Hybrid Ministry - Episodes Tagged with “Youth Ministry Coach”

Episode 140: Social Media that [ACTUALLY] Works | Engage Don’t Broadcast

Nick Clason — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 04:00:00 -0500

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DESCRIPTION
Struggling to make social media actually work for your youth ministry or overall church? In this episode, we’re breaking down a 3-step strategy to move from just broadcasting announcements to real engagement that inspires and connects. If your social feed is just a wall of static graphics, it’s time to rethink your approach—let’s build a social media presence that truly makes an impact!

📓 SHOWNOTES
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⌚TIMECODES
00:00 Is your Church Social Media on Life Support?
01:50 Stop Ignoring Digital Ministry
04:17 Step #1
06:23 Step #2
09:43 Step #3

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Is your social media account

00:00:02:24 - 00:00:03:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
on

00:00:03:06 - 00:00:10:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
life support, like just a bunch of pre downloaded graphics or things that you've made in Canva?

00:00:10:17 - 00:00:28:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If it is, rest assured you're probably in the majority of other youth workers or even church communications social media managers who know that there's more for social, but you just don't have the capacity or the bandwidth or maybe the desire to take it to that next level.

00:00:28:26 - 00:00:58:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this video I want to do is I want to help you take your social media from broadcasting a message to engaging the message and in the video playlists that we've been currently in, linked right here at the top of the screen. If you're watching here on YouTube, we've been talking about communicating in your church, communicating with better church announcements, and one of the key elements and areas I think a lot of churches wrongfully default to is posting their announcements to social media.

00:00:58:21 - 00:01:26:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's where you just broadcasting about you. But I want to shift your strategy to engagement. Social media's invention. Social media is existence. Its best existence is not for information transfer. However, it is a good spot for inspiration along with entertainment. So give me a like if you've ever had your social media account look like this that you're seeing here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube or give me a sub if

00:01:26:06 - 00:01:26:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
these

00:01:27:00 - 00:01:35:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
announcement based posts have actually returned and yielded good results for you, the fact is, it probably have it.

00:01:35:10 - 00:01:44:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's why in this video, I want to lay out my three step social media strategy. And as always, here in the hybrid Ministry show, there are

00:01:44:13 - 00:01:45:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
chapters

00:01:45:11 - 00:01:56:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
linked down below. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry show flavor. Welcome back to the Hybrid Ministry Show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Clayson.

00:01:57:02 - 00:02:26:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and I've always known and seen the importance of a social or a digital media existence and a present presence. However, Covid really, really ushered that in. And as sort of a result of what Covid did, not only like around me, but in me, I decided like, man, I really like I see churches going a certain direction up and down a certain path and like, I want to be a voice that has something to say about it.

00:02:26:09 - 00:02:40:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And interestingly enough, I was on a livestream not too long ago. If you want to go check it out with, download Youth Ministry. And Josh was like, why are you the guy we're talking to you? And I said, it's interesting because I just started recording videos in

00:02:40:11 - 00:02:40:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
my guest

00:02:40:21 - 00:02:41:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
bedroom

00:02:41:05 - 00:02:47:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
early in the morning, and, here I am now on a live stream answering more questions to other people.

00:02:47:13 - 00:03:16:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it but it was because I was so passionate about this idea of social and digital media. And so, I don't think that when we're just posting announcements that we're doing, first of all, any service to our social platforms, to the algorithms, nor are we really serving our audience, especially on social in a, discovery era where people, stumble upon accounts that they've never seen before.

00:03:16:24 - 00:03:29:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But your Canva graphic for the chili cook off, that's only getting a handful of likes that that's not being discovered by anybody new, nor even probably your current church

00:03:29:27 - 00:03:30:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
members.

00:03:30:12 - 00:03:30:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so

00:03:30:21 - 00:03:43:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you really just making double the amount of work for you. And we've been discussing that in the last three videos about more effective communication, where I laid out better communication strategies for all churches and youth ministries.

00:03:43:27 - 00:03:55:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this video, what I want to do is I want to say, okay, so if that's what you're supposed to do, if you're supposed to kind of leaning on email and leaning on your website and leaning on social for inspiration and entertainment,

00:03:55:27 - 00:03:56:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
what

00:03:56:21 - 00:03:58:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
exactly should you be posting?

00:03:58:22 - 00:04:03:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm glad you have three steps for everyone and their social media is is, three steps.

00:04:03:26 - 00:04:21:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Social media checklist. Step number one is make sure that your website is up to date. I've said that in every single video so far that we've been in this playlist. And it's true because when you take away social as an avenue for announcements or when you

00:04:21:00 - 00:04:21:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
reduce

00:04:21:15 - 00:04:21:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your amount

00:04:21:24 - 00:04:30:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of stage announcements, there's still has to be a full bodied, one stop, robust shop for your church people to fall to.

00:04:30:07 - 00:04:49:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think the best spot for that is your church website. And the first video we talked about the difference between Netflix TV and cable TV. And so when your website is a great spot, it can be a Netflix type location, an on demand type location rather than

00:04:49:02 - 00:04:52:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
hopefully they see the graphic that has the info on social media.

00:04:52:06 - 00:05:18:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hopefully they they saved the email that you sent with the registration link. Hopefully there just have a photograph or you know, whatever the the audio version of that is memory from your staged announcement to do exactly what you want them to do in that moment. And if any people don't have those things, they're just in deep trouble. However, if you have a great website, none of those things matter as much, at least on the information side, right?

00:05:18:25 - 00:05:42:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can still inspire them with the stage announcement. You can still be witty on social media and you can still send a awesome email, but your website is the place where they can go to for that. That information that they really need to download and also move toward action them. And so as we've been talking about, I can actually if that's something anyone's interested in, I can actually do that for you.

00:05:42:28 - 00:06:04:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can build a website for you one time, or you can kind of contact me to just come on and and run that on an ongoing basis, as well as even potentially we can explore what it looked like for me to run that plus your social media. But step number one, regardless of if it's me, regardless of if you use groups, which I recommend your website, just very simply needs to be up to date.

00:06:04:22 - 00:06:27:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I don't care what you use, I don't care who you use, I don't care how you get there, but make sure your website is good and thorough and up to date. Okay, that's the first step in the social media strategy process. Let's move on here to step number two. So your website kind of being up to date, that sort of satisfies the first check in the process.

00:06:27:07 - 00:06:30:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that also makes what I'm going to recommend here on

00:06:30:17 - 00:06:44:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
social, which is the second step here. The second step is you kind of want to become enamored with shorts, reels, TikTok style videos, because when your website is good,

00:06:44:04 - 00:06:44:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you don't

00:06:44:17 - 00:06:44:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
have to

00:06:44:28 - 00:06:54:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
worry about the information. So now you can leave that behind and you can now move ahead towards the era that social is really made for and meant for.

00:06:54:10 - 00:06:58:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, quick hit trip, quick hit, quick trip down

00:06:58:26 - 00:06:59:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
history,

00:06:59:29 - 00:07:00:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
memory lane

00:07:00:25 - 00:07:21:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
2020 TikTok ushered in this new era of of social called the Discovery ERA. It was made popular with an app called TikTok. It is now banned in the United States of America, at least in the App Store right now. But TikTok brought in this brand new style and archetype of video.

00:07:21:00 - 00:07:25:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, it was so popular that not even four years later, according to

00:07:25:29 - 00:07:33:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video, 90% of the internet's traffic is found on short form, vertical based video.

00:07:33:26 - 00:07:34:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because

00:07:34:20 - 00:07:49:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
every other platform then was trying to catch up and keep up with this brand new one called TikTok shorts. Reels. Facebook has Instagram has YouTube has some and even other like places like, Twitter.

00:07:49:15 - 00:07:51:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're even on there, it'll it'll

00:07:51:08 - 00:08:08:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
be on a video, you'll be watching video and it'll auto scroll to the next one. They even built in the scrolling type functionality. And there's a couple pieces of relevant things with it. First of all, it's video based and it's short and it's quippy and it's fun. But secondly, like I said earlier, it said discover re era.

00:08:08:07 - 00:08:37:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you jump on Reels on Instagram, if you jump on your TikTok for you page more than I think 90% of the I believe that's the stat of the videos that you're served are from people that you've never actually even met. And so that's good news for you and I. As churches and youth ministries, we can get on to other people's for you pages without buying their attention or without having them have to follow or subscribe or or know about our channel.

00:08:37:05 - 00:09:02:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The key is producing good content. And so step one website. Step two start focusing on good shorts, which is why I've created down below my hybrid strategy. Got it will not only lay out my plan and what I do in my student ministry, but it will also give you different ideas and types of content that you can use for your social media and for your shorts, you know?

00:09:02:09 - 00:09:21:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like in our student ministry, I post ten different pieces of content, every single week. And it's all different. Kind of like styles of content. And so if you'd like more info on that, you definitely hop down and grab my free strategy guide. It will lay out how we do it, what we do, and how we capture it, how we batch record.

00:09:21:20 - 00:09:25:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I also talked about it in my live stream, a lot of different videos on my

00:09:25:13 - 00:09:38:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
channel. We'll kind of unpack it. And so I'm not going to, you know, bog you down with that info here on this video, but go, go check it out. Go subscribe. Go listen to some more podcasts and we'll get you covered on what exactly we do.

00:09:38:23 - 00:09:39:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Moving on to

00:09:39:28 - 00:10:05:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
step number three then is shorts are great, and if you don't have any capacity and you need to stop there and, and, you know, bolster your strategy and bolster your infrastructure to make that happen. And by all means do that. But then step three, the eye on the prize for all churches and youth ministries is you want your long form primary teaching content posted to YouTube.

00:10:05:18 - 00:10:18:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
90% of teenagers, according to Pew Research, are on YouTube, and so generation Z and Generation Alpha are landing in and making YouTube home. In

00:10:18:01 - 00:10:18:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
fact,

00:10:18:11 - 00:10:18:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
according to

00:10:18:25 - 00:10:40:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a book called Meet Gen Alpha by Mccrindle and Fell, they said that YouTube is actually supplanting Google as the number one primary search engine for Generation Alpha. And so you want to be on YouTube, and if you're running your church, social media for, you're like overall church, you probably have some measure, some version of a live stream.

00:10:40:20 - 00:11:13:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's great. Put that on YouTube. If your equipment is good and working, then great. Put that on YouTube. In student ministry, if you have the ability to do that, then go ahead and put that on YouTube and anywhere else you want to put it. But you definitely have to make sure that you put it on YouTube. And then if you don't have anything, which my strategy guide will lay out exactly how we do this in our environment and in our setting, we don't have any live stream equipment, so we actually sit down before the message several weeks ahead of time, pre-record our message using like a teleprompter.

00:11:13:28 - 00:11:33:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, we've built out like a full studio, so like, I can have all that stuff linked down below. You can check out my studio episode, and you can buy any of the stuff that we have that might be helpful for you. And I also have a Patreon where I'm talking about how I implement my hybrid strategy in my, environment every single week.

00:11:33:14 - 00:11:43:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that podcast is $4 a month. It's one extra bonus podcast per week. Plus, literally, I think I throw in a freebie almost every single week. So

00:11:43:13 - 00:11:52:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I believe that that podcast is a very nominal fee for a lot. A lot of value. And so if you want to kind of go all in on this hybrid strategy, I would recommend that.

00:11:52:14 - 00:12:16:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But we sit down, we pre-record it, and then we post those to YouTube trying to answer some of life's hard questions with our titles, with our tags, and even with our thumbnails. And so again, comes for you. I can help you with that. But the goal then is to take your short content and build an audience that eventually promotes and and pushes people over to your in long form content.

00:12:16:08 - 00:12:45:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's the that's the Mecca of your social platform. And what that does is that that reduces the anxiety, that reduces the pressure that is on your social channels to communicate your announcements. If your website's doing its job, then you're short form content, both fun and serious, can point to you and promote your long form content, which is serious, which will also then helps to help answer students big questions about life and faith, regardless of if they're in your context or not.

00:12:45:16 - 00:13:03:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
With an eye towards and with the focus on your students or your people in your context, and then like just, you know, a next steps form or some way for them to respond to whatever sort of like message that you have put on YouTube. And what I would recommend again, is that takes us all the way back to number one.

00:13:03:04 - 00:13:26:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Make sure there's a good like digital next steps form, one that's universally used and applied in all of your settings when you're teaching. And then with that link you can just post that in the comments of a YouTube video. And your website is helping serve your holistic hybrid and digital strategy. And that is my three step social media process.

00:13:26:15 - 00:13:27:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Make sure your website's up

00:13:27:17 - 00:13:46:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to date. Lean into shorts. Start producing as many of them as you can that make realistic sense during your week? Just be. Just be consistent with it. Don't have a number in mind. And then all with an eye toward the prize of. Start posting your long form messages to YouTube and and all of that.

00:13:46:09 - 00:14:09:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can help with coaching. I can help by running it for you. I can help on my Patreon. I can help on this channel for free. So give me a subscribe if you would like to hear more about that topic. But until next time and as always, my friends appreciate you being here. Appreciate you trying to communicate in a digital and noisy world, but I want to encourage you to stay hybrid.

Episode 139: The Best Communication Method for Your Church

Nick Clason — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0600

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✅ CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU
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DESCRIPTION
Struggling to figure out the best way to communicate with your church? In this episode of The Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason breaks down the most effective communication methods for parents, teens, and volunteers—backed by real stats and practical strategies. From email to social media to podcasts, find out how to make sure your church announcements actually reach the right people!

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/139

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//CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU
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https://www.nucleus.church

//REMIND
https://www.remind.com/

//GROUPME
https://www.groupme.com

//CROSSCREEK STUDENTS LEADER PODCAST
https://www.youtube.com/@crosscreekstudents/podcasts

BEST DYM RESOURCES
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//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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//SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE
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⌚TIMECODES
00:00 The Best Church Communications Channels
02:14 Adult or Parent Communication Strategy
06:19 Student Communication Strategy
11:48 Volunteer Communication Strategy

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:28:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give me a like if your church still produces a bulletin and give me a subscribe if it's completely quit producing a bulletin. You know, it's interesting. In my 14 years of youth ministry experience, the first two churches I worked at, they were all about those bulletins. Man, we printed those suckers. Every single week. Interestingly, though, the last two churches I worked at both also post Covid, which I'm wondering if that has something to do with it.

00:00:28:05 - 00:00:51:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Chose not to produce a weekly bulletin. You know, in one of the earlier on churches, there was a week where, like, the secretary was out and somehow I ended up not only producing the bulletin for me, like a graphic like design document standpoint, but then I was also in the office cutting them. And my wife, she called me, said, what are you doing at work still?

00:00:51:16 - 00:01:15:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I was like, I have to cut the bulletin. And as I was doing that, I gave myself this thought. I was like, do teenagers even read this? And now, you know, I was producing this for the rest of the church. But in my mind, and as I was having this conversation with myself, I thought, I don't think that teenagers actually read this, but they're parents, right?

00:01:15:05 - 00:01:36:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's why we produce these things. And so we've been in this series called communication and the Noisy World. Slinked right up here at the top of the screen. And in this video we want to talk about is the particular channels that your churches should be leaning into. We're going to explore three different audiences. We're going to explore the adults in your church.

00:01:36:21 - 00:02:09:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're going to explore the students in your church. And then we're also going to explore the volunteers in your church and or in your ministry. And what I want to do is in each of those, I'm going to give you my favorite communication method and some statistics that back the reasons up for why you should be leaning into those channels and as always, I want to remind you that there are chapters down below or in your podcast catcher, wherever you're listening to this, so that you can hop ahead to the section of this episode that makes the most sense to you in your ministry and the context in which you're serving.

00:02:09:23 - 00:02:34:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, everybody, to the Hybrid Ministry show. So I've been in youth ministry for 14 years, and so and in all of my experience of being in youth ministry, when I think about adults that I'm trying to minister to, those adults in particular are either parents or volunteers. And so in this particular section, let's chat about parents. And so these are parents of youth ministry students.

00:02:34:26 - 00:03:07:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, if you're a church communications person or a senior pastor watching this like these, what I'm about to share, I believe, also relates to just adults attending your church in general. Okay. Because what I'm going to say, we're going to talk about the adults in your church, the strategy that I believe that you should employ first and foremost and make your number one like major thing that you double down on, that you pour gas on, that you make work is an email strategy.

00:03:07:10 - 00:03:35:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. Here's a couple of reasons why over 4.3 billion people globally use email. Furthermore, 99% of consumers check their email on a daily basis. This is according to HubSpot, and 73% of millennials and Gen Z, which if you're in youth ministry, those are your parents. And if you're not in youth ministry, those are the future adults of your church.

00:03:35:10 - 00:04:06:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The largest based millennials are the largest in the workforce and the largest opportunity for your your givers. Okay. They prefer email communication from brands at a rate of 73%. This is according to Adobe, so email isn't going anywhere. Now. I also, if you have been watching in the last couple of videos in this playlist, like we link just a second ago, I have been and I've always been my strategy, my hybrid strategy, whether it's for students, parents, whatever.

00:04:06:16 - 00:04:27:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
First and foremost, make sure your website is good and remains up to date. So you want your email to be how you communicate and how you maybe market certain, like classes or events or whatever. But then you want to be able to take them to your website and or you want to send an email because think about user habits.

00:04:27:23 - 00:04:48:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're you're checking your email at lunch or on your work break, okay, on your lunch break at work and you see something from your church. You don't have time right then and there to stop and go sign up, but it jog your memory and you're there. So then you want when someone later just goes to your website because they're thinking, oh yeah, I need to go sign up for that thing after dinner.

00:04:48:06 - 00:05:19:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When they get home from work, they need to be able to discover that relatively quickly on your church website, even if the email had a link to it, even if they don't follow that link directly. You want your website to be clear and easy to navigate, which is why I continue to recommend nucleus. And also I just want to let you know, like if your website is not exactly up to it, I can create a couple of automated things for you, like updating your church Google calendar which will also naturally update on your website.

00:05:19:24 - 00:05:36:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you're interested in something like that, I offer a service called Church Communications done for you. I would love to explore what that looks like to either a build a one time website or be step into some sort of partnership sort of thing. But email is the way to get Ahold of the adults in your church.

00:05:36:07 - 00:06:13:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If if billions of users are using it and 99% of people are checking their email on a daily basis, then you as a church, you have the opportunity to get in front of all of your people, which diminishes the need for those church stage based announcements and diminishes the needs for those church bulletins. Okay, and I'm not necessarily saying that you should toss those things out and not even worry about them anymore, but what I am saying is that your primary strategy should be email and then those other pieces, stage announcements, bulletins, whatever you want to say, even social media.

00:06:14:01 - 00:06:36:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They should all supplement what's going on on email. The second category of people that we're going to talk about here are teenagers, students. Okay. So this is particularly aimed for youth pastors. Once again, if you're not in that then hop down to the chapters below and jump ahead to the next one you need. As a youth pastor, you want to try to get to teenagers phones.

00:06:36:25 - 00:06:55:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now you got to think about this. All teenagers are in a little bit of a different season of life, of adopting usage on their phones. So some of them aren't yet using, like text messaging yet. Right? So that's why I say a little bit more generically. You want to get to their phones because some parents let them have Instagram and some don't.

00:06:55:05 - 00:07:16:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some parents let them have YouTube and some don't. Some parents let them text certain people and some don't. And so in some ways, somehow we need to get on their cell phones, which is what I'm promoting trying to do by using and utilizing, our hybrid strategy in our in the current student ministry that I serve in, this is our attempt and this is our, our play to get on to students cell phones.

00:07:16:11 - 00:07:31:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so my hybrid strategy is actually linked right down below in the description or on your podcast catcher. I would love to have you check that out. It's completely free, but it helps. It helps give you my strategy and also helps you implement some pieces and parts of that so that you can start trying to get onto their phones.

00:07:32:00 - 00:07:54:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's some reasons why it's valuable and important for us to get to their phones. Because 69% of students of teenagers own a smartphone by the age of 12, according to Common Sense Media, and also 90% according to Pew Research. 90% of teenagers use YouTube, so there's a couple of different ways to get to their phones. Number one, social, okay.

00:07:54:13 - 00:08:26:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And short form vertical based video is still king. Going to vertical in 2024, 90% of the internet's traffic was short form, vertical based video. And so you can employ that short form, vertical based video strategy on Facebook. So I wouldn't recommend that platform necessarily for students or these other through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. And if TikTok goes ahead and gets banned, you can still employ that that video based strategy by leaning into reels and TikToks and YouTube shorts by cross posting to places like YouTube and Instagram.

00:08:26:15 - 00:08:51:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And there are, you know, there are some TikTok like alternative apps being produced, like a lemonade app. And I don't know if that's going to take or pop, but but maybe go secure your church's handle on it. And then if it does, boom, you're there. And you can continue to employ that strategy. If it takes TikTok's spot, you know, once, like certain things get shook out here with the Congress ban or, you know, whatever is going on with that.

00:08:51:20 - 00:09:10:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the point is that short form, vertical based video while TikTok may not last forever, that strategy right now, that strategy is so, so clutch. And I actually I noticed it last night because here's the thing about that strategy. I was on Instagram and I was scrolling through stories, which are things posted by people that I follow my friends.

00:09:11:05 - 00:09:31:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a nod back to the social Graph era of friendship based social media. And I was scrolling through and I know friends, whoever I was, I was looking at your stories. I got bored, close it out, hopped into reels which then started showing me popular and like, entertainment based and reels that are actually getting a lot of views.

00:09:31:17 - 00:09:55:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And now all of a sudden I was, I was hooked. I was there for a while and that's going from that social graph era over into that discovery based era. And that's where we want to find ourselves in student ministry like we want we can. Here's the thing, though. You can post like a discovery based thing, and you can share that link to your audience so you can post that real on to your story so that all the students who follow you, they still see it.

00:09:55:19 - 00:10:11:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or you can even like yesterday I posted, a YouTube short, also an Instagram reel and a TikTok, and I sent the YouTube short link in our text group and I said, have you answered this crazy? Would you rather question yet? And I sent it to all the kids are sign up in our text group, which is the second.

00:10:11:10 - 00:10:32:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So socials one one way to get to their phones. The second is to get to text messages. All right. And so if you want like blasts I would recommend a service like remind. It's completely free for schools. Or if you want a group chat feature I would recommend a group me both of them listen to me. Both of them have their shortcomings I get it, okay?

00:10:32:11 - 00:10:59:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But it's a great, like, neutralizer. Okay. If you if you have Apple phones and Android phones, GroupMe can put everyone in a group, chat app without, like, the fuss of the blue bubbles and all the things, the compressed pictures that Apple won't allow to come through. Because RCS messaging, even though it's been around since 2007, like it'll do these things where it it will it will create like a level playing field.

00:10:59:01 - 00:11:18:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And you know, if you if your church communications database has some sort of texting service, that you already pay for, then by all means use that. Don't I don't necessarily recommend remind over something like that. Or if you've already dug deep to pay for some sort of texting service and continue to use that, probably better. But that that also goes for when kids are serving.

00:11:18:01 - 00:11:34:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like if you can send them text notifications instead of just email notifications. The goal again is to get to their phones, especially if almost 70% of 12 year olds in on up have smartphones. All right. And so I know you're going to run into because I run into this too. You're going to run into kids who don't have it.

00:11:35:02 - 00:11:59:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you always do have to have a small alternative for a more analog approach. But that's that's widely okay. Right. As we're trying to communicate with teenagers. And then the last area, the last area of ministry is what about your volunteers? What about your leaders? Okay. Now, this may not be, the highest or, like, email is still going to probably be what you're going to use.

00:11:59:02 - 00:12:20:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just like going back to the, you know, parent adult section of this video, all the stats, all the reasons that's why email still is worthwhile for you volunteers. However, I will say in the last, six months or so, me and my team, me and my boss has started recording a weekly leader podcast. Yes, you heard that right.

00:12:20:10 - 00:12:44:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Weekly. Now we batch record, so we record four at a time. It's about an hour worth of our time. And then it takes me just a minute. Like, really not very long to just edit those suckers into, a YouTube video as well as an audio only podcast. And then we post those every single Monday morning. And so we encourage our leaders to, subscribe to that and listen to it.

00:12:44:27 - 00:13:25:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We try to make it like 15, no more maximum than 15 minutes. Usually they're closer to ten minutes each. And just, we've asked them to adopt that as their normal rhythm on their way to work, on their way on Monday morning to work, habit. And so what what this does is this reduces the pressure around a once a year or a biannual or even a monthly leader meeting to communicate all the big things that we need to communicate, because you know, that you need to, hook them with inspiration, but you also need to tell them, like, boring details like, hey, when you guys are like, checking in, you need to click this

00:13:25:07 - 00:13:43:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
little button here, and you make sure you check in to both of these groups so that our metrics above all, they don't care about that stuff. But the Leader podcast gives you an avenue to share those little snippets of things. It also gives you an avenue to drip culture slowly. And so that's one of the things we've been doing.

00:13:43:02 - 00:14:04:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We've been attempting to make our culture a little more conversational and a little less teaching, and we've just been dripping that slowly on the podcast. And what's so fun is last week I sat down with some of my leaders, we do a yearly leader debrief, and I heard them starting to use some of the language that we've been putting on our leader podcast.

00:14:04:04 - 00:14:26:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In addition to gripping the information and sharing more announcements, we'll do like giveaways, we'll do leader shout outs, we'll share funny stories. And so then every week that that, posts on Monday, there's always the off chance that our leader group chat gets a little flurry of activity around whatever topic happened on the on the podcast or people are, you know, laughing about some of the things that are going on there.

00:14:26:23 - 00:14:49:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So according to Nielsen, the average podcast listener consumed up to seven a week. And so if you have people on your leader teams that are already podcast listeners, that's a super easy one. If not, you can help them adopt it. Or also, again, you can post those, video form to YouTube. YouTube also has a podcast RSS kind of section built into it that you can also use and utilize.

00:14:49:24 - 00:15:21:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so even if they're not podcast adopters, they can still access it via the video. And so with your email strategy for adults, with your get to their phones strategy for students and with your podcast strategy for leaders, then use your stage and your bulletin announcements to really hit hard and to just simply reinforce and point people back not only into those channels, but then also off to your website where they're ultimately going to take their next step, call to action sort of things.

00:15:21:07 - 00:15:42:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so in this next video, what I'm going to do is I'm going to help break down why you on social media should be focusing now more because our, our, our, information and our announcements have been taken care of how you should start focusing on engagement as opposed to simply broadcasting information. That video is going to be linked right here on screen.

00:15:42:05 - 00:15:49:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and tap that. We'd love to see you over there. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

Episode 138: Steal this Clearer (& Less Boring) Church Announcement Strategy

Nick Clason — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 05:00:00 -0600

📊 HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

✅ CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

======================================
DESCRIPTION
Tired of your church announcements being ignored? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, we’ll show you how to create clearer and less boring announcements using three practical hacks: reduce your CTAs, centralize next steps, and inspire over inform. Stop overwhelming your audience with noise—learn how to simplify your messaging, engage your community, and make your announcements impossible to miss.

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/138

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

//CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

//NUCELUS
https://www.nucleus.church

//TRANSITION STYLE VIDEOS
https://share.hsforms.com/1UrHggOX1Q3mH_A3F3f8dWwnumis

//HUBSPOT (For List Segmentation)
https://www.hubspot.com

//KIT (Formerly ConvertKit)
https://partners.kit.com/x9dbnh372pji

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

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

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

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

⌚TIMECODES
00:00 Steal this Church Announcement Strategy
01:48 Myth
05:44 Hack #1
08:39 Hack #2
11:17 Hack #3
13:31 The Ultimate Church Announcement Decision Making Grid
18:09 Bonus Tip

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:19 - 00:00:01:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I want you to

00:00:01:08 - 00:00:06:55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
steal this clearer and less boring church announcement strategy.

00:00:06:55 - 00:00:21:33
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because why? Because you've been announcing your event for several weeks, maybe even months now at this point. And give me a like, if this has ever happened to you, you get that text from that student or that church member that said, when is the event again?

00:00:21:38 - 00:00:27:51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or is it too late to sign up? Or when are we supposed to be there again? And you just want to pull

00:00:28:33 - 00:00:29:51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your hair out? But like we talked

00:00:29:51 - 00:00:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
about in the

00:00:30:13 - 00:00:30:40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
last

00:00:30:40 - 00:00:41:39
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video partying on, he has this concept called inadvertent blindness. And what he's really saying with that is he says, we really only see what we're looking for.

00:00:41:44 - 00:00:42:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so in

00:00:42:09 - 00:00:42:34
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this

00:00:42:34 - 00:00:42:58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video,

00:00:42:58 - 00:01:08:50
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
how do we have clearer and less boring church announcements, ones that are actually going to, incite inspiration and not just one where you're only simply disseminating information? So in this video, what I want to do is I want to share with you the myth about church communications and church announcements. I want to share with you three hacks that will help you have clearer and better and less boring church announcements.

00:01:08:54 - 00:01:33:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm also going to share with you the ultimate church decision making grid. How do you announce what you announce so that the best and most relevant announcements are the ones that are being said from the stage and from the platform, and from the areas and the channels that you want to be saying them from. And finally, stick around to the very end of the video, because I have for you a bonus hack that may in fact change everything.

00:01:33:18 - 00:01:38:50
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as always, if you're watching here on YouTube or wherever you're listening in the podcast catcher, there are chapters

00:01:38:50 - 00:01:56:40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
listed down below so that you can jump ahead to the areas of the video that make the most sense to you. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. So what's the myth? Okay, the myth is this. The myth is that people don't come to your church function, your church thing.

00:01:56:44 - 00:02:24:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We assume that they're not coming to the thing because they don't know about the thing. And so therefore, what do we do? We share more information about the thing. Oh, well, it's actually at seven and we're going to have this and we're going to put it in the fellowship hall, like, and we just give them more and more boring details about it, assuming that those boring details about it are going to be what's going to help them overcome their in in the action and misinformation and get them to that event.

00:02:24:17 - 00:02:41:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's not why they're not coming. They're not coming because they don't care about it. They're not coming because they're busy and they have a schedule conflict. They're not coming because your thing is not the most important thing in their life. Sorry. Like, I hate like I'm not trying to be rude, and I'm not trying to say that to you in a way that's demeaning.

00:02:41:17 - 00:03:16:35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like, your thing is not as important as you think your thing is. And so the reason why people don't come to church events is not because they're missing information. But as we talked about in the last episode, credit to Brady Shear for this analogy is we got to start thinking more like movie trailers, right? So a movie trailer moves people towards inspiration, and they try to incite curiosity in such a way that when they see that movie trailer, they're like, I have to go and they'll move heaven and earth and they'll find the tickets and they'll find the theater, and they'll get to that event of their own accord.

