web02.fireside.fm Tue, 14 Apr 2026 17:31:05 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Hybrid Ministry - Episodes Tagged with “Youth Ministry Ideas” https://www.hybridministry.xyz/tags/youth%20ministry%20ideas Thu, 05 Feb 2026 05:00:00 -0600 Hybrid Ministry is complicated and hard. Or is it? How do pastors and youth pastors create a vibrant extension, not replacement, of what's already happening during their weekly church services? To cater in a digital ministry way to an online focused ministry audience. Reaching Millennials, Gen Z and even Gen Alpha is going to require us to rethink some of the ways we do church. Follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick en-us episodic Digital Discipleship made easy Nick Clason Hybrid Ministry is complicated and hard. Or is it? How do pastors and youth pastors create a vibrant extension, not replacement, of what's already happening during their weekly church services? To cater in a digital ministry way to an online focused ministry audience. Reaching Millennials, Gen Z and even Gen Alpha is going to require us to rethink some of the ways we do church. Follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick no Digital, Online Church, Hybrid Ministry, Church, Meta, Gen Z, Millennials, Digital Marketing, Church Marketing, Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Nick Clason, Digital Ministry, Church Social Media, Youth Ministry Social Media, YouTube for Church, YouTube for Youth Ministry, TikTok for Churches, TikTok for Youth Ministry, Instagram for Churches, Instagram for Youth Ministry, Facebook for Church, Facebook for Youth Ministry, Cell Phone Usage at Church Nick Clason nickclason@hybridministry.xyz Episode 187: The Game That Changed Youth Camps Forever https://www.hybridministry.xyz/187 750297e9-b91c-4220-8fe4-f371b3e7d3e0 Thu, 05 Feb 2026 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 187 The Game That Changed Youth Camps Forever full Nick Clason Most youth camp games fail for one simple reason… and almost nobody realizes it. Leaders spend hours planning activities, but kids lose interest in minutes — and it’s not because they’re distracted or bored. Today, I’m sitting down with the creator of Camp Clue — a game that’s been used in camps around the world to keep kids fully engaged. He’s breaking down exactly why it works — and how you can design games that actually hold attention all week long. And how you can get it for yourself! 25:05 no Most youth camp games fail for one simple reason… and almost nobody realizes it. Leaders spend hours planning activities, but kids lose interest in minutes — and it’s not because they’re distracted or bored. Today, I’m sitting down with the creator of Camp Clue — a game that’s been used in camps around the world to keep kids fully engaged. He’s breaking down exactly why it works — and how you can design games that actually hold attention all week long. And how you can get it for yourself! 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Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 What is Camp Clue? 04:11 Social Media During Camp - How? 05:29 Did you Murder People at Your Camp? 06:08 How to Set up Camp Clue? 09:54 How this Game Also Enhances Relationships 12:43 Bonus Idea #1 From Anthony Taylor 14:00 Bonus Idea #2 From Anthony Taylor 16:33 Logistical Hurdle Solution 18:18 Pro Tips from Anthony 21:00 Bonus Idea #3 & #4 From Anthony Taylor -------------- TRANSCRIPT Nick Clason (00:01.166) Well, what's up everyone? I'm here with Anthony and we're both drinking coffee on this Friday morning and we both have backwards black hats. So I almost wore that chapel students t-shirt, but I just don't have it yet. One day. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. That'd have been funny. That'd have been funny. Anthony is the, um, the mad scientist behind camp clue. Um, or something. Anthony Taylor (00:05.94) Hey! Anthony Taylor (00:09.502) Wow. Anthony Taylor (00:14.868) I have some old Parkview t-shirts from your last church. I should have wore Parkview t-shirt. That would have been awesome. Nick Clason (00:31.104) And so he's gonna just, so we've been in this little playlist, you're actually the end cap of it, Anthony, where we've been talking about different games that you could implement at a winter retreat or a D-Now or a summer camp that lasts the whole weekend and in some cases exists in the background. And Camp Clue, I remember it from even a couple years ago, seeing you talk about it or... running across it on the DYM store. So why don't you just give us a quick overview. Where did it come from? What's the concept behind it? And how did it go? Anthony Taylor (01:02.249) Yeah. Anthony Taylor (01:07.08) Yeah, yeah, we have, we do a middle school and high school camp, probably like everybody else does, at a place that's not ours. And, and we have kids that don't want to do the rec games, the earth ball, the throw the football, chase the thing. And so we were sitting down talking as a team and said, what, can we create that non-athletic creatives might want to do? Nick Clason (01:32.621) Mm. Anthony Taylor (01:33.62) And what we started with was we ordered the farting unicorn coloring books. Do remember those? Yeah. And so we ordered every coloring book that was silly. And then we just made a table with colored pencils and stuff. And honestly, we still do that. And so when the camp game is going on out in the field, we have a table close by with a little tent over it. And if a creative and a non-sporty person just wants to do that, they color with their friends and Nick Clason (01:39.584) yeah. Yeah. Nick Clason (01:45.634) Yeah. Anthony Taylor (02:01.47) do that stuff and we bought the bead bracelets and stuff. And then we realized that it was like 90 % girls in that tent. And we're like, we want something that everybody, every gender, every creative, every, a sport kid that hurt his leg, can't do the thing, to do. So we decided to brainstorm some games. And now every year we do something different. And if we get time and I blow through the Camp Clue stuff, Nick Clason (02:08.429) Mmm. Nick Clason (02:20.058) yeah. Anthony Taylor (02:30.952) I'll tell you some of the other fun stuff. just, we have our winter conference coming up next weekend. These are all my escape room posters. We made escape rooms for kids to just play, which is kind of fun. Yeah, so one of our residents, her name was Makena. We sat down and it was like her first project. I was like, let's create something that's awesome that everybody can play. And so we thought about Clue and then we're like, well, let's call it Camp Clue. Nick Clason (02:32.331) Yeah, that'd be great. Nick Clason (02:40.289) nice. Yeah. Anthony Taylor (03:00.324) And what it is, in a nutshell, real quickly, is kids get a card, and just like Clue, you're trying to figure out who is in what room with what item, and as you do that, you're eliminating people because they're clearly in that room, and the lead pipe is clearly over there, and so it couldn't be this, that. So as you eliminate people, you will find out who the person is, where they're at, and with what weapon they would do the thing. Nick Clason (03:05.646) Mm. Nick Clason (03:18.264) Right. Nick Clason (03:27.564) Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, are people getting murdered at your camp or are you like trying to stay away from the whole word? Anthony Taylor (03:34.866) Yeah, no, actually that's funny. I can't remember. We played this three or four, yeah. I forget what the answer is, but I do think someone gets hit with a weapon. I don't know if they get murdered. No, no, no, no, no. I do remember this. Someone was worried about murder and they said they've been eliminated. They've been eliminated. So if you're more progressive, you can say murder. Nick Clason (03:38.926) It's been a minute right? Nick Clason (03:49.038) Yeah. Nick Clason (03:55.669) Right? Yeah, there you go. There you go. Nice. That's funny. yeah. So is this a, that's funny. So is this a like, wow, earth balls going on alternative or is this happening kind of all week long? Anthony Taylor (04:12.412) No, Anthony Taylor (04:16.52) both. So while earth ball is going on and they're like, I would never want to do that. Then we have a rule of three at camp. can't be alone right where the kid. So if, if teenager one and teenager two are like, I don't want to do that leader one can grab those people and like, Hey, we're going to walk around and go do camp clue. But also when the lake is open midday and you're like, I'm not swimming. You know, they can go play camp clue. So it's all the time. Nick Clason (04:17.336) Okay. Nick Clason (04:21.686) Yeah. Nick Clason (04:27.34) Right, right. Yeah. Nick Clason (04:45.111) Okay. Anthony Taylor (04:46.258) It's sitting out there and it takes a bit of time on the front end as the youth pastor, because what you're gonna do is you're gonna, these are quadrants, but you're gonna cut these like this and you're gonna go tape these camp clues all over the place. And if you're not watching this as a podcast, I'm just, it's a piece of paper that says camp glow on one end and the other one just says like lead pipe. the reality is, is you take these to the buildings wherever your camp is and you hide them. Nick Clason (04:51.298) Right? Nick Clason (05:06.979) Yeah. Anthony Taylor (05:15.078) And I liked, like if you're going to take it to the gym, right? Every camp has a gym or most camps or the dining hall. You just say the dining hall, but then you take a nice piece of gaff tape or duct tape that's not going to, and you go hide this and you tape it to the wall somewhere. But I like to, I'd much rather like hide it up under the soffit and it's just barely, do you know mean? So they go to the dining hall and they're like, Nick Clason (05:15.404) Okay. Nick Clason (05:22.54) Yeah, sure. Nick Clason (05:34.04) Yeah. Nick Clason (05:39.022) yeah. huh. Anthony Taylor (05:43.376) I gotta find the clue at the dining hall and they're like where and they're like There it is, you know Nick Clason (05:48.664) So do you give them like a giant list of like locations that they have to like go to find the, or how are they knowing that they gotta go to the dining hall? Anthony Taylor (05:56.85) Yeah, yeah, so the campers have this cute little camp clue card and the camp clue card is specific to that kid. Any kid that wants to play has a card and they have to have their own card and the camp clue card is like this and it has all of the suspects, all of the weapons and all of the rooms and then the mystery solved and it says blank use the blank in the blank and then there's a time indicator they have to write. Nick Clason (06:13.581) Okay. Nick Clason (06:22.456) Yeah. Anthony Taylor (06:24.66) It has to say Sunday at 2.30 PM, they turn this in, which means they solved it. And sometimes we get them at 2.35 and you're like, oh, you were first, you know. But this is the cool thing about the way that we develop the game is they don't get a list. They come up and they say, they say, hey, I need a clue. And you say, have you solved some clues? And they're like, yeah, I solved some clues. And they start linear. There's Nick Clason (06:28.672) is when they solved it. Nick Clason (06:35.82) Yeah, okay. Anthony Taylor (06:53.876) 15 clues and then you say, I've solved up to clue five. You're like, really? You want clue six? And then the leader has a leader sheet that is a editable. How do you say that word? Yeah. Editable PDF that no matter what your camp looks like, you would fill in these things. So if your camp doesn't have a gym, you would say who was in the, and you would fill it out and put who was in the dining hall, who was in the boys, Nick Clason (07:04.684) Yeah. No, you said it right the second time. Nick Clason (07:21.825) Yeah. Anthony Taylor (07:23.9) shower room. That's probably not a good one. But yeah, not a good, yeah. And so they would, you would say, you're on six? Well, what you would say, hey kid, what weapon was in the boathouse? And they're like, the boathouse. And then they run to the boathouse and then they scour the boathouse until they find the boathouse clue. And then they say, what weapon? It was the revolver. And they get rid of it. Nick Clason (07:25.804) That's probably not a great place to put the clue, but you get it. Nick Clason (07:42.498) Gotcha. Nick Clason (07:49.58) Hmm. So do you give that that sheet right there that you just showed the the 15 different locations basically where they would go find the clue to every leader or to just like a singular clue point person? Anthony Taylor (08:04.262) It's up to you and how you want to do it. We've done, yeah. I liked that we had, we're a multi-site church, so at our camp we have eight staff people, student pastors. I liked it that kids had to go to find a student pastor. One year, doesn't have to be theirs. We gave it to every leader and Camp Clu gets solved like this. Nick Clason (08:06.83) What's the best what you've done it? Yeah, what's the what did you find? Nick Clason (08:19.331) Yeah. Nick Clason (08:23.38) Any student, doesn't have to be theirs? Okay, great. Nick Clason (08:32.917) Yeah. Anthony Taylor (08:33.876) because they go to their leader and then they say, it's in the boathouse. And they're literally, their leader walks with them to the boathouse and they're like, well, what's the next one? What's the next one? And you can solve it really quickly. That didn't work well. So I would say, yeah, if you could make it less is better, but still having a relationship. Because I want kids having a relationship. like, man, who is at the boathouse? Mrs. P. Kier, that's cool. You got it right. You want the next one? Hey, how's it going? How's your day? And it's a relational tool. Nick Clason (08:43.694) Yeah, it goes pretty quick, yeah. Nick Clason (09:02.03) I like that. Yeah, I like that. No, that's cool. Anthony Taylor (09:03.774) But you could have a camp master. It would be cool if you had, you know, we have a couple leaders that have some disabilities that are, not running around. They're not doing all the things. Like what if they were the camp clue person and they were the king leader because they had all the information, like they would feel good. Nick Clason (09:12.141) Right. Nick Clason (09:19.886) Yeah, yeah, I know it'd be cool. I do like that and I think, be honest, like I remember when this came out, I watched your guys video on DYM. I think I even bought it, which we'll link down below so people can go get it you can get your 30 cents of royalties from it. Yeah, yeah, but I'm realizing now, because my kids were very little back then when I got the game, I'm realizing now I didn't know how to play Anthony Taylor (09:32.083) Yeah. I need my three cents, yeah. Nick Clason (09:49.934) regular clue. And so I didn't, I didn't understand the concept mostly because I'm an idiot. But now that you're explaining it to me, now that my kids are older and I've since played the board game clue, I'm like, this makes complete sense. But you, kind of had to have a basic understanding of how the actual game works or not be the dumbest person ever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I like, I do like these types of games are my favorite or or activities. Like, well, maybe this isn't like you call it a game because this Anthony Taylor (10:06.824) Yeah, you have to have children or teenagers who have played Clue. Nick Clason (10:19.754) It's not earth ball and kids aren't leaving like sweaty or hospitalized, but I, yes, that's exactly what I'm looking for. And it's, and it's optional, right? Like it's not required. but you know, sometimes those like day three of free time, that's like several hours long and kids are like, I don't know what to do. I'm tired of the lake and I'm tired of the things that are available. And I'm just kind of bored. Like this stuff like this that exists is like, well, can you Anthony Taylor (10:20.008) Yeah. Yeah. We want an ongoing activity, right? Yeah. Nick Clason (10:48.566) Have you figured out Camp Clu yet? Like it's a great way to just keep them going, you know? And it's, like you said, a little bit of work on the front end, but like once you've done that, like it sits there and kind of like runs itself in the background, you know? Anthony Taylor (11:01.268) Yeah. You know, I look around my desk, see if I have it. The predecessor of this was a giant, giant rubber chicken we spray painted gold. And the idea was there is a rubber chicken at this camp. Go find it. And so on a day and you didn't want any, you didn't have anything to do, you just go look for a rubber chicken. And then if it didn't happen day one, Nick Clason (11:09.144) Yeah. Nick Clason (11:14.242) Okay. Nick Clason (11:20.226) Somewhere. Yeah. Anthony Taylor (11:30.504) you would say, just so you know, rubber chicken is higher than your eyesight on day two. And you're like, yeah, and that was the camp clue. so, if you don't wanna buy this, I don't know, it's three bucks, five bucks, I don't know what it is. Yeah, but if you can't afford, yeah, that's right, I think it is, yeah. But if not, just grab something and say, hey, we're hiding this, and. Nick Clason (11:35.229) Okay, give little clues. Nice. Nick Clason (11:44.534) Yeah, it's very affordable. And if you remember, it's like basically free. Like just just go get it, people. Nick Clason (11:56.856) Yeah. Anthony Taylor (11:57.746) And when you find it, that's the other cool thing is when you find it, now you and your leader, you get to go re-hide it. And we'll give you a cheesy bread at the canteen. Nick Clason (12:04.544) okay, nice. Nick Clason (12:09.782) Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice. what are some of the other, you said you got some other stuff, like what are some other stuff you guys have come up with? Anthony Taylor (12:18.071) yeah. Yeah, we're in Chicago land area and just north of us in Wisconsin is a camp called Lake Geneva Youth Camp Lake Geneva Youth Camp. And honestly, if if anybody listening, this was like all of those ideas are terrible. Just call them. They're they're really creative. They do this really well. I went up and sat with them and just said, like, tell me all the things that you do. So. Nick Clason (12:45.09) Yeah. Anthony Taylor (12:46.356) So we've gone from this, which is kind of in depth, it takes a little bit of time and that stuff, to these guys, the Baby Jesus things, So I don't know, we bought a thousand of these. And when we went to camp and we hid them, and they're hidden everywhere. They're like ridiculous places and fun places and right above door frames where everybody sees them. Nick Clason (12:58.011) yeah, yeah. Nick Clason (13:13.582) Sure. Anthony Taylor (13:15.214) and you collect them and you can turn in your Jesus's for tickets. so this is crazy because, know, the kid, his name was Dom. Dom had 55 baby Jesus's in his pockets, know, cargo pants full and he got 55 tickets, but we didn't tell them what the tickets are for. And at the end of the weekend, it was, we did an extreme game show and we gave away Nick Clason (13:20.226) Okay. Nick Clason (13:31.342) That's hilarious, yeah. Nick Clason (13:42.39) Okay. Anthony Taylor (13:43.924) Nintendo Switch and TV and Mittens and a Lululemon bag. You know, we had, I don't know, we had a hundred prizes. Twenty were awesome. Well, you could put your ticket in to potentially get the thing. Dom had. Yeah. And everyone got three tickets, but Dom had 55 plus three tickets. And Dom's like, I got a Lululemon bag and Mountain Dew and a TV and, know, and so. Nick Clason (13:50.028) Yeah. Nick Clason (13:57.336) like a raffle kind of thing. Yeah. Okay. Nick Clason (14:09.582) Yeah, that's awesome. Anthony Taylor (14:12.116) So that hiding baby Jesuses. A lot of times with our theme of whatever our retreat is or our camp is, we try to tie something to it. last year was move and it was all like car kind of stuff. And like, you are the driver of your faith. So I went on eBay and for $150, I ordered, I think it was like 300 keys, driver ignition keys. I hid them everywhere. Nick Clason (14:26.912) Mmm. Yeah. Nick Clason (14:38.456) Yeah. Okay. Anthony Taylor (14:41.934) And it was kind of the same concept. Like you get a driver ignition key, except that one, you got to keep the key, which was kind of fun. And so you had a, it was fun. There was like a Maserati key with a key fob. You're like, you, you ever find that Maserati it's yours, Nick Clason (14:48.832) yeah. Nick Clason (14:54.038) Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's cool. How do you, okay, let me ask you like a logistical question. How do you hide a thousand baby Jesuses while camp, like do you send someone up early or like what's your actual flow so that while you're hiding them, kids aren't seeing you hide them? Anthony Taylor (15:14.706) Yeah, yep, beforehand our team disperse us. Sometimes we'll bring student leaders in and be like, listen, if you choose to help us, you don't get to play the game. Yeah, and they're like, cool, what? That's awesome. They're like, I'm 18 anyways. I don't really wanna play the baby. Yeah, I don't care, it's not that cool. But can I have one baby Jesus? I'm like, yeah, you can. So yeah, we hide them. But the funny thing is, is with the keys, Nick Clason (15:20.567) Okay. Nick Clason (15:24.492) Yeah, you're eliminated from, yeah. Nick Clason (15:29.356) Yeah, yeah. I don't care. Yeah. That's funny. Anthony Taylor (15:43.796) If you found the key and turned in five keys, I would give you a button. So it was a trade rate, five keys to a button, 10 keys to a, there was something a little bigger, I forget. And so you would get this thing, we would get the keys back. This was for a winter conference. Everyone would go home at night and then I'd stay a little late and I'd rehide those same keys. And so it didn't cost me anything. I didn't have to like, Nick Clason (15:54.829) Yeah. Nick Clason (16:09.362) Nice, Right. That's funny. Anthony Taylor (16:12.34) keep buying more keys, I just re-hit the same keys, yeah. And one person put, taped a key inside of our vending machine so you could see it, but you couldn't get it, and the can would come down and hit the key on the window, and so kids were buying pops to see if they could knock the key, and I was like, that was, I don't know who did it, it was one of our staff did it. That was funny, we sold a ton of Dr. Pepper. It's right there. Nick Clason (16:20.343) Nick Clason (16:32.333) Yeah. Nick Clason (16:35.808) Yeah, that's genius. Yeah, because it's right in line with the key. So yeah, dude, no, I love it. And it's super smart and also like really just very simple. So and are there any like any other like best practices or like things that you've learned over the years with these kind of like in the background games that that are potential pitfalls for youth pastors? Or is it just like don't it's simple. Just go do it. Anthony Taylor (17:06.788) one, one year, it was Jesus or the keys. I forget. It was either baby Jesus or the keys. It became too central of a thing. And people were like, it was Jesus. I can't find any more Jesuses because they were hoarding them and like Dom had 50, you know? And, yeah. And, that was disappointing. Nick Clason (17:24.776) Mm. Mm. Yeah, Dom. Nick Clason (17:34.541) Yeah. Anthony Taylor (17:35.348) So what I did was I overnight Amazoned another 500 Jesus's. They showed up, I think at like six in the morning. It was like that prime thing, six in the morning. And then I just went and hid them all. And I realized that this thing was driving my life. And I didn't want the baby Jesus thing driving my life. So to think about like, is it scalable? Can enough people have fun, but not too many? Are you gonna run out of stuff? Nick Clason (17:45.122) Yeah. Nick Clason (17:51.863) Yeah. Nick Clason (18:04.364) Yeah, that's good. Anthony Taylor (18:05.304) and can you recycle it? So if Camp Clue is done in day one of a five day camp, go rip all those things down, switch everything up, play Camp Clue version two. And so just think in the background of that. Nick Clason (18:11.619) Right. Nick Clason (18:19.427) Yeah. No, that's good. Cause I think like you, you don't ever want the main thing of camp to stop being the main thing of camp, right? Like you want it to be a hundred, but not, but not the little Jesus is the real Jesus. Yeah. But like when, cause sometimes those things and that's all like, have, I have a really young staff and they have amazing ideas, but sometimes they don't think through all of those little like nuances of like, if we do this thing, some kids going to cheat. Anthony Taylor (18:29.65) which is Jesus in the sessions and the relationship. No, that's good, yeah. Nick Clason (18:52.31) what's our counter attack to that cheating kid or how do we make sure that we have a level playing field and we're not giving favor to just people who really good at this or whatever that might be. And that word right there is a pro youth worker move for sure. Because you can't let that stuff take you down, but it can because kids can get so ingrained with it. Anthony Taylor (19:15.442) Yeah, well, and honestly, these side games for the kid who's not athletic and wants to feel awesome can take over their lives on accident and they miss all of camp, you know? And so the key really is making sure leaders have a pulse on who their kids are, what they're doing. And if Dom doesn't show up to anything because he's looking for baby Jesuses, his leader needs to navigate him differently. Nick Clason (19:24.309) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Nick Clason (19:37.974) Yeah, he missed all the worship sessions, but he got 55 baby. Yeah, exactly. So no, that's a really good word. Sweet. Anthony Taylor (19:44.808) Yeah, yeah. One day, got two more thoughts. One day we got a giant toolbox, a toolbox, and put chains all over it, and then we put locks on them, and it was a giant escape room to get in. And all throughout the building there were clues, and you had to find the clues, and those clues got you to unlock three different locks, three number locks. Nick Clason (19:50.946) Go for it. Nick Clason (20:00.054) Mmm. Okay. Nick Clason (20:13.367) Yeah, yeah. Anthony Taylor (20:14.688) And that was really fun because there was a thing you could do, but you couldn't unlock until you had all three. And so you're like, I got one. And then, know, by day three or four, you could get in the lock. That was really fun. And then when you opened it up, the scalable thing was we would we would put stanchions around it and the crowd had to get behind and someone would be like, escape. And that meant that they were going to open the thing and it would open up so that the crowd couldn't see into it. Nick Clason (20:44.599) Okay, yeah. Anthony Taylor (20:45.164) And I would lean in and I like, look down in there and I need you to come out with like, shut up. my goodness. Like what? And then we're going to close it, lock it back up for the next person. And I would just change the prize out. was just a piece of paper. And the piece of paper said, I'll order Starbucks for you and your whole, your friend group. then you close it and the next one's Dunkin Donuts for you and your friend group. The next one's a Taco Bell Party Pack for you. And so that was scalable because a different prize. Nick Clason (21:04.323) Yeah. Nick Clason (21:11.917) Yeah. Anthony Taylor (21:14.27) but no one saw, so there was still the allure of. Nick Clason (21:17.218) Yeah, you're not giving it away. Yeah, no, that's good. That's good. I like that. That's a fun one. Anthony Taylor (21:20.552) Yeah. Yeah. And then the, the, yeah, I think that was pretty cool. The other one we just did, it's going to happen next weekend. our, our winter conference next weekend is, do you know what Marine or, ammo, ammo shell casing things are? They have a little latch. They're supposed to put ammo in it. Like for guns, usually they're green ammo boxes. They sell them on Amazon. Nick Clason (21:42.51) maybe. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. Anthony Taylor (21:48.036) orange for marine so that they're watertight and they have a little latch clasp and we put a different locks on them and there are nine escape boxes and the box in some way directs you to something in the place that helps you get the code and then when they open that up inside is a playing card and I just took a deck of 52 grab playing cards and threw a playing card in there and dumb-dumbs because you wanna you need a dumb-dumb in Nick Clason (21:50.814) gotcha. Nick Clason (21:58.797) Okay. Nick Clason (22:14.69) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anthony Taylor (22:16.596) They get the card out, they go turn it in and that card gets them tickets. So an ace gets them 11, a king gets them 10, a three gets them three. And then all we do is randomly pick another card, throw it in, lock it back up. And so there's going to be eight escape rooms kind of out and about. What's that thing? I'm excited about that. Nick Clason (22:22.453) Okay. Nick Clason (22:31.852) Yeah, that's cool. How do they, how do they like solve it or, get into it? Anthony Taylor (22:38.708) Yeah, each one's different. like one says, one says, there's a fire sweeping in from the north heading south. Don't be alarmed. And that's it. And then if you go at the north side of our building and find a fire alarm, it has a dot on it. It says six. And then the, from north to south, you find all the fire alarms and it's six, seven, six, seven. Nick Clason (22:52.654) Okay. Nick Clason (23:02.414) Right. Nick Clason (23:07.406) Nice. I know. next weekend, no, you're safe. It'll be in the past. It'll be in the past. Yeah. That's cool. I like it. That's cool. That's a lot of work, but no, it's not a lot of work, but it's just really creative. It's really creative. And you're kind of the master. You should have a podcast or something about it at some time. There's lost episodes. It still exists, right? We can go. Anthony Taylor (23:08.424) Yeah, if this is released before then and teenagers are watching, they're gonna get it. Perfect, perfect, So, know, dorky stuff like that. Anthony Taylor (23:25.48) Yeah. Yeah. Anthony Taylor (23:30.58) You Anthony Taylor (23:35.365) My old podcast deal? Nick Clason (23:36.372) Yeah, the YM Lab. we pull those up? Yeah. We'll see if we can find them and link them down below. See if we can revive the legend of Anthony. So, all right, man. Dude, that was like an absolute gold mine. We came in talking Camp Clue and came out with like six other ideas. So you are the man. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Well, without anything else, we'll talk next time. See you guys. Anthony Taylor (23:38.43) Yeah. Yeah, probably. I don't even know. Anthony Taylor (23:44.894) That's great. Anthony Taylor (23:57.908) Thanks dude. Yeah. Yeah, thanks for having me. Anthony Taylor (24:05.46) See ya! youth camp games, youth group games, camp games for kids, how to run youth camp games, engaging youth activities, youth ministry ideas ,youth ministry games ,summer camp activities, camp game design ,group games for kids ,church camp games ,youth leader training ,camp programming ideas ,Camp Clue ,Anthony Taylor Camp Clue, interactive camp games ,how to keep kids engaged ,camp leadership tips ,youth group activities Most youth camp games fail for one simple reason… and almost nobody realizes it.
Leaders spend hours planning activities, but kids lose interest in minutes — and it’s not because they’re distracted or bored.
Today, I’m sitting down with the creator of Camp Clue — a game that’s been used in camps around the world to keep kids fully engaged.
He’s breaking down exactly why it works — and how you can design games that actually hold attention all week long. And how you can get it for yourself!

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 What is Camp Clue?
04:11 Social Media During Camp - How?
05:29 Did you Murder People at Your Camp?
06:08 How to Set up Camp Clue?
09:54 How this Game Also Enhances Relationships
12:43 Bonus Idea #1 From Anthony Taylor
14:00 Bonus Idea #2 From Anthony Taylor
16:33 Logistical Hurdle Solution
18:18 Pro Tips from Anthony
21:00 Bonus Idea #3 & #4 From Anthony Taylor

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:01.166)
Well, what's up everyone? I'm here with Anthony and we're both drinking coffee on this Friday morning and we both have backwards black hats. So I almost wore that chapel students t-shirt, but I just don't have it yet. One day. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. That'd have been funny. That'd have been funny. Anthony is the, um, the mad scientist behind camp clue. Um, or something.

Anthony Taylor (00:05.94)
Hey!

Anthony Taylor (00:09.502)
Wow.

Anthony Taylor (00:14.868)
I have some old Parkview t-shirts from your last church. I should have wore Parkview t-shirt. That would have been awesome.

Nick Clason (00:31.104)
And so he's gonna just, so we've been in this little playlist, you're actually the end cap of it, Anthony, where we've been talking about different games that you could implement at a winter retreat or a D-Now or a summer camp that lasts the whole weekend and in some cases exists in the background. And Camp Clue, I remember it from even a couple years ago, seeing you talk about it or...

running across it on the DYM store. So why don't you just give us a quick overview. Where did it come from? What's the concept behind it? And how did it go?

Anthony Taylor (01:02.249)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (01:07.08)
Yeah, yeah, we have, we do a middle school and high school camp, probably like everybody else does, at a place that's not ours. And, and we have kids that don't want to do the rec games, the earth ball, the throw the football, chase the thing. And so we were sitting down talking as a team and said, what, can we create that non-athletic creatives might want to do?

Nick Clason (01:32.621)
Mm.

Anthony Taylor (01:33.62)
And what we started with was we ordered the farting unicorn coloring books. Do remember those? Yeah. And so we ordered every coloring book that was silly. And then we just made a table with colored pencils and stuff. And honestly, we still do that. And so when the camp game is going on out in the field, we have a table close by with a little tent over it. And if a creative and a non-sporty person just wants to do that, they color with their friends and

Nick Clason (01:39.584)
yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (01:45.634)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (02:01.47)
do that stuff and we bought the bead bracelets and stuff. And then we realized that it was like 90 % girls in that tent. And we're like, we want something that everybody, every gender, every creative, every, a sport kid that hurt his leg, can't do the thing, to do. So we decided to brainstorm some games. And now every year we do something different. And if we get time and I blow through the Camp Clue stuff,

Nick Clason (02:08.429)
Mmm.

Nick Clason (02:20.058)
yeah.

Anthony Taylor (02:30.952)
I'll tell you some of the other fun stuff. just, we have our winter conference coming up next weekend. These are all my escape room posters. We made escape rooms for kids to just play, which is kind of fun. Yeah, so one of our residents, her name was Makena. We sat down and it was like her first project. I was like, let's create something that's awesome that everybody can play. And so we thought about Clue and then we're like, well, let's call it Camp Clue.

Nick Clason (02:32.331)
Yeah, that'd be great.

Nick Clason (02:40.289)
nice.

Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (03:00.324)
And what it is, in a nutshell, real quickly, is kids get a card, and just like Clue, you're trying to figure out who is in what room with what item, and as you do that, you're eliminating people because they're clearly in that room, and the lead pipe is clearly over there, and so it couldn't be this, that. So as you eliminate people, you will find out who the person is, where they're at, and with what weapon they would do the thing.

Nick Clason (03:05.646)
Mm.

Nick Clason (03:18.264)
Right.

Nick Clason (03:27.564)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, are people getting murdered at your camp or are you like trying to stay away from the whole word?

Anthony Taylor (03:34.866)
Yeah, no, actually that's funny. I can't remember. We played this three or four, yeah. I forget what the answer is, but I do think someone gets hit with a weapon. I don't know if they get murdered. No, no, no, no, no. I do remember this. Someone was worried about murder and they said they've been eliminated. They've been eliminated. So if you're more progressive, you can say murder.

Nick Clason (03:38.926)
It's been a minute right?

Nick Clason (03:49.038)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (03:55.669)
Right?

Yeah, there you go. There you go. Nice. That's funny. yeah. So is this a, that's funny. So is this a like, wow, earth balls going on alternative or is this happening kind of all week long?

Anthony Taylor (04:12.412)
No,

Anthony Taylor (04:16.52)
both. So while earth ball is going on and they're like, I would never want to do that. Then we have a rule of three at camp. can't be alone right where the kid. So if, if teenager one and teenager two are like, I don't want to do that leader one can grab those people and like, Hey, we're going to walk around and go do camp clue. But also when the lake is open midday and you're like, I'm not swimming. You know, they can go play camp clue. So it's all the time.

Nick Clason (04:17.336)
Okay.

Nick Clason (04:21.686)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (04:27.34)
Right, right. Yeah.

Nick Clason (04:45.111)
Okay.

Anthony Taylor (04:46.258)
It's sitting out there and it takes a bit of time on the front end as the youth pastor, because what you're gonna do is you're gonna, these are quadrants, but you're gonna cut these like this and you're gonna go tape these camp clues all over the place. And if you're not watching this as a podcast, I'm just, it's a piece of paper that says camp glow on one end and the other one just says like lead pipe. the reality is, is you take these to the buildings wherever your camp is and you hide them.

Nick Clason (04:51.298)
Right?

Nick Clason (05:06.979)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (05:15.078)
And I liked, like if you're going to take it to the gym, right? Every camp has a gym or most camps or the dining hall. You just say the dining hall, but then you take a nice piece of gaff tape or duct tape that's not going to, and you go hide this and you tape it to the wall somewhere. But I like to, I'd much rather like hide it up under the soffit and it's just barely, do you know mean? So they go to the dining hall and they're like,

Nick Clason (05:15.404)
Okay.

Nick Clason (05:22.54)
Yeah, sure.

Nick Clason (05:34.04)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (05:39.022)
yeah. huh.

Anthony Taylor (05:43.376)
I gotta find the clue at the dining hall and they're like where and they're like There it is, you know

Nick Clason (05:48.664)
So do you give them like a giant list of like locations that they have to like go to find the, or how are they knowing that they gotta go to the dining hall?

Anthony Taylor (05:56.85)
Yeah, yeah, so the campers have this cute little camp clue card and the camp clue card is specific to that kid. Any kid that wants to play has a card and they have to have their own card and the camp clue card is like this and it has all of the suspects, all of the weapons and all of the rooms and then the mystery solved and it says blank use the blank in the blank and then there's a time indicator they have to write.

Nick Clason (06:13.581)
Okay.

Nick Clason (06:22.456)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (06:24.66)
It has to say Sunday at 2.30 PM, they turn this in, which means they solved it. And sometimes we get them at 2.35 and you're like, oh, you were first, you know. But this is the cool thing about the way that we develop the game is they don't get a list. They come up and they say, they say, hey, I need a clue. And you say, have you solved some clues? And they're like, yeah, I solved some clues. And they start linear. There's

Nick Clason (06:28.672)
is when they solved it.

Nick Clason (06:35.82)
Yeah, okay.

Anthony Taylor (06:53.876)
15 clues and then you say, I've solved up to clue five. You're like, really? You want clue six? And then the leader has a leader sheet that is a editable. How do you say that word? Yeah. Editable PDF that no matter what your camp looks like, you would fill in these things. So if your camp doesn't have a gym, you would say who was in the, and you would fill it out and put who was in the dining hall, who was in the boys,

Nick Clason (07:04.684)
Yeah. No, you said it right the second time.

Nick Clason (07:21.825)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (07:23.9)
shower room. That's probably not a good one. But yeah, not a good, yeah. And so they would, you would say, you're on six? Well, what you would say, hey kid, what weapon was in the boathouse? And they're like, the boathouse. And then they run to the boathouse and then they scour the boathouse until they find the boathouse clue. And then they say, what weapon? It was the revolver. And they get rid of it.

Nick Clason (07:25.804)
That's probably not a great place to put the clue, but you get it.

Nick Clason (07:42.498)
Gotcha.

Nick Clason (07:49.58)
Hmm. So do you give that that sheet right there that you just showed the the 15 different locations basically where they would go find the clue to every leader or to just like a singular clue point person?

Anthony Taylor (08:04.262)
It's up to you and how you want to do it. We've done, yeah. I liked that we had, we're a multi-site church, so at our camp we have eight staff people, student pastors. I liked it that kids had to go to find a student pastor. One year, doesn't have to be theirs. We gave it to every leader and Camp Clu gets solved like this.

Nick Clason (08:06.83)
What's the best what you've done it? Yeah, what's the what did you find?

Nick Clason (08:19.331)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (08:23.38)
Any student, doesn't have to be theirs? Okay, great.

Nick Clason (08:32.917)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (08:33.876)
because they go to their leader and then they say, it's in the boathouse. And they're literally, their leader walks with them to the boathouse and they're like, well, what's the next one? What's the next one? And you can solve it really quickly. That didn't work well. So I would say, yeah, if you could make it less is better, but still having a relationship. Because I want kids having a relationship. like, man, who is at the boathouse? Mrs. P. Kier, that's cool. You got it right. You want the next one? Hey, how's it going? How's your day? And it's a relational tool.

Nick Clason (08:43.694)
Yeah, it goes pretty quick, yeah.

Nick Clason (09:02.03)
I like that. Yeah, I like that. No, that's cool.

Anthony Taylor (09:03.774)
But you could have a camp master. It would be cool if you had, you know, we have a couple leaders that have some disabilities that are, not running around. They're not doing all the things. Like what if they were the camp clue person and they were the king leader because they had all the information, like they would feel good.

Nick Clason (09:12.141)
Right.

Nick Clason (09:19.886)
Yeah, yeah, I know it'd be cool. I do like that and I think, be honest, like I remember when this came out, I watched your guys video on DYM. I think I even bought it, which we'll link down below so people can go get it you can get your 30 cents of royalties from it. Yeah, yeah, but I'm realizing now, because my kids were very little back then when I got the game, I'm realizing now I didn't know how to play

Anthony Taylor (09:32.083)
Yeah.

I need my three cents, yeah.

Nick Clason (09:49.934)
regular clue. And so I didn't, I didn't understand the concept mostly because I'm an idiot. But now that you're explaining it to me, now that my kids are older and I've since played the board game clue, I'm like, this makes complete sense. But you, kind of had to have a basic understanding of how the actual game works or not be the dumbest person ever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I like, I do like these types of games are my favorite or or activities. Like, well, maybe this isn't like you call it a game because this

Anthony Taylor (10:06.824)
Yeah, you have to have children or teenagers who have played Clue.

Nick Clason (10:19.754)
It's not earth ball and kids aren't leaving like sweaty or hospitalized, but I, yes, that's exactly what I'm looking for. And it's, and it's optional, right? Like it's not required. but you know, sometimes those like day three of free time, that's like several hours long and kids are like, I don't know what to do. I'm tired of the lake and I'm tired of the things that are available. And I'm just kind of bored. Like this stuff like this that exists is like, well, can you

Anthony Taylor (10:20.008)
Yeah. Yeah. We want an ongoing activity, right? Yeah.

Nick Clason (10:48.566)
Have you figured out Camp Clu yet? Like it's a great way to just keep them going, you know? And it's, like you said, a little bit of work on the front end, but like once you've done that, like it sits there and kind of like runs itself in the background, you know?

Anthony Taylor (11:01.268)
Yeah. You know, I look around my desk, see if I have it. The predecessor of this was a giant, giant rubber chicken we spray painted gold. And the idea was there is a rubber chicken at this camp. Go find it. And so on a day and you didn't want any, you didn't have anything to do, you just go look for a rubber chicken. And then if it didn't happen day one,

Nick Clason (11:09.144)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (11:14.242)
Okay.

Nick Clason (11:20.226)
Somewhere. Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (11:30.504)
you would say, just so you know, rubber chicken is higher than your eyesight on day two. And you're like, yeah, and that was the camp clue. so, if you don't wanna buy this, I don't know, it's three bucks, five bucks, I don't know what it is. Yeah, but if you can't afford, yeah, that's right, I think it is, yeah. But if not, just grab something and say, hey, we're hiding this, and.

Nick Clason (11:35.229)
Okay, give little clues.

Nice.

Nick Clason (11:44.534)
Yeah, it's very affordable. And if you remember, it's like basically free. Like just just go get it, people.

Nick Clason (11:56.856)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (11:57.746)
And when you find it, that's the other cool thing is when you find it, now you and your leader, you get to go re-hide it. And we'll give you a cheesy bread at the canteen.

Nick Clason (12:04.544)
okay, nice.

Nick Clason (12:09.782)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice. what are some of the other, you said you got some other stuff, like what are some other stuff you guys have come up with?

Anthony Taylor (12:18.071)
yeah.

Yeah, we're in Chicago land area and just north of us in Wisconsin is a camp called Lake Geneva Youth Camp Lake Geneva Youth Camp. And honestly, if if anybody listening, this was like all of those ideas are terrible. Just call them. They're they're really creative. They do this really well. I went up and sat with them and just said, like, tell me all the things that you do. So.

Nick Clason (12:45.09)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (12:46.356)
So we've gone from this, which is kind of in depth, it takes a little bit of time and that stuff, to these guys, the Baby Jesus things, So I don't know, we bought a thousand of these. And when we went to camp and we hid them, and they're hidden everywhere. They're like ridiculous places and fun places and right above door frames where everybody sees them.

Nick Clason (12:58.011)
yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason (13:13.582)
Sure.

Anthony Taylor (13:15.214)
and you collect them and you can turn in your Jesus's for tickets. so this is crazy because, know, the kid, his name was Dom. Dom had 55 baby Jesus's in his pockets, know, cargo pants full and he got 55 tickets, but we didn't tell them what the tickets are for. And at the end of the weekend, it was, we did an extreme game show and we gave away

Nick Clason (13:20.226)
Okay.

Nick Clason (13:31.342)
That's hilarious, yeah.

Nick Clason (13:42.39)
Okay.

Anthony Taylor (13:43.924)
Nintendo Switch and TV and Mittens and a Lululemon bag. You know, we had, I don't know, we had a hundred prizes. Twenty were awesome. Well, you could put your ticket in to potentially get the thing. Dom had. Yeah. And everyone got three tickets, but Dom had 55 plus three tickets. And Dom's like, I got a Lululemon bag and Mountain Dew and a TV and, know, and so.

Nick Clason (13:50.028)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:57.336)
like a raffle kind of thing.

Yeah.

Okay.

Nick Clason (14:09.582)
Yeah, that's awesome.

Anthony Taylor (14:12.116)
So that hiding baby Jesuses. A lot of times with our theme of whatever our retreat is or our camp is, we try to tie something to it. last year was move and it was all like car kind of stuff. And like, you are the driver of your faith. So I went on eBay and for $150, I ordered, I think it was like 300 keys, driver ignition keys. I hid them everywhere.

Nick Clason (14:26.912)
Mmm. Yeah.

Nick Clason (14:38.456)
Yeah.

Okay.

Anthony Taylor (14:41.934)
And it was kind of the same concept. Like you get a driver ignition key, except that one, you got to keep the key, which was kind of fun. And so you had a, it was fun. There was like a Maserati key with a key fob. You're like, you, you ever find that Maserati it's yours,

Nick Clason (14:48.832)
yeah.

Nick Clason (14:54.038)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's cool. How do you, okay, let me ask you like a logistical question. How do you hide a thousand baby Jesuses while camp, like do you send someone up early or like what's your actual flow so that while you're hiding them, kids aren't seeing you hide them?

Anthony Taylor (15:14.706)
Yeah, yep, beforehand our team disperse us. Sometimes we'll bring student leaders in and be like, listen, if you choose to help us, you don't get to play the game. Yeah, and they're like, cool, what? That's awesome. They're like, I'm 18 anyways. I don't really wanna play the baby. Yeah, I don't care, it's not that cool. But can I have one baby Jesus? I'm like, yeah, you can. So yeah, we hide them. But the funny thing is, is with the keys,

Nick Clason (15:20.567)
Okay.

Nick Clason (15:24.492)
Yeah, you're eliminated from, yeah.

Nick Clason (15:29.356)
Yeah, yeah. I don't care. Yeah.

That's funny.

Anthony Taylor (15:43.796)
If you found the key and turned in five keys, I would give you a button. So it was a trade rate, five keys to a button, 10 keys to a, there was something a little bigger, I forget. And so you would get this thing, we would get the keys back. This was for a winter conference. Everyone would go home at night and then I'd stay a little late and I'd rehide those same keys. And so it didn't cost me anything. I didn't have to like,

Nick Clason (15:54.829)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (16:09.362)
Nice, Right. That's funny.

Anthony Taylor (16:12.34)
keep buying more keys, I just re-hit the same keys, yeah. And one person put, taped a key inside of our vending machine so you could see it, but you couldn't get it, and the can would come down and hit the key on the window, and so kids were buying pops to see if they could knock the key, and I was like, that was, I don't know who did it, it was one of our staff did it. That was funny, we sold a ton of Dr. Pepper. It's right there.

Nick Clason (16:20.343)
Nick Clason (16:32.333)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (16:35.808)
Yeah, that's genius. Yeah, because it's right in line with the key. So yeah, dude, no, I love it. And it's super smart and also like really just very simple. So and are there any like any other like best practices or like things that you've learned over the years with these kind of like in the background games that that are potential pitfalls for youth pastors? Or is it just like don't it's simple. Just go do it.

Anthony Taylor (17:06.788)
one, one year, it was Jesus or the keys. I forget. It was either baby Jesus or the keys. It became too central of a thing. And people were like, it was Jesus. I can't find any more Jesuses because they were hoarding them and like Dom had 50, you know? And, yeah. And, that was disappointing.

Nick Clason (17:24.776)
Mm. Mm. Yeah, Dom.

Nick Clason (17:34.541)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (17:35.348)
So what I did was I overnight Amazoned another 500 Jesus's. They showed up, I think at like six in the morning. It was like that prime thing, six in the morning. And then I just went and hid them all. And I realized that this thing was driving my life. And I didn't want the baby Jesus thing driving my life. So to think about like, is it scalable? Can enough people have fun, but not too many? Are you gonna run out of stuff?

Nick Clason (17:45.122)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (17:51.863)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (18:04.364)
Yeah, that's good.

Anthony Taylor (18:05.304)
and can you recycle it? So if Camp Clue is done in day one of a five day camp, go rip all those things down, switch everything up, play Camp Clue version two. And so just think in the background of that.

Nick Clason (18:11.619)
Right.

Nick Clason (18:19.427)
Yeah.

No, that's good. Cause I think like you, you don't ever want the main thing of camp to stop being the main thing of camp, right? Like you want it to be a hundred, but not, but not the little Jesus is the real Jesus. Yeah. But like when, cause sometimes those things and that's all like, have, I have a really young staff and they have amazing ideas, but sometimes they don't think through all of those little like nuances of like, if we do this thing, some kids going to cheat.

Anthony Taylor (18:29.65)
which is Jesus in the sessions and the relationship.

No, that's good, yeah.

Nick Clason (18:52.31)
what's our counter attack to that cheating kid or how do we make sure that we have a level playing field and we're not giving favor to just people who really good at this or whatever that might be. And that word right there is a pro youth worker move for sure. Because you can't let that stuff take you down, but it can because kids can get so ingrained with it.

Anthony Taylor (19:15.442)
Yeah, well, and honestly, these side games for the kid who's not athletic and wants to feel awesome can take over their lives on accident and they miss all of camp, you know? And so the key really is making sure leaders have a pulse on who their kids are, what they're doing. And if Dom doesn't show up to anything because he's looking for baby Jesuses, his leader needs to navigate him differently.

Nick Clason (19:24.309)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Nick Clason (19:37.974)
Yeah, he missed all the worship sessions, but he got 55 baby. Yeah, exactly. So no, that's a really good word. Sweet.

Anthony Taylor (19:44.808)
Yeah, yeah. One day, got two more thoughts. One day we got a giant toolbox, a toolbox, and put chains all over it, and then we put locks on them, and it was a giant escape room to get in. And all throughout the building there were clues, and you had to find the clues, and those clues got you to unlock three different locks, three number locks.

Nick Clason (19:50.946)
Go for it.

Nick Clason (20:00.054)
Mmm.

Okay.

Nick Clason (20:13.367)
Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Taylor (20:14.688)
And that was really fun because there was a thing you could do, but you couldn't unlock until you had all three. And so you're like, I got one. And then, know, by day three or four, you could get in the lock. That was really fun. And then when you opened it up, the scalable thing was we would we would put stanchions around it and the crowd had to get behind and someone would be like, escape. And that meant that they were going to open the thing and it would open up so that the crowd couldn't see into it.

Nick Clason (20:44.599)
Okay, yeah.

Anthony Taylor (20:45.164)
And I would lean in and I like, look down in there and I need you to come out with like, shut up. my goodness. Like what? And then we're going to close it, lock it back up for the next person. And I would just change the prize out. was just a piece of paper. And the piece of paper said, I'll order Starbucks for you and your whole, your friend group. then you close it and the next one's Dunkin Donuts for you and your friend group. The next one's a Taco Bell Party Pack for you. And so that was scalable because a different prize.

Nick Clason (21:04.323)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (21:11.917)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (21:14.27)
but no one saw, so there was still the allure of.

Nick Clason (21:17.218)
Yeah, you're not giving it away. Yeah, no, that's good. That's good. I like that. That's a fun one.

Anthony Taylor (21:20.552)
Yeah. Yeah. And then the, the, yeah, I think that was pretty cool. The other one we just did, it's going to happen next weekend. our, our winter conference next weekend is, do you know what Marine or, ammo, ammo shell casing things are? They have a little latch. They're supposed to put ammo in it. Like for guns, usually they're green ammo boxes. They sell them on Amazon.

Nick Clason (21:42.51)
maybe. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah.

Anthony Taylor (21:48.036)
orange for marine so that they're watertight and they have a little latch clasp and we put a different locks on them and there are nine escape boxes and the box in some way directs you to something in the place that helps you get the code and then when they open that up inside is a playing card and I just took a deck of 52 grab playing cards and threw a playing card in there and dumb-dumbs because you wanna you need a dumb-dumb in

Nick Clason (21:50.814)
gotcha.

Nick Clason (21:58.797)
Okay.

Nick Clason (22:14.69)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anthony Taylor (22:16.596)
They get the card out, they go turn it in and that card gets them tickets. So an ace gets them 11, a king gets them 10, a three gets them three. And then all we do is randomly pick another card, throw it in, lock it back up. And so there's going to be eight escape rooms kind of out and about. What's that thing? I'm excited about that.

Nick Clason (22:22.453)
Okay.

Nick Clason (22:31.852)
Yeah, that's cool. How do they, how do they like solve it or, get into it?

Anthony Taylor (22:38.708)
Yeah, each one's different. like one says, one says, there's a fire sweeping in from the north heading south. Don't be alarmed. And that's it. And then if you go at the north side of our building and find a fire alarm, it has a dot on it. It says six. And then the, from north to south, you find all the fire alarms and it's six, seven, six, seven.

Nick Clason (22:52.654)
Okay.

Nick Clason (23:02.414)
Right.

Nick Clason (23:07.406)
Nice. I know. next weekend, no, you're safe. It'll be in the past. It'll be in the past. Yeah. That's cool. I like it. That's cool. That's a lot of work, but no, it's not a lot of work, but it's just really creative. It's really creative. And you're kind of the master. You should have a podcast or something about it at some time. There's lost episodes. It still exists, right? We can go.

Anthony Taylor (23:08.424)
Yeah, if this is released before then and teenagers are watching, they're gonna get it. Perfect, perfect, So, know, dorky stuff like that.

Anthony Taylor (23:25.48)
Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (23:30.58)
You

Anthony Taylor (23:35.365)
My old podcast deal?

Nick Clason (23:36.372)
Yeah, the YM Lab. we pull those up? Yeah. We'll see if we can find them and link them down below. See if we can revive the legend of Anthony. So, all right, man. Dude, that was like an absolute gold mine. We came in talking Camp Clue and came out with like six other ideas. So you are the man. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Well, without anything else, we'll talk next time. See you guys.

Anthony Taylor (23:38.43)
Yeah. Yeah, probably. I don't even know.

Anthony Taylor (23:44.894)
That's great.

Anthony Taylor (23:57.908)
Thanks dude. Yeah. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Anthony Taylor (24:05.46)
See ya!

]]> Most youth camp games fail for one simple reason… and almost nobody realizes it.
Leaders spend hours planning activities, but kids lose interest in minutes — and it’s not because they’re distracted or bored.
Today, I’m sitting down with the creator of Camp Clue — a game that’s been used in camps around the world to keep kids fully engaged.
He’s breaking down exactly why it works — and how you can design games that actually hold attention all week long. And how you can get it for yourself!

CAMP CLUE ON DYM
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/camp-clue/camps-and-events/events-6260.html

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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 What is Camp Clue?
04:11 Social Media During Camp - How?
05:29 Did you Murder People at Your Camp?
06:08 How to Set up Camp Clue?
09:54 How this Game Also Enhances Relationships
12:43 Bonus Idea #1 From Anthony Taylor
14:00 Bonus Idea #2 From Anthony Taylor
16:33 Logistical Hurdle Solution
18:18 Pro Tips from Anthony
21:00 Bonus Idea #3 & #4 From Anthony Taylor

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:01.166)
Well, what's up everyone? I'm here with Anthony and we're both drinking coffee on this Friday morning and we both have backwards black hats. So I almost wore that chapel students t-shirt, but I just don't have it yet. One day. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. That'd have been funny. That'd have been funny. Anthony is the, um, the mad scientist behind camp clue. Um, or something.

Anthony Taylor (00:05.94)
Hey!

Anthony Taylor (00:09.502)
Wow.

Anthony Taylor (00:14.868)
I have some old Parkview t-shirts from your last church. I should have wore Parkview t-shirt. That would have been awesome.

Nick Clason (00:31.104)
And so he's gonna just, so we've been in this little playlist, you're actually the end cap of it, Anthony, where we've been talking about different games that you could implement at a winter retreat or a D-Now or a summer camp that lasts the whole weekend and in some cases exists in the background. And Camp Clue, I remember it from even a couple years ago, seeing you talk about it or...

running across it on the DYM store. So why don't you just give us a quick overview. Where did it come from? What's the concept behind it? And how did it go?

