question under bandwidth is do you potentially have a volunteer to help you own that other piece, the other split piece as you navigate?

00;02;53;35 - 00;03;19;25
Nick Clason
And then the third factor, of course, is space. Does your space in your church, does it accommodate it? And the second question is what constraints is this going to put on your space? So, for example, I worked at a church that didn't have a lot of space, even though it was a big church, big a big multi-site church in in Chicago area.

00;03;19;29 - 00;03;45;36
Nick Clason
But other ministries had other nights of the week that they had things going on, like our groups ministry met and our junior home ministry met and are like grief share. I can't remember all the different ones, but there's always a different ministry on a different night of the week. And so our decision to either have junior high and high school together or split up was going to either demand two nights a week for our space or just one.

00;03;45;36 - 00;04;10;57
Nick Clason
And then that that dictated how and when the other ministries in your space met. So a couple of pros for splitting up middle school and high school. Again, if if your size, if your bandwidth and if your space will all kind of accommodate it and if all those factors that you asked this question swirl around are working together, pro number one, of course, is like developmentally

00;04;11;51 - 00;04;28;39
Nick Clason
splitting middle school and high school seems to be appropriate. I mean, you just think about it. I think of that sixth grade boy in your group and then think of that 12th grade girl, like developmentally speaking. They're just in two different spots and this is no shade thrown on that sixth grade boy or that 12th grade girl.

00;04;28;44 - 00;05;13;44
Nick Clason
But, you know, they each need different things, their need. They need to be challenged in a different way. And so splitting them up will help you as a youth pastor, be able to navigate that well, to be able to really, truly give and provide for each of those people individually what they need and what they're looking for. Pro Number two is that probably the high school students preference, it may not be the middle school students preference on the top, but underneath that it may actually be the best thing for a middle school student to give them their own space, to just simply be a middle schooler and not have high schoolers looking over frustratedly

00;05;13;45 - 00;05;37;36
Nick Clason
or condemningly or even just being annoyed. And the high school students may want their own space to kind of lean into and be uniquely high school students. But the cons, of course, are it is more taxing on you as the individual or on you in your time or on you and your space. And so you may be in a context that has multiple staff and so that may be the solution.

00;05;37;36 - 00;06;03;36
Nick Clason
One of you runs one night and run one of you runs another night. But if you are your own person and if you do not have the staff to accommodate something like this, then it is going to be more taxing and another con I honestly would say is that it's not necessarily it doesn't necessarily give students a realistic view and or picture of the rest of life in the rest of the world.

00;06;03;36 - 00;06;27;24
Nick Clason
Like right now, I am a 34 year old youth pastor at a church and there is not one other 34 year old on my staff. As far as I know, I could be wrong and I might not be thinking about a certain person, but the fact of the matter is like I interact with Boomers and Xers and us another Millennials that is now my exact age and also some people that are Gen Z and so on.

00;06;27;24 - 00;06;57;17
Nick Clason
Our staff, we have an age range all the way from 20 up to like 60, 65 ish, right? Like we have a big span of age. And so sometimes like segmenting down our ministries, while they may be developmentally good or they may also be like preferences of certain ages at the high school students and middle school students, it may not be what is best for them, and it may not give them the most realistic picture of what their future life is going to be.

00;06;57;22 - 00;07;27;11
Nick Clason
Which leads me to my third idea three creative hacks to kind of get around this. If you don't have the bandwidth and if you're not quite yet ready to split middle school and high school, the first one is stagger your programing. So maybe you have your students meet all within the same time block Which I would probably recommend for like parent’s sake, If they have a middle school student and a high school student, they don't have to drop off and pick up at different time.

00;07;27;11 - 00;07;54;21
Nick Clason
So if it's like 6 to 8, they drop off both students. But then inside the building, middle schoolers are in this element of your service and high schoolers are in this element of the service, and then they switch and then high school switch to this element while middle schoolers then switch to that element. That is a way for you to lean into a good volunteer, to be able to run the additional space so that you can be teaching or running the game or wherever you need to be in those moments.

00;07;54;26 - 00;08;17;15
Nick Clason
But it will also give middle school and high school students their own unique difference set up and their own unique, different space. Another creative hack answer that I have is consider the idea of going hybrid and you're like, Wait a minute, that doesn't do anything for the space. And in some ways you're 100% right, but leaves right here in mind 100% completely free e-book.

00;08;17;15 - 00;08;41;53
Nick Clason
I will lead you through how to develop out a hybrid strategy and the bedrock. The baseline for my hybrid strategy is begin pre filming your talks ahead of time, pre film talks, and then post them to YouTube. And then from there, as you maybe clip up a few of those using a service link down below like Opus.Pro to give you AI generated shorts, reels and TikToks

00;08;42;07 - 00;09;03;08
Nick Clason
You can sprinkle those in throughout your week. And then the last piece of it is you can then add in and then use an element of fun into your social media and you can use your students to do that. And so perhaps an element of your creative staggered programing is creating a space for your students. Come together and get on video and make content with you.

00;09;03;08 - 00;09;29;31
Nick Clason
And you might be thinking like, Wait a minute, do they want to do that? And the answer to those yes, Generation Z and Generation Alpha, they live in a a publisher type of generation with a publisher type of mindset. And most of us have been raised in an industrial age where we create content and or we create an environment that we then sit down and we produce it and or deliver it to people.

00;09;29;31 - 00;09;52;08
Nick Clason
And then we assume that they want to just sit and consume it. And the tables are turned in that day and age. And so the advantage is, while digital is the language of teenagers, you can include them in your strategy. Another hack I have for you is that you can make your small groups like more age and more gender graded.

00;09;52;08 - 00;10;14;09
Nick Clason
And so if you don't have the bandwidth yet to split apart your big middle school and high school group, when you break them down into small groups, whether that be on a different night of the week or even the same night that they're all together. When you do that, you then give them that space. And so maybe you teach to a large room and you do have to sort of hit the middle somewhere between that sixth grade and that 12th grader.

00;10;14;14 - 00;10;52;16
Nick Clason
But when they break down into their small groups, they're more age appropriate and they're more age and grade and gender graded. And then finally, an idea could be simply to just lean in to the age discrepancy. You know, there's an age discrepancy. You know, it may not be ideal and or it may not be everyone's preference, but if you lean into it and if you let the middle schoolers have the high schoolers have a little bit more fun, and then if you lean into the high schoolers and allow them to see that they have an opportunity to step up and be leaders to these middle school students, it can be a win win for you

00;10;52;16 - 00;11;15;30
Nick Clason
and for your youth ministry, which is why I have linked right here on the screen youth group Growth. How do we reach Generation Alpha and Generation Z in this new world that we find our selves in? So go ahead. Take a look at that video. And don't forget that we trying to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible.

00;11;15;42 - 00;11;19;04
Nick Clason
So as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 089: ⚠️ Sharing your Youth Room with other Church Ministries https://www.hybridministry.xyz/089 7f873feb-0e04-415c-8f03-b8a0e19f4453 Thu, 21 Mar 2024 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 089 ⚠️ Sharing your Youth Room with other Church Ministries full Nick Clason 🗑️ Have you ever walked into your youth room after another church ministry had an event in there? Was it clean? Probably not. 🫧 Was it put back how you preferred it to be? Probably, also, not. ⚠️ But you don’t have the authority to tell people not to use it. How do you share a space well? 12:18 no ⚡ [FREE] Hybrid Reach More Students Strategy Guide⚡ https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ====================================== DESCRIPTION 🗑️ Have you ever walked into your youth room after another church ministry had an event in there? Was it clean? Probably not. 🫧 Was it put back how you preferred it to be? Probably, also, not. ⚠️ But you don’t have the authority to tell people not to use it. How do you share a space well? ====================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/089 //YOUTUBE VIDEO SHARING SPACE USE PORTABLE THINGS //20 FOOT INFLATABLE GAGA BALL PIT https://walmrt.us/3I2TZy7 //15 FOOT INFLATABLE GAGA BALL PIT https://walmrt.us/3T7h5tS //CASTLE SQUARES https://castlesports.com/products/9-square-castlesquares //RETRACTABLE WALLS https://walmrt.us/3wkTYD9 LETTING OTHERS BORROW YOUR SPACE //CLEANUP MANUAL https://docs.google.com/document/d/0B3QjZyq-R_p5ZHZFTDhGV2IxZU0/edit?resourcekey=0-7FDtkR7NDnODgipiMQ7SLw CONSIDER GOING HYBRID! https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz ====================================== 🆓 FREEBIES 🆓 📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 🖥️ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym 📨 Full Proof Recruiting Email EMAIL: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email 🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut 😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook 📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers" https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis ====================================== 🛠️TOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; 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 Sharing Youth Rooms with Outside Groups 01:26 Three Hacks to Using Shared Church Space 07:08 3 Hacks to Letting Others Borrow Your Space 10:30 1 Idea that doesn't need space! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:13 Nick Clason Youth Pastor, have you ever walked back into your youth room after a church ministry or just an outside group? Use your space? Was it clean? Probably not. If this has ever happened to you, if you're watching on YouTube, give us a like and well, was your room put back to the way that you preferred it to be? Probably also, no. 00:00:25:15 - 00:00:45:30 Nick Clason So if you've ever had to pick up after a messy group, then give me a subscribe. And if you don't have the authority to tell people how to use you youth group or not, and if you've ever been put in this position, well then turn the bell on, because we're right now in a playlist called Youth Pastor Problems. 00:00:46:00 - 00:01:09:08 Nick Clason So how do you share your space well? We're going to give you three hacks for how you as a youth pastor can share a space that is a shared space in your church. It's not your youth room. It is the church's room, and the youth just use it. We're also then going to give three hacks for when you do have a youth room that you actually have to share your space with or allow guest groups to come on in. 00:01:09:08 - 00:01:39:13 Nick Clason What are some three hacks to make sure that you don't come into a wild mess disaster the next time? And then I'm going to give you one final idea and one final hack that actually negates the need for space altogether. Welcome to the hybrid ministry show. Well, hey, everybody. Welcome to the hybrid ministry show. My name is Nick Clason and I've been a youth pastor for 13 years in full time, part time and vocational ministry all together. 00:01:39:13 - 00:01:58:03 Nick Clason And early on, one of the churches I worked in, we were given a place to meet is our very own. It was disconnected from the building. It was actually attached to the maintenance garage, and so we called it the shed. What teenager doesn't want to be meeting in a place called the Shed? But eventually we outgrew that space. 00:01:58:03 - 00:02:20:10 Nick Clason And so when I started we had just a handful of kids. And then towards the middle of my tenure there, we were running a good 30, 40, 50 something kids, and they just couldn't cram into this small shed anymore. And so we actually had to start using the church's main auditorium, the main sanctuary area, and we had to set up in there every single Wednesday night and tear it down. 00:02:20:12 - 00:02:37:15 Nick Clason But the sanctuary was too big for us. And so we sort of had to pivot and adapt and we had to make this thing work for us in a way right there. Like it wasn't optimized to work for, it was optimized for a Sunday morning main church service. And now we, the youth, are coming in and were using it. 00:02:37:15 - 00:02:55:17 Nick Clason So I have three hacks for what to do. If you are borrowing or sharing a space within the church that's also being used. But other places in the church hack number one is set up as early as you can. In fact, linked right here at the very top of my video is my full proof 100% completely free time management technique. 00:02:55:23 - 00:03:10:17 Nick Clason Go ahead and take a look at that if that's something you're interested or navigating. But if you manage your time in such a way that like let's say you meet on Wednesday night, Wednesday morning, this is what I would do, I would come on in and I would set the room up first thing 9 a.m. I work for a little bit. 00:03:10:17 - 00:03:33:06 Nick Clason And then honestly, I would go home and I would take a break a gap in the middle of the day from like lunchtime until about 330 or 4:00 in the afternoon before I would come back and start to get the final touches ready for youth. But if I had set the room up early and if I did it first thing in the morning, then I was never running out of time to really get the room all the way set up. 00:03:33:06 - 00:03:57:00 Nick Clason If it was taking me longer than expected or if I was adding another element into it, like I would know that because I was working on it first thing in the morning. The second idea that I have for you is use portable things linked down below in description are some links to a few different things, like a portable Gaga pit that you can inflate and deflate. 00:03:57:00 - 00:04:17:26 Nick Clason And so if you're using a space that you can't keep it set up all week long, this is perfect for you. And if even if you are using a space that you can that you do set up and tear down, this is also a really great place number, really great thing. Number two is a portable nine square and it's not like super duper portable, but it's called Castle Squares. 00:04:17:28 - 00:04:41:20 Nick Clason And so instead of having the downspouts in every single spot, you just have the four kind of the base four that go up and then across you just have some straps. You can get it set up in under 10 minutes and torn down and even less time links to both of those things down below in description, or if you're in a podcast, catch your head to the show notes HybridMinistry.xyz/089 00:04:41:28 - 00:05:01:17 Nick Clason Another thing that I did in my church where I was borrowing the sanctuary was we had those portable retractable accordion walls. I did put a few portable wall descriptions down below. They're not exactly the same thing, but they could work in your space, just check them out. And then we bought a lot of banners and so we would use a vinyl banners. 00:05:01:17 - 00:05:25:24 Nick Clason I'm pretty sure we just used them off of like Vistaprint or something like that. But we would hang those with just like thumbtacks into those portable walls. And they had like our high school logo and our middle school logo and our student ministry logo and just some like other phrases and things that we would use. And so we would line the sanctuary because it had three seating sections, so we'd line the two aisles with those walls. 00:05:25:24 - 00:05:42:30 Nick Clason So we would we would block off the seating in the wing, so it would forced everyone into the middle. And then those walls we put some of like our logos and our graphics and stuff like that to sort of liven the space up and just make it feel a little bit more youth ministry specific hack number three. 00:05:42:30 - 00:06:10:24 Nick Clason So one was set up early. Two is use portable things. Three is be respectful full, right? Like I have this picture right here if you're watching on YouTube, a bunch of Nerf guns in a French press coffee maker. And the reason for that along with the rubber duck is that all of these things sort of encapsulate a church that I used to work at and I worked at this church and the Duck was our mascot, and a friend gave me this coffee pot. 00:06:10:24 - 00:06:32:26 Nick Clason But the reason for the Nerf guns was because every single Thursday morning when I would come back into my office after youth night had happened the night before, on Wednesday night was a handful of Nerf darts laying on my desk because one of the junior high boys groups would meet in the lobby and they would do their discussion for about seven and a half minutes. 00:06:32:29 - 00:06:57:04 Nick Clason And then as soon as the discussion was over, they would play Nerf and the facilities people would always find like anywhere from 3 to 8 Nerf darts. And so any given week I'd walk into my office and boom, on my desk. Right were just a handful of Nerf guns, be respectful, not gun darts. Be respectful, clean up as best as you can. 00:06:57:04 - 00:07:22:03 Nick Clason In my defense, I was trying to clean up, but I just wasn't seeing them and make sure that the space that you were using looks as good or better. I know it's cliche then the way that you got it when you got there. So what do you do if you are letting others borrow your space? Let's say you have your very own dedicated youth room space, but you're letting other groups, other ministries come in and borrow it. 00:07:22:04 - 00:07:50:19 Nick Clason Well, one space that once we outgrew even the sanctuary, we actually bought a small Baptist church on the other side of the road. So we had to different buildings and the church across the road. The difference in their like main auditorium, main meeting space, was that they had chairs so we could take the chairs down and get that whole space completely wide open where in our main building the the pews were bolted down to the floor. 00:07:50:27 - 00:08:11:19 Nick Clason So all that meant was that our area was incredibly desirable, so people wanted to use it. And so what I actually did was I created just like a manual. You'll see it right here linked on screen. If you're watching on YouTube, if you're listening to the podcast, hit the link on the YouTube description there in the description of the podcast and go check this part out. 00:08:11:19 - 00:08:34:25 Nick Clason But it was basically a how to step by step with photos to replace and put back the room the way that it needed to be. So that it was ready for us when we got back together. You see, what I have noticed in most of my time in ministry is that people that don't set the room back up, they're not doing it because they're frustrated or they're mad at you. 00:08:34:25 - 00:08:51:24 Nick Clason They're just they're just putting it back how they think. Because people guest groups often come into your space and they immediately start making it ready for their thing or their event or their birthday party. And then when it's time to clean up, they're like, shoot, where was this basket? and Oh shoot. How did it look over there in that corner? 00:08:51:24 - 00:09:09:11 Nick Clason Because they don't remember, because they're so focused on their thing, and rightfully so. Like, I'm not I'm not angry at them for doing that. Right. But what the manual does is it tells them exactly, this is how I want it set up. This is how it was when you came in or this is how it should have been set up. 00:09:09:14 - 00:09:34:25 Nick Clason And so when there's a group, they have the exact right replica for how to put it back together. The problem is, if you've changed any of your minds since you've made that manual, it's going back the way the manual is, right, even if you've adjusted some stuff. And so if you do make changes, if you do like, you know, move the ping pong table or the foosball table, make sure you update that also in the manual that you hand off to guest groups. 00:09:34:26 - 00:09:57:28 Nick Clason Number two is have a clear cut cleaning policies and or potential rental fees. One of the tricky things about sharing space, especially in church, is that you are going to need to have custodial support for said event for said space when you give it away, especially for groups coming in on a Saturday and the custodian had already planned and had it cleaned. 00:09:57:30 - 00:10:20:21 Nick Clason And so you're going to need to figure out like who is paying for it. The custodian is the guest you're going to pay for and what is that going rate going to be? And the third and final hack for letting others use your space is be respectful and be understanding back. Right. Just like I said, they're not thinking about your space and that, but they're also probably not doing it intentionally. 00:10:20:24 - 00:10:43:05 Nick Clason If they are being disrespectful, then that may be time to have a conversation. But in most cases they're just doing their best. And so also try to have a understanding of grace and respectfulness for them. What is an idea that you might never need to use space ever again? Well, that idea, of course, is go hybrid and listen, I'm not saying to completely abandon your in-person meetings. 00:10:43:05 - 00:11:10:25 Nick Clason 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 the screen and down in the description or wherever you're getting this or hybridministry.xyz/089 is my 100% completely free strategy Guide it is my e-book on how I build out a full fledged digital strategy. 00:11:10:30 - 00:11:47:08 Nick Clason It's mostly focusing on a done for use 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, I tell you and explain how to do all of it in this e-book. And so I would love to encourage you to grab it, take a look and try at least implementing some pieces of it, because what it will do is it will allow your youth ministry to to not be tied and not be tethered to a physical location. 00:11:47:08 - 00:12:13:00 Nick Clason And it won't be tied or tethered to events and attendance. Only you will be able to start reaching students with the hope and with the message of the Gospel far beyond just your in-person events and far beyond just your in-person physical locations and gatherings. In fact, my entire strategy in this episode links right here on the screen for how to go hybrid, how to implement it, what to do is right here. 00:12:13:00 - 00:12:20:29 Nick Clason I would love to encourage you to take a look at that. Give us a subscribe. And don't forget and as always, stay hybrid. Borrowing Youth Room Space, Outside Guest Groups, Groups Make a Mess of my Youth Room, Youth Rooms, Hybrid Ministry, Nick Clason, Shared Space, Setup Manual, Sharing Youth Rooms, Church Rooms, Church Ministry, Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Youth Pastor Podcast ⚡ [FREE] Hybrid Reach More Students Strategy Guide⚡

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
🗑️ Have you ever walked into your youth room after another church ministry had an event in there?
Was it clean?

Probably not.

🫧 Was it put back how you preferred it to be?
Probably, also, not.

⚠️ But you don’t have the authority to tell people not to use it.
How do you share a space well?
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/089

//YOUTUBE VIDEO

SHARING SPACE
USE PORTABLE THINGS

//20 FOOT INFLATABLE GAGA BALL PIT
https://walmrt.us/3I2TZy7

//15 FOOT INFLATABLE GAGA BALL PIT
https://walmrt.us/3T7h5tS

//CASTLE SQUARES
https://castlesports.com/products/9-square-castlesquares

//RETRACTABLE WALLS
https://walmrt.us/3wkTYD9

LETTING OTHERS BORROW YOUR SPACE
//CLEANUP MANUAL
https://docs.google.com/document/d/0B3QjZyq-R_p5ZHZFTDhGV2IxZU0/edit?resourcekey=0-7FDtkR7NDnODgipiMQ7SLw

CONSIDER GOING HYBRID!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

======================================
🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Sharing Youth Rooms with Outside Groups
01:26 Three Hacks to Using Shared Church Space
07:08 3 Hacks to Letting Others Borrow Your Space
10:30 1 Idea that doesn't need space!

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:13
Nick Clason
Youth Pastor, have you ever walked back into your youth room after a church ministry or just an outside group? Use your space? Was it clean? Probably not. If this has ever happened to you, if you're watching on YouTube, give us a like and well, was your room put back to the way that you preferred it to be? Probably also, no.

00:00:25:15 - 00:00:45:30
Nick Clason
So if you've ever had to pick up after a messy group, then give me a subscribe. And if you don't have the authority to tell people how to use you youth group or not, and if you've ever been put in this position, well then turn the bell on, because we're right now in a playlist called Youth Pastor Problems.

00:00:46:00 - 00:01:09:08
Nick Clason
So how do you share your space well? We're going to give you three hacks for how you as a youth pastor can share a space that is a shared space in your church. It's not your youth room. It is the church's room, and the youth just use it. We're also then going to give three hacks for when you do have a youth room that you actually have to share your space with or allow guest groups to come on in.

00:01:09:08 - 00:01:39:13
Nick Clason
What are some three hacks to make sure that you don't come into a wild mess disaster the next time? And then I'm going to give you one final idea and one final hack that actually negates the need for space altogether. Welcome to the hybrid ministry show. Well, hey, everybody. Welcome to the hybrid ministry show. My name is Nick Clason and I've been a youth pastor for 13 years in full time, part time and vocational ministry all together.

00:01:39:13 - 00:01:58:03
Nick Clason
And early on, one of the churches I worked in, we were given a place to meet is our very own. It was disconnected from the building. It was actually attached to the maintenance garage, and so we called it the shed. What teenager doesn't want to be meeting in a place called the Shed? But eventually we outgrew that space.

00:01:58:03 - 00:02:20:10
Nick Clason
And so when I started we had just a handful of kids. And then towards the middle of my tenure there, we were running a good 30, 40, 50 something kids, and they just couldn't cram into this small shed anymore. And so we actually had to start using the church's main auditorium, the main sanctuary area, and we had to set up in there every single Wednesday night and tear it down.

00:02:20:12 - 00:02:37:15
Nick Clason
But the sanctuary was too big for us. And so we sort of had to pivot and adapt and we had to make this thing work for us in a way right there. Like it wasn't optimized to work for, it was optimized for a Sunday morning main church service. And now we, the youth, are coming in and were using it.

00:02:37:15 - 00:02:55:17
Nick Clason
So I have three hacks for what to do. If you are borrowing or sharing a space within the church that's also being used. But other places in the church hack number one is set up as early as you can. In fact, linked right here at the very top of my video is my full proof 100% completely free time management technique.

00:02:55:23 - 00:03:10:17
Nick Clason
Go ahead and take a look at that if that's something you're interested or navigating. But if you manage your time in such a way that like let's say you meet on Wednesday night, Wednesday morning, this is what I would do, I would come on in and I would set the room up first thing 9 a.m. I work for a little bit.

00:03:10:17 - 00:03:33:06
Nick Clason
And then honestly, I would go home and I would take a break a gap in the middle of the day from like lunchtime until about 330 or 4:00 in the afternoon before I would come back and start to get the final touches ready for youth. But if I had set the room up early and if I did it first thing in the morning, then I was never running out of time to really get the room all the way set up.

00:03:33:06 - 00:03:57:00
Nick Clason
If it was taking me longer than expected or if I was adding another element into it, like I would know that because I was working on it first thing in the morning. The second idea that I have for you is use portable things linked down below in description are some links to a few different things, like a portable Gaga pit that you can inflate and deflate.

00:03:57:00 - 00:04:17:26
Nick Clason
And so if you're using a space that you can't keep it set up all week long, this is perfect for you. And if even if you are using a space that you can that you do set up and tear down, this is also a really great place number, really great thing. Number two is a portable nine square and it's not like super duper portable, but it's called Castle Squares.

00:04:17:28 - 00:04:41:20
Nick Clason
And so instead of having the downspouts in every single spot, you just have the four kind of the base four that go up and then across you just have some straps. You can get it set up in under 10 minutes and torn down and even less time links to both of those things down below in description, or if you're in a podcast, catch your head to the show notes HybridMinistry.xyz/089

00:04:41:28 - 00:05:01:17
Nick Clason
Another thing that I did in my church where I was borrowing the sanctuary was we had those portable retractable accordion walls. I did put a few portable wall descriptions down below. They're not exactly the same thing, but they could work in your space, just check them out. And then we bought a lot of banners and so we would use a vinyl banners.

00:05:01:17 - 00:05:25:24
Nick Clason
I'm pretty sure we just used them off of like Vistaprint or something like that. But we would hang those with just like thumbtacks into those portable walls. And they had like our high school logo and our middle school logo and our student ministry logo and just some like other phrases and things that we would use. And so we would line the sanctuary because it had three seating sections, so we'd line the two aisles with those walls.

00:05:25:24 - 00:05:42:30
Nick Clason
So we would we would block off the seating in the wing, so it would forced everyone into the middle. And then those walls we put some of like our logos and our graphics and stuff like that to sort of liven the space up and just make it feel a little bit more youth ministry specific hack number three.

00:05:42:30 - 00:06:10:24
Nick Clason
So one was set up early. Two is use portable things. Three is be respectful full, right? Like I have this picture right here if you're watching on YouTube, a bunch of Nerf guns in a French press coffee maker. And the reason for that along with the rubber duck is that all of these things sort of encapsulate a church that I used to work at and I worked at this church and the Duck was our mascot, and a friend gave me this coffee pot.

00:06:10:24 - 00:06:32:26
Nick Clason
But the reason for the Nerf guns was because every single Thursday morning when I would come back into my office after youth night had happened the night before, on Wednesday night was a handful of Nerf darts laying on my desk because one of the junior high boys groups would meet in the lobby and they would do their discussion for about seven and a half minutes.

00:06:32:29 - 00:06:57:04
Nick Clason
And then as soon as the discussion was over, they would play Nerf and the facilities people would always find like anywhere from 3 to 8 Nerf darts. And so any given week I'd walk into my office and boom, on my desk. Right were just a handful of Nerf guns, be respectful, not gun darts. Be respectful, clean up as best as you can.

00:06:57:04 - 00:07:22:03
Nick Clason
In my defense, I was trying to clean up, but I just wasn't seeing them and make sure that the space that you were using looks as good or better. I know it's cliche then the way that you got it when you got there. So what do you do if you are letting others borrow your space? Let's say you have your very own dedicated youth room space, but you're letting other groups, other ministries come in and borrow it.

00:07:22:04 - 00:07:50:19
Nick Clason
Well, one space that once we outgrew even the sanctuary, we actually bought a small Baptist church on the other side of the road. So we had to different buildings and the church across the road. The difference in their like main auditorium, main meeting space, was that they had chairs so we could take the chairs down and get that whole space completely wide open where in our main building the the pews were bolted down to the floor.

00:07:50:27 - 00:08:11:19
Nick Clason
So all that meant was that our area was incredibly desirable, so people wanted to use it. And so what I actually did was I created just like a manual. You'll see it right here linked on screen. If you're watching on YouTube, if you're listening to the podcast, hit the link on the YouTube description there in the description of the podcast and go check this part out.

00:08:11:19 - 00:08:34:25
Nick Clason
But it was basically a how to step by step with photos to replace and put back the room the way that it needed to be. So that it was ready for us when we got back together. You see, what I have noticed in most of my time in ministry is that people that don't set the room back up, they're not doing it because they're frustrated or they're mad at you.

00:08:34:25 - 00:08:51:24
Nick Clason
They're just they're just putting it back how they think. Because people guest groups often come into your space and they immediately start making it ready for their thing or their event or their birthday party. And then when it's time to clean up, they're like, shoot, where was this basket? and Oh shoot. How did it look over there in that corner?

00:08:51:24 - 00:09:09:11
Nick Clason
Because they don't remember, because they're so focused on their thing, and rightfully so. Like, I'm not I'm not angry at them for doing that. Right. But what the manual does is it tells them exactly, this is how I want it set up. This is how it was when you came in or this is how it should have been set up.

00:09:09:14 - 00:09:34:25
Nick Clason
And so when there's a group, they have the exact right replica for how to put it back together. The problem is, if you've changed any of your minds since you've made that manual, it's going back the way the manual is, right, even if you've adjusted some stuff. And so if you do make changes, if you do like, you know, move the ping pong table or the foosball table, make sure you update that also in the manual that you hand off to guest groups.

00:09:34:26 - 00:09:57:28
Nick Clason
Number two is have a clear cut cleaning policies and or potential rental fees. One of the tricky things about sharing space, especially in church, is that you are going to need to have custodial support for said event for said space when you give it away, especially for groups coming in on a Saturday and the custodian had already planned and had it cleaned.

00:09:57:30 - 00:10:20:21
Nick Clason
And so you're going to need to figure out like who is paying for it. The custodian is the guest you're going to pay for and what is that going rate going to be? And the third and final hack for letting others use your space is be respectful and be understanding back. Right. Just like I said, they're not thinking about your space and that, but they're also probably not doing it intentionally.

00:10:20:24 - 00:10:43:05
Nick Clason
If they are being disrespectful, then that may be time to have a conversation. But in most cases they're just doing their best. And so also try to have a understanding of grace and respectfulness for them. What is an idea that you might never need to use space ever again? Well, that idea, of course, is go hybrid and listen, I'm not saying to completely abandon your in-person meetings.

00:10:43:05 - 00:11:10:25
Nick Clason
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 the screen and down in the description or wherever you're getting this or hybridministry.xyz/089 is my 100% completely free strategy Guide it is my e-book on how I build out a full fledged digital strategy.

00:11:10:30 - 00:11:47:08
Nick Clason
It's mostly focusing on a done for use 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, I tell you and explain how to do all of it in this e-book. And so I would love to encourage you to grab it, take a look and try at least implementing some pieces of it, because what it will do is it will allow your youth ministry to to not be tied and not be tethered to a physical location.

00:11:47:08 - 00:12:13:00
Nick Clason
And it won't be tied or tethered to events and attendance. Only you will be able to start reaching students with the hope and with the message of the Gospel far beyond just your in-person events and far beyond just your in-person physical locations and gatherings. In fact, my entire strategy in this episode links right here on the screen for how to go hybrid, how to implement it, what to do is right here.

00:12:13:00 - 00:12:20:29
Nick Clason
I would love to encourage you to take a look at that. Give us a subscribe. And don't forget and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> ⚡ [FREE] Hybrid Reach More Students Strategy Guide⚡

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
🗑️ Have you ever walked into your youth room after another church ministry had an event in there?
Was it clean?

Probably not.

🫧 Was it put back how you preferred it to be?
Probably, also, not.

⚠️ But you don’t have the authority to tell people not to use it.
How do you share a space well?
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/089

//YOUTUBE VIDEO

SHARING SPACE
USE PORTABLE THINGS

//20 FOOT INFLATABLE GAGA BALL PIT
https://walmrt.us/3I2TZy7

//15 FOOT INFLATABLE GAGA BALL PIT
https://walmrt.us/3T7h5tS

//CASTLE SQUARES
https://castlesports.com/products/9-square-castlesquares

//RETRACTABLE WALLS
https://walmrt.us/3wkTYD9

LETTING OTHERS BORROW YOUR SPACE
//CLEANUP MANUAL
https://docs.google.com/document/d/0B3QjZyq-R_p5ZHZFTDhGV2IxZU0/edit?resourcekey=0-7FDtkR7NDnODgipiMQ7SLw

CONSIDER GOING HYBRID!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

======================================
🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Sharing Youth Rooms with Outside Groups
01:26 Three Hacks to Using Shared Church Space
07:08 3 Hacks to Letting Others Borrow Your Space
10:30 1 Idea that doesn't need space!

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:13
Nick Clason
Youth Pastor, have you ever walked back into your youth room after a church ministry or just an outside group? Use your space? Was it clean? Probably not. If this has ever happened to you, if you're watching on YouTube, give us a like and well, was your room put back to the way that you preferred it to be? Probably also, no.

00:00:25:15 - 00:00:45:30
Nick Clason
So if you've ever had to pick up after a messy group, then give me a subscribe. And if you don't have the authority to tell people how to use you youth group or not, and if you've ever been put in this position, well then turn the bell on, because we're right now in a playlist called Youth Pastor Problems.

00:00:46:00 - 00:01:09:08
Nick Clason
So how do you share your space well? We're going to give you three hacks for how you as a youth pastor can share a space that is a shared space in your church. It's not your youth room. It is the church's room, and the youth just use it. We're also then going to give three hacks for when you do have a youth room that you actually have to share your space with or allow guest groups to come on in.

00:01:09:08 - 00:01:39:13
Nick Clason
What are some three hacks to make sure that you don't come into a wild mess disaster the next time? And then I'm going to give you one final idea and one final hack that actually negates the need for space altogether. Welcome to the hybrid ministry show. Well, hey, everybody. Welcome to the hybrid ministry show. My name is Nick Clason and I've been a youth pastor for 13 years in full time, part time and vocational ministry all together.

00:01:39:13 - 00:01:58:03
Nick Clason
And early on, one of the churches I worked in, we were given a place to meet is our very own. It was disconnected from the building. It was actually attached to the maintenance garage, and so we called it the shed. What teenager doesn't want to be meeting in a place called the Shed? But eventually we outgrew that space.

00:01:58:03 - 00:02:20:10
Nick Clason
And so when I started we had just a handful of kids. And then towards the middle of my tenure there, we were running a good 30, 40, 50 something kids, and they just couldn't cram into this small shed anymore. And so we actually had to start using the church's main auditorium, the main sanctuary area, and we had to set up in there every single Wednesday night and tear it down.

00:02:20:12 - 00:02:37:15
Nick Clason
But the sanctuary was too big for us. And so we sort of had to pivot and adapt and we had to make this thing work for us in a way right there. Like it wasn't optimized to work for, it was optimized for a Sunday morning main church service. And now we, the youth, are coming in and were using it.

00:02:37:15 - 00:02:55:17
Nick Clason
So I have three hacks for what to do. If you are borrowing or sharing a space within the church that's also being used. But other places in the church hack number one is set up as early as you can. In fact, linked right here at the very top of my video is my full proof 100% completely free time management technique.

00:02:55:23 - 00:03:10:17
Nick Clason
Go ahead and take a look at that if that's something you're interested or navigating. But if you manage your time in such a way that like let's say you meet on Wednesday night, Wednesday morning, this is what I would do, I would come on in and I would set the room up first thing 9 a.m. I work for a little bit.

00:03:10:17 - 00:03:33:06
Nick Clason
And then honestly, I would go home and I would take a break a gap in the middle of the day from like lunchtime until about 330 or 4:00 in the afternoon before I would come back and start to get the final touches ready for youth. But if I had set the room up early and if I did it first thing in the morning, then I was never running out of time to really get the room all the way set up.

00:03:33:06 - 00:03:57:00
Nick Clason
If it was taking me longer than expected or if I was adding another element into it, like I would know that because I was working on it first thing in the morning. The second idea that I have for you is use portable things linked down below in description are some links to a few different things, like a portable Gaga pit that you can inflate and deflate.

00:03:57:00 - 00:04:17:26
Nick Clason
And so if you're using a space that you can't keep it set up all week long, this is perfect for you. And if even if you are using a space that you can that you do set up and tear down, this is also a really great place number, really great thing. Number two is a portable nine square and it's not like super duper portable, but it's called Castle Squares.

00:04:17:28 - 00:04:41:20
Nick Clason
And so instead of having the downspouts in every single spot, you just have the four kind of the base four that go up and then across you just have some straps. You can get it set up in under 10 minutes and torn down and even less time links to both of those things down below in description, or if you're in a podcast, catch your head to the show notes HybridMinistry.xyz/089

00:04:41:28 - 00:05:01:17
Nick Clason
Another thing that I did in my church where I was borrowing the sanctuary was we had those portable retractable accordion walls. I did put a few portable wall descriptions down below. They're not exactly the same thing, but they could work in your space, just check them out. And then we bought a lot of banners and so we would use a vinyl banners.

00:05:01:17 - 00:05:25:24
Nick Clason
I'm pretty sure we just used them off of like Vistaprint or something like that. But we would hang those with just like thumbtacks into those portable walls. And they had like our high school logo and our middle school logo and our student ministry logo and just some like other phrases and things that we would use. And so we would line the sanctuary because it had three seating sections, so we'd line the two aisles with those walls.

00:05:25:24 - 00:05:42:30
Nick Clason
So we would we would block off the seating in the wing, so it would forced everyone into the middle. And then those walls we put some of like our logos and our graphics and stuff like that to sort of liven the space up and just make it feel a little bit more youth ministry specific hack number three.

00:05:42:30 - 00:06:10:24
Nick Clason
So one was set up early. Two is use portable things. Three is be respectful full, right? Like I have this picture right here if you're watching on YouTube, a bunch of Nerf guns in a French press coffee maker. And the reason for that along with the rubber duck is that all of these things sort of encapsulate a church that I used to work at and I worked at this church and the Duck was our mascot, and a friend gave me this coffee pot.

00:06:10:24 - 00:06:32:26
Nick Clason
But the reason for the Nerf guns was because every single Thursday morning when I would come back into my office after youth night had happened the night before, on Wednesday night was a handful of Nerf darts laying on my desk because one of the junior high boys groups would meet in the lobby and they would do their discussion for about seven and a half minutes.

00:06:32:29 - 00:06:57:04
Nick Clason
And then as soon as the discussion was over, they would play Nerf and the facilities people would always find like anywhere from 3 to 8 Nerf darts. And so any given week I'd walk into my office and boom, on my desk. Right were just a handful of Nerf guns, be respectful, not gun darts. Be respectful, clean up as best as you can.

00:06:57:04 - 00:07:22:03
Nick Clason
In my defense, I was trying to clean up, but I just wasn't seeing them and make sure that the space that you were using looks as good or better. I know it's cliche then the way that you got it when you got there. So what do you do if you are letting others borrow your space? Let's say you have your very own dedicated youth room space, but you're letting other groups, other ministries come in and borrow it.

00:07:22:04 - 00:07:50:19
Nick Clason
Well, one space that once we outgrew even the sanctuary, we actually bought a small Baptist church on the other side of the road. So we had to different buildings and the church across the road. The difference in their like main auditorium, main meeting space, was that they had chairs so we could take the chairs down and get that whole space completely wide open where in our main building the the pews were bolted down to the floor.

00:07:50:27 - 00:08:11:19
Nick Clason
So all that meant was that our area was incredibly desirable, so people wanted to use it. And so what I actually did was I created just like a manual. You'll see it right here linked on screen. If you're watching on YouTube, if you're listening to the podcast, hit the link on the YouTube description there in the description of the podcast and go check this part out.

00:08:11:19 - 00:08:34:25
Nick Clason
But it was basically a how to step by step with photos to replace and put back the room the way that it needed to be. So that it was ready for us when we got back together. You see, what I have noticed in most of my time in ministry is that people that don't set the room back up, they're not doing it because they're frustrated or they're mad at you.

00:08:34:25 - 00:08:51:24
Nick Clason
They're just they're just putting it back how they think. Because people guest groups often come into your space and they immediately start making it ready for their thing or their event or their birthday party. And then when it's time to clean up, they're like, shoot, where was this basket? and Oh shoot. How did it look over there in that corner?

00:08:51:24 - 00:09:09:11
Nick Clason
Because they don't remember, because they're so focused on their thing, and rightfully so. Like, I'm not I'm not angry at them for doing that. Right. But what the manual does is it tells them exactly, this is how I want it set up. This is how it was when you came in or this is how it should have been set up.

00:09:09:14 - 00:09:34:25
Nick Clason
And so when there's a group, they have the exact right replica for how to put it back together. The problem is, if you've changed any of your minds since you've made that manual, it's going back the way the manual is, right, even if you've adjusted some stuff. And so if you do make changes, if you do like, you know, move the ping pong table or the foosball table, make sure you update that also in the manual that you hand off to guest groups.

00:09:34:26 - 00:09:57:28
Nick Clason
Number two is have a clear cut cleaning policies and or potential rental fees. One of the tricky things about sharing space, especially in church, is that you are going to need to have custodial support for said event for said space when you give it away, especially for groups coming in on a Saturday and the custodian had already planned and had it cleaned.

00:09:57:30 - 00:10:20:21
Nick Clason
And so you're going to need to figure out like who is paying for it. The custodian is the guest you're going to pay for and what is that going rate going to be? And the third and final hack for letting others use your space is be respectful and be understanding back. Right. Just like I said, they're not thinking about your space and that, but they're also probably not doing it intentionally.

00:10:20:24 - 00:10:43:05
Nick Clason
If they are being disrespectful, then that may be time to have a conversation. But in most cases they're just doing their best. And so also try to have a understanding of grace and respectfulness for them. What is an idea that you might never need to use space ever again? Well, that idea, of course, is go hybrid and listen, I'm not saying to completely abandon your in-person meetings.

00:10:43:05 - 00:11:10:25
Nick Clason
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 the screen and down in the description or wherever you're getting this or hybridministry.xyz/089 is my 100% completely free strategy Guide it is my e-book on how I build out a full fledged digital strategy.

00:11:10:30 - 00:11:47:08
Nick Clason
It's mostly focusing on a done for use 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, I tell you and explain how to do all of it in this e-book. And so I would love to encourage you to grab it, take a look and try at least implementing some pieces of it, because what it will do is it will allow your youth ministry to to not be tied and not be tethered to a physical location.

00:11:47:08 - 00:12:13:00
Nick Clason
And it won't be tied or tethered to events and attendance. Only you will be able to start reaching students with the hope and with the message of the Gospel far beyond just your in-person events and far beyond just your in-person physical locations and gatherings. In fact, my entire strategy in this episode links right here on the screen for how to go hybrid, how to implement it, what to do is right here.

00:12:13:00 - 00:12:20:29
Nick Clason
I would love to encourage you to take a look at that. Give us a subscribe. And don't forget and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 088: 🔥Youth Ministry Planning: Weekend Service vs. Midweek Program https://www.hybridministry.xyz/088 bdee39bc-79f5-45a8-ab0e-ec6e5b914476 Thu, 14 Mar 2024 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 088 🔥Youth Ministry Planning: Weekend Service vs. Midweek Program full Nick Clason 🤔 What is the best day to meet with our youth group students 🖐️I’m ranking my top 5 curriculum resources ⚙️Finally, I’m going to share my top 3 interactive, and creative programming hacks 21:32 no ⚡ [FREE] How to Film Messages⚡ https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ====================================== DESCRIPTION 🤔 What is the best day to meet with our youth group students 🖐️I’m ranking my top 5 curriculum resources ⚙️Finally, I’m going to share my top 3 interactive, and creative programming hacks ====================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/088 //YOUTUBE VIDEO https://youtu.be/TTQXsananwI BEST TIME TO MEET? //SPORTS &amp; EXTRA CURRICULARS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/087 TEACHING //STUDENTS WANT OWNERSHIP &amp; BELONGING https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqOPjD5hN-g //HYBRID STRATEGY https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book //OPUS.PRO https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 1) CO-LEADER https://www.coleader.co/pricing 2) YM360 https://youthministry360.com/collections/sermon-series 3) GROW CURRICULUM https://growcurriculum.org/ 4) XP3 https://store.thinkorange.com/collections/xp3-license-category 5) DYM LIBRARY https://www.downloadyouthministry.com //MEMBERSHIP PRICING https://www.dymmembership.com/pricing 3 PROGRAMMING HACKS //USE SIDEKICK FOR INTERACTION! https://www.sidekick.tv/ 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz ====================================== 🆓 FREEBIES 🆓 📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 🖥️ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym 📨 Full Proof Recruiting Email EMAIL: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email 🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut 😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook 📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers" https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis ====================================== 🛠️TOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; 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 Programming Your Youth Service 00:54 The Pros and Cons of different Youth Group Meeting Days and Times 05:04 Three Questions to Ask when deciding when to meet for Youth Group 07:51 The Top 5 Youth Ministry Curriculum Resource Sites 13:44 3 Creative Youth Group Programming Hacks TRANSCRIPT 00;00;00;00 - 00;00;20;40 Nick Clason Last summer I had a leader say I thought that was a stupid idea. However, I later realized how genius it really was. What was it? I want you to stick around to the end, because this is actually one of my favorite youth group programing hacks. In addition to that, we're going to be talking about selecting the optimal youth. 00;00;20;40 - 00;00;44;48 Nick Clason Time for you, your church and your youth group is at Wednesday night. Is it Sunday Night? Is it Sunday morning? Subscribe. If it's Wednesday night for you. Like if it's Sunday night and hey, hit the bell. If you have to be at your church on Sunday morning, I think that pretty much covers all of us. I also want to rank my top five five youth group curriculum providers and resources links down below in the show notes. 00;00;44;50 - 00;01;10;49 Nick Clason And finally, I'm going to share with you my three favorite creative and potentially hybrid creative programing hacks. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show and the best time to meet. Like I remember when I started as a youth pastor, I was working at a church and I was inheriting a youth ministry that was run by volunteers. And so high school was on Tuesday night, middle school was on Wednesday night. 00;01;10;49 - 00;01;31;23 Nick Clason And I met with my pastor early on, like my very first week on the job. And he told me, he said, Hey, listen, you can do whatever you want, which is an absolute dream for a youth pastor. But as a young youth pastor, the decision was actually agonizing. Do I meet Wednesday night? Do I keep meeting Tuesday night, which is when the high school are meeting? 00;01;31;23 - 00;01;53;35 Nick Clason Do I switch to like a Sunday night vibe? And so Wednesday night, Sunday night, Sunday morning, like and I did have a Sunday morning component and so like you have to, you know, kind of navigate and know like what is going on within your church. But I had an advantage at that church because the youth ministry pretty much ran the place during midweek. 00;01;53;49 - 00;02;21;05 Nick Clason There was no midweek kids, kids ministry programing. Kids ministry did AWANA on Sunday night at like 4:15 or something. And it was kind of an odd time, which I did end up way down the road years later, jump into Sunday night. But early on I made a decision to just stick with Wednesday. So let's chat through the pros and cons of Wednesday night, Sunday night and Sunday morning, and then maybe another day of the week in there for you. 00;02;21;10 - 00;02;42;41 Nick Clason But the pro of of Wednesday night to me is probably your most traditional youth night. It's been 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. Wednesday night and I came from Chicago. Not many churches did did Wednesday night. 00;02;42;41 - 00;03;03;20 Nick Clason 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, a mid-week connection point from if you're typically meeting on Sunday morning, you get back together in the middle of the week. That's helpful. The con of it, however, and we talked about it here in the last video, is youth sports and extracurricular activities. 00;03;03;20 - 00;03;31;44 Nick Clason People are just getting busy. And so it makes attendance and it makes the accessibility, I believe, of a Wednesday night trickier, Sunday Night, however, the pro, I would say is probably one of the most unscheduled night for teens. Like more and more extracurricular activities, more and more sports are invading Sunday night, but it is probably the most free night that your teens have when you're looking at it from a vantage point of the majority of the availability. 00;03;31;49 - 00;03;50;55 Nick Clason The kind of it, however, is not only for you, but for you and your teens and your leaders. It makes for a long day. You were at church Sunday morning and you've got a little gap in the middle and then you have to come back. And that returning to church like that's that is always a hard hurdle to jump I’ve found. 00;03;50;59 - 00;04;09;17 Nick Clason If you have a kid who's not regularly planning on being at church, you say, hey, come back tonight, do like I got homework and all the things and families kind of have Sunday dinners. And so Sunday nights do tend to kind of make for a long day and then in a lot of our cases, we all have to be at church on Sunday morning. 00;04;09;22 - 00;04;35;00 Nick Clason Some of us do our youth service on Sunday morning. Some of us have more of like a Sunday school kind of curriculum, them that we have to adhere to or carry out. The pro of Sunday morning is it's probably the easiest to gather crowd. You're going to have your most captive audience. In fact, in a video that I talked about, the decline of church attendance, most teens are attending church because they're coming with their parents. 00;04;35;00 - 00;04;52;19 Nick Clason And so if their parents are coming to church, they're coming to church. And so Sunday morning is a great time for that to happen. The con of it is, while it may be the most captive audience, you may have the most amount of people the teenagers tend to be and feel and the environment just feels a little more tame. 00;04;52;19 - 00;05;18;29 Nick Clason It's not a youth ministry. It's more like we are a ministry of the overall church here on a Sunday morning. But when you're making these decisions, okay, because in my case, I was talking about when I started that job, I really could decide whatever I wanted. But in a lot of cases, you don't have that that luxury. And the reason might be because you're coming into a more established church, you're coming into a more established youth group. 00;05;18;29 - 00;05;43;15 Nick Clason And so the other like three questions to ask in this setting are, number one, what is expected of you? For example, are you even allowed to not have Sunday morning as an option? Like what is the expectation of your church and do you have the freedom to pull certain programs, pull certain time slots that you meet? So you need to make sure you know that before you make a decision and get yourself potentially in trouble. 00;05;43;20 - 00;06;13;35 Nick Clason Question number two is what's the rest of your church doing? For example, I went to a church and and my pastor told me that this is different. I had the the freedom to make this decision. I did not have to meet on Wednesday night and I made that decision. However, once programing started in the fall, I realized that I had made a pretty big mistake because the entire church, adults, kids, preschool, everyone came back to church on Wednesday night and the only group not there, the only group not meeting ended up being middle schoolers. 00;06;13;35 - 00;06;34;06 Nick Clason And so I had parents of middle schoolers really, really upset because they felt like their kid was not being cared for and that their kid didn't matter. In the life cycle of the church. So what is the rest of your church doing? You need to weigh that out. And if the whole church coming together for midweek, then you probably should have something there for the youth as well. 00;06;34;06 - 00;06;55;37 Nick Clason And the third question is where do you have natural momentum? Like I said, the church, I made a decision between Wednesday night and Tuesday night and all that. I ended up landing on Wednesday night, but then years later I switched over to Sunday night and I split apart middle school and I split apart high school. And when I did that, I pulled away a little bit of momentum as well. 00;06;55;38 - 00;07;20;44 Nick Clason Middle school was fine because it stayed on the night that it was on Wednesday night. But high school struggled because we tried to move on the Sunday night to become more adaptable to their schedules. However, at that church I was in, my students had become used to a certain rhythm and so moving, making that decision that made them have to adjust their schedule and adjust the way that they attached and that they connected to our church. 00;07;20;48 - 00;07;46;22 Nick Clason And here's thing none of that matters, right? In your youth ministry. If you don't have students who feel connected and don't feel like they have a piece of ownership in helping growing your youth ministry into a vibrant community, which we talked about in a previous video, how to actually teach well, course you need those two components before your teaching is really going to matter. 00;07;46;22 - 00;08;08;55 Nick Clason So let's talk about the five best curriculum resource sites, which we talked about. Students want to feel a sense of ownership and they want to feel a sense of belonging. And those two things need to exist in your youth ministry before your teaching is really going to start to matter. Wherever teaching and youth ministry, they're not going anywhere. 00;08;08;55 - 00;08;33;15 Nick Clason It's part of what we do in youth ministry. And the fact is, you work too hard to let your messages die on your hard drive after you've delivered it to a full or maybe even potentially full or half full or less full or not as full as you'd like. Room of teenagers. And so that's why I recommend linked right here down below in description, my completely free hybrid strategy. 00;08;33;15 - 00;08;53;22 Nick Clason If you're a youth pastor, you need to start posting your entire full length messages to YouTube. And I hear you're thinking like, I don't have livestreaming capabilities. I don't have livestreaming equipment. Hey, listen, most youth ministries don't. I certainly don't. But what we do is we actually do a YouTube video, sit down direct to camera. Honestly, very similar to what you're probably watching here. 00;08;53;27 - 00;09;14;23 Nick Clason You can watch it on a phone, a tablet, TV, a computer, whatever it is, but you post a full length video to YouTube, you get it down to 10 to 15 minutes in length, post it. You can do some basic after editing if you like. If not, just post it on up there. But then what that does is it also helps give you an anchor for your social media curriculum. 00;09;14;33 - 00;09;33;43 Nick Clason And so the message doesn't have to just die on a Wednesday night, on a Sunday night, on a Thursday night, whatever night of the week is your youth night, but it can live on in perpetuity. And as you teach certain series, you know how it is when it's like a students like I have a question about a particular topic and you just wrapped up a series, but they weren't there. 00;09;33;48 - 00;09;51;04 Nick Clason Now guess what? You can share them that link and be like, Hey, I actually just talked about I'd love for you to take a watch and then let's get back together and let's, let's chat about it. But that, that bedrock of that YouTube video that can that sort of establishes the framework for all your social media throughout the week. 00;09;51;04 - 00;10;12;20 Nick Clason You can post fun content and you can also post teaching clips now because you have a fully filmed wide screen based video that you can then clip up. You can use a service like Opus AI or Opus.Pro link down below. Description Check that out if that’s something you want AI will clip up your messages for you and do all the editing. 00;10;12;20 - 00;10;35;33 Nick Clason And it looks masterful. It looks it looks great. But let's talk about my five favorite curriculum resources. You may be creating your own curriculum as a youth pastor, but you don't have to. And if you don't have time for you don't want to do it, this these five resources will all save you tons of time. But they may not save you tons of money because they each have a different price tag attached to them. 00;10;35;38 - 00;10;58;37 Nick Clason So my number one favorite resource curriculum provider right now is coleader.co. That is from Download Youth Ministry and they have three sort of different tiers of billing. You can get a free version where they'll just give you access to it and you'll get 40 free credits to begin and to explore. The good thing about coleader is it plans your whole program. 00;10;58;37 - 00;11;29;41 Nick Clason It doesn't just give you a teaching script. Then they're premium version. It's about $249 a year billed annually, which breaks down to about $10 a week, again, including all of your programing and messages and songs and small group questions that gives you about 26 or so weeks of programing. So maybe this would be good if if you're doing like school year Wednesday night from like September through May, but you're not meeting in the summer and you have a lot of like gaps and Christmas parties and Thanksgivings off and stuff like that. 00;11;29;46 - 00;11;49;45 Nick Clason And maybe you do actually teach some of your own content and you sort of supplement in there, but you need something to pull from when you're in a pinch. And then premium plus is about $399 a year. Billed annually breaks down to about $8 or so per week. And premium plus also gives you access to the new sidekick Beta, which is amazing. 00;11;49;56 - 00;12;10;39 Nick Clason My number two on the list is the YM 360 sermon library is just a website which has kind of like an ala carte vibe. Where you go, you can grab different lessons three and four week series that have been taught by and taught by different youth. Pastors usually break it down to about $35 per series. So check that out. 00;12;10;39 - 00;12;38;33 Nick Clason Link down below in the description. My third favorite one is the Grow curriculum. And it is. It looks great this week. It is modern. Have full disclosure. I've never used it. Mostly price tag reasons. And in most churches that I’ve been at, we've had some other provider already. But I love the what they guys what the guys over at stuff you can use do what they stand for and so you can check that out link down below in the description. 00;12;38;33 - 00;13;08;22 Nick Clason My fourth is XP3, orange. It is probably the Cadillac of all youth ministry curriculums is also probably the most expensive on their website. Their annual license for it is anywhere from $449 a year all the way up to 2700 per year. And that's going to be based on your average youth group size. And then number five, my fifth resource is honestly just DYM library, similar to the YM360 model. 00;13;08;33 - 00;13;27;23 Nick Clason You can just go get a DYM membership. They've started at $12 a month, gold at $26.99 a month, and then gold plus at $40 a month. Gold plus gives you sidekick phone connections so you can scan the code on screen. Do live poll voting. One of my favorite hybrid ways to do youth ministry these days. But you can just hop on there. 00;13;27;28 - 00;13;49;10 Nick Clason They also gives you store credit when you have the membership. So whether you have a membership or not, you can ahead of time and you can find series there typically for anywhere from $5 to $12 per series for anywhere from like 3 to 4 week teaching series. So now here we are. What is my favorite youth group programing hack? 00;13;49;15 - 00;14;05;24 Nick Clason Well, number one link the times that you meet by purpose, right? In a lot of cases, you may not be making a decision for youth ministry. You have like one singular time to me. Is it Wednesday? Is it Sunday? Right. Like you may already have to meet Sunday morning and then you're having to figure out when else to meet. 00;14;05;28 - 00;14;24;59 Nick Clason And so instead of having to channel like supply curriculum for each and every one of those things, what we do in our current setting, I'll just tell you is Sunday morning is connect groups. And that's for the entire church adults, kids, students, everyone. And when I got here, we were like supplying curriculum for connect groups. And then on Wednesday nights we taught out of a different curriculum. 00;14;25;13 - 00;14;50;10 Nick Clason And so on Wednesday nights now we teach a message and then on Sunday morning they discuss the message. We have more students on Sunday morning and a lot of our students on Sunday morning don't attend back over here on Wednesday night. So because we pre film our curriculum, we will play a little clip, a teaser, also a reminder for those students who did actually come on Wednesday night to help the Sunday morning people be able to have the discussion. 00;14;50;15 - 00;15;11;12 Nick Clason All of our leaders are able to then watch the videos in full to be able to teach the lesson. If they didn't make it on Wednesday night and you're able to have that discussion. But also, if you did come Wednesday Night, it doesn't feel like a retread or a repeat. I can't remember who said this, but I remember someone someone saying at a a conference is something like think about all the times you meet. 00;15;11;12 - 00;15;37;35 Nick Clason If you have especially in student ministry of like main church service, you have youth Sunday morning and then you have youth Wednesday Night. And if every-- if a student comes every single week, 52 different times per year, then that is 52 times that they are taught a sermon and challenged to make an adjustment in their life and change. That is another 52 times when they come to the Youth night that they are taught a sermon and challenged 52 different times to change. 00;15;37;40 - 00;16;06;52 Nick Clason And then the third time they come to the youth other thing and they are challenged 52 different times per year and preach a sermon with some content and challenged to change their life. I don't do math on the fly very well, but that's like well over 150 times that they're supposed to do something different with their life. And just think that when you tie these to Wednesday night, Sunday morning, whatever your thing is, when you tie them together with purpose, if you have to have both meeting slots, that helps you, right? 00;16;06;52 - 00;16;33;58 Nick Clason Streamline your teaching. But that's also helpful to the students. It's not a laziness thing, right? In my opinion. It's not like you're just trying to get out of doing more. It's stewarding your budget, but it's also helping like most like disciple your students. Because then when your teaching is in alignment, everything can be in alignment. Your social media for that week, whatever you taught on Wednesday, that's the topic on your your social media, that's a topic on all of your digital hybrid resources. 00;16;34;03 - 00;16;55;42 Nick Clason Right? Number two, my favorite hack is interactive teaching. Let me just share with you right here on screen tonight. I am teaching live in the room at my church and we are in a series called How to use the Bible. And in that we have been giving them like, you know, reasons for why the Bible is reliable, reasons for why we can know that we can trust the Bible. 00;16;55;47 - 00;17;19;41 Nick Clason But then we're also like helping share them, like actual hands on tactical, like guides on how to use the Bible. But tonight I'm talking about filtering God's Word or filtering culture through the lens of God's Word in everything that we do. So what I am doing tonight is I'm starting out with a Pawn Stars video clip talking about someone who brought in a fake Babe Ruth baseball card. 00;17;19;46 - 00;17;36;13 Nick Clason And then from there, I'm telling them the hook straight away. I'm like, Are you a Biblical Christian or are you a Cultural Christian? And then we have tables in our space. And so I'm letting them talk about the difference between a Biblical Christian and a Cultural Christian. And how can you tell me give them a few minutes to chat that out. 00;17;36;18 - 00;17;59;10 Nick Clason Then I'm going to have a poll on the screen with Sidekick. We're asking them this question that says, Do we agree or disagree? Do we? Do we view everything in our life through a filter? Right? And then I'm going to give them three filters I view my life through Dad filter, Colts Fan filter, coffee filter, Shout out to coffee. 00;17;59;10 - 00;18;23;51 Nick Clason My brand new Valentine's gift, the Moca-master coffee maker first cup out of it this morning. Delicious. Ten out of ten would recommend. Then from there I am going to show them a picture of like a one of my kids watches for Christmas that they got. And talk about how scientists say that the same process that happens when you learn a new language is also what's happening when we're spending time on our screens. 00;18;23;56 - 00;18;55;17 Nick Clason And then I'm going to give them the definition of a cultural Christian versus a biblical Christian. And then I'm going to build a poll asking them what their favorite drink is like caramel macchiato, coffee, chocolate, milk, and they're going to have a chance to vote on that. All the while, all of my notes are in a thing that we call digital notes, and we use the YouVersion Live events plan that is a completely free tool that you can use, but your church can set up live events and so kids can have their phones and they can be following along with the scriptures and taking notes. 00;18;55;17 - 00;19;19;03 Nick Clason But then we're going to take them to Daniel. Chapter one. I got one more poll in there from Sidekick. I got another turn n talk. I got a map of where they go from Babylon to to from from Jerusalem to Babylon. Let's see, then I got some reasons why you oppose the food in Daniel Chapter one. I say what scholars think the age of this Daniel was, which is 11 to 17. 00;19;19;03 - 00;19;37;09 Nick Clason And so my question is, how does a teenage boy end up in a foreign land? His parents are likely killed and he's opposing the king. How do you think he did that? How does he have enough wisdom to know what to do and what to oppose? And then I'm going to bring a coffee pot on stage and talk about how what we put in the pod there is what we filter. 00;19;37;09 - 00;19;57;18 Nick Clason What spits out right, is a true form of of Christianity or it's not. But the Bible has to be the filter through which we do that. But the only way that matters if we truly have a desire to follow Jesus. Now, I don't like my whole reason for sharing All that is simply just for you to see all the different like I have sent them off to, to take questions. 00;19;57;18 - 00;20;26;54 Nick Clason And then we have digital notes for them to follow along with. And we have polls on the screen and then we have a break in between. My first part of my teaching and my last part of my teaching, which is my third hack, and that's the one the leader said. I thought that was the most stupid idea because what I would do at summer camp last year is I teach for a little bit, share a little story in opening illustration, and then I would open it to a question and then I'd send them off in their small groups right there in that space in audio auditorium style seating at camp and say, Find your small 00;20;26;54 - 00;20;44;26 Nick Clason group and your small group leader and answer these two questions and it would break for 10 minutes. And he said, I thought we were going to lose them. Like I thought like, man, that's dumb. Like, we are going to lose. These kids are going to go crazy. But what it actually did was it helped us have longer sessions and deeper teaching because we gave a break. 00;20;44;37 - 00;21;05;56 Nick Clason I wasn't just sitting and teaching for 20 straight minutes, 30 straight minutes, 40 heaven forbid, straight minutes, because I gave them a break and I let them contribute to the conversation, which is what Gen Z is looking to do. Right? And so that one of the challenges to good creative teaching, because like I said, we use tables in our space most Wednesday Nights. 00;21;06;00 - 00;21;30;02 Nick Clason It's one of the challenges to that right is navigating shared space, shared space in youth ministries, which is actually the next video it's going to be linked to right here on the screen. It’s a huge challenge and a problem facing youth pastors. How do you navigate it? What are best practices linked right here? Take a look at that, because we're here to try and make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. 00;21;30;02 - 00;21;32;26 Nick Clason So as always, stay hybrid. Youth Group, Youth Ministry, Youth Ministry Coach, Nick Clason, Hybrid Ministry, Youth Group Meeting Times, Best Youth Service Night of the Week, Programming in Youth Ministry, Youth Ministry Planning, Grow Your Youth Ministry, Youth Group Games for Church, Student Ministry, Your Group service ideas, Youth ministry service ideas, Weekend service vs. mid-week program, The Best Meeting Times for Church Youth Group, The Best Curriculum for Youth Group, ⚡ [FREE] How to Film Messages⚡

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
🤔 What is the best day to meet with our youth group students
🖐️I’m ranking my top 5 curriculum resources
⚙️Finally, I’m going to share my top 3 interactive, and creative programming hacks
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/088

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

BEST TIME TO MEET?
//SPORTS & EXTRA CURRICULARS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/087

TEACHING
//STUDENTS WANT OWNERSHIP & BELONGING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqOPjD5hN-g

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

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

1) CO-LEADER
https://www.coleader.co/pricing

2) YM360
https://youthministry360.com/collections/sermon-series

3) GROW CURRICULUM
https://growcurriculum.org/

4) XP3
https://store.thinkorange.com/collections/xp3-license-category

5) DYM LIBRARY
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com

//MEMBERSHIP PRICING
https://www.dymmembership.com/pricing

3 PROGRAMMING HACKS
//USE SIDEKICK FOR INTERACTION!
https://www.sidekick.tv/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

======================================
🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Programming Your Youth Service
00:54 The Pros and Cons of different Youth Group Meeting Days and Times
05:04 Three Questions to Ask when deciding when to meet for Youth Group
07:51 The Top 5 Youth Ministry Curriculum Resource Sites
13:44 3 Creative Youth Group Programming Hacks

TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;20;40
Nick Clason
Last summer I had a leader say I thought that was a stupid idea. However, I later realized how genius it really was. What was it? I want you to stick around to the end, because this is actually one of my favorite youth group programing hacks. In addition to that, we're going to be talking about selecting the optimal youth.

00;00;20;40 - 00;00;44;48
Nick Clason
Time for you, your church and your youth group is at Wednesday night. Is it Sunday Night? Is it Sunday morning? Subscribe. If it's Wednesday night for you. Like if it's Sunday night and hey, hit the bell. If you have to be at your church on Sunday morning, I think that pretty much covers all of us. I also want to rank my top five five youth group curriculum providers and resources links down below in the show notes.

00;00;44;50 - 00;01;10;49
Nick Clason
And finally, I'm going to share with you my three favorite creative and potentially hybrid creative programing hacks. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show and the best time to meet. Like I remember when I started as a youth pastor, I was working at a church and I was inheriting a youth ministry that was run by volunteers. And so high school was on Tuesday night, middle school was on Wednesday night.

00;01;10;49 - 00;01;31;23
Nick Clason
And I met with my pastor early on, like my very first week on the job. And he told me, he said, Hey, listen, you can do whatever you want, which is an absolute dream for a youth pastor. But as a young youth pastor, the decision was actually agonizing. Do I meet Wednesday night? Do I keep meeting Tuesday night, which is when the high school are meeting?

00;01;31;23 - 00;01;53;35
Nick Clason
Do I switch to like a Sunday night vibe? And so Wednesday night, Sunday night, Sunday morning, like and I did have a Sunday morning component and so like you have to, you know, kind of navigate and know like what is going on within your church. But I had an advantage at that church because the youth ministry pretty much ran the place during midweek.

00;01;53;49 - 00;02;21;05
Nick Clason
There was no midweek kids, kids ministry programing. Kids ministry did AWANA on Sunday night at like 4:15 or something. And it was kind of an odd time, which I did end up way down the road years later, jump into Sunday night. But early on I made a decision to just stick with Wednesday. So let's chat through the pros and cons of Wednesday night, Sunday night and Sunday morning, and then maybe another day of the week in there for you.

00;02;21;10 - 00;02;42;41
Nick Clason
But the pro of of Wednesday night to me is probably your most traditional youth night. It's been 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. Wednesday night and I came from Chicago. Not many churches did did Wednesday night.

00;02;42;41 - 00;03;03;20
Nick Clason
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, a mid-week connection point from if you're typically meeting on Sunday morning, you get back together in the middle of the week. That's helpful. The con of it, however, and we talked about it here in the last video, is youth sports and extracurricular activities.

00;03;03;20 - 00;03;31;44
Nick Clason
People are just getting busy. And so it makes attendance and it makes the accessibility, I believe, of a Wednesday night trickier, Sunday Night, however, the pro, I would say is probably one of the most unscheduled night for teens. Like more and more extracurricular activities, more and more sports are invading Sunday night, but it is probably the most free night that your teens have when you're looking at it from a vantage point of the majority of the availability.

00;03;31;49 - 00;03;50;55
Nick Clason
The kind of it, however, is not only for you, but for you and your teens and your leaders. It makes for a long day. You were at church Sunday morning and you've got a little gap in the middle and then you have to come back. And that returning to church like that's that is always a hard hurdle to jump I’ve found.

00;03;50;59 - 00;04;09;17
Nick Clason
If you have a kid who's not regularly planning on being at church, you say, hey, come back tonight, do like I got homework and all the things and families kind of have Sunday dinners. And so Sunday nights do tend to kind of make for a long day and then in a lot of our cases, we all have to be at church on Sunday morning.

00;04;09;22 - 00;04;35;00
Nick Clason
Some of us do our youth service on Sunday morning. Some of us have more of like a Sunday school kind of curriculum, them that we have to adhere to or carry out. The pro of Sunday morning is it's probably the easiest to gather crowd. You're going to have your most captive audience. In fact, in a video that I talked about, the decline of church attendance, most teens are attending church because they're coming with their parents.

00;04;35;00 - 00;04;52;19
Nick Clason
And so if their parents are coming to church, they're coming to church. And so Sunday morning is a great time for that to happen. The con of it is, while it may be the most captive audience, you may have the most amount of people the teenagers tend to be and feel and the environment just feels a little more tame.

00;04;52;19 - 00;05;18;29
Nick Clason
It's not a youth ministry. It's more like we are a ministry of the overall church here on a Sunday morning. But when you're making these decisions, okay, because in my case, I was talking about when I started that job, I really could decide whatever I wanted. But in a lot of cases, you don't have that that luxury. And the reason might be because you're coming into a more established church, you're coming into a more established youth group.

00;05;18;29 - 00;05;43;15
Nick Clason
And so the other like three questions to ask in this setting are, number one, what is expected of you? For example, are you even allowed to not have Sunday morning as an option? Like what is the expectation of your church and do you have the freedom to pull certain programs, pull certain time slots that you meet? So you need to make sure you know that before you make a decision and get yourself potentially in trouble.

00;05;43;20 - 00;06;13;35
Nick Clason
Question number two is what's the rest of your church doing? For example, I went to a church and and my pastor told me that this is different. I had the the freedom to make this decision. I did not have to meet on Wednesday night and I made that decision. However, once programing started in the fall, I realized that I had made a pretty big mistake because the entire church, adults, kids, preschool, everyone came back to church on Wednesday night and the only group not there, the only group not meeting ended up being middle schoolers.

00;06;13;35 - 00;06;34;06
Nick Clason
And so I had parents of middle schoolers really, really upset because they felt like their kid was not being cared for and that their kid didn't matter. In the life cycle of the church. So what is the rest of your church doing? You need to weigh that out. And if the whole church coming together for midweek, then you probably should have something there for the youth as well.

00;06;34;06 - 00;06;55;37
Nick Clason
And the third question is where do you have natural momentum? Like I said, the church, I made a decision between Wednesday night and Tuesday night and all that. I ended up landing on Wednesday night, but then years later I switched over to Sunday night and I split apart middle school and I split apart high school. And when I did that, I pulled away a little bit of momentum as well.

00;06;55;38 - 00;07;20;44
Nick Clason
Middle school was fine because it stayed on the night that it was on Wednesday night. But high school struggled because we tried to move on the Sunday night to become more adaptable to their schedules. However, at that church I was in, my students had become used to a certain rhythm and so moving, making that decision that made them have to adjust their schedule and adjust the way that they attached and that they connected to our church.

00;07;20;48 - 00;07;46;22
Nick Clason
And here's thing none of that matters, right? In your youth ministry. If you don't have students who feel connected and don't feel like they have a piece of ownership in helping growing your youth ministry into a vibrant community, which we talked about in a previous video, how to actually teach well, course you need those two components before your teaching is really going to matter.

00;07;46;22 - 00;08;08;55
Nick Clason
So let's talk about the five best curriculum resource sites, which we talked about. Students want to feel a sense of ownership and they want to feel a sense of belonging. And those two things need to exist in your youth ministry before your teaching is really going to start to matter. Wherever teaching and youth ministry, they're not going anywhere.

00;08;08;55 - 00;08;33;15
Nick Clason
It's part of what we do in youth ministry. And the fact is, you work too hard to let your messages die on your hard drive after you've delivered it to a full or maybe even potentially full or half full or less full or not as full as you'd like. Room of teenagers. And so that's why I recommend linked right here down below in description, my completely free hybrid strategy.

00;08;33;15 - 00;08;53;22
Nick Clason
If you're a youth pastor, you need to start posting your entire full length messages to YouTube. And I hear you're thinking like, I don't have livestreaming capabilities. I don't have livestreaming equipment. Hey, listen, most youth ministries don't. I certainly don't. But what we do is we actually do a YouTube video, sit down direct to camera. Honestly, very similar to what you're probably watching here.

00;08;53;27 - 00;09;14;23
Nick Clason
You can watch it on a phone, a tablet, TV, a computer, whatever it is, but you post a full length video to YouTube, you get it down to 10 to 15 minutes in length, post it. You can do some basic after editing if you like. If not, just post it on up there. But then what that does is it also helps give you an anchor for your social media curriculum.

00;09;14;33 - 00;09;33;43
Nick Clason
And so the message doesn't have to just die on a Wednesday night, on a Sunday night, on a Thursday night, whatever night of the week is your youth night, but it can live on in perpetuity. And as you teach certain series, you know how it is when it's like a students like I have a question about a particular topic and you just wrapped up a series, but they weren't there.

00;09;33;48 - 00;09;51;04
Nick Clason
Now guess what? You can share them that link and be like, Hey, I actually just talked about I'd love for you to take a watch and then let's get back together and let's, let's chat about it. But that, that bedrock of that YouTube video that can that sort of establishes the framework for all your social media throughout the week.

00;09;51;04 - 00;10;12;20
Nick Clason
You can post fun content and you can also post teaching clips now because you have a fully filmed wide screen based video that you can then clip up. You can use a service like Opus AI or Opus.Pro link down below. Description Check that out if that’s something you want AI will clip up your messages for you and do all the editing.

00;10;12;20 - 00;10;35;33
Nick Clason
And it looks masterful. It looks it looks great. But let's talk about my five favorite curriculum resources. You may be creating your own curriculum as a youth pastor, but you don't have to. And if you don't have time for you don't want to do it, this these five resources will all save you tons of time. But they may not save you tons of money because they each have a different price tag attached to them.

00;10;35;38 - 00;10;58;37
Nick Clason
So my number one favorite resource curriculum provider right now is coleader.co. That is from Download Youth Ministry and they have three sort of different tiers of billing. You can get a free version where they'll just give you access to it and you'll get 40 free credits to begin and to explore. The good thing about coleader is it plans your whole program.

00;10;58;37 - 00;11;29;41
Nick Clason
It doesn't just give you a teaching script. Then they're premium version. It's about $249 a year billed annually, which breaks down to about $10 a week, again, including all of your programing and messages and songs and small group questions that gives you about 26 or so weeks of programing. So maybe this would be good if if you're doing like school year Wednesday night from like September through May, but you're not meeting in the summer and you have a lot of like gaps and Christmas parties and Thanksgivings off and stuff like that.

00;11;29;46 - 00;11;49;45
Nick Clason
And maybe you do actually teach some of your own content and you sort of supplement in there, but you need something to pull from when you're in a pinch. And then premium plus is about $399 a year. Billed annually breaks down to about $8 or so per week. And premium plus also gives you access to the new sidekick Beta, which is amazing.

00;11;49;56 - 00;12;10;39
Nick Clason
My number two on the list is the YM 360 sermon library is just a website which has kind of like an ala carte vibe. Where you go, you can grab different lessons three and four week series that have been taught by and taught by different youth. Pastors usually break it down to about $35 per series. So check that out.

00;12;10;39 - 00;12;38;33
Nick Clason
Link down below in the description. My third favorite one is the Grow curriculum. And it is. It looks great this week. It is modern. Have full disclosure. I've never used it. Mostly price tag reasons. And in most churches that I’ve been at, we've had some other provider already. But I love the what they guys what the guys over at stuff you can use do what they stand for and so you can check that out link down below in the description.

00;12;38;33 - 00;13;08;22
Nick Clason
My fourth is XP3, orange. It is probably the Cadillac of all youth ministry curriculums is also probably the most expensive on their website. Their annual license for it is anywhere from $449 a year all the way up to 2700 per year. And that's going to be based on your average youth group size. And then number five, my fifth resource is honestly just DYM library, similar to the YM360 model.

00;13;08;33 - 00;13;27;23
Nick Clason
You can just go get a DYM membership. They've started at $12 a month, gold at $26.99 a month, and then gold plus at $40 a month. Gold plus gives you sidekick phone connections so you can scan the code on screen. Do live poll voting. One of my favorite hybrid ways to do youth ministry these days. But you can just hop on there.

00;13;27;28 - 00;13;49;10
Nick Clason
They also gives you store credit when you have the membership. So whether you have a membership or not, you can ahead of time and you can find series there typically for anywhere from $5 to $12 per series for anywhere from like 3 to 4 week teaching series. So now here we are. What is my favorite youth group programing hack?

00;13;49;15 - 00;14;05;24
Nick Clason
Well, number one link the times that you meet by purpose, right? In a lot of cases, you may not be making a decision for youth ministry. You have like one singular time to me. Is it Wednesday? Is it Sunday? Right. Like you may already have to meet Sunday morning and then you're having to figure out when else to meet.

00;14;05;28 - 00;14;24;59
Nick Clason
And so instead of having to channel like supply curriculum for each and every one of those things, what we do in our current setting, I'll just tell you is Sunday morning is connect groups. And that's for the entire church adults, kids, students, everyone. And when I got here, we were like supplying curriculum for connect groups. And then on Wednesday nights we taught out of a different curriculum.

00;14;25;13 - 00;14;50;10
Nick Clason
And so on Wednesday nights now we teach a message and then on Sunday morning they discuss the message. We have more students on Sunday morning and a lot of our students on Sunday morning don't attend back over here on Wednesday night. So because we pre film our curriculum, we will play a little clip, a teaser, also a reminder for those students who did actually come on Wednesday night to help the Sunday morning people be able to have the discussion.

00;14;50;15 - 00;15;11;12
Nick Clason
All of our leaders are able to then watch the videos in full to be able to teach the lesson. If they didn't make it on Wednesday night and you're able to have that discussion. But also, if you did come Wednesday Night, it doesn't feel like a retread or a repeat. I can't remember who said this, but I remember someone someone saying at a a conference is something like think about all the times you meet.

00;15;11;12 - 00;15;37;35
Nick Clason
If you have especially in student ministry of like main church service, you have youth Sunday morning and then you have youth Wednesday Night. And if every-- if a student comes every single week, 52 different times per year, then that is 52 times that they are taught a sermon and challenged to make an adjustment in their life and change. That is another 52 times when they come to the Youth night that they are taught a sermon and challenged 52 different times to change.

00;15;37;40 - 00;16;06;52
Nick Clason
And then the third time they come to the youth other thing and they are challenged 52 different times per year and preach a sermon with some content and challenged to change their life. I don't do math on the fly very well, but that's like well over 150 times that they're supposed to do something different with their life. And just think that when you tie these to Wednesday night, Sunday morning, whatever your thing is, when you tie them together with purpose, if you have to have both meeting slots, that helps you, right?

00;16;06;52 - 00;16;33;58
Nick Clason
Streamline your teaching. But that's also helpful to the students. It's not a laziness thing, right? In my opinion. It's not like you're just trying to get out of doing more. It's stewarding your budget, but it's also helping like most like disciple your students. Because then when your teaching is in alignment, everything can be in alignment. Your social media for that week, whatever you taught on Wednesday, that's the topic on your your social media, that's a topic on all of your digital hybrid resources.

00;16;34;03 - 00;16;55;42
Nick Clason
Right? Number two, my favorite hack is interactive teaching. Let me just share with you right here on screen tonight. I am teaching live in the room at my church and we are in a series called How to use the Bible. And in that we have been giving them like, you know, reasons for why the Bible is reliable, reasons for why we can know that we can trust the Bible.

00;16;55;47 - 00;17;19;41
Nick Clason
But then we're also like helping share them, like actual hands on tactical, like guides on how to use the Bible. But tonight I'm talking about filtering God's Word or filtering culture through the lens of God's Word in everything that we do. So what I am doing tonight is I'm starting out with a Pawn Stars video clip talking about someone who brought in a fake Babe Ruth baseball card.

00;17;19;46 - 00;17;36;13
Nick Clason
And then from there, I'm telling them the hook straight away. I'm like, Are you a Biblical Christian or are you a Cultural Christian? And then we have tables in our space. And so I'm letting them talk about the difference between a Biblical Christian and a Cultural Christian. And how can you tell me give them a few minutes to chat that out.

00;17;36;18 - 00;17;59;10
Nick Clason
Then I'm going to have a poll on the screen with Sidekick. We're asking them this question that says, Do we agree or disagree? Do we? Do we view everything in our life through a filter? Right? And then I'm going to give them three filters I view my life through Dad filter, Colts Fan filter, coffee filter, Shout out to coffee.

00;17;59;10 - 00;18;23;51
Nick Clason
My brand new Valentine's gift, the Moca-master coffee maker first cup out of it this morning. Delicious. Ten out of ten would recommend. Then from there I am going to show them a picture of like a one of my kids watches for Christmas that they got. And talk about how scientists say that the same process that happens when you learn a new language is also what's happening when we're spending time on our screens.

00;18;23;56 - 00;18;55;17
Nick Clason
And then I'm going to give them the definition of a cultural Christian versus a biblical Christian. And then I'm going to build a poll asking them what their favorite drink is like caramel macchiato, coffee, chocolate, milk, and they're going to have a chance to vote on that. All the while, all of my notes are in a thing that we call digital notes, and we use the YouVersion Live events plan that is a completely free tool that you can use, but your church can set up live events and so kids can have their phones and they can be following along with the scriptures and taking notes.

00;18;55;17 - 00;19;19;03
Nick Clason
But then we're going to take them to Daniel. Chapter one. I got one more poll in there from Sidekick. I got another turn n talk. I got a map of where they go from Babylon to to from from Jerusalem to Babylon. Let's see, then I got some reasons why you oppose the food in Daniel Chapter one. I say what scholars think the age of this Daniel was, which is 11 to 17.

00;19;19;03 - 00;19;37;09
Nick Clason
And so my question is, how does a teenage boy end up in a foreign land? His parents are likely killed and he's opposing the king. How do you think he did that? How does he have enough wisdom to know what to do and what to oppose? And then I'm going to bring a coffee pot on stage and talk about how what we put in the pod there is what we filter.

00;19;37;09 - 00;19;57;18
Nick Clason
What spits out right, is a true form of of Christianity or it's not. But the Bible has to be the filter through which we do that. But the only way that matters if we truly have a desire to follow Jesus. Now, I don't like my whole reason for sharing All that is simply just for you to see all the different like I have sent them off to, to take questions.

00;19;57;18 - 00;20;26;54
Nick Clason
And then we have digital notes for them to follow along with. And we have polls on the screen and then we have a break in between. My first part of my teaching and my last part of my teaching, which is my third hack, and that's the one the leader said. I thought that was the most stupid idea because what I would do at summer camp last year is I teach for a little bit, share a little story in opening illustration, and then I would open it to a question and then I'd send them off in their small groups right there in that space in audio auditorium style seating at camp and say, Find your small

00;20;26;54 - 00;20;44;26
Nick Clason
group and your small group leader and answer these two questions and it would break for 10 minutes. And he said, I thought we were going to lose them. Like I thought like, man, that's dumb. Like, we are going to lose. These kids are going to go crazy. But what it actually did was it helped us have longer sessions and deeper teaching because we gave a break.

00;20;44;37 - 00;21;05;56
Nick Clason
I wasn't just sitting and teaching for 20 straight minutes, 30 straight minutes, 40 heaven forbid, straight minutes, because I gave them a break and I let them contribute to the conversation, which is what Gen Z is looking to do. Right? And so that one of the challenges to good creative teaching, because like I said, we use tables in our space most Wednesday Nights.

00;21;06;00 - 00;21;30;02
Nick Clason
It's one of the challenges to that right is navigating shared space, shared space in youth ministries, which is actually the next video it's going to be linked to right here on the screen. It’s a huge challenge and a problem facing youth pastors. How do you navigate it? What are best practices linked right here? Take a look at that, because we're here to try and make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible.

00;21;30;02 - 00;21;32;26
Nick Clason
So as always, stay hybrid.

]]> ⚡ [FREE] How to Film Messages⚡

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
🤔 What is the best day to meet with our youth group students
🖐️I’m ranking my top 5 curriculum resources
⚙️Finally, I’m going to share my top 3 interactive, and creative programming hacks
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/088

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

BEST TIME TO MEET?
//SPORTS & EXTRA CURRICULARS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/087

TEACHING
//STUDENTS WANT OWNERSHIP & BELONGING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqOPjD5hN-g

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

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

1) CO-LEADER
https://www.coleader.co/pricing

2) YM360
https://youthministry360.com/collections/sermon-series

3) GROW CURRICULUM
https://growcurriculum.org/

4) XP3
https://store.thinkorange.com/collections/xp3-license-category

5) DYM LIBRARY
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com

//MEMBERSHIP PRICING
https://www.dymmembership.com/pricing

3 PROGRAMMING HACKS
//USE SIDEKICK FOR INTERACTION!
https://www.sidekick.tv/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

======================================
🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Programming Your Youth Service
00:54 The Pros and Cons of different Youth Group Meeting Days and Times
05:04 Three Questions to Ask when deciding when to meet for Youth Group
07:51 The Top 5 Youth Ministry Curriculum Resource Sites
13:44 3 Creative Youth Group Programming Hacks

TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;20;40
Nick Clason
Last summer I had a leader say I thought that was a stupid idea. However, I later realized how genius it really was. What was it? I want you to stick around to the end, because this is actually one of my favorite youth group programing hacks. In addition to that, we're going to be talking about selecting the optimal youth.

00;00;20;40 - 00;00;44;48
Nick Clason
Time for you, your church and your youth group is at Wednesday night. Is it Sunday Night? Is it Sunday morning? Subscribe. If it's Wednesday night for you. Like if it's Sunday night and hey, hit the bell. If you have to be at your church on Sunday morning, I think that pretty much covers all of us. I also want to rank my top five five youth group curriculum providers and resources links down below in the show notes.

00;00;44;50 - 00;01;10;49
Nick Clason
And finally, I'm going to share with you my three favorite creative and potentially hybrid creative programing hacks. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show and the best time to meet. Like I remember when I started as a youth pastor, I was working at a church and I was inheriting a youth ministry that was run by volunteers. And so high school was on Tuesday night, middle school was on Wednesday night.

00;01;10;49 - 00;01;31;23
Nick Clason
And I met with my pastor early on, like my very first week on the job. And he told me, he said, Hey, listen, you can do whatever you want, which is an absolute dream for a youth pastor. But as a young youth pastor, the decision was actually agonizing. Do I meet Wednesday night? Do I keep meeting Tuesday night, which is when the high school are meeting?

00;01;31;23 - 00;01;53;35
Nick Clason
Do I switch to like a Sunday night vibe? And so Wednesday night, Sunday night, Sunday morning, like and I did have a Sunday morning component and so like you have to, you know, kind of navigate and know like what is going on within your church. But I had an advantage at that church because the youth ministry pretty much ran the place during midweek.

00;01;53;49 - 00;02;21;05
Nick Clason
There was no midweek kids, kids ministry programing. Kids ministry did AWANA on Sunday night at like 4:15 or something. And it was kind of an odd time, which I did end up way down the road years later, jump into Sunday night. But early on I made a decision to just stick with Wednesday. So let's chat through the pros and cons of Wednesday night, Sunday night and Sunday morning, and then maybe another day of the week in there for you.

00;02;21;10 - 00;02;42;41
Nick Clason
But the pro of of Wednesday night to me is probably your most traditional youth night. It's been 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. Wednesday night and I came from Chicago. Not many churches did did Wednesday night.

00;02;42;41 - 00;03;03;20
Nick Clason
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, a mid-week connection point from if you're typically meeting on Sunday morning, you get back together in the middle of the week. That's helpful. The con of it, however, and we talked about it here in the last video, is youth sports and extracurricular activities.

00;03;03;20 - 00;03;31;44
Nick Clason
People are just getting busy. And so it makes attendance and it makes the accessibility, I believe, of a Wednesday night trickier, Sunday Night, however, the pro, I would say is probably one of the most unscheduled night for teens. Like more and more extracurricular activities, more and more sports are invading Sunday night, but it is probably the most free night that your teens have when you're looking at it from a vantage point of the majority of the availability.

00;03;31;49 - 00;03;50;55
Nick Clason
The kind of it, however, is not only for you, but for you and your teens and your leaders. It makes for a long day. You were at church Sunday morning and you've got a little gap in the middle and then you have to come back. And that returning to church like that's that is always a hard hurdle to jump I’ve found.

00;03;50;59 - 00;04;09;17
Nick Clason
If you have a kid who's not regularly planning on being at church, you say, hey, come back tonight, do like I got homework and all the things and families kind of have Sunday dinners. And so Sunday nights do tend to kind of make for a long day and then in a lot of our cases, we all have to be at church on Sunday morning.

00;04;09;22 - 00;04;35;00
Nick Clason
Some of us do our youth service on Sunday morning. Some of us have more of like a Sunday school kind of curriculum, them that we have to adhere to or carry out. The pro of Sunday morning is it's probably the easiest to gather crowd. You're going to have your most captive audience. In fact, in a video that I talked about, the decline of church attendance, most teens are attending church because they're coming with their parents.

00;04;35;00 - 00;04;52;19
Nick Clason
And so if their parents are coming to church, they're coming to church. And so Sunday morning is a great time for that to happen. The con of it is, while it may be the most captive audience, you may have the most amount of people the teenagers tend to be and feel and the environment just feels a little more tame.

00;04;52;19 - 00;05;18;29
Nick Clason
It's not a youth ministry. It's more like we are a ministry of the overall church here on a Sunday morning. But when you're making these decisions, okay, because in my case, I was talking about when I started that job, I really could decide whatever I wanted. But in a lot of cases, you don't have that that luxury. And the reason might be because you're coming into a more established church, you're coming into a more established youth group.

00;05;18;29 - 00;05;43;15
Nick Clason
And so the other like three questions to ask in this setting are, number one, what is expected of you? For example, are you even allowed to not have Sunday morning as an option? Like what is the expectation of your church and do you have the freedom to pull certain programs, pull certain time slots that you meet? So you need to make sure you know that before you make a decision and get yourself potentially in trouble.

00;05;43;20 - 00;06;13;35
Nick Clason
Question number two is what's the rest of your church doing? For example, I went to a church and and my pastor told me that this is different. I had the the freedom to make this decision. I did not have to meet on Wednesday night and I made that decision. However, once programing started in the fall, I realized that I had made a pretty big mistake because the entire church, adults, kids, preschool, everyone came back to church on Wednesday night and the only group not there, the only group not meeting ended up being middle schoolers.

00;06;13;35 - 00;06;34;06
Nick Clason
And so I had parents of middle schoolers really, really upset because they felt like their kid was not being cared for and that their kid didn't matter. In the life cycle of the church. So what is the rest of your church doing? You need to weigh that out. And if the whole church coming together for midweek, then you probably should have something there for the youth as well.

00;06;34;06 - 00;06;55;37
Nick Clason
And the third question is where do you have natural momentum? Like I said, the church, I made a decision between Wednesday night and Tuesday night and all that. I ended up landing on Wednesday night, but then years later I switched over to Sunday night and I split apart middle school and I split apart high school. And when I did that, I pulled away a little bit of momentum as well.

00;06;55;38 - 00;07;20;44
Nick Clason
Middle school was fine because it stayed on the night that it was on Wednesday night. But high school struggled because we tried to move on the Sunday night to become more adaptable to their schedules. However, at that church I was in, my students had become used to a certain rhythm and so moving, making that decision that made them have to adjust their schedule and adjust the way that they attached and that they connected to our church.

00;07;20;48 - 00;07;46;22
Nick Clason
And here's thing none of that matters, right? In your youth ministry. If you don't have students who feel connected and don't feel like they have a piece of ownership in helping growing your youth ministry into a vibrant community, which we talked about in a previous video, how to actually teach well, course you need those two components before your teaching is really going to matter.

00;07;46;22 - 00;08;08;55
Nick Clason
So let's talk about the five best curriculum resource sites, which we talked about. Students want to feel a sense of ownership and they want to feel a sense of belonging. And those two things need to exist in your youth ministry before your teaching is really going to start to matter. Wherever teaching and youth ministry, they're not going anywhere.

00;08;08;55 - 00;08;33;15
Nick Clason
It's part of what we do in youth ministry. And the fact is, you work too hard to let your messages die on your hard drive after you've delivered it to a full or maybe even potentially full or half full or less full or not as full as you'd like. Room of teenagers. And so that's why I recommend linked right here down below in description, my completely free hybrid strategy.

00;08;33;15 - 00;08;53;22
Nick Clason
If you're a youth pastor, you need to start posting your entire full length messages to YouTube. And I hear you're thinking like, I don't have livestreaming capabilities. I don't have livestreaming equipment. Hey, listen, most youth ministries don't. I certainly don't. But what we do is we actually do a YouTube video, sit down direct to camera. Honestly, very similar to what you're probably watching here.

00;08;53;27 - 00;09;14;23
Nick Clason
You can watch it on a phone, a tablet, TV, a computer, whatever it is, but you post a full length video to YouTube, you get it down to 10 to 15 minutes in length, post it. You can do some basic after editing if you like. If not, just post it on up there. But then what that does is it also helps give you an anchor for your social media curriculum.

00;09;14;33 - 00;09;33;43
Nick Clason
And so the message doesn't have to just die on a Wednesday night, on a Sunday night, on a Thursday night, whatever night of the week is your youth night, but it can live on in perpetuity. And as you teach certain series, you know how it is when it's like a students like I have a question about a particular topic and you just wrapped up a series, but they weren't there.

00;09;33;48 - 00;09;51;04
Nick Clason
Now guess what? You can share them that link and be like, Hey, I actually just talked about I'd love for you to take a watch and then let's get back together and let's, let's chat about it. But that, that bedrock of that YouTube video that can that sort of establishes the framework for all your social media throughout the week.

00;09;51;04 - 00;10;12;20
Nick Clason
You can post fun content and you can also post teaching clips now because you have a fully filmed wide screen based video that you can then clip up. You can use a service like Opus AI or Opus.Pro link down below. Description Check that out if that’s something you want AI will clip up your messages for you and do all the editing.

00;10;12;20 - 00;10;35;33
Nick Clason
And it looks masterful. It looks it looks great. But let's talk about my five favorite curriculum resources. You may be creating your own curriculum as a youth pastor, but you don't have to. And if you don't have time for you don't want to do it, this these five resources will all save you tons of time. But they may not save you tons of money because they each have a different price tag attached to them.

00;10;35;38 - 00;10;58;37
Nick Clason
So my number one favorite resource curriculum provider right now is coleader.co. That is from Download Youth Ministry and they have three sort of different tiers of billing. You can get a free version where they'll just give you access to it and you'll get 40 free credits to begin and to explore. The good thing about coleader is it plans your whole program.

00;10;58;37 - 00;11;29;41
Nick Clason
It doesn't just give you a teaching script. Then they're premium version. It's about $249 a year billed annually, which breaks down to about $10 a week, again, including all of your programing and messages and songs and small group questions that gives you about 26 or so weeks of programing. So maybe this would be good if if you're doing like school year Wednesday night from like September through May, but you're not meeting in the summer and you have a lot of like gaps and Christmas parties and Thanksgivings off and stuff like that.

00;11;29;46 - 00;11;49;45
Nick Clason
And maybe you do actually teach some of your own content and you sort of supplement in there, but you need something to pull from when you're in a pinch. And then premium plus is about $399 a year. Billed annually breaks down to about $8 or so per week. And premium plus also gives you access to the new sidekick Beta, which is amazing.

00;11;49;56 - 00;12;10;39
Nick Clason
My number two on the list is the YM 360 sermon library is just a website which has kind of like an ala carte vibe. Where you go, you can grab different lessons three and four week series that have been taught by and taught by different youth. Pastors usually break it down to about $35 per series. So check that out.

00;12;10;39 - 00;12;38;33
Nick Clason
Link down below in the description. My third favorite one is the Grow curriculum. And it is. It looks great this week. It is modern. Have full disclosure. I've never used it. Mostly price tag reasons. And in most churches that I’ve been at, we've had some other provider already. But I love the what they guys what the guys over at stuff you can use do what they stand for and so you can check that out link down below in the description.

00;12;38;33 - 00;13;08;22
Nick Clason
My fourth is XP3, orange. It is probably the Cadillac of all youth ministry curriculums is also probably the most expensive on their website. Their annual license for it is anywhere from $449 a year all the way up to 2700 per year. And that's going to be based on your average youth group size. And then number five, my fifth resource is honestly just DYM library, similar to the YM360 model.

00;13;08;33 - 00;13;27;23
Nick Clason
You can just go get a DYM membership. They've started at $12 a month, gold at $26.99 a month, and then gold plus at $40 a month. Gold plus gives you sidekick phone connections so you can scan the code on screen. Do live poll voting. One of my favorite hybrid ways to do youth ministry these days. But you can just hop on there.

00;13;27;28 - 00;13;49;10
Nick Clason
They also gives you store credit when you have the membership. So whether you have a membership or not, you can ahead of time and you can find series there typically for anywhere from $5 to $12 per series for anywhere from like 3 to 4 week teaching series. So now here we are. What is my favorite youth group programing hack?

00;13;49;15 - 00;14;05;24
Nick Clason
Well, number one link the times that you meet by purpose, right? In a lot of cases, you may not be making a decision for youth ministry. You have like one singular time to me. Is it Wednesday? Is it Sunday? Right. Like you may already have to meet Sunday morning and then you're having to figure out when else to meet.

00;14;05;28 - 00;14;24;59
Nick Clason
And so instead of having to channel like supply curriculum for each and every one of those things, what we do in our current setting, I'll just tell you is Sunday morning is connect groups. And that's for the entire church adults, kids, students, everyone. And when I got here, we were like supplying curriculum for connect groups. And then on Wednesday nights we taught out of a different curriculum.

00;14;25;13 - 00;14;50;10
Nick Clason
And so on Wednesday nights now we teach a message and then on Sunday morning they discuss the message. We have more students on Sunday morning and a lot of our students on Sunday morning don't attend back over here on Wednesday night. So because we pre film our curriculum, we will play a little clip, a teaser, also a reminder for those students who did actually come on Wednesday night to help the Sunday morning people be able to have the discussion.

00;14;50;15 - 00;15;11;12
Nick Clason
All of our leaders are able to then watch the videos in full to be able to teach the lesson. If they didn't make it on Wednesday night and you're able to have that discussion. But also, if you did come Wednesday Night, it doesn't feel like a retread or a repeat. I can't remember who said this, but I remember someone someone saying at a a conference is something like think about all the times you meet.

00;15;11;12 - 00;15;37;35
Nick Clason
If you have especially in student ministry of like main church service, you have youth Sunday morning and then you have youth Wednesday Night. And if every-- if a student comes every single week, 52 different times per year, then that is 52 times that they are taught a sermon and challenged to make an adjustment in their life and change. That is another 52 times when they come to the Youth night that they are taught a sermon and challenged 52 different times to change.

00;15;37;40 - 00;16;06;52
Nick Clason
And then the third time they come to the youth other thing and they are challenged 52 different times per year and preach a sermon with some content and challenged to change their life. I don't do math on the fly very well, but that's like well over 150 times that they're supposed to do something different with their life. And just think that when you tie these to Wednesday night, Sunday morning, whatever your thing is, when you tie them together with purpose, if you have to have both meeting slots, that helps you, right?

00;16;06;52 - 00;16;33;58
Nick Clason
Streamline your teaching. But that's also helpful to the students. It's not a laziness thing, right? In my opinion. It's not like you're just trying to get out of doing more. It's stewarding your budget, but it's also helping like most like disciple your students. Because then when your teaching is in alignment, everything can be in alignment. Your social media for that week, whatever you taught on Wednesday, that's the topic on your your social media, that's a topic on all of your digital hybrid resources.

00;16;34;03 - 00;16;55;42
Nick Clason
Right? Number two, my favorite hack is interactive teaching. Let me just share with you right here on screen tonight. I am teaching live in the room at my church and we are in a series called How to use the Bible. And in that we have been giving them like, you know, reasons for why the Bible is reliable, reasons for why we can know that we can trust the Bible.

00;16;55;47 - 00;17;19;41
Nick Clason
But then we're also like helping share them, like actual hands on tactical, like guides on how to use the Bible. But tonight I'm talking about filtering God's Word or filtering culture through the lens of God's Word in everything that we do. So what I am doing tonight is I'm starting out with a Pawn Stars video clip talking about someone who brought in a fake Babe Ruth baseball card.

00;17;19;46 - 00;17;36;13
Nick Clason
And then from there, I'm telling them the hook straight away. I'm like, Are you a Biblical Christian or are you a Cultural Christian? And then we have tables in our space. And so I'm letting them talk about the difference between a Biblical Christian and a Cultural Christian. And how can you tell me give them a few minutes to chat that out.

00;17;36;18 - 00;17;59;10
Nick Clason
Then I'm going to have a poll on the screen with Sidekick. We're asking them this question that says, Do we agree or disagree? Do we? Do we view everything in our life through a filter? Right? And then I'm going to give them three filters I view my life through Dad filter, Colts Fan filter, coffee filter, Shout out to coffee.

00;17;59;10 - 00;18;23;51
Nick Clason
My brand new Valentine's gift, the Moca-master coffee maker first cup out of it this morning. Delicious. Ten out of ten would recommend. Then from there I am going to show them a picture of like a one of my kids watches for Christmas that they got. And talk about how scientists say that the same process that happens when you learn a new language is also what's happening when we're spending time on our screens.

00;18;23;56 - 00;18;55;17
Nick Clason
And then I'm going to give them the definition of a cultural Christian versus a biblical Christian. And then I'm going to build a poll asking them what their favorite drink is like caramel macchiato, coffee, chocolate, milk, and they're going to have a chance to vote on that. All the while, all of my notes are in a thing that we call digital notes, and we use the YouVersion Live events plan that is a completely free tool that you can use, but your church can set up live events and so kids can have their phones and they can be following along with the scriptures and taking notes.

00;18;55;17 - 00;19;19;03
Nick Clason
But then we're going to take them to Daniel. Chapter one. I got one more poll in there from Sidekick. I got another turn n talk. I got a map of where they go from Babylon to to from from Jerusalem to Babylon. Let's see, then I got some reasons why you oppose the food in Daniel Chapter one. I say what scholars think the age of this Daniel was, which is 11 to 17.

00;19;19;03 - 00;19;37;09
Nick Clason
And so my question is, how does a teenage boy end up in a foreign land? His parents are likely killed and he's opposing the king. How do you think he did that? How does he have enough wisdom to know what to do and what to oppose? And then I'm going to bring a coffee pot on stage and talk about how what we put in the pod there is what we filter.

00;19;37;09 - 00;19;57;18
Nick Clason
What spits out right, is a true form of of Christianity or it's not. But the Bible has to be the filter through which we do that. But the only way that matters if we truly have a desire to follow Jesus. Now, I don't like my whole reason for sharing All that is simply just for you to see all the different like I have sent them off to, to take questions.

00;19;57;18 - 00;20;26;54
Nick Clason
And then we have digital notes for them to follow along with. And we have polls on the screen and then we have a break in between. My first part of my teaching and my last part of my teaching, which is my third hack, and that's the one the leader said. I thought that was the most stupid idea because what I would do at summer camp last year is I teach for a little bit, share a little story in opening illustration, and then I would open it to a question and then I'd send them off in their small groups right there in that space in audio auditorium style seating at camp and say, Find your small

00;20;26;54 - 00;20;44;26
Nick Clason
group and your small group leader and answer these two questions and it would break for 10 minutes. And he said, I thought we were going to lose them. Like I thought like, man, that's dumb. Like, we are going to lose. These kids are going to go crazy. But what it actually did was it helped us have longer sessions and deeper teaching because we gave a break.

00;20;44;37 - 00;21;05;56
Nick Clason
I wasn't just sitting and teaching for 20 straight minutes, 30 straight minutes, 40 heaven forbid, straight minutes, because I gave them a break and I let them contribute to the conversation, which is what Gen Z is looking to do. Right? And so that one of the challenges to good creative teaching, because like I said, we use tables in our space most Wednesday Nights.

00;21;06;00 - 00;21;30;02
Nick Clason
It's one of the challenges to that right is navigating shared space, shared space in youth ministries, which is actually the next video it's going to be linked to right here on the screen. It’s a huge challenge and a problem facing youth pastors. How do you navigate it? What are best practices linked right here? Take a look at that, because we're here to try and make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible.

00;21;30;02 - 00;21;32;26
Nick Clason
So as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 087: ✌️The Two Biggest Enemies to Youth Groups https://www.hybridministry.xyz/087 2dd73968-325f-4369-a1c0-bd2b29ca386b Thu, 07 Mar 2024 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 087 ✌️The Two Biggest Enemies to Youth Groups full Nick Clason 🏅Travel Sports and Youth Group. They have been the bain of youth pastor’s existence for years. 🗓️What if they don’t have to be the enemy? 🥱What about Youth Group Kids who exhibit complacency? 12:32 no <h3>⚡ [FREE] Hybrid Strategy Guide⚡</h3> <p><a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p><strong>======================================</strong><br> <strong>DESCRIPTION</strong><br> 🏅Travel Sports and Youth Group. They have been the bain of youth pastor’s existence for years.<br> 🗓️What if they don’t have to be the enemy?<br> 🥱What about Youth Group Kids who exhibit complacency?<br> <strong>======================================</strong><br> 📓<strong>SHOWNOTES</strong><br> //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS<br> <a href="http://www.hybridministry.xyz/087" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.hybridministry.xyz/087</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE VIDEO<br> <a href="https://youtu.be/HV6V1GbWEvU" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtu.be/HV6V1GbWEvU</a></p> <p>//FREE EBOOK STRATEGY GUIDE<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>YOUR MESSAGES ARE BORING<br> //<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqOPjD5hN-g&amp;t=8s" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqOPjD5hN-g&amp;amp;t=8s</a></p> <p>STOP IGNORING SOCIAL MEDIA<br> //<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slB0Rmf_X0c&amp;t=390s" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slB0Rmf_X0c&amp;amp;t=390s</a></p> <hr> <p>👉 <strong>STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK</strong><br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a></p> <p><strong>======================================</strong></p> <p><strong>🆓 FREEBIES 🆓</strong><br> 📅 "<strong>The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy</strong>"<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>🖥️ "<strong>My 9 Favorite DYM Resources</strong>"<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>🎅 <strong>"The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude"</strong><br> GUIDE: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet</a><br> PRACTICAL YM TIPS: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips</a></p> <p>🍩 <strong>"FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"</strong><br> GUIDE: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut</a></p> <p><strong>😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"</strong><br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook</a></p> <p><strong>📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"</strong><br> <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis</a></p> <p><strong>======================================</strong><br> 🛠️<strong>TOOLS</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em></p> <p>//BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p>AUTO POD<br> <a href="https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv</a></p> <p>TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING<br> <a href="https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> 🕰️<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00 The Two Biggest Enemies to your Youth Ministry<br> 01:46 Extra Curriculuars are Killing my Attendance<br> 05:15 Complancey is also killing my youth group<br> 08:04 The Suprising Solution to Youth Sports and Complacency in your Youth Group</p> <p><strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> 00;00;00;00 - 00;00;32;17<br> Nick Clason<br> The two biggest enemies in youth ministry are extracurricular activities and the complacent attitude of your students. Tell me if you've heard this before. Tuesday night is karate so that kid can't come on Tuesdays. If that's when you had youth group and then Wednesday nights is when you have show choir. Thursday night, that same kid also has karate. And of course, you can't do Friday night because that's when the football games are like if you've been in that position.</p> <p>00;00;32;22 - 00;00;53;10<br> Nick Clason<br> Give me a subscribe. If you've had to navigate when you meet for youth night and turn the bell on for good measure because we're starting a brand new playlist exploring all the different issues of youth ministry, and one of them is scheduling. Like how do you schedule around students and their extracurricular activities? What in the world should we meet?</p> <p>00;00;53;15 - 00;01;17;43<br> Nick Clason<br> They're so busy and it almost makes it feel like extracurricular travel, sports, school sports are the enemy. And here’s the fact even when they do show up in the room, you might be so boring that they're not really willing to make your thing a priority. In fact, we have a video right here where we explore all of that and how you can make your youth ministry one of belonging and purpose and serving.</p> <p>00;01;17;50 - 00;01;43;18<br> Nick Clason<br> But I just had a student the other day say, Hey, listen, I just got so much going on. Sometimes student ministry, it just it doesn't make the cut. And unashamedly that was a text that they sent. And so if the two biggest enemies are travel sports and complacency, I want to challenge you to stick around to the very end of this video because I have a solution for each of those two things extracurriculars and complacency.</p> <p>00;01;43;33 - 00;02;11;00<br> Nick Clason<br> Welcome to the High Road Ministry show The Year was 2012 brand new youth Pastor right here. And there were literally three students in my student ministry starting out, one by the name of Brandon, who didn't last very long, one by the name of Megan and then one by the name of Sabrina and Megan and all her friends. And she brought a lot of her friends to youth group.</p> <p>00;02;11;00 - 00;02;31;58<br> Nick Clason<br> So this kind of mattered because she could bring two or three or four different friends with her to youth group. They had show choir and 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.</p> <p>00;02;32;03 - 00;02;58;34<br> Nick Clason<br> And then of course, Friday nights are like the football game. Like for most towns USA, that's when the high school team is playing its football game. So that really left us with Monday night as an option, which for I can't remember why, but for whatever reason it really wasn't an option. And so I had no idea like what am I supposed to do in to, to make matters worse, I had three kids, so if I choose Wednesday, I lose Megan and all her friends.</p> <p>00;02;58;34 - 00;03;21;41<br> Nick Clason<br> If I choose to, their Thursday, I lose Brandon over to karate. And then the group of three, that's 33% of my students. So like, when am I supposed to plan to do this? I had another student one year who missed summer camp due to a baseball tournament. And then I remember he came up to me after we got back.</p> <p>00;03;21;41 - 00;03;41;49<br> Nick Clason<br> His brother went and all his friends went and so he was at the recap of camp and we shared the recap video and all the students had all their energy and and his tournament had gotten rained out while we were gone. And he came up to me and he said, Next year I'm going to camp no matter what you see.</p> <p>00;03;41;49 - 00;04;08;43<br> Nick Clason<br> Here's what happens once you create some sort of an environment where a student actually wants to be a part and actually wants to belong, it can be a game changer. But the fact of the matter is, especially when you're just getting started out, what do you do when they don't even know you in their thing, their show choir, their karate, their baseball, their basketball, their football, their you fill in the blank, whatever it is.</p> <p>00;04;08;48 - 00;04;31;46<br> Nick Clason<br> What happens when that thing is actually providing more of a place of belonging and more of a place of community than your church? It makes it difficult and honestly, you want to compete with it. You want it to be you want church, you want youth group to be providing more of a place of belonging, more of a place of community.</p> <p>00;04;31;51 - 00;04;55;39<br> Nick Clason<br> But in the life of that student, let's be honest, it really isn't. It's not really providing a place of belonging more than their sport. And so one of the challenges is you are trying to compete with something that is like family to them and you want them to come to something that's already a probably not feeling a little bit like family to them.</p> <p>00;04;55;44 - 00;05;22;28<br> Nick Clason<br> And then B is adding another thing onto their already busy plate of calendaring and activities and things that they have to be committed to doing. And so what do we do about youth sports? Listen, I got an idea. Just hang on. What do you do about complacency? Like you've been there, right, where you have kids, Church kids, non church kids, whatever the case might be.</p> <p>00;05;22;28 - 00;05;41;52<br> Nick Clason<br> And they really like they don't want to be there like you. Like the archetype of student I'm thinking of is the junior in high school comes to youth group hood on air pods in back row. They're just not interested. Like you get up, you got a game, They don't care about the game. You get up, you got a cute video.</p> <p>00;05;41;52 - 00;06;01;46<br> Nick Clason<br> They don't care about the cute video. You see them saying like, how do you reach that kid? And in most cases, that kid is his heart's definitely not in to youth group. And there's a lot of factors for that, one of which might be his level or feeling of belonging. And it doesn't have to just be a him.</p> <p>00;06;01;46 - 00;06;25;02<br> Nick Clason<br> It could be her, right? But we're we're using a certain archetype, and so we'll just keep using that junior boy student with the AirPods in as an example. But nothing's changing. Like just because you have a game, just because you have a cool message, just because you have clever announcements, none of those things are reaching them because he's complacent.</p> <p>00;06;25;02 - 00;06;55;47<br> Nick Clason<br> He's he's not or she's not into whatever you have doing. They're honestly they're being forced to be at church. And here's the thing. That is a really tough pill for us to swallow. Sometimes as youth pastors, is students physical attendance in the room Does not equal an our authentic heart level buy in of what's going on, not only in youth group, but frankly, in faith as it pertains to their relationship with God.</p> <p>00;06;55;52 - 00;07;17;22<br> Nick Clason<br> Because you don't want to just go after their physical attendance, you know what I'm saying? Their physical attendance is not the goal, only their heart being bought into it. Their heart being bought into it is the goal. And so you might be asking, Well, how do I chaste their heart? That's a great question. And in a lot of cases you don't.</p> <p>00;07;17;27 - 00;07;45;09<br> Nick Clason<br> That's the Holy Spirit's role in their life. So you can pray for them and you can try to program creatively in such a way that that they find that and you can try to develop a type of community that's authentic and real and raw that most Gen Z, most Gen Alpha students are actually looking for and that community can take root and that student's life so that they belong to their group before they really truly start to exhibit elements of belief.</p> <p>00;07;45;14 - 00;08;13;59<br> Nick Clason<br> But you can't change their heart. You know that that's the Holy Spirit shop. But just like travel sports and now with an attitude of complacency or just a bad attitude in general, I do have two ideas that I think can change the game in both of those arenas, and we're going to hit that in the next section. So my idea for travel sports and my idea for a complacent attitude is actually one in the same.</p> <p>00;08;14;04 - 00;08;45;58<br> Nick Clason<br> And the idea, of course, is to try to go hybrid. Now, listen, you're like, dude, you're the hybrid ministry podcast. Of course you're thinking that. And yeah, I am. But I have detailed an outline for you in my 100% completely free e-book. It's basically my Nick Clason and the church I'm at now Strategy Guide for Social Media. And it's twofold and the two fold, they actually hit both of the things that we're trying to talk about.</p> <p>00;08;45;58 - 00;09;12;05<br> Nick Clason<br> So the first fold of it is pre film your talks in what pre filming your talks does not only gives you some practice and some opportunity to kind of get ahead of your calendar so that you're not giving up live whenever you're preaching on a Wednesday or Sunday night and looking at your notes for the first time, you've had an opportunity to do it, to deliver it direct to camera, very much like I'm doing right here in this setting, but too, especially for the busy kids.</p> <p>00;09;12;10 - 00;09;34;24<br> Nick Clason<br> It allows them, if they're truly interested in church, to to to consume the message that you've given to them. I know in my show choir example and karate example from the beginning that Brandon I don't really know because he didn't last very long. His family left the church not too long later. But Megan, like her and her family, like they were committed.</p> <p>00;09;34;29 - 00;09;59;26<br> Nick Clason<br> And if I couldn't have offered youth group for them, I know that she would have at least went back and watched the messages because that was something that she was interested in. And so a hybrid approach can actually help the busy kids who can't make it on a Sunday, on a Wednesday, on a Thursday, on a Tuesday, on a whatever day of the week, you end up deciding they can still listen to the message and word of God directly from you, from your mouth, from their youth pastor.</p> <p>00;09;59;31 - 00;10;35;38<br> Nick Clason<br> And you can pre film those messages and post those to YouTube. Now you might be thinking like, Yeah, but, but that doesn't really do much for me, especially by way of the kid who's complacent and doesn't really want anything to do with it. And you know, where I would say with that is the other approach to that is when you pre film your messages, it not only gives you some short form message based clipped content that you can post and use and sprinkle in an all throughout your social media, but it also can let you kind of do another set of social media, which is add more of an element of fun.</p> <p>00;10;35;43 - 00;10;59;21<br> Nick Clason<br> And when you add more of an element of fun, you can go after that student's heart and again, still, that's the Holy Spirit's job. But what if the reason that they're not interested is just because you youth ministry is boring? And so one of the things that we'll do in our student ministry is we’ll film some fun, quirky, silly, entertainment based content as a staff, as a student ministry team.</p> <p>00;10;59;25 - 00;11;24;40<br> Nick Clason<br> But then other times we will challenge ourselves to do some sort of social media challenge where we'll will invite students to be on camera with us. And so that will give them an opportunity to engage and interact. And then when we've invited them onto camera with us, they'll have an opportunity. Now to see themselves later on social media throughout the week.</p> <p>00;11;24;45 - 00;11;47;00<br> Nick Clason<br> And so you can take your long form message content and that can solve the the problem for travel sports. And then you can clip those up into shorts and push people who discover them to watch a YouTube video. And then you can also film some silly content to be discovered by your algorithm and to to engage with the complacent student, the junior with the hood on in the back of the room.</p> <p>00;11;47;05 - 00;12;14;20<br> Nick Clason<br> And you can even films from that content with him and post it. And if you take my strategy fully laid out right here on screen, link down below in the show notes, I will detail for you all of how to do that. And I hope that if you go hybrid, it helps of your extracurricular activities and it also helps of your student ministry, complacency, activities and actually, I have detailed for you the entire strategy in the video that's linked right here on the screen.</p> <p>00;12;14;25 - 00;12;32;31<br> Nick Clason<br> So go ahead, take a look at that. Stop posting announcements to social media. Be better, level it up. You can do it because we're trying to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So, as always, don't forget stay hybrid. </p> Church, Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Busyness, Student schedules, Teenagers, Teenage Busyness, Teenage Attitude, Complacency, Youth Ministry Problems, Sermon, Schedule, Reach Gen Z, Gen Z Church, Gen Alpha Attendance, Attendance Trends, Christianity, High School Attendance, My Youth Group Kids are busy, My Youth Group Kids are complacent, Travel Sports, ⚡ [FREE] Hybrid Strategy Guide⚡

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
🏅Travel Sports and Youth Group. They have been the bain of youth pastor’s existence for years.
🗓️What if they don’t have to be the enemy?
🥱What about Youth Group Kids who exhibit complacency?
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/087

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/HV6V1GbWEvU

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

YOUR MESSAGES ARE BORING
//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqOPjD5hN-g&t=8s

STOP IGNORING SOCIAL MEDIA
//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slB0Rmf_X0c&t=390s

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

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

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

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

🎅 "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
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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Two Biggest Enemies to your Youth Ministry
01:46 Extra Curriculuars are Killing my Attendance
05:15 Complancey is also killing my youth group
08:04 The Suprising Solution to Youth Sports and Complacency in your Youth Group

TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;32;17
Nick Clason
The two biggest enemies in youth ministry are extracurricular activities and the complacent attitude of your students. Tell me if you've heard this before. Tuesday night is karate so that kid can't come on Tuesdays. If that's when you had youth group and then Wednesday nights is when you have show choir. Thursday night, that same kid also has karate. And of course, you can't do Friday night because that's when the football games are like if you've been in that position.