00:03:16:39 - 00:03:36:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our church events. First of all, we're not able to compete in a lot of times with movie trailers. Like I get it right, but we we result and we, you know, get our church announcements to a spot where we think we just need to share more information. What time, what date. And like those are really boring church announcements.

00:03:36:23 - 00:03:57:55
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the more information that you share in that church announcement, again, we're assuming the myth is we're assuming they don't have enough information, so we'll just give them more information, when in fact, what you actually need to do is you need to inspire them. You need to move them to action through inspiration, through storytelling, through captivation of their senses and their imagination.

00:03:57:55 - 00:04:18:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you're like, dude, I'm a youth pastor. I'm a church secretary, I'm a senior pastor. I can't do any of that. And like, I get it, these are not skills that we often refine or hone in on our own. They're not disciplines that that we have maybe necessarily been been, you know, given or taught in like a seminary degree or whatever the case may be.

00:04:18:22 - 00:04:42:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this world with over information and with this noisy world, like, that's what we're competing. See, so like this, these, this myth. Right? This myth is the reason why, posting your announcements to social media is a bad idea because, again, this myth helps us think, oh, we need to put this information out there on the internet.

00:04:42:25 - 00:04:58:40
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We need to let them know when and where and how much dice to bring to the bunker. And I and which fellowship hall we're going to be in, like people again, they're not getting on social media for more information for information download. And if they are, I'm going to tell you where you should put that information because you should include it.

00:04:58:40 - 00:05:18:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. But and we'll get to that in a second. But they're not getting on social for that. They're getting a social once again for in from Earth, not for information for inspiration and and maybe even for some humor and maybe for some entertainment. And so that's actually what I sort of push towards in my free strategy guide, which is going to be link down below.

00:05:18:26 - 00:05:39:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you haven't grabbed it, go ahead and grab it. It is, like I said, it's completely free, but it'll help lay out in detail what I do to kind of live this hybrid version of ministry and what I do on social media. But if that's not what they're looking for, and if our announcements are chock full of too much information and not enough inspiration, then what should we do instead?

00:05:39:29 - 00:06:03:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm glad you asked. That's where these three hacks are going to come in. Okay, so hack number one is reduce your CTAs, CTAs is an acronym. And it sure. It's a marketing word for reduce your calls to action. So a call to action is what you're actually asking someone to do as a result of the information. You have a bunco night.

00:06:03:36 - 00:06:27:42
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you want them to sign up for the bunco night, right. But oftentimes we're stacking multiple call to actions. Okay. So in an announcement moment in your church, we often get up there and everyone gets an opportunity that the kids in the youth and the women and the men's and then the whole church picnic, and there's just there's too many different things.

00:06:27:42 - 00:07:02:56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, too much thing, too many things that can cause somebody brain to get overwhelmed, psychologically speaking. And therefore, instead of promoting action, it does the exact opposite. It causes paralysis and it promotes inaction. In fact, Simon Sinek, he shared this story of the salesman who was a shoe salesman, and the shoe salesman said he learned the key to selling shoes, and the key to selling shoes was anytime he would have, a person trying on shoes and he had three shoe options, they would always say no.

00:07:03:01 - 00:07:17:56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But when he reduced it to simply just two options, right? Reducing the call to actions when he would reduce it down to just two options. And so if they had three, he would and they're like, they had two. And they're like, let me see this pair. He would say, which one of these do you want me to take away?

00:07:18:01 - 00:07:36:32
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They would remove one. He would take one away. And then that he'd bring the new pair in, and then there would be two new sets of shoes. And then he would say, which of these do you want, A or B, as opposed to which of these you want A, B or C? And he said when he had two options, he always sold.

00:07:36:32 - 00:08:02:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When he had three they would walk away. And so the same is true in our church announcements. You your assumption and it's a faulty one. But your assumption now hates it is that the more you offer on the stage, the the better it's going to be for your church and for your people. And let's be honest, if you work on a church staff, there's the pressure of getting everyone's announcement equal airtime.

00:08:02:16 - 00:08:20:35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so again, we're going to talk about the decision making grid of how you come to those decisions. But you need to reduce your call to actions on your stage. What do you really want the people in your auditorium in your service? What do you really want them to do? And everything else? We're going to find another way.

00:08:20:39 - 00:08:39:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're going to find another avenue to promote it. And you might be thinking, yeah, but you just told me, I can't put that on social. And you're right. I did say that again. We'll get to it. But reduce your calls to action. And then within that okay. So reduce the number of announcements that you're sharing. But within that simplify see where they go.

00:08:39:17 - 00:09:06:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Which leads me to my second hack. Centralize everything on your website. And now you might be thinking and even assuming that you're doing that. But again credit to Brady Scheer of that pro church tools, his announcement strategy, his church website strategy, and his church website builder, which if you don't have a good church website and you want one that's good and actually easy to put together, I recommend nucleus Dot church.

00:09:06:06 - 00:09:29:56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
His whole goal with it is to get everyone to the same centralized location. And so when you give an announcement, then people are and an announcement that's inspiring. And that one that's chock full of information. So a good announcement about a, you know, story of life change at the last women's bunco night and then someone sitting there like, I need to get to the bunco night.

00:09:29:56 - 00:09:51:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But when is it? Where is it? Like they go to the website, and the website has all of the information that they're looking for. Your announcements will be better if your website can supply them with the information that they're looking for. Because again, like I said in the last video, which is linked right up here at the top of the screen, if you're watching here on YouTube, I so we operate in a cable TV mentality.

00:09:51:29 - 00:10:22:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In order to come to the bunker, you need all this information. You need the when, the where, the why, the what, but in what. People aren't living mindset wise that way they're living in a Netflix culture. And so they're like, oh, my church has a bunco night. When is that again? And they're thinking about that, on a Thursday at 4 p.m. and so on a Thursday at 4 p.m., they need to be able to go to your church website and get all the information that they're looking for, as opposed to relying on you in the moment on Sunday to get to church.

00:10:22:27 - 00:10:45:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Bunco night information, which they're not interested in at that moment, but they may be interested later. And so you if you catch them and hook them with inspiration, they'll want to go and then later in this Netflix culture, they'll go on demand and they'll go get it on your church website, which if you're hearing this and you're like, wow, okay, so we need to overhaul our church website.

00:10:45:27 - 00:11:05:56
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That may be the case. And you may be right. And you know what? I can offer that for you. I have a service called Church Communications done for you. You don't have enough time to kind of overhaul your social media strategy on your church website. I would encourage you to take a look at the link below. I'd love to offer that to you, and we can explore what that might look like for us to walk into a partnership together.

00:11:05:56 - 00:11:39:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because I want you to win, and I want more people to come to your church bunco night. But again, the third hack then, is, as we've been talking about, kind of in this whole video, right? Aim to inspire over inform, aim to inspire over and form a sort of been the basis of this whole video. But once again, and here I want to point out like here's what the dictionary.com definition of inspires, really, it's to fill someone with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

00:11:39:21 - 00:12:07:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And so a video, if you're watching here on YouTube, like this is one of my transition style videos that we do for social media. Might not seem inspiring to you, right? However, imagine a person stumbling upon it on social media because they can stumble upon your videos like this on social media. Which of these do you think performs better, this video or this standard static announcement graphic that you cooked up in Canva?

00:12:07:17 - 00:12:33:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Which is why down below I have my social transition video pack, the ones that I recommend. I have six of those plus six cap cut meme style videos. Go ahead, download those and then start using and posting those on your social media, because this video is using the medium for what it's made for. And it may not be like inspiring, but it's entertaining and it gets it still gets the message across.

00:12:34:00 - 00:13:08:51
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
While your other one, yeah, it gives all the information, but this other one, it inspires, it promotes action. It may, you know, cause people to share it. It may be entertaining, it may cause them to laugh. And then as a result of that, like when there's a bunco night, let me go find that out. And then they head over to your church website, which is built, you know, comes done for you or you build it on your own and it has all of the relevant and pertinent information you're using now, the the broadcast channels and the platforms for what they're made for, as opposed to just simply, crushing it and pounding information down

00:13:08:56 - 00:13:33:45
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
through people's channels. Because remember, the myth that we all believe is that they just need more information. But the fact is, it's not exactly it. We need to optimize our our communications in the channels that we find ourselves so that they lean into what those channels are built for and made for. So now this leads me to the ultimate church announcement decision making grid.

00:13:33:57 - 00:13:56:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. And so the question that I want you to ask yourself when you're considering putting an announcement up on the church platform, up on the church stage, is does this announcement apply to greater than 50% of the people in the room? If not, find another way. Now you might be thinking like, but I got to keep the men's ministry happy in the women's ministry happy.

00:13:56:01 - 00:14:23:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And and I will say, when you institute this church decision making, the search announcement, decision making grid. Yes. At first you are going to have some unhappy people, especially if you've been announcing everything. Okay. However, once you institute this as a policy, when someone asks you to announce such and such thing, you can say, I'm sorry, we actually only do this and you got to still be people over process in this, okay?

00:14:23:42 - 00:14:49:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But let the policy point to the policy and let the policy be the bad guy. But the reason that your announcements aren't captivating enough people is because you're getting up and you're announcing something that only pertains to 10 to 15% of the people in your population or in your congregation. And so you might be thinking like, okay, yeah, but the, the platform, the, the stage, that's the only time that we have to announce anything.

00:14:49:23 - 00:15:12:54
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So what I recommend is 50% or more okay. And then if not find another way. And so you might be thinking well what are some other ways. So here's not an exhaustive list but just a list kind of get your brain going. So you could do social media right. And if it's like an outsider event, you might even consider, doing some advertising and putting some some dollars behind like a Facebook or an Instagram ad.

00:15:12:58 - 00:15:33:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Your website is a fantastic spot to advertise things. Text messaging, emails. And let me, let me just say for a minute, like if you can do list segmentation and there are tools out there like, like a HubSpot or like a ConvertKit, and they're going to have a they're going to have a little bit of cost associated with it.

00:15:33:29 - 00:15:57:44
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you may need to put that above and beyond a thing like, you know, church community builder, planning center or whatever your church management software is. But you can create list segmentation. And so you can actually send custom emails for people based on where they actually are in your church, as opposed to just sending big church blasts. Because I think that's another reason why some of our information falls on deaf ears.

00:15:57:44 - 00:16:16:58
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We're sending irrelevant announcements to people, but we don't know how to, make our lists smaller and more custom. Right? Like, again, in the industrial age versus the digital age and the industrial age is all about numbers. So we just need to get the most amount of people on our email list and then just blast them with this information over and over again.

00:16:17:03 - 00:16:37:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in the digital age, people want to be known for who they are as an individual. And so if we can send them customized, tailored emails that are broken down into what, marketers called lists and, segmentation of lists, that's going to, I think, perform better for you on open rates and click through rates and called actions and actually then taking those call to actions.

00:16:37:51 - 00:17:03:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But so you can use like banners on your website, you can even use printed banners, pop up banners and things like that. And nucleus actually does all of those things again for you. Okay. Now so so if it doesn't apply to greater than 50%, don't announce it. And okay. And I would say no more than two call to action zone one and two announcements.

00:17:03:05 - 00:17:25:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now again you might be like what? Like how you're trying to riot okay. Some of you you have church bulletins. You have bulletin boards like use those other means and methods. I mean, let me just say like, you know, right now we have a, high school, like, kind of retreat disciple now weekend thing coming up. We don't announce anything in store for student ministry in our main church announcement platform.

00:17:25:09 - 00:17:44:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. But right now we're we're pushing and announcing our high school weekend in there. And, you might think, like, oh, Grace, you probably have, like, a lot more traction, like, we have less traction on this event signups than anything else. And it's not because people don't know about it. It's just because it's and it's ended up kind of being a bad weekend for a lot of our students.

00:17:44:04 - 00:18:12:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, again, the publicity thing is not necessarily the issue. We don't have more people coming to our events because of it. Like, we people know about what we have going on because we use and utilize these other kind of platforms and channels to, you know, to our best vantage. Okay. Now, so all those things being said, the myth plus through hacks now the decision making grid, the last little bonus tip that I have for you is when you're sharing announcements.

00:18:12:32 - 00:18:34:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay, here's how you can here's how you can lean into inspiration and away from away from information is share stories, use footage, and use photos, especially if you have it from previous and past events. Share a story about life changing as you're doing it. I have some some videos in the back or some photos on the back scrolling.

00:18:34:16 - 00:18:55:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is a picture from last year's bunco event. And this is. This is Sally. And Sally had an amazing time and she came for the community. But she stuck around for for the life change. And now she's a part of a group and now she's serving. And as she leading bunco night. And that's why you should come to bunco night and go to our church website to sign up for this year's bunco night.

00:18:55:25 - 00:19:15:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like something like that. So much more inspiring. Then this Thursday, 6:00 bring a dip to share and all the boring information your website can handle that it does a good job of that. And people, people know to look for it and people are looking for it in that way. And so you have all these different avenues beyond just your stage.

00:19:15:16 - 00:19:36:35
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So how do you maximize each individual avenue in 2025 so that it gets the message across in a way that is captivating and inspiring. And then the people in your church know about what's going on and actually move towards action of signing up for and attending your church's events. Well, I'm glad you asked because that's the next video here in this playlist.

00:19:36:40 - 00:19:50:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's going to be linked here on screen. So go ahead and tap that and we'll see you over in that video. But don't forget my friends. And as always to stay hybrid.

Episode 137: 3 Reasons Your Announcements Aren’t Working

Nick Clason — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 05:00:00 -0600

📊 HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
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✅ CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

======================================
DESCRIPTION
Ever feel like no one’s listening to your church announcements? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, Nick Clason dives into the common pitfalls of church announcements, revealing three reasons why they’re not working—and offering actionable solutions to fix them. From battling “inattentional blindness” to cutting through the noise of a digital world, this episode will help you craft announcements that inspire life transformation, not just attendance.

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/137

SOLUTIONS
1) HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2) CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

3) STEAL THIS ANNOUNCEMENT STRATEGY
[VIDEO LINK]

//I CREATED THIS VIDEO SO YOU WOULDN’T HAVE TO HIRE ME
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//NUCLEUS
https://www.nucleus.church

//VIDEO OF TIME SPENT ONLINE
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BEST DYM RESOURCES
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⌚TIMECODES
00:00 Nobody Knows What's Going on!
01:40 The Problem
03:58 The Goal
07:43 Reason #1
11:56 Reason #2
17:09 Reason #3

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Do you ever feel

00:00:01:23 - 00:00:02:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like

00:00:02:19 - 00:00:07:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
knows what's going on at your church? Like

00:00:07:00 - 00:00:14:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you feel like nobody is ever really listened to you when you're giving the announcements?

00:00:14:04 - 00:00:16:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, in this episode I want to talk about is the

00:00:16:20 - 00:00:28:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
problem with most church and youth ministry announcements. So if you're a youth pastor person in church communication to pastor, this will help increase

00:00:28:03 - 00:00:31:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and uptake your engagement around announcements.

00:00:31:02 - 00:00:42:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I want to talk about the ultimate goal with all church announcements. And finally, stick around because I'm going to share with you three reasons that your church announcements may not be

00:00:42:11 - 00:00:47:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
going as well as you think. Plus, one solution for each of those

00:00:47:11 - 00:00:47:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
reasons,

00:00:47:22 - 00:00:50:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
including a concept called

00:00:50:04 - 00:00:55:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
inadvertent blindness. We're going to dive into that. And I have a free

00:00:55:04 - 00:01:00:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
resource that I think can absolutely change the game for you.

00:01:00:14 - 00:01:00:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I

00:01:00:19 - 00:01:01:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
think part

00:01:01:06 - 00:01:13:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of our problem here in 2025, in churches in North America, or let's just be honest around the world, is that we need to stop acting as churches. Look, we're in the 1990s

00:01:13:08 - 00:01:17:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and stop making boring announcements.

00:01:17:21 - 00:01:35:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give me a like, if you've heard the stat that we as humans have a shorter attention span now than goldfish, if that's the case, then we definitely have to figure something out, because you have some great things going on at your church, and if people don't know about it, they can't get to them.

00:01:35:04 - 00:02:03:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's talk about it. Welcome, my friends, to the hybrid minstrel show. So what is our problem? Our ultimate problem with bad church announcements is that nobody is showing up or that, like, nobody even knows about what we have going on. I actually, I did a video, a while back called Youth Pastor or Event Coordinator. It's going to be linked right up here at the top of the screen if you're watching here on YouTube.

00:02:03:00 - 00:02:05:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But one of the things I've learned in my 14

00:02:05:07 - 00:02:25:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
years of youth ministry experience is that attendance and, just people simply showing up. That's a really important factor to planning a good event. You can have an awesome event, but if you don't have people there, it's going to be a problem. And part of people getting there is knowing that the event is happening and understanding, knowing, hearing.

00:02:25:12 - 00:02:57:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you know, like realizing that you're giving a church announcement that requires action out of them. And the video I explore this kind of tension, right? That many of us in ministry, church ministry, like, regardless of if you're in youth ministry or not, we feel about our jobs and it's this it's right. Is are we meant to be doing what we're doing to ultimately make disciples, or are we doing what we're doing to plan killer events?

00:02:57:21 - 00:03:23:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And sometimes, if you're anything like me, let's just be honest. It feels like we are our job. Like it has morphed much more into an event planner and I don't know about you, but that's not exactly why I got into youth ministry. Right? But the problem, right, that's the problem with our church announcements, is because we have an event and we want people to get to it.

00:03:23:16 - 00:03:50:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Poor attendance is the problem with bad church announcements. Okay. And so if attendance is our issue, if that's the baked in assumptions, that's the baked in desire. And when we say, nobody knows what's going on, it's because nobody is attending our events. That is the no. But that's who that is coming from. So let's take a step back then.

00:03:50:05 - 00:03:59:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Even more right than just the event, then just the good or not so good church announcement and ask ourselves, like, what is our

00:03:59:05 - 00:04:12:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
goal around this event? What is our goal by giving this announcement? All right, so our goal just like the problem or the opposite, the problem, our goal is to get more people

00:04:12:22 - 00:04:14:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
aware of and more people

00:04:14:05 - 00:04:20:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to know about the thing, the event, the Bible study, the workshop, like whatever it is.

00:04:20:22 - 00:04:21:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right.

00:04:21:15 - 00:04:28:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Is that the goal? No, it's not our goal. At least not ultimately,

00:04:28:17 - 00:04:29:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
at

00:04:29:01 - 00:04:29:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
least not

00:04:29:09 - 00:04:53:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the meta goal. Right? Attendance is not necessary is really the goal in and of itself. But like I said, when we feel like event coordinators, it can feel like the goal, the goal in church ministry, the goal with all of your events, ultimately, the reason you're even having such and such event

00:04:53:19 - 00:04:54:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is

00:04:54:05 - 00:04:56:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
life transformation.

00:04:56:21 - 00:05:28:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Give me a subscribe if you agree with that statement. Life transformation is the ultimate goal, not attendance. It certainly helps having people there at your event because if they're not there, how can their lives be transformed? So I'll give you that. But we have to stop making a Tennessee Ultimate goal. I have to start realizing that we're really trying to be in the business about life transformation, which is done and led down the path through disciple making.

00:05:28:17 - 00:06:08:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you have to remember that prior to the digital era, attendance was the means to accomplish that life transformation. But we live now in the digital era, and so we can reach people and we can, disseminate a message through much more efficient and effective means. Now, with cell phones and technology and podcasts and YouTube videos and social media and fill in whatever blank you want to write, you got to realize that it's getting people in the room was originally that goal towards life transformation, but that's not exactly the era that we're living in.

00:06:08:08 - 00:06:19:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So what is the goal? If the goal is life transformation, how can we accomplish that? And also, how can we accomplish that in the new digital

00:06:19:05 - 00:06:19:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
era? Right.

00:06:19:16 - 00:06:20:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Churches

00:06:20:01 - 00:06:34:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like I referenced it in the intro, churches are operating like it's the 1990s. And here's what I mean by that. In the 1990s, if you want to do watch Seinfeld, you had to catch it live on NBC the night that it aired and debuted.

00:06:34:20 - 00:06:49:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you didn't, then you better hope that you have a good DVR, which I don't even know if those are existed in the 90s. And then if you didn't have that, then tough luck. Mean you're going to have to catch that sucker on syndication when it comes out in the summer.

00:06:50:05 - 00:06:59:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Compare that to the drop of Stranger Things season two, where my wife and I, pretty children watched the entire season on

00:06:59:14 - 00:07:00:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a Saturday, right?

00:07:01:04 - 00:07:06:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like it's just a completely different mindset and framework. We live in a

00:07:06:07 - 00:07:26:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Netflix culture, not a cable TV culture, and so people when you have information, they're operating under the guise of it being Netflix, but we're treating it like cable TV, like we said, this thing I'm going to share with you the key to life. Feel like cool, tell me where to find it.

00:07:26:00 - 00:07:34:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you're like, Sunday at 10:00, so only time to find it. That that's a huge cultural disconnect.

00:07:34:06 - 00:07:43:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I have a few ideas of three different problems and a solution for each of the problem. Let's dive in.

00:07:43:10 - 00:07:57:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So one of the reasons that I think our church announcements can tend to be failing is this. This first concept here, I think, is just that we live in a culture with an oversaturation of noise.

00:07:57:01 - 00:08:20:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, there's so much noise around us. There's so much and so many things that are just simply vying for our attention. And so we as a church, we two are vying for people's attention, piling on, on, Karen, you have a podcast called Inadvertent Blindness. And what he said, he said, really? We really only see what we're looking for.

00:08:21:03 - 00:08:21:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And

00:08:21:13 - 00:08:41:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so the fact is, if people aren't looking for your church thing, again, that Netflix versus cable TV, if they're not looking for it, like, oh, I heard there was a retreat. So I'm going on the website to find the answer to it. Right? As opposed to us who we're like, we're dishing it out. We're like, well, we announced it on Sunday.

00:08:41:05 - 00:09:01:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They weren't looking for it on Sunday. Right? It's that oversaturation of noise, inadvertent blindness. Right. So if you think about some of the noises in the world, I shared this a couple videos back. I'll share it again here. It's going to be linked on screen. If you're watching on YouTube to have you take a look. If you're in a podcast catcher, you can scroll down and click the link to our YouTube video.

00:09:01:04 - 00:09:26:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Love to have you over there. Give us a like you show it. But, show up over there. But this video here talks about how we spend our time, especially spending our time online and the online amount of time like that. We as as people, sociology, have spent time on phones and on devices has skyrocketed compared to some of the time prior to the invention of tech.

00:09:26:14 - 00:09:47:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Which, let's just be honest, it's not necessarily a surprise, but it is like it is a like factor that we have to deal with, right? In today's day and age. In 2025, people that don't know what's going on, it's probably because there's so much to pay attention to. So

00:09:47:15 - 00:09:56:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
my proposal, right, my solution is get my free hybrid strategy guide.

00:09:56:21 - 00:10:26:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's linked down below in the show notes. And the reason why that's important is because that will help you shift in some areas from a cable TV culture, where the only time that people can hear you hear the message of Jesus, hear your announcements, whatever the case may be to more of a Netflix culture and it just it encourages you to show up where people are spending their time, which is on social media.

00:10:26:14 - 00:10:46:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Give me a segue. Right. If you've ever heard or thought this before, like, hey, we need to get the word out, let's blitz our social channels. And if all you're ever doing is blitzing your social channels with getting the word out, then you're just turning your social channels into an announcement bulletin board. And that's not what those were made for.

00:10:46:04 - 00:11:07:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you're going to have a less effective reach on those social channels because you're not using them what they were made for. Instead, send an announcement out via like a push notification, a text message, or even like update it on the calendar, right? And like and like what we do is like we encourage our parents, our students to just like, subscribe to our Google Calendar.

00:11:07:05 - 00:11:15:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so something changes. It changes on our end. It'll change on their end if they're subscribed to it in their where in their calendar,

00:11:15:02 - 00:11:27:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
which is what, like an event. That's where an event is meant to be inside a calendar, but not just on your church calendar, on your church website that you want people to go to so that they know about your event.

00:11:27:18 - 00:11:29:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You want it to somehow get to their

00:11:29:10 - 00:11:56:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
personal calendar. That's how people live their lives through their calendars. So use the things that are meant to be used for the purposes that they're made for. And you use social media for the purposes that it's made. For my hybrid strategy, God will help you knock social media out of the park and become more hybrid with some of your messages and other, channels and usages on social media.

00:11:56:12 - 00:12:20:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So the second reason that I believe that some of our church announcements are falling flat is because we as churches are living in a cable TV mentality versus a Netflix or an on demand mentality. Or like, you understand, we've been talking about that in this video. The person who, I think has helped navigate that best for churches is, Brady Scheer up at Pro Church Tools.

00:12:20:14 - 00:12:42:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, he has a website builder called nucleus. And now, whether you use his website builder or not, and if you don't really have experience building websites, then I 100% recommend nucleus because it's a church, website builder for churches and by church like people. And so you don't have to have a ton of like, website skills to make it happen.

00:12:42:18 - 00:13:02:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like a noob like me can build a website using nucleus. But more than that, like what I want you to understand is that his concept behind it being nucleus is that every church announcement is done on the website. And so as opposed to like you getting up on the stage and

00:13:02:11 - 00:13:02:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
saying,

00:13:02:23 - 00:13:03:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
if you

00:13:03:07 - 00:13:07:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
want like information about bunco night talk to do your aunt Sally.

00:13:07:08 - 00:13:25:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you want information about the youth retreat, talk to youth pastor Ryan. And if you want to give, you can give via, our website. You can do text to give. You can scan this QR code for Venmo. We have Apple Pay, we have Google Pay. And, if you want to know about the prayer meeting, email Chuck.

00:13:26:02 - 00:13:35:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Chuck at our church.com and the kids ministry has a big camp out thing coming up. Swing by and grab a flier in the lobby

00:13:35:18 - 00:13:36:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
like

00:13:36:04 - 00:13:36:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
there

00:13:36:14 - 00:13:50:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
were five different call to actions in that, right? There's Sally, there's the youth pastor. There's any different amalgamation of giving opportunities. There's emailing, and then there's a flier. And he said,

00:13:50:00 - 00:13:55:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
make your nucleus, make your church website, your one stop shop.

00:13:55:19 - 00:14:12:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I created a video. I'll link it down below. A couple weeks back. And the video is literally titled, I created this video so that you don't have to hire me. And in it, I talk about my three step strategy guide, which you'll get some of that in my hybrid ministry, strategy guide if you download that from earlier.

00:14:12:17 - 00:14:41:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in the video, the three step strategy is step number one update and keep your website up to date. Your website should be a reliable one stop shop for everybody, and one of the ways to make your announcements better is to have the support of your website behind it. And so like for example, Brady uses this example all the time, like a trailer for a movie.

00:14:41:11 - 00:15:08:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When you go to the theater, you're not like sitting there watching a trailer to a movie that you can't wait to see. And it ends with them being like, now on November 27th, it's going to be showing at 11, 1131, 115, 230. And that's going to be in theaters six theaters, seven is going to have at 315. Like, no, that's boring, but that's what we do as churches, right?

00:15:08:16 - 00:15:31:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Bunco night. Here's all the details in the fellowship hall. Bring a dip to share. It's going to be on November 27th. It's going to be at 730. If you don't have any dice, make sure you contact your aunt Sally and she'll bring you an extra pair of dice. That's boring. And so we're trying to take information and make that be the thing that captures people, people's attention.

00:15:31:18 - 00:15:52:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you know as well as I, especially for Chinese social media for that that's not what social is used for. Best, you're not going to get them hooked them with the information. And so what do we do to capture their attention? So a movie trailer is just like, you know, it like makes you like fall in love with the idea of this movie wicked.

00:15:52:09 - 00:16:12:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then when it comes out, what do you do? You go discover when it's playing. You go to the website, you figure out how to get the tickets, you wanted to do it first, and then that promoted you to action in church. We give all the information and hope that that's going to promote people to action, and it has the opposite effect.

00:16:12:12 - 00:16:38:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you back up your church announcements with a good website, that's always up to date, you can get on stage and make your announcements good closer to like a movie trailer. Esq knowing that your website is going to answer the questions that people are looking for. So my solution to this cable TV versus on demand world is I have a resource.

00:16:38:16 - 00:17:01:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I have a service called communications for you. It's where I will run your church communications. I will make your website. I'll keep it up to date. I can even help promote and manage some of your socials, and so you can explore more of what that looks like in the link down below. But I'm sure as I'm explaining, like you, you have a good website and all these things, you're like, that sounds great, I don't have time.

00:17:02:01 - 00:17:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can make your announcements better by keeping

00:17:04:20 - 00:17:30:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
your website behind you. Good, clean and up to date. And then reason number three is very simply, your announcements are just boring. Like they're just boring. And what I have for you is an announcement strategy that I want to encourage you to start steeling for better, more crisp and clearer church announcements.

00:17:30:16 - 00:17:31:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And

00:17:31:02 - 00:17:34:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that is going to be linked on the video in the very

00:17:34:12 - 00:17:47:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
next, video, in this, playlist and in this series. And so that's going to be right here on screen. If you see that, go ahead and tap on in so that you can get better and less boring church announcements. We'll see you over there in that video.

00:17:47:20 - 00:17:52:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And don't forget my friends as always to stay hybrid.

Episode 128: I made this podcast so you wouldn't have to hire me

Nick Clason — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 05:00:00 -0600

🎧 Become a “Hybrid Hero”
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

DESCRIPTION
This episode of Hybrid Ministry is your ultimate DIY guide to building a thriving online presence—without hiring me or anyone else. From cracking the content schedule code to creating evergreen videos to simply understanding "hybrid," you’ll get practical tips, tools, and resources to dominate digital ministry in your church or youth ministry.

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/128

//Become a “Hybrid Hero”
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

//VidIQ
https://www.vidiq.com/hybrid

//Easy and Effective Social Challenges
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s

//Studio Gear
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/studio

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

//YouTube for Youth Ministry
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl

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

//Communications Done for You
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Church Social Media Explained
02:05 What is Hybrid Ministry?
05:55 Why Hybrid Ministry?
08:34 What is your content creation and capturing schedule?
14:04 How do you edit your videos?
15:17 If I consulted with you, how would you recommend I get started?

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Pastor, youth pastor, church

00:00:02:01 - 00:00:03:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
communications person. Are you struggling

00:00:03:25 - 00:00:06:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to figure out digital ministry?

00:00:06:00 - 00:00:07:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, here's the deal.

00:00:07:20 - 00:00:13:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I created this video so that you can stop googling church social media tips.