Anthony Taylor (01:02.249)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (01:07.08)
Yeah, yeah, we have, we do a middle school and high school camp, probably like everybody else does, at a place that's not ours. And, and we have kids that don't want to do the rec games, the earth ball, the throw the football, chase the thing. And so we were sitting down talking as a team and said, what, can we create that non-athletic creatives might want to do?

Nick Clason (01:32.621)
Mm.

Anthony Taylor (01:33.62)
And what we started with was we ordered the farting unicorn coloring books. Do remember those? Yeah. And so we ordered every coloring book that was silly. And then we just made a table with colored pencils and stuff. And honestly, we still do that. And so when the camp game is going on out in the field, we have a table close by with a little tent over it. And if a creative and a non-sporty person just wants to do that, they color with their friends and

Nick Clason (01:39.584)
yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (01:45.634)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (02:01.47)
do that stuff and we bought the bead bracelets and stuff. And then we realized that it was like 90 % girls in that tent. And we're like, we want something that everybody, every gender, every creative, every, a sport kid that hurt his leg, can't do the thing, to do. So we decided to brainstorm some games. And now every year we do something different. And if we get time and I blow through the Camp Clue stuff,

Nick Clason (02:08.429)
Mmm.

Nick Clason (02:20.058)
yeah.

Anthony Taylor (02:30.952)
I'll tell you some of the other fun stuff. just, we have our winter conference coming up next weekend. These are all my escape room posters. We made escape rooms for kids to just play, which is kind of fun. Yeah, so one of our residents, her name was Makena. We sat down and it was like her first project. I was like, let's create something that's awesome that everybody can play. And so we thought about Clue and then we're like, well, let's call it Camp Clue.

Nick Clason (02:32.331)
Yeah, that'd be great.

Nick Clason (02:40.289)
nice.

Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (03:00.324)
And what it is, in a nutshell, real quickly, is kids get a card, and just like Clue, you're trying to figure out who is in what room with what item, and as you do that, you're eliminating people because they're clearly in that room, and the lead pipe is clearly over there, and so it couldn't be this, that. So as you eliminate people, you will find out who the person is, where they're at, and with what weapon they would do the thing.

Nick Clason (03:05.646)
Mm.

Nick Clason (03:18.264)
Right.

Nick Clason (03:27.564)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, are people getting murdered at your camp or are you like trying to stay away from the whole word?

Anthony Taylor (03:34.866)
Yeah, no, actually that's funny. I can't remember. We played this three or four, yeah. I forget what the answer is, but I do think someone gets hit with a weapon. I don't know if they get murdered. No, no, no, no, no. I do remember this. Someone was worried about murder and they said they've been eliminated. They've been eliminated. So if you're more progressive, you can say murder.

Nick Clason (03:38.926)
It's been a minute right?

Nick Clason (03:49.038)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (03:55.669)
Right?

Yeah, there you go. There you go. Nice. That's funny. yeah. So is this a, that's funny. So is this a like, wow, earth balls going on alternative or is this happening kind of all week long?

Anthony Taylor (04:12.412)
No,

Anthony Taylor (04:16.52)
both. So while earth ball is going on and they're like, I would never want to do that. Then we have a rule of three at camp. can't be alone right where the kid. So if, if teenager one and teenager two are like, I don't want to do that leader one can grab those people and like, Hey, we're going to walk around and go do camp clue. But also when the lake is open midday and you're like, I'm not swimming. You know, they can go play camp clue. So it's all the time.

Nick Clason (04:17.336)
Okay.

Nick Clason (04:21.686)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (04:27.34)
Right, right. Yeah.

Nick Clason (04:45.111)
Okay.

Anthony Taylor (04:46.258)
It's sitting out there and it takes a bit of time on the front end as the youth pastor, because what you're gonna do is you're gonna, these are quadrants, but you're gonna cut these like this and you're gonna go tape these camp clues all over the place. And if you're not watching this as a podcast, I'm just, it's a piece of paper that says camp glow on one end and the other one just says like lead pipe. the reality is, is you take these to the buildings wherever your camp is and you hide them.

Nick Clason (04:51.298)
Right?

Nick Clason (05:06.979)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (05:15.078)
And I liked, like if you're going to take it to the gym, right? Every camp has a gym or most camps or the dining hall. You just say the dining hall, but then you take a nice piece of gaff tape or duct tape that's not going to, and you go hide this and you tape it to the wall somewhere. But I like to, I'd much rather like hide it up under the soffit and it's just barely, do you know mean? So they go to the dining hall and they're like,

Nick Clason (05:15.404)
Okay.

Nick Clason (05:22.54)
Yeah, sure.

Nick Clason (05:34.04)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (05:39.022)
yeah. huh.

Anthony Taylor (05:43.376)
I gotta find the clue at the dining hall and they're like where and they're like There it is, you know

Nick Clason (05:48.664)
So do you give them like a giant list of like locations that they have to like go to find the, or how are they knowing that they gotta go to the dining hall?

Anthony Taylor (05:56.85)
Yeah, yeah, so the campers have this cute little camp clue card and the camp clue card is specific to that kid. Any kid that wants to play has a card and they have to have their own card and the camp clue card is like this and it has all of the suspects, all of the weapons and all of the rooms and then the mystery solved and it says blank use the blank in the blank and then there's a time indicator they have to write.

Nick Clason (06:13.581)
Okay.

Nick Clason (06:22.456)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (06:24.66)
It has to say Sunday at 2.30 PM, they turn this in, which means they solved it. And sometimes we get them at 2.35 and you're like, oh, you were first, you know. But this is the cool thing about the way that we develop the game is they don't get a list. They come up and they say, they say, hey, I need a clue. And you say, have you solved some clues? And they're like, yeah, I solved some clues. And they start linear. There's

Nick Clason (06:28.672)
is when they solved it.

Nick Clason (06:35.82)
Yeah, okay.

Anthony Taylor (06:53.876)
15 clues and then you say, I've solved up to clue five. You're like, really? You want clue six? And then the leader has a leader sheet that is a editable. How do you say that word? Yeah. Editable PDF that no matter what your camp looks like, you would fill in these things. So if your camp doesn't have a gym, you would say who was in the, and you would fill it out and put who was in the dining hall, who was in the boys,

Nick Clason (07:04.684)
Yeah. No, you said it right the second time.

Nick Clason (07:21.825)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (07:23.9)
shower room. That's probably not a good one. But yeah, not a good, yeah. And so they would, you would say, you're on six? Well, what you would say, hey kid, what weapon was in the boathouse? And they're like, the boathouse. And then they run to the boathouse and then they scour the boathouse until they find the boathouse clue. And then they say, what weapon? It was the revolver. And they get rid of it.

Nick Clason (07:25.804)
That's probably not a great place to put the clue, but you get it.

Nick Clason (07:42.498)
Gotcha.

Nick Clason (07:49.58)
Hmm. So do you give that that sheet right there that you just showed the the 15 different locations basically where they would go find the clue to every leader or to just like a singular clue point person?

Anthony Taylor (08:04.262)
It's up to you and how you want to do it. We've done, yeah. I liked that we had, we're a multi-site church, so at our camp we have eight staff people, student pastors. I liked it that kids had to go to find a student pastor. One year, doesn't have to be theirs. We gave it to every leader and Camp Clu gets solved like this.

Nick Clason (08:06.83)
What's the best what you've done it? Yeah, what's the what did you find?

Nick Clason (08:19.331)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (08:23.38)
Any student, doesn't have to be theirs? Okay, great.

Nick Clason (08:32.917)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (08:33.876)
because they go to their leader and then they say, it's in the boathouse. And they're literally, their leader walks with them to the boathouse and they're like, well, what's the next one? What's the next one? And you can solve it really quickly. That didn't work well. So I would say, yeah, if you could make it less is better, but still having a relationship. Because I want kids having a relationship. like, man, who is at the boathouse? Mrs. P. Kier, that's cool. You got it right. You want the next one? Hey, how's it going? How's your day? And it's a relational tool.

Nick Clason (08:43.694)
Yeah, it goes pretty quick, yeah.

Nick Clason (09:02.03)
I like that. Yeah, I like that. No, that's cool.

Anthony Taylor (09:03.774)
But you could have a camp master. It would be cool if you had, you know, we have a couple leaders that have some disabilities that are, not running around. They're not doing all the things. Like what if they were the camp clue person and they were the king leader because they had all the information, like they would feel good.

Nick Clason (09:12.141)
Right.

Nick Clason (09:19.886)
Yeah, yeah, I know it'd be cool. I do like that and I think, be honest, like I remember when this came out, I watched your guys video on DYM. I think I even bought it, which we'll link down below so people can go get it you can get your 30 cents of royalties from it. Yeah, yeah, but I'm realizing now, because my kids were very little back then when I got the game, I'm realizing now I didn't know how to play

Anthony Taylor (09:32.083)
Yeah.

I need my three cents, yeah.

Nick Clason (09:49.934)
regular clue. And so I didn't, I didn't understand the concept mostly because I'm an idiot. But now that you're explaining it to me, now that my kids are older and I've since played the board game clue, I'm like, this makes complete sense. But you, kind of had to have a basic understanding of how the actual game works or not be the dumbest person ever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I like, I do like these types of games are my favorite or or activities. Like, well, maybe this isn't like you call it a game because this

Anthony Taylor (10:06.824)
Yeah, you have to have children or teenagers who have played Clue.

Nick Clason (10:19.754)
It's not earth ball and kids aren't leaving like sweaty or hospitalized, but I, yes, that's exactly what I'm looking for. And it's, and it's optional, right? Like it's not required. but you know, sometimes those like day three of free time, that's like several hours long and kids are like, I don't know what to do. I'm tired of the lake and I'm tired of the things that are available. And I'm just kind of bored. Like this stuff like this that exists is like, well, can you

Anthony Taylor (10:20.008)
Yeah. Yeah. We want an ongoing activity, right? Yeah.

Nick Clason (10:48.566)
Have you figured out Camp Clu yet? Like it's a great way to just keep them going, you know? And it's, like you said, a little bit of work on the front end, but like once you've done that, like it sits there and kind of like runs itself in the background, you know?

Anthony Taylor (11:01.268)
Yeah. You know, I look around my desk, see if I have it. The predecessor of this was a giant, giant rubber chicken we spray painted gold. And the idea was there is a rubber chicken at this camp. Go find it. And so on a day and you didn't want any, you didn't have anything to do, you just go look for a rubber chicken. And then if it didn't happen day one,

Nick Clason (11:09.144)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (11:14.242)
Okay.

Nick Clason (11:20.226)
Somewhere. Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (11:30.504)
you would say, just so you know, rubber chicken is higher than your eyesight on day two. And you're like, yeah, and that was the camp clue. so, if you don't wanna buy this, I don't know, it's three bucks, five bucks, I don't know what it is. Yeah, but if you can't afford, yeah, that's right, I think it is, yeah. But if not, just grab something and say, hey, we're hiding this, and.

Nick Clason (11:35.229)
Okay, give little clues.

Nice.

Nick Clason (11:44.534)
Yeah, it's very affordable. And if you remember, it's like basically free. Like just just go get it, people.

Nick Clason (11:56.856)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (11:57.746)
And when you find it, that's the other cool thing is when you find it, now you and your leader, you get to go re-hide it. And we'll give you a cheesy bread at the canteen.

Nick Clason (12:04.544)
okay, nice.

Nick Clason (12:09.782)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice. what are some of the other, you said you got some other stuff, like what are some other stuff you guys have come up with?

Anthony Taylor (12:18.071)
yeah.

Yeah, we're in Chicago land area and just north of us in Wisconsin is a camp called Lake Geneva Youth Camp Lake Geneva Youth Camp. And honestly, if if anybody listening, this was like all of those ideas are terrible. Just call them. They're they're really creative. They do this really well. I went up and sat with them and just said, like, tell me all the things that you do. So.

Nick Clason (12:45.09)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (12:46.356)
So we've gone from this, which is kind of in depth, it takes a little bit of time and that stuff, to these guys, the Baby Jesus things, So I don't know, we bought a thousand of these. And when we went to camp and we hid them, and they're hidden everywhere. They're like ridiculous places and fun places and right above door frames where everybody sees them.

Nick Clason (12:58.011)
yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason (13:13.582)
Sure.

Anthony Taylor (13:15.214)
and you collect them and you can turn in your Jesus's for tickets. so this is crazy because, know, the kid, his name was Dom. Dom had 55 baby Jesus's in his pockets, know, cargo pants full and he got 55 tickets, but we didn't tell them what the tickets are for. And at the end of the weekend, it was, we did an extreme game show and we gave away

Nick Clason (13:20.226)
Okay.

Nick Clason (13:31.342)
That's hilarious, yeah.

Nick Clason (13:42.39)
Okay.

Anthony Taylor (13:43.924)
Nintendo Switch and TV and Mittens and a Lululemon bag. You know, we had, I don't know, we had a hundred prizes. Twenty were awesome. Well, you could put your ticket in to potentially get the thing. Dom had. Yeah. And everyone got three tickets, but Dom had 55 plus three tickets. And Dom's like, I got a Lululemon bag and Mountain Dew and a TV and, know, and so.

Nick Clason (13:50.028)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:57.336)
like a raffle kind of thing.

Yeah.

Okay.

Nick Clason (14:09.582)
Yeah, that's awesome.

Anthony Taylor (14:12.116)
So that hiding baby Jesuses. A lot of times with our theme of whatever our retreat is or our camp is, we try to tie something to it. last year was move and it was all like car kind of stuff. And like, you are the driver of your faith. So I went on eBay and for $150, I ordered, I think it was like 300 keys, driver ignition keys. I hid them everywhere.

Nick Clason (14:26.912)
Mmm. Yeah.

Nick Clason (14:38.456)
Yeah.

Okay.

Anthony Taylor (14:41.934)
And it was kind of the same concept. Like you get a driver ignition key, except that one, you got to keep the key, which was kind of fun. And so you had a, it was fun. There was like a Maserati key with a key fob. You're like, you, you ever find that Maserati it's yours,

Nick Clason (14:48.832)
yeah.

Nick Clason (14:54.038)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's cool. How do you, okay, let me ask you like a logistical question. How do you hide a thousand baby Jesuses while camp, like do you send someone up early or like what's your actual flow so that while you're hiding them, kids aren't seeing you hide them?

Anthony Taylor (15:14.706)
Yeah, yep, beforehand our team disperse us. Sometimes we'll bring student leaders in and be like, listen, if you choose to help us, you don't get to play the game. Yeah, and they're like, cool, what? That's awesome. They're like, I'm 18 anyways. I don't really wanna play the baby. Yeah, I don't care, it's not that cool. But can I have one baby Jesus? I'm like, yeah, you can. So yeah, we hide them. But the funny thing is, is with the keys,

Nick Clason (15:20.567)
Okay.

Nick Clason (15:24.492)
Yeah, you're eliminated from, yeah.

Nick Clason (15:29.356)
Yeah, yeah. I don't care. Yeah.

That's funny.

Anthony Taylor (15:43.796)
If you found the key and turned in five keys, I would give you a button. So it was a trade rate, five keys to a button, 10 keys to a, there was something a little bigger, I forget. And so you would get this thing, we would get the keys back. This was for a winter conference. Everyone would go home at night and then I'd stay a little late and I'd rehide those same keys. And so it didn't cost me anything. I didn't have to like,

Nick Clason (15:54.829)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (16:09.362)
Nice, Right. That's funny.

Anthony Taylor (16:12.34)
keep buying more keys, I just re-hit the same keys, yeah. And one person put, taped a key inside of our vending machine so you could see it, but you couldn't get it, and the can would come down and hit the key on the window, and so kids were buying pops to see if they could knock the key, and I was like, that was, I don't know who did it, it was one of our staff did it. That was funny, we sold a ton of Dr. Pepper. It's right there.

Nick Clason (16:20.343)
Nick Clason (16:32.333)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (16:35.808)
Yeah, that's genius. Yeah, because it's right in line with the key. So yeah, dude, no, I love it. And it's super smart and also like really just very simple. So and are there any like any other like best practices or like things that you've learned over the years with these kind of like in the background games that that are potential pitfalls for youth pastors? Or is it just like don't it's simple. Just go do it.

Anthony Taylor (17:06.788)
one, one year, it was Jesus or the keys. I forget. It was either baby Jesus or the keys. It became too central of a thing. And people were like, it was Jesus. I can't find any more Jesuses because they were hoarding them and like Dom had 50, you know? And, yeah. And, that was disappointing.

Nick Clason (17:24.776)
Mm. Mm. Yeah, Dom.

Nick Clason (17:34.541)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (17:35.348)
So what I did was I overnight Amazoned another 500 Jesus's. They showed up, I think at like six in the morning. It was like that prime thing, six in the morning. And then I just went and hid them all. And I realized that this thing was driving my life. And I didn't want the baby Jesus thing driving my life. So to think about like, is it scalable? Can enough people have fun, but not too many? Are you gonna run out of stuff?

Nick Clason (17:45.122)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (17:51.863)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (18:04.364)
Yeah, that's good.

Anthony Taylor (18:05.304)
and can you recycle it? So if Camp Clue is done in day one of a five day camp, go rip all those things down, switch everything up, play Camp Clue version two. And so just think in the background of that.

Nick Clason (18:11.619)
Right.

Nick Clason (18:19.427)
Yeah.

No, that's good. Cause I think like you, you don't ever want the main thing of camp to stop being the main thing of camp, right? Like you want it to be a hundred, but not, but not the little Jesus is the real Jesus. Yeah. But like when, cause sometimes those things and that's all like, have, I have a really young staff and they have amazing ideas, but sometimes they don't think through all of those little like nuances of like, if we do this thing, some kids going to cheat.

Anthony Taylor (18:29.65)
which is Jesus in the sessions and the relationship.

No, that's good, yeah.

Nick Clason (18:52.31)
what's our counter attack to that cheating kid or how do we make sure that we have a level playing field and we're not giving favor to just people who really good at this or whatever that might be. And that word right there is a pro youth worker move for sure. Because you can't let that stuff take you down, but it can because kids can get so ingrained with it.

Anthony Taylor (19:15.442)
Yeah, well, and honestly, these side games for the kid who's not athletic and wants to feel awesome can take over their lives on accident and they miss all of camp, you know? And so the key really is making sure leaders have a pulse on who their kids are, what they're doing. And if Dom doesn't show up to anything because he's looking for baby Jesuses, his leader needs to navigate him differently.

Nick Clason (19:24.309)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Nick Clason (19:37.974)
Yeah, he missed all the worship sessions, but he got 55 baby. Yeah, exactly. So no, that's a really good word. Sweet.

Anthony Taylor (19:44.808)
Yeah, yeah. One day, got two more thoughts. One day we got a giant toolbox, a toolbox, and put chains all over it, and then we put locks on them, and it was a giant escape room to get in. And all throughout the building there were clues, and you had to find the clues, and those clues got you to unlock three different locks, three number locks.

Nick Clason (19:50.946)
Go for it.

Nick Clason (20:00.054)
Mmm.

Okay.

Nick Clason (20:13.367)
Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Taylor (20:14.688)
And that was really fun because there was a thing you could do, but you couldn't unlock until you had all three. And so you're like, I got one. And then, know, by day three or four, you could get in the lock. That was really fun. And then when you opened it up, the scalable thing was we would we would put stanchions around it and the crowd had to get behind and someone would be like, escape. And that meant that they were going to open the thing and it would open up so that the crowd couldn't see into it.

Nick Clason (20:44.599)
Okay, yeah.

Anthony Taylor (20:45.164)
And I would lean in and I like, look down in there and I need you to come out with like, shut up. my goodness. Like what? And then we're going to close it, lock it back up for the next person. And I would just change the prize out. was just a piece of paper. And the piece of paper said, I'll order Starbucks for you and your whole, your friend group. then you close it and the next one's Dunkin Donuts for you and your friend group. The next one's a Taco Bell Party Pack for you. And so that was scalable because a different prize.

Nick Clason (21:04.323)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (21:11.917)
Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (21:14.27)
but no one saw, so there was still the allure of.

Nick Clason (21:17.218)
Yeah, you're not giving it away. Yeah, no, that's good. That's good. I like that. That's a fun one.

Anthony Taylor (21:20.552)
Yeah. Yeah. And then the, the, yeah, I think that was pretty cool. The other one we just did, it's going to happen next weekend. our, our winter conference next weekend is, do you know what Marine or, ammo, ammo shell casing things are? They have a little latch. They're supposed to put ammo in it. Like for guns, usually they're green ammo boxes. They sell them on Amazon.

Nick Clason (21:42.51)
maybe. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah.

Anthony Taylor (21:48.036)
orange for marine so that they're watertight and they have a little latch clasp and we put a different locks on them and there are nine escape boxes and the box in some way directs you to something in the place that helps you get the code and then when they open that up inside is a playing card and I just took a deck of 52 grab playing cards and threw a playing card in there and dumb-dumbs because you wanna you need a dumb-dumb in

Nick Clason (21:50.814)
gotcha.

Nick Clason (21:58.797)
Okay.

Nick Clason (22:14.69)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anthony Taylor (22:16.596)
They get the card out, they go turn it in and that card gets them tickets. So an ace gets them 11, a king gets them 10, a three gets them three. And then all we do is randomly pick another card, throw it in, lock it back up. And so there's going to be eight escape rooms kind of out and about. What's that thing? I'm excited about that.

Nick Clason (22:22.453)
Okay.

Nick Clason (22:31.852)
Yeah, that's cool. How do they, how do they like solve it or, get into it?

Anthony Taylor (22:38.708)
Yeah, each one's different. like one says, one says, there's a fire sweeping in from the north heading south. Don't be alarmed. And that's it. And then if you go at the north side of our building and find a fire alarm, it has a dot on it. It says six. And then the, from north to south, you find all the fire alarms and it's six, seven, six, seven.

Nick Clason (22:52.654)
Okay.

Nick Clason (23:02.414)
Right.

Nick Clason (23:07.406)
Nice. I know. next weekend, no, you're safe. It'll be in the past. It'll be in the past. Yeah. That's cool. I like it. That's cool. That's a lot of work, but no, it's not a lot of work, but it's just really creative. It's really creative. And you're kind of the master. You should have a podcast or something about it at some time. There's lost episodes. It still exists, right? We can go.

Anthony Taylor (23:08.424)
Yeah, if this is released before then and teenagers are watching, they're gonna get it. Perfect, perfect, So, know, dorky stuff like that.

Anthony Taylor (23:25.48)
Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Taylor (23:30.58)
You

Anthony Taylor (23:35.365)
My old podcast deal?

Nick Clason (23:36.372)
Yeah, the YM Lab. we pull those up? Yeah. We'll see if we can find them and link them down below. See if we can revive the legend of Anthony. So, all right, man. Dude, that was like an absolute gold mine. We came in talking Camp Clue and came out with like six other ideas. So you are the man. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Well, without anything else, we'll talk next time. See you guys.

Anthony Taylor (23:38.43)
Yeah. Yeah, probably. I don't even know.

Anthony Taylor (23:44.894)
That's great.

Anthony Taylor (23:57.908)
Thanks dude. Yeah. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Anthony Taylor (24:05.46)
See ya!

]]> Episode 181: How I Ran Social Media While at a Conference - - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 3 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/181 00853c2f-b990-4887-8754-f2f0cf60e73d Thu, 25 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 181 How I Ran Social Media While at a Conference - - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 3 full Nick Clason A Christmas miracle for youth pastors everywhere! A few months ago I went to the DYM 100 Roundtables, and without lifting a finger, or distracting my entire experience, this is how I regularly posted on my church's social media, while in attendance for the conference! 7:24 no A Christmas miracle for youth pastors everywhere! A few months ago I went to the DYM 100 Roundtables, and without lifting a finger, or distracting my entire experience, this is how I regularly posted on my church's social media, while in attendance for the conference! BECOME A HYBRID HERO https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/181 FREE E-BOOK https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019 HYBRID HERO LINK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry WINTER PACK VLOG https://youtu.be/RkHc0cTTr6c?si=zBPsd9-JWVo2mXIn 2x GROWTH EPISODE https://youtu.be/ogDlkTHDxew?si=gfcM6cpX6McI0zxs EXCLUSIVE JOSH BOLDMAN INTERVIEW https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-josh-144080714?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link SOCIAL TEAM CHECKLIST https://www.patreon.com/posts/social-media-138081327?source=storefront 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 DYM 100 & Social Media 00:17 Every Youth Ministry Needs a Strong Digital Presence 01:00 Your 2026 Social Media Framework 02:40 Two Things I've recently learned 04:38 Why Membership is Worth it 05:47 The Winter Pack 06:36 The Patreon Challenge -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:05 - 00:00:23:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Our social media did this while I was sitting at the do I am 100 conference. I barely had to work and I want to show you how, which is an incredible gift to give you on this Christmas morning. Merry Christmas everyone, and welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Merry Christmas Eve. Pastors. My name is Nicholas. And if you and I have not had a chance to meet, 00:00:23:17 - 00:00:45:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Or if you're not listening to this on the day it drops, which is Christmas, I drop every single Thursday. I haven't missed a Thursday in over three years. And it just so happens to be Christmas morning when this one drops, I want to give you one of the best gifts that I think I can give youth pastors. Most youth pastors know and see and understand the need for a strong social media and digital presence. 00:00:45:18 - 00:01:08:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If not, you should check out my completely free e-book, which is link down below and that will hopefully convince you about why you need a strong social media presence. But the gift that I can give you pastors. And then I want to give you pastors, is a plan and a framework for consistency. I was over at the DUI 100 conference and social media basically ran itself. 00:01:08:25 - 00:01:28:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, full disclosure I still grab my phone, I still download it out of our Google Drive, and I still uploaded it to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. However, those things were sitting there for me, ready to post. I didn't need anything new. I didn't need to do any extra work. When I was out there. They got the job done for me. 00:01:28:26 - 00:01:56:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And the baseline and the basis for all of that is my winter seasonal social media pack, which I want you to have now. I'll be honest, it does come with a little bit of a cost because frankly, it's a lot of work to put together. But here's how I've set the pricing structure. The pack costs $17.99, but if you become a $4 per month hybrid Hero Patreon member, you get that pack included. 00:01:56:13 - 00:02:22:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if the pack is meant to last a run of three months, $4 per month for you for three months is $12, and you get a $5 off on that pack as well. As we are trying to hit a goal this month only where we make by next week's episode. As this drops that we make 25 new members in the Hybrid Heroes Patreon tier, and if we hit that to everyone involved in the community. 00:02:22:26 - 00:02:44:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you help, or if you know someone and you share a link we will offer, I will offer a free coaching call on social media to everyone who is a part of my Hybrid Heroes paid tier member. I will help map out your strategy for you. But here's the truth I've been leading a youth ministry leader cohort. 00:02:44:14 - 00:03:05:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hybrid heroes. Deep dive kind of on why hybrid ministry, why it's important, how to keep it going. And what I realize is that this is all about behavior modification. It's not about tips and tactics. Like, you guys know what you need to know, right? And there may be some areas and some tools that I can tell you about that will help you. 00:03:05:05 - 00:03:26:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But at the end of the day, it comes down to time management and prioritization. And those are boring. Those aren't as sexy as viral reels and viral memes. I mean, the fact is, like one of the girls in our hybrid hero deep dive cohort, she had a real that had 21.2 thousand views not too long ago. Like she clearly knows what she's doing. 00:03:26:29 - 00:03:56:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry She doesn't need me. What we all realize we need is that when life gets busy, when the calendar gets overwhelming, social media is the first thing to drop. And so my pack will help you not drop it. If you have something that is done for you or mapped out for you. And as I displayed in my Winter Seasonal Social Media Pack Vlog Style Challenge eight post challenge video that is linked right here. 00:03:56:15 - 00:04:17:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Top screen. You can get it done in less than 20 minutes per week if you post all eight types. And I'm only asking you to post 3 to 5 times. So actually you can get it done in anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes per week done for you. It's also custom. It's got everything that you need and it's got a calendar that will last you December, January and February. 00:04:17:20 - 00:04:43:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then if you're a $4 a month member in March, that when that, spring pack will drop and boom, you got three more months of seasonal social media and you're just following my hybrid strategy, which also link down. Below is my episode on how following this strategy helped us to x our growth. In addition to that, you'll get all of the freebies and all the things over on my Patreon and my Patreon store. 00:04:43:09 - 00:05:06:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry My exclusive interview where I sat down with Jim, and Collider's Josh Bullman talking about the value of allowing students to disagree. That dropped a couple of weeks ago. So, you know you're going to get access to that, as well as, checklists and parent, communication guides and all sorts of things. Like I went in to doing 100, hoping to just vlog it out and map it out. 00:05:06:03 - 00:05:35:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what I realized was I got sucked into the vortex and we all get sucked into where things get busy. And I saw old friends and I didn't have time to create content. But my pack back home from my youth ministry, my pack helped carry through the types of posts and gave me something to continue to post while I was able to soak in all of the info and all of the goodies from the do I am 100 conference, and I also got this shirt out of it. 00:05:35:24 - 00:06:03:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Actually, this one didn't come from the conference. This one came from Gold Member week. Hey, speaking of that, vlog style video, check this out. Here's what I learned. During that week. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a then some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. 00:06:04:03 - 00:06:25:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on. 00:06:26:01 - 00:06:45:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. But mine will at least keep you moving in. So if you want to let your weeks be like that, where when it gets busy, you still have something that's running on autopilot for you. 00:06:45:07 - 00:07:07:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry For social media, my winter seasonal social media pack is the key to that, and it's a great gift for you on Christmas morning. And if you consider joining, you can help get us to the finish line. Progress bar is here on screen so that you can see how many paid Hybrid Hero members we've gotten over this last month as we push towards January to that 25 goal. 00:07:07:23 - 00:07:23:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So that you can unlock that free coaching opportunity. But hey my friends, hope you've had a great episode. I thank you for being here with us. And until next time. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid. Merry Christmas and we'll see you in 2026. DYM100, DownloadYouthMinistry, Josh Boldman, Nick Clason, Hybrid Ministry, youth ministry, youth pastor tips, youth pastor training, student ministry, church media, christmas youth ministry, small group leader training, programming ideas for youth ministry, social media for churches, church social media, youth ministry ideas, hybrid ministry podcast, ym programming, dym conference, doug fields, brady shearer, sean cannell,DownloadYouthMinistry,Josh Boldman,Nick Clason,Hybrid Ministry,youth ministry,youth pastor tips,youth pastor training,student ministry,church media,christmas youth ministry,small group leader training,programming ideas for youth ministry,social media for churches,church social media,youth ministry ideas,hybrid ministry podcast,ym programming,dym conference,doug fields,brady shearer,sean cannell A Christmas miracle for youth pastors everywhere!
A few months ago I went to the DYM 100 Roundtables, and without lifting a finger, or distracting my entire experience, this is how I regularly posted on my church's social media, while in attendance for the conference!

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

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

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/181

FREE E-BOOK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019

HYBRID HERO LINK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

WINTER PACK VLOG
https://youtu.be/RkHc0cTTr6c?si=zBPsd9-JWVo2mXIn

2x GROWTH EPISODE
https://youtu.be/ogDlkTHDxew?si=gfcM6cpX6McI0zxs

EXCLUSIVE JOSH BOLDMAN INTERVIEW
https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-josh-144080714?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SOCIAL TEAM CHECKLIST
https://www.patreon.com/posts/social-media-138081327?source=storefront

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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 DYM 100 & Social Media
00:17 Every Youth Ministry Needs a Strong Digital Presence
01:00 Your 2026 Social Media Framework
02:40 Two Things I've recently learned
04:38 Why Membership is Worth it
05:47 The Winter Pack
06:36 The Patreon Challenge

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:23:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our social media did this while I was sitting at the do I am 100 conference. I barely had to work and I want to show you how, which is an incredible gift to give you on this Christmas morning. Merry Christmas everyone, and welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Merry Christmas Eve. Pastors. My name is Nicholas. And if you and I have not had a chance to meet,

00:00:23:17 - 00:00:45:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or if you're not listening to this on the day it drops, which is Christmas, I drop every single Thursday. I haven't missed a Thursday in over three years. And it just so happens to be Christmas morning when this one drops, I want to give you one of the best gifts that I think I can give youth pastors. Most youth pastors know and see and understand the need for a strong social media and digital presence.

00:00:45:18 - 00:01:08:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If not, you should check out my completely free e-book, which is link down below and that will hopefully convince you about why you need a strong social media presence. But the gift that I can give you pastors. And then I want to give you pastors, is a plan and a framework for consistency. I was over at the DUI 100 conference and social media basically ran itself.

00:01:08:25 - 00:01:28:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, full disclosure I still grab my phone, I still download it out of our Google Drive, and I still uploaded it to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. However, those things were sitting there for me, ready to post. I didn't need anything new. I didn't need to do any extra work. When I was out there. They got the job done for me.

00:01:28:26 - 00:01:56:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the baseline and the basis for all of that is my winter seasonal social media pack, which I want you to have now. I'll be honest, it does come with a little bit of a cost because frankly, it's a lot of work to put together. But here's how I've set the pricing structure. The pack costs $17.99, but if you become a $4 per month hybrid Hero Patreon member, you get that pack included.

00:01:56:13 - 00:02:22:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if the pack is meant to last a run of three months, $4 per month for you for three months is $12, and you get a $5 off on that pack as well. As we are trying to hit a goal this month only where we make by next week's episode. As this drops that we make 25 new members in the Hybrid Heroes Patreon tier, and if we hit that to everyone involved in the community.

00:02:22:26 - 00:02:44:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you help, or if you know someone and you share a link we will offer, I will offer a free coaching call on social media to everyone who is a part of my Hybrid Heroes paid tier member. I will help map out your strategy for you. But here's the truth I've been leading a youth ministry leader cohort.

00:02:44:14 - 00:03:05:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hybrid heroes. Deep dive kind of on why hybrid ministry, why it's important, how to keep it going. And what I realize is that this is all about behavior modification. It's not about tips and tactics. Like, you guys know what you need to know, right? And there may be some areas and some tools that I can tell you about that will help you.

00:03:05:05 - 00:03:26:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But at the end of the day, it comes down to time management and prioritization. And those are boring. Those aren't as sexy as viral reels and viral memes. I mean, the fact is, like one of the girls in our hybrid hero deep dive cohort, she had a real that had 21.2 thousand views not too long ago. Like she clearly knows what she's doing.

00:03:26:29 - 00:03:56:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
She doesn't need me. What we all realize we need is that when life gets busy, when the calendar gets overwhelming, social media is the first thing to drop. And so my pack will help you not drop it. If you have something that is done for you or mapped out for you. And as I displayed in my Winter Seasonal Social Media Pack Vlog Style Challenge eight post challenge video that is linked right here.

00:03:56:15 - 00:04:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Top screen. You can get it done in less than 20 minutes per week if you post all eight types. And I'm only asking you to post 3 to 5 times. So actually you can get it done in anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes per week done for you. It's also custom. It's got everything that you need and it's got a calendar that will last you December, January and February.

00:04:17:20 - 00:04:43:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then if you're a $4 a month member in March, that when that, spring pack will drop and boom, you got three more months of seasonal social media and you're just following my hybrid strategy, which also link down. Below is my episode on how following this strategy helped us to x our growth. In addition to that, you'll get all of the freebies and all the things over on my Patreon and my Patreon store.

00:04:43:09 - 00:05:06:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My exclusive interview where I sat down with Jim, and Collider's Josh Bullman talking about the value of allowing students to disagree. That dropped a couple of weeks ago. So, you know you're going to get access to that, as well as, checklists and parent, communication guides and all sorts of things. Like I went in to doing 100, hoping to just vlog it out and map it out.

00:05:06:03 - 00:05:35:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what I realized was I got sucked into the vortex and we all get sucked into where things get busy. And I saw old friends and I didn't have time to create content. But my pack back home from my youth ministry, my pack helped carry through the types of posts and gave me something to continue to post while I was able to soak in all of the info and all of the goodies from the do I am 100 conference, and I also got this shirt out of it.

00:05:35:24 - 00:06:03:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Actually, this one didn't come from the conference. This one came from Gold Member week. Hey, speaking of that, vlog style video, check this out. Here's what I learned. During that week. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a then some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five.

00:06:04:03 - 00:06:25:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on.

00:06:26:01 - 00:06:45:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. But mine will at least keep you moving in. So if you want to let your weeks be like that, where when it gets busy, you still have something that's running on autopilot for you.

00:06:45:07 - 00:07:07:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For social media, my winter seasonal social media pack is the key to that, and it's a great gift for you on Christmas morning. And if you consider joining, you can help get us to the finish line. Progress bar is here on screen so that you can see how many paid Hybrid Hero members we've gotten over this last month as we push towards January to that 25 goal.

00:07:07:23 - 00:07:23:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that you can unlock that free coaching opportunity. But hey my friends, hope you've had a great episode. I thank you for being here with us. And until next time. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid. Merry Christmas and we'll see you in 2026.

]]> A Christmas miracle for youth pastors everywhere!
A few months ago I went to the DYM 100 Roundtables, and without lifting a finger, or distracting my entire experience, this is how I regularly posted on my church's social media, while in attendance for the conference!

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

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

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/181

FREE E-BOOK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019

HYBRID HERO LINK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

WINTER PACK VLOG
https://youtu.be/RkHc0cTTr6c?si=zBPsd9-JWVo2mXIn

2x GROWTH EPISODE
https://youtu.be/ogDlkTHDxew?si=gfcM6cpX6McI0zxs

EXCLUSIVE JOSH BOLDMAN INTERVIEW
https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-josh-144080714?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SOCIAL TEAM CHECKLIST
https://www.patreon.com/posts/social-media-138081327?source=storefront

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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 DYM 100 & Social Media
00:17 Every Youth Ministry Needs a Strong Digital Presence
01:00 Your 2026 Social Media Framework
02:40 Two Things I've recently learned
04:38 Why Membership is Worth it
05:47 The Winter Pack
06:36 The Patreon Challenge

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:23:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Our social media did this while I was sitting at the do I am 100 conference. I barely had to work and I want to show you how, which is an incredible gift to give you on this Christmas morning. Merry Christmas everyone, and welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Merry Christmas Eve. Pastors. My name is Nicholas. And if you and I have not had a chance to meet,

00:00:23:17 - 00:00:45:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or if you're not listening to this on the day it drops, which is Christmas, I drop every single Thursday. I haven't missed a Thursday in over three years. And it just so happens to be Christmas morning when this one drops, I want to give you one of the best gifts that I think I can give youth pastors. Most youth pastors know and see and understand the need for a strong social media and digital presence.

00:00:45:18 - 00:01:08:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If not, you should check out my completely free e-book, which is link down below and that will hopefully convince you about why you need a strong social media presence. But the gift that I can give you pastors. And then I want to give you pastors, is a plan and a framework for consistency. I was over at the DUI 100 conference and social media basically ran itself.

00:01:08:25 - 00:01:28:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, full disclosure I still grab my phone, I still download it out of our Google Drive, and I still uploaded it to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. However, those things were sitting there for me, ready to post. I didn't need anything new. I didn't need to do any extra work. When I was out there. They got the job done for me.

00:01:28:26 - 00:01:56:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the baseline and the basis for all of that is my winter seasonal social media pack, which I want you to have now. I'll be honest, it does come with a little bit of a cost because frankly, it's a lot of work to put together. But here's how I've set the pricing structure. The pack costs $17.99, but if you become a $4 per month hybrid Hero Patreon member, you get that pack included.

00:01:56:13 - 00:02:22:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if the pack is meant to last a run of three months, $4 per month for you for three months is $12, and you get a $5 off on that pack as well. As we are trying to hit a goal this month only where we make by next week's episode. As this drops that we make 25 new members in the Hybrid Heroes Patreon tier, and if we hit that to everyone involved in the community.

00:02:22:26 - 00:02:44:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you help, or if you know someone and you share a link we will offer, I will offer a free coaching call on social media to everyone who is a part of my Hybrid Heroes paid tier member. I will help map out your strategy for you. But here's the truth I've been leading a youth ministry leader cohort.

00:02:44:14 - 00:03:05:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hybrid heroes. Deep dive kind of on why hybrid ministry, why it's important, how to keep it going. And what I realize is that this is all about behavior modification. It's not about tips and tactics. Like, you guys know what you need to know, right? And there may be some areas and some tools that I can tell you about that will help you.

00:03:05:05 - 00:03:26:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But at the end of the day, it comes down to time management and prioritization. And those are boring. Those aren't as sexy as viral reels and viral memes. I mean, the fact is, like one of the girls in our hybrid hero deep dive cohort, she had a real that had 21.2 thousand views not too long ago. Like she clearly knows what she's doing.

00:03:26:29 - 00:03:56:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
She doesn't need me. What we all realize we need is that when life gets busy, when the calendar gets overwhelming, social media is the first thing to drop. And so my pack will help you not drop it. If you have something that is done for you or mapped out for you. And as I displayed in my Winter Seasonal Social Media Pack Vlog Style Challenge eight post challenge video that is linked right here.

00:03:56:15 - 00:04:17:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Top screen. You can get it done in less than 20 minutes per week if you post all eight types. And I'm only asking you to post 3 to 5 times. So actually you can get it done in anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes per week done for you. It's also custom. It's got everything that you need and it's got a calendar that will last you December, January and February.

00:04:17:20 - 00:04:43:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then if you're a $4 a month member in March, that when that, spring pack will drop and boom, you got three more months of seasonal social media and you're just following my hybrid strategy, which also link down. Below is my episode on how following this strategy helped us to x our growth. In addition to that, you'll get all of the freebies and all the things over on my Patreon and my Patreon store.

00:04:43:09 - 00:05:06:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My exclusive interview where I sat down with Jim, and Collider's Josh Bullman talking about the value of allowing students to disagree. That dropped a couple of weeks ago. So, you know you're going to get access to that, as well as, checklists and parent, communication guides and all sorts of things. Like I went in to doing 100, hoping to just vlog it out and map it out.

00:05:06:03 - 00:05:35:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what I realized was I got sucked into the vortex and we all get sucked into where things get busy. And I saw old friends and I didn't have time to create content. But my pack back home from my youth ministry, my pack helped carry through the types of posts and gave me something to continue to post while I was able to soak in all of the info and all of the goodies from the do I am 100 conference, and I also got this shirt out of it.

00:05:35:24 - 00:06:03:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Actually, this one didn't come from the conference. This one came from Gold Member week. Hey, speaking of that, vlog style video, check this out. Here's what I learned. During that week. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a then some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five.

00:06:04:03 - 00:06:25:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on.

00:06:26:01 - 00:06:45:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. But mine will at least keep you moving in. So if you want to let your weeks be like that, where when it gets busy, you still have something that's running on autopilot for you.

00:06:45:07 - 00:07:07:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For social media, my winter seasonal social media pack is the key to that, and it's a great gift for you on Christmas morning. And if you consider joining, you can help get us to the finish line. Progress bar is here on screen so that you can see how many paid Hybrid Hero members we've gotten over this last month as we push towards January to that 25 goal.

00:07:07:23 - 00:07:23:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that you can unlock that free coaching opportunity. But hey my friends, hope you've had a great episode. I thank you for being here with us. And until next time. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid. Merry Christmas and we'll see you in 2026.

]]> Episode 180: Josh Boldman Taught Me THIS About Small Groups… - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 2 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/180 163d310a-d22a-4f4a-a3ca-e5fd15e957c2 Thu, 18 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 180 Josh Boldman Taught Me THIS About Small Groups… - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 2 full Nick Clason I didn't think this breakout session would have such an influence on me, but it surprisingly did! And I even got an exclusive interview with the workshop teacher to deep-dive into it! Plus, free coaching is still on the line for those who join Patreon before the month ends! 7:14 no I didn't think this breakout session would have such an influence on me, but it surprisingly did! And I even got an exclusive interview with the workshop teacher to deep-dive into it! Plus, free coaching is still on the line for those who join Patreon before the month ends! BECOME A HYBRID HERO https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/180 30 CONNECTION IDEAS https://www.patreon.com/posts/30-small-group-141961735?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-josh-144080714?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 DYM100 Thing 1 00:28 DYM100 is the Best! 01:42 Programming Shift 05:46 The Key to Social Media in 2026 06:35 December Patreon Challenge -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:40:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Regardless of where each individual question takes them. It's this bigger picture of having students being able to ask questions is actually really, really, really healthy. That line alone, plus this llama t shirt was worth the cost of the entire trip. Welcome, everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show. What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry shown in this episode, I'm detailing and outlining the three takeaways that I had from the do I am 100 conference in the last episode linked right here, we talked about programing and adding sounds and sound effects and just making our introduction a little bit more lively. 00:00:40:10 - 00:01:07:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what I saw and learned and took away from the D and 100 conference. And in this one, I'm gonna talk about a surprise breakout session that I did not expect. Now, here's the thing. Full disclosure, right? Like when I choose breakouts at a conference, more often than not, I'm choosing it based on the person. And so me and my friend Josh Bowman, like, I saw he was on the thing on the docket to lead a breakout. 00:01:07:14 - 00:01:30:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I just thought to myself, I just like this guy. I know what he's going to do is going to be good. I'm going to go support him. I would not say that the topic listed on the breakout was what interested me. What interested me was the author of the breakout, not the actual content of the breakout. Now, to be clear, I didn't disagree with the content of the breakout. 00:01:30:13 - 00:02:00:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It was essentially like how to make space for students to be able to disagree in your youth ministry. And I was like, okay, great. Like I love that. Like I'm here for that. And I think that that's a great topic. But his breakout was absolutely game changing. And like, I was shocked at not only how much I did agree, but some of the stuff he did that made me really think and wrestle with, oh man, like I'm not doing some of these things. 00:02:00:02 - 00:02:22:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so I came back from the conference and I was debriefing, and I was downloading, and I thought to myself, like, that might be my biggest takeaway from the entire conference is how to do a better job of creating space for students to disagree. And now, as this episode drops middle of December, most of us have wrapped up our our fall semester of programing. 00:02:22:23 - 00:02:48:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We got Christmas services on the horizon and, then maybe a week off after Christmas and then we're back for the New year. And this is the perfect time to break something and to add something in. And so I actually got the chance to sit down and have an exclusive conversation with Josh, who, gave the premise for his breakout of why students need to be able to have the space to disagree. 00:02:48:14 - 00:03:07:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then I ask some of the how questions, like, how do you go about instituting this change? How do you handle senior pastors? How do you handle leaders? Go ahead, take a listen in this clip. At first they were really skeptical. And we we, you know, we started like, preparing them like weeks out that this was this was coming. 00:03:07:26 - 00:03:35:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And always, you know, the small group leader is the one that has the questions. So like, really worst case scenario, they can skip it. It was kind of like, you know, like, so that's always like, how did it go? It was great. How did I because we didn't we didn't but we would always like we we started I mean, even in like some, some leader meetings or stuff, doing some kind of, some role playing type stuff where it was like, okay, hey, last week, you know, you all, we're here for last week's teaching. 00:03:35:02 - 00:04:13:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Let's imagine this was the question and somebody throw me, you throw out a couple things that maybe you think a student might have said. And it was really funny because, at first, even they were like, skittish with because they were in that moment, they were like, you want you want me to point out something you think a student would disagree with that you said, so we're going to try and figure out how to institute this better in our space to help give leaders, the comfort and the confidence to lean in and start asking some of these questions about what students might disagree with and hopefully stop trying to give students the quote, right 00:04:13:21 - 00:04:44:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry answer and start giving students the space to genuinely question and think and maybe even in some cases, disagree. You know, a couple weeks before I went to the do I am 100 conference, my church hosted a thing called the Cross Creek Collective, and I was actually on stage for it. And during that week, while I was in the middle of the busiest week of probably my year on staff, I decided I wanted to put my seasonal social media pack to the test. 00:04:44:28 - 00:05:17:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And at the end of the week, this is what I discovered. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a minute. Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. 00:05:17:18 - 00:05:34:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. 00:05:34:21 - 00:05:59:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But mine will at least keep you moving in the right direction. So the entire conversation with Josh Pullman is now over on my Patreon, as well as my winter seasonal social media pack. You can jump in for a week free trial to listen to the Boardman episode and to maybe, explore what the winter seasonal social media pack, how it could serve you in your ministry. 00:05:59:11 - 00:06:38:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But here's the fact you can't ignore social media any longer, and you need something that you can rely on when you get busy. And that's exactly what my pack is going to do. And we are moving towards trying to add 25 new free hybrid Hero members progress bars right here on the screen as of the editing date. And if we hit 25 members by the end of December, the beginning of January, then every single person who has a $4 per month Hybrid Hero member, they're going to get an exclusive free coaching call from me, included as a part of their $4 per month. 00:06:38:16 - 00:07:02:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It is such a great deal. $4 per month gets you a bonus episode, gets you all the freebies on my store, gives you all the paid things on my store, and now gets you a free coaching call $4 a month. That's all it is. It's less genuinely than a cup of coffee. And next week this episode is going to drop on Christmas Day. 00:07:02:02 - 00:07:13:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you're listening live, you'll see it in your feed on Christmas Day. If not, it's going to be linked right here on screen so you can watch that one. But until next time, and as always my friends, don't forget stay hybrid. DYM100, DownloadYouthMinistry, Josh Boldman, Nick Clason, Hybrid Ministry, youth ministry, youth pastor tips, youth pastor training, student ministry, church media, christmas youth ministry, small group leader training, programming ideas for youth ministry, social media for churches, church social media, youth ministry ideas, hybrid ministry podcast, ym programming, dym conference, doug fields, brady shearer, sean cannell,DownloadYouthMinistry,Josh Boldman,Nick Clason,Hybrid Ministry,youth ministry,youth pastor tips,youth pastor training,student ministry,church media,christmas youth ministry,small group leader training,programming ideas for youth ministry,social media for churches,church social media,youth ministry ideas,hybrid ministry podcast,ym programming,dym conference,doug fields,brady shearer,sean cannell I didn't think this breakout session would have such an influence on me, but it surprisingly did!
And I even got an exclusive interview with the workshop teacher to deep-dive into it!

Plus, free coaching is still on the line for those who join Patreon before the month ends!

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

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

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/180

30 CONNECTION IDEAS
https://www.patreon.com/posts/30-small-group-141961735?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-josh-144080714?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 DYM100 Thing 1
00:28 DYM100 is the Best!
01:42 Programming Shift
05:46 The Key to Social Media in 2026
06:35 December Patreon Challenge

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:40:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Regardless of where each individual question takes them. It's this bigger picture of having students being able to ask questions is actually really, really, really healthy. That line alone, plus this llama t shirt was worth the cost of the entire trip. Welcome, everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show. What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry shown in this episode, I'm detailing and outlining the three takeaways that I had from the do I am 100 conference in the last episode linked right here, we talked about programing and adding sounds and sound effects and just making our introduction a little bit more lively.

00:00:40:10 - 00:01:07:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what I saw and learned and took away from the D and 100 conference. And in this one, I'm gonna talk about a surprise breakout session that I did not expect. Now, here's the thing. Full disclosure, right? Like when I choose breakouts at a conference, more often than not, I'm choosing it based on the person. And so me and my friend Josh Bowman, like, I saw he was on the thing on the docket to lead a breakout.

00:01:07:14 - 00:01:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I just thought to myself, I just like this guy. I know what he's going to do is going to be good. I'm going to go support him. I would not say that the topic listed on the breakout was what interested me. What interested me was the author of the breakout, not the actual content of the breakout. Now, to be clear, I didn't disagree with the content of the breakout.

00:01:30:13 - 00:02:00:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It was essentially like how to make space for students to be able to disagree in your youth ministry. And I was like, okay, great. Like I love that. Like I'm here for that. And I think that that's a great topic. But his breakout was absolutely game changing. And like, I was shocked at not only how much I did agree, but some of the stuff he did that made me really think and wrestle with, oh man, like I'm not doing some of these things.

00:02:00:02 - 00:02:22:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I came back from the conference and I was debriefing, and I was downloading, and I thought to myself, like, that might be my biggest takeaway from the entire conference is how to do a better job of creating space for students to disagree. And now, as this episode drops middle of December, most of us have wrapped up our our fall semester of programing.

00:02:22:23 - 00:02:48:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We got Christmas services on the horizon and, then maybe a week off after Christmas and then we're back for the New year. And this is the perfect time to break something and to add something in. And so I actually got the chance to sit down and have an exclusive conversation with Josh, who, gave the premise for his breakout of why students need to be able to have the space to disagree.

00:02:48:14 - 00:03:07:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then I ask some of the how questions, like, how do you go about instituting this change? How do you handle senior pastors? How do you handle leaders? Go ahead, take a listen in this clip. At first they were really skeptical. And we we, you know, we started like, preparing them like weeks out that this was this was coming.

00:03:07:26 - 00:03:35:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And always, you know, the small group leader is the one that has the questions. So like, really worst case scenario, they can skip it. It was kind of like, you know, like, so that's always like, how did it go? It was great. How did I because we didn't we didn't but we would always like we we started I mean, even in like some, some leader meetings or stuff, doing some kind of, some role playing type stuff where it was like, okay, hey, last week, you know, you all, we're here for last week's teaching.

00:03:35:02 - 00:04:13:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's imagine this was the question and somebody throw me, you throw out a couple things that maybe you think a student might have said. And it was really funny because, at first, even they were like, skittish with because they were in that moment, they were like, you want you want me to point out something you think a student would disagree with that you said, so we're going to try and figure out how to institute this better in our space to help give leaders, the comfort and the confidence to lean in and start asking some of these questions about what students might disagree with and hopefully stop trying to give students the quote, right

00:04:13:21 - 00:04:44:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
answer and start giving students the space to genuinely question and think and maybe even in some cases, disagree. You know, a couple weeks before I went to the do I am 100 conference, my church hosted a thing called the Cross Creek Collective, and I was actually on stage for it. And during that week, while I was in the middle of the busiest week of probably my year on staff, I decided I wanted to put my seasonal social media pack to the test.

00:04:44:28 - 00:05:17:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And at the end of the week, this is what I discovered. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a minute. Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social.

00:05:17:18 - 00:05:34:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there.

00:05:34:21 - 00:05:59:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But mine will at least keep you moving in the right direction. So the entire conversation with Josh Pullman is now over on my Patreon, as well as my winter seasonal social media pack. You can jump in for a week free trial to listen to the Boardman episode and to maybe, explore what the winter seasonal social media pack, how it could serve you in your ministry.