00;00;32;22 - 00;00;53;10
Nick Clason
Give me a subscribe. If you've had to navigate when you meet for youth night and turn the bell on for good measure because we're starting a brand new playlist exploring all the different issues of youth ministry, and one of them is scheduling. Like how do you schedule around students and their extracurricular activities? What in the world should we meet?

00;00;53;15 - 00;01;17;43
Nick Clason
They're so busy and it almost makes it feel like extracurricular travel, sports, school sports are the enemy. And here’s the fact even when they do show up in the room, you might be so boring that they're not really willing to make your thing a priority. In fact, we have a video right here where we explore all of that and how you can make your youth ministry one of belonging and purpose and serving.

00;01;17;50 - 00;01;43;18
Nick Clason
But I just had a student the other day say, Hey, listen, I just got so much going on. Sometimes student ministry, it just it doesn't make the cut. And unashamedly that was a text that they sent. And so if the two biggest enemies are travel sports and complacency, I want to challenge you to stick around to the very end of this video because I have a solution for each of those two things extracurriculars and complacency.

00;01;43;33 - 00;02;11;00
Nick Clason
Welcome to the High Road Ministry show The Year was 2012 brand new youth Pastor right here. And there were literally three students in my student ministry starting out, one by the name of Brandon, who didn't last very long, one by the name of Megan and then one by the name of Sabrina and Megan and all her friends. And she brought a lot of her friends to youth group.

00;02;11;00 - 00;02;31;58
Nick Clason
So this kind of mattered because she could bring two or three or four different friends with her to youth group. They had show choir and 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.

00;02;32;03 - 00;02;58;34
Nick Clason
And then of course, Friday nights are like the football game. Like for most towns USA, that's when the high school team is playing its football game. So that really left us with Monday night as an option, which for I can't remember why, but for whatever reason it really wasn't an option. And so I had no idea like what am I supposed to do in to, to make matters worse, I had three kids, so if I choose Wednesday, I lose Megan and all her friends.

00;02;58;34 - 00;03;21;41
Nick Clason
If I choose to, their Thursday, I lose Brandon over to karate. And then the group of three, that's 33% of my students. So like, when am I supposed to plan to do this? I had another student one year who missed summer camp due to a baseball tournament. And then I remember he came up to me after we got back.

00;03;21;41 - 00;03;41;49
Nick Clason
His brother went and all his friends went and so he was at the recap of camp and we shared the recap video and all the students had all their energy and and his tournament had gotten rained out while we were gone. And he came up to me and he said, Next year I'm going to camp no matter what you see.

00;03;41;49 - 00;04;08;43
Nick Clason
Here's what happens once you create some sort of an environment where a student actually wants to be a part and actually wants to belong, it can be a game changer. But the fact of the matter is, especially when you're just getting started out, what do you do when they don't even know you in their thing, their show choir, their karate, their baseball, their basketball, their football, their you fill in the blank, whatever it is.

00;04;08;48 - 00;04;31;46
Nick Clason
What happens when that thing is actually providing more of a place of belonging and more of a place of community than your church? It makes it difficult and honestly, you want to compete with it. You want it to be you want church, you want youth group to be providing more of a place of belonging, more of a place of community.

00;04;31;51 - 00;04;55;39
Nick Clason
But in the life of that student, let's be honest, it really isn't. It's not really providing a place of belonging more than their sport. And so one of the challenges is you are trying to compete with something that is like family to them and you want them to come to something that's already a probably not feeling a little bit like family to them.

00;04;55;44 - 00;05;22;28
Nick Clason
And then B is adding another thing onto their already busy plate of calendaring and activities and things that they have to be committed to doing. And so what do we do about youth sports? Listen, I got an idea. Just hang on. What do you do about complacency? Like you've been there, right, where you have kids, Church kids, non church kids, whatever the case might be.

00;05;22;28 - 00;05;41;52
Nick Clason
And they really like they don't want to be there like you. Like the archetype of student I'm thinking of is the junior in high school comes to youth group hood on air pods in back row. They're just not interested. Like you get up, you got a game, They don't care about the game. You get up, you got a cute video.

00;05;41;52 - 00;06;01;46
Nick Clason
They don't care about the cute video. You see them saying like, how do you reach that kid? And in most cases, that kid is his heart's definitely not in to youth group. And there's a lot of factors for that, one of which might be his level or feeling of belonging. And it doesn't have to just be a him.

00;06;01;46 - 00;06;25;02
Nick Clason
It could be her, right? But we're we're using a certain archetype, and so we'll just keep using that junior boy student with the AirPods in as an example. But nothing's changing. Like just because you have a game, just because you have a cool message, just because you have clever announcements, none of those things are reaching them because he's complacent.

00;06;25;02 - 00;06;55;47
Nick Clason
He's he's not or she's not into whatever you have doing. They're honestly they're being forced to be at church. And here's the thing. That is a really tough pill for us to swallow. Sometimes as youth pastors, is students physical attendance in the room Does not equal an our authentic heart level buy in of what's going on, not only in youth group, but frankly, in faith as it pertains to their relationship with God.

00;06;55;52 - 00;07;17;22
Nick Clason
Because you don't want to just go after their physical attendance, you know what I'm saying? Their physical attendance is not the goal, only their heart being bought into it. Their heart being bought into it is the goal. And so you might be asking, Well, how do I chaste their heart? That's a great question. And in a lot of cases you don't.

00;07;17;27 - 00;07;45;09
Nick Clason
That's the Holy Spirit's role in their life. So you can pray for them and you can try to program creatively in such a way that that they find that and you can try to develop a type of community that's authentic and real and raw that most Gen Z, most Gen Alpha students are actually looking for and that community can take root and that student's life so that they belong to their group before they really truly start to exhibit elements of belief.

00;07;45;14 - 00;08;13;59
Nick Clason
But you can't change their heart. You know that that's the Holy Spirit shop. But just like travel sports and now with an attitude of complacency or just a bad attitude in general, I do have two ideas that I think can change the game in both of those arenas, and we're going to hit that in the next section. So my idea for travel sports and my idea for a complacent attitude is actually one in the same.

00;08;14;04 - 00;08;45;58
Nick Clason
And the idea, of course, is to try to go hybrid. Now, listen, you're like, dude, you're the hybrid ministry podcast. Of course you're thinking that. And yeah, I am. But I have detailed an outline for you in my 100% completely free e-book. It's basically my Nick Clason and the church I'm at now Strategy Guide for Social Media. And it's twofold and the two fold, they actually hit both of the things that we're trying to talk about.

00;08;45;58 - 00;09;12;05
Nick Clason
So the first fold of it is pre film your talks in what pre filming your talks does not only gives you some practice and some opportunity to kind of get ahead of your calendar so that you're not giving up live whenever you're preaching on a Wednesday or Sunday night and looking at your notes for the first time, you've had an opportunity to do it, to deliver it direct to camera, very much like I'm doing right here in this setting, but too, especially for the busy kids.

00;09;12;10 - 00;09;34;24
Nick Clason
It allows them, if they're truly interested in church, to to to consume the message that you've given to them. I know in my show choir example and karate example from the beginning that Brandon I don't really know because he didn't last very long. His family left the church not too long later. But Megan, like her and her family, like they were committed.

00;09;34;29 - 00;09;59;26
Nick Clason
And if I couldn't have offered youth group for them, I know that she would have at least went back and watched the messages because that was something that she was interested in. And so a hybrid approach can actually help the busy kids who can't make it on a Sunday, on a Wednesday, on a Thursday, on a Tuesday, on a whatever day of the week, you end up deciding they can still listen to the message and word of God directly from you, from your mouth, from their youth pastor.

00;09;59;31 - 00;10;35;38
Nick Clason
And you can pre film those messages and post those to YouTube. Now you might be thinking like, Yeah, but, but that doesn't really do much for me, especially by way of the kid who's complacent and doesn't really want anything to do with it. And you know, where I would say with that is the other approach to that is when you pre film your messages, it not only gives you some short form message based clipped content that you can post and use and sprinkle in an all throughout your social media, but it also can let you kind of do another set of social media, which is add more of an element of fun.

00;10;35;43 - 00;10;59;21
Nick Clason
And when you add more of an element of fun, you can go after that student's heart and again, still, that's the Holy Spirit's job. But what if the reason that they're not interested is just because you youth ministry is boring? And so one of the things that we'll do in our student ministry is we’ll film some fun, quirky, silly, entertainment based content as a staff, as a student ministry team.

00;10;59;25 - 00;11;24;40
Nick Clason
But then other times we will challenge ourselves to do some sort of social media challenge where we'll will invite students to be on camera with us. And so that will give them an opportunity to engage and interact. And then when we've invited them onto camera with us, they'll have an opportunity. Now to see themselves later on social media throughout the week.

00;11;24;45 - 00;11;47;00
Nick Clason
And so you can take your long form message content and that can solve the the problem for travel sports. And then you can clip those up into shorts and push people who discover them to watch a YouTube video. And then you can also film some silly content to be discovered by your algorithm and to to engage with the complacent student, the junior with the hood on in the back of the room.

00;11;47;05 - 00;12;14;20
Nick Clason
And you can even films from that content with him and post it. And if you take my strategy fully laid out right here on screen, link down below in the show notes, I will detail for you all of how to do that. And I hope that if you go hybrid, it helps of your extracurricular activities and it also helps of your student ministry, complacency, activities and actually, I have detailed for you the entire strategy in the video that's linked right here on the screen.

00;12;14;25 - 00;12;32;31
Nick Clason
So go ahead, take a look at that. Stop posting announcements to social media. Be better, level it up. You can do it because we're trying to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So, as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> ⚡ [FREE] Hybrid Strategy Guide⚡

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
🏅Travel Sports and Youth Group. They have been the bain of youth pastor’s existence for years.
🗓️What if they don’t have to be the enemy?
🥱What about Youth Group Kids who exhibit complacency?
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/087

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/HV6V1GbWEvU

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

YOUR MESSAGES ARE BORING
//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqOPjD5hN-g&t=8s

STOP IGNORING SOCIAL MEDIA
//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slB0Rmf_X0c&t=390s

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

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

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

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

🎅 "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
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AUTO POD
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TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Two Biggest Enemies to your Youth Ministry
01:46 Extra Curriculuars are Killing my Attendance
05:15 Complancey is also killing my youth group
08:04 The Suprising Solution to Youth Sports and Complacency in your Youth Group

TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;32;17
Nick Clason
The two biggest enemies in youth ministry are extracurricular activities and the complacent attitude of your students. Tell me if you've heard this before. Tuesday night is karate so that kid can't come on Tuesdays. If that's when you had youth group and then Wednesday nights is when you have show choir. Thursday night, that same kid also has karate. And of course, you can't do Friday night because that's when the football games are like if you've been in that position.

00;00;32;22 - 00;00;53;10
Nick Clason
Give me a subscribe. If you've had to navigate when you meet for youth night and turn the bell on for good measure because we're starting a brand new playlist exploring all the different issues of youth ministry, and one of them is scheduling. Like how do you schedule around students and their extracurricular activities? What in the world should we meet?

00;00;53;15 - 00;01;17;43
Nick Clason
They're so busy and it almost makes it feel like extracurricular travel, sports, school sports are the enemy. And here’s the fact even when they do show up in the room, you might be so boring that they're not really willing to make your thing a priority. In fact, we have a video right here where we explore all of that and how you can make your youth ministry one of belonging and purpose and serving.

00;01;17;50 - 00;01;43;18
Nick Clason
But I just had a student the other day say, Hey, listen, I just got so much going on. Sometimes student ministry, it just it doesn't make the cut. And unashamedly that was a text that they sent. And so if the two biggest enemies are travel sports and complacency, I want to challenge you to stick around to the very end of this video because I have a solution for each of those two things extracurriculars and complacency.

00;01;43;33 - 00;02;11;00
Nick Clason
Welcome to the High Road Ministry show The Year was 2012 brand new youth Pastor right here. And there were literally three students in my student ministry starting out, one by the name of Brandon, who didn't last very long, one by the name of Megan and then one by the name of Sabrina and Megan and all her friends. And she brought a lot of her friends to youth group.

00;02;11;00 - 00;02;31;58
Nick Clason
So this kind of mattered because she could bring two or three or four different friends with her to youth group. They had show choir and 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.

00;02;32;03 - 00;02;58;34
Nick Clason
And then of course, Friday nights are like the football game. Like for most towns USA, that's when the high school team is playing its football game. So that really left us with Monday night as an option, which for I can't remember why, but for whatever reason it really wasn't an option. And so I had no idea like what am I supposed to do in to, to make matters worse, I had three kids, so if I choose Wednesday, I lose Megan and all her friends.

00;02;58;34 - 00;03;21;41
Nick Clason
If I choose to, their Thursday, I lose Brandon over to karate. And then the group of three, that's 33% of my students. So like, when am I supposed to plan to do this? I had another student one year who missed summer camp due to a baseball tournament. And then I remember he came up to me after we got back.

00;03;21;41 - 00;03;41;49
Nick Clason
His brother went and all his friends went and so he was at the recap of camp and we shared the recap video and all the students had all their energy and and his tournament had gotten rained out while we were gone. And he came up to me and he said, Next year I'm going to camp no matter what you see.

00;03;41;49 - 00;04;08;43
Nick Clason
Here's what happens once you create some sort of an environment where a student actually wants to be a part and actually wants to belong, it can be a game changer. But the fact of the matter is, especially when you're just getting started out, what do you do when they don't even know you in their thing, their show choir, their karate, their baseball, their basketball, their football, their you fill in the blank, whatever it is.

00;04;08;48 - 00;04;31;46
Nick Clason
What happens when that thing is actually providing more of a place of belonging and more of a place of community than your church? It makes it difficult and honestly, you want to compete with it. You want it to be you want church, you want youth group to be providing more of a place of belonging, more of a place of community.

00;04;31;51 - 00;04;55;39
Nick Clason
But in the life of that student, let's be honest, it really isn't. It's not really providing a place of belonging more than their sport. And so one of the challenges is you are trying to compete with something that is like family to them and you want them to come to something that's already a probably not feeling a little bit like family to them.

00;04;55;44 - 00;05;22;28
Nick Clason
And then B is adding another thing onto their already busy plate of calendaring and activities and things that they have to be committed to doing. And so what do we do about youth sports? Listen, I got an idea. Just hang on. What do you do about complacency? Like you've been there, right, where you have kids, Church kids, non church kids, whatever the case might be.

00;05;22;28 - 00;05;41;52
Nick Clason
And they really like they don't want to be there like you. Like the archetype of student I'm thinking of is the junior in high school comes to youth group hood on air pods in back row. They're just not interested. Like you get up, you got a game, They don't care about the game. You get up, you got a cute video.

00;05;41;52 - 00;06;01;46
Nick Clason
They don't care about the cute video. You see them saying like, how do you reach that kid? And in most cases, that kid is his heart's definitely not in to youth group. And there's a lot of factors for that, one of which might be his level or feeling of belonging. And it doesn't have to just be a him.

00;06;01;46 - 00;06;25;02
Nick Clason
It could be her, right? But we're we're using a certain archetype, and so we'll just keep using that junior boy student with the AirPods in as an example. But nothing's changing. Like just because you have a game, just because you have a cool message, just because you have clever announcements, none of those things are reaching them because he's complacent.

00;06;25;02 - 00;06;55;47
Nick Clason
He's he's not or she's not into whatever you have doing. They're honestly they're being forced to be at church. And here's the thing. That is a really tough pill for us to swallow. Sometimes as youth pastors, is students physical attendance in the room Does not equal an our authentic heart level buy in of what's going on, not only in youth group, but frankly, in faith as it pertains to their relationship with God.

00;06;55;52 - 00;07;17;22
Nick Clason
Because you don't want to just go after their physical attendance, you know what I'm saying? Their physical attendance is not the goal, only their heart being bought into it. Their heart being bought into it is the goal. And so you might be asking, Well, how do I chaste their heart? That's a great question. And in a lot of cases you don't.

00;07;17;27 - 00;07;45;09
Nick Clason
That's the Holy Spirit's role in their life. So you can pray for them and you can try to program creatively in such a way that that they find that and you can try to develop a type of community that's authentic and real and raw that most Gen Z, most Gen Alpha students are actually looking for and that community can take root and that student's life so that they belong to their group before they really truly start to exhibit elements of belief.

00;07;45;14 - 00;08;13;59
Nick Clason
But you can't change their heart. You know that that's the Holy Spirit shop. But just like travel sports and now with an attitude of complacency or just a bad attitude in general, I do have two ideas that I think can change the game in both of those arenas, and we're going to hit that in the next section. So my idea for travel sports and my idea for a complacent attitude is actually one in the same.

00;08;14;04 - 00;08;45;58
Nick Clason
And the idea, of course, is to try to go hybrid. Now, listen, you're like, dude, you're the hybrid ministry podcast. Of course you're thinking that. And yeah, I am. But I have detailed an outline for you in my 100% completely free e-book. It's basically my Nick Clason and the church I'm at now Strategy Guide for Social Media. And it's twofold and the two fold, they actually hit both of the things that we're trying to talk about.

00;08;45;58 - 00;09;12;05
Nick Clason
So the first fold of it is pre film your talks in what pre filming your talks does not only gives you some practice and some opportunity to kind of get ahead of your calendar so that you're not giving up live whenever you're preaching on a Wednesday or Sunday night and looking at your notes for the first time, you've had an opportunity to do it, to deliver it direct to camera, very much like I'm doing right here in this setting, but too, especially for the busy kids.

00;09;12;10 - 00;09;34;24
Nick Clason
It allows them, if they're truly interested in church, to to to consume the message that you've given to them. I know in my show choir example and karate example from the beginning that Brandon I don't really know because he didn't last very long. His family left the church not too long later. But Megan, like her and her family, like they were committed.

00;09;34;29 - 00;09;59;26
Nick Clason
And if I couldn't have offered youth group for them, I know that she would have at least went back and watched the messages because that was something that she was interested in. And so a hybrid approach can actually help the busy kids who can't make it on a Sunday, on a Wednesday, on a Thursday, on a Tuesday, on a whatever day of the week, you end up deciding they can still listen to the message and word of God directly from you, from your mouth, from their youth pastor.

00;09;59;31 - 00;10;35;38
Nick Clason
And you can pre film those messages and post those to YouTube. Now you might be thinking like, Yeah, but, but that doesn't really do much for me, especially by way of the kid who's complacent and doesn't really want anything to do with it. And you know, where I would say with that is the other approach to that is when you pre film your messages, it not only gives you some short form message based clipped content that you can post and use and sprinkle in an all throughout your social media, but it also can let you kind of do another set of social media, which is add more of an element of fun.

00;10;35;43 - 00;10;59;21
Nick Clason
And when you add more of an element of fun, you can go after that student's heart and again, still, that's the Holy Spirit's job. But what if the reason that they're not interested is just because you youth ministry is boring? And so one of the things that we'll do in our student ministry is we’ll film some fun, quirky, silly, entertainment based content as a staff, as a student ministry team.

00;10;59;25 - 00;11;24;40
Nick Clason
But then other times we will challenge ourselves to do some sort of social media challenge where we'll will invite students to be on camera with us. And so that will give them an opportunity to engage and interact. And then when we've invited them onto camera with us, they'll have an opportunity. Now to see themselves later on social media throughout the week.

00;11;24;45 - 00;11;47;00
Nick Clason
And so you can take your long form message content and that can solve the the problem for travel sports. And then you can clip those up into shorts and push people who discover them to watch a YouTube video. And then you can also film some silly content to be discovered by your algorithm and to to engage with the complacent student, the junior with the hood on in the back of the room.

00;11;47;05 - 00;12;14;20
Nick Clason
And you can even films from that content with him and post it. And if you take my strategy fully laid out right here on screen, link down below in the show notes, I will detail for you all of how to do that. And I hope that if you go hybrid, it helps of your extracurricular activities and it also helps of your student ministry, complacency, activities and actually, I have detailed for you the entire strategy in the video that's linked right here on the screen.

00;12;14;25 - 00;12;32;31
Nick Clason
So go ahead, take a look at that. Stop posting announcements to social media. Be better, level it up. You can do it because we're trying to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So, as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 086: 😨 Reaction: Carey Nieuwhof’s 2024 Church Trends https://www.hybridministry.xyz/086 27b49fd0-4fcb-4804-b821-dfa57af76b23 Thu, 29 Feb 2024 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 086 😨 Reaction: Carey Nieuwhof’s 2024 Church Trends full Nick Clason 🔥 Carey Niuwhof has recently been dropping some hot takes on the future of the church. 👓 In this episode, Nick reacts from a Hybrid Ministry and Youth Ministry perspective! 🎱 Number 8 is crazy! 14:32 no ⚡ [FREE] Hybrid Strategy Guide⚡ https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg Carey's 2024 Church Trends Article https://careynieuwhof.com/future-church-trends/ ====================================== DESCRIPTION 🔥 Carey Niuwhof has recently been dropping some hot takes on the future of the church. 👓 In this episode, Nick reacts from a Hybrid Ministry and Youth Ministry perspective! 🎱 Number 8 is crazy! Carey's 2024 Church Trends Article https://careynieuwhof.com/future-church-trends/ ====================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/086 //YOUTUBE VIDEO https://youtu.be/KptS3NoiC6c //2024 CHURCH TRENDS ARTICLE https://careynieuwhof.com/future-church-trends/ //FREE EBOOK STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book STOP IGNORING SOCIAL MEDIA //https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slB0Rmf_X0c&amp;t=390s YOUTUBE GEAR FOR UNDER $100 //https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit HYBRID STRATEGY EXPLAINED //https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM STOP DOING THIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA //https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slB0Rmf_X0c&amp;t=390s BETTER CHURCH ANNOUNCEMENTS //https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzhYluEKZ_I&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaKYLaGvuPA5pBYfJflXm0-A&amp;index=43 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz ====================================== 🆓 FREEBIES 🆓 📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 🖥️ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym 🎅 "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 &amp; 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 Carey Nieuwhof's 2024 Church Trends Article 00:41 The Boomer Decline is a BIG Deal 04:48 Gen Z is Spiritually Open 06:27 Lean Further into Hybrid, Like Taylor Swift? 08:03 Don't Give up with Online Church Ministry! 09:14 The Weekend Sermon is less important 10:49 Content Curation Matters! 12:00 Volunteerism isn't going to get better 13:30 Pastoral Burnout is on the decline! -------------- ✍️TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:25 Nick Clason The future of the church, the Capital C church. Not just my church, not just your church. It's going to look very different in 2024. And frankly, beyond because of Generation Z and now Generation Alpha, both waving up Z into the adult ministry conversation Alpha into the youth ministry conversation. It makes me wonder if the future is already here. 00:00:23:27 - 00:00:45:20 Nick Clason I think it might be Carey Nieuwhof has been spittin’ an absolute fire recently talking about church trends. And so what I wanted to do is I wanted to take his article Church Trends from 2024 things You Need to Know. Link down below on description and talk about it. And so let's jump in. Waste no time. Trend number one is that the Boomer church will decline and eventually disappear. 00:00:45:21 - 00:01:11:20 Nick Clason This is just basic human psychology. You know, you get it right. But he said this. He said, Since 2020, the boomers have become the least likely demographic to return to church. That's out of post-COVID, 22% of them saying and saying that they've stopped attending church, get this entirely. Meanwhile, only 16% of millennials have stopped attending. So that's the smallest of the demographics and I love if you would, give me a subscribe. 00:01:11:21 - 00:01:29:13 Nick Clason If you're a millennial, like if you're a Gen Xer and hey, hit the bill no matter what age demographic you are, because we are going to be dropping all kinds of new stuff. I got a new playlist already in the hopper. We just wrapped up the 2024 Youth Ministry on-demand Masterclass and now I got one coming at you next week excited for it! 00:01:29:13 - 00:01:56:26 Nick Clason And if you're on YouTube, you get it early, you get it on Wednesday instead of Thursday in the regular podcast feed. But Nieuwhof goes on to say that 54% of millennials actually attended primarily in-person. 65% of boomers say that they only attend in-person. And so that is a that's going to be key coming down the pike here in a minute as we look at this trend's article about the difference between the hybrid space in the in-person space. 00:01:56:27 - 00:02:17:25 Nick Clason Right. Unlike boomers, millennials, they they don't just track with church while they're in the building. Millennials and Xers, honestly, are quite comfortable with the idea of hybrid church. This is Nieuwhof’s blog. And guess what? He has no idea that this podcast exists. But the fact of the matter is he sees it just like I feel like I have been seeing. 00:02:17:25 - 00:02:37:10 Nick Clason And I'm not trying to be like I'm as smart as Carey Nieuwhof by no means at all. But the dude is is calling it right? He says. So boomers for the most part, they've not embraced hybrid church. If you watching on YouTube if not, go ahead to hybridministry.xyz/086 for the show notes. But this graph is going to be on screen. 00:02:37:10 - 00:03:04:15 Nick Clason Just click the YouTube link. If you do go to your podcast catcher and scrub forward to this part in the episode, but says since the COVID 19 pandemic, which of the following most accurately describes your church attendance either online or in-person? This is the percentage of Christians who are attending church pre COVID 19. And so you'll see that like the highest gap right there have stopped attending is actually boomers, which is what most of our churches were built for. 00:03:04:18 - 00:03:34:16 Nick Clason And a large, large majority of of millennials you'll see and Xers have been attending the same church that they attended pre COVID. And so there are three kind of main areas of impact with this point. The first one is attendance. Right? And one idea that I have in light of that is stop ignoring social media. Our attendance is going to take on a different kind of approach. 00:03:34:18 - 00:04:00:02 Nick Clason Millennials and Xers and Gen Z are going to attend church less and less frequently. It doesn't mean they're less committed to your church. It just means they're less committed to being there on a week to week basis. We live in a different world. And so if you as a youth pastor in particular are ignoring social media or only using social media as an avenue or an outlet to post announcements, you're missing out on an incredible opportunity. 00:04:00:07 - 00:04:30:00 Nick Clason I think about it in my own space. I have teenagers who have weekend soccer tournaments and baseball tournaments and things that keep them out on the weekend. It doesn't mean that they're not committed or that they're less committed to our church. It just simply means that they have other obligations. And I know I've worked at churches and on church staff that say they're not as committed, but if we go hybrid and if we find a way to meet them where they are, which is really what this is all about, they can still consume the things of God. 00:04:30:00 - 00:04:50:13 Nick Clason They can still follow him, they can still be connected and attached to our church. You look at this graph here on the screen, Weekly Church attendance by generation millennials are actually the highest out of the pandemic, post-COVID. So attendance is area number one that this is going to impact. It's also going to impact volunteering and thirdly, it's going to impact giving. 00:04:50:18 - 00:05:17:17 Nick Clason Carey Nieuwhof goes on to say that open pastors will actually be more well-positioned to reach an open generation. Speaking of and talking about Generation Z, Gen Z, statistically speaking, is actually the most spiritually open generation that we've ever actually seen in our history. Right. And if you check out the YouTube, the YouTube feed here, you'll see that the spiritual journey of Gen Z, you'll see that they're open. 00:05:17:23 - 00:05:42:09 Nick Clason They're much more open to things of God and faith. They believe that there's supernatural or spiritual side to life, 61% compared to 51% of all adults. They've gone through a prolonged they've gone through a prolonged period of time where they've significantly doubted their faith. 65% to 49%, 56% say my experiences have led me to deconstruct or take apart my faith of my youth 56% versus 47%. 00:05:42:09 - 00:06:04:18 Nick Clason I'm disillusioned by my experience in the Christian church 48 to 43%. But I love this line that he has in the blog he says, “A spiritually open generation is a reachable generation. So what are you doing to reach this generation? This this generation is laying the groundwork for Gen Alpha, which is right behind them, youth pastors, Gen Alpha, they're in your youth ministry right now. 00:06:04:18 - 00:06:27:03 Nick Clason The oldest ones of them are are some of the youngest kids in your youth ministry. So like I said, youth pastors go hybrid. Check out my e-book link down description. I'll give you a step by step guide to not only posting on social media, but then also posting your YouTube messages and using that as your bedrock so that everything builds on top of that, which is actually why this next trend. 00:06:27:04 - 00:06:48:09 Nick Clason Right. I obviously believe this next trend is completely spot on because it says this the line between digital and in-person will blur even more. And he says, take a note from Taylor Swift yet check this out. Is it Taylor Swift is actually a prime example of this. In particular, she's modeling how to have a strong digital presence and drive an intense in-person demand. 00:06:48:12 - 00:07:16:13 Nick Clason Her midnight album released in October of 2022. You can see this graph on the screen. It's absolutely crazy. You will not believe what you're seeing It says. And not only broke streaming records on Spotify, but it simultaneously locked up every position on the Billboard Top ten, and they sold 500,000 physical vinyl albums in a single week, often times there's an argument against a hybrid strategy in favor of the in-person experience, like they can't go together. 00:07:16:13 - 00:07:46:21 Nick Clason And and that's the thing that is actually the hybrid. I'm like, no, that's that's not just digital. That's both that's online and that's in-person and that's putting them together. And pastors look at the graph. Her in-person ticket sales skyrocketed and went through the roof. So if you can capture the magic of a digital and strong online presence, you can actually bring that into fruition in your in-person experience. 00:07:46:27 - 00:08:08:28 Nick Clason And on the converse of that or the inverse of one of those two, the flip side of that, let's go with that. The flip side of that is that once people are attached, you're connected to your church. You can continue to show up in their life throughout the rest of the week, giving them discipleship resources, Bible study tools and things that will help them grow in their faith and nurture their walk with God. 00:08:09:00 - 00:08:35:17 Nick Clason Number four Nieuwhof says that churches that embrace online ministry will start seeing results. You may be out there and being like I've been trying to do. I'm not seeing the results. I'm getting frustrated, I'm getting tired. But like I said, we can help, right? I get it. The resources aren't there and and they're likely there for the rest of the church that they're not there, especially for youth ministries, which is why I down in the description below, I have YouTube gear for under $100. 00:08:35:23 - 00:08:58:03 Nick Clason And this video right here will detail an outline, all of it and how you can use it and make it happen. But Kerry said that according to Lifeway Research, before the pandemic, only 27% of churches offered any live streaming. That's essentially one out of four. However, since that live streaming of services and now post pandemic, 92% of churches now live stream their services. 00:08:58:03 - 00:09:18:21 Nick Clason And so as the world has reopened, the surprising things and number of those churches that were up at the 92%, they've actually throttled back their online services, hoping to to drive in-person attendance as if they're competing with one another. And so not only is that a bad strategy and you have said he says it's also incredibly shortsighted. Stick with it. 00:09:18:22 - 00:09:44:27 Nick Clason You're going to see the results. Number five, he says the purpose of the weekend sermon will shift from being an attraction to an anchor. Listen, stop doing this on social media, which is linked down in the description part of the 2024 Youth Ministry OnDemand Masterclass playlist. I just wrapped up last week in the last video. But but stop doing these things right. 00:09:44:29 - 00:10:06:19 Nick Clason Stop saying on social media. Join us for our new series on Sunday at nine and 11. Don't miss last Sunday's message available online on demand. I can't wait to share your brand new message with you. That's what Nieuwhof is saying that's not attraction A lot of times we as pastors and listen, I get it, Pastor, like you've spent time on this sermon. 00:10:06:20 - 00:10:25:10 Nick Clason You care about these people and you care and you want them to hear what you have to say. But that's a very on onto me or I'm sorry, that's a very cable TV strategy. That's a very like, hey, you can only hear this thing at nine and 11. And the fact is that we don't live in a cable TV society anymore. 00:10:25:10 - 00:10:54:09 Nick Clason You probably even watch cable TV anymore. The only appointment television that I even have anymore is like live sports. Otherwise everything else is streaming. And so I think it's much better start thinking about the real reasons why people come to church, because there are still reasons why people come to church and come to in-person church. Things like community, things like kids and student ministry, things like connection and an experience that doesn't always translate to online. 00:10:54:09 - 00:11:24:19 Nick Clason This all from Nieuwhof’s blog Number six. He says content curation will now start to matter as much as content creation. He said the push to online and the changing place of sermons in today's world can leave pastors feeling an unsustainable pressure to produce a nonstop flow of spiritual content. And so, as more and more passages are discovering every year, it's almost impossible to produce top tier messages week to week to compete with some of the best that is out and available on the Internet. 00:11:24:22 - 00:11:42:02 Nick Clason It's not any pressure, right? This was not a pressure from any previous generations. The things that pastors dealt with honestly can feel like an unsustainable pressure. And so one of the things he says is, he says, flip it from content creation to consider curating like how can you gather some of the best sources and then help point and show your people? 00:11:42:02 - 00:11:59:28 Nick Clason I mean, even I'm thinking about this weekend, we're doing a a workshop for some of our teenagers on how to study the Bible. And if they get on Google, they can find all kinds of different resources. But how do they know if they're reputable or not? Right? So we give them a list. Here are five resources that we know that we trust and that we say, Hey, you can use, right? 00:12:00:05 - 00:12:25:26 Nick Clason That's a great example of a way that you can curate the entire World Wide Web and then package it and bring it to your people. Number seven, not to depress anyone Nieuwhof says the volunteer crisis will move from acute to chronic. He had three reasons for it. Number one, first, the return to church meant different people returned to church and much slower than I think we all expected. 00:12:25:29 - 00:12:45:19 Nick Clason Number two, more significantly, as trend number one outlined at the beginning of the article, boomers are aging out and are the least likely group to return to church. This makes the volunteer backbone of most churches, a nonprofit organizations less robust than it used to be. And that's only going to get more challenging, especially as boomers continue to age and ultimately age out. 00:12:45:22 - 00:13:08:11 Nick Clason And third, and finally, the next generation, primarily millennials and Generation Z, they attend church less and left less often, like I said earlier, making it less frequent thing, meaning they have more options on the weekends so it gets harder for them to commit. So we need to be thinking about as pastors, not only like understanding and realizing there is a volunteer crisis and there is a volunteer problem. 00:13:08:13 - 00:13:31:14 Nick Clason How can you shift? We actually talked about it in a video linked down blown description, but we've actually talked about how can you shift your volunteer pitch from we need you to we want to come alongside and support you. We want you to to flourish here. We want to watch you experience incredible depth and purpose and live a life on mission. 00:13:31:14 - 00:13:54:26 Nick Clason And we believe as a church, we can help facilitate that for you. It's really not that big of a shift. Number eight Pastoral. Pastoral burnout will stabilize as pastors embrace their new church. Listen, if you're a pastor here on this podcast, this is good news because you've seen that over the last several years, pastors have had a high risk for burnout. 00:13:54:26 - 00:14:22:10 Nick Clason But there's hope. You're doing a great job. And as this graph highlights, it's starting to stabilize. It's starting to normalize. The newness of all the things from 2020 and beyond is starting to kind of chill out. And there's hope. You're you can do it right there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You know, one of the keys that I have personally found in stabilizing my burnout and making me feel more enticed about continuing on in my job is increasing my time management load, which is actually linked right here on the screen. 00:14:22:10 - 00:14:41:19 Nick Clason If you want to check that video, go ahead and do that. But we're so glad that you checked out this this podcast and this episode. Thank you, Carrie, for this amazing article. It is spot on because I believe that we need to make digital discipleship not only easy but possible and inaccessible. And so, as always, don't forget stay hybrid. Carey nieuwhof podcast, Church Trends, 2024 Church Trends, 2024 Church Attendance, 2024 How to Reach Generation Z, 2024 How to Reach Generation Alpha, Blog, Podcast, Hybrid Ministry, Reaching Teenagers, Nick Clason, Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Youth Pastor Podcast, Teenagers, Reaction Video, React, Nick Reacts to Carey Nieuwhof, ⚡ [FREE] Hybrid Strategy Guide⚡

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

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

Carey's 2024 Church Trends Article
https://careynieuwhof.com/future-church-trends/
======================================
DESCRIPTION
🔥 Carey Niuwhof has recently been dropping some hot takes on the future of the church.
👓 In this episode, Nick reacts from a Hybrid Ministry and Youth Ministry perspective!
🎱 Number 8 is crazy!

Carey's 2024 Church Trends Article
https://careynieuwhof.com/future-church-trends/
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/086

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/KptS3NoiC6c

//2024 CHURCH TRENDS ARTICLE
https://careynieuwhof.com/future-church-trends/

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

STOP IGNORING SOCIAL MEDIA
//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slB0Rmf_X0c&t=390s

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

HYBRID STRATEGY EXPLAINED
//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM

STOP DOING THIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slB0Rmf_X0c&t=390s

BETTER CHURCH ANNOUNCEMENTS

//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzhYluEKZ_I&list=PLngXlSr64YaKYLaGvuPA5pBYfJflXm0-A&index=43

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

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

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

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

🎅 "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 Carey Nieuwhof's 2024 Church Trends Article
00:41 The Boomer Decline is a BIG Deal
04:48 Gen Z is Spiritually Open
06:27 Lean Further into Hybrid, Like Taylor Swift?
08:03 Don't Give up with Online Church Ministry!
09:14 The Weekend Sermon is less important
10:49 Content Curation Matters!
12:00 Volunteerism isn't going to get better
13:30 Pastoral Burnout is on the decline!

--------------
✍️TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:25
Nick Clason
The future of the church, the Capital C church. Not just my church, not just your church. It's going to look very different in 2024. And frankly, beyond because of Generation Z and now Generation Alpha, both waving up Z into the adult ministry conversation Alpha into the youth ministry conversation. It makes me wonder if the future is already here.

00:00:23:27 - 00:00:45:20
Nick Clason
I think it might be Carey Nieuwhof has been spittin’ an absolute fire recently talking about church trends. And so what I wanted to do is I wanted to take his article Church Trends from 2024 things You Need to Know. Link down below on description and talk about it. And so let's jump in. Waste no time. Trend number one is that the Boomer church will decline and eventually disappear.

00:00:45:21 - 00:01:11:20
Nick Clason
This is just basic human psychology. You know, you get it right. But he said this. He said, Since 2020, the boomers have become the least likely demographic to return to church. That's out of post-COVID, 22% of them saying and saying that they've stopped attending church, get this entirely. Meanwhile, only 16% of millennials have stopped attending. So that's the smallest of the demographics and I love if you would, give me a subscribe.

00:01:11:21 - 00:01:29:13
Nick Clason
If you're a millennial, like if you're a Gen Xer and hey, hit the bill no matter what age demographic you are, because we are going to be dropping all kinds of new stuff. I got a new playlist already in the hopper. We just wrapped up the 2024 Youth Ministry on-demand Masterclass and now I got one coming at you next week excited for it!

00:01:29:13 - 00:01:56:26
Nick Clason
And if you're on YouTube, you get it early, you get it on Wednesday instead of Thursday in the regular podcast feed. But Nieuwhof goes on to say that 54% of millennials actually attended primarily in-person. 65% of boomers say that they only attend in-person. And so that is a that's going to be key coming down the pike here in a minute as we look at this trend's article about the difference between the hybrid space in the in-person space.

00:01:56:27 - 00:02:17:25
Nick Clason
Right. Unlike boomers, millennials, they they don't just track with church while they're in the building. Millennials and Xers, honestly, are quite comfortable with the idea of hybrid church. This is Nieuwhof’s blog. And guess what? He has no idea that this podcast exists. But the fact of the matter is he sees it just like I feel like I have been seeing.

00:02:17:25 - 00:02:37:10
Nick Clason
And I'm not trying to be like I'm as smart as Carey Nieuwhof by no means at all. But the dude is is calling it right? He says. So boomers for the most part, they've not embraced hybrid church. If you watching on YouTube if not, go ahead to hybridministry.xyz/086 for the show notes. But this graph is going to be on screen.

00:02:37:10 - 00:03:04:15
Nick Clason
Just click the YouTube link. If you do go to your podcast catcher and scrub forward to this part in the episode, but says since the COVID 19 pandemic, which of the following most accurately describes your church attendance either online or in-person? This is the percentage of Christians who are attending church pre COVID 19. And so you'll see that like the highest gap right there have stopped attending is actually boomers, which is what most of our churches were built for.

00:03:04:18 - 00:03:34:16
Nick Clason
And a large, large majority of of millennials you'll see and Xers have been attending the same church that they attended pre COVID. And so there are three kind of main areas of impact with this point. The first one is attendance. Right? And one idea that I have in light of that is stop ignoring social media. Our attendance is going to take on a different kind of approach.

00:03:34:18 - 00:04:00:02
Nick Clason
Millennials and Xers and Gen Z are going to attend church less and less frequently. It doesn't mean they're less committed to your church. It just means they're less committed to being there on a week to week basis. We live in a different world. And so if you as a youth pastor in particular are ignoring social media or only using social media as an avenue or an outlet to post announcements, you're missing out on an incredible opportunity.

00:04:00:07 - 00:04:30:00
Nick Clason
I think about it in my own space. I have teenagers who have weekend soccer tournaments and baseball tournaments and things that keep them out on the weekend. It doesn't mean that they're not committed or that they're less committed to our church. It just simply means that they have other obligations. And I know I've worked at churches and on church staff that say they're not as committed, but if we go hybrid and if we find a way to meet them where they are, which is really what this is all about, they can still consume the things of God.

00:04:30:00 - 00:04:50:13
Nick Clason
They can still follow him, they can still be connected and attached to our church. You look at this graph here on the screen, Weekly Church attendance by generation millennials are actually the highest out of the pandemic, post-COVID. So attendance is area number one that this is going to impact. It's also going to impact volunteering and thirdly, it's going to impact giving.

00:04:50:18 - 00:05:17:17
Nick Clason
Carey Nieuwhof goes on to say that open pastors will actually be more well-positioned to reach an open generation. Speaking of and talking about Generation Z, Gen Z, statistically speaking, is actually the most spiritually open generation that we've ever actually seen in our history. Right. And if you check out the YouTube, the YouTube feed here, you'll see that the spiritual journey of Gen Z, you'll see that they're open.

00:05:17:23 - 00:05:42:09
Nick Clason
They're much more open to things of God and faith. They believe that there's supernatural or spiritual side to life, 61% compared to 51% of all adults. They've gone through a prolonged they've gone through a prolonged period of time where they've significantly doubted their faith. 65% to 49%, 56% say my experiences have led me to deconstruct or take apart my faith of my youth 56% versus 47%.

00:05:42:09 - 00:06:04:18
Nick Clason
I'm disillusioned by my experience in the Christian church 48 to 43%. But I love this line that he has in the blog he says, “A spiritually open generation is a reachable generation. So what are you doing to reach this generation? This this generation is laying the groundwork for Gen Alpha, which is right behind them, youth pastors, Gen Alpha, they're in your youth ministry right now.

00:06:04:18 - 00:06:27:03
Nick Clason
The oldest ones of them are are some of the youngest kids in your youth ministry. So like I said, youth pastors go hybrid. Check out my e-book link down description. I'll give you a step by step guide to not only posting on social media, but then also posting your YouTube messages and using that as your bedrock so that everything builds on top of that, which is actually why this next trend.

00:06:27:04 - 00:06:48:09
Nick Clason
Right. I obviously believe this next trend is completely spot on because it says this the line between digital and in-person will blur even more. And he says, take a note from Taylor Swift yet check this out. Is it Taylor Swift is actually a prime example of this. In particular, she's modeling how to have a strong digital presence and drive an intense in-person demand.

00:06:48:12 - 00:07:16:13
Nick Clason
Her midnight album released in October of 2022. You can see this graph on the screen. It's absolutely crazy. You will not believe what you're seeing It says. And not only broke streaming records on Spotify, but it simultaneously locked up every position on the Billboard Top ten, and they sold 500,000 physical vinyl albums in a single week, often times there's an argument against a hybrid strategy in favor of the in-person experience, like they can't go together.

00:07:16:13 - 00:07:46:21
Nick Clason
And and that's the thing that is actually the hybrid. I'm like, no, that's that's not just digital. That's both that's online and that's in-person and that's putting them together. And pastors look at the graph. Her in-person ticket sales skyrocketed and went through the roof. So if you can capture the magic of a digital and strong online presence, you can actually bring that into fruition in your in-person experience.

00:07:46:27 - 00:08:08:28
Nick Clason
And on the converse of that or the inverse of one of those two, the flip side of that, let's go with that. The flip side of that is that once people are attached, you're connected to your church. You can continue to show up in their life throughout the rest of the week, giving them discipleship resources, Bible study tools and things that will help them grow in their faith and nurture their walk with God.

00:08:09:00 - 00:08:35:17
Nick Clason
Number four Nieuwhof says that churches that embrace online ministry will start seeing results. You may be out there and being like I've been trying to do. I'm not seeing the results. I'm getting frustrated, I'm getting tired. But like I said, we can help, right? I get it. The resources aren't there and and they're likely there for the rest of the church that they're not there, especially for youth ministries, which is why I down in the description below, I have YouTube gear for under $100.

00:08:35:23 - 00:08:58:03
Nick Clason
And this video right here will detail an outline, all of it and how you can use it and make it happen. But Kerry said that according to Lifeway Research, before the pandemic, only 27% of churches offered any live streaming. That's essentially one out of four. However, since that live streaming of services and now post pandemic, 92% of churches now live stream their services.

00:08:58:03 - 00:09:18:21
Nick Clason
And so as the world has reopened, the surprising things and number of those churches that were up at the 92%, they've actually throttled back their online services, hoping to to drive in-person attendance as if they're competing with one another. And so not only is that a bad strategy and you have said he says it's also incredibly shortsighted. Stick with it.

00:09:18:22 - 00:09:44:27
Nick Clason
You're going to see the results. Number five, he says the purpose of the weekend sermon will shift from being an attraction to an anchor. Listen, stop doing this on social media, which is linked down in the description part of the 2024 Youth Ministry OnDemand Masterclass playlist. I just wrapped up last week in the last video. But but stop doing these things right.

00:09:44:29 - 00:10:06:19
Nick Clason
Stop saying on social media. Join us for our new series on Sunday at nine and 11. Don't miss last Sunday's message available online on demand. I can't wait to share your brand new message with you. That's what Nieuwhof is saying that's not attraction A lot of times we as pastors and listen, I get it, Pastor, like you've spent time on this sermon.

00:10:06:20 - 00:10:25:10
Nick Clason
You care about these people and you care and you want them to hear what you have to say. But that's a very on onto me or I'm sorry, that's a very cable TV strategy. That's a very like, hey, you can only hear this thing at nine and 11. And the fact is that we don't live in a cable TV society anymore.

00:10:25:10 - 00:10:54:09
Nick Clason
You probably even watch cable TV anymore. The only appointment television that I even have anymore is like live sports. Otherwise everything else is streaming. And so I think it's much better start thinking about the real reasons why people come to church, because there are still reasons why people come to church and come to in-person church. Things like community, things like kids and student ministry, things like connection and an experience that doesn't always translate to online.

00:10:54:09 - 00:11:24:19
Nick Clason
This all from Nieuwhof’s blog Number six. He says content curation will now start to matter as much as content creation. He said the push to online and the changing place of sermons in today's world can leave pastors feeling an unsustainable pressure to produce a nonstop flow of spiritual content. And so, as more and more passages are discovering every year, it's almost impossible to produce top tier messages week to week to compete with some of the best that is out and available on the Internet.

00:11:24:22 - 00:11:42:02
Nick Clason
It's not any pressure, right? This was not a pressure from any previous generations. The things that pastors dealt with honestly can feel like an unsustainable pressure. And so one of the things he says is, he says, flip it from content creation to consider curating like how can you gather some of the best sources and then help point and show your people?

00:11:42:02 - 00:11:59:28
Nick Clason
I mean, even I'm thinking about this weekend, we're doing a a workshop for some of our teenagers on how to study the Bible. And if they get on Google, they can find all kinds of different resources. But how do they know if they're reputable or not? Right? So we give them a list. Here are five resources that we know that we trust and that we say, Hey, you can use, right?

00:12:00:05 - 00:12:25:26
Nick Clason
That's a great example of a way that you can curate the entire World Wide Web and then package it and bring it to your people. Number seven, not to depress anyone Nieuwhof says the volunteer crisis will move from acute to chronic. He had three reasons for it. Number one, first, the return to church meant different people returned to church and much slower than I think we all expected.

00:12:25:29 - 00:12:45:19
Nick Clason
Number two, more significantly, as trend number one outlined at the beginning of the article, boomers are aging out and are the least likely group to return to church. This makes the volunteer backbone of most churches, a nonprofit organizations less robust than it used to be. And that's only going to get more challenging, especially as boomers continue to age and ultimately age out.

00:12:45:22 - 00:13:08:11
Nick Clason
And third, and finally, the next generation, primarily millennials and Generation Z, they attend church less and left less often, like I said earlier, making it less frequent thing, meaning they have more options on the weekends so it gets harder for them to commit. So we need to be thinking about as pastors, not only like understanding and realizing there is a volunteer crisis and there is a volunteer problem.

00:13:08:13 - 00:13:31:14
Nick Clason
How can you shift? We actually talked about it in a video linked down blown description, but we've actually talked about how can you shift your volunteer pitch from we need you to we want to come alongside and support you. We want you to to flourish here. We want to watch you experience incredible depth and purpose and live a life on mission.

00:13:31:14 - 00:13:54:26
Nick Clason
And we believe as a church, we can help facilitate that for you. It's really not that big of a shift. Number eight Pastoral. Pastoral burnout will stabilize as pastors embrace their new church. Listen, if you're a pastor here on this podcast, this is good news because you've seen that over the last several years, pastors have had a high risk for burnout.

00:13:54:26 - 00:14:22:10
Nick Clason
But there's hope. You're doing a great job. And as this graph highlights, it's starting to stabilize. It's starting to normalize. The newness of all the things from 2020 and beyond is starting to kind of chill out. And there's hope. You're you can do it right there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You know, one of the keys that I have personally found in stabilizing my burnout and making me feel more enticed about continuing on in my job is increasing my time management load, which is actually linked right here on the screen.

00:14:22:10 - 00:14:41:19
Nick Clason
If you want to check that video, go ahead and do that. But we're so glad that you checked out this this podcast and this episode. Thank you, Carrie, for this amazing article. It is spot on because I believe that we need to make digital discipleship not only easy but possible and inaccessible. And so, as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> ⚡ [FREE] Hybrid Strategy Guide⚡

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

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

Carey's 2024 Church Trends Article
https://careynieuwhof.com/future-church-trends/
======================================
DESCRIPTION
🔥 Carey Niuwhof has recently been dropping some hot takes on the future of the church.
👓 In this episode, Nick reacts from a Hybrid Ministry and Youth Ministry perspective!
🎱 Number 8 is crazy!

Carey's 2024 Church Trends Article
https://careynieuwhof.com/future-church-trends/
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/086

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/KptS3NoiC6c

//2024 CHURCH TRENDS ARTICLE
https://careynieuwhof.com/future-church-trends/

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

STOP IGNORING SOCIAL MEDIA
//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slB0Rmf_X0c&t=390s

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

HYBRID STRATEGY EXPLAINED
//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM

STOP DOING THIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slB0Rmf_X0c&t=390s

BETTER CHURCH ANNOUNCEMENTS

//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzhYluEKZ_I&list=PLngXlSr64YaKYLaGvuPA5pBYfJflXm0-A&index=43

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

======================================

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

🖥️ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

🎅 "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 Carey Nieuwhof's 2024 Church Trends Article
00:41 The Boomer Decline is a BIG Deal
04:48 Gen Z is Spiritually Open
06:27 Lean Further into Hybrid, Like Taylor Swift?
08:03 Don't Give up with Online Church Ministry!
09:14 The Weekend Sermon is less important
10:49 Content Curation Matters!
12:00 Volunteerism isn't going to get better
13:30 Pastoral Burnout is on the decline!

--------------
✍️TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:25
Nick Clason
The future of the church, the Capital C church. Not just my church, not just your church. It's going to look very different in 2024. And frankly, beyond because of Generation Z and now Generation Alpha, both waving up Z into the adult ministry conversation Alpha into the youth ministry conversation. It makes me wonder if the future is already here.

00:00:23:27 - 00:00:45:20
Nick Clason
I think it might be Carey Nieuwhof has been spittin’ an absolute fire recently talking about church trends. And so what I wanted to do is I wanted to take his article Church Trends from 2024 things You Need to Know. Link down below on description and talk about it. And so let's jump in. Waste no time. Trend number one is that the Boomer church will decline and eventually disappear.

00:00:45:21 - 00:01:11:20
Nick Clason
This is just basic human psychology. You know, you get it right. But he said this. He said, Since 2020, the boomers have become the least likely demographic to return to church. That's out of post-COVID, 22% of them saying and saying that they've stopped attending church, get this entirely. Meanwhile, only 16% of millennials have stopped attending. So that's the smallest of the demographics and I love if you would, give me a subscribe.

00:01:11:21 - 00:01:29:13
Nick Clason
If you're a millennial, like if you're a Gen Xer and hey, hit the bill no matter what age demographic you are, because we are going to be dropping all kinds of new stuff. I got a new playlist already in the hopper. We just wrapped up the 2024 Youth Ministry on-demand Masterclass and now I got one coming at you next week excited for it!

00:01:29:13 - 00:01:56:26
Nick Clason
And if you're on YouTube, you get it early, you get it on Wednesday instead of Thursday in the regular podcast feed. But Nieuwhof goes on to say that 54% of millennials actually attended primarily in-person. 65% of boomers say that they only attend in-person. And so that is a that's going to be key coming down the pike here in a minute as we look at this trend's article about the difference between the hybrid space in the in-person space.

00:01:56:27 - 00:02:17:25
Nick Clason
Right. Unlike boomers, millennials, they they don't just track with church while they're in the building. Millennials and Xers, honestly, are quite comfortable with the idea of hybrid church. This is Nieuwhof’s blog. And guess what? He has no idea that this podcast exists. But the fact of the matter is he sees it just like I feel like I have been seeing.

00:02:17:25 - 00:02:37:10
Nick Clason
And I'm not trying to be like I'm as smart as Carey Nieuwhof by no means at all. But the dude is is calling it right? He says. So boomers for the most part, they've not embraced hybrid church. If you watching on YouTube if not, go ahead to hybridministry.xyz/086 for the show notes. But this graph is going to be on screen.

00:02:37:10 - 00:03:04:15
Nick Clason
Just click the YouTube link. If you do go to your podcast catcher and scrub forward to this part in the episode, but says since the COVID 19 pandemic, which of the following most accurately describes your church attendance either online or in-person? This is the percentage of Christians who are attending church pre COVID 19. And so you'll see that like the highest gap right there have stopped attending is actually boomers, which is what most of our churches were built for.

00:03:04:18 - 00:03:34:16
Nick Clason
And a large, large majority of of millennials you'll see and Xers have been attending the same church that they attended pre COVID. And so there are three kind of main areas of impact with this point. The first one is attendance. Right? And one idea that I have in light of that is stop ignoring social media. Our attendance is going to take on a different kind of approach.

00:03:34:18 - 00:04:00:02
Nick Clason
Millennials and Xers and Gen Z are going to attend church less and less frequently. It doesn't mean they're less committed to your church. It just means they're less committed to being there on a week to week basis. We live in a different world. And so if you as a youth pastor in particular are ignoring social media or only using social media as an avenue or an outlet to post announcements, you're missing out on an incredible opportunity.

00:04:00:07 - 00:04:30:00
Nick Clason
I think about it in my own space. I have teenagers who have weekend soccer tournaments and baseball tournaments and things that keep them out on the weekend. It doesn't mean that they're not committed or that they're less committed to our church. It just simply means that they have other obligations. And I know I've worked at churches and on church staff that say they're not as committed, but if we go hybrid and if we find a way to meet them where they are, which is really what this is all about, they can still consume the things of God.

00:04:30:00 - 00:04:50:13
Nick Clason
They can still follow him, they can still be connected and attached to our church. You look at this graph here on the screen, Weekly Church attendance by generation millennials are actually the highest out of the pandemic, post-COVID. So attendance is area number one that this is going to impact. It's also going to impact volunteering and thirdly, it's going to impact giving.

00:04:50:18 - 00:05:17:17
Nick Clason
Carey Nieuwhof goes on to say that open pastors will actually be more well-positioned to reach an open generation. Speaking of and talking about Generation Z, Gen Z, statistically speaking, is actually the most spiritually open generation that we've ever actually seen in our history. Right. And if you check out the YouTube, the YouTube feed here, you'll see that the spiritual journey of Gen Z, you'll see that they're open.

00:05:17:23 - 00:05:42:09
Nick Clason
They're much more open to things of God and faith. They believe that there's supernatural or spiritual side to life, 61% compared to 51% of all adults. They've gone through a prolonged they've gone through a prolonged period of time where they've significantly doubted their faith. 65% to 49%, 56% say my experiences have led me to deconstruct or take apart my faith of my youth 56% versus 47%.

00:05:42:09 - 00:06:04:18
Nick Clason
I'm disillusioned by my experience in the Christian church 48 to 43%. But I love this line that he has in the blog he says, “A spiritually open generation is a reachable generation. So what are you doing to reach this generation? This this generation is laying the groundwork for Gen Alpha, which is right behind them, youth pastors, Gen Alpha, they're in your youth ministry right now.

00:06:04:18 - 00:06:27:03
Nick Clason
The oldest ones of them are are some of the youngest kids in your youth ministry. So like I said, youth pastors go hybrid. Check out my e-book link down description. I'll give you a step by step guide to not only posting on social media, but then also posting your YouTube messages and using that as your bedrock so that everything builds on top of that, which is actually why this next trend.

00:06:27:04 - 00:06:48:09
Nick Clason
Right. I obviously believe this next trend is completely spot on because it says this the line between digital and in-person will blur even more. And he says, take a note from Taylor Swift yet check this out. Is it Taylor Swift is actually a prime example of this. In particular, she's modeling how to have a strong digital presence and drive an intense in-person demand.

00:06:48:12 - 00:07:16:13
Nick Clason
Her midnight album released in October of 2022. You can see this graph on the screen. It's absolutely crazy. You will not believe what you're seeing It says. And not only broke streaming records on Spotify, but it simultaneously locked up every position on the Billboard Top ten, and they sold 500,000 physical vinyl albums in a single week, often times there's an argument against a hybrid strategy in favor of the in-person experience, like they can't go together.

00:07:16:13 - 00:07:46:21
Nick Clason
And and that's the thing that is actually the hybrid. I'm like, no, that's that's not just digital. That's both that's online and that's in-person and that's putting them together. And pastors look at the graph. Her in-person ticket sales skyrocketed and went through the roof. So if you can capture the magic of a digital and strong online presence, you can actually bring that into fruition in your in-person experience.

00:07:46:27 - 00:08:08:28
Nick Clason
And on the converse of that or the inverse of one of those two, the flip side of that, let's go with that. The flip side of that is that once people are attached, you're connected to your church. You can continue to show up in their life throughout the rest of the week, giving them discipleship resources, Bible study tools and things that will help them grow in their faith and nurture their walk with God.

00:08:09:00 - 00:08:35:17
Nick Clason
Number four Nieuwhof says that churches that embrace online ministry will start seeing results. You may be out there and being like I've been trying to do. I'm not seeing the results. I'm getting frustrated, I'm getting tired. But like I said, we can help, right? I get it. The resources aren't there and and they're likely there for the rest of the church that they're not there, especially for youth ministries, which is why I down in the description below, I have YouTube gear for under $100.

00:08:35:23 - 00:08:58:03
Nick Clason
And this video right here will detail an outline, all of it and how you can use it and make it happen. But Kerry said that according to Lifeway Research, before the pandemic, only 27% of churches offered any live streaming. That's essentially one out of four. However, since that live streaming of services and now post pandemic, 92% of churches now live stream their services.

00:08:58:03 - 00:09:18:21
Nick Clason
And so as the world has reopened, the surprising things and number of those churches that were up at the 92%, they've actually throttled back their online services, hoping to to drive in-person attendance as if they're competing with one another. And so not only is that a bad strategy and you have said he says it's also incredibly shortsighted. Stick with it.

00:09:18:22 - 00:09:44:27
Nick Clason
You're going to see the results. Number five, he says the purpose of the weekend sermon will shift from being an attraction to an anchor. Listen, stop doing this on social media, which is linked down in the description part of the 2024 Youth Ministry OnDemand Masterclass playlist. I just wrapped up last week in the last video. But but stop doing these things right.

00:09:44:29 - 00:10:06:19
Nick Clason
Stop saying on social media. Join us for our new series on Sunday at nine and 11. Don't miss last Sunday's message available online on demand. I can't wait to share your brand new message with you. That's what Nieuwhof is saying that's not attraction A lot of times we as pastors and listen, I get it, Pastor, like you've spent time on this sermon.

00:10:06:20 - 00:10:25:10
Nick Clason
You care about these people and you care and you want them to hear what you have to say. But that's a very on onto me or I'm sorry, that's a very cable TV strategy. That's a very like, hey, you can only hear this thing at nine and 11. And the fact is that we don't live in a cable TV society anymore.

00:10:25:10 - 00:10:54:09
Nick Clason
You probably even watch cable TV anymore. The only appointment television that I even have anymore is like live sports. Otherwise everything else is streaming. And so I think it's much better start thinking about the real reasons why people come to church, because there are still reasons why people come to church and come to in-person church. Things like community, things like kids and student ministry, things like connection and an experience that doesn't always translate to online.

00:10:54:09 - 00:11:24:19
Nick Clason
This all from Nieuwhof’s blog Number six. He says content curation will now start to matter as much as content creation. He said the push to online and the changing place of sermons in today's world can leave pastors feeling an unsustainable pressure to produce a nonstop flow of spiritual content. And so, as more and more passages are discovering every year, it's almost impossible to produce top tier messages week to week to compete with some of the best that is out and available on the Internet.

00:11:24:22 - 00:11:42:02
Nick Clason
It's not any pressure, right? This was not a pressure from any previous generations. The things that pastors dealt with honestly can feel like an unsustainable pressure. And so one of the things he says is, he says, flip it from content creation to consider curating like how can you gather some of the best sources and then help point and show your people?

00:11:42:02 - 00:11:59:28
Nick Clason
I mean, even I'm thinking about this weekend, we're doing a a workshop for some of our teenagers on how to study the Bible. And if they get on Google, they can find all kinds of different resources. But how do they know if they're reputable or not? Right? So we give them a list. Here are five resources that we know that we trust and that we say, Hey, you can use, right?

00:12:00:05 - 00:12:25:26
Nick Clason
That's a great example of a way that you can curate the entire World Wide Web and then package it and bring it to your people. Number seven, not to depress anyone Nieuwhof says the volunteer crisis will move from acute to chronic. He had three reasons for it. Number one, first, the return to church meant different people returned to church and much slower than I think we all expected.

00:12:25:29 - 00:12:45:19
Nick Clason
Number two, more significantly, as trend number one outlined at the beginning of the article, boomers are aging out and are the least likely group to return to church. This makes the volunteer backbone of most churches, a nonprofit organizations less robust than it used to be. And that's only going to get more challenging, especially as boomers continue to age and ultimately age out.

00:12:45:22 - 00:13:08:11
Nick Clason
And third, and finally, the next generation, primarily millennials and Generation Z, they attend church less and left less often, like I said earlier, making it less frequent thing, meaning they have more options on the weekends so it gets harder for them to commit. So we need to be thinking about as pastors, not only like understanding and realizing there is a volunteer crisis and there is a volunteer problem.

00:13:08:13 - 00:13:31:14
Nick Clason
How can you shift? We actually talked about it in a video linked down blown description, but we've actually talked about how can you shift your volunteer pitch from we need you to we want to come alongside and support you. We want you to to flourish here. We want to watch you experience incredible depth and purpose and live a life on mission.

00:13:31:14 - 00:13:54:26
Nick Clason
And we believe as a church, we can help facilitate that for you. It's really not that big of a shift. Number eight Pastoral. Pastoral burnout will stabilize as pastors embrace their new church. Listen, if you're a pastor here on this podcast, this is good news because you've seen that over the last several years, pastors have had a high risk for burnout.

00:13:54:26 - 00:14:22:10
Nick Clason
But there's hope. You're doing a great job. And as this graph highlights, it's starting to stabilize. It's starting to normalize. The newness of all the things from 2020 and beyond is starting to kind of chill out. And there's hope. You're you can do it right there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You know, one of the keys that I have personally found in stabilizing my burnout and making me feel more enticed about continuing on in my job is increasing my time management load, which is actually linked right here on the screen.

00:14:22:10 - 00:14:41:19
Nick Clason
If you want to check that video, go ahead and do that. But we're so glad that you checked out this this podcast and this episode. Thank you, Carrie, for this amazing article. It is spot on because I believe that we need to make digital discipleship not only easy but possible and inaccessible. And so, as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 085: ✍ Youth Ministry Volunteer Training https://www.hybridministry.xyz/085 b60cecb7-6365-4919-a1df-0238a714dbaf Thu, 22 Feb 2024 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 085 ✍ Youth Ministry Volunteer Training full Nick Clason 🤔 How do we train our youth and student ministry volunteers? 📅 How frequently should we be training our volunteers? 🧑‍🏫 What are some topics? 🖥️ And what are some platforms you can utilize? And be sure to stick around to the end because I have an idea that will help you train your volunteers but not add another meeting to your plate 16:26 no <h3>⚡ [FREE] Digital Integration Strategy⚡</h3> <p><a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p><strong>2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass</strong><br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg</a></p> <p><strong>[FREE] DYM Games</strong><br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/9-best-dym-products" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/9-best-dym-products</a><br> <strong>======================================</strong><br> <strong>DESCRIPTION</strong><br> 🤔 How do we train our youth and student ministry volunteers?<br> 📅 How frequently should we be training our volunteers?<br> 🧑‍🏫 What are some topics?<br> 🖥️ And what are some platforms you can utilize?</p> <p>And be sure to stick around to the end because I have an idea that will help you train your volunteers but not add another meeting to your plate<br> 🔗 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg</a><br> <strong>======================================</strong><br> 📓<strong>SHOWNOTES</strong><br> //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS<br> <a href="http://www.hybridministry.xyz/085" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.hybridministry.xyz/085</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE VIDEO<br> <a href="https://youtu.be/9cB_R_vSwIo" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtu.be/9cB_R_vSwIo</a></p> <p>//FREE EBOOK STRATEGY GUIDE<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p><strong>TRAINING IDEAS</strong><br> 1) Leader vs Friend<br> 2) Managing a Distracted Group<br> 3) Taking Kids Seriously<br> 4) Praying with your small group<br> 5) Gen Z &amp; Gen Alpha</p> <h3>&gt; ### --<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tVACJFlwpw&amp;t=460s" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tVACJFlwpw&amp;amp;t=460s</a> </h3> <p>6) Cultural Trends<br> 7) The power of listening<br> 8) Showing up<br> 9) Getting Teens to Serve<br> 10) Partnering with Parents</p> <p><strong>PLATFORMS</strong><br> NATIONAL DAY OF VOLUNTEER YOUTH MINISTRY TRAINING<br> //<a href="https://dymtraining.com/ndovymt/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://dymtraining.com/ndovymt/</a></p> <p>HYBRID MINISTRY YOUTUBE<br> //<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a></p> <p>//PRACTICAL YOUTH MINISTRY TIPS<br> //<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips</a></p> <p>DYM LEADER TRAINING LIBRARY<br> //<a href="https://leadertraining.dymapps.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://leadertraining.dymapps.com/</a></p> <p>MYM by YM360<br> //<a href="https://myyouthmin.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://myyouthmin.com/</a></p> <p><strong>PODCAST GETTING STARTED GEAR</strong><br> <em>NOTE: Some of these items are affiliate links and we do get a small commission for your purchasing of these items. None of them are marked up due to them being affiliate links</em></p> <p>MICROPHONE: <a href="https://walmrt.us/48UTzWh" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://walmrt.us/48UTzWh</a></p> <h2>YOUTUBE STARTER KIT: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a> </h2> <p>👉 <strong>STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK</strong><br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a></p> <p><strong>======================================</strong></p> <p><strong>🆓 FREEBIES 🆓</strong><br> 📅 "<strong>The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy</strong>"<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>🖥️ "<strong>My 9 Favorite DYM Resources</strong>"<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>🎅 <strong>"The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude"</strong><br> GUIDE: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet</a><br> PRACTICAL YM TIPS: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips</a></p> <p>🍩 <strong>"FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"</strong><br> GUIDE: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut</a></p> <p><strong>😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"</strong><br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook</a></p> <p><strong>📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"</strong><br> <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis</a></p> <p><strong>======================================</strong><br> 🛠️<strong>TOOLS</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em></p> <p>//BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p>AUTO POD<br> <a href="https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv</a></p> <p>TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING<br> <a href="https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> 🕰️<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00-00:39 Youth Ministry Volunteer Training<br> 00:39-03:22 Why do we need to train volunteers?<br> 03:22-06:59 How often should we train our volunteers?<br> 06:59-11:19 Topics to Train Volunteers in<br> 11:19-16:26 Youth Ministry Training Platforms</p> <hr> <p>✍️<strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com<br> <a href="http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</a></p> <p>00;00;00;00 - 00;00;23;29<br> Nick Clason<br> How do we train our youth ministry volunteers? How frequently should we be offering trainings for our youth ministry volunteers? What are some key topics that our youth ministry and our youth ministry volunteers need to be exploring? And then finally, what are some platforms that you can utilize that you can send them to so that they can sharpen their skills as volunteers?</p> <p>00;00;23;29 - 00;00;45;52<br> Nick Clason<br> And finally, make sure that you hang around all the way to the end of the video, because I have an idea that I think will not only help your volunteers level up, but also is going to not add another meeting to your plate. Well, everyone, welcome to the hybrid ministry show. My name is Nick Clason and I've been a youth pastor for 13 something years.</p> <p>00;00;45;53 - 00;01;05;46<br> Nick Clason<br> And because of that, you've got to think about a youth ministry, has a lot of things that feel a little bit unnatural. Like let's just say, for example, I was a volunteer in your youth ministry and let's say I walked in for the very first time and you told me, Hey, listen, just go like, go hang out and love on teenagers.</p> <p>00;01;05;51 - 00;01;35;02<br> Nick Clason<br> Like, I would probably as a 13 year youth ministry veteran, I would probably be okay and figure out how to do that. Now, if a brand new dad or mom or college student walks in and you give them those exact same instructions, they're probably not going to know what to do. For one of the reasons simply being because they are told all throughout society and culture not to do that.</p> <p>00;01;35;02 - 00;01;57;06<br> Nick Clason<br> And so in a lot of ways, youth ministry is kind of creepy, right? And so we have to help A, give them the comfort and safety to do some of those things, but be help teach them in love with them on how they can do that safely and appropriately, and that it is good youth ministry for them to to go hang out with teenagers and not just be a chaperon.</p> <p>00;01;57;09 - 00;02;19;47<br> Nick Clason<br> But I say that to say because you need to help sharpen their skills. You have to help level them up. Some of the things that you and I do as youth pastors, youth leaders, we already do these things naturally, but we need to level up. We need to train our volunteers. And if if one of the roles that we're trying to use have them hang out with students, well then, hey, was.</p> <p>00;02;19;47 - 00;02;50;11<br> Nick Clason<br> And we should probably give them opportunities to do that. That's why I actually I created this completely free e-book. If you look through it, it's 40 ideas, a month's worth of posting content, but it's not just a bunch of still and static graphics. What it actually is, is it's teaching you in training you not only how to prerecord your messages to post them on YouTube so that you are showing up in a digital and a hybrid space on a platform where students are spending 95% or 94% of students are spending some of their time.</p> <p>00;02;50;23 - 00;03;11;28<br> Nick Clason<br> But also then it will let you, your students and your leaders do things and work together on camera. Different challenges, different different games and things like that. And so that's going to be a great opportunity for your students and your leaders to start to rub shoulders. And you can kill two birds with one stone by crushing it for social media.</p> <p>00;03;11;33 - 00;03;51;07<br> Nick Clason<br> How frequently should we as youth pastors and youth ministry leaders, how frequently should we be hosting trainings? Well, let's talk about that in the next video. Suffering. We should be hosting trainings. There are several schools of thought and there are a couple of different ways to think about it. First of all, every single time you meet, you may be having some sort of huddle and I would recommend some sort of thing around that, some sort of, you know, strategy of around meeting, getting everyone on the same page, giving everyone the service order service brunch sheet so that they have what they need so that they're they're not in a lurch for that night.</p> <p>00;03;51;12 - 00;04;17;01<br> Nick Clason<br> However, that can give a little bit cumbersome and especially if it's like on a Wednesday night, you may be running into volunteers and they're getting off of work schedule. And so one thing that I have done in the past is instead of doing a weekly huddle, I've done more of like a monthly gathering, monthly huddle. And then that monthly gathering would not only operate as a weekly huddle to get everyone on the same page and talk to them about what we're teaching and sharing in our small group.</p> <p>00;04;17;01 - 00;04;47;30<br> Nick Clason<br> But then it would also give me a moment to do some teambuilding as well as some training. And so that was sort of be a strategy to do that. But let me just say that one time, one year I was doing a monthly huddle, I shifted from a weekly huddle to a monthly huddle. And in my monthly huddle, one thing that felt like all I can explain is the feeling was myself in many of my volunteers every single time, when it was time for another huddle, they'd be like again, rather just felt like it was all the time.</p> <p>00;04;47;30 - 00;05;05;09<br> Nick Clason<br> Felt was constantly something that we were turn around and doing like, we got another one of those again. yeah, that's right. It's been a month, right? And so there may be a rhythm and you just got to figure this out. What works for you? Because a monthly huddle is often probably something you have to do in an off peak time.</p> <p>00;05;05;09 - 00;05;26;42<br> Nick Clason<br> So it's Sunday after church or it's Wednesday late after one of your Wednesday nights or something like that. But it's not going to be tied to and woven in to your already existing youth ministry schedule. And so you just you got to figure out when can you get all of your volunteers to commit to another moment on their calendar in their week.</p> <p>00;05;26;56 - 00;06;06;27<br> Nick Clason<br> And then another idea within that is how frequently are you going to be communicating? So while you do have meetings, there are going to be infrequent or not infrequent, but but different types of communication. So things like group text messages and or emails, how frequently, how often are you going to be also sending those things? I personally I recommend weekly, so a weekly sort of communication email and then another like another form of gathering, whether that be a an annual meeting, which I haven't said yet, but that's an idea, an annual meeting, a one time meeting, whether it's twice a year, you get together for a big sort of thing, whether it's a monthly sort</p> <p>00;06;06;27 - 00;06;24;42<br> Nick Clason<br> of leader gathering or some sort of weekly huddle. Now every single one of those scenarios, your training is going to have to look a little bit different. If you do annually, you probably can do a big seminar type style thing. You can probably do that if you meet twice a year. If you do monthly, you might need to make it a little more bite sized.</p> <p>00;06;24;42 - 00;06;52;11<br> Nick Clason<br> Not so long, not so so many hours of a commitment. And if you meet weekly, you got to be more in like the tips and tactics zone and all those to be said. You can also share some tips and tactics to level up youth ministry training in your weekly communications via text via email. Now, you might be thinking like, okay, I see the need for this and I realize I need to figure out where I'm going to stick it on my calendar.</p> <p>00;06;52;15 - 00;07;18;57<br> Nick Clason<br> But what in the world should I be talking about? Great. Let's let's talk through that in the next section. All right. Some good topics. And these are just suggestions and examples. And and if something pops up in some particular area or arena in your student ministry, then address it by all means. Right. But if you are like I know I want to me and only to help level my leaders off, but I don't even know where to start then.</p> <p>00;07;19;10 - 00;07;41;38<br> Nick Clason<br> Then there's give me a list right here on the screen. If you are listening, you can head to the show notes, HybridMinistry.xyz/085 Also, if you do end up over on YouTube, be sure to give us a subscribe and a like because these topics we don't want only you to have them. We want all the youth pastors in America to know them, to have them, and to be able to turn to them in a time of need.</p> <p>00;07;41;38 - 00;08;05;31<br> Nick Clason<br> But some topics that I have done or have seen or I just think can be useful. I have ten right here. Screenshot them. This could if you do a monthly gathering, this could essentially fill out your monthly training calendar for for the year. Right. One per month. So the first one is how do you distinguish between a leader versus being a friend of the students.</p> <p>00;08;05;36 - 00;08;22;37<br> Nick Clason<br> You can also then chat through in another month managing a distracted group. We've all been there. We've all led a group that's distracted, especially the sixth grade boys group. How do you get them on task and what is a win for them? How do you take kids seriously? A lot of times we want to come in. We want to tell them what to do.</p> <p>00;08;22;37 - 00;08;44;54<br> Nick Clason<br> But how do we take their needs, their concerns, their thoughts, their ideas, their their the things that they say? How do we take them seriously so that we can add and bring value to who they are as people? How do you pray with your small group? What are some practical ideas beyond just praying to close? But how can you be praying as a small group and be a praying small group together?</p> <p>00;08;44;58 - 00;09;02;52<br> Nick Clason<br> Maybe do a little training on Gen Z and Gen Alpha? I actually have a video links right here at the top of the screen about Gen Alpha, exploring who they are and what we need to know. So maybe you could go watch that and that could be the springboard for some of your content. What are some cultural trends right these days that are going on?</p> <p>00;09;03;01 - 00;09;23;21<br> Nick Clason<br> You should be thinking like, what? What's what's culturally relevant right now and how can we take those trends and how can we chat through? Some of them especially have a a team of adults. They're not living in teen culture anymore, so help expose them to some of those things that maybe even you need to do a little bit of study, a little bit of research on, but help expose them to some of those things.</p> <p>00;09;23;26 - 00;09;56;11<br> Nick Clason<br> What about the power of listening? You know that it's not good for a small group leader to be in there and to just be yammer on the whole time. So help help challenge them, help challenge your small group leaders to listen first and talk second. What about the power of showing up helping, as we talked about in the last video in this youth ministry Master Class 2024 playlist as we talked about scaling up the care for leaders, shepherding you can you can spread out some of those responsibilities if if a small group leader shows up to a kid's soccer game, not only does that get you off the hook and I'm not saying that you</p> <p>00;09;56;11 - 00;10;17;17<br> Nick Clason<br> should be trying to get off the hook of these things, but if you have 100 kids to get to soccer games for, that's going to be tricky for you to get to a hundred different soccer games. But your youth ministry volunteers can also show up to the kids in their small group, getting teens to serve, helping, helping equip small group leaders to to be recruiters and helping teenagers step into their God given callings and abilities.</p> <p>00;10;17;17 - 00;10;40;49<br> Nick Clason<br> And finally, how do you partner with parents? Give smokable leaders tangible tips and tricks and tools to be able to reach out to parents? Very simply, something like do they have all the email lists? And if they don't, do they have access to get all the email lists? Have you allowed them to be a member of your church management software to at least be able to get in and access the group information?</p> <p>00;10;41;00 - 00;11;00;13<br> Nick Clason<br> So those are just some topic ideas. It's not holistic, it's not exhaustive, but they're just ten ideas to help you begin to think about training. I remember thinking, Do I do that? Do I do you know one of those topics in a monthly gathering? Do I cram some of them together in an annual gathering? Do I weave some of them in and out of my communication?</p> <p>00;11;00;18 - 00;11;38;48<br> Nick Clason<br> The answer to that is it's up to you. You guys figure out what's going to work best for you, but I do have in the next section several platforms that you can explore and look at and maybe even try to train and level up some of your youth ministry volunteers. So hey, let's go check that out. So from a once a year from an annual sort of perspective, there is no better option honestly than the NDOVYMT, which is an abbreviation for the National Day of Volunteer Youth Ministry training put on hosted by my friends over a download Youth Ministry, Josh Griffin, Doug Fields and their team.</p> <p>00;11;38;52 - 00;12;09;11<br> Nick Clason<br> There is a link down in the description or head over to the show notes for our train. My volunteers Scott, which will give you info and insight into how to sign up for one of these things. The fact is the pricing is very, very cheap for training your entire team. It's only $250. If you want to be a host church or have other churches come to your church as a host, church is $400, but you get to bring as many people, as many volunteers to that training as possible.</p> <p>00;12;09;11 - 00;12;30;15<br> Nick Clason<br> Plus, it's all video based. And so you get that video for the entire year. Even if you don't play the full video, you can kind of clip it up and use it throughout the year. Another platform idea platform idea number two is honestly this YouTube channel, right? Like I am focusing on helping Mel between the digital and the physical and bringing those things together.</p> <p>00;12;30;15 - 00;12;50;45<br> Nick Clason<br> But I also have a lot of like just generalize youth ministry content so you could check out my youth ministry channel idea number three, you can help. You can check out the Practical Youth Ministry Tips podcast. My friend Eric with the K Williams, he is dropping gold all day long over on his channel as well. So both of our channels are completely free.</p> <p>00;12;50;45 - 00;13;08;53<br> Nick Clason<br> Both of us are trying to to just get the message in the word out there. And so we want people to at these, be aware of it. But right now we're doing it for primarily for free, right? We're not charging you 400 hours like National Day Training is another couple of ideas is the do I am leader training library.</p> <p>00;13;08;53 - 00;13;29;07<br> Nick Clason<br> So if you're a member of do you. I am I can't remember the tiers who gets access to this but but I know if you're at the highest couple of tiers you get access to a do I am leader training library. So there are videos that you can log into a portal and you can watch video trainings from people like Doug Fields, Josh Griffin and some of their friends over there.</p> <p>00;13;29;07 - 00;14;09;37<br> Nick Clason<br> And they have several of the topics, even several topics that I was was suggesting earlier are available on that podcast site. Another thing that I have submitted content for and I have used is the My Youth Min portal by YM360. I think it's aimed a little bit more at the primary and Central youth worker, but it's a great platform to check out if it's something that you is behind a paywall, but it's got like some topflight people talking about things, people in the trenches, and it's like 19 pieces of new content drop onto that platform every single month.</p> <p>00;14;09;48 - 00;14;27;55<br> Nick Clason<br> And so that's one of the keys about it, is that it is it is dynamic and it is moving. It's not just going to be like a leader training library of static videos that haven't been updated in several years. And so the MYM podcast link down below the description or the show notes, all for all these are links down the description.</p> <p>00;14;27;55 - 00;15;00;47<br> Nick Clason<br> And finally, the idea that I think because things are changing and I don't want another meeting on my calendar and, and you probably don't want another meeting on your calendar, an idea for training either to supplement or to replace some of your in-person meetings is what about creating a podcast on the go right? Like you can you can offer training to your leaders as they're going as they're heading to work, as they're running groceries, as they're picking up kids from school and soccer practice.</p> <p>00;15;00;52 - 00;15;34;46<br> Nick Clason<br> If you create a podcast feed, whether it be a public or a private feed and you just do 5 to 10 minute trainings, you can pick up a pretty easy and cheap microphone. Very similar to this. I'll drop some links down below in the show notes for you to check out. If you want to do video based, you can use your cell phone and you can get up and going and listen If you if you start pre filming your messages like I recommend in my full year strategy anyway, you should have a camera, whether it be a real camera or you just using your phone and you're using my under $100 starter kit to get</p> <p>00;15;34;46 - 00;16;00;06<br> Nick Clason<br> going. You can use that as a way to get some of that training up and going and then you can just start posting it to places. And so if you do audio, you do a podcast feed, if you do video, you do YouTube. But like I said, what I'm trying to think of as I'm trying to ride some of the future waves in some of the future trends, because that's actually what I'm going to be talking about in the very next video, which is going to be linked right here on the screen.</p> <p>00;16;00;11 - 00;16;21;42<br> Nick Clason<br> Carey Nieuwhof in his 2024 trends. It is an amazing article. He's been doing an amazing job. And I know we're several months in now to 2024, but I wanted to do a React video and so check that video out link right here on the screen because we in this podcast are trying to make digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible.</p> <p>00;16;21;42 - 00;16;25;31<br> Nick Clason<br> And so, as always, stay hybrid. </p> How to get the best out of your ministry team, How to get the most out of our volunteer youth leaders, How to get the most out of your ministry team, How to get the most out of your volunteer youth leaders, Youth Ministry Podcast, Youth Ministry Coach, Youth Ministry Volunteers Best Practices, Youth Ministry Volunteer Training, Nick Clason, Hybrid Ministry, Youth Leader Volunteer Training, Student Ministry, Youth Ministry Volunteer Training, Youth Group Volunteers, Youth Ministry Training Resources ⚡ [FREE] Digital Integration Strategy⚡

https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

[FREE] DYM Games
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/9-best-dym-products
======================================
DESCRIPTION
🤔 How do we train our youth and student ministry volunteers?
📅 How frequently should we be training our volunteers?
🧑‍🏫 What are some topics?
🖥️ And what are some platforms you can utilize?

And be sure to stick around to the end because I have an idea that will help you train your volunteers but not add another meeting to your plate
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/085

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/9cB_R_vSwIo

//FREE EBOOK STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

TRAINING IDEAS
1) Leader vs Friend
2) Managing a Distracted Group
3) Taking Kids Seriously
4) Praying with your small group
5) Gen Z & Gen Alpha

> ### --https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tVACJFlwpw&t=460s

6) Cultural Trends
7) The power of listening
8) Showing up
9) Getting Teens to Serve
10) Partnering with Parents

PLATFORMS
NATIONAL DAY OF VOLUNTEER YOUTH MINISTRY TRAINING
//https://dymtraining.com/ndovymt/

HYBRID MINISTRY YOUTUBE
//https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick

//PRACTICAL YOUTH MINISTRY TIPS
//https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips

DYM LEADER TRAINING LIBRARY
//https://leadertraining.dymapps.com/

MYM by YM360
//https://myyouthmin.com/

PODCAST GETTING STARTED GEAR
NOTE: Some of these items are affiliate links and we do get a small commission for your purchasing of these items. None of them are marked up due to them being affiliate links

MICROPHONE: https://walmrt.us/48UTzWh

YOUTUBE STARTER KIT: https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

======================================

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

🖥️ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

🎅 "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
00:00-00:39 Youth Ministry Volunteer Training
00:39-03:22 Why do we need to train volunteers?
03:22-06:59 How often should we train our volunteers?
06:59-11:19 Topics to Train Volunteers in
11:19-16:26 Youth Ministry Training Platforms

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;23;29
Nick Clason
How do we train our youth ministry volunteers? How frequently should we be offering trainings for our youth ministry volunteers? What are some key topics that our youth ministry and our youth ministry volunteers need to be exploring? And then finally, what are some platforms that you can utilize that you can send them to so that they can sharpen their skills as volunteers?

00;00;23;29 - 00;00;45;52
Nick Clason
And finally, make sure that you hang around all the way to the end of the video, because I have an idea that I think will not only help your volunteers level up, but also is going to not add another meeting to your plate. Well, everyone, welcome to the hybrid ministry show. My name is Nick Clason and I've been a youth pastor for 13 something years.

00;00;45;53 - 00;01;05;46
Nick Clason
And because of that, you've got to think about a youth ministry, has a lot of things that feel a little bit unnatural. Like let's just say, for example, I was a volunteer in your youth ministry and let's say I walked in for the very first time and you told me, Hey, listen, just go like, go hang out and love on teenagers.

00;01;05;51 - 00;01;35;02
Nick Clason
Like, I would probably as a 13 year youth ministry veteran, I would probably be okay and figure out how to do that. Now, if a brand new dad or mom or college student walks in and you give them those exact same instructions, they're probably not going to know what to do. For one of the reasons simply being because they are told all throughout society and culture not to do that.

00;01;35;02 - 00;01;57;06
Nick Clason
And so in a lot of ways, youth ministry is kind of creepy, right? And so we have to help A, give them the comfort and safety to do some of those things, but be help teach them in love with them on how they can do that safely and appropriately, and that it is good youth ministry for them to to go hang out with teenagers and not just be a chaperon.

00;01;57;09 - 00;02;19;47
Nick Clason
But I say that to say because you need to help sharpen their skills. You have to help level them up. Some of the things that you and I do as youth pastors, youth leaders, we already do these things naturally, but we need to level up. We need to train our volunteers. And if if one of the roles that we're trying to use have them hang out with students, well then, hey, was.

00;02;19;47 - 00;02;50;11
Nick Clason
And we should probably give them opportunities to do that. That's why I actually I created this completely free e-book. If you look through it, it's 40 ideas, a month's worth of posting content, but it's not just a bunch of still and static graphics. What it actually is, is it's teaching you in training you not only how to prerecord your messages to post them on YouTube so that you are showing up in a digital and a hybrid space on a platform where students are spending 95% or 94% of students are spending some of their time.

00;02;50;23 - 00;03;11;28
Nick Clason
But also then it will let you, your students and your leaders do things and work together on camera. Different challenges, different different games and things like that. And so that's going to be a great opportunity for your students and your leaders to start to rub shoulders. And you can kill two birds with one stone by crushing it for social media.

00;03;11;33 - 00;03;51;07
Nick Clason
How frequently should we as youth pastors and youth ministry leaders, how frequently should we be hosting trainings? Well, let's talk about that in the next video. Suffering. We should be hosting trainings. There are several schools of thought and there are a couple of different ways to think about it. First of all, every single time you meet, you may be having some sort of huddle and I would recommend some sort of thing around that, some sort of, you know, strategy of around meeting, getting everyone on the same page, giving everyone the service order service brunch sheet so that they have what they need so that they're they're not in a lurch for that night.

00;03;51;12 - 00;04;17;01
Nick Clason
However, that can give a little bit cumbersome and especially if it's like on a Wednesday night, you may be running into volunteers and they're getting off of work schedule. And so one thing that I have done in the past is instead of doing a weekly huddle, I've done more of like a monthly gathering, monthly huddle. And then that monthly gathering would not only operate as a weekly huddle to get everyone on the same page and talk to them about what we're teaching and sharing in our small group.

00;04;17;01 - 00;04;47;30
Nick Clason
But then it would also give me a moment to do some teambuilding as well as some training. And so that was sort of be a strategy to do that. But let me just say that one time, one year I was doing a monthly huddle, I shifted from a weekly huddle to a monthly huddle. And in my monthly huddle, one thing that felt like all I can explain is the feeling was myself in many of my volunteers every single time, when it was time for another huddle, they'd be like again, rather just felt like it was all the time.

00;04;47;30 - 00;05;05;09
Nick Clason
Felt was constantly something that we were turn around and doing like, we got another one of those again. yeah, that's right. It's been a month, right? And so there may be a rhythm and you just got to figure this out. What works for you? Because a monthly huddle is often probably something you have to do in an off peak time.

00;05;05;09 - 00;05;26;42
Nick Clason
So it's Sunday after church or it's Wednesday late after one of your Wednesday nights or something like that. But it's not going to be tied to and woven in to your already existing youth ministry schedule. And so you just you got to figure out when can you get all of your volunteers to commit to another moment on their calendar in their week.

00;05;26;56 - 00;06;06;27
Nick Clason
And then another idea within that is how frequently are you going to be communicating? So while you do have meetings, there are going to be infrequent or not infrequent, but but different types of communication. So things like group text messages and or emails, how frequently, how often are you going to be also sending those things? I personally I recommend weekly, so a weekly sort of communication email and then another like another form of gathering, whether that be a an annual meeting, which I haven't said yet, but that's an idea, an annual meeting, a one time meeting, whether it's twice a year, you get together for a big sort of thing, whether it's a monthly sort

00;06;06;27 - 00;06;24;42
Nick Clason
of leader gathering or some sort of weekly huddle. Now every single one of those scenarios, your training is going to have to look a little bit different. If you do annually, you probably can do a big seminar type style thing. You can probably do that if you meet twice a year. If you do monthly, you might need to make it a little more bite sized.

00;06;24;42 - 00;06;52;11
Nick Clason
Not so long, not so so many hours of a commitment. And if you meet weekly, you got to be more in like the tips and tactics zone and all those to be said. You can also share some tips and tactics to level up youth ministry training in your weekly communications via text via email. Now, you might be thinking like, okay, I see the need for this and I realize I need to figure out where I'm going to stick it on my calendar.

00;06;52;15 - 00;07;18;57
Nick Clason
But what in the world should I be talking about? Great. Let's let's talk through that in the next section. All right. Some good topics. And these are just suggestions and examples. And and if something pops up in some particular area or arena in your student ministry, then address it by all means. Right. But if you are like I know I want to me and only to help level my leaders off, but I don't even know where to start then.

00;07;19;10 - 00;07;41;38
Nick Clason
Then there's give me a list right here on the screen. If you are listening, you can head to the show notes, HybridMinistry.xyz/085 Also, if you do end up over on YouTube, be sure to give us a subscribe and a like because these topics we don't want only you to have them. We want all the youth pastors in America to know them, to have them, and to be able to turn to them in a time of need.

00;07;41;38 - 00;08;05;31
Nick Clason
But some topics that I have done or have seen or I just think can be useful. I have ten right here. Screenshot them. This could if you do a monthly gathering, this could essentially fill out your monthly training calendar for for the year. Right. One per month. So the first one is how do you distinguish between a leader versus being a friend of the students.

00;08;05;36 - 00;08;22;37
Nick Clason
You can also then chat through in another month managing a distracted group. We've all been there. We've all led a group that's distracted, especially the sixth grade boys group. How do you get them on task and what is a win for them? How do you take kids seriously? A lot of times we want to come in. We want to tell them what to do.

00;08;22;37 - 00;08;44;54
Nick Clason
But how do we take their needs, their concerns, their thoughts, their ideas, their their the things that they say? How do we take them seriously so that we can add and bring value to who they are as people? How do you pray with your small group? What are some practical ideas beyond just praying to close? But how can you be praying as a small group and be a praying small group together?

00;08;44;58 - 00;09;02;52
Nick Clason
Maybe do a little training on Gen Z and Gen Alpha? I actually have a video links right here at the top of the screen about Gen Alpha, exploring who they are and what we need to know. So maybe you could go watch that and that could be the springboard for some of your content. What are some cultural trends right these days that are going on?

00;09;03;01 - 00;09;23;21
Nick Clason
You should be thinking like, what? What's what's culturally relevant right now and how can we take those trends and how can we chat through? Some of them especially have a a team of adults. They're not living in teen culture anymore, so help expose them to some of those things that maybe even you need to do a little bit of study, a little bit of research on, but help expose them to some of those things.

00;09;23;26 - 00;09;56;11
Nick Clason
What about the power of listening? You know that it's not good for a small group leader to be in there and to just be yammer on the whole time. So help help challenge them, help challenge your small group leaders to listen first and talk second. What about the power of showing up helping, as we talked about in the last video in this youth ministry Master Class 2024 playlist as we talked about scaling up the care for leaders, shepherding you can you can spread out some of those responsibilities if if a small group leader shows up to a kid's soccer game, not only does that get you off the hook and I'm not saying that you

00;09;56;11 - 00;10;17;17
Nick Clason
should be trying to get off the hook of these things, but if you have 100 kids to get to soccer games for, that's going to be tricky for you to get to a hundred different soccer games. But your youth ministry volunteers can also show up to the kids in their small group, getting teens to serve, helping, helping equip small group leaders to to be recruiters and helping teenagers step into their God given callings and abilities.

00;10;17;17 - 00;10;40;49
Nick Clason
And finally, how do you partner with parents? Give smokable leaders tangible tips and tricks and tools to be able to reach out to parents? Very simply, something like do they have all the email lists? And if they don't, do they have access to get all the email lists? Have you allowed them to be a member of your church management software to at least be able to get in and access the group information?

00;10;41;00 - 00;11;00;13
Nick Clason
So those are just some topic ideas. It's not holistic, it's not exhaustive, but they're just ten ideas to help you begin to think about training. I remember thinking, Do I do that? Do I do you know one of those topics in a monthly gathering? Do I cram some of them together in an annual gathering? Do I weave some of them in and out of my communication?

00;11;00;18 - 00;11;38;48
Nick Clason
The answer to that is it's up to you. You guys figure out what's going to work best for you, but I do have in the next section several platforms that you can explore and look at and maybe even try to train and level up some of your youth ministry volunteers. So hey, let's go check that out. So from a once a year from an annual sort of perspective, there is no better option honestly than the NDOVYMT, which is an abbreviation for the National Day of Volunteer Youth Ministry training put on hosted by my friends over a download Youth Ministry, Josh Griffin, Doug Fields and their team.

00;11;38;52 - 00;12;09;11
Nick Clason
There is a link down in the description or head over to the show notes for our train. My volunteers Scott, which will give you info and insight into how to sign up for one of these things. The fact is the pricing is very, very cheap for training your entire team. It's only $250. If you want to be a host church or have other churches come to your church as a host, church is $400, but you get to bring as many people, as many volunteers to that training as possible.

00;12;09;11 - 00;12;30;15
Nick Clason
Plus, it's all video based. And so you get that video for the entire year. Even if you don't play the full video, you can kind of clip it up and use it throughout the year. Another platform idea platform idea number two is honestly this YouTube channel, right? Like I am focusing on helping Mel between the digital and the physical and bringing those things together.

00;12;30;15 - 00;12;50;45
Nick Clason
But I also have a lot of like just generalize youth ministry content so you could check out my youth ministry channel idea number three, you can help. You can check out the Practical Youth Ministry Tips podcast. My friend Eric with the K Williams, he is dropping gold all day long over on his channel as well. So both of our channels are completely free.

00;12;50;45 - 00;13;08;53
Nick Clason
Both of us are trying to to just get the message in the word out there. And so we want people to at these, be aware of it. But right now we're doing it for primarily for free, right? We're not charging you 400 hours like National Day Training is another couple of ideas is the do I am leader training library.

00;13;08;53 - 00;13;29;07
Nick Clason
So if you're a member of do you. I am I can't remember the tiers who gets access to this but but I know if you're at the highest couple of tiers you get access to a do I am leader training library. So there are videos that you can log into a portal and you can watch video trainings from people like Doug Fields, Josh Griffin and some of their friends over there.

00;13;29;07 - 00;14;09;37
Nick Clason
And they have several of the topics, even several topics that I was was suggesting earlier are available on that podcast site. Another thing that I have submitted content for and I have used is the My Youth Min portal by YM360. I think it's aimed a little bit more at the primary and Central youth worker, but it's a great platform to check out if it's something that you is behind a paywall, but it's got like some topflight people talking about things, people in the trenches, and it's like 19 pieces of new content drop onto that platform every single month.

00;14;09;48 - 00;14;27;55
Nick Clason
And so that's one of the keys about it, is that it is it is dynamic and it is moving. It's not just going to be like a leader training library of static videos that haven't been updated in several years. And so the MYM podcast link down below the description or the show notes, all for all these are links down the description.

00;14;27;55 - 00;15;00;47
Nick Clason
And finally, the idea that I think because things are changing and I don't want another meeting on my calendar and, and you probably don't want another meeting on your calendar, an idea for training either to supplement or to replace some of your in-person meetings is what about creating a podcast on the go right? Like you can you can offer training to your leaders as they're going as they're heading to work, as they're running groceries, as they're picking up kids from school and soccer practice.

00;15;00;52 - 00;15;34;46
Nick Clason
If you create a podcast feed, whether it be a public or a private feed and you just do 5 to 10 minute trainings, you can pick up a pretty easy and cheap microphone. Very similar to this. I'll drop some links down below in the show notes for you to check out. If you want to do video based, you can use your cell phone and you can get up and going and listen If you if you start pre filming your messages like I recommend in my full year strategy anyway, you should have a camera, whether it be a real camera or you just using your phone and you're using my under $100 starter kit to get

00;15;34;46 - 00;16;00;06
Nick Clason
going. You can use that as a way to get some of that training up and going and then you can just start posting it to places. And so if you do audio, you do a podcast feed, if you do video, you do YouTube. But like I said, what I'm trying to think of as I'm trying to ride some of the future waves in some of the future trends, because that's actually what I'm going to be talking about in the very next video, which is going to be linked right here on the screen.

00;16;00;11 - 00;16;21;42
Nick Clason
Carey Nieuwhof in his 2024 trends. It is an amazing article. He's been doing an amazing job. And I know we're several months in now to 2024, but I wanted to do a React video and so check that video out link right here on the screen because we in this podcast are trying to make digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible.

00;16;21;42 - 00;16;25;31
Nick Clason
And so, as always, stay hybrid.

]]> ⚡ [FREE] Digital Integration Strategy⚡

https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

[FREE] DYM Games
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/9-best-dym-products
======================================
DESCRIPTION
🤔 How do we train our youth and student ministry volunteers?
📅 How frequently should we be training our volunteers?
🧑‍🏫 What are some topics?
🖥️ And what are some platforms you can utilize?

And be sure to stick around to the end because I have an idea that will help you train your volunteers but not add another meeting to your plate
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/085

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/9cB_R_vSwIo

//FREE EBOOK STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

TRAINING IDEAS
1) Leader vs Friend
2) Managing a Distracted Group
3) Taking Kids Seriously
4) Praying with your small group
5) Gen Z & Gen Alpha

> ### --https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tVACJFlwpw&t=460s

6) Cultural Trends
7) The power of listening
8) Showing up
9) Getting Teens to Serve
10) Partnering with Parents

PLATFORMS
NATIONAL DAY OF VOLUNTEER YOUTH MINISTRY TRAINING
//https://dymtraining.com/ndovymt/

HYBRID MINISTRY YOUTUBE
//https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick

//PRACTICAL YOUTH MINISTRY TIPS
//https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips

DYM LEADER TRAINING LIBRARY
//https://leadertraining.dymapps.com/

MYM by YM360
//https://myyouthmin.com/

PODCAST GETTING STARTED GEAR
NOTE: Some of these items are affiliate links and we do get a small commission for your purchasing of these items. None of them are marked up due to them being affiliate links

MICROPHONE: https://walmrt.us/48UTzWh

YOUTUBE STARTER KIT: https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

======================================

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

🖥️ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

🎅 "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
00:00-00:39 Youth Ministry Volunteer Training
00:39-03:22 Why do we need to train volunteers?
03:22-06:59 How often should we train our volunteers?
06:59-11:19 Topics to Train Volunteers in
11:19-16:26 Youth Ministry Training Platforms

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;23;29
Nick Clason
How do we train our youth ministry volunteers? How frequently should we be offering trainings for our youth ministry volunteers? What are some key topics that our youth ministry and our youth ministry volunteers need to be exploring? And then finally, what are some platforms that you can utilize that you can send them to so that they can sharpen their skills as volunteers?

00;00;23;29 - 00;00;45;52
Nick Clason
And finally, make sure that you hang around all the way to the end of the video, because I have an idea that I think will not only help your volunteers level up, but also is going to not add another meeting to your plate. Well, everyone, welcome to the hybrid ministry show. My name is Nick Clason and I've been a youth pastor for 13 something years.

00;00;45;53 - 00;01;05;46
Nick Clason
And because of that, you've got to think about a youth ministry, has a lot of things that feel a little bit unnatural. Like let's just say, for example, I was a volunteer in your youth ministry and let's say I walked in for the very first time and you told me, Hey, listen, just go like, go hang out and love on teenagers.

00;01;05;51 - 00;01;35;02
Nick Clason
Like, I would probably as a 13 year youth ministry veteran, I would probably be okay and figure out how to do that. Now, if a brand new dad or mom or college student walks in and you give them those exact same instructions, they're probably not going to know what to do. For one of the reasons simply being because they are told all throughout society and culture not to do that.

00;01;35;02 - 00;01;57;06
Nick Clason
And so in a lot of ways, youth ministry is kind of creepy, right? And so we have to help A, give them the comfort and safety to do some of those things, but be help teach them in love with them on how they can do that safely and appropriately, and that it is good youth ministry for them to to go hang out with teenagers and not just be a chaperon.

00;01;57;09 - 00;02;19;47
Nick Clason
But I say that to say because you need to help sharpen their skills. You have to help level them up. Some of the things that you and I do as youth pastors, youth leaders, we already do these things naturally, but we need to level up. We need to train our volunteers. And if if one of the roles that we're trying to use have them hang out with students, well then, hey, was.

00;02;19;47 - 00;02;50;11
Nick Clason
And we should probably give them opportunities to do that. That's why I actually I created this completely free e-book. If you look through it, it's 40 ideas, a month's worth of posting content, but it's not just a bunch of still and static graphics. What it actually is, is it's teaching you in training you not only how to prerecord your messages to post them on YouTube so that you are showing up in a digital and a hybrid space on a platform where students are spending 95% or 94% of students are spending some of their time.

00;02;50;23 - 00;03;11;28
Nick Clason
But also then it will let you, your students and your leaders do things and work together on camera. Different challenges, different different games and things like that. And so that's going to be a great opportunity for your students and your leaders to start to rub shoulders. And you can kill two birds with one stone by crushing it for social media.

00;03;11;33 - 00;03;51;07
Nick Clason
How frequently should we as youth pastors and youth ministry leaders, how frequently should we be hosting trainings? Well, let's talk about that in the next video. Suffering. We should be hosting trainings. There are several schools of thought and there are a couple of different ways to think about it. First of all, every single time you meet, you may be having some sort of huddle and I would recommend some sort of thing around that, some sort of, you know, strategy of around meeting, getting everyone on the same page, giving everyone the service order service brunch sheet so that they have what they need so that they're they're not in a lurch for that night.

00;03;51;12 - 00;04;17;01
Nick Clason
However, that can give a little bit cumbersome and especially if it's like on a Wednesday night, you may be running into volunteers and they're getting off of work schedule. And so one thing that I have done in the past is instead of doing a weekly huddle, I've done more of like a monthly gathering, monthly huddle. And then that monthly gathering would not only operate as a weekly huddle to get everyone on the same page and talk to them about what we're teaching and sharing in our small group.

00;04;17;01 - 00;04;47;30
Nick Clason
But then it would also give me a moment to do some teambuilding as well as some training. And so that was sort of be a strategy to do that. But let me just say that one time, one year I was doing a monthly huddle, I shifted from a weekly huddle to a monthly huddle. And in my monthly huddle, one thing that felt like all I can explain is the feeling was myself in many of my volunteers every single time, when it was time for another huddle, they'd be like again, rather just felt like it was all the time.

00;04;47;30 - 00;05;05;09
Nick Clason
Felt was constantly something that we were turn around and doing like, we got another one of those again. yeah, that's right. It's been a month, right? And so there may be a rhythm and you just got to figure this out. What works for you? Because a monthly huddle is often probably something you have to do in an off peak time.

00;05;05;09 - 00;05;26;42
Nick Clason
So it's Sunday after church or it's Wednesday late after one of your Wednesday nights or something like that. But it's not going to be tied to and woven in to your already existing youth ministry schedule. And so you just you got to figure out when can you get all of your volunteers to commit to another moment on their calendar in their week.

00;05;26;56 - 00;06;06;27
Nick Clason
And then another idea within that is how frequently are you going to be communicating? So while you do have meetings, there are going to be infrequent or not infrequent, but but different types of communication. So things like group text messages and or emails, how frequently, how often are you going to be also sending those things? I personally I recommend weekly, so a weekly sort of communication email and then another like another form of gathering, whether that be a an annual meeting, which I haven't said yet, but that's an idea, an annual meeting, a one time meeting, whether it's twice a year, you get together for a big sort of thing, whether it's a monthly sort

00;06;06;27 - 00;06;24;42
Nick Clason
of leader gathering or some sort of weekly huddle. Now every single one of those scenarios, your training is going to have to look a little bit different. If you do annually, you probably can do a big seminar type style thing. You can probably do that if you meet twice a year. If you do monthly, you might need to make it a little more bite sized.

00;06;24;42 - 00;06;52;11
Nick Clason
Not so long, not so so many hours of a commitment. And if you meet weekly, you got to be more in like the tips and tactics zone and all those to be said. You can also share some tips and tactics to level up youth ministry training in your weekly communications via text via email. Now, you might be thinking like, okay, I see the need for this and I realize I need to figure out where I'm going to stick it on my calendar.

00;06;52;15 - 00;07;18;57
Nick Clason
But what in the world should I be talking about? Great. Let's let's talk through that in the next section. All right. Some good topics. And these are just suggestions and examples. And and if something pops up in some particular area or arena in your student ministry, then address it by all means. Right. But if you are like I know I want to me and only to help level my leaders off, but I don't even know where to start then.

00;07;19;10 - 00;07;41;38
Nick Clason
Then there's give me a list right here on the screen. If you are listening, you can head to the show notes, HybridMinistry.xyz/085 Also, if you do end up over on YouTube, be sure to give us a subscribe and a like because these topics we don't want only you to have them. We want all the youth pastors in America to know them, to have them, and to be able to turn to them in a time of need.

00;07;41;38 - 00;08;05;31
Nick Clason
But some topics that I have done or have seen or I just think can be useful. I have ten right here. Screenshot them. This could if you do a monthly gathering, this could essentially fill out your monthly training calendar for for the year. Right. One per month. So the first one is how do you distinguish between a leader versus being a friend of the students.

00;08;05;36 - 00;08;22;37
Nick Clason
You can also then chat through in another month managing a distracted group. We've all been there. We've all led a group that's distracted, especially the sixth grade boys group. How do you get them on task and what is a win for them? How do you take kids seriously? A lot of times we want to come in. We want to tell them what to do.

00;08;22;37 - 00;08;44;54
Nick Clason
But how do we take their needs, their concerns, their thoughts, their ideas, their their the things that they say? How do we take them seriously so that we can add and bring value to who they are as people? How do you pray with your small group? What are some practical ideas beyond just praying to close? But how can you be praying as a small group and be a praying small group together?

00;08;44;58 - 00;09;02;52
Nick Clason
Maybe do a little training on Gen Z and Gen Alpha? I actually have a video links right here at the top of the screen about Gen Alpha, exploring who they are and what we need to know. So maybe you could go watch that and that could be the springboard for some of your content. What are some cultural trends right these days that are going on?

00;09;03;01 - 00;09;23;21
Nick Clason
You should be thinking like, what? What's what's culturally relevant right now and how can we take those trends and how can we chat through? Some of them especially have a a team of adults. They're not living in teen culture anymore, so help expose them to some of those things that maybe even you need to do a little bit of study, a little bit of research on, but help expose them to some of those things.

00;09;23;26 - 00;09;56;11
Nick Clason
What about the power of listening? You know that it's not good for a small group leader to be in there and to just be yammer on the whole time. So help help challenge them, help challenge your small group leaders to listen first and talk second. What about the power of showing up helping, as we talked about in the last video in this youth ministry Master Class 2024 playlist as we talked about scaling up the care for leaders, shepherding you can you can spread out some of those responsibilities if if a small group leader shows up to a kid's soccer game, not only does that get you off the hook and I'm not saying that you

00;09;56;11 - 00;10;17;17
Nick Clason
should be trying to get off the hook of these things, but if you have 100 kids to get to soccer games for, that's going to be tricky for you to get to a hundred different soccer games. But your youth ministry volunteers can also show up to the kids in their small group, getting teens to serve, helping, helping equip small group leaders to to be recruiters and helping teenagers step into their God given callings and abilities.

00;10;17;17 - 00;10;40;49
Nick Clason
And finally, how do you partner with parents? Give smokable leaders tangible tips and tricks and tools to be able to reach out to parents? Very simply, something like do they have all the email lists? And if they don't, do they have access to get all the email lists? Have you allowed them to be a member of your church management software to at least be able to get in and access the group information?

00;10;41;00 - 00;11;00;13
Nick Clason
So those are just some topic ideas. It's not holistic, it's not exhaustive, but they're just ten ideas to help you begin to think about training. I remember thinking, Do I do that? Do I do you know one of those topics in a monthly gathering? Do I cram some of them together in an annual gathering? Do I weave some of them in and out of my communication?

00;11;00;18 - 00;11;38;48
Nick Clason
The answer to that is it's up to you. You guys figure out what's going to work best for you, but I do have in the next section several platforms that you can explore and look at and maybe even try to train and level up some of your youth ministry volunteers. So hey, let's go check that out. So from a once a year from an annual sort of perspective, there is no better option honestly than the NDOVYMT, which is an abbreviation for the National Day of Volunteer Youth Ministry training put on hosted by my friends over a download Youth Ministry, Josh Griffin, Doug Fields and their team.