00:00:13:23 - 00:00:18:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in fact, I created this video so that you don't have to hire me or anybody else.

00:00:18:16 - 00:00:27:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to show you and give you what it takes to be able to create a thriving online and digital hybrid presence.

00:00:27:22 - 00:00:30:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, here's the thing. I've been doing this podcast for

00:00:30:02 - 00:00:47:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
over two years now, and in my over two year journey of this podcast and hybrid ministry, I am helping churches do online well. But I'm also helping churches maintain their in-person presence and find that intersection, which is always the goal as we're trying to create

00:00:47:18 - 00:00:53:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a church so that it matches and mirrors people where they are.

00:00:53:01 - 00:00:59:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that intersection is what I like to call hybrid right there in the middle. And so we're

00:00:59:02 - 00:01:11:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
going to dive into some of the frequently asked questions here on the Hybrid Ministry show as we round out 2024 and set our sights to 2025.

00:01:11:01 - 00:01:13:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. If you not haven't had a chance to meet you.

00:01:13:27 - 00:01:24:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My name is Nicholas, and while I've been doing this podcast for two and a half years, I've been doing ministry for 14 years. And, my journey all along the way has led me towards this hybrid

00:01:24:01 - 00:01:31:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
sort of ministry. But in this episode, we are going to tackle some of the frequently asked questions that I've gotten from people all across the internet.

00:01:31:20 - 00:01:37:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Different groups have been in cohorts. I've run workshops, so I've led asking questions like, what

00:01:37:04 - 00:01:50:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is hybrid ministry? Why is it even important? What is your content schedule? What's your capturing schedule? How do you edit the videos? What is, what would you consult me to do if I was just getting started? And

00:01:50:01 - 00:01:52:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we are going to walk through all of those things.

00:01:52:25 - 00:02:04:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as always, if you're here on YouTube, don't forget there are chapters down below at the bottom of the screen so that you can jump around to the question that means the most to you. Welcome to Hybrid Ministry show.

00:02:04:17 - 00:02:16:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Question number one. We alluded to it in the intro, but what is hybrid ministry? My favorite analogy, and this is actually some of the stuff that we're exploring over on my brand new Patreon

00:02:16:18 - 00:02:16:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
page.

00:02:16:29 - 00:02:34:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And some of these questions actually came from some of our brand new Patreon members. Shout out to Jesse. Johnson. Love having you over here. But, some of these questions, are like, what is hybrid ministry? Okay. So some of the questions are like, why? What's the purpose of this? What even is it? So it's important.

00:02:34:20 - 00:02:55:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's get a baseline okay. Again, chapters at the bottom. If you already know this, jump ahead. But hybrid ministry is intersecting your in-person and your digital, right. We all know in Covid we had digital church only. And we know that we hated it. Struggle with it, didn't know how to engage students. Well, we missed the in-person. And so when, restrictions are lifted, we all came back to in-person.

00:02:55:26 - 00:03:02:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we miss it. We miss community. We miss friendship. We miss praying with one another. We missed sharing meals together,

00:03:02:22 - 00:03:15:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
but we did a lot of good ministry over here too. Digitally. Right. And so, we kind of got these two buckets here. You got online only and you got in-person only. Let's let's examine

00:03:15:09 - 00:03:16:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
what each of those are good for.

00:03:16:14 - 00:03:30:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My opinion online is a fantastic content delivery system. So emails, information announcements but also content sermons, podcasts, long form teaching courses, things like that. What is in-person good for

00:03:30:29 - 00:03:37:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that? Online struggles with real, authentic community. Like you. You can have a version of community

00:03:37:06 - 00:03:41:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
because of in-person friendships through like a means like texting or even like chats and stuff like that.

00:03:41:27 - 00:04:03:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I mean real in-person community, like, we all kind of hunger for it long for. And you, some people like, are in the metaverse and and that's satisfying that sort of age. They're friends with people from a distance. But but a lot of ways like real community life on life, sharing meals together, carrying one another's burdens, prayer requests, honestly, everything in like a shepherding, sort of like

00:04:03:05 - 00:04:04:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
small group space.

00:04:04:18 - 00:04:28:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if we look at a typical Sunday morning sermon, most of it is what we can accomplish with online. And thus in lies the inherent tension. Because everything we can do on a Sunday morning can be easily replicable. And frankly, it's even a little bit more attractive, especially to people like Gen, Gen Z, millennials, even Gen Alpha to consume content, sermons and church services online.

00:04:29:05 - 00:04:45:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But what younger generations are craving and the church has to figure out how to offer it in a way that, either takes the place of Sunday morning or as an attractive alternative to what's going on Sunday morning. Is that real, deep, authentic life on life, biblical community

00:04:45:19 - 00:04:50:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and that intersection of where you're online, which you should have online.

00:04:50:15 - 00:04:59:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you if you're a mostly in-person church hybrid ministry for you is adding in online so that you can have a more robust experience of your church, if you're an online

00:04:59:10 - 00:05:13:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
only church, which are very few and far between, you should figure out how to add some more in-person type elements so that we can intersect between the two online, online, in-person intersects at that hybrid ministry spot.

00:05:13:14 - 00:05:14:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I liken it to

00:05:14:25 - 00:05:39:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Home Depot. Okay, so I can go buy something on Home Depot website completely online experience, or I can go browse the aisles completely in-person experience. But that hybrid moment happens when I pull up my phone and I look on the app and it tells me exactly where I can find that boat, exactly what aisle and exactly what bay I'm in person, but I'm experiencing it through the app digitally, and thus it creates that sort of hybrid moment.

00:05:39:13 - 00:05:55:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're not, again, already over with us on Patreon, I would love to invite you because that's what we're doing. We're answering how I take my in-person services, and I'm sprinkling in hybrid, and I'm just literally walking you through what I'm doing on a week by week basis. Question number two

00:05:55:12 - 00:05:59:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
why? Like, why all this digital content?

00:05:59:03 - 00:06:05:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Why social media? Why YouTube? Why why why? Well, link down below is my 100% free

00:06:05:23 - 00:06:12:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
hybrid ministry strategy guide. I have been offering this now for over a year and it's gone

00:06:12:29 - 00:06:27:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
through a couple of rebrands, but the majority of what I've created in that has remained the same because social media, around the, pandemic time has actually shifted the way that it's been done.

00:06:27:09 - 00:06:29:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right? We were previously in what was known

00:06:29:06 - 00:06:37:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
as the Social Graph era, and now we're in what's called the Discovery era. Okay, so here's just a couple of things that are really important to know.

00:06:37:23 - 00:06:46:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
95% of teenagers say that they have been, will be, or plan to be on YouTube. Now, obviously some of those are power users, and others of those are just

00:06:46:28 - 00:06:50:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
dabbling in it and looking up videos and stuff for their science fair projects.

00:06:50:09 - 00:06:54:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the fact of the matter is, 95% of teenagers are on YouTube.

00:06:54:16 - 00:07:08:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Furthermore, according to a recent book by Mccrindle. And so it's called Meeting Gen Alpha. They say that Google number one search engine in the world is now being supplanted by Generation Alpha with, you guessed

00:07:08:04 - 00:07:12:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it, YouTube. Also, here's the beautiful thing about YouTube.

00:07:12:14 - 00:07:23:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I got to tell you, like, like I said, I've been creating content for this podcast for over two years and I will still sometimes get I also sometimes get comments I'll get referrals, I'll get people clicking links to

00:07:23:22 - 00:07:36:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
videos that I've made even over a year ago. Right. We don't have that luxury. Oftentimes in churches we create something for the moment, and then that thing dies on our hard drive and we continue on.

00:07:36:06 - 00:07:43:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube is masterful at promoting and allowing content to live on forever. Content creation,

00:07:43:20 - 00:08:00:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
marketing specialists, they call it evergreen content. If you want to know the type of content that teenagers, Gen Alpha, Gen Z, young people in your church are searching, you can use a keyword tool like vid IQ. In fact, I have a link down below if you want to give it a shot and a trial on using it.

00:08:00:24 - 00:08:24:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can do some research. Like what are teenagers asking? And then you go answer those questions. I'm just gonna be honest with you. Like like you should start there always. As you're planning a sermon series, right? Get some keyword research. What are people looking up online? What are the the big questions to life that they're asking. And then have that and then develop a sermon series.

00:08:24:17 - 00:08:33:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And by the way, if you develop your sermon series based off that keyword research is also going to make a fantastic YouTube video and fantastic YouTube

00:08:33:24 - 00:08:34:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
playlist.

00:08:34:04 - 00:08:42:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. Question number three. What is your content schedule and what is your capturing of that content schedule?

00:08:42:16 - 00:08:58:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So according to a website video, 90% of the internet's traffic today and moving on is short form discovery based vertical video, TikTok style, real style YouTube short style videos.

00:08:58:06 - 00:09:10:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, I have a playlist linked right here on the content that I am creating, not only for my students, but with my students. It's my easy and effective social media playlist. It is the four different

00:09:10:25 - 00:09:20:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
social media types that not only do I have students capturing, but also that I have students editing and helping create that final piece form of content.

00:09:20:20 - 00:09:23:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So my schedule is I post two days a

00:09:23:11 - 00:09:45:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
week, I'm sorry, two times a day, five days a week. So ten different pieces of content. Let me walk through it with you. So in my playlist linked back up here that I said just a second ago my easy and effective playlist. We do four different game style videos, so we do drafts, we do seven questions, we do man on the Street and we do transition and invite style videos.

00:09:45:27 - 00:10:07:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Go to that playlist to check out the full, detailed, in-depth thing along with some free templates and downloads. And then an additional piece that we do is a Stay or scroll devotional style video. So that's five different videos, one of each of those that I post every single week. Okay. And I just kind of sprinkle them throughout the pieces of my content calendar that are a little bit like stronger.

00:10:07:15 - 00:10:32:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, short form vertical based video is three teaching clips, and those teaching clips come as clips off of our long form teaching content. Now I'm a youth pastor. We don't have live streaming capabilities, nor do we capture our videos live in our auditorium or in our worship space. So we actually sit down direct to camera and pre-filled. More messages made for YouTube with that vid IQ research indicator.

00:10:32:20 - 00:10:50:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we make those videos hopefully answering teenagers questions, creating evergreen content, and also playlists and sermon series that kids are asking for. And then they can go back to in the future when they're struggling with or have big questions about life, faith, God, whatever the case may be. And so that just that piece of content, we drop a different video every single week.

00:10:50:03 - 00:11:10:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It lines up just when we preach a sermon. Right? So if you're preaching a sermon this Wednesday night, you're preaching a sermon the Sunday night. Put that on video posted to YouTube. But off that YouTube video, three short form clips I use opus. I there's a link down below if you want to try out Opus Clip. It's a fantastic AI sermon short generator.

00:11:10:27 - 00:11:30:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I use it every single week in my ministry, so that's five different pieces of, easy and effective content off that playlist through different pieces of social content, using opus to clip them up. And then I got two more other pieces of content. One is our, meme Monday style video. Not video. I'm sorry meme Monday style post.

00:11:30:08 - 00:11:47:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's just about the only, non video post that I do. Not that I'm against non video post, but don't forget I'm a busy youth pastor and so I got this strategy sort of locked in. And so I don't have a lot of time to go back to the drawing board. And I got students and volunteers help them kind of keep it afloat.

00:11:47:01 - 00:12:00:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we'll reiterate and rehydrate when we need to. But for right now, this has been working for us. And then the 10th final piece of content is, anytime we meet, I get my phone out. I create little like 5 to 8 second clips, vertical video. I take it

00:12:00:24 - 00:12:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
into something like a TikTok. I click that auto cut button and boom!

00:12:04:22 - 00:12:15:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I then have a recap video for anytime we meet Sunday morning. Wednesday night I typically do Wednesday night. Now, like I said, my capturing is during the week. Me and anyone else on our team is going

00:12:15:27 - 00:12:23:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to be preaching. We sit down, we pre film all of our series. Like if we do like a four part series, we film all four of those in one day.

00:12:23:06 - 00:12:41:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One shot off teleprompter. All the things link down below is my studio guide. It has all the links to all the gear that we use. If you want to use a teleprompter or if you want to use, get a tripod, different lighting, all that type of stuff, check that out. So that's when we do those. And then on Wednesday nights when our youth ministry is going on

00:12:41:27 - 00:12:46:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
before and after, we have a social challenge that's happening every single Wednesday night.

00:12:46:19 - 00:12:53:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Students know about it. They seek it out. They want to know when and where is the social challenge happening. So two of those videos,

00:12:53:06 - 00:12:56:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Jason, seven questions. Those take place inside, behind a locked door.

00:12:56:22 - 00:13:04:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I walked over a closed door of our studio to come up with soundproofing and all those things run by volunteers and very few leaders.

00:13:04:14 - 00:13:13:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, our other two videos are transition videos and man on the Street style videos. And so that's us being out and around in our building, in our space. So

00:13:13:06 - 00:13:25:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it's a little bit more visible. And it also helps students sort of be gravitated towards and drawn to what we're doing here on social media. And as far as editing goes, opus II takes care of my editing for my message clips.

00:13:25:07 - 00:13:33:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I do the auto cut one on one on, Wednesday nights. I do that, like right before I start my car and get in to go home. And then the last one I have students

00:13:33:16 - 00:13:44:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
come in early, like early, early on Wednesday night. They're homeschool students, which are two of them. Fantastic. And around 2:00, 3:00 or so, submissions start till about six.

00:13:44:23 - 00:13:49:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so they're in there for 2 or 3 hours, editing videos and, you know, like we give them, you know,

00:13:49:24 - 00:14:00:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
some of them like free retreats or special incentives or we let them stay after and like eat at the leader lunch, you know, eat a leader lunch that we have or whatever. But, mostly they're just doing it because they like it.

00:14:00:14 - 00:14:03:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're fun doing it, and it's a good time. All right. Next question.

00:14:03:28 - 00:14:14:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How do you edit videos? Well, I just told you, like, I got students that are helping me, carry that load. I use some I but like the actual platform that I use is my preference is

00:14:14:24 - 00:14:18:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Adobe Premiere Pro. It is the most expensive of all the options.

00:14:18:29 - 00:14:22:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Final Cut Pro is another option. You can check that out if you're interested, or

00:14:22:16 - 00:14:41:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
DaVinci resolve, both of which are cheaper than Adobe Premiere Pro, primarily because Adobe Premiere Pro has a monthly subscription cost associated with it. However, what I learned, churches have paid for it for me for now. And I mean, I, you know, wish I could do something new, do something cheaper, but I don't have the bandwidth to to learn something cheaper.

00:14:41:13 - 00:14:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But there are cheaper options out there. You can of course you something like iMovie or Movie Maker on your windows and

00:14:48:02 - 00:14:59:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
cap cut actually has a fantastic editing platform. You can do quite a bit with it and you're going to look pretty professional. You can do that, obviously off of your film, but you can also do it off of like, just a

00:14:59:19 - 00:15:00:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
web editor.

00:15:00:25 - 00:15:17:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, I believe that they're, like premium or pro feature fee is not too difficult to, figure out and or not to not not too expensive. Not too high barrier to entry. So if that's something you're interested, go ahead and check out cap cut. All right.

00:15:17:01 - 00:15:23:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Last question I have here from those of you, thank you so much for submitting them via our Patreon community members.

00:15:23:05 - 00:15:40:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Appreciate you guys. Love you guys. Again, if you're interested, check that out down below. Link in the show notes. Question is, if you are consulting me, what order would you start with? Doing something starting from nothing. We have all the in-person, nothing digital. Well, here's what I would do. First of all,

00:15:40:15 - 00:15:43:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
make sure your website is up to date.

00:15:43:06 - 00:16:07:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Second of all, then I would start creating this short form vertical, videos and I would start with three per week. Right. So some sort of recap video, if you can't do a clip of your message, just do a selfie style talking head recap style video of it, right. If you do have like the long form footage of it, drop it into opus clip and try, you know, get a clip spit out.

00:16:07:08 - 00:16:25:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Second video I would do is I would do some sort of educationally based, spirit promoting spiritual practice sort of video. Okay. What I mean by that is like, you can have, a video off your camera, literally any video. One time I filmed a video of a turtle walking across the street in my neighborhood. It can be that simple.

00:16:25:16 - 00:16:41:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can do text on screen. Three things the Bible says about prayer. 1 to 3. Right? That I'll. And you can do that in any editor. You can use it in the, YouTube shorts that are the TikTok editor, the reels editor. You can bring it into something like cap cut and create it, export it and post it all those different places.

00:16:42:02 - 00:17:01:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But start creating those different types of content. And the last one is how to do some sort of fun thing, some sort of social challenge esque thing. Dress seven questions. And if those are too heavy on the edit side, which they are a little bit heavier on the edit side, they don't have to be, but they can be do man on the street, man, get a microphone, buy a cheap one.

00:17:01:14 - 00:17:17:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again. I got some links down on my studio. Episode link down below. Buy some cheap mics and walk around and interview students in your space. Right? Like if I was doing this next week. All right, let's pretend you're watching this live end of 2024 and you come back in January. I'd walk around with a microphone.

00:17:17:05 - 00:17:18:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You or a student.

00:17:18:12 - 00:17:37:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. Off of any camera? Your camera, their camera doesn't matter. Get those two little USB microphones again, link down below, grab those and then walk around. Be like, hey, what's your New Year's resolution this year? And then ask them or give them a microphone and you can do something even funny with it. Like me and a former resident of mine, Caleb, shout out to Caleb Flywheel, my ETA.

00:17:38:09 - 00:17:45:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We put our little mikes, clipped them on to like, spoons, and then we just held spoons so you can walk around with spoons if you want to, like, have some sort

00:17:45:02 - 00:17:51:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of, like, handle thing to hold. Right. But, you know, like, what's your New Year's resolution? The other person's holding it and they answer and either they have one or they don't.

00:17:52:02 - 00:18:15:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or have you broken your New Year's resolution yet. And you ask them, and if you get like 8 or 10 of those people answering those questions, then you drop those in somewhere, either on your phone, you can edit something like capture or bring them in something even more powerful, like Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci resolve. Whatever your editor of Choices and edit that down, post it, keep them less than 60s and you're off to the races

00:18:15:00 - 00:18:16:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and the eye on the prize.

00:18:16:25 - 00:18:35:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay, when I'm starting with you, the eye on the prize is to get long form videos up to YouTube. Okay, you don't have to do two times a day, five days a week like I do. You do you? I do want you to be regular, and I do want you to start getting your long form pieces of content to YouTube.

00:18:35:03 - 00:18:37:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that's where I come in, because I can offer you

00:18:37:17 - 00:18:51:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
coaching where I'll teach you how to do it, or my communications done for you, or I'll actually do it for you. You film it, send it to me, I'll edit it. We can talk about price. We'll get to it. Both of those are linked down below in the description.

00:18:51:11 - 00:18:51:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here on

00:18:51:23 - 00:19:10:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
screen is the definitive social media guide for churches and youth ministries in 2025. I love for you to check that video out. If you're watching here on YouTube, just go ahead and tap that screen. But for the rest of you, I hope you had a merry Christmas. If you're watching this live, no matter when you're watching it.

00:19:10:06 - 00:19:21:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Thank you to all my Patreon supporters. Appreciate you guys. It should be having some merch sent your way. Those of you who signed up before December 2nd, don't forget and as always my friends to stay hybrid.

Episode 126: Youth Ministry Christmas Party Idea!

Nick Clason — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 05:00:00 -0600

🦸‍ BECOME A HYBRID HERO
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

🎬 THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS MOVIE SHOWDOWN
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-ultimate-christmas-movie-showdown/christmas/christmas-games-9784.html

DESCRIPTION
🎄 It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Ready to throw the BEST Youth Ministry Christmas Party ever? 🎉 In this episode, Nick Clason of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast spills the peppermint-flavored tea on how to make your event unforgettable! 🏆 Whether it’s the Ultimate Christmas Movie Showdown, hilarious games, or social media outreach, this guide has it ALL.

🌟 Grab the downloadable Christmas party resource on Download Youth Ministry—complete with voting brackets, social media assets, and everything you need to pull off a high-energy, crowd-engaging event that doubles as a killer social media strategy. 🎅✨

👇 Grab the resource now: DownloadYouthMinistry.com

🎬 Watch till the end for tips on engaging Gen Alpha and crushing it on YouTube. And as always, my friends, stay hybrid! 🚀

📓 SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/126

//10% OFF CO-LEADER
CODE: HYBRIDMINISTRY10
https://www.sidekick.tv/pricing

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

//CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Make Your Christmas Event Pop This Year!
01:59 How to Use a Bracket?
03:56 The Ultimate Christmas Movie Showdown Explained
05:25 The 16 Movies
06:20 What's Included in the Download?
10:00 How do you Crown a Winner?
12:27 Our Hybrid December Plans
14:14 YouTube for your Youth Ministry

--------------
✍️ TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Student

00:00:01:16 - 00:00:06:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
ministry Christmas party. I mean, it is the preeminent

00:00:06:05 - 00:00:08:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
event of the year. You play

00:00:08:18 - 00:00:19:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
dozens of games, you eat even more sweets, and you serve hot chocolate. Maybe you play a Christmas movie. What if I told you that I had the

00:00:19:09 - 00:00:26:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
event that was going to make your Christmas party? Absolutely pop? Well,

00:00:26:09 - 00:00:26:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here it is. It

00:00:26:29 - 00:00:31:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh.

00:00:36:02 - 00:00:40:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and incorporate this style of event, along with all of the other ways

00:00:40:29 - 00:00:50:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that if you don't want to use it for your party, or it's a little bit too late to lead in to your party, that you can use this style of resource if you scrub ahead,

00:00:50:00 - 00:00:55:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I am going to go ahead and offer this resource to you so you can go ahead and check that out.

00:00:55:08 - 00:01:18:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're watching here on screen, you can see that timestamp. If not, just hit the link down below in the show notes or head to Hybridministry.xyz/127. But we are going to talk Christmas party. We're going to talk outreach and we're going to talk social media. And this event has all of those. And this product has all those wrapped into one single thing.

00:01:18:21 - 00:01:18:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're

00:01:18:27 - 00:01:23:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh.

00:01:23:03 - 00:01:36:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
meetings and things you have to do. You got to come up with games and lessons and and manage parents and volunteers and senior pastors and oh yeah, social media and oh yeah, the Christmas event and. Oh yeah, and oh yeah. And oh

00:01:36:03 - 00:01:36:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
yeah.

00:01:36:19 - 00:01:48:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And oh yeah. But in this event guide, you will have the ability to crush, social media outreach and your Christmas party all in one fell swoop. It is going to be amazing.

00:01:48:01 - 00:01:52:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh.

00:01:54:25 - 00:01:56:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:01:56:21 - 00:01:58:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Tis the season. Let's hop in.

00:01:58:14 - 00:02:00:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So in

00:02:00:26 - 00:02:02:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:02:18:19 - 00:02:25:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here at the top of the YouTube video, I did the ultimate event guide to the World's Greatest donut that,

00:02:25:10 - 00:02:42:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in that video you can download my event guide. It's complete with a shopping list and all those types of things. And also sends you to download Youth Ministry where you can buy this voting style event. But this has been something that has been a staple of my ministry and a staple of honestly, what I've done for years.

00:02:42:17 - 00:03:04:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And essentially I'm borrowing from the like, wave or the popularity of like a march madness bracket style voting. And so, like in our space, we have this big window that opens into like a small sort of like half court indoor gymnasium sort of deal. And we printed a custom size vinyl banner, for six, for a 16 team bracket.

00:03:04:04 - 00:03:22:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we put, those things we just, you know, print them out on computer paper or whatever, cut them out. And we do these, like, style events 2 or 3 times throughout the year. So like I said in that video linked, just a second ago, we have done like the world's greatest donut. We have voted on the best.

00:03:22:26 - 00:03:34:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We did last March Madness. One year we have voted on the world's best, like, mascot. And then that mascot became our official student ministry mascot. Shout out to Pugsley

00:03:34:11 - 00:03:38:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the platypus! We've done all sorts of different like voting

00:03:38:02 - 00:03:49:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and challenge based style things. It's just like a fun way to sort of like, create, competition and conversation around something for like several weeks in a row.

00:03:49:06 - 00:03:50:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in this particular instance, we're

00:03:50:29 - 00:03:56:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
doing the ultimate Christmas movie showdown. Now, by the time that this video drops, you're

00:03:56:04 - 00:03:57:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:03:57:24 - 00:04:13:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Christmas party or even slightly beyond your Christmas party. But if you have not made it yet to your Christmas party, then what you can do. And this is what we did. We did a Christmas movie watch party, but we're allowing the students to vote on the Christmas movie.

00:04:13:20 - 00:04:37:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's what's really cool, is we actually at our costume party on the 30th of October, we revealed that the Christmas bracket was now live, and then the students could vote on it. And the best thing about this is, again, if this is already past, your party's already past. You can do something like this just very simply on social media, during sort of the holiday lull, you can do, every week is a new round or you can do it.

00:04:37:14 - 00:04:42:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Every day is a new round. And that's the thing. Like so even if like you download this now

00:04:42:22 - 00:04:52:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and then you go and you play a movie at your Christmas event next week, you can do every day on social media as a round. And there's all sorts of different ways to capture

00:04:52:24 - 00:05:04:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Elf white Christmas elf faces off against White Christmas. That's the one seed versus the 16. They're not listed there. But you know, and once the students start voting, you can tell who the overall one seed is.

00:05:04:24 - 00:05:31:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Then in the eight nine matchup we have Frosty the Snowman versus the year without a Santa Claus. Then in the four I think 13 413 matchup, we have Christmas vacation pairing off against Christmas with the Kranks Muppet Christmas Carol versus Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer, Home Alone, which is the two seed versus It's a Wonderful Life A Christmas Story, which is a seven versus Polar Express, which is a ten, the Santa Claus, which is a three, versus Jingle All the Way, which is like a 14, I think.

00:05:25:00 - 00:05:26:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:05:31:25 - 00:05:42:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then Santa Claus is Coming to Town versus How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the six versus, I think, 11 match up there. And so this PowerPoint file, you can very simply edit the winners. Right? So if elf beats white Christmas in the voting, you can move it ahead. And you can use that in your space to write these in.

00:06:18:28 - 00:06:20:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:06:20:18 - 00:06:26:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right? So if elf beats white Christmas in the voting, you can move it ahead. And you can use that in your space to write these in.

00:06:26:25 - 00:06:35:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I have the winners sort of as like placeholders. In there that you can like, you know, make sure that you can move them on. But

00:06:35:13 - 00:06:43:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here's the thing. Every single round in every single context is going to be different. Maybe you are a big white Christmas church, and all of your students are going to pick White Christmas.

00:06:43:25 - 00:06:52:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's great. Then go with it. Go for it. Okay. Additionally, you can, use and use this, like I said, on social media. So a couple of my

00:06:52:21 - 00:06:53:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
favorite ways to

00:06:53:12 - 00:07:03:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
do it are on Instagram Stories. And also now for Generation Alpha, who is, widely and widely adopting YouTube as one of their platforms of choice.

00:07:03:09 - 00:07:08:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can post on your YouTube posts page section, a voting poll option with images

00:07:08:29 - 00:07:22:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and stuff like that. And so I've included some social graphics that are still. And so it's your title to your overall bracket. You can write in the winners each round and then, round one graphic, an elite eight graphic, a Final Four graphic, and a championship round graphic.

00:07:22:19 - 00:07:43:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then you just very simply stick the question sticker on that graphic. I also have social media videos which, pair and look similar to the widescreen video. So there's a title graphic with, you know, some kind of like distance sleigh bells chime in like some Christmas like, chiming things and then like a round one graphic, elite eight graphic, a final four.

00:07:43:29 - 00:07:55:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All these are videos and championship. And then there are profile cards. And so these are really fun. Every single movie, there's 16 movies. Every single movie has four different

00:07:55:00 - 00:08:05:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
profile cards, both for social media and for, your widescreen in your room. And so, for example, in round one, you might put up the Elf profile card, the very

00:08:05:17 - 00:08:11:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
first Elf profile card versus this and next to the very first white Christmas profile card.

00:08:11:07 - 00:08:31:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So like right here, if you're watching on the screen, you'll see it says like elf, released in 2003, Will Ferrell shines as buddy, a human race, as an elf who travels to New York to meet his real father. But there, like I said, there are four different profile cards because in the next round of elf advances, you will use the second, fact.

00:08:31:02 - 00:08:49:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you're not just sharing the same fact every single week, week in, week out. So this next one is about who Jon Favreau, who, helped. The movie grossed over 220 million worldwide on a $33 million budget, became a Christmas favorite. The third one's about, Will Ferrell's improv skills, and the fourth one is a fun fact that

00:08:49:09 - 00:08:55:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
his iconic walk through New York was done candidly and is capturing real reactions from New Yorkers.

00:08:55:13 - 00:08:55:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now

00:08:55:28 - 00:09:17:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you're like, okay, that's great, but what if White Christmas wins? That's why there's four for White Christmas. Now, if White Christmas loses, you're obviously not going to be using fact two, fact 3 or 4, right. But in the event that upsets happen, in the event that that movies keep moving on, there are four because there's four rounds round one, Elite eight, Final Four, and then championship round for you to share those graphics.

00:09:17:10 - 00:09:37:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Okay. And so we have that for social media for still graphics. We have social video graphics. We also have widescreen graphics that you can use and put in your space. Along with those profile card kind of things that you can also put in your space video as well as stills. And then there's paper voting as an option.

00:09:37:18 - 00:09:52:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we'll get to the ways that you can do voting here in just a minute. There's Photoshop files. If you do happen to have Photoshop editing skills. And then finally there are some just like transparent, no background, assets like the logo and the round one, elite eight, all that type of stuff. So

00:09:52:00 - 00:09:55:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
all of that is included in this download, just a few bucks.

00:09:55:21 - 00:09:58:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And like I said, how can you go about

00:09:58:03 - 00:09:59:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:10:08:26 - 00:10:15:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of my podcast, Hybrid Ministry ten as a discount code, and you get 10% off your purchase of either Premium or Premium Plus.

00:10:16:01 - 00:10:32:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if you're using sidekick, you can use the phone connections and the voting option, and students can vote live right there directly in the room. And so you can do all of your matchups right there. And you can do that week in, week out. Now, what do you do about students who don't have phones? Well, that's one of the reasons why I included the

00:10:32:00 - 00:10:39:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
paper printable bracket so that those students aren't left out and so that they have an opportunity to also let their voice be heard.

00:10:39:12 - 00:10:57:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, you might be thinking, well, what happens if, my Christmas party has already passed or I don't have a way to get this, done? In the amount of weeks we have leading up to our Christmas party, no problem. Download this and just post them on social media. And then when people show up to your Christmas party, you'd be like, hey, we're watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas because it was voted on by you.