00:05:59:11 - 00:06:38:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's the fact you can't ignore social media any longer, and you need something that you can rely on when you get busy. And that's exactly what my pack is going to do. And we are moving towards trying to add 25 new free hybrid Hero members progress bars right here on the screen as of the editing date. And if we hit 25 members by the end of December, the beginning of January, then every single person who has a $4 per month Hybrid Hero member, they're going to get an exclusive free coaching call from me, included as a part of their $4 per month.

00:06:38:16 - 00:07:02:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It is such a great deal. $4 per month gets you a bonus episode, gets you all the freebies on my store, gives you all the paid things on my store, and now gets you a free coaching call $4 a month. That's all it is. It's less genuinely than a cup of coffee. And next week this episode is going to drop on Christmas Day.

00:07:02:02 - 00:07:13:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're listening live, you'll see it in your feed on Christmas Day. If not, it's going to be linked right here on screen so you can watch that one. But until next time, and as always my friends, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> I didn't think this breakout session would have such an influence on me, but it surprisingly did!
And I even got an exclusive interview with the workshop teacher to deep-dive into it!

Plus, free coaching is still on the line for those who join Patreon before the month ends!

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

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

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/180

30 CONNECTION IDEAS
https://www.patreon.com/posts/30-small-group-141961735?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-josh-144080714?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 DYM100 Thing 1
00:28 DYM100 is the Best!
01:42 Programming Shift
05:46 The Key to Social Media in 2026
06:35 December Patreon Challenge

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:40:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Regardless of where each individual question takes them. It's this bigger picture of having students being able to ask questions is actually really, really, really healthy. That line alone, plus this llama t shirt was worth the cost of the entire trip. Welcome, everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show. What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry shown in this episode, I'm detailing and outlining the three takeaways that I had from the do I am 100 conference in the last episode linked right here, we talked about programing and adding sounds and sound effects and just making our introduction a little bit more lively.

00:00:40:10 - 00:01:07:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what I saw and learned and took away from the D and 100 conference. And in this one, I'm gonna talk about a surprise breakout session that I did not expect. Now, here's the thing. Full disclosure, right? Like when I choose breakouts at a conference, more often than not, I'm choosing it based on the person. And so me and my friend Josh Bowman, like, I saw he was on the thing on the docket to lead a breakout.

00:01:07:14 - 00:01:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I just thought to myself, I just like this guy. I know what he's going to do is going to be good. I'm going to go support him. I would not say that the topic listed on the breakout was what interested me. What interested me was the author of the breakout, not the actual content of the breakout. Now, to be clear, I didn't disagree with the content of the breakout.

00:01:30:13 - 00:02:00:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It was essentially like how to make space for students to be able to disagree in your youth ministry. And I was like, okay, great. Like I love that. Like I'm here for that. And I think that that's a great topic. But his breakout was absolutely game changing. And like, I was shocked at not only how much I did agree, but some of the stuff he did that made me really think and wrestle with, oh man, like I'm not doing some of these things.

00:02:00:02 - 00:02:22:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I came back from the conference and I was debriefing, and I was downloading, and I thought to myself, like, that might be my biggest takeaway from the entire conference is how to do a better job of creating space for students to disagree. And now, as this episode drops middle of December, most of us have wrapped up our our fall semester of programing.

00:02:22:23 - 00:02:48:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We got Christmas services on the horizon and, then maybe a week off after Christmas and then we're back for the New year. And this is the perfect time to break something and to add something in. And so I actually got the chance to sit down and have an exclusive conversation with Josh, who, gave the premise for his breakout of why students need to be able to have the space to disagree.

00:02:48:14 - 00:03:07:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then I ask some of the how questions, like, how do you go about instituting this change? How do you handle senior pastors? How do you handle leaders? Go ahead, take a listen in this clip. At first they were really skeptical. And we we, you know, we started like, preparing them like weeks out that this was this was coming.

00:03:07:26 - 00:03:35:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And always, you know, the small group leader is the one that has the questions. So like, really worst case scenario, they can skip it. It was kind of like, you know, like, so that's always like, how did it go? It was great. How did I because we didn't we didn't but we would always like we we started I mean, even in like some, some leader meetings or stuff, doing some kind of, some role playing type stuff where it was like, okay, hey, last week, you know, you all, we're here for last week's teaching.

00:03:35:02 - 00:04:13:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's imagine this was the question and somebody throw me, you throw out a couple things that maybe you think a student might have said. And it was really funny because, at first, even they were like, skittish with because they were in that moment, they were like, you want you want me to point out something you think a student would disagree with that you said, so we're going to try and figure out how to institute this better in our space to help give leaders, the comfort and the confidence to lean in and start asking some of these questions about what students might disagree with and hopefully stop trying to give students the quote, right

00:04:13:21 - 00:04:44:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
answer and start giving students the space to genuinely question and think and maybe even in some cases, disagree. You know, a couple weeks before I went to the do I am 100 conference, my church hosted a thing called the Cross Creek Collective, and I was actually on stage for it. And during that week, while I was in the middle of the busiest week of probably my year on staff, I decided I wanted to put my seasonal social media pack to the test.

00:04:44:28 - 00:05:17:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And at the end of the week, this is what I discovered. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a minute. Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social.

00:05:17:18 - 00:05:34:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there.

00:05:34:21 - 00:05:59:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But mine will at least keep you moving in the right direction. So the entire conversation with Josh Pullman is now over on my Patreon, as well as my winter seasonal social media pack. You can jump in for a week free trial to listen to the Boardman episode and to maybe, explore what the winter seasonal social media pack, how it could serve you in your ministry.

00:05:59:11 - 00:06:38:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's the fact you can't ignore social media any longer, and you need something that you can rely on when you get busy. And that's exactly what my pack is going to do. And we are moving towards trying to add 25 new free hybrid Hero members progress bars right here on the screen as of the editing date. And if we hit 25 members by the end of December, the beginning of January, then every single person who has a $4 per month Hybrid Hero member, they're going to get an exclusive free coaching call from me, included as a part of their $4 per month.

00:06:38:16 - 00:07:02:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It is such a great deal. $4 per month gets you a bonus episode, gets you all the freebies on my store, gives you all the paid things on my store, and now gets you a free coaching call $4 a month. That's all it is. It's less genuinely than a cup of coffee. And next week this episode is going to drop on Christmas Day.

00:07:02:02 - 00:07:13:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're listening live, you'll see it in your feed on Christmas Day. If not, it's going to be linked right here on screen so you can watch that one. But until next time, and as always my friends, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 179: FREE Christmas Party Surprise! - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 1 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/179 69006dce-5b66-4906-a912-6f20a9330c48 Thu, 11 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 179 FREE Christmas Party Surprise! - DYM 100 Challenge Pt 1 full Nick Clason SHOCKING! In this episode I explore an area of adjustment I did NOT anticipate! In this series, "The DYM100 Roundtables Summary" Series I explore the 3 areas that challenged me from the DYM100 Roundtables! Plus, welcome to the December Patreon Challenge! Become a Hybrid Hero ($4/month), help us get to 25 new members, and get a FREE Coaching call in 2026! 9:12 no SHOCKING! In this episode I explore an area of adjustment I did NOT anticipate! In this series, "The DYM100 Roundtables Summary" Series I explore the 3 areas that challenged me from the DYM100 Roundtables! Plus, welcome to the December Patreon Challenge! Become a Hybrid Hero ($4/month), help us get to 25 new members, and get a FREE Coaching call in 2026! 🦸 BECOME A HYBRID HERO https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/179 FREE CHRISTMAS PARTY! https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-christmas-143594518?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link FREE SOUNDBOARD https://crowdcontrolgames.com/products/gameshow-soundboard?pos=1&psq=sound&ss=e&v=1.0 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 DYM100 Thing 1 00:28 DYM100 is the Best! 01:42 Programming Shift 05:46 The Key to Social Media in 2026 06:35 December Patreon Challenge -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:26:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I went to the DYM 100 round tables with this goal to find three things to work on and fix in my youth ministry. And today I am sharing with you the first one. Spoiler alert is not the one that I expected. Plus, stick around to the end of the episode because I am giving away a free Christmas party run sheet, complete with the resources and everything you need so you can grab that down bel 00:00:26:29 - 00:00:33:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Link in the description, which will go into detail and explain at the end of this episode. Welcome everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show. 00:00:33:19 - 00:00:44:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So I went to the do I am 100 conference where I got this notebook and of course this llama t shirt, which, you know what? When else are you going to need to get a llama t shirt? 00:00:44:10 - 00:01:16:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You're wearing it after the Darwin 100 conference, with the goal of coming away with three takeaways, and I was going to vlog it and take videos and explain my process. But man, if you've ever been to one of these events like you know that like you just get sucked into the vortex of friendship and community and conversations. And so I only took like 20 videos and like half of them are like receipt uploads or like videos of the van rental to make sure that they weren't going to scam me afterwards. 00:01:16:26 - 00:01:40:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But in these next three episodes, I'm going to talk about not only things that you can use and learn and take away for, like your December Christmas parties, but also things that I and our youth ministry team are going to be thinking about on into the future of 2026 and how we do youth ministry. I also have some freebies and some stuff, going along and that I'm going to be giving away. 00:01:40:18 - 00:02:02:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So pay attention to the link down in the description for all of these next couple episodes. But in this episode we're going to be looking at, and the thing that I took away was programing. Okay. And like in the room, if you've ever been to a do I am 100 event, it is hosted by Doug Fields and Josh Griffin, who are both the masters at programing. 00:02:02:09 - 00:02:21:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like to the point that like I think we had we had one session with worship and it was like a special kind of like unplug, more like chapel and like spiritually charged, focused, kind of like session, but otherwise every other kind of like element within the room was done without any sort of worship or without any sort of band. 00:02:21:16 - 00:02:46:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But you never felt like something was missing. Like it was an amazingly programed event. And like, I have taken pride in my own programing to the point that I have my own Patreon show every single week detailing our youth ministry programing, detailing the creativity that we're trying to do. And in a lot of ways, my 9 to 10 different damn conferences that I've been to over the years have helped shape this. 00:02:46:06 - 00:03:05:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like, I've taken a lot of my programing strategy and like things that matter to me from my experience at and under a do, I am conference. But in this event, I brought the rest of my team and one of my guys, his name is Ben. Ben is in charge of programing at our church and he took things that I have. 00:03:05:06 - 00:03:38:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Seen and noticed at conferences before in the past. But he's like, we need to implement that to the point he's like, we're going to make that happen. And those things were like the sound effects included and the music that were both happening simultaneous while any event was happening. Well, announcements. Well, funny bits. While different games like all these things all happening, all with different sound effects or different, music tracks being done in the background, like the sound effects, the booth and the, the stage, the, the, the energy that was happening between the two. 00:03:38:25 - 00:03:55:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry He was like, we need to find a way to do that. And that's that's the takeaway that surprised me because I've seen this before and I thought, there's no way our booth can pull it off or it's going to be too distracting. Or maybe we're trying too hard, but Ben, Ben's like, no, we can do this and we're going to pull this off. 00:03:55:19 - 00:04:13:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you didn't know, I found a link down below, from Crowd Control Games. They have a free, like, audio interface. So all you got to do is load in sound effects or sound bites. You can get them off of, like, YouTube or like a website, like Motion Array, and you can upload those different sound effects. 00:04:13:13 - 00:04:31:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we're going to try those things. And if you head down below, link down below is a completely free Christmas guide. It's actually from an episode linked right here, the top screen, with my friend Eric with the K, who also fun fact was a roommate and a table member at my table that I was leading the, church foyer. 00:04:31:22 - 00:04:51:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Carpet stains. But we did this episode years ago, and, I, I'm putting a little bit of a 2025 spin and refresh on it. And so there's a brand new, completely new game. That should be on the game either now or in the near future. But that's completely for free for you. Those of you that are either free or paid members over on my Patreon. 00:04:51:25 - 00:05:17:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you can, become a free paid member and get that complete Christmas run sheet. If you haven't already had your Christmas party yet, but you can now include. And I'm going to challenge myself in our ministry to include more sound effects and really like part of what made the conference so engaging and so entertaining was the synchronicity between the upfront people, Griffin and Doug Fields, and the booth. 00:05:17:21 - 00:05:38:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. And so shout out to to them. And so my friend, my coworker Ben was back there and he was asking all the questions and stuff like that. And then sitting in the the Airbnb with my friend Eric later, he's like, look, you can use this thing from crowd control games, with sound effects. And so we're going to download these and we're going to start using them. 00:05:38:08 - 00:06:05:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I think it can just bring about another layer of liveliness and fun and creativity, which is already something that we're trying to do over on our Patreon. So that free Christmas party is linked down below in the show. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a minute. 00:06:05:26 - 00:06:26:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. 00:06:26:14 - 00:06:44:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. But mine will at least keep you moving in. And hey, we're trying to welcome 25 00:06:44:12 - 00:06:49:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry new paid hybrid heroes before January begins. 00:06:49:15 - 00:07:15:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so if we hit that goal, if you help me accomplish that goal. So right now we are, like a handful of of those away, where you want to get 25 by the time January starts. If we hit that, I will offer free 30 minute social media audit and coaching session for every single person who has jumped in at the $4 per month membership tier. 00:07:15:11 - 00:07:41:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Listen, if you put that on your church's like professional or continuing development expense account, it's $48 for the year. It will help you with creativity and programing and all the freebies that I offer through my Patreon at any given time. Or if you don't have the church budget for it, it is, less than the cost of a Starbucks latte only one time a month if it comes out of your own personal budget. 00:07:41:10 - 00:08:11:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Either way is incredibly accessible. And the good news is my seasonal social media pack, which is available for everybody at the cost of $17.99, is available for those of you who are $4 a month, Hybrid Hero members is available to you included in the cost. And if we hit this 25, member benchmark, by the time January hits, I will extend a free coaching call to every single person who is in the Hybrid Heroes coaching level tier. 00:08:11:17 - 00:08:28:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so hopefully that is something that is, helpful to you. And so we're going to try and infuse some of our programing now with some of these things I learned from from the denim conference, just observing the programing and some of the games that they put together and some of the chaos and some of the fun. 00:08:28:25 - 00:08:52:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But all of it was was changed with the audio and the sound effects and the playlists and the music choices. It was it was amazing. It was crazy. It was fun. And I want to try your hand at it and, hand the keys over to some of our students in the booth doing that. But in the next episode, I'm actually going to talk about a small group shift that I learned that, I'm passionate about. 00:08:52:03 - 00:09:12:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But the way that Josh Bulman in a workshop presented it absolutely changed the game. And I am sitting down with him for an exclusive interview that you are not going to want to miss. That episode is linked right here on screen. So my friends, go ahead and check that out. But until next time. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid. DYM100, DownloadYouthMinistry, Josh Boldman, Nick Clason, Hybrid Ministry, youth ministry, youth pastor tips, youth pastor training, student ministry, church media, christmas youth ministry, small group leader training, programming ideas for youth ministry, social media for churches, church social media, youth ministry ideas, hybrid ministry podcast, ym programming, dym conference, doug fields, brady shearer, sean cannell,DownloadYouthMinistry,Josh Boldman,Nick Clason,Hybrid Ministry,youth ministry,youth pastor tips,youth pastor training,student ministry,church media,christmas youth ministry,small group leader training,programming ideas for youth ministry,social media for churches,church social media,youth ministry ideas,hybrid ministry podcast,ym programming,dym conference,doug fields,brady shearer,sean cannell SHOCKING!
In this episode I explore an area of adjustment I did NOT anticipate!

In this series, "The DYM100 Roundtables Summary" Series I explore the 3 areas that challenged me from the DYM100 Roundtables!

Plus, welcome to the December Patreon Challenge!
Become a Hybrid Hero ($4/month), help us get to 25 new members, and get a FREE Coaching call in 2026!

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

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

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/179

FREE CHRISTMAS PARTY!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-christmas-143594518?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

FREE SOUNDBOARD
https://crowdcontrolgames.com/products/gameshow-soundboard?_pos=1&_psq=sound&_ss=e&_v=1.0

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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 DYM100 Thing 1
00:28 DYM100 is the Best!
01:42 Programming Shift
05:46 The Key to Social Media in 2026
06:35 December Patreon Challenge

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:26:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I went to the DYM 100 round tables with this goal to find three things to work on and fix in my youth ministry. And today I am sharing with you the first one. Spoiler alert is not the one that I expected. Plus, stick around to the end of the episode because I am giving away a free Christmas party run sheet, complete with the resources and everything you need so you can grab that down bel

00:00:26:29 - 00:00:33:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Link in the description, which will go into detail and explain at the end of this episode. Welcome everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00:00:33:19 - 00:00:44:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I went to the do I am 100 conference where I got this notebook and of course this llama t shirt, which, you know what? When else are you going to need to get a llama t shirt?

00:00:44:10 - 00:01:16:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're wearing it after the Darwin 100 conference, with the goal of coming away with three takeaways, and I was going to vlog it and take videos and explain my process. But man, if you've ever been to one of these events like you know that like you just get sucked into the vortex of friendship and community and conversations. And so I only took like 20 videos and like half of them are like receipt uploads or like videos of the van rental to make sure that they weren't going to scam me afterwards.

00:01:16:26 - 00:01:40:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in these next three episodes, I'm going to talk about not only things that you can use and learn and take away for, like your December Christmas parties, but also things that I and our youth ministry team are going to be thinking about on into the future of 2026 and how we do youth ministry. I also have some freebies and some stuff, going along and that I'm going to be giving away.

00:01:40:18 - 00:02:02:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So pay attention to the link down in the description for all of these next couple episodes. But in this episode we're going to be looking at, and the thing that I took away was programing. Okay. And like in the room, if you've ever been to a do I am 100 event, it is hosted by Doug Fields and Josh Griffin, who are both the masters at programing.

00:02:02:09 - 00:02:21:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like to the point that like I think we had we had one session with worship and it was like a special kind of like unplug, more like chapel and like spiritually charged, focused, kind of like session, but otherwise every other kind of like element within the room was done without any sort of worship or without any sort of band.

00:02:21:16 - 00:02:46:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But you never felt like something was missing. Like it was an amazingly programed event. And like, I have taken pride in my own programing to the point that I have my own Patreon show every single week detailing our youth ministry programing, detailing the creativity that we're trying to do. And in a lot of ways, my 9 to 10 different damn conferences that I've been to over the years have helped shape this.

00:02:46:06 - 00:03:05:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, I've taken a lot of my programing strategy and like things that matter to me from my experience at and under a do, I am conference. But in this event, I brought the rest of my team and one of my guys, his name is Ben. Ben is in charge of programing at our church and he took things that I have.

00:03:05:06 - 00:03:38:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Seen and noticed at conferences before in the past. But he's like, we need to implement that to the point he's like, we're going to make that happen. And those things were like the sound effects included and the music that were both happening simultaneous while any event was happening. Well, announcements. Well, funny bits. While different games like all these things all happening, all with different sound effects or different, music tracks being done in the background, like the sound effects, the booth and the, the stage, the, the, the energy that was happening between the two.

00:03:38:25 - 00:03:55:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
He was like, we need to find a way to do that. And that's that's the takeaway that surprised me because I've seen this before and I thought, there's no way our booth can pull it off or it's going to be too distracting. Or maybe we're trying too hard, but Ben, Ben's like, no, we can do this and we're going to pull this off.

00:03:55:19 - 00:04:13:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you didn't know, I found a link down below, from Crowd Control Games. They have a free, like, audio interface. So all you got to do is load in sound effects or sound bites. You can get them off of, like, YouTube or like a website, like Motion Array, and you can upload those different sound effects.

00:04:13:13 - 00:04:31:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're going to try those things. And if you head down below, link down below is a completely free Christmas guide. It's actually from an episode linked right here, the top screen, with my friend Eric with the K, who also fun fact was a roommate and a table member at my table that I was leading the, church foyer.

00:04:31:22 - 00:04:51:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Carpet stains. But we did this episode years ago, and, I, I'm putting a little bit of a 2025 spin and refresh on it. And so there's a brand new, completely new game. That should be on the game either now or in the near future. But that's completely for free for you. Those of you that are either free or paid members over on my Patreon.

00:04:51:25 - 00:05:17:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you can, become a free paid member and get that complete Christmas run sheet. If you haven't already had your Christmas party yet, but you can now include. And I'm going to challenge myself in our ministry to include more sound effects and really like part of what made the conference so engaging and so entertaining was the synchronicity between the upfront people, Griffin and Doug Fields, and the booth.

00:05:17:21 - 00:05:38:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And so shout out to to them. And so my friend, my coworker Ben was back there and he was asking all the questions and stuff like that. And then sitting in the the Airbnb with my friend Eric later, he's like, look, you can use this thing from crowd control games, with sound effects. And so we're going to download these and we're going to start using them.

00:05:38:08 - 00:06:05:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think it can just bring about another layer of liveliness and fun and creativity, which is already something that we're trying to do over on our Patreon. So that free Christmas party is linked down below in the show. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a minute.

00:06:05:26 - 00:06:26:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do.

00:06:26:14 - 00:06:44:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. But mine will at least keep you moving in. And hey, we're trying to welcome 25

00:06:44:12 - 00:06:49:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
new paid hybrid heroes before January begins.

00:06:49:15 - 00:07:15:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if we hit that goal, if you help me accomplish that goal. So right now we are, like a handful of of those away, where you want to get 25 by the time January starts. If we hit that, I will offer free 30 minute social media audit and coaching session for every single person who has jumped in at the $4 per month membership tier.

00:07:15:11 - 00:07:41:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Listen, if you put that on your church's like professional or continuing development expense account, it's $48 for the year. It will help you with creativity and programing and all the freebies that I offer through my Patreon at any given time. Or if you don't have the church budget for it, it is, less than the cost of a Starbucks latte only one time a month if it comes out of your own personal budget.

00:07:41:10 - 00:08:11:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Either way is incredibly accessible. And the good news is my seasonal social media pack, which is available for everybody at the cost of $17.99, is available for those of you who are $4 a month, Hybrid Hero members is available to you included in the cost. And if we hit this 25, member benchmark, by the time January hits, I will extend a free coaching call to every single person who is in the Hybrid Heroes coaching level tier.

00:08:11:17 - 00:08:28:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so hopefully that is something that is, helpful to you. And so we're going to try and infuse some of our programing now with some of these things I learned from from the denim conference, just observing the programing and some of the games that they put together and some of the chaos and some of the fun.

00:08:28:25 - 00:08:52:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But all of it was was changed with the audio and the sound effects and the playlists and the music choices. It was it was amazing. It was crazy. It was fun. And I want to try your hand at it and, hand the keys over to some of our students in the booth doing that. But in the next episode, I'm actually going to talk about a small group shift that I learned that, I'm passionate about.

00:08:52:03 - 00:09:12:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the way that Josh Bulman in a workshop presented it absolutely changed the game. And I am sitting down with him for an exclusive interview that you are not going to want to miss. That episode is linked right here on screen. So my friends, go ahead and check that out. But until next time. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> SHOCKING!
In this episode I explore an area of adjustment I did NOT anticipate!

In this series, "The DYM100 Roundtables Summary" Series I explore the 3 areas that challenged me from the DYM100 Roundtables!

Plus, welcome to the December Patreon Challenge!
Become a Hybrid Hero ($4/month), help us get to 25 new members, and get a FREE Coaching call in 2026!

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

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

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/179

FREE CHRISTMAS PARTY!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-christmas-143594518?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

FREE SOUNDBOARD
https://crowdcontrolgames.com/products/gameshow-soundboard?_pos=1&_psq=sound&_ss=e&_v=1.0

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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 DYM100 Thing 1
00:28 DYM100 is the Best!
01:42 Programming Shift
05:46 The Key to Social Media in 2026
06:35 December Patreon Challenge

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:26:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I went to the DYM 100 round tables with this goal to find three things to work on and fix in my youth ministry. And today I am sharing with you the first one. Spoiler alert is not the one that I expected. Plus, stick around to the end of the episode because I am giving away a free Christmas party run sheet, complete with the resources and everything you need so you can grab that down bel

00:00:26:29 - 00:00:33:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Link in the description, which will go into detail and explain at the end of this episode. Welcome everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00:00:33:19 - 00:00:44:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I went to the do I am 100 conference where I got this notebook and of course this llama t shirt, which, you know what? When else are you going to need to get a llama t shirt?

00:00:44:10 - 00:01:16:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're wearing it after the Darwin 100 conference, with the goal of coming away with three takeaways, and I was going to vlog it and take videos and explain my process. But man, if you've ever been to one of these events like you know that like you just get sucked into the vortex of friendship and community and conversations. And so I only took like 20 videos and like half of them are like receipt uploads or like videos of the van rental to make sure that they weren't going to scam me afterwards.

00:01:16:26 - 00:01:40:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in these next three episodes, I'm going to talk about not only things that you can use and learn and take away for, like your December Christmas parties, but also things that I and our youth ministry team are going to be thinking about on into the future of 2026 and how we do youth ministry. I also have some freebies and some stuff, going along and that I'm going to be giving away.

00:01:40:18 - 00:02:02:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So pay attention to the link down in the description for all of these next couple episodes. But in this episode we're going to be looking at, and the thing that I took away was programing. Okay. And like in the room, if you've ever been to a do I am 100 event, it is hosted by Doug Fields and Josh Griffin, who are both the masters at programing.

00:02:02:09 - 00:02:21:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like to the point that like I think we had we had one session with worship and it was like a special kind of like unplug, more like chapel and like spiritually charged, focused, kind of like session, but otherwise every other kind of like element within the room was done without any sort of worship or without any sort of band.

00:02:21:16 - 00:02:46:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But you never felt like something was missing. Like it was an amazingly programed event. And like, I have taken pride in my own programing to the point that I have my own Patreon show every single week detailing our youth ministry programing, detailing the creativity that we're trying to do. And in a lot of ways, my 9 to 10 different damn conferences that I've been to over the years have helped shape this.

00:02:46:06 - 00:03:05:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, I've taken a lot of my programing strategy and like things that matter to me from my experience at and under a do, I am conference. But in this event, I brought the rest of my team and one of my guys, his name is Ben. Ben is in charge of programing at our church and he took things that I have.

00:03:05:06 - 00:03:38:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Seen and noticed at conferences before in the past. But he's like, we need to implement that to the point he's like, we're going to make that happen. And those things were like the sound effects included and the music that were both happening simultaneous while any event was happening. Well, announcements. Well, funny bits. While different games like all these things all happening, all with different sound effects or different, music tracks being done in the background, like the sound effects, the booth and the, the stage, the, the, the energy that was happening between the two.

00:03:38:25 - 00:03:55:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
He was like, we need to find a way to do that. And that's that's the takeaway that surprised me because I've seen this before and I thought, there's no way our booth can pull it off or it's going to be too distracting. Or maybe we're trying too hard, but Ben, Ben's like, no, we can do this and we're going to pull this off.

00:03:55:19 - 00:04:13:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you didn't know, I found a link down below, from Crowd Control Games. They have a free, like, audio interface. So all you got to do is load in sound effects or sound bites. You can get them off of, like, YouTube or like a website, like Motion Array, and you can upload those different sound effects.

00:04:13:13 - 00:04:31:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're going to try those things. And if you head down below, link down below is a completely free Christmas guide. It's actually from an episode linked right here, the top screen, with my friend Eric with the K, who also fun fact was a roommate and a table member at my table that I was leading the, church foyer.

00:04:31:22 - 00:04:51:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Carpet stains. But we did this episode years ago, and, I, I'm putting a little bit of a 2025 spin and refresh on it. And so there's a brand new, completely new game. That should be on the game either now or in the near future. But that's completely for free for you. Those of you that are either free or paid members over on my Patreon.

00:04:51:25 - 00:05:17:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you can, become a free paid member and get that complete Christmas run sheet. If you haven't already had your Christmas party yet, but you can now include. And I'm going to challenge myself in our ministry to include more sound effects and really like part of what made the conference so engaging and so entertaining was the synchronicity between the upfront people, Griffin and Doug Fields, and the booth.

00:05:17:21 - 00:05:38:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And so shout out to to them. And so my friend, my coworker Ben was back there and he was asking all the questions and stuff like that. And then sitting in the the Airbnb with my friend Eric later, he's like, look, you can use this thing from crowd control games, with sound effects. And so we're going to download these and we're going to start using them.

00:05:38:08 - 00:06:05:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think it can just bring about another layer of liveliness and fun and creativity, which is already something that we're trying to do over on our Patreon. So that free Christmas party is linked down below in the show. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a minute.

00:06:05:26 - 00:06:26:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social. So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do.

00:06:26:14 - 00:06:44:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back on. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there. But mine will at least keep you moving in. And hey, we're trying to welcome 25

00:06:44:12 - 00:06:49:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
new paid hybrid heroes before January begins.

00:06:49:15 - 00:07:15:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if we hit that goal, if you help me accomplish that goal. So right now we are, like a handful of of those away, where you want to get 25 by the time January starts. If we hit that, I will offer free 30 minute social media audit and coaching session for every single person who has jumped in at the $4 per month membership tier.

00:07:15:11 - 00:07:41:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Listen, if you put that on your church's like professional or continuing development expense account, it's $48 for the year. It will help you with creativity and programing and all the freebies that I offer through my Patreon at any given time. Or if you don't have the church budget for it, it is, less than the cost of a Starbucks latte only one time a month if it comes out of your own personal budget.

00:07:41:10 - 00:08:11:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Either way is incredibly accessible. And the good news is my seasonal social media pack, which is available for everybody at the cost of $17.99, is available for those of you who are $4 a month, Hybrid Hero members is available to you included in the cost. And if we hit this 25, member benchmark, by the time January hits, I will extend a free coaching call to every single person who is in the Hybrid Heroes coaching level tier.

00:08:11:17 - 00:08:28:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so hopefully that is something that is, helpful to you. And so we're going to try and infuse some of our programing now with some of these things I learned from from the denim conference, just observing the programing and some of the games that they put together and some of the chaos and some of the fun.

00:08:28:25 - 00:08:52:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But all of it was was changed with the audio and the sound effects and the playlists and the music choices. It was it was amazing. It was crazy. It was fun. And I want to try your hand at it and, hand the keys over to some of our students in the booth doing that. But in the next episode, I'm actually going to talk about a small group shift that I learned that, I'm passionate about.

00:08:52:03 - 00:09:12:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the way that Josh Bulman in a workshop presented it absolutely changed the game. And I am sitting down with him for an exclusive interview that you are not going to want to miss. That episode is linked right here on screen. So my friends, go ahead and check that out. But until next time. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 177: After the Turkey... Watch This👀 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/177 01878858-4149-49e2-a61f-f300f647e758 Thu, 27 Nov 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 177 After the Turkey... Watch This👀 full Nick Clason Thanksgiving is over, but we're just getting started! In this episode, Nick gives his 4 course meal of FREEBIES for youth pastors, 4 things for YOU, along with the 1 Mystery Course that can unlock everything! 11:07 no Thanksgiving is over, but we're just getting started! In this episode, Nick gives his 4 course meal of FREEBIES for youth pastors, 4 things for YOU, along with the 1 Mystery Course that can unlock everything! SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/177 Games https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link FREE E-Book https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link //Coaching https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching //Social Team Checklist https://www.patreon.com/posts/social-media-138081327?source=storefront 30 CONNECTION IDEAS https://www.patreon.com/posts/30-small-group-141961735?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link CALENDAR https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-spring-141564188?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link SURPRISE MYSTERY DISH Hybrid Heroes Patreon Membership https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 4 Course Feast for Youth Workers 00:40 Appetize 02:21 Side-Dish 05:33 Main Course 06:46 Dessert 07:30 Mystery Course - 2x Growth Strategy -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Thanksgiving's over. I got one more meal left for you. I have four courses of thankfulness that I am serving up right now, in every single one of them. As a free resource for you. The youth worker. From games to social media to small group material and calendars, and the one secret dish that is the exact strategy that I used to double my youth ministry in just under two years. 00:00:23:17 - 00:00:44:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I will show you how you, if you stick around to the end of the episode, can unlock that template and start using it in your youth ministry this week. So before you crash on the couch, grab a four piece record. This one's for you. Welcome, everyone, to the Hybrid Ministry Show and Happy Thanksgiving! Well, hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show. 00:00:44:13 - 00:01:14:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry As always, I am your host, Nick Claussen. And happy Thanksgiving. At least that's the day that this episode drops. Whether you are watching it on actual Thursday of Thanksgiving or you are catching up after the holidays, we are glad that you are here. And I have four freebies that I am giving out today, so all of those are linked down below in the podcast or YouTube description, as well as one template that is going to change everything for your youth ministry if you fully lean in and adopt it. 00:01:14:13 - 00:01:38:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But let's go ahead and get started. The first freebie is actually nine freebies. It is nine free games. These are all different games that I, in my time as an author and a youth pastor, have created and submitted to download Youth Ministry. And many of them are a part of a series. And so, you know, if you are a download Youth Ministry member that you get store credit. 00:01:38:14 - 00:02:05:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so if you like any of these, you can go back and you can grab some of them in the future with some of your store credit. And then I believe one of the games is actually a three part that I'm including. And so it's not exactly nine. It's like 12. So, head down to the description, down below in the podcast or in YouTube and check out my nine favorite free dim resources on the store. 00:02:05:06 - 00:02:31:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All given to you for free as just a way to say thank you. I'm thankful and I'm grateful for you as a subscriber, as a Patreon member, or as an email, newsletter, contributor. So we're excited to have you guys a part of the hybrid ministry universe. This next one here, I, I've honed over time, and I've been giving away a completely free e-book for as long as I can remember. 00:02:32:00 - 00:02:53:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I guess it's not as long as this show's been around. But then, probably a year and a half ago, I want to say, or two years ago, I was asked by my friend Derek Prescot, who is, one of the gatekeepers over at Download Youth Ministry. If I could provide a mystery item for the, the dim, member, downloads. 00:02:53:24 - 00:03:15:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so I gave I made a refresh to my hybrid ministry e-book and my original e-book, my original like strategy for youth pastors was post, you know, two times a day or whatever. And I have content to support the ability for you to do that two times a day. And that's actually how much we still post on social media in our student context. 00:03:15:03 - 00:03:34:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But I've found over time as a coach, you pastors. And which, by the way, I do offer coaching. So you can check out that down below. Not free, but you can check it out. So part of this that is tends to be a little bit too much. And I'm also in like a free cohort right now. Also, Daire Pinker, the youth ministry leader cohort, fantastic free resource that I've partnered with. 00:03:34:21 - 00:03:55:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I'm taking, some other youth workers or church communications people through a social media deep dive, cohort. And so, ten pieces of content is a lot because there's a lot on our plate. Not anymore. It's Thanksgiving, it's over. It's all gone. But there's a lot on our plate. Workwise. And so I've adjusted my e-book and now I'm giving this one away for free. 00:03:55:05 - 00:04:17:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so this is my honed in once the complete guide to crush. So social media and youth ministry. If you downloaded any of my seasonal social media packs, this has been an included piece to that. Now I'm giving this away standalone for free. So if you're interested in that, or if you've downloaded my audiobook and now you want this one, this is probably the one I'm going to start pushing out here going forward. 00:04:17:15 - 00:04:50:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Three reasons for why you should do social media. The state of youth ministry, social media as it stands today via some informal data and some informal polls. And then what you should do in a simple three times per week posting schedule along and complete with different content ideas. And so one of the videos linked in this e-book will give you like 8 or 9 different styles of videos that you can start doing as well as, if you, our Patreon member, you know, that we talk about, every single week. 00:04:50:23 - 00:05:14:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Ways that you can get involved. And the seasonal social pack will also give you other templates and archetypes that you can use. So this is free down below in the description or in podcast. Go grab it if you want to, lean into social media and start crushing it in your youth ministry. More than just posting static standard Canva graphics, or the ones that you can download from free social media packs. 00:05:14:06 - 00:05:30:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry As good as those are, and frankly, as better designed as those can be, those just aren't the things that perform very well on social media. So if you really want to crush it, you probably need to start creating and finding a way to create a little bit of custom content that highlights your name, your faces, and your people on your social media. 00:05:30:20 - 00:06:02:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this e-book will tell you exactly how to go about doing that. The third gift, the third freebie that I'm giving away here is my 30 connections idea. This is a free small group. This is a free small group resource for your small group leaders and actually an episode linked right here. I went through and I toured our leader workroom, and this is a digital, thing, a digital download that we allow our, our people to have, in our leader website. 00:06:02:28 - 00:06:23:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so it's 30 different ideas, like 30 different icebreaker ideas for small group leaders. And so myself and a couple former staff members and I put this together. And so like ten of the ideas or mine, ten of the ideas are there's ten of the ideas or someone else's. And then we compiled, we collaboratively edited, and then now we offer and give this away to our small group leaders. 00:06:23:05 - 00:06:45:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So there may be some like particular language is kind of like aimed at like small group leaders in my church and in my context. But this is really, really a good and fantastic resource that you can use. It's PDF. Go ahead, grab it and download it, print it, share it, whatever you to do and give it to your small group leaders and be a hero and save yourself tons and tons of time. 00:06:45:22 - 00:07:08:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then the fourth, gift, the fourth course of this meal is my, calendar template. This is our, upcoming spring calendar shape and template and colors. And so you can take this, and then you can just add your own icons in your own text on top of it. And then you can get it printed on like a magnet, which is what I do, over on, place like sticker mule. 00:07:08:08 - 00:07:25:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Or you can just get it printed out on like cardstock or something big. Using something like Vistaprint or your own, you know, church's printer or whatever, you, whatever you choose to use. But all you gotta do is just put some text on top of this, some icons, maybe a QR code, and you are off to the races and it's fully customized to your context. 00:07:25:23 - 00:07:56:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But I've given you the backbone for it and the template, and hopefully you find it helpful. The last secret mystery dish that is included in all of this, right? This is my two X strategy. Youth ministry in three years, because we leaned in, we adopted this strategy. We've seen two x growth. Now, there are other factors I would imagine, beyond just this strategy, but baked into everything that we do, we are always trying to lean in and ask the question, like how can our youth ministry be more hybrid? 00:07:56:05 - 00:08:28:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so this is my hybrid hero's $4 per month membership to you. Here's the truth. If you buy this out of your personal money, it is less than the cost of a Starbucks cup of coffee per month. $4 per month. Included in is all the freebies that I just gave. Like, those are for everyone. Those are all included over on my Patreon as well as it will unlock the seasonal social media pack, which is the exact strategy if you download that, you don't even have to try and create that strategy from scratch. 00:08:28:12 - 00:08:47:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You can just plug and play what I've provided. Now half of them are done for you, right? Which means like plug and play. Off you go. Those are the easy ones, but those aren't the as well performing ones. Those just keep your social media feed afloat. And they they, create a little bit of proof of life, like there's something going on here. 00:08:47:16 - 00:09:13:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The real key to this is the custom part of it, where your faces, your leaders, your students are filmed. And then you can edit them on any sort of editor, any sort of phone editor, and then you can get them posted to your social media. And in all of that, also over on my shop, as a bonus, is my social media checklist for creating a student ministry social media team. 00:09:13:08 - 00:09:44:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you can, send students or adult volunteer leaders or recruit another staff person to take this over so that it's not on your plate. You're the brains behind it. You create the strategy, and then you deploy and enlist your volunteers. And if you put this $4 per month membership to your on your church card and call it, continuing development, it's only $48 over 12 months, and it gives you access to all of my social media packs, as well as a weekly bonus podcast where I. 00:09:44:07 - 00:10:02:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In just a minute, I'm going to click, stop on this video, and I'm going to go over and I'm going to record my weekly recap of what we did in our youth ministry and in our student ministry, how our hybrid ministry strategy is going, what we tried in our program, what went well, what we would scrap. And you can use that as your weekly debrief sounding board. 00:10:02:15 - 00:10:23:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's only $4, per month, and it ends up being $48 for the year. And it would be incredibly helpful, for me if you jumped in on it. But I think it could also be incredibly helpful for you, because it will take care. It will literally pick up social media and take it completely off of your Thanksgiving plate, which in most cases is a bummer. 00:10:23:12 - 00:10:50:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But in this case, as it pertains to workload, it frees you up to do more teaching, to do more counseling, to have more meetings, to have more coffee with people in your church. And you can still look like a pro running social media in your student ministry, rooting for you as you're doing that. And guess what? Next episode linked right here on screen is where I unbox and unlock our Winter social pack that is going to release exactly a week from Thanksgiving. 00:10:50:10 - 00:11:03:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you're watching this on replay, it's already linked right here. For the rest of you, next Thursday is when the, Winter social pack drops. So can't wait for you to take advantage of that. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget stay hybrid. thanksgiving youth ministry, free youth ministry resources, youth pastor tips, youth ministry games, free church resources, youth ministry ideas, hybrid ministry, youth group leaders, youth pastor tools, youth group small groups, student ministry growth, youth ministry calendar, thanksgiving youth group ideas, church social media strategy, youth worker encouragement, ministry freebies, youth ministry training, youth group games free, youth group curriculum, hybrid ministry show Thanksgiving is over, but we're just getting started! In this episode, Nick gives his 4 course meal of FREEBIES for youth pastors, 4 things for YOU, along with the 1 Mystery Course that can unlock everything!

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/177

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

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

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

//Social Team Checklist
https://www.patreon.com/posts/social-media-138081327?source=storefront

30 CONNECTION IDEAS
https://www.patreon.com/posts/30-small-group-141961735?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

CALENDAR
https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-spring-141564188?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SURPRISE MYSTERY DISH
Hybrid Heroes Patreon Membership
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 4 Course Feast for Youth Workers
00:40 Appetize
02:21 Side-Dish
05:33 Main Course
06:46 Dessert
07:30 Mystery Course - 2x Growth Strategy

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Thanksgiving's over. I got one more meal left for you. I have four courses of thankfulness that I am serving up right now, in every single one of them. As a free resource for you. The youth worker. From games to social media to small group material and calendars, and the one secret dish that is the exact strategy that I used to double my youth ministry in just under two years.

00:00:23:17 - 00:00:44:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I will show you how you, if you stick around to the end of the episode, can unlock that template and start using it in your youth ministry this week. So before you crash on the couch, grab a four piece record. This one's for you. Welcome, everyone, to the Hybrid Ministry Show and Happy Thanksgiving! Well, hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show.

00:00:44:13 - 00:01:14:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
As always, I am your host, Nick Claussen. And happy Thanksgiving. At least that's the day that this episode drops. Whether you are watching it on actual Thursday of Thanksgiving or you are catching up after the holidays, we are glad that you are here. And I have four freebies that I am giving out today, so all of those are linked down below in the podcast or YouTube description, as well as one template that is going to change everything for your youth ministry if you fully lean in and adopt it.

00:01:14:13 - 00:01:38:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But let's go ahead and get started. The first freebie is actually nine freebies. It is nine free games. These are all different games that I, in my time as an author and a youth pastor, have created and submitted to download Youth Ministry. And many of them are a part of a series. And so, you know, if you are a download Youth Ministry member that you get store credit.

00:01:38:14 - 00:02:05:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you like any of these, you can go back and you can grab some of them in the future with some of your store credit. And then I believe one of the games is actually a three part that I'm including. And so it's not exactly nine. It's like 12. So, head down to the description, down below in the podcast or in YouTube and check out my nine favorite free dim resources on the store.

00:02:05:06 - 00:02:31:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All given to you for free as just a way to say thank you. I'm thankful and I'm grateful for you as a subscriber, as a Patreon member, or as an email, newsletter, contributor. So we're excited to have you guys a part of the hybrid ministry universe. This next one here, I, I've honed over time, and I've been giving away a completely free e-book for as long as I can remember.

00:02:32:00 - 00:02:53:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I guess it's not as long as this show's been around. But then, probably a year and a half ago, I want to say, or two years ago, I was asked by my friend Derek Prescot, who is, one of the gatekeepers over at Download Youth Ministry. If I could provide a mystery item for the, the dim, member, downloads.

00:02:53:24 - 00:03:15:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I gave I made a refresh to my hybrid ministry e-book and my original e-book, my original like strategy for youth pastors was post, you know, two times a day or whatever. And I have content to support the ability for you to do that two times a day. And that's actually how much we still post on social media in our student context.

00:03:15:03 - 00:03:34:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I've found over time as a coach, you pastors. And which, by the way, I do offer coaching. So you can check out that down below. Not free, but you can check it out. So part of this that is tends to be a little bit too much. And I'm also in like a free cohort right now. Also, Daire Pinker, the youth ministry leader cohort, fantastic free resource that I've partnered with.

00:03:34:21 - 00:03:55:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'm taking, some other youth workers or church communications people through a social media deep dive, cohort. And so, ten pieces of content is a lot because there's a lot on our plate. Not anymore. It's Thanksgiving, it's over. It's all gone. But there's a lot on our plate. Workwise. And so I've adjusted my e-book and now I'm giving this one away for free.

00:03:55:05 - 00:04:17:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this is my honed in once the complete guide to crush. So social media and youth ministry. If you downloaded any of my seasonal social media packs, this has been an included piece to that. Now I'm giving this away standalone for free. So if you're interested in that, or if you've downloaded my audiobook and now you want this one, this is probably the one I'm going to start pushing out here going forward.

00:04:17:15 - 00:04:50:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Three reasons for why you should do social media. The state of youth ministry, social media as it stands today via some informal data and some informal polls. And then what you should do in a simple three times per week posting schedule along and complete with different content ideas. And so one of the videos linked in this e-book will give you like 8 or 9 different styles of videos that you can start doing as well as, if you, our Patreon member, you know, that we talk about, every single week.

00:04:50:23 - 00:05:14:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ways that you can get involved. And the seasonal social pack will also give you other templates and archetypes that you can use. So this is free down below in the description or in podcast. Go grab it if you want to, lean into social media and start crushing it in your youth ministry. More than just posting static standard Canva graphics, or the ones that you can download from free social media packs.

00:05:14:06 - 00:05:30:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
As good as those are, and frankly, as better designed as those can be, those just aren't the things that perform very well on social media. So if you really want to crush it, you probably need to start creating and finding a way to create a little bit of custom content that highlights your name, your faces, and your people on your social media.

00:05:30:20 - 00:06:02:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this e-book will tell you exactly how to go about doing that. The third gift, the third freebie that I'm giving away here is my 30 connections idea. This is a free small group. This is a free small group resource for your small group leaders and actually an episode linked right here. I went through and I toured our leader workroom, and this is a digital, thing, a digital download that we allow our, our people to have, in our leader website.

00:06:02:28 - 00:06:23:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so it's 30 different ideas, like 30 different icebreaker ideas for small group leaders. And so myself and a couple former staff members and I put this together. And so like ten of the ideas or mine, ten of the ideas are there's ten of the ideas or someone else's. And then we compiled, we collaboratively edited, and then now we offer and give this away to our small group leaders.

00:06:23:05 - 00:06:45:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So there may be some like particular language is kind of like aimed at like small group leaders in my church and in my context. But this is really, really a good and fantastic resource that you can use. It's PDF. Go ahead, grab it and download it, print it, share it, whatever you to do and give it to your small group leaders and be a hero and save yourself tons and tons of time.

00:06:45:22 - 00:07:08:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the fourth, gift, the fourth course of this meal is my, calendar template. This is our, upcoming spring calendar shape and template and colors. And so you can take this, and then you can just add your own icons in your own text on top of it. And then you can get it printed on like a magnet, which is what I do, over on, place like sticker mule.

00:07:08:08 - 00:07:25:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or you can just get it printed out on like cardstock or something big. Using something like Vistaprint or your own, you know, church's printer or whatever, you, whatever you choose to use. But all you gotta do is just put some text on top of this, some icons, maybe a QR code, and you are off to the races and it's fully customized to your context.

00:07:25:23 - 00:07:56:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I've given you the backbone for it and the template, and hopefully you find it helpful. The last secret mystery dish that is included in all of this, right? This is my two X strategy. Youth ministry in three years, because we leaned in, we adopted this strategy. We've seen two x growth. Now, there are other factors I would imagine, beyond just this strategy, but baked into everything that we do, we are always trying to lean in and ask the question, like how can our youth ministry be more hybrid?

00:07:56:05 - 00:08:28:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this is my hybrid hero's $4 per month membership to you. Here's the truth. If you buy this out of your personal money, it is less than the cost of a Starbucks cup of coffee per month. $4 per month. Included in is all the freebies that I just gave. Like, those are for everyone. Those are all included over on my Patreon as well as it will unlock the seasonal social media pack, which is the exact strategy if you download that, you don't even have to try and create that strategy from scratch.

00:08:28:12 - 00:08:47:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can just plug and play what I've provided. Now half of them are done for you, right? Which means like plug and play. Off you go. Those are the easy ones, but those aren't the as well performing ones. Those just keep your social media feed afloat. And they they, create a little bit of proof of life, like there's something going on here.

00:08:47:16 - 00:09:13:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The real key to this is the custom part of it, where your faces, your leaders, your students are filmed. And then you can edit them on any sort of editor, any sort of phone editor, and then you can get them posted to your social media. And in all of that, also over on my shop, as a bonus, is my social media checklist for creating a student ministry social media team.

00:09:13:08 - 00:09:44:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can, send students or adult volunteer leaders or recruit another staff person to take this over so that it's not on your plate. You're the brains behind it. You create the strategy, and then you deploy and enlist your volunteers. And if you put this $4 per month membership to your on your church card and call it, continuing development, it's only $48 over 12 months, and it gives you access to all of my social media packs, as well as a weekly bonus podcast where I.

00:09:44:07 - 00:10:02:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In just a minute, I'm going to click, stop on this video, and I'm going to go over and I'm going to record my weekly recap of what we did in our youth ministry and in our student ministry, how our hybrid ministry strategy is going, what we tried in our program, what went well, what we would scrap. And you can use that as your weekly debrief sounding board.

00:10:02:15 - 00:10:23:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's only $4, per month, and it ends up being $48 for the year. And it would be incredibly helpful, for me if you jumped in on it. But I think it could also be incredibly helpful for you, because it will take care. It will literally pick up social media and take it completely off of your Thanksgiving plate, which in most cases is a bummer.

00:10:23:12 - 00:10:50:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this case, as it pertains to workload, it frees you up to do more teaching, to do more counseling, to have more meetings, to have more coffee with people in your church. And you can still look like a pro running social media in your student ministry, rooting for you as you're doing that. And guess what? Next episode linked right here on screen is where I unbox and unlock our Winter social pack that is going to release exactly a week from Thanksgiving.

00:10:50:10 - 00:11:03:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're watching this on replay, it's already linked right here. For the rest of you, next Thursday is when the, Winter social pack drops. So can't wait for you to take advantage of that. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> Thanksgiving is over, but we're just getting started! In this episode, Nick gives his 4 course meal of FREEBIES for youth pastors, 4 things for YOU, along with the 1 Mystery Course that can unlock everything!

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/177

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

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

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

//Social Team Checklist
https://www.patreon.com/posts/social-media-138081327?source=storefront

30 CONNECTION IDEAS
https://www.patreon.com/posts/30-small-group-141961735?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

CALENDAR
https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-spring-141564188?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

SURPRISE MYSTERY DISH
Hybrid Heroes Patreon Membership
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 4 Course Feast for Youth Workers
00:40 Appetize
02:21 Side-Dish
05:33 Main Course
06:46 Dessert
07:30 Mystery Course - 2x Growth Strategy

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Thanksgiving's over. I got one more meal left for you. I have four courses of thankfulness that I am serving up right now, in every single one of them. As a free resource for you. The youth worker. From games to social media to small group material and calendars, and the one secret dish that is the exact strategy that I used to double my youth ministry in just under two years.

00:00:23:17 - 00:00:44:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I will show you how you, if you stick around to the end of the episode, can unlock that template and start using it in your youth ministry this week. So before you crash on the couch, grab a four piece record. This one's for you. Welcome, everyone, to the Hybrid Ministry Show and Happy Thanksgiving! Well, hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show.

00:00:44:13 - 00:01:14:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
As always, I am your host, Nick Claussen. And happy Thanksgiving. At least that's the day that this episode drops. Whether you are watching it on actual Thursday of Thanksgiving or you are catching up after the holidays, we are glad that you are here. And I have four freebies that I am giving out today, so all of those are linked down below in the podcast or YouTube description, as well as one template that is going to change everything for your youth ministry if you fully lean in and adopt it.

00:01:14:13 - 00:01:38:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But let's go ahead and get started. The first freebie is actually nine freebies. It is nine free games. These are all different games that I, in my time as an author and a youth pastor, have created and submitted to download Youth Ministry. And many of them are a part of a series. And so, you know, if you are a download Youth Ministry member that you get store credit.

00:01:38:14 - 00:02:05:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you like any of these, you can go back and you can grab some of them in the future with some of your store credit. And then I believe one of the games is actually a three part that I'm including. And so it's not exactly nine. It's like 12. So, head down to the description, down below in the podcast or in YouTube and check out my nine favorite free dim resources on the store.

00:02:05:06 - 00:02:31:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All given to you for free as just a way to say thank you. I'm thankful and I'm grateful for you as a subscriber, as a Patreon member, or as an email, newsletter, contributor. So we're excited to have you guys a part of the hybrid ministry universe. This next one here, I, I've honed over time, and I've been giving away a completely free e-book for as long as I can remember.

00:02:32:00 - 00:02:53:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I guess it's not as long as this show's been around. But then, probably a year and a half ago, I want to say, or two years ago, I was asked by my friend Derek Prescot, who is, one of the gatekeepers over at Download Youth Ministry. If I could provide a mystery item for the, the dim, member, downloads.

00:02:53:24 - 00:03:15:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I gave I made a refresh to my hybrid ministry e-book and my original e-book, my original like strategy for youth pastors was post, you know, two times a day or whatever. And I have content to support the ability for you to do that two times a day. And that's actually how much we still post on social media in our student context.

00:03:15:03 - 00:03:34:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I've found over time as a coach, you pastors. And which, by the way, I do offer coaching. So you can check out that down below. Not free, but you can check it out. So part of this that is tends to be a little bit too much. And I'm also in like a free cohort right now. Also, Daire Pinker, the youth ministry leader cohort, fantastic free resource that I've partnered with.

00:03:34:21 - 00:03:55:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'm taking, some other youth workers or church communications people through a social media deep dive, cohort. And so, ten pieces of content is a lot because there's a lot on our plate. Not anymore. It's Thanksgiving, it's over. It's all gone. But there's a lot on our plate. Workwise. And so I've adjusted my e-book and now I'm giving this one away for free.

00:03:55:05 - 00:04:17:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this is my honed in once the complete guide to crush. So social media and youth ministry. If you downloaded any of my seasonal social media packs, this has been an included piece to that. Now I'm giving this away standalone for free. So if you're interested in that, or if you've downloaded my audiobook and now you want this one, this is probably the one I'm going to start pushing out here going forward.