00;11;38;52 - 00;12;09;11
Nick Clason
There is a link down in the description or head over to the show notes for our train. My volunteers Scott, which will give you info and insight into how to sign up for one of these things. The fact is the pricing is very, very cheap for training your entire team. It's only $250. If you want to be a host church or have other churches come to your church as a host, church is $400, but you get to bring as many people, as many volunteers to that training as possible.

00;12;09;11 - 00;12;30;15
Nick Clason
Plus, it's all video based. And so you get that video for the entire year. Even if you don't play the full video, you can kind of clip it up and use it throughout the year. Another platform idea platform idea number two is honestly this YouTube channel, right? Like I am focusing on helping Mel between the digital and the physical and bringing those things together.

00;12;30;15 - 00;12;50;45
Nick Clason
But I also have a lot of like just generalize youth ministry content so you could check out my youth ministry channel idea number three, you can help. You can check out the Practical Youth Ministry Tips podcast. My friend Eric with the K Williams, he is dropping gold all day long over on his channel as well. So both of our channels are completely free.

00;12;50;45 - 00;13;08;53
Nick Clason
Both of us are trying to to just get the message in the word out there. And so we want people to at these, be aware of it. But right now we're doing it for primarily for free, right? We're not charging you 400 hours like National Day Training is another couple of ideas is the do I am leader training library.

00;13;08;53 - 00;13;29;07
Nick Clason
So if you're a member of do you. I am I can't remember the tiers who gets access to this but but I know if you're at the highest couple of tiers you get access to a do I am leader training library. So there are videos that you can log into a portal and you can watch video trainings from people like Doug Fields, Josh Griffin and some of their friends over there.

00;13;29;07 - 00;14;09;37
Nick Clason
And they have several of the topics, even several topics that I was was suggesting earlier are available on that podcast site. Another thing that I have submitted content for and I have used is the My Youth Min portal by YM360. I think it's aimed a little bit more at the primary and Central youth worker, but it's a great platform to check out if it's something that you is behind a paywall, but it's got like some topflight people talking about things, people in the trenches, and it's like 19 pieces of new content drop onto that platform every single month.

00;14;09;48 - 00;14;27;55
Nick Clason
And so that's one of the keys about it, is that it is it is dynamic and it is moving. It's not just going to be like a leader training library of static videos that haven't been updated in several years. And so the MYM podcast link down below the description or the show notes, all for all these are links down the description.

00;14;27;55 - 00;15;00;47
Nick Clason
And finally, the idea that I think because things are changing and I don't want another meeting on my calendar and, and you probably don't want another meeting on your calendar, an idea for training either to supplement or to replace some of your in-person meetings is what about creating a podcast on the go right? Like you can you can offer training to your leaders as they're going as they're heading to work, as they're running groceries, as they're picking up kids from school and soccer practice.

00;15;00;52 - 00;15;34;46
Nick Clason
If you create a podcast feed, whether it be a public or a private feed and you just do 5 to 10 minute trainings, you can pick up a pretty easy and cheap microphone. Very similar to this. I'll drop some links down below in the show notes for you to check out. If you want to do video based, you can use your cell phone and you can get up and going and listen If you if you start pre filming your messages like I recommend in my full year strategy anyway, you should have a camera, whether it be a real camera or you just using your phone and you're using my under $100 starter kit to get

00;15;34;46 - 00;16;00;06
Nick Clason
going. You can use that as a way to get some of that training up and going and then you can just start posting it to places. And so if you do audio, you do a podcast feed, if you do video, you do YouTube. But like I said, what I'm trying to think of as I'm trying to ride some of the future waves in some of the future trends, because that's actually what I'm going to be talking about in the very next video, which is going to be linked right here on the screen.

00;16;00;11 - 00;16;21;42
Nick Clason
Carey Nieuwhof in his 2024 trends. It is an amazing article. He's been doing an amazing job. And I know we're several months in now to 2024, but I wanted to do a React video and so check that video out link right here on the screen because we in this podcast are trying to make digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible.

00;16;21;42 - 00;16;25;31
Nick Clason
And so, as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 084: 🤝 Recruiting (and Retaining) The Best Volunteers https://www.hybridministry.xyz/084 d83dd5dc-aa32-43b5-ae2b-2fee0673dd01 Thu, 15 Feb 2024 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 084 🤝 Recruiting (and Retaining) The Best Volunteers full Nick Clason 🛟 The life-line of all good student ministry is adult volunteer leaders. 🤷 So much so, Are we even needed? Eventually, hopefully not! 🇷Let’s dive into the 3 “R’s” of volunteers 17:27 no ⚡ [FREE] Digital Integration Strategy⚡ https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg [FREE] DYM Games https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/9-best-dym-products ====================================== DESCRIPTION 🛟 The life-line of all good student ministry is adult volunteer leaders. 🤷 So much so, Are we even needed? Eventually, hopefully not! 🇷Let’s dive into the 3 “R’s” of volunteers 🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg ====================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/084 //YOUTUBE VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8HNzfZoiX0 //UNLEASHING VOLUNTEERS DEEP DIVE http://www.hybridministry.xyz/084 1) RECRUITING //FULL PROOF EMAIL https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email 2) ROLES //LEAD SMALL https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Small-Ideas-Every-Leader/dp/0985411627 3) RETENTION //TIME MANAGEMENT https://youtu.be/xlS1kWcQBS8?si=kxHfp9_oeF8Wes http://www.hybridministry.xyz/077 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz ====================================== 🆓 FREEBIES 🆓 📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 🖥️ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym 🎅 "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 &amp; 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 The Life Line for all Youth Pastors 01:02 Finding the Best Volunteers 04:48 Full Proof Recruiting Email 10:06 Not Everybody is a Small Group Leader 14:01 Never Recruit Again with Good Retention ✍️TRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:24:22 Nick Clason If you've been in youth ministry for any length of time, then you know that the lifeline for any good youth ministry is a Dole volunteer. Leaders, Right. Like so much So you might even ask the question, am I even needed? I mean, eventually, Hopefully. No, because you've raised these leaders up in such a way that they're competent and can do the job without you. 00:00:24:24 - 00:00:46:01 Nick Clason We've talked deeply in the last episode about the philosophy and the reasons behind having good volunteer youth leaders. It's our last video to enjoy the top of the screen. But in this video, we're going to round out and I'm going to give you the three R's of volunteers recruitment. And I have a full proof email, so stick around to see that the roles that you can enlist them into. 00:00:46:01 - 00:01:06:26 Nick Clason And finally, stick around all the way to the very end of the video because the third and final R is retention. And if you lay out a good foundation and if you actually stick to the plan with retention, you won't ever have to be recruiting again. Sound too good to be true? Let's check it out. So the first R in volunteerism is recruitment. 00:01:06:27 - 00:01:29:26 Nick Clason Always be recruiting. Now you might be thinking to yourself, Well, where in the world do I even find them coming below the best places to find volunteers in your church? I mean, just think about the places that you frequent. Maybe it's your or your wife's or your families or your children's Sunday school classes. So perhaps you have a kid. 00:01:29:26 - 00:02:00:11 Nick Clason They have a Sunday school class, another kids parents in that Sunday school class, maybe a small group that you're in or that you lead. As you get to do life with people, you'll notice more about them and you'll be looking for certain qualities or attributes. I mean, one of the best things that you need to do is you need to realize that anyone can do youth ministry, but you're probably not going to find people who come to you and say, I am so super passionate about youth ministry and they look the part and they're cool and they have piercings and they have tattoos. 00:02:00:11 - 00:02:29:07 Nick Clason Like you'll get one or two of those. But like you also have to be willing to recruit the moms. You have to be willing to recruit the over 55 year old, almost retired men. You have to be willing to recruit like the homeschool dad, like the people that don't exactly look the part. But if they love Jesus and if they can tolerate teenagers, then they're in a good spot to be a youth volunteer and just ask. 00:02:29:08 - 00:02:50:06 Nick Clason I remember I was coaching one of my kids flag football teams and while I was coaching the team, it was still a church. I was coaching the team, one of the moms on the team. She we had two coaches in there on the field and she kept making her way over to the sidelines and she's like, I just love helping out and being around the kids. 00:02:50:07 - 00:03:07:23 Nick Clason Is it okay if I do this? Like she wasn't officially a coach? None of that stuff. And so we were like, Yeah, that's great because the kids are just while an hour over there on the sidelines. We needed all the help that we could get. And so her being on the sidelines immediately, like trigger my brain, I was like, I'm going to ask her. 00:03:07:24 - 00:03:28:25 Nick Clason And so one day I had a leader drop off like a leader call me and say, Hey, I can't do it anymore. I was dropping my son off at preschool, and this mom also is dropping her kids off at the same preschool through the church, which I had never seen her do that before. And immediately in my brain, I felt the Holy Spirit say, Ask her. 00:03:28:27 - 00:03:51:07 Nick Clason And I had to do the digging because I had to like I didn't know her name right. So I knew the kids names from the fly football team. So I found the kids in our church, you know, database. And then I found her as the mom, and then I just shot her an email. And I'm gonna share with you that imagery just so you might be thinking, okay, I think think through all the different pools that you have and I get it. 00:03:51:07 - 00:04:11:19 Nick Clason You might be like, I don't I don't have any like at that point, start asking like, ask other other people that, you know, who do you know, who can I ask Who's in your small group? Who's who's someone who's just friendly? Right. And one of the things I like to do is I'm like, they may not have the soft youth ministry skills yet, but if they have a teachable spirit, we can level them up in youth ministry. 00:04:11:19 - 00:04:31:06 Nick Clason And we're going to talk about in the third and final hour on retention. But how do you ask a volunteer leader? Right. So I have this this email that I've drafted. I am going to share it with you. If you're watching on YouTube, it's going to be linked right here on the screen if you're watching on YouTube, but you're dropping these now on Wednesday morning so you can listen to them on your way into the office. 00:04:31:06 - 00:04:58:08 Nick Clason You can listen to them while you're setting up for youth ministry. If you're listening via the podcast feed, we're going to continue to drop them on Thursday morning. So you get a little bit of a bonus day if you're watching, subscribing and consuming these via YouTube. So for free, check us out there at YouTube.com slash clay cynic or just search hybrid ministry in the YouTube search bar but the leader recruitment email goes like this dear fill in their name. 00:04:58:10 - 00:05:18:05 Nick Clason I think that you could be uniquely positioned to be a great volunteer in our student ministry. Now before you laugh, archive this email and just think that I'm full of hot air. Take a minute to think about this. Did you know that two thirds of adult Christians have made a decision to follow Jesus before the age of 18? 00:05:18:08 - 00:05:39:25 Nick Clason This statistic alone is the reason why I do what I do and investing in the next generation. However, while you may not feel equipped, qualified or ready, I'd like to point out that God uses people like that. The underequipped, the under-qualified, and the not ready to further His kingdom every day. All throughout the pages of Scripture, Moses was a murderer. 00:05:39:28 - 00:06:09:16 Nick Clason Jonah ran the other way. Peter was uneducated and Paul was a self-righteous bigot. Now, here's what I consider a qualification for student ministry. Love Jesus. And like teenagers, Borrow that from my friend Doug Fields. If you can check these two boxes off, then I think you have what it takes to join our team. I love to sit over a cup of coffee and discuss this idea with you a little bit more in depth, and maybe we could grab a quick phone call to chat about it. 00:06:09:19 - 00:06:35:09 Nick Clason Give me a call or shoot me text if you'd like to do that. Signed your name. That email alone has drummed up a lot of interest in recruiting new volunteers. And when I was working at a large multisite megachurch in Chicago, I needed to do a lot of kind of cold call style emails, so I'd get names of people I'd never heard of, never met, and I would send them that email to at least sparked conversation and in a lot of cases I would get responses, but not always. 00:06:35:09 - 00:06:54:02 Nick Clason And so if I didn't get a response out of reach back out via text or call just a couple of weeks later and say, Hey, I sent you an email, I'm just curious if you've given that email any more thought. So I love the line in that email. Two thirds of Christians have made a decision to follow Jesus before the age of 18. 00:06:54:03 - 00:07:13:03 Nick Clason If you knew that you owe me a subscribe, and if you did it then then hit me like, right. Because what we're doing, like I says, we're dropping this this video one day before the podcast drops. All right. So that statistic alone is why I do what I do. The final thing after how to ask him is how do you onboard them right. 00:07:13:06 - 00:07:33:10 Nick Clason So once this preliminary conversation has taken place, it's conversation number one. You're going to have to kind of streams of volunteer in intake, right? You may be thinking I need to recruit. And if that's the case, then by all means do it. But in some other cases you may get names to like a volunteer interest form or someone telling you, Hey, you should talk to John. 00:07:33:11 - 00:07:57:26 Nick Clason Okay. So in that case, if someone else is giving you a name or if they're filling out a form on your website, you need to have a preliminary conversation with them. You need to sit down and find a way to to to kind of vet them just a little bit, not thoroughly and not like FBI style, but just a little bit of like get to know them, get to know their story and discover their reason for why they want to do youth ministry. 00:07:57:27 - 00:08:19:05 Nick Clason Because while you may be excited about just a random name coming into you from the website, you also have to make sure that you're not enlisting somebody who might be an abuser or a pedophile or some weirdo because as we said earlier, people are just not naturally drawn to being a youth leader volunteer. So someone does say that they are just out of the clear blue sky. 00:08:19:07 - 00:08:43:06 Nick Clason Just do a tiny little bit of homework. So once that first conversation, that first screening conversation is done, then you need to enter them into whatever your church's safety screening process is. After they've gone through their safety screening process, whether that be a background check, taking some sexual abuse awareness classes or somewhere in between the two of those, you need to find a time to enlist them for a first serve. 00:08:43:07 - 00:09:05:14 Nick Clason Now, the way that we sort of do it is like we have our background check and that lets them get in the room for a first serve because sometimes some of that additional sexual abuse awareness training is a lot. And so we get them in the room shadowed with someone who's already cleared and screened, but they can get a feel for youth ministry also to kind of just like strike while the iron is hot. 00:09:05:14 - 00:09:21:07 Nick Clason You don't want that lead to go cold, so you don't want someone who says they're interested and then you not give them an opportunity to come serve. So give them a first serve. Once that first serve is over, have a clearing clarifying conversation with them. I typically like to do it the same day or the same night of their first serve. 00:09:21:13 - 00:09:44:22 Nick Clason Hey, would you think what do you think in killing begin to kind of pursue this in this direction unless they give you some sort of like big red flag of like, I don't know, man, that's really was Wow. That really wasn't for me. I would try to find a way to start enlisting them that night, make sure that they are finishing up any of their remaining screenings before you make them an official part of your team. 00:09:44:24 - 00:10:07:28 Nick Clason But then once they have done all those things, once they've done that first serve and they've had that clarifying conversation, get them into an on board situation and do it as quickly as you can see. I think a lot of times we say we want volunteers, but then we're too busy to actually engage with them in meaningfully bring them along so that they feel loved, valued, cared for and that their time is not being wasted. 00:10:08:01 - 00:10:31:17 Nick Clason So let's move on. Now that we've talked about recruiting, what are the roles that you're recruiting them into? All right. So rule number one is this small group leader. We talked about it at length in the last video, but the lead small book written by the folks down at Orange is, I believe, one of the best pictures of what it means to simply be a small group leader. 00:10:31:17 - 00:10:48:28 Nick Clason It is clear. It is concise. Any one of us could have written it, but we didn't. And so they get the credit for it because they did the work. But it is a great manual for what a small group leader is pouring into and investing into the lives of just a few students that God has entrusted into their care. 00:10:49:00 - 00:11:11:13 Nick Clason I think a lot of times when we think small group leader or when we think youth ministry leader, we think they need to be leading a small group. And when you think through the wide swath of different volunteers that you might need, you might not need every single person that says they're interested to become a volunteer small group leader. 00:11:11:13 - 00:11:41:17 Nick Clason If you think homeschool mom, if you think 55 and older guy, like there might be some other roles in your youth ministry. In fact, we in our studio miss you. We like to use these other roles as a little bit of a feeling out time for both of us, so we get to enlist them into another role that's not directly in the spiritual care and direction of a student, but one that we get to see them, see their faithfulness if they're actually coming to the job. 00:11:41:20 - 00:11:57:12 Nick Clason And then we also get to know them, because if they're not in some sort of volunteer small group moment, and if you're also not in some sort of volunteer small group moment, you can have a conversation with them. I remember there is a a leader at church I worked at and she was enlisted as one of our safety people. 00:11:57:12 - 00:12:25:02 Nick Clason She was a police officer and she was a safety person and she was in the back of the room as she was kind of doing her thing. This wasn't on any of our sort of radars with it, but she was doing her thing. She actually came up. She's like, Hey, could I do that? Like instead of safety? And you see how like just being a part of the hospitality team in some way, shape or form being part of it, it initiated her thought process to kind of like say that might be something that I am also interested. 00:12:25:02 - 00:12:45:08 Nick Clason So some of the roles that we use hospitality, so that's getting things set up, that's greeters at check in, that's saying hey to students, first time students, help them fill out gas cards, all that type of stuff. There's safety. Like I mentioned, and you may have a plan for that from like a hiring in an officer type of thing. 00:12:45:08 - 00:13:03:22 Nick Clason Or if not, if you're too small of a church, then you need to hire a couple, maybe volunteers, to sort of oversee it, keep eyes on dark spaces in the church, you know, keep an eye on bathrooms. Just make sure that there are an additional set of eyes on everything, because you know that as programing it's going. You got a lot on your mind, a lot on your plate. 00:13:03:24 - 00:13:20:24 Nick Clason And so some of the last things on your mind is checking to make sure that back in that back closet there aren't two kids making out in this is safety person to do that that will help you know give you an additional like set of eyes so that you can see and know what's going on without seeing and knowing every single thing that's going on. 00:13:20:26 - 00:13:45:14 Nick Clason You may have a cafe I don't love like cafes from like the selling standpoint, having to source food, but I do love having a cafe because it gives it gives leaders an actual meaningful task to do that. We can place them in in sort of like a first step kind of role before we move them. If I if I don't know this person at all before we move them into a small group leader type role. 00:13:45:17 - 00:14:14:17 Nick Clason And then, you know, depending on your set in your format, I was in a church that did decentralized host homes. And so we had groups meeting all throughout the city and all sorts of different houses. Your host home volunteers are a great pool of people and a great place. You can send some people so they may not be ready yet to be small group leader every single week, but they may be willing to create a warm, welcoming, inviting kind of atmosphere in a host home situation. 00:14:14:19 - 00:14:42:07 Nick Clason The third and final or in our list is retention. So retention is how do you keep these volunteers now that you have them? So the first thing that you need to be doing is you need to be checking in with your volunteers frequently. Now, I hear you might be thinking, I don't have very much time. Listen, as a part of this 2024 on Main Masterclass, the very first video was how to manage your time and how to get more stuff done. 00:14:42:12 - 00:15:11:24 Nick Clason I would recommend that you take a look at that because when you implement some of those processes, you will find that you have more time than you think you do. And once you realize that you can start budgeting for and scheduling conversations, relationships, lunches, coffee appointments with some of your leaders, and it's important to do that because you just have an opportunity to sit down, have a conversation with leaders, get to know them, and let them know that like you're there and they have a place that they can turn to. 00:15:11:25 - 00:15:41:08 Nick Clason Now, if you have 50, 7500 volunteers, then that's too much for you and that's where you need to probably implement some sort of coaching structure, some sort of additional layer where there's another person kind of put in that place to help be that for you. Again, similar to the safety team, somebody who can just be an additional hand, additional shepherd, additional person to help you care for the leaders in your student ministry. 00:15:41:10 - 00:16:04:00 Nick Clason What about relationships? Like how are you building your relationship, your rapport with these leaders, Hang out with them in a casual environment. It doesn't always have to be a formalized like meeting sit down with an agenda and three points to get through. Just who are you hanging out with your leaders? If you're hanging out with your leaders, I told you my last video about a guy named Steve that I enlisted. 00:16:04:02 - 00:16:24:03 Nick Clason I enlisted him to be a seventh grade boy, Smoggy Peter, which in that church, seventh grade was the earliest the youngest age that we had for our students. He still to this day, they are now seniors. He still to this day is a small group leader for them. But I haven't been in that space since like eighth grade of those kids year. 00:16:24:03 - 00:16:44:06 Nick Clason So. So he stayed all through high school all throughout COVID. Mind you all after my relationship with him left. But because I built a rapport with him, he stuck for that. And then he got hooked and he stuck and he stayed. Finally, think about appreciation. Do you leaders know that you care about them? Do you give them moments? 00:16:44:08 - 00:17:01:29 Nick Clason Do you give them tokens of appreciation? Does it have to be a big budget buster? But I remember I talked to a youth leader one time who she said all she was doing was just a pristine, like just the mess out of her volunteers. And she asked one of her volunteers one time like, Do you feel appreciated or why? 00:17:01:29 - 00:17:24:27 Nick Clason Why do people like serving in students? And one of their volunteers said, You'd be crazy not to because he was basically saying, You appreciate us so often and so much like anyone who does this job just feels like a million bucks. Okay. The fourth thing under tension is develop them well, which is actually the final video link in the 2024 youth ministry. 00:17:24:27 - 00:17:42:21 Nick Clason OnDemand Masterclass is linked right here on the screen. So go ahead and check that out because you want to develop them so that you retain them. We're working to make digital discipleship in youth ministry, in in church ministry, easy possible and accessible. So as always, stay hybrid. How to recruit the right volunteers for youth ministry, How to recruit the best volunteers for youth ministry, How to get the best volunteers for church, Why Youth Ministries need good volunteers, Church Volunteers, Recruiting Volunteers for Youth Ministry, Finding reliable church volunteers, How to get the best volunteers, Volunteers, Youth ministry, Youth ministry podcast, Student Ministry, Hybrid Ministry, Nick Clason, Reasons to Find good volunteers, DYM, NYWC, ⚡ [FREE] Digital Integration Strategy⚡

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DESCRIPTION
🛟 The life-line of all good student ministry is adult volunteer leaders.
🤷 So much so, Are we even needed? Eventually, hopefully not!
🇷Let’s dive into the 3 “R’s” of volunteers
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/084

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8HNzfZoiX0

//UNLEASHING VOLUNTEERS DEEP DIVE
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/084

1) RECRUITING
//FULL PROOF EMAIL
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email

2) ROLES
//LEAD SMALL
https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Small-Ideas-Every-Leader/dp/0985411627

3) RETENTION
//TIME MANAGEMENT
https://youtu.be/xlS1kWcQBS8?si=kxHfp9_oeF8Wes
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/077

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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Life Line for all Youth Pastors
01:02 Finding the Best Volunteers
04:48 Full Proof Recruiting Email
10:06 Not Everybody is a Small Group Leader
14:01 Never Recruit Again with Good Retention

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:24:22
Nick Clason
If you've been in youth ministry for any length of time, then you know that the lifeline for any good youth ministry is a Dole volunteer. Leaders, Right. Like so much So you might even ask the question, am I even needed? I mean, eventually, Hopefully. No, because you've raised these leaders up in such a way that they're competent and can do the job without you.

00:00:24:24 - 00:00:46:01
Nick Clason
We've talked deeply in the last episode about the philosophy and the reasons behind having good volunteer youth leaders. It's our last video to enjoy the top of the screen. But in this video, we're going to round out and I'm going to give you the three R's of volunteers recruitment. And I have a full proof email, so stick around to see that the roles that you can enlist them into.

00:00:46:01 - 00:01:06:26
Nick Clason
And finally, stick around all the way to the very end of the video because the third and final R is retention. And if you lay out a good foundation and if you actually stick to the plan with retention, you won't ever have to be recruiting again. Sound too good to be true? Let's check it out. So the first R in volunteerism is recruitment.

00:01:06:27 - 00:01:29:26
Nick Clason
Always be recruiting. Now you might be thinking to yourself, Well, where in the world do I even find them coming below the best places to find volunteers in your church? I mean, just think about the places that you frequent. Maybe it's your or your wife's or your families or your children's Sunday school classes. So perhaps you have a kid.

00:01:29:26 - 00:02:00:11
Nick Clason
They have a Sunday school class, another kids parents in that Sunday school class, maybe a small group that you're in or that you lead. As you get to do life with people, you'll notice more about them and you'll be looking for certain qualities or attributes. I mean, one of the best things that you need to do is you need to realize that anyone can do youth ministry, but you're probably not going to find people who come to you and say, I am so super passionate about youth ministry and they look the part and they're cool and they have piercings and they have tattoos.

00:02:00:11 - 00:02:29:07
Nick Clason
Like you'll get one or two of those. But like you also have to be willing to recruit the moms. You have to be willing to recruit the over 55 year old, almost retired men. You have to be willing to recruit like the homeschool dad, like the people that don't exactly look the part. But if they love Jesus and if they can tolerate teenagers, then they're in a good spot to be a youth volunteer and just ask.

00:02:29:08 - 00:02:50:06
Nick Clason
I remember I was coaching one of my kids flag football teams and while I was coaching the team, it was still a church. I was coaching the team, one of the moms on the team. She we had two coaches in there on the field and she kept making her way over to the sidelines and she's like, I just love helping out and being around the kids.

00:02:50:07 - 00:03:07:23
Nick Clason
Is it okay if I do this? Like she wasn't officially a coach? None of that stuff. And so we were like, Yeah, that's great because the kids are just while an hour over there on the sidelines. We needed all the help that we could get. And so her being on the sidelines immediately, like trigger my brain, I was like, I'm going to ask her.

00:03:07:24 - 00:03:28:25
Nick Clason
And so one day I had a leader drop off like a leader call me and say, Hey, I can't do it anymore. I was dropping my son off at preschool, and this mom also is dropping her kids off at the same preschool through the church, which I had never seen her do that before. And immediately in my brain, I felt the Holy Spirit say, Ask her.

00:03:28:27 - 00:03:51:07
Nick Clason
And I had to do the digging because I had to like I didn't know her name right. So I knew the kids names from the fly football team. So I found the kids in our church, you know, database. And then I found her as the mom, and then I just shot her an email. And I'm gonna share with you that imagery just so you might be thinking, okay, I think think through all the different pools that you have and I get it.

00:03:51:07 - 00:04:11:19
Nick Clason
You might be like, I don't I don't have any like at that point, start asking like, ask other other people that, you know, who do you know, who can I ask Who's in your small group? Who's who's someone who's just friendly? Right. And one of the things I like to do is I'm like, they may not have the soft youth ministry skills yet, but if they have a teachable spirit, we can level them up in youth ministry.

00:04:11:19 - 00:04:31:06
Nick Clason
And we're going to talk about in the third and final hour on retention. But how do you ask a volunteer leader? Right. So I have this this email that I've drafted. I am going to share it with you. If you're watching on YouTube, it's going to be linked right here on the screen if you're watching on YouTube, but you're dropping these now on Wednesday morning so you can listen to them on your way into the office.

00:04:31:06 - 00:04:58:08
Nick Clason
You can listen to them while you're setting up for youth ministry. If you're listening via the podcast feed, we're going to continue to drop them on Thursday morning. So you get a little bit of a bonus day if you're watching, subscribing and consuming these via YouTube. So for free, check us out there at YouTube.com slash clay cynic or just search hybrid ministry in the YouTube search bar but the leader recruitment email goes like this dear fill in their name.

00:04:58:10 - 00:05:18:05
Nick Clason
I think that you could be uniquely positioned to be a great volunteer in our student ministry. Now before you laugh, archive this email and just think that I'm full of hot air. Take a minute to think about this. Did you know that two thirds of adult Christians have made a decision to follow Jesus before the age of 18?

00:05:18:08 - 00:05:39:25
Nick Clason
This statistic alone is the reason why I do what I do and investing in the next generation. However, while you may not feel equipped, qualified or ready, I'd like to point out that God uses people like that. The underequipped, the under-qualified, and the not ready to further His kingdom every day. All throughout the pages of Scripture, Moses was a murderer.

00:05:39:28 - 00:06:09:16
Nick Clason
Jonah ran the other way. Peter was uneducated and Paul was a self-righteous bigot. Now, here's what I consider a qualification for student ministry. Love Jesus. And like teenagers, Borrow that from my friend Doug Fields. If you can check these two boxes off, then I think you have what it takes to join our team. I love to sit over a cup of coffee and discuss this idea with you a little bit more in depth, and maybe we could grab a quick phone call to chat about it.

00:06:09:19 - 00:06:35:09
Nick Clason
Give me a call or shoot me text if you'd like to do that. Signed your name. That email alone has drummed up a lot of interest in recruiting new volunteers. And when I was working at a large multisite megachurch in Chicago, I needed to do a lot of kind of cold call style emails, so I'd get names of people I'd never heard of, never met, and I would send them that email to at least sparked conversation and in a lot of cases I would get responses, but not always.

00:06:35:09 - 00:06:54:02
Nick Clason
And so if I didn't get a response out of reach back out via text or call just a couple of weeks later and say, Hey, I sent you an email, I'm just curious if you've given that email any more thought. So I love the line in that email. Two thirds of Christians have made a decision to follow Jesus before the age of 18.

00:06:54:03 - 00:07:13:03
Nick Clason
If you knew that you owe me a subscribe, and if you did it then then hit me like, right. Because what we're doing, like I says, we're dropping this this video one day before the podcast drops. All right. So that statistic alone is why I do what I do. The final thing after how to ask him is how do you onboard them right.

00:07:13:06 - 00:07:33:10
Nick Clason
So once this preliminary conversation has taken place, it's conversation number one. You're going to have to kind of streams of volunteer in intake, right? You may be thinking I need to recruit. And if that's the case, then by all means do it. But in some other cases you may get names to like a volunteer interest form or someone telling you, Hey, you should talk to John.

00:07:33:11 - 00:07:57:26
Nick Clason
Okay. So in that case, if someone else is giving you a name or if they're filling out a form on your website, you need to have a preliminary conversation with them. You need to sit down and find a way to to to kind of vet them just a little bit, not thoroughly and not like FBI style, but just a little bit of like get to know them, get to know their story and discover their reason for why they want to do youth ministry.

00:07:57:27 - 00:08:19:05
Nick Clason
Because while you may be excited about just a random name coming into you from the website, you also have to make sure that you're not enlisting somebody who might be an abuser or a pedophile or some weirdo because as we said earlier, people are just not naturally drawn to being a youth leader volunteer. So someone does say that they are just out of the clear blue sky.

00:08:19:07 - 00:08:43:06
Nick Clason
Just do a tiny little bit of homework. So once that first conversation, that first screening conversation is done, then you need to enter them into whatever your church's safety screening process is. After they've gone through their safety screening process, whether that be a background check, taking some sexual abuse awareness classes or somewhere in between the two of those, you need to find a time to enlist them for a first serve.

00:08:43:07 - 00:09:05:14
Nick Clason
Now, the way that we sort of do it is like we have our background check and that lets them get in the room for a first serve because sometimes some of that additional sexual abuse awareness training is a lot. And so we get them in the room shadowed with someone who's already cleared and screened, but they can get a feel for youth ministry also to kind of just like strike while the iron is hot.

00:09:05:14 - 00:09:21:07
Nick Clason
You don't want that lead to go cold, so you don't want someone who says they're interested and then you not give them an opportunity to come serve. So give them a first serve. Once that first serve is over, have a clearing clarifying conversation with them. I typically like to do it the same day or the same night of their first serve.

00:09:21:13 - 00:09:44:22
Nick Clason
Hey, would you think what do you think in killing begin to kind of pursue this in this direction unless they give you some sort of like big red flag of like, I don't know, man, that's really was Wow. That really wasn't for me. I would try to find a way to start enlisting them that night, make sure that they are finishing up any of their remaining screenings before you make them an official part of your team.

00:09:44:24 - 00:10:07:28
Nick Clason
But then once they have done all those things, once they've done that first serve and they've had that clarifying conversation, get them into an on board situation and do it as quickly as you can see. I think a lot of times we say we want volunteers, but then we're too busy to actually engage with them in meaningfully bring them along so that they feel loved, valued, cared for and that their time is not being wasted.

00:10:08:01 - 00:10:31:17
Nick Clason
So let's move on. Now that we've talked about recruiting, what are the roles that you're recruiting them into? All right. So rule number one is this small group leader. We talked about it at length in the last video, but the lead small book written by the folks down at Orange is, I believe, one of the best pictures of what it means to simply be a small group leader.

00:10:31:17 - 00:10:48:28
Nick Clason
It is clear. It is concise. Any one of us could have written it, but we didn't. And so they get the credit for it because they did the work. But it is a great manual for what a small group leader is pouring into and investing into the lives of just a few students that God has entrusted into their care.

00:10:49:00 - 00:11:11:13
Nick Clason
I think a lot of times when we think small group leader or when we think youth ministry leader, we think they need to be leading a small group. And when you think through the wide swath of different volunteers that you might need, you might not need every single person that says they're interested to become a volunteer small group leader.

00:11:11:13 - 00:11:41:17
Nick Clason
If you think homeschool mom, if you think 55 and older guy, like there might be some other roles in your youth ministry. In fact, we in our studio miss you. We like to use these other roles as a little bit of a feeling out time for both of us, so we get to enlist them into another role that's not directly in the spiritual care and direction of a student, but one that we get to see them, see their faithfulness if they're actually coming to the job.

00:11:41:20 - 00:11:57:12
Nick Clason
And then we also get to know them, because if they're not in some sort of volunteer small group moment, and if you're also not in some sort of volunteer small group moment, you can have a conversation with them. I remember there is a a leader at church I worked at and she was enlisted as one of our safety people.

00:11:57:12 - 00:12:25:02
Nick Clason
She was a police officer and she was a safety person and she was in the back of the room as she was kind of doing her thing. This wasn't on any of our sort of radars with it, but she was doing her thing. She actually came up. She's like, Hey, could I do that? Like instead of safety? And you see how like just being a part of the hospitality team in some way, shape or form being part of it, it initiated her thought process to kind of like say that might be something that I am also interested.

00:12:25:02 - 00:12:45:08
Nick Clason
So some of the roles that we use hospitality, so that's getting things set up, that's greeters at check in, that's saying hey to students, first time students, help them fill out gas cards, all that type of stuff. There's safety. Like I mentioned, and you may have a plan for that from like a hiring in an officer type of thing.

00:12:45:08 - 00:13:03:22
Nick Clason
Or if not, if you're too small of a church, then you need to hire a couple, maybe volunteers, to sort of oversee it, keep eyes on dark spaces in the church, you know, keep an eye on bathrooms. Just make sure that there are an additional set of eyes on everything, because you know that as programing it's going. You got a lot on your mind, a lot on your plate.

00:13:03:24 - 00:13:20:24
Nick Clason
And so some of the last things on your mind is checking to make sure that back in that back closet there aren't two kids making out in this is safety person to do that that will help you know give you an additional like set of eyes so that you can see and know what's going on without seeing and knowing every single thing that's going on.

00:13:20:26 - 00:13:45:14
Nick Clason
You may have a cafe I don't love like cafes from like the selling standpoint, having to source food, but I do love having a cafe because it gives it gives leaders an actual meaningful task to do that. We can place them in in sort of like a first step kind of role before we move them. If I if I don't know this person at all before we move them into a small group leader type role.

00:13:45:17 - 00:14:14:17
Nick Clason
And then, you know, depending on your set in your format, I was in a church that did decentralized host homes. And so we had groups meeting all throughout the city and all sorts of different houses. Your host home volunteers are a great pool of people and a great place. You can send some people so they may not be ready yet to be small group leader every single week, but they may be willing to create a warm, welcoming, inviting kind of atmosphere in a host home situation.

00:14:14:19 - 00:14:42:07
Nick Clason
The third and final or in our list is retention. So retention is how do you keep these volunteers now that you have them? So the first thing that you need to be doing is you need to be checking in with your volunteers frequently. Now, I hear you might be thinking, I don't have very much time. Listen, as a part of this 2024 on Main Masterclass, the very first video was how to manage your time and how to get more stuff done.

00:14:42:12 - 00:15:11:24
Nick Clason
I would recommend that you take a look at that because when you implement some of those processes, you will find that you have more time than you think you do. And once you realize that you can start budgeting for and scheduling conversations, relationships, lunches, coffee appointments with some of your leaders, and it's important to do that because you just have an opportunity to sit down, have a conversation with leaders, get to know them, and let them know that like you're there and they have a place that they can turn to.

00:15:11:25 - 00:15:41:08
Nick Clason
Now, if you have 50, 7500 volunteers, then that's too much for you and that's where you need to probably implement some sort of coaching structure, some sort of additional layer where there's another person kind of put in that place to help be that for you. Again, similar to the safety team, somebody who can just be an additional hand, additional shepherd, additional person to help you care for the leaders in your student ministry.

00:15:41:10 - 00:16:04:00
Nick Clason
What about relationships? Like how are you building your relationship, your rapport with these leaders, Hang out with them in a casual environment. It doesn't always have to be a formalized like meeting sit down with an agenda and three points to get through. Just who are you hanging out with your leaders? If you're hanging out with your leaders, I told you my last video about a guy named Steve that I enlisted.

00:16:04:02 - 00:16:24:03
Nick Clason
I enlisted him to be a seventh grade boy, Smoggy Peter, which in that church, seventh grade was the earliest the youngest age that we had for our students. He still to this day, they are now seniors. He still to this day is a small group leader for them. But I haven't been in that space since like eighth grade of those kids year.

00:16:24:03 - 00:16:44:06
Nick Clason
So. So he stayed all through high school all throughout COVID. Mind you all after my relationship with him left. But because I built a rapport with him, he stuck for that. And then he got hooked and he stuck and he stayed. Finally, think about appreciation. Do you leaders know that you care about them? Do you give them moments?

00:16:44:08 - 00:17:01:29
Nick Clason
Do you give them tokens of appreciation? Does it have to be a big budget buster? But I remember I talked to a youth leader one time who she said all she was doing was just a pristine, like just the mess out of her volunteers. And she asked one of her volunteers one time like, Do you feel appreciated or why?

00:17:01:29 - 00:17:24:27
Nick Clason
Why do people like serving in students? And one of their volunteers said, You'd be crazy not to because he was basically saying, You appreciate us so often and so much like anyone who does this job just feels like a million bucks. Okay. The fourth thing under tension is develop them well, which is actually the final video link in the 2024 youth ministry.

00:17:24:27 - 00:17:42:21
Nick Clason
OnDemand Masterclass is linked right here on the screen. So go ahead and check that out because you want to develop them so that you retain them. We're working to make digital discipleship in youth ministry, in in church ministry, easy possible and accessible. So as always, stay hybrid.

]]> ⚡ [FREE] Digital Integration Strategy⚡

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2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

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DESCRIPTION
🛟 The life-line of all good student ministry is adult volunteer leaders.
🤷 So much so, Are we even needed? Eventually, hopefully not!
🇷Let’s dive into the 3 “R’s” of volunteers
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/084

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8HNzfZoiX0

//UNLEASHING VOLUNTEERS DEEP DIVE
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/084

1) RECRUITING
//FULL PROOF EMAIL
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email

2) ROLES
//LEAD SMALL
https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Small-Ideas-Every-Leader/dp/0985411627

3) RETENTION
//TIME MANAGEMENT
https://youtu.be/xlS1kWcQBS8?si=kxHfp9_oeF8Wes
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/077

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
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Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

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TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Life Line for all Youth Pastors
01:02 Finding the Best Volunteers
04:48 Full Proof Recruiting Email
10:06 Not Everybody is a Small Group Leader
14:01 Never Recruit Again with Good Retention

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:24:22
Nick Clason
If you've been in youth ministry for any length of time, then you know that the lifeline for any good youth ministry is a Dole volunteer. Leaders, Right. Like so much So you might even ask the question, am I even needed? I mean, eventually, Hopefully. No, because you've raised these leaders up in such a way that they're competent and can do the job without you.

00:00:24:24 - 00:00:46:01
Nick Clason
We've talked deeply in the last episode about the philosophy and the reasons behind having good volunteer youth leaders. It's our last video to enjoy the top of the screen. But in this video, we're going to round out and I'm going to give you the three R's of volunteers recruitment. And I have a full proof email, so stick around to see that the roles that you can enlist them into.

00:00:46:01 - 00:01:06:26
Nick Clason
And finally, stick around all the way to the very end of the video because the third and final R is retention. And if you lay out a good foundation and if you actually stick to the plan with retention, you won't ever have to be recruiting again. Sound too good to be true? Let's check it out. So the first R in volunteerism is recruitment.

00:01:06:27 - 00:01:29:26
Nick Clason
Always be recruiting. Now you might be thinking to yourself, Well, where in the world do I even find them coming below the best places to find volunteers in your church? I mean, just think about the places that you frequent. Maybe it's your or your wife's or your families or your children's Sunday school classes. So perhaps you have a kid.

00:01:29:26 - 00:02:00:11
Nick Clason
They have a Sunday school class, another kids parents in that Sunday school class, maybe a small group that you're in or that you lead. As you get to do life with people, you'll notice more about them and you'll be looking for certain qualities or attributes. I mean, one of the best things that you need to do is you need to realize that anyone can do youth ministry, but you're probably not going to find people who come to you and say, I am so super passionate about youth ministry and they look the part and they're cool and they have piercings and they have tattoos.

00:02:00:11 - 00:02:29:07
Nick Clason
Like you'll get one or two of those. But like you also have to be willing to recruit the moms. You have to be willing to recruit the over 55 year old, almost retired men. You have to be willing to recruit like the homeschool dad, like the people that don't exactly look the part. But if they love Jesus and if they can tolerate teenagers, then they're in a good spot to be a youth volunteer and just ask.

00:02:29:08 - 00:02:50:06
Nick Clason
I remember I was coaching one of my kids flag football teams and while I was coaching the team, it was still a church. I was coaching the team, one of the moms on the team. She we had two coaches in there on the field and she kept making her way over to the sidelines and she's like, I just love helping out and being around the kids.

00:02:50:07 - 00:03:07:23
Nick Clason
Is it okay if I do this? Like she wasn't officially a coach? None of that stuff. And so we were like, Yeah, that's great because the kids are just while an hour over there on the sidelines. We needed all the help that we could get. And so her being on the sidelines immediately, like trigger my brain, I was like, I'm going to ask her.

00:03:07:24 - 00:03:28:25
Nick Clason
And so one day I had a leader drop off like a leader call me and say, Hey, I can't do it anymore. I was dropping my son off at preschool, and this mom also is dropping her kids off at the same preschool through the church, which I had never seen her do that before. And immediately in my brain, I felt the Holy Spirit say, Ask her.

00:03:28:27 - 00:03:51:07
Nick Clason
And I had to do the digging because I had to like I didn't know her name right. So I knew the kids names from the fly football team. So I found the kids in our church, you know, database. And then I found her as the mom, and then I just shot her an email. And I'm gonna share with you that imagery just so you might be thinking, okay, I think think through all the different pools that you have and I get it.

00:03:51:07 - 00:04:11:19
Nick Clason
You might be like, I don't I don't have any like at that point, start asking like, ask other other people that, you know, who do you know, who can I ask Who's in your small group? Who's who's someone who's just friendly? Right. And one of the things I like to do is I'm like, they may not have the soft youth ministry skills yet, but if they have a teachable spirit, we can level them up in youth ministry.

00:04:11:19 - 00:04:31:06
Nick Clason
And we're going to talk about in the third and final hour on retention. But how do you ask a volunteer leader? Right. So I have this this email that I've drafted. I am going to share it with you. If you're watching on YouTube, it's going to be linked right here on the screen if you're watching on YouTube, but you're dropping these now on Wednesday morning so you can listen to them on your way into the office.

00:04:31:06 - 00:04:58:08
Nick Clason
You can listen to them while you're setting up for youth ministry. If you're listening via the podcast feed, we're going to continue to drop them on Thursday morning. So you get a little bit of a bonus day if you're watching, subscribing and consuming these via YouTube. So for free, check us out there at YouTube.com slash clay cynic or just search hybrid ministry in the YouTube search bar but the leader recruitment email goes like this dear fill in their name.

00:04:58:10 - 00:05:18:05
Nick Clason
I think that you could be uniquely positioned to be a great volunteer in our student ministry. Now before you laugh, archive this email and just think that I'm full of hot air. Take a minute to think about this. Did you know that two thirds of adult Christians have made a decision to follow Jesus before the age of 18?

00:05:18:08 - 00:05:39:25
Nick Clason
This statistic alone is the reason why I do what I do and investing in the next generation. However, while you may not feel equipped, qualified or ready, I'd like to point out that God uses people like that. The underequipped, the under-qualified, and the not ready to further His kingdom every day. All throughout the pages of Scripture, Moses was a murderer.

00:05:39:28 - 00:06:09:16
Nick Clason
Jonah ran the other way. Peter was uneducated and Paul was a self-righteous bigot. Now, here's what I consider a qualification for student ministry. Love Jesus. And like teenagers, Borrow that from my friend Doug Fields. If you can check these two boxes off, then I think you have what it takes to join our team. I love to sit over a cup of coffee and discuss this idea with you a little bit more in depth, and maybe we could grab a quick phone call to chat about it.

00:06:09:19 - 00:06:35:09
Nick Clason
Give me a call or shoot me text if you'd like to do that. Signed your name. That email alone has drummed up a lot of interest in recruiting new volunteers. And when I was working at a large multisite megachurch in Chicago, I needed to do a lot of kind of cold call style emails, so I'd get names of people I'd never heard of, never met, and I would send them that email to at least sparked conversation and in a lot of cases I would get responses, but not always.

00:06:35:09 - 00:06:54:02
Nick Clason
And so if I didn't get a response out of reach back out via text or call just a couple of weeks later and say, Hey, I sent you an email, I'm just curious if you've given that email any more thought. So I love the line in that email. Two thirds of Christians have made a decision to follow Jesus before the age of 18.

00:06:54:03 - 00:07:13:03
Nick Clason
If you knew that you owe me a subscribe, and if you did it then then hit me like, right. Because what we're doing, like I says, we're dropping this this video one day before the podcast drops. All right. So that statistic alone is why I do what I do. The final thing after how to ask him is how do you onboard them right.

00:07:13:06 - 00:07:33:10
Nick Clason
So once this preliminary conversation has taken place, it's conversation number one. You're going to have to kind of streams of volunteer in intake, right? You may be thinking I need to recruit. And if that's the case, then by all means do it. But in some other cases you may get names to like a volunteer interest form or someone telling you, Hey, you should talk to John.

00:07:33:11 - 00:07:57:26
Nick Clason
Okay. So in that case, if someone else is giving you a name or if they're filling out a form on your website, you need to have a preliminary conversation with them. You need to sit down and find a way to to to kind of vet them just a little bit, not thoroughly and not like FBI style, but just a little bit of like get to know them, get to know their story and discover their reason for why they want to do youth ministry.

00:07:57:27 - 00:08:19:05
Nick Clason
Because while you may be excited about just a random name coming into you from the website, you also have to make sure that you're not enlisting somebody who might be an abuser or a pedophile or some weirdo because as we said earlier, people are just not naturally drawn to being a youth leader volunteer. So someone does say that they are just out of the clear blue sky.

00:08:19:07 - 00:08:43:06
Nick Clason
Just do a tiny little bit of homework. So once that first conversation, that first screening conversation is done, then you need to enter them into whatever your church's safety screening process is. After they've gone through their safety screening process, whether that be a background check, taking some sexual abuse awareness classes or somewhere in between the two of those, you need to find a time to enlist them for a first serve.

00:08:43:07 - 00:09:05:14
Nick Clason
Now, the way that we sort of do it is like we have our background check and that lets them get in the room for a first serve because sometimes some of that additional sexual abuse awareness training is a lot. And so we get them in the room shadowed with someone who's already cleared and screened, but they can get a feel for youth ministry also to kind of just like strike while the iron is hot.

00:09:05:14 - 00:09:21:07
Nick Clason
You don't want that lead to go cold, so you don't want someone who says they're interested and then you not give them an opportunity to come serve. So give them a first serve. Once that first serve is over, have a clearing clarifying conversation with them. I typically like to do it the same day or the same night of their first serve.

00:09:21:13 - 00:09:44:22
Nick Clason
Hey, would you think what do you think in killing begin to kind of pursue this in this direction unless they give you some sort of like big red flag of like, I don't know, man, that's really was Wow. That really wasn't for me. I would try to find a way to start enlisting them that night, make sure that they are finishing up any of their remaining screenings before you make them an official part of your team.

00:09:44:24 - 00:10:07:28
Nick Clason
But then once they have done all those things, once they've done that first serve and they've had that clarifying conversation, get them into an on board situation and do it as quickly as you can see. I think a lot of times we say we want volunteers, but then we're too busy to actually engage with them in meaningfully bring them along so that they feel loved, valued, cared for and that their time is not being wasted.

00:10:08:01 - 00:10:31:17
Nick Clason
So let's move on. Now that we've talked about recruiting, what are the roles that you're recruiting them into? All right. So rule number one is this small group leader. We talked about it at length in the last video, but the lead small book written by the folks down at Orange is, I believe, one of the best pictures of what it means to simply be a small group leader.

00:10:31:17 - 00:10:48:28
Nick Clason
It is clear. It is concise. Any one of us could have written it, but we didn't. And so they get the credit for it because they did the work. But it is a great manual for what a small group leader is pouring into and investing into the lives of just a few students that God has entrusted into their care.

00:10:49:00 - 00:11:11:13
Nick Clason
I think a lot of times when we think small group leader or when we think youth ministry leader, we think they need to be leading a small group. And when you think through the wide swath of different volunteers that you might need, you might not need every single person that says they're interested to become a volunteer small group leader.

00:11:11:13 - 00:11:41:17
Nick Clason
If you think homeschool mom, if you think 55 and older guy, like there might be some other roles in your youth ministry. In fact, we in our studio miss you. We like to use these other roles as a little bit of a feeling out time for both of us, so we get to enlist them into another role that's not directly in the spiritual care and direction of a student, but one that we get to see them, see their faithfulness if they're actually coming to the job.

00:11:41:20 - 00:11:57:12
Nick Clason
And then we also get to know them, because if they're not in some sort of volunteer small group moment, and if you're also not in some sort of volunteer small group moment, you can have a conversation with them. I remember there is a a leader at church I worked at and she was enlisted as one of our safety people.

00:11:57:12 - 00:12:25:02
Nick Clason
She was a police officer and she was a safety person and she was in the back of the room as she was kind of doing her thing. This wasn't on any of our sort of radars with it, but she was doing her thing. She actually came up. She's like, Hey, could I do that? Like instead of safety? And you see how like just being a part of the hospitality team in some way, shape or form being part of it, it initiated her thought process to kind of like say that might be something that I am also interested.

00:12:25:02 - 00:12:45:08
Nick Clason
So some of the roles that we use hospitality, so that's getting things set up, that's greeters at check in, that's saying hey to students, first time students, help them fill out gas cards, all that type of stuff. There's safety. Like I mentioned, and you may have a plan for that from like a hiring in an officer type of thing.

00:12:45:08 - 00:13:03:22
Nick Clason
Or if not, if you're too small of a church, then you need to hire a couple, maybe volunteers, to sort of oversee it, keep eyes on dark spaces in the church, you know, keep an eye on bathrooms. Just make sure that there are an additional set of eyes on everything, because you know that as programing it's going. You got a lot on your mind, a lot on your plate.

00:13:03:24 - 00:13:20:24
Nick Clason
And so some of the last things on your mind is checking to make sure that back in that back closet there aren't two kids making out in this is safety person to do that that will help you know give you an additional like set of eyes so that you can see and know what's going on without seeing and knowing every single thing that's going on.

00:13:20:26 - 00:13:45:14
Nick Clason
You may have a cafe I don't love like cafes from like the selling standpoint, having to source food, but I do love having a cafe because it gives it gives leaders an actual meaningful task to do that. We can place them in in sort of like a first step kind of role before we move them. If I if I don't know this person at all before we move them into a small group leader type role.

00:13:45:17 - 00:14:14:17
Nick Clason
And then, you know, depending on your set in your format, I was in a church that did decentralized host homes. And so we had groups meeting all throughout the city and all sorts of different houses. Your host home volunteers are a great pool of people and a great place. You can send some people so they may not be ready yet to be small group leader every single week, but they may be willing to create a warm, welcoming, inviting kind of atmosphere in a host home situation.

00:14:14:19 - 00:14:42:07
Nick Clason
The third and final or in our list is retention. So retention is how do you keep these volunteers now that you have them? So the first thing that you need to be doing is you need to be checking in with your volunteers frequently. Now, I hear you might be thinking, I don't have very much time. Listen, as a part of this 2024 on Main Masterclass, the very first video was how to manage your time and how to get more stuff done.

00:14:42:12 - 00:15:11:24
Nick Clason
I would recommend that you take a look at that because when you implement some of those processes, you will find that you have more time than you think you do. And once you realize that you can start budgeting for and scheduling conversations, relationships, lunches, coffee appointments with some of your leaders, and it's important to do that because you just have an opportunity to sit down, have a conversation with leaders, get to know them, and let them know that like you're there and they have a place that they can turn to.

00:15:11:25 - 00:15:41:08
Nick Clason
Now, if you have 50, 7500 volunteers, then that's too much for you and that's where you need to probably implement some sort of coaching structure, some sort of additional layer where there's another person kind of put in that place to help be that for you. Again, similar to the safety team, somebody who can just be an additional hand, additional shepherd, additional person to help you care for the leaders in your student ministry.

00:15:41:10 - 00:16:04:00
Nick Clason
What about relationships? Like how are you building your relationship, your rapport with these leaders, Hang out with them in a casual environment. It doesn't always have to be a formalized like meeting sit down with an agenda and three points to get through. Just who are you hanging out with your leaders? If you're hanging out with your leaders, I told you my last video about a guy named Steve that I enlisted.

00:16:04:02 - 00:16:24:03
Nick Clason
I enlisted him to be a seventh grade boy, Smoggy Peter, which in that church, seventh grade was the earliest the youngest age that we had for our students. He still to this day, they are now seniors. He still to this day is a small group leader for them. But I haven't been in that space since like eighth grade of those kids year.

00:16:24:03 - 00:16:44:06
Nick Clason
So. So he stayed all through high school all throughout COVID. Mind you all after my relationship with him left. But because I built a rapport with him, he stuck for that. And then he got hooked and he stuck and he stayed. Finally, think about appreciation. Do you leaders know that you care about them? Do you give them moments?

00:16:44:08 - 00:17:01:29
Nick Clason
Do you give them tokens of appreciation? Does it have to be a big budget buster? But I remember I talked to a youth leader one time who she said all she was doing was just a pristine, like just the mess out of her volunteers. And she asked one of her volunteers one time like, Do you feel appreciated or why?

00:17:01:29 - 00:17:24:27
Nick Clason
Why do people like serving in students? And one of their volunteers said, You'd be crazy not to because he was basically saying, You appreciate us so often and so much like anyone who does this job just feels like a million bucks. Okay. The fourth thing under tension is develop them well, which is actually the final video link in the 2024 youth ministry.

00:17:24:27 - 00:17:42:21
Nick Clason
OnDemand Masterclass is linked right here on the screen. So go ahead and check that out because you want to develop them so that you retain them. We're working to make digital discipleship in youth ministry, in in church ministry, easy possible and accessible. So as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 083: ❤️ Youth Ministry Volunteers Unleashed https://www.hybridministry.xyz/083 05b62785-f0aa-4d27-888a-b8125ca2ffe7 Thu, 08 Feb 2024 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 083 ❤️ Youth Ministry Volunteers Unleashed full Nick Clason 🤫 The Secret Sauce in Youth Ministry, might surprise you, is Volunteers 🩹You only have a certain capacity as one individual person. Volunteers not only help level up your care in your youth ministry. But also, they can be the best source of friendship and camaraderie ⏫How do we level up our volunteers to unleash them? 🔗http://www.hybridministry.xyz/083 11:06 no ⚡ FULL HYBRID MINISTRY STRATEGY⚡ https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg [FREE] My Best Youth Ministry Games https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/9-best-dym-products ====================================== DESCRIPTION 🤫 The Secret Sauce in Youth Ministry, might surprise you, is Volunteers 🩹 You only have a certain capacity as one individual person. Volunteers not only help level up your care in your youth ministry. But also, they can be the best source of friendship and camaraderie ⏫ How do we level up our volunteers to unleash them? 🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg ====================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/083 //YOUTUBE VIDEO https://youtu.be/7ytA0V0MdeA 1) PASTORAL CARE //LEAD SMALL https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Small-Ideas-Every-Leader/dp/0985411627 //MY FULL STRATEGY https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 2) CAMARADERIE //DARE2SHARE https://www.dare2share.org 3) INTERSECTED FAITH STORIES //GROWING YOUNG https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Young-Essential-Strategies-Discover/dp/0801019257/ref=sr11?crid=338IYV0RBLJFS&amp;keywords=growing+young&amp;qid=1705628888&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=growing+young%2Cstripbooks%2C153&amp;sr=1-1 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz ====================================== 🆓 FREEBIES 🆓 📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 🖥️ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym 🎅 "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 &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit AUTO POD https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00-03:41 We would all be sunk without our Youth Ministry Volunteers 03:41-06:42 Caring for youth beyond your capacity 06:42-09:13 How to find friends as a youth pastor 09:13-11:05 Students need more than you ✍️TRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa 00;00;00;05 - 00;00;19;09 Nick Clason So early on in in Youth Minister, you've probably been there. I was running a high school and a middle school ministry separate, but I was the only guy. And so the way I actually did it, which I don't necessarily recommend this as a strategy anymore, and I can tell you why in future videos. But I had youth ministry, I had middle school ministry in high school ministry, staggered. 00;00;19;09 - 00;00;41;44 Nick Clason So one started at six or six. One started at seven or seven. Thought I was really, really cute for coming up with that idea. But no other people have come up with that idea before. Anyway, in my middle school ministry. I had a middle school ministry of girls, like only girls had about eight or six middle school girls on a regular basis and we had no boys. 00;00;41;44 - 00;01;04;00 Nick Clason In fact, it was a pretty big issue, big enough that there were families leaving the church over it. That being said, I had literally only been there for about four months. And so one family left the church days after I accepted the job and my senior pastor was like, Bro, that's the whole reason why we're hiring this guy to like, help get more people here, get more, you know, boys here for your your son. 00;01;04;01 - 00;01;25;57 Nick Clason And so anyway, I had missed school ministry and I was playing Leader Roulette. And I'll tell you what, leader Roula, it is I only had middle I only had girl leaders enlisted to serve in my middle school ministry. No boy leaders because I had no boy students. And so in my brain I was like, I'll get to that problem when it happens. 00;01;25;57 - 00;01;48;58 Nick Clason And so there I was in the lobby welcoming middle school students. And I should also say that I had like 90 minutes of programing. So say, you know, 30 minutes or so of games, 30 minutes of teaching, and then 30 minutes of smart, that last 30 minutes was the overlapping part. So I sent middle schoolers off to their small group for the 30 minutes and the high schoolers sort of right at that time. 00;01;48;58 - 00;02;13;16 Nick Clason So I was I was unavailable to ever step in as some sort of small group. So anyway, middle school ministry is starting somewhere around 606 or so. I can't say for certain the exact moment. And in walks a boy in my face. I'm like, dang, we got trouble. Now the good news was I did have some high school boys. 00;02;13;21 - 00;02;35;31 Nick Clason And so then thus I did have high school boy volunteers. And so one of my high school boy volunteers, his name was Aaron Coons. Shout out to Aaron Koontz, Beavercreek, Ohio, AC for short. I call them up was like, dude. And no, you don't need to be here till seven, but can you pop in a few minutes early and can you help run and cover this middle school boy? 00;02;35;31 - 00;03;03;29 Nick Clason Small group that I was now going to figure out how to staff it. Right now I had a boy. Now I needed boy, small group leaders. And so in this video today, what we are going to talk about is the why of volunteers in youth ministry. And in fact, I actually was going to make this one video. I was going to talk about the why of youth ministry volunteers, the recruiting of youth ministry volunteers and the training of youth minister volunteers. 00;03;03;29 - 00;03;22;55 Nick Clason And as I sort of scripting it out, I realized this is a long video. So as a part of the 2024 Masterclass, I know I said in the last year, this is going to be the last one, but it's not. We are going to extend this one and break it apart into three different videos. So very a video series inside another video series. 00;03;23;00 - 00;03;42;02 Nick Clason That's why you should subscribe. Because in this video we're talking about the why of youth ministry volunteers and in future videos, we're going to be talking about how to recruit. And then we're also going to be talking about training. All of this is a part of the free on demand training for youth ministry. Master Class. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. 00;03;42;07 - 00;04;00;21 Nick Clason So, everyone, welcome to the Hybrid ministry show. I am Nic Clason Just like I was saying, I've been in youth ministry. The story I shared in the intro was about, I think 13, 12, 13 years ago. Now, at this point, no boys, no boy, small group leaders. And so from that point, I have learned quite a few things about youth ministry. 00;04;00;21 - 00;04;26;15 Nick Clason I've learned quite a few things about youth ministry volunteers. And one of the key things for youth ministry in youth ministry volunteers is the need for volunteers to help scale up in pastoral care. In fact, we have a video that's linked right here at the top of this screen where we talked about ways to use hybrid ministry to enhance the pastoral care in the shepherding in your youth ministry and in your student ministry. 00;04;26;15 - 00;04;46;30 Nick Clason And so I'm not going to get too deep into that and tools and tips and tricks on how to equip your volunteers to reach out to your students and to care for your students. But you should check that out. There's some that you're interested in. However, one of the key things not to sound too corporate, not to sound to business, is that you need youth ministry leaders to help scale up the care. 00;04;46;30 - 00;05;11;34 Nick Clason I mean, the reality of the fact is that you, as an individual, a singular one person, youth ministry, one man band, you only have so much capacity and maybe you're a super relational person. And so your capacity may be higher than someone who's not quite as relational as you. But at the end of the day, you realize that like once you scale past 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, I don't know, definitely 80. 00;05;11;34 - 00;05;32;22 Nick Clason You're not going to be able to know every single student's name, every single student story, every single student's things going on. Their families are not going to be able to attend every single student's games and every single student's extracurricular types of things. And so that is why youth ministry is so important, is because your your volunteers help spread out that care. 00;05;32;22 - 00;05;55;21 Nick Clason I mean, that's really that's the crux, the thesis is the basis for the entire book written by Orange Lead Small, one of my all time favorite resources. If you haven't checked it out, link down below in the show notes. But it is a youth ministry volunteer's job description and I actually used it in a lot of cases to help onboard some of my leaders and say, Read this and if this lights a fire within you, then let's keep talking. 00;05;55;21 - 00;06;18;03 Nick Clason And that'll be kind of the preliminary starting foundation for a lot of my discussions. So it helps expand our reach. Speaking of expanding regional, I think all of us realize and see the need for social media. Well, what I've done for use, I've actually led a completely free digital strategy. I call it my hybrid ministry done for you one month posting strategy. 00;06;18;03 - 00;06;42;05 Nick Clason It's linked right here down below. Very first link in the top of this video, I want you to check out my completely free e-book and not only can you become the face of your youth ministry, social media, not only can you get students as a main primary face of your youth, missed your social media, but you can now also, as a part of this video, enlist your volunteers to be a part of your youth ministry and especially what they're doing on social media. 00;06;42;14 - 00;07;09;23 Nick Clason But reason number two, beyond scaling up pastoral care so that you can kind of spread out the need and the desire and knowing of students, there's just a camaraderie that comes with people locking arms and going together. I remember my students, we would take them to a thing called Dare to Share. You've maybe heard of it before, and at one point in the Dear Teacher conference, what they're doing it actually said, now there's a dude, Ayrshire Live, and so you kind of host it as like a livestream event. 00;07;09;23 - 00;07;23;52 Nick Clason But back in the day they would go city to city and so we would kind of chase whatever city they're in. Sometimes they're in Dayton, Ohio, sometimes they're in Columbus, Ohio. I think maybe one time there in Cincinnati, Ohio. But nonetheless, we would kind of go to the conference. They'd have the worship and the speakers and all the things. 00;07;23;52 - 00;07;42;04 Nick Clason But at one point they'd send youth ministries all throughout the city of wherever the hosting of the event was happening. And they would say, go door to door, collect cans, pass out lightbulbs, whatever the case may be, but share the gospel with people and my students. I remember they'd always be so nervous and freaked out. I mean, come on, wouldn't you? 00;07;42;09 - 00;08;09;23 Nick Clason And but but one of the things that was so helpful but it was would help kind of break down the barrier and the entry level of starting a gospel conversation. But I remember the atmosphere and the attitude once we arrived back in the conference room, everyone in that place, they were hype. They were so pumped up because they had gone out and they actually I remember one time in one of the things they equated it to, like being on a military mission. 00;08;09;27 - 00;08;30;02 Nick Clason You have this unbreakable bond because you've been on a mission together. And I think in a lot of ways that's what a youth ministry volunteer team can be. You as you pastor, you have a mission to help reach students and share the gospel and help point them to Jesus. But then you also have leaders who are who are adopting that same mindset and strategy, and maybe they're not there yet. 00;08;30;06 - 00;08;51;03 Nick Clason You're helping kind of bring them along or level them up into that. And once you can have that unbreakable bond, you realize that even after a bad night of youth ministry, you guys are still there together, that you're still around some other people who are a like minded on the same page and beyond just that, beyond just like the camaraderie, you have the opportunity to make real friends with these people. 00;08;51;18 - 00;09;13;00 Nick Clason I remember I worked at a church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of my volunteers became one of my best friends, and we met every single Tuesday morning. We met to recite Bible verses together to kind of keep each other accountable. And still to this day, even now, at that point, something like five, six, seven years ago, we'll call each other every once in a while and we'll just kind of keep up with each other's lives. 00;09;13;13 - 00;09;31;42 Nick Clason The third reason why you need volunteers in your youth ministry is simply because of the fact that students need more than you to speak into their life and into their faith story. In fact, it takes five people in the book Growing Young by Care, Power, Power. She talked about the importance and that's going to be Campbell on the show notes or wherever your podcast catch. 00;09;31;42 - 00;09;59;34 Nick Clason You can you can check it out in the link in the description or a hybridministry.xyz/083 beyond just three of transcripts. But Kara Powell said that we need five people. Students need five people in their lives. If they have five people speaking into their lives of their faith beyond just mom and dad. But but smart leaders and youth pastors and maybe even like adults that they serve in the nursery with the they rub shoulders with and they see on a regular ongoing basis. 00;09;59;34 - 00;10;21;00 Nick Clason You need leaders in your life because you are not going to be the only primary person speaking into students lives. And if you are, that's going to leave them with a less lustful, less less robust faith. They need other voices speaking into it so you can be a voice in their smug habit. It can be a voice and maybe their small group co-leader can be a voice. 00;10;21;00 - 00;10;39;39 Nick Clason And maybe some are on the serving team that's overseeing the greeters, which they're they're a member of serving on the youth ministry team or whatever the case might be. But fill it in. So there's five people. Five people seems to be the kind of key marker and not wasn't I get it? You might be sitting there thinking, I don't have five people I know it can be difficult. 00;10;39;39 - 00;11;01;32 Nick Clason And that's why we're talking on the next video about how to recruit the best youth ministry volunteers, where to get them, where to find them, how to do it that is linked right here on the video. So don't forget, in this podcast we are making digital discipleship easy, possible, accessible in this particular video through the ministry of our small group leaders. 00;11;01;32 - 00;11;05;42 Nick Clason So don't forget and as always, stay hybrid. How to recruit the right volunteers for youth ministry, How to recruit the best volunteers for youth ministry, How to get the best volunteers for church, Why Youth Ministries need good volunteers, Church Volunteers, Recruiting Volunteers for Youth Ministry, Finding reliable church volunteers, How to get the best volunteers, Volunteers, Youth ministry, Youth ministry podcast, Student Ministry, Hybrid Ministry, Nick Clason, Reasons to Find good volunteers, ⚡ FULL HYBRID MINISTRY STRATEGY⚡

https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

[FREE] My Best Youth Ministry Games
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/9-best-dym-products
======================================
DESCRIPTION
🤫 The Secret Sauce in Youth Ministry, might surprise you, is Volunteers

🩹 You only have a certain capacity as one individual person.
Volunteers not only help level up your care in your youth ministry.
But also, they can be the best source of friendship and camaraderie

⏫ How do we level up our volunteers to unleash them?

🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/083

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/7ytA0V0MdeA

1) PASTORAL CARE
//LEAD SMALL
https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Small-Ideas-Every-Leader/dp/0985411627

//MY FULL STRATEGY
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2) CAMARADERIE
//DARE2SHARE
https://www.dare2share.org

3) INTERSECTED FAITH STORIES
//GROWING YOUNG

https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Young-Essential-Strategies-Discover/dp/0801019257/ref=sr_1_1?crid=338IYV0RBLJFS&keywords=growing+young&qid=1705628888&s=books&sprefix=growing+young%2Cstripbooks%2C153&sr=1-1

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

======================================

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

🖥️ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

🎅 "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
00:00-03:41 We would all be sunk without our Youth Ministry Volunteers
03:41-06:42 Caring for youth beyond your capacity
06:42-09:13 How to find friends as a youth pastor
09:13-11:05 Students need more than you

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

00;00;00;05 - 00;00;19;09
Nick Clason
So early on in in Youth Minister, you've probably been there. I was running a high school and a middle school ministry separate, but I was the only guy. And so the way I actually did it, which I don't necessarily recommend this as a strategy anymore, and I can tell you why in future videos. But I had youth ministry, I had middle school ministry in high school ministry, staggered.

00;00;19;09 - 00;00;41;44
Nick Clason
So one started at six or six. One started at seven or seven. Thought I was really, really cute for coming up with that idea. But no other people have come up with that idea before. Anyway, in my middle school ministry. I had a middle school ministry of girls, like only girls had about eight or six middle school girls on a regular basis and we had no boys.

00;00;41;44 - 00;01;04;00
Nick Clason
In fact, it was a pretty big issue, big enough that there were families leaving the church over it. That being said, I had literally only been there for about four months. And so one family left the church days after I accepted the job and my senior pastor was like, Bro, that's the whole reason why we're hiring this guy to like, help get more people here, get more, you know, boys here for your your son.

00;01;04;01 - 00;01;25;57
Nick Clason
And so anyway, I had missed school ministry and I was playing Leader Roulette. And I'll tell you what, leader Roula, it is I only had middle I only had girl leaders enlisted to serve in my middle school ministry. No boy leaders because I had no boy students. And so in my brain I was like, I'll get to that problem when it happens.

00;01;25;57 - 00;01;48;58
Nick Clason
And so there I was in the lobby welcoming middle school students. And I should also say that I had like 90 minutes of programing. So say, you know, 30 minutes or so of games, 30 minutes of teaching, and then 30 minutes of smart, that last 30 minutes was the overlapping part. So I sent middle schoolers off to their small group for the 30 minutes and the high schoolers sort of right at that time.

00;01;48;58 - 00;02;13;16
Nick Clason
So I was I was unavailable to ever step in as some sort of small group. So anyway, middle school ministry is starting somewhere around 606 or so. I can't say for certain the exact moment. And in walks a boy in my face. I'm like, dang, we got trouble. Now the good news was I did have some high school boys.

00;02;13;21 - 00;02;35;31
Nick Clason
And so then thus I did have high school boy volunteers. And so one of my high school boy volunteers, his name was Aaron Coons. Shout out to Aaron Koontz, Beavercreek, Ohio, AC for short. I call them up was like, dude. And no, you don't need to be here till seven, but can you pop in a few minutes early and can you help run and cover this middle school boy?

00;02;35;31 - 00;03;03;29
Nick Clason
Small group that I was now going to figure out how to staff it. Right now I had a boy. Now I needed boy, small group leaders. And so in this video today, what we are going to talk about is the why of volunteers in youth ministry. And in fact, I actually was going to make this one video. I was going to talk about the why of youth ministry volunteers, the recruiting of youth ministry volunteers and the training of youth minister volunteers.

00;03;03;29 - 00;03;22;55
Nick Clason
And as I sort of scripting it out, I realized this is a long video. So as a part of the 2024 Masterclass, I know I said in the last year, this is going to be the last one, but it's not. We are going to extend this one and break it apart into three different videos. So very a video series inside another video series.

00;03;23;00 - 00;03;42;02
Nick Clason
That's why you should subscribe. Because in this video we're talking about the why of youth ministry volunteers and in future videos, we're going to be talking about how to recruit. And then we're also going to be talking about training. All of this is a part of the free on demand training for youth ministry. Master Class. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00;03;42;07 - 00;04;00;21
Nick Clason
So, everyone, welcome to the Hybrid ministry show. I am Nic Clason Just like I was saying, I've been in youth ministry. The story I shared in the intro was about, I think 13, 12, 13 years ago. Now, at this point, no boys, no boy, small group leaders. And so from that point, I have learned quite a few things about youth ministry.

00;04;00;21 - 00;04;26;15
Nick Clason
I've learned quite a few things about youth ministry volunteers. And one of the key things for youth ministry in youth ministry volunteers is the need for volunteers to help scale up in pastoral care. In fact, we have a video that's linked right here at the top of this screen where we talked about ways to use hybrid ministry to enhance the pastoral care in the shepherding in your youth ministry and in your student ministry.

00;04;26;15 - 00;04;46;30
Nick Clason
And so I'm not going to get too deep into that and tools and tips and tricks on how to equip your volunteers to reach out to your students and to care for your students. But you should check that out. There's some that you're interested in. However, one of the key things not to sound too corporate, not to sound to business, is that you need youth ministry leaders to help scale up the care.

00;04;46;30 - 00;05;11;34
Nick Clason
I mean, the reality of the fact is that you, as an individual, a singular one person, youth ministry, one man band, you only have so much capacity and maybe you're a super relational person. And so your capacity may be higher than someone who's not quite as relational as you. But at the end of the day, you realize that like once you scale past 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, I don't know, definitely 80.

00;05;11;34 - 00;05;32;22
Nick Clason
You're not going to be able to know every single student's name, every single student story, every single student's things going on. Their families are not going to be able to attend every single student's games and every single student's extracurricular types of things. And so that is why youth ministry is so important, is because your your volunteers help spread out that care.

00;05;32;22 - 00;05;55;21
Nick Clason
I mean, that's really that's the crux, the thesis is the basis for the entire book written by Orange Lead Small, one of my all time favorite resources. If you haven't checked it out, link down below in the show notes. But it is a youth ministry volunteer's job description and I actually used it in a lot of cases to help onboard some of my leaders and say, Read this and if this lights a fire within you, then let's keep talking.

00;05;55;21 - 00;06;18;03
Nick Clason
And that'll be kind of the preliminary starting foundation for a lot of my discussions. So it helps expand our reach. Speaking of expanding regional, I think all of us realize and see the need for social media. Well, what I've done for use, I've actually led a completely free digital strategy. I call it my hybrid ministry done for you one month posting strategy.

00;06;18;03 - 00;06;42;05
Nick Clason
It's linked right here down below. Very first link in the top of this video, I want you to check out my completely free e-book and not only can you become the face of your youth ministry, social media, not only can you get students as a main primary face of your youth, missed your social media, but you can now also, as a part of this video, enlist your volunteers to be a part of your youth ministry and especially what they're doing on social media.

00;06;42;14 - 00;07;09;23
Nick Clason
But reason number two, beyond scaling up pastoral care so that you can kind of spread out the need and the desire and knowing of students, there's just a camaraderie that comes with people locking arms and going together. I remember my students, we would take them to a thing called Dare to Share. You've maybe heard of it before, and at one point in the Dear Teacher conference, what they're doing it actually said, now there's a dude, Ayrshire Live, and so you kind of host it as like a livestream event.

00;07;09;23 - 00;07;23;52
Nick Clason
But back in the day they would go city to city and so we would kind of chase whatever city they're in. Sometimes they're in Dayton, Ohio, sometimes they're in Columbus, Ohio. I think maybe one time there in Cincinnati, Ohio. But nonetheless, we would kind of go to the conference. They'd have the worship and the speakers and all the things.

00;07;23;52 - 00;07;42;04
Nick Clason
But at one point they'd send youth ministries all throughout the city of wherever the hosting of the event was happening. And they would say, go door to door, collect cans, pass out lightbulbs, whatever the case may be, but share the gospel with people and my students. I remember they'd always be so nervous and freaked out. I mean, come on, wouldn't you?

00;07;42;09 - 00;08;09;23
Nick Clason
And but but one of the things that was so helpful but it was would help kind of break down the barrier and the entry level of starting a gospel conversation. But I remember the atmosphere and the attitude once we arrived back in the conference room, everyone in that place, they were hype. They were so pumped up because they had gone out and they actually I remember one time in one of the things they equated it to, like being on a military mission.

00;08;09;27 - 00;08;30;02
Nick Clason
You have this unbreakable bond because you've been on a mission together. And I think in a lot of ways that's what a youth ministry volunteer team can be. You as you pastor, you have a mission to help reach students and share the gospel and help point them to Jesus. But then you also have leaders who are who are adopting that same mindset and strategy, and maybe they're not there yet.

00;08;30;06 - 00;08;51;03
Nick Clason
You're helping kind of bring them along or level them up into that. And once you can have that unbreakable bond, you realize that even after a bad night of youth ministry, you guys are still there together, that you're still around some other people who are a like minded on the same page and beyond just that, beyond just like the camaraderie, you have the opportunity to make real friends with these people.

00;08;51;18 - 00;09;13;00
Nick Clason
I remember I worked at a church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of my volunteers became one of my best friends, and we met every single Tuesday morning. We met to recite Bible verses together to kind of keep each other accountable. And still to this day, even now, at that point, something like five, six, seven years ago, we'll call each other every once in a while and we'll just kind of keep up with each other's lives.

00;09;13;13 - 00;09;31;42
Nick Clason
The third reason why you need volunteers in your youth ministry is simply because of the fact that students need more than you to speak into their life and into their faith story. In fact, it takes five people in the book Growing Young by Care, Power, Power. She talked about the importance and that's going to be Campbell on the show notes or wherever your podcast catch.

00;09;31;42 - 00;09;59;34
Nick Clason
You can you can check it out in the link in the description or a hybridministry.xyz/083 beyond just three of transcripts. But Kara Powell said that we need five people. Students need five people in their lives. If they have five people speaking into their lives of their faith beyond just mom and dad. But but smart leaders and youth pastors and maybe even like adults that they serve in the nursery with the they rub shoulders with and they see on a regular ongoing basis.

00;09;59;34 - 00;10;21;00
Nick Clason
You need leaders in your life because you are not going to be the only primary person speaking into students lives. And if you are, that's going to leave them with a less lustful, less less robust faith. They need other voices speaking into it so you can be a voice in their smug habit. It can be a voice and maybe their small group co-leader can be a voice.

00;10;21;00 - 00;10;39;39
Nick Clason
And maybe some are on the serving team that's overseeing the greeters, which they're they're a member of serving on the youth ministry team or whatever the case might be. But fill it in. So there's five people. Five people seems to be the kind of key marker and not wasn't I get it? You might be sitting there thinking, I don't have five people I know it can be difficult.

00;10;39;39 - 00;11;01;32
Nick Clason
And that's why we're talking on the next video about how to recruit the best youth ministry volunteers, where to get them, where to find them, how to do it that is linked right here on the video. So don't forget, in this podcast we are making digital discipleship easy, possible, accessible in this particular video through the ministry of our small group leaders.

00;11;01;32 - 00;11;05;42
Nick Clason
So don't forget and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> ⚡ FULL HYBRID MINISTRY STRATEGY⚡

https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

[FREE] My Best Youth Ministry Games
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/9-best-dym-products
======================================
DESCRIPTION
🤫 The Secret Sauce in Youth Ministry, might surprise you, is Volunteers

🩹 You only have a certain capacity as one individual person.
Volunteers not only help level up your care in your youth ministry.
But also, they can be the best source of friendship and camaraderie

⏫ How do we level up our volunteers to unleash them?

🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/083

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/7ytA0V0MdeA

1) PASTORAL CARE
//LEAD SMALL
https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Small-Ideas-Every-Leader/dp/0985411627

//MY FULL STRATEGY
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2) CAMARADERIE
//DARE2SHARE
https://www.dare2share.org

3) INTERSECTED FAITH STORIES
//GROWING YOUNG

https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Young-Essential-Strategies-Discover/dp/0801019257/ref=sr_1_1?crid=338IYV0RBLJFS&keywords=growing+young&qid=1705628888&s=books&sprefix=growing+young%2Cstripbooks%2C153&sr=1-1

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

======================================

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

🖥️ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

🎅 "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
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AUTO POD
https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv

TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-03:41 We would all be sunk without our Youth Ministry Volunteers
03:41-06:42 Caring for youth beyond your capacity
06:42-09:13 How to find friends as a youth pastor
09:13-11:05 Students need more than you

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

00;00;00;05 - 00;00;19;09
Nick Clason
So early on in in Youth Minister, you've probably been there. I was running a high school and a middle school ministry separate, but I was the only guy. And so the way I actually did it, which I don't necessarily recommend this as a strategy anymore, and I can tell you why in future videos. But I had youth ministry, I had middle school ministry in high school ministry, staggered.

00;00;19;09 - 00;00;41;44
Nick Clason
So one started at six or six. One started at seven or seven. Thought I was really, really cute for coming up with that idea. But no other people have come up with that idea before. Anyway, in my middle school ministry. I had a middle school ministry of girls, like only girls had about eight or six middle school girls on a regular basis and we had no boys.

00;00;41;44 - 00;01;04;00
Nick Clason
In fact, it was a pretty big issue, big enough that there were families leaving the church over it. That being said, I had literally only been there for about four months. And so one family left the church days after I accepted the job and my senior pastor was like, Bro, that's the whole reason why we're hiring this guy to like, help get more people here, get more, you know, boys here for your your son.

00;01;04;01 - 00;01;25;57
Nick Clason
And so anyway, I had missed school ministry and I was playing Leader Roulette. And I'll tell you what, leader Roula, it is I only had middle I only had girl leaders enlisted to serve in my middle school ministry. No boy leaders because I had no boy students. And so in my brain I was like, I'll get to that problem when it happens.

00;01;25;57 - 00;01;48;58
Nick Clason
And so there I was in the lobby welcoming middle school students. And I should also say that I had like 90 minutes of programing. So say, you know, 30 minutes or so of games, 30 minutes of teaching, and then 30 minutes of smart, that last 30 minutes was the overlapping part. So I sent middle schoolers off to their small group for the 30 minutes and the high schoolers sort of right at that time.

00;01;48;58 - 00;02;13;16
Nick Clason
So I was I was unavailable to ever step in as some sort of small group. So anyway, middle school ministry is starting somewhere around 606 or so. I can't say for certain the exact moment. And in walks a boy in my face. I'm like, dang, we got trouble. Now the good news was I did have some high school boys.

00;02;13;21 - 00;02;35;31
Nick Clason
And so then thus I did have high school boy volunteers. And so one of my high school boy volunteers, his name was Aaron Coons. Shout out to Aaron Koontz, Beavercreek, Ohio, AC for short. I call them up was like, dude. And no, you don't need to be here till seven, but can you pop in a few minutes early and can you help run and cover this middle school boy?

00;02;35;31 - 00;03;03;29
Nick Clason
Small group that I was now going to figure out how to staff it. Right now I had a boy. Now I needed boy, small group leaders. And so in this video today, what we are going to talk about is the why of volunteers in youth ministry. And in fact, I actually was going to make this one video. I was going to talk about the why of youth ministry volunteers, the recruiting of youth ministry volunteers and the training of youth minister volunteers.

00;03;03;29 - 00;03;22;55
Nick Clason
And as I sort of scripting it out, I realized this is a long video. So as a part of the 2024 Masterclass, I know I said in the last year, this is going to be the last one, but it's not. We are going to extend this one and break it apart into three different videos. So very a video series inside another video series.

00;03;23;00 - 00;03;42;02
Nick Clason
That's why you should subscribe. Because in this video we're talking about the why of youth ministry volunteers and in future videos, we're going to be talking about how to recruit. And then we're also going to be talking about training. All of this is a part of the free on demand training for youth ministry. Master Class. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00;03;42;07 - 00;04;00;21
Nick Clason
So, everyone, welcome to the Hybrid ministry show. I am Nic Clason Just like I was saying, I've been in youth ministry. The story I shared in the intro was about, I think 13, 12, 13 years ago. Now, at this point, no boys, no boy, small group leaders. And so from that point, I have learned quite a few things about youth ministry.

00;04;00;21 - 00;04;26;15
Nick Clason
I've learned quite a few things about youth ministry volunteers. And one of the key things for youth ministry in youth ministry volunteers is the need for volunteers to help scale up in pastoral care. In fact, we have a video that's linked right here at the top of this screen where we talked about ways to use hybrid ministry to enhance the pastoral care in the shepherding in your youth ministry and in your student ministry.

00;04;26;15 - 00;04;46;30
Nick Clason
And so I'm not going to get too deep into that and tools and tips and tricks on how to equip your volunteers to reach out to your students and to care for your students. But you should check that out. There's some that you're interested in. However, one of the key things not to sound too corporate, not to sound to business, is that you need youth ministry leaders to help scale up the care.

00;04;46;30 - 00;05;11;34
Nick Clason
I mean, the reality of the fact is that you, as an individual, a singular one person, youth ministry, one man band, you only have so much capacity and maybe you're a super relational person. And so your capacity may be higher than someone who's not quite as relational as you. But at the end of the day, you realize that like once you scale past 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, I don't know, definitely 80.

00;05;11;34 - 00;05;32;22
Nick Clason
You're not going to be able to know every single student's name, every single student story, every single student's things going on. Their families are not going to be able to attend every single student's games and every single student's extracurricular types of things. And so that is why youth ministry is so important, is because your your volunteers help spread out that care.

00;05;32;22 - 00;05;55;21
Nick Clason
I mean, that's really that's the crux, the thesis is the basis for the entire book written by Orange Lead Small, one of my all time favorite resources. If you haven't checked it out, link down below in the show notes. But it is a youth ministry volunteer's job description and I actually used it in a lot of cases to help onboard some of my leaders and say, Read this and if this lights a fire within you, then let's keep talking.

00;05;55;21 - 00;06;18;03
Nick Clason
And that'll be kind of the preliminary starting foundation for a lot of my discussions. So it helps expand our reach. Speaking of expanding regional, I think all of us realize and see the need for social media. Well, what I've done for use, I've actually led a completely free digital strategy. I call it my hybrid ministry done for you one month posting strategy.

00;06;18;03 - 00;06;42;05
Nick Clason
It's linked right here down below. Very first link in the top of this video, I want you to check out my completely free e-book and not only can you become the face of your youth ministry, social media, not only can you get students as a main primary face of your youth, missed your social media, but you can now also, as a part of this video, enlist your volunteers to be a part of your youth ministry and especially what they're doing on social media.

00;06;42;14 - 00;07;09;23
Nick Clason
But reason number two, beyond scaling up pastoral care so that you can kind of spread out the need and the desire and knowing of students, there's just a camaraderie that comes with people locking arms and going together. I remember my students, we would take them to a thing called Dare to Share. You've maybe heard of it before, and at one point in the Dear Teacher conference, what they're doing it actually said, now there's a dude, Ayrshire Live, and so you kind of host it as like a livestream event.

00;07;09;23 - 00;07;23;52
Nick Clason
But back in the day they would go city to city and so we would kind of chase whatever city they're in. Sometimes they're in Dayton, Ohio, sometimes they're in Columbus, Ohio. I think maybe one time there in Cincinnati, Ohio. But nonetheless, we would kind of go to the conference. They'd have the worship and the speakers and all the things.

00;07;23;52 - 00;07;42;04
Nick Clason
But at one point they'd send youth ministries all throughout the city of wherever the hosting of the event was happening. And they would say, go door to door, collect cans, pass out lightbulbs, whatever the case may be, but share the gospel with people and my students. I remember they'd always be so nervous and freaked out. I mean, come on, wouldn't you?

00;07;42;09 - 00;08;09;23
Nick Clason
And but but one of the things that was so helpful but it was would help kind of break down the barrier and the entry level of starting a gospel conversation. But I remember the atmosphere and the attitude once we arrived back in the conference room, everyone in that place, they were hype. They were so pumped up because they had gone out and they actually I remember one time in one of the things they equated it to, like being on a military mission.

00;08;09;27 - 00;08;30;02
Nick Clason
You have this unbreakable bond because you've been on a mission together. And I think in a lot of ways that's what a youth ministry volunteer team can be. You as you pastor, you have a mission to help reach students and share the gospel and help point them to Jesus. But then you also have leaders who are who are adopting that same mindset and strategy, and maybe they're not there yet.

00;08;30;06 - 00;08;51;03
Nick Clason
You're helping kind of bring them along or level them up into that. And once you can have that unbreakable bond, you realize that even after a bad night of youth ministry, you guys are still there together, that you're still around some other people who are a like minded on the same page and beyond just that, beyond just like the camaraderie, you have the opportunity to make real friends with these people.

00;08;51;18 - 00;09;13;00
Nick Clason
I remember I worked at a church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of my volunteers became one of my best friends, and we met every single Tuesday morning. We met to recite Bible verses together to kind of keep each other accountable. And still to this day, even now, at that point, something like five, six, seven years ago, we'll call each other every once in a while and we'll just kind of keep up with each other's lives.

00;09;13;13 - 00;09;31;42
Nick Clason
The third reason why you need volunteers in your youth ministry is simply because of the fact that students need more than you to speak into their life and into their faith story. In fact, it takes five people in the book Growing Young by Care, Power, Power. She talked about the importance and that's going to be Campbell on the show notes or wherever your podcast catch.

00;09;31;42 - 00;09;59;34
Nick Clason
You can you can check it out in the link in the description or a hybridministry.xyz/083 beyond just three of transcripts. But Kara Powell said that we need five people. Students need five people in their lives. If they have five people speaking into their lives of their faith beyond just mom and dad. But but smart leaders and youth pastors and maybe even like adults that they serve in the nursery with the they rub shoulders with and they see on a regular ongoing basis.

00;09;59;34 - 00;10;21;00
Nick Clason
You need leaders in your life because you are not going to be the only primary person speaking into students lives. And if you are, that's going to leave them with a less lustful, less less robust faith. They need other voices speaking into it so you can be a voice in their smug habit. It can be a voice and maybe their small group co-leader can be a voice.

00;10;21;00 - 00;10;39;39
Nick Clason
And maybe some are on the serving team that's overseeing the greeters, which they're they're a member of serving on the youth ministry team or whatever the case might be. But fill it in. So there's five people. Five people seems to be the kind of key marker and not wasn't I get it? You might be sitting there thinking, I don't have five people I know it can be difficult.

00;10;39;39 - 00;11;01;32
Nick Clason
And that's why we're talking on the next video about how to recruit the best youth ministry volunteers, where to get them, where to find them, how to do it that is linked right here on the video. So don't forget, in this podcast we are making digital discipleship easy, possible, accessible in this particular video through the ministry of our small group leaders.

00;11;01;32 - 00;11;05;42
Nick Clason
So don't forget and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 081: 😲 Your Youth Sermons Don’t Matter https://www.hybridministry.xyz/081 844670c9-eba3-41fb-9348-f0506a27b082 Thu, 25 Jan 2024 07:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 081 😲 Your Youth Sermons Don’t Matter full Nick Clason 👎 Do your youth group sermons stink? 🤷The ultimate goal we have for our students is to grow in their love for God and their love for others. However, does what you teach actually matter? 🤯In this vide we are going to share the surprising things that need to be in place, for your teaching to be effective! And GOOD NEWS: None of them have anything to do with your actual teaching! This is part 5 of the 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg 10:53 no ⚡ Youth Ministry [On-Demand] Masterclass ⚡ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg [FREE] 2024 Social Media Strategy https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ====================================== DESCRIPTION 👎 Do your youth group sermons stink? 🤷The ultimate goal we have for our students is to grow in their love for God and their love for others. However, does what you teach actually matter? 🤯In this vide we are going to share the surprising things that need to be in place, for your teaching to be effective! And GOOD NEWS: None of them have anything to do with your actual teaching! This is part 5 of the 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg ====================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/081 //YOUTUBE VIDEO https://youtu.be/gqOPjD5hN-g //7 CHECKPOINTS https://www.christianbook.com/the-seven-checkpoints-for-student-leaders/andy-stanley/9781439189337/pd/189337?utmsource=google&amp;kw=161716281504&amp;mt=&amp;dv=c&amp;event=PPCSRC&amp;p=1186432&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKqsBhC3ARIsAEEjuJhcSbVsWbqnq8WgKR-HbmYbSVDHHSUTO1p-Np1urnuMYt6U5dstMaAjwvEALwwcB //ATTENDANCE CONUNDRUM https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utmsource=adaptivemailer&amp;utmmedium=email&amp;utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&amp;org=982&amp;lvl=100&amp;ite=9703&amp;lea=2048393&amp;ctr=0&amp;par=1&amp;trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae //HYBRID MINISTRY E-BOOK https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 👉 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 &amp; 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 00:00-01:26 Why Youth Group Sermons Don't Do We Want them to do!v 01:26-06:10 The Best Youth Sermon Curriculum Scope in Existence 06:10-10:04 2 Things Your Youth Group Needs for Better Sermons 10:04-10:53 The #1 Thing Our Students Needc ✍️TRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa 00:00:00:03 - 00:00:27:08 Nick Clason Teaching in discipleship. Honestly, the core components of what we do in youth ministry. But what if you're teaching sucks? I mean, listen, like you probably think I'm here to sell you some sort of curriculum or something. That's not it, right? But what if what you're doing is not actually contributing to your students attending the way that you and, frankly, your boss want them to be attending? 00:00:27:09 - 00:00:47:11 Nick Clason I mean, let's be honest. The entire reason that that youth ministry exists is because we want to help teach students about Jesus. Jesus taught us the aim. What we should be teaching our students is to love God and to love others. And so the goal of all youth ministry is be to help students grow in that love of God and love of others. 00:00:47:14 - 00:01:14:28 Nick Clason So today I want to talk to you about, number one, a great scope and sequence for your teaching calendar for your students. However, the problem which we talked about in the video length right here is that 57% of regular church goers didn't go to church during the course of one month. And so we're going to talk in this video about the two key things that you actually need to address in your youth ministry and in your youth ministry space before you can even solve the attendance issues as it relates to teaching. 00:01:14:29 - 00:01:36:00 Nick Clason And finally, I have the number one thing that you and I need to disciple our students. I think it's an ultimate game changer. Welcome to the hybrid ministry show. Welcome, everyone to the Hybrid Ministries show. My name is Nicholas and coming at you during the flex week in between Christmas and New Year. At least that's when I'm recording. 00:01:36:03 - 00:01:57:20 Nick Clason I almost forgot my glasses. I don't have my watch on. I got my new Christmas mug that my five year old made for me at preschool. It's an amazing week, but we are still going strong in the 2024 Youth Ministry OnDemand Masterclass. You're going to want to make sure that you subscribe because we're going to lay out all of everything that I've ever learned in my 13 years of youth ministry experience. 00:01:57:20 - 00:02:14:15 Nick Clason My name is Nick Clason, youth pastor now living and working in the DFW Dallas, Texas area. But when we talk about scope and sequence, one of my favorite resources of all time, I mean, it's so dated. I mean, just look at the graphic here. If you're not watching on YouTube, you can see it. If not, you'll just have to go check out the show notes. 00:02:14:15 - 00:02:33:09 Nick Clason But it's called seven Check points for Students. It's written by Andy Stanley. And I think this is a really, like thorough and a really good swath of things that students need and should be learning as it pertains to what we teach them when they're in youth ministry. So some of those check point, some of those things are, number one, an authentic faith. 00:02:33:12 - 00:03:04:04 Nick Clason Number two, spiritual disciplines. Number three, more boundaries. Number four, meaningful friendships. Number five, why is choices Number six, ultimate authority? And then finally, number seven, putting others first. I mean, if you want to try to poke holes in that like you may, there may be some things that you're like that's missing here, that's missing there. But like, if were to say love God, love others, you can almost go back through that, similar to what Jesus did with the 635 different commandments and put all of them into a classification of love, God love others, right? 00:03:04:04 - 00:03:23:04 Nick Clason So like an authentic faith that we love God and spiritual disciplines, it's like love God and moral boundaries, a combination of the two. But I would probably put it in love. Others and meaningful friendships is also love others. But there's also a benefit to us in that as well, making wise choices about loving others and ultimate authority is probably about loving God and finally putting others first. 00:03:23:04 - 00:03:39:26 Nick Clason Let's love others, right? And so if you break it down to those different categories, like if you just have those seven things sort of on your mind of like, okay, these are the main kind of core things that we want our students to learn. What I would do is I would kind of sprinkle those throughout the year, kind of kind of space them out. 00:03:39:26 - 00:04:06:25 Nick Clason Right? And so I'll just give you a quick snapshot into what we're doing in our student ministry. You know, I'm not trying to say any sort of curriculum. I have a curriculum to sell you, but there are a ton of different resources out there. Why? I'm through 60 so series do you I am has series even have a new thing called co-leader if you haven't checked that out Collider does everything for you, not just your message content but also like your slides and your smog questions and your games and your content in your worship, like it does everything for you. 00:04:06:25 - 00:04:28:02 Nick Clason It is, and it's much cheaper than some of the other content companies out there, like, say, like an XP three or like an orange. But if you have the budget, you might want to try them out too, because they have a lot of really good resources. So back in September, what we talked about is we actually led the year off starting a few weeks early in August, kind of more like the back to school around August 20th is when our students go back to school in Texas. 00:04:28:05 - 00:04:48:15 Nick Clason And we did a three ways How to not ruin your school year. That was kind of like our focus and is basically like, if you don't connect with God, if you don't connect with us, if you're not in a small group, right, like those are some of the ways in which you can like ruin your school year. Then we moved on in October and we talked about Elephants In the Room is one of my favorite series that we did. 00:04:48:15 - 00:05:08:02 Nick Clason We talked about racism and cheating and bullying and some of the bigger kind of like hot topic things. Like everyone know the label. If we don't really address them very often, Then we did a series called Gratitude or Gratitude is your typical Thanksgiving series doing did a Christmas series. And that's one of the tricky things about that's what the tricky things about the scope and sequence is. 00:05:08:02 - 00:05:30:00 Nick Clason You only really get a few months and then you kind of into your like Thanksgiving and your Christmas kind of vibes. In January, we're doing a series called Kings, and it is exploring four different kings of Israel. We got David, we got Joe Joash, we got real boom and then we got Hezekiah. So everyone knows David, but the other three are a little bit less known and it's about how to make the most of the hand that you're dealt. 00:05:30:02 - 00:05:47:25 Nick Clason In February, we're going to look at like a biblical literacy type of thing and basically teaching students how to navigate the Bible, how to read it, why it's important, why the Bible should have, you know, ultimate authority in your life. In March, we're going to do a Easter type series, and then we're going to end the year with Faith's biggest questions. 00:05:47:25 - 00:06:07:04 Nick Clason And we're going to, again, kind of zero in and some more hotter topic type of things. And so that's how we laid out our scope in our sequence. If you look back at any Stanleys, like some of them tie in there, some of them don't, you know, But at the end of the day, like we're trying to give our students a good understanding of how to love God and how to love others. 00:06:07:04 - 00:06:28:21 Nick Clason But the problem is that we've all been trying to navigate what do we do when our students don't show up to hear what we have to teach them? So what do we do about this attendance conundrum? People are attending church less and less, especially post pandemic. And so I think there really like two things that we need to try and create in our student ministry. 00:06:28:21 - 00:06:48:15 Nick Clason And these things actually have nothing to do with teaching. But if we create these things, they will enhance our teaching. And the first one is this Students need a place to belong. It's no longer if you build it, they will come. I worked at a large church in Cincinnati. Eric Geiger, who is now the lead pastor at a manchester. 00:06:48:19 - 00:07:08:24 Nick Clason He was a youth pastor there, and they built the space that I inherited for Eric Geiger. I don't think he ever made it into that building during his tenure there, but there were people that that grew up in Eric's youth ministry, and they said that like that youth ministry was the talk of the town and everyone like to come in and play billiards. 00:07:08:24 - 00:07:30:21 Nick Clason And so I inherited so many billiards tables and you know, that that's like ultimately a curse because you can't actually move those things. And so that was sort of under the mindset that like if we build it, if we have this thing, they will come. But I think now it's shifting in a more and more digital sort of way, a more digital sort of mindset. 00:07:30:21 - 00:07:51:04 Nick Clason I think students and teenagers are more thinking like, if my friends are here, then I'll show up, has and listen, you should still do a good job, you should still focus, you should still plan, you should still prep. But I think far less of that has to do anything with what you produce, what you put out there, what your programing and more. 00:07:51:06 - 00:08:12:20 Nick Clason Are we creating a place for students to belong? I it doesn't really sound very spiritual and no amount of prep on your message is really going to help create some of that. Right? But that really is, I think, the crux of where we find ourselves. That's the first one. The second thing is that students need to have ownership and they will stick and they will stay attached to youth ministry, especially the older they get. 00:08:12:20 - 00:08:36:03 Nick Clason And once they start getting keys and driver's license and cars, if they feel a sense of ownership of what's going on in our youth ministry. And so for teaching right to be good, you need students to find a place to belong. And you also want to help them find an opportunity to attach and be accessibly owning some of what your student ministry has to offer. 00:08:36:03 - 00:08:57:15 Nick Clason So as far as your content goes, like you should, you should care about your scope and sequence, you should pray about it, you should think about it, you should pore over it. However, oftentimes that isn't what is keeping sticking and attracting students, right? As far as the content goes, you can preach more than just the one time a week that you live in the room with all of your students. 00:08:57:18 - 00:09:28:27 Nick Clason Right? And that's why I would say I'd actually make the argument that I think the Internet is better for content delivery. Obviously, community ownership, serving prayer, some of those those are not better on the Internet, but content delivery and teaching can be done on the Internet. And so if students and if people are attending 57% not coming to church during the course of the month, then I want to I want to ask you to consider would you think about the idea of going hybrid? 00:09:28:27 - 00:09:49:09 Nick Clason And when I say hybrid, I'm not just talking about only your online presence. I'm not just talking about only your in-person presence. I'm talking about a melding of the two. What can you produce? What can you put out there digitally? What kind of teaching content can you create? Can you do more podcasts? Can you do smaller bite sized social media, short type things? 00:09:49:11 - 00:10:14:04 Nick Clason I have a fully laid out strategy right here linked down below in my completely free e-book, and that will help you be able to focus on the belonging and the ownership pieces and still deliver content. Because we need students to have content, We need students to learn things. We need students to be disabled. But the only way in which are disabled does not have to be live and in the room. 00:10:14:07 - 00:10:34:04 Nick Clason So as I said at the beginning, what is the ultimate number one thing that we need from our students is this is we need to help create for them a meaningful attach statement to Jesus. And when you choose to go hybrid, you can offer all of this content, all the content that you want in the world, paired with a warm community. 00:10:34:04 - 00:10:59:01 Nick Clason And that really is the best of both worlds. Your environment matters, which is why I think the way in which we approach programing and games is such a crucial component of youth ministry, especially in the face of this mental health crisis that we're all facing with teenagers helping students be able to laugh. And that video is linked right here on the screen because we're making digital discipleship not only easy, but also accessible. 00:10:59:01 - 00:11:02:28 Nick Clason So as always, don't forget stay hybrid. Youth Pastor, Youth Ministry, Student Pastor, Student Ministry, Youth Ministry Podcast, Student Ministry Podcast, Hybrid Ministry, Digital Ministry, Digital Discipleship Tools, Teaching Teenagers, Discipleship for Teenagers, Andy Stanley 7 Checkpoints, Student Ministry Scope and Sequence, Teenagers Mental Health Crisis, Youth Ministry and Mental Health, ⚡ Youth Ministry [On-Demand] Masterclass ⚡

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

[FREE] 2024 Social Media Strategy
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book
======================================
DESCRIPTION
👎 Do your youth group sermons stink?

🤷The ultimate goal we have for our students is to grow in their love for God and their love for others. However, does what you teach actually matter?

🤯In this vide we are going to share the surprising things that need to be in place, for your teaching to be effective! And GOOD NEWS: None of them have anything to do with your actual teaching! 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/081

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/gqOPjD5hN-g

//7 CHECKPOINTS
https://www.christianbook.com/the-seven-checkpoints-for-student-leaders/andy-stanley/9781439189337/pd/189337?utm_source=google&kw=161716281504&mt=&dv=c&event=PPCSRC&p=1186432&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKqsBhC3ARIsAEEjuJhcSbVs_Wbqnq8WgKR-HbmYbSVDHHSUTO1p-Np1urnuM_Yt6U5dstMaAjwvEALw_wcB

//ATTENDANCE CONUNDRUM
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&org=982&lvl=100&ite=9703&lea=2048393&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae

//HYBRID MINISTRY E-BOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
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Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

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Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

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TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-01:26 Why Youth Group Sermons Don't Do We Want them to do!v
01:26-06:10 The Best Youth Sermon Curriculum Scope in Existence
06:10-10:04 2 Things Your Youth Group Needs for Better Sermons
10:04-10:53 The #1 Thing Our Students Needc

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:27:08
Nick Clason
Teaching in discipleship. Honestly, the core components of what we do in youth ministry. But what if you're teaching sucks? I mean, listen, like you probably think I'm here to sell you some sort of curriculum or something. That's not it, right? But what if what you're doing is not actually contributing to your students attending the way that you and, frankly, your boss want them to be attending?

00:00:27:09 - 00:00:47:11
Nick Clason
I mean, let's be honest. The entire reason that that youth ministry exists is because we want to help teach students about Jesus. Jesus taught us the aim. What we should be teaching our students is to love God and to love others. And so the goal of all youth ministry is be to help students grow in that love of God and love of others.

00:00:47:14 - 00:01:14:28
Nick Clason
So today I want to talk to you about, number one, a great scope and sequence for your teaching calendar for your students. However, the problem which we talked about in the video length right here is that 57% of regular church goers didn't go to church during the course of one month. And so we're going to talk in this video about the two key things that you actually need to address in your youth ministry and in your youth ministry space before you can even solve the attendance issues as it relates to teaching.

00:01:14:29 - 00:01:36:00
Nick Clason
And finally, I have the number one thing that you and I need to disciple our students. I think it's an ultimate game changer. Welcome to the hybrid ministry show. Welcome, everyone to the Hybrid Ministries show. My name is Nicholas and coming at you during the flex week in between Christmas and New Year. At least that's when I'm recording.

00:01:36:03 - 00:01:57:20
Nick Clason
I almost forgot my glasses. I don't have my watch on. I got my new Christmas mug that my five year old made for me at preschool. It's an amazing week, but we are still going strong in the 2024 Youth Ministry OnDemand Masterclass. You're going to want to make sure that you subscribe because we're going to lay out all of everything that I've ever learned in my 13 years of youth ministry experience.

00:01:57:20 - 00:02:14:15
Nick Clason
My name is Nick Clason, youth pastor now living and working in the DFW Dallas, Texas area. But when we talk about scope and sequence, one of my favorite resources of all time, I mean, it's so dated. I mean, just look at the graphic here. If you're not watching on YouTube, you can see it. If not, you'll just have to go check out the show notes.

00:02:14:15 - 00:02:33:09
Nick Clason
But it's called seven Check points for Students. It's written by Andy Stanley. And I think this is a really, like thorough and a really good swath of things that students need and should be learning as it pertains to what we teach them when they're in youth ministry. So some of those check point, some of those things are, number one, an authentic faith.

00:02:33:12 - 00:03:04:04
Nick Clason
Number two, spiritual disciplines. Number three, more boundaries. Number four, meaningful friendships. Number five, why is choices Number six, ultimate authority? And then finally, number seven, putting others first. I mean, if you want to try to poke holes in that like you may, there may be some things that you're like that's missing here, that's missing there. But like, if were to say love God, love others, you can almost go back through that, similar to what Jesus did with the 635 different commandments and put all of them into a classification of love, God love others, right?

00:03:04:04 - 00:03:23:04
Nick Clason
So like an authentic faith that we love God and spiritual disciplines, it's like love God and moral boundaries, a combination of the two. But I would probably put it in love. Others and meaningful friendships is also love others. But there's also a benefit to us in that as well, making wise choices about loving others and ultimate authority is probably about loving God and finally putting others first.

00:03:23:04 - 00:03:39:26
Nick Clason
Let's love others, right? And so if you break it down to those different categories, like if you just have those seven things sort of on your mind of like, okay, these are the main kind of core things that we want our students to learn. What I would do is I would kind of sprinkle those throughout the year, kind of kind of space them out.

00:03:39:26 - 00:04:06:25
Nick Clason
Right? And so I'll just give you a quick snapshot into what we're doing in our student ministry. You know, I'm not trying to say any sort of curriculum. I have a curriculum to sell you, but there are a ton of different resources out there. Why? I'm through 60 so series do you I am has series even have a new thing called co-leader if you haven't checked that out Collider does everything for you, not just your message content but also like your slides and your smog questions and your games and your content in your worship, like it does everything for you.

00:04:06:25 - 00:04:28:02
Nick Clason
It is, and it's much cheaper than some of the other content companies out there, like, say, like an XP three or like an orange. But if you have the budget, you might want to try them out too, because they have a lot of really good resources. So back in September, what we talked about is we actually led the year off starting a few weeks early in August, kind of more like the back to school around August 20th is when our students go back to school in Texas.

00:04:28:05 - 00:04:48:15
Nick Clason
And we did a three ways How to not ruin your school year. That was kind of like our focus and is basically like, if you don't connect with God, if you don't connect with us, if you're not in a small group, right, like those are some of the ways in which you can like ruin your school year. Then we moved on in October and we talked about Elephants In the Room is one of my favorite series that we did.

00:04:48:15 - 00:05:08:02
Nick Clason
We talked about racism and cheating and bullying and some of the bigger kind of like hot topic things. Like everyone know the label. If we don't really address them very often, Then we did a series called Gratitude or Gratitude is your typical Thanksgiving series doing did a Christmas series. And that's one of the tricky things about that's what the tricky things about the scope and sequence is.

00:05:08:02 - 00:05:30:00
Nick Clason
You only really get a few months and then you kind of into your like Thanksgiving and your Christmas kind of vibes. In January, we're doing a series called Kings, and it is exploring four different kings of Israel. We got David, we got Joe Joash, we got real boom and then we got Hezekiah. So everyone knows David, but the other three are a little bit less known and it's about how to make the most of the hand that you're dealt.

00:05:30:02 - 00:05:47:25
Nick Clason
In February, we're going to look at like a biblical literacy type of thing and basically teaching students how to navigate the Bible, how to read it, why it's important, why the Bible should have, you know, ultimate authority in your life. In March, we're going to do a Easter type series, and then we're going to end the year with Faith's biggest questions.

00:05:47:25 - 00:06:07:04
Nick Clason
And we're going to, again, kind of zero in and some more hotter topic type of things. And so that's how we laid out our scope in our sequence. If you look back at any Stanleys, like some of them tie in there, some of them don't, you know, But at the end of the day, like we're trying to give our students a good understanding of how to love God and how to love others.

00:06:07:04 - 00:06:28:21
Nick Clason
But the problem is that we've all been trying to navigate what do we do when our students don't show up to hear what we have to teach them? So what do we do about this attendance conundrum? People are attending church less and less, especially post pandemic. And so I think there really like two things that we need to try and create in our student ministry.

00:06:28:21 - 00:06:48:15
Nick Clason
And these things actually have nothing to do with teaching. But if we create these things, they will enhance our teaching. And the first one is this Students need a place to belong. It's no longer if you build it, they will come. I worked at a large church in Cincinnati. Eric Geiger, who is now the lead pastor at a manchester.

00:06:48:19 - 00:07:08:24
Nick Clason
He was a youth pastor there, and they built the space that I inherited for Eric Geiger. I don't think he ever made it into that building during his tenure there, but there were people that that grew up in Eric's youth ministry, and they said that like that youth ministry was the talk of the town and everyone like to come in and play billiards.

00:07:08:24 - 00:07:30:21
Nick Clason
And so I inherited so many billiards tables and you know, that that's like ultimately a curse because you can't actually move those things. And so that was sort of under the mindset that like if we build it, if we have this thing, they will come. But I think now it's shifting in a more and more digital sort of way, a more digital sort of mindset.

00:07:30:21 - 00:07:51:04
Nick Clason
I think students and teenagers are more thinking like, if my friends are here, then I'll show up, has and listen, you should still do a good job, you should still focus, you should still plan, you should still prep. But I think far less of that has to do anything with what you produce, what you put out there, what your programing and more.

00:07:51:06 - 00:08:12:20
Nick Clason
Are we creating a place for students to belong? I it doesn't really sound very spiritual and no amount of prep on your message is really going to help create some of that. Right? But that really is, I think, the crux of where we find ourselves. That's the first one. The second thing is that students need to have ownership and they will stick and they will stay attached to youth ministry, especially the older they get.

00:08:12:20 - 00:08:36:03
Nick Clason
And once they start getting keys and driver's license and cars, if they feel a sense of ownership of what's going on in our youth ministry. And so for teaching right to be good, you need students to find a place to belong. And you also want to help them find an opportunity to attach and be accessibly owning some of what your student ministry has to offer.

00:08:36:03 - 00:08:57:15
Nick Clason
So as far as your content goes, like you should, you should care about your scope and sequence, you should pray about it, you should think about it, you should pore over it. However, oftentimes that isn't what is keeping sticking and attracting students, right? As far as the content goes, you can preach more than just the one time a week that you live in the room with all of your students.

00:08:57:18 - 00:09:28:27
Nick Clason
Right? And that's why I would say I'd actually make the argument that I think the Internet is better for content delivery. Obviously, community ownership, serving prayer, some of those those are not better on the Internet, but content delivery and teaching can be done on the Internet. And so if students and if people are attending 57% not coming to church during the course of the month, then I want to I want to ask you to consider would you think about the idea of going hybrid?

00:09:28:27 - 00:09:49:09
Nick Clason
And when I say hybrid, I'm not just talking about only your online presence. I'm not just talking about only your in-person presence. I'm talking about a melding of the two. What can you produce? What can you put out there digitally? What kind of teaching content can you create? Can you do more podcasts? Can you do smaller bite sized social media, short type things?

00:09:49:11 - 00:10:14:04
Nick Clason
I have a fully laid out strategy right here linked down below in my completely free e-book, and that will help you be able to focus on the belonging and the ownership pieces and still deliver content. Because we need students to have content, We need students to learn things. We need students to be disabled. But the only way in which are disabled does not have to be live and in the room.

00:10:14:07 - 00:10:34:04
Nick Clason
So as I said at the beginning, what is the ultimate number one thing that we need from our students is this is we need to help create for them a meaningful attach statement to Jesus. And when you choose to go hybrid, you can offer all of this content, all the content that you want in the world, paired with a warm community.

00:10:34:04 - 00:10:59:01
Nick Clason
And that really is the best of both worlds. Your environment matters, which is why I think the way in which we approach programing and games is such a crucial component of youth ministry, especially in the face of this mental health crisis that we're all facing with teenagers helping students be able to laugh. And that video is linked right here on the screen because we're making digital discipleship not only easy, but also accessible.

00:10:59:01 - 00:11:02:28
Nick Clason
So as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> ⚡ Youth Ministry [On-Demand] Masterclass ⚡

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

[FREE] 2024 Social Media Strategy
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book
======================================
DESCRIPTION
👎 Do your youth group sermons stink?

🤷The ultimate goal we have for our students is to grow in their love for God and their love for others. However, does what you teach actually matter?