00:10:57:29 - 00:11:15:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The people on social media. Congratulations to the Grinch. And so you could do this in just four days. Round one, Elite Eight, Final Four, and then the championship. And then you have your event. So if your Christmas party is in seven days, you can theoretically crush this and get this in any time of year if you want to launch it.

00:11:15:07 - 00:11:32:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, depending on when you're watching this, if you have enough time, you can launch it all through the month of December leading into your movie. Or like I said, you can do it all on social using either Instagram voting or the YouTube post. Now here's the good news about that is when you promote it in the room, like, hey, voting is live!

00:11:32:04 - 00:11:39:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One of the things I've done, I'll show you a graphic of what we're using. It's not included in the download because it's it's custom to us. But just to give you an idea, I just

00:11:39:23 - 00:11:50:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
linked a QR code to our link tree, which has all of our different social handles. And so it says, hey, voting is still live and the winning movie will get, we'll get watch it.

00:11:50:16 - 00:11:55:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our Christmas party on you know, December 4th or whatever. I've sent that out in our text list. We've sent it out to our parent

00:11:55:13 - 00:11:55:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Patreon. If you didn't know, we just launched a Patreon and it is going to be walking through my weekly lessons and it's, or a different bonus podcast every single week. It's $4 per month and you get a different bonus podcast per week. So essentially it nets out to a dollar or even slightly less than a dollar per podcast episode.

00:12:24:28 - 00:12:26:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:12:29:00 - 00:12:45:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you didn't know, we just launched a Patreon and it is going to be walking through my weekly lessons and it's, or a different bonus podcast every single week. It's $4 per month and you get a different bonus podcast per week. So essentially it nets

00:12:45:13 - 00:12:51:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
out to a dollar or even slightly less than a dollar per podcast episode.

00:12:51:02 - 00:13:08:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think it's a very modest amount. I would love to encourage you to go over there and check it out. I think you can probably find four bucks a month in your budget, but even if you can't, I just want to let you know that, like we're going to use it to invest deeper into the podcast gear and all sorts of things like that.

00:13:08:17 - 00:13:27:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I'd love to encourage you to go check that out. But we're going to be walking through these lessons, and this is what we're going to be talking about over on that Patreon is what what are the Christmas at the movie lessons? And then, what are the we're also doing? Like we're avoiding the big announcement time before we break into small groups.

00:13:27:01 - 00:13:46:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so our students are going to go into our sort of like small group rooms directly at the end of the countdown. And each of our rooms has a TV on a cart, which is brand new. And so we're going to link that to a YouTube playlist, and there's going to be a small group activity. There's going to be an announcement corner filmed and put there on that playlist.

00:13:46:00 - 00:13:48:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the teaching where we may teach a

00:13:48:09 - 00:14:01:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
little bit, pause for questions, teach a little bit, pause for questions, teach a little bit, pause for some more questions. So we're really trying to lean in sort of to that kind of hybrid thing. And I'm going to detail and explain all of that what we're doing over on that Patreon.

00:14:01:27 - 00:14:10:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I would love to have you go check that out. There's also some other kind of bonus perks and stuff like that. And as I'm describing this, you might be hearing me talk about YouTube in

00:14:10:29 - 00:14:11:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
all

00:14:11:11 - 00:14:13:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ow ow ow! Oh!

00:14:15:20 - 00:14:16:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube,

00:14:16:00 - 00:14:22:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
because I think it's important to put spiritual and evergreen content over there on YouTube for our students.

00:14:22:26 - 00:14:43:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, Generation Alpha is now saying that YouTube is now their preferred search engine, even over Google. And so there's value to that. And, I actually offer either some custom coaching to help you level it up or communications done for you, or I'll actually just do it for you if that's something that you're interested in, go ahead and check the show notes or the link down below in the YouTube description.

00:14:43:13 - 00:15:12:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The link to right here on screen is my complete and full strategy of how we launched and developed a YouTube for youth ministry. It's the free version of that coaching, and then the coaching will take you sort of into that. More customization, but I hope that you grab this product if you have an amazing Christmas event, I hope you can use it to knock outreach out of the park, to have an amazing event, and also crush social media, whether you're using it for the event or just during the lull of the holiday season.

00:15:12:26 - 00:15:18:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't forget my friends and as always, to stay hybrid.

Episode 122: Why Your Youth Ministry Follow-Up Isn't Working

Nick Clason — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 07:00:00 -0600

THE ULTIMATE GUEST FOLLOW UP BOX
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

DESCRIPTION
New Visitor to your Youth Group?
Yay!
Now what? How do you follow-up in a way that doesn't feel weird or creepy?
Good question! Let's explore it together!

SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/122

//THE ULTIMATE GUEST FOLLOW UP BOX
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

//OUR WELCOME VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neb34eYasCY

//EPISODE 100
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0L-Dxhs7cI

--------------
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Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Better First Time Guest Followup
01:31 Guest Follow-Up Gone Hybrid
02:42 Where the Idea Began
05:08 Mailing Boxes Begins!
06:47 The Ultimate Welcome Box

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you have a

00:00:01:00 - 00:00:03:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
brand new student or

00:00:03:05 - 00:00:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
person to your church.

00:00:04:20 - 00:00:05:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hooray!

00:00:05:01 - 00:00:06:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Congratulations! That's

00:00:06:08 - 00:00:07:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so exciting.

00:00:08:00 - 00:00:09:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now how do

00:00:09:24 - 00:00:14:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we make sure that they return well, without seeming

00:00:14:29 - 00:00:20:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
weird or creepy or old and out of touch?

00:00:20:06 - 00:00:35:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's the thing. We all want our students to attend our church. We want them also to feel comfortable and then hopefully ultimately find a home at our church or in our group or with our student ministry.

00:00:35:23 - 00:01:01:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so a visitor is great, but a returning guest even better. See in this podcast, in this episode, what I want to do is I'm going to share with you our step by step guest follow up process and the physical and in-person product that we are using to turn our process hybrid. And I want to give you this box artwork.

00:01:01:17 - 00:01:02:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So go ahead and you

00:01:02:17 - 00:01:08:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
can scrub ahead. You can click the link down below in the description or go to I start talking about the box design

00:01:08:21 - 00:01:09:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in

00:01:09:02 - 00:01:17:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this YouTube playlist, and you can go ahead and grab that link from us and go check it out. If you're following along here on YouTube, just a reminder there are chapters

00:01:17:14 - 00:01:17:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
down

00:01:17:27 - 00:01:22:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
along at the bottom so that you can skip straight ahead to the parts of the video that make the most sense to you.

00:01:22:25 - 00:01:28:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But just as a reminder, hybrid is taking your in-person moment and your digital and finding a way to

00:01:28:10 - 00:01:31:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
intersect them together. So my

00:01:31:18 - 00:01:37:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
guess is give me a like, if you are the type of person who, when you have a student, you send them

00:01:37:00 - 00:01:37:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a

00:01:37:10 - 00:01:40:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
postcard or go ahead and give me a

00:01:40:06 - 00:01:43:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
subscribe, if maybe not just a postcard, but

00:01:43:09 - 00:01:45:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you're also sending a text message, right?

00:01:45:14 - 00:02:05:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So early on I would I would send postcards. That was and I still do send postcards as, the way that I was kind of trained and I even like as a youth group student received postcards and, and I still do believe in the power of the personal touch. And I, I think that mail, does actually play an important role in youth ministry.

00:02:05:05 - 00:02:25:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think students don't receive mail very often. So I think it's helpful and beneficial for them to get it. Text messages. I do also believe they're important, especially as we talk about hybrid and the intersection of that hybrid being where, it often lands in the hands and in the palms of a student's cell phone. But I don't know about you, but I send a postcard, and it's like

00:02:27:07 - 00:02:28:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
where I send a text.

00:02:28:18 - 00:02:40:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And one time, literally, I got I sent a text from my personal cell phone number, and I got the word stop like, no, no, this was not an automated text like, this is a human being, but okay.

00:02:40:04 - 00:02:47:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Got it. I'll stop. So enter Covid when Covid hit. For those of you watching

00:02:47:19 - 00:02:50:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Linked Up, here is our 100th episode

00:02:50:05 - 00:03:07:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
where I did a recap about where this all sort of hybrid thing started, but we created this full scale and full length digital expression of youth ministry like a full, almost like YouTube variety show, Think like Jimmy Fallon, but youth ministry and YouTube.

00:03:07:26 - 00:03:10:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so our Covid experience was so

00:03:10:22 - 00:03:11:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of our show. And so therefore we would drop a rubber duck and a postcard, but we would do a physical door drop at their, house and at their, their door. And so, I would then get students, or even parents come talk to me on the weekends and be like, thank you.

00:03:44:00 - 00:04:00:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
our show. And so therefore we would drop a rubber duck and a postcard, but we would do a physical door drop at their, house and at their, their door. And so, I would then get students, or even parents come talk to me on the weekends and be like, thank you.

00:04:00:14 - 00:04:31:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So much. I mean, long gone now were the days of the, unanswered texts or the postcards sent into a black hole. Like, now I'm getting students and parents who are actually acknowledging our efforts and acknowledging us, helping roll out the red carpet to help make them feel welcome. It was a great response, but unfortunately, due to like where I lived and how regionally drawn our churches our church was and how far students drove to to come and attend our campus, and the fact that they could do it online.

00:04:31:26 - 00:04:32:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Us they didn't have to

00:04:32:18 - 00:04:52:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
get in the car and come drive a certain distance to our church. It took me a whole day like I remember one Thursday. So our youth night was Wednesday, one Thursday I spent like 9 to 5 in the car just doing these, these door drops. And so, I was just, you know, I was like, I guess that's part of the job, right?

00:04:52:01 - 00:05:13:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I was talking to my boss and I was like, hey, like, I spent my whole Thursday driving around new, so great. And I saw him all the great things. And he's like, you spent your whole day driving. I was like, we can on. Yeah. And he's like, oh, let's, let's, let's change that. And so, what we started doing as opposed to like the physical, me getting in my car, taking it and putting it on their doorstep.

00:05:13:24 - 00:05:33:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We started, taking the same concept, getting it to their hands. But instead of me doing it, we started paying the post office to do it as if there were some sort of service that could take something from point A to point B, and that is woven all throughout the fabric of our country being it's the post office.

00:05:33:14 - 00:05:56:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we started shipping things and it was expensive. Don't get me wrong, we created like a branded box, and now it's like we had to include a little bit more than just a duck in a postcard, so that the box didn't seem boring and empty. But we started shipping it. And so, that that strategy, we kind of laid that over and carried that over, here where I work now.

00:05:56:04 - 00:06:00:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's I started for the first probably like two years of my, my tenure here at this church

00:06:00:29 - 00:06:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
with text message, follow up for first time guess. And I can count on one finger, the amount of times I got a response. And that response was in those two years, the word stop. And so I said, hey, listen, maybe I'm just too old for this.

00:06:17:20 - 00:06:37:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I'm in my mid 30s and maybe students are like, I that's weird to text the guy in the in his 30s, or maybe text messages to students who they don't have the contact info from, especially from a phone number that it's not local. I live in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth, Texas. My phone number is from Dayton, Ohio. Like there is a massive difference in those two area codes.

00:06:37:01 - 00:06:52:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so they see someone down here with an 807 area code seeing a nine, three seven area code. They don't know what to do with it. So they ghosted as they do. And so I suggest and I propose what if we bring back the boxes. And so what I want to do is I want to share with you this right here.

00:06:52:14 - 00:07:10:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is our welcome box. It's branded. It's custom for us. And so if you look on all the sides, it's got a little, it's great to meet you. It's got, you know, yay! You're here. And then the top here, says welcome, along with a return address and a spot for us to put their address.

00:07:10:15 - 00:07:30:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then on the back, it's got our social handles. And what I want to do is I want to go through step by step, item by item, and, boxes here with you. And so, one of the things that we do is every single, every single semester, but three times a year, we do like a four, we do a winter, and then we do a summer calendar.

00:07:30:04 - 00:07:50:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what we do is we make our calendars into magnets. And so you look here, this is a magnet. It's about eight inches long. And so, truth be told, this box right here is about eight inches, and it's eight inches because the magnet is eight inches. I made the decision to make the box the same size as the magnet.

00:07:50:28 - 00:08:11:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so then I made sure that everything from the size of the magnet on down would be able to fit into the box. So, we put the magnet in there. The magnet has all of our events. And you'll also notice here's an opportunity to go hybrid. This right here is just a link to subscribe to the IX or the calendar type things.

00:08:11:14 - 00:08:29:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's a calendar, extension you can get it from, like creating, a Google calendar, a calendar, a Google calendar calendar. And then you can share that out. And so that's what we did. And so students can add this and subscribe to their calendar. We haven't gotten as many of those from students, but I know we've gotten some scans from parents.

00:08:29:13 - 00:08:48:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And also we give specific and particular leader magnet. And so our leaders also can go ahead and scan that. And so that is our magnet. We also have this sticker here, and these frankly, they're just laying around. We got these for free. So these didn't really cost the anything. So so far I want to point out these.

00:08:48:07 - 00:09:08:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We already print like we already pay for these for our students. And these are already laying around. So so far we're $0 into the box. Don't worry. It gets more expensive. This right here is just a little, promo, a nod to our social media. And so down the road, we will send them this postcard that simply says, life can be hard.

00:09:08:15 - 00:09:27:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You don't have to do it alone. This is a QR code to our link tree. And then here's just a little preview of our churches, YouTube handle right there. And, probably our most popular video, which is what is anxiety? What do I do about it if I have it? And we'll just, God have to say about anxiety.

00:09:27:16 - 00:09:44:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we will send this out a couple weeks after we send the box out. This is, this is a separate pieces doesn't go in the box that sent later. This is an additional kind of piece of merch. And again, once again, we have just some stuff kind of laying around that we inherited from the old regime.

00:09:44:19 - 00:10:07:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we try to, like, get rid of it. The little guest box checklist that we have this, and like an extra piece of merch from our merch cabinet. So here's a piece of merch from our merch cabinet. Right here. This one's kind of unique. Okay, we have a lanyard. And the reason that we have a lanyard branded and all the things is that right here, we do, we do pins right?

00:10:07:29 - 00:10:29:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Kind of like, think like Disney pin trading. So we'll create pins. And this right here is our little mascot guy. We call him Pugsley the platypus, because a baby platypus is a puggle. So one of our sixth graders one year recommended that we name them Pugsley. And so thus we did. And so we have this lanyard. And I actually have a lanyard for, like, my, staff nametag lanyard.

00:10:29:22 - 00:10:51:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this is full of pins. So like summer camp, Water wars, the Back to School bash, Space Jam night, like any, any event that we deem pin worthy. So coming up, we'll have our Christmas at the movies event. We'll. We've done costume parties. Any of those, they get designed. We just found a dude on Fiverr. He designed these for us.

00:10:51:01 - 00:11:12:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we send these, after sticker mule and sticker mule creates the pins. And so then we stick this pin. This is the, like, og original. Pugsley pin. It's just a traditional guy. He's just wearing, like, our logo on his t shirt there. And, we put the original pin on the lanyard for the students, and then, right here, this has three for free.

00:11:12:29 - 00:11:32:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this is a, redeemable coupon at our student ministry cafe. They can turn this in and get three things for free. And then, we have these life books and these life books. We've gotten them, from the Gideons, the the Bible translator and the Bible, providers. And so you can actually get these for free.

00:11:32:23 - 00:11:51:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's just it's like the book of John with like some notes, and it's designed well and graphically. And so you've probably seen these before, and truth be told, I like these. I also like the life and Six words book, that comes from, dare to share. But these we had like three cases of these again from the old regime.

00:11:51:19 - 00:12:07:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're like, let's go ahead and give these away. When these run out, we may reorder these. We may do a different sort of devotional, but but this is like the one sort of like devotional, sort of like spiritual peace. And then that's now the emptiness of the box and say, look down at the box there and you'll see, it's got this word right here.

00:12:07:26 - 00:12:24:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's got some copy and it simply says, hey there, we're so glad you joined us. Meet Pugsley, our platypus mascot, voted on and named by our students. We love it when students invest in student ministry. So in this box, you will find everything that you need to get started. And then it's a numbered list. You'll see one, two, three, four.

00:12:24:23 - 00:12:42:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Number one. This lanyard is a great spot to hold pins. Number two, we started you with your first one and there's more to come at our Pin events and milestones throughout the year. Number three, this life book is a great place to find out about what Jesus is all about. Number four, some other random stuff because we wanted you to know how glad we are that you joined us.

00:12:42:09 - 00:12:57:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We can't wait to get to know you. And then the very last piece of it, my favorite piece of it, the piece that I think makes it hybrid, is right. When you open the box, you see this QR code here and it just says welcome video, scan me. And so we'll have students who are new the open this up

00:12:57:25 - 00:13:01:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
theoretically on their porch, on their patio, wherever they will scan it.

00:13:01:26 - 00:13:24:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we'll take them to a video right here. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll be able to see a preview of it, but linked right here, linked below is what I want to do is I want to offer you, the art for this box if you want to start creating your own. I'll also, give you like, a detailed tutorial, like where I ordered it from, as well as the copy for the welcome video.

00:13:24:02 - 00:13:49:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can feel free to film that, throw that on a teleprompter, memorize it however you want to film it, and you can start creating better welcome and better guest returns for your youth ministry and for your student ministry. And once again, here's the reason that I like this is because this, gets them connected to us. This at a very minimum, one of the sections on this video right here says, we're so glad that you came.

00:13:49:29 - 00:14:10:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And also welcome to our YouTube channel. And if you've been around this podcast or this YouTube playlist, any link or a YouTube channel, any length of time you know that 95% of teenagers are claiming to be and be active on YouTube. And so therefore, I think we as youth ministries should make that a priority. We and our student ministry have made it a priority.

00:14:10:21 - 00:14:27:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, I, I think that that's a fantastic way to expose, in a sort of like, non-threatening way, expose your students to your channel, then maybe next time to log in to the YouTube account. One of our video shows up because they've already watched one. Or maybe they like that video. Maybe they subscribe to that video.

00:14:27:23 - 00:14:52:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now we're in their subscriptions with all of our teachings and all of those types of things, which, by the way, I can explain and show to you how to start posting your teachings to YouTube so that they live beyond your Sunday or Wednesday services. That video is going to be linked right here on screen, and I can't wait for you to take a look at that, because we're trying to make digital discipleship here at the Hybrid Ministry Podcast easy, possible and accessible.

00:14:52:04 - 00:14:55:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So as always, don't forget to stay hybrid.

Episode 088: 🔥Youth Ministry Planning: Weekend Service vs. Midweek Program

Nick Clason — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 04:00:00 -0500

⚡ [FREE] How to Film Messages⚡

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DESCRIPTION
🤔 What is the best day to meet with our youth group students
🖐️I’m ranking my top 5 curriculum resources
⚙️Finally, I’m going to share my top 3 interactive, and creative programming hacks
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/088

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

BEST TIME TO MEET?
//SPORTS & EXTRA CURRICULARS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/087

TEACHING
//STUDENTS WANT OWNERSHIP & BELONGING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqOPjD5hN-g

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

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

1) CO-LEADER
https://www.coleader.co/pricing

2) YM360
https://youthministry360.com/collections/sermon-series

3) GROW CURRICULUM
https://growcurriculum.org/

4) XP3
https://store.thinkorange.com/collections/xp3-license-category

5) DYM LIBRARY
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com

//MEMBERSHIP PRICING
https://www.dymmembership.com/pricing

3 PROGRAMMING HACKS
//USE SIDEKICK FOR INTERACTION!
https://www.sidekick.tv/

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

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

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy"
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https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

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EMAIL: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email

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

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https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

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🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Programming Your Youth Service
00:54 The Pros and Cons of different Youth Group Meeting Days and Times
05:04 Three Questions to Ask when deciding when to meet for Youth Group
07:51 The Top 5 Youth Ministry Curriculum Resource Sites
13:44 3 Creative Youth Group Programming Hacks

TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;20;40
Nick Clason
Last summer I had a leader say I thought that was a stupid idea. However, I later realized how genius it really was. What was it? I want you to stick around to the end, because this is actually one of my favorite youth group programing hacks. In addition to that, we're going to be talking about selecting the optimal youth.

00;00;20;40 - 00;00;44;48
Nick Clason
Time for you, your church and your youth group is at Wednesday night. Is it Sunday Night? Is it Sunday morning? Subscribe. If it's Wednesday night for you. Like if it's Sunday night and hey, hit the bell. If you have to be at your church on Sunday morning, I think that pretty much covers all of us. I also want to rank my top five five youth group curriculum providers and resources links down below in the show notes.

00;00;44;50 - 00;01;10;49
Nick Clason
And finally, I'm going to share with you my three favorite creative and potentially hybrid creative programing hacks. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show and the best time to meet. Like I remember when I started as a youth pastor, I was working at a church and I was inheriting a youth ministry that was run by volunteers. And so high school was on Tuesday night, middle school was on Wednesday night.

00;01;10;49 - 00;01;31;23
Nick Clason
And I met with my pastor early on, like my very first week on the job. And he told me, he said, Hey, listen, you can do whatever you want, which is an absolute dream for a youth pastor. But as a young youth pastor, the decision was actually agonizing. Do I meet Wednesday night? Do I keep meeting Tuesday night, which is when the high school are meeting?

00;01;31;23 - 00;01;53;35
Nick Clason
Do I switch to like a Sunday night vibe? And so Wednesday night, Sunday night, Sunday morning, like and I did have a Sunday morning component and so like you have to, you know, kind of navigate and know like what is going on within your church. But I had an advantage at that church because the youth ministry pretty much ran the place during midweek.

00;01;53;49 - 00;02;21;05
Nick Clason
There was no midweek kids, kids ministry programing. Kids ministry did AWANA on Sunday night at like 4:15 or something. And it was kind of an odd time, which I did end up way down the road years later, jump into Sunday night. But early on I made a decision to just stick with Wednesday. So let's chat through the pros and cons of Wednesday night, Sunday night and Sunday morning, and then maybe another day of the week in there for you.

00;02;21;10 - 00;02;42;41
Nick Clason
But the pro of of Wednesday night to me is probably your most traditional youth night. It's been a lot of churches, a lot of youth groups have done for years. And like down here where I live in DFW, Dallas, Fort Worth area a lot of churches do. Wednesday night and I came from Chicago. Not many churches did did Wednesday night.

00;02;42;41 - 00;03;03;20
Nick Clason
And that's just kind of a cultural thing, right? But the pro to me is it's like a midweek kind of jolt of energy, a mid-week connection point from if you're typically meeting on Sunday morning, you get back together in the middle of the week. That's helpful. The con of it, however, and we talked about it here in the last video, is youth sports and extracurricular activities.

00;03;03;20 - 00;03;31;44
Nick Clason
People are just getting busy. And so it makes attendance and it makes the accessibility, I believe, of a Wednesday night trickier, Sunday Night, however, the pro, I would say is probably one of the most unscheduled night for teens. Like more and more extracurricular activities, more and more sports are invading Sunday night, but it is probably the most free night that your teens have when you're looking at it from a vantage point of the majority of the availability.

00;03;31;49 - 00;03;50;55
Nick Clason
The kind of it, however, is not only for you, but for you and your teens and your leaders. It makes for a long day. You were at church Sunday morning and you've got a little gap in the middle and then you have to come back. And that returning to church like that's that is always a hard hurdle to jump I’ve found.

00;03;50;59 - 00;04;09;17
Nick Clason
If you have a kid who's not regularly planning on being at church, you say, hey, come back tonight, do like I got homework and all the things and families kind of have Sunday dinners. And so Sunday nights do tend to kind of make for a long day and then in a lot of our cases, we all have to be at church on Sunday morning.

00;04;09;22 - 00;04;35;00
Nick Clason
Some of us do our youth service on Sunday morning. Some of us have more of like a Sunday school kind of curriculum, them that we have to adhere to or carry out. The pro of Sunday morning is it's probably the easiest to gather crowd. You're going to have your most captive audience. In fact, in a video that I talked about, the decline of church attendance, most teens are attending church because they're coming with their parents.

00;04;35;00 - 00;04;52;19
Nick Clason
And so if their parents are coming to church, they're coming to church. And so Sunday morning is a great time for that to happen. The con of it is, while it may be the most captive audience, you may have the most amount of people the teenagers tend to be and feel and the environment just feels a little more tame.

00;04;52;19 - 00;05;18;29
Nick Clason
It's not a youth ministry. It's more like we are a ministry of the overall church here on a Sunday morning. But when you're making these decisions, okay, because in my case, I was talking about when I started that job, I really could decide whatever I wanted. But in a lot of cases, you don't have that that luxury. And the reason might be because you're coming into a more established church, you're coming into a more established youth group.

00;05;18;29 - 00;05;43;15
Nick Clason
And so the other like three questions to ask in this setting are, number one, what is expected of you? For example, are you even allowed to not have Sunday morning as an option? Like what is the expectation of your church and do you have the freedom to pull certain programs, pull certain time slots that you meet? So you need to make sure you know that before you make a decision and get yourself potentially in trouble.

00;05;43;20 - 00;06;13;35
Nick Clason
Question number two is what's the rest of your church doing? For example, I went to a church and and my pastor told me that this is different. I had the the freedom to make this decision. I did not have to meet on Wednesday night and I made that decision. However, once programing started in the fall, I realized that I had made a pretty big mistake because the entire church, adults, kids, preschool, everyone came back to church on Wednesday night and the only group not there, the only group not meeting ended up being middle schoolers.

00;06;13;35 - 00;06;34;06
Nick Clason
And so I had parents of middle schoolers really, really upset because they felt like their kid was not being cared for and that their kid didn't matter. In the life cycle of the church. So what is the rest of your church doing? You need to weigh that out. And if the whole church coming together for midweek, then you probably should have something there for the youth as well.

00;06;34;06 - 00;06;55;37
Nick Clason
And the third question is where do you have natural momentum? Like I said, the church, I made a decision between Wednesday night and Tuesday night and all that. I ended up landing on Wednesday night, but then years later I switched over to Sunday night and I split apart middle school and I split apart high school. And when I did that, I pulled away a little bit of momentum as well.

00;06;55;38 - 00;07;20;44
Nick Clason
Middle school was fine because it stayed on the night that it was on Wednesday night. But high school struggled because we tried to move on the Sunday night to become more adaptable to their schedules. However, at that church I was in, my students had become used to a certain rhythm and so moving, making that decision that made them have to adjust their schedule and adjust the way that they attached and that they connected to our church.

00;07;20;48 - 00;07;46;22
Nick Clason
And here's thing none of that matters, right? In your youth ministry. If you don't have students who feel connected and don't feel like they have a piece of ownership in helping growing your youth ministry into a vibrant community, which we talked about in a previous video, how to actually teach well, course you need those two components before your teaching is really going to matter.

00;07;46;22 - 00;08;08;55
Nick Clason
So let's talk about the five best curriculum resource sites, which we talked about. Students want to feel a sense of ownership and they want to feel a sense of belonging. And those two things need to exist in your youth ministry before your teaching is really going to start to matter. Wherever teaching and youth ministry, they're not going anywhere.

00;08;08;55 - 00;08;33;15
Nick Clason
It's part of what we do in youth ministry. And the fact is, you work too hard to let your messages die on your hard drive after you've delivered it to a full or maybe even potentially full or half full or less full or not as full as you'd like. Room of teenagers. And so that's why I recommend linked right here down below in description, my completely free hybrid strategy.

00;08;33;15 - 00;08;53;22
Nick Clason
If you're a youth pastor, you need to start posting your entire full length messages to YouTube. And I hear you're thinking like, I don't have livestreaming capabilities. I don't have livestreaming equipment. Hey, listen, most youth ministries don't. I certainly don't. But what we do is we actually do a YouTube video, sit down direct to camera. Honestly, very similar to what you're probably watching here.

00;08;53;27 - 00;09;14;23
Nick Clason
You can watch it on a phone, a tablet, TV, a computer, whatever it is, but you post a full length video to YouTube, you get it down to 10 to 15 minutes in length, post it. You can do some basic after editing if you like. If not, just post it on up there. But then what that does is it also helps give you an anchor for your social media curriculum.

00;09;14;33 - 00;09;33;43
Nick Clason
And so the message doesn't have to just die on a Wednesday night, on a Sunday night, on a Thursday night, whatever night of the week is your youth night, but it can live on in perpetuity. And as you teach certain series, you know how it is when it's like a students like I have a question about a particular topic and you just wrapped up a series, but they weren't there.

00;09;33;48 - 00;09;51;04
Nick Clason
Now guess what? You can share them that link and be like, Hey, I actually just talked about I'd love for you to take a watch and then let's get back together and let's, let's chat about it. But that, that bedrock of that YouTube video that can that sort of establishes the framework for all your social media throughout the week.

00;09;51;04 - 00;10;12;20
Nick Clason
You can post fun content and you can also post teaching clips now because you have a fully filmed wide screen based video that you can then clip up. You can use a service like Opus AI or Opus.Pro link down below. Description Check that out if that’s something you want AI will clip up your messages for you and do all the editing.

00;10;12;20 - 00;10;35;33
Nick Clason
And it looks masterful. It looks it looks great. But let's talk about my five favorite curriculum resources. You may be creating your own curriculum as a youth pastor, but you don't have to. And if you don't have time for you don't want to do it, this these five resources will all save you tons of time. But they may not save you tons of money because they each have a different price tag attached to them.

00;10;35;38 - 00;10;58;37
Nick Clason
So my number one favorite resource curriculum provider right now is coleader.co. That is from Download Youth Ministry and they have three sort of different tiers of billing. You can get a free version where they'll just give you access to it and you'll get 40 free credits to begin and to explore. The good thing about coleader is it plans your whole program.

00;10;58;37 - 00;11;29;41
Nick Clason
It doesn't just give you a teaching script. Then they're premium version. It's about $249 a year billed annually, which breaks down to about $10 a week, again, including all of your programing and messages and songs and small group questions that gives you about 26 or so weeks of programing. So maybe this would be good if if you're doing like school year Wednesday night from like September through May, but you're not meeting in the summer and you have a lot of like gaps and Christmas parties and Thanksgivings off and stuff like that.

00;11;29;46 - 00;11;49;45
Nick Clason
And maybe you do actually teach some of your own content and you sort of supplement in there, but you need something to pull from when you're in a pinch. And then premium plus is about $399 a year. Billed annually breaks down to about $8 or so per week. And premium plus also gives you access to the new sidekick Beta, which is amazing.