00:04:17:15 - 00:04:50:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Three reasons for why you should do social media. The state of youth ministry, social media as it stands today via some informal data and some informal polls. And then what you should do in a simple three times per week posting schedule along and complete with different content ideas. And so one of the videos linked in this e-book will give you like 8 or 9 different styles of videos that you can start doing as well as, if you, our Patreon member, you know, that we talk about, every single week.

00:04:50:23 - 00:05:14:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Ways that you can get involved. And the seasonal social pack will also give you other templates and archetypes that you can use. So this is free down below in the description or in podcast. Go grab it if you want to, lean into social media and start crushing it in your youth ministry. More than just posting static standard Canva graphics, or the ones that you can download from free social media packs.

00:05:14:06 - 00:05:30:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
As good as those are, and frankly, as better designed as those can be, those just aren't the things that perform very well on social media. So if you really want to crush it, you probably need to start creating and finding a way to create a little bit of custom content that highlights your name, your faces, and your people on your social media.

00:05:30:20 - 00:06:02:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this e-book will tell you exactly how to go about doing that. The third gift, the third freebie that I'm giving away here is my 30 connections idea. This is a free small group. This is a free small group resource for your small group leaders and actually an episode linked right here. I went through and I toured our leader workroom, and this is a digital, thing, a digital download that we allow our, our people to have, in our leader website.

00:06:02:28 - 00:06:23:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so it's 30 different ideas, like 30 different icebreaker ideas for small group leaders. And so myself and a couple former staff members and I put this together. And so like ten of the ideas or mine, ten of the ideas are there's ten of the ideas or someone else's. And then we compiled, we collaboratively edited, and then now we offer and give this away to our small group leaders.

00:06:23:05 - 00:06:45:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So there may be some like particular language is kind of like aimed at like small group leaders in my church and in my context. But this is really, really a good and fantastic resource that you can use. It's PDF. Go ahead, grab it and download it, print it, share it, whatever you to do and give it to your small group leaders and be a hero and save yourself tons and tons of time.

00:06:45:22 - 00:07:08:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the fourth, gift, the fourth course of this meal is my, calendar template. This is our, upcoming spring calendar shape and template and colors. And so you can take this, and then you can just add your own icons in your own text on top of it. And then you can get it printed on like a magnet, which is what I do, over on, place like sticker mule.

00:07:08:08 - 00:07:25:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or you can just get it printed out on like cardstock or something big. Using something like Vistaprint or your own, you know, church's printer or whatever, you, whatever you choose to use. But all you gotta do is just put some text on top of this, some icons, maybe a QR code, and you are off to the races and it's fully customized to your context.

00:07:25:23 - 00:07:56:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I've given you the backbone for it and the template, and hopefully you find it helpful. The last secret mystery dish that is included in all of this, right? This is my two X strategy. Youth ministry in three years, because we leaned in, we adopted this strategy. We've seen two x growth. Now, there are other factors I would imagine, beyond just this strategy, but baked into everything that we do, we are always trying to lean in and ask the question, like how can our youth ministry be more hybrid?

00:07:56:05 - 00:08:28:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this is my hybrid hero's $4 per month membership to you. Here's the truth. If you buy this out of your personal money, it is less than the cost of a Starbucks cup of coffee per month. $4 per month. Included in is all the freebies that I just gave. Like, those are for everyone. Those are all included over on my Patreon as well as it will unlock the seasonal social media pack, which is the exact strategy if you download that, you don't even have to try and create that strategy from scratch.

00:08:28:12 - 00:08:47:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can just plug and play what I've provided. Now half of them are done for you, right? Which means like plug and play. Off you go. Those are the easy ones, but those aren't the as well performing ones. Those just keep your social media feed afloat. And they they, create a little bit of proof of life, like there's something going on here.

00:08:47:16 - 00:09:13:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The real key to this is the custom part of it, where your faces, your leaders, your students are filmed. And then you can edit them on any sort of editor, any sort of phone editor, and then you can get them posted to your social media. And in all of that, also over on my shop, as a bonus, is my social media checklist for creating a student ministry social media team.

00:09:13:08 - 00:09:44:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can, send students or adult volunteer leaders or recruit another staff person to take this over so that it's not on your plate. You're the brains behind it. You create the strategy, and then you deploy and enlist your volunteers. And if you put this $4 per month membership to your on your church card and call it, continuing development, it's only $48 over 12 months, and it gives you access to all of my social media packs, as well as a weekly bonus podcast where I.

00:09:44:07 - 00:10:02:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In just a minute, I'm going to click, stop on this video, and I'm going to go over and I'm going to record my weekly recap of what we did in our youth ministry and in our student ministry, how our hybrid ministry strategy is going, what we tried in our program, what went well, what we would scrap. And you can use that as your weekly debrief sounding board.

00:10:02:15 - 00:10:23:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's only $4, per month, and it ends up being $48 for the year. And it would be incredibly helpful, for me if you jumped in on it. But I think it could also be incredibly helpful for you, because it will take care. It will literally pick up social media and take it completely off of your Thanksgiving plate, which in most cases is a bummer.

00:10:23:12 - 00:10:50:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in this case, as it pertains to workload, it frees you up to do more teaching, to do more counseling, to have more meetings, to have more coffee with people in your church. And you can still look like a pro running social media in your student ministry, rooting for you as you're doing that. And guess what? Next episode linked right here on screen is where I unbox and unlock our Winter social pack that is going to release exactly a week from Thanksgiving.

00:10:50:10 - 00:11:03:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're watching this on replay, it's already linked right here. For the rest of you, next Thursday is when the, Winter social pack drops. So can't wait for you to take advantage of that. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 169: Don't Try These... Until you Hear My Mistakes! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/169 78a20d9e-54df-491e-965f-d90365b4bf59 Thu, 02 Oct 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 169 Don't Try These... Until you Hear My Mistakes! full Nick Clason Youth ministry theme nights are some of the BEST ways to get students inviting friends and to build momentum in your group. But here’s the thing nobody tells you—every single one of my theme nights has come with a mistake. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes it was painful… and one time I thought I was getting fired… Before you try these for yourself, let me give you my five best theme nights from 15 years in youth ministry—and the one mistake I made in each, so you don’t have to learn the hard way. 14:56 no Youth ministry theme nights are some of the BEST ways to get students inviting friends and to build momentum in your group. But here’s the thing nobody tells you—every single one of my theme nights has come with a mistake. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes it was painful… and one time I thought I was getting fired… Before you try these for yourself, let me give you my five best theme nights from 15 years in youth ministry—and the one mistake I made in each, so you don’t have to learn the hard way. 🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link 🦸 HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/169 Fall Masterclass https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLfP12NPWmpBzXoCcEsAyBF Duct Tape Trivia https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/duct-tape-trivia/kids-ministry/games-1029.html Loot & Lunacy https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/loot-and-lunacy/games/video-enhanced-9909.html Patreon (K)Night Episode https://www.patreon.com/posts/back-2-school-k-137095993 Christmas Movie Bracket https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-ultimate-christmas-movie-showdown/christmas/christmas-games-9784.html Patreon Christmas Episode https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-christmas-117617122 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Youth Ministry Theme Nights 00:42 Theme Night #1 04:37 Theme Night #2 08:52 Theme Night #3 10:35 Theme Night #4 12:25 Theme Night #5 -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:03:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Youth ministry theme nights are some of the best ways to get your students 00:00:03:13 - 00:00:09:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry inviting their friends to your group, as well as build momentum for the overall team. But here's 00:00:09:13 - 00:00:20:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry something that someone might not tell you about some of these theme nights is that in every single one, there is an opportunity for a huge mistake. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes it was painful. 00:00:20:21 - 00:00:21:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And one time I 00:00:21:14 - 00:00:23:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry even thought I might be getting fired. 00:00:23:19 - 00:00:37:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so before you try this for yourself, in this episode, I'm going to share with you my five favorite theme nights from my last 15 years in youth ministry. And the one mistake I learned from each of those, so that you don't have 00:00:37:02 - 00:00:39:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry to learn it the hard way for yourself. 00:00:39:12 - 00:00:54:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Welcome my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey my friends, welcome back to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nick Claussen, and I have been in this recent playlist asking and answering different questions found in different youth ministry 00:00:54:00 - 00:00:55:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Facebook groups. And this 00:00:55:19 - 00:00:55:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry one 00:00:55:27 - 00:00:59:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry says, hey, what are some theme nights you've done with your group that your kids have really enjoyed? 00:00:59:20 - 00:01:03:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like Jersey night? Crazy hair. Looking forward to some ideas. 00:01:03:16 - 00:01:03:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And 00:01:03:22 - 00:01:03:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry so 00:01:03:28 - 00:01:23:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I figured, hey, I want to share some of my best theme nights. And I've discussed this before in some recent episodes. In fact, we did kind of like a fall playlist master class thing where I talked about my strategy for youth ministry. And oftentimes I'll make a theme night, a cultivate night, which is a bring your friends and invite style night. 00:01:23:22 - 00:01:36:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so one of the very first, invite style nights that I did as a youth pastor was one that I grew up as a teenager doing my youth pastor shout out to Pastor Tim Blow. He did an event 00:01:36:16 - 00:01:42:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry called Duct Tape Night. And, then I went several years later to intern for him, and he also did it. 00:01:42:06 - 00:02:02:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so then when it was my turn to be a youth pastor, it was time to do duct tape night. And so we do all kinds of different duct tape. We buy a bunch. We encourage students to, you know, bring like, bring something made out of duct tape that they made, will play, you know, games with duct tape or I even have a game I download youth ministry, called duct tape Trivia. 00:02:02:28 - 00:02:23:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's one of my very, very first vivid early on games. And then we'll even play, like, steal the bacon. But in the middle, we'll we'll play, like, steal the duct tape instead. But one probably like the star of the show. Like the thing that kids and students and even leaders look the most forward to is the duct tape a student to the wall challenge. 00:02:23:00 - 00:02:41:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And, like, I was, like I said, within my first couple, months, even weeks of of taking this new job and got a couple kids and decided to duct tape them to the wall. And that's all well and good. No one got hurt. I mean, if you get enough duct tape, they literally can stick to the wall and they're not going to fall down. 00:02:41:20 - 00:02:42:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That wasn't the problem. 00:02:42:27 - 00:03:00:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What was the problem was as soon as, they started to fall off the wall, we started to take them down off the wall. It took the paint with them. Mind you, I'm in week, like, three and a half of this job. And so, you know, it's Wednesday night. The entire church is their kids ministry, youth ministry, adult ministry. 00:03:00:12 - 00:03:01:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so at the end of the night, 00:03:01:18 - 00:03:14:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry all the adults like how duct tape night go because, like, they knew about it, heard about it, but had never, like, seen an event like this before. And we're like, oh, good, good, good. And I was talking to my, my senior pastor, my boss. Right. And I was like, oh, it's awesome. 00:03:14:25 - 00:03:31:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We had this, we had this, we had this many new kids, whatever. Oh, also, I had, kid, pull some of the tape off the, some of the paint off the wall with the duct tape. So just, you know, tell me, like what color paint that was, and, I'll. I'll repaint it. No big deal. 00:03:31:29 - 00:03:53:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. And he goes that we had to have that, like, specially painted with it in a very special way with, like, a sponge and like a finish. And the person who did that doesn't even live here anymore. They live in Georgia. And like my eyes, I'm just, like, wide eyed. Like what have I done? So I have to somehow get this wall repainted. 00:03:53:26 - 00:04:14:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But reach out to this person who doesn't go to the church anymore. And so within my first couple weeks of ever having a job, I took paint off the precious youth room walls that had been done in a very special and particular way, and so I've learned when you do that duct tape thing, don't put it on paint. 00:04:14:05 - 00:04:34:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I did put it on a brick wall, but it was a painted brick wall. So then in future years, I, stopped putting it on paint because it definitely was always taking the paint in the finish and the drywall off, but it is still an amazing and great event that you can theme, around duct tape. And it's it's a little bit niche and it's a little bit off the beaten track. 00:04:34:06 - 00:04:51:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So it's not your typical style of night. This one right here is one that we just did three weeks ago, and we called it our Back to School night. But in front of the, night, we spelled it with a k parentheses with the K. Back to school night, and we went medieval 00:04:51:21 - 00:04:53:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry themed. And, if you're due, I am member. 00:04:53:27 - 00:04:57:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Back in January, they dropped a, game called 00:04:57:02 - 00:05:04:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Loot and Lunacy, and we were going to play Loot and Lunacy at some point in January. But I remember we were in 00:05:04:13 - 00:05:14:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry our run through in our Q to Q and the game. It's just like long, like there are ten sides, ten questions, and they're each like a minute and 30s or so long. 00:05:14:09 - 00:05:32:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you needed to carve out a good 15, maybe even 20 minutes to the whole game. And so that night, right on the moment, right on a dime, I actually decided to switch to another game. So I held loot and lunacy just in my back pocket, knowing I wanted to go back to at some point in the future. 00:05:32:11 - 00:05:50:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so when our back to school came around, I was like, let's, let's build a night around loot and lunacy. And in the meantime, we built up all of these sort of like ren fair ideas around it. And so, you know, we talked about, you know, the importance or not, the importance of we it was an invite. 00:05:50:04 - 00:06:08:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we didn't have like a message or anything, but, we had all sorts of different, like, medieval themed games. We did the impossible shot with the bow and arrow. We did like, a giant scavenger hunt. We got a joust. We even looked into getting turkey legs, but that was either a impossible or B cost prohibitive. 00:06:08:01 - 00:06:29:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I can't remember exactly the reason why, but either way we didn't come up with it. But then in and around it, we played Loot and Lunacy and we broke it up into two chunks. We played some at the beginning and we played some at the end. And, you know, here's the fact is, I actually, because this is recent, I detailed an outline this entire episode over on a recent bonus Patreon podcast episode. 00:06:29:16 - 00:06:40:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I get on and I talk every single week. Actually, as soon as this episode hits stop, I'm gonna turn around and a record and recap last night's, last night's Youth Mystery, which was we had an 00:06:40:20 - 00:06:50:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry amazing, like, custom game that came out of like one of our, team members just heads like, it was fantastic. And I can't wait to share it with you. 00:06:50:03 - 00:07:11:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So click the link down below. And guess what? You also get access to the seasonal summer social media pack. Hey quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. 00:07:11:03 - 00:07:30:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created this the fast seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry. 00:07:30:17 - 00:07:50:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Instagram, TikTok and YouTube shorts feed. So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid? Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12. 00:07:51:03 - 00:08:11:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Where the pack is 1799. Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. Moving on. 00:08:11:27 - 00:08:31:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Talking about back to school bashes. That was a like back to school night, medieval themed back school bash. The mistake I made in that is that. Do you know how to spell medieval? I spelled it wrong so many times. And emails out to parents. The whole thing. And I 00:08:31:02 - 00:08:33:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry still don't even know if I know how to spell it. 00:08:33:05 - 00:08:40:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Grammarly tells me it's medieval, but I was spelling it MLG. Easy io. 00:08:40:18 - 00:08:45:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But then I had to spell it mega. I even I like it, I messed it up 00:08:45:24 - 00:09:06:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry so many times. So don't be like me and look up how to spell medieval before you send out emails to parents. But, typically a back to school bash for me, growing up in youth ministry and this is like a big event, a party and a bunch of, like, those giant inflatables and like, you know, obstacle courses, not bounce houses. 00:09:06:16 - 00:09:29:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Exactly, but like, obstacle courses, jousts, Velcro wall, like the hanging wrecking ball, the bucking bronco, like stuff like that. And so one year I had, created a special events team, and there's a guy at our church who's super awesome, super willing to help, but, like, didn't want to be, like, necessarily like a youth leader. But he was like, I'll be on like the events team, which was great. 00:09:29:24 - 00:09:50:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so I had our students helpline the night and like what they wanted for food. And they said they wanted Buffalo Wild Wings, which was great and so called ahead place to order. And you know, all the inflatables, all the things are going, kids are showing up, but the food's not there. And I had sent this guy and his name was Tim to go out and grab the Buffalo Wild Wings. 00:09:50:12 - 00:10:09:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Order. And I had placed it ready to be picked up at, you know, let's say 615. Well, he told me that when he got there that they didn't start preparing the order of nearly 250 wings until he arrived at 615, and it was supposed to be ready to pick up at 615. And I said, no, it was supposed to be pick up. 00:10:09:07 - 00:10:33:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry He said, that's what I told them. And they even said, oh yeah, but we want your wings to be fresh. And so he was like 45 minutes late and all the kids are like, where's the wings? So when you're doing catering and when you're doing a big giant pickup order like that, like just make sure the restaurants don't do harebrained stuff like wait until you get there to start preparing it, which is going to then make it like an hour late. 00:10:33:01 - 00:10:52:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Good grief. Event idea number four is last year actually linked right here? I discussed our Christmas movie bracket. And what we did out of that. And again, this is another good plug for my Patreon as I discussed in detail and outlined all of this in my Patreon as well. But we did a bracket which is movies go head to head. 00:10:52:05 - 00:11:09:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In fact, this was the member resource back in, youth ministry back in December of 2024. So if you remember, you might even have access to this for free. Otherwise, I'll put the link down in the show notes. You can go grab it for just a few bucks, but kids vote head to head on different Christmas movies. 00:11:09:18 - 00:11:33:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then what we did was that was just running in the background. In the month of November. But then what we did was the winner was what became our Christmas movie night. And then my boss shout out to Darren, he did a, he added a flavor of bring your own chair to the Christmas movie night. And so kids are coming in and in shopping carts and in camping chairs, and one group even brought a full air mattress to sit on. 00:11:33:18 - 00:11:54:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we took all the chairs out of our auditorium and we played the movie, up on the screen. And the kids brought all their own chairs. Now, the mistake that I made in this event was trusting that ChatGPT would know where all of the homeland Swearwords were, because I actually edited, I was going to edit out any cuss words from the Home Alone movie. 00:11:54:16 - 00:12:22:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so ChatGPT told me. And then what happened was, by the grace of God himself, I was thinking about a certain part of the movie, and I remember, oh, there's a swear word there. And I didn't edit that out, so I had to go back in and reedit it, a reedit another edit that after one I had already made, because the first one I made was I was trusting ChatGPT to give me accurate information, and alas, it gave me some accurate information, but not entirely accurate information. 00:12:22:09 - 00:12:41:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So check your AI chat bots people. And then finally, the fifth idea that I have is a Super Bowl party. If you are a youth group that meets on Sunday nights, you're obligated to do something with the Super Bowl. Now, what I would recommend from a philosophical standpoint is if you're ones in a group, don't add a Super Bowl party to it. 00:12:41:23 - 00:12:55:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But if you're sending a group, you've got to figure out what you're going to do. And so I remember the first year that I was at a church that had converted from Wednesday to Sunday. And so in comes along the Super Bowl and all of a sudden people were like, oh yeah, we got church and don't we? And they're like, where are we going to meet? 00:12:55:29 - 00:13:13:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we had a Super Bowl party at my house and it was averagely attended. It wasn't great. And so, the and everyone was like, well, we got a party with these people every year and we do this this time of year. And so I was like, I'm not doing that. I'm not competing with the Super Bowl anymore. 00:13:13:07 - 00:13:31:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Not to mention, I like sports. I want to watch the Super Bowl. And if I'm running a party, I don't get to watch. I don't get to lock in. I don't get to pay attention to the Super Bowl. And so the mistake, I would say, of, doing the Super Bowl party is actually having one. However, if you're a Sunday night meeting youth ministry, what do you do instead? 00:13:31:28 - 00:14:03:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So, I, I moved up our party, in the next couple of years, and we started doing, like, a pre-game or like a tailgating party. And I know those have negative connotations, but just like a before the Super Bowl party of the Super Bowl party. But we're done by the time Super Bowl parties are so big obstacle course in the middle of our, our space and, some football trivia and, I think we did, like, Nerf wars in a room, actually, and I ended up hiring a DJ, which, another mistake was that deejay was awesome. 00:14:03:17 - 00:14:35:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like, he wasn't like some, like, low level DJ. He was so good. And the music was so loud, and the kids, complained. They're like, I couldn't hear myself think. And so I had to go ask him to turn the music down a little bit. That was another mistake. But all in all, super fun. I encourage kids wear jerseys and whatever, but we did it on Super Bowl Sunday, just a few hours before the game started, and then if you are like me and you like sports and you like football, you wrap your event up and you're home in your recliner by 6 p.m. and you're watching the game, you don't have to 00:14:35:19 - 00:14:52:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry worry about commercials. You don't have to worry about halftime shows except for your own stuff. You just get to enjoy the game for itself. So those are five of my favorite theme nights. Comment down below what your favorite youth ministry theme night is, and tab this video here on screen so that you can check out the next one and be sure to give us a subscribe. 00:14:52:29 - 00:14:56:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But until next time, and as always, my friends, don't forget, say habit. Best Youth Ministry Events, Nick Clason, Hybrid Ministry, Youth Ministry Ideas, Easy Youth Group Events, Student Ministry Theme Nights, Youth Group Super Bowl Party, Back to School Events, Fall Youth Ministry Events, Download Youth Ministry, Christmas Party Ideas Youth ministry theme nights are some of the BEST ways to get students inviting friends and to build momentum in your group.
But here’s the thing nobody tells you—every single one of my theme nights has come with a mistake. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes it was painful… and one time I thought I was getting fired…

Before you try these for yourself, let me give you my five best theme nights from 15 years in youth ministry—and the one mistake I made in each, so you don’t have to learn the hard way.

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Duct Tape Trivia
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/duct-tape-trivia/kids-ministry/games-1029.html

Loot & Lunacy
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/loot-and-lunacy/games/video-enhanced-9909.html

Patreon (K)Night Episode
https://www.patreon.com/posts/back-2-school-k-137095993

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https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-ultimate-christmas-movie-showdown/christmas/christmas-games-9784.html

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Youth Ministry Theme Nights
00:42 Theme Night #1
04:37 Theme Night #2
08:52 Theme Night #3
10:35 Theme Night #4
12:25 Theme Night #5

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:03:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Youth ministry theme nights are some of the best ways to get your students

00:00:03:13 - 00:00:09:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
inviting their friends to your group, as well as build momentum for the overall team. But here's

00:00:09:13 - 00:00:20:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
something that someone might not tell you about some of these theme nights is that in every single one, there is an opportunity for a huge mistake. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes it was painful.

00:00:20:21 - 00:00:21:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And one time I

00:00:21:14 - 00:00:23:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
even thought I might be getting fired.

00:00:23:19 - 00:00:37:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so before you try this for yourself, in this episode, I'm going to share with you my five favorite theme nights from my last 15 years in youth ministry. And the one mistake I learned from each of those, so that you don't have

00:00:37:02 - 00:00:39:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to learn it the hard way for yourself.

00:00:39:12 - 00:00:54:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey my friends, welcome back to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nick Claussen, and I have been in this recent playlist asking and answering different questions found in different youth ministry

00:00:54:00 - 00:00:55:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Facebook groups. And this

00:00:55:19 - 00:00:55:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
one

00:00:55:27 - 00:00:59:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
says, hey, what are some theme nights you've done with your group that your kids have really enjoyed?

00:00:59:20 - 00:01:03:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like Jersey night? Crazy hair. Looking forward to some ideas.

00:01:03:16 - 00:01:03:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And

00:01:03:22 - 00:01:03:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so

00:01:03:28 - 00:01:23:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I figured, hey, I want to share some of my best theme nights. And I've discussed this before in some recent episodes. In fact, we did kind of like a fall playlist master class thing where I talked about my strategy for youth ministry. And oftentimes I'll make a theme night, a cultivate night, which is a bring your friends and invite style night.

00:01:23:22 - 00:01:36:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so one of the very first, invite style nights that I did as a youth pastor was one that I grew up as a teenager doing my youth pastor shout out to Pastor Tim Blow. He did an event

00:01:36:16 - 00:01:42:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
called Duct Tape Night. And, then I went several years later to intern for him, and he also did it.

00:01:42:06 - 00:02:02:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so then when it was my turn to be a youth pastor, it was time to do duct tape night. And so we do all kinds of different duct tape. We buy a bunch. We encourage students to, you know, bring like, bring something made out of duct tape that they made, will play, you know, games with duct tape or I even have a game I download youth ministry, called duct tape Trivia.

00:02:02:28 - 00:02:23:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's one of my very, very first vivid early on games. And then we'll even play, like, steal the bacon. But in the middle, we'll we'll play, like, steal the duct tape instead. But one probably like the star of the show. Like the thing that kids and students and even leaders look the most forward to is the duct tape a student to the wall challenge.

00:02:23:00 - 00:02:41:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, like, I was, like I said, within my first couple, months, even weeks of of taking this new job and got a couple kids and decided to duct tape them to the wall. And that's all well and good. No one got hurt. I mean, if you get enough duct tape, they literally can stick to the wall and they're not going to fall down.

00:02:41:20 - 00:02:42:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That wasn't the problem.

00:02:42:27 - 00:03:00:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What was the problem was as soon as, they started to fall off the wall, we started to take them down off the wall. It took the paint with them. Mind you, I'm in week, like, three and a half of this job. And so, you know, it's Wednesday night. The entire church is their kids ministry, youth ministry, adult ministry.

00:03:00:12 - 00:03:01:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so at the end of the night,

00:03:01:18 - 00:03:14:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
all the adults like how duct tape night go because, like, they knew about it, heard about it, but had never, like, seen an event like this before. And we're like, oh, good, good, good. And I was talking to my, my senior pastor, my boss. Right. And I was like, oh, it's awesome.

00:03:14:25 - 00:03:31:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We had this, we had this, we had this many new kids, whatever. Oh, also, I had, kid, pull some of the tape off the, some of the paint off the wall with the duct tape. So just, you know, tell me, like what color paint that was, and, I'll. I'll repaint it. No big deal.

00:03:31:29 - 00:03:53:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And he goes that we had to have that, like, specially painted with it in a very special way with, like, a sponge and like a finish. And the person who did that doesn't even live here anymore. They live in Georgia. And like my eyes, I'm just, like, wide eyed. Like what have I done? So I have to somehow get this wall repainted.

00:03:53:26 - 00:04:14:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But reach out to this person who doesn't go to the church anymore. And so within my first couple weeks of ever having a job, I took paint off the precious youth room walls that had been done in a very special and particular way, and so I've learned when you do that duct tape thing, don't put it on paint.

00:04:14:05 - 00:04:34:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I did put it on a brick wall, but it was a painted brick wall. So then in future years, I, stopped putting it on paint because it definitely was always taking the paint in the finish and the drywall off, but it is still an amazing and great event that you can theme, around duct tape. And it's it's a little bit niche and it's a little bit off the beaten track.

00:04:34:06 - 00:04:51:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's not your typical style of night. This one right here is one that we just did three weeks ago, and we called it our Back to School night. But in front of the, night, we spelled it with a k parentheses with the K. Back to school night, and we went medieval

00:04:51:21 - 00:04:53:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
themed. And, if you're due, I am member.

00:04:53:27 - 00:04:57:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Back in January, they dropped a, game called

00:04:57:02 - 00:05:04:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Loot and Lunacy, and we were going to play Loot and Lunacy at some point in January. But I remember we were in

00:05:04:13 - 00:05:14:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
our run through in our Q to Q and the game. It's just like long, like there are ten sides, ten questions, and they're each like a minute and 30s or so long.

00:05:14:09 - 00:05:32:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you needed to carve out a good 15, maybe even 20 minutes to the whole game. And so that night, right on the moment, right on a dime, I actually decided to switch to another game. So I held loot and lunacy just in my back pocket, knowing I wanted to go back to at some point in the future.

00:05:32:11 - 00:05:50:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when our back to school came around, I was like, let's, let's build a night around loot and lunacy. And in the meantime, we built up all of these sort of like ren fair ideas around it. And so, you know, we talked about, you know, the importance or not, the importance of we it was an invite.

00:05:50:04 - 00:06:08:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we didn't have like a message or anything, but, we had all sorts of different, like, medieval themed games. We did the impossible shot with the bow and arrow. We did like, a giant scavenger hunt. We got a joust. We even looked into getting turkey legs, but that was either a impossible or B cost prohibitive.

00:06:08:01 - 00:06:29:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can't remember exactly the reason why, but either way we didn't come up with it. But then in and around it, we played Loot and Lunacy and we broke it up into two chunks. We played some at the beginning and we played some at the end. And, you know, here's the fact is, I actually, because this is recent, I detailed an outline this entire episode over on a recent bonus Patreon podcast episode.

00:06:29:16 - 00:06:40:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I get on and I talk every single week. Actually, as soon as this episode hits stop, I'm gonna turn around and a record and recap last night's, last night's Youth Mystery, which was we had an

00:06:40:20 - 00:06:50:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
amazing, like, custom game that came out of like one of our, team members just heads like, it was fantastic. And I can't wait to share it with you.

00:06:50:03 - 00:07:11:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So click the link down below. And guess what? You also get access to the seasonal summer social media pack. Hey quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet.

00:07:11:03 - 00:07:30:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created this the fast seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry.

00:07:30:17 - 00:07:50:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Instagram, TikTok and YouTube shorts feed. So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid? Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12.

00:07:51:03 - 00:08:11:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Where the pack is 1799. Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. Moving on.

00:08:11:27 - 00:08:31:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Talking about back to school bashes. That was a like back to school night, medieval themed back school bash. The mistake I made in that is that. Do you know how to spell medieval? I spelled it wrong so many times. And emails out to parents. The whole thing. And I

00:08:31:02 - 00:08:33:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
still don't even know if I know how to spell it.

00:08:33:05 - 00:08:40:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Grammarly tells me it's medieval, but I was spelling it MLG. Easy io.

00:08:40:18 - 00:08:45:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then I had to spell it mega. I even I like it, I messed it up

00:08:45:24 - 00:09:06:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so many times. So don't be like me and look up how to spell medieval before you send out emails to parents. But, typically a back to school bash for me, growing up in youth ministry and this is like a big event, a party and a bunch of, like, those giant inflatables and like, you know, obstacle courses, not bounce houses.

00:09:06:16 - 00:09:29:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Exactly, but like, obstacle courses, jousts, Velcro wall, like the hanging wrecking ball, the bucking bronco, like stuff like that. And so one year I had, created a special events team, and there's a guy at our church who's super awesome, super willing to help, but, like, didn't want to be, like, necessarily like a youth leader. But he was like, I'll be on like the events team, which was great.

00:09:29:24 - 00:09:50:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I had our students helpline the night and like what they wanted for food. And they said they wanted Buffalo Wild Wings, which was great and so called ahead place to order. And you know, all the inflatables, all the things are going, kids are showing up, but the food's not there. And I had sent this guy and his name was Tim to go out and grab the Buffalo Wild Wings.

00:09:50:12 - 00:10:09:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Order. And I had placed it ready to be picked up at, you know, let's say 615. Well, he told me that when he got there that they didn't start preparing the order of nearly 250 wings until he arrived at 615, and it was supposed to be ready to pick up at 615. And I said, no, it was supposed to be pick up.

00:10:09:07 - 00:10:33:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
He said, that's what I told them. And they even said, oh yeah, but we want your wings to be fresh. And so he was like 45 minutes late and all the kids are like, where's the wings? So when you're doing catering and when you're doing a big giant pickup order like that, like just make sure the restaurants don't do harebrained stuff like wait until you get there to start preparing it, which is going to then make it like an hour late.

00:10:33:01 - 00:10:52:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Good grief. Event idea number four is last year actually linked right here? I discussed our Christmas movie bracket. And what we did out of that. And again, this is another good plug for my Patreon as I discussed in detail and outlined all of this in my Patreon as well. But we did a bracket which is movies go head to head.

00:10:52:05 - 00:11:09:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, this was the member resource back in, youth ministry back in December of 2024. So if you remember, you might even have access to this for free. Otherwise, I'll put the link down in the show notes. You can go grab it for just a few bucks, but kids vote head to head on different Christmas movies.

00:11:09:18 - 00:11:33:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then what we did was that was just running in the background. In the month of November. But then what we did was the winner was what became our Christmas movie night. And then my boss shout out to Darren, he did a, he added a flavor of bring your own chair to the Christmas movie night. And so kids are coming in and in shopping carts and in camping chairs, and one group even brought a full air mattress to sit on.

00:11:33:18 - 00:11:54:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we took all the chairs out of our auditorium and we played the movie, up on the screen. And the kids brought all their own chairs. Now, the mistake that I made in this event was trusting that ChatGPT would know where all of the homeland Swearwords were, because I actually edited, I was going to edit out any cuss words from the Home Alone movie.

00:11:54:16 - 00:12:22:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so ChatGPT told me. And then what happened was, by the grace of God himself, I was thinking about a certain part of the movie, and I remember, oh, there's a swear word there. And I didn't edit that out, so I had to go back in and reedit it, a reedit another edit that after one I had already made, because the first one I made was I was trusting ChatGPT to give me accurate information, and alas, it gave me some accurate information, but not entirely accurate information.

00:12:22:09 - 00:12:41:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So check your AI chat bots people. And then finally, the fifth idea that I have is a Super Bowl party. If you are a youth group that meets on Sunday nights, you're obligated to do something with the Super Bowl. Now, what I would recommend from a philosophical standpoint is if you're ones in a group, don't add a Super Bowl party to it.

00:12:41:23 - 00:12:55:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if you're sending a group, you've got to figure out what you're going to do. And so I remember the first year that I was at a church that had converted from Wednesday to Sunday. And so in comes along the Super Bowl and all of a sudden people were like, oh yeah, we got church and don't we? And they're like, where are we going to meet?

00:12:55:29 - 00:13:13:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we had a Super Bowl party at my house and it was averagely attended. It wasn't great. And so, the and everyone was like, well, we got a party with these people every year and we do this this time of year. And so I was like, I'm not doing that. I'm not competing with the Super Bowl anymore.

00:13:13:07 - 00:13:31:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not to mention, I like sports. I want to watch the Super Bowl. And if I'm running a party, I don't get to watch. I don't get to lock in. I don't get to pay attention to the Super Bowl. And so the mistake, I would say, of, doing the Super Bowl party is actually having one. However, if you're a Sunday night meeting youth ministry, what do you do instead?

00:13:31:28 - 00:14:03:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, I, I moved up our party, in the next couple of years, and we started doing, like, a pre-game or like a tailgating party. And I know those have negative connotations, but just like a before the Super Bowl party of the Super Bowl party. But we're done by the time Super Bowl parties are so big obstacle course in the middle of our, our space and, some football trivia and, I think we did, like, Nerf wars in a room, actually, and I ended up hiring a DJ, which, another mistake was that deejay was awesome.

00:14:03:17 - 00:14:35:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, he wasn't like some, like, low level DJ. He was so good. And the music was so loud, and the kids, complained. They're like, I couldn't hear myself think. And so I had to go ask him to turn the music down a little bit. That was another mistake. But all in all, super fun. I encourage kids wear jerseys and whatever, but we did it on Super Bowl Sunday, just a few hours before the game started, and then if you are like me and you like sports and you like football, you wrap your event up and you're home in your recliner by 6 p.m. and you're watching the game, you don't have to

00:14:35:19 - 00:14:52:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
worry about commercials. You don't have to worry about halftime shows except for your own stuff. You just get to enjoy the game for itself. So those are five of my favorite theme nights. Comment down below what your favorite youth ministry theme night is, and tab this video here on screen so that you can check out the next one and be sure to give us a subscribe.

00:14:52:29 - 00:14:56:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But until next time, and as always, my friends, don't forget, say habit.

]]> Youth ministry theme nights are some of the BEST ways to get students inviting friends and to build momentum in your group.
But here’s the thing nobody tells you—every single one of my theme nights has come with a mistake. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes it was painful… and one time I thought I was getting fired…

Before you try these for yourself, let me give you my five best theme nights from 15 years in youth ministry—and the one mistake I made in each, so you don’t have to learn the hard way.

🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

🦸 HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/169

Fall Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLfP12NPWmpBzXoCcEsAyBF

Duct Tape Trivia
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/duct-tape-trivia/kids-ministry/games-1029.html

Loot & Lunacy
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/loot-and-lunacy/games/video-enhanced-9909.html

Patreon (K)Night Episode
https://www.patreon.com/posts/back-2-school-k-137095993

Christmas Movie Bracket
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/the-ultimate-christmas-movie-showdown/christmas/christmas-games-9784.html

Patreon Christmas Episode
https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-christmas-117617122

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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Youth Ministry Theme Nights
00:42 Theme Night #1
04:37 Theme Night #2
08:52 Theme Night #3
10:35 Theme Night #4
12:25 Theme Night #5

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TRANSCRIPT
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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Youth ministry theme nights are some of the best ways to get your students

00:00:03:13 - 00:00:09:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
inviting their friends to your group, as well as build momentum for the overall team. But here's

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
something that someone might not tell you about some of these theme nights is that in every single one, there is an opportunity for a huge mistake. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes it was painful.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And one time I

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
even thought I might be getting fired.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so before you try this for yourself, in this episode, I'm going to share with you my five favorite theme nights from my last 15 years in youth ministry. And the one mistake I learned from each of those, so that you don't have

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to learn it the hard way for yourself.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey my friends, welcome back to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nick Claussen, and I have been in this recent playlist asking and answering different questions found in different youth ministry

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Facebook groups. And this

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
one

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
says, hey, what are some theme nights you've done with your group that your kids have really enjoyed?

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like Jersey night? Crazy hair. Looking forward to some ideas.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I figured, hey, I want to share some of my best theme nights. And I've discussed this before in some recent episodes. In fact, we did kind of like a fall playlist master class thing where I talked about my strategy for youth ministry. And oftentimes I'll make a theme night, a cultivate night, which is a bring your friends and invite style night.

00:01:23:22 - 00:01:36:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so one of the very first, invite style nights that I did as a youth pastor was one that I grew up as a teenager doing my youth pastor shout out to Pastor Tim Blow. He did an event

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
called Duct Tape Night. And, then I went several years later to intern for him, and he also did it.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so then when it was my turn to be a youth pastor, it was time to do duct tape night. And so we do all kinds of different duct tape. We buy a bunch. We encourage students to, you know, bring like, bring something made out of duct tape that they made, will play, you know, games with duct tape or I even have a game I download youth ministry, called duct tape Trivia.

00:02:02:28 - 00:02:23:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's one of my very, very first vivid early on games. And then we'll even play, like, steal the bacon. But in the middle, we'll we'll play, like, steal the duct tape instead. But one probably like the star of the show. Like the thing that kids and students and even leaders look the most forward to is the duct tape a student to the wall challenge.

00:02:23:00 - 00:02:41:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, like, I was, like I said, within my first couple, months, even weeks of of taking this new job and got a couple kids and decided to duct tape them to the wall. And that's all well and good. No one got hurt. I mean, if you get enough duct tape, they literally can stick to the wall and they're not going to fall down.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That wasn't the problem.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What was the problem was as soon as, they started to fall off the wall, we started to take them down off the wall. It took the paint with them. Mind you, I'm in week, like, three and a half of this job. And so, you know, it's Wednesday night. The entire church is their kids ministry, youth ministry, adult ministry.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so at the end of the night,

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
all the adults like how duct tape night go because, like, they knew about it, heard about it, but had never, like, seen an event like this before. And we're like, oh, good, good, good. And I was talking to my, my senior pastor, my boss. Right. And I was like, oh, it's awesome.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We had this, we had this, we had this many new kids, whatever. Oh, also, I had, kid, pull some of the tape off the, some of the paint off the wall with the duct tape. So just, you know, tell me, like what color paint that was, and, I'll. I'll repaint it. No big deal.

00:03:31:29 - 00:03:53:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And he goes that we had to have that, like, specially painted with it in a very special way with, like, a sponge and like a finish. And the person who did that doesn't even live here anymore. They live in Georgia. And like my eyes, I'm just, like, wide eyed. Like what have I done? So I have to somehow get this wall repainted.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But reach out to this person who doesn't go to the church anymore. And so within my first couple weeks of ever having a job, I took paint off the precious youth room walls that had been done in a very special and particular way, and so I've learned when you do that duct tape thing, don't put it on paint.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I did put it on a brick wall, but it was a painted brick wall. So then in future years, I, stopped putting it on paint because it definitely was always taking the paint in the finish and the drywall off, but it is still an amazing and great event that you can theme, around duct tape. And it's it's a little bit niche and it's a little bit off the beaten track.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's not your typical style of night. This one right here is one that we just did three weeks ago, and we called it our Back to School night. But in front of the, night, we spelled it with a k parentheses with the K. Back to school night, and we went medieval

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
themed. And, if you're due, I am member.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Back in January, they dropped a, game called

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Loot and Lunacy, and we were going to play Loot and Lunacy at some point in January. But I remember we were in

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
our run through in our Q to Q and the game. It's just like long, like there are ten sides, ten questions, and they're each like a minute and 30s or so long.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you needed to carve out a good 15, maybe even 20 minutes to the whole game. And so that night, right on the moment, right on a dime, I actually decided to switch to another game. So I held loot and lunacy just in my back pocket, knowing I wanted to go back to at some point in the future.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when our back to school came around, I was like, let's, let's build a night around loot and lunacy. And in the meantime, we built up all of these sort of like ren fair ideas around it. And so, you know, we talked about, you know, the importance or not, the importance of we it was an invite.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we didn't have like a message or anything, but, we had all sorts of different, like, medieval themed games. We did the impossible shot with the bow and arrow. We did like, a giant scavenger hunt. We got a joust. We even looked into getting turkey legs, but that was either a impossible or B cost prohibitive.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I can't remember exactly the reason why, but either way we didn't come up with it. But then in and around it, we played Loot and Lunacy and we broke it up into two chunks. We played some at the beginning and we played some at the end. And, you know, here's the fact is, I actually, because this is recent, I detailed an outline this entire episode over on a recent bonus Patreon podcast episode.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I get on and I talk every single week. Actually, as soon as this episode hits stop, I'm gonna turn around and a record and recap last night's, last night's Youth Mystery, which was we had an

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
amazing, like, custom game that came out of like one of our, team members just heads like, it was fantastic. And I can't wait to share it with you.

00:06:50:03 - 00:07:11:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So click the link down below. And guess what? You also get access to the seasonal summer social media pack. Hey quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet.

00:07:11:03 - 00:07:30:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created this the fast seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry.

00:07:30:17 - 00:07:50:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Instagram, TikTok and YouTube shorts feed. So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid? Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12.

00:07:51:03 - 00:08:11:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Where the pack is 1799. Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. Moving on.

00:08:11:27 - 00:08:31:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Talking about back to school bashes. That was a like back to school night, medieval themed back school bash. The mistake I made in that is that. Do you know how to spell medieval? I spelled it wrong so many times. And emails out to parents. The whole thing. And I

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
still don't even know if I know how to spell it.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Grammarly tells me it's medieval, but I was spelling it MLG. Easy io.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then I had to spell it mega. I even I like it, I messed it up

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
so many times. So don't be like me and look up how to spell medieval before you send out emails to parents. But, typically a back to school bash for me, growing up in youth ministry and this is like a big event, a party and a bunch of, like, those giant inflatables and like, you know, obstacle courses, not bounce houses.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Exactly, but like, obstacle courses, jousts, Velcro wall, like the hanging wrecking ball, the bucking bronco, like stuff like that. And so one year I had, created a special events team, and there's a guy at our church who's super awesome, super willing to help, but, like, didn't want to be, like, necessarily like a youth leader. But he was like, I'll be on like the events team, which was great.

00:09:29:24 - 00:09:50:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I had our students helpline the night and like what they wanted for food. And they said they wanted Buffalo Wild Wings, which was great and so called ahead place to order. And you know, all the inflatables, all the things are going, kids are showing up, but the food's not there. And I had sent this guy and his name was Tim to go out and grab the Buffalo Wild Wings.

00:09:50:12 - 00:10:09:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Order. And I had placed it ready to be picked up at, you know, let's say 615. Well, he told me that when he got there that they didn't start preparing the order of nearly 250 wings until he arrived at 615, and it was supposed to be ready to pick up at 615. And I said, no, it was supposed to be pick up.

00:10:09:07 - 00:10:33:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
He said, that's what I told them. And they even said, oh yeah, but we want your wings to be fresh. And so he was like 45 minutes late and all the kids are like, where's the wings? So when you're doing catering and when you're doing a big giant pickup order like that, like just make sure the restaurants don't do harebrained stuff like wait until you get there to start preparing it, which is going to then make it like an hour late.

00:10:33:01 - 00:10:52:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Good grief. Event idea number four is last year actually linked right here? I discussed our Christmas movie bracket. And what we did out of that. And again, this is another good plug for my Patreon as I discussed in detail and outlined all of this in my Patreon as well. But we did a bracket which is movies go head to head.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, this was the member resource back in, youth ministry back in December of 2024. So if you remember, you might even have access to this for free. Otherwise, I'll put the link down in the show notes. You can go grab it for just a few bucks, but kids vote head to head on different Christmas movies.

00:11:09:18 - 00:11:33:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then what we did was that was just running in the background. In the month of November. But then what we did was the winner was what became our Christmas movie night. And then my boss shout out to Darren, he did a, he added a flavor of bring your own chair to the Christmas movie night. And so kids are coming in and in shopping carts and in camping chairs, and one group even brought a full air mattress to sit on.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we took all the chairs out of our auditorium and we played the movie, up on the screen. And the kids brought all their own chairs. Now, the mistake that I made in this event was trusting that ChatGPT would know where all of the homeland Swearwords were, because I actually edited, I was going to edit out any cuss words from the Home Alone movie.

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so ChatGPT told me. And then what happened was, by the grace of God himself, I was thinking about a certain part of the movie, and I remember, oh, there's a swear word there. And I didn't edit that out, so I had to go back in and reedit it, a reedit another edit that after one I had already made, because the first one I made was I was trusting ChatGPT to give me accurate information, and alas, it gave me some accurate information, but not entirely accurate information.

00:12:22:09 - 00:12:41:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So check your AI chat bots people. And then finally, the fifth idea that I have is a Super Bowl party. If you are a youth group that meets on Sunday nights, you're obligated to do something with the Super Bowl. Now, what I would recommend from a philosophical standpoint is if you're ones in a group, don't add a Super Bowl party to it.

00:12:41:23 - 00:12:55:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if you're sending a group, you've got to figure out what you're going to do. And so I remember the first year that I was at a church that had converted from Wednesday to Sunday. And so in comes along the Super Bowl and all of a sudden people were like, oh yeah, we got church and don't we? And they're like, where are we going to meet?

00:12:55:29 - 00:13:13:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we had a Super Bowl party at my house and it was averagely attended. It wasn't great. And so, the and everyone was like, well, we got a party with these people every year and we do this this time of year. And so I was like, I'm not doing that. I'm not competing with the Super Bowl anymore.

00:13:13:07 - 00:13:31:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not to mention, I like sports. I want to watch the Super Bowl. And if I'm running a party, I don't get to watch. I don't get to lock in. I don't get to pay attention to the Super Bowl. And so the mistake, I would say, of, doing the Super Bowl party is actually having one. However, if you're a Sunday night meeting youth ministry, what do you do instead?

00:13:31:28 - 00:14:03:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, I, I moved up our party, in the next couple of years, and we started doing, like, a pre-game or like a tailgating party. And I know those have negative connotations, but just like a before the Super Bowl party of the Super Bowl party. But we're done by the time Super Bowl parties are so big obstacle course in the middle of our, our space and, some football trivia and, I think we did, like, Nerf wars in a room, actually, and I ended up hiring a DJ, which, another mistake was that deejay was awesome.

00:14:03:17 - 00:14:35:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, he wasn't like some, like, low level DJ. He was so good. And the music was so loud, and the kids, complained. They're like, I couldn't hear myself think. And so I had to go ask him to turn the music down a little bit. That was another mistake. But all in all, super fun. I encourage kids wear jerseys and whatever, but we did it on Super Bowl Sunday, just a few hours before the game started, and then if you are like me and you like sports and you like football, you wrap your event up and you're home in your recliner by 6 p.m. and you're watching the game, you don't have to

00:14:35:19 - 00:14:52:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
worry about commercials. You don't have to worry about halftime shows except for your own stuff. You just get to enjoy the game for itself. So those are five of my favorite theme nights. Comment down below what your favorite youth ministry theme night is, and tab this video here on screen so that you can check out the next one and be sure to give us a subscribe.

00:14:52:29 - 00:14:56:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But until next time, and as always, my friends, don't forget, say habit.

]]> Episode 163: Event Evaluation that WORKS! How to Actually Improve Your Youth Ministry https://www.hybridministry.xyz/163 0cff7999-c380-4f27-a052-f3343a16d545 Thu, 21 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 163 Event Evaluation that WORKS! How to Actually Improve Your Youth Ministry full Nick Clason In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we’re unpacking a proven event evaluation strategy for youth ministry that will help you actually improve your events instead of just surviving them. Learn how to run a productive post-event debrief using a 3-question framework that works for digital and in-person debrief meetings alike. Plus, get access to a sample evaluation form, hear a big announcement, and upgrade your fall youth ministry strategy with intentional feedback tools. 10:23 no In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we’re unpacking a proven event evaluation strategy for youth ministry that will help you actually improve your events instead of just surviving them. Learn how to run a productive post-event debrief using a 3-question framework that works for digital and in-person debrief meetings alike. Plus, get access to a sample evaluation form, hear a big announcement, and upgrade your fall youth ministry strategy with intentional feedback tools. 🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/163 ☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=productsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link *🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Post Event Debriefs 00:25 Your Complete Fall Strategy Session 01:33 Proven Debrief Strategy 04:02 This Strategy was GENIUS!! 07:22 Your Fall Social Media Strategy is HERE! -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:06:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Post-event debriefs can feel like a roast session if we're not careful. That's why I recommend this 00:00:06:12 - 00:00:19:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry proven three part strategy for evaluating and making sure that your events not only get the proper evaluation that they deserve, but are even better on into the future 00:00:19:29 - 00:00:26:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry for your next year's event. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Minister show. 00:00:26:00 - 00:00:29:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Minister Show. 00:00:29:07 - 00:00:57:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I am your host, Nicolas. And in this episode, episode 163. If you want to head to the show notes with transcripts. Hybrid Ministry dot xyzzy slash 163. That would be incredible. And a subscribe while you there would also just do us wonders. But if you have been following along here on YouTube, we are in a playlist for your complete fall like strategy guide and strategy session for, not only your upcoming fall outreach event. 00:00:57:12 - 00:01:22:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry How we run outreach events. And it's all kind of been centered around like some principles for like, fall outreach and fall launches. But if you're looking for one, and one of my favorite kind of strategies is a, month long, ongoing, like, bracket style event, and I'm giving one away or I'm giving away an event guide, to one of my products over on download this ministry called the World's Greatest Donut Bracket Event. 00:01:23:01 - 00:01:42:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We've been walking through what those nights look like, how to include and incorporate free time, how to welcome your new guests. But now that all the dust has settled, now that all of the donut madness is over, you're ready to evaluate your event. So whether you're evaluating this particular event or just any of your fall events, this is my proven three part strategy and framework. 00:01:42:05 - 00:02:06:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I mean, I'm just going to be honest, like you've maybe heard this before. It's not unique or original to me. I've I've used it in a couple of last churches that I've worked in. But there's a few kind of like tweaks and adaptations to it. And so you might have heard this, but the first, you know, the first question worth asking in an event evaluation debrief is what went right, like, let's celebrate the wins straight out of the gate. 00:02:06:12 - 00:02:26:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like, what were the wins? What were the good things? And kind of go that route. The next question that I like to do and, you know, one of the church that I worked at, we call these questions the for hopefuls, but I like to combine these next two. And so that's why it's only three, three questions because I think these two, are cousins of one another. 00:02:26:05 - 00:02:46:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. And so, I like this one of, like the broken what was broken slash confusing. So, broken and confusing can kind of get, like I said, close to one another when you're kind of passing them out, you're like, oh, is this one broken? I'm not sure if that thing, that QR code was broken or if it was just confusing. 00:02:46:15 - 00:03:04:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. And and maybe the Q QR code was actually broken, or maybe students just don't know what they're doing, and it made it confusing. And that's kind of how I found that question to kind of land. And so just sticking those two together really like will help you in this question right here. Here's the thing I want to encourage you, don't make this personal. 00:03:04:09 - 00:03:35:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Don't take these things personal, but really like lean into these right here because this is how and this is where, and this is when and how and why you can make this event even better next year when you pull this thing together. Right. Like, this event becomes so much better when you take care of the broken and the confusing parts and you can really turn around, you can optimize, your next event or your next year's event or, some elements of this event that you're going to bring to, like the next Wednesday night, whatever the case might be like, but this is your chance to optimize it. 00:03:35:01 - 00:03:53:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Perfect. It really kind of like hone it in. And then finally, this last question, what was missing? And so it could be like, you know, while we were in the middle of the event, I thought it would have been great if we had this. We didn't think of it ahead of time. But let's next year, let's let's kind of plan to make this happen now a couple different ways that you can handle debriefs. 00:03:53:11 - 00:04:11:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I think probably the most common is just like an in person. Right. Like you get together, you talk about it with your team and you, you know, take notes and you go off to the next one. And for major events like big events like this ones you spend maybe a lot of budget money on, I would recommend doing some sort of like in-person debrief. 00:04:11:00 - 00:04:30:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry However, if you're debriefing every single event, you're never not debriefing because let's just be honest, like, if you meet once a week in youth ministry, there's always one time a week we got to get together and get a debrief. And then if you're meeting twice a week, say Wednesday night and Sunday morning, you're also getting together another time to kind of look back at Sunday morning. 00:04:30:28 - 00:04:54:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what if you're meeting Sunday night then now you're meeting three different times for three different evaluations. And so it can become a lot and it can become a lot of meetings. And sometimes it's just like, man, we just got work to do. Right. And so, one of the things that my boss, has instituted is we use base camp, and he instituted this idea, and he just cause, our debriefs sometimes, we keep them all digital. 00:04:54:21 - 00:05:19:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So it's a digital debrief. We go into base camp, into the the message board there, and he'll ask three different questions. Sometimes he'll ask, right, right. Wrong, broken, confused. Like all that. But other times he'll throw in, like a curveball or, you know, like, and I think like this question, for example, is a good example of like, missing, you know, but he'll be like, what's one thing that we could have done to really take this event over the top? 00:05:19:19 - 00:05:35:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so it just get your brain thinking in a little bit of a different category, though, it is probably like an answer to the missing question. But it's framed really well. That makes you like, think in a different kind of way, you know what I'm saying? So but what we'll do then is everyone on the team has to complete that digital debrief comment done when they're done. 00:05:35:22 - 00:05:51:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then, he'll take those and he'll, he'll archive the, the plan. So it's out of our, like, base camp. But then next year, as we're getting ready to pull that back together, he'll, he'll go grab those archive notes. Because who in the world can remember what we did a year ago, let alone a month ago? 00:05:51:17 - 00:06:16:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right, take those archive notes and add them to the upcoming plan. So then, when the upcoming plan is coming, we look back and say, what did we say last year? And like a great example of this is like at summer camp, people said like last, like not the most recent summer camp we did, but the one from the summer last summer, people said something small like, hey, we should have a lost and found, or we should have more trash cans. 00:06:16:16 - 00:06:33:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, you know, a week or two before we went, really? Hey, let's let's look back at that. Those debrief notes were like, oh, yeah, that's right. The lost and found in the trash cans. We pull those together quick. There are small things we were going to completely forget to do them, because we were so focused on all the other kind of like things and elements of camp. 00:06:33:14 - 00:06:51:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But we looked back at our debrief notes and those two little small things like, really help. Like I said, kind of like May made the difference, right? And so however you choose to do it, one of the words that my boss always kind of used was, we need a place to memorialize these thoughts, right? So like we say them, write them down for us. 00:06:51:26 - 00:07:21:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's base camp. You can use whatever kind of project management tool or software that you want to do and go ahead and take that to the races, but you should use these right? Broken slash confusing and missing. Use them in your next event evaluation. And here's the thing. If you go ahead and download my donate, event guide, come back to this episode or check this episode out right after your event is over so that you can really, truly lean in to, these questions and make your event as good as it can be, on and off into the future. 00:07:21:06 - 00:07:38:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, here's the thing. All of this has been ramping up. This is a this has been focused on one night, right? One night of like a big event, one night of like bring your friends. And you know, we talked about in the first episode, but the the spiritual CPR strategy. So cultivate and then plant and then reap. That's a cultivate event. 00:07:38:22 - 00:08:06:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's a cultivate night. How do you then carry on that momentum on into the next coming weeks? One of the elements, one of the small slivers component, but one that I really think has been super huge in our student ministry around, reaching, frankly, reaching more students, and reaching more lost students in an effort to be, both like planting seeds of like, spirituality as well as just like having fun is, is through using, the means of social media. 00:08:06:18 - 00:08:26:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so obviously, here I am. It's a hybrid ministry podcast. You probably saw that one coming, but that's been a hugely beneficial and hugely big piece in our overall strategy. And it's become one of our primary evangelism mechanisms. And next week I am dropping the fall seasonal social media pack. Now here's how this is going to work next Thursday. 00:08:26:08 - 00:08:47:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you're subscribed, you're going to get it as soon as it drops. It's over on my Patreon. So is Patreon.com slash hybrid ministry. And over there there is a tier of podcast, a bonus weekly podcast where I'm just detailing an outline, all of my events, and all of our Wednesday nights, our programing, what's going well, what we're doing on social media, moves are making changes that we got going on. 00:08:47:29 - 00:09:03:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Here's the thing. This week at time of of filming that one, this episode drops. So at time of filming, my boss actually just submitted his resignation. So I'm actually stepping into a new role and I'm stepping into a new seat. And so I'm going to have the opportunity to share some of that with you. And I'm really excited. 00:09:03:13 - 00:09:34:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But that podcast that patrons hear is $4 per month. Now, here's the thing. The seasonal social media pack is like 1799, and it is meant to last for three months. So if you do the math, you actually come out ahead on the, on the tier. And so what I would recommend right now, if you're listening to this week leading into launch, go over to Patreon, give me the $4 per month, getting in on that tier, and then you will get everything in the store, not just this upcoming seasonal pack, but you can grab the summer pack. 00:09:34:13 - 00:10:02:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then, on Thursday, you can grab the fall pack, and there's actually a free week trial there, for you to check it out. So click the link down below. Become what we call a hybrid hero at that $4 per month tier. So excited to do that. And we're going to be dropping not only that pack next week and kind of walking through what that is, but then we're also going to start looking at how can you build and create a social media team within the the gathering in your in your context as is, that's fully and completely run by teenagers? 00:10:02:02 - 00:10:19:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm going to walk you how we did it and how you can do it in your youth ministry to reach students, but also create momentum for your students that are attending your church in person as well. So once again, thank you guys so much for being here. I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did like it, subscribe, share with the friend. 00:10:19:10 - 00:10:23:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But until next time and as always, don't forget to stay hybrid. youth ministry, event evaluation, youth ministry strategy, post-event debrief, youth group events, church event planning, ministry improvement, digital ministry, hybrid ministry, youth pastor tools, ministry evaluation form, fall ministry planning, student ministry, youth event feedback, youth group planning, youth ministry ideas, ministry checklist, church leadership, event debrief questions, what worked what broke what was missing, next gen ministry, youth ministry resources, volunteer training In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we’re unpacking a proven event evaluation strategy for youth ministry that will help you actually improve your events instead of just surviving them. Learn how to run a productive post-event debrief using a 3-question framework that works for digital and in-person debrief meetings alike. Plus, get access to a sample evaluation form, hear a big announcement, and upgrade your fall youth ministry strategy with intentional feedback tools.