🤯In this vide we are going to share the surprising things that need to be in place, for your teaching to be effective! And GOOD NEWS: None of them have anything to do with your actual teaching! 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/081

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/gqOPjD5hN-g

//7 CHECKPOINTS
https://www.christianbook.com/the-seven-checkpoints-for-student-leaders/andy-stanley/9781439189337/pd/189337?utm_source=google&kw=161716281504&mt=&dv=c&event=PPCSRC&p=1186432&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKqsBhC3ARIsAEEjuJhcSbVs_Wbqnq8WgKR-HbmYbSVDHHSUTO1p-Np1urnuM_Yt6U5dstMaAjwvEALw_wcB

//ATTENDANCE CONUNDRUM
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&org=982&lvl=100&ite=9703&lea=2048393&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae

//HYBRID MINISTRY E-BOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

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🛠️TOOLS
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OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

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https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

AUTO POD
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TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-01:26 Why Youth Group Sermons Don't Do We Want them to do!v
01:26-06:10 The Best Youth Sermon Curriculum Scope in Existence
06:10-10:04 2 Things Your Youth Group Needs for Better Sermons
10:04-10:53 The #1 Thing Our Students Needc

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:27:08
Nick Clason
Teaching in discipleship. Honestly, the core components of what we do in youth ministry. But what if you're teaching sucks? I mean, listen, like you probably think I'm here to sell you some sort of curriculum or something. That's not it, right? But what if what you're doing is not actually contributing to your students attending the way that you and, frankly, your boss want them to be attending?

00:00:27:09 - 00:00:47:11
Nick Clason
I mean, let's be honest. The entire reason that that youth ministry exists is because we want to help teach students about Jesus. Jesus taught us the aim. What we should be teaching our students is to love God and to love others. And so the goal of all youth ministry is be to help students grow in that love of God and love of others.

00:00:47:14 - 00:01:14:28
Nick Clason
So today I want to talk to you about, number one, a great scope and sequence for your teaching calendar for your students. However, the problem which we talked about in the video length right here is that 57% of regular church goers didn't go to church during the course of one month. And so we're going to talk in this video about the two key things that you actually need to address in your youth ministry and in your youth ministry space before you can even solve the attendance issues as it relates to teaching.

00:01:14:29 - 00:01:36:00
Nick Clason
And finally, I have the number one thing that you and I need to disciple our students. I think it's an ultimate game changer. Welcome to the hybrid ministry show. Welcome, everyone to the Hybrid Ministries show. My name is Nicholas and coming at you during the flex week in between Christmas and New Year. At least that's when I'm recording.

00:01:36:03 - 00:01:57:20
Nick Clason
I almost forgot my glasses. I don't have my watch on. I got my new Christmas mug that my five year old made for me at preschool. It's an amazing week, but we are still going strong in the 2024 Youth Ministry OnDemand Masterclass. You're going to want to make sure that you subscribe because we're going to lay out all of everything that I've ever learned in my 13 years of youth ministry experience.

00:01:57:20 - 00:02:14:15
Nick Clason
My name is Nick Clason, youth pastor now living and working in the DFW Dallas, Texas area. But when we talk about scope and sequence, one of my favorite resources of all time, I mean, it's so dated. I mean, just look at the graphic here. If you're not watching on YouTube, you can see it. If not, you'll just have to go check out the show notes.

00:02:14:15 - 00:02:33:09
Nick Clason
But it's called seven Check points for Students. It's written by Andy Stanley. And I think this is a really, like thorough and a really good swath of things that students need and should be learning as it pertains to what we teach them when they're in youth ministry. So some of those check point, some of those things are, number one, an authentic faith.

00:02:33:12 - 00:03:04:04
Nick Clason
Number two, spiritual disciplines. Number three, more boundaries. Number four, meaningful friendships. Number five, why is choices Number six, ultimate authority? And then finally, number seven, putting others first. I mean, if you want to try to poke holes in that like you may, there may be some things that you're like that's missing here, that's missing there. But like, if were to say love God, love others, you can almost go back through that, similar to what Jesus did with the 635 different commandments and put all of them into a classification of love, God love others, right?

00:03:04:04 - 00:03:23:04
Nick Clason
So like an authentic faith that we love God and spiritual disciplines, it's like love God and moral boundaries, a combination of the two. But I would probably put it in love. Others and meaningful friendships is also love others. But there's also a benefit to us in that as well, making wise choices about loving others and ultimate authority is probably about loving God and finally putting others first.

00:03:23:04 - 00:03:39:26
Nick Clason
Let's love others, right? And so if you break it down to those different categories, like if you just have those seven things sort of on your mind of like, okay, these are the main kind of core things that we want our students to learn. What I would do is I would kind of sprinkle those throughout the year, kind of kind of space them out.

00:03:39:26 - 00:04:06:25
Nick Clason
Right? And so I'll just give you a quick snapshot into what we're doing in our student ministry. You know, I'm not trying to say any sort of curriculum. I have a curriculum to sell you, but there are a ton of different resources out there. Why? I'm through 60 so series do you I am has series even have a new thing called co-leader if you haven't checked that out Collider does everything for you, not just your message content but also like your slides and your smog questions and your games and your content in your worship, like it does everything for you.

00:04:06:25 - 00:04:28:02
Nick Clason
It is, and it's much cheaper than some of the other content companies out there, like, say, like an XP three or like an orange. But if you have the budget, you might want to try them out too, because they have a lot of really good resources. So back in September, what we talked about is we actually led the year off starting a few weeks early in August, kind of more like the back to school around August 20th is when our students go back to school in Texas.

00:04:28:05 - 00:04:48:15
Nick Clason
And we did a three ways How to not ruin your school year. That was kind of like our focus and is basically like, if you don't connect with God, if you don't connect with us, if you're not in a small group, right, like those are some of the ways in which you can like ruin your school year. Then we moved on in October and we talked about Elephants In the Room is one of my favorite series that we did.

00:04:48:15 - 00:05:08:02
Nick Clason
We talked about racism and cheating and bullying and some of the bigger kind of like hot topic things. Like everyone know the label. If we don't really address them very often, Then we did a series called Gratitude or Gratitude is your typical Thanksgiving series doing did a Christmas series. And that's one of the tricky things about that's what the tricky things about the scope and sequence is.

00:05:08:02 - 00:05:30:00
Nick Clason
You only really get a few months and then you kind of into your like Thanksgiving and your Christmas kind of vibes. In January, we're doing a series called Kings, and it is exploring four different kings of Israel. We got David, we got Joe Joash, we got real boom and then we got Hezekiah. So everyone knows David, but the other three are a little bit less known and it's about how to make the most of the hand that you're dealt.

00:05:30:02 - 00:05:47:25
Nick Clason
In February, we're going to look at like a biblical literacy type of thing and basically teaching students how to navigate the Bible, how to read it, why it's important, why the Bible should have, you know, ultimate authority in your life. In March, we're going to do a Easter type series, and then we're going to end the year with Faith's biggest questions.

00:05:47:25 - 00:06:07:04
Nick Clason
And we're going to, again, kind of zero in and some more hotter topic type of things. And so that's how we laid out our scope in our sequence. If you look back at any Stanleys, like some of them tie in there, some of them don't, you know, But at the end of the day, like we're trying to give our students a good understanding of how to love God and how to love others.

00:06:07:04 - 00:06:28:21
Nick Clason
But the problem is that we've all been trying to navigate what do we do when our students don't show up to hear what we have to teach them? So what do we do about this attendance conundrum? People are attending church less and less, especially post pandemic. And so I think there really like two things that we need to try and create in our student ministry.

00:06:28:21 - 00:06:48:15
Nick Clason
And these things actually have nothing to do with teaching. But if we create these things, they will enhance our teaching. And the first one is this Students need a place to belong. It's no longer if you build it, they will come. I worked at a large church in Cincinnati. Eric Geiger, who is now the lead pastor at a manchester.

00:06:48:19 - 00:07:08:24
Nick Clason
He was a youth pastor there, and they built the space that I inherited for Eric Geiger. I don't think he ever made it into that building during his tenure there, but there were people that that grew up in Eric's youth ministry, and they said that like that youth ministry was the talk of the town and everyone like to come in and play billiards.

00:07:08:24 - 00:07:30:21
Nick Clason
And so I inherited so many billiards tables and you know, that that's like ultimately a curse because you can't actually move those things. And so that was sort of under the mindset that like if we build it, if we have this thing, they will come. But I think now it's shifting in a more and more digital sort of way, a more digital sort of mindset.

00:07:30:21 - 00:07:51:04
Nick Clason
I think students and teenagers are more thinking like, if my friends are here, then I'll show up, has and listen, you should still do a good job, you should still focus, you should still plan, you should still prep. But I think far less of that has to do anything with what you produce, what you put out there, what your programing and more.

00:07:51:06 - 00:08:12:20
Nick Clason
Are we creating a place for students to belong? I it doesn't really sound very spiritual and no amount of prep on your message is really going to help create some of that. Right? But that really is, I think, the crux of where we find ourselves. That's the first one. The second thing is that students need to have ownership and they will stick and they will stay attached to youth ministry, especially the older they get.

00:08:12:20 - 00:08:36:03
Nick Clason
And once they start getting keys and driver's license and cars, if they feel a sense of ownership of what's going on in our youth ministry. And so for teaching right to be good, you need students to find a place to belong. And you also want to help them find an opportunity to attach and be accessibly owning some of what your student ministry has to offer.

00:08:36:03 - 00:08:57:15
Nick Clason
So as far as your content goes, like you should, you should care about your scope and sequence, you should pray about it, you should think about it, you should pore over it. However, oftentimes that isn't what is keeping sticking and attracting students, right? As far as the content goes, you can preach more than just the one time a week that you live in the room with all of your students.

00:08:57:18 - 00:09:28:27
Nick Clason
Right? And that's why I would say I'd actually make the argument that I think the Internet is better for content delivery. Obviously, community ownership, serving prayer, some of those those are not better on the Internet, but content delivery and teaching can be done on the Internet. And so if students and if people are attending 57% not coming to church during the course of the month, then I want to I want to ask you to consider would you think about the idea of going hybrid?

00:09:28:27 - 00:09:49:09
Nick Clason
And when I say hybrid, I'm not just talking about only your online presence. I'm not just talking about only your in-person presence. I'm talking about a melding of the two. What can you produce? What can you put out there digitally? What kind of teaching content can you create? Can you do more podcasts? Can you do smaller bite sized social media, short type things?

00:09:49:11 - 00:10:14:04
Nick Clason
I have a fully laid out strategy right here linked down below in my completely free e-book, and that will help you be able to focus on the belonging and the ownership pieces and still deliver content. Because we need students to have content, We need students to learn things. We need students to be disabled. But the only way in which are disabled does not have to be live and in the room.

00:10:14:07 - 00:10:34:04
Nick Clason
So as I said at the beginning, what is the ultimate number one thing that we need from our students is this is we need to help create for them a meaningful attach statement to Jesus. And when you choose to go hybrid, you can offer all of this content, all the content that you want in the world, paired with a warm community.

00:10:34:04 - 00:10:59:01
Nick Clason
And that really is the best of both worlds. Your environment matters, which is why I think the way in which we approach programing and games is such a crucial component of youth ministry, especially in the face of this mental health crisis that we're all facing with teenagers helping students be able to laugh. And that video is linked right here on the screen because we're making digital discipleship not only easy, but also accessible.

00:10:59:01 - 00:11:02:28
Nick Clason
So as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 080: 🛑 Stop Posting Church Announcements on Social Media https://www.hybridministry.xyz/080 663fd984-ed28-4dad-922b-fd122d6ebf51 Thu, 18 Jan 2024 07:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 080 🛑 Stop Posting Church Announcements on Social Media full Nick Clason 😫 Are you tired of seeing church announcements flood your social media feeds? It's time to rethink this strategy and take a closer look at the potential hazards it poses. 📹In this video, we delve deep into the reasons why posting church announcements on social media might not be the wisest choice. 👍But, don’t worry! We’ll show you exactly what to do! And how to not lose your life to it! Especially if you follow our time management tips, which is a part of the 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg 19:27 no ⚡ [FREE] Crush Social Media This New Year ⚡ https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 2024 [FREE] Youth Ministry Masterclass on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg ====================================== DESCRIPTION 😫 Are you tired of seeing church announcements flood your social media feeds? It's time to rethink this strategy and take a closer look at the potential hazards it poses. 📹In this video, we delve deep into the reasons why posting church announcements on social media might not be the wisest choice. 👍But, don’t worry! We’ll show you exactly what to do! And how to not lose your life to it! Especially if you follow our time management tips, which is a part of the 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg ====================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/080 //YOUTUBE VIDEO https://youtu.be/slB0Rmf_X0c PURPOSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA //OPUS.PRO [1 CLICK VIRAL SHORTS SOLUTION] https://youtu.be/TiW4ooQpAvo?si=W_4pCZZbZmUnzsB9 //METRICOOL https://metricool.com/ POST YOUR MESSAGES ON YOUTUBE //[FREE] E-BOOK https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book //$100 STARTER KIT https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit //YOUVERSION LIVE EVENTS https://my.bible.com/events TAKE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE NEXT LEVEL //OPUS.PRO [1 CLICK VIRAL SHORTS SOLUTION] https://youtu.be/TiW4ooQpAvo?si=W_4pCZZbZmUnzsB9 //SONLIFE https://www.sonlife.com/ //[FREE] E-BOOK https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book IDEA #2: TELEPATHY //ADOBE PREMIERE PRESETS https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis IDEA #3: RANK 'EM //DYM RANK 'EM RESOURCES Christmas: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em%3A-christmas-edition/christmas-games-9126.html Fall: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em---fall-edition/holiday-or-seasonal/fall-8962.html IDEA #6: EMOJI PHRASEOLOGY //MY FAVORITE 9 DYM PRODUCTS https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym IDEA #8: SPIRITUAL PRACTICE VIDEOS //SPIRITUAL PRACTICE VIDEOS https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/spiritual-practice-videos/social-media/instagram-8804.html WHAT TO DO ABOUT FACEBOOK? //CANVA PRO FOR [FREE!] https://youtu.be/g0FQWvKjP_E?si=D6jJLxEdkEy9z0FV WHAT TO DO ABOUT INSTAGRAM? //BUDGET GRAPHIC DESIGN EDITORS https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw 👉 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 🎅 "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 &amp; 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 00:00-01:06 Stop Doing this on Social Media 01:06-04:14 What is the purpose of social media? 04:14-07:04 Post Your Messages to YouTube 07:04-11:42 Taking your social media to the next level 11:42-12:12 Idea #1: Drafts 12:12-13:45 Idea #2: Telepathy 13:45-14:04 Idea #3: Blind Rankings 14:04-14:20 Idea #4: Know it or Nah 14:20-14:33 Idea #5: Staff Videos 14:33-15:39 Idea #6: Emoji Phraseology 15:39-15:44 Idea #7: Sermon Clips 15:44-16:35 Idea #8: Spiritual Practice 16:35-16:46 Where to Post all these videos? 16:46-17:34 What to do about Facebook? 17:34-19:27 What to do about Instagram? ✍️TRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa Nick Clason (00:00): Summer camp, fall retreat D. Now your next outreach experience, the reality is there are always things to do. You're always trying to get students to come to you. You're always trying to get people to fill and populate your next church events. So naturally, what do we do? Well, we need to put it on the church website. We need to make sure that it gets listed in the church bulletin. We need to add it to the pre-roll before the service and post it to social media. Stop it. No, seriously, stop it. Stop posting your announcements to social media. Don't do it. Don't do it. We're tempted always to post our announcements to social media because we think it's another outlet, another strategy, another place to inform people. But the reality is nobody wants that on their social media feeds. I hear you. You're like, yeah, but what else should I do? Nobody listens, dude. I get it. Okay, but let's look at it. What should we be doing on social media? Nick Clason (01:07): So stop posting your announcements on social media. I saw this reel the other day about this guy talking about the Red Bull social media experience, and he said, red Bull is crushing it. He said, what are the local pizzerias and restaurants in your town doing? People are not getting on social media and thinking like, man, I wonder what's on the menu today. Because if you look at a pizzeria on social media, you know that they're going to be posting or you know that they're going to be serving pizza. That's just a part of the experience. And so he said, what Red Bull's doing on social media, we know that Red Bull serves Red Bull energy drinks, but what their primary goal on social media is entertainment. So that's why people get on social media. They get on social media to be entertained. Can we as a church adopt some of those strategies not forever and forsaking some of the spiritual components that can come about on social media, but can we do that on social media? Nick Clason (02:08): And the fact is, yeah, actually social media has ushered in a new era with the discovery platforms, with short form video based and videos are still king. And you know what you can do? You can actually take clips and snippets of your message and use this strategy right here. It's linked at the top of the video and this completely free tool Opus Pro. Check out in that video link in this description, link in that video description. But the fact of the matter is you can use tools out there. You can use AI to help you and aid you if you're not a great video editor, if you don't know how to clip things up on social. But the fact is, you might even be thinking, well, what am I supposed to do? How can I post things there? There's a lot of services out there to post things on the feed. Nick Clason (02:52): So you may be scheduling your lock-in post. You may be scheduling your church announcement post. You may be scheduling your summer camp. Stop doing those things. You can create videos, you can create moments of entertainment, and you can use a posting service if you want. Linked Below is my experience with a posting service called Metrical. That's probably who I would recommend. I do still like to just post everything I do live. I find that the algorithms prefer that and that things just perform better from a views and metrics standpoint. But if you don't have time for that and you're like, there's no way I could do that, then check out Metrical. It's completely free for most up to a certain number of posts and it's worth it. But you never want to get on a feed. Think about your own habits. You never just want to get on a feed that's just littered with, come to this event, come to this event, come to this event, come to this. Nick Clason (03:47): That's boring. And you know what? Your social media probably reflects that. If all you're doing is posting announcements, you're probably only getting a single digit number of likes because the reality is that's not what people are looking for when they get on social media. And so I know you got a lot to announce, you got a lot to get out there, but social media is not the place. So what should we be doing? Well, let's check that out. So churches, youth pastors, regardless of where you are in this on the org chart at your church, what should you be doing? Well, number one, start posting long form to YouTube. And now when I say that if you have live streaming capabilities in your room and you don't have time to sit down direct to camera, then go ahead and post your live streams to YouTube. Nick Clason (04:38): But if you don't, I don't. I'm a youth pastor and we are in our very own room, our very own space, and our room is not outfitted for live streaming capabilities. So we actually sit down very similar to what I'm doing here direct to camera. I have a teleprompter and I do deliver a message there. Now, that entire strategy is laid out completely for you, for free right here in my 100% completely free ebook. But that is the baseline. That's the basis for all my social media, everything else sort of branches off of there. So all of our messages that we produce and that we perform, everything that we produce in the room, we also then go ahead and do it directly on YouTube. So pre film your messages, it gives you two strategic advantages. Number one, if you don't have live streaming capability, it gives you a way to film it that is good, helpful, beneficial, looks good, direct to camera. Nick Clason (05:32): You can do most of that for under a hundred dollars. That's also linked below in the show notes with just a cell phone camera and a few little pieces of gear. But then from there, what you can do is you can take those messages, post them to YouTube. You also get an opportunity to practice your message. So then when you are standing up live in the room in front of a bunch of students, it's not the first time that you're looking at that material. You have done it before. You have delivered it before, once you've pre-filed, done direct to camera. The one thing that I love about that is in YouTube, they have a description thing, just like me, a lot of things down to the description in this video. Also over at hybridministry.xyz/080 But you can do the same kind of concept. Nick Clason (06:16): You can paste a next steps form. And so for every single one of your messages, you can push students towards a next steps form. We like to use the you version events, live events for in the room. Students can follow along, take notes, read scripture, but we also post the link to that in every single video. So if they're watching on a laptop, then they can sit down, they can scroll through that on their phone, they can take notes, they can engage with the Bible on their phone right in front of them. So you can link certain things. And then by the way, hey, if you are announcing summer camp, you can be like, Hey, summer camp registration link in the description. You don't have to make it some static boring graphic post. You can actually weave it into the rest of your strategy. But then dovetailing off of your long form YouTube videos is this next piece that you definitely don't want to miss. Nick Clason (07:05): So after YouTube video, the next thing I recommend that you do is that you post shorts, reels, tiktoks to your feeds. And the good news is all four of the major platforms, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook if you want to, it's really easy to link with your Instagram and TikTok are all asking for similar content. So what you can do now on social media for the first time in a lot of years is you can create one piece of content for one platform, but you can spread it across all fours. You can post the same thing to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Facebook Ourto for example, I posted these this week. This week, a couple weeks leading up to Christmas when I'm filming this. You're going to get this in the new year, but we do thing, and I'm going to detail, it's actually detailed right here. Nick Clason (07:53): I'll completely free my ebook, but we're going to go through nine ideas that you can do to start doing entertainment based things on your social medias and stop just posting announcements. One of the things we do are drafts stole this, saw this on someone's TikTok somewhere. So we were doing drafting Christmas movies across all four platforms. We had on TikTok, we had 383 views. We had on YouTube, 280 views we had on Instagram, 214 views. And then on Facebook we had 175 views, which totaled 1052 views across all four platforms. Those aren't great numbers by the way either. That's just very standard. I picked the second most recent post that I posted just to give you a good example of a real time strategy idea. I'm not trying to highlight my best one or anything like that, right? But here's the question. Would you like for your content to get in front of a thousand people probably, right? Nick Clason (08:46): And that wasn't great. We've had posts that have hit 13,000 on Instagram, 27,001 time we did a football draft. So we've had way, way bigger success. But then that was a entertainment based one. Also in the same week, we've posted a spiritual based one that one did not do as well. And this is actually an underperformer in my opinion. And we've had ones that do similar to the draft response in around those numbers on all the four platforms. But we had on TikTok, we had 224 views. We had 211 on Instagram, we had only 15 on Facebook, which is pretty low. And then 1 42 on YouTube, which is also relatively low, but still that total to 592. I know for me that feels low, but we don't have 592 students or people come to our youth ministry program. So we post fun content. We also post spiritual content, and then that's anchored underneath the baseline by our long form YouTube video. Nick Clason (09:48): And what's crazy is that Opus Pro, the message clip that came through Opus Pro. And so you'll notice there's a little overlay that says, watch the full video on Cross Creek students YouTube channel that is just a preset that I made. And every single one of our videos spits out with that little watermark. I can change it, I can customize, I can do. The stats aren't crazy, but you should subscribe because this is actually part of the 2024 Youth Pastor Masterclass. We're right dead in the middle. If you subscribe and if you hit the bell, you'll get notified when the next video drops. But I like to think about it like this or I want, but I like to think of it like my neighbor. I want to share the gospel with my neighbor. I want to tell them about Jesus. But every single time I have a conversation with my neighbor, I'm not sitting down and telling them about Jesus. Nick Clason (10:34): I'm working the relationship. I'm having a conversation. I grew up in church. I grew up in a ministry called Sun Life, and they have a thing called spiritual, CPR, cultivate, plant Reap. And really the cultivate stage is just build the friendship. Plant is like sprinkle in seeds of spiritual conversations in the gospel and then reap is like present the gospel and ask them for a decision to follow Jesus. Yes or no. And a lot of times on social media, we take the approach of reap, ask them for a spiritual decision, ask them to respond to the gospel, yes or no every single time as opposed to trying to cultivate our audience as opposed to trying to plant little seeds of curiosity, spiritual moments, things like that. So here are ideas, things that I do in my own personal context. It's all outlined here. Am I completely free? Nick Clason (11:23): Ebook? You should definitely check it out if you haven't yet. But it will help you take your social media from being boring and dumb and announcement based to entertainment based and personality driven. Not just your personality, but students, other volunteer leaders, other staff that you might have. So these are things that we do. We do a thing called a draft, and that's what you just saw the results from. But two people sit down and then they just draft things under a certain category. We've done Christmas movies, we've done potatoes, we've done burger places, we've done Christmas songs, we've done Thanksgiving food, we've done Halloween Candy, we've done Avengers, we've done Blue Characters. Literally anything you can think of. One person next person, one person next person. The only caveat is you can pick anything you want, but if it's already been taken, it's kind of off the board. Nick Clason (12:12): The next thing we do is a fun little game called Telepathy or Wavelength or nsync or just guess the number. And two people sit down and one person's thinking of a number, the other person's asking them certain categories, and then the person that has the number in their brain, they're telling the other person their answers from that category based on their number. So for example, if I'm thinking of the number one and you ask me for a day of the week, I'm going to say Monday. And then if you say food, I'm going to say Tomatoes. Okay? And so then at the end of it, you ask four things, four different things. So day of the week, food, movie, Avenger, and then you give 'em all. And then at the end, the other person, I was asking the categories, they say, are you thinking number one? Nick Clason (12:57): And if they got it right, they got it right. If they got it wrong, they got it wrong. The one thing I love about this game is we intro it like this. Hey, we're playing this game. The number's going to be right here on the screen. The number pops in on the screen. You can edit that in an editor like Adobe Premier Pro, I got completely free presets. Link down below if you want some of those that will do animations like this and like that, and rotate in, rotate out all those things, all the things you just saw on the screen. If you're not watching on YouTube, all those things are in the link in the description. Go grab the free presets. But if not, you can do that on your phone in a phone editor like TikTok or Cap Cut. But you can say, Hey, the number's on the screen, close your eyes if you don't play along. Nick Clason (13:37): Alright, here we go. And then that person can open their eyes and they can watch and they can actually try to guess the number. So it's actually engaging the person on the other side of the phone. I like to do blind rankings. TikTok has a blind ranking filter, so you can blind rank all kinds of things. Disney movies, Disney characters, and a blind rank is just you're ranking them in a one through 10 or one through five order without knowing what's coming next. I also have some examples of that on Download Youth Ministry, a link to that in just a second. I like to do these things called Know it or Nah, so you've probably heard it where they play a little five second clip of a song on TikTok. Just find those audios on TikTok. And then you choose one side of the room. Nick Clason (14:14): So I'll get four or five people if they know it, they go to this side. If they don't, they go to that side. We'll do staff video. So we'll have our staff participate in certain things we were just giving away for our Christmas party. Craig Cash, our senior pastor's name is Craig. We were giving away Craig Cash, and so we did the Craig Cash Olympics, we did all kinds of Christmas type things. One of my favorites is a game I have on DYM called Emoji Phrase theology. People just trying to guess the emoji phrase. And I'll just sit down or have a student sit down or a leader sit down or walk around and quiz students, Hey, what's this emoji phrase saying? What's this camp emoji phrase saying, what's this Christmas emoji phrase saying? Was this back to school emoji phrase saying, and I'll clip those in. Nick Clason (14:54): So I take a game that's already created, and instead of just doing the kind of static standard screen-based graphics, we customize it to our own space. Link down below are my favorite nine DYM products that I have. Several of them are hybrid based. Several of them don't just focus on the screen only or digital, but it's a melding together of the two. And you can take that next layer to the next level, right? Like my emoji phrase, theology. There's a social media component, but you can take it to the next level and customize it with a host, asking people the answers to those questions. And just some simple video editing on the backside, whether that be in a software like Adobe Premiere Pro, or you can do it on TikTok or in Canva, or not Canva, but Cap Cut. I always get Canva and Cap cut mixed up. Nick Clason (15:40): You can use the video clips out of Opus Pro like I was talking about. I got some spiritual practice videos on Download Youth Ministry. One of my favorites is someone's scrolling through TikTok and you just point to the screen right here and it says, stay or scroll, read the Bible with me. Point, point, point, point, point, point, point. Wait a second. And you say, all right, thanks for staying. Let's read the Bible together. And you read a passage of scripture right there on social media. That's all you do. It's super basic, super simple, but it has a great response because what you're doing then is you're cultivating that relationship. You may get those people with the draft or the instinct telepathy game or the blind ranking or the know it or not back and forth, and then you're like, Hey, let's do some spiritual stuff together. Nick Clason (16:19): Let's memorize scripture. Let's read the Bible, let's do a prayer. All those types of things. And you can do a lot of that stuff, especially with the bedrock of your messages. Long form video, you can do a lot of that stuff on Opus Pro. Saves you hours. It saves me hours every single week. So continuing on our strategy, you can post all those types of videos to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Facebook. But what about Facebook groups? Well, let's check it out. You should definitely have Facebook groups. You should have a Facebook page also because a Facebook page is where those things dump into, but then have a group associated with that. If you're a youth pastor, my only strategy that I recommend on Facebook is a Facebook parents group. That's mostly where they are. You can post things like car ride questions, and you can use Canva Pro. Nick Clason (17:06): It's completely free for churches. It's also linked below. We did an entire video on it, so you can go check that out in the description, but you can just create square graphics for your parents to talk about stuff with their students on the way home. And that's just a great discipleship strategy. If you're a church communications person, you should probably have a little bit more active Facebook group. But for a youth pastor, most students aren't on Facebook, but most parents are. And so that's where the strategy comes in. It's for the parents. Lastly, on Instagram, you got the feed. You also got stories on stories. The ultimate goal, I would say, is to engage with your people. So repost things if they tag you for sure. You can also post engagement style questions. What's your favorite Christmas movie? What's the best Halloween candy? What's your New Year's resolution? Nick Clason (17:53): What's one thing you're going to be doing this weekend using only emojis? Tell us what you did this last week. Stuff like that. Engage with your audience. A lot of times, I'll take a reel that I post, so I don't post every single one of those reels to the feed, though that option has recently turned off, so I have to post it, then go back later and take it off the profile grid. I'm sure there's a setting I'm missing, but nonetheless, I'll sometimes then share the reels that didn't also get shared to the feed into a story, and that's just a way to do engagement. And then I may throw a question sticker like a slider bar or a question or a quiz sticker or something like that. Just engagement. That's my goal in stories. And then on the main feed, just post photos of your people and post recap photos from a Wednesday night, from a Sunday morning, from a Sunday night. Nick Clason (18:36): Brady Sheer is doing these carousel based education, entertainment based carousel posts where ask the question and he answers it. They are money, and I think that they are here to stay, and you don't need a lot of graphical work to do some of those things. You can do something simple and easy and basic like that simply on Canva. Or even simply maybe in the Instagram stories editor, we have a complete playlist where we look at budget graphic editors, if that's something you're interested in. It's also linked below. But finally, speaking of education, that's one of the main ways that we help disciple and teach our students about Jesus and help them take meaningful next steps towards him, which is the next video in this 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass video linked right here on the screen. We'll talk to you next time as we're making discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So as always, stay hybrid. Hybrid Ministry, Youth Ministry, Youth Ministry Social Media, Hybrid Strategy, 2024 Youth Ministry social Media strategy, 2024 Church Social Media strategy, Student Ministry, Youth Ministry Coach, Youth Ministry YouTube Strategy, How to do YouTube for Churches, YouTube for Youth Ministries, Instagram for Youth Ministry, TikTok for Youth Ministry, How to post on social media, Church Announcements, Church Announcement Formula, Church Media, Church Social Media, Church Communications ⚡ [FREE] Crush Social Media This New Year ⚡

https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2024 [FREE] Youth Ministry Masterclass on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

======================================

DESCRIPTION
😫 Are you tired of seeing church announcements flood your social media feeds? It's time to rethink this strategy and take a closer look at the potential hazards it poses.

📹In this video, we delve deep into the reasons why posting church announcements on social media might not be the wisest choice.

👍But, don’t worry! We’ll show you exactly what to do! And how to not lose your life to it! Especially if you follow our time management tips, which is a part of the 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/080

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/slB0Rmf_X0c

PURPOSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
//OPUS.PRO [1 CLICK VIRAL SHORTS SOLUTION]
https://youtu.be/TiW4ooQpAvo?si=W_4pCZZbZmUnzsB9

//METRICOOL
https://metricool.com/

POST YOUR MESSAGES ON YOUTUBE
//[FREE] E-BOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

//$100 STARTER KIT
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

//YOUVERSION LIVE EVENTS
https://my.bible.com/events

TAKE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE NEXT LEVEL
//OPUS.PRO [1 CLICK VIRAL SHORTS SOLUTION]
https://youtu.be/TiW4ooQpAvo?si=W_4pCZZbZmUnzsB9

//SONLIFE
https://www.sonlife.com/

//[FREE] E-BOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

IDEA #2: TELEPATHY
//ADOBE PREMIERE PRESETS
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

IDEA #3: RANK 'EM
//DYM RANK 'EM RESOURCES
Christmas: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em%3A-christmas-edition/christmas-games-9126.html
Fall: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em---fall-edition/holiday-or-seasonal/fall-8962.html

IDEA #6: EMOJI PHRASEOLOGY
//MY FAVORITE 9 DYM PRODUCTS
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

IDEA #8: SPIRITUAL PRACTICE VIDEOS
//SPIRITUAL PRACTICE VIDEOS
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/spiritual-practice-videos/social-media/instagram-8804.html

WHAT TO DO ABOUT FACEBOOK?
//CANVA PRO FOR [FREE!]
https://youtu.be/g0FQWvKjP_E?si=D6jJLxEdkEy9z0FV

WHAT TO DO ABOUT INSTAGRAM?
//BUDGET GRAPHIC DESIGN EDITORS
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw

👉 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

🎅 "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
00:00-01:06 Stop Doing this on Social Media
01:06-04:14 What is the purpose of social media?
04:14-07:04 Post Your Messages to YouTube
07:04-11:42 Taking your social media to the next level
11:42-12:12 Idea #1: Drafts
12:12-13:45 Idea #2: Telepathy
13:45-14:04 Idea #3: Blind Rankings
14:04-14:20 Idea #4: Know it or Nah
14:20-14:33 Idea #5: Staff Videos
14:33-15:39 Idea #6: Emoji Phraseology
15:39-15:44 Idea #7: Sermon Clips
15:44-16:35 Idea #8: Spiritual Practice
16:35-16:46 Where to Post all these videos?
16:46-17:34 What to do about Facebook?
17:34-19:27 What to do about Instagram?

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Summer camp, fall retreat D. Now your next outreach experience, the reality is there are always things to do. You're always trying to get students to come to you. You're always trying to get people to fill and populate your next church events. So naturally, what do we do? Well, we need to put it on the church website. We need to make sure that it gets listed in the church bulletin. We need to add it to the pre-roll before the service and post it to social media. Stop it. No, seriously, stop it. Stop posting your announcements to social media. Don't do it. Don't do it. We're tempted always to post our announcements to social media because we think it's another outlet, another strategy, another place to inform people. But the reality is nobody wants that on their social media feeds. I hear you. You're like, yeah, but what else should I do? Nobody listens, dude. I get it. Okay, but let's look at it. What should we be doing on social media?

Nick Clason (01:07):
So stop posting your announcements on social media. I saw this reel the other day about this guy talking about the Red Bull social media experience, and he said, red Bull is crushing it. He said, what are the local pizzerias and restaurants in your town doing? People are not getting on social media and thinking like, man, I wonder what's on the menu today. Because if you look at a pizzeria on social media, you know that they're going to be posting or you know that they're going to be serving pizza. That's just a part of the experience. And so he said, what Red Bull's doing on social media, we know that Red Bull serves Red Bull energy drinks, but what their primary goal on social media is entertainment. So that's why people get on social media. They get on social media to be entertained. Can we as a church adopt some of those strategies not forever and forsaking some of the spiritual components that can come about on social media, but can we do that on social media?

Nick Clason (02:08):
And the fact is, yeah, actually social media has ushered in a new era with the discovery platforms, with short form video based and videos are still king. And you know what you can do? You can actually take clips and snippets of your message and use this strategy right here. It's linked at the top of the video and this completely free tool Opus Pro. Check out in that video link in this description, link in that video description. But the fact of the matter is you can use tools out there. You can use AI to help you and aid you if you're not a great video editor, if you don't know how to clip things up on social. But the fact is, you might even be thinking, well, what am I supposed to do? How can I post things there? There's a lot of services out there to post things on the feed.

Nick Clason (02:52):
So you may be scheduling your lock-in post. You may be scheduling your church announcement post. You may be scheduling your summer camp. Stop doing those things. You can create videos, you can create moments of entertainment, and you can use a posting service if you want. Linked Below is my experience with a posting service called Metrical. That's probably who I would recommend. I do still like to just post everything I do live. I find that the algorithms prefer that and that things just perform better from a views and metrics standpoint. But if you don't have time for that and you're like, there's no way I could do that, then check out Metrical. It's completely free for most up to a certain number of posts and it's worth it. But you never want to get on a feed. Think about your own habits. You never just want to get on a feed that's just littered with, come to this event, come to this event, come to this event, come to this.

Nick Clason (03:47):
That's boring. And you know what? Your social media probably reflects that. If all you're doing is posting announcements, you're probably only getting a single digit number of likes because the reality is that's not what people are looking for when they get on social media. And so I know you got a lot to announce, you got a lot to get out there, but social media is not the place. So what should we be doing? Well, let's check that out. So churches, youth pastors, regardless of where you are in this on the org chart at your church, what should you be doing? Well, number one, start posting long form to YouTube. And now when I say that if you have live streaming capabilities in your room and you don't have time to sit down direct to camera, then go ahead and post your live streams to YouTube.

Nick Clason (04:38):
But if you don't, I don't. I'm a youth pastor and we are in our very own room, our very own space, and our room is not outfitted for live streaming capabilities. So we actually sit down very similar to what I'm doing here direct to camera. I have a teleprompter and I do deliver a message there. Now, that entire strategy is laid out completely for you, for free right here in my 100% completely free ebook. But that is the baseline. That's the basis for all my social media, everything else sort of branches off of there. So all of our messages that we produce and that we perform, everything that we produce in the room, we also then go ahead and do it directly on YouTube. So pre film your messages, it gives you two strategic advantages. Number one, if you don't have live streaming capability, it gives you a way to film it that is good, helpful, beneficial, looks good, direct to camera.

Nick Clason (05:32):
You can do most of that for under a hundred dollars. That's also linked below in the show notes with just a cell phone camera and a few little pieces of gear. But then from there, what you can do is you can take those messages, post them to YouTube. You also get an opportunity to practice your message. So then when you are standing up live in the room in front of a bunch of students, it's not the first time that you're looking at that material. You have done it before. You have delivered it before, once you've pre-filed, done direct to camera. The one thing that I love about that is in YouTube, they have a description thing, just like me, a lot of things down to the description in this video. Also over at hybridministry.xyz/080 But you can do the same kind of concept.

Nick Clason (06:16):
You can paste a next steps form. And so for every single one of your messages, you can push students towards a next steps form. We like to use the you version events, live events for in the room. Students can follow along, take notes, read scripture, but we also post the link to that in every single video. So if they're watching on a laptop, then they can sit down, they can scroll through that on their phone, they can take notes, they can engage with the Bible on their phone right in front of them. So you can link certain things. And then by the way, hey, if you are announcing summer camp, you can be like, Hey, summer camp registration link in the description. You don't have to make it some static boring graphic post. You can actually weave it into the rest of your strategy. But then dovetailing off of your long form YouTube videos is this next piece that you definitely don't want to miss.

Nick Clason (07:05):
So after YouTube video, the next thing I recommend that you do is that you post shorts, reels, tiktoks to your feeds. And the good news is all four of the major platforms, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook if you want to, it's really easy to link with your Instagram and TikTok are all asking for similar content. So what you can do now on social media for the first time in a lot of years is you can create one piece of content for one platform, but you can spread it across all fours. You can post the same thing to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Facebook Ourto for example, I posted these this week. This week, a couple weeks leading up to Christmas when I'm filming this. You're going to get this in the new year, but we do thing, and I'm going to detail, it's actually detailed right here.

Nick Clason (07:53):
I'll completely free my ebook, but we're going to go through nine ideas that you can do to start doing entertainment based things on your social medias and stop just posting announcements. One of the things we do are drafts stole this, saw this on someone's TikTok somewhere. So we were doing drafting Christmas movies across all four platforms. We had on TikTok, we had 383 views. We had on YouTube, 280 views we had on Instagram, 214 views. And then on Facebook we had 175 views, which totaled 1052 views across all four platforms. Those aren't great numbers by the way either. That's just very standard. I picked the second most recent post that I posted just to give you a good example of a real time strategy idea. I'm not trying to highlight my best one or anything like that, right? But here's the question. Would you like for your content to get in front of a thousand people probably, right?

Nick Clason (08:46):
And that wasn't great. We've had posts that have hit 13,000 on Instagram, 27,001 time we did a football draft. So we've had way, way bigger success. But then that was a entertainment based one. Also in the same week, we've posted a spiritual based one that one did not do as well. And this is actually an underperformer in my opinion. And we've had ones that do similar to the draft response in around those numbers on all the four platforms. But we had on TikTok, we had 224 views. We had 211 on Instagram, we had only 15 on Facebook, which is pretty low. And then 1 42 on YouTube, which is also relatively low, but still that total to 592. I know for me that feels low, but we don't have 592 students or people come to our youth ministry program. So we post fun content. We also post spiritual content, and then that's anchored underneath the baseline by our long form YouTube video.

Nick Clason (09:48):
And what's crazy is that Opus Pro, the message clip that came through Opus Pro. And so you'll notice there's a little overlay that says, watch the full video on Cross Creek students YouTube channel that is just a preset that I made. And every single one of our videos spits out with that little watermark. I can change it, I can customize, I can do. The stats aren't crazy, but you should subscribe because this is actually part of the 2024 Youth Pastor Masterclass. We're right dead in the middle. If you subscribe and if you hit the bell, you'll get notified when the next video drops. But I like to think about it like this or I want, but I like to think of it like my neighbor. I want to share the gospel with my neighbor. I want to tell them about Jesus. But every single time I have a conversation with my neighbor, I'm not sitting down and telling them about Jesus.

Nick Clason (10:34):
I'm working the relationship. I'm having a conversation. I grew up in church. I grew up in a ministry called Sun Life, and they have a thing called spiritual, CPR, cultivate, plant Reap. And really the cultivate stage is just build the friendship. Plant is like sprinkle in seeds of spiritual conversations in the gospel and then reap is like present the gospel and ask them for a decision to follow Jesus. Yes or no. And a lot of times on social media, we take the approach of reap, ask them for a spiritual decision, ask them to respond to the gospel, yes or no every single time as opposed to trying to cultivate our audience as opposed to trying to plant little seeds of curiosity, spiritual moments, things like that. So here are ideas, things that I do in my own personal context. It's all outlined here. Am I completely free?

Nick Clason (11:23):
Ebook? You should definitely check it out if you haven't yet. But it will help you take your social media from being boring and dumb and announcement based to entertainment based and personality driven. Not just your personality, but students, other volunteer leaders, other staff that you might have. So these are things that we do. We do a thing called a draft, and that's what you just saw the results from. But two people sit down and then they just draft things under a certain category. We've done Christmas movies, we've done potatoes, we've done burger places, we've done Christmas songs, we've done Thanksgiving food, we've done Halloween Candy, we've done Avengers, we've done Blue Characters. Literally anything you can think of. One person next person, one person next person. The only caveat is you can pick anything you want, but if it's already been taken, it's kind of off the board.

Nick Clason (12:12):
The next thing we do is a fun little game called Telepathy or Wavelength or nsync or just guess the number. And two people sit down and one person's thinking of a number, the other person's asking them certain categories, and then the person that has the number in their brain, they're telling the other person their answers from that category based on their number. So for example, if I'm thinking of the number one and you ask me for a day of the week, I'm going to say Monday. And then if you say food, I'm going to say Tomatoes. Okay? And so then at the end of it, you ask four things, four different things. So day of the week, food, movie, Avenger, and then you give 'em all. And then at the end, the other person, I was asking the categories, they say, are you thinking number one?

Nick Clason (12:57):
And if they got it right, they got it right. If they got it wrong, they got it wrong. The one thing I love about this game is we intro it like this. Hey, we're playing this game. The number's going to be right here on the screen. The number pops in on the screen. You can edit that in an editor like Adobe Premier Pro, I got completely free presets. Link down below if you want some of those that will do animations like this and like that, and rotate in, rotate out all those things, all the things you just saw on the screen. If you're not watching on YouTube, all those things are in the link in the description. Go grab the free presets. But if not, you can do that on your phone in a phone editor like TikTok or Cap Cut. But you can say, Hey, the number's on the screen, close your eyes if you don't play along.

Nick Clason (13:37):
Alright, here we go. And then that person can open their eyes and they can watch and they can actually try to guess the number. So it's actually engaging the person on the other side of the phone. I like to do blind rankings. TikTok has a blind ranking filter, so you can blind rank all kinds of things. Disney movies, Disney characters, and a blind rank is just you're ranking them in a one through 10 or one through five order without knowing what's coming next. I also have some examples of that on Download Youth Ministry, a link to that in just a second. I like to do these things called Know it or Nah, so you've probably heard it where they play a little five second clip of a song on TikTok. Just find those audios on TikTok. And then you choose one side of the room.

Nick Clason (14:14):
So I'll get four or five people if they know it, they go to this side. If they don't, they go to that side. We'll do staff video. So we'll have our staff participate in certain things we were just giving away for our Christmas party. Craig Cash, our senior pastor's name is Craig. We were giving away Craig Cash, and so we did the Craig Cash Olympics, we did all kinds of Christmas type things. One of my favorites is a game I have on DYM called Emoji Phrase theology. People just trying to guess the emoji phrase. And I'll just sit down or have a student sit down or a leader sit down or walk around and quiz students, Hey, what's this emoji phrase saying? What's this camp emoji phrase saying, what's this Christmas emoji phrase saying? Was this back to school emoji phrase saying, and I'll clip those in.

Nick Clason (14:54):
So I take a game that's already created, and instead of just doing the kind of static standard screen-based graphics, we customize it to our own space. Link down below are my favorite nine DYM products that I have. Several of them are hybrid based. Several of them don't just focus on the screen only or digital, but it's a melding together of the two. And you can take that next layer to the next level, right? Like my emoji phrase, theology. There's a social media component, but you can take it to the next level and customize it with a host, asking people the answers to those questions. And just some simple video editing on the backside, whether that be in a software like Adobe Premiere Pro, or you can do it on TikTok or in Canva, or not Canva, but Cap Cut. I always get Canva and Cap cut mixed up.

Nick Clason (15:40):
You can use the video clips out of Opus Pro like I was talking about. I got some spiritual practice videos on Download Youth Ministry. One of my favorites is someone's scrolling through TikTok and you just point to the screen right here and it says, stay or scroll, read the Bible with me. Point, point, point, point, point, point, point. Wait a second. And you say, all right, thanks for staying. Let's read the Bible together. And you read a passage of scripture right there on social media. That's all you do. It's super basic, super simple, but it has a great response because what you're doing then is you're cultivating that relationship. You may get those people with the draft or the instinct telepathy game or the blind ranking or the know it or not back and forth, and then you're like, Hey, let's do some spiritual stuff together.

Nick Clason (16:19):
Let's memorize scripture. Let's read the Bible, let's do a prayer. All those types of things. And you can do a lot of that stuff, especially with the bedrock of your messages. Long form video, you can do a lot of that stuff on Opus Pro. Saves you hours. It saves me hours every single week. So continuing on our strategy, you can post all those types of videos to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Facebook. But what about Facebook groups? Well, let's check it out. You should definitely have Facebook groups. You should have a Facebook page also because a Facebook page is where those things dump into, but then have a group associated with that. If you're a youth pastor, my only strategy that I recommend on Facebook is a Facebook parents group. That's mostly where they are. You can post things like car ride questions, and you can use Canva Pro.

Nick Clason (17:06):
It's completely free for churches. It's also linked below. We did an entire video on it, so you can go check that out in the description, but you can just create square graphics for your parents to talk about stuff with their students on the way home. And that's just a great discipleship strategy. If you're a church communications person, you should probably have a little bit more active Facebook group. But for a youth pastor, most students aren't on Facebook, but most parents are. And so that's where the strategy comes in. It's for the parents. Lastly, on Instagram, you got the feed. You also got stories on stories. The ultimate goal, I would say, is to engage with your people. So repost things if they tag you for sure. You can also post engagement style questions. What's your favorite Christmas movie? What's the best Halloween candy? What's your New Year's resolution?

Nick Clason (17:53):
What's one thing you're going to be doing this weekend using only emojis? Tell us what you did this last week. Stuff like that. Engage with your audience. A lot of times, I'll take a reel that I post, so I don't post every single one of those reels to the feed, though that option has recently turned off, so I have to post it, then go back later and take it off the profile grid. I'm sure there's a setting I'm missing, but nonetheless, I'll sometimes then share the reels that didn't also get shared to the feed into a story, and that's just a way to do engagement. And then I may throw a question sticker like a slider bar or a question or a quiz sticker or something like that. Just engagement. That's my goal in stories. And then on the main feed, just post photos of your people and post recap photos from a Wednesday night, from a Sunday morning, from a Sunday night.

Nick Clason (18:36):
Brady Sheer is doing these carousel based education, entertainment based carousel posts where ask the question and he answers it. They are money, and I think that they are here to stay, and you don't need a lot of graphical work to do some of those things. You can do something simple and easy and basic like that simply on Canva. Or even simply maybe in the Instagram stories editor, we have a complete playlist where we look at budget graphic editors, if that's something you're interested in. It's also linked below. But finally, speaking of education, that's one of the main ways that we help disciple and teach our students about Jesus and help them take meaningful next steps towards him, which is the next video in this 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass video linked right here on the screen. We'll talk to you next time as we're making discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So as always, stay hybrid.

]]> ⚡ [FREE] Crush Social Media This New Year ⚡

https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2024 [FREE] Youth Ministry Masterclass on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

======================================

DESCRIPTION
😫 Are you tired of seeing church announcements flood your social media feeds? It's time to rethink this strategy and take a closer look at the potential hazards it poses.

📹In this video, we delve deep into the reasons why posting church announcements on social media might not be the wisest choice.

👍But, don’t worry! We’ll show you exactly what to do! And how to not lose your life to it! Especially if you follow our time management tips, which is a part of the 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/080

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/slB0Rmf_X0c

PURPOSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
//OPUS.PRO [1 CLICK VIRAL SHORTS SOLUTION]
https://youtu.be/TiW4ooQpAvo?si=W_4pCZZbZmUnzsB9

//METRICOOL
https://metricool.com/

POST YOUR MESSAGES ON YOUTUBE
//[FREE] E-BOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

//$100 STARTER KIT
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

//YOUVERSION LIVE EVENTS
https://my.bible.com/events

TAKE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE NEXT LEVEL
//OPUS.PRO [1 CLICK VIRAL SHORTS SOLUTION]
https://youtu.be/TiW4ooQpAvo?si=W_4pCZZbZmUnzsB9

//SONLIFE
https://www.sonlife.com/

//[FREE] E-BOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

IDEA #2: TELEPATHY
//ADOBE PREMIERE PRESETS
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

IDEA #3: RANK 'EM
//DYM RANK 'EM RESOURCES
Christmas: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em%3A-christmas-edition/christmas-games-9126.html
Fall: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em---fall-edition/holiday-or-seasonal/fall-8962.html

IDEA #6: EMOJI PHRASEOLOGY
//MY FAVORITE 9 DYM PRODUCTS
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

IDEA #8: SPIRITUAL PRACTICE VIDEOS
//SPIRITUAL PRACTICE VIDEOS
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/spiritual-practice-videos/social-media/instagram-8804.html

WHAT TO DO ABOUT FACEBOOK?
//CANVA PRO FOR [FREE!]
https://youtu.be/g0FQWvKjP_E?si=D6jJLxEdkEy9z0FV

WHAT TO DO ABOUT INSTAGRAM?
//BUDGET GRAPHIC DESIGN EDITORS
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw

👉 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

🎅 "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
00:00-01:06 Stop Doing this on Social Media
01:06-04:14 What is the purpose of social media?
04:14-07:04 Post Your Messages to YouTube
07:04-11:42 Taking your social media to the next level
11:42-12:12 Idea #1: Drafts
12:12-13:45 Idea #2: Telepathy
13:45-14:04 Idea #3: Blind Rankings
14:04-14:20 Idea #4: Know it or Nah
14:20-14:33 Idea #5: Staff Videos
14:33-15:39 Idea #6: Emoji Phraseology
15:39-15:44 Idea #7: Sermon Clips
15:44-16:35 Idea #8: Spiritual Practice
16:35-16:46 Where to Post all these videos?
16:46-17:34 What to do about Facebook?
17:34-19:27 What to do about Instagram?

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Summer camp, fall retreat D. Now your next outreach experience, the reality is there are always things to do. You're always trying to get students to come to you. You're always trying to get people to fill and populate your next church events. So naturally, what do we do? Well, we need to put it on the church website. We need to make sure that it gets listed in the church bulletin. We need to add it to the pre-roll before the service and post it to social media. Stop it. No, seriously, stop it. Stop posting your announcements to social media. Don't do it. Don't do it. We're tempted always to post our announcements to social media because we think it's another outlet, another strategy, another place to inform people. But the reality is nobody wants that on their social media feeds. I hear you. You're like, yeah, but what else should I do? Nobody listens, dude. I get it. Okay, but let's look at it. What should we be doing on social media?

Nick Clason (01:07):
So stop posting your announcements on social media. I saw this reel the other day about this guy talking about the Red Bull social media experience, and he said, red Bull is crushing it. He said, what are the local pizzerias and restaurants in your town doing? People are not getting on social media and thinking like, man, I wonder what's on the menu today. Because if you look at a pizzeria on social media, you know that they're going to be posting or you know that they're going to be serving pizza. That's just a part of the experience. And so he said, what Red Bull's doing on social media, we know that Red Bull serves Red Bull energy drinks, but what their primary goal on social media is entertainment. So that's why people get on social media. They get on social media to be entertained. Can we as a church adopt some of those strategies not forever and forsaking some of the spiritual components that can come about on social media, but can we do that on social media?

Nick Clason (02:08):
And the fact is, yeah, actually social media has ushered in a new era with the discovery platforms, with short form video based and videos are still king. And you know what you can do? You can actually take clips and snippets of your message and use this strategy right here. It's linked at the top of the video and this completely free tool Opus Pro. Check out in that video link in this description, link in that video description. But the fact of the matter is you can use tools out there. You can use AI to help you and aid you if you're not a great video editor, if you don't know how to clip things up on social. But the fact is, you might even be thinking, well, what am I supposed to do? How can I post things there? There's a lot of services out there to post things on the feed.

Nick Clason (02:52):
So you may be scheduling your lock-in post. You may be scheduling your church announcement post. You may be scheduling your summer camp. Stop doing those things. You can create videos, you can create moments of entertainment, and you can use a posting service if you want. Linked Below is my experience with a posting service called Metrical. That's probably who I would recommend. I do still like to just post everything I do live. I find that the algorithms prefer that and that things just perform better from a views and metrics standpoint. But if you don't have time for that and you're like, there's no way I could do that, then check out Metrical. It's completely free for most up to a certain number of posts and it's worth it. But you never want to get on a feed. Think about your own habits. You never just want to get on a feed that's just littered with, come to this event, come to this event, come to this event, come to this.

Nick Clason (03:47):
That's boring. And you know what? Your social media probably reflects that. If all you're doing is posting announcements, you're probably only getting a single digit number of likes because the reality is that's not what people are looking for when they get on social media. And so I know you got a lot to announce, you got a lot to get out there, but social media is not the place. So what should we be doing? Well, let's check that out. So churches, youth pastors, regardless of where you are in this on the org chart at your church, what should you be doing? Well, number one, start posting long form to YouTube. And now when I say that if you have live streaming capabilities in your room and you don't have time to sit down direct to camera, then go ahead and post your live streams to YouTube.

Nick Clason (04:38):
But if you don't, I don't. I'm a youth pastor and we are in our very own room, our very own space, and our room is not outfitted for live streaming capabilities. So we actually sit down very similar to what I'm doing here direct to camera. I have a teleprompter and I do deliver a message there. Now, that entire strategy is laid out completely for you, for free right here in my 100% completely free ebook. But that is the baseline. That's the basis for all my social media, everything else sort of branches off of there. So all of our messages that we produce and that we perform, everything that we produce in the room, we also then go ahead and do it directly on YouTube. So pre film your messages, it gives you two strategic advantages. Number one, if you don't have live streaming capability, it gives you a way to film it that is good, helpful, beneficial, looks good, direct to camera.

Nick Clason (05:32):
You can do most of that for under a hundred dollars. That's also linked below in the show notes with just a cell phone camera and a few little pieces of gear. But then from there, what you can do is you can take those messages, post them to YouTube. You also get an opportunity to practice your message. So then when you are standing up live in the room in front of a bunch of students, it's not the first time that you're looking at that material. You have done it before. You have delivered it before, once you've pre-filed, done direct to camera. The one thing that I love about that is in YouTube, they have a description thing, just like me, a lot of things down to the description in this video. Also over at hybridministry.xyz/080 But you can do the same kind of concept.

Nick Clason (06:16):
You can paste a next steps form. And so for every single one of your messages, you can push students towards a next steps form. We like to use the you version events, live events for in the room. Students can follow along, take notes, read scripture, but we also post the link to that in every single video. So if they're watching on a laptop, then they can sit down, they can scroll through that on their phone, they can take notes, they can engage with the Bible on their phone right in front of them. So you can link certain things. And then by the way, hey, if you are announcing summer camp, you can be like, Hey, summer camp registration link in the description. You don't have to make it some static boring graphic post. You can actually weave it into the rest of your strategy. But then dovetailing off of your long form YouTube videos is this next piece that you definitely don't want to miss.

Nick Clason (07:05):
So after YouTube video, the next thing I recommend that you do is that you post shorts, reels, tiktoks to your feeds. And the good news is all four of the major platforms, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook if you want to, it's really easy to link with your Instagram and TikTok are all asking for similar content. So what you can do now on social media for the first time in a lot of years is you can create one piece of content for one platform, but you can spread it across all fours. You can post the same thing to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Facebook Ourto for example, I posted these this week. This week, a couple weeks leading up to Christmas when I'm filming this. You're going to get this in the new year, but we do thing, and I'm going to detail, it's actually detailed right here.

Nick Clason (07:53):
I'll completely free my ebook, but we're going to go through nine ideas that you can do to start doing entertainment based things on your social medias and stop just posting announcements. One of the things we do are drafts stole this, saw this on someone's TikTok somewhere. So we were doing drafting Christmas movies across all four platforms. We had on TikTok, we had 383 views. We had on YouTube, 280 views we had on Instagram, 214 views. And then on Facebook we had 175 views, which totaled 1052 views across all four platforms. Those aren't great numbers by the way either. That's just very standard. I picked the second most recent post that I posted just to give you a good example of a real time strategy idea. I'm not trying to highlight my best one or anything like that, right? But here's the question. Would you like for your content to get in front of a thousand people probably, right?

Nick Clason (08:46):
And that wasn't great. We've had posts that have hit 13,000 on Instagram, 27,001 time we did a football draft. So we've had way, way bigger success. But then that was a entertainment based one. Also in the same week, we've posted a spiritual based one that one did not do as well. And this is actually an underperformer in my opinion. And we've had ones that do similar to the draft response in around those numbers on all the four platforms. But we had on TikTok, we had 224 views. We had 211 on Instagram, we had only 15 on Facebook, which is pretty low. And then 1 42 on YouTube, which is also relatively low, but still that total to 592. I know for me that feels low, but we don't have 592 students or people come to our youth ministry program. So we post fun content. We also post spiritual content, and then that's anchored underneath the baseline by our long form YouTube video.

Nick Clason (09:48):
And what's crazy is that Opus Pro, the message clip that came through Opus Pro. And so you'll notice there's a little overlay that says, watch the full video on Cross Creek students YouTube channel that is just a preset that I made. And every single one of our videos spits out with that little watermark. I can change it, I can customize, I can do. The stats aren't crazy, but you should subscribe because this is actually part of the 2024 Youth Pastor Masterclass. We're right dead in the middle. If you subscribe and if you hit the bell, you'll get notified when the next video drops. But I like to think about it like this or I want, but I like to think of it like my neighbor. I want to share the gospel with my neighbor. I want to tell them about Jesus. But every single time I have a conversation with my neighbor, I'm not sitting down and telling them about Jesus.

Nick Clason (10:34):
I'm working the relationship. I'm having a conversation. I grew up in church. I grew up in a ministry called Sun Life, and they have a thing called spiritual, CPR, cultivate, plant Reap. And really the cultivate stage is just build the friendship. Plant is like sprinkle in seeds of spiritual conversations in the gospel and then reap is like present the gospel and ask them for a decision to follow Jesus. Yes or no. And a lot of times on social media, we take the approach of reap, ask them for a spiritual decision, ask them to respond to the gospel, yes or no every single time as opposed to trying to cultivate our audience as opposed to trying to plant little seeds of curiosity, spiritual moments, things like that. So here are ideas, things that I do in my own personal context. It's all outlined here. Am I completely free?

Nick Clason (11:23):
Ebook? You should definitely check it out if you haven't yet. But it will help you take your social media from being boring and dumb and announcement based to entertainment based and personality driven. Not just your personality, but students, other volunteer leaders, other staff that you might have. So these are things that we do. We do a thing called a draft, and that's what you just saw the results from. But two people sit down and then they just draft things under a certain category. We've done Christmas movies, we've done potatoes, we've done burger places, we've done Christmas songs, we've done Thanksgiving food, we've done Halloween Candy, we've done Avengers, we've done Blue Characters. Literally anything you can think of. One person next person, one person next person. The only caveat is you can pick anything you want, but if it's already been taken, it's kind of off the board.

Nick Clason (12:12):
The next thing we do is a fun little game called Telepathy or Wavelength or nsync or just guess the number. And two people sit down and one person's thinking of a number, the other person's asking them certain categories, and then the person that has the number in their brain, they're telling the other person their answers from that category based on their number. So for example, if I'm thinking of the number one and you ask me for a day of the week, I'm going to say Monday. And then if you say food, I'm going to say Tomatoes. Okay? And so then at the end of it, you ask four things, four different things. So day of the week, food, movie, Avenger, and then you give 'em all. And then at the end, the other person, I was asking the categories, they say, are you thinking number one?

Nick Clason (12:57):
And if they got it right, they got it right. If they got it wrong, they got it wrong. The one thing I love about this game is we intro it like this. Hey, we're playing this game. The number's going to be right here on the screen. The number pops in on the screen. You can edit that in an editor like Adobe Premier Pro, I got completely free presets. Link down below if you want some of those that will do animations like this and like that, and rotate in, rotate out all those things, all the things you just saw on the screen. If you're not watching on YouTube, all those things are in the link in the description. Go grab the free presets. But if not, you can do that on your phone in a phone editor like TikTok or Cap Cut. But you can say, Hey, the number's on the screen, close your eyes if you don't play along.

Nick Clason (13:37):
Alright, here we go. And then that person can open their eyes and they can watch and they can actually try to guess the number. So it's actually engaging the person on the other side of the phone. I like to do blind rankings. TikTok has a blind ranking filter, so you can blind rank all kinds of things. Disney movies, Disney characters, and a blind rank is just you're ranking them in a one through 10 or one through five order without knowing what's coming next. I also have some examples of that on Download Youth Ministry, a link to that in just a second. I like to do these things called Know it or Nah, so you've probably heard it where they play a little five second clip of a song on TikTok. Just find those audios on TikTok. And then you choose one side of the room.

Nick Clason (14:14):
So I'll get four or five people if they know it, they go to this side. If they don't, they go to that side. We'll do staff video. So we'll have our staff participate in certain things we were just giving away for our Christmas party. Craig Cash, our senior pastor's name is Craig. We were giving away Craig Cash, and so we did the Craig Cash Olympics, we did all kinds of Christmas type things. One of my favorites is a game I have on DYM called Emoji Phrase theology. People just trying to guess the emoji phrase. And I'll just sit down or have a student sit down or a leader sit down or walk around and quiz students, Hey, what's this emoji phrase saying? What's this camp emoji phrase saying, what's this Christmas emoji phrase saying? Was this back to school emoji phrase saying, and I'll clip those in.

Nick Clason (14:54):
So I take a game that's already created, and instead of just doing the kind of static standard screen-based graphics, we customize it to our own space. Link down below are my favorite nine DYM products that I have. Several of them are hybrid based. Several of them don't just focus on the screen only or digital, but it's a melding together of the two. And you can take that next layer to the next level, right? Like my emoji phrase, theology. There's a social media component, but you can take it to the next level and customize it with a host, asking people the answers to those questions. And just some simple video editing on the backside, whether that be in a software like Adobe Premiere Pro, or you can do it on TikTok or in Canva, or not Canva, but Cap Cut. I always get Canva and Cap cut mixed up.

Nick Clason (15:40):
You can use the video clips out of Opus Pro like I was talking about. I got some spiritual practice videos on Download Youth Ministry. One of my favorites is someone's scrolling through TikTok and you just point to the screen right here and it says, stay or scroll, read the Bible with me. Point, point, point, point, point, point, point. Wait a second. And you say, all right, thanks for staying. Let's read the Bible together. And you read a passage of scripture right there on social media. That's all you do. It's super basic, super simple, but it has a great response because what you're doing then is you're cultivating that relationship. You may get those people with the draft or the instinct telepathy game or the blind ranking or the know it or not back and forth, and then you're like, Hey, let's do some spiritual stuff together.

Nick Clason (16:19):
Let's memorize scripture. Let's read the Bible, let's do a prayer. All those types of things. And you can do a lot of that stuff, especially with the bedrock of your messages. Long form video, you can do a lot of that stuff on Opus Pro. Saves you hours. It saves me hours every single week. So continuing on our strategy, you can post all those types of videos to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Facebook. But what about Facebook groups? Well, let's check it out. You should definitely have Facebook groups. You should have a Facebook page also because a Facebook page is where those things dump into, but then have a group associated with that. If you're a youth pastor, my only strategy that I recommend on Facebook is a Facebook parents group. That's mostly where they are. You can post things like car ride questions, and you can use Canva Pro.

Nick Clason (17:06):
It's completely free for churches. It's also linked below. We did an entire video on it, so you can go check that out in the description, but you can just create square graphics for your parents to talk about stuff with their students on the way home. And that's just a great discipleship strategy. If you're a church communications person, you should probably have a little bit more active Facebook group. But for a youth pastor, most students aren't on Facebook, but most parents are. And so that's where the strategy comes in. It's for the parents. Lastly, on Instagram, you got the feed. You also got stories on stories. The ultimate goal, I would say, is to engage with your people. So repost things if they tag you for sure. You can also post engagement style questions. What's your favorite Christmas movie? What's the best Halloween candy? What's your New Year's resolution?

Nick Clason (17:53):
What's one thing you're going to be doing this weekend using only emojis? Tell us what you did this last week. Stuff like that. Engage with your audience. A lot of times, I'll take a reel that I post, so I don't post every single one of those reels to the feed, though that option has recently turned off, so I have to post it, then go back later and take it off the profile grid. I'm sure there's a setting I'm missing, but nonetheless, I'll sometimes then share the reels that didn't also get shared to the feed into a story, and that's just a way to do engagement. And then I may throw a question sticker like a slider bar or a question or a quiz sticker or something like that. Just engagement. That's my goal in stories. And then on the main feed, just post photos of your people and post recap photos from a Wednesday night, from a Sunday morning, from a Sunday night.

Nick Clason (18:36):
Brady Sheer is doing these carousel based education, entertainment based carousel posts where ask the question and he answers it. They are money, and I think that they are here to stay, and you don't need a lot of graphical work to do some of those things. You can do something simple and easy and basic like that simply on Canva. Or even simply maybe in the Instagram stories editor, we have a complete playlist where we look at budget graphic editors, if that's something you're interested in. It's also linked below. But finally, speaking of education, that's one of the main ways that we help disciple and teach our students about Jesus and help them take meaningful next steps towards him, which is the next video in this 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass video linked right here on the screen. We'll talk to you next time as we're making discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 079: 🤷 Youth Pastor: Event Coordinators? or Disciple-Makers? https://www.hybridministry.xyz/079 ac0ac724-dc9a-4652-8ce5-a51c3c872e8b Thu, 11 Jan 2024 07:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 079 🤷 Youth Pastor: Event Coordinators? or Disciple-Makers? full Nick Clason 📈 How do we get more people to show up to our events? How do we grow our group? How do we attract and retain teens? 57% of American Church Goers, according to Pew Research, don’t even attend church once a month!! 👌In this episode we’re going to explore 3 key shifts in our thinking ⚙️And I have the ultimate tool to accessing and resourcing people/students in the digital age. 14:39 no ⚡ [FREE] Crush Social Media This New Year ⚡ 📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 2024 [FREE] Youth Ministry Masterclass on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg ======================================== DESCRIPTION 📈 How do we get more people to show up to our events? How do we grow our group? How do we attract and retain teens? 57% of American Church Goers, according to Pew Research, don’t even attend church once a month!! 👌In this episode we’re going to explore 3 key shifts in our thinking ⚙️And I have the ultimate tool to accessing and resourcing people/students in the digital age. Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg ======================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/079 //YOUTUBE VIDEO https://youtu.be/EzhYluEKZ_I SHIFT #1 FROM PRODUCTION TO ACCESS //PEW RESEARCH ARTICLES ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utmsource=adaptivemailer&amp;utmmedium=email&amp;utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&amp;org=982&amp;lvl=100&amp;ite=9703&amp;lea=2048393&amp;ctr=0&amp;par=1&amp;trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae //TERRY PARKMAN https://www.terryparkman.com/ //GEN ALPHA DATA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpeDaLS3oo //PRO CHURCH TOOLS https://prochurchtools.com/ //FULL DIGITAL STRATEGY https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book SHIFT #2 FROM PERFORMANCE TO ENGAGEMENT //EVERY YOUTH MINISTRY NEEDS A GOOD DIGITAL PRESENCE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM SHIFT #3 FROM QUANTITY TO COMMUNITY //THE QUESTIONS OF BELONGING https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpeDaLS3oo //WORLD'S GREATEST DONUT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ryhkIRyDb4 //MASTER YOUR TIME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8 👉 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 🎅 "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 &amp; 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 00:00-01:21 Event Coordinator? Or Disciple-Maker? 01:21-07:18 SHIFT #1 from PRODUCTION to ACCESS 07:18-09:20 SHIFT #2 from PERFORMANCE to ENGAGEMENT 09:20-16:14 SHIFT #3 from QUANTITY to COMMUNITY ✍️TRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa Nick Clason (00:00): Youth pastors. How do we get more people to show up to our events? How do we grow the size of our youth groups? How do we attract and retain teenagers? See, all these questions are common questions. They're things that we're all facing at least at some level. And regardless of if you think that the attendance debate matters or not, we talked about it in our very last video linked up here in our playlist, in our youth ministry 2024 masterclass that we are going through completely free all here online on YouTube. Love to have you subscribe, check it out, and make sure you don't miss another one. We talked about the church attendance conundrum because 54% of American Christians are not attending church according to Pew Research at least one time per month. So in this episode, I want to talk to you about three key shifts that are going to help us reach the next generation as we explore this question. Nick Clason (00:50): Are we in the event making business or are we in the disciple making business? And I also have the ultimate tool that I believe can help you become more accessible in resourcing both your people and your students in this new found digital age. Like I said, we'd love to have you subscribe, like leave a comment, leave a rating, leave a review. All of those things help us get found and make sure that you can get the very next episode as soon as it drops episode 80 in our 2024 Youth Ministry masterclass. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, everyone, my name's Nick Clason. I'm a youth pastor in DFW Dallas Fort Worth. Been in youth ministry now being January of 2024. Mark's my 13th year in youth ministry and I've most recently went to a conference with the Gen Z guru himself. Terry Parkman. If you don't know Terry, he's amazing, but he talked about some of these shifts, so I just want to kind of elaborate on them and kick some of them around a little bit more. Nick Clason (01:46): But he talked about the difference that Generation Z and now subsequently generation Alpha, who if you didn't see in our last episode, we classified them being born somewhere between 2010 and 2018, probably more than 2012 rage, which is what Pew research kind of settles on as the origin date of generation alpha. Nonetheless, Terry Parkman specifically talking about Gen Z, talks about the shift in thinking from Gen Z who thinks more in a digital age, digital mindset versus all of US millennials and older Gen x boomers and so on and so forth, who are more raised in a industrial aged way of thinking and industrial age way frankly of living. And so what the first shift that is important that he talks about is we need to shift from an industrial minded way of production, which is an industrial value to one of access. The way that we talk about it is just simply build access points onto your ministry, so an industrial way of thinking and the production value production kind of mindset. Nick Clason (02:54): Think about seeker style churches back in the early nineties or early two thousands where you may open with a secular song, one that's familiar, one that's relatable. You may try to go for relevant lighting, you may really try to put the entire screws down on the production, the value of how important production is, and that a really well-produced thing will draw out consumers, it's almost like the mentality if we build it, they will come. It also comes down to simply how much can we produce the amount of production value that we can add? The more production value that we can add, the better, the greater, the higher the number, the more that we can produce, the more that we can attract. That's an industrial way of thinking. Meanwhile, a digital way of thinking, they don't necessarily Gen Z Gen and Alpha and the generations that are coming on behind, they don't necessarily want those things. Nick Clason (03:49): They're looking more for access. They're wondering, do I fit here? Can I gain access to this place and how can I let my gifts be utilized and flourish and shine here? Honestly, one of my number one pet peeves in churches is when we from a volunteer aspect say things like, we need you to do our job. That is not enticing in any way, shape, or form, and it's especially not enticing to the next generation. What I think they otherwise might more importantly, more interestingly want to hear is, Hey, we want you to shine here and how can we partner with you to make a difference in this world? It goes from US centric to them centric, and I get it. I'm hearing you scream on the other side, but that's not what a disciple of Jesus does. Correct. However, how are we ever going to be relevant and make any sort of inroads with the next generation? Nick Clason (04:46): If the way in which we posture ourselves is fundamentally and vehemently different than them, are we asking them to acquiesce to us as opposed to us finding ways that it's not that big of a deal to make a subtle shift? Because in the same way, we can still ask Gen Z and Gen Alpha to serve, we are just making it them centric instead of US centric. And again, you might be screaming that they shouldn't be them centric, but isn't it just as Unbiblical and Christlike for us to be US centric, organization centric, pastor centric in the land of access points. Our church right now, honestly, probably right now as I'm recording this on a random night in December, we have these things, these events, and they're amazing and they get talked about and they get promoted and they're all over social, and someone asked me how do I sign up for it and do you know what? Nick Clason (05:37): I said? I work there at the church, I don't actually have anything to do with it, and obviously I'm not there right now. I said, I have no idea. We have these events. There's sort of this lore about them, but how to actually access it. It's confusing, and I frankly haven't tried, so that's probably on me, but point of it is, is your church accessible? How easy to navigate is your website. I love what Brady Sheer and all of them at Pro Church Tools up in Canada say all the time and say, make your website, be a one stop shop. Don't for one thing, go sign up via the bulletin for the other thing. Send an email for the third thing, head to the website and for the fourth thing, find someone in the lobby. You never know what to do, where to go, and so only the most loyal and only the person with the most headstrong sort of stubbornness is going to ever actually find anything out. Nick Clason (06:29): Anybody else who comes upon any sort of roadblock or opposition, all of a sudden it's just really easy for them to crumble. And here's the fact, I don't believe I have all the answers, but one of the ways in which we are trying to create more access points in our ministry is through our digital strategy, which I have completely laid out in my 100% completely free ebook free for you. Grab the link, go download it. All I need is your name. All I need is your email and that's it. It's yours to use. It's my strategy that I've used to grow YouTube channel in a year from zero subscribers all the way up to almost 400 subscribers. It might be even past 400 by the time that this video actually drops, it's completely laid out. It's basically my social media masterclass and guess what I gave it and I'm giving it to you for free, and I would love to encourage you to just grab it, try it, implement it, and check it all out. Nick Clason (07:18): Shift number two is we need to shift from performance based and industrial way of thinking to more engagement based. So if you think about an industrial way of thinking where performance is king, think about the best, the prettiest, the nicest, the smelliest people on stage with a good swath of diversity and all those things, or just even in youth ministry, we've all sort of had the basis of like, let's just have some fun, and if the kids have fun, then they'll definitely want to come back. If we perform really well for them and we don't screw up, then they'll be like, man, that place was so good. I just want to come back. That's an industrial way of thinking, and here's the problem. If you are a youth pastor and you're my age or you're a millennial, that's the way that you think because that's the way and that's the age in which you were raised in. Nick Clason (08:03): To think that that's what is valued, but the next generation that's more in a digital age, they're not worried about performance. They want to know, am I able to engage with this? When it's all about performance, think about a conveyor belt and a factory. The way that that goes is if there's a certain part in the conveyor belt that's causing a backup, what do we do? We just stick another person in there. We don't care what that person does, who that person is, what that person can do for us or our organization. We just want to know, can that person keep the conveyor belt from stopping? Can that person keep the performance going? But a digital way of thinking, a digital shift when you go from performance to more engagement based thinking is you're wondering, Hey, how can we create good content that students want to engage with? Nick Clason (08:48): Which is why I link right down below or right up here on the screen, whichever one, I'm not sure if I've used my card yet or not in this video, but every youth ministry needs a good digital presence. It's my full YouTube strategy. It's my full social media strategy. It's the one that's tied to my ebook. It's the video explaining the ebook if you want to go check that out. Again, I don't have all the answers. It's just my way to sort of attempt to try and engage more with our students who are different, who are digital thinkers, who are Gen Z and coming quick behind them, generation alpha. The third shift is we need to switch from a value of quantity to a value of community, an industrial way of thinking. We are entirely built in most churches for quantity. Think about it. If you have a church with auditorium style seating, the goal of that room is to get the most amount of quantity of people in to listen to one captivating speaker, wax eloquent for a week, and listen, honestly, no shade thrown. Nick Clason (09:48): Most pastors, you're really good at your job, you're good at crafting sermons and you're good at delivering sermons, but the fact of the matter is, while you may be awesome at it, that's just not what's as highly valued in our world, especially in the world of digital. With audio, podcasts, YouTube podcast, people can listen to audio books, sermons. They can listen to the best preachers in the entire world. Again, no offense to you at the drop of a hat, instantly binging them, never actually running out of content. That's how accessible all of this stuff is, and so when people come to church, they don't want to just be another number kind of filtered into the auditorium to look at the back of someone's seat. That's why I believe link down below in the show notes. In this episode, we talked about why churches are dying. Nick Clason (10:32): I think churches are not adapting to the new issues and the new way of thinking that this next generation is so adamant about, and again, that generation, this next generation, this digital way of generation, they're not looking for a room to come and consume some more content. They're looking for community. And so if our rooms are built for quantity, thus they're not then built at least optimally for community. I mean, I know I worked at a church one time that we had Longwood ews and they were bolted to the ground. We couldn't do anything about those things, and even if they weren't bolted to the ground, they were heavy as sin. Man, I could not lift one of those things because once we finally did try to lift them, I was like, dang, who got these in here? It's like a five man job. The goal was get these things in here, never to be moved again. Nick Clason (11:22): This room is for one purpose and one purpose only, and the purpose that most younger people are looking for is not that. A dangerous way I believe of thinking is that we often value a Christian culture more than the Christ of the culture, and so therefore, I believe that what we're trying to do is we're trying to force people into a way of thinking, and when community trump's performance, we actually get a messy, authentic, real interaction with other believers who love Jesus and are trying to pursue and follow him. And so in a digital way of thinking, I think people who value community are looking for asking questions like, where do I belong? And are these people at my church? Are they my people? The students, they're asking those questions and they may, like we said in our last video and this masterclass in video two, this is not video three, they may be asking, are these people my people? Nick Clason (12:15): And they may be coming to your youth ministry, and just because they're there doesn't necessarily mean that they're engaging in religious practice. And it also doesn't necessarily mean that they're there because they want to be, because almost 50% of no, it's 65% of students come to church with at least one parent. That's where they're coming to church. They're not coming to church. They love God. They're not coming to church. They love you. They're not coming to church. They love your youth ministry. They're coming to church. They're coming to church with their parents, but if they can find a real captivating community that they can't say no to, they're not going anywhere. So it's not about what you produce, it's about the community that's available to them. We live now with the very first global generation. Students spend on average, shockingly five to eight hours on their phones screens per day. Nick Clason (13:06): The church world was built for consumers, and what's happening now is in that generation what's being internalized, they want to find a place to externalize it. And so one of the ideas that I have, again, I don't have all the answers, I don't know if this is a good idea or not. We did it in our space. It seemed to work well. It's a hybrid event. It's called the World's Greatest Donut, completely free event guide right here. You can click it, and it's just an opportunity to engage with students beyond your program times because I think a lot of times what we try to do is we try to get as many people, as much quantity into a room and call that success. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to expand the relationship beyond just the one time per week, and that's what this event is all built on. Nick Clason (13:46): It's a one-time event for an in-person event, however it lives on for an entire month. Not only live in the room, but it also lives live on your social media. That's the in-person versus the digital creating a hybrid moment together. Hey, the ultimate tool that I teased at the beginning of this video is, and I've already said it, it's my ebook. It's my full digital strategy. The fact is I don't have it all together, but the way in which you can utilize that is you have to become a master of your time, which is a video that's linked right here on the screen. It was a couple of videos ago, and the next video in this playlist is how to implement a good social media strategy where you're not simply just posting announcements. Click either one of those and we would love to see you on the other side. And as always, my friends stay hybrid. 2024 Church Attendance, Hybrid Ministry, Youth Ministry, Youth Group, Youth Group Attendance, Student Ministry, Student Ministry Attendance, Generation Alpha Attendance at Church, Church Attendance, How to Grow my Youth Group in 2024, Church Attendance Trends, Church Growth, Youth Ministry Growth, Student Ministry Growth, Church Ministry, Youth Pastor, Youth Pastor Coach ⚡ [FREE] Crush Social Media This New Year ⚡

📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2024 [FREE] Youth Ministry Masterclass on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

========================================

DESCRIPTION
📈 How do we get more people to show up to our events?
How do we grow our group?
How do we attract and retain teens?

57% of American Church Goers, according to Pew Research, don’t even attend church once a month!!

👌In this episode we’re going to explore 3 key shifts in our thinking
⚙️And I have the ultimate tool to accessing and resourcing people/students in the digital age.

Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

========================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/079

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/EzhYluEKZ_I

SHIFT #1 FROM PRODUCTION TO ACCESS
//PEW RESEARCH ARTICLES ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&org=982&lvl=100&ite=9703&lea=2048393&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae

//TERRY PARKMAN
https://www.terryparkman.com/

//GEN ALPHA DATA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpeDaLS3oo

//PRO CHURCH TOOLS
https://prochurchtools.com/

//FULL DIGITAL STRATEGY
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

SHIFT #2 FROM PERFORMANCE TO ENGAGEMENT

//EVERY YOUTH MINISTRY NEEDS A GOOD DIGITAL PRESENCE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM

SHIFT #3 FROM QUANTITY TO COMMUNITY

//THE QUESTIONS OF BELONGING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpeDaLS3oo

//WORLD'S GREATEST DONUT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ryhkIRyDb4

//MASTER YOUR TIME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8

👉 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

🎅 "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

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🛠️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
00:00-01:21 Event Coordinator? Or Disciple-Maker?
01:21-07:18 SHIFT #1 from PRODUCTION to ACCESS
07:18-09:20 SHIFT #2 from PERFORMANCE to ENGAGEMENT
09:20-16:14 SHIFT #3 from QUANTITY to COMMUNITY

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Youth pastors. How do we get more people to show up to our events? How do we grow the size of our youth groups? How do we attract and retain teenagers? See, all these questions are common questions. They're things that we're all facing at least at some level. And regardless of if you think that the attendance debate matters or not, we talked about it in our very last video linked up here in our playlist, in our youth ministry 2024 masterclass that we are going through completely free all here online on YouTube. Love to have you subscribe, check it out, and make sure you don't miss another one. We talked about the church attendance conundrum because 54% of American Christians are not attending church according to Pew Research at least one time per month. So in this episode, I want to talk to you about three key shifts that are going to help us reach the next generation as we explore this question.

Nick Clason (00:50):
Are we in the event making business or are we in the disciple making business? And I also have the ultimate tool that I believe can help you become more accessible in resourcing both your people and your students in this new found digital age. Like I said, we'd love to have you subscribe, like leave a comment, leave a rating, leave a review. All of those things help us get found and make sure that you can get the very next episode as soon as it drops episode 80 in our 2024 Youth Ministry masterclass. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, everyone, my name's Nick Clason. I'm a youth pastor in DFW Dallas Fort Worth. Been in youth ministry now being January of 2024. Mark's my 13th year in youth ministry and I've most recently went to a conference with the Gen Z guru himself. Terry Parkman. If you don't know Terry, he's amazing, but he talked about some of these shifts, so I just want to kind of elaborate on them and kick some of them around a little bit more.

Nick Clason (01:46):
But he talked about the difference that Generation Z and now subsequently generation Alpha, who if you didn't see in our last episode, we classified them being born somewhere between 2010 and 2018, probably more than 2012 rage, which is what Pew research kind of settles on as the origin date of generation alpha. Nonetheless, Terry Parkman specifically talking about Gen Z, talks about the shift in thinking from Gen Z who thinks more in a digital age, digital mindset versus all of US millennials and older Gen x boomers and so on and so forth, who are more raised in a industrial aged way of thinking and industrial age way frankly of living. And so what the first shift that is important that he talks about is we need to shift from an industrial minded way of production, which is an industrial value to one of access. The way that we talk about it is just simply build access points onto your ministry, so an industrial way of thinking and the production value production kind of mindset.

Nick Clason (02:54):
Think about seeker style churches back in the early nineties or early two thousands where you may open with a secular song, one that's familiar, one that's relatable. You may try to go for relevant lighting, you may really try to put the entire screws down on the production, the value of how important production is, and that a really well-produced thing will draw out consumers, it's almost like the mentality if we build it, they will come. It also comes down to simply how much can we produce the amount of production value that we can add? The more production value that we can add, the better, the greater, the higher the number, the more that we can produce, the more that we can attract. That's an industrial way of thinking. Meanwhile, a digital way of thinking, they don't necessarily Gen Z Gen and Alpha and the generations that are coming on behind, they don't necessarily want those things.

Nick Clason (03:49):
They're looking more for access. They're wondering, do I fit here? Can I gain access to this place and how can I let my gifts be utilized and flourish and shine here? Honestly, one of my number one pet peeves in churches is when we from a volunteer aspect say things like, we need you to do our job. That is not enticing in any way, shape, or form, and it's especially not enticing to the next generation. What I think they otherwise might more importantly, more interestingly want to hear is, Hey, we want you to shine here and how can we partner with you to make a difference in this world? It goes from US centric to them centric, and I get it. I'm hearing you scream on the other side, but that's not what a disciple of Jesus does. Correct. However, how are we ever going to be relevant and make any sort of inroads with the next generation?

Nick Clason (04:46):
If the way in which we posture ourselves is fundamentally and vehemently different than them, are we asking them to acquiesce to us as opposed to us finding ways that it's not that big of a deal to make a subtle shift? Because in the same way, we can still ask Gen Z and Gen Alpha to serve, we are just making it them centric instead of US centric. And again, you might be screaming that they shouldn't be them centric, but isn't it just as Unbiblical and Christlike for us to be US centric, organization centric, pastor centric in the land of access points. Our church right now, honestly, probably right now as I'm recording this on a random night in December, we have these things, these events, and they're amazing and they get talked about and they get promoted and they're all over social, and someone asked me how do I sign up for it and do you know what?

Nick Clason (05:37):
I said? I work there at the church, I don't actually have anything to do with it, and obviously I'm not there right now. I said, I have no idea. We have these events. There's sort of this lore about them, but how to actually access it. It's confusing, and I frankly haven't tried, so that's probably on me, but point of it is, is your church accessible? How easy to navigate is your website. I love what Brady Sheer and all of them at Pro Church Tools up in Canada say all the time and say, make your website, be a one stop shop. Don't for one thing, go sign up via the bulletin for the other thing. Send an email for the third thing, head to the website and for the fourth thing, find someone in the lobby. You never know what to do, where to go, and so only the most loyal and only the person with the most headstrong sort of stubbornness is going to ever actually find anything out.

Nick Clason (06:29):
Anybody else who comes upon any sort of roadblock or opposition, all of a sudden it's just really easy for them to crumble. And here's the fact, I don't believe I have all the answers, but one of the ways in which we are trying to create more access points in our ministry is through our digital strategy, which I have completely laid out in my 100% completely free ebook free for you. Grab the link, go download it. All I need is your name. All I need is your email and that's it. It's yours to use. It's my strategy that I've used to grow YouTube channel in a year from zero subscribers all the way up to almost 400 subscribers. It might be even past 400 by the time that this video actually drops, it's completely laid out. It's basically my social media masterclass and guess what I gave it and I'm giving it to you for free, and I would love to encourage you to just grab it, try it, implement it, and check it all out.

Nick Clason (07:18):
Shift number two is we need to shift from performance based and industrial way of thinking to more engagement based. So if you think about an industrial way of thinking where performance is king, think about the best, the prettiest, the nicest, the smelliest people on stage with a good swath of diversity and all those things, or just even in youth ministry, we've all sort of had the basis of like, let's just have some fun, and if the kids have fun, then they'll definitely want to come back. If we perform really well for them and we don't screw up, then they'll be like, man, that place was so good. I just want to come back. That's an industrial way of thinking, and here's the problem. If you are a youth pastor and you're my age or you're a millennial, that's the way that you think because that's the way and that's the age in which you were raised in.

Nick Clason (08:03):
To think that that's what is valued, but the next generation that's more in a digital age, they're not worried about performance. They want to know, am I able to engage with this? When it's all about performance, think about a conveyor belt and a factory. The way that that goes is if there's a certain part in the conveyor belt that's causing a backup, what do we do? We just stick another person in there. We don't care what that person does, who that person is, what that person can do for us or our organization. We just want to know, can that person keep the conveyor belt from stopping? Can that person keep the performance going? But a digital way of thinking, a digital shift when you go from performance to more engagement based thinking is you're wondering, Hey, how can we create good content that students want to engage with?

Nick Clason (08:48):
Which is why I link right down below or right up here on the screen, whichever one, I'm not sure if I've used my card yet or not in this video, but every youth ministry needs a good digital presence. It's my full YouTube strategy. It's my full social media strategy. It's the one that's tied to my ebook. It's the video explaining the ebook if you want to go check that out. Again, I don't have all the answers. It's just my way to sort of attempt to try and engage more with our students who are different, who are digital thinkers, who are Gen Z and coming quick behind them, generation alpha. The third shift is we need to switch from a value of quantity to a value of community, an industrial way of thinking. We are entirely built in most churches for quantity. Think about it. If you have a church with auditorium style seating, the goal of that room is to get the most amount of quantity of people in to listen to one captivating speaker, wax eloquent for a week, and listen, honestly, no shade thrown.

Nick Clason (09:48):
Most pastors, you're really good at your job, you're good at crafting sermons and you're good at delivering sermons, but the fact of the matter is, while you may be awesome at it, that's just not what's as highly valued in our world, especially in the world of digital. With audio, podcasts, YouTube podcast, people can listen to audio books, sermons. They can listen to the best preachers in the entire world. Again, no offense to you at the drop of a hat, instantly binging them, never actually running out of content. That's how accessible all of this stuff is, and so when people come to church, they don't want to just be another number kind of filtered into the auditorium to look at the back of someone's seat. That's why I believe link down below in the show notes. In this episode, we talked about why churches are dying.

Nick Clason (10:32):
I think churches are not adapting to the new issues and the new way of thinking that this next generation is so adamant about, and again, that generation, this next generation, this digital way of generation, they're not looking for a room to come and consume some more content. They're looking for community. And so if our rooms are built for quantity, thus they're not then built at least optimally for community. I mean, I know I worked at a church one time that we had Longwood ews and they were bolted to the ground. We couldn't do anything about those things, and even if they weren't bolted to the ground, they were heavy as sin. Man, I could not lift one of those things because once we finally did try to lift them, I was like, dang, who got these in here? It's like a five man job. The goal was get these things in here, never to be moved again.

Nick Clason (11:22):
This room is for one purpose and one purpose only, and the purpose that most younger people are looking for is not that. A dangerous way I believe of thinking is that we often value a Christian culture more than the Christ of the culture, and so therefore, I believe that what we're trying to do is we're trying to force people into a way of thinking, and when community trump's performance, we actually get a messy, authentic, real interaction with other believers who love Jesus and are trying to pursue and follow him. And so in a digital way of thinking, I think people who value community are looking for asking questions like, where do I belong? And are these people at my church? Are they my people? The students, they're asking those questions and they may, like we said in our last video and this masterclass in video two, this is not video three, they may be asking, are these people my people?

Nick Clason (12:15):
And they may be coming to your youth ministry, and just because they're there doesn't necessarily mean that they're engaging in religious practice. And it also doesn't necessarily mean that they're there because they want to be, because almost 50% of no, it's 65% of students come to church with at least one parent. That's where they're coming to church. They're not coming to church. They love God. They're not coming to church. They love you. They're not coming to church. They love your youth ministry. They're coming to church. They're coming to church with their parents, but if they can find a real captivating community that they can't say no to, they're not going anywhere. So it's not about what you produce, it's about the community that's available to them. We live now with the very first global generation. Students spend on average, shockingly five to eight hours on their phones screens per day.

Nick Clason (13:06):
The church world was built for consumers, and what's happening now is in that generation what's being internalized, they want to find a place to externalize it. And so one of the ideas that I have, again, I don't have all the answers, I don't know if this is a good idea or not. We did it in our space. It seemed to work well. It's a hybrid event. It's called the World's Greatest Donut, completely free event guide right here. You can click it, and it's just an opportunity to engage with students beyond your program times because I think a lot of times what we try to do is we try to get as many people, as much quantity into a room and call that success. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to expand the relationship beyond just the one time per week, and that's what this event is all built on.

Nick Clason (13:46):
It's a one-time event for an in-person event, however it lives on for an entire month. Not only live in the room, but it also lives live on your social media. That's the in-person versus the digital creating a hybrid moment together. Hey, the ultimate tool that I teased at the beginning of this video is, and I've already said it, it's my ebook. It's my full digital strategy. The fact is I don't have it all together, but the way in which you can utilize that is you have to become a master of your time, which is a video that's linked right here on the screen. It was a couple of videos ago, and the next video in this playlist is how to implement a good social media strategy where you're not simply just posting announcements. Click either one of those and we would love to see you on the other side. And as always, my friends stay hybrid.

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2024 [FREE] Youth Ministry Masterclass on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

========================================

DESCRIPTION
📈 How do we get more people to show up to our events?
How do we grow our group?
How do we attract and retain teens?

57% of American Church Goers, according to Pew Research, don’t even attend church once a month!!

👌In this episode we’re going to explore 3 key shifts in our thinking
⚙️And I have the ultimate tool to accessing and resourcing people/students in the digital age.

Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

========================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/079

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/EzhYluEKZ_I

SHIFT #1 FROM PRODUCTION TO ACCESS
//PEW RESEARCH ARTICLES ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&org=982&lvl=100&ite=9703&lea=2048393&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae

//TERRY PARKMAN
https://www.terryparkman.com/

//GEN ALPHA DATA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpeDaLS3oo

//PRO CHURCH TOOLS
https://prochurchtools.com/

//FULL DIGITAL STRATEGY
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

SHIFT #2 FROM PERFORMANCE TO ENGAGEMENT

//EVERY YOUTH MINISTRY NEEDS A GOOD DIGITAL PRESENCE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM

SHIFT #3 FROM QUANTITY TO COMMUNITY

//THE QUESTIONS OF BELONGING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpeDaLS3oo

//WORLD'S GREATEST DONUT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ryhkIRyDb4

//MASTER YOUR TIME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8

👉 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

🎅 "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
00:00-01:21 Event Coordinator? Or Disciple-Maker?
01:21-07:18 SHIFT #1 from PRODUCTION to ACCESS
07:18-09:20 SHIFT #2 from PERFORMANCE to ENGAGEMENT
09:20-16:14 SHIFT #3 from QUANTITY to COMMUNITY

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Youth pastors. How do we get more people to show up to our events? How do we grow the size of our youth groups? How do we attract and retain teenagers? See, all these questions are common questions. They're things that we're all facing at least at some level. And regardless of if you think that the attendance debate matters or not, we talked about it in our very last video linked up here in our playlist, in our youth ministry 2024 masterclass that we are going through completely free all here online on YouTube. Love to have you subscribe, check it out, and make sure you don't miss another one. We talked about the church attendance conundrum because 54% of American Christians are not attending church according to Pew Research at least one time per month. So in this episode, I want to talk to you about three key shifts that are going to help us reach the next generation as we explore this question.

Nick Clason (00:50):
Are we in the event making business or are we in the disciple making business? And I also have the ultimate tool that I believe can help you become more accessible in resourcing both your people and your students in this new found digital age. Like I said, we'd love to have you subscribe, like leave a comment, leave a rating, leave a review. All of those things help us get found and make sure that you can get the very next episode as soon as it drops episode 80 in our 2024 Youth Ministry masterclass. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, everyone, my name's Nick Clason. I'm a youth pastor in DFW Dallas Fort Worth. Been in youth ministry now being January of 2024. Mark's my 13th year in youth ministry and I've most recently went to a conference with the Gen Z guru himself. Terry Parkman. If you don't know Terry, he's amazing, but he talked about some of these shifts, so I just want to kind of elaborate on them and kick some of them around a little bit more.

Nick Clason (01:46):
But he talked about the difference that Generation Z and now subsequently generation Alpha, who if you didn't see in our last episode, we classified them being born somewhere between 2010 and 2018, probably more than 2012 rage, which is what Pew research kind of settles on as the origin date of generation alpha. Nonetheless, Terry Parkman specifically talking about Gen Z, talks about the shift in thinking from Gen Z who thinks more in a digital age, digital mindset versus all of US millennials and older Gen x boomers and so on and so forth, who are more raised in a industrial aged way of thinking and industrial age way frankly of living. And so what the first shift that is important that he talks about is we need to shift from an industrial minded way of production, which is an industrial value to one of access. The way that we talk about it is just simply build access points onto your ministry, so an industrial way of thinking and the production value production kind of mindset.

Nick Clason (02:54):
Think about seeker style churches back in the early nineties or early two thousands where you may open with a secular song, one that's familiar, one that's relatable. You may try to go for relevant lighting, you may really try to put the entire screws down on the production, the value of how important production is, and that a really well-produced thing will draw out consumers, it's almost like the mentality if we build it, they will come. It also comes down to simply how much can we produce the amount of production value that we can add? The more production value that we can add, the better, the greater, the higher the number, the more that we can produce, the more that we can attract. That's an industrial way of thinking. Meanwhile, a digital way of thinking, they don't necessarily Gen Z Gen and Alpha and the generations that are coming on behind, they don't necessarily want those things.

Nick Clason (03:49):
They're looking more for access. They're wondering, do I fit here? Can I gain access to this place and how can I let my gifts be utilized and flourish and shine here? Honestly, one of my number one pet peeves in churches is when we from a volunteer aspect say things like, we need you to do our job. That is not enticing in any way, shape, or form, and it's especially not enticing to the next generation. What I think they otherwise might more importantly, more interestingly want to hear is, Hey, we want you to shine here and how can we partner with you to make a difference in this world? It goes from US centric to them centric, and I get it. I'm hearing you scream on the other side, but that's not what a disciple of Jesus does. Correct. However, how are we ever going to be relevant and make any sort of inroads with the next generation?

Nick Clason (04:46):
If the way in which we posture ourselves is fundamentally and vehemently different than them, are we asking them to acquiesce to us as opposed to us finding ways that it's not that big of a deal to make a subtle shift? Because in the same way, we can still ask Gen Z and Gen Alpha to serve, we are just making it them centric instead of US centric. And again, you might be screaming that they shouldn't be them centric, but isn't it just as Unbiblical and Christlike for us to be US centric, organization centric, pastor centric in the land of access points. Our church right now, honestly, probably right now as I'm recording this on a random night in December, we have these things, these events, and they're amazing and they get talked about and they get promoted and they're all over social, and someone asked me how do I sign up for it and do you know what?

Nick Clason (05:37):
I said? I work there at the church, I don't actually have anything to do with it, and obviously I'm not there right now. I said, I have no idea. We have these events. There's sort of this lore about them, but how to actually access it. It's confusing, and I frankly haven't tried, so that's probably on me, but point of it is, is your church accessible? How easy to navigate is your website. I love what Brady Sheer and all of them at Pro Church Tools up in Canada say all the time and say, make your website, be a one stop shop. Don't for one thing, go sign up via the bulletin for the other thing. Send an email for the third thing, head to the website and for the fourth thing, find someone in the lobby. You never know what to do, where to go, and so only the most loyal and only the person with the most headstrong sort of stubbornness is going to ever actually find anything out.

Nick Clason (06:29):
Anybody else who comes upon any sort of roadblock or opposition, all of a sudden it's just really easy for them to crumble. And here's the fact, I don't believe I have all the answers, but one of the ways in which we are trying to create more access points in our ministry is through our digital strategy, which I have completely laid out in my 100% completely free ebook free for you. Grab the link, go download it. All I need is your name. All I need is your email and that's it. It's yours to use. It's my strategy that I've used to grow YouTube channel in a year from zero subscribers all the way up to almost 400 subscribers. It might be even past 400 by the time that this video actually drops, it's completely laid out. It's basically my social media masterclass and guess what I gave it and I'm giving it to you for free, and I would love to encourage you to just grab it, try it, implement it, and check it all out.

Nick Clason (07:18):
Shift number two is we need to shift from performance based and industrial way of thinking to more engagement based. So if you think about an industrial way of thinking where performance is king, think about the best, the prettiest, the nicest, the smelliest people on stage with a good swath of diversity and all those things, or just even in youth ministry, we've all sort of had the basis of like, let's just have some fun, and if the kids have fun, then they'll definitely want to come back. If we perform really well for them and we don't screw up, then they'll be like, man, that place was so good. I just want to come back. That's an industrial way of thinking, and here's the problem. If you are a youth pastor and you're my age or you're a millennial, that's the way that you think because that's the way and that's the age in which you were raised in.

Nick Clason (08:03):
To think that that's what is valued, but the next generation that's more in a digital age, they're not worried about performance. They want to know, am I able to engage with this? When it's all about performance, think about a conveyor belt and a factory. The way that that goes is if there's a certain part in the conveyor belt that's causing a backup, what do we do? We just stick another person in there. We don't care what that person does, who that person is, what that person can do for us or our organization. We just want to know, can that person keep the conveyor belt from stopping? Can that person keep the performance going? But a digital way of thinking, a digital shift when you go from performance to more engagement based thinking is you're wondering, Hey, how can we create good content that students want to engage with?

Nick Clason (08:48):
Which is why I link right down below or right up here on the screen, whichever one, I'm not sure if I've used my card yet or not in this video, but every youth ministry needs a good digital presence. It's my full YouTube strategy. It's my full social media strategy. It's the one that's tied to my ebook. It's the video explaining the ebook if you want to go check that out. Again, I don't have all the answers. It's just my way to sort of attempt to try and engage more with our students who are different, who are digital thinkers, who are Gen Z and coming quick behind them, generation alpha. The third shift is we need to switch from a value of quantity to a value of community, an industrial way of thinking. We are entirely built in most churches for quantity. Think about it. If you have a church with auditorium style seating, the goal of that room is to get the most amount of quantity of people in to listen to one captivating speaker, wax eloquent for a week, and listen, honestly, no shade thrown.

Nick Clason (09:48):
Most pastors, you're really good at your job, you're good at crafting sermons and you're good at delivering sermons, but the fact of the matter is, while you may be awesome at it, that's just not what's as highly valued in our world, especially in the world of digital. With audio, podcasts, YouTube podcast, people can listen to audio books, sermons. They can listen to the best preachers in the entire world. Again, no offense to you at the drop of a hat, instantly binging them, never actually running out of content. That's how accessible all of this stuff is, and so when people come to church, they don't want to just be another number kind of filtered into the auditorium to look at the back of someone's seat. That's why I believe link down below in the show notes. In this episode, we talked about why churches are dying.

Nick Clason (10:32):
I think churches are not adapting to the new issues and the new way of thinking that this next generation is so adamant about, and again, that generation, this next generation, this digital way of generation, they're not looking for a room to come and consume some more content. They're looking for community. And so if our rooms are built for quantity, thus they're not then built at least optimally for community. I mean, I know I worked at a church one time that we had Longwood ews and they were bolted to the ground. We couldn't do anything about those things, and even if they weren't bolted to the ground, they were heavy as sin. Man, I could not lift one of those things because once we finally did try to lift them, I was like, dang, who got these in here? It's like a five man job. The goal was get these things in here, never to be moved again.

Nick Clason (11:22):
This room is for one purpose and one purpose only, and the purpose that most younger people are looking for is not that. A dangerous way I believe of thinking is that we often value a Christian culture more than the Christ of the culture, and so therefore, I believe that what we're trying to do is we're trying to force people into a way of thinking, and when community trump's performance, we actually get a messy, authentic, real interaction with other believers who love Jesus and are trying to pursue and follow him. And so in a digital way of thinking, I think people who value community are looking for asking questions like, where do I belong? And are these people at my church? Are they my people? The students, they're asking those questions and they may, like we said in our last video and this masterclass in video two, this is not video three, they may be asking, are these people my people?

Nick Clason (12:15):
And they may be coming to your youth ministry, and just because they're there doesn't necessarily mean that they're engaging in religious practice. And it also doesn't necessarily mean that they're there because they want to be, because almost 50% of no, it's 65% of students come to church with at least one parent. That's where they're coming to church. They're not coming to church. They love God. They're not coming to church. They love you. They're not coming to church. They love your youth ministry. They're coming to church. They're coming to church with their parents, but if they can find a real captivating community that they can't say no to, they're not going anywhere. So it's not about what you produce, it's about the community that's available to them. We live now with the very first global generation. Students spend on average, shockingly five to eight hours on their phones screens per day.

Nick Clason (13:06):
The church world was built for consumers, and what's happening now is in that generation what's being internalized, they want to find a place to externalize it. And so one of the ideas that I have, again, I don't have all the answers, I don't know if this is a good idea or not. We did it in our space. It seemed to work well. It's a hybrid event. It's called the World's Greatest Donut, completely free event guide right here. You can click it, and it's just an opportunity to engage with students beyond your program times because I think a lot of times what we try to do is we try to get as many people, as much quantity into a room and call that success. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to expand the relationship beyond just the one time per week, and that's what this event is all built on.