00;11;49;56 - 00;12;10;39
Nick Clason
My number two on the list is the YM 360 sermon library is just a website which has kind of like an ala carte vibe. Where you go, you can grab different lessons three and four week series that have been taught by and taught by different youth. Pastors usually break it down to about $35 per series. So check that out.

00;12;10;39 - 00;12;38;33
Nick Clason
Link down below in the description. My third favorite one is the Grow curriculum. And it is. It looks great this week. It is modern. Have full disclosure. I've never used it. Mostly price tag reasons. And in most churches that I’ve been at, we've had some other provider already. But I love the what they guys what the guys over at stuff you can use do what they stand for and so you can check that out link down below in the description.

00;12;38;33 - 00;13;08;22
Nick Clason
My fourth is XP3, orange. It is probably the Cadillac of all youth ministry curriculums is also probably the most expensive on their website. Their annual license for it is anywhere from $449 a year all the way up to 2700 per year. And that's going to be based on your average youth group size. And then number five, my fifth resource is honestly just DYM library, similar to the YM360 model.

00;13;08;33 - 00;13;27;23
Nick Clason
You can just go get a DYM membership. They've started at $12 a month, gold at $26.99 a month, and then gold plus at $40 a month. Gold plus gives you sidekick phone connections so you can scan the code on screen. Do live poll voting. One of my favorite hybrid ways to do youth ministry these days. But you can just hop on there.

00;13;27;28 - 00;13;49;10
Nick Clason
They also gives you store credit when you have the membership. So whether you have a membership or not, you can ahead of time and you can find series there typically for anywhere from $5 to $12 per series for anywhere from like 3 to 4 week teaching series. So now here we are. What is my favorite youth group programing hack?

00;13;49;15 - 00;14;05;24
Nick Clason
Well, number one link the times that you meet by purpose, right? In a lot of cases, you may not be making a decision for youth ministry. You have like one singular time to me. Is it Wednesday? Is it Sunday? Right. Like you may already have to meet Sunday morning and then you're having to figure out when else to meet.

00;14;05;28 - 00;14;24;59
Nick Clason
And so instead of having to channel like supply curriculum for each and every one of those things, what we do in our current setting, I'll just tell you is Sunday morning is connect groups. And that's for the entire church adults, kids, students, everyone. And when I got here, we were like supplying curriculum for connect groups. And then on Wednesday nights we taught out of a different curriculum.

00;14;25;13 - 00;14;50;10
Nick Clason
And so on Wednesday nights now we teach a message and then on Sunday morning they discuss the message. We have more students on Sunday morning and a lot of our students on Sunday morning don't attend back over here on Wednesday night. So because we pre film our curriculum, we will play a little clip, a teaser, also a reminder for those students who did actually come on Wednesday night to help the Sunday morning people be able to have the discussion.

00;14;50;15 - 00;15;11;12
Nick Clason
All of our leaders are able to then watch the videos in full to be able to teach the lesson. If they didn't make it on Wednesday night and you're able to have that discussion. But also, if you did come Wednesday Night, it doesn't feel like a retread or a repeat. I can't remember who said this, but I remember someone someone saying at a a conference is something like think about all the times you meet.

00;15;11;12 - 00;15;37;35
Nick Clason
If you have especially in student ministry of like main church service, you have youth Sunday morning and then you have youth Wednesday Night. And if every-- if a student comes every single week, 52 different times per year, then that is 52 times that they are taught a sermon and challenged to make an adjustment in their life and change. That is another 52 times when they come to the Youth night that they are taught a sermon and challenged 52 different times to change.

00;15;37;40 - 00;16;06;52
Nick Clason
And then the third time they come to the youth other thing and they are challenged 52 different times per year and preach a sermon with some content and challenged to change their life. I don't do math on the fly very well, but that's like well over 150 times that they're supposed to do something different with their life. And just think that when you tie these to Wednesday night, Sunday morning, whatever your thing is, when you tie them together with purpose, if you have to have both meeting slots, that helps you, right?

00;16;06;52 - 00;16;33;58
Nick Clason
Streamline your teaching. But that's also helpful to the students. It's not a laziness thing, right? In my opinion. It's not like you're just trying to get out of doing more. It's stewarding your budget, but it's also helping like most like disciple your students. Because then when your teaching is in alignment, everything can be in alignment. Your social media for that week, whatever you taught on Wednesday, that's the topic on your your social media, that's a topic on all of your digital hybrid resources.

00;16;34;03 - 00;16;55;42
Nick Clason
Right? Number two, my favorite hack is interactive teaching. Let me just share with you right here on screen tonight. I am teaching live in the room at my church and we are in a series called How to use the Bible. And in that we have been giving them like, you know, reasons for why the Bible is reliable, reasons for why we can know that we can trust the Bible.

00;16;55;47 - 00;17;19;41
Nick Clason
But then we're also like helping share them, like actual hands on tactical, like guides on how to use the Bible. But tonight I'm talking about filtering God's Word or filtering culture through the lens of God's Word in everything that we do. So what I am doing tonight is I'm starting out with a Pawn Stars video clip talking about someone who brought in a fake Babe Ruth baseball card.

00;17;19;46 - 00;17;36;13
Nick Clason
And then from there, I'm telling them the hook straight away. I'm like, Are you a Biblical Christian or are you a Cultural Christian? And then we have tables in our space. And so I'm letting them talk about the difference between a Biblical Christian and a Cultural Christian. And how can you tell me give them a few minutes to chat that out.

00;17;36;18 - 00;17;59;10
Nick Clason
Then I'm going to have a poll on the screen with Sidekick. We're asking them this question that says, Do we agree or disagree? Do we? Do we view everything in our life through a filter? Right? And then I'm going to give them three filters I view my life through Dad filter, Colts Fan filter, coffee filter, Shout out to coffee.

00;17;59;10 - 00;18;23;51
Nick Clason
My brand new Valentine's gift, the Moca-master coffee maker first cup out of it this morning. Delicious. Ten out of ten would recommend. Then from there I am going to show them a picture of like a one of my kids watches for Christmas that they got. And talk about how scientists say that the same process that happens when you learn a new language is also what's happening when we're spending time on our screens.

00;18;23;56 - 00;18;55;17
Nick Clason
And then I'm going to give them the definition of a cultural Christian versus a biblical Christian. And then I'm going to build a poll asking them what their favorite drink is like caramel macchiato, coffee, chocolate, milk, and they're going to have a chance to vote on that. All the while, all of my notes are in a thing that we call digital notes, and we use the YouVersion Live events plan that is a completely free tool that you can use, but your church can set up live events and so kids can have their phones and they can be following along with the scriptures and taking notes.

00;18;55;17 - 00;19;19;03
Nick Clason
But then we're going to take them to Daniel. Chapter one. I got one more poll in there from Sidekick. I got another turn n talk. I got a map of where they go from Babylon to to from from Jerusalem to Babylon. Let's see, then I got some reasons why you oppose the food in Daniel Chapter one. I say what scholars think the age of this Daniel was, which is 11 to 17.

00;19;19;03 - 00;19;37;09
Nick Clason
And so my question is, how does a teenage boy end up in a foreign land? His parents are likely killed and he's opposing the king. How do you think he did that? How does he have enough wisdom to know what to do and what to oppose? And then I'm going to bring a coffee pot on stage and talk about how what we put in the pod there is what we filter.

00;19;37;09 - 00;19;57;18
Nick Clason
What spits out right, is a true form of of Christianity or it's not. But the Bible has to be the filter through which we do that. But the only way that matters if we truly have a desire to follow Jesus. Now, I don't like my whole reason for sharing All that is simply just for you to see all the different like I have sent them off to, to take questions.

00;19;57;18 - 00;20;26;54
Nick Clason
And then we have digital notes for them to follow along with. And we have polls on the screen and then we have a break in between. My first part of my teaching and my last part of my teaching, which is my third hack, and that's the one the leader said. I thought that was the most stupid idea because what I would do at summer camp last year is I teach for a little bit, share a little story in opening illustration, and then I would open it to a question and then I'd send them off in their small groups right there in that space in audio auditorium style seating at camp and say, Find your small

00;20;26;54 - 00;20;44;26
Nick Clason
group and your small group leader and answer these two questions and it would break for 10 minutes. And he said, I thought we were going to lose them. Like I thought like, man, that's dumb. Like, we are going to lose. These kids are going to go crazy. But what it actually did was it helped us have longer sessions and deeper teaching because we gave a break.

00;20;44;37 - 00;21;05;56
Nick Clason
I wasn't just sitting and teaching for 20 straight minutes, 30 straight minutes, 40 heaven forbid, straight minutes, because I gave them a break and I let them contribute to the conversation, which is what Gen Z is looking to do. Right? And so that one of the challenges to good creative teaching, because like I said, we use tables in our space most Wednesday Nights.

00;21;06;00 - 00;21;30;02
Nick Clason
It's one of the challenges to that right is navigating shared space, shared space in youth ministries, which is actually the next video it's going to be linked to right here on the screen. It’s a huge challenge and a problem facing youth pastors. How do you navigate it? What are best practices linked right here? Take a look at that, because we're here to try and make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible.

00;21;30;02 - 00;21;32;26
Nick Clason
So as always, stay hybrid.

Episode 085: ✍ Youth Ministry Volunteer Training

Nick Clason — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 04:00:00 -0600

⚡ [FREE] Digital Integration Strategy⚡

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

[FREE] DYM Games
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======================================
DESCRIPTION
🤔 How do we train our youth and student ministry volunteers?
📅 How frequently should we be training our volunteers?
🧑‍🏫 What are some topics?
🖥️ And what are some platforms you can utilize?

And be sure to stick around to the end because I have an idea that will help you train your volunteers but not add another meeting to your plate
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/085

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/9cB_R_vSwIo

//FREE EBOOK STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

TRAINING IDEAS
1) Leader vs Friend
2) Managing a Distracted Group
3) Taking Kids Seriously
4) Praying with your small group
5) Gen Z & Gen Alpha

> ### --https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tVACJFlwpw&t=460s

6) Cultural Trends
7) The power of listening
8) Showing up
9) Getting Teens to Serve
10) Partnering with Parents

PLATFORMS
NATIONAL DAY OF VOLUNTEER YOUTH MINISTRY TRAINING
//https://dymtraining.com/ndovymt/

HYBRID MINISTRY YOUTUBE
//https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick

//PRACTICAL YOUTH MINISTRY TIPS
//https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips

DYM LEADER TRAINING LIBRARY
//https://leadertraining.dymapps.com/

MYM by YM360
//https://myyouthmin.com/

PODCAST GETTING STARTED GEAR
NOTE: Some of these items are affiliate links and we do get a small commission for your purchasing of these items. None of them are marked up due to them being affiliate links

MICROPHONE: https://walmrt.us/48UTzWh

YOUTUBE STARTER KIT: https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

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

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

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

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

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

😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
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📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

======================================
🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
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AUTO POD
https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-00:39 Youth Ministry Volunteer Training
00:39-03:22 Why do we need to train volunteers?
03:22-06:59 How often should we train our volunteers?
06:59-11:19 Topics to Train Volunteers in
11:19-16:26 Youth Ministry Training Platforms

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

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;23;29
Nick Clason
How do we train our youth ministry volunteers? How frequently should we be offering trainings for our youth ministry volunteers? What are some key topics that our youth ministry and our youth ministry volunteers need to be exploring? And then finally, what are some platforms that you can utilize that you can send them to so that they can sharpen their skills as volunteers?

00;00;23;29 - 00;00;45;52
Nick Clason
And finally, make sure that you hang around all the way to the end of the video, because I have an idea that I think will not only help your volunteers level up, but also is going to not add another meeting to your plate. Well, everyone, welcome to the hybrid ministry show. My name is Nick Clason and I've been a youth pastor for 13 something years.

00;00;45;53 - 00;01;05;46
Nick Clason
And because of that, you've got to think about a youth ministry, has a lot of things that feel a little bit unnatural. Like let's just say, for example, I was a volunteer in your youth ministry and let's say I walked in for the very first time and you told me, Hey, listen, just go like, go hang out and love on teenagers.

00;01;05;51 - 00;01;35;02
Nick Clason
Like, I would probably as a 13 year youth ministry veteran, I would probably be okay and figure out how to do that. Now, if a brand new dad or mom or college student walks in and you give them those exact same instructions, they're probably not going to know what to do. For one of the reasons simply being because they are told all throughout society and culture not to do that.

00;01;35;02 - 00;01;57;06
Nick Clason
And so in a lot of ways, youth ministry is kind of creepy, right? And so we have to help A, give them the comfort and safety to do some of those things, but be help teach them in love with them on how they can do that safely and appropriately, and that it is good youth ministry for them to to go hang out with teenagers and not just be a chaperon.

00;01;57;09 - 00;02;19;47
Nick Clason
But I say that to say because you need to help sharpen their skills. You have to help level them up. Some of the things that you and I do as youth pastors, youth leaders, we already do these things naturally, but we need to level up. We need to train our volunteers. And if if one of the roles that we're trying to use have them hang out with students, well then, hey, was.

00;02;19;47 - 00;02;50;11
Nick Clason
And we should probably give them opportunities to do that. That's why I actually I created this completely free e-book. If you look through it, it's 40 ideas, a month's worth of posting content, but it's not just a bunch of still and static graphics. What it actually is, is it's teaching you in training you not only how to prerecord your messages to post them on YouTube so that you are showing up in a digital and a hybrid space on a platform where students are spending 95% or 94% of students are spending some of their time.

00;02;50;23 - 00;03;11;28
Nick Clason
But also then it will let you, your students and your leaders do things and work together on camera. Different challenges, different different games and things like that. And so that's going to be a great opportunity for your students and your leaders to start to rub shoulders. And you can kill two birds with one stone by crushing it for social media.

00;03;11;33 - 00;03;51;07
Nick Clason
How frequently should we as youth pastors and youth ministry leaders, how frequently should we be hosting trainings? Well, let's talk about that in the next video. Suffering. We should be hosting trainings. There are several schools of thought and there are a couple of different ways to think about it. First of all, every single time you meet, you may be having some sort of huddle and I would recommend some sort of thing around that, some sort of, you know, strategy of around meeting, getting everyone on the same page, giving everyone the service order service brunch sheet so that they have what they need so that they're they're not in a lurch for that night.

00;03;51;12 - 00;04;17;01
Nick Clason
However, that can give a little bit cumbersome and especially if it's like on a Wednesday night, you may be running into volunteers and they're getting off of work schedule. And so one thing that I have done in the past is instead of doing a weekly huddle, I've done more of like a monthly gathering, monthly huddle. And then that monthly gathering would not only operate as a weekly huddle to get everyone on the same page and talk to them about what we're teaching and sharing in our small group.

00;04;17;01 - 00;04;47;30
Nick Clason
But then it would also give me a moment to do some teambuilding as well as some training. And so that was sort of be a strategy to do that. But let me just say that one time, one year I was doing a monthly huddle, I shifted from a weekly huddle to a monthly huddle. And in my monthly huddle, one thing that felt like all I can explain is the feeling was myself in many of my volunteers every single time, when it was time for another huddle, they'd be like again, rather just felt like it was all the time.

00;04;47;30 - 00;05;05;09
Nick Clason
Felt was constantly something that we were turn around and doing like, we got another one of those again. yeah, that's right. It's been a month, right? And so there may be a rhythm and you just got to figure this out. What works for you? Because a monthly huddle is often probably something you have to do in an off peak time.

00;05;05;09 - 00;05;26;42
Nick Clason
So it's Sunday after church or it's Wednesday late after one of your Wednesday nights or something like that. But it's not going to be tied to and woven in to your already existing youth ministry schedule. And so you just you got to figure out when can you get all of your volunteers to commit to another moment on their calendar in their week.

00;05;26;56 - 00;06;06;27
Nick Clason
And then another idea within that is how frequently are you going to be communicating? So while you do have meetings, there are going to be infrequent or not infrequent, but but different types of communication. So things like group text messages and or emails, how frequently, how often are you going to be also sending those things? I personally I recommend weekly, so a weekly sort of communication email and then another like another form of gathering, whether that be a an annual meeting, which I haven't said yet, but that's an idea, an annual meeting, a one time meeting, whether it's twice a year, you get together for a big sort of thing, whether it's a monthly sort

00;06;06;27 - 00;06;24;42
Nick Clason
of leader gathering or some sort of weekly huddle. Now every single one of those scenarios, your training is going to have to look a little bit different. If you do annually, you probably can do a big seminar type style thing. You can probably do that if you meet twice a year. If you do monthly, you might need to make it a little more bite sized.

00;06;24;42 - 00;06;52;11
Nick Clason
Not so long, not so so many hours of a commitment. And if you meet weekly, you got to be more in like the tips and tactics zone and all those to be said. You can also share some tips and tactics to level up youth ministry training in your weekly communications via text via email. Now, you might be thinking like, okay, I see the need for this and I realize I need to figure out where I'm going to stick it on my calendar.

00;06;52;15 - 00;07;18;57
Nick Clason
But what in the world should I be talking about? Great. Let's let's talk through that in the next section. All right. Some good topics. And these are just suggestions and examples. And and if something pops up in some particular area or arena in your student ministry, then address it by all means. Right. But if you are like I know I want to me and only to help level my leaders off, but I don't even know where to start then.

00;07;19;10 - 00;07;41;38
Nick Clason
Then there's give me a list right here on the screen. If you are listening, you can head to the show notes, HybridMinistry.xyz/085 Also, if you do end up over on YouTube, be sure to give us a subscribe and a like because these topics we don't want only you to have them. We want all the youth pastors in America to know them, to have them, and to be able to turn to them in a time of need.

00;07;41;38 - 00;08;05;31
Nick Clason
But some topics that I have done or have seen or I just think can be useful. I have ten right here. Screenshot them. This could if you do a monthly gathering, this could essentially fill out your monthly training calendar for for the year. Right. One per month. So the first one is how do you distinguish between a leader versus being a friend of the students.

00;08;05;36 - 00;08;22;37
Nick Clason
You can also then chat through in another month managing a distracted group. We've all been there. We've all led a group that's distracted, especially the sixth grade boys group. How do you get them on task and what is a win for them? How do you take kids seriously? A lot of times we want to come in. We want to tell them what to do.

00;08;22;37 - 00;08;44;54
Nick Clason
But how do we take their needs, their concerns, their thoughts, their ideas, their their the things that they say? How do we take them seriously so that we can add and bring value to who they are as people? How do you pray with your small group? What are some practical ideas beyond just praying to close? But how can you be praying as a small group and be a praying small group together?

00;08;44;58 - 00;09;02;52
Nick Clason
Maybe do a little training on Gen Z and Gen Alpha? I actually have a video links right here at the top of the screen about Gen Alpha, exploring who they are and what we need to know. So maybe you could go watch that and that could be the springboard for some of your content. What are some cultural trends right these days that are going on?

00;09;03;01 - 00;09;23;21
Nick Clason
You should be thinking like, what? What's what's culturally relevant right now and how can we take those trends and how can we chat through? Some of them especially have a a team of adults. They're not living in teen culture anymore, so help expose them to some of those things that maybe even you need to do a little bit of study, a little bit of research on, but help expose them to some of those things.

00;09;23;26 - 00;09;56;11
Nick Clason
What about the power of listening? You know that it's not good for a small group leader to be in there and to just be yammer on the whole time. So help help challenge them, help challenge your small group leaders to listen first and talk second. What about the power of showing up helping, as we talked about in the last video in this youth ministry Master Class 2024 playlist as we talked about scaling up the care for leaders, shepherding you can you can spread out some of those responsibilities if if a small group leader shows up to a kid's soccer game, not only does that get you off the hook and I'm not saying that you

00;09;56;11 - 00;10;17;17
Nick Clason
should be trying to get off the hook of these things, but if you have 100 kids to get to soccer games for, that's going to be tricky for you to get to a hundred different soccer games. But your youth ministry volunteers can also show up to the kids in their small group, getting teens to serve, helping, helping equip small group leaders to to be recruiters and helping teenagers step into their God given callings and abilities.

00;10;17;17 - 00;10;40;49
Nick Clason
And finally, how do you partner with parents? Give smokable leaders tangible tips and tricks and tools to be able to reach out to parents? Very simply, something like do they have all the email lists? And if they don't, do they have access to get all the email lists? Have you allowed them to be a member of your church management software to at least be able to get in and access the group information?

00;10;41;00 - 00;11;00;13
Nick Clason
So those are just some topic ideas. It's not holistic, it's not exhaustive, but they're just ten ideas to help you begin to think about training. I remember thinking, Do I do that? Do I do you know one of those topics in a monthly gathering? Do I cram some of them together in an annual gathering? Do I weave some of them in and out of my communication?

00;11;00;18 - 00;11;38;48
Nick Clason
The answer to that is it's up to you. You guys figure out what's going to work best for you, but I do have in the next section several platforms that you can explore and look at and maybe even try to train and level up some of your youth ministry volunteers. So hey, let's go check that out. So from a once a year from an annual sort of perspective, there is no better option honestly than the NDOVYMT, which is an abbreviation for the National Day of Volunteer Youth Ministry training put on hosted by my friends over a download Youth Ministry, Josh Griffin, Doug Fields and their team.

00;11;38;52 - 00;12;09;11
Nick Clason
There is a link down in the description or head over to the show notes for our train. My volunteers Scott, which will give you info and insight into how to sign up for one of these things. The fact is the pricing is very, very cheap for training your entire team. It's only $250. If you want to be a host church or have other churches come to your church as a host, church is $400, but you get to bring as many people, as many volunteers to that training as possible.

00;12;09;11 - 00;12;30;15
Nick Clason
Plus, it's all video based. And so you get that video for the entire year. Even if you don't play the full video, you can kind of clip it up and use it throughout the year. Another platform idea platform idea number two is honestly this YouTube channel, right? Like I am focusing on helping Mel between the digital and the physical and bringing those things together.

00;12;30;15 - 00;12;50;45
Nick Clason
But I also have a lot of like just generalize youth ministry content so you could check out my youth ministry channel idea number three, you can help. You can check out the Practical Youth Ministry Tips podcast. My friend Eric with the K Williams, he is dropping gold all day long over on his channel as well. So both of our channels are completely free.

00;12;50;45 - 00;13;08;53
Nick Clason
Both of us are trying to to just get the message in the word out there. And so we want people to at these, be aware of it. But right now we're doing it for primarily for free, right? We're not charging you 400 hours like National Day Training is another couple of ideas is the do I am leader training library.

00;13;08;53 - 00;13;29;07
Nick Clason
So if you're a member of do you. I am I can't remember the tiers who gets access to this but but I know if you're at the highest couple of tiers you get access to a do I am leader training library. So there are videos that you can log into a portal and you can watch video trainings from people like Doug Fields, Josh Griffin and some of their friends over there.

00;13;29;07 - 00;14;09;37
Nick Clason
And they have several of the topics, even several topics that I was was suggesting earlier are available on that podcast site. Another thing that I have submitted content for and I have used is the My Youth Min portal by YM360. I think it's aimed a little bit more at the primary and Central youth worker, but it's a great platform to check out if it's something that you is behind a paywall, but it's got like some topflight people talking about things, people in the trenches, and it's like 19 pieces of new content drop onto that platform every single month.

00;14;09;48 - 00;14;27;55
Nick Clason
And so that's one of the keys about it, is that it is it is dynamic and it is moving. It's not just going to be like a leader training library of static videos that haven't been updated in several years. And so the MYM podcast link down below the description or the show notes, all for all these are links down the description.

00;14;27;55 - 00;15;00;47
Nick Clason
And finally, the idea that I think because things are changing and I don't want another meeting on my calendar and, and you probably don't want another meeting on your calendar, an idea for training either to supplement or to replace some of your in-person meetings is what about creating a podcast on the go right? Like you can you can offer training to your leaders as they're going as they're heading to work, as they're running groceries, as they're picking up kids from school and soccer practice.

00;15;00;52 - 00;15;34;46
Nick Clason
If you create a podcast feed, whether it be a public or a private feed and you just do 5 to 10 minute trainings, you can pick up a pretty easy and cheap microphone. Very similar to this. I'll drop some links down below in the show notes for you to check out. If you want to do video based, you can use your cell phone and you can get up and going and listen If you if you start pre filming your messages like I recommend in my full year strategy anyway, you should have a camera, whether it be a real camera or you just using your phone and you're using my under $100 starter kit to get

00;15;34;46 - 00;16;00;06
Nick Clason
going. You can use that as a way to get some of that training up and going and then you can just start posting it to places. And so if you do audio, you do a podcast feed, if you do video, you do YouTube. But like I said, what I'm trying to think of as I'm trying to ride some of the future waves in some of the future trends, because that's actually what I'm going to be talking about in the very next video, which is going to be linked right here on the screen.

00;16;00;11 - 00;16;21;42
Nick Clason
Carey Nieuwhof in his 2024 trends. It is an amazing article. He's been doing an amazing job. And I know we're several months in now to 2024, but I wanted to do a React video and so check that video out link right here on the screen because we in this podcast are trying to make digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible.

00;16;21;42 - 00;16;25;31
Nick Clason
And so, as always, stay hybrid.

Episode 080: 🛑 Stop Posting Church Announcements on Social Media

Nick Clason — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 07:00:00 -0600

⚡ [FREE] Crush Social Media This New Year ⚡

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

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

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

DESCRIPTION
😫 Are you tired of seeing church announcements flood your social media feeds? It's time to rethink this strategy and take a closer look at the potential hazards it poses.

📹In this video, we delve deep into the reasons why posting church announcements on social media might not be the wisest choice.

👍But, don’t worry! We’ll show you exactly what to do! And how to not lose your life to it! Especially if you follow our time management tips, which is a part of the 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/080

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/slB0Rmf_X0c

PURPOSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
//OPUS.PRO [1 CLICK VIRAL SHORTS SOLUTION]
https://youtu.be/TiW4ooQpAvo?si=W_4pCZZbZmUnzsB9

//METRICOOL
https://metricool.com/

POST YOUR MESSAGES ON YOUTUBE
//[FREE] E-BOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

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

//YOUVERSION LIVE EVENTS
https://my.bible.com/events

TAKE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE NEXT LEVEL
//OPUS.PRO [1 CLICK VIRAL SHORTS SOLUTION]
https://youtu.be/TiW4ooQpAvo?si=W_4pCZZbZmUnzsB9

//SONLIFE
https://www.sonlife.com/

//[FREE] E-BOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

IDEA #2: TELEPATHY
//ADOBE PREMIERE PRESETS
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

IDEA #3: RANK 'EM
//DYM RANK 'EM RESOURCES
Christmas: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em%3A-christmas-edition/christmas-games-9126.html
Fall: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em---fall-edition/holiday-or-seasonal/fall-8962.html

IDEA #6: EMOJI PHRASEOLOGY
//MY FAVORITE 9 DYM PRODUCTS
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

IDEA #8: SPIRITUAL PRACTICE VIDEOS
//SPIRITUAL PRACTICE VIDEOS
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/spiritual-practice-videos/social-media/instagram-8804.html

WHAT TO DO ABOUT FACEBOOK?
//CANVA PRO FOR [FREE!]
https://youtu.be/g0FQWvKjP_E?si=D6jJLxEdkEy9z0FV

WHAT TO DO ABOUT INSTAGRAM?
//BUDGET GRAPHIC DESIGN EDITORS
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw

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

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

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

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

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

======================================
🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-01:06 Stop Doing this on Social Media
01:06-04:14 What is the purpose of social media?
04:14-07:04 Post Your Messages to YouTube
07:04-11:42 Taking your social media to the next level
11:42-12:12 Idea #1: Drafts
12:12-13:45 Idea #2: Telepathy
13:45-14:04 Idea #3: Blind Rankings
14:04-14:20 Idea #4: Know it or Nah
14:20-14:33 Idea #5: Staff Videos
14:33-15:39 Idea #6: Emoji Phraseology
15:39-15:44 Idea #7: Sermon Clips
15:44-16:35 Idea #8: Spiritual Practice
16:35-16:46 Where to Post all these videos?
16:46-17:34 What to do about Facebook?
17:34-19:27 What to do about Instagram?

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

Nick Clason (00:00):
Summer camp, fall retreat D. Now your next outreach experience, the reality is there are always things to do. You're always trying to get students to come to you. You're always trying to get people to fill and populate your next church events. So naturally, what do we do? Well, we need to put it on the church website. We need to make sure that it gets listed in the church bulletin. We need to add it to the pre-roll before the service and post it to social media. Stop it. No, seriously, stop it. Stop posting your announcements to social media. Don't do it. Don't do it. We're tempted always to post our announcements to social media because we think it's another outlet, another strategy, another place to inform people. But the reality is nobody wants that on their social media feeds. I hear you. You're like, yeah, but what else should I do? Nobody listens, dude. I get it. Okay, but let's look at it. What should we be doing on social media?

Nick Clason (01:07):
So stop posting your announcements on social media. I saw this reel the other day about this guy talking about the Red Bull social media experience, and he said, red Bull is crushing it. He said, what are the local pizzerias and restaurants in your town doing? People are not getting on social media and thinking like, man, I wonder what's on the menu today. Because if you look at a pizzeria on social media, you know that they're going to be posting or you know that they're going to be serving pizza. That's just a part of the experience. And so he said, what Red Bull's doing on social media, we know that Red Bull serves Red Bull energy drinks, but what their primary goal on social media is entertainment. So that's why people get on social media. They get on social media to be entertained. Can we as a church adopt some of those strategies not forever and forsaking some of the spiritual components that can come about on social media, but can we do that on social media?

Nick Clason (02:08):
And the fact is, yeah, actually social media has ushered in a new era with the discovery platforms, with short form video based and videos are still king. And you know what you can do? You can actually take clips and snippets of your message and use this strategy right here. It's linked at the top of the video and this completely free tool Opus Pro. Check out in that video link in this description, link in that video description. But the fact of the matter is you can use tools out there. You can use AI to help you and aid you if you're not a great video editor, if you don't know how to clip things up on social. But the fact is, you might even be thinking, well, what am I supposed to do? How can I post things there? There's a lot of services out there to post things on the feed.

Nick Clason (02:52):
So you may be scheduling your lock-in post. You may be scheduling your church announcement post. You may be scheduling your summer camp. Stop doing those things. You can create videos, you can create moments of entertainment, and you can use a posting service if you want. Linked Below is my experience with a posting service called Metrical. That's probably who I would recommend. I do still like to just post everything I do live. I find that the algorithms prefer that and that things just perform better from a views and metrics standpoint. But if you don't have time for that and you're like, there's no way I could do that, then check out Metrical. It's completely free for most up to a certain number of posts and it's worth it. But you never want to get on a feed. Think about your own habits. You never just want to get on a feed that's just littered with, come to this event, come to this event, come to this event, come to this.

