web02.fireside.fm Tue, 14 Apr 2026 19:13:08 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Hybrid Ministry - Episodes Tagged with “Youth Leader Tips” https://www.hybridministry.xyz/tags/youth%20leader%20tips Thu, 22 Jan 2026 05:00:00 -0600 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 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&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/185 ❄️ 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 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. 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

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

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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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

--------------
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 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&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=productsharecreator&utmcontent=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. 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.

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