Nick Clason (13:46):
It's a one-time event for an in-person event, however it lives on for an entire month. Not only live in the room, but it also lives live on your social media. That's the in-person versus the digital creating a hybrid moment together. Hey, the ultimate tool that I teased at the beginning of this video is, and I've already said it, it's my ebook. It's my full digital strategy. The fact is I don't have it all together, but the way in which you can utilize that is you have to become a master of your time, which is a video that's linked right here on the screen. It was a couple of videos ago, and the next video in this playlist is how to implement a good social media strategy where you're not simply just posting announcements. Click either one of those and we would love to see you on the other side. And as always, my friends stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 078: 📈 Youth Group Growth: Reaching Gen Z & Gen Alpha https://www.hybridministry.xyz/078 f04a3693-e236-4113-9f75-42c655a4d0c6 Thu, 04 Jan 2024 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 078 📈 Youth Group Growth: Reaching Gen Z & Gen Alpha full Nick Clason 📈 Youth Ministry Growth and Attendance 🔢 Do number really matter? 😤 It’s an agonizing pursuit that all of us as youth pastors and leaders are constantly feel the tension. Data suggests that church attendance is going down. Which means we have our work cut out for us as youth pastors. How do we reach Generation Z or Generation Alpha students? Especially in light of this new reality? 16:22 no <h3>⚡ [FREE] Social Media Mastery Awaits! Get Your Hands on Our Free One-Month Ebook ⚡</h3> <p>📅 <strong>"1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"</strong><br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p><strong>2024 [FREE] Youth Ministry Masterclass on YouTube:</strong> <br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg</a></p> <p><strong>Try Sidekick Beta!!</strong><br> <a href="https://app.sidekick.tv/auth/create?code=NickClason" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://app.sidekick.tv/auth/create?code=NickClason</a></p> <p><strong>========================================</strong></p> <p><strong>DESCRIPTION</strong><br> 📈 Youth Ministry Growth and Attendance</p> <p>🔢 Do number really matter?</p> <p>😤 It’s an agonizing pursuit that all of us as youth pastors and leaders are constantly feel the tension.</p> <p>Whether we buy into the debate or not, pressure is real.</p> <p>Maybe pressure from your senior pastor<br> Maybe pressure from other parents<br> Maybe even pressure from yourself</p> <p>And furthermore, according to Pew Research, one in five church goeers in 2022 participated in virtual church once a month.<br> However, 57% did not attend in person or watch online per month.<br> Not just anyone in general.. But Americans who TYPICALLY attend services.</p> <p>How do we reach Generation Z or Generation Alpha students?<br> Especially in light of this new reality?</p> <p>Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the <strong>2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube</strong></p> <p><strong>========================================</strong></p> <p><strong>🆓 FREEBIES 🆓</strong><br> 📅 "<strong>1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"</strong><br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>🎅 <strong>"The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude"</strong><br> GUIDE: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet</a><br> PRACTICAL YM TIPS: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips</a></p> <p>🍩 <strong>"FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"</strong><br> GUIDE: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut</a></p> <p>😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook</a></p> <p>📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"<br> <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis</a></p> <p><strong>========================================</strong><br> 🛠️<strong>TOOLS</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em></p> <p>//BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p>AUTO POD<br> <a href="https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv</a></p> <p>TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING<br> <a href="https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</a></p> <hr> <p>👉 <strong>STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK</strong><br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a></p> <h2>Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a> </h2> <p>📓<strong>SHOWNOTES</strong><br> //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS<br> <a href="http://www.hybridministry.xyz/078" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.hybridministry.xyz/078</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE VIDEO<br> <a href="https://youtu.be/BHpeDaLS3oo" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtu.be/BHpeDaLS3oo</a></p> <p>//PEW RESEARCH ARTICLES ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE<br> <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&amp;org=982&amp;lvl=100&amp;ite=9703&amp;lea=2048393&amp;ctr=0&amp;par=1&amp;trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&amp;amp;utm_medium=email&amp;amp;utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&amp;amp;org=982&amp;amp;lvl=100&amp;amp;ite=9703&amp;amp;lea=2048393&amp;amp;ctr=0&amp;amp;par=1&amp;amp;trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae</a></p> <p>//DATA ON GEN ALPHA<br> <a href="https://explodingtopics.com/blog/generation-alpha-guide" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://explodingtopics.com/blog/generation-alpha-guide</a></p> <p>//DR. ELMORE'S BOOK<br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Unfiltered-Challenges-Anxious-Population-ebook/dp/B07YQ9XT8N/ref=sr_1_2?hvadid=580669290679&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvlocphy=9027211&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvqmt=e&amp;hvrand=8887138684661202423&amp;hvtargid=kwd-831658052586&amp;hydadcr=24309_13537702&amp;keywords=gen+z+unfiltered&amp;qid=1701783263&amp;sr=8-2" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Unfiltered-Challenges-Anxious-Population-ebook/dp/B07YQ9XT8N/ref=sr_1_2?hvadid=580669290679&amp;amp;hvdev=c&amp;amp;hvlocphy=9027211&amp;amp;hvnetw=g&amp;amp;hvqmt=e&amp;amp;hvrand=8887138684661202423&amp;amp;hvtargid=kwd-831658052586&amp;amp;hydadcr=24309_13537702&amp;amp;keywords=gen+z+unfiltered&amp;amp;qid=1701783263&amp;amp;sr=8-2</a></p> <p>//TEEN CHURCH ATTENDANCE PATTERNS<br> <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2020/09/10/u-s-teens-take-after-their-parents-religiously-attend-services-together-and-enjoy-family-rituals/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2020/09/10/u-s-teens-take-after-their-parents-religiously-attend-services-together-and-enjoy-family-rituals/</a></p> <p>//TEENS AND THEIR PARENTS<br> <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/09/10/10-key-findings-about-the-religious-lives-of-u-s-teens-and-their-parents/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/09/10/10-key-findings-about-the-religious-lives-of-u-s-teens-and-their-parents/</a></p> <p>//4 CHAIR DISCIPLING<br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Chair-Discipling-What-Jesus-Calls/dp/0802418813/ref=asc_df_0802418813/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=266167140404&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=13879828523234723627&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9027211&amp;hvtargid=pla-557460291481&amp;psc=1&amp;mcid=c72abb3a6997315793653dc9cbd8d965&amp;gclid=CjwKCAiApuCrBhAuEiwA8VJ6Jry6x6cwpQRcpt1hnTOOVAIdS6r9rmBPSQleT8QwxqgYzqAeu6RyuBoCFo4QAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.amazon.com/Chair-Discipling-What-Jesus-Calls/dp/0802418813/ref=asc_df_0802418813/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;amp;linkCode=df0&amp;amp;hvadid=266167140404&amp;amp;hvpos=&amp;amp;hvnetw=g&amp;amp;hvrand=13879828523234723627&amp;amp;hvpone=&amp;amp;hvptwo=&amp;amp;hvqmt=&amp;amp;hvdev=c&amp;amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;amp;hvlocint=&amp;amp;hvlocphy=9027211&amp;amp;hvtargid=pla-557460291481&amp;amp;psc=1&amp;amp;mcid=c72abb3a6997315793653dc9cbd8d965&amp;amp;gclid=CjwKCAiApuCrBhAuEiwA8VJ6Jry6x6cwpQRcpt1hnTOOVAIdS6r9rmBPSQleT8QwxqgYzqAeu6RyuBoCFo4QAvD_BwE</a></p> <p>//GOOD TIME MANAGEMENT FOR A HYBRID STRATEGY<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8</a></p> <hr> <p>🕰️<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00-02:05 Do numbers matter?<br> 02:05-05:30 Who are Generation Z and Generation Alpha?<br> 05:30-07:13 Attendance Finding 1: Teens share religion with parents<br> 07:13-10:48 Attendance Finding 2: Teens go to service, but don't engage in religious practices<br> 10:48-16:22 Attendance Finding 3: Teens attend church with one or both of their parents</p> <hr> <p>✍️<strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com<br> <a href="http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</a></p> <p>Nick Clason (00:00):<br> Youth ministry growth in attendance in the age old Questions do numbers really matter? Here's what I know. I was one time called by a church that said, Hey, just a couple weeks ago in our church of multiple thousands, we've had only eight students show up. So whether you buy into the debate or not, the pressure is always there. Maybe pressure from your senior pastor, maybe pressure from youth parents, maybe even internal pressure that you just put on yourself. And what's even crazier is according to Pew Research, one in five, churchgoers back in 2022, participated in a virtual church service at least one time, which is a good thing. I mean, heck, we're in the hybrid ministry podcast, you know what I'm saying? However, 57% did not attend church in person or watch online during the course of at least one month, which means greater than 50%, not just of anyone in general of churchgoers are not typically attending church services. </p> <p>Nick Clason (01:05):<br> So how in the world with that as the framework for church attendance and the way that youth ministry attendance is going, how in the world do we even reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha students, especially in light of this brand new reality? We're going to be sharing in this episode three key findings about teens and their attendance trends. And furthermore, I'm going to share with you one way that I as a youth pastor am shifting my thinking and maybe you can also shift your thinking about reaching this next generation. And finally, I have a bonus tip that I think is going to actually be the number one game changer in this entire conversation. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. You're in youth ministry, or if you're just a church leader and you're at least overseeing at some level some capacity, generation Z generation alpha, it's important because we're talking about youth group attendance and it's important to understand who we're actually talking about. </p> <p>Nick Clason (02:01):<br> So Generation Z and Generation Alpha are kind of the two generations in play in this conversation. In fact, I have a video linked at the top of the screen. Go ahead and check it out where we did a deep dive into Generation Alpha and started to explore them. And quite frankly, it's one of the only videos I know that's out there about Generation Alpha. The data is still really new and still really young because the fact of the matter is that according to exploding topics.com link in the description, if you're watching on YouTube, you might be able to see some of these things online. If you're not watching on YouTube, you should definitely check that out. But Gen Alpha is made up of people born between 2010 and 2025. Wait, what? 2025? Yeah, you heard that, right? They're not even born yet. Okay. And so the fact of the matter is that that data actually is in opposition to some other experts such as Tim Elmore, who by the way, I have a chart right here on screen. </p> <p>Nick Clason (02:53):<br> Again, if you're not watching on YouTube, go grab it or link in the show notes. It's from his book, generation Z Unfiltered, the Nine Hidden Challenges of Facing the Most Anxious Population of All Time. This chart is absolute goal, but you'll notice that he draws the line for the end of generation Z at 2018. So we have exploding topics at 2010. We have Tim Elmore at 2018, all of that to be said, Elmore's book is a little bit dated, and so I think that more research and just time we've honed in a little bit and gotten a little bit closer. And so while this chart is gold, you should definitely look at it and inspect it and learn a little bit more. Elmore doesn't talk about Gen Alpha. They're not on his radar yet when he wrote the book. And so according to this chart, pew research draws the line for Gen Alpha at 2012. </p> <p>Nick Clason (03:40):<br> But again, the reason why any of this matters, not to bog you down with dates and things like that is that if you're a youth pastor or if you're in church leadership, what you need to understand is that the conversation we're having is like, do we take Elmore's date or do we take Pew Research's Day or do we take exploding topics day? Whatever it is, the reason this matters is because this is a difference between is that kid in kid's ministry or is that kid in 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. The kicker on this is that Gen Z, really the youngest Gen Z that we have is going to be freshmen, sophomores in high school, and now after that they're waving on up, they're in college already and they are entering the workforce. </p> <p>Nick Clason (04:23):<br> So if you are not a youth pastor, but just like a regular pastor listening, no longer is Gen Z, something that the youth pastor needs to try and understand and uncover this matters for you. This is important for you as a pastor. And so if you've gotten value so far out of this video, I would love to encourage you to like and subscribe and hit the notification bell because we're actually in the middle of a series right now, the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass, this is section number two in that class. The rest of them are going to be dropped in the playlist that's linked down below in the description. So if you have not seen every single video, go back and check out video number one. We talked about time management, but without any further ado here, let's dive into the three key findings about Generation Z, generation alpha and church attendance in youth ministry moving forward in 2024 and frankly beyond. </p> <p>Nick Clason (05:12):<br> All right, so the three key findings that are really important to understand about Generation Z and Gen Alpha is a lot of this data pulled from Pew research articles pulled and included in the description, whether you're in a podcast catcher or on YouTube, if you are not watching on YouTube, you will notice that some charts and graphs and stuff like that are going to show up on screen here on YouTube. If you're not watching, you're just listening, you can go grab the link in the show notes at <a href="http://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.hybridministry.xyz</a>, and this is episode 78, so slash 0 7 8. But the first key finding that I want to share with you is this is that most teens share the same religious affiliation as their parents, meaning this, your attendance as a youth pastor, youth ministry leader is highly derived from the adult attendance in your church. </p> <p>Nick Clason (06:00):<br> You've probably heard this before, but that's why it's important that we don't have silos. It's just as important for you as a youth pastor to lean in to what is going on in the rest of your church. You can't neglect it, you can't forsake it, and you can't take on a posture of arrogance that what you're doing is better than the rest of the church. Even if you low key think that the fact of the matter is that your youth ministry attendance is highly, highly tied to your adult attendance. So if your church is growing, odds are your youth ministry is growing, and if your church is struggling, odds are your youth ministry might be struggling. The biggest dropoff that you'll notice in this graph here and in this research from Pew is that the biggest dropoff from parents who attend church to teenagers who attend church happens in mainline denominations where the highest proportion is in evangelical churches. </p> <p>Nick Clason (06:53):<br> Key finding. Number two, teens are just as likely as their parents to say that they go to services, but when it comes to more personal forms of religious expression, teens actually appear to be less devout and less religious. I have a stat I want to share with you from my own context, my own anecdotal experience in our church, cross Creek Church located in Colleyville, Texas, we have four parts to a four-part discipleship pathway. So we have explore, which is people who are far from God looking for God or maybe seeking God connect. And so once they've made a decision, cross the line, faith, connect with Jesus, connect with this church, connect with community, grow, grow in your faith, get closer to God, learn to walk with God, learn to invest in a few, learn to multiply. And then finally, the fourth one is a multiplier. </p> <p>Nick Clason (07:38):<br> Someone who is not only making disciples, but making disciples who makes disciples. So we're very christocentric, disciple making, Bible-based church, all that to be said, we explained all of that one day on a Sunday morning to our students and we asked them to self-identify where they would put themselves in the pathway, explore, connect, grow, multiply. We used kind of pulled from one of my favorite books, link in the show notes, Dan Bader's book four chair discipling. So we used four different chairs to illustrate the sections of the pathway. The explorer phase was illustrated by a camping chair because it's really mobile portable. You can get close to church, then you can pull it back away if that's a decision that you want to make. We talked about how the connect chair is actually like a recliner. People tend to get across that line of faith and then get very fat and happy. </p> <p>Nick Clason (08:23):<br> The grow chair is one that's marked by suffering and sacrifice, and so we got the hard metal chair, the one that hurts your butt when you sit in it for a little bit too long. And then finally the multiply phase was illustrated by a couch because the goal of it is to bring people back onto that couch with you, go back down through the pipeline, go back down through the process. So we illustrated that and we asked students to self-identify. We had 40.76 of our students say that they were in the connect phase, the recliner phase, but the overwhelming majority said that they were in 45.2% said that they were in the grow phase. So nearly half of our students self-identified as being in the grow phase where only like 4% said they're in the explore phase, and 9.5 said they were actually all the way in the multiply phase. </p> <p>Nick Clason (09:07):<br> Now we have identifiers in our church metrics that we say if you've done these three or four things, then you are in this phase and you've moved on to the next phase. So we can pull that data on our students as well, but this is just them classifying themselves. I now lead a group of four other guys on a Sunday morning in our grow phase, we have a book that we go through a curriculum, and we just got done with the first book. There's three totals. So we just got done with the first book. It's seven weeks. It's daily reading. I mean it's a high bar. Every single one of them. At the beginning of this time, they said, I read the Bible, I pray I do all this stuff. Now that we've actually been in it, now that the rubber has met the road. </p> <p>Nick Clason (09:49):<br> At the end of this, all of their summarization of it was like, man, this was a lot more than I'm used to. And one of the kids said back to this, teens are just as, they may go to service, but they may not practice religious expression. Part of the problem is they've gone to church so much, and so they know what the right answers are and they know what they should be doing. And so even when you ask them, how do you grow in your faith? What are you doing to grow in your faith? They would answer with the right answers. Well, I pray, read the Bible, but they all admitted at the end of it, you always said that, but we weren't really actually doing it, at least not at this level. So that just bears it out in that key finding. Key finding. </p> <p>Nick Clason (10:29):<br> Number three, most teens report attending religious services with either both at 40% or one 25% of their parents. Again, meaning your attendance is again highly derived from your adult attendance. Again, in my own context, our own experience or Wednesday night, we would mostly say that that's classified under the explore classification. So let's bring outsiders and we probably, we average somewhere south of 45 to 40% of our Sunday morning attendance, which is our second step in our pathway, our connect phase. So I would not say that we have more students in connect than in the explore phase. What I would actually say is that Sunday morning is more convenient and that's when parents, and that's when students are also naturally making Sunday morning or just any church attendance a priority. And so that's the reason why I believe that our attendance is a little bit out of balance between Wednesday night and Sunday morning, and that's not a problem to be solved. </p> <p>Nick Clason (11:29):<br> It's more attention to lean into and be managed, but it really just underscores this point that most teens attend church with either a parent or a single parent, meaning once again, like I said, your students are attending church either with both parents at 40% or one parent at 25%. Again, as much as we think that our programming is so relevant, captivating, so much better than the rest of the church, the reality is our success as youth pastors is often tied to the overall success of the church. However, I do think that there is something that matters and that there is something that we need to focus our mindset to shift a little bit on. So let's dive into that into the next section. All right, so the shift that I believe all of us should consider if 57% of born again claim Christians, self-proclaimed Christians are not attending church online or in person at least one time per month, I think that you and I should consider finding a way to go hybrid. </p> <p>Nick Clason (12:26):<br> And I know you said, Hey, hey, hey, that last stat that said they weren't going online or in person. When I say hybrid, I don't just mean streaming your services. That can be an element of it, but I really believe that's a small portion of a good digital strategy. And again, I hear you. You're like, dude, I don't have time for it, and I get it. It is a lot of work and it's going to require a little bit of time management, thankfully, linked down below, I have this playlist where the last video I talked about good time management, but a good digital hybrid integrated strategy is more than just putting a camera in the back of the room and letting someone watch what's going on in the room. You're not interested in that, frankly, and neither am I. We want something that's made for the internet, something like this, something that's more relational, something that's more direct to camera, maybe something that's a little bit more interactive, but find a way to make it more hybrid. </p> <p>Nick Clason (13:18):<br> Find a way to make it more integrated. I also hear you on the other side, but churches of family church should be about one-on-one relationships, and I agree with that. Full fledge, a hundred percent church about relationships. The best, most dynamic experiences I ever have is when I'm rubbing shoulders or sitting knee to knee with somebody. However, I'll also make the argument that churches are in the content creation and content production business. Think about it. What do you spend the majority of your time on? Programming, message prep, planning, worship services, small group, all things that are content based, and especially pastors, senior pastors, no offense to you, but Sunday morning services are some of the least relational moments in the entire week in the lifecycle of a church. Here's my deal. I'm a youth pastor, so I get in early, I get set up. Sometimes I'm a little bit late because of my setup into church. </p> <p>Nick Clason (14:12):<br> I walk in, I sit down, I sing some songs, I sit down, I stare at the back of someone's head, I listen to a sermon for 30 something minutes. I get up early because I have stuff to do as a youth pastor, to get ready for the student ministry that meets during the last two services of our three service Sunday morning set. I'm not talking to a single human being in that entire service, but what I could do is I could consume all of that digitally. I could listen to it, my headphones on a run. I could listen to that honestly, while I'm across the way in the student building, getting things ready, having the Facebook live stream on in my ears while I'm getting things set up. I'm not saying that I should do that. I'm not saying that that's a recommended strategy, but I am saying the content consumption side, so much of what we're producing content-wise, can be done digitally. </p> <p>Nick Clason (14:57):<br> So as youth pastors, as we're trying to reach Gen Z, as we're trying to reach Gen Alpha, a completely different generation, I wonder if it's worth considering a shift from focusing only on to finding a way to be a little bit more hybrid, which is why I've created this 100% completely free ebook right here on the screen, linked down below in the description. Also, you're going to see that as I bring about this bonus question. This is really the crux of this entire kind of argument. The question is this, are we as youth pastors, are we as youth ministry leaders? Are we in the event business or are we in the disciple making business? And you know what the fact of the matter is, we're actually going to dive even deeper into that question on the screen linked right here. So go ahead and take a look at that. If you're interested in exploring more about my hybrid strategy, that ebook, as well as that episode is linked right here on the screen as well. Hey, check you on the other side. Continue to enjoy this free masterclass, and as always, stay hybrid. </p> 2024 Church Attendance, Hybrid Ministry, Youth Ministry, Youth Group, Youth Group Attendance, Student Ministry, Student Ministry Attendance, Generation Alpha Attendance at Church, Generation Z Attendance at Church, Church Attendance, How to Grow my Youth Group, Church Attendance Trends, Church Attendance Patterns, Church Growth, Youth Ministry Growth, Student Ministry Growth, Church Ministry, Youth Pastor, Youth Pastor Coach ⚡ [FREE] Social Media Mastery Awaits! Get Your Hands on Our Free One-Month Ebook ⚡

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📈 Youth Ministry Growth and Attendance

🔢 Do number really matter?

😤 It’s an agonizing pursuit that all of us as youth pastors and leaders are constantly feel the tension.

Whether we buy into the debate or not, pressure is real.

Maybe pressure from your senior pastor
Maybe pressure from other parents
Maybe even pressure from yourself

And furthermore, according to Pew Research, one in five church goeers in 2022 participated in virtual church once a month.
However, 57% did not attend in person or watch online per month.
Not just anyone in general.. But Americans who TYPICALLY attend services.

How do we reach Generation Z or Generation Alpha students?
Especially in light of this new reality?

Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube

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🛠️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

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Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/078

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/BHpeDaLS3oo

//PEW RESEARCH ARTICLES ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&org=982&lvl=100&ite=9703&lea=2048393&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae

//DATA ON GEN ALPHA
https://explodingtopics.com/blog/generation-alpha-guide

//DR. ELMORE'S BOOK
https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Unfiltered-Challenges-Anxious-Population-ebook/dp/B07YQ9XT8N/ref=sr_1_2?hvadid=580669290679&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9027211&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8887138684661202423&hvtargid=kwd-831658052586&hydadcr=24309_13537702&keywords=gen+z+unfiltered&qid=1701783263&sr=8-2

//TEEN CHURCH ATTENDANCE PATTERNS
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2020/09/10/u-s-teens-take-after-their-parents-religiously-attend-services-together-and-enjoy-family-rituals/

//TEENS AND THEIR PARENTS
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/09/10/10-key-findings-about-the-religious-lives-of-u-s-teens-and-their-parents/

//4 CHAIR DISCIPLING
https://www.amazon.com/Chair-Discipling-What-Jesus-Calls/dp/0802418813/ref=asc_df_0802418813/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=266167140404&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13879828523234723627&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9027211&hvtargid=pla-557460291481&psc=1&mcid=c72abb3a6997315793653dc9cbd8d965&gclid=CjwKCAiApuCrBhAuEiwA8VJ6Jry6x6cwpQRcpt1hnTOOVAIdS6r9rmBPSQleT8QwxqgYzqAeu6RyuBoCFo4QAvD_BwE

//GOOD TIME MANAGEMENT FOR A HYBRID STRATEGY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-02:05 Do numbers matter?
02:05-05:30 Who are Generation Z and Generation Alpha?
05:30-07:13 Attendance Finding 1: Teens share religion with parents
07:13-10:48 Attendance Finding 2: Teens go to service, but don't engage in religious practices
10:48-16:22 Attendance Finding 3: Teens attend church with one or both of their parents

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Youth ministry growth in attendance in the age old Questions do numbers really matter? Here's what I know. I was one time called by a church that said, Hey, just a couple weeks ago in our church of multiple thousands, we've had only eight students show up. So whether you buy into the debate or not, the pressure is always there. Maybe pressure from your senior pastor, maybe pressure from youth parents, maybe even internal pressure that you just put on yourself. And what's even crazier is according to Pew Research, one in five, churchgoers back in 2022, participated in a virtual church service at least one time, which is a good thing. I mean, heck, we're in the hybrid ministry podcast, you know what I'm saying? However, 57% did not attend church in person or watch online during the course of at least one month, which means greater than 50%, not just of anyone in general of churchgoers are not typically attending church services.

Nick Clason (01:05):
So how in the world with that as the framework for church attendance and the way that youth ministry attendance is going, how in the world do we even reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha students, especially in light of this brand new reality? We're going to be sharing in this episode three key findings about teens and their attendance trends. And furthermore, I'm going to share with you one way that I as a youth pastor am shifting my thinking and maybe you can also shift your thinking about reaching this next generation. And finally, I have a bonus tip that I think is going to actually be the number one game changer in this entire conversation. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. You're in youth ministry, or if you're just a church leader and you're at least overseeing at some level some capacity, generation Z generation alpha, it's important because we're talking about youth group attendance and it's important to understand who we're actually talking about.

Nick Clason (02:01):
So Generation Z and Generation Alpha are kind of the two generations in play in this conversation. In fact, I have a video linked at the top of the screen. Go ahead and check it out where we did a deep dive into Generation Alpha and started to explore them. And quite frankly, it's one of the only videos I know that's out there about Generation Alpha. The data is still really new and still really young because the fact of the matter is that according to exploding topics.com link in the description, if you're watching on YouTube, you might be able to see some of these things online. If you're not watching on YouTube, you should definitely check that out. But Gen Alpha is made up of people born between 2010 and 2025. Wait, what? 2025? Yeah, you heard that, right? They're not even born yet. Okay. And so the fact of the matter is that that data actually is in opposition to some other experts such as Tim Elmore, who by the way, I have a chart right here on screen.

Nick Clason (02:53):
Again, if you're not watching on YouTube, go grab it or link in the show notes. It's from his book, generation Z Unfiltered, the Nine Hidden Challenges of Facing the Most Anxious Population of All Time. This chart is absolute goal, but you'll notice that he draws the line for the end of generation Z at 2018. So we have exploding topics at 2010. We have Tim Elmore at 2018, all of that to be said, Elmore's book is a little bit dated, and so I think that more research and just time we've honed in a little bit and gotten a little bit closer. And so while this chart is gold, you should definitely look at it and inspect it and learn a little bit more. Elmore doesn't talk about Gen Alpha. They're not on his radar yet when he wrote the book. And so according to this chart, pew research draws the line for Gen Alpha at 2012.

Nick Clason (03:40):
But again, the reason why any of this matters, not to bog you down with dates and things like that is that if you're a youth pastor or if you're in church leadership, what you need to understand is that the conversation we're having is like, do we take Elmore's date or do we take Pew Research's Day or do we take exploding topics day? Whatever it is, the reason this matters is because this is a difference between is that kid in kid's ministry or is that kid in 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. The kicker on this is that Gen Z, really the youngest Gen Z that we have is going to be freshmen, sophomores in high school, and now after that they're waving on up, they're in college already and they are entering the workforce.

Nick Clason (04:23):
So if you are not a youth pastor, but just like a regular pastor listening, no longer is Gen Z, something that the youth pastor needs to try and understand and uncover this matters for you. This is important for you as a pastor. And so if you've gotten value so far out of this video, I would love to encourage you to like and subscribe and hit the notification bell because we're actually in the middle of a series right now, the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass, this is section number two in that class. The rest of them are going to be dropped in the playlist that's linked down below in the description. So if you have not seen every single video, go back and check out video number one. We talked about time management, but without any further ado here, let's dive into the three key findings about Generation Z, generation alpha and church attendance in youth ministry moving forward in 2024 and frankly beyond.

Nick Clason (05:12):
All right, so the three key findings that are really important to understand about Generation Z and Gen Alpha is a lot of this data pulled from Pew research articles pulled and included in the description, whether you're in a podcast catcher or on YouTube, if you are not watching on YouTube, you will notice that some charts and graphs and stuff like that are going to show up on screen here on YouTube. If you're not watching, you're just listening, you can go grab the link in the show notes at http://www.hybridministry.xyz, and this is episode 78, so slash 0 7 8. But the first key finding that I want to share with you is this is that most teens share the same religious affiliation as their parents, meaning this, your attendance as a youth pastor, youth ministry leader is highly derived from the adult attendance in your church.

Nick Clason (06:00):
You've probably heard this before, but that's why it's important that we don't have silos. It's just as important for you as a youth pastor to lean in to what is going on in the rest of your church. You can't neglect it, you can't forsake it, and you can't take on a posture of arrogance that what you're doing is better than the rest of the church. Even if you low key think that the fact of the matter is that your youth ministry attendance is highly, highly tied to your adult attendance. So if your church is growing, odds are your youth ministry is growing, and if your church is struggling, odds are your youth ministry might be struggling. The biggest dropoff that you'll notice in this graph here and in this research from Pew is that the biggest dropoff from parents who attend church to teenagers who attend church happens in mainline denominations where the highest proportion is in evangelical churches.

Nick Clason (06:53):
Key finding. Number two, teens are just as likely as their parents to say that they go to services, but when it comes to more personal forms of religious expression, teens actually appear to be less devout and less religious. I have a stat I want to share with you from my own context, my own anecdotal experience in our church, cross Creek Church located in Colleyville, Texas, we have four parts to a four-part discipleship pathway. So we have explore, which is people who are far from God looking for God or maybe seeking God connect. And so once they've made a decision, cross the line, faith, connect with Jesus, connect with this church, connect with community, grow, grow in your faith, get closer to God, learn to walk with God, learn to invest in a few, learn to multiply. And then finally, the fourth one is a multiplier.

Nick Clason (07:38):
Someone who is not only making disciples, but making disciples who makes disciples. So we're very christocentric, disciple making, Bible-based church, all that to be said, we explained all of that one day on a Sunday morning to our students and we asked them to self-identify where they would put themselves in the pathway, explore, connect, grow, multiply. We used kind of pulled from one of my favorite books, link in the show notes, Dan Bader's book four chair discipling. So we used four different chairs to illustrate the sections of the pathway. The explorer phase was illustrated by a camping chair because it's really mobile portable. You can get close to church, then you can pull it back away if that's a decision that you want to make. We talked about how the connect chair is actually like a recliner. People tend to get across that line of faith and then get very fat and happy.

Nick Clason (08:23):
The grow chair is one that's marked by suffering and sacrifice, and so we got the hard metal chair, the one that hurts your butt when you sit in it for a little bit too long. And then finally the multiply phase was illustrated by a couch because the goal of it is to bring people back onto that couch with you, go back down through the pipeline, go back down through the process. So we illustrated that and we asked students to self-identify. We had 40.76 of our students say that they were in the connect phase, the recliner phase, but the overwhelming majority said that they were in 45.2% said that they were in the grow phase. So nearly half of our students self-identified as being in the grow phase where only like 4% said they're in the explore phase, and 9.5 said they were actually all the way in the multiply phase.

Nick Clason (09:07):
Now we have identifiers in our church metrics that we say if you've done these three or four things, then you are in this phase and you've moved on to the next phase. So we can pull that data on our students as well, but this is just them classifying themselves. I now lead a group of four other guys on a Sunday morning in our grow phase, we have a book that we go through a curriculum, and we just got done with the first book. There's three totals. So we just got done with the first book. It's seven weeks. It's daily reading. I mean it's a high bar. Every single one of them. At the beginning of this time, they said, I read the Bible, I pray I do all this stuff. Now that we've actually been in it, now that the rubber has met the road.

Nick Clason (09:49):
At the end of this, all of their summarization of it was like, man, this was a lot more than I'm used to. And one of the kids said back to this, teens are just as, they may go to service, but they may not practice religious expression. Part of the problem is they've gone to church so much, and so they know what the right answers are and they know what they should be doing. And so even when you ask them, how do you grow in your faith? What are you doing to grow in your faith? They would answer with the right answers. Well, I pray, read the Bible, but they all admitted at the end of it, you always said that, but we weren't really actually doing it, at least not at this level. So that just bears it out in that key finding. Key finding.

Nick Clason (10:29):
Number three, most teens report attending religious services with either both at 40% or one 25% of their parents. Again, meaning your attendance is again highly derived from your adult attendance. Again, in my own context, our own experience or Wednesday night, we would mostly say that that's classified under the explore classification. So let's bring outsiders and we probably, we average somewhere south of 45 to 40% of our Sunday morning attendance, which is our second step in our pathway, our connect phase. So I would not say that we have more students in connect than in the explore phase. What I would actually say is that Sunday morning is more convenient and that's when parents, and that's when students are also naturally making Sunday morning or just any church attendance a priority. And so that's the reason why I believe that our attendance is a little bit out of balance between Wednesday night and Sunday morning, and that's not a problem to be solved.

Nick Clason (11:29):
It's more attention to lean into and be managed, but it really just underscores this point that most teens attend church with either a parent or a single parent, meaning once again, like I said, your students are attending church either with both parents at 40% or one parent at 25%. Again, as much as we think that our programming is so relevant, captivating, so much better than the rest of the church, the reality is our success as youth pastors is often tied to the overall success of the church. However, I do think that there is something that matters and that there is something that we need to focus our mindset to shift a little bit on. So let's dive into that into the next section. All right, so the shift that I believe all of us should consider if 57% of born again claim Christians, self-proclaimed Christians are not attending church online or in person at least one time per month, I think that you and I should consider finding a way to go hybrid.

Nick Clason (12:26):
And I know you said, Hey, hey, hey, that last stat that said they weren't going online or in person. When I say hybrid, I don't just mean streaming your services. That can be an element of it, but I really believe that's a small portion of a good digital strategy. And again, I hear you. You're like, dude, I don't have time for it, and I get it. It is a lot of work and it's going to require a little bit of time management, thankfully, linked down below, I have this playlist where the last video I talked about good time management, but a good digital hybrid integrated strategy is more than just putting a camera in the back of the room and letting someone watch what's going on in the room. You're not interested in that, frankly, and neither am I. We want something that's made for the internet, something like this, something that's more relational, something that's more direct to camera, maybe something that's a little bit more interactive, but find a way to make it more hybrid.

Nick Clason (13:18):
Find a way to make it more integrated. I also hear you on the other side, but churches of family church should be about one-on-one relationships, and I agree with that. Full fledge, a hundred percent church about relationships. The best, most dynamic experiences I ever have is when I'm rubbing shoulders or sitting knee to knee with somebody. However, I'll also make the argument that churches are in the content creation and content production business. Think about it. What do you spend the majority of your time on? Programming, message prep, planning, worship services, small group, all things that are content based, and especially pastors, senior pastors, no offense to you, but Sunday morning services are some of the least relational moments in the entire week in the lifecycle of a church. Here's my deal. I'm a youth pastor, so I get in early, I get set up. Sometimes I'm a little bit late because of my setup into church.

Nick Clason (14:12):
I walk in, I sit down, I sing some songs, I sit down, I stare at the back of someone's head, I listen to a sermon for 30 something minutes. I get up early because I have stuff to do as a youth pastor, to get ready for the student ministry that meets during the last two services of our three service Sunday morning set. I'm not talking to a single human being in that entire service, but what I could do is I could consume all of that digitally. I could listen to it, my headphones on a run. I could listen to that honestly, while I'm across the way in the student building, getting things ready, having the Facebook live stream on in my ears while I'm getting things set up. I'm not saying that I should do that. I'm not saying that that's a recommended strategy, but I am saying the content consumption side, so much of what we're producing content-wise, can be done digitally.

Nick Clason (14:57):
So as youth pastors, as we're trying to reach Gen Z, as we're trying to reach Gen Alpha, a completely different generation, I wonder if it's worth considering a shift from focusing only on to finding a way to be a little bit more hybrid, which is why I've created this 100% completely free ebook right here on the screen, linked down below in the description. Also, you're going to see that as I bring about this bonus question. This is really the crux of this entire kind of argument. The question is this, are we as youth pastors, are we as youth ministry leaders? Are we in the event business or are we in the disciple making business? And you know what the fact of the matter is, we're actually going to dive even deeper into that question on the screen linked right here. So go ahead and take a look at that. If you're interested in exploring more about my hybrid strategy, that ebook, as well as that episode is linked right here on the screen as well. Hey, check you on the other side. Continue to enjoy this free masterclass, and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> ⚡ [FREE] Social Media Mastery Awaits! Get Your Hands on Our Free One-Month Ebook ⚡

📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2024 [FREE] Youth Ministry Masterclass on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

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DESCRIPTION
📈 Youth Ministry Growth and Attendance

🔢 Do number really matter?

😤 It’s an agonizing pursuit that all of us as youth pastors and leaders are constantly feel the tension.

Whether we buy into the debate or not, pressure is real.

Maybe pressure from your senior pastor
Maybe pressure from other parents
Maybe even pressure from yourself

And furthermore, according to Pew Research, one in five church goeers in 2022 participated in virtual church once a month.
However, 57% did not attend in person or watch online per month.
Not just anyone in general.. But Americans who TYPICALLY attend services.

How do we reach Generation Z or Generation Alpha students?
Especially in light of this new reality?

Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube

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🛠️TOOLS
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OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
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Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/078

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/BHpeDaLS3oo

//PEW RESEARCH ARTICLES ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&org=982&lvl=100&ite=9703&lea=2048393&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae

//DATA ON GEN ALPHA
https://explodingtopics.com/blog/generation-alpha-guide

//DR. ELMORE'S BOOK
https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Unfiltered-Challenges-Anxious-Population-ebook/dp/B07YQ9XT8N/ref=sr_1_2?hvadid=580669290679&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9027211&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8887138684661202423&hvtargid=kwd-831658052586&hydadcr=24309_13537702&keywords=gen+z+unfiltered&qid=1701783263&sr=8-2

//TEEN CHURCH ATTENDANCE PATTERNS
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2020/09/10/u-s-teens-take-after-their-parents-religiously-attend-services-together-and-enjoy-family-rituals/

//TEENS AND THEIR PARENTS
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/09/10/10-key-findings-about-the-religious-lives-of-u-s-teens-and-their-parents/

//4 CHAIR DISCIPLING
https://www.amazon.com/Chair-Discipling-What-Jesus-Calls/dp/0802418813/ref=asc_df_0802418813/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=266167140404&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13879828523234723627&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9027211&hvtargid=pla-557460291481&psc=1&mcid=c72abb3a6997315793653dc9cbd8d965&gclid=CjwKCAiApuCrBhAuEiwA8VJ6Jry6x6cwpQRcpt1hnTOOVAIdS6r9rmBPSQleT8QwxqgYzqAeu6RyuBoCFo4QAvD_BwE

//GOOD TIME MANAGEMENT FOR A HYBRID STRATEGY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-02:05 Do numbers matter?
02:05-05:30 Who are Generation Z and Generation Alpha?
05:30-07:13 Attendance Finding 1: Teens share religion with parents
07:13-10:48 Attendance Finding 2: Teens go to service, but don't engage in religious practices
10:48-16:22 Attendance Finding 3: Teens attend church with one or both of their parents

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Youth ministry growth in attendance in the age old Questions do numbers really matter? Here's what I know. I was one time called by a church that said, Hey, just a couple weeks ago in our church of multiple thousands, we've had only eight students show up. So whether you buy into the debate or not, the pressure is always there. Maybe pressure from your senior pastor, maybe pressure from youth parents, maybe even internal pressure that you just put on yourself. And what's even crazier is according to Pew Research, one in five, churchgoers back in 2022, participated in a virtual church service at least one time, which is a good thing. I mean, heck, we're in the hybrid ministry podcast, you know what I'm saying? However, 57% did not attend church in person or watch online during the course of at least one month, which means greater than 50%, not just of anyone in general of churchgoers are not typically attending church services.

Nick Clason (01:05):
So how in the world with that as the framework for church attendance and the way that youth ministry attendance is going, how in the world do we even reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha students, especially in light of this brand new reality? We're going to be sharing in this episode three key findings about teens and their attendance trends. And furthermore, I'm going to share with you one way that I as a youth pastor am shifting my thinking and maybe you can also shift your thinking about reaching this next generation. And finally, I have a bonus tip that I think is going to actually be the number one game changer in this entire conversation. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. You're in youth ministry, or if you're just a church leader and you're at least overseeing at some level some capacity, generation Z generation alpha, it's important because we're talking about youth group attendance and it's important to understand who we're actually talking about.

Nick Clason (02:01):
So Generation Z and Generation Alpha are kind of the two generations in play in this conversation. In fact, I have a video linked at the top of the screen. Go ahead and check it out where we did a deep dive into Generation Alpha and started to explore them. And quite frankly, it's one of the only videos I know that's out there about Generation Alpha. The data is still really new and still really young because the fact of the matter is that according to exploding topics.com link in the description, if you're watching on YouTube, you might be able to see some of these things online. If you're not watching on YouTube, you should definitely check that out. But Gen Alpha is made up of people born between 2010 and 2025. Wait, what? 2025? Yeah, you heard that, right? They're not even born yet. Okay. And so the fact of the matter is that that data actually is in opposition to some other experts such as Tim Elmore, who by the way, I have a chart right here on screen.

Nick Clason (02:53):
Again, if you're not watching on YouTube, go grab it or link in the show notes. It's from his book, generation Z Unfiltered, the Nine Hidden Challenges of Facing the Most Anxious Population of All Time. This chart is absolute goal, but you'll notice that he draws the line for the end of generation Z at 2018. So we have exploding topics at 2010. We have Tim Elmore at 2018, all of that to be said, Elmore's book is a little bit dated, and so I think that more research and just time we've honed in a little bit and gotten a little bit closer. And so while this chart is gold, you should definitely look at it and inspect it and learn a little bit more. Elmore doesn't talk about Gen Alpha. They're not on his radar yet when he wrote the book. And so according to this chart, pew research draws the line for Gen Alpha at 2012.

Nick Clason (03:40):
But again, the reason why any of this matters, not to bog you down with dates and things like that is that if you're a youth pastor or if you're in church leadership, what you need to understand is that the conversation we're having is like, do we take Elmore's date or do we take Pew Research's Day or do we take exploding topics day? Whatever it is, the reason this matters is because this is a difference between is that kid in kid's ministry or is that kid in 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. The kicker on this is that Gen Z, really the youngest Gen Z that we have is going to be freshmen, sophomores in high school, and now after that they're waving on up, they're in college already and they are entering the workforce.

Nick Clason (04:23):
So if you are not a youth pastor, but just like a regular pastor listening, no longer is Gen Z, something that the youth pastor needs to try and understand and uncover this matters for you. This is important for you as a pastor. And so if you've gotten value so far out of this video, I would love to encourage you to like and subscribe and hit the notification bell because we're actually in the middle of a series right now, the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass, this is section number two in that class. The rest of them are going to be dropped in the playlist that's linked down below in the description. So if you have not seen every single video, go back and check out video number one. We talked about time management, but without any further ado here, let's dive into the three key findings about Generation Z, generation alpha and church attendance in youth ministry moving forward in 2024 and frankly beyond.

Nick Clason (05:12):
All right, so the three key findings that are really important to understand about Generation Z and Gen Alpha is a lot of this data pulled from Pew research articles pulled and included in the description, whether you're in a podcast catcher or on YouTube, if you are not watching on YouTube, you will notice that some charts and graphs and stuff like that are going to show up on screen here on YouTube. If you're not watching, you're just listening, you can go grab the link in the show notes at http://www.hybridministry.xyz, and this is episode 78, so slash 0 7 8. But the first key finding that I want to share with you is this is that most teens share the same religious affiliation as their parents, meaning this, your attendance as a youth pastor, youth ministry leader is highly derived from the adult attendance in your church.

Nick Clason (06:00):
You've probably heard this before, but that's why it's important that we don't have silos. It's just as important for you as a youth pastor to lean in to what is going on in the rest of your church. You can't neglect it, you can't forsake it, and you can't take on a posture of arrogance that what you're doing is better than the rest of the church. Even if you low key think that the fact of the matter is that your youth ministry attendance is highly, highly tied to your adult attendance. So if your church is growing, odds are your youth ministry is growing, and if your church is struggling, odds are your youth ministry might be struggling. The biggest dropoff that you'll notice in this graph here and in this research from Pew is that the biggest dropoff from parents who attend church to teenagers who attend church happens in mainline denominations where the highest proportion is in evangelical churches.

Nick Clason (06:53):
Key finding. Number two, teens are just as likely as their parents to say that they go to services, but when it comes to more personal forms of religious expression, teens actually appear to be less devout and less religious. I have a stat I want to share with you from my own context, my own anecdotal experience in our church, cross Creek Church located in Colleyville, Texas, we have four parts to a four-part discipleship pathway. So we have explore, which is people who are far from God looking for God or maybe seeking God connect. And so once they've made a decision, cross the line, faith, connect with Jesus, connect with this church, connect with community, grow, grow in your faith, get closer to God, learn to walk with God, learn to invest in a few, learn to multiply. And then finally, the fourth one is a multiplier.

Nick Clason (07:38):
Someone who is not only making disciples, but making disciples who makes disciples. So we're very christocentric, disciple making, Bible-based church, all that to be said, we explained all of that one day on a Sunday morning to our students and we asked them to self-identify where they would put themselves in the pathway, explore, connect, grow, multiply. We used kind of pulled from one of my favorite books, link in the show notes, Dan Bader's book four chair discipling. So we used four different chairs to illustrate the sections of the pathway. The explorer phase was illustrated by a camping chair because it's really mobile portable. You can get close to church, then you can pull it back away if that's a decision that you want to make. We talked about how the connect chair is actually like a recliner. People tend to get across that line of faith and then get very fat and happy.

Nick Clason (08:23):
The grow chair is one that's marked by suffering and sacrifice, and so we got the hard metal chair, the one that hurts your butt when you sit in it for a little bit too long. And then finally the multiply phase was illustrated by a couch because the goal of it is to bring people back onto that couch with you, go back down through the pipeline, go back down through the process. So we illustrated that and we asked students to self-identify. We had 40.76 of our students say that they were in the connect phase, the recliner phase, but the overwhelming majority said that they were in 45.2% said that they were in the grow phase. So nearly half of our students self-identified as being in the grow phase where only like 4% said they're in the explore phase, and 9.5 said they were actually all the way in the multiply phase.

Nick Clason (09:07):
Now we have identifiers in our church metrics that we say if you've done these three or four things, then you are in this phase and you've moved on to the next phase. So we can pull that data on our students as well, but this is just them classifying themselves. I now lead a group of four other guys on a Sunday morning in our grow phase, we have a book that we go through a curriculum, and we just got done with the first book. There's three totals. So we just got done with the first book. It's seven weeks. It's daily reading. I mean it's a high bar. Every single one of them. At the beginning of this time, they said, I read the Bible, I pray I do all this stuff. Now that we've actually been in it, now that the rubber has met the road.

Nick Clason (09:49):
At the end of this, all of their summarization of it was like, man, this was a lot more than I'm used to. And one of the kids said back to this, teens are just as, they may go to service, but they may not practice religious expression. Part of the problem is they've gone to church so much, and so they know what the right answers are and they know what they should be doing. And so even when you ask them, how do you grow in your faith? What are you doing to grow in your faith? They would answer with the right answers. Well, I pray, read the Bible, but they all admitted at the end of it, you always said that, but we weren't really actually doing it, at least not at this level. So that just bears it out in that key finding. Key finding.

Nick Clason (10:29):
Number three, most teens report attending religious services with either both at 40% or one 25% of their parents. Again, meaning your attendance is again highly derived from your adult attendance. Again, in my own context, our own experience or Wednesday night, we would mostly say that that's classified under the explore classification. So let's bring outsiders and we probably, we average somewhere south of 45 to 40% of our Sunday morning attendance, which is our second step in our pathway, our connect phase. So I would not say that we have more students in connect than in the explore phase. What I would actually say is that Sunday morning is more convenient and that's when parents, and that's when students are also naturally making Sunday morning or just any church attendance a priority. And so that's the reason why I believe that our attendance is a little bit out of balance between Wednesday night and Sunday morning, and that's not a problem to be solved.

Nick Clason (11:29):
It's more attention to lean into and be managed, but it really just underscores this point that most teens attend church with either a parent or a single parent, meaning once again, like I said, your students are attending church either with both parents at 40% or one parent at 25%. Again, as much as we think that our programming is so relevant, captivating, so much better than the rest of the church, the reality is our success as youth pastors is often tied to the overall success of the church. However, I do think that there is something that matters and that there is something that we need to focus our mindset to shift a little bit on. So let's dive into that into the next section. All right, so the shift that I believe all of us should consider if 57% of born again claim Christians, self-proclaimed Christians are not attending church online or in person at least one time per month, I think that you and I should consider finding a way to go hybrid.

Nick Clason (12:26):
And I know you said, Hey, hey, hey, that last stat that said they weren't going online or in person. When I say hybrid, I don't just mean streaming your services. That can be an element of it, but I really believe that's a small portion of a good digital strategy. And again, I hear you. You're like, dude, I don't have time for it, and I get it. It is a lot of work and it's going to require a little bit of time management, thankfully, linked down below, I have this playlist where the last video I talked about good time management, but a good digital hybrid integrated strategy is more than just putting a camera in the back of the room and letting someone watch what's going on in the room. You're not interested in that, frankly, and neither am I. We want something that's made for the internet, something like this, something that's more relational, something that's more direct to camera, maybe something that's a little bit more interactive, but find a way to make it more hybrid.

Nick Clason (13:18):
Find a way to make it more integrated. I also hear you on the other side, but churches of family church should be about one-on-one relationships, and I agree with that. Full fledge, a hundred percent church about relationships. The best, most dynamic experiences I ever have is when I'm rubbing shoulders or sitting knee to knee with somebody. However, I'll also make the argument that churches are in the content creation and content production business. Think about it. What do you spend the majority of your time on? Programming, message prep, planning, worship services, small group, all things that are content based, and especially pastors, senior pastors, no offense to you, but Sunday morning services are some of the least relational moments in the entire week in the lifecycle of a church. Here's my deal. I'm a youth pastor, so I get in early, I get set up. Sometimes I'm a little bit late because of my setup into church.

Nick Clason (14:12):
I walk in, I sit down, I sing some songs, I sit down, I stare at the back of someone's head, I listen to a sermon for 30 something minutes. I get up early because I have stuff to do as a youth pastor, to get ready for the student ministry that meets during the last two services of our three service Sunday morning set. I'm not talking to a single human being in that entire service, but what I could do is I could consume all of that digitally. I could listen to it, my headphones on a run. I could listen to that honestly, while I'm across the way in the student building, getting things ready, having the Facebook live stream on in my ears while I'm getting things set up. I'm not saying that I should do that. I'm not saying that that's a recommended strategy, but I am saying the content consumption side, so much of what we're producing content-wise, can be done digitally.

Nick Clason (14:57):
So as youth pastors, as we're trying to reach Gen Z, as we're trying to reach Gen Alpha, a completely different generation, I wonder if it's worth considering a shift from focusing only on to finding a way to be a little bit more hybrid, which is why I've created this 100% completely free ebook right here on the screen, linked down below in the description. Also, you're going to see that as I bring about this bonus question. This is really the crux of this entire kind of argument. The question is this, are we as youth pastors, are we as youth ministry leaders? Are we in the event business or are we in the disciple making business? And you know what the fact of the matter is, we're actually going to dive even deeper into that question on the screen linked right here. So go ahead and take a look at that. If you're interested in exploring more about my hybrid strategy, that ebook, as well as that episode is linked right here on the screen as well. Hey, check you on the other side. Continue to enjoy this free masterclass, and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 075: 🤑 Digital Discipleship on a Dime: 5 Budget Friendly Tips https://www.hybridministry.xyz/075 d0c2b9c6-513b-4436-ac23-e864cf29456c Thu, 14 Dec 2023 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 075 🤑 Digital Discipleship on a Dime: 5 Budget Friendly Tips full Nick Clason Are you looking to create impactful digital discipleship resources without breaking the bank? Look no further! In this video, we present 5 budget-friendly tips that will help you craft effective resources for your online community. 8:05 no 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥 📅 "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 &amp; SHORTS OPUS FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 ======================================== DESCRIPTION 👋 Welcome to our YouTube channel &amp; podcast! 🤑 Are you looking to create impactful digital discipleship resources without breaking the bank? Look no further! In this video, we present 5 budget-friendly tips that will help you craft effective resources for your online community. digitaldiscipleship #budgetfriendlytips #onadime #youtubetips #digitalministry #christiancontent #churchmedia #faithtech #christianvlogger #technologymatters #christianinfluencers #digitaloutreach #ministrytech #faithonabudget #discipleshipmatters #christiancreators #technologytips #churchcommunication #contentcreationtips #faithonadime #digitalmission ======================================== 🆓 FREEBIES 🆓 📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 🎅 "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 //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 &amp; 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 &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/075 //YOUTUBE VIDEO https://youtu.be/WiosrLIifdA #1 USE FREE STUFF FIRST //CANVA https://youtu.be/g0FQWvKjP_E?si=VW1l2akc9PXTLztT //HYBRID MESSAGE ENHANCEMENT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIgEtxPLGBg&amp;t=44s //YOUVERSION LIVE EVENTS https://my.bible.com/events //QR CODES https://www.qr-code-generator.com/ //FREE EBOOK https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book #2 PRE-FILM YOUR MESSAGES //PRE-FILM YOUR MESSAGES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM //YOUTUBE GEAR FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit //OPUS.PRO https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 #3 DON'T REINVENT THE WHEEL //CAPCUT https://www.capcut.com/ //OPUS.PRO https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 #4 USE SOCIAL MEDIA //FREE EBOOK https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book #5 UTILIZE HYBRID EVENTS //WORLD'S GREATEST DONUT EVENT GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00-00:19 Budget Friendly Digital Discipleship Tools 00:19-02:00 Use Free Stuff First! 02:00-03:36 Pre-Film Your Messages for YouTube 03:36-04:36 Don't Reinvent the Wheel! 04:36-07:10 Social Media 07:10-08:05 Utilize Hybrid Events ✍️TRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa Nick Clason (00:00): Well, hey everyone. Welcome back to our channel. We're going to be exploring five budget friendly tips to help you create hybrid resources. Hybrid is when you're not just focusing on the digital aspect of your ministry, not just focusing on the in-person aspect of your ministry, but a melding together of the two. So let's waste no time and dive right in To tip number one, which is use free stuff first. I have all kinds of links in the description under this, but we had an episode where we talked about Canva. Canva will give every church and nonprofit a free pro account. So if you're looking for good graphics, Canva is the best option I believe for that. Another one of my favorite hybrid options is the U version Bible app, and specifically when you're preaching messages, which we just dropped an episode a couple episodes ago about message enhancement, U version events is a place where you can send people to take digital notes, to take next steps to read Bible plans on their own. Nick Clason (00:58): Another one of my all time favorite resources is the Humble QR code. It had a resurgence during covid, but it is a great way when people are in your space to have them scan something and then go ahead and take a next step all based digitally. And hey, listen, I also have a completely free ebook, and this is free for you. It's 40 done for you ideas to help you engage with social media in a custom way. There are a lot of social media programs, resources and graphics out there, but this resource will help you, your volunteers, your students, be the faces and the heroes and those people on your social media platforms. So download that, check it out. We'd love to have you take a look at it. And hey, if you are getting value so far out of this video, I'd love to encourage you to like, subscribe, maybe leave a rating, maybe share it with a friend. Nick Clason (01:49): All of those things really incredibly help not only us get the message out, but more importantly help people understand the mission behind this hybrid experience. Let's move on to tip number two. Tip number two is pre film your messages. Now, I have a video linked right here at the top of the screen called What Every Youth Ministry Needs to Do, and it is my full student ministry recommended strategy. Most churches in America have live streaming capabilities, but most youth ministries do not. If you do them, by all means, you should be live streaming your messages and posting them to YouTube. But in the event that you don't, I recommend sitting down direct to camera and having a pre-filed message moment. You can create a little bit of a set. You can put some plants on screen just like I am right here. You can use a microphone like this. You can use just a little shotgun microphone, and you can do it for less than a hundred dollars. I have a link to that complete blog in my show notes as well. But it's things like a little phone tripod, a little shotgun microphone, and maybe a little ring light just to help get your lighting up a little bit. Nick Clason (02:58): And boom, you are off to the races. Not only is it going to help you engage with a digital presence on a platform like YouTube, and it's also going to give you the ability to clip those long form clips down to shorter vertical based ones that you can post. I have a link to a free resource called Opus Pro. Link to that in the show notes, a little also teaser on what's coming next. And then finally, it gives you a chance as youth pastor to practice and hear your message before you deliver it live in the room. So pre film your messages, create a presence for you and your youth ministry on YouTube. Tip number three is don't reinvent the wheel, which that's the tip, right? Once you've recorded those videos, sat down direct to camera, either a real camera or a phone or whatever, edit it a little bit. Nick Clason (03:48): You don't have to. You can use a free editor like iMovie, movie maker Canva, a cap cut, not Canva, cap cut, but then drop that long form video into a free AI video, short form creator and I have a link. You can try it out. It's called Opus Pro. It's down in my description, and it will AI generate the best hooks, the best, most relevant places. It can put captions on the screen. It can also give you a little preview of the text of what the video is about so that when someone's dropping into the middle of a long form sermon, they're not confused about what's going on, but use the tools to your advantage. And Opus Pro is free for several hours of recording, and then it's a very nominal feat to keep using it after that, after the first part of the year. Nick Clason (04:36): Tip number four, use social media. Now, listen, I know sometimes in the youth ministry space, in the church world, social media gets a little bit of a bad rap, and the fact is, there are bad things out there, and so everyone needs to manage it to their own standards, and they need to practice their own walk of holiness in social media. But social media is a completely free tool that you and I have the ability to get on there and borrow space. And it's already where majority of our students are spending their time. In fact, 95% of teenagers admit to using YouTube. My kids are seven and five and they watch YouTube. It is just a part of the fabric of what we do, so be on those platforms. And the good news is that social media, short form, vertical based video is still king, and you can do that on all four platforms, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Facebook's iffy if you want to use it, but it's really easy to link it to your Instagram account, and so therefore you can just kind of get a two for one on that one. But use social media, and once again, like I said, free ebook will help you get started on that. It will take the film, your messages strategy, and then the clips from that along with some other fun content. And boom, you're off to the races. Listen, I posted a video, Nick Clason (05:56): One of favorite styles not too long ago. We draft things, and so it's like one person makes a pick when another person makes a pick and one person makes a pick, another person makes a pick, and it was called Drafting Blue Characters. And I had my boss, Darren do it, and he's colorblind, and it was really hilarious because he actually picked Vision, the red guy from Avengers, that's his number two pick, but that on Instagram got something like 13,000 views, and it wasn't a serious clip, right? But we gained a lot of followers and got a lot of engagement on our account as a result of that. So then now hopefully those people who have engaged with our account at that level on a more fun level will then also pay attention to some of the sermon clips that we post, which I posted one recently, and it got over a thousand, 2000 views. Nick Clason (06:42): And then hopefully if they're engaging with that, then maybe they'll take a next step from there over to our YouTube channel to watch a full message. And then once they're on, they're encouraged, promoted to click the link down the description to take some sort of next step to let us know what their next step might be. You see, that's why I do the silly to narrow it down to the serious, to narrow it down to the long form, to narrow it down to them taking a next step where we can engage with them in a relationship with Jesus. Tip number five is utilize hybrid events. I have a link in the description again for a free event guide of one. I just did. I posted episode not too long ago called The World's Greatest Donut. It is one of my all time favorite hybrid events. Nick Clason (07:26): It utilizes outreach, it utilizes games, and it utilizes social media to create a perfect hybrid event for you, your church, and your student ministry. But it's just a great opportunity to lean into the hybridness, not just digital, not just physical of your student ministry and of your space. Well, everyone, I hope that these five tips were helpful for you to create amazing digital discipleship, amazing hybrid moments in your student ministry. We are here to help make hybrid easy, to make discipleship more accessible for your students. Won't click the link right here on the screen to watch the next video, but we will talk with you next time. Hybrid Ministry, Youth Ministry, Online Church, Digital Discipleship, Jesus Christ, Digital Evangelism, Social Media Evangelism, Youth Ministry Budget, Youth Ministry Tools, Youth Ministry Digital Apps, Student Ministry, Youth Ministry Coach, Student Ministry Coach, Digital Disciples, Youth Ministry Budget Planning, Youth Ministry Budget Tools 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

📅 "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

========================================

DESCRIPTION
👋 Welcome to our YouTube channel & podcast!

🤑 Are you looking to create impactful digital discipleship resources without breaking the bank? Look no further! In this video, we present 5 budget-friendly tips that will help you craft effective resources for your online community.

digitaldiscipleship #budgetfriendlytips #onadime #youtubetips #digitalministry #christiancontent #churchmedia #faithtech #christianvlogger #technologymatters #christianinfluencers #digitaloutreach #ministrytech #faithonabudget #discipleshipmatters #christiancreators #technologytips #churchcommunication #contentcreationtips #faithonadime #digitalmission

========================================

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

🎅 "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
//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/075

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/WiosrLIifdA

#1 USE FREE STUFF FIRST
//CANVA
https://youtu.be/g0FQWvKjP_E?si=VW1l2akc9PXTLztT

//HYBRID MESSAGE ENHANCEMENT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIgEtxPLGBg&t=44s

//YOUVERSION LIVE EVENTS
https://my.bible.com/events

//QR CODES
https://www.qr-code-generator.com/

//FREE EBOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

#2 PRE-FILM YOUR MESSAGES
//PRE-FILM YOUR MESSAGES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM

//YOUTUBE GEAR FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

//OPUS.PRO
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

#3 DON'T REINVENT THE WHEEL
//CAPCUT
https://www.capcut.com/

//OPUS.PRO
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

#4 USE SOCIAL MEDIA
//FREE EBOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

#5 UTILIZE HYBRID EVENTS
//WORLD'S GREATEST DONUT EVENT GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-00:19 Budget Friendly Digital Discipleship Tools
00:19-02:00 Use Free Stuff First!
02:00-03:36 Pre-Film Your Messages for YouTube
03:36-04:36 Don't Reinvent the Wheel!
04:36-07:10 Social Media
07:10-08:05 Utilize Hybrid Events

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Well, hey everyone. Welcome back to our channel. We're going to be exploring five budget friendly tips to help you create hybrid resources. Hybrid is when you're not just focusing on the digital aspect of your ministry, not just focusing on the in-person aspect of your ministry, but a melding together of the two. So let's waste no time and dive right in To tip number one, which is use free stuff first. I have all kinds of links in the description under this, but we had an episode where we talked about Canva. Canva will give every church and nonprofit a free pro account. So if you're looking for good graphics, Canva is the best option I believe for that. Another one of my favorite hybrid options is the U version Bible app, and specifically when you're preaching messages, which we just dropped an episode a couple episodes ago about message enhancement, U version events is a place where you can send people to take digital notes, to take next steps to read Bible plans on their own.

Nick Clason (00:58):
Another one of my all time favorite resources is the Humble QR code. It had a resurgence during covid, but it is a great way when people are in your space to have them scan something and then go ahead and take a next step all based digitally. And hey, listen, I also have a completely free ebook, and this is free for you. It's 40 done for you ideas to help you engage with social media in a custom way. There are a lot of social media programs, resources and graphics out there, but this resource will help you, your volunteers, your students, be the faces and the heroes and those people on your social media platforms. So download that, check it out. We'd love to have you take a look at it. And hey, if you are getting value so far out of this video, I'd love to encourage you to like, subscribe, maybe leave a rating, maybe share it with a friend.

Nick Clason (01:49):
All of those things really incredibly help not only us get the message out, but more importantly help people understand the mission behind this hybrid experience. Let's move on to tip number two. Tip number two is pre film your messages. Now, I have a video linked right here at the top of the screen called What Every Youth Ministry Needs to Do, and it is my full student ministry recommended strategy. Most churches in America have live streaming capabilities, but most youth ministries do not. If you do them, by all means, you should be live streaming your messages and posting them to YouTube. But in the event that you don't, I recommend sitting down direct to camera and having a pre-filed message moment. You can create a little bit of a set. You can put some plants on screen just like I am right here. You can use a microphone like this. You can use just a little shotgun microphone, and you can do it for less than a hundred dollars. I have a link to that complete blog in my show notes as well. But it's things like a little phone tripod, a little shotgun microphone, and maybe a little ring light just to help get your lighting up a little bit.

Nick Clason (02:58):
And boom, you are off to the races. Not only is it going to help you engage with a digital presence on a platform like YouTube, and it's also going to give you the ability to clip those long form clips down to shorter vertical based ones that you can post. I have a link to a free resource called Opus Pro. Link to that in the show notes, a little also teaser on what's coming next. And then finally, it gives you a chance as youth pastor to practice and hear your message before you deliver it live in the room. So pre film your messages, create a presence for you and your youth ministry on YouTube. Tip number three is don't reinvent the wheel, which that's the tip, right? Once you've recorded those videos, sat down direct to camera, either a real camera or a phone or whatever, edit it a little bit.

Nick Clason (03:48):
You don't have to. You can use a free editor like iMovie, movie maker Canva, a cap cut, not Canva, cap cut, but then drop that long form video into a free AI video, short form creator and I have a link. You can try it out. It's called Opus Pro. It's down in my description, and it will AI generate the best hooks, the best, most relevant places. It can put captions on the screen. It can also give you a little preview of the text of what the video is about so that when someone's dropping into the middle of a long form sermon, they're not confused about what's going on, but use the tools to your advantage. And Opus Pro is free for several hours of recording, and then it's a very nominal feat to keep using it after that, after the first part of the year.

Nick Clason (04:36):
Tip number four, use social media. Now, listen, I know sometimes in the youth ministry space, in the church world, social media gets a little bit of a bad rap, and the fact is, there are bad things out there, and so everyone needs to manage it to their own standards, and they need to practice their own walk of holiness in social media. But social media is a completely free tool that you and I have the ability to get on there and borrow space. And it's already where majority of our students are spending their time. In fact, 95% of teenagers admit to using YouTube. My kids are seven and five and they watch YouTube. It is just a part of the fabric of what we do, so be on those platforms. And the good news is that social media, short form, vertical based video is still king, and you can do that on all four platforms, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Facebook's iffy if you want to use it, but it's really easy to link it to your Instagram account, and so therefore you can just kind of get a two for one on that one. But use social media, and once again, like I said, free ebook will help you get started on that. It will take the film, your messages strategy, and then the clips from that along with some other fun content. And boom, you're off to the races. Listen, I posted a video,

Nick Clason (05:56):
One of favorite styles not too long ago. We draft things, and so it's like one person makes a pick when another person makes a pick and one person makes a pick, another person makes a pick, and it was called Drafting Blue Characters. And I had my boss, Darren do it, and he's colorblind, and it was really hilarious because he actually picked Vision, the red guy from Avengers, that's his number two pick, but that on Instagram got something like 13,000 views, and it wasn't a serious clip, right? But we gained a lot of followers and got a lot of engagement on our account as a result of that. So then now hopefully those people who have engaged with our account at that level on a more fun level will then also pay attention to some of the sermon clips that we post, which I posted one recently, and it got over a thousand, 2000 views.

Nick Clason (06:42):
And then hopefully if they're engaging with that, then maybe they'll take a next step from there over to our YouTube channel to watch a full message. And then once they're on, they're encouraged, promoted to click the link down the description to take some sort of next step to let us know what their next step might be. You see, that's why I do the silly to narrow it down to the serious, to narrow it down to the long form, to narrow it down to them taking a next step where we can engage with them in a relationship with Jesus. Tip number five is utilize hybrid events. I have a link in the description again for a free event guide of one. I just did. I posted episode not too long ago called The World's Greatest Donut. It is one of my all time favorite hybrid events.

Nick Clason (07:26):
It utilizes outreach, it utilizes games, and it utilizes social media to create a perfect hybrid event for you, your church, and your student ministry. But it's just a great opportunity to lean into the hybridness, not just digital, not just physical of your student ministry and of your space. Well, everyone, I hope that these five tips were helpful for you to create amazing digital discipleship, amazing hybrid moments in your student ministry. We are here to help make hybrid easy, to make discipleship more accessible for your students. Won't click the link right here on the screen to watch the next video, but we will talk with you next time.

]]> 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

📅 "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

========================================

DESCRIPTION
👋 Welcome to our YouTube channel & podcast!

🤑 Are you looking to create impactful digital discipleship resources without breaking the bank? Look no further! In this video, we present 5 budget-friendly tips that will help you craft effective resources for your online community.

digitaldiscipleship #budgetfriendlytips #onadime #youtubetips #digitalministry #christiancontent #churchmedia #faithtech #christianvlogger #technologymatters #christianinfluencers #digitaloutreach #ministrytech #faithonabudget #discipleshipmatters #christiancreators #technologytips #churchcommunication #contentcreationtips #faithonadime #digitalmission

========================================

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

🎅 "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
//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/075

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/WiosrLIifdA

#1 USE FREE STUFF FIRST
//CANVA
https://youtu.be/g0FQWvKjP_E?si=VW1l2akc9PXTLztT

//HYBRID MESSAGE ENHANCEMENT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIgEtxPLGBg&t=44s

//YOUVERSION LIVE EVENTS
https://my.bible.com/events

//QR CODES
https://www.qr-code-generator.com/

//FREE EBOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

#2 PRE-FILM YOUR MESSAGES
//PRE-FILM YOUR MESSAGES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM

//YOUTUBE GEAR FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

//OPUS.PRO
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

#3 DON'T REINVENT THE WHEEL
//CAPCUT
https://www.capcut.com/

//OPUS.PRO
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

#4 USE SOCIAL MEDIA
//FREE EBOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

#5 UTILIZE HYBRID EVENTS
//WORLD'S GREATEST DONUT EVENT GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-00:19 Budget Friendly Digital Discipleship Tools
00:19-02:00 Use Free Stuff First!
02:00-03:36 Pre-Film Your Messages for YouTube
03:36-04:36 Don't Reinvent the Wheel!
04:36-07:10 Social Media
07:10-08:05 Utilize Hybrid Events

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Well, hey everyone. Welcome back to our channel. We're going to be exploring five budget friendly tips to help you create hybrid resources. Hybrid is when you're not just focusing on the digital aspect of your ministry, not just focusing on the in-person aspect of your ministry, but a melding together of the two. So let's waste no time and dive right in To tip number one, which is use free stuff first. I have all kinds of links in the description under this, but we had an episode where we talked about Canva. Canva will give every church and nonprofit a free pro account. So if you're looking for good graphics, Canva is the best option I believe for that. Another one of my favorite hybrid options is the U version Bible app, and specifically when you're preaching messages, which we just dropped an episode a couple episodes ago about message enhancement, U version events is a place where you can send people to take digital notes, to take next steps to read Bible plans on their own.

Nick Clason (00:58):
Another one of my all time favorite resources is the Humble QR code. It had a resurgence during covid, but it is a great way when people are in your space to have them scan something and then go ahead and take a next step all based digitally. And hey, listen, I also have a completely free ebook, and this is free for you. It's 40 done for you ideas to help you engage with social media in a custom way. There are a lot of social media programs, resources and graphics out there, but this resource will help you, your volunteers, your students, be the faces and the heroes and those people on your social media platforms. So download that, check it out. We'd love to have you take a look at it. And hey, if you are getting value so far out of this video, I'd love to encourage you to like, subscribe, maybe leave a rating, maybe share it with a friend.

Nick Clason (01:49):
All of those things really incredibly help not only us get the message out, but more importantly help people understand the mission behind this hybrid experience. Let's move on to tip number two. Tip number two is pre film your messages. Now, I have a video linked right here at the top of the screen called What Every Youth Ministry Needs to Do, and it is my full student ministry recommended strategy. Most churches in America have live streaming capabilities, but most youth ministries do not. If you do them, by all means, you should be live streaming your messages and posting them to YouTube. But in the event that you don't, I recommend sitting down direct to camera and having a pre-filed message moment. You can create a little bit of a set. You can put some plants on screen just like I am right here. You can use a microphone like this. You can use just a little shotgun microphone, and you can do it for less than a hundred dollars. I have a link to that complete blog in my show notes as well. But it's things like a little phone tripod, a little shotgun microphone, and maybe a little ring light just to help get your lighting up a little bit.

Nick Clason (02:58):
And boom, you are off to the races. Not only is it going to help you engage with a digital presence on a platform like YouTube, and it's also going to give you the ability to clip those long form clips down to shorter vertical based ones that you can post. I have a link to a free resource called Opus Pro. Link to that in the show notes, a little also teaser on what's coming next. And then finally, it gives you a chance as youth pastor to practice and hear your message before you deliver it live in the room. So pre film your messages, create a presence for you and your youth ministry on YouTube. Tip number three is don't reinvent the wheel, which that's the tip, right? Once you've recorded those videos, sat down direct to camera, either a real camera or a phone or whatever, edit it a little bit.

Nick Clason (03:48):
You don't have to. You can use a free editor like iMovie, movie maker Canva, a cap cut, not Canva, cap cut, but then drop that long form video into a free AI video, short form creator and I have a link. You can try it out. It's called Opus Pro. It's down in my description, and it will AI generate the best hooks, the best, most relevant places. It can put captions on the screen. It can also give you a little preview of the text of what the video is about so that when someone's dropping into the middle of a long form sermon, they're not confused about what's going on, but use the tools to your advantage. And Opus Pro is free for several hours of recording, and then it's a very nominal feat to keep using it after that, after the first part of the year.

Nick Clason (04:36):
Tip number four, use social media. Now, listen, I know sometimes in the youth ministry space, in the church world, social media gets a little bit of a bad rap, and the fact is, there are bad things out there, and so everyone needs to manage it to their own standards, and they need to practice their own walk of holiness in social media. But social media is a completely free tool that you and I have the ability to get on there and borrow space. And it's already where majority of our students are spending their time. In fact, 95% of teenagers admit to using YouTube. My kids are seven and five and they watch YouTube. It is just a part of the fabric of what we do, so be on those platforms. And the good news is that social media, short form, vertical based video is still king, and you can do that on all four platforms, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Facebook's iffy if you want to use it, but it's really easy to link it to your Instagram account, and so therefore you can just kind of get a two for one on that one. But use social media, and once again, like I said, free ebook will help you get started on that. It will take the film, your messages strategy, and then the clips from that along with some other fun content. And boom, you're off to the races. Listen, I posted a video,

Nick Clason (05:56):
One of favorite styles not too long ago. We draft things, and so it's like one person makes a pick when another person makes a pick and one person makes a pick, another person makes a pick, and it was called Drafting Blue Characters. And I had my boss, Darren do it, and he's colorblind, and it was really hilarious because he actually picked Vision, the red guy from Avengers, that's his number two pick, but that on Instagram got something like 13,000 views, and it wasn't a serious clip, right? But we gained a lot of followers and got a lot of engagement on our account as a result of that. So then now hopefully those people who have engaged with our account at that level on a more fun level will then also pay attention to some of the sermon clips that we post, which I posted one recently, and it got over a thousand, 2000 views.

Nick Clason (06:42):
And then hopefully if they're engaging with that, then maybe they'll take a next step from there over to our YouTube channel to watch a full message. And then once they're on, they're encouraged, promoted to click the link down the description to take some sort of next step to let us know what their next step might be. You see, that's why I do the silly to narrow it down to the serious, to narrow it down to the long form, to narrow it down to them taking a next step where we can engage with them in a relationship with Jesus. Tip number five is utilize hybrid events. I have a link in the description again for a free event guide of one. I just did. I posted episode not too long ago called The World's Greatest Donut. It is one of my all time favorite hybrid events.

Nick Clason (07:26):
It utilizes outreach, it utilizes games, and it utilizes social media to create a perfect hybrid event for you, your church, and your student ministry. But it's just a great opportunity to lean into the hybridness, not just digital, not just physical of your student ministry and of your space. Well, everyone, I hope that these five tips were helpful for you to create amazing digital discipleship, amazing hybrid moments in your student ministry. We are here to help make hybrid easy, to make discipleship more accessible for your students. Won't click the link right here on the screen to watch the next video, but we will talk with you next time.

]]> Episode 072: 🧑‍🚀 New Frontiers in Digital Discipleship for the Church: Message Enhancement 💬 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/072 47536cb7-e33d-42a2-a1bd-63145815fa85 Thu, 23 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 072 🧑‍🚀 New Frontiers in Digital Discipleship for the Church: Message Enhancement 💬 full Nick Clason Preaching, Teaching and Youth Ministry It’s part of what we do in the church. You’ve also heard that this generation, according to crossrivertherapy.com has an attention span of just 8.25 seconds. Which is 4.25 seconds LESS than we experienced in the year 2000. Famously, that’s less than a goldfish But teaching and preaching the Bible, is not only an integral part of youth ministry, but learning the Bible is important to the discipleship and developmental process, not only in teenagers, but in anyone who claims to follow Jesus Christ as their savior. So how do we take the Hybrid approach to teaching and preaching. Hybrid is not just your physical gathering But not ignoring it in favor of your digital experience, either. It’s both. In this episode we’ll explore the how to preach and teach to a TikTok Generation. What we’re up against. What we can learn from culture And finally, 3 Hybrid Solutions you can implement THIS Wednesday night. 21:39 no 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥 📅 "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 &amp; SHORTS OPUS FOR AI SHORTS &amp; 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 Preaching, Teaching and Youth Ministry It’s part of what we do in the church. You’ve also heard that this generation, according to crossrivertherapy.com has an attention span of just 8.25 seconds. Which is 4.25 seconds LESS than we experienced in the year 2000. Famously, that’s less than a goldfish But teaching and preaching the Bible, is not only an integral part of youth ministry, but learning the Bible is important to the discipleship and developmental process, not only in teenagers, but in anyone who claims to follow Jesus Christ as their savior. So how do we take the Hybrid approach to teaching and preaching. Hybrid is not just your physical gathering But not ignoring it in favor of your digital experience, either. It’s both. In this episode we’ll explore the how to preach and teach to a TikTok Generation. What we’re up against. What we can learn from culture And finally, 3 Hybrid Solutions you can implement THIS Wednesday night. churchattendance #hiddentruth #unveiling #2023 #church #truth #revelation #faith #spirituality #religion #worship #community #christianity #belief #sunday #sacred #divine #belief #sermon #christian ======================================== 🆓 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 &amp; 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 &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/072 //View all the Charts and Graphs via YouTube https://youtu.be/iIgEtxPLGBg //Mr. Beast on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA //Alex Hormozi https://www.youtube.com/@AlexHormozi //Steven Furtick https://www.youtube.com/@stevenfurtick //Research on Attention Spans https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/average-human-attention-span https://journals.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/advan.00109.2016 //My Youth Min by Ym360 https://myyouthmin.com/ //The Learning Triangle https://www.educationcorner.com/the-learning-pyramid.html //Solution #1 https://sidekick.tv/ //Solution #2 https://my.bible.com/events //Solution #3 https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00-01:36 Preaching to the Generation with the Shortest Attention Span in History 01:36-03:33 Teaching, Preaching and Hybrid Ministry is vital to the next generation 03:33-11:15 Teaching to a TikTok Generation 11:15-15:46 What can youth pastors learn from culture? 15:46-21:39 3 Immediate Hybrid Solutions ✍️TRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa Nick Clason (00:00): Preaching teaching and youth ministry, they go together. It's just part of what we do. But what do you do when you're trying to preach and teach to the generation with the shortest attention span of only 8.25 seconds? Famously, you've heard it's less now than a goldfish down 4.5 seconds from the year 2000. And is there a way for us to digitally enhance through hybrid means the way in which people learn and listen to our teaching and our preaching now in this generation because teaching and preaching is not only an integral part of youth ministry, but it's an integral part of the way in which we disciple our students and help them understand the claims, values and teachings of Jesus. So how do we take this hybrid approach, not just digital, not just in person, but melding of the two together to increase awareness and to help bring about a better retention of our teaching and our preaching to our students. Nick Clason (01:08): In this episode, we will answer how to preach and teach to a tick talk generation and what we as communicators are up against. Additionally, we'll explore what we can learn from the culture that's around us. And finally, I want to offer for you three hybrid solutions to help engage and increase teaching and preaching and awareness in your context that you can implement tomorrow. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everyone. Welcome back to another edition of the Hybrid Ministry Show. I, as always am your host Nick Clason. I'm a 13 year youth ministry veteran now currently located in the DFW Dallas Fort Worth area. Excited to be with you. I've been teaching and preaching my entire career, but I've also been engaging with the importance of hybrid ministry. I've been aware of that and aware of the digital revolution ever since I started in youth ministry, which is why we have this playlist right here linked at the top of the screen that you're a part of as we are exploring new digital frontiers. Nick Clason (02:12): The last video was all about games and how we can implement hybrid into our games and into the fun in our youth ministries. And this episode is about enhancing the messages. So I hope that you'll stick around to the very end of the video because in addition to that, I have a sure surefire resource linked in the description below. That's not only going to help you win on social media and bring about your messages and all those things to your students and help bring that to them the other hours of your week, but it'll also help you have fun with them like we talked about in the last video. And so I want to encourage you to I you to subscribe. Those things are free for you and they mean a lot to me, and I want you to do that because we do drop resources, like I just mentioned, 40 done for you, an entire month's worth of social media, but not just a bunch of graphics. Nick Clason (03:04): This is you actually getting in front of the camera, getting in front of a video, using yourself, your students, your leaders, whoever you want to help change the game on your social media platform. And so those types of things are coming at you every single week. We'll drop a new episode every single Thursday, so like subscribe, can't wait to see on the other side, but hey, we are going to be diving into teaching to a TikTok generation. Let's explore that together. So famously, this generation has an attention span of 8.25 seconds. It said that that is less than the household goldfish. So I don't know if any of you guys have gold fishes or teenagers in your house, but if you do, your teenager has a shorter attention span than a goldfish. What is going on nowadays though is the short form video revolution ushered into us by TikTok during the pandemic has changed the way in which we engage with content online. Nick Clason (04:07): It just has our attention spans are getting shorter. The need and relevance for a really, really crucial opening section of your video is what is going to determine if someone sticks around in your video or if they're going to leave. In fact, I want to share with you three examples from three very different classes and creators and just like different pockets of YouTube, but all three very good, three people who know what they're doing on social media. And I want to point out to you, we're going to watch 'em right here live on screen. I want to react to how well their hook and how well their intro does. So the first one up is a Mr. Beast video. So let's check this out together. Nick Clason (04:54): Hundred million mankind, okay? He's just taught, he's just B roll. He's got Justin Timberlake on there. Whoa, got those waves with his editing's great all the way to this barely functioning house, more of a shed. Well, why does this house cost a dollar? Yeah, we get another storm. It's probably going to, he's already into the content now of his video. He's only 38 seconds in. It feels like the intro. It just seamlessly moves straight into the content. Mr. Beast is probably the best at the opening ones. This one is more of a entrepreneur guy, guru trying to help you win online. So let's check out his video. This is my most brutally honest advice to my, you beat 99% of people zoomed out without media advice to my younger self and Nick Clason (05:57): How I, you're going to lose sleep. You'll doubt whether it'll work. You'll stress. He's catering to the difficulty of what he does and what the people that follow him need to do. He's got B roll, he's got light transitions, all that type of stuff. Great. Now this one right here, this is Churchill from Elevation Steven S check this one out sitting on that you're not using today. That's not the beginning of his sermon, but it's the beginning of this video. Arrows, you should have taken everything God gave you kept striking until you saw it to. They edited it so that it started there at what they considered to be the most interesting part, artillery to be defeated. It was his lack of drive. The reason I want to show all of you that is that the first 30 seconds or less of every single one of those videos, all very different, but all very good. Nick Clason (06:56): Everyone who edited that video knew exactly what they were doing. So I actually have a video that I just released on a platform called My Youth Men, which is a membership tier of YM 360. You can check it out, link in the description for a seven day free trial. But the video is about discipling students and teenagers through the usage pitfalls and platforms with cell phones as opposed to a way, and I show you those videos because I want to say that's what we as communicators are up against. Your students are watching those for entertainment, for fun, even maybe for inspiration with a Steven Furtick. And then you and I get up as their youth pastor and we start teaching at them in all of our old seminary taught ways. I think as I said in my video, that there are new ways of doing it. Nick Clason (07:51): In fact, this is a educator's tool. It's going to be up here on the screen. If you're listening to the podcast, make sure that you hit the link in the show notes so you can see everything on YouTube with all of our video overlays and all of our things flying in. But this is called the knowledge pyramid, and there are two sections to it. There's the passive teaching methods and then there's the participatory teaching methods. And most of us in church are using the passive teaching methods and the percentages are broken down by the knowledge retention rate. So how well this style of teaching helps people retain that type of teaching. And so the lowest at 5% is lecture based style. You might think 8.25 seconds is low, but I'm just going to admit to you, I am bored after a lecture after only 8.25 seconds. Nick Clason (08:42): You have to be really killing it, and I have to be really interested in that form of content. In the lecture style pyramid, 10% of the retention rate is reading, 20% is audio visual. So that would be something like including slides and or video in your teaching. And then 30% is demonstration. That's of the passive teaching style methods. So all of those things are all things that you've been taught probably in seminary of how to teach someone and how to maintain relevance as you teach someone. But then it shifts and at 50% a discussion group, a participatory teaching method is where that learning retention rate jumps up to 50%. If someone practices what they've learned by doing it, it jumps to 75% and then if they teach others, it jumps to 90%. So in most cases, us as youth pastors, we push our students through passive teaching methods, and then finally we get them into a discussion group As a participatory teaching method, discussion group is the lowest of the participatory section of retention, and that is why you and I as we are teaching, we need to differ at what we're doing. Look at what Mr. Beast did, how he looked at all the different houses, right? And he kept it moving. He was only on each house for just a few seconds. He was moving, he was garnering interest, he was keeping you hooked. Even look at fur, he's on the floor with arrows in hand doing his thing. Yeah, it was lecture style, but there's visuals to it. And in our youth ministries, more often than not, we're going to push people in to small groups, which is a relevant and meaningful participatory teaching method. Nick Clason (10:32): And so as we know and look at the different teaching pyramid styles, here is my question, what do we do? How do we infuse and use hybrid to help increase the retention rates of the learnings? Because you know that the message that you're teaching matters. It's a truth of God. It's a truth from God's word, and it's been put on your heart by him, and you're trying to help share that message with the students in which God has entrusted to you in your student ministry. So what do you do about it? I think that there are a couple of clues that we can learn from culture, even from some of those YouTube videos that we watch. And so that's what we're going to check out in the next section. Neil Bradbury has a quote. The link to that article is in the show notes. He says, the eight second myth, as he classifies it for attention spans is actually more related to human behavior on websites and on social media and how many seconds the average person spends on a website before clicking away or navigating off of it. Nick Clason (11:39): So we have famously dubbed Generation Z and Gen Alpha subsequently as the generation with the tension span lower than a goldfish. And that's true as it relates to social media and Mr. Beast and Alex Har Zi, and even Steven Fer and Elevation, they're trying to capture people's attention on social media. So they do have to make that happen within eight seconds. And we are up against that, I would say, as communicators because that's how students are spending a majority of their time. Gen Z's using their cell phone more than any other screen-based device combined. However, I want to point something out that is a website statistic. And so while that is true of websites, the attention span is a little bit longer because eight seconds is incredibly short. And check this out. Over the last however many years, these are the top five grossing box office movies of all time. Nick Clason (12:35): So in 2009, avatar came out, and I think it's even been supplanted by itself for the re-release or something like that, but Avatar, the movie is two hours and 42 minutes. Avengers End Game came out in 2019. Shout out to my favorite movie. I love you. 3000. It is three hours in one minute. I was nervous going into Avengers end game. I was like, I might have to pee. What do I do if I have to pee? And I did. Titanic in 1992 was three hours and 14 minutes. Star Wars episode seven, two hours and 18 minutes, and an Avengers Infinity War, the prequel to end game 2018, two hours and 29 minutes long. Movies are still making money, they're still making them, and they're still releasing them. Also, shout out to Disney for owning four of the top five of those properties. All that to be said though, if it weren't lucrative and if it weren't making money, Disney and the other major motion picture companies in America wouldn't be making movies at that length. Nick Clason (13:43): So what does that mean for us? We got this eight second thing, but now we got movies that are going longer than three hours. How do we reconcile the difference between those two? My contention is this, if it's good, people will pay attention. It's that simple. And here's the reality. Most research, including Ted Talk and that organization say that a sweet spot for lectures is anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. That's optimal. However, if it's moving, if it's keeping attention, if it's changing things up, even just going back and watching Mr. Beast intro video, how if it's moving and adapting, you can keep the attention of your audience. But here's a gut check. If Avatar and Endgame and Star Wars and Titanic are keeping people's attention, but you're losing them after only eight seconds, then the gut check moment for you and I as youth pastors might be, we might be more boring than we think we are. Nick Clason (14:46): In fact, I've been recording videos on this YouTube channel for six months, eight months now, and that's been a gut check moment for me. When certain videos get less views, I'll go back, I'll look at the analytics and I'll go and re-listen to it myself. And you know what? I'll notice, man, I'm boring, right? I have to learn how to be more captivating. I have to learn how to be more interesting. I have to learn how to keep and retain my audience longer throughout the duration of my videos. Not only is that true for me as a communicator via YouTube via video to y'all, but it's also true for me as a youth pastor. But going back and looking, watching those videos, which by the way, if you are not prerecording your messages or recording them at all to go back and look and learn, you are missing out on the easiest way to become better as a communicator. Nick Clason (15:31): But there's another hack and there's another little silver bullet that's going to slide in here because we are going to be exploring three hybrid ideas in this digital frontier to enhance our messages in the room. Let's check it out. So what are these hybrid ideas? Like I said, it's not just physical. It's not just digital, but it's a melding of the two. So in my mind, you're teaching live in the room, but you're putting things on their cell phone or putting resources on their cell phone for them to use later because they're taking their cell phone with them for the other 165 hours beyond just the one hour that you've been in your program. And most of us as youth pastors, we're not good enough to contend with cell phones. So instead of contending with them, using them, leaning into them, we just forced them to lock them away or get rid of them. Nick Clason (16:20): But one of my favorite solutions from my favorite people over at Download Youth Ministry is sidekick. Check it out, sidekick TV link in the show notes. I get zero kickback from this, but I'm a power user and they just released or they're going to release and listen. I may be letting the cat out of the bag a little bit, but they're going to be releasing a polling feature. So you can put a QR code on the screen, students can scan it, and they can vote live time, and you can show it live from the stage. And better yet, you can now control sidekick from your phone or your iPad if you don't have a tech person running back in the back. And so you can do live interactive types of things to interact with your in-person and letting them use the digital means in front of them. Nick Clason (17:08): So you can ask like, Hey, what is the best Thanksgiving food? Is it stuffing mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, Turkey or ham? Let us know. Scan this QR code, and then you can get live results from your audience. You also, just like the learning pyramid showed, in addition to your lecture style, you need to be bringing visual aid with it. Use your screens, use your multimedia to your advantage. Use the things that are common to your students, like memes and tos. You can even pull out things like, Hey, show the most interesting photo from your last week in your camera roll. And one of my all time favorite ways to be hybrid is any sort of call to action, a camp, sign up, a discipleship, sign up. Even now, the sidekick voting thing use QR codes. They've had a resurgence since the pandemic, but people now can scan QR codes with just their camera app and their phone. Nick Clason (18:02): It will pull a link up and boom, you are off to the races. Use QR codes to your advantage. Use sidekick, use digital media, use your screens to interact and make things hybrid. The next idea that I have for you is you version events in our space, we call them digital notes. And so we link our YouVersion live events. If you didn't know, YouVersion is the Bible app made by Life church, but they have a events portion. And so what happens is if someone is in your church, it will pull geographically all the events that are live and they can get in there and there can be notes. Your main points scriptures you Additionally, my favorite reason for it is you can create call to action. So you can put your camp signup, you can put a Bible reading plan so they can be on the digital notes. Nick Clason (19:01): They can be taking notes in the space in your room as you're teaching, as you're preaching. And then at the end, you can be like, and hey, if you are learning right now and enjoying this message about prayer, but you want to grow even deeper into prayer, then I have a seven day prayer challenge plan linked in the you version, in the digital notes, whatever you want to call it. And kids can click it on their phone and write their sign up for a Bible reading plan. It's a way to help foster discipleship to lean into the hybrid, right? You taught something, but now by just having notes available to them on their phone, you can say, Hey, click accept, and start reading that plan. The third idea that I have for you is use YouTube and use social media. In fact, in the links down below, I have a couple of things, a less than $100 YouTube setup for you to start doing messages similar to this one right here where you're sitting direct to camera and posting your messages to YouTube. Nick Clason (19:59): If you have live streaming capabilities, then do that. But if you don't, as a youth pastor, I get it. I don't either sit down, prerecord your messages. In addition to that, you can use a service also linked in the description called Opus Pro to then take your long form and clip it into short form and give yourself a bunch of social media content for the week. And if you then need something to help fill in some of the other gaps, that's where my surefire resource, my ebook, my 40 done for you ideas comes in. And that message can live in perpetuity online as you help answer the specific faith questions of this next generation. It can be more than just for students who miss. It can be for parents to check it out. It can be for students who don't even go to your church. Nick Clason (20:43): It can be for students who go to your church to share messages with friends if they would never bring their friends to church, they can share a message on YouTube with their friends. And so those are my three ideas, sidekick in digital media, you versions, digital notes, and finally, utilize and use YouTube and social media to your advantage. The final piece of this playlist is we're going to be exploring and talking about how do we care for students in an ongoing type of way. We meet with them once a week, but then there's 167 hours. How can we, in a hybrid way care for the students pastorally in the ways in which God has entrusted to us? That video is linked right here on the screen. Make sure you check it out. We're making digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So as always, and don't forget, stay hybrid. Hybrid Ministry, Youth Ministry, Digital Discipleship, Digital Discipleship Youth Ministry, digital ministry, ministry, church, digital discipleship and evangelism, Student Ministry, Student Ministry Coach, Youth Ministry Coach, How To Teach to a TikTok Generation, How to Teach Teenagers, Preaching to Teenagers, Teenagers short attention spans, teen social media use, adhd in teens, adhd, how to focus, goldfish attention span, avengers endgame, teach teens the bible, mr beast 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

📅 "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
Preaching, Teaching and Youth Ministry
It’s part of what we do in the church.

You’ve also heard that this generation, according to crossrivertherapy.com has an attention span of just 8.25 seconds. Which is 4.25 seconds LESS than we experienced in the year 2000.

Famously, that’s less than a goldfish

But teaching and preaching the Bible, is not only an integral part of youth ministry, but learning the Bible is important to the discipleship and developmental process, not only in teenagers, but in anyone who claims to follow Jesus Christ as their savior.

So how do we take the Hybrid approach to teaching and preaching.
Hybrid is not just your physical gathering
But not ignoring it in favor of your digital experience, either.

It’s both.

In this episode we’ll explore the how to preach and teach to a TikTok Generation.
What we’re up against.

What we can learn from culture

And finally, 3 Hybrid Solutions you can implement THIS Wednesday night.

churchattendance #hiddentruth #unveiling #2023 #church #truth #revelation #faith #spirituality #religion #worship #community #christianity #belief #sunday #sacred #divine #belief #sermon #christian

========================================

🆓 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/072

//View all the Charts and Graphs via YouTube
https://youtu.be/iIgEtxPLGBg

//Mr. Beast on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA

//Alex Hormozi
https://www.youtube.com/@AlexHormozi

//Steven Furtick
https://www.youtube.com/@stevenfurtick

//Research on Attention Spans
https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/average-human-attention-span
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/advan.00109.2016

//My Youth Min by Ym360
https://myyouthmin.com/

//The Learning Triangle
https://www.educationcorner.com/the-learning-pyramid.html

//Solution #1
https://sidekick.tv/

//Solution #2
https://my.bible.com/events

//Solution #3
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-01:36 Preaching to the Generation with the Shortest Attention Span in History
01:36-03:33 Teaching, Preaching and Hybrid Ministry is vital to the next generation
03:33-11:15 Teaching to a TikTok Generation
11:15-15:46 What can youth pastors learn from culture?

15:46-21:39 3 Immediate Hybrid Solutions

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Preaching teaching and youth ministry, they go together. It's just part of what we do. But what do you do when you're trying to preach and teach to the generation with the shortest attention span of only 8.25 seconds? Famously, you've heard it's less now than a goldfish down 4.5 seconds from the year 2000. And is there a way for us to digitally enhance through hybrid means the way in which people learn and listen to our teaching and our preaching now in this generation because teaching and preaching is not only an integral part of youth ministry, but it's an integral part of the way in which we disciple our students and help them understand the claims, values and teachings of Jesus. So how do we take this hybrid approach, not just digital, not just in person, but melding of the two together to increase awareness and to help bring about a better retention of our teaching and our preaching to our students.

Nick Clason (01:08):
In this episode, we will answer how to preach and teach to a tick talk generation and what we as communicators are up against. Additionally, we'll explore what we can learn from the culture that's around us. And finally, I want to offer for you three hybrid solutions to help engage and increase teaching and preaching and awareness in your context that you can implement tomorrow. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everyone. Welcome back to another edition of the Hybrid Ministry Show. I, as always am your host Nick Clason. I'm a 13 year youth ministry veteran now currently located in the DFW Dallas Fort Worth area. Excited to be with you. I've been teaching and preaching my entire career, but I've also been engaging with the importance of hybrid ministry. I've been aware of that and aware of the digital revolution ever since I started in youth ministry, which is why we have this playlist right here linked at the top of the screen that you're a part of as we are exploring new digital frontiers.

Nick Clason (02:12):
The last video was all about games and how we can implement hybrid into our games and into the fun in our youth ministries. And this episode is about enhancing the messages. So I hope that you'll stick around to the very end of the video because in addition to that, I have a sure surefire resource linked in the description below. That's not only going to help you win on social media and bring about your messages and all those things to your students and help bring that to them the other hours of your week, but it'll also help you have fun with them like we talked about in the last video. And so I want to encourage you to I you to subscribe. Those things are free for you and they mean a lot to me, and I want you to do that because we do drop resources, like I just mentioned, 40 done for you, an entire month's worth of social media, but not just a bunch of graphics.

Nick Clason (03:04):
This is you actually getting in front of the camera, getting in front of a video, using yourself, your students, your leaders, whoever you want to help change the game on your social media platform. And so those types of things are coming at you every single week. We'll drop a new episode every single Thursday, so like subscribe, can't wait to see on the other side, but hey, we are going to be diving into teaching to a TikTok generation. Let's explore that together. So famously, this generation has an attention span of 8.25 seconds. It said that that is less than the household goldfish. So I don't know if any of you guys have gold fishes or teenagers in your house, but if you do, your teenager has a shorter attention span than a goldfish. What is going on nowadays though is the short form video revolution ushered into us by TikTok during the pandemic has changed the way in which we engage with content online.

Nick Clason (04:07):
It just has our attention spans are getting shorter. The need and relevance for a really, really crucial opening section of your video is what is going to determine if someone sticks around in your video or if they're going to leave. In fact, I want to share with you three examples from three very different classes and creators and just like different pockets of YouTube, but all three very good, three people who know what they're doing on social media. And I want to point out to you, we're going to watch 'em right here live on screen. I want to react to how well their hook and how well their intro does. So the first one up is a Mr. Beast video. So let's check this out together.

Nick Clason (04:54):
Hundred million mankind, okay? He's just taught, he's just B roll. He's got Justin Timberlake on there. Whoa, got those waves with his editing's great all the way to this barely functioning house, more of a shed. Well, why does this house cost a dollar? Yeah, we get another storm. It's probably going to, he's already into the content now of his video. He's only 38 seconds in. It feels like the intro. It just seamlessly moves straight into the content. Mr. Beast is probably the best at the opening ones. This one is more of a entrepreneur guy, guru trying to help you win online. So let's check out his video. This is my most brutally honest advice to my, you beat 99% of people zoomed out without media advice to my younger self and

Nick Clason (05:57):
How I, you're going to lose sleep. You'll doubt whether it'll work. You'll stress. He's catering to the difficulty of what he does and what the people that follow him need to do. He's got B roll, he's got light transitions, all that type of stuff. Great. Now this one right here, this is Churchill from Elevation Steven S check this one out sitting on that you're not using today. That's not the beginning of his sermon, but it's the beginning of this video. Arrows, you should have taken everything God gave you kept striking until you saw it to. They edited it so that it started there at what they considered to be the most interesting part, artillery to be defeated. It was his lack of drive. The reason I want to show all of you that is that the first 30 seconds or less of every single one of those videos, all very different, but all very good.

Nick Clason (06:56):
Everyone who edited that video knew exactly what they were doing. So I actually have a video that I just released on a platform called My Youth Men, which is a membership tier of YM 360. You can check it out, link in the description for a seven day free trial. But the video is about discipling students and teenagers through the usage pitfalls and platforms with cell phones as opposed to a way, and I show you those videos because I want to say that's what we as communicators are up against. Your students are watching those for entertainment, for fun, even maybe for inspiration with a Steven Furtick. And then you and I get up as their youth pastor and we start teaching at them in all of our old seminary taught ways. I think as I said in my video, that there are new ways of doing it.

Nick Clason (07:51):
In fact, this is a educator's tool. It's going to be up here on the screen. If you're listening to the podcast, make sure that you hit the link in the show notes so you can see everything on YouTube with all of our video overlays and all of our things flying in. But this is called the knowledge pyramid, and there are two sections to it. There's the passive teaching methods and then there's the participatory teaching methods. And most of us in church are using the passive teaching methods and the percentages are broken down by the knowledge retention rate. So how well this style of teaching helps people retain that type of teaching. And so the lowest at 5% is lecture based style. You might think 8.25 seconds is low, but I'm just going to admit to you, I am bored after a lecture after only 8.25 seconds.

Nick Clason (08:42):
You have to be really killing it, and I have to be really interested in that form of content. In the lecture style pyramid, 10% of the retention rate is reading, 20% is audio visual. So that would be something like including slides and or video in your teaching. And then 30% is demonstration. That's of the passive teaching style methods. So all of those things are all things that you've been taught probably in seminary of how to teach someone and how to maintain relevance as you teach someone. But then it shifts and at 50% a discussion group, a participatory teaching method is where that learning retention rate jumps up to 50%. If someone practices what they've learned by doing it, it jumps to 75% and then if they teach others, it jumps to 90%. So in most cases, us as youth pastors, we push our students through passive teaching methods, and then finally we get them into a discussion group As a participatory teaching method, discussion group is the lowest of the participatory section of retention, and that is why you and I as we are teaching, we need to differ at what we're doing. Look at what Mr. Beast did, how he looked at all the different houses, right? And he kept it moving. He was only on each house for just a few seconds. He was moving, he was garnering interest, he was keeping you hooked. Even look at fur, he's on the floor with arrows in hand doing his thing. Yeah, it was lecture style, but there's visuals to it. And in our youth ministries, more often than not, we're going to push people in to small groups, which is a relevant and meaningful participatory teaching method.

Nick Clason (10:32):
And so as we know and look at the different teaching pyramid styles, here is my question, what do we do? How do we infuse and use hybrid to help increase the retention rates of the learnings? Because you know that the message that you're teaching matters. It's a truth of God. It's a truth from God's word, and it's been put on your heart by him, and you're trying to help share that message with the students in which God has entrusted to you in your student ministry. So what do you do about it? I think that there are a couple of clues that we can learn from culture, even from some of those YouTube videos that we watch. And so that's what we're going to check out in the next section. Neil Bradbury has a quote. The link to that article is in the show notes. He says, the eight second myth, as he classifies it for attention spans is actually more related to human behavior on websites and on social media and how many seconds the average person spends on a website before clicking away or navigating off of it.

Nick Clason (11:39):
So we have famously dubbed Generation Z and Gen Alpha subsequently as the generation with the tension span lower than a goldfish. And that's true as it relates to social media and Mr. Beast and Alex Har Zi, and even Steven Fer and Elevation, they're trying to capture people's attention on social media. So they do have to make that happen within eight seconds. And we are up against that, I would say, as communicators because that's how students are spending a majority of their time. Gen Z's using their cell phone more than any other screen-based device combined. However, I want to point something out that is a website statistic. And so while that is true of websites, the attention span is a little bit longer because eight seconds is incredibly short. And check this out. Over the last however many years, these are the top five grossing box office movies of all time.

Nick Clason (12:35):
So in 2009, avatar came out, and I think it's even been supplanted by itself for the re-release or something like that, but Avatar, the movie is two hours and 42 minutes. Avengers End Game came out in 2019. Shout out to my favorite movie. I love you. 3000. It is three hours in one minute. I was nervous going into Avengers end game. I was like, I might have to pee. What do I do if I have to pee? And I did. Titanic in 1992 was three hours and 14 minutes. Star Wars episode seven, two hours and 18 minutes, and an Avengers Infinity War, the prequel to end game 2018, two hours and 29 minutes long. Movies are still making money, they're still making them, and they're still releasing them. Also, shout out to Disney for owning four of the top five of those properties. All that to be said though, if it weren't lucrative and if it weren't making money, Disney and the other major motion picture companies in America wouldn't be making movies at that length.

Nick Clason (13:43):
So what does that mean for us? We got this eight second thing, but now we got movies that are going longer than three hours. How do we reconcile the difference between those two? My contention is this, if it's good, people will pay attention. It's that simple. And here's the reality. Most research, including Ted Talk and that organization say that a sweet spot for lectures is anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. That's optimal. However, if it's moving, if it's keeping attention, if it's changing things up, even just going back and watching Mr. Beast intro video, how if it's moving and adapting, you can keep the attention of your audience. But here's a gut check. If Avatar and Endgame and Star Wars and Titanic are keeping people's attention, but you're losing them after only eight seconds, then the gut check moment for you and I as youth pastors might be, we might be more boring than we think we are.

Nick Clason (14:46):
In fact, I've been recording videos on this YouTube channel for six months, eight months now, and that's been a gut check moment for me. When certain videos get less views, I'll go back, I'll look at the analytics and I'll go and re-listen to it myself. And you know what? I'll notice, man, I'm boring, right? I have to learn how to be more captivating. I have to learn how to be more interesting. I have to learn how to keep and retain my audience longer throughout the duration of my videos. Not only is that true for me as a communicator via YouTube via video to y'all, but it's also true for me as a youth pastor. But going back and looking, watching those videos, which by the way, if you are not prerecording your messages or recording them at all to go back and look and learn, you are missing out on the easiest way to become better as a communicator.

Nick Clason (15:31):
But there's another hack and there's another little silver bullet that's going to slide in here because we are going to be exploring three hybrid ideas in this digital frontier to enhance our messages in the room. Let's check it out. So what are these hybrid ideas? Like I said, it's not just physical. It's not just digital, but it's a melding of the two. So in my mind, you're teaching live in the room, but you're putting things on their cell phone or putting resources on their cell phone for them to use later because they're taking their cell phone with them for the other 165 hours beyond just the one hour that you've been in your program. And most of us as youth pastors, we're not good enough to contend with cell phones. So instead of contending with them, using them, leaning into them, we just forced them to lock them away or get rid of them.

Nick Clason (16:20):
But one of my favorite solutions from my favorite people over at Download Youth Ministry is sidekick. Check it out, sidekick TV link in the show notes. I get zero kickback from this, but I'm a power user and they just released or they're going to release and listen. I may be letting the cat out of the bag a little bit, but they're going to be releasing a polling feature. So you can put a QR code on the screen, students can scan it, and they can vote live time, and you can show it live from the stage. And better yet, you can now control sidekick from your phone or your iPad if you don't have a tech person running back in the back. And so you can do live interactive types of things to interact with your in-person and letting them use the digital means in front of them.

Nick Clason (17:08):
So you can ask like, Hey, what is the best Thanksgiving food? Is it stuffing mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, Turkey or ham? Let us know. Scan this QR code, and then you can get live results from your audience. You also, just like the learning pyramid showed, in addition to your lecture style, you need to be bringing visual aid with it. Use your screens, use your multimedia to your advantage. Use the things that are common to your students, like memes and tos. You can even pull out things like, Hey, show the most interesting photo from your last week in your camera roll. And one of my all time favorite ways to be hybrid is any sort of call to action, a camp, sign up, a discipleship, sign up. Even now, the sidekick voting thing use QR codes. They've had a resurgence since the pandemic, but people now can scan QR codes with just their camera app and their phone.

Nick Clason (18:02):
It will pull a link up and boom, you are off to the races. Use QR codes to your advantage. Use sidekick, use digital media, use your screens to interact and make things hybrid. The next idea that I have for you is you version events in our space, we call them digital notes. And so we link our YouVersion live events. If you didn't know, YouVersion is the Bible app made by Life church, but they have a events portion. And so what happens is if someone is in your church, it will pull geographically all the events that are live and they can get in there and there can be notes. Your main points scriptures you Additionally, my favorite reason for it is you can create call to action. So you can put your camp signup, you can put a Bible reading plan so they can be on the digital notes.

Nick Clason (19:01):
They can be taking notes in the space in your room as you're teaching, as you're preaching. And then at the end, you can be like, and hey, if you are learning right now and enjoying this message about prayer, but you want to grow even deeper into prayer, then I have a seven day prayer challenge plan linked in the you version, in the digital notes, whatever you want to call it. And kids can click it on their phone and write their sign up for a Bible reading plan. It's a way to help foster discipleship to lean into the hybrid, right? You taught something, but now by just having notes available to them on their phone, you can say, Hey, click accept, and start reading that plan. The third idea that I have for you is use YouTube and use social media. In fact, in the links down below, I have a couple of things, a less than $100 YouTube setup for you to start doing messages similar to this one right here where you're sitting direct to camera and posting your messages to YouTube.

Nick Clason (19:59):
If you have live streaming capabilities, then do that. But if you don't, as a youth pastor, I get it. I don't either sit down, prerecord your messages. In addition to that, you can use a service also linked in the description called Opus Pro to then take your long form and clip it into short form and give yourself a bunch of social media content for the week. And if you then need something to help fill in some of the other gaps, that's where my surefire resource, my ebook, my 40 done for you ideas comes in. And that message can live in perpetuity online as you help answer the specific faith questions of this next generation. It can be more than just for students who miss. It can be for parents to check it out. It can be for students who don't even go to your church.

Nick Clason (20:43):
It can be for students who go to your church to share messages with friends if they would never bring their friends to church, they can share a message on YouTube with their friends. And so those are my three ideas, sidekick in digital media, you versions, digital notes, and finally, utilize and use YouTube and social media to your advantage. The final piece of this playlist is we're going to be exploring and talking about how do we care for students in an ongoing type of way. We meet with them once a week, but then there's 167 hours. How can we, in a hybrid way care for the students pastorally in the ways in which God has entrusted to us? That video is linked right here on the screen. Make sure you check it out. We're making digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So as always, and don't forget, stay hybrid.

]]> 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

📅 "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
Preaching, Teaching and Youth Ministry
It’s part of what we do in the church.

You’ve also heard that this generation, according to crossrivertherapy.com has an attention span of just 8.25 seconds. Which is 4.25 seconds LESS than we experienced in the year 2000.

Famously, that’s less than a goldfish

But teaching and preaching the Bible, is not only an integral part of youth ministry, but learning the Bible is important to the discipleship and developmental process, not only in teenagers, but in anyone who claims to follow Jesus Christ as their savior.

So how do we take the Hybrid approach to teaching and preaching.
Hybrid is not just your physical gathering
But not ignoring it in favor of your digital experience, either.

It’s both.

In this episode we’ll explore the how to preach and teach to a TikTok Generation.
What we’re up against.

What we can learn from culture

And finally, 3 Hybrid Solutions you can implement THIS Wednesday night.

churchattendance #hiddentruth #unveiling #2023 #church #truth #revelation #faith #spirituality #religion #worship #community #christianity #belief #sunday #sacred #divine #belief #sermon #christian

========================================

🆓 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/072

//View all the Charts and Graphs via YouTube
https://youtu.be/iIgEtxPLGBg

//Mr. Beast on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA

//Alex Hormozi
https://www.youtube.com/@AlexHormozi

//Steven Furtick
https://www.youtube.com/@stevenfurtick

//Research on Attention Spans
https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/average-human-attention-span
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/advan.00109.2016

//My Youth Min by Ym360
https://myyouthmin.com/

//The Learning Triangle
https://www.educationcorner.com/the-learning-pyramid.html

//Solution #1
https://sidekick.tv/

//Solution #2
https://my.bible.com/events

//Solution #3
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-01:36 Preaching to the Generation with the Shortest Attention Span in History
01:36-03:33 Teaching, Preaching and Hybrid Ministry is vital to the next generation
03:33-11:15 Teaching to a TikTok Generation
11:15-15:46 What can youth pastors learn from culture?

15:46-21:39 3 Immediate Hybrid Solutions

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Preaching teaching and youth ministry, they go together. It's just part of what we do. But what do you do when you're trying to preach and teach to the generation with the shortest attention span of only 8.25 seconds? Famously, you've heard it's less now than a goldfish down 4.5 seconds from the year 2000. And is there a way for us to digitally enhance through hybrid means the way in which people learn and listen to our teaching and our preaching now in this generation because teaching and preaching is not only an integral part of youth ministry, but it's an integral part of the way in which we disciple our students and help them understand the claims, values and teachings of Jesus. So how do we take this hybrid approach, not just digital, not just in person, but melding of the two together to increase awareness and to help bring about a better retention of our teaching and our preaching to our students.

Nick Clason (01:08):
In this episode, we will answer how to preach and teach to a tick talk generation and what we as communicators are up against. Additionally, we'll explore what we can learn from the culture that's around us. And finally, I want to offer for you three hybrid solutions to help engage and increase teaching and preaching and awareness in your context that you can implement tomorrow. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everyone. Welcome back to another edition of the Hybrid Ministry Show. I, as always am your host Nick Clason. I'm a 13 year youth ministry veteran now currently located in the DFW Dallas Fort Worth area. Excited to be with you. I've been teaching and preaching my entire career, but I've also been engaging with the importance of hybrid ministry. I've been aware of that and aware of the digital revolution ever since I started in youth ministry, which is why we have this playlist right here linked at the top of the screen that you're a part of as we are exploring new digital frontiers.

Nick Clason (02:12):
The last video was all about games and how we can implement hybrid into our games and into the fun in our youth ministries. And this episode is about enhancing the messages. So I hope that you'll stick around to the very end of the video because in addition to that, I have a sure surefire resource linked in the description below. That's not only going to help you win on social media and bring about your messages and all those things to your students and help bring that to them the other hours of your week, but it'll also help you have fun with them like we talked about in the last video. And so I want to encourage you to I you to subscribe. Those things are free for you and they mean a lot to me, and I want you to do that because we do drop resources, like I just mentioned, 40 done for you, an entire month's worth of social media, but not just a bunch of graphics.

Nick Clason (03:04):
This is you actually getting in front of the camera, getting in front of a video, using yourself, your students, your leaders, whoever you want to help change the game on your social media platform. And so those types of things are coming at you every single week. We'll drop a new episode every single Thursday, so like subscribe, can't wait to see on the other side, but hey, we are going to be diving into teaching to a TikTok generation. Let's explore that together. So famously, this generation has an attention span of 8.25 seconds. It said that that is less than the household goldfish. So I don't know if any of you guys have gold fishes or teenagers in your house, but if you do, your teenager has a shorter attention span than a goldfish. What is going on nowadays though is the short form video revolution ushered into us by TikTok during the pandemic has changed the way in which we engage with content online.

Nick Clason (04:07):
It just has our attention spans are getting shorter. The need and relevance for a really, really crucial opening section of your video is what is going to determine if someone sticks around in your video or if they're going to leave. In fact, I want to share with you three examples from three very different classes and creators and just like different pockets of YouTube, but all three very good, three people who know what they're doing on social media. And I want to point out to you, we're going to watch 'em right here live on screen. I want to react to how well their hook and how well their intro does. So the first one up is a Mr. Beast video. So let's check this out together.

Nick Clason (04:54):
Hundred million mankind, okay? He's just taught, he's just B roll. He's got Justin Timberlake on there. Whoa, got those waves with his editing's great all the way to this barely functioning house, more of a shed. Well, why does this house cost a dollar? Yeah, we get another storm. It's probably going to, he's already into the content now of his video. He's only 38 seconds in. It feels like the intro. It just seamlessly moves straight into the content. Mr. Beast is probably the best at the opening ones. This one is more of a entrepreneur guy, guru trying to help you win online. So let's check out his video. This is my most brutally honest advice to my, you beat 99% of people zoomed out without media advice to my younger self and

Nick Clason (05:57):
How I, you're going to lose sleep. You'll doubt whether it'll work. You'll stress. He's catering to the difficulty of what he does and what the people that follow him need to do. He's got B roll, he's got light transitions, all that type of stuff. Great. Now this one right here, this is Churchill from Elevation Steven S check this one out sitting on that you're not using today. That's not the beginning of his sermon, but it's the beginning of this video. Arrows, you should have taken everything God gave you kept striking until you saw it to. They edited it so that it started there at what they considered to be the most interesting part, artillery to be defeated. It was his lack of drive. The reason I want to show all of you that is that the first 30 seconds or less of every single one of those videos, all very different, but all very good.

Nick Clason (06:56):
Everyone who edited that video knew exactly what they were doing. So I actually have a video that I just released on a platform called My Youth Men, which is a membership tier of YM 360. You can check it out, link in the description for a seven day free trial. But the video is about discipling students and teenagers through the usage pitfalls and platforms with cell phones as opposed to a way, and I show you those videos because I want to say that's what we as communicators are up against. Your students are watching those for entertainment, for fun, even maybe for inspiration with a Steven Furtick. And then you and I get up as their youth pastor and we start teaching at them in all of our old seminary taught ways. I think as I said in my video, that there are new ways of doing it.

Nick Clason (07:51):
In fact, this is a educator's tool. It's going to be up here on the screen. If you're listening to the podcast, make sure that you hit the link in the show notes so you can see everything on YouTube with all of our video overlays and all of our things flying in. But this is called the knowledge pyramid, and there are two sections to it. There's the passive teaching methods and then there's the participatory teaching methods. And most of us in church are using the passive teaching methods and the percentages are broken down by the knowledge retention rate. So how well this style of teaching helps people retain that type of teaching. And so the lowest at 5% is lecture based style. You might think 8.25 seconds is low, but I'm just going to admit to you, I am bored after a lecture after only 8.25 seconds.

Nick Clason (08:42):
You have to be really killing it, and I have to be really interested in that form of content. In the lecture style pyramid, 10% of the retention rate is reading, 20% is audio visual. So that would be something like including slides and or video in your teaching. And then 30% is demonstration. That's of the passive teaching style methods. So all of those things are all things that you've been taught probably in seminary of how to teach someone and how to maintain relevance as you teach someone. But then it shifts and at 50% a discussion group, a participatory teaching method is where that learning retention rate jumps up to 50%. If someone practices what they've learned by doing it, it jumps to 75% and then if they teach others, it jumps to 90%. So in most cases, us as youth pastors, we push our students through passive teaching methods, and then finally we get them into a discussion group As a participatory teaching method, discussion group is the lowest of the participatory section of retention, and that is why you and I as we are teaching, we need to differ at what we're doing. Look at what Mr. Beast did, how he looked at all the different houses, right? And he kept it moving. He was only on each house for just a few seconds. He was moving, he was garnering interest, he was keeping you hooked. Even look at fur, he's on the floor with arrows in hand doing his thing. Yeah, it was lecture style, but there's visuals to it. And in our youth ministries, more often than not, we're going to push people in to small groups, which is a relevant and meaningful participatory teaching method.

Nick Clason (10:32):
And so as we know and look at the different teaching pyramid styles, here is my question, what do we do? How do we infuse and use hybrid to help increase the retention rates of the learnings? Because you know that the message that you're teaching matters. It's a truth of God. It's a truth from God's word, and it's been put on your heart by him, and you're trying to help share that message with the students in which God has entrusted to you in your student ministry. So what do you do about it? I think that there are a couple of clues that we can learn from culture, even from some of those YouTube videos that we watch. And so that's what we're going to check out in the next section. Neil Bradbury has a quote. The link to that article is in the show notes. He says, the eight second myth, as he classifies it for attention spans is actually more related to human behavior on websites and on social media and how many seconds the average person spends on a website before clicking away or navigating off of it.

Nick Clason (11:39):
So we have famously dubbed Generation Z and Gen Alpha subsequently as the generation with the tension span lower than a goldfish. And that's true as it relates to social media and Mr. Beast and Alex Har Zi, and even Steven Fer and Elevation, they're trying to capture people's attention on social media. So they do have to make that happen within eight seconds. And we are up against that, I would say, as communicators because that's how students are spending a majority of their time. Gen Z's using their cell phone more than any other screen-based device combined. However, I want to point something out that is a website statistic. And so while that is true of websites, the attention span is a little bit longer because eight seconds is incredibly short. And check this out. Over the last however many years, these are the top five grossing box office movies of all time.

Nick Clason (12:35):
So in 2009, avatar came out, and I think it's even been supplanted by itself for the re-release or something like that, but Avatar, the movie is two hours and 42 minutes. Avengers End Game came out in 2019. Shout out to my favorite movie. I love you. 3000. It is three hours in one minute. I was nervous going into Avengers end game. I was like, I might have to pee. What do I do if I have to pee? And I did. Titanic in 1992 was three hours and 14 minutes. Star Wars episode seven, two hours and 18 minutes, and an Avengers Infinity War, the prequel to end game 2018, two hours and 29 minutes long. Movies are still making money, they're still making them, and they're still releasing them. Also, shout out to Disney for owning four of the top five of those properties. All that to be said though, if it weren't lucrative and if it weren't making money, Disney and the other major motion picture companies in America wouldn't be making movies at that length.

Nick Clason (13:43):
So what does that mean for us? We got this eight second thing, but now we got movies that are going longer than three hours. How do we reconcile the difference between those two? My contention is this, if it's good, people will pay attention. It's that simple. And here's the reality. Most research, including Ted Talk and that organization say that a sweet spot for lectures is anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. That's optimal. However, if it's moving, if it's keeping attention, if it's changing things up, even just going back and watching Mr. Beast intro video, how if it's moving and adapting, you can keep the attention of your audience. But here's a gut check. If Avatar and Endgame and Star Wars and Titanic are keeping people's attention, but you're losing them after only eight seconds, then the gut check moment for you and I as youth pastors might be, we might be more boring than we think we are.

Nick Clason (14:46):
In fact, I've been recording videos on this YouTube channel for six months, eight months now, and that's been a gut check moment for me. When certain videos get less views, I'll go back, I'll look at the analytics and I'll go and re-listen to it myself. And you know what? I'll notice, man, I'm boring, right? I have to learn how to be more captivating. I have to learn how to be more interesting. I have to learn how to keep and retain my audience longer throughout the duration of my videos. Not only is that true for me as a communicator via YouTube via video to y'all, but it's also true for me as a youth pastor. But going back and looking, watching those videos, which by the way, if you are not prerecording your messages or recording them at all to go back and look and learn, you are missing out on the easiest way to become better as a communicator.

Nick Clason (15:31):
But there's another hack and there's another little silver bullet that's going to slide in here because we are going to be exploring three hybrid ideas in this digital frontier to enhance our messages in the room. Let's check it out. So what are these hybrid ideas? Like I said, it's not just physical. It's not just digital, but it's a melding of the two. So in my mind, you're teaching live in the room, but you're putting things on their cell phone or putting resources on their cell phone for them to use later because they're taking their cell phone with them for the other 165 hours beyond just the one hour that you've been in your program. And most of us as youth pastors, we're not good enough to contend with cell phones. So instead of contending with them, using them, leaning into them, we just forced them to lock them away or get rid of them.

Nick Clason (16:20):
But one of my favorite solutions from my favorite people over at Download Youth Ministry is sidekick. Check it out, sidekick TV link in the show notes. I get zero kickback from this, but I'm a power user and they just released or they're going to release and listen. I may be letting the cat out of the bag a little bit, but they're going to be releasing a polling feature. So you can put a QR code on the screen, students can scan it, and they can vote live time, and you can show it live from the stage. And better yet, you can now control sidekick from your phone or your iPad if you don't have a tech person running back in the back. And so you can do live interactive types of things to interact with your in-person and letting them use the digital means in front of them.

Nick Clason (17:08):
So you can ask like, Hey, what is the best Thanksgiving food? Is it stuffing mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, Turkey or ham? Let us know. Scan this QR code, and then you can get live results from your audience. You also, just like the learning pyramid showed, in addition to your lecture style, you need to be bringing visual aid with it. Use your screens, use your multimedia to your advantage. Use the things that are common to your students, like memes and tos. You can even pull out things like, Hey, show the most interesting photo from your last week in your camera roll. And one of my all time favorite ways to be hybrid is any sort of call to action, a camp, sign up, a discipleship, sign up. Even now, the sidekick voting thing use QR codes. They've had a resurgence since the pandemic, but people now can scan QR codes with just their camera app and their phone.

Nick Clason (18:02):
It will pull a link up and boom, you are off to the races. Use QR codes to your advantage. Use sidekick, use digital media, use your screens to interact and make things hybrid. The next idea that I have for you is you version events in our space, we call them digital notes. And so we link our YouVersion live events. If you didn't know, YouVersion is the Bible app made by Life church, but they have a events portion. And so what happens is if someone is in your church, it will pull geographically all the events that are live and they can get in there and there can be notes. Your main points scriptures you Additionally, my favorite reason for it is you can create call to action. So you can put your camp signup, you can put a Bible reading plan so they can be on the digital notes.