Nick Clason (03:47):
That's boring. And you know what? Your social media probably reflects that. If all you're doing is posting announcements, you're probably only getting a single digit number of likes because the reality is that's not what people are looking for when they get on social media. And so I know you got a lot to announce, you got a lot to get out there, but social media is not the place. So what should we be doing? Well, let's check that out. So churches, youth pastors, regardless of where you are in this on the org chart at your church, what should you be doing? Well, number one, start posting long form to YouTube. And now when I say that if you have live streaming capabilities in your room and you don't have time to sit down direct to camera, then go ahead and post your live streams to YouTube.

Nick Clason (04:38):
But if you don't, I don't. I'm a youth pastor and we are in our very own room, our very own space, and our room is not outfitted for live streaming capabilities. So we actually sit down very similar to what I'm doing here direct to camera. I have a teleprompter and I do deliver a message there. Now, that entire strategy is laid out completely for you, for free right here in my 100% completely free ebook. But that is the baseline. That's the basis for all my social media, everything else sort of branches off of there. So all of our messages that we produce and that we perform, everything that we produce in the room, we also then go ahead and do it directly on YouTube. So pre film your messages, it gives you two strategic advantages. Number one, if you don't have live streaming capability, it gives you a way to film it that is good, helpful, beneficial, looks good, direct to camera.

Nick Clason (05:32):
You can do most of that for under a hundred dollars. That's also linked below in the show notes with just a cell phone camera and a few little pieces of gear. But then from there, what you can do is you can take those messages, post them to YouTube. You also get an opportunity to practice your message. So then when you are standing up live in the room in front of a bunch of students, it's not the first time that you're looking at that material. You have done it before. You have delivered it before, once you've pre-filed, done direct to camera. The one thing that I love about that is in YouTube, they have a description thing, just like me, a lot of things down to the description in this video. Also over at hybridministry.xyz/080 But you can do the same kind of concept.

Nick Clason (06:16):
You can paste a next steps form. And so for every single one of your messages, you can push students towards a next steps form. We like to use the you version events, live events for in the room. Students can follow along, take notes, read scripture, but we also post the link to that in every single video. So if they're watching on a laptop, then they can sit down, they can scroll through that on their phone, they can take notes, they can engage with the Bible on their phone right in front of them. So you can link certain things. And then by the way, hey, if you are announcing summer camp, you can be like, Hey, summer camp registration link in the description. You don't have to make it some static boring graphic post. You can actually weave it into the rest of your strategy. But then dovetailing off of your long form YouTube videos is this next piece that you definitely don't want to miss.

Nick Clason (07:05):
So after YouTube video, the next thing I recommend that you do is that you post shorts, reels, tiktoks to your feeds. And the good news is all four of the major platforms, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook if you want to, it's really easy to link with your Instagram and TikTok are all asking for similar content. So what you can do now on social media for the first time in a lot of years is you can create one piece of content for one platform, but you can spread it across all fours. You can post the same thing to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Facebook Ourto for example, I posted these this week. This week, a couple weeks leading up to Christmas when I'm filming this. You're going to get this in the new year, but we do thing, and I'm going to detail, it's actually detailed right here.

Nick Clason (07:53):
I'll completely free my ebook, but we're going to go through nine ideas that you can do to start doing entertainment based things on your social medias and stop just posting announcements. One of the things we do are drafts stole this, saw this on someone's TikTok somewhere. So we were doing drafting Christmas movies across all four platforms. We had on TikTok, we had 383 views. We had on YouTube, 280 views we had on Instagram, 214 views. And then on Facebook we had 175 views, which totaled 1052 views across all four platforms. Those aren't great numbers by the way either. That's just very standard. I picked the second most recent post that I posted just to give you a good example of a real time strategy idea. I'm not trying to highlight my best one or anything like that, right? But here's the question. Would you like for your content to get in front of a thousand people probably, right?

Nick Clason (08:46):
And that wasn't great. We've had posts that have hit 13,000 on Instagram, 27,001 time we did a football draft. So we've had way, way bigger success. But then that was a entertainment based one. Also in the same week, we've posted a spiritual based one that one did not do as well. And this is actually an underperformer in my opinion. And we've had ones that do similar to the draft response in around those numbers on all the four platforms. But we had on TikTok, we had 224 views. We had 211 on Instagram, we had only 15 on Facebook, which is pretty low. And then 1 42 on YouTube, which is also relatively low, but still that total to 592. I know for me that feels low, but we don't have 592 students or people come to our youth ministry program. So we post fun content. We also post spiritual content, and then that's anchored underneath the baseline by our long form YouTube video.

Nick Clason (09:48):
And what's crazy is that Opus Pro, the message clip that came through Opus Pro. And so you'll notice there's a little overlay that says, watch the full video on Cross Creek students YouTube channel that is just a preset that I made. And every single one of our videos spits out with that little watermark. I can change it, I can customize, I can do. The stats aren't crazy, but you should subscribe because this is actually part of the 2024 Youth Pastor Masterclass. We're right dead in the middle. If you subscribe and if you hit the bell, you'll get notified when the next video drops. But I like to think about it like this or I want, but I like to think of it like my neighbor. I want to share the gospel with my neighbor. I want to tell them about Jesus. But every single time I have a conversation with my neighbor, I'm not sitting down and telling them about Jesus.

Nick Clason (10:34):
I'm working the relationship. I'm having a conversation. I grew up in church. I grew up in a ministry called Sun Life, and they have a thing called spiritual, CPR, cultivate, plant Reap. And really the cultivate stage is just build the friendship. Plant is like sprinkle in seeds of spiritual conversations in the gospel and then reap is like present the gospel and ask them for a decision to follow Jesus. Yes or no. And a lot of times on social media, we take the approach of reap, ask them for a spiritual decision, ask them to respond to the gospel, yes or no every single time as opposed to trying to cultivate our audience as opposed to trying to plant little seeds of curiosity, spiritual moments, things like that. So here are ideas, things that I do in my own personal context. It's all outlined here. Am I completely free?

Nick Clason (11:23):
Ebook? You should definitely check it out if you haven't yet. But it will help you take your social media from being boring and dumb and announcement based to entertainment based and personality driven. Not just your personality, but students, other volunteer leaders, other staff that you might have. So these are things that we do. We do a thing called a draft, and that's what you just saw the results from. But two people sit down and then they just draft things under a certain category. We've done Christmas movies, we've done potatoes, we've done burger places, we've done Christmas songs, we've done Thanksgiving food, we've done Halloween Candy, we've done Avengers, we've done Blue Characters. Literally anything you can think of. One person next person, one person next person. The only caveat is you can pick anything you want, but if it's already been taken, it's kind of off the board.

Nick Clason (12:12):
The next thing we do is a fun little game called Telepathy or Wavelength or nsync or just guess the number. And two people sit down and one person's thinking of a number, the other person's asking them certain categories, and then the person that has the number in their brain, they're telling the other person their answers from that category based on their number. So for example, if I'm thinking of the number one and you ask me for a day of the week, I'm going to say Monday. And then if you say food, I'm going to say Tomatoes. Okay? And so then at the end of it, you ask four things, four different things. So day of the week, food, movie, Avenger, and then you give 'em all. And then at the end, the other person, I was asking the categories, they say, are you thinking number one?

Nick Clason (12:57):
And if they got it right, they got it right. If they got it wrong, they got it wrong. The one thing I love about this game is we intro it like this. Hey, we're playing this game. The number's going to be right here on the screen. The number pops in on the screen. You can edit that in an editor like Adobe Premier Pro, I got completely free presets. Link down below if you want some of those that will do animations like this and like that, and rotate in, rotate out all those things, all the things you just saw on the screen. If you're not watching on YouTube, all those things are in the link in the description. Go grab the free presets. But if not, you can do that on your phone in a phone editor like TikTok or Cap Cut. But you can say, Hey, the number's on the screen, close your eyes if you don't play along.

Nick Clason (13:37):
Alright, here we go. And then that person can open their eyes and they can watch and they can actually try to guess the number. So it's actually engaging the person on the other side of the phone. I like to do blind rankings. TikTok has a blind ranking filter, so you can blind rank all kinds of things. Disney movies, Disney characters, and a blind rank is just you're ranking them in a one through 10 or one through five order without knowing what's coming next. I also have some examples of that on Download Youth Ministry, a link to that in just a second. I like to do these things called Know it or Nah, so you've probably heard it where they play a little five second clip of a song on TikTok. Just find those audios on TikTok. And then you choose one side of the room.

Nick Clason (14:14):
So I'll get four or five people if they know it, they go to this side. If they don't, they go to that side. We'll do staff video. So we'll have our staff participate in certain things we were just giving away for our Christmas party. Craig Cash, our senior pastor's name is Craig. We were giving away Craig Cash, and so we did the Craig Cash Olympics, we did all kinds of Christmas type things. One of my favorites is a game I have on DYM called Emoji Phrase theology. People just trying to guess the emoji phrase. And I'll just sit down or have a student sit down or a leader sit down or walk around and quiz students, Hey, what's this emoji phrase saying? What's this camp emoji phrase saying, what's this Christmas emoji phrase saying? Was this back to school emoji phrase saying, and I'll clip those in.

Nick Clason (14:54):
So I take a game that's already created, and instead of just doing the kind of static standard screen-based graphics, we customize it to our own space. Link down below are my favorite nine DYM products that I have. Several of them are hybrid based. Several of them don't just focus on the screen only or digital, but it's a melding together of the two. And you can take that next layer to the next level, right? Like my emoji phrase, theology. There's a social media component, but you can take it to the next level and customize it with a host, asking people the answers to those questions. And just some simple video editing on the backside, whether that be in a software like Adobe Premiere Pro, or you can do it on TikTok or in Canva, or not Canva, but Cap Cut. I always get Canva and Cap cut mixed up.

Nick Clason (15:40):
You can use the video clips out of Opus Pro like I was talking about. I got some spiritual practice videos on Download Youth Ministry. One of my favorites is someone's scrolling through TikTok and you just point to the screen right here and it says, stay or scroll, read the Bible with me. Point, point, point, point, point, point, point. Wait a second. And you say, all right, thanks for staying. Let's read the Bible together. And you read a passage of scripture right there on social media. That's all you do. It's super basic, super simple, but it has a great response because what you're doing then is you're cultivating that relationship. You may get those people with the draft or the instinct telepathy game or the blind ranking or the know it or not back and forth, and then you're like, Hey, let's do some spiritual stuff together.

Nick Clason (16:19):
Let's memorize scripture. Let's read the Bible, let's do a prayer. All those types of things. And you can do a lot of that stuff, especially with the bedrock of your messages. Long form video, you can do a lot of that stuff on Opus Pro. Saves you hours. It saves me hours every single week. So continuing on our strategy, you can post all those types of videos to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Facebook. But what about Facebook groups? Well, let's check it out. You should definitely have Facebook groups. You should have a Facebook page also because a Facebook page is where those things dump into, but then have a group associated with that. If you're a youth pastor, my only strategy that I recommend on Facebook is a Facebook parents group. That's mostly where they are. You can post things like car ride questions, and you can use Canva Pro.

Nick Clason (17:06):
It's completely free for churches. It's also linked below. We did an entire video on it, so you can go check that out in the description, but you can just create square graphics for your parents to talk about stuff with their students on the way home. And that's just a great discipleship strategy. If you're a church communications person, you should probably have a little bit more active Facebook group. But for a youth pastor, most students aren't on Facebook, but most parents are. And so that's where the strategy comes in. It's for the parents. Lastly, on Instagram, you got the feed. You also got stories on stories. The ultimate goal, I would say, is to engage with your people. So repost things if they tag you for sure. You can also post engagement style questions. What's your favorite Christmas movie? What's the best Halloween candy? What's your New Year's resolution?

Nick Clason (17:53):
What's one thing you're going to be doing this weekend using only emojis? Tell us what you did this last week. Stuff like that. Engage with your audience. A lot of times, I'll take a reel that I post, so I don't post every single one of those reels to the feed, though that option has recently turned off, so I have to post it, then go back later and take it off the profile grid. I'm sure there's a setting I'm missing, but nonetheless, I'll sometimes then share the reels that didn't also get shared to the feed into a story, and that's just a way to do engagement. And then I may throw a question sticker like a slider bar or a question or a quiz sticker or something like that. Just engagement. That's my goal in stories. And then on the main feed, just post photos of your people and post recap photos from a Wednesday night, from a Sunday morning, from a Sunday night.

Nick Clason (18:36):
Brady Sheer is doing these carousel based education, entertainment based carousel posts where ask the question and he answers it. They are money, and I think that they are here to stay, and you don't need a lot of graphical work to do some of those things. You can do something simple and easy and basic like that simply on Canva. Or even simply maybe in the Instagram stories editor, we have a complete playlist where we look at budget graphic editors, if that's something you're interested in. It's also linked below. But finally, speaking of education, that's one of the main ways that we help disciple and teach our students about Jesus and help them take meaningful next steps towards him, which is the next video in this 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass video linked right here on the screen. We'll talk to you next time as we're making discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So as always, stay hybrid.

Episode 076: ✅ 7 Part Youth Group Checklist

Nick Clason — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 06:00:00 -0600

🔥 [FREE] Social Media Mastery Awaits! Get Your Hands on Our Free One-Month Ebook 🔥

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

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

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

DESCRIPTION
👋 Welcome to our YouTube channel & podcast!

✅ In this comprehensive video, we reveal the key to planning effective and engaging social events for your youth group. From icebreakers and team-building activities to creative theme ideas and logistical tips, we've got you covered.

👐 Discover how to foster a sense of community, encourage meaningful connections, and create a safe and inclusive environment for all participants.

YouthGroup #Checklist #EssentialSteps #SuccessfulGathering #YouthMinistry #Youth #Christianity #Church #Community #Leadership #Inspirational #Motivation #Encouragement #Teamwork #FunActivities #Icebreakers #Bonding #Faithbuilding #Engagement #Unity

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

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

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

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

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

========================================
🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

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

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

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

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

Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/076

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/4s-vOknIaQI

#1 PLANNING
//BASECAMP
https://basecamp.com/

//PLANNING CENTER SERVICES
https://services.planningcenteronline.com/

//GOOGLE DRIVE/DOCS
https://drive.google.com
https://https://docs.google.com/

#2 COMMUNICATE
//SOCIAL MEDIA MAGIC IN YOUR HANDS
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

#3 GAMES
//DIVE INTO THRILLING GAMES:
https://youtu.be/OiBjI9dMxu8?si=YIVFdYh-6KM8nySP

//SEAMLESS BLENDING: THE ULTIMATE HYBIRD EVENT
EPISODE: https://youtu.be/5ryhkIRyDb4?si=qV6v3-ORrgcmLLtZ
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

//9 BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

#4 SNACKS

#5 PREACHING & TEACHING
//TEACHING TO A TIKTOK GENERATION
https://youtu.be/iIgEtxPLGBg?si=7tQYGGyW7kCKq9KS

#6 SMALL GROUPS
//SAMPLE SMALL GROUP GUIDE
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/okmirbzzu6avn0o5knrj3/08_13_2023_RuinSchool_GroupGuide_Week1.pdf?rlkey=ozs2lmz1ewxmehwn89fnqj1u7&dl=0

#7 FOLLOW UP
//ENGAGE WITH STUDENTS DURING THE WEEK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

//OPUS.PRO
https://youtu.be/TiW4ooQpAvo?si=Ayp7-8W4_QWawi3G

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

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-00:44 7 Part Youth Group Checklist
00:44-02:50 1) Always Be Planning
02:50-04:36 2) Communication
04:36-05:47 3) Games
05:47-07:37 4) Snacks
07:37-08:55 5) Preaching & Teaching
08:55-10:09 6) Small Groups
10:09-11:35 7) Follow-Up

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

Nick Clason (00:00):
Are you a youth pastor, a youth ministry leader, looking to make your gatherings of people your physical gatherings more intricate and maybe even make 'em a little bit more exciting? How do you plan a surefire amazing event? And furthermore, what do you do to hybridize it? Right? My entire strategy in this podcast is to help you take not just your in-person gatherings, but also your digital presence, social media website, and meld those two together so that you can truly have a hybrid ministry. If that's what you're looking for, you're in luck because that is what we're going to be talking about in this episode today. This is the Hybrid Ministry Show, and we have a seven step framework for the Ultimate Youth Group gathering. Let's get going. Number one is you need to be planning. Listen, I am a 13 year youth ministry veteran, and I have learned that the hard way over my time in ministry, there have been so many times where I've been caught at an event without any plan whatsoever, and I am forced to pivot in the moment.

Nick Clason (01:00):
So it's not only helped me get a little bit more nimble on my feet, but also it's forced me to realize the importance of planning. So there are a couple of really good tools. One that works really well for us in our space is a project management tool called Base Camp. It's quite expensive, but if your church has the budget for it, I recommend at least looking into it, and I'm sure they have a free trial version that you can check out if that's something you're interested in. Also, planning Center online, it's what most people use, especially musicians and such for services and for musicians and disseminating music and stuff like that. But that's a great place to communicate with your tech person, with anyone else that's going to be on stage about what the plan is, what the game is. And so I use that every single week to just let everybody know what is to be expected and what's going to be happening in the actual program of the event.

Nick Clason (01:48):
Event. And then also just free Google Docs. It's a shared space. If you're in a meeting, everyone can have the same Google Doc up. You don't have to have a whiteboard, you don't have to be in some conference room. You can do it via Zoom. But Google Docs and Google Drive are both great docs for word processing, but Google Drive for file sharing and file storage, and you can link things via Google Docs, but you can use Base Camp. You can use Planning center services. You can use Google, Google Drive. You can use those to your advantage to get ahead to think ahead about what is going to happen in your youth ministry space. And hey, if you're watching this video and you've found value so far, please consider liking subscribing, maybe even sharing with the friend, because it's really important that it helps us out a lot, not for us and the accolades, but for the message of hybrid ministry to get out to the world because we believe that teenagers need the gospel and speaking this digital language, this hybrid ministry is their language that they're used to in this world. So please help us out by liking, subscribing, and sharing. Tip number two is communication. Get the word out. You've done the planning. Now people need to know, and I have this

Nick Clason (02:58):
Completely free ebook about how to utilize and use social media in your space. Link down below in the description, go check it out. But I believe that social media can be a form of communication as long as you're not just posting boring, rote, standard static graphics, right? If you use it to the way that social media is meant to be used, one of entertainment, one of fun, short form, vertical based video, I will help you with all of those things in this video. But as you're communicating, you need to be thinking on three different tracks. As a youth pastor, student, parent leader, there really are three audiences that you're communicating with. How are you getting the message out to your students? How are you getting the message out to your parents? And then how are you getting the message out to your leaders? And then a fourth kind of pro tip, bonus tip is also over here, the staff that you work with.

Nick Clason (03:51):
And some of those might cross. Some parents might be leaders, some staff might be parents and all that type of stuff, but those are your three main audiences. I believe that's one of the reasons that youth pastors struggle so much with communication is because you may feel as though you have adequately communicated it, and thus you have to your students. But do all the parents know or is the staff aware of how you're going to be using a different space in the building and then they find you over there and in the kids area because you told the students you're going to be there, but you didn't let the other people on staff know. And so you may have some more conflict with that. So as you're communicating any sort of event that, especially if it's out of cycle, be asking yourself, how do the students know?

Nick Clason (04:33):
How do the leaders know? How do the parents know? Another thing is games. We did a deep dive on games in this playlist over here called Exploring New Digital Frontiers, and we talked about where did games come from and why is it a part of youth ministry? I also gave some ideas. Another one of my favorite episodes that we did was me debriefing an event we did called The World's Greatest Donut. We had tons of games for it, but it was also an amazing hybrid event. And finally, I have a link in the show notes to some of my DYM favorite games. I've created several resources that are on Download Youth ministry, and they are dirt cheap, 5, 6, 7 bucks. If you don't have a membership, even cheaper if you do. So go check some of those out. I love the game. Emoji Phraseology. I love the game. GIF Flashback, and I love the Game Visual, Variance, Voyage. Those are just a few, but I have several on there. But games are an amazing way to up the level of engagement in your space. Fun is the language of teenagers, and so speak it, get them laughing, get them competing, get them having fun together in your gathering. Another really key element to think about is snacks. I had a meeting with a group of leaders last year, and I invited my wife

Nick Clason (05:56):
To come be one of the other leaders meeting with these student leaders, I should say, and I asked her, I said, Hey, what's one thing I could do to level this meeting up? What she said, have snacks. When do you go to somebody's house and they don't offer you something to eat or something to drink? Almost never, right? And the same is true in student ministry. Snacks help kind of bring that energy level down a little bit, not energy level, but bring that insecurity level down a little bit. People, their walls are down a little bit. They're willing to engage, come across the table a little bit more when their snacks. I know it sounds crazy. I know it sounds simple. It might even be a budget buster, but maybe consider opening a cafe where people can purchase snacks, maybe put cheap things out. And one thing I've done before is if you do have a cafe, we gave popcorn away for free, but that drove people back to the cafe to buy the drinks.

Nick Clason (06:51):
There's a reason that bars put peanuts and pretzels out at the table for free because it forces people to buy their drinks. Hey, if you didn't know this, this episode or this channel has a website hybridministry.xyz in every single episode, this is episode. So if you went to hybridministry.xyz slash 0 7 6, we have for you a thing that we do for every single episode. We've done it since episode one, completely free transcripts. That's one of the things that we pay for out of our pocket to serve you and the listener. So if you are listening on a run and you want to go back and hear this, or if you're watching this and you want to take notes, you can go to the website and download a completely free transcript so that you can see everything that we are talking about. Now, element number five of a successful youth gathering is preaching and teaching.

Nick Clason (07:45):
Like I said, we just did an exploring new digital frontiers, and we did a whole episode on how to teach to a TikTok generation. Previously. This generation on websites and social media have an attention span of 8.25 seconds, which is less than the human pet goldfish, right? So how do you teach to a generation like that? How do you keep things interesting while still presenting the meaningful, purposeful, and important truth of the Bible and the truth from God's word? We dove into that. We also gave some ideas about hybrid message enhancements. Things like you version events, things like websites, things like QR codes, things that can just help take the message beyond just the physical meeting space, but you can offer it and extend it and put it in front of your students on social media, on their devices that they're using throughout the rest of the week, but communicate to them then accurately and effectively in the moment using some of these tips and tricks that we talked about in that episode.

Nick Clason (08:48):
But teaching and preaching is a vitally important part to youth ministry gatherings. Number six, small groups. You may not have small groups in your space, so if you don't, then find a way to let students digest the message a little bit. If you don't have small groups in your space or you have it another night of the week, consider maybe having your students sit around tables. And then you could do a more like master teacher style thing where you teach for a little bit and then you toss out a couple of questions to the tables to let the students interact. Gen Z does not want to be a consumer. They want to be a contributor. So find a way to let your students voices be heard. Find a way to let them talk about it. Maybe you do have small groups for the last 30 minutes in your student ministry gatherings.

Nick Clason (09:37):
Have a guide. I'll right here on the screen, you can see the way that we have our guides set up. We have before, during, and after and after, is aimed at our leaders being pastoral to our students. The before is sort of their prep work with the versus and the big ideas. And then during are the questions that we want them to be asking to lead our students from a silly sort of like drop the water level moment, like, hey, some icebreaker type stuff down all the way to some serious things and ending with the group's ending in prayer.

Nick Clason (10:10):
And finally, when your event's over, number seven, what are you going to do about follow-up? What is your ongoing strategy to stay in front of students throughout the week? Because if you have an hour meeting, but you don't ever get to a spot where you are engaging with them in their real life, what about Thursday morning when they wake up after youth group? What about Monday morning when they're on their way to school and they're on the school bus? Why should they think about the things of God that you were talking about last night or yesterday? Why should they care about those things? Which is one of the reasons I think hybrid ministry is so important, and I have this completely free ebook to help you reach and engage the students in their space to engage with the other hours in the week beyond just your program time.

Nick Clason (10:54):
It's not just physical, it's not just digital, it is hybrid. And so in that ebook, we also point people to a completely free resource called opus.pro. It will help you clip your messages up into small, short form bite-size videos. But what I want to know is that I want to help you guys understand the importance of gatherings and how you can take the physical gathering, how you can take your digital moments, how you can meld those two. Hope you found this video helpful. On the screen is the next video. Be sure to click that. Be sure to subscribe because we at hybrid ministry are making digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So as always, and don't forget, stay hybrid.

Episode 075: 🤑 Digital Discipleship on a Dime: 5 Budget Friendly Tips

Nick Clason — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 04:00:00 -0600

🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

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

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

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

DESCRIPTION
👋 Welcome to our YouTube channel & podcast!

🤑 Are you looking to create impactful digital discipleship resources without breaking the bank? Look no further! In this video, we present 5 budget-friendly tips that will help you craft effective resources for your online community.

digitaldiscipleship #budgetfriendlytips #onadime #youtubetips #digitalministry #christiancontent #churchmedia #faithtech #christianvlogger #technologymatters #christianinfluencers #digitaloutreach #ministrytech #faithonabudget #discipleshipmatters #christiancreators #technologytips #churchcommunication #contentcreationtips #faithonadime #digitalmission

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

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

Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/075

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

#1 USE FREE STUFF FIRST
//CANVA
https://youtu.be/g0FQWvKjP_E?si=VW1l2akc9PXTLztT

//HYBRID MESSAGE ENHANCEMENT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIgEtxPLGBg&t=44s

//YOUVERSION LIVE EVENTS
https://my.bible.com/events

//QR CODES
https://www.qr-code-generator.com/

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

#2 PRE-FILM YOUR MESSAGES
//PRE-FILM YOUR MESSAGES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM

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

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

#3 DON'T REINVENT THE WHEEL
//CAPCUT
https://www.capcut.com/

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

#4 USE SOCIAL MEDIA
//FREE EBOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

#5 UTILIZE HYBRID EVENTS
//WORLD'S GREATEST DONUT EVENT GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-00:19 Budget Friendly Digital Discipleship Tools
00:19-02:00 Use Free Stuff First!
02:00-03:36 Pre-Film Your Messages for YouTube
03:36-04:36 Don't Reinvent the Wheel!
04:36-07:10 Social Media
07:10-08:05 Utilize Hybrid Events

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

Nick Clason (00:00):
Well, hey everyone. Welcome back to our channel. We're going to be exploring five budget friendly tips to help you create hybrid resources. Hybrid is when you're not just focusing on the digital aspect of your ministry, not just focusing on the in-person aspect of your ministry, but a melding together of the two. So let's waste no time and dive right in To tip number one, which is use free stuff first. I have all kinds of links in the description under this, but we had an episode where we talked about Canva. Canva will give every church and nonprofit a free pro account. So if you're looking for good graphics, Canva is the best option I believe for that. Another one of my favorite hybrid options is the U version Bible app, and specifically when you're preaching messages, which we just dropped an episode a couple episodes ago about message enhancement, U version events is a place where you can send people to take digital notes, to take next steps to read Bible plans on their own.

Nick Clason (00:58):
Another one of my all time favorite resources is the Humble QR code. It had a resurgence during covid, but it is a great way when people are in your space to have them scan something and then go ahead and take a next step all based digitally. And hey, listen, I also have a completely free ebook, and this is free for you. It's 40 done for you ideas to help you engage with social media in a custom way. There are a lot of social media programs, resources and graphics out there, but this resource will help you, your volunteers, your students, be the faces and the heroes and those people on your social media platforms. So download that, check it out. We'd love to have you take a look at it. And hey, if you are getting value so far out of this video, I'd love to encourage you to like, subscribe, maybe leave a rating, maybe share it with a friend.

Nick Clason (01:49):
All of those things really incredibly help not only us get the message out, but more importantly help people understand the mission behind this hybrid experience. Let's move on to tip number two. Tip number two is pre film your messages. Now, I have a video linked right here at the top of the screen called What Every Youth Ministry Needs to Do, and it is my full student ministry recommended strategy. Most churches in America have live streaming capabilities, but most youth ministries do not. If you do them, by all means, you should be live streaming your messages and posting them to YouTube. But in the event that you don't, I recommend sitting down direct to camera and having a pre-filed message moment. You can create a little bit of a set. You can put some plants on screen just like I am right here. You can use a microphone like this. You can use just a little shotgun microphone, and you can do it for less than a hundred dollars. I have a link to that complete blog in my show notes as well. But it's things like a little phone tripod, a little shotgun microphone, and maybe a little ring light just to help get your lighting up a little bit.

Nick Clason (02:58):
And boom, you are off to the races. Not only is it going to help you engage with a digital presence on a platform like YouTube, and it's also going to give you the ability to clip those long form clips down to shorter vertical based ones that you can post. I have a link to a free resource called Opus Pro. Link to that in the show notes, a little also teaser on what's coming next. And then finally, it gives you a chance as youth pastor to practice and hear your message before you deliver it live in the room. So pre film your messages, create a presence for you and your youth ministry on YouTube. Tip number three is don't reinvent the wheel, which that's the tip, right? Once you've recorded those videos, sat down direct to camera, either a real camera or a phone or whatever, edit it a little bit.

Nick Clason (03:48):
You don't have to. You can use a free editor like iMovie, movie maker Canva, a cap cut, not Canva, cap cut, but then drop that long form video into a free AI video, short form creator and I have a link. You can try it out. It's called Opus Pro. It's down in my description, and it will AI generate the best hooks, the best, most relevant places. It can put captions on the screen. It can also give you a little preview of the text of what the video is about so that when someone's dropping into the middle of a long form sermon, they're not confused about what's going on, but use the tools to your advantage. And Opus Pro is free for several hours of recording, and then it's a very nominal feat to keep using it after that, after the first part of the year.

Nick Clason (04:36):
Tip number four, use social media. Now, listen, I know sometimes in the youth ministry space, in the church world, social media gets a little bit of a bad rap, and the fact is, there are bad things out there, and so everyone needs to manage it to their own standards, and they need to practice their own walk of holiness in social media. But social media is a completely free tool that you and I have the ability to get on there and borrow space. And it's already where majority of our students are spending their time. In fact, 95% of teenagers admit to using YouTube. My kids are seven and five and they watch YouTube. It is just a part of the fabric of what we do, so be on those platforms. And the good news is that social media, short form, vertical based video is still king, and you can do that on all four platforms, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Facebook's iffy if you want to use it, but it's really easy to link it to your Instagram account, and so therefore you can just kind of get a two for one on that one. But use social media, and once again, like I said, free ebook will help you get started on that. It will take the film, your messages strategy, and then the clips from that along with some other fun content. And boom, you're off to the races. Listen, I posted a video,

Nick Clason (05:56):
One of favorite styles not too long ago. We draft things, and so it's like one person makes a pick when another person makes a pick and one person makes a pick, another person makes a pick, and it was called Drafting Blue Characters. And I had my boss, Darren do it, and he's colorblind, and it was really hilarious because he actually picked Vision, the red guy from Avengers, that's his number two pick, but that on Instagram got something like 13,000 views, and it wasn't a serious clip, right? But we gained a lot of followers and got a lot of engagement on our account as a result of that. So then now hopefully those people who have engaged with our account at that level on a more fun level will then also pay attention to some of the sermon clips that we post, which I posted one recently, and it got over a thousand, 2000 views.