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/163

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Post Event Debriefs
00:25 Your Complete Fall Strategy Session
01:33 Proven Debrief Strategy
04:02 This Strategy was GENIUS!!
07:22 Your Fall Social Media Strategy is HERE!

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:06:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Post-event debriefs can feel like a roast session if we're not careful. That's why I recommend this

00:00:06:12 - 00:00:19:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
proven three part strategy for evaluating and making sure that your events not only get the proper evaluation that they deserve, but are even better on into the future

00:00:19:29 - 00:00:26:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
for your next year's event. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Minister show.

00:00:26:00 - 00:00:29:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Minister Show.

00:00:29:07 - 00:00:57:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I am your host, Nicolas. And in this episode, episode 163. If you want to head to the show notes with transcripts. Hybrid Ministry dot xyzzy slash 163. That would be incredible. And a subscribe while you there would also just do us wonders. But if you have been following along here on YouTube, we are in a playlist for your complete fall like strategy guide and strategy session for, not only your upcoming fall outreach event.

00:00:57:12 - 00:01:22:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How we run outreach events. And it's all kind of been centered around like some principles for like, fall outreach and fall launches. But if you're looking for one, and one of my favorite kind of strategies is a, month long, ongoing, like, bracket style event, and I'm giving one away or I'm giving away an event guide, to one of my products over on download this ministry called the World's Greatest Donut Bracket Event.

00:01:23:01 - 00:01:42:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We've been walking through what those nights look like, how to include and incorporate free time, how to welcome your new guests. But now that all the dust has settled, now that all of the donut madness is over, you're ready to evaluate your event. So whether you're evaluating this particular event or just any of your fall events, this is my proven three part strategy and framework.

00:01:42:05 - 00:02:06:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I mean, I'm just going to be honest, like you've maybe heard this before. It's not unique or original to me. I've I've used it in a couple of last churches that I've worked in. But there's a few kind of like tweaks and adaptations to it. And so you might have heard this, but the first, you know, the first question worth asking in an event evaluation debrief is what went right, like, let's celebrate the wins straight out of the gate.

00:02:06:12 - 00:02:26:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, what were the wins? What were the good things? And kind of go that route. The next question that I like to do and, you know, one of the church that I worked at, we call these questions the for hopefuls, but I like to combine these next two. And so that's why it's only three, three questions because I think these two, are cousins of one another.

00:02:26:05 - 00:02:46:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And so, I like this one of, like the broken what was broken slash confusing. So, broken and confusing can kind of get, like I said, close to one another when you're kind of passing them out, you're like, oh, is this one broken? I'm not sure if that thing, that QR code was broken or if it was just confusing.

00:02:46:15 - 00:03:04:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And and maybe the Q QR code was actually broken, or maybe students just don't know what they're doing, and it made it confusing. And that's kind of how I found that question to kind of land. And so just sticking those two together really like will help you in this question right here. Here's the thing I want to encourage you, don't make this personal.

00:03:04:09 - 00:03:35:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't take these things personal, but really like lean into these right here because this is how and this is where, and this is when and how and why you can make this event even better next year when you pull this thing together. Right. Like, this event becomes so much better when you take care of the broken and the confusing parts and you can really turn around, you can optimize, your next event or your next year's event or, some elements of this event that you're going to bring to, like the next Wednesday night, whatever the case might be like, but this is your chance to optimize it.

00:03:35:01 - 00:03:53:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Perfect. It really kind of like hone it in. And then finally, this last question, what was missing? And so it could be like, you know, while we were in the middle of the event, I thought it would have been great if we had this. We didn't think of it ahead of time. But let's next year, let's let's kind of plan to make this happen now a couple different ways that you can handle debriefs.

00:03:53:11 - 00:04:11:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think probably the most common is just like an in person. Right. Like you get together, you talk about it with your team and you, you know, take notes and you go off to the next one. And for major events like big events like this ones you spend maybe a lot of budget money on, I would recommend doing some sort of like in-person debrief.

00:04:11:00 - 00:04:30:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, if you're debriefing every single event, you're never not debriefing because let's just be honest, like, if you meet once a week in youth ministry, there's always one time a week we got to get together and get a debrief. And then if you're meeting twice a week, say Wednesday night and Sunday morning, you're also getting together another time to kind of look back at Sunday morning.

00:04:30:28 - 00:04:54:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what if you're meeting Sunday night then now you're meeting three different times for three different evaluations. And so it can become a lot and it can become a lot of meetings. And sometimes it's just like, man, we just got work to do. Right. And so, one of the things that my boss, has instituted is we use base camp, and he instituted this idea, and he just cause, our debriefs sometimes, we keep them all digital.

00:04:54:21 - 00:05:19:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's a digital debrief. We go into base camp, into the the message board there, and he'll ask three different questions. Sometimes he'll ask, right, right. Wrong, broken, confused. Like all that. But other times he'll throw in, like a curveball or, you know, like, and I think like this question, for example, is a good example of like, missing, you know, but he'll be like, what's one thing that we could have done to really take this event over the top?

00:05:19:19 - 00:05:35:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so it just get your brain thinking in a little bit of a different category, though, it is probably like an answer to the missing question. But it's framed really well. That makes you like, think in a different kind of way, you know what I'm saying? So but what we'll do then is everyone on the team has to complete that digital debrief comment done when they're done.

00:05:35:22 - 00:05:51:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, he'll take those and he'll, he'll archive the, the plan. So it's out of our, like, base camp. But then next year, as we're getting ready to pull that back together, he'll, he'll go grab those archive notes. Because who in the world can remember what we did a year ago, let alone a month ago?

00:05:51:17 - 00:06:16:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right, take those archive notes and add them to the upcoming plan. So then, when the upcoming plan is coming, we look back and say, what did we say last year? And like a great example of this is like at summer camp, people said like last, like not the most recent summer camp we did, but the one from the summer last summer, people said something small like, hey, we should have a lost and found, or we should have more trash cans.

00:06:16:16 - 00:06:33:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, you know, a week or two before we went, really? Hey, let's let's look back at that. Those debrief notes were like, oh, yeah, that's right. The lost and found in the trash cans. We pull those together quick. There are small things we were going to completely forget to do them, because we were so focused on all the other kind of like things and elements of camp.

00:06:33:14 - 00:06:51:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But we looked back at our debrief notes and those two little small things like, really help. Like I said, kind of like May made the difference, right? And so however you choose to do it, one of the words that my boss always kind of used was, we need a place to memorialize these thoughts, right? So like we say them, write them down for us.

00:06:51:26 - 00:07:21:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's base camp. You can use whatever kind of project management tool or software that you want to do and go ahead and take that to the races, but you should use these right? Broken slash confusing and missing. Use them in your next event evaluation. And here's the thing. If you go ahead and download my donate, event guide, come back to this episode or check this episode out right after your event is over so that you can really, truly lean in to, these questions and make your event as good as it can be, on and off into the future.

00:07:21:06 - 00:07:38:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, here's the thing. All of this has been ramping up. This is a this has been focused on one night, right? One night of like a big event, one night of like bring your friends. And you know, we talked about in the first episode, but the the spiritual CPR strategy. So cultivate and then plant and then reap. That's a cultivate event.

00:07:38:22 - 00:08:06:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a cultivate night. How do you then carry on that momentum on into the next coming weeks? One of the elements, one of the small slivers component, but one that I really think has been super huge in our student ministry around, reaching, frankly, reaching more students, and reaching more lost students in an effort to be, both like planting seeds of like, spirituality as well as just like having fun is, is through using, the means of social media.

00:08:06:18 - 00:08:26:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so obviously, here I am. It's a hybrid ministry podcast. You probably saw that one coming, but that's been a hugely beneficial and hugely big piece in our overall strategy. And it's become one of our primary evangelism mechanisms. And next week I am dropping the fall seasonal social media pack. Now here's how this is going to work next Thursday.

00:08:26:08 - 00:08:47:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're subscribed, you're going to get it as soon as it drops. It's over on my Patreon. So is Patreon.com slash hybrid ministry. And over there there is a tier of podcast, a bonus weekly podcast where I'm just detailing an outline, all of my events, and all of our Wednesday nights, our programing, what's going well, what we're doing on social media, moves are making changes that we got going on.

00:08:47:29 - 00:09:03:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Here's the thing. This week at time of of filming that one, this episode drops. So at time of filming, my boss actually just submitted his resignation. So I'm actually stepping into a new role and I'm stepping into a new seat. And so I'm going to have the opportunity to share some of that with you. And I'm really excited.

00:09:03:13 - 00:09:34:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But that podcast that patrons hear is $4 per month. Now, here's the thing. The seasonal social media pack is like 1799, and it is meant to last for three months. So if you do the math, you actually come out ahead on the, on the tier. And so what I would recommend right now, if you're listening to this week leading into launch, go over to Patreon, give me the $4 per month, getting in on that tier, and then you will get everything in the store, not just this upcoming seasonal pack, but you can grab the summer pack.

00:09:34:13 - 00:10:02:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, on Thursday, you can grab the fall pack, and there's actually a free week trial there, for you to check it out. So click the link down below. Become what we call a hybrid hero at that $4 per month tier. So excited to do that. And we're going to be dropping not only that pack next week and kind of walking through what that is, but then we're also going to start looking at how can you build and create a social media team within the the gathering in your in your context as is, that's fully and completely run by teenagers?

00:10:02:02 - 00:10:19:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to walk you how we did it and how you can do it in your youth ministry to reach students, but also create momentum for your students that are attending your church in person as well. So once again, thank you guys so much for being here. I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did like it, subscribe, share with the friend.

00:10:19:10 - 00:10:23:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But until next time and as always, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we’re unpacking a proven event evaluation strategy for youth ministry that will help you actually improve your events instead of just surviving them. Learn how to run a productive post-event debrief using a 3-question framework that works for digital and in-person debrief meetings alike. Plus, get access to a sample evaluation form, hear a big announcement, and upgrade your fall youth ministry strategy with intentional feedback tools.

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut
DYM: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/world%27s-greatest-donut/games/food-8745.html

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/163

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Post Event Debriefs
00:25 Your Complete Fall Strategy Session
01:33 Proven Debrief Strategy
04:02 This Strategy was GENIUS!!
07:22 Your Fall Social Media Strategy is HERE!

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:06:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Post-event debriefs can feel like a roast session if we're not careful. That's why I recommend this

00:00:06:12 - 00:00:19:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
proven three part strategy for evaluating and making sure that your events not only get the proper evaluation that they deserve, but are even better on into the future

00:00:19:29 - 00:00:26:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
for your next year's event. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Minister show.

00:00:26:00 - 00:00:29:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Minister Show.

00:00:29:07 - 00:00:57:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I am your host, Nicolas. And in this episode, episode 163. If you want to head to the show notes with transcripts. Hybrid Ministry dot xyzzy slash 163. That would be incredible. And a subscribe while you there would also just do us wonders. But if you have been following along here on YouTube, we are in a playlist for your complete fall like strategy guide and strategy session for, not only your upcoming fall outreach event.

00:00:57:12 - 00:01:22:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
How we run outreach events. And it's all kind of been centered around like some principles for like, fall outreach and fall launches. But if you're looking for one, and one of my favorite kind of strategies is a, month long, ongoing, like, bracket style event, and I'm giving one away or I'm giving away an event guide, to one of my products over on download this ministry called the World's Greatest Donut Bracket Event.

00:01:23:01 - 00:01:42:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We've been walking through what those nights look like, how to include and incorporate free time, how to welcome your new guests. But now that all the dust has settled, now that all of the donut madness is over, you're ready to evaluate your event. So whether you're evaluating this particular event or just any of your fall events, this is my proven three part strategy and framework.

00:01:42:05 - 00:02:06:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I mean, I'm just going to be honest, like you've maybe heard this before. It's not unique or original to me. I've I've used it in a couple of last churches that I've worked in. But there's a few kind of like tweaks and adaptations to it. And so you might have heard this, but the first, you know, the first question worth asking in an event evaluation debrief is what went right, like, let's celebrate the wins straight out of the gate.

00:02:06:12 - 00:02:26:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like, what were the wins? What were the good things? And kind of go that route. The next question that I like to do and, you know, one of the church that I worked at, we call these questions the for hopefuls, but I like to combine these next two. And so that's why it's only three, three questions because I think these two, are cousins of one another.

00:02:26:05 - 00:02:46:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And so, I like this one of, like the broken what was broken slash confusing. So, broken and confusing can kind of get, like I said, close to one another when you're kind of passing them out, you're like, oh, is this one broken? I'm not sure if that thing, that QR code was broken or if it was just confusing.

00:02:46:15 - 00:03:04:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. And and maybe the Q QR code was actually broken, or maybe students just don't know what they're doing, and it made it confusing. And that's kind of how I found that question to kind of land. And so just sticking those two together really like will help you in this question right here. Here's the thing I want to encourage you, don't make this personal.

00:03:04:09 - 00:03:35:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't take these things personal, but really like lean into these right here because this is how and this is where, and this is when and how and why you can make this event even better next year when you pull this thing together. Right. Like, this event becomes so much better when you take care of the broken and the confusing parts and you can really turn around, you can optimize, your next event or your next year's event or, some elements of this event that you're going to bring to, like the next Wednesday night, whatever the case might be like, but this is your chance to optimize it.

00:03:35:01 - 00:03:53:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Perfect. It really kind of like hone it in. And then finally, this last question, what was missing? And so it could be like, you know, while we were in the middle of the event, I thought it would have been great if we had this. We didn't think of it ahead of time. But let's next year, let's let's kind of plan to make this happen now a couple different ways that you can handle debriefs.

00:03:53:11 - 00:04:11:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think probably the most common is just like an in person. Right. Like you get together, you talk about it with your team and you, you know, take notes and you go off to the next one. And for major events like big events like this ones you spend maybe a lot of budget money on, I would recommend doing some sort of like in-person debrief.

00:04:11:00 - 00:04:30:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, if you're debriefing every single event, you're never not debriefing because let's just be honest, like, if you meet once a week in youth ministry, there's always one time a week we got to get together and get a debrief. And then if you're meeting twice a week, say Wednesday night and Sunday morning, you're also getting together another time to kind of look back at Sunday morning.

00:04:30:28 - 00:04:54:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what if you're meeting Sunday night then now you're meeting three different times for three different evaluations. And so it can become a lot and it can become a lot of meetings. And sometimes it's just like, man, we just got work to do. Right. And so, one of the things that my boss, has instituted is we use base camp, and he instituted this idea, and he just cause, our debriefs sometimes, we keep them all digital.

00:04:54:21 - 00:05:19:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's a digital debrief. We go into base camp, into the the message board there, and he'll ask three different questions. Sometimes he'll ask, right, right. Wrong, broken, confused. Like all that. But other times he'll throw in, like a curveball or, you know, like, and I think like this question, for example, is a good example of like, missing, you know, but he'll be like, what's one thing that we could have done to really take this event over the top?

00:05:19:19 - 00:05:35:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so it just get your brain thinking in a little bit of a different category, though, it is probably like an answer to the missing question. But it's framed really well. That makes you like, think in a different kind of way, you know what I'm saying? So but what we'll do then is everyone on the team has to complete that digital debrief comment done when they're done.

00:05:35:22 - 00:05:51:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, he'll take those and he'll, he'll archive the, the plan. So it's out of our, like, base camp. But then next year, as we're getting ready to pull that back together, he'll, he'll go grab those archive notes. Because who in the world can remember what we did a year ago, let alone a month ago?

00:05:51:17 - 00:06:16:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right, take those archive notes and add them to the upcoming plan. So then, when the upcoming plan is coming, we look back and say, what did we say last year? And like a great example of this is like at summer camp, people said like last, like not the most recent summer camp we did, but the one from the summer last summer, people said something small like, hey, we should have a lost and found, or we should have more trash cans.

00:06:16:16 - 00:06:33:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, you know, a week or two before we went, really? Hey, let's let's look back at that. Those debrief notes were like, oh, yeah, that's right. The lost and found in the trash cans. We pull those together quick. There are small things we were going to completely forget to do them, because we were so focused on all the other kind of like things and elements of camp.

00:06:33:14 - 00:06:51:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But we looked back at our debrief notes and those two little small things like, really help. Like I said, kind of like May made the difference, right? And so however you choose to do it, one of the words that my boss always kind of used was, we need a place to memorialize these thoughts, right? So like we say them, write them down for us.

00:06:51:26 - 00:07:21:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's base camp. You can use whatever kind of project management tool or software that you want to do and go ahead and take that to the races, but you should use these right? Broken slash confusing and missing. Use them in your next event evaluation. And here's the thing. If you go ahead and download my donate, event guide, come back to this episode or check this episode out right after your event is over so that you can really, truly lean in to, these questions and make your event as good as it can be, on and off into the future.

00:07:21:06 - 00:07:38:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, here's the thing. All of this has been ramping up. This is a this has been focused on one night, right? One night of like a big event, one night of like bring your friends. And you know, we talked about in the first episode, but the the spiritual CPR strategy. So cultivate and then plant and then reap. That's a cultivate event.

00:07:38:22 - 00:08:06:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a cultivate night. How do you then carry on that momentum on into the next coming weeks? One of the elements, one of the small slivers component, but one that I really think has been super huge in our student ministry around, reaching, frankly, reaching more students, and reaching more lost students in an effort to be, both like planting seeds of like, spirituality as well as just like having fun is, is through using, the means of social media.

00:08:06:18 - 00:08:26:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so obviously, here I am. It's a hybrid ministry podcast. You probably saw that one coming, but that's been a hugely beneficial and hugely big piece in our overall strategy. And it's become one of our primary evangelism mechanisms. And next week I am dropping the fall seasonal social media pack. Now here's how this is going to work next Thursday.

00:08:26:08 - 00:08:47:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're subscribed, you're going to get it as soon as it drops. It's over on my Patreon. So is Patreon.com slash hybrid ministry. And over there there is a tier of podcast, a bonus weekly podcast where I'm just detailing an outline, all of my events, and all of our Wednesday nights, our programing, what's going well, what we're doing on social media, moves are making changes that we got going on.

00:08:47:29 - 00:09:03:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Here's the thing. This week at time of of filming that one, this episode drops. So at time of filming, my boss actually just submitted his resignation. So I'm actually stepping into a new role and I'm stepping into a new seat. And so I'm going to have the opportunity to share some of that with you. And I'm really excited.

00:09:03:13 - 00:09:34:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But that podcast that patrons hear is $4 per month. Now, here's the thing. The seasonal social media pack is like 1799, and it is meant to last for three months. So if you do the math, you actually come out ahead on the, on the tier. And so what I would recommend right now, if you're listening to this week leading into launch, go over to Patreon, give me the $4 per month, getting in on that tier, and then you will get everything in the store, not just this upcoming seasonal pack, but you can grab the summer pack.

00:09:34:13 - 00:10:02:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, on Thursday, you can grab the fall pack, and there's actually a free week trial there, for you to check it out. So click the link down below. Become what we call a hybrid hero at that $4 per month tier. So excited to do that. And we're going to be dropping not only that pack next week and kind of walking through what that is, but then we're also going to start looking at how can you build and create a social media team within the the gathering in your in your context as is, that's fully and completely run by teenagers?

00:10:02:02 - 00:10:19:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to walk you how we did it and how you can do it in your youth ministry to reach students, but also create momentum for your students that are attending your church in person as well. So once again, thank you guys so much for being here. I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did like it, subscribe, share with the friend.

00:10:19:10 - 00:10:23:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But until next time and as always, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 153: What I Posted This Week Using My Summer Content Pack https://www.hybridministry.xyz/153 7c241597-e283-4fe6-9237-1a0906357f1a Thu, 12 Jun 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 153 What I Posted This Week Using My Summer Content Pack full Nick Clason I didn’t make anything new this week. I literally just hit post. Let me show you exactly what I shared using my Summer Content Pack—and how it performed. Plus two bonus pieces of content that were the true all-stars at the end of this video! 10:11 no I didn’t make anything new this week. I literally just hit post. Let me show you exactly what I shared using my Summer Content Pack—and how it performed. Plus two bonus pieces of content that were the true all-stars at the end of this video! ☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=productsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link *🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/153 ✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 I didn't make anything new this week! 00:29 Post #1 01:13 Post #2 02:18 Post #3 03:05 When a post doesn't perform… 04:34 Easy Summer Social Media Strategy 06:06 Post #4 07:16 Bonus Post: 7 Questions 07:55 Bonus Post #2: Drafts 08:37 The Power of Variety -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I didn't make anything new this week. 00:00:02:10 - 00:00:06:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I downloaded, I posted, or I used the scripts included. 00:00:06:29 - 00:00:15:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm going to show you exactly what I use out of my summer social Media content pack, as well as let you know how it performed, 00:00:15:02 - 00:00:17:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry plus two bonus 00:00:17:08 - 00:00:23:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry pieces of content that are also included in the pack. And I'm gonna let you know how those perform as well. 00:00:23:08 - 00:00:28:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They were really the all stars of the week. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. 00:00:28:17 - 00:00:44:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right, so first up, we have the what to do if archetype. This is included in the done for you section of the Summer social media pack. And this particular post if you're watching here on screen, which is why you should definitely be subscribe to our YouTube channel. 00:00:44:11 - 00:01:03:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you can see some of this stuff is because, this one says what to do if you're feeling anxious. We had a lot of great engagement on this, including some shares. One of our leaders shared the whole carousel to her Instagram story. Why? Because it's relevant to what people are going through. And so here's what's so cool on Instagram, we had 00:01:03:15 - 00:01:08:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry 483 people view the post, 13 likes, five shares. 00:01:08:13 - 00:01:09:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then over on 00:01:09:08 - 00:01:13:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry TikTok we had 151 views with 12 likes. 00:01:13:12 - 00:01:29:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The second post type that you're going to see is the Devo style clip. Now this one is included in the custom for use section, where I've included scripts and graphics and templates, and depending on what that type of post is. But this particular one, I use one of the scripts that I've included. 00:01:29:14 - 00:01:52:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so I shot this 1 in 1 take. You'll notice I'm going to cut off because I'm just getting ready to play pickup basketball on Tuesday morning of, before staff meeting this week. And so I just still had that outfit on. I grab my phone selfie style video, low pressure sitting in my office, and then I use this script, like I said, included in the social media pack, and I think it landed perfectly. 00:01:52:13 - 00:01:56:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But best of all, again, if you're watching here on YouTube, check this thing out. 00:01:56:00 - 00:02:06:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I edited this whole thing in the TikTok TikTok video. TikTok was that TikTok video editor at man, and it looks so professional. 00:02:06:24 - 00:02:10:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And here's how it performed on Instagram. We got 179 views, ten likes, 00:02:10:21 - 00:02:18:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry YouTube, 895 views, four likes and then TikTok 535 views and 55 likes. 00:02:18:17 - 00:02:40:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Post three is another one of the custom for you. This is the transition hook style video, so this one is a vertical piece of content where I include the start of the video and then here at the very end, it cuts to one of our, students in our ministry that's actually, acting out the rest of it, where he then stands up and he talks to people about God. 00:02:40:27 - 00:02:52:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And, sometimes we invite people to church. Sometimes we invite people to events to Sunday morning to Wednesday night, or we just simply talk about the importance of leaning in to God and trusting him. But what I want you to see here is look at this on 00:02:52:07 - 00:02:55:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Instagram. 427 views, 16 likes 00:02:55:01 - 00:02:59:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry YouTube 1686 views 16 likes. Check this one out 00:02:59:13 - 00:03:03:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry TikTok only 50 views zero likes. 00:03:03:13 - 00:03:03:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now I want to 00:03:03:23 - 00:03:20:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry stop here and talk for a second. What do you do when you experience a post like this? My guess is, you've done something like this before. You've tried something before, you've tried your hand at social media, and you've gotten a post like this one, right? Here's the thing. Just like basketball, many of you know I'm a huge basketball fan. 00:03:20:13 - 00:03:41:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Just like basketball, you have to trust the process. Sometimes you guard your kids to the best of your ability. And here is where we do turn around. Three pointer at the end of the shot clock and it goes in. But all you can do is control what you can control, get in position, practice and use and do the fundamentals and just continue to execute. 00:03:41:29 - 00:04:00:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Sometimes it goes well for you and other times not so well. But the fact of the matter is you just got to keep showing up. And that's really the game with social media. And that's what makes it so hard. I think a lot of times for youth pastors is to continue to show up when you experience less than, you know, less than encouraging results. 00:04:00:29 - 00:04:19:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Kind of like this one, right? And you'll notice this is a clunker, but it's a clunker on TikTok. And that's why I recommend diversifying the platforms that you use. I have analytics from YouTube. I have analytics from Instagram, and I like how both of those performed, even though on TikTok it didn't quite perform how I want it to. 00:04:19:16 - 00:04:33:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But that's okay because I still got over 2000 views, or at least close to it. I'm doing math in my head on the fly. Never a good recipe, but, I and I got over 2000 views, across two other platforms, even though I only got 50 on one. 00:04:33:28 - 00:05:11:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hey, youth pastors, church communications people, would you like to have your social media dialed in for the next 90 days, especially with summer on the horizon? Listen, that's exactly what you're going to get with the summer and seasonal social media packets. A new product that I'm rolling out exclusively on my Patreon is three months of custom strategic content for less than $20, and this is built specifically for busy youth pastors like you who want to stay active on TikTok and Instagram Reels and YouTube without spending ten plus hours a month figuring out what to post. 00:05:11:19 - 00:05:32:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So here's what you're going to get. You're going to get 50% of the content completely done. It's turnkey. Plug and play, post it and go. The other 50% is custom content for you to still shoot. However, I'm going to provide scripts and templates and frameworks so that your face, your students and your volunteers are who are seen on your social media feeds. 00:05:32:24 - 00:05:54:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is not just pretty graphics. This is a full blown social media strategy for the next three months, designed by someone who knows both youth ministry and digital ministry. And so if you're tired of scrambling for the cost of less than a pizza and frankly, more nourishing than a pizza, grab the seasonal social media pack today. Oh, and I almost forgot. 00:05:55:02 - 00:05:57:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Patreon members get it for free. 00:05:57:20 - 00:06:11:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right, post number four is the fourth and final one I'm going to share with you today. This one is again from the done for you section. And this woman is so plug and play. I've already created it for you, even though the thumbnail says I created none of these. 00:06:11:15 - 00:06:27:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I created all of these, but I created them for you to take and to do and to download. And I supply all of the different verse texts. And here's how it performed. Instagram 207 views eight likes YouTube 1198 views 62 likes 00:06:27:01 - 00:06:30:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry one comment from Jenna Jack which says I memorized this passage. 00:06:30:29 - 00:06:36:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then on TikTok 507 views 95 likes one comment to save 00:06:36:12 - 00:06:41:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry the summer social media pack includes eight different types of videos. 00:06:41:10 - 00:07:00:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I've shared four of them with you. Two of the ones I share with you were from the done for you section, and two of the ones I share with you are from the custom for you section. The custom for you are making your social media about you, you, your leaders, your students like making you guys the real heroes on your social media. 00:07:00:24 - 00:07:07:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But to channel my inner Billy Mays here, I want to say, but wait, there's more. 00:07:07:04 - 00:07:25:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I also pulled out one of our seven questions archetypes, and that's included in the bonus section of the content with over 100 different topic type ideas. And on this particular seven questions, we took it to our studio in our church, and I sat down with two of our students, two of our high school girls, and they played seven questions. 00:07:25:03 - 00:07:45:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry One of them was thinking of something in their head, and the category was beach item, and she was thinking of Beach Umbrella. And the other one had to guess. And for that one on Instagram, we had 431 views and 19 likes. On YouTube we had 227 views, eight likes, and on TikTok we had 963 views and 21 likes. 00:07:46:00 - 00:08:02:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We also then, with a couple of our high school boys, sat down and did a NBA dress section, which I do have words for these guys because nobody, nobody included the MVP of the NBA this year one Shay Gilgeous Alexander. Regardless of that, here's 00:08:02:18 - 00:08:08:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry how their post performed on our social media on Instagram 500 views, 17 likes, two comments, seven shares 00:08:08:27 - 00:08:17:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry YouTube 1244 views 13 likes TikTok 862 views 36 likes three 00:08:17:04 - 00:08:18:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry comments and two saves. 00:08:18:05 - 00:08:27:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And listen, the comments are not always the nicest, especially when you do sports stuff. So just be on the lookout for that. Protect your students. Or, you know, I don't know, maybe don't. 00:08:27:19 - 00:08:39:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But here's what I notice, right? Variety works. You'll notice I share with you, two from our PAC, two from Denver. Done for you, two from custom, and then two of my bonus ideas. 00:08:40:01 - 00:09:05:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All very different varieties. Some spiritual, some not spiritual, some plug and play, some where you have to do a little bit of editing, but every style hits differently. Some are more reflective, some were more scroll stopping. But the big takeaway is that I didn't actually create any of these from scratch. And so like I said, every single one of these comes straight out of my summer content social media pack. 00:09:05:17 - 00:09:10:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You get it for just 1799 is linked down below in the description, which is 00:09:10:17 - 00:09:32:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry three months worth of your social media strategy. And that's actually only $0.07 per post idea. It's insane value. You would not avoid buying something for $0.07 if it was going to really increase. And add so much value to your life. Just look at how performed on our social channels. 00:09:32:16 - 00:09:58:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry These are real results from a real student ministry in Dallas, Texas area. They can be your results to. All you got to do is head over to the link and download those. You won't. You will not regret it. Listen, I want you to save actual time this summer for actual ministry. Let me do the work. Let me play on your social media calendar and hey, I'll see you next week with more info and deep dives like this. 00:09:58:27 - 00:10:02:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And don't forget, as always my friends, to stay hybrid. youth ministry, summer social media, church social media, youth pastor, digital discipleship, brady shearer, pro church tools, hybrid ministry, youth group content, social media strategy, summer content pack, church instagram, church reels, youth ministry ideas, content for churches, youth pastor tools, digital ministry, church tiktok, what to post, instagram for youth ministry, social posts for church, student ministry content, discipleship online I didn’t make anything new this week. I literally just hit post. Let me show you exactly what I shared using my Summer Content Pack—and how it performed.
Plus two bonus pieces of content that were the true all-stars at the end of this video!

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/153

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 I didn't make anything new this week!
00:29 Post #1
01:13 Post #2
02:18 Post #3
03:05 When a post doesn't perform…
04:34 Easy Summer Social Media Strategy
06:06 Post #4
07:16 Bonus Post: 7 Questions
07:55 Bonus Post #2: Drafts
08:37 The Power of Variety

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I didn't make anything new this week.

00:00:02:10 - 00:00:06:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I downloaded, I posted, or I used the scripts included.

00:00:06:29 - 00:00:15:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to show you exactly what I use out of my summer social Media content pack, as well as let you know how it performed,

00:00:15:02 - 00:00:17:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
plus two bonus

00:00:17:08 - 00:00:23:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pieces of content that are also included in the pack. And I'm gonna let you know how those perform as well.

00:00:23:08 - 00:00:28:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They were really the all stars of the week. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00:00:28:17 - 00:00:44:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right, so first up, we have the what to do if archetype. This is included in the done for you section of the Summer social media pack. And this particular post if you're watching here on screen, which is why you should definitely be subscribe to our YouTube channel.

00:00:44:11 - 00:01:03:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you can see some of this stuff is because, this one says what to do if you're feeling anxious. We had a lot of great engagement on this, including some shares. One of our leaders shared the whole carousel to her Instagram story. Why? Because it's relevant to what people are going through. And so here's what's so cool on Instagram, we had

00:01:03:15 - 00:01:08:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
483 people view the post, 13 likes, five shares.

00:01:08:13 - 00:01:09:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then over on

00:01:09:08 - 00:01:13:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
TikTok we had 151 views with 12 likes.

00:01:13:12 - 00:01:29:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The second post type that you're going to see is the Devo style clip. Now this one is included in the custom for use section, where I've included scripts and graphics and templates, and depending on what that type of post is. But this particular one, I use one of the scripts that I've included.

00:01:29:14 - 00:01:52:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I shot this 1 in 1 take. You'll notice I'm going to cut off because I'm just getting ready to play pickup basketball on Tuesday morning of, before staff meeting this week. And so I just still had that outfit on. I grab my phone selfie style video, low pressure sitting in my office, and then I use this script, like I said, included in the social media pack, and I think it landed perfectly.

00:01:52:13 - 00:01:56:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But best of all, again, if you're watching here on YouTube, check this thing out.

00:01:56:00 - 00:02:06:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I edited this whole thing in the TikTok TikTok video. TikTok was that TikTok video editor at man, and it looks so professional.

00:02:06:24 - 00:02:10:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And here's how it performed on Instagram. We got 179 views, ten likes,

00:02:10:21 - 00:02:18:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube, 895 views, four likes and then TikTok 535 views and 55 likes.

00:02:18:17 - 00:02:40:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Post three is another one of the custom for you. This is the transition hook style video, so this one is a vertical piece of content where I include the start of the video and then here at the very end, it cuts to one of our, students in our ministry that's actually, acting out the rest of it, where he then stands up and he talks to people about God.

00:02:40:27 - 00:02:52:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, sometimes we invite people to church. Sometimes we invite people to events to Sunday morning to Wednesday night, or we just simply talk about the importance of leaning in to God and trusting him. But what I want you to see here is look at this on

00:02:52:07 - 00:02:55:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Instagram. 427 views, 16 likes

00:02:55:01 - 00:02:59:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube 1686 views 16 likes. Check this one out

00:02:59:13 - 00:03:03:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
TikTok only 50 views zero likes.

00:03:03:13 - 00:03:03:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now I want to

00:03:03:23 - 00:03:20:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
stop here and talk for a second. What do you do when you experience a post like this? My guess is, you've done something like this before. You've tried something before, you've tried your hand at social media, and you've gotten a post like this one, right? Here's the thing. Just like basketball, many of you know I'm a huge basketball fan.

00:03:20:13 - 00:03:41:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just like basketball, you have to trust the process. Sometimes you guard your kids to the best of your ability. And here is where we do turn around. Three pointer at the end of the shot clock and it goes in. But all you can do is control what you can control, get in position, practice and use and do the fundamentals and just continue to execute.

00:03:41:29 - 00:04:00:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Sometimes it goes well for you and other times not so well. But the fact of the matter is you just got to keep showing up. And that's really the game with social media. And that's what makes it so hard. I think a lot of times for youth pastors is to continue to show up when you experience less than, you know, less than encouraging results.

00:04:00:29 - 00:04:19:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Kind of like this one, right? And you'll notice this is a clunker, but it's a clunker on TikTok. And that's why I recommend diversifying the platforms that you use. I have analytics from YouTube. I have analytics from Instagram, and I like how both of those performed, even though on TikTok it didn't quite perform how I want it to.

00:04:19:16 - 00:04:33:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But that's okay because I still got over 2000 views, or at least close to it. I'm doing math in my head on the fly. Never a good recipe, but, I and I got over 2000 views, across two other platforms, even though I only got 50 on one.

00:04:33:28 - 00:05:11:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey, youth pastors, church communications people, would you like to have your social media dialed in for the next 90 days, especially with summer on the horizon? Listen, that's exactly what you're going to get with the summer and seasonal social media packets. A new product that I'm rolling out exclusively on my Patreon is three months of custom strategic content for less than $20, and this is built specifically for busy youth pastors like you who want to stay active on TikTok and Instagram Reels and YouTube without spending ten plus hours a month figuring out what to post.

00:05:11:19 - 00:05:32:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's what you're going to get. You're going to get 50% of the content completely done. It's turnkey. Plug and play, post it and go. The other 50% is custom content for you to still shoot. However, I'm going to provide scripts and templates and frameworks so that your face, your students and your volunteers are who are seen on your social media feeds.

00:05:32:24 - 00:05:54:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is not just pretty graphics. This is a full blown social media strategy for the next three months, designed by someone who knows both youth ministry and digital ministry. And so if you're tired of scrambling for the cost of less than a pizza and frankly, more nourishing than a pizza, grab the seasonal social media pack today. Oh, and I almost forgot.

00:05:55:02 - 00:05:57:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Patreon members get it for free.

00:05:57:20 - 00:06:11:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right, post number four is the fourth and final one I'm going to share with you today. This one is again from the done for you section. And this woman is so plug and play. I've already created it for you, even though the thumbnail says I created none of these.

00:06:11:15 - 00:06:27:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I created all of these, but I created them for you to take and to do and to download. And I supply all of the different verse texts. And here's how it performed. Instagram 207 views eight likes YouTube 1198 views 62 likes

00:06:27:01 - 00:06:30:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
one comment from Jenna Jack which says I memorized this passage.

00:06:30:29 - 00:06:36:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then on TikTok 507 views 95 likes one comment to save

00:06:36:12 - 00:06:41:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the summer social media pack includes eight different types of videos.

00:06:41:10 - 00:07:00:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I've shared four of them with you. Two of the ones I share with you were from the done for you section, and two of the ones I share with you are from the custom for you section. The custom for you are making your social media about you, you, your leaders, your students like making you guys the real heroes on your social media.

00:07:00:24 - 00:07:07:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But to channel my inner Billy Mays here, I want to say, but wait, there's more.

00:07:07:04 - 00:07:25:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I also pulled out one of our seven questions archetypes, and that's included in the bonus section of the content with over 100 different topic type ideas. And on this particular seven questions, we took it to our studio in our church, and I sat down with two of our students, two of our high school girls, and they played seven questions.

00:07:25:03 - 00:07:45:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One of them was thinking of something in their head, and the category was beach item, and she was thinking of Beach Umbrella. And the other one had to guess. And for that one on Instagram, we had 431 views and 19 likes. On YouTube we had 227 views, eight likes, and on TikTok we had 963 views and 21 likes.

00:07:46:00 - 00:08:02:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We also then, with a couple of our high school boys, sat down and did a NBA dress section, which I do have words for these guys because nobody, nobody included the MVP of the NBA this year one Shay Gilgeous Alexander. Regardless of that, here's

00:08:02:18 - 00:08:08:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
how their post performed on our social media on Instagram 500 views, 17 likes, two comments, seven shares

00:08:08:27 - 00:08:17:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube 1244 views 13 likes TikTok 862 views 36 likes three

00:08:17:04 - 00:08:18:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
comments and two saves.

00:08:18:05 - 00:08:27:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And listen, the comments are not always the nicest, especially when you do sports stuff. So just be on the lookout for that. Protect your students. Or, you know, I don't know, maybe don't.

00:08:27:19 - 00:08:39:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's what I notice, right? Variety works. You'll notice I share with you, two from our PAC, two from Denver. Done for you, two from custom, and then two of my bonus ideas.

00:08:40:01 - 00:09:05:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All very different varieties. Some spiritual, some not spiritual, some plug and play, some where you have to do a little bit of editing, but every style hits differently. Some are more reflective, some were more scroll stopping. But the big takeaway is that I didn't actually create any of these from scratch. And so like I said, every single one of these comes straight out of my summer content social media pack.

00:09:05:17 - 00:09:10:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You get it for just 1799 is linked down below in the description, which is

00:09:10:17 - 00:09:32:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
three months worth of your social media strategy. And that's actually only $0.07 per post idea. It's insane value. You would not avoid buying something for $0.07 if it was going to really increase. And add so much value to your life. Just look at how performed on our social channels.

00:09:32:16 - 00:09:58:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are real results from a real student ministry in Dallas, Texas area. They can be your results to. All you got to do is head over to the link and download those. You won't. You will not regret it. Listen, I want you to save actual time this summer for actual ministry. Let me do the work. Let me play on your social media calendar and hey, I'll see you next week with more info and deep dives like this.

00:09:58:27 - 00:10:02:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And don't forget, as always my friends, to stay hybrid.

]]> I didn’t make anything new this week. I literally just hit post. Let me show you exactly what I shared using my Summer Content Pack—and how it performed.
Plus two bonus pieces of content that were the true all-stars at the end of this video!

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=productshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

*🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! *
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SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/153

✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU
Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms

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

📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
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Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

--------------
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We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!
The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!
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--------------
🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 I didn't make anything new this week!
00:29 Post #1
01:13 Post #2
02:18 Post #3
03:05 When a post doesn't perform…
04:34 Easy Summer Social Media Strategy
06:06 Post #4
07:16 Bonus Post: 7 Questions
07:55 Bonus Post #2: Drafts
08:37 The Power of Variety

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I didn't make anything new this week.

00:00:02:10 - 00:00:06:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I downloaded, I posted, or I used the scripts included.

00:00:06:29 - 00:00:15:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to show you exactly what I use out of my summer social Media content pack, as well as let you know how it performed,

00:00:15:02 - 00:00:17:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
plus two bonus

00:00:17:08 - 00:00:23:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pieces of content that are also included in the pack. And I'm gonna let you know how those perform as well.

00:00:23:08 - 00:00:28:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They were really the all stars of the week. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00:00:28:17 - 00:00:44:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right, so first up, we have the what to do if archetype. This is included in the done for you section of the Summer social media pack. And this particular post if you're watching here on screen, which is why you should definitely be subscribe to our YouTube channel.

00:00:44:11 - 00:01:03:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you can see some of this stuff is because, this one says what to do if you're feeling anxious. We had a lot of great engagement on this, including some shares. One of our leaders shared the whole carousel to her Instagram story. Why? Because it's relevant to what people are going through. And so here's what's so cool on Instagram, we had

00:01:03:15 - 00:01:08:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
483 people view the post, 13 likes, five shares.

00:01:08:13 - 00:01:09:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then over on

00:01:09:08 - 00:01:13:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
TikTok we had 151 views with 12 likes.

00:01:13:12 - 00:01:29:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The second post type that you're going to see is the Devo style clip. Now this one is included in the custom for use section, where I've included scripts and graphics and templates, and depending on what that type of post is. But this particular one, I use one of the scripts that I've included.

00:01:29:14 - 00:01:52:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I shot this 1 in 1 take. You'll notice I'm going to cut off because I'm just getting ready to play pickup basketball on Tuesday morning of, before staff meeting this week. And so I just still had that outfit on. I grab my phone selfie style video, low pressure sitting in my office, and then I use this script, like I said, included in the social media pack, and I think it landed perfectly.

00:01:52:13 - 00:01:56:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But best of all, again, if you're watching here on YouTube, check this thing out.

00:01:56:00 - 00:02:06:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I edited this whole thing in the TikTok TikTok video. TikTok was that TikTok video editor at man, and it looks so professional.

00:02:06:24 - 00:02:10:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And here's how it performed on Instagram. We got 179 views, ten likes,

00:02:10:21 - 00:02:18:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube, 895 views, four likes and then TikTok 535 views and 55 likes.

00:02:18:17 - 00:02:40:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Post three is another one of the custom for you. This is the transition hook style video, so this one is a vertical piece of content where I include the start of the video and then here at the very end, it cuts to one of our, students in our ministry that's actually, acting out the rest of it, where he then stands up and he talks to people about God.

00:02:40:27 - 00:02:52:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, sometimes we invite people to church. Sometimes we invite people to events to Sunday morning to Wednesday night, or we just simply talk about the importance of leaning in to God and trusting him. But what I want you to see here is look at this on

00:02:52:07 - 00:02:55:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Instagram. 427 views, 16 likes

00:02:55:01 - 00:02:59:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube 1686 views 16 likes. Check this one out

00:02:59:13 - 00:03:03:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
TikTok only 50 views zero likes.

00:03:03:13 - 00:03:03:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now I want to

00:03:03:23 - 00:03:20:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
stop here and talk for a second. What do you do when you experience a post like this? My guess is, you've done something like this before. You've tried something before, you've tried your hand at social media, and you've gotten a post like this one, right? Here's the thing. Just like basketball, many of you know I'm a huge basketball fan.

00:03:20:13 - 00:03:41:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just like basketball, you have to trust the process. Sometimes you guard your kids to the best of your ability. And here is where we do turn around. Three pointer at the end of the shot clock and it goes in. But all you can do is control what you can control, get in position, practice and use and do the fundamentals and just continue to execute.

00:03:41:29 - 00:04:00:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Sometimes it goes well for you and other times not so well. But the fact of the matter is you just got to keep showing up. And that's really the game with social media. And that's what makes it so hard. I think a lot of times for youth pastors is to continue to show up when you experience less than, you know, less than encouraging results.

00:04:00:29 - 00:04:19:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Kind of like this one, right? And you'll notice this is a clunker, but it's a clunker on TikTok. And that's why I recommend diversifying the platforms that you use. I have analytics from YouTube. I have analytics from Instagram, and I like how both of those performed, even though on TikTok it didn't quite perform how I want it to.

00:04:19:16 - 00:04:33:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But that's okay because I still got over 2000 views, or at least close to it. I'm doing math in my head on the fly. Never a good recipe, but, I and I got over 2000 views, across two other platforms, even though I only got 50 on one.

00:04:33:28 - 00:05:11:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey, youth pastors, church communications people, would you like to have your social media dialed in for the next 90 days, especially with summer on the horizon? Listen, that's exactly what you're going to get with the summer and seasonal social media packets. A new product that I'm rolling out exclusively on my Patreon is three months of custom strategic content for less than $20, and this is built specifically for busy youth pastors like you who want to stay active on TikTok and Instagram Reels and YouTube without spending ten plus hours a month figuring out what to post.

00:05:11:19 - 00:05:32:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's what you're going to get. You're going to get 50% of the content completely done. It's turnkey. Plug and play, post it and go. The other 50% is custom content for you to still shoot. However, I'm going to provide scripts and templates and frameworks so that your face, your students and your volunteers are who are seen on your social media feeds.

00:05:32:24 - 00:05:54:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is not just pretty graphics. This is a full blown social media strategy for the next three months, designed by someone who knows both youth ministry and digital ministry. And so if you're tired of scrambling for the cost of less than a pizza and frankly, more nourishing than a pizza, grab the seasonal social media pack today. Oh, and I almost forgot.

00:05:55:02 - 00:05:57:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Patreon members get it for free.

00:05:57:20 - 00:06:11:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right, post number four is the fourth and final one I'm going to share with you today. This one is again from the done for you section. And this woman is so plug and play. I've already created it for you, even though the thumbnail says I created none of these.

00:06:11:15 - 00:06:27:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I created all of these, but I created them for you to take and to do and to download. And I supply all of the different verse texts. And here's how it performed. Instagram 207 views eight likes YouTube 1198 views 62 likes

00:06:27:01 - 00:06:30:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
one comment from Jenna Jack which says I memorized this passage.

00:06:30:29 - 00:06:36:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then on TikTok 507 views 95 likes one comment to save

00:06:36:12 - 00:06:41:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the summer social media pack includes eight different types of videos.

00:06:41:10 - 00:07:00:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I've shared four of them with you. Two of the ones I share with you were from the done for you section, and two of the ones I share with you are from the custom for you section. The custom for you are making your social media about you, you, your leaders, your students like making you guys the real heroes on your social media.

00:07:00:24 - 00:07:07:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But to channel my inner Billy Mays here, I want to say, but wait, there's more.

00:07:07:04 - 00:07:25:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I also pulled out one of our seven questions archetypes, and that's included in the bonus section of the content with over 100 different topic type ideas. And on this particular seven questions, we took it to our studio in our church, and I sat down with two of our students, two of our high school girls, and they played seven questions.

00:07:25:03 - 00:07:45:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One of them was thinking of something in their head, and the category was beach item, and she was thinking of Beach Umbrella. And the other one had to guess. And for that one on Instagram, we had 431 views and 19 likes. On YouTube we had 227 views, eight likes, and on TikTok we had 963 views and 21 likes.

00:07:46:00 - 00:08:02:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We also then, with a couple of our high school boys, sat down and did a NBA dress section, which I do have words for these guys because nobody, nobody included the MVP of the NBA this year one Shay Gilgeous Alexander. Regardless of that, here's

00:08:02:18 - 00:08:08:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
how their post performed on our social media on Instagram 500 views, 17 likes, two comments, seven shares

00:08:08:27 - 00:08:17:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube 1244 views 13 likes TikTok 862 views 36 likes three

00:08:17:04 - 00:08:18:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
comments and two saves.

00:08:18:05 - 00:08:27:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And listen, the comments are not always the nicest, especially when you do sports stuff. So just be on the lookout for that. Protect your students. Or, you know, I don't know, maybe don't.

00:08:27:19 - 00:08:39:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's what I notice, right? Variety works. You'll notice I share with you, two from our PAC, two from Denver. Done for you, two from custom, and then two of my bonus ideas.

00:08:40:01 - 00:09:05:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All very different varieties. Some spiritual, some not spiritual, some plug and play, some where you have to do a little bit of editing, but every style hits differently. Some are more reflective, some were more scroll stopping. But the big takeaway is that I didn't actually create any of these from scratch. And so like I said, every single one of these comes straight out of my summer content social media pack.

00:09:05:17 - 00:09:10:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You get it for just 1799 is linked down below in the description, which is

00:09:10:17 - 00:09:32:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
three months worth of your social media strategy. And that's actually only $0.07 per post idea. It's insane value. You would not avoid buying something for $0.07 if it was going to really increase. And add so much value to your life. Just look at how performed on our social channels.