Nick Clason (19:01):
They can be taking notes in the space in your room as you're teaching, as you're preaching. And then at the end, you can be like, and hey, if you are learning right now and enjoying this message about prayer, but you want to grow even deeper into prayer, then I have a seven day prayer challenge plan linked in the you version, in the digital notes, whatever you want to call it. And kids can click it on their phone and write their sign up for a Bible reading plan. It's a way to help foster discipleship to lean into the hybrid, right? You taught something, but now by just having notes available to them on their phone, you can say, Hey, click accept, and start reading that plan. The third idea that I have for you is use YouTube and use social media. In fact, in the links down below, I have a couple of things, a less than $100 YouTube setup for you to start doing messages similar to this one right here where you're sitting direct to camera and posting your messages to YouTube.

Nick Clason (19:59):
If you have live streaming capabilities, then do that. But if you don't, as a youth pastor, I get it. I don't either sit down, prerecord your messages. In addition to that, you can use a service also linked in the description called Opus Pro to then take your long form and clip it into short form and give yourself a bunch of social media content for the week. And if you then need something to help fill in some of the other gaps, that's where my surefire resource, my ebook, my 40 done for you ideas comes in. And that message can live in perpetuity online as you help answer the specific faith questions of this next generation. It can be more than just for students who miss. It can be for parents to check it out. It can be for students who don't even go to your church.

Nick Clason (20:43):
It can be for students who go to your church to share messages with friends if they would never bring their friends to church, they can share a message on YouTube with their friends. And so those are my three ideas, sidekick in digital media, you versions, digital notes, and finally, utilize and use YouTube and social media to your advantage. The final piece of this playlist is we're going to be exploring and talking about how do we care for students in an ongoing type of way. We meet with them once a week, but then there's 167 hours. How can we, in a hybrid way care for the students pastorally in the ways in which God has entrusted to us? That video is linked right here on the screen. Make sure you check it out. We're making digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So as always, and don't forget, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 071: 🧑‍🚀 New Frontiers in Digital Discipleship for the Church: Youth Ministry Games 🎮 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/071 a0215907-29bd-46db-838a-50f2ccc0ebee Thu, 16 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 071 🧑‍🚀 New Frontiers in Digital Discipleship for the Church: Youth Ministry Games 🎮 full Nick Clason 🎮 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, readjust the way we do games to lean more into the digital space we find ourselves in? 17:35 no <h3>🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥</h3> <p>📅 <strong>"1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"</strong><br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>☝️<strong>ONE-CLICK SOLUTION FOR REELS &amp; SHORTS</strong><br> <em>OPUS FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS</em><br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>🧑‍🚀 <strong>EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS PLAYLIST</strong><br> <em>Exploring The New Way to Approach Ministry, Full Playlist</em><br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ</a></p> <p><strong>========================================</strong></p> <p><strong>DESCRIPTION</strong><br> 👋 Welcome to our YouTube channel &amp; podcast! </p> <p>🧑‍🚀 In this playlist, we are exploring the 3 new digital frontiers for churches and youth ministry pastors and leaders.</p> <p>🎮 And in this video we're exploring the world of Youth Ministry Games and Fun!<br> What is different?<br> Where did games even come from in the first place?<br> And how should we adjust as we move forward into this new digital frontier?</p> <p>In the subsequent videos we'll talk about <br> 💬 Message Enhancement<br> 🐑 Shepherding</p> <p>So be sure to subscribe, so you don't miss a thing!</p> churchattendance #hiddentruth #unveiling #2023 #church #truth #revelation #faith #spirituality #religion #worship #community #christianity #belief #sunday #sacred #divine #belief #sermon #christian <p><strong>========================================</strong></p> <p><strong>🆓 FREEBIES 🆓</strong><br> 📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook</a></p> <p>📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"<br> <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis</a></p> <p><strong>========================================</strong><br> 🛠️<strong>TOOLS</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em><br> //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p>AUTO POD<br> <a href="https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv</a></p> <p>TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING<br> <a href="https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</a></p> <p>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS</p> <h2><a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></h2> <p>👉 <strong>STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK</strong><br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a></p> <h2>Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a> </h2> <p>📓<strong>SHOWNOTES</strong><br> //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS<br> <a href="http://www.hybridministry.xyz/071" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.hybridministry.xyz/071</a></p> <p>//View all the Charts and Graphs via YouTube<br> <a href="https://youtu.be/OiBjI9dMxu8" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtu.be/OiBjI9dMxu8</a></p> <p>//Rank 'Em<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em---fall-edition/fall-8962.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em---fall-edition/fall-8962.html</a></p> <p>//Visual Variance Voyage<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/visual-variance-voyage%3A-fall-edition/holiday-or-seasonal/fall-9043.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/visual-variance-voyage%3A-fall-edition/holiday-or-seasonal/fall-9043.html</a></p> <p>//Adobe Photoshop &amp; Premiere Crash Course<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKVpQBDSQV6Q9hFeXCptHSu" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKVpQBDSQV6Q9hFeXCptHSu</a></p> <p>//Budget Friendly Design Options<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology Vol 1<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology/social-media/instagram-6801.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology/social-media/instagram-6801.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology Camp Edition<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---camp-edition/games/sequels-8122.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---camp-edition/games/sequels-8122.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology: Summer Edition<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---summer-edition/games/bundles-and-sequels-8088.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---summer-edition/games/bundles-and-sequels-8088.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology: Easter Edition<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology-easter-edition/games/pop-culture-6957.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology-easter-edition/games/pop-culture-6957.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology: Vol 2<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---vol-2/games/sequels-8640.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---vol-2/games/sequels-8640.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology: Halloween Edition<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---halloween-edition/fall/halloween-8320.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---halloween-edition/fall/halloween-8320.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology: March Madness<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---madness-edition/spring/march-madness-8594.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---madness-edition/spring/march-madness-8594.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology: 4th of July<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---patriotic-edition/summer/4th-of-july-8780.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---patriotic-edition/summer/4th-of-july-8780.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology: St. Patrick's Day<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology-shamrock-edition/games-6929.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology-shamrock-edition/games-6929.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology: Christmas Edition<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology%3A-christmas-edition/christmas-games-8426.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology%3A-christmas-edition/christmas-games-8426.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology: Superhero Edition<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---superhero-edition/games/pop-culture-8827.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---superhero-edition/games/pop-culture-8827.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology: SuperBowl<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---big-game-edition/sports/football-8520.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---big-game-edition/sports/football-8520.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology: Bible Story Edition<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---bible-story-edition/games/bible-based-8687.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---bible-story-edition/games/bible-based-8687.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology: Back 2 School<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---back-2-school-edition/fall/back-to-school-8900.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---back-2-school-edition/fall/back-to-school-8900.html</a></p> <p>//Emoji Phraseology: Valentine's Day<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology%3A-love-edition---game-%26-social-media/games/humor-6855.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology%3A-love-edition---game-%26-social-media/games/humor-6855.html</a></p> <hr> <p>🕰️<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00-02:08 Exploring New Digital Frontiers in Youth Ministry<br> 02:08-04:10 What is Hybrid Ministry?<br> 04:10-08:20 Why do we play games in Youth Ministry?</p> <h2>08:20-17:35 3 Hybrid Game Ideas you can use this week!</h2> <p>✍️<strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com<br> rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</p> <p>Nick Clason (00:00):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (01:02):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (01:58):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (03:03):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (03:49):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (04:43):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (05:34):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (06:28):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (07:17):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (08:17):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (09:01):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (09:45):<br> 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 </p> <p>Nick Clason (10:24):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (11:00):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (11:39):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (12:20):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (13:04):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (13:45):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (14:28):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (15:10):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (16:09):<br> 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. </p> <p>Nick Clason (16:59):<br> 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. </p> Hybrid Ministry, Youth Ministry, Online Church,Youth Group Games, Youth Group Games for Large Groups indoor, Youth Group games for large groups, Youth Group Games indoor, Youth Ministry Games, Youth Ministry Games for Large Groups, Youth Group Games for Church, Youth Group Games for Church indoor, Youth Ministry Games Indoor, Student Ministry Games, Student Ministry Games indoor, Youth Group, Student Ministry, Youth Pastor, Church Games for Youth, digital discipleship 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

📅 "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!

churchattendance #hiddentruth #unveiling #2023 #church #truth #revelation #faith #spirituality #religion #worship #community #christianity #belief #sunday #sacred #divine #belief #sermon #christian

========================================

🆓 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.

]]> 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

📅 "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!

churchattendance #hiddentruth #unveiling #2023 #church #truth #revelation #faith #spirituality #religion #worship #community #christianity #belief #sunday #sacred #divine #belief #sermon #christian

========================================

🆓 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.

]]> Episode 069: 🍩 Ultimate Youth Group Guide: Crush Games, Outreach & Social all in one! 🔥 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/069 a7f007f0-6421-4f89-95f9-be74ea1e0411 Thu, 02 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 069 🍩 Ultimate Youth Group Guide: Crush Games, Outreach & Social all in one! 🔥 full Nick Clason 👋 Welcome to the Ultimate Youth Group Guide! In this exciting video, we'll dive into the power of Crush Games, Outreach initiatives, and Social Events to empower and inspire the youth.🔥 28:21 no 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCE TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥 📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html ☝️ONE-CLICK SOLUTION FOR REELS &amp; SHORTS OPUS FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 ======================================== DESCRIPTION 👋 Welcome to the Ultimate Youth Group Guide! In this exciting video, we'll dive into the power of Crush Games, Outreach initiatives, and Social Events to empower and inspire the youth.🔥 🍩 Crush Games: Engage your youth group with thrilling Games that will ignite their enthusiasm and foster healthy competition. From exhilarating challenges to team-building activities, our guide provides all the essential tips and game ideas to keep the energy high and the fun rolling. 🌍 Outreach Initiatives: Make a lasting impact on your community through meaningful outreach initiatives. Discover effective strategies to help your youth group connect with and support those in need. By stepping outside their comfort zones, the youth will learn valuable lessons about compassion, empathy, and making a difference in the lives of others. 👥 Social Media Events: Creating a sense of belonging and friendship within your youth group via social media! This will help Hybridize your Ministry from your in person gathering to your student ministry social media ======================================== 🆓 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 &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 👉 STAY CONNECTED YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz 📓SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/069 🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html //Full YouTube Video https://youtu.be/5ryhkIRyDb4 //STUDENT MINISTRY BRACKET OF EPIC THINGS https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-student-ministry-bracket-of-epic-things/games-3974.html //GAMEDAY FOOD BRACKET https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-big-game-food-bracket/winter/the-big-game-8544.html //DONUT SHOWDOWN GAME https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-donut-showdown/games-4142.html //FULL YOUTUBE STRATEGY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00-01:45 The Best Hybrid Youth Ministry Event Out There! 01:45-09:30 The History of This Hybrid Ministry Event 09:30-17:42 Pre-Event Planning and Setup 17:42-28:21 The Debrief of the Event from Start to Finish ✍️TRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa Nick Clason (00:00): Youth ministry games, social media outreach events, ah, there's just so much to do and if you're anything like me, you have layer upon layer upon layer of responsibility. You need to come up with an amazing and exciting game. You need to knock social media out of the park and you need an outreach event that is going to cater to your students friends and outsiders who are far from God and from the church. How do you prioritize? And then if you do do all those things, how do you not just give your family and your people that you love the scraps and the left over pieces of your energy? What if I told you that I had the ultimate event guide, one that's going to crush it with games, an amazing outreach experience, and it's going to lean into social media for your student ministry, all of that encapsulated in one event. Nick Clason (00:55): See, we actually just had an event that accomplished all those things, one with an incredible amount of games and an amazing in-room experience, one that gave students an amazing opportunity to invite their friends and it crushed on social media. Better yet, we had 23% of our attenders be first time or new students who joined us. And finally, not only do we increase engagement, but we also added new followers to our social media. It is honestly one of the best versions in my opinion, of a hybrid style event. And when I say hybrid event, it's more dynamic and it's more robust than just another Zoom Bible study. I know it sounds too good to be true, right? Well, let me show you. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show in the ultimate Event guide. I came up with this idea probably in my second or third year of doing youth ministry, and now I am a 13 year youth ministry veteran. Nick Clason (01:58): So this idea dawned on me years and years and years and years ago, and one of the things that has honestly just been super clear to me all the way back to the beginning times of my time in student ministry is the fact that hybrid matters. And when I mean hybrid, I don't mean only focusing on your in-person. I don't mean only focusing on your digital. I mean taking those two things and creating a space for there to be opportunity to reach and connect with your people beyond the hour of programming that you have for your in-person service, which is actually the reason why I just dropped this video going to be up here on the screen. You can feel free to click that where we explore and talk about the future of church ministry, especially through the eyes and through the lens of digital and hybrid. Nick Clason (02:41): If you're interested, hop over into that. But about 10 years ago is when I had this idea for what I call a bracket, and I'm a huge March Madness fan, college basketball. I love the selection committees. And if you're not a sports fan, essentially what they do is they create rankings or seedings, so to speak. And so there are four regions and each region has a one seed. Each region has a two seed, each region has a three seed and so on down all the way down to 16, and then the one seed plays the 16 seed. Usually a pretty easy matchup only in the history of the NCAA tournament has one 16 seed upset, a one seed. The 15 plays the two, the 14 plays the three and so on and so forth. And they're in various spots. So the one 16 are up here and the two and the 15 are down here in the bracket so that eventually they wait until the very last chance for the one and the two to eventually play. Nick Clason (03:34): Then once all the teams get out of those brackets, that creates your final four one winner from each region they play in Final four matchup and then the winners of each side of that end up meeting in the middle in the championship. And so I was like, this would be fun to lean in to March Madness. And so I just created a bracket out of my head. I was like, let's do little Debbie hostess cakes, and then I put one of my student ministry leaders, shout out to Aaron Koontz back in Beaver Creek, Ohio, and I did one of our favorite events, dare to Share. I put Dare to Share in there, and so students would vote on a thing versus another thing, and it was so totally random, but I offered it just as an online thing. This is before I had an Instagram. Nick Clason (04:17): This is before Instagram even had the poll feature, but I kept doing this. The one time I submitted an option called a Bracket of Awesome Things to Download Youth Ministry. This was probably like eight, 10 years ago at this point. My number one seed was Chip and Johanna Gaines and just leaning into the hype that they had with the Fixer Upper and H G T V movement back then. But I just kept honing in and creating this. And I remember one time I made a Christmas movie bracket. I had become in charge at my last church of social media and I just threw it together. I was running out of ideas of things to post. I was in charge of something like two or three posts per day, multiple days per week. And I was like, let's do a bracket. And I launched it and I was on a team at that time of six or seven other youth pastors, staff members, and the team went nuts. Nick Clason (05:12): I made Elf the number one seed and then I made white Christmas the 16th seed, and I had some diehard white Christmas fans dropping the comment below what your favorite Christmas movie is, and if it's white Christmas, I'm sorry, you're wrong. It's terrible. But that being said, they were livid and they were mad at how I sourced it and how I came up with the seeding, which by the way, side note just was in my head and they wanted a redo. And so we launched this event called something about a serial bracket. I can't remember what we can't remember the exact name of what we called it, but we had back at that last church, we had a full YouTube show. So we set up SportsCenter style desks and anchors. We all wore jerseys and we did analysis and we kicked it over to sideline reporters and we announced the seatings. Nick Clason (06:03): We announced the matchups, and then while when that show launched live on YouTube, people could hop over to our Instagram and they could vote. And what happened was the senior leadership must not have had anything to announce that week, and so they announced our show that week. And so we were like, man, we need to turn this into something. At that time, it was Christmas break, we weren't meeting, so it was just going to live as a thing online on our YouTube channel, but because it got announced, we're like, we need to capitalize on this just a little bit more. And so we offered, and this is Nick Clason (06:36): In the height of Covid, so we're not doing a lot of in-person connection with other people. If we were, it had to be masked. I mean it was awful, but it was January just after Christmas 2021 and we're like, let's do a drive-in. Kids can come watch it on their phones. Or you know what? Actually maybe we bought big old screens that they could watch, and then we did a FM tuner thing. They could listen to it in their car radio. So I don't know, we probably had 10 to 20 cars show up, not a ton. And we bought so much serial, we went to Sam's and we looted that place and then it was like negative 10 degrees. And so me and my other leaders, we have giant coats on, we're walking car to car, passing out cereal, passing out milk. But that was the inception. Nick Clason (07:28): That was one of the inception points of this idea of a bracket. And what it does in my mind is it creates some sort of event around an in-person topic cereal. The one that I'm going to explain to you today is donuts and I like to kind of hone in. Yeah, that's what I've done over the years. I've honed in on a specific topic. We've also done this with drinks like World's greatest drink, world's greatest donut cereal madness. This coming march, we're planning on doing a potato one called Starch Madness. And so it creates that event, but the reason I like it is that it marries your social media because all the voting happens online Nick Clason (08:04): With an in-person event. It is the ultimate style hybrid event in my opinion. And I know that I've had people who are like, when you mean hybrid, what are you talking about? And they just think we're just talking about Zoom groups and it's more than that. And so we hosted this event at our church. Like I said in the intro, we had 23% newcomers, we had multiple new people added to following us on social media, and it's creating some sort of hype and some sort of buzz around our student ministry. There are so many benefits and values to it. And so what I want to do is honestly just walk you through the pre-planning, the actual event. I'm going to share with you the planning center document of it, and then give you just kind of a recap about why it's valuable, why we're going to keep doing it, and how you can take something like that and adapt it into your student and social ministry. Nick Clason (08:52): If so far you've found this episode helpful, though alike would cost you nothing and would really mean the world to us even more. A subscribe is really a next level opportunity to just engage back with us. Either one of those two things like subscribe would mean the world to us and we would love to connect with you further and deeper because more than just donuts, more than just brackets, we are talking about this world of not just physical, not just digital, but hybrid ministry. So let's move on and let's hop in to the setup and the event planning, the pre-event side of this event that I'm talking about, the world's greatest donut. So we know, we knew that we wanted to do this voting style event around donuts that would last around a month. The way I set it up is I will do round one. Nick Clason (09:42): We have a Wednesday night and then a Sunday morning in our environment, and so the voting is going to be live on a Wednesday. They'll vote on the topics and the rounds, and so round one we do all the voting. So that's where Instagram and the stories, that's where the most decisions need to be made. So because of that in round one, then we will announce the winners on Sunday, and then we will resume voting the following Wednesday for the Elite eight. We'll announce the following Sunday of the winners of that, and then we'll move to the final floor when there's the most activity, when there's all the contestants are still alive, no one's been eliminated yet. That's round one. And that to me is the most exciting time for the actual bracket. So because the actual bracket is exciting at that time, that's when we decided to lean into an event. Nick Clason (10:31): So we knew we had this bracket. In fact, I created this resource. It's a link in the description on Download youth ministry on the world's greatest donut bracket. It's on there right now. Feel free to go grab it. It's got all of the digital elements and it's got a few games in there, but not all of what I'm about to share with you. So make sure that you hang around to the rest of this video. However, we knew we wanted to do an event centered or a month centered around voting, and then we wanted the first night, the kickoff night to be a big deal. And so the question kind of always is do you focus on the kickoff of the bracket or do you focus more on the championship round of the bracket? I've found the beginning to be more exciting. Like I said, we did a cereal bracket most recently here at this church, and we have in our space, we have eight different garage door bays that lined the side left and right of our meeting space. Nick Clason (11:26): That's actually where our small groups meet on Sunday morning. Those doors are up, they go in there and then they close down, creates little rooms for all of them. It's really cool design. Sometimes it also makes 'em feel like caged animals, but nonetheless, we did an event back in March where we voted on serial and we had the one in 16 matchup in one bay. We had the three and 14 matchup in another bay. We had the eight and nine matchup in another bay. And so all the bay doors came up. There were tables in there with basketball themed tablecloths on and then cereal boxes with a number pasted on it, one versus 16, and then all the bowls of cereal there. And so as we're wrapping up our programming, we had adult leaders sitting in there pouring milk into each of the bowls so that students could grab that and then they could go eat and just literally had one kid eat 16 or 25 bowls of cereal that night, tried every single one of the things in the matchup. Nick Clason (12:19): So that was a super fun way to just kind of lean into the kickoff portion. And so we had that same question. Now we have donuts and what are we going to do? And so in our space where we have tables, and so we ended up deciding to buy a little half fishbowl things. All the supplies by the way, are going to be linked in the comments below, in the description below. Make sure you check that out. But we had little fishbowl things, half fishbowl things sort of decorative. It's not like a fishbowl where the tops right there, but it's like off to the side a little bit. And we filled each table with donut holes. We ordered several dozen donut holes, and that's what we did. We went donut holes instead of actual donuts. It's cheaper. It's also quicker. You can pop 'em into your mouth as opposed to committing to an entire donut. Nick Clason (13:04): And so we have 16 round tables, and so every table had a tablecloth and every table had a vase full of donuts. That was our decision to supply the donuts without breaking the bank on the budget. Don't get me wrong, it was still expensive, but it's less expensive than a dozen donuts per table or something like that. So we had donuts on every table, and then one of my favorite elements or pieces of the event is we bought a giant vase and then we filled it with donuts. We counted 233 donuts that we filled into this vase. The funny part was that we put the donuts in and then the weight of the donuts actually started to smash 'em down, and so it was full, and then the weight of the donuts started smashing 'em down. So there was a gap. So we actually had to go back and add more donuts at the end. Nick Clason (13:48): So I don't even want to know what the bottom donuts looked like. They probably were a little mini pancakes, but we let students vote simply, how many donuts do you think are in here? We had a Google form for that. They shot it with a QR code on their phone. We also had an iPad set up where they could just type in a Google form. All we got was their name and their number, but if you have a marketing brain or a marketing department, you can use that to capture an email and start to create a little list and start to market to those people as well. That's another kind of next level tip if you want to lean into something like that. But then it also made it easy to just have it all dumped into a Google sheet and I could command F find the closest number. Nick Clason (14:32): And so one person, we had 2 33 in the thing and one girl guessed 2 32, so she won it, and this little sixth grade girl carried out this giant vase of donuts and it was hers. She got to take it with her, she got to keep it. She got to bring it in her car with her. Then the actual bracket side of things, we printed, because we are doing this so much, we printed a generic bracket on a giant vinyl banner. When you walk into our space, we have a big window with an indoor half kind of sports court right there on the other side of it. And so for the cereal bracket, I took gaff tape and I taped out a bracket and then I pasted or taped the cereal to the window. But this time around we're like, what if we just print a vinyl banner and then we can swap out whatever we're voting on at that time? Nick Clason (15:24): So we made the investment on the front side knowing that we're going to do this. We love these style of hybrid events in our ministry, so we bought the big banner. It fit perfectly in our space. I can drop the artwork for that in the description, but it's going to vary a little bit for my ministry. Your ministry. It's also got our logo on it, but you can find any bracket online, any generic non-branded bracket online, add it, print it, make it into a banner if that's something that you want to do. What it does for us is when you walk in, it immediately draws your attention. It's not there most of the year. And so when it's there, you're like, oh, it's different. And then people know and notice that there's a bracket going on, there's a voting happening. And the other crazy thing is that people get really into it on their opinions. Nick Clason (16:17): What things are seeded? How such and such donut beat that donut. For example, the beignet took down, what did it take down? The chocolate cream filled donut lost to a beignet. I think beignets are good, but are they the best? I don't think so. And I think they're super kind of niche and they're really just, honestly, they're like funnel cake. And so anyway, that giant bracket in our actual space, we also allow, because we have a lot of students, a lot of kids, young kids that don't have social media yet, we allow them to vote on a paper bracket as an additional means to let their voice be heard. We got donut shirts for all of the staff and we all wore them. And so that was kind of like the event setup space. In addition to that, we had some donut balloons blown up and kind of scattered throughout the lobby. Nick Clason (17:13): So they walked in. On the left was the big V to vote, regular check-in, back behind check-in was the banner with the voting and the brackets printed out and people could let their voice be heard that way. So now let's dive into the rest of the event. I'm going to put the planning center event sheet right here. We're going to walk through it and I'm just going to explain to you what we did, why we did it, and just my thoughts on it, and feel free to take and adapt any of it to your ministry. So all the setups done, students are walking in. We had a countdown, which if you buy my product on Download Youth ministry, it will come with a specific donut themed and then a specific donut themed five minute countdown that I created with just random facts and stuff like that. Nick Clason (18:00): So that was what was playing on our TV and our screens all throughout our space. And when the time hit zero, myself and my boss, Darren, we were both on stage and we were hyping up the crowd, welcoming people, letting them know that voting had been live all day on Instagram. We were letting them know who was winning what matchup students could with the screen behind us. We then had a screen that said, voting is live now with a QR code. They could shoot that and take it to Instagram. I think we gained three to six or something like that. New followers on our Instagram, not a ton, but still some students who were. So we had 23% new students. So we're introducing our students to our Instagram, and if any of them are into this idea now they're following us. So now we have them on our Instagram opportunity to reach out to them, but we just did some like, Hey, here's what's going on. Nick Clason (18:52): Here's the bracket, explaining what a bracket is. It's going to be lasting for a month, but it's all about you and your voice and letting your voice be heard and voting is live on Instagram every single Wednesday. We also kind of teased our next series, which we're talking about big issues, elephants in the room that we often don't want to address. So we use that moment to sort of tease the topic. We didn't spend a lot of time on that. And also we had a message drop, if you've heard me before, link in the description of my full YouTube strategy, but we've our messages. And so we had a message live on YouTube, but we didn't do live teaching that night. You can do that. It's your call. It's philosophical decision for an event like this. We like to kind of pull the teaching and let this be a truly invite night, a truly bring your friends style event style night. Nick Clason (19:41): And then we did a bunch of door prizes and giveaways. Now, here's how I do this. I use Sidekick through Download Youth Ministry. I created a little slide, I'll drop the slide into the link down below that I've referenced before and it says World's Greatest Donut, and that says You're about to win something, dude with Little Arrow pointed up and then all their names filter through. Here's how we got the names. Every single student who checked in, we created a People search, a save search in C C B Church Community Builder. That's any student who's not a leader that has checked in within the last day. And so whenever I go into that, especially if an event has started it's live, I click refresh and it populates every single student who has checked in to our student ministry within the last 24 hours. And so since we didn't have an event on Tuesday, I know that anyone who's checked in is now here on Wednesday night. Nick Clason (20:32): So that list is not just going to be a random full mailing list of all of our students going to be the actual live dynamic list of the students in our event space. Figure that out in your church database system, but find some way to capture all the info of the students that are actually in your space. Now, downloaded that into a C S V, copied it, pasted it into Sidekick, and then boom, we had all the names they're filtering through and we're giving away some door prizes. So what we gave away was a donut blanket that's like the shape of a circle. We gave away a little mini donut maker. We gave away donut key chain. We gave away little rubber donuts. I almost think they were like dog toys. I think we bought them for something else and we forgot. And so we just ended up giving them away. Nick Clason (21:14): And what else we give away? I can't remember. But we gave away six different things, just kind of like, Hey, you won and now you won. Now you won. Kids were going nuts for it. They were excited for it. And then I had this big old pillow, this big of a donut pillow, and I was like, who wants this? And the room's going crazy. I'm like, you have a chance to win it later. And so I kind of teased that, but then we're like, Hey, we got worship. So we had two hype songs. Again, philosophically not my favorite, but our students love worship and have been clamoring for it, and we haven't had it regularly for the last year. And just our worship department, which is how our church navigates it, the worship department handles all worship for all of our different ministries. So they do it for kids and students and adults. Nick Clason (21:58): And so we hadn't had worship. Worship was just now able to accommodate our desire to have it more regularly. And so since we started the week before, we decided not to pull the plug on it, just let it go. So we asked them for two hype songs. They sung here in your house. They sang glorious day, and then we played a donut game. And this one, full disclosure, I didn't even make. I got it off of D Y M, the Donut Showdown, a couple different people. We have myself, my boss, we have a resident, and then two interns. So there's five of us that we can kind of cycle through on the stage. And so my boss, Darren and one of our interns, Eli, they got up and they ran the donut showdown and then the winning table, because remember I said we have 16 tables. Nick Clason (22:38): They got a box of donuts that are more expensive, like bougie box of donuts from one of those bougie donut shops. We bought three of those, one for the winner this game, one for the winner, the next game, and then one box for our leaders in our leader lounge. So they kept track of their answers on whiteboards, and then off they went. The winning team got that. Then we created a 15 second donut on a string bumper. My resident created it. Shout out to Caleb, ADA. And then Caleb and Kaylee came out and they ran the classic Eat a donut on a string without your hands being tied. So that's another box of donuts or maybe two that we bought. Just glazed donuts just for the donut on a string game. They had to get one holder and one eater from each table. So we had 32 people come up front to the stage. Nick Clason (23:28): We have 16 tables, so 16 eaters, 16 holders that went on the stage, held the donuts, and then the first person to eat the full donut without using their hands. They also win a box of boujee donuts for their table. And then at that point, I hopped back up and I gave instructions for a guided rec time. And so what we did was they could go to our cafe and decorate cake donuts. So that's another set of donuts that we bought, probably three to four, I dunno, maybe even five dozen, just like unglazed cake donuts. But then we bought frosting and sprinkles and things like that. So we allowed students to have a space to decorate donuts on their own. We also offered a game called Find the Donut. That's where I gave away my big donut thing. And what I did for that was I had seven clues of things that they could do, and so they could get any of the seven clues in whatever order they wanted, but it was a speed thing, so they'd grab a clue. Nick Clason (24:21): I typed it out, put it on a little piece of paper. I made it into a Word doc where it was like four on 1, 2, 3, 4 on a word doc. So I could cut the word doc up and down side to side and then have four off of one full sheet of paper. And so then I printed 10 of the first clue and then cut it. And that got me 40 clues or whatever. So it was like, Hey, some of the clues were ways to get them to go interact with our staff. So go ask Darren what his favorite donut is. Go ask Kaylee what her favorite donut is. One of the stations that we created during this guided rec time was a temporary tattoo station, so go get a tattoo from the temporary tattoo station. Another one of 'em was to encourage them to go towards our YouTube channel or answer questions from last week's message. Nick Clason (25:06): And if they didn't know, it was like the answer's on YouTube so it would get them onto our YouTube channel, all that type of stuff, trying to again, hybridize it, right? So they'd grab a clue, they'd read it, and then they'd go do the thing. One of the clues was prove that you voted. So if they hadn't voted yet, they had to go fill out a paper bracket or show me they casted their vote via their phone via Instagram. And then the last and final station of guided rec was the tattoo station, as I had mentioned and alluded to, by the way, the first students come back with all seven of their clues completed. They won that giant donut. And then the last thing that they could do is they could continue to make their guests for the VAs of donuts. And then just the general rec stuff that we have. Nick Clason (25:50): We have a game room with nine square foosball pool and just kind of like a hangout space. And some students kind of opted into that, but there were five to six options and we gave them about 30 minutes to just do whatever they wanted. They could go do one thing the whole time, they could try and do all the things. I had one student who was like, I'm going to try and do all the things. And from that event, actually, I kind of thought and decided, what if we created a passport or a frequent flyer kind of option to let students try different things when we have a guided rec type of moment? I dunno, just an idea. Then at six 50, we called everybody back into our space. We announced the winner, sixth grade girl who won the vass of Donuts. We let them know about what Sunday morning was going to be, and then that was our final word, and we were like, Hey, thanks so much for hanging out. Nick Clason (26:39): Thanks for playing. We will see you next time. Love you guys. Peace, love and crabs. I think that's like a Joe's Crab Shack thing. I'm not sure. Right? All in all, I think this was a great event. Frankly, it's one of my favorite hybrid style events. And again, I remember one time I was talking about hybrid on my social, all links to my socials down the description below. But my sister was like, what do you mean by hybrid? Do you just mean zoom groups? And I can mean zoom groups, right? But this is what I mean when I talk about hybrid. I mean, create an event for one thing, and that's the thing. World's greatest donut. Linking the description to my D Y N product was already created for a voting a month worth of voting on Instagram and on your socials. Then we just said, what if we take that concept and then just craft a month around it and then craft an invite outreach event around it, and then boom, we just had donuts, we leaned in, and that's all the things that we did for it. Nick Clason (27:35): The point of this is not just to create vanity metrics, both in our physical space and also in our digital space with followers and whatnot, but the point of it is to step in to the space where students find themselves in 2023, right? It's like a digital mall. In fact, I have a completely free resource to help you navigate that digital mall. It's my done for you Surefire Resource 40 done for You events. On this video right here, it's going to show up on the screen what every youth ministry needs to be focusing on. I also have a video talking about a digital mall and incarnation ministry. So I'd love for you to check those things out. But until next time, we're making digital discipleship easy and accessible, and as always, stay hybrid. Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Hybrid Ministry, Youth Group Events, Youth Ministry Hybrid Event, Youth Ministry Social Media, Youth Group Games, Youth Group Events, Youth Ministry Games Outdoors, Youth Ministry Games Indoors, Youth Ministry Games for Large Groups, Youth Ministry Games for Small Groups, Student Ministry Games for Large Groups, Student Ministry Games for small Group, Student Ministry Games Indoor, Student Ministry Games Outdoor, Youth Ministry Coach, Youth Ministry Podcast, Hybrid Ministry Podcast, Student Ministry coach, Church Games, Ice Breaker Games, Party Games 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCE TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

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🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
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DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

☝️ONE-CLICK SOLUTION FOR REELS & SHORTS
OPUS FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
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DESCRIPTION
👋 Welcome to the Ultimate Youth Group Guide! In this exciting video, we'll dive into the power of Crush Games, Outreach initiatives, and Social Events to empower and inspire the youth.🔥

🍩 Crush Games:
Engage your youth group with thrilling Games that will ignite their enthusiasm and foster healthy competition. From exhilarating challenges to team-building activities, our guide provides all the essential tips and game ideas to keep the energy high and the fun rolling.

🌍 Outreach Initiatives:
Make a lasting impact on your community through meaningful outreach initiatives. Discover effective strategies to help your youth group connect with and support those in need. By stepping outside their comfort zones, the youth will learn valuable lessons about compassion, empathy, and making a difference in the lives of others.

👥 Social Media Events:
Creating a sense of belonging and friendship within your youth group via social media! This will help Hybridize your Ministry from your in person gathering to your student ministry social media

========================================

🆓 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

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TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
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OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

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👉 STAY CONNECTED
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick

Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/069

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

//Full YouTube Video
https://youtu.be/5ryhkIRyDb4

//STUDENT MINISTRY BRACKET OF EPIC THINGS
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-student-ministry-bracket-of-epic-things/games-3974.html

//GAMEDAY FOOD BRACKET
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-big-game-food-bracket/winter/the-big-game-8544.html

//DONUT SHOWDOWN GAME
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-donut-showdown/games-4142.html

//FULL YOUTUBE STRATEGY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-01:45 The Best Hybrid Youth Ministry Event Out There!
01:45-09:30 The History of This Hybrid Ministry Event
09:30-17:42 Pre-Event Planning and Setup

17:42-28:21 The Debrief of the Event from Start to Finish

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Youth ministry games, social media outreach events, ah, there's just so much to do and if you're anything like me, you have layer upon layer upon layer of responsibility. You need to come up with an amazing and exciting game. You need to knock social media out of the park and you need an outreach event that is going to cater to your students friends and outsiders who are far from God and from the church. How do you prioritize? And then if you do do all those things, how do you not just give your family and your people that you love the scraps and the left over pieces of your energy? What if I told you that I had the ultimate event guide, one that's going to crush it with games, an amazing outreach experience, and it's going to lean into social media for your student ministry, all of that encapsulated in one event.

Nick Clason (00:55):
See, we actually just had an event that accomplished all those things, one with an incredible amount of games and an amazing in-room experience, one that gave students an amazing opportunity to invite their friends and it crushed on social media. Better yet, we had 23% of our attenders be first time or new students who joined us. And finally, not only do we increase engagement, but we also added new followers to our social media. It is honestly one of the best versions in my opinion, of a hybrid style event. And when I say hybrid event, it's more dynamic and it's more robust than just another Zoom Bible study. I know it sounds too good to be true, right? Well, let me show you. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show in the ultimate Event guide. I came up with this idea probably in my second or third year of doing youth ministry, and now I am a 13 year youth ministry veteran.

Nick Clason (01:58):
So this idea dawned on me years and years and years and years ago, and one of the things that has honestly just been super clear to me all the way back to the beginning times of my time in student ministry is the fact that hybrid matters. And when I mean hybrid, I don't mean only focusing on your in-person. I don't mean only focusing on your digital. I mean taking those two things and creating a space for there to be opportunity to reach and connect with your people beyond the hour of programming that you have for your in-person service, which is actually the reason why I just dropped this video going to be up here on the screen. You can feel free to click that where we explore and talk about the future of church ministry, especially through the eyes and through the lens of digital and hybrid.

Nick Clason (02:41):
If you're interested, hop over into that. But about 10 years ago is when I had this idea for what I call a bracket, and I'm a huge March Madness fan, college basketball. I love the selection committees. And if you're not a sports fan, essentially what they do is they create rankings or seedings, so to speak. And so there are four regions and each region has a one seed. Each region has a two seed, each region has a three seed and so on down all the way down to 16, and then the one seed plays the 16 seed. Usually a pretty easy matchup only in the history of the NCAA tournament has one 16 seed upset, a one seed. The 15 plays the two, the 14 plays the three and so on and so forth. And they're in various spots. So the one 16 are up here and the two and the 15 are down here in the bracket so that eventually they wait until the very last chance for the one and the two to eventually play.

Nick Clason (03:34):
Then once all the teams get out of those brackets, that creates your final four one winner from each region they play in Final four matchup and then the winners of each side of that end up meeting in the middle in the championship. And so I was like, this would be fun to lean in to March Madness. And so I just created a bracket out of my head. I was like, let's do little Debbie hostess cakes, and then I put one of my student ministry leaders, shout out to Aaron Koontz back in Beaver Creek, Ohio, and I did one of our favorite events, dare to Share. I put Dare to Share in there, and so students would vote on a thing versus another thing, and it was so totally random, but I offered it just as an online thing. This is before I had an Instagram.

Nick Clason (04:17):
This is before Instagram even had the poll feature, but I kept doing this. The one time I submitted an option called a Bracket of Awesome Things to Download Youth Ministry. This was probably like eight, 10 years ago at this point. My number one seed was Chip and Johanna Gaines and just leaning into the hype that they had with the Fixer Upper and H G T V movement back then. But I just kept honing in and creating this. And I remember one time I made a Christmas movie bracket. I had become in charge at my last church of social media and I just threw it together. I was running out of ideas of things to post. I was in charge of something like two or three posts per day, multiple days per week. And I was like, let's do a bracket. And I launched it and I was on a team at that time of six or seven other youth pastors, staff members, and the team went nuts.

Nick Clason (05:12):
I made Elf the number one seed and then I made white Christmas the 16th seed, and I had some diehard white Christmas fans dropping the comment below what your favorite Christmas movie is, and if it's white Christmas, I'm sorry, you're wrong. It's terrible. But that being said, they were livid and they were mad at how I sourced it and how I came up with the seeding, which by the way, side note just was in my head and they wanted a redo. And so we launched this event called something about a serial bracket. I can't remember what we can't remember the exact name of what we called it, but we had back at that last church, we had a full YouTube show. So we set up SportsCenter style desks and anchors. We all wore jerseys and we did analysis and we kicked it over to sideline reporters and we announced the seatings.

Nick Clason (06:03):
We announced the matchups, and then while when that show launched live on YouTube, people could hop over to our Instagram and they could vote. And what happened was the senior leadership must not have had anything to announce that week, and so they announced our show that week. And so we were like, man, we need to turn this into something. At that time, it was Christmas break, we weren't meeting, so it was just going to live as a thing online on our YouTube channel, but because it got announced, we're like, we need to capitalize on this just a little bit more. And so we offered, and this is

Nick Clason (06:36):
In the height of Covid, so we're not doing a lot of in-person connection with other people. If we were, it had to be masked. I mean it was awful, but it was January just after Christmas 2021 and we're like, let's do a drive-in. Kids can come watch it on their phones. Or you know what? Actually maybe we bought big old screens that they could watch, and then we did a FM tuner thing. They could listen to it in their car radio. So I don't know, we probably had 10 to 20 cars show up, not a ton. And we bought so much serial, we went to Sam's and we looted that place and then it was like negative 10 degrees. And so me and my other leaders, we have giant coats on, we're walking car to car, passing out cereal, passing out milk. But that was the inception.

Nick Clason (07:28):
That was one of the inception points of this idea of a bracket. And what it does in my mind is it creates some sort of event around an in-person topic cereal. The one that I'm going to explain to you today is donuts and I like to kind of hone in. Yeah, that's what I've done over the years. I've honed in on a specific topic. We've also done this with drinks like World's greatest drink, world's greatest donut cereal madness. This coming march, we're planning on doing a potato one called Starch Madness. And so it creates that event, but the reason I like it is that it marries your social media because all the voting happens online

Nick Clason (08:04):
With an in-person event. It is the ultimate style hybrid event in my opinion. And I know that I've had people who are like, when you mean hybrid, what are you talking about? And they just think we're just talking about Zoom groups and it's more than that. And so we hosted this event at our church. Like I said in the intro, we had 23% newcomers, we had multiple new people added to following us on social media, and it's creating some sort of hype and some sort of buzz around our student ministry. There are so many benefits and values to it. And so what I want to do is honestly just walk you through the pre-planning, the actual event. I'm going to share with you the planning center document of it, and then give you just kind of a recap about why it's valuable, why we're going to keep doing it, and how you can take something like that and adapt it into your student and social ministry.

Nick Clason (08:52):
If so far you've found this episode helpful, though alike would cost you nothing and would really mean the world to us even more. A subscribe is really a next level opportunity to just engage back with us. Either one of those two things like subscribe would mean the world to us and we would love to connect with you further and deeper because more than just donuts, more than just brackets, we are talking about this world of not just physical, not just digital, but hybrid ministry. So let's move on and let's hop in to the setup and the event planning, the pre-event side of this event that I'm talking about, the world's greatest donut. So we know, we knew that we wanted to do this voting style event around donuts that would last around a month. The way I set it up is I will do round one.

Nick Clason (09:42):
We have a Wednesday night and then a Sunday morning in our environment, and so the voting is going to be live on a Wednesday. They'll vote on the topics and the rounds, and so round one we do all the voting. So that's where Instagram and the stories, that's where the most decisions need to be made. So because of that in round one, then we will announce the winners on Sunday, and then we will resume voting the following Wednesday for the Elite eight. We'll announce the following Sunday of the winners of that, and then we'll move to the final floor when there's the most activity, when there's all the contestants are still alive, no one's been eliminated yet. That's round one. And that to me is the most exciting time for the actual bracket. So because the actual bracket is exciting at that time, that's when we decided to lean into an event.

Nick Clason (10:31):
So we knew we had this bracket. In fact, I created this resource. It's a link in the description on Download youth ministry on the world's greatest donut bracket. It's on there right now. Feel free to go grab it. It's got all of the digital elements and it's got a few games in there, but not all of what I'm about to share with you. So make sure that you hang around to the rest of this video. However, we knew we wanted to do an event centered or a month centered around voting, and then we wanted the first night, the kickoff night to be a big deal. And so the question kind of always is do you focus on the kickoff of the bracket or do you focus more on the championship round of the bracket? I've found the beginning to be more exciting. Like I said, we did a cereal bracket most recently here at this church, and we have in our space, we have eight different garage door bays that lined the side left and right of our meeting space.

Nick Clason (11:26):
That's actually where our small groups meet on Sunday morning. Those doors are up, they go in there and then they close down, creates little rooms for all of them. It's really cool design. Sometimes it also makes 'em feel like caged animals, but nonetheless, we did an event back in March where we voted on serial and we had the one in 16 matchup in one bay. We had the three and 14 matchup in another bay. We had the eight and nine matchup in another bay. And so all the bay doors came up. There were tables in there with basketball themed tablecloths on and then cereal boxes with a number pasted on it, one versus 16, and then all the bowls of cereal there. And so as we're wrapping up our programming, we had adult leaders sitting in there pouring milk into each of the bowls so that students could grab that and then they could go eat and just literally had one kid eat 16 or 25 bowls of cereal that night, tried every single one of the things in the matchup.

Nick Clason (12:19):
So that was a super fun way to just kind of lean into the kickoff portion. And so we had that same question. Now we have donuts and what are we going to do? And so in our space where we have tables, and so we ended up deciding to buy a little half fishbowl things. All the supplies by the way, are going to be linked in the comments below, in the description below. Make sure you check that out. But we had little fishbowl things, half fishbowl things sort of decorative. It's not like a fishbowl where the tops right there, but it's like off to the side a little bit. And we filled each table with donut holes. We ordered several dozen donut holes, and that's what we did. We went donut holes instead of actual donuts. It's cheaper. It's also quicker. You can pop 'em into your mouth as opposed to committing to an entire donut.

Nick Clason (13:04):
And so we have 16 round tables, and so every table had a tablecloth and every table had a vase full of donuts. That was our decision to supply the donuts without breaking the bank on the budget. Don't get me wrong, it was still expensive, but it's less expensive than a dozen donuts per table or something like that. So we had donuts on every table, and then one of my favorite elements or pieces of the event is we bought a giant vase and then we filled it with donuts. We counted 233 donuts that we filled into this vase. The funny part was that we put the donuts in and then the weight of the donuts actually started to smash 'em down, and so it was full, and then the weight of the donuts started smashing 'em down. So there was a gap. So we actually had to go back and add more donuts at the end.

Nick Clason (13:48):
So I don't even want to know what the bottom donuts looked like. They probably were a little mini pancakes, but we let students vote simply, how many donuts do you think are in here? We had a Google form for that. They shot it with a QR code on their phone. We also had an iPad set up where they could just type in a Google form. All we got was their name and their number, but if you have a marketing brain or a marketing department, you can use that to capture an email and start to create a little list and start to market to those people as well. That's another kind of next level tip if you want to lean into something like that. But then it also made it easy to just have it all dumped into a Google sheet and I could command F find the closest number.

Nick Clason (14:32):
And so one person, we had 2 33 in the thing and one girl guessed 2 32, so she won it, and this little sixth grade girl carried out this giant vase of donuts and it was hers. She got to take it with her, she got to keep it. She got to bring it in her car with her. Then the actual bracket side of things, we printed, because we are doing this so much, we printed a generic bracket on a giant vinyl banner. When you walk into our space, we have a big window with an indoor half kind of sports court right there on the other side of it. And so for the cereal bracket, I took gaff tape and I taped out a bracket and then I pasted or taped the cereal to the window. But this time around we're like, what if we just print a vinyl banner and then we can swap out whatever we're voting on at that time?

Nick Clason (15:24):
So we made the investment on the front side knowing that we're going to do this. We love these style of hybrid events in our ministry, so we bought the big banner. It fit perfectly in our space. I can drop the artwork for that in the description, but it's going to vary a little bit for my ministry. Your ministry. It's also got our logo on it, but you can find any bracket online, any generic non-branded bracket online, add it, print it, make it into a banner if that's something that you want to do. What it does for us is when you walk in, it immediately draws your attention. It's not there most of the year. And so when it's there, you're like, oh, it's different. And then people know and notice that there's a bracket going on, there's a voting happening. And the other crazy thing is that people get really into it on their opinions.

Nick Clason (16:17):
What things are seeded? How such and such donut beat that donut. For example, the beignet took down, what did it take down? The chocolate cream filled donut lost to a beignet. I think beignets are good, but are they the best? I don't think so. And I think they're super kind of niche and they're really just, honestly, they're like funnel cake. And so anyway, that giant bracket in our actual space, we also allow, because we have a lot of students, a lot of kids, young kids that don't have social media yet, we allow them to vote on a paper bracket as an additional means to let their voice be heard. We got donut shirts for all of the staff and we all wore them. And so that was kind of like the event setup space. In addition to that, we had some donut balloons blown up and kind of scattered throughout the lobby.

Nick Clason (17:13):
So they walked in. On the left was the big V to vote, regular check-in, back behind check-in was the banner with the voting and the brackets printed out and people could let their voice be heard that way. So now let's dive into the rest of the event. I'm going to put the planning center event sheet right here. We're going to walk through it and I'm just going to explain to you what we did, why we did it, and just my thoughts on it, and feel free to take and adapt any of it to your ministry. So all the setups done, students are walking in. We had a countdown, which if you buy my product on Download Youth ministry, it will come with a specific donut themed and then a specific donut themed five minute countdown that I created with just random facts and stuff like that.

Nick Clason (18:00):
So that was what was playing on our TV and our screens all throughout our space. And when the time hit zero, myself and my boss, Darren, we were both on stage and we were hyping up the crowd, welcoming people, letting them know that voting had been live all day on Instagram. We were letting them know who was winning what matchup students could with the screen behind us. We then had a screen that said, voting is live now with a QR code. They could shoot that and take it to Instagram. I think we gained three to six or something like that. New followers on our Instagram, not a ton, but still some students who were. So we had 23% new students. So we're introducing our students to our Instagram, and if any of them are into this idea now they're following us. So now we have them on our Instagram opportunity to reach out to them, but we just did some like, Hey, here's what's going on.

Nick Clason (18:52):
Here's the bracket, explaining what a bracket is. It's going to be lasting for a month, but it's all about you and your voice and letting your voice be heard and voting is live on Instagram every single Wednesday. We also kind of teased our next series, which we're talking about big issues, elephants in the room that we often don't want to address. So we use that moment to sort of tease the topic. We didn't spend a lot of time on that. And also we had a message drop, if you've heard me before, link in the description of my full YouTube strategy, but we've our messages. And so we had a message live on YouTube, but we didn't do live teaching that night. You can do that. It's your call. It's philosophical decision for an event like this. We like to kind of pull the teaching and let this be a truly invite night, a truly bring your friends style event style night.

Nick Clason (19:41):
And then we did a bunch of door prizes and giveaways. Now, here's how I do this. I use Sidekick through Download Youth Ministry. I created a little slide, I'll drop the slide into the link down below that I've referenced before and it says World's Greatest Donut, and that says You're about to win something, dude with Little Arrow pointed up and then all their names filter through. Here's how we got the names. Every single student who checked in, we created a People search, a save search in C C B Church Community Builder. That's any student who's not a leader that has checked in within the last day. And so whenever I go into that, especially if an event has started it's live, I click refresh and it populates every single student who has checked in to our student ministry within the last 24 hours. And so since we didn't have an event on Tuesday, I know that anyone who's checked in is now here on Wednesday night.

Nick Clason (20:32):
So that list is not just going to be a random full mailing list of all of our students going to be the actual live dynamic list of the students in our event space. Figure that out in your church database system, but find some way to capture all the info of the students that are actually in your space. Now, downloaded that into a C S V, copied it, pasted it into Sidekick, and then boom, we had all the names they're filtering through and we're giving away some door prizes. So what we gave away was a donut blanket that's like the shape of a circle. We gave away a little mini donut maker. We gave away donut key chain. We gave away little rubber donuts. I almost think they were like dog toys. I think we bought them for something else and we forgot. And so we just ended up giving them away.

Nick Clason (21:14):
And what else we give away? I can't remember. But we gave away six different things, just kind of like, Hey, you won and now you won. Now you won. Kids were going nuts for it. They were excited for it. And then I had this big old pillow, this big of a donut pillow, and I was like, who wants this? And the room's going crazy. I'm like, you have a chance to win it later. And so I kind of teased that, but then we're like, Hey, we got worship. So we had two hype songs. Again, philosophically not my favorite, but our students love worship and have been clamoring for it, and we haven't had it regularly for the last year. And just our worship department, which is how our church navigates it, the worship department handles all worship for all of our different ministries. So they do it for kids and students and adults.

Nick Clason (21:58):
And so we hadn't had worship. Worship was just now able to accommodate our desire to have it more regularly. And so since we started the week before, we decided not to pull the plug on it, just let it go. So we asked them for two hype songs. They sung here in your house. They sang glorious day, and then we played a donut game. And this one, full disclosure, I didn't even make. I got it off of D Y M, the Donut Showdown, a couple different people. We have myself, my boss, we have a resident, and then two interns. So there's five of us that we can kind of cycle through on the stage. And so my boss, Darren and one of our interns, Eli, they got up and they ran the donut showdown and then the winning table, because remember I said we have 16 tables.

Nick Clason (22:38):
They got a box of donuts that are more expensive, like bougie box of donuts from one of those bougie donut shops. We bought three of those, one for the winner this game, one for the winner, the next game, and then one box for our leaders in our leader lounge. So they kept track of their answers on whiteboards, and then off they went. The winning team got that. Then we created a 15 second donut on a string bumper. My resident created it. Shout out to Caleb, ADA. And then Caleb and Kaylee came out and they ran the classic Eat a donut on a string without your hands being tied. So that's another box of donuts or maybe two that we bought. Just glazed donuts just for the donut on a string game. They had to get one holder and one eater from each table. So we had 32 people come up front to the stage.

Nick Clason (23:28):
We have 16 tables, so 16 eaters, 16 holders that went on the stage, held the donuts, and then the first person to eat the full donut without using their hands. They also win a box of boujee donuts for their table. And then at that point, I hopped back up and I gave instructions for a guided rec time. And so what we did was they could go to our cafe and decorate cake donuts. So that's another set of donuts that we bought, probably three to four, I dunno, maybe even five dozen, just like unglazed cake donuts. But then we bought frosting and sprinkles and things like that. So we allowed students to have a space to decorate donuts on their own. We also offered a game called Find the Donut. That's where I gave away my big donut thing. And what I did for that was I had seven clues of things that they could do, and so they could get any of the seven clues in whatever order they wanted, but it was a speed thing, so they'd grab a clue.

Nick Clason (24:21):
I typed it out, put it on a little piece of paper. I made it into a Word doc where it was like four on 1, 2, 3, 4 on a word doc. So I could cut the word doc up and down side to side and then have four off of one full sheet of paper. And so then I printed 10 of the first clue and then cut it. And that got me 40 clues or whatever. So it was like, Hey, some of the clues were ways to get them to go interact with our staff. So go ask Darren what his favorite donut is. Go ask Kaylee what her favorite donut is. One of the stations that we created during this guided rec time was a temporary tattoo station, so go get a tattoo from the temporary tattoo station. Another one of 'em was to encourage them to go towards our YouTube channel or answer questions from last week's message.

Nick Clason (25:06):
And if they didn't know, it was like the answer's on YouTube so it would get them onto our YouTube channel, all that type of stuff, trying to again, hybridize it, right? So they'd grab a clue, they'd read it, and then they'd go do the thing. One of the clues was prove that you voted. So if they hadn't voted yet, they had to go fill out a paper bracket or show me they casted their vote via their phone via Instagram. And then the last and final station of guided rec was the tattoo station, as I had mentioned and alluded to, by the way, the first students come back with all seven of their clues completed. They won that giant donut. And then the last thing that they could do is they could continue to make their guests for the VAs of donuts. And then just the general rec stuff that we have.

Nick Clason (25:50):
We have a game room with nine square foosball pool and just kind of like a hangout space. And some students kind of opted into that, but there were five to six options and we gave them about 30 minutes to just do whatever they wanted. They could go do one thing the whole time, they could try and do all the things. I had one student who was like, I'm going to try and do all the things. And from that event, actually, I kind of thought and decided, what if we created a passport or a frequent flyer kind of option to let students try different things when we have a guided rec type of moment? I dunno, just an idea. Then at six 50, we called everybody back into our space. We announced the winner, sixth grade girl who won the vass of Donuts. We let them know about what Sunday morning was going to be, and then that was our final word, and we were like, Hey, thanks so much for hanging out.

Nick Clason (26:39):
Thanks for playing. We will see you next time. Love you guys. Peace, love and crabs. I think that's like a Joe's Crab Shack thing. I'm not sure. Right? All in all, I think this was a great event. Frankly, it's one of my favorite hybrid style events. And again, I remember one time I was talking about hybrid on my social, all links to my socials down the description below. But my sister was like, what do you mean by hybrid? Do you just mean zoom groups? And I can mean zoom groups, right? But this is what I mean when I talk about hybrid. I mean, create an event for one thing, and that's the thing. World's greatest donut. Linking the description to my D Y N product was already created for a voting a month worth of voting on Instagram and on your socials. Then we just said, what if we take that concept and then just craft a month around it and then craft an invite outreach event around it, and then boom, we just had donuts, we leaned in, and that's all the things that we did for it.

Nick Clason (27:35):
The point of this is not just to create vanity metrics, both in our physical space and also in our digital space with followers and whatnot, but the point of it is to step in to the space where students find themselves in 2023, right? It's like a digital mall. In fact, I have a completely free resource to help you navigate that digital mall. It's my done for you Surefire Resource 40 done for You events. On this video right here, it's going to show up on the screen what every youth ministry needs to be focusing on. I also have a video talking about a digital mall and incarnation ministry. So I'd love for you to check those things out. But until next time, we're making digital discipleship easy and accessible, and as always, stay hybrid.

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DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

☝️ONE-CLICK SOLUTION FOR REELS & SHORTS
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DESCRIPTION
👋 Welcome to the Ultimate Youth Group Guide! In this exciting video, we'll dive into the power of Crush Games, Outreach initiatives, and Social Events to empower and inspire the youth.🔥

🍩 Crush Games:
Engage your youth group with thrilling Games that will ignite their enthusiasm and foster healthy competition. From exhilarating challenges to team-building activities, our guide provides all the essential tips and game ideas to keep the energy high and the fun rolling.

🌍 Outreach Initiatives:
Make a lasting impact on your community through meaningful outreach initiatives. Discover effective strategies to help your youth group connect with and support those in need. By stepping outside their comfort zones, the youth will learn valuable lessons about compassion, empathy, and making a difference in the lives of others.

👥 Social Media Events:
Creating a sense of belonging and friendship within your youth group via social media! This will help Hybridize your Ministry from your in person gathering to your student ministry social media

========================================

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
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📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

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🛠️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

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👉 STAY CONNECTED
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick

Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/069

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

//Full YouTube Video
https://youtu.be/5ryhkIRyDb4

//STUDENT MINISTRY BRACKET OF EPIC THINGS
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-student-ministry-bracket-of-epic-things/games-3974.html

//GAMEDAY FOOD BRACKET
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-big-game-food-bracket/winter/the-big-game-8544.html

//DONUT SHOWDOWN GAME
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-donut-showdown/games-4142.html

//FULL YOUTUBE STRATEGY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-01:45 The Best Hybrid Youth Ministry Event Out There!
01:45-09:30 The History of This Hybrid Ministry Event
09:30-17:42 Pre-Event Planning and Setup

17:42-28:21 The Debrief of the Event from Start to Finish

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Youth ministry games, social media outreach events, ah, there's just so much to do and if you're anything like me, you have layer upon layer upon layer of responsibility. You need to come up with an amazing and exciting game. You need to knock social media out of the park and you need an outreach event that is going to cater to your students friends and outsiders who are far from God and from the church. How do you prioritize? And then if you do do all those things, how do you not just give your family and your people that you love the scraps and the left over pieces of your energy? What if I told you that I had the ultimate event guide, one that's going to crush it with games, an amazing outreach experience, and it's going to lean into social media for your student ministry, all of that encapsulated in one event.

Nick Clason (00:55):
See, we actually just had an event that accomplished all those things, one with an incredible amount of games and an amazing in-room experience, one that gave students an amazing opportunity to invite their friends and it crushed on social media. Better yet, we had 23% of our attenders be first time or new students who joined us. And finally, not only do we increase engagement, but we also added new followers to our social media. It is honestly one of the best versions in my opinion, of a hybrid style event. And when I say hybrid event, it's more dynamic and it's more robust than just another Zoom Bible study. I know it sounds too good to be true, right? Well, let me show you. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show in the ultimate Event guide. I came up with this idea probably in my second or third year of doing youth ministry, and now I am a 13 year youth ministry veteran.

Nick Clason (01:58):
So this idea dawned on me years and years and years and years ago, and one of the things that has honestly just been super clear to me all the way back to the beginning times of my time in student ministry is the fact that hybrid matters. And when I mean hybrid, I don't mean only focusing on your in-person. I don't mean only focusing on your digital. I mean taking those two things and creating a space for there to be opportunity to reach and connect with your people beyond the hour of programming that you have for your in-person service, which is actually the reason why I just dropped this video going to be up here on the screen. You can feel free to click that where we explore and talk about the future of church ministry, especially through the eyes and through the lens of digital and hybrid.

Nick Clason (02:41):
If you're interested, hop over into that. But about 10 years ago is when I had this idea for what I call a bracket, and I'm a huge March Madness fan, college basketball. I love the selection committees. And if you're not a sports fan, essentially what they do is they create rankings or seedings, so to speak. And so there are four regions and each region has a one seed. Each region has a two seed, each region has a three seed and so on down all the way down to 16, and then the one seed plays the 16 seed. Usually a pretty easy matchup only in the history of the NCAA tournament has one 16 seed upset, a one seed. The 15 plays the two, the 14 plays the three and so on and so forth. And they're in various spots. So the one 16 are up here and the two and the 15 are down here in the bracket so that eventually they wait until the very last chance for the one and the two to eventually play.

Nick Clason (03:34):
Then once all the teams get out of those brackets, that creates your final four one winner from each region they play in Final four matchup and then the winners of each side of that end up meeting in the middle in the championship. And so I was like, this would be fun to lean in to March Madness. And so I just created a bracket out of my head. I was like, let's do little Debbie hostess cakes, and then I put one of my student ministry leaders, shout out to Aaron Koontz back in Beaver Creek, Ohio, and I did one of our favorite events, dare to Share. I put Dare to Share in there, and so students would vote on a thing versus another thing, and it was so totally random, but I offered it just as an online thing. This is before I had an Instagram.

Nick Clason (04:17):
This is before Instagram even had the poll feature, but I kept doing this. The one time I submitted an option called a Bracket of Awesome Things to Download Youth Ministry. This was probably like eight, 10 years ago at this point. My number one seed was Chip and Johanna Gaines and just leaning into the hype that they had with the Fixer Upper and H G T V movement back then. But I just kept honing in and creating this. And I remember one time I made a Christmas movie bracket. I had become in charge at my last church of social media and I just threw it together. I was running out of ideas of things to post. I was in charge of something like two or three posts per day, multiple days per week. And I was like, let's do a bracket. And I launched it and I was on a team at that time of six or seven other youth pastors, staff members, and the team went nuts.

Nick Clason (05:12):
I made Elf the number one seed and then I made white Christmas the 16th seed, and I had some diehard white Christmas fans dropping the comment below what your favorite Christmas movie is, and if it's white Christmas, I'm sorry, you're wrong. It's terrible. But that being said, they were livid and they were mad at how I sourced it and how I came up with the seeding, which by the way, side note just was in my head and they wanted a redo. And so we launched this event called something about a serial bracket. I can't remember what we can't remember the exact name of what we called it, but we had back at that last church, we had a full YouTube show. So we set up SportsCenter style desks and anchors. We all wore jerseys and we did analysis and we kicked it over to sideline reporters and we announced the seatings.

Nick Clason (06:03):
We announced the matchups, and then while when that show launched live on YouTube, people could hop over to our Instagram and they could vote. And what happened was the senior leadership must not have had anything to announce that week, and so they announced our show that week. And so we were like, man, we need to turn this into something. At that time, it was Christmas break, we weren't meeting, so it was just going to live as a thing online on our YouTube channel, but because it got announced, we're like, we need to capitalize on this just a little bit more. And so we offered, and this is

Nick Clason (06:36):
In the height of Covid, so we're not doing a lot of in-person connection with other people. If we were, it had to be masked. I mean it was awful, but it was January just after Christmas 2021 and we're like, let's do a drive-in. Kids can come watch it on their phones. Or you know what? Actually maybe we bought big old screens that they could watch, and then we did a FM tuner thing. They could listen to it in their car radio. So I don't know, we probably had 10 to 20 cars show up, not a ton. And we bought so much serial, we went to Sam's and we looted that place and then it was like negative 10 degrees. And so me and my other leaders, we have giant coats on, we're walking car to car, passing out cereal, passing out milk. But that was the inception.

Nick Clason (07:28):
That was one of the inception points of this idea of a bracket. And what it does in my mind is it creates some sort of event around an in-person topic cereal. The one that I'm going to explain to you today is donuts and I like to kind of hone in. Yeah, that's what I've done over the years. I've honed in on a specific topic. We've also done this with drinks like World's greatest drink, world's greatest donut cereal madness. This coming march, we're planning on doing a potato one called Starch Madness. And so it creates that event, but the reason I like it is that it marries your social media because all the voting happens online

Nick Clason (08:04):
With an in-person event. It is the ultimate style hybrid event in my opinion. And I know that I've had people who are like, when you mean hybrid, what are you talking about? And they just think we're just talking about Zoom groups and it's more than that. And so we hosted this event at our church. Like I said in the intro, we had 23% newcomers, we had multiple new people added to following us on social media, and it's creating some sort of hype and some sort of buzz around our student ministry. There are so many benefits and values to it. And so what I want to do is honestly just walk you through the pre-planning, the actual event. I'm going to share with you the planning center document of it, and then give you just kind of a recap about why it's valuable, why we're going to keep doing it, and how you can take something like that and adapt it into your student and social ministry.

Nick Clason (08:52):
If so far you've found this episode helpful, though alike would cost you nothing and would really mean the world to us even more. A subscribe is really a next level opportunity to just engage back with us. Either one of those two things like subscribe would mean the world to us and we would love to connect with you further and deeper because more than just donuts, more than just brackets, we are talking about this world of not just physical, not just digital, but hybrid ministry. So let's move on and let's hop in to the setup and the event planning, the pre-event side of this event that I'm talking about, the world's greatest donut. So we know, we knew that we wanted to do this voting style event around donuts that would last around a month. The way I set it up is I will do round one.

Nick Clason (09:42):
We have a Wednesday night and then a Sunday morning in our environment, and so the voting is going to be live on a Wednesday. They'll vote on the topics and the rounds, and so round one we do all the voting. So that's where Instagram and the stories, that's where the most decisions need to be made. So because of that in round one, then we will announce the winners on Sunday, and then we will resume voting the following Wednesday for the Elite eight. We'll announce the following Sunday of the winners of that, and then we'll move to the final floor when there's the most activity, when there's all the contestants are still alive, no one's been eliminated yet. That's round one. And that to me is the most exciting time for the actual bracket. So because the actual bracket is exciting at that time, that's when we decided to lean into an event.

Nick Clason (10:31):
So we knew we had this bracket. In fact, I created this resource. It's a link in the description on Download youth ministry on the world's greatest donut bracket. It's on there right now. Feel free to go grab it. It's got all of the digital elements and it's got a few games in there, but not all of what I'm about to share with you. So make sure that you hang around to the rest of this video. However, we knew we wanted to do an event centered or a month centered around voting, and then we wanted the first night, the kickoff night to be a big deal. And so the question kind of always is do you focus on the kickoff of the bracket or do you focus more on the championship round of the bracket? I've found the beginning to be more exciting. Like I said, we did a cereal bracket most recently here at this church, and we have in our space, we have eight different garage door bays that lined the side left and right of our meeting space.

Nick Clason (11:26):
That's actually where our small groups meet on Sunday morning. Those doors are up, they go in there and then they close down, creates little rooms for all of them. It's really cool design. Sometimes it also makes 'em feel like caged animals, but nonetheless, we did an event back in March where we voted on serial and we had the one in 16 matchup in one bay. We had the three and 14 matchup in another bay. We had the eight and nine matchup in another bay. And so all the bay doors came up. There were tables in there with basketball themed tablecloths on and then cereal boxes with a number pasted on it, one versus 16, and then all the bowls of cereal there. And so as we're wrapping up our programming, we had adult leaders sitting in there pouring milk into each of the bowls so that students could grab that and then they could go eat and just literally had one kid eat 16 or 25 bowls of cereal that night, tried every single one of the things in the matchup.

Nick Clason (12:19):
So that was a super fun way to just kind of lean into the kickoff portion. And so we had that same question. Now we have donuts and what are we going to do? And so in our space where we have tables, and so we ended up deciding to buy a little half fishbowl things. All the supplies by the way, are going to be linked in the comments below, in the description below. Make sure you check that out. But we had little fishbowl things, half fishbowl things sort of decorative. It's not like a fishbowl where the tops right there, but it's like off to the side a little bit. And we filled each table with donut holes. We ordered several dozen donut holes, and that's what we did. We went donut holes instead of actual donuts. It's cheaper. It's also quicker. You can pop 'em into your mouth as opposed to committing to an entire donut.

Nick Clason (13:04):
And so we have 16 round tables, and so every table had a tablecloth and every table had a vase full of donuts. That was our decision to supply the donuts without breaking the bank on the budget. Don't get me wrong, it was still expensive, but it's less expensive than a dozen donuts per table or something like that. So we had donuts on every table, and then one of my favorite elements or pieces of the event is we bought a giant vase and then we filled it with donuts. We counted 233 donuts that we filled into this vase. The funny part was that we put the donuts in and then the weight of the donuts actually started to smash 'em down, and so it was full, and then the weight of the donuts started smashing 'em down. So there was a gap. So we actually had to go back and add more donuts at the end.

Nick Clason (13:48):
So I don't even want to know what the bottom donuts looked like. They probably were a little mini pancakes, but we let students vote simply, how many donuts do you think are in here? We had a Google form for that. They shot it with a QR code on their phone. We also had an iPad set up where they could just type in a Google form. All we got was their name and their number, but if you have a marketing brain or a marketing department, you can use that to capture an email and start to create a little list and start to market to those people as well. That's another kind of next level tip if you want to lean into something like that. But then it also made it easy to just have it all dumped into a Google sheet and I could command F find the closest number.

Nick Clason (14:32):
And so one person, we had 2 33 in the thing and one girl guessed 2 32, so she won it, and this little sixth grade girl carried out this giant vase of donuts and it was hers. She got to take it with her, she got to keep it. She got to bring it in her car with her. Then the actual bracket side of things, we printed, because we are doing this so much, we printed a generic bracket on a giant vinyl banner. When you walk into our space, we have a big window with an indoor half kind of sports court right there on the other side of it. And so for the cereal bracket, I took gaff tape and I taped out a bracket and then I pasted or taped the cereal to the window. But this time around we're like, what if we just print a vinyl banner and then we can swap out whatever we're voting on at that time?

Nick Clason (15:24):
So we made the investment on the front side knowing that we're going to do this. We love these style of hybrid events in our ministry, so we bought the big banner. It fit perfectly in our space. I can drop the artwork for that in the description, but it's going to vary a little bit for my ministry. Your ministry. It's also got our logo on it, but you can find any bracket online, any generic non-branded bracket online, add it, print it, make it into a banner if that's something that you want to do. What it does for us is when you walk in, it immediately draws your attention. It's not there most of the year. And so when it's there, you're like, oh, it's different. And then people know and notice that there's a bracket going on, there's a voting happening. And the other crazy thing is that people get really into it on their opinions.

Nick Clason (16:17):
What things are seeded? How such and such donut beat that donut. For example, the beignet took down, what did it take down? The chocolate cream filled donut lost to a beignet. I think beignets are good, but are they the best? I don't think so. And I think they're super kind of niche and they're really just, honestly, they're like funnel cake. And so anyway, that giant bracket in our actual space, we also allow, because we have a lot of students, a lot of kids, young kids that don't have social media yet, we allow them to vote on a paper bracket as an additional means to let their voice be heard. We got donut shirts for all of the staff and we all wore them. And so that was kind of like the event setup space. In addition to that, we had some donut balloons blown up and kind of scattered throughout the lobby.

Nick Clason (17:13):
So they walked in. On the left was the big V to vote, regular check-in, back behind check-in was the banner with the voting and the brackets printed out and people could let their voice be heard that way. So now let's dive into the rest of the event. I'm going to put the planning center event sheet right here. We're going to walk through it and I'm just going to explain to you what we did, why we did it, and just my thoughts on it, and feel free to take and adapt any of it to your ministry. So all the setups done, students are walking in. We had a countdown, which if you buy my product on Download Youth ministry, it will come with a specific donut themed and then a specific donut themed five minute countdown that I created with just random facts and stuff like that.

Nick Clason (18:00):
So that was what was playing on our TV and our screens all throughout our space. And when the time hit zero, myself and my boss, Darren, we were both on stage and we were hyping up the crowd, welcoming people, letting them know that voting had been live all day on Instagram. We were letting them know who was winning what matchup students could with the screen behind us. We then had a screen that said, voting is live now with a QR code. They could shoot that and take it to Instagram. I think we gained three to six or something like that. New followers on our Instagram, not a ton, but still some students who were. So we had 23% new students. So we're introducing our students to our Instagram, and if any of them are into this idea now they're following us. So now we have them on our Instagram opportunity to reach out to them, but we just did some like, Hey, here's what's going on.

Nick Clason (18:52):
Here's the bracket, explaining what a bracket is. It's going to be lasting for a month, but it's all about you and your voice and letting your voice be heard and voting is live on Instagram every single Wednesday. We also kind of teased our next series, which we're talking about big issues, elephants in the room that we often don't want to address. So we use that moment to sort of tease the topic. We didn't spend a lot of time on that. And also we had a message drop, if you've heard me before, link in the description of my full YouTube strategy, but we've our messages. And so we had a message live on YouTube, but we didn't do live teaching that night. You can do that. It's your call. It's philosophical decision for an event like this. We like to kind of pull the teaching and let this be a truly invite night, a truly bring your friends style event style night.

Nick Clason (19:41):
And then we did a bunch of door prizes and giveaways. Now, here's how I do this. I use Sidekick through Download Youth Ministry. I created a little slide, I'll drop the slide into the link down below that I've referenced before and it says World's Greatest Donut, and that says You're about to win something, dude with Little Arrow pointed up and then all their names filter through. Here's how we got the names. Every single student who checked in, we created a People search, a save search in C C B Church Community Builder. That's any student who's not a leader that has checked in within the last day. And so whenever I go into that, especially if an event has started it's live, I click refresh and it populates every single student who has checked in to our student ministry within the last 24 hours. And so since we didn't have an event on Tuesday, I know that anyone who's checked in is now here on Wednesday night.

Nick Clason (20:32):
So that list is not just going to be a random full mailing list of all of our students going to be the actual live dynamic list of the students in our event space. Figure that out in your church database system, but find some way to capture all the info of the students that are actually in your space. Now, downloaded that into a C S V, copied it, pasted it into Sidekick, and then boom, we had all the names they're filtering through and we're giving away some door prizes. So what we gave away was a donut blanket that's like the shape of a circle. We gave away a little mini donut maker. We gave away donut key chain. We gave away little rubber donuts. I almost think they were like dog toys. I think we bought them for something else and we forgot. And so we just ended up giving them away.

Nick Clason (21:14):
And what else we give away? I can't remember. But we gave away six different things, just kind of like, Hey, you won and now you won. Now you won. Kids were going nuts for it. They were excited for it. And then I had this big old pillow, this big of a donut pillow, and I was like, who wants this? And the room's going crazy. I'm like, you have a chance to win it later. And so I kind of teased that, but then we're like, Hey, we got worship. So we had two hype songs. Again, philosophically not my favorite, but our students love worship and have been clamoring for it, and we haven't had it regularly for the last year. And just our worship department, which is how our church navigates it, the worship department handles all worship for all of our different ministries. So they do it for kids and students and adults.

Nick Clason (21:58):
And so we hadn't had worship. Worship was just now able to accommodate our desire to have it more regularly. And so since we started the week before, we decided not to pull the plug on it, just let it go. So we asked them for two hype songs. They sung here in your house. They sang glorious day, and then we played a donut game. And this one, full disclosure, I didn't even make. I got it off of D Y M, the Donut Showdown, a couple different people. We have myself, my boss, we have a resident, and then two interns. So there's five of us that we can kind of cycle through on the stage. And so my boss, Darren and one of our interns, Eli, they got up and they ran the donut showdown and then the winning table, because remember I said we have 16 tables.

Nick Clason (22:38):
They got a box of donuts that are more expensive, like bougie box of donuts from one of those bougie donut shops. We bought three of those, one for the winner this game, one for the winner, the next game, and then one box for our leaders in our leader lounge. So they kept track of their answers on whiteboards, and then off they went. The winning team got that. Then we created a 15 second donut on a string bumper. My resident created it. Shout out to Caleb, ADA. And then Caleb and Kaylee came out and they ran the classic Eat a donut on a string without your hands being tied. So that's another box of donuts or maybe two that we bought. Just glazed donuts just for the donut on a string game. They had to get one holder and one eater from each table. So we had 32 people come up front to the stage.

Nick Clason (23:28):
We have 16 tables, so 16 eaters, 16 holders that went on the stage, held the donuts, and then the first person to eat the full donut without using their hands. They also win a box of boujee donuts for their table. And then at that point, I hopped back up and I gave instructions for a guided rec time. And so what we did was they could go to our cafe and decorate cake donuts. So that's another set of donuts that we bought, probably three to four, I dunno, maybe even five dozen, just like unglazed cake donuts. But then we bought frosting and sprinkles and things like that. So we allowed students to have a space to decorate donuts on their own. We also offered a game called Find the Donut. That's where I gave away my big donut thing. And what I did for that was I had seven clues of things that they could do, and so they could get any of the seven clues in whatever order they wanted, but it was a speed thing, so they'd grab a clue.

Nick Clason (24:21):
I typed it out, put it on a little piece of paper. I made it into a Word doc where it was like four on 1, 2, 3, 4 on a word doc. So I could cut the word doc up and down side to side and then have four off of one full sheet of paper. And so then I printed 10 of the first clue and then cut it. And that got me 40 clues or whatever. So it was like, Hey, some of the clues were ways to get them to go interact with our staff. So go ask Darren what his favorite donut is. Go ask Kaylee what her favorite donut is. One of the stations that we created during this guided rec time was a temporary tattoo station, so go get a tattoo from the temporary tattoo station. Another one of 'em was to encourage them to go towards our YouTube channel or answer questions from last week's message.

Nick Clason (25:06):
And if they didn't know, it was like the answer's on YouTube so it would get them onto our YouTube channel, all that type of stuff, trying to again, hybridize it, right? So they'd grab a clue, they'd read it, and then they'd go do the thing. One of the clues was prove that you voted. So if they hadn't voted yet, they had to go fill out a paper bracket or show me they casted their vote via their phone via Instagram. And then the last and final station of guided rec was the tattoo station, as I had mentioned and alluded to, by the way, the first students come back with all seven of their clues completed. They won that giant donut. And then the last thing that they could do is they could continue to make their guests for the VAs of donuts. And then just the general rec stuff that we have.

Nick Clason (25:50):
We have a game room with nine square foosball pool and just kind of like a hangout space. And some students kind of opted into that, but there were five to six options and we gave them about 30 minutes to just do whatever they wanted. They could go do one thing the whole time, they could try and do all the things. I had one student who was like, I'm going to try and do all the things. And from that event, actually, I kind of thought and decided, what if we created a passport or a frequent flyer kind of option to let students try different things when we have a guided rec type of moment? I dunno, just an idea. Then at six 50, we called everybody back into our space. We announced the winner, sixth grade girl who won the vass of Donuts. We let them know about what Sunday morning was going to be, and then that was our final word, and we were like, Hey, thanks so much for hanging out.

Nick Clason (26:39):
Thanks for playing. We will see you next time. Love you guys. Peace, love and crabs. I think that's like a Joe's Crab Shack thing. I'm not sure. Right? All in all, I think this was a great event. Frankly, it's one of my favorite hybrid style events. And again, I remember one time I was talking about hybrid on my social, all links to my socials down the description below. But my sister was like, what do you mean by hybrid? Do you just mean zoom groups? And I can mean zoom groups, right? But this is what I mean when I talk about hybrid. I mean, create an event for one thing, and that's the thing. World's greatest donut. Linking the description to my D Y N product was already created for a voting a month worth of voting on Instagram and on your socials. Then we just said, what if we take that concept and then just craft a month around it and then craft an invite outreach event around it, and then boom, we just had donuts, we leaned in, and that's all the things that we did for it.

Nick Clason (27:35):
The point of this is not just to create vanity metrics, both in our physical space and also in our digital space with followers and whatnot, but the point of it is to step in to the space where students find themselves in 2023, right? It's like a digital mall. In fact, I have a completely free resource to help you navigate that digital mall. It's my done for you Surefire Resource 40 done for You events. On this video right here, it's going to show up on the screen what every youth ministry needs to be focusing on. I also have a video talking about a digital mall and incarnation ministry. So I'd love for you to check those things out. But until next time, we're making digital discipleship easy and accessible, and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 067: 🔮 The Future of Church Youth Ministry 🔮 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/067 c032053a-5ddd-4408-9f40-377e41b1577c Thu, 19 Oct 2023 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 067 🔮 The Future of Church Youth Ministry 🔮 full Nick Clason ⛪ In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show we want to explore the Future of Youth Ministry in the Local Church. We’re going to lean into the idea, and namesake of our show, and truly unpack the idea of: “Hybrid Ministry” 😡 Additionally, I’m going to answer the question: Does God Hate Social Media? 👌 And give you 3 Practical Tips that you can begin implementing into your student ministry space: TODAY 🔓The Church needs to unlock & unleash the next generation. They are the church of now. And Gone are the days of the one-size-fits all approaches to youth ministries. 🎨 It’s about learning and finding where youth people are, embracing diversity and creativity. 36:30 no <h3>🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCE TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥</h3> <p>📅 <strong>"1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"</strong><br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>🎥<strong>LEVEL UP YOUR YOUTUBE GEAR FOR UNDER $100</strong></p> <h2><a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></h2> <p><strong>DESCRIPTION</strong><br> ⛪ In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show we want to explore the Future of Youth Ministry in the Local Church.<br> We’re going to lean into the idea, and namesake of our show, and truly unpack the idea of: “Hybrid Ministry”</p> <p>😡 Additionally, I’m going to answer the question: Does God Hate Social Media?</p> <p>👌 And give you 3 Practical Tips that you can begin implementing into your student ministry space: TODAY</p> <p>🔓The Church needs to unlock &amp; unleash the next generation.<br> They are the church of now.<br> And Gone are the days of the one-size-fits all approaches to youth ministries.</p> <h2>🎨 It’s about learning and finding where youth people are, embracing diversity and creativity.</h2> <p><strong>🆓 FREEBIES 🆓</strong><br> 📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook</a></p> <p>📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"</p> <h2><a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis</a></h2> <p>🛠️<strong>TOOLS</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em><br> //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p>AUTO POD<br> <a href="https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv</a></p> <p>TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING<br> <a href="https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</a></p> <p>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS</p> <h2><a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></h2> <p>👉 <strong>STAY CONNECTED</strong><br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a></p> <h2>Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a> </h2> <p>📓<strong>SHOWNOTES</strong><br> //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS<br> <a href="http://www.hybridministry.xyz/067" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.hybridministry.xyz/067</a></p> <p>//BRACKETS<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-big-game-food-bracket/winter/the-big-game-8544.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-big-game-food-bracket/winter/the-big-game-8544.html</a><br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html</a><br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-student-ministry-bracket-of-epic-things/games-3974.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-student-ministry-bracket-of-epic-things/games-3974.html</a></p> <p>//SCULPT IT<br> <a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/sculpt-it/games/humor-8503.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/sculpt-it/games/humor-8503.html</a></p> <p>//SOCIAL CHALLENGE PLAYLIST<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNYRk3l4M-4&amp;list=PL_FbsNmRvDjempodvm_5FsqwakX6OidCd" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNYRk3l4M-4&amp;amp;list=PL_FbsNmRvDjempodvm_5FsqwakX6OidCd</a></p> <p>//SPIRITUAL RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/l6cp97ufmwn8gfpfkxbte/h?rlkey=s5hb09c6d6x1u9iqcdz5j1aya&amp;dl=0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/l6cp97ufmwn8gfpfkxbte/h?rlkey=s5hb09c6d6x1u9iqcdz5j1aya&amp;amp;dl=0</a></p> <p>//DUCK, DUCK, TRIVIA</p> <h2><a href="https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/duck-duck-trivia/trivia-8705.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/duck-duck-trivia/trivia-8705.html</a></h2> <p>🕰️<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00-02:03 The Future of Church Youth Ministry<br> 02:03-09:08 What does Hybrid Ministry mean?<br> 09:08-17:29 The Biblical Basis for Digital Expressions of Church<br> 17:29-29:48 3 Ways to Invest in your Online Presence</p> <h2>29:48-36:25 The Challenge of a Strong Digital Presence</h2> <p>✍️<strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com<br> rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</p> <p>Nick Clason (00:00):<br> In this episode, we are going to be exploring the question, does God hate us using social media? We're also going to be looking at unpacking and exploring and talking about the future of the church and the future of youth ministry. And finally, we are going to help lean into this idea of hybrid ministry. What is it? How do we implement it? What are the downsides of it? And lastly, we are going to offer three practical tips to help you win in your church and in your student ministry. And as always, there will be game ideas because that's just a part of the thing. The church is at this crossroads where they need to look at unlock and unleash the next generation because the next generation is the church of today, not the church of the future. Gone are the days of the one size fits all youth ministries, and so we need to help explore and unlock for you what's going to work in your context. </p> <p>Nick Clason (01:03):<br> It's about us learning diversity, creativity, and leaning into the individuality of each and every one of our students, and to help do that, to help lean into the creativity. This is why I believe that the digital space is such a great opportunity for us. In fact, I have a done for you resource if you are just kind of floundering and have no idea where to go, and that's what we talked about in this video that's going to be linked right here at the top of the screen, TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube because we are going to help you navigate the best social media to go all in on your context as well as give you a free ebook that's linked right down here below in the description to help you navigate social media for your church and for your student ministry. But without any further ado, let's dive into this episode, the future of the church, the future of youth ministry, and what exactly is hybrid ministry. </p> <p>Nick Clason (02:02):<br> Let's go. Well, hey everyone. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Clason. I am a almost 13 year youth ministry veteran, currently living and working in the D F W Dallas-Fort Worth area. And I am on a mission to help churches and youth ministries realize their potential for what they can do with digital ministry and in the digital space. In fact, that's why I have this entire podcast, this entire YouTube channel. In fact, if you didn't know, we are a podcast, so you can check out the show notes for link to our full <a href="mailto:transcripts@hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">transcripts@hybridministry.xyz</a>, but you might be asking what even is hybrid ministry? What even does that mean? And it's a little bit of a made up word I would say, but the idea of a hybrid thing, I think about it as a football fan. Think about Teem Hill of the New Orleans Saints, right? He's a hybrid style player. He can play, </p> <p>Nick Clason (02:59):<br> He can get under center, he can snap the ball and throw it, but he's also got some kind of tight end skills, some kind of H back type skills. Or as an old timey Colts fan, Dallas Clark was a great hybrid or H back style of player. He didn't fit into a one size fits all mold. And that's really my heart behind what I think hybrid ministry is another really great example. I've used it before, so if you're a long time listener, you've maybe heard it, but the idea of Home Depot when I am a customer, I am a customer of Home Depot and so if on any given Saturday I'm just feeling Super dad and I want to throw on my cargo shorts and my new balance shoes and just go peruse the aisles of Home Depot, I can do that. I can experience Home Depot in a physical sense. </p> <p>Nick Clason (03:47):<br> However, at the same time, if I don't have time to do that and I just want to place an order online, I can jump on their app and I can do that as well. But the third option is probably my favorite is a hybrid relationship with Home Depot where I grab my cell phone, I download their app while I'm in the store, I search for the thing I need, it tells me the exact aisle and bay number and location of my thing and I can walk straight there. I have a digital relationship with Home Depot while I am physically in the store at the physical location. And I think in a lot of cases that's the way that our churches need to start just thinking about because in a lot of times, especially with Covid, we did not have the physical as an option. And so we all moved to digital and it was an amazing opportunity. </p> <p>Nick Clason (04:41):<br> I think a lot of churches learned a lot. I think a lot of churches are still doing things now as a result of what happened during the pandemic, but now as restrictions have lifted and people have gone more and more back into church on a regular basis, churches have been like that stunk. Let's go back to what we know and there is so much value in what can happen in an interpersonal relationship. Please, I want you to hear that from me. I want you to know my heart, but I also believe that, I mean, you know this right there are 168 hours per week in any given week, but most churches really only focus on the one or two hours that you have a programmed scheduled event. It's like the evening news or it's, it's like sitcom appointment television. If you want to know what's going on in this series, then you better be here at 10:30 AM and that's the only time that you're ever going to know what we're talking about. </p> <p>Nick Clason (05:37):<br> And honestly, let's be honest, churches, that is a really selfish and kind of vain approach. The only way for people to grow is to make your thing appointment calendaring in their life, and that's just not the world that we live in anymore. You're going to have people do that and because you do have some people do that, you think everybody should adopt that approach. Meanwhile, there are people who do want to grow in their faith and do want to have a relationship with you and your church. However, their schedule may not allow for it. Like I know this coming Saturday we are hosting a national day of youth ministry volunteer training by D Y M, shout out d y m, but the problem is my boys have their very first game of T-ball and so unfortunately my wife can't, as a super rockstar volunteer that she is, she's not going to be able to make a portion of that training. </p> <p>Nick Clason (06:29):<br> Does that mean that she doesn't care about youth ministry and teenagers and her role in our church? Not at all. She's busy. She's got something else going on and so we always have to think and accommodate for that. And I think a lot of times churches are just like, you need to prioritize this. And that's true. Hearing me say that I believe that our people need to prioritize the things of God. However, I also believe that we are now in a time and in a space in 2023 and beyond where we can offer things to people that they can consume, that they can learn, that they can come to understand, that they can gather teachings about the importance of what our church is doing, what our church is offering in a hybrid type of moment. They have an in-person relationship with our church, but they can lean into the digital and I think a lot of churches are approaching digital as the outreach arm and that's really all it does. </p> <p>Nick Clason (07:24):<br> And then once you've come and decided to commit to the church, then you have to shift to completely in person. And I just want to tell you, I don't live that way. I got a speeding ticket last week. It was awful. I was going way too fast in zone. That should have been a much faster speed limit, but it's a speed trap. And after paying a $346 yesterday, I had the option to call to go in person or to go online to remedy that. Guess which option I chose? Just like all of you, I chose the online option. If there's a way to do it where it can be more convenient and it doesn't hinder the relationship, and I think that's what we need to do. So hybrid, it's not just about in-person or it's not just about digital. It's about finding a way to marry those two environments so that people can have a holistic and much more robust relationship with your church. </p> <p>Nick Clason (08:24):<br> Hey, listen, I hope you're getting value out of this video and we're going to continue on and we have all kinds of other videos like this, and so it would be incredible if you hit the subscribe button so that you get notified every single time we drop a video like this and listen, it costs you nothing but a really does help us out. So if you would like this video and maybe even share this along with a friend or someone else that you know who's a youth pastor or a church communications person because we are on a mission to help churches lean into the hybrid side of their ministry. But let's move on. Let's answer next question. Does God hate social media and what is there if, is there a biblical basis for leaning into digital and hybrid ministry? Let's check it out. So I know a lot of pastors, I know a lot of people, I know a lot of leaders who encourage people to lean away from digital media, social media as a means of discipleship and a means of growth. </p> <p>Nick Clason (09:23):<br> And I think in a lot of cases that that's really a healthy practice for a lot of people. I think with unfettered, unfiltered access to just doom scrolling social media time and time and time and time and time again, which I actually didn't mean to turn. Oh look, there's me. I didn't mean to turn my phone on doing that, but when people just do that over and over and over again, I know that it is not healthy. There are some definite downfalls and some definite payrolls to doing that. However, I also know that I need this thing to keep track of my calendar. I need that thing to read email. I need that thing to track my receipts. I need that thing to get me somewhere in a turn by turn. G P SS navigation system. That thing right there is where my wife and Mike's grocery list lives. </p> <p>Nick Clason (10:14):<br> It lives in a digital format on our phone that we both have access to like a shared list. And so this thing is going nowhere. And so instead of just coaching people to throw it in the fire and be done with it, while that may be what some people need to do, I think we also need to begin to think about how can we help coach people through having a cell phone? Yes, there are bad and evil things on cell phones. If you have a teenage boy, a teenage girl, the pitfalls of pornography and what is available to them in their pocket at any given moment is dangerous. However, that's not going anywhere for them and unless mom and dad want to rip that away from them, they are going to have a cell phone. So how do we help them walk through and wade through the difficulties of that reality while also realizing that in many cases this is a necessary commodity for most people in America in 2023 and beyond? </p> <p>Nick Clason (11:22):<br> I do actually believe that the Bible speaks about this and one of my favorite kind of passages of it, obviously it's not directly talking about cell phones and digital media because that didn't exist, but the principle I do believe exists. So in Jeremiah chapter 29, which is everyone's favorite bookstore, Bible verse Jeremiah 29 11, we're going to read it here in just a second, but actually starting in verse five is where we're going to start reading so that you for perhaps the first time in your life can get to hear Jeremiah 29 11 in its full context. But Jeremiah is writing to the Babylonian people who are in exile in, or I'm sorry, he's running to the Jewish people who are in exile in Babylon. So God's people are in a foreign land and he addresses their concerns. Here's what he says. I want you to build homes. </p> <p>Nick Clason (12:16):<br> I want you to plan to stay. I want you to plant gardens, eat the food that they produce, marry and have children, and then find spouses for them so that they may have many grandchildren. Multiply, don't dwindle away and work for the peace and the prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare and it will determine then ultimately your welfare. Verse eight says, this is what the Lord of the heavens armies, the God of Israel says, do not let your prophets and fortune tellers, tellers who are with you in Babylon trick you do not listen to their dreams because they're telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them, says the Lord. This is what the Lord says. You'll be in Babylon for 70 years, but then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised and I will bring you home again for I know the plans. </p> <p>Nick Clason (13:11):<br> Here it is, guys. Verse 11, for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, the plans for good, not for disaster. To give you a future and hope. I think that what God is basically saying in this verse is he's saying, invest in the place in which I have placed you. And he's saying, embrace the things of the land, of the place of the climate, of the context of which I have placed you and to the Jewish people that meant plant gardens, intermarry, have children, have grandchildren, pray for the prosperity of Babylon because that will determine and dictate the prosperity of you and your life. And in a lot of the same ways, I believe that technology is the opportunity for us to enter into a digital landscape and a digital Babylon, so to speak. And so we have the chance to lean into it. </p> <p>Nick Clason (14:01):<br> We have the chance to go towards what the people of our day are using and navigating, and we have the chance to redeem it. We have the chance to bring light into it. We have the chance to sprinkle in and even more than just sprinkle, but fully embrace and bring the great message of hope of the gospel into a digital and hybrid space. And most of the times, the pastors that I have interacted with are saying cell phones are bad and evil because most people have really bad habits with it. And so they're saying, so just don't do it. You don't need it. You don't need a digital Bible. Go get your paper Bible. I'm just saying, listen, if you're a youth pastor and you're ministering to a 13 year old who just got a new cell phone, that's really not going to play very well to them. </p> <p>Nick Clason (14:50):<br> I'm not saying that we should just cater to people. Discipleship is difficult and often we get the root word discipline from it, and so it's going to require some hard and difficult conversations. But all that being said, we are not going to successfully push people away from it and just I, listen, I get it just because, oh, well, should we cater to bad habits? Absolutely not. But there's a lot of good that can happen on here. Right now, I play fantasy football through my cell phone because of fantasy football. I have connections with people that I have worked with in the past, my family who lives in three continents on this globe. We play fantasy football together and we connect through this. My church staff right now, we have 30 people on our church staff playing fantasy football that I am help kind of spearheading and leading, and that's helping bring about some comradery among our staff. </p> <p>Nick Clason (15:47):<br> I read the Bible this morning on the Bible app through a plan that I subscribe to on my phone a lot of times when I don't have, and I read that on my iPad, and if I don't have my iPad, I will read it on my phone. One of my favorite apps on here is the Bible verse memory app, right? My point is that there's a lot of good that can happen through this, and I think we a lot of times want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. So let's lean in. Let's teach people how to navigate and make wise decisions and choices as they interact with digital and cell phone media. So the question that you're probably asking then if you're youth pastor, church communications person, is how do I invest in an online presence? What do I do? And I want to let you know before we dive into that, that if any of this is interesting to you, if any of this is ringing a bell, any of this is perking your interest that we have a website, hybridministry.xyz, and this episode is episode 67. </p> <p>Nick Clason (16:48):<br> So if you go to hybridministry.xyz slash 0 6 7 link is also down below in the description along with my 43 ideas for how to lean into digital ministry. You can get full transcripts. That's one thing that we provide completely for free in every single episode in case you're out on a run and you're hearing this and you're like, dude, I need some of that. I need to take some notes and filter some of my thoughts around some of what we're listening to in this episode. Great, we got that for you. Link in the description, hybridministry.xyz/067, but let's explore and let's answer and tackle this question. How do you invest into your online presence? I have three ideas for you to help invest more into your online presence. One idea is just up your game in your social media and your digital media presence. </p> <p>Nick Clason (17:41):<br> And so that can be all kinds of different things like your social media. Does that mean that your church or your student ministry has a pop Instagram account? I mean maybe, or is it that you launch a relevant YouTube channel maybe? Or is it that you're surfing on the TikTok trends out there on that app? TikTok could be, but whatever it is, there is an opportunity to weave in social media not only to your church attenders, but also to people out there in the world who don't know anything about you, your church or your student ministry. But my ultimate number one recommendation, especially if you're in youth ministry, and if not I still recommend this for a lot of churches, is YouTube. And what I actually have is a link in the description for how you can launch and start a YouTube channel for under $100, which by the way in 2023 is completely unheard of. </p> <p>Nick Clason (18:33):<br> So you should definitely get in on that. But what it's going to do is it's going to help you utilize and start a channel simply using your cell phone upping and leveling up your game with some microphone gear and maybe some basic lighting to just get the ball rolling so that you can have a YouTube channel. And the reason why I believe YouTube is such a strong contender is especially if you're a youth pastor, 95% of teenagers claim to use and utilize YouTube. Meanwhile, people are getting on there and think about it, how do you engage and interact with YouTube? You probably hopped on there recently and said, how do I fix this clogged sink in my guest bathroom? Right? People are getting on there and asking specific questions, and while you may be trying to figure out how to unclog your sink, a 13 year old might be saying, why does God send good people like my grandmother to hell? </p> <p>Nick Clason (19:27):<br> And you as a youth pastor have an opportunity to address and answer that particular and specific question. Now, tell me that that's not an amazing opportunity. We posted a video on our church's social media, our church's YouTube, the beginning of the school year called How to Ruin Your School Year. I think maybe we did the opposite of it, how to Not Ruin Your School Year, and it got like 150 views, and our audience is really not that big on YouTube. And I mean we have at least 150 students on our role and on our roster, but I know that not all of our students are subscribed to our YouTube are even really paying attention to our YouTube. So those 150 views did not all come from our students. My question is, would you like an opportunity as a youth pastor to have greater kingdom impact than you have currently right now in your local physical context? </p> <p>Nick Clason (20:21):<br> Maybe the answer is no, but I would wonder why the answer to that would be no. Sure, you can't nuance and go as deep, dude, that was like a 12 minute video. I had enough ability to flesh things out and flesh out ideas and explain things fully and thoroughly that you might have to leave on the cutting room floor of say, a more short form vertical video-based TikTok or YouTube short or something like that. There is opportunity really there is out there to answer specific questions of teenagers. And YouTube is powered by Google the number one largest search engine of the world, and people consider YouTube to be the second largest search engine in the world. So put answers to the questions that people are going to the second largest search engine in the world in there, trying to get answers to big matters of faith and existential realities. </p> <p>Nick Clason (21:15):<br> You have a chance to do that. And like I said, link in the description down here that will help you get your YouTube channel up the ground with just a minimal amount of gear talking head just like this video into a cell phone camera. The other idea, the third idea that I have for you are some hybrid based games if you're in youth ministry, the value of games. But one of my favorite things we do is brackets. So if March madness style, if you're a sports person, you got 64 teams, we'll do a 16 team bracket, we'll rank things kind of arbitrarily with our own sort of value-based ranking system. We have a platypus mascot in our student ministry and that was voted on competing against 16 other animals. So we had a yak and we had a lamb, which was a 16 seed, which almost won and upset the number one seed a lion. </p> <p>Nick Clason (22:11):<br> We had a baboon on there, and what ultimately won was the platypus. I think that's the generation of Finn. And for talking one of my favorite brackets, I actually have a couple on download youth ministry. I'll put the link to those in descriptions if you want to go check 'em out or create your own. But we will do a Super Bowl food or big game day food bracket so that students can self-select what foods, what snacks are going to be at the Super Bowl party, and just a couple of weeks at the time of this recording. So probably by the time this drops, it'll be happening live. Feel free to go check it out at Cross Creek students. That's all of our handles on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, but we are going to be launching the world's greatest donut bracket, and it's going to be students selecting the world's greatest donut. </p> <p>Nick Clason (22:58):<br> Here's the cool thing though. We just paid for, I don't know, a couple hundred dollars banner to be installed in one of our walls that we can reuse and replicate every single time we run a bracket. We'll probably do two or three of these a year where we can hang it in our physical space. So as students walk in, they'll see it, but then the push is for them to jump on Instagram and cast their vote, jump on social media and let it be known what they're going to be voting for. And so that's a way to be hybrid. We're talking about it, announcing it and making it a big deal in our physical space, and we're giving students even a chance to vote physically on a piece of paper, but then we're also pushing it towards digital media. Those things get a ton of traction in our context. </p> <p>Nick Clason (23:47):<br> People talk about it, especially on staff people like which one won? How did you rank that one that it incites a little bit of faux riot. Okay. Another thing is we will do a lot of, we'll do some things called social challenges. I'll link the playlist that we do on that YouTube, but we will grab a couple of students every single Wednesday night, film them on camera, and then post that to YouTube. We'll clip it up into a short, and that'll be something that we can post on shorts as well, but that gives students a chance to compete in certain challenges or taskmaster type challenges. Again, that's a way to use the students in your physical space and promote and pump them up on your digital platforms. And other things you can do game wise is just create some sort of contest where there's a drawing contest or a sculpture contest or a dancing contest or whatever. </p> <p>Nick Clason (24:42):<br> You can post those on social media and let people vote, cast their vote. Did you like A or B better, right? Like gingerbread houses or we'll do Plato sculpture things. I have a game on D y M called Sculpt It, and then we've done before. It's really fun. But we post all those on social media and then we let people cast their vote for the winner, and then the next time we get together the next week or that following Sunday, we'll give away a prize to the winning team or the winning table for their contribution in that game. Those are just ways to marry your in-person with your online and make it more hybrid. Make it last beyond the one hour a week that you have your students in your student ministry. Another idea, so that's just upping your digital presence game. And hey, like I said, link in the description for 40 ideas, 40 done for you ideas in vertical, vertical video based content like TikTok, YouTube shorts, Instagram reels that you can start adopting now. </p> <p>Nick Clason (25:39):<br> And all of those ideas, by the way, are ideas that are recyclable. So for example, you can use the same, I just posted a game. We're calling it telepathy, but you can name it whatever you want to name it. I got it from some guys on YouTube shorts who call it wavelength, but one guy's thinking of a number and another guy's asking him for certain categories of things. So like the one I just posted, they asked for candy sport, clothing brand and day of the week, and then you give an item that is that number that's in your head. So my buddy was thinking of number three, and she said, candy, and he said, black licorice, which I think it's probably lower than a three if you ask me, but that's just me. And then she said, okay, how about sport? And he said, golf. </p> <p>Nick Clason (26:23):<br> And then she said, okay, how about sport or athletic wear? And he said, new balance. And then she said, how about day of the week? And he said, Tuesday, she guessed that the number was four, but it was really three in his head, right? That's just a fun game. You can do a little bit of post-production editing if you want, even if you have no editing skills, you can do most of that on your cell phone to make that happen. By the way, I have a complete ebook, another one on how to post a TikTok from scratch. I'll also link that down below in the description. But all these are ways for you to just start taking steps to up your game and your social media. All right, the other idea, what about, so that's digital presence. What about web access, right? Is your website up to date? </p> <p>Nick Clason (27:03):<br> That's all I'm asking. Is your website up to date? And there's this idea, do we push info to people or do we ask them to pull it for themselves? And I believe that we should do both, but I believe that you can push info, but people should always know that the answer to every single one of their questions lies on the website. So yes, send that Tuesday email reminding them about the fundraiser coming up on Saturday, but let them know that in the email, Hey, all this info is available on our website so that when Friday night rolls around and the mom and dad are thinking about how to get their kids where they need to go on Saturday, and they know that one of the kids is going to the fundraiser at church, they have to figure out where they are, what time they have to drop them off. </p> <p>Nick Clason (27:46):<br> They don't have to go dig back through their email that they've gotten 125 other spam emails between Tuesday and Friday night. They can just go straight to your website. Is your church website up to date? Listen, people live in an on demand world. They're not relying on your email to give them the information that they need. They want to be informed, but then they also, they want to know or to go to get what they need information wise. So make sure your website is up to date. And then the third hybrid idea I have are just simply like individual tools. I'll link a few of these in the description down below. But in our student ministry, like I said, we did a video called Three Ways to Ruin Your School Year, and it was basically don't connect with God. And so in the reverse, we gave them three connections with God ideas, memorizing scripture, reading the Bible, and spending time in prayer. </p> <p>Nick Clason (28:46):<br> And we created just a downloadable resource for them to use and utilize on their phone. It also pointed them and push them towards apps or YouVersion, Bible reading plans. So if you want to see some of those, you can check those out. But those are just ideas of things that you can help put in your student's hand. You can print physical copies if you want. You can also offer a digital version of it on your website or in an email download. And if you have an actual communications marketing department, you can put those behind Handshake websites where people have to put their name and email in, and you can use that to start building lists and things like that, which is a really good marketing practice. But if you don't want to know how to do that and you don't have a communications department, you can just put free resources on your website for people to grab, however and whenever. </p> <p>Nick Clason (29:35):<br> But what about the challenge? What is difficult about doing this? I hear you on the other side of this video. Don't have time. No way I can do this. Great. We're going to address that in the next section. Look, I get it. This is a lot. And as I'm explaining this, you're like, bro, I don't have time to do any of this. I know it's a lot of work. In fact, there's a tension, an inherent tension that will lie when you choose to enter into a hybrid space. The best example I have is the church I worked at before here. I started out on the very first day of Covid. I don't recommend that as a strategy, but I dunno how any of you can avoid that if you're taking a new job. But because I started on the first day of Covid, the very first thing that I did that we did, that our church did, that our student ministry did was launch a YouTube channel. </p> <p>Nick Clason (30:23):<br> Well, they already had a YouTube channel, but launch a YouTube show. We called it unscripted and most churches during Covid, it was a in-person programming, youth ministry replacement. And dude, it was innovative. It was one of a kind. I really did not see a lot of other churches doing a full on show direct to camera, not just camera in the back of the room. There was a lot of power behind it. There was a lot of creative team members, videographers, contractors that were working on it. But then, as you know, slowly covid started to kind of wind down in-person, became more and more of a thing, and we started having more and more students back on campus and back in the room, but unscripted didn't go anywhere. In fact, we wanted to let unscripted serve as the small group teaching element, teaching moment in multiple in-person small group meetings in various host home locations throughout the city that lent itself better for geography. </p> <p>Nick Clason (31:33):<br> We were in a mega church, and so a lot of people drove many, many miles to our church. And so we could put houses 20 minutes away from the campus, but closer to where students lived. We could also offer groups on multiple days of the week as students are super, super duper busy. It was a really, really, and because Covid had ushered us into this moment, it allowed us the chance to sort of rethink and reinvent how we disseminated our teaching and got the Bible into the hands of our small group leaders and into the hands of our children. But more and more people were clamoring for on-campus stuff, especially in light of Covid. And so this tension between is this good for the show? Is this good for online? Is this good for YouTube versus is this what's best for in the room? Became this tension and ultimately became insurmountable to the point where the show got canceled. </p> <p>Nick Clason (32:25):<br> Now, the downside, the real thing, the real rub you got to answer is we have kids sitting right in front of us every single week. Is YouTube the best strategy for those kids? That's probably got to be your number one priority, but the challenge is that there's going to be a tension between the online and the in-person constantly. And it's going to be so easy when it feels so insurmountable that you just say, forget it. I can't worry about the online anymore. I just got to focus on the in-person. And I don't necessarily have a formula or an answer for you, but what I do know is that there were some times where we did some things where we faced a challenge and we were tempted to just be like, you know what? Forget it. That's not the priority here. And we said, no, no, no, no, we're not going to do that. </p> <p>Nick Clason (33:19):<br> We're going to lean in and we're going to figure this thing out. And so one of my favorite things, in fact, I have a game that sort of tried to mimic it. It's not as good though because it's not like a full on show with our youth pastors and our personalities, but it's called Duck Duck Trivia, and it's where you play duck, duck goose in a circle. But in the meantime, there's a trivia game happening on the screen. I have it on D y m, but we did a version of it with our show. And anytime you heard a squeak with one of the rubber ducks that we had, people had to get up and play duck, duck goose in the room while also paying attention to the screen and playing trivia. I created a sheet, a downloadable note sheet for them to keep track of and take notes of. </p> <p>Nick Clason (33:59):<br> The point I'm making with all that is that there was a way to win in the room and win online, and it was epic. You know what I mean? But you got to spend more time and you got to think outside the box. You can't just throw a four corners game on the screen and be like, that's going to crush on YouTube. It just might not. The other challenge of it is just going to be a time constraints challenge, right? Digital media, video editing, graphic design soaks up a lot of time. And if you're a lone ranger, if you're a one man band, if you're doing this on your own, bro, I get it, you're going to be spending a lot of time on it. Again, the temptation is going to be to just throw it out, throw the baby out with the bath water, don't need it anymore. </p> <p>Nick Clason (34:42):<br> But if you lean into it, you can find some good on the other side of the mountain there. The fact is, you just have to value it. Your church has to value it. Your supervisor has to value you spending your time on it and notice and point out and know that it is making a difference, even if it's not seen and felt immediately right away. And that's the, that's the third shadow side. You have to determine your win with this because the payoff for digital is not immediate. And you have to answer questions like, is this to reach outsiders? Is this to serve and help mature our insiders? What is the real reason behind this? But here's my thing, because of what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah chapter 29, I do believe we should invest in where we are. So I think out of this video, I'd love to encourage you, I'd even love to hear from you, comment below, but what's one next action step that you're going to take today? </p> <p>Nick Clason (35:33):<br> Maybe it's just like, you know what? I'm going to stop just only posting announcement graphics to my Instagram. I'm going to start leaning in a little bit to an Instagram strategy. Maybe it's I'm going to launch a YouTube channel. Hit that link in description, a hundred dollars, YouTube starter kit, whatever the case might be, what is going to be your next step, but just start now. But listen, remember, grab my surefire resource 40 done for you ideas to help you just navigate this link in the description or in the show notes, hybridministry.xyz, and right here, this is why every single church needs a strong digital presence. I flesh it out, I explain it. I give you my strategy in this video. It's linked right here on the screen. Go check that out or go check out this YouTube playlist video teaching you how to start your YouTube channel from scratch. But we're trying to make digital ministry accessible, reachable possible, so don't forget, and as always, stay hybrid.</p> The Future of Youth Ministry, Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Youth Ministry Podcast, Hybrid Ministry, Youth Group Games, How to Grow Youth Youth Ministry, Ministry, Hybrid Church, Digital Ministry, Digital Youth Ministry, Social Media Ministry, Church Growth, Church Social Media, Digital Ministry Strategy, Digital Ministry Ideas 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCE TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

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DESCRIPTION
⛪ In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show we want to explore the Future of Youth Ministry in the Local Church.
We’re going to lean into the idea, and namesake of our show, and truly unpack the idea of: “Hybrid Ministry”

😡 Additionally, I’m going to answer the question: Does God Hate Social Media?

👌 And give you 3 Practical Tips that you can begin implementing into your student ministry space: TODAY

🔓The Church needs to unlock & unleash the next generation.
They are the church of now.
And Gone are the days of the one-size-fits all approaches to youth ministries.

🎨 It’s about learning and finding where youth people are, embracing diversity and creativity.

🆓 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

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TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
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👉 STAY CONNECTED
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
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TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick

Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/067

//BRACKETS
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-big-game-food-bracket/winter/the-big-game-8544.html
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-student-ministry-bracket-of-epic-things/games-3974.html

//SCULPT IT
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/sculpt-it/games/humor-8503.html

//SOCIAL CHALLENGE PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNYRk3l4M-4&list=PL_FbsNmRvDjempodvm_5FsqwakX6OidCd

//SPIRITUAL RESOURCES
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/l6cp97ufmwn8gfpfkxbte/h?rlkey=s5hb09c6d6x1u9iqcdz5j1aya&dl=0

//DUCK, DUCK, TRIVIA

https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/duck-duck-trivia/trivia-8705.html

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-02:03 The Future of Church Youth Ministry
02:03-09:08 What does Hybrid Ministry mean?
09:08-17:29 The Biblical Basis for Digital Expressions of Church
17:29-29:48 3 Ways to Invest in your Online Presence

29:48-36:25 The Challenge of a Strong Digital Presence

✍️TRANSCRIPT
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Nick Clason (00:00):
In this episode, we are going to be exploring the question, does God hate us using social media? We're also going to be looking at unpacking and exploring and talking about the future of the church and the future of youth ministry. And finally, we are going to help lean into this idea of hybrid ministry. What is it? How do we implement it? What are the downsides of it? And lastly, we are going to offer three practical tips to help you win in your church and in your student ministry. And as always, there will be game ideas because that's just a part of the thing. The church is at this crossroads where they need to look at unlock and unleash the next generation because the next generation is the church of today, not the church of the future. Gone are the days of the one size fits all youth ministries, and so we need to help explore and unlock for you what's going to work in your context.

Nick Clason (01:03):
It's about us learning diversity, creativity, and leaning into the individuality of each and every one of our students, and to help do that, to help lean into the creativity. This is why I believe that the digital space is such a great opportunity for us. In fact, I have a done for you resource if you are just kind of floundering and have no idea where to go, and that's what we talked about in this video that's going to be linked right here at the top of the screen, TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube because we are going to help you navigate the best social media to go all in on your context as well as give you a free ebook that's linked right down here below in the description to help you navigate social media for your church and for your student ministry. But without any further ado, let's dive into this episode, the future of the church, the future of youth ministry, and what exactly is hybrid ministry.

Nick Clason (02:02):
Let's go. Well, hey everyone. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Clason. I am a almost 13 year youth ministry veteran, currently living and working in the D F W Dallas-Fort Worth area. And I am on a mission to help churches and youth ministries realize their potential for what they can do with digital ministry and in the digital space. In fact, that's why I have this entire podcast, this entire YouTube channel. In fact, if you didn't know, we are a podcast, so you can check out the show notes for link to our full transcripts@hybridministry.xyz, but you might be asking what even is hybrid ministry? What even does that mean? And it's a little bit of a made up word I would say, but the idea of a hybrid thing, I think about it as a football fan. Think about Teem Hill of the New Orleans Saints, right? He's a hybrid style player. He can play,

Nick Clason (02:59):
He can get under center, he can snap the ball and throw it, but he's also got some kind of tight end skills, some kind of H back type skills. Or as an old timey Colts fan, Dallas Clark was a great hybrid or H back style of player. He didn't fit into a one size fits all mold. And that's really my heart behind what I think hybrid ministry is another really great example. I've used it before, so if you're a long time listener, you've maybe heard it, but the idea of Home Depot when I am a customer, I am a customer of Home Depot and so if on any given Saturday I'm just feeling Super dad and I want to throw on my cargo shorts and my new balance shoes and just go peruse the aisles of Home Depot, I can do that. I can experience Home Depot in a physical sense.