Nick Clason (06:42):
And then hopefully if they're engaging with that, then maybe they'll take a next step from there over to our YouTube channel to watch a full message. And then once they're on, they're encouraged, promoted to click the link down the description to take some sort of next step to let us know what their next step might be. You see, that's why I do the silly to narrow it down to the serious, to narrow it down to the long form, to narrow it down to them taking a next step where we can engage with them in a relationship with Jesus. Tip number five is utilize hybrid events. I have a link in the description again for a free event guide of one. I just did. I posted episode not too long ago called The World's Greatest Donut. It is one of my all time favorite hybrid events.

Nick Clason (07:26):
It utilizes outreach, it utilizes games, and it utilizes social media to create a perfect hybrid event for you, your church, and your student ministry. But it's just a great opportunity to lean into the hybridness, not just digital, not just physical of your student ministry and of your space. Well, everyone, I hope that these five tips were helpful for you to create amazing digital discipleship, amazing hybrid moments in your student ministry. We are here to help make hybrid easy, to make discipleship more accessible for your students. Won't click the link right here on the screen to watch the next video, but we will talk with you next time.

Episode 072: 🧑‍🚀 New Frontiers in Digital Discipleship for the Church: Message Enhancement 💬

Nick Clason — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0600

🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

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

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

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

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

DESCRIPTION
Preaching, Teaching and Youth Ministry
It’s part of what we do in the church.

You’ve also heard that this generation, according to crossrivertherapy.com has an attention span of just 8.25 seconds. Which is 4.25 seconds LESS than we experienced in the year 2000.

Famously, that’s less than a goldfish

But teaching and preaching the Bible, is not only an integral part of youth ministry, but learning the Bible is important to the discipleship and developmental process, not only in teenagers, but in anyone who claims to follow Jesus Christ as their savior.

So how do we take the Hybrid approach to teaching and preaching.
Hybrid is not just your physical gathering
But not ignoring it in favor of your digital experience, either.

It’s both.

In this episode we’ll explore the how to preach and teach to a TikTok Generation.
What we’re up against.

What we can learn from culture

And finally, 3 Hybrid Solutions you can implement THIS Wednesday night.

churchattendance #hiddentruth #unveiling #2023 #church #truth #revelation #faith #spirituality #religion #worship #community #christianity #belief #sunday #sacred #divine #belief #sermon #christian

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

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

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

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

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

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

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

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

Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/072

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

//Mr. Beast on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA

//Alex Hormozi
https://www.youtube.com/@AlexHormozi

//Steven Furtick
https://www.youtube.com/@stevenfurtick

//Research on Attention Spans
https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/average-human-attention-span
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/advan.00109.2016

//My Youth Min by Ym360
https://myyouthmin.com/

//The Learning Triangle
https://www.educationcorner.com/the-learning-pyramid.html

//Solution #1
https://sidekick.tv/

//Solution #2
https://my.bible.com/events

//Solution #3
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-01:36 Preaching to the Generation with the Shortest Attention Span in History
01:36-03:33 Teaching, Preaching and Hybrid Ministry is vital to the next generation
03:33-11:15 Teaching to a TikTok Generation
11:15-15:46 What can youth pastors learn from culture?

15:46-21:39 3 Immediate Hybrid Solutions

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

Nick Clason (00:00):
Preaching teaching and youth ministry, they go together. It's just part of what we do. But what do you do when you're trying to preach and teach to the generation with the shortest attention span of only 8.25 seconds? Famously, you've heard it's less now than a goldfish down 4.5 seconds from the year 2000. And is there a way for us to digitally enhance through hybrid means the way in which people learn and listen to our teaching and our preaching now in this generation because teaching and preaching is not only an integral part of youth ministry, but it's an integral part of the way in which we disciple our students and help them understand the claims, values and teachings of Jesus. So how do we take this hybrid approach, not just digital, not just in person, but melding of the two together to increase awareness and to help bring about a better retention of our teaching and our preaching to our students.

Nick Clason (01:08):
In this episode, we will answer how to preach and teach to a tick talk generation and what we as communicators are up against. Additionally, we'll explore what we can learn from the culture that's around us. And finally, I want to offer for you three hybrid solutions to help engage and increase teaching and preaching and awareness in your context that you can implement tomorrow. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everyone. Welcome back to another edition of the Hybrid Ministry Show. I, as always am your host Nick Clason. I'm a 13 year youth ministry veteran now currently located in the DFW Dallas Fort Worth area. Excited to be with you. I've been teaching and preaching my entire career, but I've also been engaging with the importance of hybrid ministry. I've been aware of that and aware of the digital revolution ever since I started in youth ministry, which is why we have this playlist right here linked at the top of the screen that you're a part of as we are exploring new digital frontiers.

Nick Clason (02:12):
The last video was all about games and how we can implement hybrid into our games and into the fun in our youth ministries. And this episode is about enhancing the messages. So I hope that you'll stick around to the very end of the video because in addition to that, I have a sure surefire resource linked in the description below. That's not only going to help you win on social media and bring about your messages and all those things to your students and help bring that to them the other hours of your week, but it'll also help you have fun with them like we talked about in the last video. And so I want to encourage you to I you to subscribe. Those things are free for you and they mean a lot to me, and I want you to do that because we do drop resources, like I just mentioned, 40 done for you, an entire month's worth of social media, but not just a bunch of graphics.

Nick Clason (03:04):
This is you actually getting in front of the camera, getting in front of a video, using yourself, your students, your leaders, whoever you want to help change the game on your social media platform. And so those types of things are coming at you every single week. We'll drop a new episode every single Thursday, so like subscribe, can't wait to see on the other side, but hey, we are going to be diving into teaching to a TikTok generation. Let's explore that together. So famously, this generation has an attention span of 8.25 seconds. It said that that is less than the household goldfish. So I don't know if any of you guys have gold fishes or teenagers in your house, but if you do, your teenager has a shorter attention span than a goldfish. What is going on nowadays though is the short form video revolution ushered into us by TikTok during the pandemic has changed the way in which we engage with content online.

Nick Clason (04:07):
It just has our attention spans are getting shorter. The need and relevance for a really, really crucial opening section of your video is what is going to determine if someone sticks around in your video or if they're going to leave. In fact, I want to share with you three examples from three very different classes and creators and just like different pockets of YouTube, but all three very good, three people who know what they're doing on social media. And I want to point out to you, we're going to watch 'em right here live on screen. I want to react to how well their hook and how well their intro does. So the first one up is a Mr. Beast video. So let's check this out together.

Nick Clason (04:54):
Hundred million mankind, okay? He's just taught, he's just B roll. He's got Justin Timberlake on there. Whoa, got those waves with his editing's great all the way to this barely functioning house, more of a shed. Well, why does this house cost a dollar? Yeah, we get another storm. It's probably going to, he's already into the content now of his video. He's only 38 seconds in. It feels like the intro. It just seamlessly moves straight into the content. Mr. Beast is probably the best at the opening ones. This one is more of a entrepreneur guy, guru trying to help you win online. So let's check out his video. This is my most brutally honest advice to my, you beat 99% of people zoomed out without media advice to my younger self and

Nick Clason (05:57):
How I, you're going to lose sleep. You'll doubt whether it'll work. You'll stress. He's catering to the difficulty of what he does and what the people that follow him need to do. He's got B roll, he's got light transitions, all that type of stuff. Great. Now this one right here, this is Churchill from Elevation Steven S check this one out sitting on that you're not using today. That's not the beginning of his sermon, but it's the beginning of this video. Arrows, you should have taken everything God gave you kept striking until you saw it to. They edited it so that it started there at what they considered to be the most interesting part, artillery to be defeated. It was his lack of drive. The reason I want to show all of you that is that the first 30 seconds or less of every single one of those videos, all very different, but all very good.

Nick Clason (06:56):
Everyone who edited that video knew exactly what they were doing. So I actually have a video that I just released on a platform called My Youth Men, which is a membership tier of YM 360. You can check it out, link in the description for a seven day free trial. But the video is about discipling students and teenagers through the usage pitfalls and platforms with cell phones as opposed to a way, and I show you those videos because I want to say that's what we as communicators are up against. Your students are watching those for entertainment, for fun, even maybe for inspiration with a Steven Furtick. And then you and I get up as their youth pastor and we start teaching at them in all of our old seminary taught ways. I think as I said in my video, that there are new ways of doing it.

Nick Clason (07:51):
In fact, this is a educator's tool. It's going to be up here on the screen. If you're listening to the podcast, make sure that you hit the link in the show notes so you can see everything on YouTube with all of our video overlays and all of our things flying in. But this is called the knowledge pyramid, and there are two sections to it. There's the passive teaching methods and then there's the participatory teaching methods. And most of us in church are using the passive teaching methods and the percentages are broken down by the knowledge retention rate. So how well this style of teaching helps people retain that type of teaching. And so the lowest at 5% is lecture based style. You might think 8.25 seconds is low, but I'm just going to admit to you, I am bored after a lecture after only 8.25 seconds.

Nick Clason (08:42):
You have to be really killing it, and I have to be really interested in that form of content. In the lecture style pyramid, 10% of the retention rate is reading, 20% is audio visual. So that would be something like including slides and or video in your teaching. And then 30% is demonstration. That's of the passive teaching style methods. So all of those things are all things that you've been taught probably in seminary of how to teach someone and how to maintain relevance as you teach someone. But then it shifts and at 50% a discussion group, a participatory teaching method is where that learning retention rate jumps up to 50%. If someone practices what they've learned by doing it, it jumps to 75% and then if they teach others, it jumps to 90%. So in most cases, us as youth pastors, we push our students through passive teaching methods, and then finally we get them into a discussion group As a participatory teaching method, discussion group is the lowest of the participatory section of retention, and that is why you and I as we are teaching, we need to differ at what we're doing. Look at what Mr. Beast did, how he looked at all the different houses, right? And he kept it moving. He was only on each house for just a few seconds. He was moving, he was garnering interest, he was keeping you hooked. Even look at fur, he's on the floor with arrows in hand doing his thing. Yeah, it was lecture style, but there's visuals to it. And in our youth ministries, more often than not, we're going to push people in to small groups, which is a relevant and meaningful participatory teaching method.

Nick Clason (10:32):
And so as we know and look at the different teaching pyramid styles, here is my question, what do we do? How do we infuse and use hybrid to help increase the retention rates of the learnings? Because you know that the message that you're teaching matters. It's a truth of God. It's a truth from God's word, and it's been put on your heart by him, and you're trying to help share that message with the students in which God has entrusted to you in your student ministry. So what do you do about it? I think that there are a couple of clues that we can learn from culture, even from some of those YouTube videos that we watch. And so that's what we're going to check out in the next section. Neil Bradbury has a quote. The link to that article is in the show notes. He says, the eight second myth, as he classifies it for attention spans is actually more related to human behavior on websites and on social media and how many seconds the average person spends on a website before clicking away or navigating off of it.

Nick Clason (11:39):
So we have famously dubbed Generation Z and Gen Alpha subsequently as the generation with the tension span lower than a goldfish. And that's true as it relates to social media and Mr. Beast and Alex Har Zi, and even Steven Fer and Elevation, they're trying to capture people's attention on social media. So they do have to make that happen within eight seconds. And we are up against that, I would say, as communicators because that's how students are spending a majority of their time. Gen Z's using their cell phone more than any other screen-based device combined. However, I want to point something out that is a website statistic. And so while that is true of websites, the attention span is a little bit longer because eight seconds is incredibly short. And check this out. Over the last however many years, these are the top five grossing box office movies of all time.

Nick Clason (12:35):
So in 2009, avatar came out, and I think it's even been supplanted by itself for the re-release or something like that, but Avatar, the movie is two hours and 42 minutes. Avengers End Game came out in 2019. Shout out to my favorite movie. I love you. 3000. It is three hours in one minute. I was nervous going into Avengers end game. I was like, I might have to pee. What do I do if I have to pee? And I did. Titanic in 1992 was three hours and 14 minutes. Star Wars episode seven, two hours and 18 minutes, and an Avengers Infinity War, the prequel to end game 2018, two hours and 29 minutes long. Movies are still making money, they're still making them, and they're still releasing them. Also, shout out to Disney for owning four of the top five of those properties. All that to be said though, if it weren't lucrative and if it weren't making money, Disney and the other major motion picture companies in America wouldn't be making movies at that length.

Nick Clason (13:43):
So what does that mean for us? We got this eight second thing, but now we got movies that are going longer than three hours. How do we reconcile the difference between those two? My contention is this, if it's good, people will pay attention. It's that simple. And here's the reality. Most research, including Ted Talk and that organization say that a sweet spot for lectures is anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. That's optimal. However, if it's moving, if it's keeping attention, if it's changing things up, even just going back and watching Mr. Beast intro video, how if it's moving and adapting, you can keep the attention of your audience. But here's a gut check. If Avatar and Endgame and Star Wars and Titanic are keeping people's attention, but you're losing them after only eight seconds, then the gut check moment for you and I as youth pastors might be, we might be more boring than we think we are.

Nick Clason (14:46):
In fact, I've been recording videos on this YouTube channel for six months, eight months now, and that's been a gut check moment for me. When certain videos get less views, I'll go back, I'll look at the analytics and I'll go and re-listen to it myself. And you know what? I'll notice, man, I'm boring, right? I have to learn how to be more captivating. I have to learn how to be more interesting. I have to learn how to keep and retain my audience longer throughout the duration of my videos. Not only is that true for me as a communicator via YouTube via video to y'all, but it's also true for me as a youth pastor. But going back and looking, watching those videos, which by the way, if you are not prerecording your messages or recording them at all to go back and look and learn, you are missing out on the easiest way to become better as a communicator.

Nick Clason (15:31):
But there's another hack and there's another little silver bullet that's going to slide in here because we are going to be exploring three hybrid ideas in this digital frontier to enhance our messages in the room. Let's check it out. So what are these hybrid ideas? Like I said, it's not just physical. It's not just digital, but it's a melding of the two. So in my mind, you're teaching live in the room, but you're putting things on their cell phone or putting resources on their cell phone for them to use later because they're taking their cell phone with them for the other 165 hours beyond just the one hour that you've been in your program. And most of us as youth pastors, we're not good enough to contend with cell phones. So instead of contending with them, using them, leaning into them, we just forced them to lock them away or get rid of them.

Nick Clason (16:20):
But one of my favorite solutions from my favorite people over at Download Youth Ministry is sidekick. Check it out, sidekick TV link in the show notes. I get zero kickback from this, but I'm a power user and they just released or they're going to release and listen. I may be letting the cat out of the bag a little bit, but they're going to be releasing a polling feature. So you can put a QR code on the screen, students can scan it, and they can vote live time, and you can show it live from the stage. And better yet, you can now control sidekick from your phone or your iPad if you don't have a tech person running back in the back. And so you can do live interactive types of things to interact with your in-person and letting them use the digital means in front of them.

Nick Clason (17:08):
So you can ask like, Hey, what is the best Thanksgiving food? Is it stuffing mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, Turkey or ham? Let us know. Scan this QR code, and then you can get live results from your audience. You also, just like the learning pyramid showed, in addition to your lecture style, you need to be bringing visual aid with it. Use your screens, use your multimedia to your advantage. Use the things that are common to your students, like memes and tos. You can even pull out things like, Hey, show the most interesting photo from your last week in your camera roll. And one of my all time favorite ways to be hybrid is any sort of call to action, a camp, sign up, a discipleship, sign up. Even now, the sidekick voting thing use QR codes. They've had a resurgence since the pandemic, but people now can scan QR codes with just their camera app and their phone.

Nick Clason (18:02):
It will pull a link up and boom, you are off to the races. Use QR codes to your advantage. Use sidekick, use digital media, use your screens to interact and make things hybrid. The next idea that I have for you is you version events in our space, we call them digital notes. And so we link our YouVersion live events. If you didn't know, YouVersion is the Bible app made by Life church, but they have a events portion. And so what happens is if someone is in your church, it will pull geographically all the events that are live and they can get in there and there can be notes. Your main points scriptures you Additionally, my favorite reason for it is you can create call to action. So you can put your camp signup, you can put a Bible reading plan so they can be on the digital notes.

Nick Clason (19:01):
They can be taking notes in the space in your room as you're teaching, as you're preaching. And then at the end, you can be like, and hey, if you are learning right now and enjoying this message about prayer, but you want to grow even deeper into prayer, then I have a seven day prayer challenge plan linked in the you version, in the digital notes, whatever you want to call it. And kids can click it on their phone and write their sign up for a Bible reading plan. It's a way to help foster discipleship to lean into the hybrid, right? You taught something, but now by just having notes available to them on their phone, you can say, Hey, click accept, and start reading that plan. The third idea that I have for you is use YouTube and use social media. In fact, in the links down below, I have a couple of things, a less than $100 YouTube setup for you to start doing messages similar to this one right here where you're sitting direct to camera and posting your messages to YouTube.

Nick Clason (19:59):
If you have live streaming capabilities, then do that. But if you don't, as a youth pastor, I get it. I don't either sit down, prerecord your messages. In addition to that, you can use a service also linked in the description called Opus Pro to then take your long form and clip it into short form and give yourself a bunch of social media content for the week. And if you then need something to help fill in some of the other gaps, that's where my surefire resource, my ebook, my 40 done for you ideas comes in. And that message can live in perpetuity online as you help answer the specific faith questions of this next generation. It can be more than just for students who miss. It can be for parents to check it out. It can be for students who don't even go to your church.

Nick Clason (20:43):
It can be for students who go to your church to share messages with friends if they would never bring their friends to church, they can share a message on YouTube with their friends. And so those are my three ideas, sidekick in digital media, you versions, digital notes, and finally, utilize and use YouTube and social media to your advantage. The final piece of this playlist is we're going to be exploring and talking about how do we care for students in an ongoing type of way. We meet with them once a week, but then there's 167 hours. How can we, in a hybrid way care for the students pastorally in the ways in which God has entrusted to us? That video is linked right here on the screen. Make sure you check it out. We're making digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So as always, and don't forget, stay hybrid.

Episode 069: 🍩 Ultimate Youth Group Guide: Crush Games, Outreach & Social all in one! 🔥

Nick Clason — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0500

🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCE TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

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

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

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

DESCRIPTION
👋 Welcome to the Ultimate Youth Group Guide! In this exciting video, we'll dive into the power of Crush Games, Outreach initiatives, and Social Events to empower and inspire the youth.🔥

🍩 Crush Games:
Engage your youth group with thrilling Games that will ignite their enthusiasm and foster healthy competition. From exhilarating challenges to team-building activities, our guide provides all the essential tips and game ideas to keep the energy high and the fun rolling.

🌍 Outreach Initiatives:
Make a lasting impact on your community through meaningful outreach initiatives. Discover effective strategies to help your youth group connect with and support those in need. By stepping outside their comfort zones, the youth will learn valuable lessons about compassion, empathy, and making a difference in the lives of others.

👥 Social Media Events:
Creating a sense of belonging and friendship within your youth group via social media! This will help Hybridize your Ministry from your in person gathering to your student ministry social media

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

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

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

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

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

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

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

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

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

Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/069

//Full YouTube Video
https://youtu.be/5ryhkIRyDb4

//STUDENT MINISTRY BRACKET OF EPIC THINGS
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-student-ministry-bracket-of-epic-things/games-3974.html

//GAMEDAY FOOD BRACKET
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-big-game-food-bracket/winter/the-big-game-8544.html

//DONUT SHOWDOWN GAME
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-donut-showdown/games-4142.html

//FULL YOUTUBE STRATEGY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM

🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-01:45 The Best Hybrid Youth Ministry Event Out There!
01:45-09:30 The History of This Hybrid Ministry Event
09:30-17:42 Pre-Event Planning and Setup

17:42-28:21 The Debrief of the Event from Start to Finish

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

Nick Clason (00:00):
Youth ministry games, social media outreach events, ah, there's just so much to do and if you're anything like me, you have layer upon layer upon layer of responsibility. You need to come up with an amazing and exciting game. You need to knock social media out of the park and you need an outreach event that is going to cater to your students friends and outsiders who are far from God and from the church. How do you prioritize? And then if you do do all those things, how do you not just give your family and your people that you love the scraps and the left over pieces of your energy? What if I told you that I had the ultimate event guide, one that's going to crush it with games, an amazing outreach experience, and it's going to lean into social media for your student ministry, all of that encapsulated in one event.

Nick Clason (00:55):
See, we actually just had an event that accomplished all those things, one with an incredible amount of games and an amazing in-room experience, one that gave students an amazing opportunity to invite their friends and it crushed on social media. Better yet, we had 23% of our attenders be first time or new students who joined us. And finally, not only do we increase engagement, but we also added new followers to our social media. It is honestly one of the best versions in my opinion, of a hybrid style event. And when I say hybrid event, it's more dynamic and it's more robust than just another Zoom Bible study. I know it sounds too good to be true, right? Well, let me show you. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show in the ultimate Event guide. I came up with this idea probably in my second or third year of doing youth ministry, and now I am a 13 year youth ministry veteran.

Nick Clason (01:58):
So this idea dawned on me years and years and years and years ago, and one of the things that has honestly just been super clear to me all the way back to the beginning times of my time in student ministry is the fact that hybrid matters. And when I mean hybrid, I don't mean only focusing on your in-person. I don't mean only focusing on your digital. I mean taking those two things and creating a space for there to be opportunity to reach and connect with your people beyond the hour of programming that you have for your in-person service, which is actually the reason why I just dropped this video going to be up here on the screen. You can feel free to click that where we explore and talk about the future of church ministry, especially through the eyes and through the lens of digital and hybrid.

Nick Clason (02:41):
If you're interested, hop over into that. But about 10 years ago is when I had this idea for what I call a bracket, and I'm a huge March Madness fan, college basketball. I love the selection committees. And if you're not a sports fan, essentially what they do is they create rankings or seedings, so to speak. And so there are four regions and each region has a one seed. Each region has a two seed, each region has a three seed and so on down all the way down to 16, and then the one seed plays the 16 seed. Usually a pretty easy matchup only in the history of the NCAA tournament has one 16 seed upset, a one seed. The 15 plays the two, the 14 plays the three and so on and so forth. And they're in various spots. So the one 16 are up here and the two and the 15 are down here in the bracket so that eventually they wait until the very last chance for the one and the two to eventually play.

Nick Clason (03:34):
Then once all the teams get out of those brackets, that creates your final four one winner from each region they play in Final four matchup and then the winners of each side of that end up meeting in the middle in the championship. And so I was like, this would be fun to lean in to March Madness. And so I just created a bracket out of my head. I was like, let's do little Debbie hostess cakes, and then I put one of my student ministry leaders, shout out to Aaron Koontz back in Beaver Creek, Ohio, and I did one of our favorite events, dare to Share. I put Dare to Share in there, and so students would vote on a thing versus another thing, and it was so totally random, but I offered it just as an online thing. This is before I had an Instagram.

Nick Clason (04:17):
This is before Instagram even had the poll feature, but I kept doing this. The one time I submitted an option called a Bracket of Awesome Things to Download Youth Ministry. This was probably like eight, 10 years ago at this point. My number one seed was Chip and Johanna Gaines and just leaning into the hype that they had with the Fixer Upper and H G T V movement back then. But I just kept honing in and creating this. And I remember one time I made a Christmas movie bracket. I had become in charge at my last church of social media and I just threw it together. I was running out of ideas of things to post. I was in charge of something like two or three posts per day, multiple days per week. And I was like, let's do a bracket. And I launched it and I was on a team at that time of six or seven other youth pastors, staff members, and the team went nuts.

Nick Clason (05:12):
I made Elf the number one seed and then I made white Christmas the 16th seed, and I had some diehard white Christmas fans dropping the comment below what your favorite Christmas movie is, and if it's white Christmas, I'm sorry, you're wrong. It's terrible. But that being said, they were livid and they were mad at how I sourced it and how I came up with the seeding, which by the way, side note just was in my head and they wanted a redo. And so we launched this event called something about a serial bracket. I can't remember what we can't remember the exact name of what we called it, but we had back at that last church, we had a full YouTube show. So we set up SportsCenter style desks and anchors. We all wore jerseys and we did analysis and we kicked it over to sideline reporters and we announced the seatings.

Nick Clason (06:03):
We announced the matchups, and then while when that show launched live on YouTube, people could hop over to our Instagram and they could vote. And what happened was the senior leadership must not have had anything to announce that week, and so they announced our show that week. And so we were like, man, we need to turn this into something. At that time, it was Christmas break, we weren't meeting, so it was just going to live as a thing online on our YouTube channel, but because it got announced, we're like, we need to capitalize on this just a little bit more. And so we offered, and this is

Nick Clason (06:36):
In the height of Covid, so we're not doing a lot of in-person connection with other people. If we were, it had to be masked. I mean it was awful, but it was January just after Christmas 2021 and we're like, let's do a drive-in. Kids can come watch it on their phones. Or you know what? Actually maybe we bought big old screens that they could watch, and then we did a FM tuner thing. They could listen to it in their car radio. So I don't know, we probably had 10 to 20 cars show up, not a ton. And we bought so much serial, we went to Sam's and we looted that place and then it was like negative 10 degrees. And so me and my other leaders, we have giant coats on, we're walking car to car, passing out cereal, passing out milk. But that was the inception.

Nick Clason (07:28):
That was one of the inception points of this idea of a bracket. And what it does in my mind is it creates some sort of event around an in-person topic cereal. The one that I'm going to explain to you today is donuts and I like to kind of hone in. Yeah, that's what I've done over the years. I've honed in on a specific topic. We've also done this with drinks like World's greatest drink, world's greatest donut cereal madness. This coming march, we're planning on doing a potato one called Starch Madness. And so it creates that event, but the reason I like it is that it marries your social media because all the voting happens online

Nick Clason (08:04):
With an in-person event. It is the ultimate style hybrid event in my opinion. And I know that I've had people who are like, when you mean hybrid, what are you talking about? And they just think we're just talking about Zoom groups and it's more than that. And so we hosted this event at our church. Like I said in the intro, we had 23% newcomers, we had multiple new people added to following us on social media, and it's creating some sort of hype and some sort of buzz around our student ministry. There are so many benefits and values to it. And so what I want to do is honestly just walk you through the pre-planning, the actual event. I'm going to share with you the planning center document of it, and then give you just kind of a recap about why it's valuable, why we're going to keep doing it, and how you can take something like that and adapt it into your student and social ministry.

Nick Clason (08:52):
If so far you've found this episode helpful, though alike would cost you nothing and would really mean the world to us even more. A subscribe is really a next level opportunity to just engage back with us. Either one of those two things like subscribe would mean the world to us and we would love to connect with you further and deeper because more than just donuts, more than just brackets, we are talking about this world of not just physical, not just digital, but hybrid ministry. So let's move on and let's hop in to the setup and the event planning, the pre-event side of this event that I'm talking about, the world's greatest donut. So we know, we knew that we wanted to do this voting style event around donuts that would last around a month. The way I set it up is I will do round one.

Nick Clason (09:42):
We have a Wednesday night and then a Sunday morning in our environment, and so the voting is going to be live on a Wednesday. They'll vote on the topics and the rounds, and so round one we do all the voting. So that's where Instagram and the stories, that's where the most decisions need to be made. So because of that in round one, then we will announce the winners on Sunday, and then we will resume voting the following Wednesday for the Elite eight. We'll announce the following Sunday of the winners of that, and then we'll move to the final floor when there's the most activity, when there's all the contestants are still alive, no one's been eliminated yet. That's round one. And that to me is the most exciting time for the actual bracket. So because the actual bracket is exciting at that time, that's when we decided to lean into an event.

Nick Clason (10:31):
So we knew we had this bracket. In fact, I created this resource. It's a link in the description on Download youth ministry on the world's greatest donut bracket. It's on there right now. Feel free to go grab it. It's got all of the digital elements and it's got a few games in there, but not all of what I'm about to share with you. So make sure that you hang around to the rest of this video. However, we knew we wanted to do an event centered or a month centered around voting, and then we wanted the first night, the kickoff night to be a big deal. And so the question kind of always is do you focus on the kickoff of the bracket or do you focus more on the championship round of the bracket? I've found the beginning to be more exciting. Like I said, we did a cereal bracket most recently here at this church, and we have in our space, we have eight different garage door bays that lined the side left and right of our meeting space.

Nick Clason (11:26):
That's actually where our small groups meet on Sunday morning. Those doors are up, they go in there and then they close down, creates little rooms for all of them. It's really cool design. Sometimes it also makes 'em feel like caged animals, but nonetheless, we did an event back in March where we voted on serial and we had the one in 16 matchup in one bay. We had the three and 14 matchup in another bay. We had the eight and nine matchup in another bay. And so all the bay doors came up. There were tables in there with basketball themed tablecloths on and then cereal boxes with a number pasted on it, one versus 16, and then all the bowls of cereal there. And so as we're wrapping up our programming, we had adult leaders sitting in there pouring milk into each of the bowls so that students could grab that and then they could go eat and just literally had one kid eat 16 or 25 bowls of cereal that night, tried every single one of the things in the matchup.

Nick Clason (12:19):
So that was a super fun way to just kind of lean into the kickoff portion. And so we had that same question. Now we have donuts and what are we going to do? And so in our space where we have tables, and so we ended up deciding to buy a little half fishbowl things. All the supplies by the way, are going to be linked in the comments below, in the description below. Make sure you check that out. But we had little fishbowl things, half fishbowl things sort of decorative. It's not like a fishbowl where the tops right there, but it's like off to the side a little bit. And we filled each table with donut holes. We ordered several dozen donut holes, and that's what we did. We went donut holes instead of actual donuts. It's cheaper. It's also quicker. You can pop 'em into your mouth as opposed to committing to an entire donut.

Nick Clason (13:04):
And so we have 16 round tables, and so every table had a tablecloth and every table had a vase full of donuts. That was our decision to supply the donuts without breaking the bank on the budget. Don't get me wrong, it was still expensive, but it's less expensive than a dozen donuts per table or something like that. So we had donuts on every table, and then one of my favorite elements or pieces of the event is we bought a giant vase and then we filled it with donuts. We counted 233 donuts that we filled into this vase. The funny part was that we put the donuts in and then the weight of the donuts actually started to smash 'em down, and so it was full, and then the weight of the donuts started smashing 'em down. So there was a gap. So we actually had to go back and add more donuts at the end.