00:09:32:16 - 00:09:58:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are real results from a real student ministry in Dallas, Texas area. They can be your results to. All you got to do is head over to the link and download those. You won't. You will not regret it. Listen, I want you to save actual time this summer for actual ministry. Let me do the work. Let me play on your social media calendar and hey, I'll see you next week with more info and deep dives like this.

00:09:58:27 - 00:10:02:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And don't forget, as always my friends, to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 148: How I’m Doing 3 Months of Content with THIS One Resource https://www.hybridministry.xyz/148 c79a0b09-243c-4014-a15d-b50527f0c93d Thu, 08 May 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 148 How I’m Doing 3 Months of Content with THIS One Resource full Nick Clason This is your youth ministry summer social media game-changer. With 3 months of ready-to-go posts, training videos, and templates, you’ll never stress about what to post again. Designed for youth pastors by a youth pastor using a proven hybrid ministry model. 20:28 no This is your youth ministry summer social media game-changer. With 3 months of ready-to-go posts, training videos, and templates, you’ll never stress about what to post again. Designed for youth pastors by a youth pastor using a proven hybrid ministry model. ☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=productsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link *🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/148 //TRY OPUS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //SOCIAL CHALLENGE PLAYLIST https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s ✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms 📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Digital vs In-Person Ministry 01:02 Why Hybrid Ministry Matters 06:47 Summer Social Media 09:22 Gear You’ll Need 09:39 Summer Social Posting Schedule 10:01 Done For You 1 10:21 Done For You 2 10:41 Done For You 3 11:11 Done For You 4 11:51 Custom For You 1 13:26 Custom For You 2 15:57 Custom For You 3 16:51 Custom For You 4 17:40 Bonus Idea -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:09:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In this video, we're going to explore the world between digital ministry and in-person ministry, a thing that I like to call hybrid 00:00:09:27 - 00:00:37:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry ministry. Welcome to the hybrid Ministry show, My friends. And in today's episode, what I want to look at is I want to look at the competition between hybrid ministry and in-person ministry. In fact, linked right here at the very top of the video is one of my favorite episodes I've ever done, where my friend Josh sat down with me and he he asked me to take an in-person youth ministry program and make it hybrid or bring about a hybrid component. 00:00:37:07 - 00:00:55:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we're going to explore what exactly I mean by that. What exactly is digital ministry? And make sure you stick around to the end, because I have a resource that I think will help you absolutely crush, lock in and make your summer youth ministry social media absolutely 00:00:55:14 - 00:00:59:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry pop. I have a resource for you. It's going to blow your mind. 00:00:59:17 - 00:01:19:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Klassen. I'm a youth pastor of 14.5 years, and I have been pursuing this thing called hybrid ministry for a while now. And let me just help you understand some 00:01:19:15 - 00:01:20:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry of the reasons why. 00:01:20:12 - 00:01:24:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry For me. So for me, there are kind of three core 00:01:24:15 - 00:01:30:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry statistics. There's several out there, honestly, but three that really stick with me is that Gen 00:01:30:21 - 00:01:45:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Z. And we can assume Gen Alpha because we don't have data yet on them. But but this we can assume this to be true. Gen z, Gen Alpha. They use their mobile device more than they use any other device combined. 00:01:45:08 - 00:02:03:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Furthermore, 69% of students own a smartphone, but I get this the age of 12. We do have data for them, and then also 90%, according to Pew Research, use YouTube. 90% of teenagers say that they use YouTube. And I get it, man. Like if you're a youth 00:02:03:06 - 00:02:08:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry pastor, you're like, phones are a distraction. Gotta get rid of, use paper Bibles. 00:02:08:19 - 00:02:36:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, digital Bibles don't count all the things like I've heard it. I've been there. I've been a part of youth ministry for a long time. But there's a verse in Jeremiah chapter 29, no, not 2911, but right before that verse, Jeremiah is having a conversation with God. And here's what God says to Jeremiah. He says you should build homes, plan to stay, plant gardens, eat the foods that they produce, marry and have children, and find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. 00:02:36:18 - 00:02:41:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Multiply. Do not dwindle away. But you gotta understand the context here, 00:02:41:21 - 00:03:04:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry which we don't do for Jeremiah 2011 very often, is that the Israelites are stuck as captives in Babylon, and what God is telling Jeremiah to do is he's saying, stop complaining. Stop trying to find a way out. Stop trying to leave. Instead, invest in where you live and youth pastors, pastors, church communications people, discipleship pastors, college pastors. 00:03:04:23 - 00:03:22:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Digital ministry is not going anywhere. You may not like it. You may not even think it's the most effective. But the majority of millennials, Gen Z and we can assume Generation Alpha, say that a digital version of church is valuable to them and one that they would lean into, and it doesn't 00:03:22:01 - 00:03:24:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry mean that their in-person attendance is going to go away. 00:03:24:22 - 00:03:43:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's a lot of the fears of us in church leadership is that if we offer a digital component, they're just going to choose that instead of, coming to church in person. But far from it. We're also seeing in this generation, more than even older generations, that community is so much more important to them. So they don't want to forsake the in-person moments. 00:03:43:07 - 00:04:06:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so when we take the in-person moments and the best that it has to offer, when we take the digital things and the best it has to offer, and we find that sweet spot right in the middle, we find what I call hybrid ministry. A great example of it is honestly, Home Depot. And think about it like you throw on your new balances and you throw on your cargo shorts on on a Saturday morning, you got a project and then you're going Home Depot. 00:04:07:01 - 00:04:29:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And but you don't really have like an agenda, right? You're just walking around. You're just kind of like you're taking in the smell of lumber and you're just you're just kind of exploring what the hallways and the aisles of Home Depot have to offer other times, and then, like, you don't have time, right? You go online, you make an order so that it's delivered to your doorstep because you don't have time to just live out your full dad mode experience. 00:04:29:15 - 00:04:37:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But my favorite, honestly version to experience Home Depot is while I'm in the store on their app because their app. If you haven't seen it yet, their app shows you 00:04:37:05 - 00:05:01:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry where every single thing in their entire store is located. And so that's what I think we should be doing as youth pastors. Finding a way to intersect where teenagers already admitted they're spending their time, not forsaking the good elements of gathering together and community and accountability and all those things, but also leaning into this hybrid sort of moment. 00:05:01:08 - 00:05:19:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, well, I want to do is I want to give you one of the easiest ways to kind of to kind of step foot into this hybrid space. And it's by up taking your social media engagement. Now, here's the thing. A lot of youth pastors, and if you've been following me along on this channel for a while, posts 00:05:19:28 - 00:05:24:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry announcements on their feed, just assuming that social media is another announcement platform. 00:05:24:27 - 00:05:45:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But the reality is that that's not what social media is best made for. It doesn't mean that we can't still get the word out about what we have going on, but what it does mean, and what we should be doing is that we should be intersecting and invading the lives of students on the places that they spend their time, including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. 00:05:45:07 - 00:05:51:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Remember, 90% teenagers say that they use YouTube in the ways that they're consuming it reels TikTok videos and 00:05:51:27 - 00:06:05:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry YouTube shorts. And so the good news is that you can create the same type of content short form, vertical based video that goes on TikTok, that goes on Instagram, that goes on YouTube, and maybe even Facebook if you choose to post it there as well. 00:06:05:17 - 00:06:25:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But you don't have to create multiple different types of content like I did when I first started in youth ministry 15 years ago. Instead, you post that, you know, 180 or 1080 by 1920, vertical based video. And then you post it in all the places that you want to post it. Don't have a TikTok account, no 00:06:25:26 - 00:06:27:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry video post on Instagram and YouTube. 00:06:27:22 - 00:06:48:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Don't have a YouTube account? No big deal. Post on TikTok and Instagram. Don't have an Instagram account? No problem. Post on TikTok and YouTube. Don't have any of them? Start a YouTube account and start posting YouTube shorts because 90% of teenagers self-identify that they're on it. So what should you post? I'm glad that you asked. Let's dive! 00:06:48:25 - 00:07:10:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So I'm so excited to roll this out because I can't lie, I have been looking for a thing to provide for youth pastors on a social media platform. Landscape that is custom. That's not just a bunch of pretty graphics, but also doesn't add more work to your plate. And I can't lie, I've been wrestling with what kind of service can I offer? 00:07:10:21 - 00:07:37:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I think I have something, at least messaging wise, for youth pastors, but once they get into it becomes a lot of work and it gets a little bit overwhelming. So if you're watching here on screen, you'll see my screen. And this is what I'm offering. So I'm offering this brand new program called Seasonal Social Media, which essentially is 40 posts, three months worth. 00:07:37:02 - 00:07:58:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you follow my recommended posting strategy, I recommend that youth pastors post three times per week and this will satisfy that reality. And so what you get is three months of custom, youth, ministry, social media content and it all costs less than $20. And here's the good news. Just like this ad copy here says it's not just content. 00:07:58:06 - 00:08:19:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It really is a full social media strategy included in the download. If you choose to go ahead and do this, is you get my complete Hybrid Strategy guide, which will detail and outline a lot of what I have just been saying on this video and I've been saying in other podcasts for years and years and years. And so this will lay the foundation and the philosophy. 00:08:19:15 - 00:08:46:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then this is what you're actually going to get. You're going to, take this, this social media, package. And it's got two different categories, and it's got completely done for you content that you literally download and you post and you plug and you play, set it and forget it. The other 50% is custom content. So you're going to be filming this, but the good news is you don't need to film every single thing yourself. 00:08:46:17 - 00:09:04:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You don't need to edit everything yourself. And if you don't have any of those skills, I'll walk you through how to do all of that on this podcast, as well as in this little document here. If you go ahead and download this thing where you can import some of what I have to offer, that's custom, but I have templates and I have layovers and I have scripts and I have things that you can do 00:09:04:28 - 00:09:15:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and things that you should say, and all of those things that you can edit in an in-app editor, like a TikTok or an Instagram Reels, or even over on something like Cap Cut. 00:09:15:17 - 00:09:32:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you got, like I said, you got done for you. You got things that are still left for you to shoot, but I provide all the assets that you're going to need for it. Here are things that you can buy all you really, honestly need is your camera phone. You can upgrade some microphones, which I do recommend upgrading some microphones. 00:09:32:03 - 00:09:50:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You can check out some of those links there. And optionally if you want to buy a better camera, if you have a little bit of budget, here's what I recommend. Here is also your posting schedule. Okay, so the week of June 2nd post this video, then post this video, then post this video the week of June 9th. 00:09:50:20 - 00:10:09:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This video, this video, this video all the way on through. Don't like my schedule? No big deal. Make your own. All right. Here you go. But what's going to happen? Let me show you first when you open these up. Here's what the done for you package looks like in, you open it up and there are four different types of videos. 00:10:09:15 - 00:10:25:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, there are Bible verse videos and there are five different Bible verse videos. And so what you can do is you'll see right here, you just very simply posted Bible verse, add a caption and you're good to go. This one right here is one of my all time favorites a sell it over and download youth ministry as well. 00:10:25:18 - 00:10:47:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But it is emoji phraseology and I combine these two together because I used to make these for stories, but now I'm trying to make them for reals. So see if you can comment what this summer edition emoji phraseology is intending to say. The correct answer of courses. Sunburn. You continue on down. I have five of those. And here I have five different spiritual practice videos. 00:10:47:09 - 00:11:08:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So for example, a student scrolling and they stop across one of your reels or TikToks or YouTubes that you post and you encourage them to actually lean in to some spiritual practices that they can actually, they can actually, while they're on social media, connect with God in a real and meaningful way. And so this one is a 32nd take time to pray. 00:11:08:23 - 00:11:32:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this timer counts down that. And then lastly this is the only non video post. These are like carousel based posts like that you can post on Instagram. But the good news once again you can also post photo slides on TikTok. And you can also post that on your YouTube, post feed as well on your on your community use, because the community tab now is just called the Post Feed. 00:11:32:12 - 00:11:52:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so I created these. What do you do if you feel anxious. And it's got Bible verses, along with the header of an instruction of what you can do. And I got it for five different categories about anxiety, loneliness, giving up temptation or anger. So those are the done for you. Those are turnkey okay. Here's the custom for you. 00:11:52:12 - 00:12:18:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right. So in every single one of these there's an instruction. And then the instruction video tells you exactly what to do along with gives you an example along with in most cases gives you some sort of script. So in this case this is Bible trivia. You hop on your cell phone, you shoot a selfie style video under 60s, and you simply ask these questions and all you gotta do is print this out, or pull this up on your computer screen and read it directly to the camera. 00:12:18:13 - 00:12:23:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then when you're done, you can go ahead and you can, post a video and you can 00:12:23:06 - 00:12:37:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry overlay it with one of these overlays. In fact, right here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube, is an example of me editing a video that I did for our ministry in our context, using this exact same overlay, using the TikTok, video editor. 00:12:38:05 - 00:13:00:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry When I was done and I posted it, TikTok now auto saved my video without a watermark, and so then I could go to Instagram and post that same video. And then I could also go over to YouTube shorts and post that exact same video. If you don't have TikTok, you can also use it in the Instagram Reels editor by using the little sticker, button and then put this in, drag it to full screen. 00:13:00:14 - 00:13:21:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And the only thing you're probably gonna have to do at the end, because Instagram doesn't auto save your reels that you post, go on to Google Chrome, search it, download Instagram reel without watermark, save that, video, and then go post it wherever else you choose to post it. Perhaps TikTok or perhaps YouTube. Let me just recommend, if you do have TikTok, just start there. 00:13:21:05 - 00:13:26:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it's a lot easier than some of these other platforms to start with. So that's Bible trivia. This 00:13:26:13 - 00:13:44:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry one right here is either your devotional or your recap content. So let me let me speak to what your options are here. You preach a sermon every week, so get on your cellphone again. Self-styled video lesson 60s. And just riff on one of the points of your last sermon. 00:13:44:17 - 00:14:00:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So, for example, you talked about God is Love. Pull up in your camera and say, you know what? Sometimes it's hard to love people and go on and talk for 60s I know you can do it. All right. Here are three best practices with that. Number one, always add a caption. Number two 00:14:00:27 - 00:14:03:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry add some sort of title on screen. 00:14:03:13 - 00:14:04:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right. And then number three 00:14:04:17 - 00:14:09:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry add music. And then a bonus. Best practice a hack is do 00:14:09:06 - 00:14:18:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry not listen to me. Do not reference your in-person gathering. Not that you shouldn't. And other people shouldn't have to know about it. But 00:14:18:15 - 00:14:25:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry don't say something like, you know, last Wednesday we talked about such, such and such. Leave that be on social media. 00:14:25:11 - 00:14:49:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry People are stumbling upon your content organically. They have no frame of reference for what you're talking about. So you can both serve your current students because they're going to remember what you just talked about, along with any potential new viewers. The other thing you do is if you're only given 60s, which is what I recommend to keep under, is that if you say under 60s saying, you know, last Wednesday night, it was great. 00:14:49:27 - 00:15:13:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We had a lot of good time. Remember that dessert auction we had? Don't forget those of you that were there. And maybe if you weren't, that we talked about love, you just wasted, like, five, eight, seven seconds of your precious 62nd real estate. Now, you don't have to just recap your videos. You can do like if you click on this little example here, this is a a clip from a long form message that that I do, which is what I recommend doing. 00:15:13:20 - 00:15:26:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you see my hybrid strategy guys also included in here, I recommend long form versions of videos posted on YouTube. But for right now, if you're just downloading this pack and you're just focusing on social media, do some 00:15:26:01 - 00:15:37:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry sort of devotional recap. If you don't have a video of your sermon, if you do, go ahead and, throw it into a service like Opus Stock Pro, which is what we use, to clip our long form down into short form. 00:15:38:03 - 00:15:59:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But again, if not just use a Devo style, video or, if you don't have like a recap or something to say, you can use some of these, scripts that I've created that you can, just follow verbatim, follow some of the instructions, and you can post those and you'll be good to go. These right here are called man on the street style interviews. 00:15:59:25 - 00:16:32:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry These are one of the lowest hanging fruit ways to, interact with your students. You basically go around, you just interview them. And this is where you get any, like, a microphone, to buy, you can get a super cheap USB Bluetooth microphone that plugs directly into your phone, but you go around, you interview students. And what I always recommend doing is interviewing 5 to 8 students, ask them these same five questions, and then you can splice that up again in something like the TikTok editor or in something like Cap Cut and I've also created this transparent overlays that you can use that you can import in. 00:16:32:29 - 00:16:50:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so the question would you rather sing instead of speak, or would you have to dance everywhere? Would you rather hop like a frog or moo whenever you get nervous? These are completely included. You can put those over. You can look like a pro. Add captions from the in-app editor that does it for you completely. For free, and you're off to the races. 00:16:50:29 - 00:17:09:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And the last one. Here are some of my favorite style videos. These transition invite style videos. This is the best way to invite people to what's going on at your church. And so what I've done is I've created these videos here that are the beginning of a hook. And so you see right here, this guy is skateboarding. Immediately he falls on this railing right here. 00:17:09:11 - 00:17:28:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what you would do as you would cut to a student on a railing somewhere else, sitting just like that, acting like he's a guy falling off the skateboard. And then he says, hey man, come to youth Wednesday night. We'd love to see you. And I gave you five of these that you can do, right? Including right here in the instruction video, an example with inspiration. 00:17:28:22 - 00:17:52:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I think it's inspiration from this, this bike video right here. Now, that's for three posts, you know, per week. What if you got bandwidth for more? Well, right here is your, bonus content. 100 different ideas here. 100 social challenge ideas. This is what we do in our ministry. We post two times a day, five days a week. 00:17:52:19 - 00:18:15:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so the way that we accomplish that is by this is from this playlist right here, linked right here in this document. And then here all of the bonus ideas and ways that you can not only see examples, but also bonus content to be able to see, you know what what our students are up to, and different like different categories that you can use for these different challenge style videos. 00:18:15:19 - 00:18:24:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is the summer social media pack. All right. This will last you for three months. And so you download it now 00:18:24:29 - 00:18:39:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry you got 50% film your own content. And again you can you can do selfie style videos in your office for these first two right here. And then you can hand these off to a volunteer on any given Wednesday or any given Sunday night. 00:18:39:22 - 00:19:12:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But I just want to encourage you that it is time to stop ignoring digital and social media. It is the way of the future is where our students are again, not as Hebrews 1024 and 25 says, not forsaking and neglecting, meeting together, but we're using the medium of the day. Just like the Apostle Paul wrote and sent letters, we're using the medium of the day that we have an advantage on of many other people in church history, because they wouldn't have had this kind of access into the lives of the people that they're trying to minister to. 00:19:12:04 - 00:19:31:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's why I think hybrid ministry is so important, and that's why I think that this product is so valuable. So check it out down below, link in the description. And let me just say, I also post and host a weekly bonus podcast where I talk about everything I'm doing in hybrid ministry, everything I'm doing on social media, and everything I'm doing in my programing. 00:19:32:02 - 00:19:53:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I'm only doing it for $4 per month. If you become a Patreon, a hybrid here for $4 a month, you will get this social media pack which is valued at greater than what, three months worth it? Becoming a Patreon will be. You will get it completely for free or at least completely included in your membership. $4 a month. 00:19:53:23 - 00:20:15:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Charge it to your church budget. Call it a developing expense because it's what it is. It's a professional expense for you to become more creative, more hybrid, in your programing and on your social media. And it'll also unlock this seasonal summer, social media pack, which we're going to start releasing for every single season. And this right here is the summer version. 00:20:15:04 - 00:20:28:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I hope you guys found this episode helpful. Share it with a friend. Let somebody know that the summer season the social media pack is finally here. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid. youth ministry, youth pastor, social media strategy, youth group content, church social media, done for you youth content, youth ministry ideas, hybrid ministry, sermon recap, Instagram reels for church, TikTok youth ministry, summer youth ministry, ministry content calendar, church Instagram ideas, Bible verse reels, spiritual practices video, youth ministry planning, student ministry social media, church video ideas, content for youth pastors, Gen Z ministry tools, digital discipleship This is your youth ministry summer social media game-changer. With 3 months of ready-to-go posts, training videos, and templates, you’ll never stress about what to post again. Designed for youth pastors by a youth pastor using a proven hybrid ministry model.

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Digital vs In-Person Ministry
01:02 Why Hybrid Ministry Matters
06:47 Summer Social Media
09:22 Gear You’ll Need
09:39 Summer Social Posting Schedule
10:01 Done For You 1
10:21 Done For You 2
10:41 Done For You 3
11:11 Done For You 4
11:51 Custom For You 1
13:26 Custom For You 2
15:57 Custom For You 3
16:51 Custom For You 4
17:40 Bonus Idea

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:09:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this video, we're going to explore the world between digital ministry and in-person ministry, a thing that I like to call hybrid

00:00:09:27 - 00:00:37:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
ministry. Welcome to the hybrid Ministry show, My friends. And in today's episode, what I want to look at is I want to look at the competition between hybrid ministry and in-person ministry. In fact, linked right here at the very top of the video is one of my favorite episodes I've ever done, where my friend Josh sat down with me and he he asked me to take an in-person youth ministry program and make it hybrid or bring about a hybrid component.

00:00:37:07 - 00:00:55:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're going to explore what exactly I mean by that. What exactly is digital ministry? And make sure you stick around to the end, because I have a resource that I think will help you absolutely crush, lock in and make your summer youth ministry social media absolutely

00:00:55:14 - 00:00:59:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pop. I have a resource for you. It's going to blow your mind.

00:00:59:17 - 00:01:19:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Klassen. I'm a youth pastor of 14.5 years, and I have been pursuing this thing called hybrid ministry for a while now. And let me just help you understand some

00:01:19:15 - 00:01:20:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of the reasons why.

00:01:20:12 - 00:01:24:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For me. So for me, there are kind of three core

00:01:24:15 - 00:01:30:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
statistics. There's several out there, honestly, but three that really stick with me is that Gen

00:01:30:21 - 00:01:45:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Z. And we can assume Gen Alpha because we don't have data yet on them. But but this we can assume this to be true. Gen z, Gen Alpha. They use their mobile device more than they use any other device combined.

00:01:45:08 - 00:02:03:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Furthermore, 69% of students own a smartphone, but I get this the age of 12. We do have data for them, and then also 90%, according to Pew Research, use YouTube. 90% of teenagers say that they use YouTube. And I get it, man. Like if you're a youth

00:02:03:06 - 00:02:08:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pastor, you're like, phones are a distraction. Gotta get rid of, use paper Bibles.

00:02:08:19 - 00:02:36:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, digital Bibles don't count all the things like I've heard it. I've been there. I've been a part of youth ministry for a long time. But there's a verse in Jeremiah chapter 29, no, not 2911, but right before that verse, Jeremiah is having a conversation with God. And here's what God says to Jeremiah. He says you should build homes, plan to stay, plant gardens, eat the foods that they produce, marry and have children, and find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren.

00:02:36:18 - 00:02:41:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Multiply. Do not dwindle away. But you gotta understand the context here,

00:02:41:21 - 00:03:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
which we don't do for Jeremiah 2011 very often, is that the Israelites are stuck as captives in Babylon, and what God is telling Jeremiah to do is he's saying, stop complaining. Stop trying to find a way out. Stop trying to leave. Instead, invest in where you live and youth pastors, pastors, church communications people, discipleship pastors, college pastors.

00:03:04:23 - 00:03:22:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Digital ministry is not going anywhere. You may not like it. You may not even think it's the most effective. But the majority of millennials, Gen Z and we can assume Generation Alpha, say that a digital version of church is valuable to them and one that they would lean into, and it doesn't

00:03:22:01 - 00:03:24:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
mean that their in-person attendance is going to go away.

00:03:24:22 - 00:03:43:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a lot of the fears of us in church leadership is that if we offer a digital component, they're just going to choose that instead of, coming to church in person. But far from it. We're also seeing in this generation, more than even older generations, that community is so much more important to them. So they don't want to forsake the in-person moments.

00:03:43:07 - 00:04:06:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when we take the in-person moments and the best that it has to offer, when we take the digital things and the best it has to offer, and we find that sweet spot right in the middle, we find what I call hybrid ministry. A great example of it is honestly, Home Depot. And think about it like you throw on your new balances and you throw on your cargo shorts on on a Saturday morning, you got a project and then you're going Home Depot.

00:04:07:01 - 00:04:29:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And but you don't really have like an agenda, right? You're just walking around. You're just kind of like you're taking in the smell of lumber and you're just you're just kind of exploring what the hallways and the aisles of Home Depot have to offer other times, and then, like, you don't have time, right? You go online, you make an order so that it's delivered to your doorstep because you don't have time to just live out your full dad mode experience.

00:04:29:15 - 00:04:37:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But my favorite, honestly version to experience Home Depot is while I'm in the store on their app because their app. If you haven't seen it yet, their app shows you

00:04:37:05 - 00:05:01:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
where every single thing in their entire store is located. And so that's what I think we should be doing as youth pastors. Finding a way to intersect where teenagers already admitted they're spending their time, not forsaking the good elements of gathering together and community and accountability and all those things, but also leaning into this hybrid sort of moment.

00:05:01:08 - 00:05:19:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, well, I want to do is I want to give you one of the easiest ways to kind of to kind of step foot into this hybrid space. And it's by up taking your social media engagement. Now, here's the thing. A lot of youth pastors, and if you've been following me along on this channel for a while, posts

00:05:19:28 - 00:05:24:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
announcements on their feed, just assuming that social media is another announcement platform.

00:05:24:27 - 00:05:45:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the reality is that that's not what social media is best made for. It doesn't mean that we can't still get the word out about what we have going on, but what it does mean, and what we should be doing is that we should be intersecting and invading the lives of students on the places that they spend their time, including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

00:05:45:07 - 00:05:51:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Remember, 90% teenagers say that they use YouTube in the ways that they're consuming it reels TikTok videos and

00:05:51:27 - 00:06:05:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube shorts. And so the good news is that you can create the same type of content short form, vertical based video that goes on TikTok, that goes on Instagram, that goes on YouTube, and maybe even Facebook if you choose to post it there as well.

00:06:05:17 - 00:06:25:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But you don't have to create multiple different types of content like I did when I first started in youth ministry 15 years ago. Instead, you post that, you know, 180 or 1080 by 1920, vertical based video. And then you post it in all the places that you want to post it. Don't have a TikTok account, no

00:06:25:26 - 00:06:27:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video post on Instagram and YouTube.

00:06:27:22 - 00:06:48:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't have a YouTube account? No big deal. Post on TikTok and Instagram. Don't have an Instagram account? No problem. Post on TikTok and YouTube. Don't have any of them? Start a YouTube account and start posting YouTube shorts because 90% of teenagers self-identify that they're on it. So what should you post? I'm glad that you asked. Let's dive!

00:06:48:25 - 00:07:10:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I'm so excited to roll this out because I can't lie, I have been looking for a thing to provide for youth pastors on a social media platform. Landscape that is custom. That's not just a bunch of pretty graphics, but also doesn't add more work to your plate. And I can't lie, I've been wrestling with what kind of service can I offer?

00:07:10:21 - 00:07:37:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think I have something, at least messaging wise, for youth pastors, but once they get into it becomes a lot of work and it gets a little bit overwhelming. So if you're watching here on screen, you'll see my screen. And this is what I'm offering. So I'm offering this brand new program called Seasonal Social Media, which essentially is 40 posts, three months worth.

00:07:37:02 - 00:07:58:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you follow my recommended posting strategy, I recommend that youth pastors post three times per week and this will satisfy that reality. And so what you get is three months of custom, youth, ministry, social media content and it all costs less than $20. And here's the good news. Just like this ad copy here says it's not just content.

00:07:58:06 - 00:08:19:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It really is a full social media strategy included in the download. If you choose to go ahead and do this, is you get my complete Hybrid Strategy guide, which will detail and outline a lot of what I have just been saying on this video and I've been saying in other podcasts for years and years and years. And so this will lay the foundation and the philosophy.

00:08:19:15 - 00:08:46:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then this is what you're actually going to get. You're going to, take this, this social media, package. And it's got two different categories, and it's got completely done for you content that you literally download and you post and you plug and you play, set it and forget it. The other 50% is custom content. So you're going to be filming this, but the good news is you don't need to film every single thing yourself.

00:08:46:17 - 00:09:04:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You don't need to edit everything yourself. And if you don't have any of those skills, I'll walk you through how to do all of that on this podcast, as well as in this little document here. If you go ahead and download this thing where you can import some of what I have to offer, that's custom, but I have templates and I have layovers and I have scripts and I have things that you can do

00:09:04:28 - 00:09:15:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and things that you should say, and all of those things that you can edit in an in-app editor, like a TikTok or an Instagram Reels, or even over on something like Cap Cut.

00:09:15:17 - 00:09:32:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you got, like I said, you got done for you. You got things that are still left for you to shoot, but I provide all the assets that you're going to need for it. Here are things that you can buy all you really, honestly need is your camera phone. You can upgrade some microphones, which I do recommend upgrading some microphones.

00:09:32:03 - 00:09:50:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can check out some of those links there. And optionally if you want to buy a better camera, if you have a little bit of budget, here's what I recommend. Here is also your posting schedule. Okay, so the week of June 2nd post this video, then post this video, then post this video the week of June 9th.

00:09:50:20 - 00:10:09:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This video, this video, this video all the way on through. Don't like my schedule? No big deal. Make your own. All right. Here you go. But what's going to happen? Let me show you first when you open these up. Here's what the done for you package looks like in, you open it up and there are four different types of videos.

00:10:09:15 - 00:10:25:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, there are Bible verse videos and there are five different Bible verse videos. And so what you can do is you'll see right here, you just very simply posted Bible verse, add a caption and you're good to go. This one right here is one of my all time favorites a sell it over and download youth ministry as well.

00:10:25:18 - 00:10:47:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But it is emoji phraseology and I combine these two together because I used to make these for stories, but now I'm trying to make them for reals. So see if you can comment what this summer edition emoji phraseology is intending to say. The correct answer of courses. Sunburn. You continue on down. I have five of those. And here I have five different spiritual practice videos.

00:10:47:09 - 00:11:08:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So for example, a student scrolling and they stop across one of your reels or TikToks or YouTubes that you post and you encourage them to actually lean in to some spiritual practices that they can actually, they can actually, while they're on social media, connect with God in a real and meaningful way. And so this one is a 32nd take time to pray.

00:11:08:23 - 00:11:32:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this timer counts down that. And then lastly this is the only non video post. These are like carousel based posts like that you can post on Instagram. But the good news once again you can also post photo slides on TikTok. And you can also post that on your YouTube, post feed as well on your on your community use, because the community tab now is just called the Post Feed.

00:11:32:12 - 00:11:52:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I created these. What do you do if you feel anxious. And it's got Bible verses, along with the header of an instruction of what you can do. And I got it for five different categories about anxiety, loneliness, giving up temptation or anger. So those are the done for you. Those are turnkey okay. Here's the custom for you.

00:11:52:12 - 00:12:18:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. So in every single one of these there's an instruction. And then the instruction video tells you exactly what to do along with gives you an example along with in most cases gives you some sort of script. So in this case this is Bible trivia. You hop on your cell phone, you shoot a selfie style video under 60s, and you simply ask these questions and all you gotta do is print this out, or pull this up on your computer screen and read it directly to the camera.

00:12:18:13 - 00:12:23:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then when you're done, you can go ahead and you can, post a video and you can

00:12:23:06 - 00:12:37:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
overlay it with one of these overlays. In fact, right here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube, is an example of me editing a video that I did for our ministry in our context, using this exact same overlay, using the TikTok, video editor.

00:12:38:05 - 00:13:00:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When I was done and I posted it, TikTok now auto saved my video without a watermark, and so then I could go to Instagram and post that same video. And then I could also go over to YouTube shorts and post that exact same video. If you don't have TikTok, you can also use it in the Instagram Reels editor by using the little sticker, button and then put this in, drag it to full screen.

00:13:00:14 - 00:13:21:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the only thing you're probably gonna have to do at the end, because Instagram doesn't auto save your reels that you post, go on to Google Chrome, search it, download Instagram reel without watermark, save that, video, and then go post it wherever else you choose to post it. Perhaps TikTok or perhaps YouTube. Let me just recommend, if you do have TikTok, just start there.

00:13:21:05 - 00:13:26:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's a lot easier than some of these other platforms to start with. So that's Bible trivia. This

00:13:26:13 - 00:13:44:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
one right here is either your devotional or your recap content. So let me let me speak to what your options are here. You preach a sermon every week, so get on your cellphone again. Self-styled video lesson 60s. And just riff on one of the points of your last sermon.

00:13:44:17 - 00:14:00:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, for example, you talked about God is Love. Pull up in your camera and say, you know what? Sometimes it's hard to love people and go on and talk for 60s I know you can do it. All right. Here are three best practices with that. Number one, always add a caption. Number two

00:14:00:27 - 00:14:03:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
add some sort of title on screen.

00:14:03:13 - 00:14:04:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. And then number three

00:14:04:17 - 00:14:09:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
add music. And then a bonus. Best practice a hack is do

00:14:09:06 - 00:14:18:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
not listen to me. Do not reference your in-person gathering. Not that you shouldn't. And other people shouldn't have to know about it. But

00:14:18:15 - 00:14:25:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
don't say something like, you know, last Wednesday we talked about such, such and such. Leave that be on social media.

00:14:25:11 - 00:14:49:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
People are stumbling upon your content organically. They have no frame of reference for what you're talking about. So you can both serve your current students because they're going to remember what you just talked about, along with any potential new viewers. The other thing you do is if you're only given 60s, which is what I recommend to keep under, is that if you say under 60s saying, you know, last Wednesday night, it was great.

00:14:49:27 - 00:15:13:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We had a lot of good time. Remember that dessert auction we had? Don't forget those of you that were there. And maybe if you weren't, that we talked about love, you just wasted, like, five, eight, seven seconds of your precious 62nd real estate. Now, you don't have to just recap your videos. You can do like if you click on this little example here, this is a a clip from a long form message that that I do, which is what I recommend doing.

00:15:13:20 - 00:15:26:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you see my hybrid strategy guys also included in here, I recommend long form versions of videos posted on YouTube. But for right now, if you're just downloading this pack and you're just focusing on social media, do some

00:15:26:01 - 00:15:37:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
sort of devotional recap. If you don't have a video of your sermon, if you do, go ahead and, throw it into a service like Opus Stock Pro, which is what we use, to clip our long form down into short form.

00:15:38:03 - 00:15:59:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But again, if not just use a Devo style, video or, if you don't have like a recap or something to say, you can use some of these, scripts that I've created that you can, just follow verbatim, follow some of the instructions, and you can post those and you'll be good to go. These right here are called man on the street style interviews.

00:15:59:25 - 00:16:32:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are one of the lowest hanging fruit ways to, interact with your students. You basically go around, you just interview them. And this is where you get any, like, a microphone, to buy, you can get a super cheap USB Bluetooth microphone that plugs directly into your phone, but you go around, you interview students. And what I always recommend doing is interviewing 5 to 8 students, ask them these same five questions, and then you can splice that up again in something like the TikTok editor or in something like Cap Cut and I've also created this transparent overlays that you can use that you can import in.

00:16:32:29 - 00:16:50:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the question would you rather sing instead of speak, or would you have to dance everywhere? Would you rather hop like a frog or moo whenever you get nervous? These are completely included. You can put those over. You can look like a pro. Add captions from the in-app editor that does it for you completely. For free, and you're off to the races.

00:16:50:29 - 00:17:09:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the last one. Here are some of my favorite style videos. These transition invite style videos. This is the best way to invite people to what's going on at your church. And so what I've done is I've created these videos here that are the beginning of a hook. And so you see right here, this guy is skateboarding. Immediately he falls on this railing right here.

00:17:09:11 - 00:17:28:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what you would do as you would cut to a student on a railing somewhere else, sitting just like that, acting like he's a guy falling off the skateboard. And then he says, hey man, come to youth Wednesday night. We'd love to see you. And I gave you five of these that you can do, right? Including right here in the instruction video, an example with inspiration.

00:17:28:22 - 00:17:52:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think it's inspiration from this, this bike video right here. Now, that's for three posts, you know, per week. What if you got bandwidth for more? Well, right here is your, bonus content. 100 different ideas here. 100 social challenge ideas. This is what we do in our ministry. We post two times a day, five days a week.

00:17:52:19 - 00:18:15:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the way that we accomplish that is by this is from this playlist right here, linked right here in this document. And then here all of the bonus ideas and ways that you can not only see examples, but also bonus content to be able to see, you know what what our students are up to, and different like different categories that you can use for these different challenge style videos.

00:18:15:19 - 00:18:24:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is the summer social media pack. All right. This will last you for three months. And so you download it now

00:18:24:29 - 00:18:39:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you got 50% film your own content. And again you can you can do selfie style videos in your office for these first two right here. And then you can hand these off to a volunteer on any given Wednesday or any given Sunday night.

00:18:39:22 - 00:19:12:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I just want to encourage you that it is time to stop ignoring digital and social media. It is the way of the future is where our students are again, not as Hebrews 1024 and 25 says, not forsaking and neglecting, meeting together, but we're using the medium of the day. Just like the Apostle Paul wrote and sent letters, we're using the medium of the day that we have an advantage on of many other people in church history, because they wouldn't have had this kind of access into the lives of the people that they're trying to minister to.

00:19:12:04 - 00:19:31:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's why I think hybrid ministry is so important, and that's why I think that this product is so valuable. So check it out down below, link in the description. And let me just say, I also post and host a weekly bonus podcast where I talk about everything I'm doing in hybrid ministry, everything I'm doing on social media, and everything I'm doing in my programing.

00:19:32:02 - 00:19:53:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'm only doing it for $4 per month. If you become a Patreon, a hybrid here for $4 a month, you will get this social media pack which is valued at greater than what, three months worth it? Becoming a Patreon will be. You will get it completely for free or at least completely included in your membership. $4 a month.

00:19:53:23 - 00:20:15:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Charge it to your church budget. Call it a developing expense because it's what it is. It's a professional expense for you to become more creative, more hybrid, in your programing and on your social media. And it'll also unlock this seasonal summer, social media pack, which we're going to start releasing for every single season. And this right here is the summer version.

00:20:15:04 - 00:20:28:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I hope you guys found this episode helpful. Share it with a friend. Let somebody know that the summer season the social media pack is finally here. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

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SHOW NOTES
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🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Digital vs In-Person Ministry
01:02 Why Hybrid Ministry Matters
06:47 Summer Social Media
09:22 Gear You’ll Need
09:39 Summer Social Posting Schedule
10:01 Done For You 1
10:21 Done For You 2
10:41 Done For You 3
11:11 Done For You 4
11:51 Custom For You 1
13:26 Custom For You 2
15:57 Custom For You 3
16:51 Custom For You 4
17:40 Bonus Idea

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:09:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this video, we're going to explore the world between digital ministry and in-person ministry, a thing that I like to call hybrid

00:00:09:27 - 00:00:37:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
ministry. Welcome to the hybrid Ministry show, My friends. And in today's episode, what I want to look at is I want to look at the competition between hybrid ministry and in-person ministry. In fact, linked right here at the very top of the video is one of my favorite episodes I've ever done, where my friend Josh sat down with me and he he asked me to take an in-person youth ministry program and make it hybrid or bring about a hybrid component.

00:00:37:07 - 00:00:55:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're going to explore what exactly I mean by that. What exactly is digital ministry? And make sure you stick around to the end, because I have a resource that I think will help you absolutely crush, lock in and make your summer youth ministry social media absolutely

00:00:55:14 - 00:00:59:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pop. I have a resource for you. It's going to blow your mind.

00:00:59:17 - 00:01:19:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Klassen. I'm a youth pastor of 14.5 years, and I have been pursuing this thing called hybrid ministry for a while now. And let me just help you understand some

00:01:19:15 - 00:01:20:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of the reasons why.

00:01:20:12 - 00:01:24:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For me. So for me, there are kind of three core

00:01:24:15 - 00:01:30:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
statistics. There's several out there, honestly, but three that really stick with me is that Gen

00:01:30:21 - 00:01:45:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Z. And we can assume Gen Alpha because we don't have data yet on them. But but this we can assume this to be true. Gen z, Gen Alpha. They use their mobile device more than they use any other device combined.

00:01:45:08 - 00:02:03:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Furthermore, 69% of students own a smartphone, but I get this the age of 12. We do have data for them, and then also 90%, according to Pew Research, use YouTube. 90% of teenagers say that they use YouTube. And I get it, man. Like if you're a youth

00:02:03:06 - 00:02:08:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pastor, you're like, phones are a distraction. Gotta get rid of, use paper Bibles.

00:02:08:19 - 00:02:36:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, digital Bibles don't count all the things like I've heard it. I've been there. I've been a part of youth ministry for a long time. But there's a verse in Jeremiah chapter 29, no, not 2911, but right before that verse, Jeremiah is having a conversation with God. And here's what God says to Jeremiah. He says you should build homes, plan to stay, plant gardens, eat the foods that they produce, marry and have children, and find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren.

00:02:36:18 - 00:02:41:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Multiply. Do not dwindle away. But you gotta understand the context here,

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Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
which we don't do for Jeremiah 2011 very often, is that the Israelites are stuck as captives in Babylon, and what God is telling Jeremiah to do is he's saying, stop complaining. Stop trying to find a way out. Stop trying to leave. Instead, invest in where you live and youth pastors, pastors, church communications people, discipleship pastors, college pastors.

00:03:04:23 - 00:03:22:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Digital ministry is not going anywhere. You may not like it. You may not even think it's the most effective. But the majority of millennials, Gen Z and we can assume Generation Alpha, say that a digital version of church is valuable to them and one that they would lean into, and it doesn't

00:03:22:01 - 00:03:24:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
mean that their in-person attendance is going to go away.

00:03:24:22 - 00:03:43:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a lot of the fears of us in church leadership is that if we offer a digital component, they're just going to choose that instead of, coming to church in person. But far from it. We're also seeing in this generation, more than even older generations, that community is so much more important to them. So they don't want to forsake the in-person moments.

00:03:43:07 - 00:04:06:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when we take the in-person moments and the best that it has to offer, when we take the digital things and the best it has to offer, and we find that sweet spot right in the middle, we find what I call hybrid ministry. A great example of it is honestly, Home Depot. And think about it like you throw on your new balances and you throw on your cargo shorts on on a Saturday morning, you got a project and then you're going Home Depot.

00:04:07:01 - 00:04:29:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And but you don't really have like an agenda, right? You're just walking around. You're just kind of like you're taking in the smell of lumber and you're just you're just kind of exploring what the hallways and the aisles of Home Depot have to offer other times, and then, like, you don't have time, right? You go online, you make an order so that it's delivered to your doorstep because you don't have time to just live out your full dad mode experience.

00:04:29:15 - 00:04:37:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But my favorite, honestly version to experience Home Depot is while I'm in the store on their app because their app. If you haven't seen it yet, their app shows you

00:04:37:05 - 00:05:01:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
where every single thing in their entire store is located. And so that's what I think we should be doing as youth pastors. Finding a way to intersect where teenagers already admitted they're spending their time, not forsaking the good elements of gathering together and community and accountability and all those things, but also leaning into this hybrid sort of moment.

00:05:01:08 - 00:05:19:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, well, I want to do is I want to give you one of the easiest ways to kind of to kind of step foot into this hybrid space. And it's by up taking your social media engagement. Now, here's the thing. A lot of youth pastors, and if you've been following me along on this channel for a while, posts

00:05:19:28 - 00:05:24:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
announcements on their feed, just assuming that social media is another announcement platform.

00:05:24:27 - 00:05:45:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the reality is that that's not what social media is best made for. It doesn't mean that we can't still get the word out about what we have going on, but what it does mean, and what we should be doing is that we should be intersecting and invading the lives of students on the places that they spend their time, including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

00:05:45:07 - 00:05:51:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Remember, 90% teenagers say that they use YouTube in the ways that they're consuming it reels TikTok videos and

00:05:51:27 - 00:06:05:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube shorts. And so the good news is that you can create the same type of content short form, vertical based video that goes on TikTok, that goes on Instagram, that goes on YouTube, and maybe even Facebook if you choose to post it there as well.

00:06:05:17 - 00:06:25:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But you don't have to create multiple different types of content like I did when I first started in youth ministry 15 years ago. Instead, you post that, you know, 180 or 1080 by 1920, vertical based video. And then you post it in all the places that you want to post it. Don't have a TikTok account, no

00:06:25:26 - 00:06:27:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video post on Instagram and YouTube.

00:06:27:22 - 00:06:48:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't have a YouTube account? No big deal. Post on TikTok and Instagram. Don't have an Instagram account? No problem. Post on TikTok and YouTube. Don't have any of them? Start a YouTube account and start posting YouTube shorts because 90% of teenagers self-identify that they're on it. So what should you post? I'm glad that you asked. Let's dive!

00:06:48:25 - 00:07:10:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I'm so excited to roll this out because I can't lie, I have been looking for a thing to provide for youth pastors on a social media platform. Landscape that is custom. That's not just a bunch of pretty graphics, but also doesn't add more work to your plate. And I can't lie, I've been wrestling with what kind of service can I offer?

00:07:10:21 - 00:07:37:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think I have something, at least messaging wise, for youth pastors, but once they get into it becomes a lot of work and it gets a little bit overwhelming. So if you're watching here on screen, you'll see my screen. And this is what I'm offering. So I'm offering this brand new program called Seasonal Social Media, which essentially is 40 posts, three months worth.

00:07:37:02 - 00:07:58:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you follow my recommended posting strategy, I recommend that youth pastors post three times per week and this will satisfy that reality. And so what you get is three months of custom, youth, ministry, social media content and it all costs less than $20. And here's the good news. Just like this ad copy here says it's not just content.

00:07:58:06 - 00:08:19:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It really is a full social media strategy included in the download. If you choose to go ahead and do this, is you get my complete Hybrid Strategy guide, which will detail and outline a lot of what I have just been saying on this video and I've been saying in other podcasts for years and years and years. And so this will lay the foundation and the philosophy.

00:08:19:15 - 00:08:46:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then this is what you're actually going to get. You're going to, take this, this social media, package. And it's got two different categories, and it's got completely done for you content that you literally download and you post and you plug and you play, set it and forget it. The other 50% is custom content. So you're going to be filming this, but the good news is you don't need to film every single thing yourself.

00:08:46:17 - 00:09:04:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You don't need to edit everything yourself. And if you don't have any of those skills, I'll walk you through how to do all of that on this podcast, as well as in this little document here. If you go ahead and download this thing where you can import some of what I have to offer, that's custom, but I have templates and I have layovers and I have scripts and I have things that you can do

00:09:04:28 - 00:09:15:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and things that you should say, and all of those things that you can edit in an in-app editor, like a TikTok or an Instagram Reels, or even over on something like Cap Cut.

00:09:15:17 - 00:09:32:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you got, like I said, you got done for you. You got things that are still left for you to shoot, but I provide all the assets that you're going to need for it. Here are things that you can buy all you really, honestly need is your camera phone. You can upgrade some microphones, which I do recommend upgrading some microphones.

00:09:32:03 - 00:09:50:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can check out some of those links there. And optionally if you want to buy a better camera, if you have a little bit of budget, here's what I recommend. Here is also your posting schedule. Okay, so the week of June 2nd post this video, then post this video, then post this video the week of June 9th.

00:09:50:20 - 00:10:09:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This video, this video, this video all the way on through. Don't like my schedule? No big deal. Make your own. All right. Here you go. But what's going to happen? Let me show you first when you open these up. Here's what the done for you package looks like in, you open it up and there are four different types of videos.

00:10:09:15 - 00:10:25:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, there are Bible verse videos and there are five different Bible verse videos. And so what you can do is you'll see right here, you just very simply posted Bible verse, add a caption and you're good to go. This one right here is one of my all time favorites a sell it over and download youth ministry as well.

00:10:25:18 - 00:10:47:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But it is emoji phraseology and I combine these two together because I used to make these for stories, but now I'm trying to make them for reals. So see if you can comment what this summer edition emoji phraseology is intending to say. The correct answer of courses. Sunburn. You continue on down. I have five of those. And here I have five different spiritual practice videos.

00:10:47:09 - 00:11:08:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So for example, a student scrolling and they stop across one of your reels or TikToks or YouTubes that you post and you encourage them to actually lean in to some spiritual practices that they can actually, they can actually, while they're on social media, connect with God in a real and meaningful way. And so this one is a 32nd take time to pray.

00:11:08:23 - 00:11:32:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this timer counts down that. And then lastly this is the only non video post. These are like carousel based posts like that you can post on Instagram. But the good news once again you can also post photo slides on TikTok. And you can also post that on your YouTube, post feed as well on your on your community use, because the community tab now is just called the Post Feed.

00:11:32:12 - 00:11:52:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I created these. What do you do if you feel anxious. And it's got Bible verses, along with the header of an instruction of what you can do. And I got it for five different categories about anxiety, loneliness, giving up temptation or anger. So those are the done for you. Those are turnkey okay. Here's the custom for you.

00:11:52:12 - 00:12:18:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. So in every single one of these there's an instruction. And then the instruction video tells you exactly what to do along with gives you an example along with in most cases gives you some sort of script. So in this case this is Bible trivia. You hop on your cell phone, you shoot a selfie style video under 60s, and you simply ask these questions and all you gotta do is print this out, or pull this up on your computer screen and read it directly to the camera.

00:12:18:13 - 00:12:23:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then when you're done, you can go ahead and you can, post a video and you can

00:12:23:06 - 00:12:37:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
overlay it with one of these overlays. In fact, right here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube, is an example of me editing a video that I did for our ministry in our context, using this exact same overlay, using the TikTok, video editor.

00:12:38:05 - 00:13:00:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When I was done and I posted it, TikTok now auto saved my video without a watermark, and so then I could go to Instagram and post that same video. And then I could also go over to YouTube shorts and post that exact same video. If you don't have TikTok, you can also use it in the Instagram Reels editor by using the little sticker, button and then put this in, drag it to full screen.

00:13:00:14 - 00:13:21:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the only thing you're probably gonna have to do at the end, because Instagram doesn't auto save your reels that you post, go on to Google Chrome, search it, download Instagram reel without watermark, save that, video, and then go post it wherever else you choose to post it. Perhaps TikTok or perhaps YouTube. Let me just recommend, if you do have TikTok, just start there.

00:13:21:05 - 00:13:26:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's a lot easier than some of these other platforms to start with. So that's Bible trivia. This

00:13:26:13 - 00:13:44:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
one right here is either your devotional or your recap content. So let me let me speak to what your options are here. You preach a sermon every week, so get on your cellphone again. Self-styled video lesson 60s. And just riff on one of the points of your last sermon.

00:13:44:17 - 00:14:00:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, for example, you talked about God is Love. Pull up in your camera and say, you know what? Sometimes it's hard to love people and go on and talk for 60s I know you can do it. All right. Here are three best practices with that. Number one, always add a caption. Number two

00:14:00:27 - 00:14:03:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
add some sort of title on screen.

00:14:03:13 - 00:14:04:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. And then number three

00:14:04:17 - 00:14:09:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
add music. And then a bonus. Best practice a hack is do

00:14:09:06 - 00:14:18:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
not listen to me. Do not reference your in-person gathering. Not that you shouldn't. And other people shouldn't have to know about it. But

00:14:18:15 - 00:14:25:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
don't say something like, you know, last Wednesday we talked about such, such and such. Leave that be on social media.

00:14:25:11 - 00:14:49:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
People are stumbling upon your content organically. They have no frame of reference for what you're talking about. So you can both serve your current students because they're going to remember what you just talked about, along with any potential new viewers. The other thing you do is if you're only given 60s, which is what I recommend to keep under, is that if you say under 60s saying, you know, last Wednesday night, it was great.

00:14:49:27 - 00:15:13:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We had a lot of good time. Remember that dessert auction we had? Don't forget those of you that were there. And maybe if you weren't, that we talked about love, you just wasted, like, five, eight, seven seconds of your precious 62nd real estate. Now, you don't have to just recap your videos. You can do like if you click on this little example here, this is a a clip from a long form message that that I do, which is what I recommend doing.

00:15:13:20 - 00:15:26:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you see my hybrid strategy guys also included in here, I recommend long form versions of videos posted on YouTube. But for right now, if you're just downloading this pack and you're just focusing on social media, do some

00:15:26:01 - 00:15:37:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
sort of devotional recap. If you don't have a video of your sermon, if you do, go ahead and, throw it into a service like Opus Stock Pro, which is what we use, to clip our long form down into short form.

00:15:38:03 - 00:15:59:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But again, if not just use a Devo style, video or, if you don't have like a recap or something to say, you can use some of these, scripts that I've created that you can, just follow verbatim, follow some of the instructions, and you can post those and you'll be good to go. These right here are called man on the street style interviews.

00:15:59:25 - 00:16:32:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are one of the lowest hanging fruit ways to, interact with your students. You basically go around, you just interview them. And this is where you get any, like, a microphone, to buy, you can get a super cheap USB Bluetooth microphone that plugs directly into your phone, but you go around, you interview students. And what I always recommend doing is interviewing 5 to 8 students, ask them these same five questions, and then you can splice that up again in something like the TikTok editor or in something like Cap Cut and I've also created this transparent overlays that you can use that you can import in.

00:16:32:29 - 00:16:50:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the question would you rather sing instead of speak, or would you have to dance everywhere? Would you rather hop like a frog or moo whenever you get nervous? These are completely included. You can put those over. You can look like a pro. Add captions from the in-app editor that does it for you completely. For free, and you're off to the races.

00:16:50:29 - 00:17:09:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the last one. Here are some of my favorite style videos. These transition invite style videos. This is the best way to invite people to what's going on at your church. And so what I've done is I've created these videos here that are the beginning of a hook. And so you see right here, this guy is skateboarding. Immediately he falls on this railing right here.

00:17:09:11 - 00:17:28:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what you would do as you would cut to a student on a railing somewhere else, sitting just like that, acting like he's a guy falling off the skateboard. And then he says, hey man, come to youth Wednesday night. We'd love to see you. And I gave you five of these that you can do, right? Including right here in the instruction video, an example with inspiration.

00:17:28:22 - 00:17:52:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think it's inspiration from this, this bike video right here. Now, that's for three posts, you know, per week. What if you got bandwidth for more? Well, right here is your, bonus content. 100 different ideas here. 100 social challenge ideas. This is what we do in our ministry. We post two times a day, five days a week.