Nick Clason (03:47):
However, at the same time, if I don't have time to do that and I just want to place an order online, I can jump on their app and I can do that as well. But the third option is probably my favorite is a hybrid relationship with Home Depot where I grab my cell phone, I download their app while I'm in the store, I search for the thing I need, it tells me the exact aisle and bay number and location of my thing and I can walk straight there. I have a digital relationship with Home Depot while I am physically in the store at the physical location. And I think in a lot of cases that's the way that our churches need to start just thinking about because in a lot of times, especially with Covid, we did not have the physical as an option. And so we all moved to digital and it was an amazing opportunity.

Nick Clason (04:41):
I think a lot of churches learned a lot. I think a lot of churches are still doing things now as a result of what happened during the pandemic, but now as restrictions have lifted and people have gone more and more back into church on a regular basis, churches have been like that stunk. Let's go back to what we know and there is so much value in what can happen in an interpersonal relationship. Please, I want you to hear that from me. I want you to know my heart, but I also believe that, I mean, you know this right there are 168 hours per week in any given week, but most churches really only focus on the one or two hours that you have a programmed scheduled event. It's like the evening news or it's, it's like sitcom appointment television. If you want to know what's going on in this series, then you better be here at 10:30 AM and that's the only time that you're ever going to know what we're talking about.

Nick Clason (05:37):
And honestly, let's be honest, churches, that is a really selfish and kind of vain approach. The only way for people to grow is to make your thing appointment calendaring in their life, and that's just not the world that we live in anymore. You're going to have people do that and because you do have some people do that, you think everybody should adopt that approach. Meanwhile, there are people who do want to grow in their faith and do want to have a relationship with you and your church. However, their schedule may not allow for it. Like I know this coming Saturday we are hosting a national day of youth ministry volunteer training by D Y M, shout out d y m, but the problem is my boys have their very first game of T-ball and so unfortunately my wife can't, as a super rockstar volunteer that she is, she's not going to be able to make a portion of that training.

Nick Clason (06:29):
Does that mean that she doesn't care about youth ministry and teenagers and her role in our church? Not at all. She's busy. She's got something else going on and so we always have to think and accommodate for that. And I think a lot of times churches are just like, you need to prioritize this. And that's true. Hearing me say that I believe that our people need to prioritize the things of God. However, I also believe that we are now in a time and in a space in 2023 and beyond where we can offer things to people that they can consume, that they can learn, that they can come to understand, that they can gather teachings about the importance of what our church is doing, what our church is offering in a hybrid type of moment. They have an in-person relationship with our church, but they can lean into the digital and I think a lot of churches are approaching digital as the outreach arm and that's really all it does.

Nick Clason (07:24):
And then once you've come and decided to commit to the church, then you have to shift to completely in person. And I just want to tell you, I don't live that way. I got a speeding ticket last week. It was awful. I was going way too fast in zone. That should have been a much faster speed limit, but it's a speed trap. And after paying a $346 yesterday, I had the option to call to go in person or to go online to remedy that. Guess which option I chose? Just like all of you, I chose the online option. If there's a way to do it where it can be more convenient and it doesn't hinder the relationship, and I think that's what we need to do. So hybrid, it's not just about in-person or it's not just about digital. It's about finding a way to marry those two environments so that people can have a holistic and much more robust relationship with your church.

Nick Clason (08:24):
Hey, listen, I hope you're getting value out of this video and we're going to continue on and we have all kinds of other videos like this, and so it would be incredible if you hit the subscribe button so that you get notified every single time we drop a video like this and listen, it costs you nothing but a really does help us out. So if you would like this video and maybe even share this along with a friend or someone else that you know who's a youth pastor or a church communications person because we are on a mission to help churches lean into the hybrid side of their ministry. But let's move on. Let's answer next question. Does God hate social media and what is there if, is there a biblical basis for leaning into digital and hybrid ministry? Let's check it out. So I know a lot of pastors, I know a lot of people, I know a lot of leaders who encourage people to lean away from digital media, social media as a means of discipleship and a means of growth.

Nick Clason (09:23):
And I think in a lot of cases that that's really a healthy practice for a lot of people. I think with unfettered, unfiltered access to just doom scrolling social media time and time and time and time and time again, which I actually didn't mean to turn. Oh look, there's me. I didn't mean to turn my phone on doing that, but when people just do that over and over and over again, I know that it is not healthy. There are some definite downfalls and some definite payrolls to doing that. However, I also know that I need this thing to keep track of my calendar. I need that thing to read email. I need that thing to track my receipts. I need that thing to get me somewhere in a turn by turn. G P SS navigation system. That thing right there is where my wife and Mike's grocery list lives.

Nick Clason (10:14):
It lives in a digital format on our phone that we both have access to like a shared list. And so this thing is going nowhere. And so instead of just coaching people to throw it in the fire and be done with it, while that may be what some people need to do, I think we also need to begin to think about how can we help coach people through having a cell phone? Yes, there are bad and evil things on cell phones. If you have a teenage boy, a teenage girl, the pitfalls of pornography and what is available to them in their pocket at any given moment is dangerous. However, that's not going anywhere for them and unless mom and dad want to rip that away from them, they are going to have a cell phone. So how do we help them walk through and wade through the difficulties of that reality while also realizing that in many cases this is a necessary commodity for most people in America in 2023 and beyond?

Nick Clason (11:22):
I do actually believe that the Bible speaks about this and one of my favorite kind of passages of it, obviously it's not directly talking about cell phones and digital media because that didn't exist, but the principle I do believe exists. So in Jeremiah chapter 29, which is everyone's favorite bookstore, Bible verse Jeremiah 29 11, we're going to read it here in just a second, but actually starting in verse five is where we're going to start reading so that you for perhaps the first time in your life can get to hear Jeremiah 29 11 in its full context. But Jeremiah is writing to the Babylonian people who are in exile in, or I'm sorry, he's running to the Jewish people who are in exile in Babylon. So God's people are in a foreign land and he addresses their concerns. Here's what he says. I want you to build homes.

Nick Clason (12:16):
I want you to plan to stay. I want you to plant gardens, eat the food that they produce, marry and have children, and then find spouses for them so that they may have many grandchildren. Multiply, don't dwindle away and work for the peace and the prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare and it will determine then ultimately your welfare. Verse eight says, this is what the Lord of the heavens armies, the God of Israel says, do not let your prophets and fortune tellers, tellers who are with you in Babylon trick you do not listen to their dreams because they're telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them, says the Lord. This is what the Lord says. You'll be in Babylon for 70 years, but then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised and I will bring you home again for I know the plans.

Nick Clason (13:11):
Here it is, guys. Verse 11, for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, the plans for good, not for disaster. To give you a future and hope. I think that what God is basically saying in this verse is he's saying, invest in the place in which I have placed you. And he's saying, embrace the things of the land, of the place of the climate, of the context of which I have placed you and to the Jewish people that meant plant gardens, intermarry, have children, have grandchildren, pray for the prosperity of Babylon because that will determine and dictate the prosperity of you and your life. And in a lot of the same ways, I believe that technology is the opportunity for us to enter into a digital landscape and a digital Babylon, so to speak. And so we have the chance to lean into it.

Nick Clason (14:01):
We have the chance to go towards what the people of our day are using and navigating, and we have the chance to redeem it. We have the chance to bring light into it. We have the chance to sprinkle in and even more than just sprinkle, but fully embrace and bring the great message of hope of the gospel into a digital and hybrid space. And most of the times, the pastors that I have interacted with are saying cell phones are bad and evil because most people have really bad habits with it. And so they're saying, so just don't do it. You don't need it. You don't need a digital Bible. Go get your paper Bible. I'm just saying, listen, if you're a youth pastor and you're ministering to a 13 year old who just got a new cell phone, that's really not going to play very well to them.

Nick Clason (14:50):
I'm not saying that we should just cater to people. Discipleship is difficult and often we get the root word discipline from it, and so it's going to require some hard and difficult conversations. But all that being said, we are not going to successfully push people away from it and just I, listen, I get it just because, oh, well, should we cater to bad habits? Absolutely not. But there's a lot of good that can happen on here. Right now, I play fantasy football through my cell phone because of fantasy football. I have connections with people that I have worked with in the past, my family who lives in three continents on this globe. We play fantasy football together and we connect through this. My church staff right now, we have 30 people on our church staff playing fantasy football that I am help kind of spearheading and leading, and that's helping bring about some comradery among our staff.

Nick Clason (15:47):
I read the Bible this morning on the Bible app through a plan that I subscribe to on my phone a lot of times when I don't have, and I read that on my iPad, and if I don't have my iPad, I will read it on my phone. One of my favorite apps on here is the Bible verse memory app, right? My point is that there's a lot of good that can happen through this, and I think we a lot of times want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. So let's lean in. Let's teach people how to navigate and make wise decisions and choices as they interact with digital and cell phone media. So the question that you're probably asking then if you're youth pastor, church communications person, is how do I invest in an online presence? What do I do? And I want to let you know before we dive into that, that if any of this is interesting to you, if any of this is ringing a bell, any of this is perking your interest that we have a website, hybridministry.xyz, and this episode is episode 67.

Nick Clason (16:48):
So if you go to hybridministry.xyz slash 0 6 7 link is also down below in the description along with my 43 ideas for how to lean into digital ministry. You can get full transcripts. That's one thing that we provide completely for free in every single episode in case you're out on a run and you're hearing this and you're like, dude, I need some of that. I need to take some notes and filter some of my thoughts around some of what we're listening to in this episode. Great, we got that for you. Link in the description, hybridministry.xyz/067, but let's explore and let's answer and tackle this question. How do you invest into your online presence? I have three ideas for you to help invest more into your online presence. One idea is just up your game in your social media and your digital media presence.

Nick Clason (17:41):
And so that can be all kinds of different things like your social media. Does that mean that your church or your student ministry has a pop Instagram account? I mean maybe, or is it that you launch a relevant YouTube channel maybe? Or is it that you're surfing on the TikTok trends out there on that app? TikTok could be, but whatever it is, there is an opportunity to weave in social media not only to your church attenders, but also to people out there in the world who don't know anything about you, your church or your student ministry. But my ultimate number one recommendation, especially if you're in youth ministry, and if not I still recommend this for a lot of churches, is YouTube. And what I actually have is a link in the description for how you can launch and start a YouTube channel for under $100, which by the way in 2023 is completely unheard of.

Nick Clason (18:33):
So you should definitely get in on that. But what it's going to do is it's going to help you utilize and start a channel simply using your cell phone upping and leveling up your game with some microphone gear and maybe some basic lighting to just get the ball rolling so that you can have a YouTube channel. And the reason why I believe YouTube is such a strong contender is especially if you're a youth pastor, 95% of teenagers claim to use and utilize YouTube. Meanwhile, people are getting on there and think about it, how do you engage and interact with YouTube? You probably hopped on there recently and said, how do I fix this clogged sink in my guest bathroom? Right? People are getting on there and asking specific questions, and while you may be trying to figure out how to unclog your sink, a 13 year old might be saying, why does God send good people like my grandmother to hell?

Nick Clason (19:27):
And you as a youth pastor have an opportunity to address and answer that particular and specific question. Now, tell me that that's not an amazing opportunity. We posted a video on our church's social media, our church's YouTube, the beginning of the school year called How to Ruin Your School Year. I think maybe we did the opposite of it, how to Not Ruin Your School Year, and it got like 150 views, and our audience is really not that big on YouTube. And I mean we have at least 150 students on our role and on our roster, but I know that not all of our students are subscribed to our YouTube are even really paying attention to our YouTube. So those 150 views did not all come from our students. My question is, would you like an opportunity as a youth pastor to have greater kingdom impact than you have currently right now in your local physical context?

Nick Clason (20:21):
Maybe the answer is no, but I would wonder why the answer to that would be no. Sure, you can't nuance and go as deep, dude, that was like a 12 minute video. I had enough ability to flesh things out and flesh out ideas and explain things fully and thoroughly that you might have to leave on the cutting room floor of say, a more short form vertical video-based TikTok or YouTube short or something like that. There is opportunity really there is out there to answer specific questions of teenagers. And YouTube is powered by Google the number one largest search engine of the world, and people consider YouTube to be the second largest search engine in the world. So put answers to the questions that people are going to the second largest search engine in the world in there, trying to get answers to big matters of faith and existential realities.

Nick Clason (21:15):
You have a chance to do that. And like I said, link in the description down here that will help you get your YouTube channel up the ground with just a minimal amount of gear talking head just like this video into a cell phone camera. The other idea, the third idea that I have for you are some hybrid based games if you're in youth ministry, the value of games. But one of my favorite things we do is brackets. So if March madness style, if you're a sports person, you got 64 teams, we'll do a 16 team bracket, we'll rank things kind of arbitrarily with our own sort of value-based ranking system. We have a platypus mascot in our student ministry and that was voted on competing against 16 other animals. So we had a yak and we had a lamb, which was a 16 seed, which almost won and upset the number one seed a lion.

Nick Clason (22:11):
We had a baboon on there, and what ultimately won was the platypus. I think that's the generation of Finn. And for talking one of my favorite brackets, I actually have a couple on download youth ministry. I'll put the link to those in descriptions if you want to go check 'em out or create your own. But we will do a Super Bowl food or big game day food bracket so that students can self-select what foods, what snacks are going to be at the Super Bowl party, and just a couple of weeks at the time of this recording. So probably by the time this drops, it'll be happening live. Feel free to go check it out at Cross Creek students. That's all of our handles on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, but we are going to be launching the world's greatest donut bracket, and it's going to be students selecting the world's greatest donut.

Nick Clason (22:58):
Here's the cool thing though. We just paid for, I don't know, a couple hundred dollars banner to be installed in one of our walls that we can reuse and replicate every single time we run a bracket. We'll probably do two or three of these a year where we can hang it in our physical space. So as students walk in, they'll see it, but then the push is for them to jump on Instagram and cast their vote, jump on social media and let it be known what they're going to be voting for. And so that's a way to be hybrid. We're talking about it, announcing it and making it a big deal in our physical space, and we're giving students even a chance to vote physically on a piece of paper, but then we're also pushing it towards digital media. Those things get a ton of traction in our context.

Nick Clason (23:47):
People talk about it, especially on staff people like which one won? How did you rank that one that it incites a little bit of faux riot. Okay. Another thing is we will do a lot of, we'll do some things called social challenges. I'll link the playlist that we do on that YouTube, but we will grab a couple of students every single Wednesday night, film them on camera, and then post that to YouTube. We'll clip it up into a short, and that'll be something that we can post on shorts as well, but that gives students a chance to compete in certain challenges or taskmaster type challenges. Again, that's a way to use the students in your physical space and promote and pump them up on your digital platforms. And other things you can do game wise is just create some sort of contest where there's a drawing contest or a sculpture contest or a dancing contest or whatever.

Nick Clason (24:42):
You can post those on social media and let people vote, cast their vote. Did you like A or B better, right? Like gingerbread houses or we'll do Plato sculpture things. I have a game on D y M called Sculpt It, and then we've done before. It's really fun. But we post all those on social media and then we let people cast their vote for the winner, and then the next time we get together the next week or that following Sunday, we'll give away a prize to the winning team or the winning table for their contribution in that game. Those are just ways to marry your in-person with your online and make it more hybrid. Make it last beyond the one hour a week that you have your students in your student ministry. Another idea, so that's just upping your digital presence game. And hey, like I said, link in the description for 40 ideas, 40 done for you ideas in vertical, vertical video based content like TikTok, YouTube shorts, Instagram reels that you can start adopting now.

Nick Clason (25:39):
And all of those ideas, by the way, are ideas that are recyclable. So for example, you can use the same, I just posted a game. We're calling it telepathy, but you can name it whatever you want to name it. I got it from some guys on YouTube shorts who call it wavelength, but one guy's thinking of a number and another guy's asking him for certain categories of things. So like the one I just posted, they asked for candy sport, clothing brand and day of the week, and then you give an item that is that number that's in your head. So my buddy was thinking of number three, and she said, candy, and he said, black licorice, which I think it's probably lower than a three if you ask me, but that's just me. And then she said, okay, how about sport? And he said, golf.

Nick Clason (26:23):
And then she said, okay, how about sport or athletic wear? And he said, new balance. And then she said, how about day of the week? And he said, Tuesday, she guessed that the number was four, but it was really three in his head, right? That's just a fun game. You can do a little bit of post-production editing if you want, even if you have no editing skills, you can do most of that on your cell phone to make that happen. By the way, I have a complete ebook, another one on how to post a TikTok from scratch. I'll also link that down below in the description. But all these are ways for you to just start taking steps to up your game and your social media. All right, the other idea, what about, so that's digital presence. What about web access, right? Is your website up to date?

Nick Clason (27:03):
That's all I'm asking. Is your website up to date? And there's this idea, do we push info to people or do we ask them to pull it for themselves? And I believe that we should do both, but I believe that you can push info, but people should always know that the answer to every single one of their questions lies on the website. So yes, send that Tuesday email reminding them about the fundraiser coming up on Saturday, but let them know that in the email, Hey, all this info is available on our website so that when Friday night rolls around and the mom and dad are thinking about how to get their kids where they need to go on Saturday, and they know that one of the kids is going to the fundraiser at church, they have to figure out where they are, what time they have to drop them off.

Nick Clason (27:46):
They don't have to go dig back through their email that they've gotten 125 other spam emails between Tuesday and Friday night. They can just go straight to your website. Is your church website up to date? Listen, people live in an on demand world. They're not relying on your email to give them the information that they need. They want to be informed, but then they also, they want to know or to go to get what they need information wise. So make sure your website is up to date. And then the third hybrid idea I have are just simply like individual tools. I'll link a few of these in the description down below. But in our student ministry, like I said, we did a video called Three Ways to Ruin Your School Year, and it was basically don't connect with God. And so in the reverse, we gave them three connections with God ideas, memorizing scripture, reading the Bible, and spending time in prayer.

Nick Clason (28:46):
And we created just a downloadable resource for them to use and utilize on their phone. It also pointed them and push them towards apps or YouVersion, Bible reading plans. So if you want to see some of those, you can check those out. But those are just ideas of things that you can help put in your student's hand. You can print physical copies if you want. You can also offer a digital version of it on your website or in an email download. And if you have an actual communications marketing department, you can put those behind Handshake websites where people have to put their name and email in, and you can use that to start building lists and things like that, which is a really good marketing practice. But if you don't want to know how to do that and you don't have a communications department, you can just put free resources on your website for people to grab, however and whenever.

Nick Clason (29:35):
But what about the challenge? What is difficult about doing this? I hear you on the other side of this video. Don't have time. No way I can do this. Great. We're going to address that in the next section. Look, I get it. This is a lot. And as I'm explaining this, you're like, bro, I don't have time to do any of this. I know it's a lot of work. In fact, there's a tension, an inherent tension that will lie when you choose to enter into a hybrid space. The best example I have is the church I worked at before here. I started out on the very first day of Covid. I don't recommend that as a strategy, but I dunno how any of you can avoid that if you're taking a new job. But because I started on the first day of Covid, the very first thing that I did that we did, that our church did, that our student ministry did was launch a YouTube channel.

Nick Clason (30:23):
Well, they already had a YouTube channel, but launch a YouTube show. We called it unscripted and most churches during Covid, it was a in-person programming, youth ministry replacement. And dude, it was innovative. It was one of a kind. I really did not see a lot of other churches doing a full on show direct to camera, not just camera in the back of the room. There was a lot of power behind it. There was a lot of creative team members, videographers, contractors that were working on it. But then, as you know, slowly covid started to kind of wind down in-person, became more and more of a thing, and we started having more and more students back on campus and back in the room, but unscripted didn't go anywhere. In fact, we wanted to let unscripted serve as the small group teaching element, teaching moment in multiple in-person small group meetings in various host home locations throughout the city that lent itself better for geography.

Nick Clason (31:33):
We were in a mega church, and so a lot of people drove many, many miles to our church. And so we could put houses 20 minutes away from the campus, but closer to where students lived. We could also offer groups on multiple days of the week as students are super, super duper busy. It was a really, really, and because Covid had ushered us into this moment, it allowed us the chance to sort of rethink and reinvent how we disseminated our teaching and got the Bible into the hands of our small group leaders and into the hands of our children. But more and more people were clamoring for on-campus stuff, especially in light of Covid. And so this tension between is this good for the show? Is this good for online? Is this good for YouTube versus is this what's best for in the room? Became this tension and ultimately became insurmountable to the point where the show got canceled.

Nick Clason (32:25):
Now, the downside, the real thing, the real rub you got to answer is we have kids sitting right in front of us every single week. Is YouTube the best strategy for those kids? That's probably got to be your number one priority, but the challenge is that there's going to be a tension between the online and the in-person constantly. And it's going to be so easy when it feels so insurmountable that you just say, forget it. I can't worry about the online anymore. I just got to focus on the in-person. And I don't necessarily have a formula or an answer for you, but what I do know is that there were some times where we did some things where we faced a challenge and we were tempted to just be like, you know what? Forget it. That's not the priority here. And we said, no, no, no, no, we're not going to do that.

Nick Clason (33:19):
We're going to lean in and we're going to figure this thing out. And so one of my favorite things, in fact, I have a game that sort of tried to mimic it. It's not as good though because it's not like a full on show with our youth pastors and our personalities, but it's called Duck Duck Trivia, and it's where you play duck, duck goose in a circle. But in the meantime, there's a trivia game happening on the screen. I have it on D y m, but we did a version of it with our show. And anytime you heard a squeak with one of the rubber ducks that we had, people had to get up and play duck, duck goose in the room while also paying attention to the screen and playing trivia. I created a sheet, a downloadable note sheet for them to keep track of and take notes of.

Nick Clason (33:59):
The point I'm making with all that is that there was a way to win in the room and win online, and it was epic. You know what I mean? But you got to spend more time and you got to think outside the box. You can't just throw a four corners game on the screen and be like, that's going to crush on YouTube. It just might not. The other challenge of it is just going to be a time constraints challenge, right? Digital media, video editing, graphic design soaks up a lot of time. And if you're a lone ranger, if you're a one man band, if you're doing this on your own, bro, I get it, you're going to be spending a lot of time on it. Again, the temptation is going to be to just throw it out, throw the baby out with the bath water, don't need it anymore.

Nick Clason (34:42):
But if you lean into it, you can find some good on the other side of the mountain there. The fact is, you just have to value it. Your church has to value it. Your supervisor has to value you spending your time on it and notice and point out and know that it is making a difference, even if it's not seen and felt immediately right away. And that's the, that's the third shadow side. You have to determine your win with this because the payoff for digital is not immediate. And you have to answer questions like, is this to reach outsiders? Is this to serve and help mature our insiders? What is the real reason behind this? But here's my thing, because of what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah chapter 29, I do believe we should invest in where we are. So I think out of this video, I'd love to encourage you, I'd even love to hear from you, comment below, but what's one next action step that you're going to take today?

Nick Clason (35:33):
Maybe it's just like, you know what? I'm going to stop just only posting announcement graphics to my Instagram. I'm going to start leaning in a little bit to an Instagram strategy. Maybe it's I'm going to launch a YouTube channel. Hit that link in description, a hundred dollars, YouTube starter kit, whatever the case might be, what is going to be your next step, but just start now. But listen, remember, grab my surefire resource 40 done for you ideas to help you just navigate this link in the description or in the show notes, hybridministry.xyz, and right here, this is why every single church needs a strong digital presence. I flesh it out, I explain it. I give you my strategy in this video. It's linked right here on the screen. Go check that out or go check out this YouTube playlist video teaching you how to start your YouTube channel from scratch. But we're trying to make digital ministry accessible, reachable possible, so don't forget, and as always, stay hybrid.

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DESCRIPTION
⛪ In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show we want to explore the Future of Youth Ministry in the Local Church.
We’re going to lean into the idea, and namesake of our show, and truly unpack the idea of: “Hybrid Ministry”

😡 Additionally, I’m going to answer the question: Does God Hate Social Media?

👌 And give you 3 Practical Tips that you can begin implementing into your student ministry space: TODAY

🔓The Church needs to unlock & unleash the next generation.
They are the church of now.
And Gone are the days of the one-size-fits all approaches to youth ministries.

🎨 It’s about learning and finding where youth people are, embracing diversity and creativity.

🆓 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
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick

Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/067

//BRACKETS
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-big-game-food-bracket/winter/the-big-game-8544.html
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-student-ministry-bracket-of-epic-things/games-3974.html

//SCULPT IT
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/sculpt-it/games/humor-8503.html

//SOCIAL CHALLENGE PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNYRk3l4M-4&list=PL_FbsNmRvDjempodvm_5FsqwakX6OidCd

//SPIRITUAL RESOURCES
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/l6cp97ufmwn8gfpfkxbte/h?rlkey=s5hb09c6d6x1u9iqcdz5j1aya&dl=0

//DUCK, DUCK, TRIVIA

https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/duck-duck-trivia/trivia-8705.html

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-02:03 The Future of Church Youth Ministry
02:03-09:08 What does Hybrid Ministry mean?
09:08-17:29 The Biblical Basis for Digital Expressions of Church
17:29-29:48 3 Ways to Invest in your Online Presence

29:48-36:25 The Challenge of a Strong Digital Presence

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
In this episode, we are going to be exploring the question, does God hate us using social media? We're also going to be looking at unpacking and exploring and talking about the future of the church and the future of youth ministry. And finally, we are going to help lean into this idea of hybrid ministry. What is it? How do we implement it? What are the downsides of it? And lastly, we are going to offer three practical tips to help you win in your church and in your student ministry. And as always, there will be game ideas because that's just a part of the thing. The church is at this crossroads where they need to look at unlock and unleash the next generation because the next generation is the church of today, not the church of the future. Gone are the days of the one size fits all youth ministries, and so we need to help explore and unlock for you what's going to work in your context.

Nick Clason (01:03):
It's about us learning diversity, creativity, and leaning into the individuality of each and every one of our students, and to help do that, to help lean into the creativity. This is why I believe that the digital space is such a great opportunity for us. In fact, I have a done for you resource if you are just kind of floundering and have no idea where to go, and that's what we talked about in this video that's going to be linked right here at the top of the screen, TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube because we are going to help you navigate the best social media to go all in on your context as well as give you a free ebook that's linked right down here below in the description to help you navigate social media for your church and for your student ministry. But without any further ado, let's dive into this episode, the future of the church, the future of youth ministry, and what exactly is hybrid ministry.

Nick Clason (02:02):
Let's go. Well, hey everyone. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Clason. I am a almost 13 year youth ministry veteran, currently living and working in the D F W Dallas-Fort Worth area. And I am on a mission to help churches and youth ministries realize their potential for what they can do with digital ministry and in the digital space. In fact, that's why I have this entire podcast, this entire YouTube channel. In fact, if you didn't know, we are a podcast, so you can check out the show notes for link to our full transcripts@hybridministry.xyz, but you might be asking what even is hybrid ministry? What even does that mean? And it's a little bit of a made up word I would say, but the idea of a hybrid thing, I think about it as a football fan. Think about Teem Hill of the New Orleans Saints, right? He's a hybrid style player. He can play,

Nick Clason (02:59):
He can get under center, he can snap the ball and throw it, but he's also got some kind of tight end skills, some kind of H back type skills. Or as an old timey Colts fan, Dallas Clark was a great hybrid or H back style of player. He didn't fit into a one size fits all mold. And that's really my heart behind what I think hybrid ministry is another really great example. I've used it before, so if you're a long time listener, you've maybe heard it, but the idea of Home Depot when I am a customer, I am a customer of Home Depot and so if on any given Saturday I'm just feeling Super dad and I want to throw on my cargo shorts and my new balance shoes and just go peruse the aisles of Home Depot, I can do that. I can experience Home Depot in a physical sense.

Nick Clason (03:47):
However, at the same time, if I don't have time to do that and I just want to place an order online, I can jump on their app and I can do that as well. But the third option is probably my favorite is a hybrid relationship with Home Depot where I grab my cell phone, I download their app while I'm in the store, I search for the thing I need, it tells me the exact aisle and bay number and location of my thing and I can walk straight there. I have a digital relationship with Home Depot while I am physically in the store at the physical location. And I think in a lot of cases that's the way that our churches need to start just thinking about because in a lot of times, especially with Covid, we did not have the physical as an option. And so we all moved to digital and it was an amazing opportunity.

Nick Clason (04:41):
I think a lot of churches learned a lot. I think a lot of churches are still doing things now as a result of what happened during the pandemic, but now as restrictions have lifted and people have gone more and more back into church on a regular basis, churches have been like that stunk. Let's go back to what we know and there is so much value in what can happen in an interpersonal relationship. Please, I want you to hear that from me. I want you to know my heart, but I also believe that, I mean, you know this right there are 168 hours per week in any given week, but most churches really only focus on the one or two hours that you have a programmed scheduled event. It's like the evening news or it's, it's like sitcom appointment television. If you want to know what's going on in this series, then you better be here at 10:30 AM and that's the only time that you're ever going to know what we're talking about.

Nick Clason (05:37):
And honestly, let's be honest, churches, that is a really selfish and kind of vain approach. The only way for people to grow is to make your thing appointment calendaring in their life, and that's just not the world that we live in anymore. You're going to have people do that and because you do have some people do that, you think everybody should adopt that approach. Meanwhile, there are people who do want to grow in their faith and do want to have a relationship with you and your church. However, their schedule may not allow for it. Like I know this coming Saturday we are hosting a national day of youth ministry volunteer training by D Y M, shout out d y m, but the problem is my boys have their very first game of T-ball and so unfortunately my wife can't, as a super rockstar volunteer that she is, she's not going to be able to make a portion of that training.

Nick Clason (06:29):
Does that mean that she doesn't care about youth ministry and teenagers and her role in our church? Not at all. She's busy. She's got something else going on and so we always have to think and accommodate for that. And I think a lot of times churches are just like, you need to prioritize this. And that's true. Hearing me say that I believe that our people need to prioritize the things of God. However, I also believe that we are now in a time and in a space in 2023 and beyond where we can offer things to people that they can consume, that they can learn, that they can come to understand, that they can gather teachings about the importance of what our church is doing, what our church is offering in a hybrid type of moment. They have an in-person relationship with our church, but they can lean into the digital and I think a lot of churches are approaching digital as the outreach arm and that's really all it does.

Nick Clason (07:24):
And then once you've come and decided to commit to the church, then you have to shift to completely in person. And I just want to tell you, I don't live that way. I got a speeding ticket last week. It was awful. I was going way too fast in zone. That should have been a much faster speed limit, but it's a speed trap. And after paying a $346 yesterday, I had the option to call to go in person or to go online to remedy that. Guess which option I chose? Just like all of you, I chose the online option. If there's a way to do it where it can be more convenient and it doesn't hinder the relationship, and I think that's what we need to do. So hybrid, it's not just about in-person or it's not just about digital. It's about finding a way to marry those two environments so that people can have a holistic and much more robust relationship with your church.

Nick Clason (08:24):
Hey, listen, I hope you're getting value out of this video and we're going to continue on and we have all kinds of other videos like this, and so it would be incredible if you hit the subscribe button so that you get notified every single time we drop a video like this and listen, it costs you nothing but a really does help us out. So if you would like this video and maybe even share this along with a friend or someone else that you know who's a youth pastor or a church communications person because we are on a mission to help churches lean into the hybrid side of their ministry. But let's move on. Let's answer next question. Does God hate social media and what is there if, is there a biblical basis for leaning into digital and hybrid ministry? Let's check it out. So I know a lot of pastors, I know a lot of people, I know a lot of leaders who encourage people to lean away from digital media, social media as a means of discipleship and a means of growth.

Nick Clason (09:23):
And I think in a lot of cases that that's really a healthy practice for a lot of people. I think with unfettered, unfiltered access to just doom scrolling social media time and time and time and time and time again, which I actually didn't mean to turn. Oh look, there's me. I didn't mean to turn my phone on doing that, but when people just do that over and over and over again, I know that it is not healthy. There are some definite downfalls and some definite payrolls to doing that. However, I also know that I need this thing to keep track of my calendar. I need that thing to read email. I need that thing to track my receipts. I need that thing to get me somewhere in a turn by turn. G P SS navigation system. That thing right there is where my wife and Mike's grocery list lives.

Nick Clason (10:14):
It lives in a digital format on our phone that we both have access to like a shared list. And so this thing is going nowhere. And so instead of just coaching people to throw it in the fire and be done with it, while that may be what some people need to do, I think we also need to begin to think about how can we help coach people through having a cell phone? Yes, there are bad and evil things on cell phones. If you have a teenage boy, a teenage girl, the pitfalls of pornography and what is available to them in their pocket at any given moment is dangerous. However, that's not going anywhere for them and unless mom and dad want to rip that away from them, they are going to have a cell phone. So how do we help them walk through and wade through the difficulties of that reality while also realizing that in many cases this is a necessary commodity for most people in America in 2023 and beyond?

Nick Clason (11:22):
I do actually believe that the Bible speaks about this and one of my favorite kind of passages of it, obviously it's not directly talking about cell phones and digital media because that didn't exist, but the principle I do believe exists. So in Jeremiah chapter 29, which is everyone's favorite bookstore, Bible verse Jeremiah 29 11, we're going to read it here in just a second, but actually starting in verse five is where we're going to start reading so that you for perhaps the first time in your life can get to hear Jeremiah 29 11 in its full context. But Jeremiah is writing to the Babylonian people who are in exile in, or I'm sorry, he's running to the Jewish people who are in exile in Babylon. So God's people are in a foreign land and he addresses their concerns. Here's what he says. I want you to build homes.

Nick Clason (12:16):
I want you to plan to stay. I want you to plant gardens, eat the food that they produce, marry and have children, and then find spouses for them so that they may have many grandchildren. Multiply, don't dwindle away and work for the peace and the prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare and it will determine then ultimately your welfare. Verse eight says, this is what the Lord of the heavens armies, the God of Israel says, do not let your prophets and fortune tellers, tellers who are with you in Babylon trick you do not listen to their dreams because they're telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them, says the Lord. This is what the Lord says. You'll be in Babylon for 70 years, but then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised and I will bring you home again for I know the plans.

Nick Clason (13:11):
Here it is, guys. Verse 11, for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, the plans for good, not for disaster. To give you a future and hope. I think that what God is basically saying in this verse is he's saying, invest in the place in which I have placed you. And he's saying, embrace the things of the land, of the place of the climate, of the context of which I have placed you and to the Jewish people that meant plant gardens, intermarry, have children, have grandchildren, pray for the prosperity of Babylon because that will determine and dictate the prosperity of you and your life. And in a lot of the same ways, I believe that technology is the opportunity for us to enter into a digital landscape and a digital Babylon, so to speak. And so we have the chance to lean into it.

Nick Clason (14:01):
We have the chance to go towards what the people of our day are using and navigating, and we have the chance to redeem it. We have the chance to bring light into it. We have the chance to sprinkle in and even more than just sprinkle, but fully embrace and bring the great message of hope of the gospel into a digital and hybrid space. And most of the times, the pastors that I have interacted with are saying cell phones are bad and evil because most people have really bad habits with it. And so they're saying, so just don't do it. You don't need it. You don't need a digital Bible. Go get your paper Bible. I'm just saying, listen, if you're a youth pastor and you're ministering to a 13 year old who just got a new cell phone, that's really not going to play very well to them.

Nick Clason (14:50):
I'm not saying that we should just cater to people. Discipleship is difficult and often we get the root word discipline from it, and so it's going to require some hard and difficult conversations. But all that being said, we are not going to successfully push people away from it and just I, listen, I get it just because, oh, well, should we cater to bad habits? Absolutely not. But there's a lot of good that can happen on here. Right now, I play fantasy football through my cell phone because of fantasy football. I have connections with people that I have worked with in the past, my family who lives in three continents on this globe. We play fantasy football together and we connect through this. My church staff right now, we have 30 people on our church staff playing fantasy football that I am help kind of spearheading and leading, and that's helping bring about some comradery among our staff.

Nick Clason (15:47):
I read the Bible this morning on the Bible app through a plan that I subscribe to on my phone a lot of times when I don't have, and I read that on my iPad, and if I don't have my iPad, I will read it on my phone. One of my favorite apps on here is the Bible verse memory app, right? My point is that there's a lot of good that can happen through this, and I think we a lot of times want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. So let's lean in. Let's teach people how to navigate and make wise decisions and choices as they interact with digital and cell phone media. So the question that you're probably asking then if you're youth pastor, church communications person, is how do I invest in an online presence? What do I do? And I want to let you know before we dive into that, that if any of this is interesting to you, if any of this is ringing a bell, any of this is perking your interest that we have a website, hybridministry.xyz, and this episode is episode 67.

Nick Clason (16:48):
So if you go to hybridministry.xyz slash 0 6 7 link is also down below in the description along with my 43 ideas for how to lean into digital ministry. You can get full transcripts. That's one thing that we provide completely for free in every single episode in case you're out on a run and you're hearing this and you're like, dude, I need some of that. I need to take some notes and filter some of my thoughts around some of what we're listening to in this episode. Great, we got that for you. Link in the description, hybridministry.xyz/067, but let's explore and let's answer and tackle this question. How do you invest into your online presence? I have three ideas for you to help invest more into your online presence. One idea is just up your game in your social media and your digital media presence.

Nick Clason (17:41):
And so that can be all kinds of different things like your social media. Does that mean that your church or your student ministry has a pop Instagram account? I mean maybe, or is it that you launch a relevant YouTube channel maybe? Or is it that you're surfing on the TikTok trends out there on that app? TikTok could be, but whatever it is, there is an opportunity to weave in social media not only to your church attenders, but also to people out there in the world who don't know anything about you, your church or your student ministry. But my ultimate number one recommendation, especially if you're in youth ministry, and if not I still recommend this for a lot of churches, is YouTube. And what I actually have is a link in the description for how you can launch and start a YouTube channel for under $100, which by the way in 2023 is completely unheard of.

Nick Clason (18:33):
So you should definitely get in on that. But what it's going to do is it's going to help you utilize and start a channel simply using your cell phone upping and leveling up your game with some microphone gear and maybe some basic lighting to just get the ball rolling so that you can have a YouTube channel. And the reason why I believe YouTube is such a strong contender is especially if you're a youth pastor, 95% of teenagers claim to use and utilize YouTube. Meanwhile, people are getting on there and think about it, how do you engage and interact with YouTube? You probably hopped on there recently and said, how do I fix this clogged sink in my guest bathroom? Right? People are getting on there and asking specific questions, and while you may be trying to figure out how to unclog your sink, a 13 year old might be saying, why does God send good people like my grandmother to hell?

Nick Clason (19:27):
And you as a youth pastor have an opportunity to address and answer that particular and specific question. Now, tell me that that's not an amazing opportunity. We posted a video on our church's social media, our church's YouTube, the beginning of the school year called How to Ruin Your School Year. I think maybe we did the opposite of it, how to Not Ruin Your School Year, and it got like 150 views, and our audience is really not that big on YouTube. And I mean we have at least 150 students on our role and on our roster, but I know that not all of our students are subscribed to our YouTube are even really paying attention to our YouTube. So those 150 views did not all come from our students. My question is, would you like an opportunity as a youth pastor to have greater kingdom impact than you have currently right now in your local physical context?

Nick Clason (20:21):
Maybe the answer is no, but I would wonder why the answer to that would be no. Sure, you can't nuance and go as deep, dude, that was like a 12 minute video. I had enough ability to flesh things out and flesh out ideas and explain things fully and thoroughly that you might have to leave on the cutting room floor of say, a more short form vertical video-based TikTok or YouTube short or something like that. There is opportunity really there is out there to answer specific questions of teenagers. And YouTube is powered by Google the number one largest search engine of the world, and people consider YouTube to be the second largest search engine in the world. So put answers to the questions that people are going to the second largest search engine in the world in there, trying to get answers to big matters of faith and existential realities.

Nick Clason (21:15):
You have a chance to do that. And like I said, link in the description down here that will help you get your YouTube channel up the ground with just a minimal amount of gear talking head just like this video into a cell phone camera. The other idea, the third idea that I have for you are some hybrid based games if you're in youth ministry, the value of games. But one of my favorite things we do is brackets. So if March madness style, if you're a sports person, you got 64 teams, we'll do a 16 team bracket, we'll rank things kind of arbitrarily with our own sort of value-based ranking system. We have a platypus mascot in our student ministry and that was voted on competing against 16 other animals. So we had a yak and we had a lamb, which was a 16 seed, which almost won and upset the number one seed a lion.

Nick Clason (22:11):
We had a baboon on there, and what ultimately won was the platypus. I think that's the generation of Finn. And for talking one of my favorite brackets, I actually have a couple on download youth ministry. I'll put the link to those in descriptions if you want to go check 'em out or create your own. But we will do a Super Bowl food or big game day food bracket so that students can self-select what foods, what snacks are going to be at the Super Bowl party, and just a couple of weeks at the time of this recording. So probably by the time this drops, it'll be happening live. Feel free to go check it out at Cross Creek students. That's all of our handles on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, but we are going to be launching the world's greatest donut bracket, and it's going to be students selecting the world's greatest donut.

Nick Clason (22:58):
Here's the cool thing though. We just paid for, I don't know, a couple hundred dollars banner to be installed in one of our walls that we can reuse and replicate every single time we run a bracket. We'll probably do two or three of these a year where we can hang it in our physical space. So as students walk in, they'll see it, but then the push is for them to jump on Instagram and cast their vote, jump on social media and let it be known what they're going to be voting for. And so that's a way to be hybrid. We're talking about it, announcing it and making it a big deal in our physical space, and we're giving students even a chance to vote physically on a piece of paper, but then we're also pushing it towards digital media. Those things get a ton of traction in our context.

Nick Clason (23:47):
People talk about it, especially on staff people like which one won? How did you rank that one that it incites a little bit of faux riot. Okay. Another thing is we will do a lot of, we'll do some things called social challenges. I'll link the playlist that we do on that YouTube, but we will grab a couple of students every single Wednesday night, film them on camera, and then post that to YouTube. We'll clip it up into a short, and that'll be something that we can post on shorts as well, but that gives students a chance to compete in certain challenges or taskmaster type challenges. Again, that's a way to use the students in your physical space and promote and pump them up on your digital platforms. And other things you can do game wise is just create some sort of contest where there's a drawing contest or a sculpture contest or a dancing contest or whatever.

Nick Clason (24:42):
You can post those on social media and let people vote, cast their vote. Did you like A or B better, right? Like gingerbread houses or we'll do Plato sculpture things. I have a game on D y M called Sculpt It, and then we've done before. It's really fun. But we post all those on social media and then we let people cast their vote for the winner, and then the next time we get together the next week or that following Sunday, we'll give away a prize to the winning team or the winning table for their contribution in that game. Those are just ways to marry your in-person with your online and make it more hybrid. Make it last beyond the one hour a week that you have your students in your student ministry. Another idea, so that's just upping your digital presence game. And hey, like I said, link in the description for 40 ideas, 40 done for you ideas in vertical, vertical video based content like TikTok, YouTube shorts, Instagram reels that you can start adopting now.

Nick Clason (25:39):
And all of those ideas, by the way, are ideas that are recyclable. So for example, you can use the same, I just posted a game. We're calling it telepathy, but you can name it whatever you want to name it. I got it from some guys on YouTube shorts who call it wavelength, but one guy's thinking of a number and another guy's asking him for certain categories of things. So like the one I just posted, they asked for candy sport, clothing brand and day of the week, and then you give an item that is that number that's in your head. So my buddy was thinking of number three, and she said, candy, and he said, black licorice, which I think it's probably lower than a three if you ask me, but that's just me. And then she said, okay, how about sport? And he said, golf.

Nick Clason (26:23):
And then she said, okay, how about sport or athletic wear? And he said, new balance. And then she said, how about day of the week? And he said, Tuesday, she guessed that the number was four, but it was really three in his head, right? That's just a fun game. You can do a little bit of post-production editing if you want, even if you have no editing skills, you can do most of that on your cell phone to make that happen. By the way, I have a complete ebook, another one on how to post a TikTok from scratch. I'll also link that down below in the description. But all these are ways for you to just start taking steps to up your game and your social media. All right, the other idea, what about, so that's digital presence. What about web access, right? Is your website up to date?

Nick Clason (27:03):
That's all I'm asking. Is your website up to date? And there's this idea, do we push info to people or do we ask them to pull it for themselves? And I believe that we should do both, but I believe that you can push info, but people should always know that the answer to every single one of their questions lies on the website. So yes, send that Tuesday email reminding them about the fundraiser coming up on Saturday, but let them know that in the email, Hey, all this info is available on our website so that when Friday night rolls around and the mom and dad are thinking about how to get their kids where they need to go on Saturday, and they know that one of the kids is going to the fundraiser at church, they have to figure out where they are, what time they have to drop them off.

Nick Clason (27:46):
They don't have to go dig back through their email that they've gotten 125 other spam emails between Tuesday and Friday night. They can just go straight to your website. Is your church website up to date? Listen, people live in an on demand world. They're not relying on your email to give them the information that they need. They want to be informed, but then they also, they want to know or to go to get what they need information wise. So make sure your website is up to date. And then the third hybrid idea I have are just simply like individual tools. I'll link a few of these in the description down below. But in our student ministry, like I said, we did a video called Three Ways to Ruin Your School Year, and it was basically don't connect with God. And so in the reverse, we gave them three connections with God ideas, memorizing scripture, reading the Bible, and spending time in prayer.

Nick Clason (28:46):
And we created just a downloadable resource for them to use and utilize on their phone. It also pointed them and push them towards apps or YouVersion, Bible reading plans. So if you want to see some of those, you can check those out. But those are just ideas of things that you can help put in your student's hand. You can print physical copies if you want. You can also offer a digital version of it on your website or in an email download. And if you have an actual communications marketing department, you can put those behind Handshake websites where people have to put their name and email in, and you can use that to start building lists and things like that, which is a really good marketing practice. But if you don't want to know how to do that and you don't have a communications department, you can just put free resources on your website for people to grab, however and whenever.

Nick Clason (29:35):
But what about the challenge? What is difficult about doing this? I hear you on the other side of this video. Don't have time. No way I can do this. Great. We're going to address that in the next section. Look, I get it. This is a lot. And as I'm explaining this, you're like, bro, I don't have time to do any of this. I know it's a lot of work. In fact, there's a tension, an inherent tension that will lie when you choose to enter into a hybrid space. The best example I have is the church I worked at before here. I started out on the very first day of Covid. I don't recommend that as a strategy, but I dunno how any of you can avoid that if you're taking a new job. But because I started on the first day of Covid, the very first thing that I did that we did, that our church did, that our student ministry did was launch a YouTube channel.

Nick Clason (30:23):
Well, they already had a YouTube channel, but launch a YouTube show. We called it unscripted and most churches during Covid, it was a in-person programming, youth ministry replacement. And dude, it was innovative. It was one of a kind. I really did not see a lot of other churches doing a full on show direct to camera, not just camera in the back of the room. There was a lot of power behind it. There was a lot of creative team members, videographers, contractors that were working on it. But then, as you know, slowly covid started to kind of wind down in-person, became more and more of a thing, and we started having more and more students back on campus and back in the room, but unscripted didn't go anywhere. In fact, we wanted to let unscripted serve as the small group teaching element, teaching moment in multiple in-person small group meetings in various host home locations throughout the city that lent itself better for geography.

Nick Clason (31:33):
We were in a mega church, and so a lot of people drove many, many miles to our church. And so we could put houses 20 minutes away from the campus, but closer to where students lived. We could also offer groups on multiple days of the week as students are super, super duper busy. It was a really, really, and because Covid had ushered us into this moment, it allowed us the chance to sort of rethink and reinvent how we disseminated our teaching and got the Bible into the hands of our small group leaders and into the hands of our children. But more and more people were clamoring for on-campus stuff, especially in light of Covid. And so this tension between is this good for the show? Is this good for online? Is this good for YouTube versus is this what's best for in the room? Became this tension and ultimately became insurmountable to the point where the show got canceled.

Nick Clason (32:25):
Now, the downside, the real thing, the real rub you got to answer is we have kids sitting right in front of us every single week. Is YouTube the best strategy for those kids? That's probably got to be your number one priority, but the challenge is that there's going to be a tension between the online and the in-person constantly. And it's going to be so easy when it feels so insurmountable that you just say, forget it. I can't worry about the online anymore. I just got to focus on the in-person. And I don't necessarily have a formula or an answer for you, but what I do know is that there were some times where we did some things where we faced a challenge and we were tempted to just be like, you know what? Forget it. That's not the priority here. And we said, no, no, no, no, we're not going to do that.

Nick Clason (33:19):
We're going to lean in and we're going to figure this thing out. And so one of my favorite things, in fact, I have a game that sort of tried to mimic it. It's not as good though because it's not like a full on show with our youth pastors and our personalities, but it's called Duck Duck Trivia, and it's where you play duck, duck goose in a circle. But in the meantime, there's a trivia game happening on the screen. I have it on D y m, but we did a version of it with our show. And anytime you heard a squeak with one of the rubber ducks that we had, people had to get up and play duck, duck goose in the room while also paying attention to the screen and playing trivia. I created a sheet, a downloadable note sheet for them to keep track of and take notes of.

Nick Clason (33:59):
The point I'm making with all that is that there was a way to win in the room and win online, and it was epic. You know what I mean? But you got to spend more time and you got to think outside the box. You can't just throw a four corners game on the screen and be like, that's going to crush on YouTube. It just might not. The other challenge of it is just going to be a time constraints challenge, right? Digital media, video editing, graphic design soaks up a lot of time. And if you're a lone ranger, if you're a one man band, if you're doing this on your own, bro, I get it, you're going to be spending a lot of time on it. Again, the temptation is going to be to just throw it out, throw the baby out with the bath water, don't need it anymore.

Nick Clason (34:42):
But if you lean into it, you can find some good on the other side of the mountain there. The fact is, you just have to value it. Your church has to value it. Your supervisor has to value you spending your time on it and notice and point out and know that it is making a difference, even if it's not seen and felt immediately right away. And that's the, that's the third shadow side. You have to determine your win with this because the payoff for digital is not immediate. And you have to answer questions like, is this to reach outsiders? Is this to serve and help mature our insiders? What is the real reason behind this? But here's my thing, because of what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah chapter 29, I do believe we should invest in where we are. So I think out of this video, I'd love to encourage you, I'd even love to hear from you, comment below, but what's one next action step that you're going to take today?

Nick Clason (35:33):
Maybe it's just like, you know what? I'm going to stop just only posting announcement graphics to my Instagram. I'm going to start leaning in a little bit to an Instagram strategy. Maybe it's I'm going to launch a YouTube channel. Hit that link in description, a hundred dollars, YouTube starter kit, whatever the case might be, what is going to be your next step, but just start now. But listen, remember, grab my surefire resource 40 done for you ideas to help you just navigate this link in the description or in the show notes, hybridministry.xyz, and right here, this is why every single church needs a strong digital presence. I flesh it out, I explain it. I give you my strategy in this video. It's linked right here on the screen. Go check that out or go check out this YouTube playlist video teaching you how to start your YouTube channel from scratch. But we're trying to make digital ministry accessible, reachable possible, so don't forget, and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 061: 📲 Instagram vs. TikTok vs. YouTube. The Most Effective Social Platform for your Church's Youth Ministry 📲 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/061 78fdd28c-eafe-43dd-bd79-ed23ec90488a Thu, 07 Sep 2023 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 061 📲 Instagram vs. TikTok vs. YouTube. The Most Effective Social Platform for your Church's Youth Ministry 📲 full Nick Clason In this episode, join us as we delve into the exciting world of social media platforms and discover which one holds the key to maximizing your church's youth ministry outreach. We'll be breaking down the pros and cons of Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, helping you navigate the digital landscape with confidence. Whether you're a youth pastor, a church leader, or simply interested in harnessing the power of social media for positive impact, this episode is tailor-made for you. Get ready to uncover the secrets of engagement, connection, and inspiration as we unveil the most effective platform to elevate your church's youth ministry to new heights. 20:05 no 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCE TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥 📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 🎥LEVEL UP YOUR YOUTUBE GEAR FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit DESCRIPTION In this episode, join us as we delve into the exciting world of social media platforms and discover which one holds the key to maximizing your church's youth ministry outreach. We'll be breaking down the pros and cons of Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, helping you navigate the digital landscape with confidence. Whether you're a youth pastor, a church leader, or simply interested in harnessing the power of social media for positive impact, this episode is tailor-made for you. Get ready to uncover the secrets of engagement, connection, and inspiration as we unveil the most effective platform to elevate your church's youth ministry to new heights. 🆓 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 📓SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/061 //PEW RESEARCH ARTICLE https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/ //6 PART SOCIAL MEDIA FRAMEWORK https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIbzg_DNJrTrCtBHQnxcOVo //WHY EVER YOUTH MINISTRY NEEDS A STRONG SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE https://youtu.be/SDxepdu4iiM //MOTION ARRAY https://motionarray.com/ 🕺 TikTok: 🎵 Get ready to dance into the world of TikTok! 🕺 We'll discuss the power of short-form videos in grabbing attention, sparking trends, and spreading your message like wildfire. Learn how to harness the creative energy of TikTok to connect with the youth in ways you never thought possible. 📸 Instagram: 📱 Discover the world of visual storytelling as we explore how Instagram can capture the hearts and minds of the youth. From captivating visuals to real-time interaction, we'll uncover the strategies that can turn your Instagram feed into an inspiration hub for your young audience. 📹 YouTube: 🎥 The long-form champion! 📹 We'll explore how YouTube provides a platform for in-depth content, tutorials, discussions, and live engagement. Join us as we unravel the potential of YouTube to create a library of resources that empowers and educates your young audience. LEVEL UP YOUR YOUTUBE GEAR FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit So, whether you're an #InstaLover, a #TikTokEnthusiast, or a #YouTubeAficionado, this video is your guide to selecting the social platform that aligns perfectly with your church's youth ministry goals. 🌐 Let's make an impact together! Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to stay updated on all things Hybrid Ministry. Let's transform the digital space for good! 💙🙌 👉 STAY CONNECTED YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz TIMECODES 00:00-02:34 Why Every Youth Ministry Should be Using Social Media 02:34-05:47 Every Youth Ministry Context is a little different 05:47-10:48 The Rise of TikTok 10:48-13:25 Instagram: The Curse of Legacy Followers 13:25-17:25 YouTube: How to Level up your YouTube Game in Youth Ministry 17:25-20:05 The Verdict is in: Which Platform should Youth Ministries be Using TRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa Nick Clason (00:00): Hey, in this video we want to answer what is the best social media platform for your youth ministry in 2023? So it's gonna be TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Yeah. Go ahead and hang out in this video because recently Pew Research dropped some stuff that said that 42% of Americans use TikTok. Meanwhile, 71% of Americans use Instagram, and furthermore, 81% of Americans use YouTube. And so in this video, we are going to inspect all three of them, give you the pros and the cons, and then ultimately answer which platform is best for you to dial into in your student ministry in 2023 and beyond. But make sure that you stick around to the very end of this video, because I have a surefire resource that is going to help you win in your social media, in youth ministry. We have a free download to at the very end of the video, so make sure you hang out with that. Nick Clason (00:51): Now, you might be asking like, is that research for Americans or is that research for teenagers? And that's a great question because the teenage data is actually a little bit different. And so Pew Research dropped an article about a year ago, in fact, almost a year ago from the date of this recording, uh, where it compared 2014 to 2015 stats all the way to now, uh, the most recent trends and most recent stats. And so interestingly, at the time, uh, YouTube wasn't originally captured as a social media. YouTube as a platform has been around, but it wasn't like converted in people's ideology to social until recently. Meanwhile, Facebook usage in teenagers went down, went from 71% down to 32%. TikTok was on the rise. It's up to 67%, and Instagram's on the rise from 52% up to 60, uh, from 52 up to 62%. Snapchat also was up on the rise along with Instagram. Nick Clason (01:47): And so 67% of teens say that they use TikTok ever. Meanwhile, 16% of teens say that they use it, get ready for this. Almost constantly YouTube though, however, does Chop top the charts as, uh, the usage for teenagers at get this, 95% of teenagers say that they are using YouTube. And then now, uh, Instagram and Snapchat, both are next and both used, both are used by about six in 10 teenagers. So that data is quite a bit different, quite frankly, than the original data. And so I'll drop the link to this article so that you can see it, you can read it for yourself. The link is in the show notes, but that's what we're gonna do is we're going to dive into TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Yeah, let's go. Well, everyone, my name is Nick Clason. I'm a youth pastor in the DFW Dallas-Fort Worth area, and I've actually been in youth ministry for believe it or not, 12 and a half years. And I've been managing social media accounts at each of those youth ministry stops in all sorts of various levels of intentionality and all sorts of various levels of, uh, like just know-how. And so what's interesting is when I first started, I viewed Nick Clason (02:58): Social media as a way to just get out more information. Like I had an email list and also I had an Instagram following. So Instagram wasn't even around when I started. I launched, uh, my very first Instagram student ministry Instagram page, uh, at the first church that I worked at. But every single church after that, I actually inherited an Instagram account and actually a fairly large Instagram account. However, in most cases, I helped launch a YouTube channel and I also helped create and start a TikTok from scratch. And so that's what I've done within the last year of starting here at the church I'm at now. We launched from scratch a TikTok account and a YouTube account. Instagram of course has been around and you're inheriting all of those followers. And so at just about every single church, I've had some measure of growing, uh, uh, social media ministry, a hybrid ministry and social media and and social networks, right, in all of my context. Nick Clason (03:52): And so I'm just curious for you, I would love to know both where you're watching from and what social media network seems to be working best for you. You know what's interesting, drop that in the comments below. But what's interesting is I just moved from Chicago down here to Dallas-Fort Worth and in Chicago, uh, they wouldn't text each other via text message or like standard ss m s messaging. They would really only text people each other, their friends through Snapchat, which was a really interesting phenomenon. And so down here it's not as much the same. Snapchat usage is still happening, but it's not the primary vehicle with which people communicate. And so it just goes to show that wherever you are regionally, it does truly matter and it's a little bit different and the culture and the climate are just a little bit different. So as you're letting us know in the comments below which social media platform seems to be working most in your youth ministry and in your context, you might be asking what does working even really mean? Nick Clason (04:48): I mean, are we talking views? Are we talking impressions? Are we talking like engagement? Are we talking reach? Like what is it? And I actually have a lot of answers to that and how to get started in our six part social media framework for churches. I'll link it right here if that's something that you're interested. But go ahead and take a look at that. If you are trying to get this up, up, up off the ground, get started in your social media, I would love to have you do that. If you are not watching on YouTube, that link will be in the show notes of your podcast catcher. But I just wanna know that as we break down in that six part context, we break down which of these social media, uh, channels, you can watch through each of the different platforms, and then you can be, uh, a decision maker as far as which is the best to implement in your current climate and in your current context. Nick Clason (05:35): But TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube, let's dive in and let's look at each of the platforms, the pros, the cons, where they came from and why they are where they are today. So let's go. Some say it started as early as 2019. Others say it started closer to the beginning of 2020. And you know me, like I tried to play my part as much as I could, but it seemed like no matter what, everybody around me was getting it and I kept distancing myself from it. I tried to stay away from it, but finally it was around Christmas time of 2020, I finally just broke down and I decided I was going to get it. Now, you know what I'm talking about, right? Put it in the comments. 3, 2, 1. I'm talking about TikTok. Oh, you thought I was talking about Covid? No, I'm talking about TikTok, right? Nick Clason (06:23): TikTok burst on the scene during the pandemic, actually. And what's fascinating is like there's all sorts of toss out there now, but like I would never download that. And it's like me now just like doom scrolling, like just consuming it at like mass crazy levels. Here's the thing that you need to know about TikTok is they invented a brand new way to do social media. And the way that they burst on the scene and the popularity with which they burst on the scene is now causing all other platforms to change their method and their approach to social media. And so TikTok, uh, brought to us what we now use, and you may not call it this or may not think of it this way, but essentially it's the discovery algorithm. It's the algorithm with which you consume the majority of your content from people that you don't even know you're discovering them, right? Nick Clason (07:11): A way that I've used this in my own life is last, uh, last spring, my family and I, we went to Disney. We visited the mouse. And if you've ever been to Disney, one of the best places to go to Disney is Epcot. All right? And so we went to Epcot on the very first day of our trip. My brother, uh, my sister and my brother-in-law came and they joined us. They live in Florida a few hours away. So they drove over. I mean, it was a blast. We hung out on Epcot. But in order to know the best, like if you've never been to Epcot, they have this thing called the World Showcase. And you walk around this giant lake and there are 11 different pavilions. You got like Mexico and Japan and China and Norway, and you got France, and you got Germany, and you got, uh, United Kingdom. Nick Clason (07:51): You got United States, you got Canada. I might've named all 11. I don't know, I might, I might've missed one. Let me know in the comments if you're a Disney person and if I missed one. But what we did was I built a map and I talked, I looked at the best food, the best drink, the best places to stop, the best carts to get stuff from at each of these different pavilions. And the way that I did that, the way that I did the majority of my research was through TikTok. It's amazing. And now TikTok is converting to not just scrolling and hoping to find a good next video, but now TikTok is actually trying to convert into more of a discovery, uh, or like search-based, uh, type of platform where you can go and you can get answers to certain questions. And you might be thinking as a youth pastor, that's an amazing concept. Nick Clason (08:35): And you're right, it is. You can answer very specific questions on TikTok. But here's the thing. In my Epcot experience, I got a lot of great answers. I went to the France Pavilion, I got the croquet glosser, I'm probably saying that wrong 'cause I'm not French, but I was told, Hey, this brioche bun with ice in the middle, and they flip it over in like a waffle, iron type thing. I found out about that completely and exclusively on TikTok. I would've never found that little, like, kind of like off the beaten path little restaurant to find that thing in my normal meandering. And walking around Epcot, TikTok came in clutch for me on that. However, I have no idea who posted it. I'm not following them. I don't have a relationship with them, and it's not a continued ongoing one. And so the relationships on TikTok, especially with those who follow you, are far less, uh, substantial than some of the other ones because of this kind of discovery based algorithm. Nick Clason (09:33): And I think TikTok might be trying to change that a little bit, but you just need to know that as a youth ministry, if you put your content out there and you do get a lot of subscribers, or you do get a lot of views, or you do get a lot of followers, like that doesn't necessarily equal more people that you're having like good influence with because I think it's something like 85% of the content that any one of us consume on TikTok are from people that we don't know. And so for you, a really good thing to do would be to create a meaningful call to action that pushes them to some sort of thing, to a link in the bio if you do have enough followers on there to your YouTube channel, to a digital connect card online, so that you can get to know the people that are watching your videos and that are getting answers from the, uh, big questions that you are trying to answer on TikTok. Nick Clason (10:21): So with that being said, hey, listen, if you are getting value out of this video, if this has been helpful so far, I would love it if you would hit that like button, if you would give us a rating if you're listening to a, a podcast or if you would subscribe on YouTube and maybe even consider this sharing it with a friend. But after this, we're gonna move on to not just TikTok, but now we wanna look at Instagram. So coming up next, let's take a look at Instagram, the pros, the cons, and what you need to know about that platform. All right, so Instagram, one of the things I call it, I don't know if this is really what it's called, but if you come into youth ministry, you're probably going to, at this point in, in the lifecycle of youth ministry and the lifecycle of Instagram, you're probably going to inherit what I call legacy users. Nick Clason (11:04): So that's people who have in the past been associated affiliated or connected with your youth ministry in some sort of way. But in the last couple of places that I've, I've shown up and I've, uh, jumped onto the Instagram, what I've realized is that there are college students, majority of college students as our follower base. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing for general social media marketing, it may not also be a great thing for youth ministry, social media marketing, because those are not the people that you're trying to reach anymore. And so, uh, on Instagram, you probably have some sort of an older audience as a result of just like the history of it and the way in which we've done things. So even in a church I went to, we went and we just did a follower and following like audit, and we just, anyone we didn't know we took out because if, if we don't know 'em, and we've been there for a few years, like obviously it's time to, to sort of cut ties with this relationship here. Nick Clason (11:59): And we're not trying to be jerks, we're not trying to cut people off, but, uh, that was not our target that we were like going towards, you know? And so if you go to a business account and Instagram and you look at the analytics and it's all skews older, like that's as a youth pastor, you're like, that's not, that's not what you're trying to do. That's not who you're trying to reach. You can still minister to those people and, and you should, but you just kind of gotta know that there's going to be legacy users on Instagram. You just gotta figure out what you wanna do and what your personal philosophy to managing that is. The other piece of Instagram that you need to know is that it started out as a photo sharing app, and then it stole stories from Snapchat, and then it stole reels from TikTok. Nick Clason (12:37): And so honestly, right now on Instagram, there are three very distinct different experiences for Instagram users. There's the feed and there's stories and there's reels. And so for me, because, uh, short form vertical video content is king right now, I am able to just do all of my focus on reels and use reels to share stuff to the feed and use reels to share stuff out to stories. And so by using reels, I'm able to kill literally three birds with one stone. But if you don't know that and you don't have some sort of like thought through strategy, Instagram can eat your lunch because it is busy and there's a lot going on there on Instagram. Now, let's dive into the third and final versus TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Let's check it out. YouTube, according to a 2022 study, we looked at it earlier, 95% of teenagers are using YouTube. Nick Clason (13:34): 95%, nine and a half out of 10 people in your demographic that you're trying to reach are using YouTube. Now, not all YouTube users are built the same, right? Some are on there as adults, right, to like repair their faucet. Others like my kids, they're on there to watch Roblox and they're on there to watch Rainbow Friends and people get killed by these scary monster things. Teenagers are on there for a probably, uh, a hybrid of those two reasons, along with answers to specific questions along with entertainment, along with watching Mr. Beast videos, like whatever the case might be. Teenagers are on there for a variety of reasons. 'cause YouTube has a variety of content. I mean, for crying out loud, this video right now is on YouTube, but 95% of teenagers use it. In addition, it is the second largest search engine in the world powered by the first largest search engine in the world. Nick Clason (14:26): So it is a great place to be discovered and to be found. And when people are going to YouTube, they're often asking specific questions, right? Like the other day, I got onto YouTube and I was asking how to fix smoke coming out of my lawnmower. Very specific question. So I want you to reverse engineer, and I want you to kinda retrofit that idea into your ministry as a youth pastor. What are some of the specific questions that teenagers are asking you in day to day? Why does a loving God send good people to hell? If we're always forgiven for our sins, then why do we need to obey him? Now, what's the purpose of obedience? Does God need you or require you to vote Republican? Right? Whatever the the questions are that you are fielding as a youth pastor, think about it. You have an opportunity on YouTube to go on there and answer very specific questions that your kids are asking. Nick Clason (15:21): And furthermore, it is the second largest search engine in the world. So take those specific questions and help give them some specific answers. During C O V I D I moved to a church, started a church the very first day of C O V I, and then I got immediately locked down. And so I was working out on my master bedroom with boxes all around me trying to figure out how to be a youth pastor in this brand new context. And I, quite frankly, I did not have enough to do. During that time. I kept asking my boss, what more do you want from me? What more do you want from me? And he was like, just keep doing what you're doing. And I wasn't doing much. But so what I did with my time, even as I was at home, is I taught myself Adobe after effects. Nick Clason (16:03): I taught myself how to do it step by step, key frame by key frame agonizingly, and I was building things completely from scratch. And then once we broke free from the pandemic, I found out that all the creative people at my church were using a thing called motion array. I'll link that down below in the show notes if that's something that you wanna check out. It's an amazing tool for After Effects Premier Pro, uh, stock footage, stock audio. But guess what? I could take a motion or a template and I could very easily use After Effects because I now had an ability and a skill set that I didn't have before. I completely used YouTube to teach myself a brand new skill. Speaking of which, if you are interested in our completely free Adobe Premier Pro, uh, effects and plugins, they're easy bounce ins and bounce outs and rotates in and rotates out and drop in from the top and drop in from the bottom, and a smooth effect and a bounce effect, then I wanna encourage you to go to the link down below, order the link in the show notes and grab that. Nick Clason (17:01): If you're a video editor, if you use Adobe Premier Pro, this is my number one go-to tool. And I would love to encourage you, if you're watching on YouTube, you're seeing some of the effects right now, I would like to encourage you to download that and use it in your ministry if this is something that you are doing as a video editor. So now let's dive in to the conclusion, TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Finally, the verdict. Here we go. Let's look at it. So the verdict, TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. What is it? If you asked me if I were to rank them in importance, here's how I would rank them as a youth pastor in 2023. In order of importance, in order of usage, in order of opportunity, I would rank them YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, in that order. Now, here's the good news. Nick Clason (17:46): I have a way for you to knock all three of them completely out of the park. And here's why. Because of TikTok and them introducing the discovery algorithm, Instagram has adopted reels and YouTube has adopted shorts. And so by adopting one centralized strategy on your social media, i e short form vertical video-based content, I have a completely free ebook that I am giving away in the link to the show notes. And it's called this, it's called The One Month Done For You Posting Tool. And it will give you 40 different video ideas that you can film on your smartphone or on a camera and post with very little editing, uh, need or ability. You can do all of it from your smartphone. Uh, the, the good news is when you download that ebook, you're also gonna get a link to our ha Have I Ruined My TikTok account? Nick Clason (18:35): A Complete Guide to Posting a TikTok from Start to Finish all via your phone. And so both of those are going to be paired well together so that you, if you have no video editing ability, if I'm talking about Adobe Premier Pro plugins and you're like, what in the world are you talking about? This is your way as a youth pastor with minimal, uh, experience, minimal, uh, know-how in any of these areas to completely revolutionize your social media experience. Because if you go all in on short form vertical video-based content, you can do fun stuff. You can do challenges and games with your students. You can get students on your social media and you can overhear, you can get, you can answer specific questions to big and specific problems. You can do recaps to your messages so that your messages don't just happen on a Wednesday night and then die there. Nick Clason (19:21): You can use a fully faceted, fully integrated social media posting thing. And I have all of that completely for you for free. All I need you to do is click that link and download that, um, and just start using it today. And I would love to know if you do and if you find it helpful, because I think that it's an amazing resource and an amazing tool. So go grab that download, and if you actually wanna put that completely to the, to the fullest extent, if you wanna use that to the best of its abilities, then you need to go check out episode number 60, linked right here answering the question why every single youth ministry needs a strong digital presence. Because here's the deal, we are here to make digital discipleship easy and we wanna encourage you to stay hybrid. Using Social Media for Youth Ministry, Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Youth Group, Youth Ministry Podcast, Youth Ministry Coach, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, The Best Social Media for Youth Ministry, Church Social Media 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCE TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

🎥LEVEL UP YOUR YOUTUBE GEAR FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

DESCRIPTION
In this episode, join us as we delve into the exciting world of social media platforms and discover which one holds the key to maximizing your church's youth ministry outreach. We'll be breaking down the pros and cons of Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, helping you navigate the digital landscape with confidence. Whether you're a youth pastor, a church leader, or simply interested in harnessing the power of social media for positive impact, this episode is tailor-made for you. Get ready to uncover the secrets of engagement, connection, and inspiration as we unveil the most effective platform to elevate your church's youth ministry to new heights.

🆓 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

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/061

//PEW RESEARCH ARTICLE
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/

//6 PART SOCIAL MEDIA FRAMEWORK
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIbzg_DNJrTrCtBHQnxcOVo

//WHY EVER YOUTH MINISTRY NEEDS A STRONG SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
https://youtu.be/SDxepdu4iiM

//MOTION ARRAY
https://motionarray.com/

🕺 TikTok: 🎵

Get ready to dance into the world of TikTok! 🕺 We'll discuss the power of short-form videos in grabbing attention, sparking trends, and spreading your message like wildfire. Learn how to harness the creative energy of TikTok to connect with the youth in ways you never thought possible.

📸 Instagram: 📱

Discover the world of visual storytelling as we explore how Instagram can capture the hearts and minds of the youth. From captivating visuals to real-time interaction, we'll uncover the strategies that can turn your Instagram feed into an inspiration hub for your young audience.

📹 YouTube: 🎥

The long-form champion! 📹 We'll explore how YouTube provides a platform for in-depth content, tutorials, discussions, and live engagement. Join us as we unravel the potential of YouTube to create a library of resources that empowers and educates your young audience.

LEVEL UP YOUR YOUTUBE GEAR FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

So, whether you're an #InstaLover, a #TikTokEnthusiast, or a #YouTubeAficionado, this video is your guide to selecting the social platform that aligns perfectly with your church's youth ministry goals. 🌐 Let's make an impact together!

Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to stay updated on all things Hybrid Ministry. Let's transform the digital space for good! 💙🙌

👉 STAY CONNECTED
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

TIMECODES
00:00-02:34 Why Every Youth Ministry Should be Using Social Media
02:34-05:47 Every Youth Ministry Context is a little different
05:47-10:48 The Rise of TikTok
10:48-13:25 Instagram: The Curse of Legacy Followers
13:25-17:25 YouTube: How to Level up your YouTube Game in Youth Ministry
17:25-20:05 The Verdict is in: Which Platform should Youth Ministries be Using

TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Hey, in this video we want to answer what is the best social media platform for your youth ministry in 2023? So it's gonna be TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Yeah. Go ahead and hang out in this video because recently Pew Research dropped some stuff that said that 42% of Americans use TikTok. Meanwhile, 71% of Americans use Instagram, and furthermore, 81% of Americans use YouTube. And so in this video, we are going to inspect all three of them, give you the pros and the cons, and then ultimately answer which platform is best for you to dial into in your student ministry in 2023 and beyond. But make sure that you stick around to the very end of this video, because I have a surefire resource that is going to help you win in your social media, in youth ministry. We have a free download to at the very end of the video, so make sure you hang out with that.

Nick Clason (00:51):
Now, you might be asking like, is that research for Americans or is that research for teenagers? And that's a great question because the teenage data is actually a little bit different. And so Pew Research dropped an article about a year ago, in fact, almost a year ago from the date of this recording, uh, where it compared 2014 to 2015 stats all the way to now, uh, the most recent trends and most recent stats. And so interestingly, at the time, uh, YouTube wasn't originally captured as a social media. YouTube as a platform has been around, but it wasn't like converted in people's ideology to social until recently. Meanwhile, Facebook usage in teenagers went down, went from 71% down to 32%. TikTok was on the rise. It's up to 67%, and Instagram's on the rise from 52% up to 60, uh, from 52 up to 62%. Snapchat also was up on the rise along with Instagram.

Nick Clason (01:47):
And so 67% of teens say that they use TikTok ever. Meanwhile, 16% of teens say that they use it, get ready for this. Almost constantly YouTube though, however, does Chop top the charts as, uh, the usage for teenagers at get this, 95% of teenagers say that they are using YouTube. And then now, uh, Instagram and Snapchat, both are next and both used, both are used by about six in 10 teenagers. So that data is quite a bit different, quite frankly, than the original data. And so I'll drop the link to this article so that you can see it, you can read it for yourself. The link is in the show notes, but that's what we're gonna do is we're going to dive into TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Yeah, let's go. Well, everyone, my name is Nick Clason. I'm a youth pastor in the DFW Dallas-Fort Worth area, and I've actually been in youth ministry for believe it or not, 12 and a half years. And I've been managing social media accounts at each of those youth ministry stops in all sorts of various levels of intentionality and all sorts of various levels of, uh, like just know-how. And so what's interesting is when I first started, I viewed

Nick Clason (02:58):
Social media as a way to just get out more information. Like I had an email list and also I had an Instagram following. So Instagram wasn't even around when I started. I launched, uh, my very first Instagram student ministry Instagram page, uh, at the first church that I worked at. But every single church after that, I actually inherited an Instagram account and actually a fairly large Instagram account. However, in most cases, I helped launch a YouTube channel and I also helped create and start a TikTok from scratch. And so that's what I've done within the last year of starting here at the church I'm at now. We launched from scratch a TikTok account and a YouTube account. Instagram of course has been around and you're inheriting all of those followers. And so at just about every single church, I've had some measure of growing, uh, uh, social media ministry, a hybrid ministry and social media and and social networks, right, in all of my context.

Nick Clason (03:52):
And so I'm just curious for you, I would love to know both where you're watching from and what social media network seems to be working best for you. You know what's interesting, drop that in the comments below. But what's interesting is I just moved from Chicago down here to Dallas-Fort Worth and in Chicago, uh, they wouldn't text each other via text message or like standard ss m s messaging. They would really only text people each other, their friends through Snapchat, which was a really interesting phenomenon. And so down here it's not as much the same. Snapchat usage is still happening, but it's not the primary vehicle with which people communicate. And so it just goes to show that wherever you are regionally, it does truly matter and it's a little bit different and the culture and the climate are just a little bit different. So as you're letting us know in the comments below which social media platform seems to be working most in your youth ministry and in your context, you might be asking what does working even really mean?

Nick Clason (04:48):
I mean, are we talking views? Are we talking impressions? Are we talking like engagement? Are we talking reach? Like what is it? And I actually have a lot of answers to that and how to get started in our six part social media framework for churches. I'll link it right here if that's something that you're interested. But go ahead and take a look at that. If you are trying to get this up, up, up off the ground, get started in your social media, I would love to have you do that. If you are not watching on YouTube, that link will be in the show notes of your podcast catcher. But I just wanna know that as we break down in that six part context, we break down which of these social media, uh, channels, you can watch through each of the different platforms, and then you can be, uh, a decision maker as far as which is the best to implement in your current climate and in your current context.

Nick Clason (05:35):
But TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube, let's dive in and let's look at each of the platforms, the pros, the cons, where they came from and why they are where they are today. So let's go. Some say it started as early as 2019. Others say it started closer to the beginning of 2020. And you know me, like I tried to play my part as much as I could, but it seemed like no matter what, everybody around me was getting it and I kept distancing myself from it. I tried to stay away from it, but finally it was around Christmas time of 2020, I finally just broke down and I decided I was going to get it. Now, you know what I'm talking about, right? Put it in the comments. 3, 2, 1. I'm talking about TikTok. Oh, you thought I was talking about Covid? No, I'm talking about TikTok, right?

Nick Clason (06:23):
TikTok burst on the scene during the pandemic, actually. And what's fascinating is like there's all sorts of toss out there now, but like I would never download that. And it's like me now just like doom scrolling, like just consuming it at like mass crazy levels. Here's the thing that you need to know about TikTok is they invented a brand new way to do social media. And the way that they burst on the scene and the popularity with which they burst on the scene is now causing all other platforms to change their method and their approach to social media. And so TikTok, uh, brought to us what we now use, and you may not call it this or may not think of it this way, but essentially it's the discovery algorithm. It's the algorithm with which you consume the majority of your content from people that you don't even know you're discovering them, right?

Nick Clason (07:11):
A way that I've used this in my own life is last, uh, last spring, my family and I, we went to Disney. We visited the mouse. And if you've ever been to Disney, one of the best places to go to Disney is Epcot. All right? And so we went to Epcot on the very first day of our trip. My brother, uh, my sister and my brother-in-law came and they joined us. They live in Florida a few hours away. So they drove over. I mean, it was a blast. We hung out on Epcot. But in order to know the best, like if you've never been to Epcot, they have this thing called the World Showcase. And you walk around this giant lake and there are 11 different pavilions. You got like Mexico and Japan and China and Norway, and you got France, and you got Germany, and you got, uh, United Kingdom.

Nick Clason (07:51):
You got United States, you got Canada. I might've named all 11. I don't know, I might, I might've missed one. Let me know in the comments if you're a Disney person and if I missed one. But what we did was I built a map and I talked, I looked at the best food, the best drink, the best places to stop, the best carts to get stuff from at each of these different pavilions. And the way that I did that, the way that I did the majority of my research was through TikTok. It's amazing. And now TikTok is converting to not just scrolling and hoping to find a good next video, but now TikTok is actually trying to convert into more of a discovery, uh, or like search-based, uh, type of platform where you can go and you can get answers to certain questions. And you might be thinking as a youth pastor, that's an amazing concept.

Nick Clason (08:35):
And you're right, it is. You can answer very specific questions on TikTok. But here's the thing. In my Epcot experience, I got a lot of great answers. I went to the France Pavilion, I got the croquet glosser, I'm probably saying that wrong 'cause I'm not French, but I was told, Hey, this brioche bun with ice in the middle, and they flip it over in like a waffle, iron type thing. I found out about that completely and exclusively on TikTok. I would've never found that little, like, kind of like off the beaten path little restaurant to find that thing in my normal meandering. And walking around Epcot, TikTok came in clutch for me on that. However, I have no idea who posted it. I'm not following them. I don't have a relationship with them, and it's not a continued ongoing one. And so the relationships on TikTok, especially with those who follow you, are far less, uh, substantial than some of the other ones because of this kind of discovery based algorithm.

Nick Clason (09:33):
And I think TikTok might be trying to change that a little bit, but you just need to know that as a youth ministry, if you put your content out there and you do get a lot of subscribers, or you do get a lot of views, or you do get a lot of followers, like that doesn't necessarily equal more people that you're having like good influence with because I think it's something like 85% of the content that any one of us consume on TikTok are from people that we don't know. And so for you, a really good thing to do would be to create a meaningful call to action that pushes them to some sort of thing, to a link in the bio if you do have enough followers on there to your YouTube channel, to a digital connect card online, so that you can get to know the people that are watching your videos and that are getting answers from the, uh, big questions that you are trying to answer on TikTok.

Nick Clason (10:21):
So with that being said, hey, listen, if you are getting value out of this video, if this has been helpful so far, I would love it if you would hit that like button, if you would give us a rating if you're listening to a, a podcast or if you would subscribe on YouTube and maybe even consider this sharing it with a friend. But after this, we're gonna move on to not just TikTok, but now we wanna look at Instagram. So coming up next, let's take a look at Instagram, the pros, the cons, and what you need to know about that platform. All right, so Instagram, one of the things I call it, I don't know if this is really what it's called, but if you come into youth ministry, you're probably going to, at this point in, in the lifecycle of youth ministry and the lifecycle of Instagram, you're probably going to inherit what I call legacy users.

Nick Clason (11:04):
So that's people who have in the past been associated affiliated or connected with your youth ministry in some sort of way. But in the last couple of places that I've, I've shown up and I've, uh, jumped onto the Instagram, what I've realized is that there are college students, majority of college students as our follower base. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing for general social media marketing, it may not also be a great thing for youth ministry, social media marketing, because those are not the people that you're trying to reach anymore. And so, uh, on Instagram, you probably have some sort of an older audience as a result of just like the history of it and the way in which we've done things. So even in a church I went to, we went and we just did a follower and following like audit, and we just, anyone we didn't know we took out because if, if we don't know 'em, and we've been there for a few years, like obviously it's time to, to sort of cut ties with this relationship here.

Nick Clason (11:59):
And we're not trying to be jerks, we're not trying to cut people off, but, uh, that was not our target that we were like going towards, you know? And so if you go to a business account and Instagram and you look at the analytics and it's all skews older, like that's as a youth pastor, you're like, that's not, that's not what you're trying to do. That's not who you're trying to reach. You can still minister to those people and, and you should, but you just kind of gotta know that there's going to be legacy users on Instagram. You just gotta figure out what you wanna do and what your personal philosophy to managing that is. The other piece of Instagram that you need to know is that it started out as a photo sharing app, and then it stole stories from Snapchat, and then it stole reels from TikTok.

Nick Clason (12:37):
And so honestly, right now on Instagram, there are three very distinct different experiences for Instagram users. There's the feed and there's stories and there's reels. And so for me, because, uh, short form vertical video content is king right now, I am able to just do all of my focus on reels and use reels to share stuff to the feed and use reels to share stuff out to stories. And so by using reels, I'm able to kill literally three birds with one stone. But if you don't know that and you don't have some sort of like thought through strategy, Instagram can eat your lunch because it is busy and there's a lot going on there on Instagram. Now, let's dive into the third and final versus TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Let's check it out. YouTube, according to a 2022 study, we looked at it earlier, 95% of teenagers are using YouTube.

Nick Clason (13:34):
95%, nine and a half out of 10 people in your demographic that you're trying to reach are using YouTube. Now, not all YouTube users are built the same, right? Some are on there as adults, right, to like repair their faucet. Others like my kids, they're on there to watch Roblox and they're on there to watch Rainbow Friends and people get killed by these scary monster things. Teenagers are on there for a probably, uh, a hybrid of those two reasons, along with answers to specific questions along with entertainment, along with watching Mr. Beast videos, like whatever the case might be. Teenagers are on there for a variety of reasons. 'cause YouTube has a variety of content. I mean, for crying out loud, this video right now is on YouTube, but 95% of teenagers use it. In addition, it is the second largest search engine in the world powered by the first largest search engine in the world.

Nick Clason (14:26):
So it is a great place to be discovered and to be found. And when people are going to YouTube, they're often asking specific questions, right? Like the other day, I got onto YouTube and I was asking how to fix smoke coming out of my lawnmower. Very specific question. So I want you to reverse engineer, and I want you to kinda retrofit that idea into your ministry as a youth pastor. What are some of the specific questions that teenagers are asking you in day to day? Why does a loving God send good people to hell? If we're always forgiven for our sins, then why do we need to obey him? Now, what's the purpose of obedience? Does God need you or require you to vote Republican? Right? Whatever the the questions are that you are fielding as a youth pastor, think about it. You have an opportunity on YouTube to go on there and answer very specific questions that your kids are asking.

Nick Clason (15:21):
And furthermore, it is the second largest search engine in the world. So take those specific questions and help give them some specific answers. During C O V I D I moved to a church, started a church the very first day of C O V I, and then I got immediately locked down. And so I was working out on my master bedroom with boxes all around me trying to figure out how to be a youth pastor in this brand new context. And I, quite frankly, I did not have enough to do. During that time. I kept asking my boss, what more do you want from me? What more do you want from me? And he was like, just keep doing what you're doing. And I wasn't doing much. But so what I did with my time, even as I was at home, is I taught myself Adobe after effects.

Nick Clason (16:03):
I taught myself how to do it step by step, key frame by key frame agonizingly, and I was building things completely from scratch. And then once we broke free from the pandemic, I found out that all the creative people at my church were using a thing called motion array. I'll link that down below in the show notes if that's something that you wanna check out. It's an amazing tool for After Effects Premier Pro, uh, stock footage, stock audio. But guess what? I could take a motion or a template and I could very easily use After Effects because I now had an ability and a skill set that I didn't have before. I completely used YouTube to teach myself a brand new skill. Speaking of which, if you are interested in our completely free Adobe Premier Pro, uh, effects and plugins, they're easy bounce ins and bounce outs and rotates in and rotates out and drop in from the top and drop in from the bottom, and a smooth effect and a bounce effect, then I wanna encourage you to go to the link down below, order the link in the show notes and grab that.

Nick Clason (17:01):
If you're a video editor, if you use Adobe Premier Pro, this is my number one go-to tool. And I would love to encourage you, if you're watching on YouTube, you're seeing some of the effects right now, I would like to encourage you to download that and use it in your ministry if this is something that you are doing as a video editor. So now let's dive in to the conclusion, TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Finally, the verdict. Here we go. Let's look at it. So the verdict, TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. What is it? If you asked me if I were to rank them in importance, here's how I would rank them as a youth pastor in 2023. In order of importance, in order of usage, in order of opportunity, I would rank them YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, in that order. Now, here's the good news.

Nick Clason (17:46):
I have a way for you to knock all three of them completely out of the park. And here's why. Because of TikTok and them introducing the discovery algorithm, Instagram has adopted reels and YouTube has adopted shorts. And so by adopting one centralized strategy on your social media, i e short form vertical video-based content, I have a completely free ebook that I am giving away in the link to the show notes. And it's called this, it's called The One Month Done For You Posting Tool. And it will give you 40 different video ideas that you can film on your smartphone or on a camera and post with very little editing, uh, need or ability. You can do all of it from your smartphone. Uh, the, the good news is when you download that ebook, you're also gonna get a link to our ha Have I Ruined My TikTok account?

Nick Clason (18:35):
A Complete Guide to Posting a TikTok from Start to Finish all via your phone. And so both of those are going to be paired well together so that you, if you have no video editing ability, if I'm talking about Adobe Premier Pro plugins and you're like, what in the world are you talking about? This is your way as a youth pastor with minimal, uh, experience, minimal, uh, know-how in any of these areas to completely revolutionize your social media experience. Because if you go all in on short form vertical video-based content, you can do fun stuff. You can do challenges and games with your students. You can get students on your social media and you can overhear, you can get, you can answer specific questions to big and specific problems. You can do recaps to your messages so that your messages don't just happen on a Wednesday night and then die there.

Nick Clason (19:21):
You can use a fully faceted, fully integrated social media posting thing. And I have all of that completely for you for free. All I need you to do is click that link and download that, um, and just start using it today. And I would love to know if you do and if you find it helpful, because I think that it's an amazing resource and an amazing tool. So go grab that download, and if you actually wanna put that completely to the, to the fullest extent, if you wanna use that to the best of its abilities, then you need to go check out episode number 60, linked right here answering the question why every single youth ministry needs a strong digital presence. Because here's the deal, we are here to make digital discipleship easy and we wanna encourage you to stay hybrid.

]]> 🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCE TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

🎥LEVEL UP YOUR YOUTUBE GEAR FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

DESCRIPTION
In this episode, join us as we delve into the exciting world of social media platforms and discover which one holds the key to maximizing your church's youth ministry outreach. We'll be breaking down the pros and cons of Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, helping you navigate the digital landscape with confidence. Whether you're a youth pastor, a church leader, or simply interested in harnessing the power of social media for positive impact, this episode is tailor-made for you. Get ready to uncover the secrets of engagement, connection, and inspiration as we unveil the most effective platform to elevate your church's youth ministry to new heights.

🆓 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

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/061

//PEW RESEARCH ARTICLE
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/

//6 PART SOCIAL MEDIA FRAMEWORK
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIbzg_DNJrTrCtBHQnxcOVo

//WHY EVER YOUTH MINISTRY NEEDS A STRONG SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
https://youtu.be/SDxepdu4iiM

//MOTION ARRAY
https://motionarray.com/

🕺 TikTok: 🎵

Get ready to dance into the world of TikTok! 🕺 We'll discuss the power of short-form videos in grabbing attention, sparking trends, and spreading your message like wildfire. Learn how to harness the creative energy of TikTok to connect with the youth in ways you never thought possible.

📸 Instagram: 📱

Discover the world of visual storytelling as we explore how Instagram can capture the hearts and minds of the youth. From captivating visuals to real-time interaction, we'll uncover the strategies that can turn your Instagram feed into an inspiration hub for your young audience.

📹 YouTube: 🎥

The long-form champion! 📹 We'll explore how YouTube provides a platform for in-depth content, tutorials, discussions, and live engagement. Join us as we unravel the potential of YouTube to create a library of resources that empowers and educates your young audience.

LEVEL UP YOUR YOUTUBE GEAR FOR UNDER $100
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So, whether you're an #InstaLover, a #TikTokEnthusiast, or a #YouTubeAficionado, this video is your guide to selecting the social platform that aligns perfectly with your church's youth ministry goals. 🌐 Let's make an impact together!

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TIMECODES
00:00-02:34 Why Every Youth Ministry Should be Using Social Media
02:34-05:47 Every Youth Ministry Context is a little different
05:47-10:48 The Rise of TikTok
10:48-13:25 Instagram: The Curse of Legacy Followers
13:25-17:25 YouTube: How to Level up your YouTube Game in Youth Ministry
17:25-20:05 The Verdict is in: Which Platform should Youth Ministries be Using

TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
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Nick Clason (00:00):
Hey, in this video we want to answer what is the best social media platform for your youth ministry in 2023? So it's gonna be TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Yeah. Go ahead and hang out in this video because recently Pew Research dropped some stuff that said that 42% of Americans use TikTok. Meanwhile, 71% of Americans use Instagram, and furthermore, 81% of Americans use YouTube. And so in this video, we are going to inspect all three of them, give you the pros and the cons, and then ultimately answer which platform is best for you to dial into in your student ministry in 2023 and beyond. But make sure that you stick around to the very end of this video, because I have a surefire resource that is going to help you win in your social media, in youth ministry. We have a free download to at the very end of the video, so make sure you hang out with that.

Nick Clason (00:51):
Now, you might be asking like, is that research for Americans or is that research for teenagers? And that's a great question because the teenage data is actually a little bit different. And so Pew Research dropped an article about a year ago, in fact, almost a year ago from the date of this recording, uh, where it compared 2014 to 2015 stats all the way to now, uh, the most recent trends and most recent stats. And so interestingly, at the time, uh, YouTube wasn't originally captured as a social media. YouTube as a platform has been around, but it wasn't like converted in people's ideology to social until recently. Meanwhile, Facebook usage in teenagers went down, went from 71% down to 32%. TikTok was on the rise. It's up to 67%, and Instagram's on the rise from 52% up to 60, uh, from 52 up to 62%. Snapchat also was up on the rise along with Instagram.

Nick Clason (01:47):
And so 67% of teens say that they use TikTok ever. Meanwhile, 16% of teens say that they use it, get ready for this. Almost constantly YouTube though, however, does Chop top the charts as, uh, the usage for teenagers at get this, 95% of teenagers say that they are using YouTube. And then now, uh, Instagram and Snapchat, both are next and both used, both are used by about six in 10 teenagers. So that data is quite a bit different, quite frankly, than the original data. And so I'll drop the link to this article so that you can see it, you can read it for yourself. The link is in the show notes, but that's what we're gonna do is we're going to dive into TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Yeah, let's go. Well, everyone, my name is Nick Clason. I'm a youth pastor in the DFW Dallas-Fort Worth area, and I've actually been in youth ministry for believe it or not, 12 and a half years. And I've been managing social media accounts at each of those youth ministry stops in all sorts of various levels of intentionality and all sorts of various levels of, uh, like just know-how. And so what's interesting is when I first started, I viewed

Nick Clason (02:58):
Social media as a way to just get out more information. Like I had an email list and also I had an Instagram following. So Instagram wasn't even around when I started. I launched, uh, my very first Instagram student ministry Instagram page, uh, at the first church that I worked at. But every single church after that, I actually inherited an Instagram account and actually a fairly large Instagram account. However, in most cases, I helped launch a YouTube channel and I also helped create and start a TikTok from scratch. And so that's what I've done within the last year of starting here at the church I'm at now. We launched from scratch a TikTok account and a YouTube account. Instagram of course has been around and you're inheriting all of those followers. And so at just about every single church, I've had some measure of growing, uh, uh, social media ministry, a hybrid ministry and social media and and social networks, right, in all of my context.

Nick Clason (03:52):
And so I'm just curious for you, I would love to know both where you're watching from and what social media network seems to be working best for you. You know what's interesting, drop that in the comments below. But what's interesting is I just moved from Chicago down here to Dallas-Fort Worth and in Chicago, uh, they wouldn't text each other via text message or like standard ss m s messaging. They would really only text people each other, their friends through Snapchat, which was a really interesting phenomenon. And so down here it's not as much the same. Snapchat usage is still happening, but it's not the primary vehicle with which people communicate. And so it just goes to show that wherever you are regionally, it does truly matter and it's a little bit different and the culture and the climate are just a little bit different. So as you're letting us know in the comments below which social media platform seems to be working most in your youth ministry and in your context, you might be asking what does working even really mean?

Nick Clason (04:48):
I mean, are we talking views? Are we talking impressions? Are we talking like engagement? Are we talking reach? Like what is it? And I actually have a lot of answers to that and how to get started in our six part social media framework for churches. I'll link it right here if that's something that you're interested. But go ahead and take a look at that. If you are trying to get this up, up, up off the ground, get started in your social media, I would love to have you do that. If you are not watching on YouTube, that link will be in the show notes of your podcast catcher. But I just wanna know that as we break down in that six part context, we break down which of these social media, uh, channels, you can watch through each of the different platforms, and then you can be, uh, a decision maker as far as which is the best to implement in your current climate and in your current context.

Nick Clason (05:35):
But TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube, let's dive in and let's look at each of the platforms, the pros, the cons, where they came from and why they are where they are today. So let's go. Some say it started as early as 2019. Others say it started closer to the beginning of 2020. And you know me, like I tried to play my part as much as I could, but it seemed like no matter what, everybody around me was getting it and I kept distancing myself from it. I tried to stay away from it, but finally it was around Christmas time of 2020, I finally just broke down and I decided I was going to get it. Now, you know what I'm talking about, right? Put it in the comments. 3, 2, 1. I'm talking about TikTok. Oh, you thought I was talking about Covid? No, I'm talking about TikTok, right?

Nick Clason (06:23):
TikTok burst on the scene during the pandemic, actually. And what's fascinating is like there's all sorts of toss out there now, but like I would never download that. And it's like me now just like doom scrolling, like just consuming it at like mass crazy levels. Here's the thing that you need to know about TikTok is they invented a brand new way to do social media. And the way that they burst on the scene and the popularity with which they burst on the scene is now causing all other platforms to change their method and their approach to social media. And so TikTok, uh, brought to us what we now use, and you may not call it this or may not think of it this way, but essentially it's the discovery algorithm. It's the algorithm with which you consume the majority of your content from people that you don't even know you're discovering them, right?

Nick Clason (07:11):
A way that I've used this in my own life is last, uh, last spring, my family and I, we went to Disney. We visited the mouse. And if you've ever been to Disney, one of the best places to go to Disney is Epcot. All right? And so we went to Epcot on the very first day of our trip. My brother, uh, my sister and my brother-in-law came and they joined us. They live in Florida a few hours away. So they drove over. I mean, it was a blast. We hung out on Epcot. But in order to know the best, like if you've never been to Epcot, they have this thing called the World Showcase. And you walk around this giant lake and there are 11 different pavilions. You got like Mexico and Japan and China and Norway, and you got France, and you got Germany, and you got, uh, United Kingdom.

Nick Clason (07:51):
You got United States, you got Canada. I might've named all 11. I don't know, I might, I might've missed one. Let me know in the comments if you're a Disney person and if I missed one. But what we did was I built a map and I talked, I looked at the best food, the best drink, the best places to stop, the best carts to get stuff from at each of these different pavilions. And the way that I did that, the way that I did the majority of my research was through TikTok. It's amazing. And now TikTok is converting to not just scrolling and hoping to find a good next video, but now TikTok is actually trying to convert into more of a discovery, uh, or like search-based, uh, type of platform where you can go and you can get answers to certain questions. And you might be thinking as a youth pastor, that's an amazing concept.

Nick Clason (08:35):
And you're right, it is. You can answer very specific questions on TikTok. But here's the thing. In my Epcot experience, I got a lot of great answers. I went to the France Pavilion, I got the croquet glosser, I'm probably saying that wrong 'cause I'm not French, but I was told, Hey, this brioche bun with ice in the middle, and they flip it over in like a waffle, iron type thing. I found out about that completely and exclusively on TikTok. I would've never found that little, like, kind of like off the beaten path little restaurant to find that thing in my normal meandering. And walking around Epcot, TikTok came in clutch for me on that. However, I have no idea who posted it. I'm not following them. I don't have a relationship with them, and it's not a continued ongoing one. And so the relationships on TikTok, especially with those who follow you, are far less, uh, substantial than some of the other ones because of this kind of discovery based algorithm.

Nick Clason (09:33):
And I think TikTok might be trying to change that a little bit, but you just need to know that as a youth ministry, if you put your content out there and you do get a lot of subscribers, or you do get a lot of views, or you do get a lot of followers, like that doesn't necessarily equal more people that you're having like good influence with because I think it's something like 85% of the content that any one of us consume on TikTok are from people that we don't know. And so for you, a really good thing to do would be to create a meaningful call to action that pushes them to some sort of thing, to a link in the bio if you do have enough followers on there to your YouTube channel, to a digital connect card online, so that you can get to know the people that are watching your videos and that are getting answers from the, uh, big questions that you are trying to answer on TikTok.

Nick Clason (10:21):
So with that being said, hey, listen, if you are getting value out of this video, if this has been helpful so far, I would love it if you would hit that like button, if you would give us a rating if you're listening to a, a podcast or if you would subscribe on YouTube and maybe even consider this sharing it with a friend. But after this, we're gonna move on to not just TikTok, but now we wanna look at Instagram. So coming up next, let's take a look at Instagram, the pros, the cons, and what you need to know about that platform. All right, so Instagram, one of the things I call it, I don't know if this is really what it's called, but if you come into youth ministry, you're probably going to, at this point in, in the lifecycle of youth ministry and the lifecycle of Instagram, you're probably going to inherit what I call legacy users.

Nick Clason (11:04):
So that's people who have in the past been associated affiliated or connected with your youth ministry in some sort of way. But in the last couple of places that I've, I've shown up and I've, uh, jumped onto the Instagram, what I've realized is that there are college students, majority of college students as our follower base. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing for general social media marketing, it may not also be a great thing for youth ministry, social media marketing, because those are not the people that you're trying to reach anymore. And so, uh, on Instagram, you probably have some sort of an older audience as a result of just like the history of it and the way in which we've done things. So even in a church I went to, we went and we just did a follower and following like audit, and we just, anyone we didn't know we took out because if, if we don't know 'em, and we've been there for a few years, like obviously it's time to, to sort of cut ties with this relationship here.

Nick Clason (11:59):
And we're not trying to be jerks, we're not trying to cut people off, but, uh, that was not our target that we were like going towards, you know? And so if you go to a business account and Instagram and you look at the analytics and it's all skews older, like that's as a youth pastor, you're like, that's not, that's not what you're trying to do. That's not who you're trying to reach. You can still minister to those people and, and you should, but you just kind of gotta know that there's going to be legacy users on Instagram. You just gotta figure out what you wanna do and what your personal philosophy to managing that is. The other piece of Instagram that you need to know is that it started out as a photo sharing app, and then it stole stories from Snapchat, and then it stole reels from TikTok.

Nick Clason (12:37):
And so honestly, right now on Instagram, there are three very distinct different experiences for Instagram users. There's the feed and there's stories and there's reels. And so for me, because, uh, short form vertical video content is king right now, I am able to just do all of my focus on reels and use reels to share stuff to the feed and use reels to share stuff out to stories. And so by using reels, I'm able to kill literally three birds with one stone. But if you don't know that and you don't have some sort of like thought through strategy, Instagram can eat your lunch because it is busy and there's a lot going on there on Instagram. Now, let's dive into the third and final versus TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Let's check it out. YouTube, according to a 2022 study, we looked at it earlier, 95% of teenagers are using YouTube.

Nick Clason (13:34):
95%, nine and a half out of 10 people in your demographic that you're trying to reach are using YouTube. Now, not all YouTube users are built the same, right? Some are on there as adults, right, to like repair their faucet. Others like my kids, they're on there to watch Roblox and they're on there to watch Rainbow Friends and people get killed by these scary monster things. Teenagers are on there for a probably, uh, a hybrid of those two reasons, along with answers to specific questions along with entertainment, along with watching Mr. Beast videos, like whatever the case might be. Teenagers are on there for a variety of reasons. 'cause YouTube has a variety of content. I mean, for crying out loud, this video right now is on YouTube, but 95% of teenagers use it. In addition, it is the second largest search engine in the world powered by the first largest search engine in the world.

Nick Clason (14:26):
So it is a great place to be discovered and to be found. And when people are going to YouTube, they're often asking specific questions, right? Like the other day, I got onto YouTube and I was asking how to fix smoke coming out of my lawnmower. Very specific question. So I want you to reverse engineer, and I want you to kinda retrofit that idea into your ministry as a youth pastor. What are some of the specific questions that teenagers are asking you in day to day? Why does a loving God send good people to hell? If we're always forgiven for our sins, then why do we need to obey him? Now, what's the purpose of obedience? Does God need you or require you to vote Republican? Right? Whatever the the questions are that you are fielding as a youth pastor, think about it. You have an opportunity on YouTube to go on there and answer very specific questions that your kids are asking.

Nick Clason (15:21):
And furthermore, it is the second largest search engine in the world. So take those specific questions and help give them some specific answers. During C O V I D I moved to a church, started a church the very first day of C O V I, and then I got immediately locked down. And so I was working out on my master bedroom with boxes all around me trying to figure out how to be a youth pastor in this brand new context. And I, quite frankly, I did not have enough to do. During that time. I kept asking my boss, what more do you want from me? What more do you want from me? And he was like, just keep doing what you're doing. And I wasn't doing much. But so what I did with my time, even as I was at home, is I taught myself Adobe after effects.

Nick Clason (16:03):
I taught myself how to do it step by step, key frame by key frame agonizingly, and I was building things completely from scratch. And then once we broke free from the pandemic, I found out that all the creative people at my church were using a thing called motion array. I'll link that down below in the show notes if that's something that you wanna check out. It's an amazing tool for After Effects Premier Pro, uh, stock footage, stock audio. But guess what? I could take a motion or a template and I could very easily use After Effects because I now had an ability and a skill set that I didn't have before. I completely used YouTube to teach myself a brand new skill. Speaking of which, if you are interested in our completely free Adobe Premier Pro, uh, effects and plugins, they're easy bounce ins and bounce outs and rotates in and rotates out and drop in from the top and drop in from the bottom, and a smooth effect and a bounce effect, then I wanna encourage you to go to the link down below, order the link in the show notes and grab that.

Nick Clason (17:01):
If you're a video editor, if you use Adobe Premier Pro, this is my number one go-to tool. And I would love to encourage you, if you're watching on YouTube, you're seeing some of the effects right now, I would like to encourage you to download that and use it in your ministry if this is something that you are doing as a video editor. So now let's dive in to the conclusion, TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Finally, the verdict. Here we go. Let's look at it. So the verdict, TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. What is it? If you asked me if I were to rank them in importance, here's how I would rank them as a youth pastor in 2023. In order of importance, in order of usage, in order of opportunity, I would rank them YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, in that order. Now, here's the good news.

Nick Clason (17:46):
I have a way for you to knock all three of them completely out of the park. And here's why. Because of TikTok and them introducing the discovery algorithm, Instagram has adopted reels and YouTube has adopted shorts. And so by adopting one centralized strategy on your social media, i e short form vertical video-based content, I have a completely free ebook that I am giving away in the link to the show notes. And it's called this, it's called The One Month Done For You Posting Tool. And it will give you 40 different video ideas that you can film on your smartphone or on a camera and post with very little editing, uh, need or ability. You can do all of it from your smartphone. Uh, the, the good news is when you download that ebook, you're also gonna get a link to our ha Have I Ruined My TikTok account?

Nick Clason (18:35):
A Complete Guide to Posting a TikTok from Start to Finish all via your phone. And so both of those are going to be paired well together so that you, if you have no video editing ability, if I'm talking about Adobe Premier Pro plugins and you're like, what in the world are you talking about? This is your way as a youth pastor with minimal, uh, experience, minimal, uh, know-how in any of these areas to completely revolutionize your social media experience. Because if you go all in on short form vertical video-based content, you can do fun stuff. You can do challenges and games with your students. You can get students on your social media and you can overhear, you can get, you can answer specific questions to big and specific problems. You can do recaps to your messages so that your messages don't just happen on a Wednesday night and then die there.