Nick Clason (13:48):
So I don't even want to know what the bottom donuts looked like. They probably were a little mini pancakes, but we let students vote simply, how many donuts do you think are in here? We had a Google form for that. They shot it with a QR code on their phone. We also had an iPad set up where they could just type in a Google form. All we got was their name and their number, but if you have a marketing brain or a marketing department, you can use that to capture an email and start to create a little list and start to market to those people as well. That's another kind of next level tip if you want to lean into something like that. But then it also made it easy to just have it all dumped into a Google sheet and I could command F find the closest number.

Nick Clason (14:32):
And so one person, we had 2 33 in the thing and one girl guessed 2 32, so she won it, and this little sixth grade girl carried out this giant vase of donuts and it was hers. She got to take it with her, she got to keep it. She got to bring it in her car with her. Then the actual bracket side of things, we printed, because we are doing this so much, we printed a generic bracket on a giant vinyl banner. When you walk into our space, we have a big window with an indoor half kind of sports court right there on the other side of it. And so for the cereal bracket, I took gaff tape and I taped out a bracket and then I pasted or taped the cereal to the window. But this time around we're like, what if we just print a vinyl banner and then we can swap out whatever we're voting on at that time?

Nick Clason (15:24):
So we made the investment on the front side knowing that we're going to do this. We love these style of hybrid events in our ministry, so we bought the big banner. It fit perfectly in our space. I can drop the artwork for that in the description, but it's going to vary a little bit for my ministry. Your ministry. It's also got our logo on it, but you can find any bracket online, any generic non-branded bracket online, add it, print it, make it into a banner if that's something that you want to do. What it does for us is when you walk in, it immediately draws your attention. It's not there most of the year. And so when it's there, you're like, oh, it's different. And then people know and notice that there's a bracket going on, there's a voting happening. And the other crazy thing is that people get really into it on their opinions.

Nick Clason (16:17):
What things are seeded? How such and such donut beat that donut. For example, the beignet took down, what did it take down? The chocolate cream filled donut lost to a beignet. I think beignets are good, but are they the best? I don't think so. And I think they're super kind of niche and they're really just, honestly, they're like funnel cake. And so anyway, that giant bracket in our actual space, we also allow, because we have a lot of students, a lot of kids, young kids that don't have social media yet, we allow them to vote on a paper bracket as an additional means to let their voice be heard. We got donut shirts for all of the staff and we all wore them. And so that was kind of like the event setup space. In addition to that, we had some donut balloons blown up and kind of scattered throughout the lobby.

Nick Clason (17:13):
So they walked in. On the left was the big V to vote, regular check-in, back behind check-in was the banner with the voting and the brackets printed out and people could let their voice be heard that way. So now let's dive into the rest of the event. I'm going to put the planning center event sheet right here. We're going to walk through it and I'm just going to explain to you what we did, why we did it, and just my thoughts on it, and feel free to take and adapt any of it to your ministry. So all the setups done, students are walking in. We had a countdown, which if you buy my product on Download Youth ministry, it will come with a specific donut themed and then a specific donut themed five minute countdown that I created with just random facts and stuff like that.

Nick Clason (18:00):
So that was what was playing on our TV and our screens all throughout our space. And when the time hit zero, myself and my boss, Darren, we were both on stage and we were hyping up the crowd, welcoming people, letting them know that voting had been live all day on Instagram. We were letting them know who was winning what matchup students could with the screen behind us. We then had a screen that said, voting is live now with a QR code. They could shoot that and take it to Instagram. I think we gained three to six or something like that. New followers on our Instagram, not a ton, but still some students who were. So we had 23% new students. So we're introducing our students to our Instagram, and if any of them are into this idea now they're following us. So now we have them on our Instagram opportunity to reach out to them, but we just did some like, Hey, here's what's going on.

Nick Clason (18:52):
Here's the bracket, explaining what a bracket is. It's going to be lasting for a month, but it's all about you and your voice and letting your voice be heard and voting is live on Instagram every single Wednesday. We also kind of teased our next series, which we're talking about big issues, elephants in the room that we often don't want to address. So we use that moment to sort of tease the topic. We didn't spend a lot of time on that. And also we had a message drop, if you've heard me before, link in the description of my full YouTube strategy, but we've our messages. And so we had a message live on YouTube, but we didn't do live teaching that night. You can do that. It's your call. It's philosophical decision for an event like this. We like to kind of pull the teaching and let this be a truly invite night, a truly bring your friends style event style night.

Nick Clason (19:41):
And then we did a bunch of door prizes and giveaways. Now, here's how I do this. I use Sidekick through Download Youth Ministry. I created a little slide, I'll drop the slide into the link down below that I've referenced before and it says World's Greatest Donut, and that says You're about to win something, dude with Little Arrow pointed up and then all their names filter through. Here's how we got the names. Every single student who checked in, we created a People search, a save search in C C B Church Community Builder. That's any student who's not a leader that has checked in within the last day. And so whenever I go into that, especially if an event has started it's live, I click refresh and it populates every single student who has checked in to our student ministry within the last 24 hours. And so since we didn't have an event on Tuesday, I know that anyone who's checked in is now here on Wednesday night.

Nick Clason (20:32):
So that list is not just going to be a random full mailing list of all of our students going to be the actual live dynamic list of the students in our event space. Figure that out in your church database system, but find some way to capture all the info of the students that are actually in your space. Now, downloaded that into a C S V, copied it, pasted it into Sidekick, and then boom, we had all the names they're filtering through and we're giving away some door prizes. So what we gave away was a donut blanket that's like the shape of a circle. We gave away a little mini donut maker. We gave away donut key chain. We gave away little rubber donuts. I almost think they were like dog toys. I think we bought them for something else and we forgot. And so we just ended up giving them away.

Nick Clason (21:14):
And what else we give away? I can't remember. But we gave away six different things, just kind of like, Hey, you won and now you won. Now you won. Kids were going nuts for it. They were excited for it. And then I had this big old pillow, this big of a donut pillow, and I was like, who wants this? And the room's going crazy. I'm like, you have a chance to win it later. And so I kind of teased that, but then we're like, Hey, we got worship. So we had two hype songs. Again, philosophically not my favorite, but our students love worship and have been clamoring for it, and we haven't had it regularly for the last year. And just our worship department, which is how our church navigates it, the worship department handles all worship for all of our different ministries. So they do it for kids and students and adults.

Nick Clason (21:58):
And so we hadn't had worship. Worship was just now able to accommodate our desire to have it more regularly. And so since we started the week before, we decided not to pull the plug on it, just let it go. So we asked them for two hype songs. They sung here in your house. They sang glorious day, and then we played a donut game. And this one, full disclosure, I didn't even make. I got it off of D Y M, the Donut Showdown, a couple different people. We have myself, my boss, we have a resident, and then two interns. So there's five of us that we can kind of cycle through on the stage. And so my boss, Darren and one of our interns, Eli, they got up and they ran the donut showdown and then the winning table, because remember I said we have 16 tables.

Nick Clason (22:38):
They got a box of donuts that are more expensive, like bougie box of donuts from one of those bougie donut shops. We bought three of those, one for the winner this game, one for the winner, the next game, and then one box for our leaders in our leader lounge. So they kept track of their answers on whiteboards, and then off they went. The winning team got that. Then we created a 15 second donut on a string bumper. My resident created it. Shout out to Caleb, ADA. And then Caleb and Kaylee came out and they ran the classic Eat a donut on a string without your hands being tied. So that's another box of donuts or maybe two that we bought. Just glazed donuts just for the donut on a string game. They had to get one holder and one eater from each table. So we had 32 people come up front to the stage.

Nick Clason (23:28):
We have 16 tables, so 16 eaters, 16 holders that went on the stage, held the donuts, and then the first person to eat the full donut without using their hands. They also win a box of boujee donuts for their table. And then at that point, I hopped back up and I gave instructions for a guided rec time. And so what we did was they could go to our cafe and decorate cake donuts. So that's another set of donuts that we bought, probably three to four, I dunno, maybe even five dozen, just like unglazed cake donuts. But then we bought frosting and sprinkles and things like that. So we allowed students to have a space to decorate donuts on their own. We also offered a game called Find the Donut. That's where I gave away my big donut thing. And what I did for that was I had seven clues of things that they could do, and so they could get any of the seven clues in whatever order they wanted, but it was a speed thing, so they'd grab a clue.

Nick Clason (24:21):
I typed it out, put it on a little piece of paper. I made it into a Word doc where it was like four on 1, 2, 3, 4 on a word doc. So I could cut the word doc up and down side to side and then have four off of one full sheet of paper. And so then I printed 10 of the first clue and then cut it. And that got me 40 clues or whatever. So it was like, Hey, some of the clues were ways to get them to go interact with our staff. So go ask Darren what his favorite donut is. Go ask Kaylee what her favorite donut is. One of the stations that we created during this guided rec time was a temporary tattoo station, so go get a tattoo from the temporary tattoo station. Another one of 'em was to encourage them to go towards our YouTube channel or answer questions from last week's message.

Nick Clason (25:06):
And if they didn't know, it was like the answer's on YouTube so it would get them onto our YouTube channel, all that type of stuff, trying to again, hybridize it, right? So they'd grab a clue, they'd read it, and then they'd go do the thing. One of the clues was prove that you voted. So if they hadn't voted yet, they had to go fill out a paper bracket or show me they casted their vote via their phone via Instagram. And then the last and final station of guided rec was the tattoo station, as I had mentioned and alluded to, by the way, the first students come back with all seven of their clues completed. They won that giant donut. And then the last thing that they could do is they could continue to make their guests for the VAs of donuts. And then just the general rec stuff that we have.

Nick Clason (25:50):
We have a game room with nine square foosball pool and just kind of like a hangout space. And some students kind of opted into that, but there were five to six options and we gave them about 30 minutes to just do whatever they wanted. They could go do one thing the whole time, they could try and do all the things. I had one student who was like, I'm going to try and do all the things. And from that event, actually, I kind of thought and decided, what if we created a passport or a frequent flyer kind of option to let students try different things when we have a guided rec type of moment? I dunno, just an idea. Then at six 50, we called everybody back into our space. We announced the winner, sixth grade girl who won the vass of Donuts. We let them know about what Sunday morning was going to be, and then that was our final word, and we were like, Hey, thanks so much for hanging out.

Nick Clason (26:39):
Thanks for playing. We will see you next time. Love you guys. Peace, love and crabs. I think that's like a Joe's Crab Shack thing. I'm not sure. Right? All in all, I think this was a great event. Frankly, it's one of my favorite hybrid style events. And again, I remember one time I was talking about hybrid on my social, all links to my socials down the description below. But my sister was like, what do you mean by hybrid? Do you just mean zoom groups? And I can mean zoom groups, right? But this is what I mean when I talk about hybrid. I mean, create an event for one thing, and that's the thing. World's greatest donut. Linking the description to my D Y N product was already created for a voting a month worth of voting on Instagram and on your socials. Then we just said, what if we take that concept and then just craft a month around it and then craft an invite outreach event around it, and then boom, we just had donuts, we leaned in, and that's all the things that we did for it.

Nick Clason (27:35):
The point of this is not just to create vanity metrics, both in our physical space and also in our digital space with followers and whatnot, but the point of it is to step in to the space where students find themselves in 2023, right? It's like a digital mall. In fact, I have a completely free resource to help you navigate that digital mall. It's my done for you Surefire Resource 40 done for You events. On this video right here, it's going to show up on the screen what every youth ministry needs to be focusing on. I also have a video talking about a digital mall and incarnation ministry. So I'd love for you to check those things out. But until next time, we're making digital discipleship easy and accessible, and as always, stay hybrid.

Episode 061: 📲 Instagram vs. TikTok vs. YouTube. The Most Effective Social Platform for your Church's Youth Ministry 📲

Nick Clason — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 04:00:00 -0500

🔥SURE FIRE RESOURCE TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME 🔥

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

🎥LEVEL UP YOUR YOUTUBE GEAR FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

DESCRIPTION
In this episode, join us as we delve into the exciting world of social media platforms and discover which one holds the key to maximizing your church's youth ministry outreach. We'll be breaking down the pros and cons of Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, helping you navigate the digital landscape with confidence. Whether you're a youth pastor, a church leader, or simply interested in harnessing the power of social media for positive impact, this episode is tailor-made for you. Get ready to uncover the secrets of engagement, connection, and inspiration as we unveil the most effective platform to elevate your church's youth ministry to new heights.

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

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

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

📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/061

//PEW RESEARCH ARTICLE
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/

//6 PART SOCIAL MEDIA FRAMEWORK
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIbzg_DNJrTrCtBHQnxcOVo

//WHY EVER YOUTH MINISTRY NEEDS A STRONG SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
https://youtu.be/SDxepdu4iiM

//MOTION ARRAY
https://motionarray.com/

🕺 TikTok: 🎵

Get ready to dance into the world of TikTok! 🕺 We'll discuss the power of short-form videos in grabbing attention, sparking trends, and spreading your message like wildfire. Learn how to harness the creative energy of TikTok to connect with the youth in ways you never thought possible.

📸 Instagram: 📱

Discover the world of visual storytelling as we explore how Instagram can capture the hearts and minds of the youth. From captivating visuals to real-time interaction, we'll uncover the strategies that can turn your Instagram feed into an inspiration hub for your young audience.

📹 YouTube: 🎥

The long-form champion! 📹 We'll explore how YouTube provides a platform for in-depth content, tutorials, discussions, and live engagement. Join us as we unravel the potential of YouTube to create a library of resources that empowers and educates your young audience.

LEVEL UP YOUR YOUTUBE GEAR FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

So, whether you're an #InstaLover, a #TikTokEnthusiast, or a #YouTubeAficionado, this video is your guide to selecting the social platform that aligns perfectly with your church's youth ministry goals. 🌐 Let's make an impact together!

Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to stay updated on all things Hybrid Ministry. Let's transform the digital space for good! 💙🙌

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

TIMECODES
00:00-02:34 Why Every Youth Ministry Should be Using Social Media
02:34-05:47 Every Youth Ministry Context is a little different
05:47-10:48 The Rise of TikTok
10:48-13:25 Instagram: The Curse of Legacy Followers
13:25-17:25 YouTube: How to Level up your YouTube Game in Youth Ministry
17:25-20:05 The Verdict is in: Which Platform should Youth Ministries be Using

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

Nick Clason (00:00):
Hey, in this video we want to answer what is the best social media platform for your youth ministry in 2023? So it's gonna be TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Yeah. Go ahead and hang out in this video because recently Pew Research dropped some stuff that said that 42% of Americans use TikTok. Meanwhile, 71% of Americans use Instagram, and furthermore, 81% of Americans use YouTube. And so in this video, we are going to inspect all three of them, give you the pros and the cons, and then ultimately answer which platform is best for you to dial into in your student ministry in 2023 and beyond. But make sure that you stick around to the very end of this video, because I have a surefire resource that is going to help you win in your social media, in youth ministry. We have a free download to at the very end of the video, so make sure you hang out with that.

Nick Clason (00:51):
Now, you might be asking like, is that research for Americans or is that research for teenagers? And that's a great question because the teenage data is actually a little bit different. And so Pew Research dropped an article about a year ago, in fact, almost a year ago from the date of this recording, uh, where it compared 2014 to 2015 stats all the way to now, uh, the most recent trends and most recent stats. And so interestingly, at the time, uh, YouTube wasn't originally captured as a social media. YouTube as a platform has been around, but it wasn't like converted in people's ideology to social until recently. Meanwhile, Facebook usage in teenagers went down, went from 71% down to 32%. TikTok was on the rise. It's up to 67%, and Instagram's on the rise from 52% up to 60, uh, from 52 up to 62%. Snapchat also was up on the rise along with Instagram.

Nick Clason (01:47):
And so 67% of teens say that they use TikTok ever. Meanwhile, 16% of teens say that they use it, get ready for this. Almost constantly YouTube though, however, does Chop top the charts as, uh, the usage for teenagers at get this, 95% of teenagers say that they are using YouTube. And then now, uh, Instagram and Snapchat, both are next and both used, both are used by about six in 10 teenagers. So that data is quite a bit different, quite frankly, than the original data. And so I'll drop the link to this article so that you can see it, you can read it for yourself. The link is in the show notes, but that's what we're gonna do is we're going to dive into TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Yeah, let's go. Well, everyone, my name is Nick Clason. I'm a youth pastor in the DFW Dallas-Fort Worth area, and I've actually been in youth ministry for believe it or not, 12 and a half years. And I've been managing social media accounts at each of those youth ministry stops in all sorts of various levels of intentionality and all sorts of various levels of, uh, like just know-how. And so what's interesting is when I first started, I viewed

Nick Clason (02:58):
Social media as a way to just get out more information. Like I had an email list and also I had an Instagram following. So Instagram wasn't even around when I started. I launched, uh, my very first Instagram student ministry Instagram page, uh, at the first church that I worked at. But every single church after that, I actually inherited an Instagram account and actually a fairly large Instagram account. However, in most cases, I helped launch a YouTube channel and I also helped create and start a TikTok from scratch. And so that's what I've done within the last year of starting here at the church I'm at now. We launched from scratch a TikTok account and a YouTube account. Instagram of course has been around and you're inheriting all of those followers. And so at just about every single church, I've had some measure of growing, uh, uh, social media ministry, a hybrid ministry and social media and and social networks, right, in all of my context.

Nick Clason (03:52):
And so I'm just curious for you, I would love to know both where you're watching from and what social media network seems to be working best for you. You know what's interesting, drop that in the comments below. But what's interesting is I just moved from Chicago down here to Dallas-Fort Worth and in Chicago, uh, they wouldn't text each other via text message or like standard ss m s messaging. They would really only text people each other, their friends through Snapchat, which was a really interesting phenomenon. And so down here it's not as much the same. Snapchat usage is still happening, but it's not the primary vehicle with which people communicate. And so it just goes to show that wherever you are regionally, it does truly matter and it's a little bit different and the culture and the climate are just a little bit different. So as you're letting us know in the comments below which social media platform seems to be working most in your youth ministry and in your context, you might be asking what does working even really mean?

Nick Clason (04:48):
I mean, are we talking views? Are we talking impressions? Are we talking like engagement? Are we talking reach? Like what is it? And I actually have a lot of answers to that and how to get started in our six part social media framework for churches. I'll link it right here if that's something that you're interested. But go ahead and take a look at that. If you are trying to get this up, up, up off the ground, get started in your social media, I would love to have you do that. If you are not watching on YouTube, that link will be in the show notes of your podcast catcher. But I just wanna know that as we break down in that six part context, we break down which of these social media, uh, channels, you can watch through each of the different platforms, and then you can be, uh, a decision maker as far as which is the best to implement in your current climate and in your current context.

Nick Clason (05:35):
But TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube, let's dive in and let's look at each of the platforms, the pros, the cons, where they came from and why they are where they are today. So let's go. Some say it started as early as 2019. Others say it started closer to the beginning of 2020. And you know me, like I tried to play my part as much as I could, but it seemed like no matter what, everybody around me was getting it and I kept distancing myself from it. I tried to stay away from it, but finally it was around Christmas time of 2020, I finally just broke down and I decided I was going to get it. Now, you know what I'm talking about, right? Put it in the comments. 3, 2, 1. I'm talking about TikTok. Oh, you thought I was talking about Covid? No, I'm talking about TikTok, right?

Nick Clason (06:23):
TikTok burst on the scene during the pandemic, actually. And what's fascinating is like there's all sorts of toss out there now, but like I would never download that. And it's like me now just like doom scrolling, like just consuming it at like mass crazy levels. Here's the thing that you need to know about TikTok is they invented a brand new way to do social media. And the way that they burst on the scene and the popularity with which they burst on the scene is now causing all other platforms to change their method and their approach to social media. And so TikTok, uh, brought to us what we now use, and you may not call it this or may not think of it this way, but essentially it's the discovery algorithm. It's the algorithm with which you consume the majority of your content from people that you don't even know you're discovering them, right?

Nick Clason (07:11):
A way that I've used this in my own life is last, uh, last spring, my family and I, we went to Disney. We visited the mouse. And if you've ever been to Disney, one of the best places to go to Disney is Epcot. All right? And so we went to Epcot on the very first day of our trip. My brother, uh, my sister and my brother-in-law came and they joined us. They live in Florida a few hours away. So they drove over. I mean, it was a blast. We hung out on Epcot. But in order to know the best, like if you've never been to Epcot, they have this thing called the World Showcase. And you walk around this giant lake and there are 11 different pavilions. You got like Mexico and Japan and China and Norway, and you got France, and you got Germany, and you got, uh, United Kingdom.

Nick Clason (07:51):
You got United States, you got Canada. I might've named all 11. I don't know, I might, I might've missed one. Let me know in the comments if you're a Disney person and if I missed one. But what we did was I built a map and I talked, I looked at the best food, the best drink, the best places to stop, the best carts to get stuff from at each of these different pavilions. And the way that I did that, the way that I did the majority of my research was through TikTok. It's amazing. And now TikTok is converting to not just scrolling and hoping to find a good next video, but now TikTok is actually trying to convert into more of a discovery, uh, or like search-based, uh, type of platform where you can go and you can get answers to certain questions. And you might be thinking as a youth pastor, that's an amazing concept.

Nick Clason (08:35):
And you're right, it is. You can answer very specific questions on TikTok. But here's the thing. In my Epcot experience, I got a lot of great answers. I went to the France Pavilion, I got the croquet glosser, I'm probably saying that wrong 'cause I'm not French, but I was told, Hey, this brioche bun with ice in the middle, and they flip it over in like a waffle, iron type thing. I found out about that completely and exclusively on TikTok. I would've never found that little, like, kind of like off the beaten path little restaurant to find that thing in my normal meandering. And walking around Epcot, TikTok came in clutch for me on that. However, I have no idea who posted it. I'm not following them. I don't have a relationship with them, and it's not a continued ongoing one. And so the relationships on TikTok, especially with those who follow you, are far less, uh, substantial than some of the other ones because of this kind of discovery based algorithm.

Nick Clason (09:33):
And I think TikTok might be trying to change that a little bit, but you just need to know that as a youth ministry, if you put your content out there and you do get a lot of subscribers, or you do get a lot of views, or you do get a lot of followers, like that doesn't necessarily equal more people that you're having like good influence with because I think it's something like 85% of the content that any one of us consume on TikTok are from people that we don't know. And so for you, a really good thing to do would be to create a meaningful call to action that pushes them to some sort of thing, to a link in the bio if you do have enough followers on there to your YouTube channel, to a digital connect card online, so that you can get to know the people that are watching your videos and that are getting answers from the, uh, big questions that you are trying to answer on TikTok.

Nick Clason (10:21):
So with that being said, hey, listen, if you are getting value out of this video, if this has been helpful so far, I would love it if you would hit that like button, if you would give us a rating if you're listening to a, a podcast or if you would subscribe on YouTube and maybe even consider this sharing it with a friend. But after this, we're gonna move on to not just TikTok, but now we wanna look at Instagram. So coming up next, let's take a look at Instagram, the pros, the cons, and what you need to know about that platform. All right, so Instagram, one of the things I call it, I don't know if this is really what it's called, but if you come into youth ministry, you're probably going to, at this point in, in the lifecycle of youth ministry and the lifecycle of Instagram, you're probably going to inherit what I call legacy users.

Nick Clason (11:04):
So that's people who have in the past been associated affiliated or connected with your youth ministry in some sort of way. But in the last couple of places that I've, I've shown up and I've, uh, jumped onto the Instagram, what I've realized is that there are college students, majority of college students as our follower base. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing for general social media marketing, it may not also be a great thing for youth ministry, social media marketing, because those are not the people that you're trying to reach anymore. And so, uh, on Instagram, you probably have some sort of an older audience as a result of just like the history of it and the way in which we've done things. So even in a church I went to, we went and we just did a follower and following like audit, and we just, anyone we didn't know we took out because if, if we don't know 'em, and we've been there for a few years, like obviously it's time to, to sort of cut ties with this relationship here.

Nick Clason (11:59):
And we're not trying to be jerks, we're not trying to cut people off, but, uh, that was not our target that we were like going towards, you know? And so if you go to a business account and Instagram and you look at the analytics and it's all skews older, like that's as a youth pastor, you're like, that's not, that's not what you're trying to do. That's not who you're trying to reach. You can still minister to those people and, and you should, but you just kind of gotta know that there's going to be legacy users on Instagram. You just gotta figure out what you wanna do and what your personal philosophy to managing that is. The other piece of Instagram that you need to know is that it started out as a photo sharing app, and then it stole stories from Snapchat, and then it stole reels from TikTok.

Nick Clason (12:37):
And so honestly, right now on Instagram, there are three very distinct different experiences for Instagram users. There's the feed and there's stories and there's reels. And so for me, because, uh, short form vertical video content is king right now, I am able to just do all of my focus on reels and use reels to share stuff to the feed and use reels to share stuff out to stories. And so by using reels, I'm able to kill literally three birds with one stone. But if you don't know that and you don't have some sort of like thought through strategy, Instagram can eat your lunch because it is busy and there's a lot going on there on Instagram. Now, let's dive into the third and final versus TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Let's check it out. YouTube, according to a 2022 study, we looked at it earlier, 95% of teenagers are using YouTube.

Nick Clason (13:34):
95%, nine and a half out of 10 people in your demographic that you're trying to reach are using YouTube. Now, not all YouTube users are built the same, right? Some are on there as adults, right, to like repair their faucet. Others like my kids, they're on there to watch Roblox and they're on there to watch Rainbow Friends and people get killed by these scary monster things. Teenagers are on there for a probably, uh, a hybrid of those two reasons, along with answers to specific questions along with entertainment, along with watching Mr. Beast videos, like whatever the case might be. Teenagers are on there for a variety of reasons. 'cause YouTube has a variety of content. I mean, for crying out loud, this video right now is on YouTube, but 95% of teenagers use it. In addition, it is the second largest search engine in the world powered by the first largest search engine in the world.

Nick Clason (14:26):
So it is a great place to be discovered and to be found. And when people are going to YouTube, they're often asking specific questions, right? Like the other day, I got onto YouTube and I was asking how to fix smoke coming out of my lawnmower. Very specific question. So I want you to reverse engineer, and I want you to kinda retrofit that idea into your ministry as a youth pastor. What are some of the specific questions that teenagers are asking you in day to day? Why does a loving God send good people to hell? If we're always forgiven for our sins, then why do we need to obey him? Now, what's the purpose of obedience? Does God need you or require you to vote Republican? Right? Whatever the the questions are that you are fielding as a youth pastor, think about it. You have an opportunity on YouTube to go on there and answer very specific questions that your kids are asking.

Nick Clason (15:21):
And furthermore, it is the second largest search engine in the world. So take those specific questions and help give them some specific answers. During C O V I D I moved to a church, started a church the very first day of C O V I, and then I got immediately locked down. And so I was working out on my master bedroom with boxes all around me trying to figure out how to be a youth pastor in this brand new context. And I, quite frankly, I did not have enough to do. During that time. I kept asking my boss, what more do you want from me? What more do you want from me? And he was like, just keep doing what you're doing. And I wasn't doing much. But so what I did with my time, even as I was at home, is I taught myself Adobe after effects.

Nick Clason (16:03):
I taught myself how to do it step by step, key frame by key frame agonizingly, and I was building things completely from scratch. And then once we broke free from the pandemic, I found out that all the creative people at my church were using a thing called motion array. I'll link that down below in the show notes if that's something that you wanna check out. It's an amazing tool for After Effects Premier Pro, uh, stock footage, stock audio. But guess what? I could take a motion or a template and I could very easily use After Effects because I now had an ability and a skill set that I didn't have before. I completely used YouTube to teach myself a brand new skill. Speaking of which, if you are interested in our completely free Adobe Premier Pro, uh, effects and plugins, they're easy bounce ins and bounce outs and rotates in and rotates out and drop in from the top and drop in from the bottom, and a smooth effect and a bounce effect, then I wanna encourage you to go to the link down below, order the link in the show notes and grab that.

Nick Clason (17:01):
If you're a video editor, if you use Adobe Premier Pro, this is my number one go-to tool. And I would love to encourage you, if you're watching on YouTube, you're seeing some of the effects right now, I would like to encourage you to download that and use it in your ministry if this is something that you are doing as a video editor. So now let's dive in to the conclusion, TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. Finally, the verdict. Here we go. Let's look at it. So the verdict, TikTok versus Instagram versus YouTube. What is it? If you asked me if I were to rank them in importance, here's how I would rank them as a youth pastor in 2023. In order of importance, in order of usage, in order of opportunity, I would rank them YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, in that order. Now, here's the good news.

Nick Clason (17:46):
I have a way for you to knock all three of them completely out of the park. And here's why. Because of TikTok and them introducing the discovery algorithm, Instagram has adopted reels and YouTube has adopted shorts. And so by adopting one centralized strategy on your social media, i e short form vertical video-based content, I have a completely free ebook that I am giving away in the link to the show notes. And it's called this, it's called The One Month Done For You Posting Tool. And it will give you 40 different video ideas that you can film on your smartphone or on a camera and post with very little editing, uh, need or ability. You can do all of it from your smartphone. Uh, the, the good news is when you download that ebook, you're also gonna get a link to our ha Have I Ruined My TikTok account?

Nick Clason (18:35):
A Complete Guide to Posting a TikTok from Start to Finish all via your phone. And so both of those are going to be paired well together so that you, if you have no video editing ability, if I'm talking about Adobe Premier Pro plugins and you're like, what in the world are you talking about? This is your way as a youth pastor with minimal, uh, experience, minimal, uh, know-how in any of these areas to completely revolutionize your social media experience. Because if you go all in on short form vertical video-based content, you can do fun stuff. You can do challenges and games with your students. You can get students on your social media and you can overhear, you can get, you can answer specific questions to big and specific problems. You can do recaps to your messages so that your messages don't just happen on a Wednesday night and then die there.

Nick Clason (19:21):
You can use a fully faceted, fully integrated social media posting thing. And I have all of that completely for you for free. All I need you to do is click that link and download that, um, and just start using it today. And I would love to know if you do and if you find it helpful, because I think that it's an amazing resource and an amazing tool. So go grab that download, and if you actually wanna put that completely to the, to the fullest extent, if you wanna use that to the best of its abilities, then you need to go check out episode number 60, linked right here answering the question why every single youth ministry needs a strong digital presence. Because here's the deal, we are here to make digital discipleship easy and we wanna encourage you to stay hybrid.