00:17:52:19 - 00:18:15:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the way that we accomplish that is by this is from this playlist right here, linked right here in this document. And then here all of the bonus ideas and ways that you can not only see examples, but also bonus content to be able to see, you know what what our students are up to, and different like different categories that you can use for these different challenge style videos.

00:18:15:19 - 00:18:24:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is the summer social media pack. All right. This will last you for three months. And so you download it now

00:18:24:29 - 00:18:39:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you got 50% film your own content. And again you can you can do selfie style videos in your office for these first two right here. And then you can hand these off to a volunteer on any given Wednesday or any given Sunday night.

00:18:39:22 - 00:19:12:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I just want to encourage you that it is time to stop ignoring digital and social media. It is the way of the future is where our students are again, not as Hebrews 1024 and 25 says, not forsaking and neglecting, meeting together, but we're using the medium of the day. Just like the Apostle Paul wrote and sent letters, we're using the medium of the day that we have an advantage on of many other people in church history, because they wouldn't have had this kind of access into the lives of the people that they're trying to minister to.

00:19:12:04 - 00:19:31:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's why I think hybrid ministry is so important, and that's why I think that this product is so valuable. So check it out down below, link in the description. And let me just say, I also post and host a weekly bonus podcast where I talk about everything I'm doing in hybrid ministry, everything I'm doing on social media, and everything I'm doing in my programing.

00:19:32:02 - 00:19:53:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'm only doing it for $4 per month. If you become a Patreon, a hybrid here for $4 a month, you will get this social media pack which is valued at greater than what, three months worth it? Becoming a Patreon will be. You will get it completely for free or at least completely included in your membership. $4 a month.

00:19:53:23 - 00:20:15:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Charge it to your church budget. Call it a developing expense because it's what it is. It's a professional expense for you to become more creative, more hybrid, in your programing and on your social media. And it'll also unlock this seasonal summer, social media pack, which we're going to start releasing for every single season. And this right here is the summer version.

00:20:15:04 - 00:20:28:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I hope you guys found this episode helpful. Share it with a friend. Let somebody know that the summer season the social media pack is finally here. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 110: Distractions During Youth Group: The Solution https://www.hybridministry.xyz/110 00ce8b1a-164b-47e1-9c79-d97acd4acc5e Thu, 15 Aug 2024 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 110 Distractions During Youth Group: The Solution full Nick Clason What in the world do we do about cellphone usage during youth group?! It seems like it's getting worse and worse! Well, Josh Boldman, of DYM (downloadyouthministry.com) is here to help reveal his thoughts, as well as a full-proof program to not only take care of the cell phone epidemic, but to unveil the future of youth ministry as we all know it! 38:26 no 🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥 https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 💥[CUSTOM] Hybrid Coaching💥 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching ====================================== DESCRIPTION What in the world do we do about cellphone usage during youth group?! It seems like it's getting worse and worse! Well, Josh Boldman, of DYM (downloadyouthministry.com) is here to help reveal his thoughts, as well as a full-proof program to not only take care of the cell phone epidemic, but to unveil the future of youth ministry as we all know it! ====================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/110 //CO-LEADER CURRICULUM https://www.coleader.co/ //SIDEKICK https://sidekick.tv/ //JOSH ON DYM https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/featured-authors/josh-boldman/ //SIDEKICK FEATURE REQUEST https://sidekick-tv.canny.io/feature-requests //JOSH ON SOCIAL https://www.tiktok.com/@joshboldman https://www.instagram.com/joshboldman/ https://www.facebook.com/joshboldman https://x.com/joshboldman 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz ====================================== 🆓 FREEBIES 🆓 Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies! 🔗 https://linktr.ee/clasonnick ====================================== 🛠️TOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit AUTO POD https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Intro - How your experience got you where you are now 04:15 Sidekick's Introduction into the Digital Realm of Youth Ministry 09:00 Sidekick's most user friendly features 13:50 What's next for Sidekick? 17:36 How Sidekick aids in showing up where students are 19:25 The Recipe to Engaging Students where they are 30:42 Final Thoughts on Hybrid Ministry -------------- ✍️TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:15 - 00:00:23:04 Nick Clason What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry show. I, as always my host Nick Klassen. And I'm really excited. Today I got the one and only Josh Boldman who works at Diam now. He also has years of experience in youth ministry. And so we are going to interview Josh today. What's up everybody? I'm here with Josh Boldman. Josh how you doing this morning bro? 00:00:23:04 - 00:00:44:07 Josh Boldman I am good man. How are you doing I'm great. I'm glad to have you on Nick Clason the long awaited Josh Boldman interview. Josh Boldman Most podcasts are still waiting. I just wanted to make it very clear. Nick Clason Oh man, I feel like I'm in an exclusive club. Yeah, or something. Josh Boldman So they just don't know. They don't know it yet, but they're still waiting. 00:00:44:07 - 00:01:10:12 Nick Clason Yeah, they definitely are. But not me. Not us. Josh, like, tell the people, how did. Who are you and how did you get to where you are today? Josh Boldman Oh my gosh. Okay. That is it all started on a cold with. No. okay. So I have, right there. So I'll start with where I'm at. right now I am I am the team lead for co-leader, which is, a part of the download Youth Ministry family. 00:01:10:14 - 00:01:39:17 Josh Boldman I also, run lead in the sidekick arena, which is our presentation software. We'll get to that. but that's only been for about the last year. before that, I spent, somewhere in the neighborhood of. Right at about 20 years in student ministry, as a youth pastor or youth minister or student pastor or student ministries director, or any of the other myriad ways that you can you can describe it. 00:01:39:19 - 00:02:03:18 Josh Boldman but I did that. Gosh, from Florida, to Illinois, to, tiny, tiny little churches to big old churches to, single site to multi-site to we do youth ministry on Sunday morning to we do youth ministry on Wednesday nights like normal people do. all that, you know, so, you know, it's just kind of been all over the place. 00:02:03:24 - 00:02:27:24 Josh Boldman Yeah. but for the last ten, I'll say ten. It's probably like six, but I'll say ten years. I pastor mother, with Dwight. Yeah. It's like, how many kids were there? The 400. I don't know, it was too many to count. but yeah. So I, I've been an author with Tim, putting resources like games and teaching content and countdowns and videos and stuff together for DYM. 00:02:27:27 - 00:02:47:11 Josh Boldman And then about a year ago, they had somebody that was going on maternity leave and they're like, hey, you want to cover for that person? I was like, yeah, yeah, I do. And then I spent all 90 days of that maternity leave, trying to make it where there was literally no way they could let me go afterward. 00:02:47:11 - 00:03:08:12 Nick Clason And it it worked nice. Josh Boldman Absolutely worked. I was it was dicey for about about 45 days. And then I was like, nah, I think I got I think, I think I got this. So she came back and I was not asked to pack up and leave. so that has worked out for everybody. Yeah. You didn't put her on the job either? 00:03:08:12 - 00:03:31:27 Josh Boldman No, no, it's kind of great. Yeah. So, you know, it's been it's been a ride. this last year, co-leader has transitioned from a, a platform where you can plan ministry to a full blown annual curriculum. we've launched sidekick. sidekick, which is now in beta. we had Sidekick Legacy, which was a standalone app. 00:03:31:27 - 00:03:53:26 Josh Boldman Now it's built in the browser. So you open it in Chrome and you can you can play. You know, play your presentation literally anywhere. we did that all with any I mean, it's like literally anything we could have done, we we decided we were like, hey, you know what? If we just take everything we ever want to do and we just jam it all into one calendar year, and we got this. 00:03:53:27 - 00:04:08:28 Nick Clason Yeah, we got this guy now who's covering for this girl on maternity leave, and now we can. We had him go. So we're we need to get our money's worth out of him. That's there. Like, we have so many staff. We have so we have so many. And now, now we need to have them do things, so. 00:04:08:28 - 00:04:30:10 Nick Clason Oh, man, I gotta say the like this, I don't there's no pitch. Like, no, like kickback. None of this. I love co-leader and I love sidekick. And, we, I made our church and I think I told you this, but we'll tell everyone I was like, I made our church by two computers so that we could run pro presenter. 00:04:30:10 - 00:04:52:19 Nick Clason Because the musicians need the confidence monitor, like the not not what's on the screen mirror, but like what's coming. So like what? So that's valid. Josh Boldman So they don't practice is what you're telling me. Nick Clason Exactly. They're ill prepared. So I had to give them what they needed at the give the musicians you know, throw my bone. But I made them buy another computer and a like a black magic video switcher. 00:04:52:19 - 00:05:11:04 Josh Boldman And we running everything else now. Yeah. Off of sidekick. And so, so, so what I'm hearing you say is because of the worship ministry, you guys have to rely on dark magic. Is that. What is that where he is? Oh, black. Matt. Oh, it's a black. It's a company that's different. Okay. All right. I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised either. 00:05:11:11 - 00:05:37:06 Nick Clason Yeah, yeah, either way. But I love the like I love a lot of things about it. But my favorite part about it is the phone integration. Right. And, we played last week like a game like, multiple choice game. And they could literally play on their phones. And this was the first time I'd, I'd use that particular, like, setting there and sidekick, like the, the question with, with the quiz like type of. 00:05:37:08 - 00:06:02:05 Nick Clason Yeah. Like what the correct answer. Yes. Yes. And I loved that. That was super fun. so talk to me just a little bit about, like, you know, you jump in. Were there rumblings and plans about sidekick being revamped or did you see some of like those opportunities and be like, this is what I see in youth ministry as a youth pastor, 20 plus years and now, yeah, I want to help kind of evolve it to the next stage, like give us that kind of background. 00:06:02:08 - 00:06:26:01 Josh Boldman Yeah. So something that, I it's really funny because I don't know that many youth workers realize, although I feel like we should is that, software development takes billions of dollars and lots and lots of time. and so, so when I started at downloading Ministry, the plan had already been. We are revamping sidekick. I'm. You know, I'm just gonna peel back the curtain, you know? 00:06:26:01 - 00:06:50:24 Josh Boldman You don't know. Yeah. Sorry. I took the original app. All right. Was written in a, in a programing environment that got depreciate. All right, so it is. It was built long, so it was built on something called chromium. and it it it is a like sidekick. Legacy is a work of art. Like it is a it was a game changer for me when I was in ministry. 00:06:50:24 - 00:07:14:13 Josh Boldman The the spinning wheel boxes. Yeah. it was one of a kind. No one was. Oh, my gosh, nobody was doing it right. And then, what happened about two years ago, maybe three years ago now is chromium got depreciated. And we realized what that meant was there was now no way to update the legacy. I don't know at all, like, impossible, like literally impossible. 00:07:14:16 - 00:07:31:17 Josh Boldman And and so it was like, okay, well, we can either rebuild a new one or we can take it in a different direction. And one of the really things that people that people hated was every time you open the legacy app, you have to sign in every single time you had to type in the password. It was a great time. 00:07:31:20 - 00:07:52:23 Josh Boldman I got into trouble. One time I was in front of our, like our whole camp, like it was like a thousand kids, right? And sidekick was running, and then it crashed. And then they had to reopen it, and they're like, from the booth, they yell out, what's the password? No. And in front of 1000 students, I had to say a password into the microphone. 00:07:52:23 - 00:08:14:14 Josh Boldman And here's the best part. You ready for this? It was the same password for everything. Like my my bank account and, all this stuff. So, like, so like, I immediately I started teaching, and then I get off stage and I'm like, I gotta change every password I mean, ever had. It was a nightmare. so we thought, okay, what is the best way to make this as portable as possible? 00:08:14:14 - 00:08:33:01 Josh Boldman So we went with putting it in, in the browser. Yeah. which I'll be honest, I mean, it was basically like it was a trade off, right? It gave us a lot of, functionality as far as portability, as far as far as syncing. Yeah. but it there are trade offs, right? Like Google Chrome. both. 00:08:33:01 - 00:08:52:11 Josh Boldman Google. Safari, Apple. you know, Firefox, they all have different rules about like window management. And so like you'll know like when you open sidekick and you go to present, you have to drag the window over to your other browser. Like that's not ideal right now. We that's why we have a video switcher now that's why. Right. 00:08:52:13 - 00:09:22:11 Josh Boldman Yeah. That's why we that's why we as Christians rely on dark black magic. Black. It's that's what it is. and so, so, you know, so there are some trade offs for sure. For sure. But, but what we started realizing was, the, the pitch that we started telling people that when it, I think it really kind of clicked for people how how different was good is we would tell them, like, we would show them what we could do with, with voting, with spinning wheel, with, with pick me like the main ideas. 00:09:22:14 - 00:09:41:11 Josh Boldman And I said, what's really cool is I can create this presentation. I can, immediately, as soon as I add an element to a slide, I can close the laptop, I can break it over my knee, I can set it on fire and throw it in the ocean. And then I can just go to church, open the computer, and it's it's there like it is there. 00:09:41:12 - 00:10:03:18 Josh Boldman It does not miss a beat. you probably have to like on the computer at church, though, because yours is God's an ocean. Oh yeah. No no no no. Yeah. There's no recovering from it really at the point. Not sidekicks. Not that good yet. Yeah. No, I mean, yeah. but. Yeah. So so it's, Yeah, it's it's being able to sync and being able to to go remote. 00:10:03:25 - 00:10:28:19 Josh Boldman That's awesome. But then when we started showing people, hey, all you have to do is the same thing you did to log in on your computer, do that on your phone. And what it does is it turns your phone into a remote for the exact same presentation that's running on your presentation computer. and I mean, just suddenly being able to when you're doing polls on your phone, you can see the results, before they're even shown on the screen. 00:10:28:22 - 00:10:57:09 Josh Boldman you can go to next, go back. You can do slide notes. You can. I mean, it did really any of the functionality that's there except for editing on the computer. You can do that literally on your phone in real time because I don't know if you've ever I'm certainly you've never been in this situation where you have a sixth grader who is so well intentioned is like, I want to run the computer and you're like, yes, that is a that is a thing a sixth grader can do. 00:10:57:09 - 00:11:26:24 Josh Boldman You can hit the spacebar. Yeah. And and then, and then they, and then they don't, they, they just don't hit the spacebar. And so like I would always use it as just like my, my phone was, I wasn't there. So I was running it, but it was my fallback. Like I was like, okay, that kid in the back, there was one time, I swear to you, right, at an unnamed church that I worked at for a while. 00:11:26:27 - 00:11:51:12 Josh Boldman I remember once, so I would always try, so I was a student ministry director there, and so I always I would always try, like, I would. Yeah, I was either teaching or whatever, but I would always try to do anytime I wasn't teaching, I would try to do something else. So like anytime I wasn't teaching, I would be in the booth or the, you know, doing the game or, you know, but so there's one time I'm in the booth and, and the lyrics for the songs are not firing on time. 00:11:51:12 - 00:12:18:01 Josh Boldman And I, so I'm like, leaning over and I'm looking. The kid is watching Star Wars the movie. Like, like an actual movie on his phone. Not a TikTok, not a YouTube. No. The two hour movie, two hour movie with subtitles. And he is holding his phone like screamed. Is it because the subtitles are so small? And I'm like, hey, I know, I know, you're looking at that because words are important. 00:12:18:03 - 00:12:38:25 Josh Boldman However, everyone else in the room is looking up here because words are important. So maybe I don't know, I don't know, that's just jump up and just jump on that. That's a win right there. Yeah. So but being able to you know when you're on stage and things go wrong there are like a couple of options. And and one of them is to make the person in the booth feel really bad. 00:12:38:25 - 00:13:00:09 Nick Clason And that is never the right option. Right. It's never to call attention to the person messed up. But we want to sometimes. Oh oh yes, yes, yes we do. But being able to just say, okay, I've got my phone here. Hey, Mr. Cube, don't worry, I'm just going to jump it like, yeah, was that was the game changer for me. 00:13:00:11 - 00:13:22:15 Josh Boldman and so now we're just on this journey of trying to reach full parity between the legacy version and what is right now, the lovingly called the beta version of sidekick. until it until it has all the same features. yeah. But what we're finding is that is, like I said, the original The legacy is a work of art. 00:13:22:17 - 00:13:47:09 Josh Boldman And, right now, we are working on boxes and that is in the browser proving to be a challenging. Yeah, it is, it's just, you know, it's one of those things like, you wouldn't think like even when we first, the first go around, we did, wheel and pick me. Right. Those were the first two things. And so with the wheel, you know, you think how this is, it's a spinning wheel. 00:13:47:10 - 00:14:04:24 Josh Boldman Like there's no. Yeah, there's nothing complicated here. Oh, but there is, friend, because pixels are square. Yeah. I don't know if you knew that or not, but pixels was great. So when you try and rotate them around and center axis that's a. Yeah. It's just it's one of those things like, you know, you think you got it. 00:14:04:24 - 00:14:21:03 Josh Boldman And then suddenly you're like, oh, that looks really bad. And so then it just it's like you have to go right back to the drawing board and, and so, so yeah. So right now we're working on boxes. It's, it's taking a little longer than we had hoped, but but you're working with square pixels now. So square pixels. 00:14:21:06 - 00:14:35:10 Josh Boldman We know what we're doing. Yeah. Yes. Wouldn't it be funny if like, in the like when, when it was the wheel, we had a problem because it was squares. But then like we're like, alright, now we're going to move the boxes and like just the world, like was like, you know what we figured out round pixels are better. 00:14:35:12 - 00:14:57:21 Josh Boldman And I was like, no, no. Yeah. But but yeah. So we're that. So we got boxes, in the pipeline. we're we, we here and I know anybody that knows sidekick already. Their first question that they have been asking is what about, survey says, which is our family feud builder. Right. And, that one is, it's coming. 00:14:57:21 - 00:15:19:27 Josh Boldman It's like, but it's it is it all takes a yeah, it all takes time. And, so, best way anybody, anybody that, you know, can help me go to sidekick.TV. There's a link there where you can, you can submit ideas and requests and you can even vote on other people's. And and that always helps us know kind of what's next. 00:15:19:29 - 00:15:36:15 Josh Boldman yeah. But yeah, we'll drop. That'll be. We're loving it, dude. I mean, and. Oh, I, I know the sound is starting to sound like a commercial and I apologize, but it's, it's it is. It's like it's just so fun is, when, when one of the most recent things we did was we connected everyone's dim accounts to the download youth ministry. 00:15:36:15 - 00:16:04:05 Josh Boldman If you buy something, there, he just automatically shows up. And that is that was awesome. Sweet. Because, I mean, it used to be, I don't know. I mean, you you make games for GM that are video based, right. And and when you do that those those files are massive. Like, you know, I mean, it's not uncommon for a game to be three, four gigabytes, you know, but it's also 3 or 4GB of, you know, that's 20, 30 videos for the game. 00:16:04:05 - 00:16:21:05 Josh Boldman And so then adding each of those in is kind of a nightmare. And so we figured out a way to do it is we do it on our end once and then it when you buy it, it just you can just it shows up in your library. You click on it and it's just in that is yeah, man, I'm telling you I will. 00:16:21:08 - 00:16:38:28 Josh Boldman I never have to worry about losing a thumb drive ever again. Yeah, because I don't know if you know this or not, but I don't know where my thumb drive it is right now. I lost it in 1997. so. Sounds like there are some important things on there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Knows it was, I don't know, something. 00:16:38:28 - 00:17:04:23 Josh Boldman Call it bitcoin. Bitcoin I don't remember. You could have been rich. You wouldn't even have to be here right now. Well I'll tell you what. Of all the things like all the things you're talking about, there's like, there's phone usage on both sides, right? So if you're presenting, you can use your phone as a remote, but if you're, you're, watching your in the audience, there are like integrations where there's like voting and games and all that stuff. 00:17:04:23 - 00:17:25:07 Nick Clason Yeah. And, I think that's my favorite part. Like as a youth pastor now for, over ten years, like I've always been trying to figure out how to get ourselves in youth ministry. Like relevant to our students are, as opposed to, like, when they're at church, make them do something that's so completely foreign to like their current culture. 00:17:25:07 - 00:17:56:28 Nick Clason Right? Like youth culture, like they're all messaging one another through their phones. They're all like consuming news articles and social media through their phones. And then we get to church and like the church I was at, like when I started the previous regime, no shade. but they had, like, phone lockers, like they would take kids cellphones and lock them and like, and what we're do, in my opinion, is like, okay, so we're, we're just trying to modify their behavior, but we haven't actually like change their true authentic like desire to like be here and listen. 00:17:56:28 - 00:18:19:26 Nick Clason We just want them quieter for us. And like that we should just be better. Like, yeah. And so y'all start rolling out all this stuff on sidekick. And I'm like, here's the opportunity for us to use what is native to them in our environment and in a way that doesn't, like, break the bank anymore, because to get some of these features through other third party like platforms, we just don't have the money. 00:18:19:26 - 00:18:45:09 Nick Clason As a youth pastor, you know what I'm saying? In your budget, whatever the case might be. So yeah, so that's my favorite part. And so I would love it if you would talk about not just necessarily like the sidekick integration, but what has been your experience and your unique perspective as a youth pastor with how what we've done in youth culture and how like we've then asked them to come to church culture and how they don't all they're like oil and water sometimes. 00:18:45:09 - 00:19:07:04 Nick Clason Like, how are we? How can we reach students better and to find ourselves where they are, which is online, on phones, all those things. Josh Boldman I mean, okay, so you remember, man, even I mean, when I was growing up and especially early in my ministry, you know, it was always the, the thing was, you were always fighting against like, like travel sports, right? 00:19:07:04 - 00:19:30:07 Josh Boldman Like that was like the, the, the bane of youth ministry existence was like, oh, we still are really, by the way. Oh, to be cool. Yeah. Oh, no doubt. But it was like, I don't know, there was like a point where I think we just we got tired of seeing no results from shame, shaming those kids. Like, it's like you want to play travel ball. 00:19:30:11 - 00:19:47:28 Josh Boldman We'll play travel ball. Yeah. With the devil. You know, it's like that. Doesn't like it doesn't help anybody. When? When all we're doing is. Or like. Like, oh, you have a phone, go lock it up because it's, you know, it's like that, doesn't it? Yeah. What does that do? All that does is like when you're locking up a kid's phone. 00:19:48:05 - 00:20:10:09 Josh Boldman I feel like the way that you can know that it's not working is as soon as the the time, like the lockdown is over, was the very first thing they do. They run to go get it. Yeah. Which means that it was, it was on their mind still. So it's not like you really saved you know them any, any trouble or any like you didn't gain anything by pulling it away, you know, because their attention is still stuck on it. 00:20:10:11 - 00:20:36:16 Josh Boldman so really what I think, I think is we're seeing right now in youth ministry as a whole, in, in what we're trying to do, a sidekick is really we're trying to figure out ways to engage students, literally where they are. And so, I guess, have you, did you ever do camps where the rule was the kids couldn't even bring their phone to camp? 00:20:36:18 - 00:20:59:04 Nick Clason I never did. No, I could have, right. But I never I always I've always run my own camp, so I make the rules. So. Yeah. And I've always been in churches or youth ministries where the goal is to bring kids who don't go to our church to camp. And like, I'm not going to get a kid and their family who's never met me, send their kid like hours away without a lifeline back to them. 00:20:59:04 - 00:21:24:10 Josh Boldman Oh yeah. Kids. Oh, no. So I've never tried to fight that battle, but it was fake because we used to almost use that, like as an advertisement. We were like, come to camp where you get away from your phone and kids are like, I don't want to do that, you know? And so, like, there was a point where I think maybe 20 years ago, you probably could do it, but even now, it's not even just the kid, it's the parents that are like, I'm not sending my kid without their phone. 00:21:24:10 - 00:21:58:02 Josh Boldman What's wrong with you? You know? Yeah. So, like, so what we decided to do with with sidekick is like, okay, what if instead of constantly harping on, he put your phone away or go lock it up or don't even bring it, or, you know, trying to make it seem like the phone itself was the enemy. What if we decided to say like, hey, we understand that that phone, it's an extension of you now like that just, I mean, and that, I mean, you know, I mean, I think you can get really, like, dystopian, you know, like, like Blade Runner type type vibes from, like, the phone is an extension of you, but but it is 00:21:58:03 - 00:22:21:24 Josh Boldman mine is an extension of me like, I mean, I literally if I, I don't know when the last time I walked out of my house without my phone was like, it's not just because I didn't forget it, it's because if it's not in my pocket, it feels like I'm missing something. I feel like I know I'm missing it, and you're gonna need it, you know, like, oh, sure, it's your calendar, it's your wallet, it's your navigation, it's your everything. 00:22:21:24 - 00:22:49:12 Nick Clason Like it. So you can't so much. That's my argument is like this. It's not going anywhere. So we can try our hardest as youth pastors and churches to fight against culture. But it's a losing battle eventually. And it's not like, oh, let's give in to culture because it's evil, right? No, no, no. It's how do we take this thing that is not moral, it's not morally right or morally wrong, but how do we take this thing and just use it as a tool? 00:22:49:12 - 00:23:07:12 Josh Boldman It's it's a tool, 100% tool that we we would have died for 15, 20 years ago, like, oh yeah, I was talking on the last episode like we didn't have group chats 15 years ago. If you want to talk to your student, you talk to them when they came to your building and that was it. But now you can do pastoral care. 00:23:07:12 - 00:23:39:02 Nick Clason You can, and just do a basic thing like texting. When I'm talking about something like software development right now. Yeah. So one of the things, that has been really cool to experiment with, and we've seen a couple people do this really well is is using like polls like, okay, so there's a there are different ways you can use it, but the like, so say as you're teaching, if, if you're saying something that you know is going to fly right over their heads, right? 00:23:39:05 - 00:24:11:11 Josh Boldman Pausing literally at that moment and asking the question, hey, did you catch that? And yes or no, like literally something super simple like, did you catch that? Yes or no? And then adjusting what you say next based on their response or, we've even seen people take their entire services in like a, choose your own adventure type approach where, I mean, it is it seems minor, but it's something like, hey, we've got the worship team has two songs that they prepared, but we're only going to do one. 00:24:11:13 - 00:24:29:15 Josh Boldman Hey, you all, they're here. Yeah. Which one you want to do? You know, or, you know, I've, done a couple teaching times where, like, so, you know, every youth pastor has, like, their, like, bag of tricks, like the, the saw or the stories that they tell that it's like, okay, I can tell this story, like drop of a hat. 00:24:29:15 - 00:25:00:17 Josh Boldman Yeah. you know, and so, like, I, I'll start with, like, right at the beginning of a message will say, hey, guys, I can tell you one of, three stories. You know, when when I got hit by a car, one when I accidentally killed my girlfriend's cat and one when I, when I stubbed my toe, you know, and so, like, you take your pick, you know, and just let them pick, and it doesn't change anything about where that message is going, but letting them have a moment where they can speak into it. 00:25:00:17 - 00:25:27:22 Josh Boldman Like, I guarantee you, when the room picks the story, the room pays attention to the story more. Yeah. or or even at the end, you know, be a great way to, to really, especially if you're trying to reach students that are not familiar with church a lot, you know, like that aren't around a lot is, at the end of the message just saying, like, hey, on a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you agree with what you just heard? 00:25:27:25 - 00:25:46:26 Josh Boldman can you met and live in live results on the screen like, hey, okay, so but can you imagine how much that might change your small group conversations that are going to happen right after the lesson? If if you suddenly see, like, oh, we just talked about this and 80% of the room says, I don't agree, okay, great. 00:25:47:03 - 00:26:10:20 Josh Boldman Then let's go to our small groups and let's see this mess out. You know, or I think that there's, there's stuff like that or or you could even say if you're doing a series, you could, you could say, hey, here are the four weeks of the series. we did the intro this week. Which one you want to hear about next week and let them pick where you're going to go, and then you have a whole week to figure out how to get there. 00:26:10:22 - 00:26:29:11 Josh Boldman yeah. But it but I guarantee you, those students that voted are going to be more likely to be there if they know what you're talking about. And they actually helped get to to choose what that was going to be. Yeah, I think I think there's a lot there. And we're working love to say like we're working like it's like in development, right, right now. 00:26:29:11 - 00:26:49:09 Josh Boldman But it's like I mean, one of the things on the, on the docket is, is, you know, being able to have students from their seat ask questions, be able to give feedback, you know, in real time so that you, as you're standing there on the, you know, platform with your phone that you're able to see the questions as they come in. 00:26:49:11 - 00:27:06:03 Josh Boldman we're trying to figure out things like how to moderate those things because I don't know about you, but if you ask open ended questions and just have the answers up on the screen without, you might get some filtering. Yeah. Inappropriate answer, I don't know, I don't know. I mean, my the students that I've ever worked with are always saints and so they would not do that. 00:27:06:03 - 00:27:30:01 Nick Clason But I would imagine yours. Well you know it's crazy is like here's another like just interesting youth culture is like I was working at a church in Chicago and it was very like it, it prided itself on we reach people who are far from God. And so, you know, that's going to come with a certain like, oh, I student and now I'm in the Bible Belt in Dallas, Texas. 00:27:30:08 - 00:27:55:00 Nick Clason And, it's like it prides itself on being like the church for Christians almost. And like the kids, the students, they're the same, like it's oh, no doubt. Right. That's the crazy thing is what the internet has done is it's leveled that like playing field of like, yeah, certain cultures, their youth culture is very consistent now and despite the demographic. 00:27:55:00 - 00:28:16:08 Nick Clason And so the unique part is not our students. The unique part is helping our parents understand, that the students are still the same, you know, so, you know, something, we've seen is actually really cool that somebody was doing was they were using the live polls in their lobby for parents to answer as they were dropping their kids off. 00:28:16:08 - 00:28:40:12 Josh Boldman That's cool. And, it was yeah, it was very cool. Was like, and it was, you know, some like, minor stuff that it was like, you know, what time is your middle schoolers? Bedtime. Like, you know. Yeah. Seven, eight, nine, ten, 11. You know, just pick one, you know, stuff like that. And it was minor. But again, it's, not just that you get individuals to engage, but the fact that everybody can see the responses as it as it goes. 00:28:40:14 - 00:29:09:00 Josh Boldman There's, I think there's a lot of even still some untapped, untapped potential there. think about how to help people engage. Yeah. I think, we went to a conference a while back, and they're talking about the differences in generational ways of thinking. And like one of the things and I think this is true, despite like being an older, older generation of like all of us, but like Gen Z, Gen Alpha, like they're just looking to be known individually, like they don't want to be part of, like a sea of numbers. 00:29:09:00 - 00:29:32:20 Nick Clason Right. And so when you are in a bigger context and you have 100,000 kids, like it's hard to it's hard for them to, to stand out and stuff like this helps them get to just yeah, speak their, their voice. Right. And they get to play a role. And even if they're voting for something and their choice doesn't get picked like they were heard and that's oh yeah, that's all it needs to be. 00:29:32:20 - 00:29:52:17 Nick Clason It doesn't have to always go their way, you know? And there's probably some opportunity for them to learn some life lessons and stuff in there. But just like realizing like, hey, we're doing all this for you, but what what do you want? Like, that's I don't know. That's the key. So, Josh, as we wind this sucker down, like final thoughts. 00:29:52:17 - 00:30:16:09 Nick Clason Final words. What what what if anything's, like burning on your soul to get out there? Josh Boldman Oh, man. All right, well, here. I'm glad you asked, Nick. no. okay, here's the thing is. Yeah, I think we need to not be afraid of what our students want. And we need to not be afraid of them expressing their opinion. 00:30:16:11 - 00:30:48:22 Josh Boldman And we need to not be afraid of them disagreeing with each other or with us. I think that that is, you know, where where we are heading is a world that values, a diversity of opinion. And the value placed on each of those opinions, is crucial. And so, like, I mean, I think people really can very easily get confused into thinking that that means that every opinion is right or that every opinion carries the same weight. 00:30:48:22 - 00:31:09:12 Josh Boldman And it's a that's not at all what it but it. I think there is a I think we we do ourselves and honestly the gospel and miss service when we, are a disservice. I don't think Miss Service is a word, a disservice when we, when we say, here is the correct answer, we don't even want to hear anything else. 00:31:09:15 - 00:31:42:02 Josh Boldman because our students are coming into our, our, our environments with their own opinions and own presuppositions. And yes, they probably heard them all from the same TikTok channel. Like, that's fine, but they all still want it. They want to be heard. And so I think any time we can even begin to open the door to showing them that we value what they are walking in with, I think just builds, it builds credibility in their eyes. 00:31:42:05 - 00:32:07:01 Josh Boldman I think in all honesty, I don't know, you know, I would argue that most students are they do not often find themselves in environments where their opinion is valued. so, I mean, whether that's school, I mean, and please don't hear me, teachers are awesome, but it is it is tough when especially when you have like a curriculum in a, in a school environment, you're like, hey, I need you to learn this thing. 00:32:07:07 - 00:32:31:22 Josh Boldman Like, and there's not a lot of debate in biology, you know, like, it's just this is where we're at, you know? And so, but I think if we can create environments where it's, we're inviting students into a conversation where their voice matters, whether that's a, a deep theological conversation or whether that is a game that is literally, hey, I need you to pick A, B, or C because it's a trivia question. 00:32:31:22 - 00:32:57:01 Josh Boldman Like it's it like, but but still valuing what they bring to the table. I think that that pays dividends in the long run in a, in a massive, massive way. I mean, whether that's later in the small group or whether that's ten years later or, you know, I'm at a point right now where kids, when I first started that were in sixth grade, now have their own sixth graders, and that is awful. 00:32:57:03 - 00:33:14:19 Josh Boldman but but it's the same thing is those those kids are now in the place where they're deciding, am I going to bring my own kid to a youth group or not? And, you know, and I think that the way we treat our students now will influence how they raise their own families and what that looks like for them in the future. 00:33:14:19 - 00:33:34:17 Josh Boldman So, never underestimate how important it is to for for a student's voice to be valued. Yeah. And what better spot in the world than for that to happen at church? Crazy, right? Who would've thought? Yeah, well, Josh, we're running out of time. But I appreciate you, man. Anywhere, anywhere else people can find, find the Josh Boldman, like. 00:33:34:19 - 00:34:00:20 Nick Clason Oh, yeah, they want to, like, untap some of these other thoughts and deeper musings of the word is, oh, I don't know if deeper is going to be with the find, but, all the social media is, it's at Josh Boldman. I know, I'm so glad it wasn't taken. Yeah. You're lucky. all right, I know. Yeah. but then, again, you know, the download youth ministry store, you know, I mean, this is not to sell stuff, but like, a lot of the stuff I've written really does reflect where I'm at, you know? 00:34:00:20 - 00:34:09:15 Josh Boldman And so, you know, check out any of that stuff there, but. Well, yeah. Love it. Man. Will appreciate you being on. And, everyone else, we'll talk next time. All right, bye friends. cell phones, teenagers and cell phones, cell phones at church, download youth ministry, sidekick, sidekick and cell phones, youth ministry ideas, youth ministry presentation, youth ministry programming, creative youth ministry messages, Generation Alpha value, individual, church games, church ideas, church cell phone involvement, youth pastor, youth group, youth pastor coach, youth ministry coaching, digital ministry, digital integration, hybrid ministry, nick clason, josh boldman 🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥

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======================================
DESCRIPTION
What in the world do we do about cellphone usage during youth group?!
It seems like it's getting worse and worse!

Well, Josh Boldman, of DYM (downloadyouthministry.com) is here to help reveal his thoughts, as well as a full-proof program to not only take care of the cell phone epidemic, but to unveil the future of youth ministry as we all know it!

======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/110

//CO-LEADER CURRICULUM
https://www.coleader.co/

//SIDEKICK
https://sidekick.tv/

//JOSH ON DYM
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/featured-authors/josh-boldman/

//SIDEKICK FEATURE REQUEST
https://sidekick-tv.canny.io/feature-requests

//JOSH ON SOCIAL
https://www.tiktok.com/@joshboldman
https://www.instagram.com/joshboldman/
https://www.facebook.com/joshboldman
https://x.com/joshboldman

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

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

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies!
🔗 https://linktr.ee/clasonnick

======================================
🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Intro - How your experience got you where you are now
04:15 Sidekick's Introduction into the Digital Realm of Youth Ministry
09:00 Sidekick's most user friendly features
13:50 What's next for Sidekick?
17:36 How Sidekick aids in showing up where students are
19:25 The Recipe to Engaging Students where they are
30:42 Final Thoughts on Hybrid Ministry
--------------
✍️TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:15 - 00:00:23:04
Nick Clason
What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry show. I, as always my host Nick Klassen. And I'm really excited. Today I got the one and only Josh Boldman who works at Diam now. He also has years of experience in youth ministry. And so we are going to interview Josh today. What's up everybody? I'm here with Josh Boldman. Josh how you doing this morning bro?

00:00:23:04 - 00:00:44:07
Josh Boldman
I am good man. How are you doing I'm great. I'm glad to have you on

Nick Clason
the long awaited Josh Boldman interview.

Josh Boldman
Most podcasts are still waiting. I just wanted to make it very clear.

Nick Clason
Oh man, I feel like I'm in an exclusive club. Yeah, or something.

Josh Boldman
So they just don't know. They don't know it yet, but they're still waiting.

00:00:44:07 - 00:01:10:12
Nick Clason
Yeah, they definitely are. But not me. Not us. Josh, like, tell the people, how did. Who are you and how did you get to where you are today?

Josh Boldman
Oh my gosh. Okay. That is it all started on a cold with. No. okay. So I have, right there. So I'll start with where I'm at. right now I am I am the team lead for co-leader, which is, a part of the download Youth Ministry family.

00:01:10:14 - 00:01:39:17
Josh Boldman
I also, run lead in the sidekick arena, which is our presentation software. We'll get to that. but that's only been for about the last year. before that, I spent, somewhere in the neighborhood of. Right at about 20 years in student ministry, as a youth pastor or youth minister or student pastor or student ministries director, or any of the other myriad ways that you can you can describe it.

00:01:39:19 - 00:02:03:18
Josh Boldman
but I did that. Gosh, from Florida, to Illinois, to, tiny, tiny little churches to big old churches to, single site to multi-site to we do youth ministry on Sunday morning to we do youth ministry on Wednesday nights like normal people do. all that, you know, so, you know, it's just kind of been all over the place.

00:02:03:24 - 00:02:27:24
Josh Boldman
Yeah. but for the last ten, I'll say ten. It's probably like six, but I'll say ten years. I pastor mother, with Dwight. Yeah. It's like, how many kids were there? The 400. I don't know, it was too many to count. but yeah. So I, I've been an author with Tim, putting resources like games and teaching content and countdowns and videos and stuff together for DYM.

00:02:27:27 - 00:02:47:11
Josh Boldman
And then about a year ago, they had somebody that was going on maternity leave and they're like, hey, you want to cover for that person? I was like, yeah, yeah, I do. And then I spent all 90 days of that maternity leave, trying to make it where there was literally no way they could let me go afterward.

00:02:47:11 - 00:03:08:12
Nick Clason
And it it worked nice.

Josh Boldman
Absolutely worked. I was it was dicey for about about 45 days. And then I was like, nah, I think I got I think, I think I got this. So she came back and I was not asked to pack up and leave. so that has worked out for everybody. Yeah. You didn't put her on the job either?

00:03:08:12 - 00:03:31:27
Josh Boldman
No, no, it's kind of great. Yeah. So, you know, it's been it's been a ride. this last year, co-leader has transitioned from a, a platform where you can plan ministry to a full blown annual curriculum. we've launched sidekick. sidekick, which is now in beta. we had Sidekick Legacy, which was a standalone app.

00:03:31:27 - 00:03:53:26
Josh Boldman
Now it's built in the browser. So you open it in Chrome and you can you can play. You know, play your presentation literally anywhere. we did that all with any I mean, it's like literally anything we could have done, we we decided we were like, hey, you know what? If we just take everything we ever want to do and we just jam it all into one calendar year, and we got this.

00:03:53:27 - 00:04:08:28
Nick Clason
Yeah, we got this guy now who's covering for this girl on maternity leave, and now we can. We had him go. So we're we need to get our money's worth out of him. That's there. Like, we have so many staff. We have so we have so many. And now, now we need to have them do things, so.

00:04:08:28 - 00:04:30:10
Nick Clason
Oh, man, I gotta say the like this, I don't there's no pitch. Like, no, like kickback. None of this. I love co-leader and I love sidekick. And, we, I made our church and I think I told you this, but we'll tell everyone I was like, I made our church by two computers so that we could run pro presenter.

00:04:30:10 - 00:04:52:19
Nick Clason
Because the musicians need the confidence monitor, like the not not what's on the screen mirror, but like what's coming. So like what? So that's valid.

Josh Boldman
So they don't practice is what you're telling me.

Nick Clason
Exactly. They're ill prepared. So I had to give them what they needed at the give the musicians you know, throw my bone. But I made them buy another computer and a like a black magic video switcher.

00:04:52:19 - 00:05:11:04
Josh Boldman
And we running everything else now. Yeah. Off of sidekick. And so, so, so what I'm hearing you say is because of the worship ministry, you guys have to rely on dark magic. Is that. What is that where he is? Oh, black. Matt. Oh, it's a black. It's a company that's different. Okay. All right. I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised either.

00:05:11:11 - 00:05:37:06
Nick Clason
Yeah, yeah, either way. But I love the like I love a lot of things about it. But my favorite part about it is the phone integration. Right. And, we played last week like a game like, multiple choice game. And they could literally play on their phones. And this was the first time I'd, I'd use that particular, like, setting there and sidekick, like the, the question with, with the quiz like type of.

00:05:37:08 - 00:06:02:05
Nick Clason
Yeah. Like what the correct answer. Yes. Yes. And I loved that. That was super fun. so talk to me just a little bit about, like, you know, you jump in. Were there rumblings and plans about sidekick being revamped or did you see some of like those opportunities and be like, this is what I see in youth ministry as a youth pastor, 20 plus years and now, yeah, I want to help kind of evolve it to the next stage, like give us that kind of background.

00:06:02:08 - 00:06:26:01
Josh Boldman
Yeah. So something that, I it's really funny because I don't know that many youth workers realize, although I feel like we should is that, software development takes billions of dollars and lots and lots of time. and so, so when I started at downloading Ministry, the plan had already been. We are revamping sidekick. I'm. You know, I'm just gonna peel back the curtain, you know?

00:06:26:01 - 00:06:50:24
Josh Boldman
You don't know. Yeah. Sorry. I took the original app. All right. Was written in a, in a programing environment that got depreciate. All right, so it is. It was built long, so it was built on something called chromium. and it it it is a like sidekick. Legacy is a work of art. Like it is a it was a game changer for me when I was in ministry.

00:06:50:24 - 00:07:14:13
Josh Boldman
The the spinning wheel boxes. Yeah. it was one of a kind. No one was. Oh, my gosh, nobody was doing it right. And then, what happened about two years ago, maybe three years ago now is chromium got depreciated. And we realized what that meant was there was now no way to update the legacy. I don't know at all, like, impossible, like literally impossible.

00:07:14:16 - 00:07:31:17
Josh Boldman
And and so it was like, okay, well, we can either rebuild a new one or we can take it in a different direction. And one of the really things that people that people hated was every time you open the legacy app, you have to sign in every single time you had to type in the password. It was a great time.

00:07:31:20 - 00:07:52:23
Josh Boldman
I got into trouble. One time I was in front of our, like our whole camp, like it was like a thousand kids, right? And sidekick was running, and then it crashed. And then they had to reopen it, and they're like, from the booth, they yell out, what's the password? No. And in front of 1000 students, I had to say a password into the microphone.

00:07:52:23 - 00:08:14:14
Josh Boldman
And here's the best part. You ready for this? It was the same password for everything. Like my my bank account and, all this stuff. So, like, so like, I immediately I started teaching, and then I get off stage and I'm like, I gotta change every password I mean, ever had. It was a nightmare. so we thought, okay, what is the best way to make this as portable as possible?

00:08:14:14 - 00:08:33:01
Josh Boldman
So we went with putting it in, in the browser. Yeah. which I'll be honest, I mean, it was basically like it was a trade off, right? It gave us a lot of, functionality as far as portability, as far as far as syncing. Yeah. but it there are trade offs, right? Like Google Chrome. both.

00:08:33:01 - 00:08:52:11
Josh Boldman
Google. Safari, Apple. you know, Firefox, they all have different rules about like window management. And so like you'll know like when you open sidekick and you go to present, you have to drag the window over to your other browser. Like that's not ideal right now. We that's why we have a video switcher now that's why. Right.

00:08:52:13 - 00:09:22:11
Josh Boldman
Yeah. That's why we that's why we as Christians rely on dark black magic. Black. It's that's what it is. and so, so, you know, so there are some trade offs for sure. For sure. But, but what we started realizing was, the, the pitch that we started telling people that when it, I think it really kind of clicked for people how how different was good is we would tell them, like, we would show them what we could do with, with voting, with spinning wheel, with, with pick me like the main ideas.

00:09:22:14 - 00:09:41:11
Josh Boldman
And I said, what's really cool is I can create this presentation. I can, immediately, as soon as I add an element to a slide, I can close the laptop, I can break it over my knee, I can set it on fire and throw it in the ocean. And then I can just go to church, open the computer, and it's it's there like it is there.

00:09:41:12 - 00:10:03:18
Josh Boldman
It does not miss a beat. you probably have to like on the computer at church, though, because yours is God's an ocean. Oh yeah. No no no no. Yeah. There's no recovering from it really at the point. Not sidekicks. Not that good yet. Yeah. No, I mean, yeah. but. Yeah. So so it's, Yeah, it's it's being able to sync and being able to to go remote.

00:10:03:25 - 00:10:28:19
Josh Boldman
That's awesome. But then when we started showing people, hey, all you have to do is the same thing you did to log in on your computer, do that on your phone. And what it does is it turns your phone into a remote for the exact same presentation that's running on your presentation computer. and I mean, just suddenly being able to when you're doing polls on your phone, you can see the results, before they're even shown on the screen.

00:10:28:22 - 00:10:57:09
Josh Boldman
you can go to next, go back. You can do slide notes. You can. I mean, it did really any of the functionality that's there except for editing on the computer. You can do that literally on your phone in real time because I don't know if you've ever I'm certainly you've never been in this situation where you have a sixth grader who is so well intentioned is like, I want to run the computer and you're like, yes, that is a that is a thing a sixth grader can do.

00:10:57:09 - 00:11:26:24
Josh Boldman
You can hit the spacebar. Yeah. And and then, and then they, and then they don't, they, they just don't hit the spacebar. And so like I would always use it as just like my, my phone was, I wasn't there. So I was running it, but it was my fallback. Like I was like, okay, that kid in the back, there was one time, I swear to you, right, at an unnamed church that I worked at for a while.

00:11:26:27 - 00:11:51:12
Josh Boldman
I remember once, so I would always try, so I was a student ministry director there, and so I always I would always try, like, I would. Yeah, I was either teaching or whatever, but I would always try to do anytime I wasn't teaching, I would try to do something else. So like anytime I wasn't teaching, I would be in the booth or the, you know, doing the game or, you know, but so there's one time I'm in the booth and, and the lyrics for the songs are not firing on time.

00:11:51:12 - 00:12:18:01
Josh Boldman
And I, so I'm like, leaning over and I'm looking. The kid is watching Star Wars the movie. Like, like an actual movie on his phone. Not a TikTok, not a YouTube. No. The two hour movie, two hour movie with subtitles. And he is holding his phone like screamed. Is it because the subtitles are so small? And I'm like, hey, I know, I know, you're looking at that because words are important.

00:12:18:03 - 00:12:38:25
Josh Boldman
However, everyone else in the room is looking up here because words are important. So maybe I don't know, I don't know, that's just jump up and just jump on that. That's a win right there. Yeah. So but being able to you know when you're on stage and things go wrong there are like a couple of options. And and one of them is to make the person in the booth feel really bad.

00:12:38:25 - 00:13:00:09
Nick Clason
And that is never the right option. Right. It's never to call attention to the person messed up. But we want to sometimes. Oh oh yes, yes, yes we do. But being able to just say, okay, I've got my phone here. Hey, Mr. Cube, don't worry, I'm just going to jump it like, yeah, was that was the game changer for me.

00:13:00:11 - 00:13:22:15
Josh Boldman
and so now we're just on this journey of trying to reach full parity between the legacy version and what is right now, the lovingly called the beta version of sidekick. until it until it has all the same features. yeah. But what we're finding is that is, like I said, the original The legacy is a work of art.

00:13:22:17 - 00:13:47:09
Josh Boldman
And, right now, we are working on boxes and that is in the browser proving to be a challenging. Yeah, it is, it's just, you know, it's one of those things like, you wouldn't think like even when we first, the first go around, we did, wheel and pick me. Right. Those were the first two things. And so with the wheel, you know, you think how this is, it's a spinning wheel.

00:13:47:10 - 00:14:04:24
Josh Boldman
Like there's no. Yeah, there's nothing complicated here. Oh, but there is, friend, because pixels are square. Yeah. I don't know if you knew that or not, but pixels was great. So when you try and rotate them around and center axis that's a. Yeah. It's just it's one of those things like, you know, you think you got it.

00:14:04:24 - 00:14:21:03
Josh Boldman
And then suddenly you're like, oh, that looks really bad. And so then it just it's like you have to go right back to the drawing board and, and so, so yeah. So right now we're working on boxes. It's, it's taking a little longer than we had hoped, but but you're working with square pixels now. So square pixels.

00:14:21:06 - 00:14:35:10
Josh Boldman
We know what we're doing. Yeah. Yes. Wouldn't it be funny if like, in the like when, when it was the wheel, we had a problem because it was squares. But then like we're like, alright, now we're going to move the boxes and like just the world, like was like, you know what we figured out round pixels are better.

00:14:35:12 - 00:14:57:21
Josh Boldman
And I was like, no, no. Yeah. But but yeah. So we're that. So we got boxes, in the pipeline. we're we, we here and I know anybody that knows sidekick already. Their first question that they have been asking is what about, survey says, which is our family feud builder. Right. And, that one is, it's coming.

00:14:57:21 - 00:15:19:27
Josh Boldman
It's like, but it's it is it all takes a yeah, it all takes time. And, so, best way anybody, anybody that, you know, can help me go to sidekick.TV. There's a link there where you can, you can submit ideas and requests and you can even vote on other people's. And and that always helps us know kind of what's next.

00:15:19:29 - 00:15:36:15
Josh Boldman
yeah. But yeah, we'll drop. That'll be. We're loving it, dude. I mean, and. Oh, I, I know the sound is starting to sound like a commercial and I apologize, but it's, it's it is. It's like it's just so fun is, when, when one of the most recent things we did was we connected everyone's dim accounts to the download youth ministry.

00:15:36:15 - 00:16:04:05
Josh Boldman
If you buy something, there, he just automatically shows up. And that is that was awesome. Sweet. Because, I mean, it used to be, I don't know. I mean, you you make games for GM that are video based, right. And and when you do that those those files are massive. Like, you know, I mean, it's not uncommon for a game to be three, four gigabytes, you know, but it's also 3 or 4GB of, you know, that's 20, 30 videos for the game.

00:16:04:05 - 00:16:21:05
Josh Boldman
And so then adding each of those in is kind of a nightmare. And so we figured out a way to do it is we do it on our end once and then it when you buy it, it just you can just it shows up in your library. You click on it and it's just in that is yeah, man, I'm telling you I will.

00:16:21:08 - 00:16:38:28
Josh Boldman
I never have to worry about losing a thumb drive ever again. Yeah, because I don't know if you know this or not, but I don't know where my thumb drive it is right now. I lost it in 1997. so. Sounds like there are some important things on there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Knows it was, I don't know, something.

00:16:38:28 - 00:17:04:23
Josh Boldman
Call it bitcoin. Bitcoin I don't remember. You could have been rich. You wouldn't even have to be here right now. Well I'll tell you what. Of all the things like all the things you're talking about, there's like, there's phone usage on both sides, right? So if you're presenting, you can use your phone as a remote, but if you're, you're, watching your in the audience, there are like integrations where there's like voting and games and all that stuff.

00:17:04:23 - 00:17:25:07
Nick Clason
Yeah. And, I think that's my favorite part. Like as a youth pastor now for, over ten years, like I've always been trying to figure out how to get ourselves in youth ministry. Like relevant to our students are, as opposed to, like, when they're at church, make them do something that's so completely foreign to like their current culture.

00:17:25:07 - 00:17:56:28
Nick Clason
Right? Like youth culture, like they're all messaging one another through their phones. They're all like consuming news articles and social media through their phones. And then we get to church and like the church I was at, like when I started the previous regime, no shade. but they had, like, phone lockers, like they would take kids cellphones and lock them and like, and what we're do, in my opinion, is like, okay, so we're, we're just trying to modify their behavior, but we haven't actually like change their true authentic like desire to like be here and listen.

00:17:56:28 - 00:18:19:26
Nick Clason
We just want them quieter for us. And like that we should just be better. Like, yeah. And so y'all start rolling out all this stuff on sidekick. And I'm like, here's the opportunity for us to use what is native to them in our environment and in a way that doesn't, like, break the bank anymore, because to get some of these features through other third party like platforms, we just don't have the money.

00:18:19:26 - 00:18:45:09
Nick Clason
As a youth pastor, you know what I'm saying? In your budget, whatever the case might be. So yeah, so that's my favorite part. And so I would love it if you would talk about not just necessarily like the sidekick integration, but what has been your experience and your unique perspective as a youth pastor with how what we've done in youth culture and how like we've then asked them to come to church culture and how they don't all they're like oil and water sometimes.

00:18:45:09 - 00:19:07:04
Nick Clason
Like, how are we? How can we reach students better and to find ourselves where they are, which is online, on phones, all those things.

Josh Boldman
I mean, okay, so you remember, man, even I mean, when I was growing up and especially early in my ministry, you know, it was always the, the thing was, you were always fighting against like, like travel sports, right?

00:19:07:04 - 00:19:30:07
Josh Boldman
Like that was like the, the, the bane of youth ministry existence was like, oh, we still are really, by the way. Oh, to be cool. Yeah. Oh, no doubt. But it was like, I don't know, there was like a point where I think we just we got tired of seeing no results from shame, shaming those kids. Like, it's like you want to play travel ball.

00:19:30:11 - 00:19:47:28
Josh Boldman
We'll play travel ball. Yeah. With the devil. You know, it's like that. Doesn't like it doesn't help anybody. When? When all we're doing is. Or like. Like, oh, you have a phone, go lock it up because it's, you know, it's like that, doesn't it? Yeah. What does that do? All that does is like when you're locking up a kid's phone.