Nick Clason (19:21):
You can use a fully faceted, fully integrated social media posting thing. And I have all of that completely for you for free. All I need you to do is click that link and download that, um, and just start using it today. And I would love to know if you do and if you find it helpful, because I think that it's an amazing resource and an amazing tool. So go grab that download, and if you actually wanna put that completely to the, to the fullest extent, if you wanna use that to the best of its abilities, then you need to go check out episode number 60, linked right here answering the question why every single youth ministry needs a strong digital presence. Because here's the deal, we are here to make digital discipleship easy and we wanna encourage you to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 020: Kerry Ray on the limitations of digital ministry, can we overcome it, and how do we help digital immigrants make an impact with digital natives https://www.hybridministry.xyz/020 f5469b86-8c62-487c-8356-0f80579a6cc1 Thu, 01 Dec 2022 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 020 Kerry Ray on the limitations of digital ministry, can we overcome it, and how do we help digital immigrants make an impact with digital natives full Nick Clason In this episode, Nick finishes up from part 1 of his conversation with Kerry Ray, director of editing and publishing at YM360. Kerry talks about the limitations of digital ministry and how to best navigate some of the new challenges of digital ministry. In addition Kerry shares some of the resources that are available through YM360 for youth pastors who are in the trenches doing ministry. 31:07 no <p><strong>SUMMARY</strong><br> In this episode, Nick finishes up from part 1 of his conversation with Kerry Ray, director of editing and publishing at YM360. Kerry talks about the limitations of digital ministry and how to best navigate some of the new challenges of digital ministry. In addition Kerry shares some of the resources that are available through YM360 for youth pastors who are in the trenches doing ministry.<br> Follow along at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/hybridministry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.twitter.com/hybridministry</a><br> Or any and all other resources at <a href="http://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.hybridministry.xyz</a><br> For resources from YM360 head to <a href="http://www.ym360.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.ym360.com</a></p> <p><strong>SHOWNOTES</strong><br> YM360<br> YM360<br> <a href="http://www.ym360.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.ym360.com</a><br> MINISTRY TO PARENTS<br> <a href="https://ministrytoparents.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://ministrytoparents.com/</a><br> MY YOUTH MIN<br> <a href="https://myyouthmin.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://myyouthmin.com/</a></p> <p><strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00-03:01 Intro<br> 03:01-05:41 The Limitations of Digital Ministry and How to use what we learned from our time in COVID<br> 05:41-11:10 How do we show up to a place teenagers are native to?<br> 11:10-22:00 If you had a crystal ball, how does digital and hybrid ministry need to adjust as we go forward?<br> 22:00-26:55 What resources are available to Youth Pastors?<br> 26:55-27:53 Final encouragement from Kerry to ministry leaders<br> 27:53-31:07 Outro</p> <p><strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> Nick Clason (00:01):<br> What is up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry podcast. And hey, if you were here for episode, uh, 19, the most recent one that we dropped, it was a part one of an interview with my great friend, um, Kerry Ray, who was on staff at YM 360. He, after 30 years of work inside the local church, has decided to step into more of a role where he's, um, serving the youth pastor, um, and people who are in the trenches doing ministry. So not only does he come with a wealth of personal hands on, boots on the ground, kind of firsthand experience and knowledge of reaching teenagers, um, and seeingDigital Ministry, Contact Work, Relational Ministry, Discipleship, Student Ministry, Youth Ministry, META Church, Streaming Church, TikTok, Social Media life before digital was introduced. Uh, the way he puts it was, um, I'm a digital immigrant versus now doing ministry to people who are digital natives. And so, uh, we're gonna dive into part two of this interview, but I would recommend if you have not heard, go back to part one because he introduces this idea, um, that's not, you know, it's not from him alone, right? </p> <p>Nick Clason (01:08):<br> But like, he introduces this idea of a thing called contact work. And contact work is basically the basic premise of going to where people are as opposed to hoping that they will always just come to us, right? If we build it, if it's so beautiful, if it's so shiny and amazing, they will come to us. So he introduces that idea. Um, and now we're gonna kind of explore is that idea of ministry possible, uh, to do digitally. And I would argue that him and I agree for the most part, but I think that, um, we have to sort of like nuance our way into it. Which honestly, it's an interesting dichotomy. And even in having the conversation, I think is how most people feel about digital ministry. I think at a knee jerk reaction, there's this, oh no, you can't do that digitally because discipleship and ministry is best done life on life. </p> <p>Nick Clason (02:00):<br> And for the record, I agree with that. Like, I want people that I can physically touch, hug, like sit and eat a knee, have a cup of coffee. Like, here's a great example. Right now, my wife is gone. She's, uh, visiting her mom back home in Ohio. I'm in Texas. We have a relationship. We've video or FaceTimed four times this week, uh, or four times a day, I should say. Um, every day that she's been gone, we've texted late at night, like, we have a relationship, but good grief, like, I wanna give my wife a hug. You know what I mean? Like, there's, it's obviously better together. However, my cell phone is making it possible to remain in contact with my wife. And, and so I think like when you put it that way, you're like, well, yeah, of course. Like, so then how do we add some intentionality? </p> <p>Nick Clason (02:47):<br> And we talk about safety, some parameters. What does it look like, um, to do ministry in this way? So I'm really excited for you to check out part two. Again, if you haven't checked out part one, go back and listen to it. Um, and without any further ado, here is part two of our conversation. I mean, honestly, the entire basis right of this podcast is, is what's called the Hybrid Ministry podcast. Because I think what we've learned, at least the way I felt, and I was a part Kerry of an attractional based church during C and so we put together, in my opinion, the best youth ministry online experience that existed. But no one cared because the contact work didn't exist. And so it's, but then what happened right, was this argument, this tug and this tug and pull, like in c everyone was forced to go all the way digital. </p> <p>Nick Clason (03:37):<br> And so we all did, we all went all in to the best of our abilities. And then once the restrictions started to lift, the pendulum swung almost so hard because we all saw the effects of not being together and how valuable that is. And so it almost swung like, let's, let's throw the baby out with the bath water and all the good things that we learned from that time period from being fully digital and having, you know, our like proverbial hands tied behind our back. Like I, so I went to a place where a, um, I was a campus student pastor. I didn't speak. Um, and we didn't speak even pre covid. We had a video speaker, um, every week cuz there's universal across all campuses. And I can give you my opinions about that later. But that was, that was one hand tie behind my back. </p> <p>Nick Clason (04:26):<br> The second hand tie behind my back was that I wasn't allowed to meet with students. So Ty, what I feel like both hands tie behind my back, all right, now you're the youth pastor here, go do youth ministry. And I was like, how? But that literally forced me right? To just rethink everything. And for literally six months to nine months, I had to navigate that world with both a handstand behind my back. And maybe that is what, and as I'm talking this out with you, maybe that's what has prompted my passion around this because I realized there's some good things you can do digitally, but it can't replace what's done physically. And so I think we gotta find that, that hybrid I think contact, I think, yeah, yeah. At its core happens in person. But think about, you know, when you started out in ministry, you couldn't grab a phone and text that student and be like, Hey, how'd that test go? </p> <p>Nick Clason (05:20):<br> You didn't have that. You had to rely on a physical meetup, the football game, youth group, whatever, to make that happen. And so we, we can live in that digital space and bow borrow off the equity that we have from what happens in person. And so how do we enter into there effectively, like you said, cuz that's what Jesus did. He showed up. We can now show up in ways that teenagers are, to your point, native to how do we do that? What are the, what, what does that look like? I think we're all trying to figure that out. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (05:53):<br> I, I think we are A couple of things. You, you said one I wanted to say, I don't know if your, your listeners understand or know about you that you walked into a church as a youth pastor, right? As this whole thing started, or that whole thing started. And so immediately you were trying, you, you, they didn't even know who you were. So you were trying to introduce yourself in a digital way, uh, to a group of people who didn't know you at all. Um, and that was interesting. Um, but the other thing you said, um, you mentioned about, um, we snapped back, the pendulum swung back. Mm-hmm. , can we be honest? I think the reason why the pendulum swung back so quickly is because we were so many people were terrible at one of it, at one side of it. Yeah. And it was failing so badly and they were terrible at it. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (06:40):<br> Well, it's not familiar. The second well, yeah. And the second that that ended, they they run back to what, you know Yeah. As fast as you can, because I'm terrible at this. So we did, you threw the baby out with the bath water because you were like, one, I'm not good at it. Two, um, nobody likes to do stuff. They're not good. Right. So I'm not good at it. I don't wanna do it. I just wanna get as far away from it as possible. Let's go back to what we know when it was working. Let's go back to the stuff that I was confident in doing. Let's just run back to that. But if Covid showed us anything, it is, there needs to be, to your point, a hybrid. There needs to be both. And there are students that are out there that we can, you know, need to say hello to digitally. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (07:22):<br> We do need to learn how to utilize that digital space better. Um, and this is another thing I was thinking as you were, as you were saying that is, you know, in the physical contact work mm-hmm. , there were boundaries and rules. Um, uh, especially in ministry. You know, you, you had, there's, there were certain things you could do and you, there were certain things you put boundaries on and said, Hey, contact work means this. It does not mean, you know, driving a female or even a male by yourself and go, oh yeah, that's contact work. No, that's, that's potential jail time. That's what that is. . Um, so you don't, you don't do those things. I think in digital. Um, you mentioned texting a student, Hey, how'd that test go? Mm-hmm. . Um, I know with our small group leaders, they were very nervous mm-hmm. and still are. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (08:12):<br> Cause we don't know the boundaries. Um, do you text a student? Is that okay? Um, because what if their parent is not cool with, um, you know, a 35 year old texting a 14 year old mm-hmm. . Um, how was your day? Um, you know, that can, that can kinda be weird. Uh, so there are some boundaries there. Do you hang out? You know, I can go to a football, I can go to a middle school football game and I could be there as a student pastor and I can see my kids that I see, I can meet their friends. This, there again, young life does a great job of this. You know, I can be intentional about meeting people. I'm in a public space. There's other people around. Yep. That is very different than me logging into Call of Duty intentionally and playing in a chatroom of, you know, a bunch of 14 year old guys and girls that I don't know. </p> <p>Nick Clason (09:06):<br> Yeah. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (09:06):<br> That's, that's different. And maybe the digital immigrant in me has that trigger goes, this is weird. Yeah. Uh, maybe that's the digital immigrant in me versus the digital native, but there's some oddity there. And so we've gotta figure out not just a balance of how do we, how do we engage that way, but what are the boundaries? What are the best practices? What are the safety protocols that need to be in place in a digital format to where you're not the weirdo, you're not the weird old guy or the weird old girl hanging out, you know, in a chatroom or in a, in a digital space. Um, the internet has been great, but it's also shown us that it's highly dangerous and that it is full of predators. And not to say that the football, the middle school football game stands, that there's not predators out there as well sitting in those, in those bleachers. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (10:02):<br> But it's, society sees it differently in a digital space. Um, because right now that is where a lot of the ugly stuff is happening. Um, so all that to say is we don't need to abandon it. We do need to be careful. Mm-hmm. , we do need to engage, but to do it with boundaries and guidelines in place. And we need to, if you're in the church world, you need to set your people up well because they don't know. And they're trying to do what you're, you're telling them, Hey, do contact work. Hey, engage, Hey, be a part of these, these students' lives. And they do. But you gotta give them the boundaries of the protocol so that they know and they have confidence in how to interact in that digital space. One, they're already digital native more than likely. And two, it's an awkward space that they're unfamiliar with. And three, they need to feel safe. Just like if you sent them into a football game and said, Hey, I want you to hit at least one football game. Here's what you do in that space. Here's what you don't do in that space. You need to do the same thing with them in a digital context. </p> <p>Nick Clason (11:10):<br> Yeah. So, from the seat you're sitting in now, um, what, if anything, like do you see about how covid, digital, hybrid, any of that stuff, how is it influencing and impacting ministry leaders? Cause you're sitting in a unique seat where you are helping serve the type of person that you were for the last 30 years. So what are you noticing? What are you hearing? What are the pain points? What are people asking? What are people trying to figure out? What are things that you're seeing? And then what do you maybe envision or see as, uh, a future maybe, maybe in like a year, but also maybe in the next five, 10 years of ministry, student ministry and all that stuff? </p> <p>Kerry Ray (11:55):<br> Yeah. What I'm seeing is I get to speak to youth pastors in multiple states, in multiple denominations. Um, people who have been doing it for 20 plus years, 10 years. I was at Arkansas this past weekend and a room of, you know, 25, 30 guys and girls, um, who do youth ministry. And, um, there were some that were full-time. There were some that were, you know, part-time. There were some that were bivocational. Um, there were some that had been doing this for 10 years, eight years, 20 years. And then a couple of the couple of them are like, yeah, this is month three. Yeah. Um, , you just go, woo. Um, but I think they're all struggling with the same thing, which is what we've been talking about this whole time, is how to balance, um, how to juggle the digital aspect versus the physical aspect and, and what is contact work and how to, how do I create things that people wanna be a part of that students wanna be a part of? </p> <p>Kerry Ray (12:55):<br> How do I program? Um, you know, a lot of 'em are just trying to figure out, how do I do any of this? I'm just winging it. How do I get support and momentum and, um, those pieces without even the digital piece involved. Um, but yeah, that's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing people struggling. I'm seeing people trying to navigate this return from shut down to non shut and the, and the damage that has been done in the, in, in that. And I am seeing people try to figure out how to engage in a new way, a new group of people, um, being, you know, this, this group of, um, of Gen Z students who are still around, and then this incoming crop of generation alpha students who are currently, uh, sixth, seventh. And depending on the age, you've got a couple eighth graders that are young ones mm-hmm. . </p> <p>Kerry Ray (13:48):<br> Um, but just trying to, how, how do I, how do I engage them? How do we, how do we, um, provide them with, with the things they need? And there again, I know this has nothing to do with digital, but what I'm really seeing the most, uh, in the youth ministry space is the audience has shifted so much in that culturally it's a different world. Um, there's a lot more questions. They're open to a lot more things. They, um, and, and pastors are trying to figure out, for example, you know, how do you teach in a ministry context? How do you teach a teenager about the word of God? Which is absolute truth when the generation doesn't believe in such a thing is absolute truth. Mm-hmm. , how do you do that? Um, how do you, you know, how do you, so many youth pastors are preaching about characters in the Bible or things that were happening scripturally. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (14:45):<br> And they'll say, you know, well, well, Moses, so and so and so and so and so and so as if the people listening to them know who that is, is without stopping to say, let me tell you who this is, because they're, again, the nuns in os they were raised by a group of parents who didn't grow them up in, in scripture. So they don't know. And so our, our mistake is, or the mistakes I'm seeing, or pastors speaking in a, in a phrase like, say, like I said, well, Moses, you know Moses, they don't, yeah. They're like, yeah, the guy with the boat, they're like, no, that's Noah </p> <p>Nick Clason (15:16):<br> , </p> <p>Kerry Ray (15:17):<br> But we have to pause. We have to slow down and teach mm-hmm. . And I think we have to do that. I think technology, um, Instagram, social media, TikTok, I, I love, I love, and I hate what I'm seeing right now on TikTok. Um, and if you're not on TikTok, you need to at least look at it. Mm-hmm. . Um, if I can encourage, if a youth pastor's listening, if I can encourage you, I know it's, you know, it's the devil. I get it. But at least be familiar with it. Yeah. At least engage. And I know your church probably has a stance on it. And, and I'll warn you, there's things, you're gonna see some stuff on there. That algorithm is incredible. Um, you only need to pause for a second and it'll feed you more of that. Um, </p> <p>Nick Clason (15:59):<br> So yeah, listen, here's the best TikTok hack, by the way. If you start it and they start feeding you stuff you don't want, hold your, hold the video down, click, not interested, do that two or three times and it's gone forever. Like I'm telling you, can, you can game that algorithm, uh, the way each can, the way you'll, you want, </p> <p>Kerry Ray (16:17):<br> I'll see a better TikTok hack. Don't sign up for an account </p> <p>Nick Clason (16:21):<br> or </p> <p>Kerry Ray (16:22):<br> That, cause that way every time you, every time you log off the, turn the app off, you turn it back on, you get the most stuff. It's new every time. Um, but what, what I was gonna say about, about TikTok was some of the greatest things I'm seeing is, is student ministries, youth pastors, pastors utilizing that technology and teaching theology. Yeah. And, and, and, um, you know, there's a couple guys that do like the, you know, one minute sermon, um, and stuff that excellent content mm-hmm. this, the negative side of that is I'm seeing that the same thing with terrible theology mm-hmm. . Um, and I would say that group of people are using it very well. And our students, there, again, keep in mind your kids don't know the difference. They don't. Yeah. Um, and so they're watching things on TikTok that are, let's call it, you know, 30% true. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (17:22):<br> Uh, and then it just kinda hangs, hangs hangs the right or hangs the left and, and goes crazy. Um, you know, I watched somebody the other day talking about, you know, Jesus, you know, Jesus's name wasn't Jesus. And I'm like, yeah. And I'm like, good. This is good. And then they kept going. They kept going. They like, so Jesus wasn't really God, he was just the, and I'm like, oh, no, no, because it started off, it started off really strong and going, yeah, this is good. This is good. Let's teach them these things. You know, there weren't really three wise men as far as we know. There were, there were wise men that showed up. Great. Great. So, you know what they were, they were really these things. They were Illuminati No, they were not Illuminati. You know, just, just crazy stuff. Um, where do I think it's going? </p> <p>Kerry Ray (18:08):<br> I I definitely think, you know, the, the, those of us who are digital, uh, immigrants we're aging out. Um, more and more digital natives. Um, that's the way the world works, right. You know, more kids are being born more, more babies and children are being handed iPhones and iPads as pacifiers and are growing up with it. And that is a thing. And it can be good or it can be bad. And, and I guess my biggest takeaway would be, or challenge would be this, don't build a moat. There's no mo big enough. Whether you're talking to parents or whether you're trying to do your own ministry piece. Don't build a moat and try to protect everybody from technology. That's, it's foolish. You're not, that's, that's not a winnable battle. No. Um, I think what we need to focus on is redeeming that culture and redeeming technology and saying, how can I take what is, what is, how can I take who these students are and meet them where they are versus where we wish they were? </p> <p>Kerry Ray (19:11):<br> Um, meet them where they are and redeem this technology and utilize it in a way for the glory of God and for, for the, for the right reasons. The right purposes. And try to try to really point to him using technology and use it to reach students. Use it to disciple students. Use it to, um, bring and share Jesus to students who may never, ever step foot in your church door, but they may be scrolling through TikTok and just happened to come across a video where you talk about this God man who loved you so much that he gave himself for you on your behalf, so that you could have eternal life. And it may, here's what I find interesting about students in this generational speech that we're in right now. There's no reason for a teenager to show up to the things you're doing. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (20:05):<br> Mm-hmm. , there's just no reason for it. Yeah. But they still are. They're showing up to these things. And it's not because you got a great Instagram account. They're showing up to these things because they have an internal intrinsic curiosity about spiritual things that I believe that God has placed in them from creation to seek him out. Yeah. And they're showing up because that curiosity is itching and they're trying to figure out a way to scratch it. And they're just curious enough to still listen and use, use Instagram and TikTok all you want, but use it to scratch that curiosity in them that is God given. And let God be God and God do the things. We don't save people anyway. We never have, we haven't done it physically and we're not gonna do it digitally. Um, that's not, that's not for us, but utilize the, the tools that we have in front of us to continue to do the things that we are called to doop. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (21:06):<br> Um, so yes, technology is out there. It is, it is doing its thing. Um, don't run from it. Don't build a mote to protect people from it, whether they're your own kids or not. Utilize it. Teach people how to use it. Teach people how to be safe with it. Set your volunteers up to utilize it. Well give them boundaries. Help them to, to do this thing well. Um, you know, show them how to do it and show your church how to do it. Show all the digital immigrants how to do it. Um, and lead, lead there. Lead from lead from the backseat. Um, especially if you're watching this, listen to this. Sorry. If you're listening to this as a, as a digital, uh, native, help people learn how to do this and to do it right. And to do it well. And not to be afraid of it. Cause I think the biggest thing is fear. Um, but yeah. Mean, sorry, man. I got, I've got on my soapbox for a minute, but </p> <p>Nick Clason (21:58):<br> No, that was really good. I just, that was a great, that was a great place to land it. Why don't you, uh, you know, this has been a very youth ministry centric conversation, which admittedly so, and we, we let you guys know that at the beginning. Tell 'em about, uh, everything, you know, what, how can they engage with stuff over at YM 360. What are some of the resources that you, you all are producing to help, to help people in this space right now? </p> <p>Kerry Ray (22:20):<br> Yeah. For, um, we, we create things. Our, our whole point is to make the things, to make youth ministry youth pastors wear a lot of hats. It's, it's hard. Um, I told those guys in girls in Arkansas, uh, this past weekend, youth ministry's harder than it's ever been. And it's not easy. Yeah. But we have more opportunity than we've ever had had because there are so many blank canvases out there who don't know. There's not a lot of, um, church baggage in teenagers right now, cuz they never went. Um, they read about it, they see it online, but, you know, they see people deconstructing and talking about it, but they don't have it themselves. A lot of them, because they, they haven't engaged yet. So, gosh, there's so much out there. Um, and why do sixty.com if you wanna check that out? Uh, there's tons of resources, uh, for you. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (23:10):<br> There's, we post blog articles every single Monday. You can check out that kinda stuff. Um, I think that the, the best things that you can be a part of right now that we work on is we have two big platforms that we put out every month. New content for one of those is called ministry parents.com, ministry to parents.com. And it's not for parents, it's for you to help parents. So if you're in ministry, uh, and you're trying to help equip parents to be better parents in their home and to be, and to help those no e s's raise students in a way that points them to Jesus, um, we provide you with all the stuff. We do it all for you. Uh, we write all your emails, we, we curate all the content for you. It's really just point and click and paste and send. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (24:00):<br> And we do it all for you. Uh, all of us know that we're supposed to partner with parents. None of us really know what that means. Um, and so and so we're trying to figure it out. And you know, what usually keeps us as student pastors from it is either we don't have kids of our own. And we go, well, I'm not legit. There's no way I'm gonna look at a parent and go, you know what you should do with that 14 year old? Cause they're gonna look at me and go, yeah, you tell me about that buddy. Or by the time we are legitimate, we realize that curating content for parents as far as what they need is a full-time job. Yep. And we can't do all that. And so that's what ministry parents does. Ministry parents.com. And then we just launched a brand new platform for training and development of youth pastors, um, that talks about all of this kind of stuff on the regular, every month we provide you with, gosh, 2026 plus pieces of content that's brand new every month that talks about everything from volunteers to parents, to technology, to other disruptors that are in that you're dealing with. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (25:04):<br> Um, the whole point of it is to help you grow, lead and thrive in ministry. It is, it is all about developing you as a person. Um, you could check that out as well. It is my youth min.com, my youth min.com. It is, it is worth it. It's worth checking that out. Um, all those are subscription based stuff, but it's, it's not expensive. So whether you're full-time, part-time, uh, big church, small church, um, multi-site, multi staff, or you're flying solo, um, it is something that you can utilize. Um, and anytime, you know, my I am available, like I said, I tell people all the time, let me be that guy. Let me be the person that when you're struggling and you need somebody to talk to, when you are excited, when you're new and, and going, I don't know if this is the right way to do this or not, uh, I'm available. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (25:54):<br> And, and more than happy to talk to you, I, I stepped out a student ministry proper to take this YM 360 role to give myself the ability to have these conversations like we're having the day, uh, with youth pastors, youth workers, uh, all over the place. So my email address is Kerry kr y com. Um, or you can catch me on Twitter and Instagram, uh, K R two, and then the letter you k um, I, I don't have TikTok. I just have a blank account so I can keep up with what's going on, but nobody wants to see me do Renegade or any of the dances anyway, so I know Charlie de that's, it's true, it's true. I should be on Dancing With the Stars, but I'm a, I'm no TikTok dancer day. So Yeah, day one day it's my aspiration. . Uh, yeah. So please, please hit me up and lemme hear from you. Any questions you ever have, anything you ever need, or if you just need to be encouraged and say don't, because here's, here's the deal, Nick, I just want people to know that there's less people joining into the student ministry rights than there used to be. Hmm. And, uh, we need more people than ever before. And so, yeah. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (27:10):<br> You know, um, gosh, I'm going blank on that. Josh ship is the guy who said, you know, every student needs one caring adult. Yeah. Every student is one caring adult away from being a success. Um, and so, man, we need so many caring adults out there who are willing to see students, to love students where they are versus where they wish they were. That's good. And, and just to jump in and say, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm willing to let somebody show me the ropes. So </p> <p>Nick Clason (27:43):<br> This stuff, man. Hey, I appreciate it. Thanks for your, uh, absolutely your time today from, uh, Birmingham Hotel Room. It's been great. </p> <p>Kerry Ray (27:51):<br> . Thank you very much, man. Thanks for having me. </p> <p>Nick Clason (27:55):<br> Wow. Well, man, I hope that you guys found that interesting and fascinating. Uh, hey, uh, in the show notes, wherever you get podcasts, you should be able to, uh, see the links to all the things that Kerry was talking about and all the resources that are available. If you are not a youth pastor, thank you for sitting through just a couple of old timey youth pastors chatting up, doing ministry, talking about ministry. But if you know someone who is in, in particular, man, I would really encourage you to share with him the ministry to parent and the, um, my Youth men, um, platform. Share those links with them. It's something that can be really, really helpful. Uh, we talked about this a little bit, um, off off Mike, Kerry and I, well, once we hung up. But my youth min, honestly, guys, it is conference level training. </p> <p>Nick Clason (28:42):<br> And so if you're a youth pastor and you're in a small church without a giant budget, like it's behind a paywall, however, it is far cheaper than if you got a plane, got a hotel, um, and paid for a conference ticket somewhere across country or whatever, and you have access to it. Like, I don't know if you heard, he's like 20 something pieces of new content every single month. So there is conference level training very available at your fingertips, very accessible. Um, and so that's a budget saver, you know, and so I think leaders who wanna be learning, um, are growing super helpful. So check that out for sure. I am a, I'm a contributor to it, so, um, shamelessly love to have you check it out. Um, but anyway, uh, appreciate you guys, uh, listening. And if you're anything like me and you listen to podcasts on the go, I do it when I'm, I'm running, I do it when I'm driving, and I do it when I'm on the lawn doing the dishes. </p> <p>Nick Clason (29:37):<br> The reality is, um, Kerry said so much good stuff in there and I would hate, hate for you to miss it. And so we, for free provide, uh, transcripts for every single episode. You can check those out at hybridministry.xyz or just, uh, read through it in your podcast catcher so that you're able to just see what's going on and, uh, hear what's going on and maybe take some notes, um, and take some of the things that you heard in your ears and put it to paper if you need it. Um, for conversations or for meetings with, uh, upper level leadership or whatever the case may be. We just wanna serve you and help you win in your area of ministry. So you can check that out at hybridministry.xyz. We're also on Twitter at hybrid ministry. We'd love to have you come hang out with us. And hey, listen, if you found this helpful one way that you could really help us out, um, a gigantic favor for us would just be male. </p> <p>Nick Clason (30:26):<br> If you could give us a like, or a rating or a review, that would be very beneficial, help us pay it forward, um, and help you maybe pay it forward even to some other people who, who wanna help uncover and find this information. So, once again, grateful for you, thankful for you. Um, hope you guys have a great rest of your day, wherever you are, whatever you might be doing, and we pray that this is helping, um, make digital discipleship just a little bit easier for you in your ministry context. Until next time, talk to you later guys. Bye. </p> Digital Ministry, Contact Work, Relational Ministry, Discipleship, Student Ministry, Youth Ministry, META Church, Streaming Church, TikTok, Social Media SUMMARY
In this episode, Nick finishes up from part 1 of his conversation with Kerry Ray, director of editing and publishing at YM360. Kerry talks about the limitations of digital ministry and how to best navigate some of the new challenges of digital ministry. In addition Kerry shares some of the resources that are available through YM360 for youth pastors who are in the trenches doing ministry.
Follow along at http://www.twitter.com/hybridministry
Or any and all other resources at http://www.hybridministry.xyz
For resources from YM360 head to http://www.ym360.com

SHOWNOTES
YM360
YM360
http://www.ym360.com
MINISTRY TO PARENTS
https://ministrytoparents.com/
MY YOUTH MIN
https://myyouthmin.com/

TIMECODES
00:00-03:01 Intro
03:01-05:41 The Limitations of Digital Ministry and How to use what we learned from our time in COVID
05:41-11:10 How do we show up to a place teenagers are native to?
11:10-22:00 If you had a crystal ball, how does digital and hybrid ministry need to adjust as we go forward?
22:00-26:55 What resources are available to Youth Pastors?
26:55-27:53 Final encouragement from Kerry to ministry leaders
27:53-31:07 Outro

TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:01):
What is up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry podcast. And hey, if you were here for episode, uh, 19, the most recent one that we dropped, it was a part one of an interview with my great friend, um, Kerry Ray, who was on staff at YM 360. He, after 30 years of work inside the local church, has decided to step into more of a role where he's, um, serving the youth pastor, um, and people who are in the trenches doing ministry. So not only does he come with a wealth of personal hands on, boots on the ground, kind of firsthand experience and knowledge of reaching teenagers, um, and seeingDigital Ministry, Contact Work, Relational Ministry, Discipleship, Student Ministry, Youth Ministry, META Church, Streaming Church, TikTok, Social Media life before digital was introduced. Uh, the way he puts it was, um, I'm a digital immigrant versus now doing ministry to people who are digital natives. And so, uh, we're gonna dive into part two of this interview, but I would recommend if you have not heard, go back to part one because he introduces this idea, um, that's not, you know, it's not from him alone, right?

Nick Clason (01:08):
But like, he introduces this idea of a thing called contact work. And contact work is basically the basic premise of going to where people are as opposed to hoping that they will always just come to us, right? If we build it, if it's so beautiful, if it's so shiny and amazing, they will come to us. So he introduces that idea. Um, and now we're gonna kind of explore is that idea of ministry possible, uh, to do digitally. And I would argue that him and I agree for the most part, but I think that, um, we have to sort of like nuance our way into it. Which honestly, it's an interesting dichotomy. And even in having the conversation, I think is how most people feel about digital ministry. I think at a knee jerk reaction, there's this, oh no, you can't do that digitally because discipleship and ministry is best done life on life.

Nick Clason (02:00):
And for the record, I agree with that. Like, I want people that I can physically touch, hug, like sit and eat a knee, have a cup of coffee. Like, here's a great example. Right now, my wife is gone. She's, uh, visiting her mom back home in Ohio. I'm in Texas. We have a relationship. We've video or FaceTimed four times this week, uh, or four times a day, I should say. Um, every day that she's been gone, we've texted late at night, like, we have a relationship, but good grief, like, I wanna give my wife a hug. You know what I mean? Like, there's, it's obviously better together. However, my cell phone is making it possible to remain in contact with my wife. And, and so I think like when you put it that way, you're like, well, yeah, of course. Like, so then how do we add some intentionality?

Nick Clason (02:47):
And we talk about safety, some parameters. What does it look like, um, to do ministry in this way? So I'm really excited for you to check out part two. Again, if you haven't checked out part one, go back and listen to it. Um, and without any further ado, here is part two of our conversation. I mean, honestly, the entire basis right of this podcast is, is what's called the Hybrid Ministry podcast. Because I think what we've learned, at least the way I felt, and I was a part Kerry of an attractional based church during C and so we put together, in my opinion, the best youth ministry online experience that existed. But no one cared because the contact work didn't exist. And so it's, but then what happened right, was this argument, this tug and this tug and pull, like in c everyone was forced to go all the way digital.

Nick Clason (03:37):
And so we all did, we all went all in to the best of our abilities. And then once the restrictions started to lift, the pendulum swung almost so hard because we all saw the effects of not being together and how valuable that is. And so it almost swung like, let's, let's throw the baby out with the bath water and all the good things that we learned from that time period from being fully digital and having, you know, our like proverbial hands tied behind our back. Like I, so I went to a place where a, um, I was a campus student pastor. I didn't speak. Um, and we didn't speak even pre covid. We had a video speaker, um, every week cuz there's universal across all campuses. And I can give you my opinions about that later. But that was, that was one hand tie behind my back.

Nick Clason (04:26):
The second hand tie behind my back was that I wasn't allowed to meet with students. So Ty, what I feel like both hands tie behind my back, all right, now you're the youth pastor here, go do youth ministry. And I was like, how? But that literally forced me right? To just rethink everything. And for literally six months to nine months, I had to navigate that world with both a handstand behind my back. And maybe that is what, and as I'm talking this out with you, maybe that's what has prompted my passion around this because I realized there's some good things you can do digitally, but it can't replace what's done physically. And so I think we gotta find that, that hybrid I think contact, I think, yeah, yeah. At its core happens in person. But think about, you know, when you started out in ministry, you couldn't grab a phone and text that student and be like, Hey, how'd that test go?

Nick Clason (05:20):
You didn't have that. You had to rely on a physical meetup, the football game, youth group, whatever, to make that happen. And so we, we can live in that digital space and bow borrow off the equity that we have from what happens in person. And so how do we enter into there effectively, like you said, cuz that's what Jesus did. He showed up. We can now show up in ways that teenagers are, to your point, native to how do we do that? What are the, what, what does that look like? I think we're all trying to figure that out.

Kerry Ray (05:53):
I, I think we are A couple of things. You, you said one I wanted to say, I don't know if your, your listeners understand or know about you that you walked into a church as a youth pastor, right? As this whole thing started, or that whole thing started. And so immediately you were trying, you, you, they didn't even know who you were. So you were trying to introduce yourself in a digital way, uh, to a group of people who didn't know you at all. Um, and that was interesting. Um, but the other thing you said, um, you mentioned about, um, we snapped back, the pendulum swung back. Mm-hmm. , can we be honest? I think the reason why the pendulum swung back so quickly is because we were so many people were terrible at one of it, at one side of it. Yeah. And it was failing so badly and they were terrible at it.

Kerry Ray (06:40):
Well, it's not familiar. The second well, yeah. And the second that that ended, they they run back to what, you know Yeah. As fast as you can, because I'm terrible at this. So we did, you threw the baby out with the bath water because you were like, one, I'm not good at it. Two, um, nobody likes to do stuff. They're not good. Right. So I'm not good at it. I don't wanna do it. I just wanna get as far away from it as possible. Let's go back to what we know when it was working. Let's go back to the stuff that I was confident in doing. Let's just run back to that. But if Covid showed us anything, it is, there needs to be, to your point, a hybrid. There needs to be both. And there are students that are out there that we can, you know, need to say hello to digitally.

Kerry Ray (07:22):
We do need to learn how to utilize that digital space better. Um, and this is another thing I was thinking as you were, as you were saying that is, you know, in the physical contact work mm-hmm. , there were boundaries and rules. Um, uh, especially in ministry. You know, you, you had, there's, there were certain things you could do and you, there were certain things you put boundaries on and said, Hey, contact work means this. It does not mean, you know, driving a female or even a male by yourself and go, oh yeah, that's contact work. No, that's, that's potential jail time. That's what that is. . Um, so you don't, you don't do those things. I think in digital. Um, you mentioned texting a student, Hey, how'd that test go? Mm-hmm. . Um, I know with our small group leaders, they were very nervous mm-hmm. and still are.

Kerry Ray (08:12):
Cause we don't know the boundaries. Um, do you text a student? Is that okay? Um, because what if their parent is not cool with, um, you know, a 35 year old texting a 14 year old mm-hmm. . Um, how was your day? Um, you know, that can, that can kinda be weird. Uh, so there are some boundaries there. Do you hang out? You know, I can go to a football, I can go to a middle school football game and I could be there as a student pastor and I can see my kids that I see, I can meet their friends. This, there again, young life does a great job of this. You know, I can be intentional about meeting people. I'm in a public space. There's other people around. Yep. That is very different than me logging into Call of Duty intentionally and playing in a chatroom of, you know, a bunch of 14 year old guys and girls that I don't know.

Nick Clason (09:06):
Yeah.

Kerry Ray (09:06):
That's, that's different. And maybe the digital immigrant in me has that trigger goes, this is weird. Yeah. Uh, maybe that's the digital immigrant in me versus the digital native, but there's some oddity there. And so we've gotta figure out not just a balance of how do we, how do we engage that way, but what are the boundaries? What are the best practices? What are the safety protocols that need to be in place in a digital format to where you're not the weirdo, you're not the weird old guy or the weird old girl hanging out, you know, in a chatroom or in a, in a digital space. Um, the internet has been great, but it's also shown us that it's highly dangerous and that it is full of predators. And not to say that the football, the middle school football game stands, that there's not predators out there as well sitting in those, in those bleachers.

Kerry Ray (10:02):
But it's, society sees it differently in a digital space. Um, because right now that is where a lot of the ugly stuff is happening. Um, so all that to say is we don't need to abandon it. We do need to be careful. Mm-hmm. , we do need to engage, but to do it with boundaries and guidelines in place. And we need to, if you're in the church world, you need to set your people up well because they don't know. And they're trying to do what you're, you're telling them, Hey, do contact work. Hey, engage, Hey, be a part of these, these students' lives. And they do. But you gotta give them the boundaries of the protocol so that they know and they have confidence in how to interact in that digital space. One, they're already digital native more than likely. And two, it's an awkward space that they're unfamiliar with. And three, they need to feel safe. Just like if you sent them into a football game and said, Hey, I want you to hit at least one football game. Here's what you do in that space. Here's what you don't do in that space. You need to do the same thing with them in a digital context.

Nick Clason (11:10):
Yeah. So, from the seat you're sitting in now, um, what, if anything, like do you see about how covid, digital, hybrid, any of that stuff, how is it influencing and impacting ministry leaders? Cause you're sitting in a unique seat where you are helping serve the type of person that you were for the last 30 years. So what are you noticing? What are you hearing? What are the pain points? What are people asking? What are people trying to figure out? What are things that you're seeing? And then what do you maybe envision or see as, uh, a future maybe, maybe in like a year, but also maybe in the next five, 10 years of ministry, student ministry and all that stuff?

Kerry Ray (11:55):
Yeah. What I'm seeing is I get to speak to youth pastors in multiple states, in multiple denominations. Um, people who have been doing it for 20 plus years, 10 years. I was at Arkansas this past weekend and a room of, you know, 25, 30 guys and girls, um, who do youth ministry. And, um, there were some that were full-time. There were some that were, you know, part-time. There were some that were bivocational. Um, there were some that had been doing this for 10 years, eight years, 20 years. And then a couple of the couple of them are like, yeah, this is month three. Yeah. Um, , you just go, woo. Um, but I think they're all struggling with the same thing, which is what we've been talking about this whole time, is how to balance, um, how to juggle the digital aspect versus the physical aspect and, and what is contact work and how to, how do I create things that people wanna be a part of that students wanna be a part of?

Kerry Ray (12:55):
How do I program? Um, you know, a lot of 'em are just trying to figure out, how do I do any of this? I'm just winging it. How do I get support and momentum and, um, those pieces without even the digital piece involved. Um, but yeah, that's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing people struggling. I'm seeing people trying to navigate this return from shut down to non shut and the, and the damage that has been done in the, in, in that. And I am seeing people try to figure out how to engage in a new way, a new group of people, um, being, you know, this, this group of, um, of Gen Z students who are still around, and then this incoming crop of generation alpha students who are currently, uh, sixth, seventh. And depending on the age, you've got a couple eighth graders that are young ones mm-hmm. .

Kerry Ray (13:48):
Um, but just trying to, how, how do I, how do I engage them? How do we, how do we, um, provide them with, with the things they need? And there again, I know this has nothing to do with digital, but what I'm really seeing the most, uh, in the youth ministry space is the audience has shifted so much in that culturally it's a different world. Um, there's a lot more questions. They're open to a lot more things. They, um, and, and pastors are trying to figure out, for example, you know, how do you teach in a ministry context? How do you teach a teenager about the word of God? Which is absolute truth when the generation doesn't believe in such a thing is absolute truth. Mm-hmm. , how do you do that? Um, how do you, you know, how do you, so many youth pastors are preaching about characters in the Bible or things that were happening scripturally.

Kerry Ray (14:45):
And they'll say, you know, well, well, Moses, so and so and so and so and so and so as if the people listening to them know who that is, is without stopping to say, let me tell you who this is, because they're, again, the nuns in os they were raised by a group of parents who didn't grow them up in, in scripture. So they don't know. And so our, our mistake is, or the mistakes I'm seeing, or pastors speaking in a, in a phrase like, say, like I said, well, Moses, you know Moses, they don't, yeah. They're like, yeah, the guy with the boat, they're like, no, that's Noah

Nick Clason (15:16):
,

Kerry Ray (15:17):
But we have to pause. We have to slow down and teach mm-hmm. . And I think we have to do that. I think technology, um, Instagram, social media, TikTok, I, I love, I love, and I hate what I'm seeing right now on TikTok. Um, and if you're not on TikTok, you need to at least look at it. Mm-hmm. . Um, if I can encourage, if a youth pastor's listening, if I can encourage you, I know it's, you know, it's the devil. I get it. But at least be familiar with it. Yeah. At least engage. And I know your church probably has a stance on it. And, and I'll warn you, there's things, you're gonna see some stuff on there. That algorithm is incredible. Um, you only need to pause for a second and it'll feed you more of that. Um,

Nick Clason (15:59):
So yeah, listen, here's the best TikTok hack, by the way. If you start it and they start feeding you stuff you don't want, hold your, hold the video down, click, not interested, do that two or three times and it's gone forever. Like I'm telling you, can, you can game that algorithm, uh, the way each can, the way you'll, you want,

Kerry Ray (16:17):
I'll see a better TikTok hack. Don't sign up for an account

Nick Clason (16:21):
or

Kerry Ray (16:22):
That, cause that way every time you, every time you log off the, turn the app off, you turn it back on, you get the most stuff. It's new every time. Um, but what, what I was gonna say about, about TikTok was some of the greatest things I'm seeing is, is student ministries, youth pastors, pastors utilizing that technology and teaching theology. Yeah. And, and, and, um, you know, there's a couple guys that do like the, you know, one minute sermon, um, and stuff that excellent content mm-hmm. this, the negative side of that is I'm seeing that the same thing with terrible theology mm-hmm. . Um, and I would say that group of people are using it very well. And our students, there, again, keep in mind your kids don't know the difference. They don't. Yeah. Um, and so they're watching things on TikTok that are, let's call it, you know, 30% true.

Kerry Ray (17:22):
Uh, and then it just kinda hangs, hangs hangs the right or hangs the left and, and goes crazy. Um, you know, I watched somebody the other day talking about, you know, Jesus, you know, Jesus's name wasn't Jesus. And I'm like, yeah. And I'm like, good. This is good. And then they kept going. They kept going. They like, so Jesus wasn't really God, he was just the, and I'm like, oh, no, no, because it started off, it started off really strong and going, yeah, this is good. This is good. Let's teach them these things. You know, there weren't really three wise men as far as we know. There were, there were wise men that showed up. Great. Great. So, you know what they were, they were really these things. They were Illuminati No, they were not Illuminati. You know, just, just crazy stuff. Um, where do I think it's going?

Kerry Ray (18:08):
I I definitely think, you know, the, the, those of us who are digital, uh, immigrants we're aging out. Um, more and more digital natives. Um, that's the way the world works, right. You know, more kids are being born more, more babies and children are being handed iPhones and iPads as pacifiers and are growing up with it. And that is a thing. And it can be good or it can be bad. And, and I guess my biggest takeaway would be, or challenge would be this, don't build a moat. There's no mo big enough. Whether you're talking to parents or whether you're trying to do your own ministry piece. Don't build a moat and try to protect everybody from technology. That's, it's foolish. You're not, that's, that's not a winnable battle. No. Um, I think what we need to focus on is redeeming that culture and redeeming technology and saying, how can I take what is, what is, how can I take who these students are and meet them where they are versus where we wish they were?

Kerry Ray (19:11):
Um, meet them where they are and redeem this technology and utilize it in a way for the glory of God and for, for the, for the right reasons. The right purposes. And try to try to really point to him using technology and use it to reach students. Use it to disciple students. Use it to, um, bring and share Jesus to students who may never, ever step foot in your church door, but they may be scrolling through TikTok and just happened to come across a video where you talk about this God man who loved you so much that he gave himself for you on your behalf, so that you could have eternal life. And it may, here's what I find interesting about students in this generational speech that we're in right now. There's no reason for a teenager to show up to the things you're doing.

Kerry Ray (20:05):
Mm-hmm. , there's just no reason for it. Yeah. But they still are. They're showing up to these things. And it's not because you got a great Instagram account. They're showing up to these things because they have an internal intrinsic curiosity about spiritual things that I believe that God has placed in them from creation to seek him out. Yeah. And they're showing up because that curiosity is itching and they're trying to figure out a way to scratch it. And they're just curious enough to still listen and use, use Instagram and TikTok all you want, but use it to scratch that curiosity in them that is God given. And let God be God and God do the things. We don't save people anyway. We never have, we haven't done it physically and we're not gonna do it digitally. Um, that's not, that's not for us, but utilize the, the tools that we have in front of us to continue to do the things that we are called to doop.

Kerry Ray (21:06):
Um, so yes, technology is out there. It is, it is doing its thing. Um, don't run from it. Don't build a mote to protect people from it, whether they're your own kids or not. Utilize it. Teach people how to use it. Teach people how to be safe with it. Set your volunteers up to utilize it. Well give them boundaries. Help them to, to do this thing well. Um, you know, show them how to do it and show your church how to do it. Show all the digital immigrants how to do it. Um, and lead, lead there. Lead from lead from the backseat. Um, especially if you're watching this, listen to this. Sorry. If you're listening to this as a, as a digital, uh, native, help people learn how to do this and to do it right. And to do it well. And not to be afraid of it. Cause I think the biggest thing is fear. Um, but yeah. Mean, sorry, man. I got, I've got on my soapbox for a minute, but

Nick Clason (21:58):
No, that was really good. I just, that was a great, that was a great place to land it. Why don't you, uh, you know, this has been a very youth ministry centric conversation, which admittedly so, and we, we let you guys know that at the beginning. Tell 'em about, uh, everything, you know, what, how can they engage with stuff over at YM 360. What are some of the resources that you, you all are producing to help, to help people in this space right now?

Kerry Ray (22:20):
Yeah. For, um, we, we create things. Our, our whole point is to make the things, to make youth ministry youth pastors wear a lot of hats. It's, it's hard. Um, I told those guys in girls in Arkansas, uh, this past weekend, youth ministry's harder than it's ever been. And it's not easy. Yeah. But we have more opportunity than we've ever had had because there are so many blank canvases out there who don't know. There's not a lot of, um, church baggage in teenagers right now, cuz they never went. Um, they read about it, they see it online, but, you know, they see people deconstructing and talking about it, but they don't have it themselves. A lot of them, because they, they haven't engaged yet. So, gosh, there's so much out there. Um, and why do sixty.com if you wanna check that out? Uh, there's tons of resources, uh, for you.

Kerry Ray (23:10):
There's, we post blog articles every single Monday. You can check out that kinda stuff. Um, I think that the, the best things that you can be a part of right now that we work on is we have two big platforms that we put out every month. New content for one of those is called ministry parents.com, ministry to parents.com. And it's not for parents, it's for you to help parents. So if you're in ministry, uh, and you're trying to help equip parents to be better parents in their home and to be, and to help those no e s's raise students in a way that points them to Jesus, um, we provide you with all the stuff. We do it all for you. Uh, we write all your emails, we, we curate all the content for you. It's really just point and click and paste and send.

Kerry Ray (24:00):
And we do it all for you. Uh, all of us know that we're supposed to partner with parents. None of us really know what that means. Um, and so and so we're trying to figure it out. And you know, what usually keeps us as student pastors from it is either we don't have kids of our own. And we go, well, I'm not legit. There's no way I'm gonna look at a parent and go, you know what you should do with that 14 year old? Cause they're gonna look at me and go, yeah, you tell me about that buddy. Or by the time we are legitimate, we realize that curating content for parents as far as what they need is a full-time job. Yep. And we can't do all that. And so that's what ministry parents does. Ministry parents.com. And then we just launched a brand new platform for training and development of youth pastors, um, that talks about all of this kind of stuff on the regular, every month we provide you with, gosh, 2026 plus pieces of content that's brand new every month that talks about everything from volunteers to parents, to technology, to other disruptors that are in that you're dealing with.

Kerry Ray (25:04):
Um, the whole point of it is to help you grow, lead and thrive in ministry. It is, it is all about developing you as a person. Um, you could check that out as well. It is my youth min.com, my youth min.com. It is, it is worth it. It's worth checking that out. Um, all those are subscription based stuff, but it's, it's not expensive. So whether you're full-time, part-time, uh, big church, small church, um, multi-site, multi staff, or you're flying solo, um, it is something that you can utilize. Um, and anytime, you know, my I am available, like I said, I tell people all the time, let me be that guy. Let me be the person that when you're struggling and you need somebody to talk to, when you are excited, when you're new and, and going, I don't know if this is the right way to do this or not, uh, I'm available.

Kerry Ray (25:54):
And, and more than happy to talk to you, I, I stepped out a student ministry proper to take this YM 360 role to give myself the ability to have these conversations like we're having the day, uh, with youth pastors, youth workers, uh, all over the place. So my email address is Kerry kr y com. Um, or you can catch me on Twitter and Instagram, uh, K R two, and then the letter you k um, I, I don't have TikTok. I just have a blank account so I can keep up with what's going on, but nobody wants to see me do Renegade or any of the dances anyway, so I know Charlie de that's, it's true, it's true. I should be on Dancing With the Stars, but I'm a, I'm no TikTok dancer day. So Yeah, day one day it's my aspiration. . Uh, yeah. So please, please hit me up and lemme hear from you. Any questions you ever have, anything you ever need, or if you just need to be encouraged and say don't, because here's, here's the deal, Nick, I just want people to know that there's less people joining into the student ministry rights than there used to be. Hmm. And, uh, we need more people than ever before. And so, yeah.

Kerry Ray (27:10):
You know, um, gosh, I'm going blank on that. Josh ship is the guy who said, you know, every student needs one caring adult. Yeah. Every student is one caring adult away from being a success. Um, and so, man, we need so many caring adults out there who are willing to see students, to love students where they are versus where they wish they were. That's good. And, and just to jump in and say, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm willing to let somebody show me the ropes. So

Nick Clason (27:43):
This stuff, man. Hey, I appreciate it. Thanks for your, uh, absolutely your time today from, uh, Birmingham Hotel Room. It's been great.

Kerry Ray (27:51):
. Thank you very much, man. Thanks for having me.

Nick Clason (27:55):
Wow. Well, man, I hope that you guys found that interesting and fascinating. Uh, hey, uh, in the show notes, wherever you get podcasts, you should be able to, uh, see the links to all the things that Kerry was talking about and all the resources that are available. If you are not a youth pastor, thank you for sitting through just a couple of old timey youth pastors chatting up, doing ministry, talking about ministry. But if you know someone who is in, in particular, man, I would really encourage you to share with him the ministry to parent and the, um, my Youth men, um, platform. Share those links with them. It's something that can be really, really helpful. Uh, we talked about this a little bit, um, off off Mike, Kerry and I, well, once we hung up. But my youth min, honestly, guys, it is conference level training.

Nick Clason (28:42):
And so if you're a youth pastor and you're in a small church without a giant budget, like it's behind a paywall, however, it is far cheaper than if you got a plane, got a hotel, um, and paid for a conference ticket somewhere across country or whatever, and you have access to it. Like, I don't know if you heard, he's like 20 something pieces of new content every single month. So there is conference level training very available at your fingertips, very accessible. Um, and so that's a budget saver, you know, and so I think leaders who wanna be learning, um, are growing super helpful. So check that out for sure. I am a, I'm a contributor to it, so, um, shamelessly love to have you check it out. Um, but anyway, uh, appreciate you guys, uh, listening. And if you're anything like me and you listen to podcasts on the go, I do it when I'm, I'm running, I do it when I'm driving, and I do it when I'm on the lawn doing the dishes.

Nick Clason (29:37):
The reality is, um, Kerry said so much good stuff in there and I would hate, hate for you to miss it. And so we, for free provide, uh, transcripts for every single episode. You can check those out at hybridministry.xyz or just, uh, read through it in your podcast catcher so that you're able to just see what's going on and, uh, hear what's going on and maybe take some notes, um, and take some of the things that you heard in your ears and put it to paper if you need it. Um, for conversations or for meetings with, uh, upper level leadership or whatever the case may be. We just wanna serve you and help you win in your area of ministry. So you can check that out at hybridministry.xyz. We're also on Twitter at hybrid ministry. We'd love to have you come hang out with us. And hey, listen, if you found this helpful one way that you could really help us out, um, a gigantic favor for us would just be male.

Nick Clason (30:26):
If you could give us a like, or a rating or a review, that would be very beneficial, help us pay it forward, um, and help you maybe pay it forward even to some other people who, who wanna help uncover and find this information. So, once again, grateful for you, thankful for you. Um, hope you guys have a great rest of your day, wherever you are, whatever you might be doing, and we pray that this is helping, um, make digital discipleship just a little bit easier for you in your ministry context. Until next time, talk to you later guys. Bye.

]]> SUMMARY
In this episode, Nick finishes up from part 1 of his conversation with Kerry Ray, director of editing and publishing at YM360. Kerry talks about the limitations of digital ministry and how to best navigate some of the new challenges of digital ministry. In addition Kerry shares some of the resources that are available through YM360 for youth pastors who are in the trenches doing ministry.
Follow along at http://www.twitter.com/hybridministry
Or any and all other resources at http://www.hybridministry.xyz
For resources from YM360 head to http://www.ym360.com

SHOWNOTES
YM360
YM360
http://www.ym360.com
MINISTRY TO PARENTS
https://ministrytoparents.com/
MY YOUTH MIN
https://myyouthmin.com/

TIMECODES
00:00-03:01 Intro
03:01-05:41 The Limitations of Digital Ministry and How to use what we learned from our time in COVID
05:41-11:10 How do we show up to a place teenagers are native to?
11:10-22:00 If you had a crystal ball, how does digital and hybrid ministry need to adjust as we go forward?
22:00-26:55 What resources are available to Youth Pastors?
26:55-27:53 Final encouragement from Kerry to ministry leaders
27:53-31:07 Outro

TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:01):
What is up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry podcast. And hey, if you were here for episode, uh, 19, the most recent one that we dropped, it was a part one of an interview with my great friend, um, Kerry Ray, who was on staff at YM 360. He, after 30 years of work inside the local church, has decided to step into more of a role where he's, um, serving the youth pastor, um, and people who are in the trenches doing ministry. So not only does he come with a wealth of personal hands on, boots on the ground, kind of firsthand experience and knowledge of reaching teenagers, um, and seeingDigital Ministry, Contact Work, Relational Ministry, Discipleship, Student Ministry, Youth Ministry, META Church, Streaming Church, TikTok, Social Media life before digital was introduced. Uh, the way he puts it was, um, I'm a digital immigrant versus now doing ministry to people who are digital natives. And so, uh, we're gonna dive into part two of this interview, but I would recommend if you have not heard, go back to part one because he introduces this idea, um, that's not, you know, it's not from him alone, right?

Nick Clason (01:08):
But like, he introduces this idea of a thing called contact work. And contact work is basically the basic premise of going to where people are as opposed to hoping that they will always just come to us, right? If we build it, if it's so beautiful, if it's so shiny and amazing, they will come to us. So he introduces that idea. Um, and now we're gonna kind of explore is that idea of ministry possible, uh, to do digitally. And I would argue that him and I agree for the most part, but I think that, um, we have to sort of like nuance our way into it. Which honestly, it's an interesting dichotomy. And even in having the conversation, I think is how most people feel about digital ministry. I think at a knee jerk reaction, there's this, oh no, you can't do that digitally because discipleship and ministry is best done life on life.

Nick Clason (02:00):
And for the record, I agree with that. Like, I want people that I can physically touch, hug, like sit and eat a knee, have a cup of coffee. Like, here's a great example. Right now, my wife is gone. She's, uh, visiting her mom back home in Ohio. I'm in Texas. We have a relationship. We've video or FaceTimed four times this week, uh, or four times a day, I should say. Um, every day that she's been gone, we've texted late at night, like, we have a relationship, but good grief, like, I wanna give my wife a hug. You know what I mean? Like, there's, it's obviously better together. However, my cell phone is making it possible to remain in contact with my wife. And, and so I think like when you put it that way, you're like, well, yeah, of course. Like, so then how do we add some intentionality?

Nick Clason (02:47):
And we talk about safety, some parameters. What does it look like, um, to do ministry in this way? So I'm really excited for you to check out part two. Again, if you haven't checked out part one, go back and listen to it. Um, and without any further ado, here is part two of our conversation. I mean, honestly, the entire basis right of this podcast is, is what's called the Hybrid Ministry podcast. Because I think what we've learned, at least the way I felt, and I was a part Kerry of an attractional based church during C and so we put together, in my opinion, the best youth ministry online experience that existed. But no one cared because the contact work didn't exist. And so it's, but then what happened right, was this argument, this tug and this tug and pull, like in c everyone was forced to go all the way digital.

Nick Clason (03:37):
And so we all did, we all went all in to the best of our abilities. And then once the restrictions started to lift, the pendulum swung almost so hard because we all saw the effects of not being together and how valuable that is. And so it almost swung like, let's, let's throw the baby out with the bath water and all the good things that we learned from that time period from being fully digital and having, you know, our like proverbial hands tied behind our back. Like I, so I went to a place where a, um, I was a campus student pastor. I didn't speak. Um, and we didn't speak even pre covid. We had a video speaker, um, every week cuz there's universal across all campuses. And I can give you my opinions about that later. But that was, that was one hand tie behind my back.

Nick Clason (04:26):
The second hand tie behind my back was that I wasn't allowed to meet with students. So Ty, what I feel like both hands tie behind my back, all right, now you're the youth pastor here, go do youth ministry. And I was like, how? But that literally forced me right? To just rethink everything. And for literally six months to nine months, I had to navigate that world with both a handstand behind my back. And maybe that is what, and as I'm talking this out with you, maybe that's what has prompted my passion around this because I realized there's some good things you can do digitally, but it can't replace what's done physically. And so I think we gotta find that, that hybrid I think contact, I think, yeah, yeah. At its core happens in person. But think about, you know, when you started out in ministry, you couldn't grab a phone and text that student and be like, Hey, how'd that test go?

Nick Clason (05:20):
You didn't have that. You had to rely on a physical meetup, the football game, youth group, whatever, to make that happen. And so we, we can live in that digital space and bow borrow off the equity that we have from what happens in person. And so how do we enter into there effectively, like you said, cuz that's what Jesus did. He showed up. We can now show up in ways that teenagers are, to your point, native to how do we do that? What are the, what, what does that look like? I think we're all trying to figure that out.

Kerry Ray (05:53):
I, I think we are A couple of things. You, you said one I wanted to say, I don't know if your, your listeners understand or know about you that you walked into a church as a youth pastor, right? As this whole thing started, or that whole thing started. And so immediately you were trying, you, you, they didn't even know who you were. So you were trying to introduce yourself in a digital way, uh, to a group of people who didn't know you at all. Um, and that was interesting. Um, but the other thing you said, um, you mentioned about, um, we snapped back, the pendulum swung back. Mm-hmm. , can we be honest? I think the reason why the pendulum swung back so quickly is because we were so many people were terrible at one of it, at one side of it. Yeah. And it was failing so badly and they were terrible at it.

Kerry Ray (06:40):
Well, it's not familiar. The second well, yeah. And the second that that ended, they they run back to what, you know Yeah. As fast as you can, because I'm terrible at this. So we did, you threw the baby out with the bath water because you were like, one, I'm not good at it. Two, um, nobody likes to do stuff. They're not good. Right. So I'm not good at it. I don't wanna do it. I just wanna get as far away from it as possible. Let's go back to what we know when it was working. Let's go back to the stuff that I was confident in doing. Let's just run back to that. But if Covid showed us anything, it is, there needs to be, to your point, a hybrid. There needs to be both. And there are students that are out there that we can, you know, need to say hello to digitally.

Kerry Ray (07:22):
We do need to learn how to utilize that digital space better. Um, and this is another thing I was thinking as you were, as you were saying that is, you know, in the physical contact work mm-hmm. , there were boundaries and rules. Um, uh, especially in ministry. You know, you, you had, there's, there were certain things you could do and you, there were certain things you put boundaries on and said, Hey, contact work means this. It does not mean, you know, driving a female or even a male by yourself and go, oh yeah, that's contact work. No, that's, that's potential jail time. That's what that is. . Um, so you don't, you don't do those things. I think in digital. Um, you mentioned texting a student, Hey, how'd that test go? Mm-hmm. . Um, I know with our small group leaders, they were very nervous mm-hmm. and still are.

Kerry Ray (08:12):
Cause we don't know the boundaries. Um, do you text a student? Is that okay? Um, because what if their parent is not cool with, um, you know, a 35 year old texting a 14 year old mm-hmm. . Um, how was your day? Um, you know, that can, that can kinda be weird. Uh, so there are some boundaries there. Do you hang out? You know, I can go to a football, I can go to a middle school football game and I could be there as a student pastor and I can see my kids that I see, I can meet their friends. This, there again, young life does a great job of this. You know, I can be intentional about meeting people. I'm in a public space. There's other people around. Yep. That is very different than me logging into Call of Duty intentionally and playing in a chatroom of, you know, a bunch of 14 year old guys and girls that I don't know.

Nick Clason (09:06):
Yeah.

Kerry Ray (09:06):
That's, that's different. And maybe the digital immigrant in me has that trigger goes, this is weird. Yeah. Uh, maybe that's the digital immigrant in me versus the digital native, but there's some oddity there. And so we've gotta figure out not just a balance of how do we, how do we engage that way, but what are the boundaries? What are the best practices? What are the safety protocols that need to be in place in a digital format to where you're not the weirdo, you're not the weird old guy or the weird old girl hanging out, you know, in a chatroom or in a, in a digital space. Um, the internet has been great, but it's also shown us that it's highly dangerous and that it is full of predators. And not to say that the football, the middle school football game stands, that there's not predators out there as well sitting in those, in those bleachers.

Kerry Ray (10:02):
But it's, society sees it differently in a digital space. Um, because right now that is where a lot of the ugly stuff is happening. Um, so all that to say is we don't need to abandon it. We do need to be careful. Mm-hmm. , we do need to engage, but to do it with boundaries and guidelines in place. And we need to, if you're in the church world, you need to set your people up well because they don't know. And they're trying to do what you're, you're telling them, Hey, do contact work. Hey, engage, Hey, be a part of these, these students' lives. And they do. But you gotta give them the boundaries of the protocol so that they know and they have confidence in how to interact in that digital space. One, they're already digital native more than likely. And two, it's an awkward space that they're unfamiliar with. And three, they need to feel safe. Just like if you sent them into a football game and said, Hey, I want you to hit at least one football game. Here's what you do in that space. Here's what you don't do in that space. You need to do the same thing with them in a digital context.

Nick Clason (11:10):
Yeah. So, from the seat you're sitting in now, um, what, if anything, like do you see about how covid, digital, hybrid, any of that stuff, how is it influencing and impacting ministry leaders? Cause you're sitting in a unique seat where you are helping serve the type of person that you were for the last 30 years. So what are you noticing? What are you hearing? What are the pain points? What are people asking? What are people trying to figure out? What are things that you're seeing? And then what do you maybe envision or see as, uh, a future maybe, maybe in like a year, but also maybe in the next five, 10 years of ministry, student ministry and all that stuff?

Kerry Ray (11:55):
Yeah. What I'm seeing is I get to speak to youth pastors in multiple states, in multiple denominations. Um, people who have been doing it for 20 plus years, 10 years. I was at Arkansas this past weekend and a room of, you know, 25, 30 guys and girls, um, who do youth ministry. And, um, there were some that were full-time. There were some that were, you know, part-time. There were some that were bivocational. Um, there were some that had been doing this for 10 years, eight years, 20 years. And then a couple of the couple of them are like, yeah, this is month three. Yeah. Um, , you just go, woo. Um, but I think they're all struggling with the same thing, which is what we've been talking about this whole time, is how to balance, um, how to juggle the digital aspect versus the physical aspect and, and what is contact work and how to, how do I create things that people wanna be a part of that students wanna be a part of?

Kerry Ray (12:55):
How do I program? Um, you know, a lot of 'em are just trying to figure out, how do I do any of this? I'm just winging it. How do I get support and momentum and, um, those pieces without even the digital piece involved. Um, but yeah, that's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing people struggling. I'm seeing people trying to navigate this return from shut down to non shut and the, and the damage that has been done in the, in, in that. And I am seeing people try to figure out how to engage in a new way, a new group of people, um, being, you know, this, this group of, um, of Gen Z students who are still around, and then this incoming crop of generation alpha students who are currently, uh, sixth, seventh. And depending on the age, you've got a couple eighth graders that are young ones mm-hmm. .

Kerry Ray (13:48):
Um, but just trying to, how, how do I, how do I engage them? How do we, how do we, um, provide them with, with the things they need? And there again, I know this has nothing to do with digital, but what I'm really seeing the most, uh, in the youth ministry space is the audience has shifted so much in that culturally it's a different world. Um, there's a lot more questions. They're open to a lot more things. They, um, and, and pastors are trying to figure out, for example, you know, how do you teach in a ministry context? How do you teach a teenager about the word of God? Which is absolute truth when the generation doesn't believe in such a thing is absolute truth. Mm-hmm. , how do you do that? Um, how do you, you know, how do you, so many youth pastors are preaching about characters in the Bible or things that were happening scripturally.

Kerry Ray (14:45):
And they'll say, you know, well, well, Moses, so and so and so and so and so and so as if the people listening to them know who that is, is without stopping to say, let me tell you who this is, because they're, again, the nuns in os they were raised by a group of parents who didn't grow them up in, in scripture. So they don't know. And so our, our mistake is, or the mistakes I'm seeing, or pastors speaking in a, in a phrase like, say, like I said, well, Moses, you know Moses, they don't, yeah. They're like, yeah, the guy with the boat, they're like, no, that's Noah

Nick Clason (15:16):
,

Kerry Ray (15:17):
But we have to pause. We have to slow down and teach mm-hmm. . And I think we have to do that. I think technology, um, Instagram, social media, TikTok, I, I love, I love, and I hate what I'm seeing right now on TikTok. Um, and if you're not on TikTok, you need to at least look at it. Mm-hmm. . Um, if I can encourage, if a youth pastor's listening, if I can encourage you, I know it's, you know, it's the devil. I get it. But at least be familiar with it. Yeah. At least engage. And I know your church probably has a stance on it. And, and I'll warn you, there's things, you're gonna see some stuff on there. That algorithm is incredible. Um, you only need to pause for a second and it'll feed you more of that. Um,

Nick Clason (15:59):
So yeah, listen, here's the best TikTok hack, by the way. If you start it and they start feeding you stuff you don't want, hold your, hold the video down, click, not interested, do that two or three times and it's gone forever. Like I'm telling you, can, you can game that algorithm, uh, the way each can, the way you'll, you want,

Kerry Ray (16:17):
I'll see a better TikTok hack. Don't sign up for an account

Nick Clason (16:21):
or

Kerry Ray (16:22):
That, cause that way every time you, every time you log off the, turn the app off, you turn it back on, you get the most stuff. It's new every time. Um, but what, what I was gonna say about, about TikTok was some of the greatest things I'm seeing is, is student ministries, youth pastors, pastors utilizing that technology and teaching theology. Yeah. And, and, and, um, you know, there's a couple guys that do like the, you know, one minute sermon, um, and stuff that excellent content mm-hmm. this, the negative side of that is I'm seeing that the same thing with terrible theology mm-hmm. . Um, and I would say that group of people are using it very well. And our students, there, again, keep in mind your kids don't know the difference. They don't. Yeah. Um, and so they're watching things on TikTok that are, let's call it, you know, 30% true.

Kerry Ray (17:22):
Uh, and then it just kinda hangs, hangs hangs the right or hangs the left and, and goes crazy. Um, you know, I watched somebody the other day talking about, you know, Jesus, you know, Jesus's name wasn't Jesus. And I'm like, yeah. And I'm like, good. This is good. And then they kept going. They kept going. They like, so Jesus wasn't really God, he was just the, and I'm like, oh, no, no, because it started off, it started off really strong and going, yeah, this is good. This is good. Let's teach them these things. You know, there weren't really three wise men as far as we know. There were, there were wise men that showed up. Great. Great. So, you know what they were, they were really these things. They were Illuminati No, they were not Illuminati. You know, just, just crazy stuff. Um, where do I think it's going?

Kerry Ray (18:08):
I I definitely think, you know, the, the, those of us who are digital, uh, immigrants we're aging out. Um, more and more digital natives. Um, that's the way the world works, right. You know, more kids are being born more, more babies and children are being handed iPhones and iPads as pacifiers and are growing up with it. And that is a thing. And it can be good or it can be bad. And, and I guess my biggest takeaway would be, or challenge would be this, don't build a moat. There's no mo big enough. Whether you're talking to parents or whether you're trying to do your own ministry piece. Don't build a moat and try to protect everybody from technology. That's, it's foolish. You're not, that's, that's not a winnable battle. No. Um, I think what we need to focus on is redeeming that culture and redeeming technology and saying, how can I take what is, what is, how can I take who these students are and meet them where they are versus where we wish they were?

Kerry Ray (19:11):
Um, meet them where they are and redeem this technology and utilize it in a way for the glory of God and for, for the, for the right reasons. The right purposes. And try to try to really point to him using technology and use it to reach students. Use it to disciple students. Use it to, um, bring and share Jesus to students who may never, ever step foot in your church door, but they may be scrolling through TikTok and just happened to come across a video where you talk about this God man who loved you so much that he gave himself for you on your behalf, so that you could have eternal life. And it may, here's what I find interesting about students in this generational speech that we're in right now. There's no reason for a teenager to show up to the things you're doing.

Kerry Ray (20:05):
Mm-hmm. , there's just no reason for it. Yeah. But they still are. They're showing up to these things. And it's not because you got a great Instagram account. They're showing up to these things because they have an internal intrinsic curiosity about spiritual things that I believe that God has placed in them from creation to seek him out. Yeah. And they're showing up because that curiosity is itching and they're trying to figure out a way to scratch it. And they're just curious enough to still listen and use, use Instagram and TikTok all you want, but use it to scratch that curiosity in them that is God given. And let God be God and God do the things. We don't save people anyway. We never have, we haven't done it physically and we're not gonna do it digitally. Um, that's not, that's not for us, but utilize the, the tools that we have in front of us to continue to do the things that we are called to doop.

Kerry Ray (21:06):
Um, so yes, technology is out there. It is, it is doing its thing. Um, don't run from it. Don't build a mote to protect people from it, whether they're your own kids or not. Utilize it. Teach people how to use it. Teach people how to be safe with it. Set your volunteers up to utilize it. Well give them boundaries. Help them to, to do this thing well. Um, you know, show them how to do it and show your church how to do it. Show all the digital immigrants how to do it. Um, and lead, lead there. Lead from lead from the backseat. Um, especially if you're watching this, listen to this. Sorry. If you're listening to this as a, as a digital, uh, native, help people learn how to do this and to do it right. And to do it well. And not to be afraid of it. Cause I think the biggest thing is fear. Um, but yeah. Mean, sorry, man. I got, I've got on my soapbox for a minute, but

Nick Clason (21:58):
No, that was really good. I just, that was a great, that was a great place to land it. Why don't you, uh, you know, this has been a very youth ministry centric conversation, which admittedly so, and we, we let you guys know that at the beginning. Tell 'em about, uh, everything, you know, what, how can they engage with stuff over at YM 360. What are some of the resources that you, you all are producing to help, to help people in this space right now?

Kerry Ray (22:20):
Yeah. For, um, we, we create things. Our, our whole point is to make the things, to make youth ministry youth pastors wear a lot of hats. It's, it's hard. Um, I told those guys in girls in Arkansas, uh, this past weekend, youth ministry's harder than it's ever been. And it's not easy. Yeah. But we have more opportunity than we've ever had had because there are so many blank canvases out there who don't know. There's not a lot of, um, church baggage in teenagers right now, cuz they never went. Um, they read about it, they see it online, but, you know, they see people deconstructing and talking about it, but they don't have it themselves. A lot of them, because they, they haven't engaged yet. So, gosh, there's so much out there. Um, and why do sixty.com if you wanna check that out? Uh, there's tons of resources, uh, for you.

Kerry Ray (23:10):
There's, we post blog articles every single Monday. You can check out that kinda stuff. Um, I think that the, the best things that you can be a part of right now that we work on is we have two big platforms that we put out every month. New content for one of those is called ministry parents.com, ministry to parents.com. And it's not for parents, it's for you to help parents. So if you're in ministry, uh, and you're trying to help equip parents to be better parents in their home and to be, and to help those no e s's raise students in a way that points them to Jesus, um, we provide you with all the stuff. We do it all for you. Uh, we write all your emails, we, we curate all the content for you. It's really just point and click and paste and send.

Kerry Ray (24:00):
And we do it all for you. Uh, all of us know that we're supposed to partner with parents. None of us really know what that means. Um, and so and so we're trying to figure it out. And you know, what usually keeps us as student pastors from it is either we don't have kids of our own. And we go, well, I'm not legit. There's no way I'm gonna look at a parent and go, you know what you should do with that 14 year old? Cause they're gonna look at me and go, yeah, you tell me about that buddy. Or by the time we are legitimate, we realize that curating content for parents as far as what they need is a full-time job. Yep. And we can't do all that. And so that's what ministry parents does. Ministry parents.com. And then we just launched a brand new platform for training and development of youth pastors, um, that talks about all of this kind of stuff on the regular, every month we provide you with, gosh, 2026 plus pieces of content that's brand new every month that talks about everything from volunteers to parents, to technology, to other disruptors that are in that you're dealing with.

Kerry Ray (25:04):
Um, the whole point of it is to help you grow, lead and thrive in ministry. It is, it is all about developing you as a person. Um, you could check that out as well. It is my youth min.com, my youth min.com. It is, it is worth it. It's worth checking that out. Um, all those are subscription based stuff, but it's, it's not expensive. So whether you're full-time, part-time, uh, big church, small church, um, multi-site, multi staff, or you're flying solo, um, it is something that you can utilize. Um, and anytime, you know, my I am available, like I said, I tell people all the time, let me be that guy. Let me be the person that when you're struggling and you need somebody to talk to, when you are excited, when you're new and, and going, I don't know if this is the right way to do this or not, uh, I'm available.

Kerry Ray (25:54):
And, and more than happy to talk to you, I, I stepped out a student ministry proper to take this YM 360 role to give myself the ability to have these conversations like we're having the day, uh, with youth pastors, youth workers, uh, all over the place. So my email address is Kerry kr y com. Um, or you can catch me on Twitter and Instagram, uh, K R two, and then the letter you k um, I, I don't have TikTok. I just have a blank account so I can keep up with what's going on, but nobody wants to see me do Renegade or any of the dances anyway, so I know Charlie de that's, it's true, it's true. I should be on Dancing With the Stars, but I'm a, I'm no TikTok dancer day. So Yeah, day one day it's my aspiration. . Uh, yeah. So please, please hit me up and lemme hear from you. Any questions you ever have, anything you ever need, or if you just need to be encouraged and say don't, because here's, here's the deal, Nick, I just want people to know that there's less people joining into the student ministry rights than there used to be. Hmm. And, uh, we need more people than ever before. And so, yeah.

Kerry Ray (27:10):
You know, um, gosh, I'm going blank on that. Josh ship is the guy who said, you know, every student needs one caring adult. Yeah. Every student is one caring adult away from being a success. Um, and so, man, we need so many caring adults out there who are willing to see students, to love students where they are versus where they wish they were. That's good. And, and just to jump in and say, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm willing to let somebody show me the ropes. So

Nick Clason (27:43):
This stuff, man. Hey, I appreciate it. Thanks for your, uh, absolutely your time today from, uh, Birmingham Hotel Room. It's been great.

Kerry Ray (27:51):
. Thank you very much, man. Thanks for having me.

Nick Clason (27:55):
Wow. Well, man, I hope that you guys found that interesting and fascinating. Uh, hey, uh, in the show notes, wherever you get podcasts, you should be able to, uh, see the links to all the things that Kerry was talking about and all the resources that are available. If you are not a youth pastor, thank you for sitting through just a couple of old timey youth pastors chatting up, doing ministry, talking about ministry. But if you know someone who is in, in particular, man, I would really encourage you to share with him the ministry to parent and the, um, my Youth men, um, platform. Share those links with them. It's something that can be really, really helpful. Uh, we talked about this a little bit, um, off off Mike, Kerry and I, well, once we hung up. But my youth min, honestly, guys, it is conference level training.

Nick Clason (28:42):
And so if you're a youth pastor and you're in a small church without a giant budget, like it's behind a paywall, however, it is far cheaper than if you got a plane, got a hotel, um, and paid for a conference ticket somewhere across country or whatever, and you have access to it. Like, I don't know if you heard, he's like 20 something pieces of new content every single month. So there is conference level training very available at your fingertips, very accessible. Um, and so that's a budget saver, you know, and so I think leaders who wanna be learning, um, are growing super helpful. So check that out for sure. I am a, I'm a contributor to it, so, um, shamelessly love to have you check it out. Um, but anyway, uh, appreciate you guys, uh, listening. And if you're anything like me and you listen to podcasts on the go, I do it when I'm, I'm running, I do it when I'm driving, and I do it when I'm on the lawn doing the dishes.

Nick Clason (29:37):
The reality is, um, Kerry said so much good stuff in there and I would hate, hate for you to miss it. And so we, for free provide, uh, transcripts for every single episode. You can check those out at hybridministry.xyz or just, uh, read through it in your podcast catcher so that you're able to just see what's going on and, uh, hear what's going on and maybe take some notes, um, and take some of the things that you heard in your ears and put it to paper if you need it. Um, for conversations or for meetings with, uh, upper level leadership or whatever the case may be. We just wanna serve you and help you win in your area of ministry. So you can check that out at hybridministry.xyz. We're also on Twitter at hybrid ministry. We'd love to have you come hang out with us. And hey, listen, if you found this helpful one way that you could really help us out, um, a gigantic favor for us would just be male.

Nick Clason (30:26):
If you could give us a like, or a rating or a review, that would be very beneficial, help us pay it forward, um, and help you maybe pay it forward even to some other people who, who wanna help uncover and find this information. So, once again, grateful for you, thankful for you. Um, hope you guys have a great rest of your day, wherever you are, whatever you might be doing, and we pray that this is helping, um, make digital discipleship just a little bit easier for you in your ministry context. Until next time, talk to you later guys. Bye.

]]> Episode 018: The Do's, Don'ts and lessons learned from launching a YouTube channel for your church in 2022 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/018 324b1904-0e2a-45fc-92aa-8eccc57a0f93 Thu, 17 Nov 2022 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 018 The Do's, Don'ts and lessons learned from launching a YouTube channel for your church in 2022 full Nick Clason In this Episode Nick explains and explores his experience with YouTube. What he learned from launching a YouTube channel during COVID, and his new recommendation for churches and ministry leaders for delivering useful content online for Gen Z and Gen Alpha and beyond! 22:09 no SUMMARY In this Episode Nick explains and explores his experience with YouTube. What he learned from launching a YouTube channel during COVID, and his new recommendation for churches and ministry leaders for delivering useful content online for Gen Z and Gen Alpha and beyond. Follow us on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/hybridministry Or get FREE transcripts at http://www.hybridministry.xyz Or find more written content like this from Nick at http://www.myyouthmin.com TIMECODES 00:00-00:36 - Intro 00:36-07:22 - The lessons I've learned from starting a YouTube channel during COVID 07:22-10:31 - Why start with YouTube? 10:31-13:13 - How to get indexed in searches on YouTube 13:13-16:26 - Ministry Implications 16:26-20:36 - YouTube Best Practices 20:36-22:09 - Outro TRANSCRIPT Nick Clason (00:00): What is up everybody? And welcome to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry podcast. Excited to be with you today. I am Nick Clason, your host, and today I wanted to talk about YouTube, and I actually wanted to talk about why I think it is useful for churches to quit live streaming their sermons. Now, hear me out. Hear me out. Before I dive into all that, let me just get a couple of things off the bat here said. So first and foremost, I wanna talk about YouTube. I don't like to talk about things on this show that I don't have a lot of experience with. And so today is an exception because I have almost zero experience with YouTube. And so for you to understand why and why and the history and everything like that, I just want to give a quick overview. So the church that I most recently served at, not where I am now, but where I most recently before here served at, had a almost 600 YouTube subscriber channel and over 300 or something like that, videos published on it. Nick Clason (01:22): The reason for that being that we started our YouTube channel and our YouTube show, the first day of Covid. And so our YouTube channel and strategy was primarily a digital version of what we would do if we were in the room. So we would think, let's do a game. And in our defense, I think what we did game wise and announcement wise and host wise was a little more YouTube centric than just simply throwing a camera in the back of the room and us pretending there were students there. But instead we were doing it a live stream. So what I mean by that is we built a studio and instead of a game, a screen game or something, we would do a segment. And it was almost like competition or challenge based. So I mean, if you think Mr. Beast or any of those big YouTubers, it was things like that. Nick Clason (02:27): So we were trying to think outside the box and trying to morph and do student ministry in a YouTube sort of way. One of the things that I think shot us in the foot was, first of all, we did it in a pinch. So we did it immediately and we pivoted very fast. And what we did and what we created, I personally was very proud of. But all that being said, once Covid began to run its course and things were over and opening a little bit more, people were looking for an in-person experience. And so what we were producing online was really no longer fulfilling the need that it needed to. So it probably needed an adjustment, and we started to make those adjustments. And what I mean by that is once Covid was over and kids were not stuck in their room, they're probably not that interested in our little segment or our little trivia game that we're playing or whatever on the screen. Nick Clason (03:29): But I do think that we had tons of formidable and useful spiritual content sermons, messages, whatever and whatnot that were totally useful. The problem was we did it in a full, long form show, so to speak. And so just youth group games and announcements and worship and all those things led into the message. And so you didn't get to the message until about 16 minutes on the actual YouTube thing. Typically the shows around 30 minutes or so. And so it was about half stuff and half a message. You get it If you're programming in the room, it's exactly what you would think as far as format wise, okay? And all of that. I was at a multi-site megachurch. All of that was handled by a creative team, a video editor, an audio producer, our tech department handled that, handled, uploading, posting, making it live, all those things. Nick Clason (04:29): And so I helped produce the content. I helped think through some of the philosophy and the strategy of it, but I was not boots on the ground in the weeds, hands on with doing, posting all the YouTube content and growing the channel. And in a lot of ways, the 600 something subs subscribers were a response to what happened during Covid, right? Everyone was subscribing to YouTube channels. Everyone that called our church home, parents, students alike, they subscribing to our channel. All right? So now fast forward to where I am now, and I'm at a little bit smaller church. We got a team of three, but we have around the same student count, or slightly more than the campus that I was at. And so we have a pretty frequent schedule Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday, Wednesday. So every three days, there's something that we need to be thinking for, planning for, and prepping for. Nick Clason (05:26): Not to mention, the entire team of where I'm at is completely brand new. And so we are basically building something from the ground up. There was some stuff in place before and whatever and whatnot. But the reality is we're starting from the ground up. One of the things that we're starting from the ground up, we're continuing on with the Wednesday meeting times, Sunday meeting times, but we're launching and fleshing out a completely digital strategy. And so with all that being said, I wanna just give that caveat to this is my experience with YouTube. I have been very involved in the production of YouTube content. I've learned a lot of things, some dos and don'ts and whatevers and whatnots. But also we are at the church of, we are gonna be changing our name here in January. And so I actually secured the YouTube channel for our future name of our student ministry, which is still a secret to a lot of people. Nick Clason (06:28): So because of that, I have not started posting things to YouTube. What I have started doing is I have started beta testing our YouTube strategy more on a video filming and editing side of things. Is this a sustainable and scalable process that I can continue to implement beyond on a week to week type basis? And so I've been practicing some things, and so I think I feel pretty good about the workflow and rhythm to be able to pull some of these things off. And so I'm excited about launching a YouTube channel and account in January knowing that I'll be able to replicate what I've been doing. So that's sort the background and the history of at least my personal experience with YouTube. So why start with YouTube? Alright, I think YouTube is, is actually a really unique social media platform. It's the only one of its kind in the category of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube is owned by Google, and it's the only social media platform in that category of those kind of core FI four or five that is owned by Google. Nick Clason (07:52): So you got Google, you got Meta, and then you got TikTok, who's sort of like the third player, the owner there in that, right? You've probably heard this before, but YouTube is actually widely considered by many to be the second largest search engine in the world behind only Google. Some if you get real nitty gritty with it, some actually say it's not the second largest, it's the third largest because Google Images is technically larger. Bottom line, all three, Google search, Google images and YouTube are owned by the same parent company, Google. And regardless of that, right? YouTube is a search engine. And so who among us has not installed a light fixture from the help of a friendly person who posted a YouTube tutorial on YouTube for us to watch and consume and use, Okay? And because it's a search engine, I think it's actually a pretty strategic advantage that can be used by us as pastors and ministry leaders. Nick Clason (08:55): Because if you think about it, when you search for a video, right? Search more how to or think how to fix, how to answer, how to do this, how to navigate this. So, or challenge us to think YouTubers rather than pastors or speakers. And I think that was one of our number one Achilles heels in where I was before. We were thinking YouTubers in a lot of ways, but in our, for example, and I'll get to this in a minute, but in our titling and in our thumbnails, we were treating this as series, the series Jesus series, Part three, March 1st. That's not a compelling, in captivating title for our audience who is with us every week and just wants to get on there and watch something on demand that may be helpful. But to someone who's gonna organically come across our YouTube content, that doesn't explain anything about what's in the video. Nick Clason (09:59): So why is live streaming problematic particularly? And full disclosure, I'm a student pastor. And so if you're watching this in a senior pastor and your church has good cameras, good audio equipment, good lighting to fully embrace a live streaming strategy, then by all means continue to do that. But if you're a youth pastor, I would not necessarily recommend building the gear, the switcher, the infrastructure of live streaming. All right, So let's talk about watch times. Cause this plays into it. According to a backlink.dot com, they surveyed and looked at 1.3 million YouTube videos to try and better understand the YouTube search feature and algorithm. What they determined was that longer videos significantly outperform shorter videos. And the average length of a first page YouTube video that's beneficial and helpful is 14 minutes and 50 seconds. All right? So you need to understand that the way that YouTube indexes and categorizes their videos is a combination of two things. Nick Clason (11:15): Overall, watch time paired with average percentage viewed. And so it turns out that videos in the 14 to 16 minute range actually index really well. In fact, those are the highest ones on search. There are other factors of things that help increase watch times, such as the hook or the intro. All right, So let's just think in the land of sermon delivering a sermon, Okay? I want you to just rank these two scenarios. Scenario number one. Hey everybody, welcome back. Real quick before I dive into tonight's message, I wanna remind you about the Churchwide Bake sales. It's coming up on Sunday, and if you want to earn money toward the mission trip, it is required that you be in attendance. If for some reason you can't make it, just be sure to talk to me afterwards. All right? Now, last week when we were in part three of our series, Jesus, we were reminded that Jesus was bonded together with his disciples because of their love. Nick Clason (12:14): And so tonight, what I wanna focus on in part four is what happens after the death burial and then ultimately resurrection of Jesus, right? That's scenario number one. That's you preaching to your congregation, your students, the people that call your church home. Let's talk about scenario number two. Hey, what if you could win a million dollars? What if I told you that the message of Jesus is actually one that supersedes and rises far above the benefits of winning millions and millions of dollars? Do you see how one at least has the intention of a hook? I don't know if it's good or not, right? That's why I say in fairness, I'm not a YouTube sivan or expert, but I want you, I wanna challenge you to think like a YouTuber. And so where one is taking care of housekeeping in your student ministry, what's going on the bake sale? The second one is actually thinking about YouTube first. It's creating a hook. So what are some implications for ministry? Well, first of all, a 30 to 45 minute sermon where the speaker is presenting primarily to a room full of people versus not really looking or paying attention to the camera. It's just there. Capturing them, doesn't act, Doesn't exactly right. Speak YouTube's preferred language. Think about it, in a live room environment anyway, messages between the length of 10 to 25 minutes seem to have become a pretty optimal length for student ministries who gather in person. Nick Clason (13:51): And I also think that if you take your YouTube or if you take your message content that you're going to already naturally deliver into a room, what I'm gonna actually propose here is that instead of capturing you delivering live to your room, I'm gonna propose that you prefill your content. And what happens is when you prefill your content, number one, you can create and craft a hook that is specific in particular for YouTube. Secondly, you can shave the time down to fit into that 14 to 16 minute window. Even if you go longer in the room, aim for that 14 to 16 minute window. And third, it gives you the opportunity to practice your message before you get up there and deliver it to a live room full of teenagers or parishioners or congregation members. And so that's one of the things that we've been doing. Nick Clason (14:58): We teach live every single Wednesday night, but during that week, after I'm done with my prep, I sit down, I put up a camera and iFilm my message. Then I do a little bit of post production, I add a sound bed behind it. I do some flying in graphics, lower thirds slides, and I put those on the screen as well. And that's gonna be our strategy for YouTube. Why? Number one, it's gonna let us do a YouTube first messaging. We're not gonna bury it behind a bunch of other elements. We're gonna go with the message first. If YouTube is in fact a search engine and kids are out there searching for answers to their faith, then let's give them the answers to their faith. And they might not care about our church announcements. They might not care about the worship, but what they do want is they want answers. Nick Clason (15:45): So answer the question, tell them what you're gonna talk about with the hook right up front at the very beginning of the video. And that for me is one of the hardest shifts, is moving from holding my ace content up my sleeve until the very end, waiting for the message to climax, but instead giving a teaser and a preview at the very beginning of the message. That's a shift. YouTubers do that really well. Pastors build to their ultimate conclusion, and so they try to create this mystery around what's gonna come. But the reality is on YouTube, if you don't hook them right off the bat immediately, then they are gone and on to the next thing. And so think like a YouTuber. Let's talk through some other YouTube best practices. Like I said, make sure your titling is something that a YouTuber would search for as opposed to Jesus Week three, Mark 14, one through 10. Nick Clason (16:39): That's not as captivating a title as Is hell a real place dealing with crippling anxiety or is rest even possible? You see the difference between those two. Think YouTube, think search engine, think click bait, think controversial type titles that help your video perform better because it's a search engine. The meta description or the title, the description of the video, those things all play a huge role in the YouTube ranking. So make sure you spend a little bit of time thinking through and crafting some good compelling descriptions. And then you can also link to things on your church's website or social media, or maybe even some products in the description of your video. Also include tags. YouTube gives you a spot to do that. So include keywords from your videos or tags that relate back to the topic. All three of those factors, title, description, tags, all play a role in the searchability of your YouTube content. Nick Clason (17:33): Also, your thumbnail plays plays a role. Go look at Mr. Beast. He's like number one, YouTuber in the world. Go look at his thumbnails on his YouTube channel and just get some photos with a decent iPhone, maybe a Google Pixel phone to take some halfway decent portrait shots. Throw some catchy text over it using maybe something like PowerPoint Canva, or if you have more skill Photoshop and use different catchy thumbnails to try on your videos. You can also then use a free tool like trends.google.com to look up your searchable words and compare things. AB testing. If you wanted to use the word fear versus the word anxiety, put those into trends.google.com. And you'll notice that anxiety has a higher search level. So use that. Nick Clason (18:25): And then also comments and shares and people embedding your videos are all things that are gonna help index it better in the YouTube algorithm. So ask for things like comments, ask for things like shares, and then on the embedding feature, try to embed your YouTube videos onto your church website onto your, And so then your website is hosting your YouTube video and embedding it already helps index it better. So you already have a platform that people are going to. So use that. That's a feature that's already built in and that can help you get going. All right, what if you're just starting? What starting gear do you need, right? Listen, if you're gonna go budget friendly, get a nice smartphone, right? I just gotta Google Pixel, the latest iPhone have some great things. One of the main things for filming is you need a separate microphone, Okay? Nick Clason (19:24): So you can get, just go on Amazon, do a quick search for a shotgun microphone with your style of phone connection that's needed. You can get something for under a hundred bucks. You can also get a lapel, a wireless lapel lighting. Natural lighting is great. Some ring lights can help. Do the trick. Get a tripod that you can stick your phone on. If you want a more professional rig, then listen. Just go to YouTube, search best YouTube starter set for gear, and you'll find something. I love everything that Brady Sheer from Pro Church Tools has to say just about anything in the church digital space. And in fact, I think the day I'm recording this, he yesterday just trapped a video on his favorite camera gear. So go copy that if you got the budget to do it and make it happen. And then you're just gonna have to do things like edit, and you're gonna figure out you wanna use iMovie, Da Vinci, Resolve Adobe Final Cut Pro. Nick Clason (20:20): Again, budget for some of those are cheaper, like iMovie and Da Vinci Resolve are free. More expensive options are the Adobe Suite or Final Cut Pro. You're just gonna have to see what you have and what's available out there. But listen, my recommendation, again, like I said, get on YouTube. Treat it like a search engine. Get out there. Put your message, the message of hope that you have about Jesus. Create a YouTube channel. Prefill your content or film it after you deliver it. If you want it to be a little bit more polished and you've a little bit more familiar with it, and just start posting some stuff out there, right? Try some things. Follow some of these best practices. You may not go viral overnight. I can't promise that, but these are some of the best practices out there on YouTube. And so simply following them is just gonna give you the best chance to be discovered. Nick Clason (21:12): And that's the goal. We want students, teenagers, or people wrestling with faith to come across the content that we have to offer, and hopefully give them something that's helpful. And this is just a way to expand your impact and your reach as a youth pastor, as a regular pastor in 2022 and beyond. Hey, I hope you guys found this episode helpful. If you did get, Man, leave us a rating or a review. We are on iTunes, Spotify, all the major podcast platforms, hybrid ministry. We're also on Twitter at hybrid ministry. We have full transcripts of everything. We provide this to y'all at hybridministry.xyz Come check us out there and we will talk to you guys. YouTube, Sermons, Live Stream, Ministry, Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Church, Preaching, Pastors, Meta Church, Church Service, Worship, Discipleship, Outreach, Evangelism SUMMARY
In this Episode Nick explains and explores his experience with YouTube. What he learned from launching a YouTube channel during COVID, and his new recommendation for churches and ministry leaders for delivering useful content online for Gen Z and Gen Alpha and beyond.

Follow us on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/hybridministry
Or get FREE transcripts at http://www.hybridministry.xyz
Or find more written content like this from Nick at http://www.myyouthmin.com

TIMECODES
00:00-00:36 - Intro
00:36-07:22 - The lessons I've learned from starting a YouTube channel during COVID
07:22-10:31 - Why start with YouTube?
10:31-13:13 - How to get indexed in searches on YouTube
13:13-16:26 - Ministry Implications
16:26-20:36 - YouTube Best Practices
20:36-22:09 - Outro

TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:00):
What is up everybody? And welcome to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry podcast. Excited to be with you today. I am Nick Clason, your host, and today I wanted to talk about YouTube, and I actually wanted to talk about why I think it is useful for churches to quit live streaming their sermons. Now, hear me out. Hear me out. Before I dive into all that, let me just get a couple of things off the bat here said. So first and foremost, I wanna talk about YouTube. I don't like to talk about things on this show that I don't have a lot of experience with. And so today is an exception because I have almost zero experience with YouTube. And so for you to understand why and why and the history and everything like that, I just want to give a quick overview. So the church that I most recently served at, not where I am now, but where I most recently before here served at, had a almost 600 YouTube subscriber channel and over 300 or something like that, videos published on it.

Nick Clason (01:22):
The reason for that being that we started our YouTube channel and our YouTube show, the first day of Covid. And so our YouTube channel and strategy was primarily a digital version of what we would do if we were in the room. So we would think, let's do a game. And in our defense, I think what we did game wise and announcement wise and host wise was a little more YouTube centric than just simply throwing a camera in the back of the room and us pretending there were students there. But instead we were doing it a live stream. So what I mean by that is we built a studio and instead of a game, a screen game or something, we would do a segment. And it was almost like competition or challenge based. So I mean, if you think Mr. Beast or any of those big YouTubers, it was things like that.

Nick Clason (02:27):
So we were trying to think outside the box and trying to morph and do student ministry in a YouTube sort of way. One of the things that I think shot us in the foot was, first of all, we did it in a pinch. So we did it immediately and we pivoted very fast. And what we did and what we created, I personally was very proud of. But all that being said, once Covid began to run its course and things were over and opening a little bit more, people were looking for an in-person experience. And so what we were producing online was really no longer fulfilling the need that it needed to. So it probably needed an adjustment, and we started to make those adjustments. And what I mean by that is once Covid was over and kids were not stuck in their room, they're probably not that interested in our little segment or our little trivia game that we're playing or whatever on the screen.

Nick Clason (03:29):
But I do think that we had tons of formidable and useful spiritual content sermons, messages, whatever and whatnot that were totally useful. The problem was we did it in a full, long form show, so to speak. And so just youth group games and announcements and worship and all those things led into the message. And so you didn't get to the message until about 16 minutes on the actual YouTube thing. Typically the shows around 30 minutes or so. And so it was about half stuff and half a message. You get it If you're programming in the room, it's exactly what you would think as far as format wise, okay? And all of that. I was at a multi-site megachurch. All of that was handled by a creative team, a video editor, an audio producer, our tech department handled that, handled, uploading, posting, making it live, all those things.

Nick Clason (04:29):
And so I helped produce the content. I helped think through some of the philosophy and the strategy of it, but I was not boots on the ground in the weeds, hands on with doing, posting all the YouTube content and growing the channel. And in a lot of ways, the 600 something subs subscribers were a response to what happened during Covid, right? Everyone was subscribing to YouTube channels. Everyone that called our church home, parents, students alike, they subscribing to our channel. All right? So now fast forward to where I am now, and I'm at a little bit smaller church. We got a team of three, but we have around the same student count, or slightly more than the campus that I was at. And so we have a pretty frequent schedule Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday, Wednesday. So every three days, there's something that we need to be thinking for, planning for, and prepping for.

Nick Clason (05:26):
Not to mention, the entire team of where I'm at is completely brand new. And so we are basically building something from the ground up. There was some stuff in place before and whatever and whatnot. But the reality is we're starting from the ground up. One of the things that we're starting from the ground up, we're continuing on with the Wednesday meeting times, Sunday meeting times, but we're launching and fleshing out a completely digital strategy. And so with all that being said, I wanna just give that caveat to this is my experience with YouTube. I have been very involved in the production of YouTube content. I've learned a lot of things, some dos and don'ts and whatevers and whatnots. But also we are at the church of, we are gonna be changing our name here in January. And so I actually secured the YouTube channel for our future name of our student ministry, which is still a secret to a lot of people.

Nick Clason (06:28):
So because of that, I have not started posting things to YouTube. What I have started doing is I have started beta testing our YouTube strategy more on a video filming and editing side of things. Is this a sustainable and scalable process that I can continue to implement beyond on a week to week type basis? And so I've been practicing some things, and so I think I feel pretty good about the workflow and rhythm to be able to pull some of these things off. And so I'm excited about launching a YouTube channel and account in January knowing that I'll be able to replicate what I've been doing. So that's sort the background and the history of at least my personal experience with YouTube. So why start with YouTube? Alright, I think YouTube is, is actually a really unique social media platform. It's the only one of its kind in the category of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube is owned by Google, and it's the only social media platform in that category of those kind of core FI four or five that is owned by Google.

Nick Clason (07:52):
So you got Google, you got Meta, and then you got TikTok, who's sort of like the third player, the owner there in that, right? You've probably heard this before, but YouTube is actually widely considered by many to be the second largest search engine in the world behind only Google. Some if you get real nitty gritty with it, some actually say it's not the second largest, it's the third largest because Google Images is technically larger. Bottom line, all three, Google search, Google images and YouTube are owned by the same parent company, Google. And regardless of that, right? YouTube is a search engine. And so who among us has not installed a light fixture from the help of a friendly person who posted a YouTube tutorial on YouTube for us to watch and consume and use, Okay? And because it's a search engine, I think it's actually a pretty strategic advantage that can be used by us as pastors and ministry leaders.

Nick Clason (08:55):
Because if you think about it, when you search for a video, right? Search more how to or think how to fix, how to answer, how to do this, how to navigate this. So, or challenge us to think YouTubers rather than pastors or speakers. And I think that was one of our number one Achilles heels in where I was before. We were thinking YouTubers in a lot of ways, but in our, for example, and I'll get to this in a minute, but in our titling and in our thumbnails, we were treating this as series, the series Jesus series, Part three, March 1st. That's not a compelling, in captivating title for our audience who is with us every week and just wants to get on there and watch something on demand that may be helpful. But to someone who's gonna organically come across our YouTube content, that doesn't explain anything about what's in the video.

Nick Clason (09:59):
So why is live streaming problematic particularly? And full disclosure, I'm a student pastor. And so if you're watching this in a senior pastor and your church has good cameras, good audio equipment, good lighting to fully embrace a live streaming strategy, then by all means continue to do that. But if you're a youth pastor, I would not necessarily recommend building the gear, the switcher, the infrastructure of live streaming. All right, So let's talk about watch times. Cause this plays into it. According to a backlink.dot com, they surveyed and looked at 1.3 million YouTube videos to try and better understand the YouTube search feature and algorithm. What they determined was that longer videos significantly outperform shorter videos. And the average length of a first page YouTube video that's beneficial and helpful is 14 minutes and 50 seconds. All right? So you need to understand that the way that YouTube indexes and categorizes their videos is a combination of two things.

Nick Clason (11:15):
Overall, watch time paired with average percentage viewed. And so it turns out that videos in the 14 to 16 minute range actually index really well. In fact, those are the highest ones on search. There are other factors of things that help increase watch times, such as the hook or the intro. All right, So let's just think in the land of sermon delivering a sermon, Okay? I want you to just rank these two scenarios. Scenario number one. Hey everybody, welcome back. Real quick before I dive into tonight's message, I wanna remind you about the Churchwide Bake sales. It's coming up on Sunday, and if you want to earn money toward the mission trip, it is required that you be in attendance. If for some reason you can't make it, just be sure to talk to me afterwards. All right? Now, last week when we were in part three of our series, Jesus, we were reminded that Jesus was bonded together with his disciples because of their love.

Nick Clason (12:14):
And so tonight, what I wanna focus on in part four is what happens after the death burial and then ultimately resurrection of Jesus, right? That's scenario number one. That's you preaching to your congregation, your students, the people that call your church home. Let's talk about scenario number two. Hey, what if you could win a million dollars? What if I told you that the message of Jesus is actually one that supersedes and rises far above the benefits of winning millions and millions of dollars? Do you see how one at least has the intention of a hook? I don't know if it's good or not, right? That's why I say in fairness, I'm not a YouTube sivan or expert, but I want you, I wanna challenge you to think like a YouTuber. And so where one is taking care of housekeeping in your student ministry, what's going on the bake sale? The second one is actually thinking about YouTube first. It's creating a hook. So what are some implications for ministry? Well, first of all, a 30 to 45 minute sermon where the speaker is presenting primarily to a room full of people versus not really looking or paying attention to the camera. It's just there. Capturing them, doesn't act, Doesn't exactly right. Speak YouTube's preferred language. Think about it, in a live room environment anyway, messages between the length of 10 to 25 minutes seem to have become a pretty optimal length for student ministries who gather in person.

Nick Clason (13:51):
And I also think that if you take your YouTube or if you take your message content that you're going to already naturally deliver into a room, what I'm gonna actually propose here is that instead of capturing you delivering live to your room, I'm gonna propose that you prefill your content. And what happens is when you prefill your content, number one, you can create and craft a hook that is specific in particular for YouTube. Secondly, you can shave the time down to fit into that 14 to 16 minute window. Even if you go longer in the room, aim for that 14 to 16 minute window. And third, it gives you the opportunity to practice your message before you get up there and deliver it to a live room full of teenagers or parishioners or congregation members. And so that's one of the things that we've been doing.

Nick Clason (14:58):
We teach live every single Wednesday night, but during that week, after I'm done with my prep, I sit down, I put up a camera and iFilm my message. Then I do a little bit of post production, I add a sound bed behind it. I do some flying in graphics, lower thirds slides, and I put those on the screen as well. And that's gonna be our strategy for YouTube. Why? Number one, it's gonna let us do a YouTube first messaging. We're not gonna bury it behind a bunch of other elements. We're gonna go with the message first. If YouTube is in fact a search engine and kids are out there searching for answers to their faith, then let's give them the answers to their faith. And they might not care about our church announcements. They might not care about the worship, but what they do want is they want answers.

Nick Clason (15:45):
So answer the question, tell them what you're gonna talk about with the hook right up front at the very beginning of the video. And that for me is one of the hardest shifts, is moving from holding my ace content up my sleeve until the very end, waiting for the message to climax, but instead giving a teaser and a preview at the very beginning of the message. That's a shift. YouTubers do that really well. Pastors build to their ultimate conclusion, and so they try to create this mystery around what's gonna come. But the reality is on YouTube, if you don't hook them right off the bat immediately, then they are gone and on to the next thing. And so think like a YouTuber. Let's talk through some other YouTube best practices. Like I said, make sure your titling is something that a YouTuber would search for as opposed to Jesus Week three, Mark 14, one through 10.

Nick Clason (16:39):
That's not as captivating a title as Is hell a real place dealing with crippling anxiety or is rest even possible? You see the difference between those two. Think YouTube, think search engine, think click bait, think controversial type titles that help your video perform better because it's a search engine. The meta description or the title, the description of the video, those things all play a huge role in the YouTube ranking. So make sure you spend a little bit of time thinking through and crafting some good compelling descriptions. And then you can also link to things on your church's website or social media, or maybe even some products in the description of your video. Also include tags. YouTube gives you a spot to do that. So include keywords from your videos or tags that relate back to the topic. All three of those factors, title, description, tags, all play a role in the searchability of your YouTube content.

Nick Clason (17:33):
Also, your thumbnail plays plays a role. Go look at Mr. Beast. He's like number one, YouTuber in the world. Go look at his thumbnails on his YouTube channel and just get some photos with a decent iPhone, maybe a Google Pixel phone to take some halfway decent portrait shots. Throw some catchy text over it using maybe something like PowerPoint Canva, or if you have more skill Photoshop and use different catchy thumbnails to try on your videos. You can also then use a free tool like trends.google.com to look up your searchable words and compare things. AB testing. If you wanted to use the word fear versus the word anxiety, put those into trends.google.com. And you'll notice that anxiety has a higher search level. So use that.

Nick Clason (18:25):
And then also comments and shares and people embedding your videos are all things that are gonna help index it better in the YouTube algorithm. So ask for things like comments, ask for things like shares, and then on the embedding feature, try to embed your YouTube videos onto your church website onto your, And so then your website is hosting your YouTube video and embedding it already helps index it better. So you already have a platform that people are going to. So use that. That's a feature that's already built in and that can help you get going. All right, what if you're just starting? What starting gear do you need, right? Listen, if you're gonna go budget friendly, get a nice smartphone, right? I just gotta Google Pixel, the latest iPhone have some great things. One of the main things for filming is you need a separate microphone, Okay?

Nick Clason (19:24):
So you can get, just go on Amazon, do a quick search for a shotgun microphone with your style of phone connection that's needed. You can get something for under a hundred bucks. You can also get a lapel, a wireless lapel lighting. Natural lighting is great. Some ring lights can help. Do the trick. Get a tripod that you can stick your phone on. If you want a more professional rig, then listen. Just go to YouTube, search best YouTube starter set for gear, and you'll find something. I love everything that Brady Sheer from Pro Church Tools has to say just about anything in the church digital space. And in fact, I think the day I'm recording this, he yesterday just trapped a video on his favorite camera gear. So go copy that if you got the budget to do it and make it happen. And then you're just gonna have to do things like edit, and you're gonna figure out you wanna use iMovie, Da Vinci, Resolve Adobe Final Cut Pro.

Nick Clason (20:20):
Again, budget for some of those are cheaper, like iMovie and Da Vinci Resolve are free. More expensive options are the Adobe Suite or Final Cut Pro. You're just gonna have to see what you have and what's available out there. But listen, my recommendation, again, like I said, get on YouTube. Treat it like a search engine. Get out there. Put your message, the message of hope that you have about Jesus. Create a YouTube channel. Prefill your content or film it after you deliver it. If you want it to be a little bit more polished and you've a little bit more familiar with it, and just start posting some stuff out there, right? Try some things. Follow some of these best practices. You may not go viral overnight. I can't promise that, but these are some of the best practices out there on YouTube. And so simply following them is just gonna give you the best chance to be discovered.

Nick Clason (21:12):
And that's the goal. We want students, teenagers, or people wrestling with faith to come across the content that we have to offer, and hopefully give them something that's helpful. And this is just a way to expand your impact and your reach as a youth pastor, as a regular pastor in 2022 and beyond. Hey, I hope you guys found this episode helpful. If you did get, Man, leave us a rating or a review. We are on iTunes, Spotify, all the major podcast platforms, hybrid ministry. We're also on Twitter at hybrid ministry. We have full transcripts of everything. We provide this to y'all at hybridministry.xyz Come check us out there and we will talk to you guys.

]]> SUMMARY
In this Episode Nick explains and explores his experience with YouTube. What he learned from launching a YouTube channel during COVID, and his new recommendation for churches and ministry leaders for delivering useful content online for Gen Z and Gen Alpha and beyond.

Follow us on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/hybridministry
Or get FREE transcripts at http://www.hybridministry.xyz
Or find more written content like this from Nick at http://www.myyouthmin.com

TIMECODES
00:00-00:36 - Intro
00:36-07:22 - The lessons I've learned from starting a YouTube channel during COVID
07:22-10:31 - Why start with YouTube?
10:31-13:13 - How to get indexed in searches on YouTube
13:13-16:26 - Ministry Implications
16:26-20:36 - YouTube Best Practices
20:36-22:09 - Outro

TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:00):
What is up everybody? And welcome to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry podcast. Excited to be with you today. I am Nick Clason, your host, and today I wanted to talk about YouTube, and I actually wanted to talk about why I think it is useful for churches to quit live streaming their sermons. Now, hear me out. Hear me out. Before I dive into all that, let me just get a couple of things off the bat here said. So first and foremost, I wanna talk about YouTube. I don't like to talk about things on this show that I don't have a lot of experience with. And so today is an exception because I have almost zero experience with YouTube. And so for you to understand why and why and the history and everything like that, I just want to give a quick overview. So the church that I most recently served at, not where I am now, but where I most recently before here served at, had a almost 600 YouTube subscriber channel and over 300 or something like that, videos published on it.

Nick Clason (01:22):
The reason for that being that we started our YouTube channel and our YouTube show, the first day of Covid. And so our YouTube channel and strategy was primarily a digital version of what we would do if we were in the room. So we would think, let's do a game. And in our defense, I think what we did game wise and announcement wise and host wise was a little more YouTube centric than just simply throwing a camera in the back of the room and us pretending there were students there. But instead we were doing it a live stream. So what I mean by that is we built a studio and instead of a game, a screen game or something, we would do a segment. And it was almost like competition or challenge based. So I mean, if you think Mr. Beast or any of those big YouTubers, it was things like that.

Nick Clason (02:27):
So we were trying to think outside the box and trying to morph and do student ministry in a YouTube sort of way. One of the things that I think shot us in the foot was, first of all, we did it in a pinch. So we did it immediately and we pivoted very fast. And what we did and what we created, I personally was very proud of. But all that being said, once Covid began to run its course and things were over and opening a little bit more, people were looking for an in-person experience. And so what we were producing online was really no longer fulfilling the need that it needed to. So it probably needed an adjustment, and we started to make those adjustments. And what I mean by that is once Covid was over and kids were not stuck in their room, they're probably not that interested in our little segment or our little trivia game that we're playing or whatever on the screen.

Nick Clason (03:29):
But I do think that we had tons of formidable and useful spiritual content sermons, messages, whatever and whatnot that were totally useful. The problem was we did it in a full, long form show, so to speak. And so just youth group games and announcements and worship and all those things led into the message. And so you didn't get to the message until about 16 minutes on the actual YouTube thing. Typically the shows around 30 minutes or so. And so it was about half stuff and half a message. You get it If you're programming in the room, it's exactly what you would think as far as format wise, okay? And all of that. I was at a multi-site megachurch. All of that was handled by a creative team, a video editor, an audio producer, our tech department handled that, handled, uploading, posting, making it live, all those things.

Nick Clason (04:29):
And so I helped produce the content. I helped think through some of the philosophy and the strategy of it, but I was not boots on the ground in the weeds, hands on with doing, posting all the YouTube content and growing the channel. And in a lot of ways, the 600 something subs subscribers were a response to what happened during Covid, right? Everyone was subscribing to YouTube channels. Everyone that called our church home, parents, students alike, they subscribing to our channel. All right? So now fast forward to where I am now, and I'm at a little bit smaller church. We got a team of three, but we have around the same student count, or slightly more than the campus that I was at. And so we have a pretty frequent schedule Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday, Wednesday. So every three days, there's something that we need to be thinking for, planning for, and prepping for.

Nick Clason (05:26):
Not to mention, the entire team of where I'm at is completely brand new. And so we are basically building something from the ground up. There was some stuff in place before and whatever and whatnot. But the reality is we're starting from the ground up. One of the things that we're starting from the ground up, we're continuing on with the Wednesday meeting times, Sunday meeting times, but we're launching and fleshing out a completely digital strategy. And so with all that being said, I wanna just give that caveat to this is my experience with YouTube. I have been very involved in the production of YouTube content. I've learned a lot of things, some dos and don'ts and whatevers and whatnots. But also we are at the church of, we are gonna be changing our name here in January. And so I actually secured the YouTube channel for our future name of our student ministry, which is still a secret to a lot of people.

Nick Clason (06:28):
So because of that, I have not started posting things to YouTube. What I have started doing is I have started beta testing our YouTube strategy more on a video filming and editing side of things. Is this a sustainable and scalable process that I can continue to implement beyond on a week to week type basis? And so I've been practicing some things, and so I think I feel pretty good about the workflow and rhythm to be able to pull some of these things off. And so I'm excited about launching a YouTube channel and account in January knowing that I'll be able to replicate what I've been doing. So that's sort the background and the history of at least my personal experience with YouTube. So why start with YouTube? Alright, I think YouTube is, is actually a really unique social media platform. It's the only one of its kind in the category of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube is owned by Google, and it's the only social media platform in that category of those kind of core FI four or five that is owned by Google.

Nick Clason (07:52):
So you got Google, you got Meta, and then you got TikTok, who's sort of like the third player, the owner there in that, right? You've probably heard this before, but YouTube is actually widely considered by many to be the second largest search engine in the world behind only Google. Some if you get real nitty gritty with it, some actually say it's not the second largest, it's the third largest because Google Images is technically larger. Bottom line, all three, Google search, Google images and YouTube are owned by the same parent company, Google. And regardless of that, right? YouTube is a search engine. And so who among us has not installed a light fixture from the help of a friendly person who posted a YouTube tutorial on YouTube for us to watch and consume and use, Okay? And because it's a search engine, I think it's actually a pretty strategic advantage that can be used by us as pastors and ministry leaders.

Nick Clason (08:55):
Because if you think about it, when you search for a video, right? Search more how to or think how to fix, how to answer, how to do this, how to navigate this. So, or challenge us to think YouTubers rather than pastors or speakers. And I think that was one of our number one Achilles heels in where I was before. We were thinking YouTubers in a lot of ways, but in our, for example, and I'll get to this in a minute, but in our titling and in our thumbnails, we were treating this as series, the series Jesus series, Part three, March 1st. That's not a compelling, in captivating title for our audience who is with us every week and just wants to get on there and watch something on demand that may be helpful. But to someone who's gonna organically come across our YouTube content, that doesn't explain anything about what's in the video.

Nick Clason (09:59):
So why is live streaming problematic particularly? And full disclosure, I'm a student pastor. And so if you're watching this in a senior pastor and your church has good cameras, good audio equipment, good lighting to fully embrace a live streaming strategy, then by all means continue to do that. But if you're a youth pastor, I would not necessarily recommend building the gear, the switcher, the infrastructure of live streaming. All right, So let's talk about watch times. Cause this plays into it. According to a backlink.dot com, they surveyed and looked at 1.3 million YouTube videos to try and better understand the YouTube search feature and algorithm. What they determined was that longer videos significantly outperform shorter videos. And the average length of a first page YouTube video that's beneficial and helpful is 14 minutes and 50 seconds. All right? So you need to understand that the way that YouTube indexes and categorizes their videos is a combination of two things.

Nick Clason (11:15):
Overall, watch time paired with average percentage viewed. And so it turns out that videos in the 14 to 16 minute range actually index really well. In fact, those are the highest ones on search. There are other factors of things that help increase watch times, such as the hook or the intro. All right, So let's just think in the land of sermon delivering a sermon, Okay? I want you to just rank these two scenarios. Scenario number one. Hey everybody, welcome back. Real quick before I dive into tonight's message, I wanna remind you about the Churchwide Bake sales. It's coming up on Sunday, and if you want to earn money toward the mission trip, it is required that you be in attendance. If for some reason you can't make it, just be sure to talk to me afterwards. All right? Now, last week when we were in part three of our series, Jesus, we were reminded that Jesus was bonded together with his disciples because of their love.

Nick Clason (12:14):
And so tonight, what I wanna focus on in part four is what happens after the death burial and then ultimately resurrection of Jesus, right? That's scenario number one. That's you preaching to your congregation, your students, the people that call your church home. Let's talk about scenario number two. Hey, what if you could win a million dollars? What if I told you that the message of Jesus is actually one that supersedes and rises far above the benefits of winning millions and millions of dollars? Do you see how one at least has the intention of a hook? I don't know if it's good or not, right? That's why I say in fairness, I'm not a YouTube sivan or expert, but I want you, I wanna challenge you to think like a YouTuber. And so where one is taking care of housekeeping in your student ministry, what's going on the bake sale? The second one is actually thinking about YouTube first. It's creating a hook. So what are some implications for ministry? Well, first of all, a 30 to 45 minute sermon where the speaker is presenting primarily to a room full of people versus not really looking or paying attention to the camera. It's just there. Capturing them, doesn't act, Doesn't exactly right. Speak YouTube's preferred language. Think about it, in a live room environment anyway, messages between the length of 10 to 25 minutes seem to have become a pretty optimal length for student ministries who gather in person.

Nick Clason (13:51):
And I also think that if you take your YouTube or if you take your message content that you're going to already naturally deliver into a room, what I'm gonna actually propose here is that instead of capturing you delivering live to your room, I'm gonna propose that you prefill your content. And what happens is when you prefill your content, number one, you can create and craft a hook that is specific in particular for YouTube. Secondly, you can shave the time down to fit into that 14 to 16 minute window. Even if you go longer in the room, aim for that 14 to 16 minute window. And third, it gives you the opportunity to practice your message before you get up there and deliver it to a live room full of teenagers or parishioners or congregation members. And so that's one of the things that we've been doing.

Nick Clason (14:58):
We teach live every single Wednesday night, but during that week, after I'm done with my prep, I sit down, I put up a camera and iFilm my message. Then I do a little bit of post production, I add a sound bed behind it. I do some flying in graphics, lower thirds slides, and I put those on the screen as well. And that's gonna be our strategy for YouTube. Why? Number one, it's gonna let us do a YouTube first messaging. We're not gonna bury it behind a bunch of other elements. We're gonna go with the message first. If YouTube is in fact a search engine and kids are out there searching for answers to their faith, then let's give them the answers to their faith. And they might not care about our church announcements. They might not care about the worship, but what they do want is they want answers.

Nick Clason (15:45):
So answer the question, tell them what you're gonna talk about with the hook right up front at the very beginning of the video. And that for me is one of the hardest shifts, is moving from holding my ace content up my sleeve until the very end, waiting for the message to climax, but instead giving a teaser and a preview at the very beginning of the message. That's a shift. YouTubers do that really well. Pastors build to their ultimate conclusion, and so they try to create this mystery around what's gonna come. But the reality is on YouTube, if you don't hook them right off the bat immediately, then they are gone and on to the next thing. And so think like a YouTuber. Let's talk through some other YouTube best practices. Like I said, make sure your titling is something that a YouTuber would search for as opposed to Jesus Week three, Mark 14, one through 10.

Nick Clason (16:39):
That's not as captivating a title as Is hell a real place dealing with crippling anxiety or is rest even possible? You see the difference between those two. Think YouTube, think search engine, think click bait, think controversial type titles that help your video perform better because it's a search engine. The meta description or the title, the description of the video, those things all play a huge role in the YouTube ranking. So make sure you spend a little bit of time thinking through and crafting some good compelling descriptions. And then you can also link to things on your church's website or social media, or maybe even some products in the description of your video. Also include tags. YouTube gives you a spot to do that. So include keywords from your videos or tags that relate back to the topic. All three of those factors, title, description, tags, all play a role in the searchability of your YouTube content.

Nick Clason (17:33):
Also, your thumbnail plays plays a role. Go look at Mr. Beast. He's like number one, YouTuber in the world. Go look at his thumbnails on his YouTube channel and just get some photos with a decent iPhone, maybe a Google Pixel phone to take some halfway decent portrait shots. Throw some catchy text over it using maybe something like PowerPoint Canva, or if you have more skill Photoshop and use different catchy thumbnails to try on your videos. You can also then use a free tool like trends.google.com to look up your searchable words and compare things. AB testing. If you wanted to use the word fear versus the word anxiety, put those into trends.google.com. And you'll notice that anxiety has a higher search level. So use that.

Nick Clason (18:25):
And then also comments and shares and people embedding your videos are all things that are gonna help index it better in the YouTube algorithm. So ask for things like comments, ask for things like shares, and then on the embedding feature, try to embed your YouTube videos onto your church website onto your, And so then your website is hosting your YouTube video and embedding it already helps index it better. So you already have a platform that people are going to. So use that. That's a feature that's already built in and that can help you get going. All right, what if you're just starting? What starting gear do you need, right? Listen, if you're gonna go budget friendly, get a nice smartphone, right? I just gotta Google Pixel, the latest iPhone have some great things. One of the main things for filming is you need a separate microphone, Okay?

Nick Clason (19:24):
So you can get, just go on Amazon, do a quick search for a shotgun microphone with your style of phone connection that's needed. You can get something for under a hundred bucks. You can also get a lapel, a wireless lapel lighting. Natural lighting is great. Some ring lights can help. Do the trick. Get a tripod that you can stick your phone on. If you want a more professional rig, then listen. Just go to YouTube, search best YouTube starter set for gear, and you'll find something. I love everything that Brady Sheer from Pro Church Tools has to say just about anything in the church digital space. And in fact, I think the day I'm recording this, he yesterday just trapped a video on his favorite camera gear. So go copy that if you got the budget to do it and make it happen. And then you're just gonna have to do things like edit, and you're gonna figure out you wanna use iMovie, Da Vinci, Resolve Adobe Final Cut Pro.

Nick Clason (20:20):
Again, budget for some of those are cheaper, like iMovie and Da Vinci Resolve are free. More expensive options are the Adobe Suite or Final Cut Pro. You're just gonna have to see what you have and what's available out there. But listen, my recommendation, again, like I said, get on YouTube. Treat it like a search engine. Get out there. Put your message, the message of hope that you have about Jesus. Create a YouTube channel. Prefill your content or film it after you deliver it. If you want it to be a little bit more polished and you've a little bit more familiar with it, and just start posting some stuff out there, right? Try some things. Follow some of these best practices. You may not go viral overnight. I can't promise that, but these are some of the best practices out there on YouTube. And so simply following them is just gonna give you the best chance to be discovered.

Nick Clason (21:12):
And that's the goal. We want students, teenagers, or people wrestling with faith to come across the content that we have to offer, and hopefully give them something that's helpful. And this is just a way to expand your impact and your reach as a youth pastor, as a regular pastor in 2022 and beyond. Hey, I hope you guys found this episode helpful. If you did get, Man, leave us a rating or a review. We are on iTunes, Spotify, all the major podcast platforms, hybrid ministry. We're also on Twitter at hybrid ministry. We have full transcripts of everything. We provide this to y'all at hybridministry.xyz Come check us out there and we will talk to you guys.

]]>