00:19:48:05 - 00:20:10:09
Josh Boldman
I feel like the way that you can know that it's not working is as soon as the the time, like the lockdown is over, was the very first thing they do. They run to go get it. Yeah. Which means that it was, it was on their mind still. So it's not like you really saved you know them any, any trouble or any like you didn't gain anything by pulling it away, you know, because their attention is still stuck on it.

00:20:10:11 - 00:20:36:16
Josh Boldman
so really what I think, I think is we're seeing right now in youth ministry as a whole, in, in what we're trying to do, a sidekick is really we're trying to figure out ways to engage students, literally where they are. And so, I guess, have you, did you ever do camps where the rule was the kids couldn't even bring their phone to camp?

00:20:36:18 - 00:20:59:04
Nick Clason
I never did. No, I could have, right. But I never I always I've always run my own camp, so I make the rules. So. Yeah. And I've always been in churches or youth ministries where the goal is to bring kids who don't go to our church to camp. And like, I'm not going to get a kid and their family who's never met me, send their kid like hours away without a lifeline back to them.

00:20:59:04 - 00:21:24:10
Josh Boldman
Oh yeah. Kids. Oh, no. So I've never tried to fight that battle, but it was fake because we used to almost use that, like as an advertisement. We were like, come to camp where you get away from your phone and kids are like, I don't want to do that, you know? And so, like, there was a point where I think maybe 20 years ago, you probably could do it, but even now, it's not even just the kid, it's the parents that are like, I'm not sending my kid without their phone.

00:21:24:10 - 00:21:58:02
Josh Boldman
What's wrong with you? You know? Yeah. So, like, so what we decided to do with with sidekick is like, okay, what if instead of constantly harping on, he put your phone away or go lock it up or don't even bring it, or, you know, trying to make it seem like the phone itself was the enemy. What if we decided to say like, hey, we understand that that phone, it's an extension of you now like that just, I mean, and that, I mean, you know, I mean, I think you can get really, like, dystopian, you know, like, like Blade Runner type type vibes from, like, the phone is an extension of you, but but it is

00:21:58:03 - 00:22:21:24
Josh Boldman
mine is an extension of me like, I mean, I literally if I, I don't know when the last time I walked out of my house without my phone was like, it's not just because I didn't forget it, it's because if it's not in my pocket, it feels like I'm missing something. I feel like I know I'm missing it, and you're gonna need it, you know, like, oh, sure, it's your calendar, it's your wallet, it's your navigation, it's your everything.

00:22:21:24 - 00:22:49:12
Nick Clason
Like it. So you can't so much. That's my argument is like this. It's not going anywhere. So we can try our hardest as youth pastors and churches to fight against culture. But it's a losing battle eventually. And it's not like, oh, let's give in to culture because it's evil, right? No, no, no. It's how do we take this thing that is not moral, it's not morally right or morally wrong, but how do we take this thing and just use it as a tool?

00:22:49:12 - 00:23:07:12
Josh Boldman
It's it's a tool, 100% tool that we we would have died for 15, 20 years ago, like, oh yeah, I was talking on the last episode like we didn't have group chats 15 years ago. If you want to talk to your student, you talk to them when they came to your building and that was it. But now you can do pastoral care.

00:23:07:12 - 00:23:39:02
Nick Clason
You can, and just do a basic thing like texting. When I'm talking about something like software development right now. Yeah. So one of the things, that has been really cool to experiment with, and we've seen a couple people do this really well is is using like polls like, okay, so there's a there are different ways you can use it, but the like, so say as you're teaching, if, if you're saying something that you know is going to fly right over their heads, right?

00:23:39:05 - 00:24:11:11
Josh Boldman
Pausing literally at that moment and asking the question, hey, did you catch that? And yes or no, like literally something super simple like, did you catch that? Yes or no? And then adjusting what you say next based on their response or, we've even seen people take their entire services in like a, choose your own adventure type approach where, I mean, it is it seems minor, but it's something like, hey, we've got the worship team has two songs that they prepared, but we're only going to do one.

00:24:11:13 - 00:24:29:15
Josh Boldman
Hey, you all, they're here. Yeah. Which one you want to do? You know, or, you know, I've, done a couple teaching times where, like, so, you know, every youth pastor has, like, their, like, bag of tricks, like the, the saw or the stories that they tell that it's like, okay, I can tell this story, like drop of a hat.

00:24:29:15 - 00:25:00:17
Josh Boldman
Yeah. you know, and so, like, I, I'll start with, like, right at the beginning of a message will say, hey, guys, I can tell you one of, three stories. You know, when when I got hit by a car, one when I accidentally killed my girlfriend's cat and one when I, when I stubbed my toe, you know, and so, like, you take your pick, you know, and just let them pick, and it doesn't change anything about where that message is going, but letting them have a moment where they can speak into it.

00:25:00:17 - 00:25:27:22
Josh Boldman
Like, I guarantee you, when the room picks the story, the room pays attention to the story more. Yeah. or or even at the end, you know, be a great way to, to really, especially if you're trying to reach students that are not familiar with church a lot, you know, like that aren't around a lot is, at the end of the message just saying, like, hey, on a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you agree with what you just heard?

00:25:27:25 - 00:25:46:26
Josh Boldman
can you met and live in live results on the screen like, hey, okay, so but can you imagine how much that might change your small group conversations that are going to happen right after the lesson? If if you suddenly see, like, oh, we just talked about this and 80% of the room says, I don't agree, okay, great.

00:25:47:03 - 00:26:10:20
Josh Boldman
Then let's go to our small groups and let's see this mess out. You know, or I think that there's, there's stuff like that or or you could even say if you're doing a series, you could, you could say, hey, here are the four weeks of the series. we did the intro this week. Which one you want to hear about next week and let them pick where you're going to go, and then you have a whole week to figure out how to get there.

00:26:10:22 - 00:26:29:11
Josh Boldman
yeah. But it but I guarantee you, those students that voted are going to be more likely to be there if they know what you're talking about. And they actually helped get to to choose what that was going to be. Yeah, I think I think there's a lot there. And we're working love to say like we're working like it's like in development, right, right now.

00:26:29:11 - 00:26:49:09
Josh Boldman
But it's like I mean, one of the things on the, on the docket is, is, you know, being able to have students from their seat ask questions, be able to give feedback, you know, in real time so that you, as you're standing there on the, you know, platform with your phone that you're able to see the questions as they come in.

00:26:49:11 - 00:27:06:03
Josh Boldman
we're trying to figure out things like how to moderate those things because I don't know about you, but if you ask open ended questions and just have the answers up on the screen without, you might get some filtering. Yeah. Inappropriate answer, I don't know, I don't know. I mean, my the students that I've ever worked with are always saints and so they would not do that.

00:27:06:03 - 00:27:30:01
Nick Clason
But I would imagine yours. Well you know it's crazy is like here's another like just interesting youth culture is like I was working at a church in Chicago and it was very like it, it prided itself on we reach people who are far from God. And so, you know, that's going to come with a certain like, oh, I student and now I'm in the Bible Belt in Dallas, Texas.

00:27:30:08 - 00:27:55:00
Nick Clason
And, it's like it prides itself on being like the church for Christians almost. And like the kids, the students, they're the same, like it's oh, no doubt. Right. That's the crazy thing is what the internet has done is it's leveled that like playing field of like, yeah, certain cultures, their youth culture is very consistent now and despite the demographic.

00:27:55:00 - 00:28:16:08
Nick Clason
And so the unique part is not our students. The unique part is helping our parents understand, that the students are still the same, you know, so, you know, something, we've seen is actually really cool that somebody was doing was they were using the live polls in their lobby for parents to answer as they were dropping their kids off.

00:28:16:08 - 00:28:40:12
Josh Boldman
That's cool. And, it was yeah, it was very cool. Was like, and it was, you know, some like, minor stuff that it was like, you know, what time is your middle schoolers? Bedtime. Like, you know. Yeah. Seven, eight, nine, ten, 11. You know, just pick one, you know, stuff like that. And it was minor. But again, it's, not just that you get individuals to engage, but the fact that everybody can see the responses as it as it goes.

00:28:40:14 - 00:29:09:00
Josh Boldman
There's, I think there's a lot of even still some untapped, untapped potential there. think about how to help people engage. Yeah. I think, we went to a conference a while back, and they're talking about the differences in generational ways of thinking. And like one of the things and I think this is true, despite like being an older, older generation of like all of us, but like Gen Z, Gen Alpha, like they're just looking to be known individually, like they don't want to be part of, like a sea of numbers.

00:29:09:00 - 00:29:32:20
Nick Clason
Right. And so when you are in a bigger context and you have 100,000 kids, like it's hard to it's hard for them to, to stand out and stuff like this helps them get to just yeah, speak their, their voice. Right. And they get to play a role. And even if they're voting for something and their choice doesn't get picked like they were heard and that's oh yeah, that's all it needs to be.

00:29:32:20 - 00:29:52:17
Nick Clason
It doesn't have to always go their way, you know? And there's probably some opportunity for them to learn some life lessons and stuff in there. But just like realizing like, hey, we're doing all this for you, but what what do you want? Like, that's I don't know. That's the key. So, Josh, as we wind this sucker down, like final thoughts.

00:29:52:17 - 00:30:16:09
Nick Clason
Final words. What what what if anything's, like burning on your soul to get out there?

Josh Boldman
Oh, man. All right, well, here. I'm glad you asked, Nick. no. okay, here's the thing is. Yeah, I think we need to not be afraid of what our students want. And we need to not be afraid of them expressing their opinion.

00:30:16:11 - 00:30:48:22
Josh Boldman
And we need to not be afraid of them disagreeing with each other or with us. I think that that is, you know, where where we are heading is a world that values, a diversity of opinion. And the value placed on each of those opinions, is crucial. And so, like, I mean, I think people really can very easily get confused into thinking that that means that every opinion is right or that every opinion carries the same weight.

00:30:48:22 - 00:31:09:12
Josh Boldman
And it's a that's not at all what it but it. I think there is a I think we we do ourselves and honestly the gospel and miss service when we, are a disservice. I don't think Miss Service is a word, a disservice when we, when we say, here is the correct answer, we don't even want to hear anything else.

00:31:09:15 - 00:31:42:02
Josh Boldman
because our students are coming into our, our, our environments with their own opinions and own presuppositions. And yes, they probably heard them all from the same TikTok channel. Like, that's fine, but they all still want it. They want to be heard. And so I think any time we can even begin to open the door to showing them that we value what they are walking in with, I think just builds, it builds credibility in their eyes.

00:31:42:05 - 00:32:07:01
Josh Boldman
I think in all honesty, I don't know, you know, I would argue that most students are they do not often find themselves in environments where their opinion is valued. so, I mean, whether that's school, I mean, and please don't hear me, teachers are awesome, but it is it is tough when especially when you have like a curriculum in a, in a school environment, you're like, hey, I need you to learn this thing.

00:32:07:07 - 00:32:31:22
Josh Boldman
Like, and there's not a lot of debate in biology, you know, like, it's just this is where we're at, you know? And so, but I think if we can create environments where it's, we're inviting students into a conversation where their voice matters, whether that's a, a deep theological conversation or whether that is a game that is literally, hey, I need you to pick A, B, or C because it's a trivia question.

00:32:31:22 - 00:32:57:01
Josh Boldman
Like it's it like, but but still valuing what they bring to the table. I think that that pays dividends in the long run in a, in a massive, massive way. I mean, whether that's later in the small group or whether that's ten years later or, you know, I'm at a point right now where kids, when I first started that were in sixth grade, now have their own sixth graders, and that is awful.

00:32:57:03 - 00:33:14:19
Josh Boldman
but but it's the same thing is those those kids are now in the place where they're deciding, am I going to bring my own kid to a youth group or not? And, you know, and I think that the way we treat our students now will influence how they raise their own families and what that looks like for them in the future.

00:33:14:19 - 00:33:34:17
Josh Boldman
So, never underestimate how important it is to for for a student's voice to be valued. Yeah. And what better spot in the world than for that to happen at church? Crazy, right? Who would've thought? Yeah, well, Josh, we're running out of time. But I appreciate you, man. Anywhere, anywhere else people can find, find the Josh Boldman, like.

00:33:34:19 - 00:34:00:20
Nick Clason
Oh, yeah, they want to, like, untap some of these other thoughts and deeper musings of the word is, oh, I don't know if deeper is going to be with the find, but, all the social media is, it's at Josh Boldman. I know, I'm so glad it wasn't taken. Yeah. You're lucky. all right, I know. Yeah. but then, again, you know, the download youth ministry store, you know, I mean, this is not to sell stuff, but like, a lot of the stuff I've written really does reflect where I'm at, you know?

00:34:00:20 - 00:34:09:15
Josh Boldman
And so, you know, check out any of that stuff there, but. Well, yeah. Love it. Man. Will appreciate you being on. And, everyone else, we'll talk next time. All right, bye friends.

]]> 🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥

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DESCRIPTION
What in the world do we do about cellphone usage during youth group?!
It seems like it's getting worse and worse!

Well, Josh Boldman, of DYM (downloadyouthministry.com) is here to help reveal his thoughts, as well as a full-proof program to not only take care of the cell phone epidemic, but to unveil the future of youth ministry as we all know it!

======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/110

//CO-LEADER CURRICULUM
https://www.coleader.co/

//SIDEKICK
https://sidekick.tv/

//JOSH ON DYM
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/featured-authors/josh-boldman/

//SIDEKICK FEATURE REQUEST
https://sidekick-tv.canny.io/feature-requests

//JOSH ON SOCIAL
https://www.tiktok.com/@joshboldman
https://www.instagram.com/joshboldman/
https://www.facebook.com/joshboldman
https://x.com/joshboldman

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

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🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies!
🔗 https://linktr.ee/clasonnick

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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
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Intro - How your experience got you where you are now
04:15 Sidekick's Introduction into the Digital Realm of Youth Ministry
09:00 Sidekick's most user friendly features
13:50 What's next for Sidekick?
17:36 How Sidekick aids in showing up where students are
19:25 The Recipe to Engaging Students where they are
30:42 Final Thoughts on Hybrid Ministry
--------------
✍️TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:15 - 00:00:23:04
Nick Clason
What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry show. I, as always my host Nick Klassen. And I'm really excited. Today I got the one and only Josh Boldman who works at Diam now. He also has years of experience in youth ministry. And so we are going to interview Josh today. What's up everybody? I'm here with Josh Boldman. Josh how you doing this morning bro?

00:00:23:04 - 00:00:44:07
Josh Boldman
I am good man. How are you doing I'm great. I'm glad to have you on

Nick Clason
the long awaited Josh Boldman interview.

Josh Boldman
Most podcasts are still waiting. I just wanted to make it very clear.

Nick Clason
Oh man, I feel like I'm in an exclusive club. Yeah, or something.

Josh Boldman
So they just don't know. They don't know it yet, but they're still waiting.

00:00:44:07 - 00:01:10:12
Nick Clason
Yeah, they definitely are. But not me. Not us. Josh, like, tell the people, how did. Who are you and how did you get to where you are today?

Josh Boldman
Oh my gosh. Okay. That is it all started on a cold with. No. okay. So I have, right there. So I'll start with where I'm at. right now I am I am the team lead for co-leader, which is, a part of the download Youth Ministry family.

00:01:10:14 - 00:01:39:17
Josh Boldman
I also, run lead in the sidekick arena, which is our presentation software. We'll get to that. but that's only been for about the last year. before that, I spent, somewhere in the neighborhood of. Right at about 20 years in student ministry, as a youth pastor or youth minister or student pastor or student ministries director, or any of the other myriad ways that you can you can describe it.

00:01:39:19 - 00:02:03:18
Josh Boldman
but I did that. Gosh, from Florida, to Illinois, to, tiny, tiny little churches to big old churches to, single site to multi-site to we do youth ministry on Sunday morning to we do youth ministry on Wednesday nights like normal people do. all that, you know, so, you know, it's just kind of been all over the place.

00:02:03:24 - 00:02:27:24
Josh Boldman
Yeah. but for the last ten, I'll say ten. It's probably like six, but I'll say ten years. I pastor mother, with Dwight. Yeah. It's like, how many kids were there? The 400. I don't know, it was too many to count. but yeah. So I, I've been an author with Tim, putting resources like games and teaching content and countdowns and videos and stuff together for DYM.

00:02:27:27 - 00:02:47:11
Josh Boldman
And then about a year ago, they had somebody that was going on maternity leave and they're like, hey, you want to cover for that person? I was like, yeah, yeah, I do. And then I spent all 90 days of that maternity leave, trying to make it where there was literally no way they could let me go afterward.

00:02:47:11 - 00:03:08:12
Nick Clason
And it it worked nice.

Josh Boldman
Absolutely worked. I was it was dicey for about about 45 days. And then I was like, nah, I think I got I think, I think I got this. So she came back and I was not asked to pack up and leave. so that has worked out for everybody. Yeah. You didn't put her on the job either?

00:03:08:12 - 00:03:31:27
Josh Boldman
No, no, it's kind of great. Yeah. So, you know, it's been it's been a ride. this last year, co-leader has transitioned from a, a platform where you can plan ministry to a full blown annual curriculum. we've launched sidekick. sidekick, which is now in beta. we had Sidekick Legacy, which was a standalone app.

00:03:31:27 - 00:03:53:26
Josh Boldman
Now it's built in the browser. So you open it in Chrome and you can you can play. You know, play your presentation literally anywhere. we did that all with any I mean, it's like literally anything we could have done, we we decided we were like, hey, you know what? If we just take everything we ever want to do and we just jam it all into one calendar year, and we got this.

00:03:53:27 - 00:04:08:28
Nick Clason
Yeah, we got this guy now who's covering for this girl on maternity leave, and now we can. We had him go. So we're we need to get our money's worth out of him. That's there. Like, we have so many staff. We have so we have so many. And now, now we need to have them do things, so.

00:04:08:28 - 00:04:30:10
Nick Clason
Oh, man, I gotta say the like this, I don't there's no pitch. Like, no, like kickback. None of this. I love co-leader and I love sidekick. And, we, I made our church and I think I told you this, but we'll tell everyone I was like, I made our church by two computers so that we could run pro presenter.

00:04:30:10 - 00:04:52:19
Nick Clason
Because the musicians need the confidence monitor, like the not not what's on the screen mirror, but like what's coming. So like what? So that's valid.

Josh Boldman
So they don't practice is what you're telling me.

Nick Clason
Exactly. They're ill prepared. So I had to give them what they needed at the give the musicians you know, throw my bone. But I made them buy another computer and a like a black magic video switcher.

00:04:52:19 - 00:05:11:04
Josh Boldman
And we running everything else now. Yeah. Off of sidekick. And so, so, so what I'm hearing you say is because of the worship ministry, you guys have to rely on dark magic. Is that. What is that where he is? Oh, black. Matt. Oh, it's a black. It's a company that's different. Okay. All right. I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised either.

00:05:11:11 - 00:05:37:06
Nick Clason
Yeah, yeah, either way. But I love the like I love a lot of things about it. But my favorite part about it is the phone integration. Right. And, we played last week like a game like, multiple choice game. And they could literally play on their phones. And this was the first time I'd, I'd use that particular, like, setting there and sidekick, like the, the question with, with the quiz like type of.

00:05:37:08 - 00:06:02:05
Nick Clason
Yeah. Like what the correct answer. Yes. Yes. And I loved that. That was super fun. so talk to me just a little bit about, like, you know, you jump in. Were there rumblings and plans about sidekick being revamped or did you see some of like those opportunities and be like, this is what I see in youth ministry as a youth pastor, 20 plus years and now, yeah, I want to help kind of evolve it to the next stage, like give us that kind of background.

00:06:02:08 - 00:06:26:01
Josh Boldman
Yeah. So something that, I it's really funny because I don't know that many youth workers realize, although I feel like we should is that, software development takes billions of dollars and lots and lots of time. and so, so when I started at downloading Ministry, the plan had already been. We are revamping sidekick. I'm. You know, I'm just gonna peel back the curtain, you know?

00:06:26:01 - 00:06:50:24
Josh Boldman
You don't know. Yeah. Sorry. I took the original app. All right. Was written in a, in a programing environment that got depreciate. All right, so it is. It was built long, so it was built on something called chromium. and it it it is a like sidekick. Legacy is a work of art. Like it is a it was a game changer for me when I was in ministry.

00:06:50:24 - 00:07:14:13
Josh Boldman
The the spinning wheel boxes. Yeah. it was one of a kind. No one was. Oh, my gosh, nobody was doing it right. And then, what happened about two years ago, maybe three years ago now is chromium got depreciated. And we realized what that meant was there was now no way to update the legacy. I don't know at all, like, impossible, like literally impossible.

00:07:14:16 - 00:07:31:17
Josh Boldman
And and so it was like, okay, well, we can either rebuild a new one or we can take it in a different direction. And one of the really things that people that people hated was every time you open the legacy app, you have to sign in every single time you had to type in the password. It was a great time.

00:07:31:20 - 00:07:52:23
Josh Boldman
I got into trouble. One time I was in front of our, like our whole camp, like it was like a thousand kids, right? And sidekick was running, and then it crashed. And then they had to reopen it, and they're like, from the booth, they yell out, what's the password? No. And in front of 1000 students, I had to say a password into the microphone.

00:07:52:23 - 00:08:14:14
Josh Boldman
And here's the best part. You ready for this? It was the same password for everything. Like my my bank account and, all this stuff. So, like, so like, I immediately I started teaching, and then I get off stage and I'm like, I gotta change every password I mean, ever had. It was a nightmare. so we thought, okay, what is the best way to make this as portable as possible?

00:08:14:14 - 00:08:33:01
Josh Boldman
So we went with putting it in, in the browser. Yeah. which I'll be honest, I mean, it was basically like it was a trade off, right? It gave us a lot of, functionality as far as portability, as far as far as syncing. Yeah. but it there are trade offs, right? Like Google Chrome. both.

00:08:33:01 - 00:08:52:11
Josh Boldman
Google. Safari, Apple. you know, Firefox, they all have different rules about like window management. And so like you'll know like when you open sidekick and you go to present, you have to drag the window over to your other browser. Like that's not ideal right now. We that's why we have a video switcher now that's why. Right.

00:08:52:13 - 00:09:22:11
Josh Boldman
Yeah. That's why we that's why we as Christians rely on dark black magic. Black. It's that's what it is. and so, so, you know, so there are some trade offs for sure. For sure. But, but what we started realizing was, the, the pitch that we started telling people that when it, I think it really kind of clicked for people how how different was good is we would tell them, like, we would show them what we could do with, with voting, with spinning wheel, with, with pick me like the main ideas.

00:09:22:14 - 00:09:41:11
Josh Boldman
And I said, what's really cool is I can create this presentation. I can, immediately, as soon as I add an element to a slide, I can close the laptop, I can break it over my knee, I can set it on fire and throw it in the ocean. And then I can just go to church, open the computer, and it's it's there like it is there.

00:09:41:12 - 00:10:03:18
Josh Boldman
It does not miss a beat. you probably have to like on the computer at church, though, because yours is God's an ocean. Oh yeah. No no no no. Yeah. There's no recovering from it really at the point. Not sidekicks. Not that good yet. Yeah. No, I mean, yeah. but. Yeah. So so it's, Yeah, it's it's being able to sync and being able to to go remote.

00:10:03:25 - 00:10:28:19
Josh Boldman
That's awesome. But then when we started showing people, hey, all you have to do is the same thing you did to log in on your computer, do that on your phone. And what it does is it turns your phone into a remote for the exact same presentation that's running on your presentation computer. and I mean, just suddenly being able to when you're doing polls on your phone, you can see the results, before they're even shown on the screen.

00:10:28:22 - 00:10:57:09
Josh Boldman
you can go to next, go back. You can do slide notes. You can. I mean, it did really any of the functionality that's there except for editing on the computer. You can do that literally on your phone in real time because I don't know if you've ever I'm certainly you've never been in this situation where you have a sixth grader who is so well intentioned is like, I want to run the computer and you're like, yes, that is a that is a thing a sixth grader can do.

00:10:57:09 - 00:11:26:24
Josh Boldman
You can hit the spacebar. Yeah. And and then, and then they, and then they don't, they, they just don't hit the spacebar. And so like I would always use it as just like my, my phone was, I wasn't there. So I was running it, but it was my fallback. Like I was like, okay, that kid in the back, there was one time, I swear to you, right, at an unnamed church that I worked at for a while.

00:11:26:27 - 00:11:51:12
Josh Boldman
I remember once, so I would always try, so I was a student ministry director there, and so I always I would always try, like, I would. Yeah, I was either teaching or whatever, but I would always try to do anytime I wasn't teaching, I would try to do something else. So like anytime I wasn't teaching, I would be in the booth or the, you know, doing the game or, you know, but so there's one time I'm in the booth and, and the lyrics for the songs are not firing on time.

00:11:51:12 - 00:12:18:01
Josh Boldman
And I, so I'm like, leaning over and I'm looking. The kid is watching Star Wars the movie. Like, like an actual movie on his phone. Not a TikTok, not a YouTube. No. The two hour movie, two hour movie with subtitles. And he is holding his phone like screamed. Is it because the subtitles are so small? And I'm like, hey, I know, I know, you're looking at that because words are important.

00:12:18:03 - 00:12:38:25
Josh Boldman
However, everyone else in the room is looking up here because words are important. So maybe I don't know, I don't know, that's just jump up and just jump on that. That's a win right there. Yeah. So but being able to you know when you're on stage and things go wrong there are like a couple of options. And and one of them is to make the person in the booth feel really bad.

00:12:38:25 - 00:13:00:09
Nick Clason
And that is never the right option. Right. It's never to call attention to the person messed up. But we want to sometimes. Oh oh yes, yes, yes we do. But being able to just say, okay, I've got my phone here. Hey, Mr. Cube, don't worry, I'm just going to jump it like, yeah, was that was the game changer for me.

00:13:00:11 - 00:13:22:15
Josh Boldman
and so now we're just on this journey of trying to reach full parity between the legacy version and what is right now, the lovingly called the beta version of sidekick. until it until it has all the same features. yeah. But what we're finding is that is, like I said, the original The legacy is a work of art.

00:13:22:17 - 00:13:47:09
Josh Boldman
And, right now, we are working on boxes and that is in the browser proving to be a challenging. Yeah, it is, it's just, you know, it's one of those things like, you wouldn't think like even when we first, the first go around, we did, wheel and pick me. Right. Those were the first two things. And so with the wheel, you know, you think how this is, it's a spinning wheel.

00:13:47:10 - 00:14:04:24
Josh Boldman
Like there's no. Yeah, there's nothing complicated here. Oh, but there is, friend, because pixels are square. Yeah. I don't know if you knew that or not, but pixels was great. So when you try and rotate them around and center axis that's a. Yeah. It's just it's one of those things like, you know, you think you got it.

00:14:04:24 - 00:14:21:03
Josh Boldman
And then suddenly you're like, oh, that looks really bad. And so then it just it's like you have to go right back to the drawing board and, and so, so yeah. So right now we're working on boxes. It's, it's taking a little longer than we had hoped, but but you're working with square pixels now. So square pixels.

00:14:21:06 - 00:14:35:10
Josh Boldman
We know what we're doing. Yeah. Yes. Wouldn't it be funny if like, in the like when, when it was the wheel, we had a problem because it was squares. But then like we're like, alright, now we're going to move the boxes and like just the world, like was like, you know what we figured out round pixels are better.

00:14:35:12 - 00:14:57:21
Josh Boldman
And I was like, no, no. Yeah. But but yeah. So we're that. So we got boxes, in the pipeline. we're we, we here and I know anybody that knows sidekick already. Their first question that they have been asking is what about, survey says, which is our family feud builder. Right. And, that one is, it's coming.

00:14:57:21 - 00:15:19:27
Josh Boldman
It's like, but it's it is it all takes a yeah, it all takes time. And, so, best way anybody, anybody that, you know, can help me go to sidekick.TV. There's a link there where you can, you can submit ideas and requests and you can even vote on other people's. And and that always helps us know kind of what's next.

00:15:19:29 - 00:15:36:15
Josh Boldman
yeah. But yeah, we'll drop. That'll be. We're loving it, dude. I mean, and. Oh, I, I know the sound is starting to sound like a commercial and I apologize, but it's, it's it is. It's like it's just so fun is, when, when one of the most recent things we did was we connected everyone's dim accounts to the download youth ministry.

00:15:36:15 - 00:16:04:05
Josh Boldman
If you buy something, there, he just automatically shows up. And that is that was awesome. Sweet. Because, I mean, it used to be, I don't know. I mean, you you make games for GM that are video based, right. And and when you do that those those files are massive. Like, you know, I mean, it's not uncommon for a game to be three, four gigabytes, you know, but it's also 3 or 4GB of, you know, that's 20, 30 videos for the game.

00:16:04:05 - 00:16:21:05
Josh Boldman
And so then adding each of those in is kind of a nightmare. And so we figured out a way to do it is we do it on our end once and then it when you buy it, it just you can just it shows up in your library. You click on it and it's just in that is yeah, man, I'm telling you I will.

00:16:21:08 - 00:16:38:28
Josh Boldman
I never have to worry about losing a thumb drive ever again. Yeah, because I don't know if you know this or not, but I don't know where my thumb drive it is right now. I lost it in 1997. so. Sounds like there are some important things on there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Knows it was, I don't know, something.

00:16:38:28 - 00:17:04:23
Josh Boldman
Call it bitcoin. Bitcoin I don't remember. You could have been rich. You wouldn't even have to be here right now. Well I'll tell you what. Of all the things like all the things you're talking about, there's like, there's phone usage on both sides, right? So if you're presenting, you can use your phone as a remote, but if you're, you're, watching your in the audience, there are like integrations where there's like voting and games and all that stuff.

00:17:04:23 - 00:17:25:07
Nick Clason
Yeah. And, I think that's my favorite part. Like as a youth pastor now for, over ten years, like I've always been trying to figure out how to get ourselves in youth ministry. Like relevant to our students are, as opposed to, like, when they're at church, make them do something that's so completely foreign to like their current culture.

00:17:25:07 - 00:17:56:28
Nick Clason
Right? Like youth culture, like they're all messaging one another through their phones. They're all like consuming news articles and social media through their phones. And then we get to church and like the church I was at, like when I started the previous regime, no shade. but they had, like, phone lockers, like they would take kids cellphones and lock them and like, and what we're do, in my opinion, is like, okay, so we're, we're just trying to modify their behavior, but we haven't actually like change their true authentic like desire to like be here and listen.

00:17:56:28 - 00:18:19:26
Nick Clason
We just want them quieter for us. And like that we should just be better. Like, yeah. And so y'all start rolling out all this stuff on sidekick. And I'm like, here's the opportunity for us to use what is native to them in our environment and in a way that doesn't, like, break the bank anymore, because to get some of these features through other third party like platforms, we just don't have the money.

00:18:19:26 - 00:18:45:09
Nick Clason
As a youth pastor, you know what I'm saying? In your budget, whatever the case might be. So yeah, so that's my favorite part. And so I would love it if you would talk about not just necessarily like the sidekick integration, but what has been your experience and your unique perspective as a youth pastor with how what we've done in youth culture and how like we've then asked them to come to church culture and how they don't all they're like oil and water sometimes.

00:18:45:09 - 00:19:07:04
Nick Clason
Like, how are we? How can we reach students better and to find ourselves where they are, which is online, on phones, all those things.

Josh Boldman
I mean, okay, so you remember, man, even I mean, when I was growing up and especially early in my ministry, you know, it was always the, the thing was, you were always fighting against like, like travel sports, right?

00:19:07:04 - 00:19:30:07
Josh Boldman
Like that was like the, the, the bane of youth ministry existence was like, oh, we still are really, by the way. Oh, to be cool. Yeah. Oh, no doubt. But it was like, I don't know, there was like a point where I think we just we got tired of seeing no results from shame, shaming those kids. Like, it's like you want to play travel ball.

00:19:30:11 - 00:19:47:28
Josh Boldman
We'll play travel ball. Yeah. With the devil. You know, it's like that. Doesn't like it doesn't help anybody. When? When all we're doing is. Or like. Like, oh, you have a phone, go lock it up because it's, you know, it's like that, doesn't it? Yeah. What does that do? All that does is like when you're locking up a kid's phone.

00:19:48:05 - 00:20:10:09
Josh Boldman
I feel like the way that you can know that it's not working is as soon as the the time, like the lockdown is over, was the very first thing they do. They run to go get it. Yeah. Which means that it was, it was on their mind still. So it's not like you really saved you know them any, any trouble or any like you didn't gain anything by pulling it away, you know, because their attention is still stuck on it.

00:20:10:11 - 00:20:36:16
Josh Boldman
so really what I think, I think is we're seeing right now in youth ministry as a whole, in, in what we're trying to do, a sidekick is really we're trying to figure out ways to engage students, literally where they are. And so, I guess, have you, did you ever do camps where the rule was the kids couldn't even bring their phone to camp?

00:20:36:18 - 00:20:59:04
Nick Clason
I never did. No, I could have, right. But I never I always I've always run my own camp, so I make the rules. So. Yeah. And I've always been in churches or youth ministries where the goal is to bring kids who don't go to our church to camp. And like, I'm not going to get a kid and their family who's never met me, send their kid like hours away without a lifeline back to them.

00:20:59:04 - 00:21:24:10
Josh Boldman
Oh yeah. Kids. Oh, no. So I've never tried to fight that battle, but it was fake because we used to almost use that, like as an advertisement. We were like, come to camp where you get away from your phone and kids are like, I don't want to do that, you know? And so, like, there was a point where I think maybe 20 years ago, you probably could do it, but even now, it's not even just the kid, it's the parents that are like, I'm not sending my kid without their phone.

00:21:24:10 - 00:21:58:02
Josh Boldman
What's wrong with you? You know? Yeah. So, like, so what we decided to do with with sidekick is like, okay, what if instead of constantly harping on, he put your phone away or go lock it up or don't even bring it, or, you know, trying to make it seem like the phone itself was the enemy. What if we decided to say like, hey, we understand that that phone, it's an extension of you now like that just, I mean, and that, I mean, you know, I mean, I think you can get really, like, dystopian, you know, like, like Blade Runner type type vibes from, like, the phone is an extension of you, but but it is

00:21:58:03 - 00:22:21:24
Josh Boldman
mine is an extension of me like, I mean, I literally if I, I don't know when the last time I walked out of my house without my phone was like, it's not just because I didn't forget it, it's because if it's not in my pocket, it feels like I'm missing something. I feel like I know I'm missing it, and you're gonna need it, you know, like, oh, sure, it's your calendar, it's your wallet, it's your navigation, it's your everything.

00:22:21:24 - 00:22:49:12
Nick Clason
Like it. So you can't so much. That's my argument is like this. It's not going anywhere. So we can try our hardest as youth pastors and churches to fight against culture. But it's a losing battle eventually. And it's not like, oh, let's give in to culture because it's evil, right? No, no, no. It's how do we take this thing that is not moral, it's not morally right or morally wrong, but how do we take this thing and just use it as a tool?

00:22:49:12 - 00:23:07:12
Josh Boldman
It's it's a tool, 100% tool that we we would have died for 15, 20 years ago, like, oh yeah, I was talking on the last episode like we didn't have group chats 15 years ago. If you want to talk to your student, you talk to them when they came to your building and that was it. But now you can do pastoral care.

00:23:07:12 - 00:23:39:02
Nick Clason
You can, and just do a basic thing like texting. When I'm talking about something like software development right now. Yeah. So one of the things, that has been really cool to experiment with, and we've seen a couple people do this really well is is using like polls like, okay, so there's a there are different ways you can use it, but the like, so say as you're teaching, if, if you're saying something that you know is going to fly right over their heads, right?

00:23:39:05 - 00:24:11:11
Josh Boldman
Pausing literally at that moment and asking the question, hey, did you catch that? And yes or no, like literally something super simple like, did you catch that? Yes or no? And then adjusting what you say next based on their response or, we've even seen people take their entire services in like a, choose your own adventure type approach where, I mean, it is it seems minor, but it's something like, hey, we've got the worship team has two songs that they prepared, but we're only going to do one.

00:24:11:13 - 00:24:29:15
Josh Boldman
Hey, you all, they're here. Yeah. Which one you want to do? You know, or, you know, I've, done a couple teaching times where, like, so, you know, every youth pastor has, like, their, like, bag of tricks, like the, the saw or the stories that they tell that it's like, okay, I can tell this story, like drop of a hat.

00:24:29:15 - 00:25:00:17
Josh Boldman
Yeah. you know, and so, like, I, I'll start with, like, right at the beginning of a message will say, hey, guys, I can tell you one of, three stories. You know, when when I got hit by a car, one when I accidentally killed my girlfriend's cat and one when I, when I stubbed my toe, you know, and so, like, you take your pick, you know, and just let them pick, and it doesn't change anything about where that message is going, but letting them have a moment where they can speak into it.

00:25:00:17 - 00:25:27:22
Josh Boldman
Like, I guarantee you, when the room picks the story, the room pays attention to the story more. Yeah. or or even at the end, you know, be a great way to, to really, especially if you're trying to reach students that are not familiar with church a lot, you know, like that aren't around a lot is, at the end of the message just saying, like, hey, on a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you agree with what you just heard?

00:25:27:25 - 00:25:46:26
Josh Boldman
can you met and live in live results on the screen like, hey, okay, so but can you imagine how much that might change your small group conversations that are going to happen right after the lesson? If if you suddenly see, like, oh, we just talked about this and 80% of the room says, I don't agree, okay, great.

00:25:47:03 - 00:26:10:20
Josh Boldman
Then let's go to our small groups and let's see this mess out. You know, or I think that there's, there's stuff like that or or you could even say if you're doing a series, you could, you could say, hey, here are the four weeks of the series. we did the intro this week. Which one you want to hear about next week and let them pick where you're going to go, and then you have a whole week to figure out how to get there.

00:26:10:22 - 00:26:29:11
Josh Boldman
yeah. But it but I guarantee you, those students that voted are going to be more likely to be there if they know what you're talking about. And they actually helped get to to choose what that was going to be. Yeah, I think I think there's a lot there. And we're working love to say like we're working like it's like in development, right, right now.

00:26:29:11 - 00:26:49:09
Josh Boldman
But it's like I mean, one of the things on the, on the docket is, is, you know, being able to have students from their seat ask questions, be able to give feedback, you know, in real time so that you, as you're standing there on the, you know, platform with your phone that you're able to see the questions as they come in.

00:26:49:11 - 00:27:06:03
Josh Boldman
we're trying to figure out things like how to moderate those things because I don't know about you, but if you ask open ended questions and just have the answers up on the screen without, you might get some filtering. Yeah. Inappropriate answer, I don't know, I don't know. I mean, my the students that I've ever worked with are always saints and so they would not do that.

00:27:06:03 - 00:27:30:01
Nick Clason
But I would imagine yours. Well you know it's crazy is like here's another like just interesting youth culture is like I was working at a church in Chicago and it was very like it, it prided itself on we reach people who are far from God. And so, you know, that's going to come with a certain like, oh, I student and now I'm in the Bible Belt in Dallas, Texas.

00:27:30:08 - 00:27:55:00
Nick Clason
And, it's like it prides itself on being like the church for Christians almost. And like the kids, the students, they're the same, like it's oh, no doubt. Right. That's the crazy thing is what the internet has done is it's leveled that like playing field of like, yeah, certain cultures, their youth culture is very consistent now and despite the demographic.

00:27:55:00 - 00:28:16:08
Nick Clason
And so the unique part is not our students. The unique part is helping our parents understand, that the students are still the same, you know, so, you know, something, we've seen is actually really cool that somebody was doing was they were using the live polls in their lobby for parents to answer as they were dropping their kids off.

00:28:16:08 - 00:28:40:12
Josh Boldman
That's cool. And, it was yeah, it was very cool. Was like, and it was, you know, some like, minor stuff that it was like, you know, what time is your middle schoolers? Bedtime. Like, you know. Yeah. Seven, eight, nine, ten, 11. You know, just pick one, you know, stuff like that. And it was minor. But again, it's, not just that you get individuals to engage, but the fact that everybody can see the responses as it as it goes.

00:28:40:14 - 00:29:09:00
Josh Boldman
There's, I think there's a lot of even still some untapped, untapped potential there. think about how to help people engage. Yeah. I think, we went to a conference a while back, and they're talking about the differences in generational ways of thinking. And like one of the things and I think this is true, despite like being an older, older generation of like all of us, but like Gen Z, Gen Alpha, like they're just looking to be known individually, like they don't want to be part of, like a sea of numbers.

00:29:09:00 - 00:29:32:20
Nick Clason
Right. And so when you are in a bigger context and you have 100,000 kids, like it's hard to it's hard for them to, to stand out and stuff like this helps them get to just yeah, speak their, their voice. Right. And they get to play a role. And even if they're voting for something and their choice doesn't get picked like they were heard and that's oh yeah, that's all it needs to be.

00:29:32:20 - 00:29:52:17
Nick Clason
It doesn't have to always go their way, you know? And there's probably some opportunity for them to learn some life lessons and stuff in there. But just like realizing like, hey, we're doing all this for you, but what what do you want? Like, that's I don't know. That's the key. So, Josh, as we wind this sucker down, like final thoughts.

00:29:52:17 - 00:30:16:09
Nick Clason
Final words. What what what if anything's, like burning on your soul to get out there?

Josh Boldman
Oh, man. All right, well, here. I'm glad you asked, Nick. no. okay, here's the thing is. Yeah, I think we need to not be afraid of what our students want. And we need to not be afraid of them expressing their opinion.

00:30:16:11 - 00:30:48:22
Josh Boldman
And we need to not be afraid of them disagreeing with each other or with us. I think that that is, you know, where where we are heading is a world that values, a diversity of opinion. And the value placed on each of those opinions, is crucial. And so, like, I mean, I think people really can very easily get confused into thinking that that means that every opinion is right or that every opinion carries the same weight.

00:30:48:22 - 00:31:09:12
Josh Boldman
And it's a that's not at all what it but it. I think there is a I think we we do ourselves and honestly the gospel and miss service when we, are a disservice. I don't think Miss Service is a word, a disservice when we, when we say, here is the correct answer, we don't even want to hear anything else.

00:31:09:15 - 00:31:42:02
Josh Boldman
because our students are coming into our, our, our environments with their own opinions and own presuppositions. And yes, they probably heard them all from the same TikTok channel. Like, that's fine, but they all still want it. They want to be heard. And so I think any time we can even begin to open the door to showing them that we value what they are walking in with, I think just builds, it builds credibility in their eyes.

00:31:42:05 - 00:32:07:01
Josh Boldman
I think in all honesty, I don't know, you know, I would argue that most students are they do not often find themselves in environments where their opinion is valued. so, I mean, whether that's school, I mean, and please don't hear me, teachers are awesome, but it is it is tough when especially when you have like a curriculum in a, in a school environment, you're like, hey, I need you to learn this thing.

00:32:07:07 - 00:32:31:22
Josh Boldman
Like, and there's not a lot of debate in biology, you know, like, it's just this is where we're at, you know? And so, but I think if we can create environments where it's, we're inviting students into a conversation where their voice matters, whether that's a, a deep theological conversation or whether that is a game that is literally, hey, I need you to pick A, B, or C because it's a trivia question.

00:32:31:22 - 00:32:57:01
Josh Boldman
Like it's it like, but but still valuing what they bring to the table. I think that that pays dividends in the long run in a, in a massive, massive way. I mean, whether that's later in the small group or whether that's ten years later or, you know, I'm at a point right now where kids, when I first started that were in sixth grade, now have their own sixth graders, and that is awful.

00:32:57:03 - 00:33:14:19
Josh Boldman
but but it's the same thing is those those kids are now in the place where they're deciding, am I going to bring my own kid to a youth group or not? And, you know, and I think that the way we treat our students now will influence how they raise their own families and what that looks like for them in the future.

00:33:14:19 - 00:33:34:17
Josh Boldman
So, never underestimate how important it is to for for a student's voice to be valued. Yeah. And what better spot in the world than for that to happen at church? Crazy, right? Who would've thought? Yeah, well, Josh, we're running out of time. But I appreciate you, man. Anywhere, anywhere else people can find, find the Josh Boldman, like.

00:33:34:19 - 00:34:00:20
Nick Clason
Oh, yeah, they want to, like, untap some of these other thoughts and deeper musings of the word is, oh, I don't know if deeper is going to be with the find, but, all the social media is, it's at Josh Boldman. I know, I'm so glad it wasn't taken. Yeah. You're lucky. all right, I know. Yeah. but then, again, you know, the download youth ministry store, you know, I mean, this is not to sell stuff, but like, a lot of the stuff I've written really does reflect where I'm at, you know?

00:34:00:20 - 00:34:09:15
Josh Boldman
And so, you know, check out any of that stuff there, but. Well, yeah. Love it. Man. Will appreciate you being on. And, everyone else, we'll talk next time. All right, bye friends.

]]> Episode 108: David Carpenter on Social Media for Youth Ministry https://www.hybridministry.xyz/108 eed653e6-4c3c-44bf-9b5a-180dff37f023 Thu, 01 Aug 2024 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 108 David Carpenter on Social Media for Youth Ministry full Nick Clason Church Youth Pastor, David Carpenter, shares how he teaches the Bible to his teenagers and lays out his complete digital process. The amazing thing about David's strategy is that it not only looks great online, but it's incredibly cost effective. David is a digital discipleship genius, listen in! 33:49 no 🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥 https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 💥[CUSTOM] Hybrid Coaching💥 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching ====================================== DESCRIPTION Church Youth Pastor, David Carpenter, shares how he teaches the Bible to his teenagers and lays out his complete digital process. The amazing thing about David's strategy is that it not only looks great online, but it's incredibly cost effective. David is a digital discipleship genius, listen in! ====================================== 📓SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/108 //YOUTH PASTOR FACEBOOK GROUPS https://www.facebook.com/groups/493666560814931 https://www.facebook.com/groups/youthpastorsonly //DAVID'S CANNON M-100 (This link does create a small commission for our channel) https://walmrt.us/3W0Fu4g //FAST & AFFORDABLE GRAPHIC DESIGN https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw //HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE Do it all on your phone! https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book //DAVID'S CANNON 70D (This link does create a small commission for our channel) Camera: https://walmrt.us/3xGoMiN Lens: https://walmrt.us/3LkIZxu //NICK'S LINKTR.EE https://linktr.ee/clasonnick //BRADY SHEARER - PRO CHURCH TOOLS https://prochurchtools.com/ //DAVID ON SOCIAL [CHURCH ACCOUNTS] https://www.youtube.com/@Harrodsburg.Students https://www.instagram.com/harrodsburg.students/ https://www.tiktok.com/@harrodsburg.students [PERSONAL ACCOUNTS] https://www.facebook.com/dlcarpen140 https://www.instagram.com/davidleecarpenter/ 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz ====================================== 🆓 FREEBIES 🆓 📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 🖥️ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym 📨 Full Proof Recruiting Email EMAIL: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email 🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut 😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook ====================================== 🛠️TOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit AUTO POD https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Who is David Carpenter? 02:59 What is your current youth ministry social media? 07:16 What exactly do you do? 14:19 Digital Discipleship for Cheap 16:48 The Easiest Content for Youth Pastors to Create 20:34 Don't Be Afraid! -------------- ✍️TRANSCRIPT 00:00:01:02 - 00:00:25:04 Nick Clason What's going on, everybody? Hey, I got another interview style episode for you today. This time it is with David Carpenter. He's a youth pastor in Kentucky, and I came across David through social media, I think, in like a youth pastor, only or doing type style Facebook group. He was talking and answering a question about social media. And so his answer intrigued me. 00:00:25:04 - 00:00:45:21 David Carpenter I clicked on his profile and I saw that David is very much leaning into a digital and hybrid ministry experience in his church and in his ministry. So I reached out and I scheduled an interview. And so, without any further ado, I have the exclusive David Carpenter interview for you to check out here on the Hybrid Ministry episode. 00:00:45:21 - 00:01:08:00 David Carpenter If you find this helpful in any way, I would love it if you would subscribe, like, and share it with a friend, but without any further ado, check this interview out between myself and David Carpenter. I'm here with David. David, what is up, man? How are you doing this morning? 00:01:08:00 - 00:01:26:11 David Carpenter I'm doing great. I am recovering. We're in the middle of a VBS week right now as we're recording this. So some of I'm sure if some of you all know how that goes and, we're, you know, kind of making it through, but it's it's a good time and it's a good week. So now we're doing it. VBS at night, church or VBS in the morning. Church. Yeah, we're VBS at night. okay. And I'm, I'm crazy youth pastor David. 00:01:26:11 - 00:01:38:16 David Carpenter So I, you know, get stuck up on the stage and then do crazy dances and jump around and, and the like. So that's kind of the kind of the rhythm, at least once a week in the summer, that, that we're in. But yeah, it's a good time. 00:01:38:11 - 00:01:45:16 Nick Clason Yeah. We've all been there. We've all been. Yeah, we've all been there, just, you know, part as part of the gigs. How goes. So, Well, that's awesome. I'm excited that you guys are having a good week. I hope that you're getting, at least some sleep. And I hope that your coffee this morning is strong so that you can recover. Well, it is VBS know, but I, I came across David, I think, in like a DYM or youth pastor's only or something like that Facebook group. and someone had asked some sort of question about social media or something, and, you replied, I have no idea what you said, but I started creeping on you and your profile, and I just saw a lot of different, like, videos and like shorts and reels and stuff like that. and it was more than I was used to for, I guess I would say like the average or like or standard youth ministry, social media that I saw. And so because of that caught my attention. and so I followed you and or became friends with you or something on Facebook. reached out to you and, and chatted a little bit. But I'm excited to have you on here today, because I'd love to know, you know, what is like your as it stands today, in your student ministry at your church. Like what is your current sort of like social media or digital presence? What does it what does it look like? What do you what do you aim in for? And how's all that going? 00:02:51:04 - 00:03:16:19 David Carpenter Yeah. well, I appreciate you asking and obviously honored to to be here. And we connected on, on that, question. And, you know, I started doing social media stuff when I was probably shoot 14 or 15. 00:03:16:21 - 00:03:46:04 David Carpenter my dad was a pastor. And obviously, I'm sure lots of pastors kids out there know you get roped into doing things. And he was kind of an early innovator and had started doing a weekly YouTube show for our church. This was probably back in 2012, 2013, and I wanted to increase the views on it. So I created a Facebook page for it and kind of started to put together a logo for it and, and try to find ways to increase its, viewership and things like that. 00:03:46:04 - 00:04:15:09 David Carpenter And kind of got my feet wet doing, you know, video editing and social media stuff at that point. But, instead of ministry, you know, we are looking at social media as an opportunity to disciple our students, but also as a, an outward opportunity to disciple, you know, literally people across the world, and, you know, practically that looks like a couple different things. 00:04:15:11 - 00:05:00:16 David Carpenter platforms we use, we use, YouTube. We put our regular, weekly ministry teachings on podcast form. we use TikTok and we use Instagram, which is connected to a Facebook account. Our students don't engage there much, but, we, we share some of that stuff because I think it helps to keep parents connected, but, kind of a shift in the mindset going into it for us is, is that opportunity for discipleship that, you know, we are producing teachings and content that, man, it it's kind of already done and we have the opportunity to capture it and record it and then redisplay it, to potentially an audience that 00:05:00:16 - 00:05:21:21 David Carpenter was missing on a Wednesday night or an audience that may, may never be able to come to our church. and so, you know, kind of, for you, probably about a year ago, we, we started thinking about ways for our church and our student ministry to really maximize, digital, you know, opportunities to reach people and, and disciple people. 00:05:21:23 - 00:05:41:03 David Carpenter And over the last year, we've been kind of rolling that out and stepping into that over time. because we want to make sure that we can do it in sustainable and continuous ways. But, yeah, it's it's really just it's it's an opportunity for discipleship and for us to tell the story of our church, for us to tell the story of our state of ministry. 00:05:41:05 - 00:06:06:18 David Carpenter people love stories. And, when, when we have the opportunity to share the stories of what Jesus is doing in the lives of our students or, or just even ways that our students are connecting and and enjoying their teenage years in a healthy Christian community. we feel like that's a win. 00:06:06:18 - 00:06:32:09 Nick Clason So, yeah, no doubt, the most recent episodes, that I had, I had are like, year long resident on here. And it was interesting because he mentioned the value that like, our social media sort of like presents and, and just philosophy and strategy, the value that it brought to like our attendance and our students are actually like in the room. Right. Because a lot of times, a lot of times I think it's like, we view it as like a replacement for the kids that were not at church or, for the kids that aren't even there yet. 00:06:32:09 - 00:06:57:17 Nick Clason But he was like, no, it I thought it enhanced like the experience for the kids are already there, which was like an interesting like I'd seen it too, but I hadn't like, I hadn't come to that sort of like conclusion, like he had. So I because I do think the argument a lot of times that I feel like either we face as youth pastors or even just like me with this podcast, it's just that there's not enough time, and we need to focus on the kids that we have. 00:06:57:19 - 00:07:16:08 Nick Clason And so to hear you say like, this is not this is an opportunity. This is a way for us to lean in with the kids that we have like that I agree with I would agree with that. And so get like get specific here, like help, help us out, help people out. Like what exactly do you do? Like what camera do you use? 00:07:16:08 - 00:07:38:00 Nick Clason What like software are you using to edit. Like what's your because you're a real youth pastor with a real job, with real responsibilities, with real messages to write and programs to create, like, how are you, involving digital media into that? And like, what's your workflow with all that? Because it feels like it would probably be a steep learning curve or just a lot of extra work. And maybe it is, but like, what are you doing? What's helping you out? What's what are some shortcuts? Maybe that might be out there. 00:07:38:00 - 00:07:55:02 David CarpenterYeah. Well, first, I think what you said is completely true, that it's it is an outward facing thing, but also one, I think sometimes where we as preachers assume that people come and listen to us. 00:07:55:03 - 00:08:27:07 David Carpenter I speak to our students on Wednesday nights for about 18 to 22 minutes. Sunday morning there's a, you know, 28 to 32 minutes. And we think they probably remember everything we said, right. Like they they wrote the notes. They've got it in. They've already applied every one of these points. You know, it was all iterated. And I remember my great illustration and one, you know, when, when we're including things that are reflecting on the teachings, I think that reinforces and reminds those who were in the room and also, things like we did a post on our social that did really well a few months ago of, yeah, a picture of a student taking notes, 00:08:27:09 - 00:08:44:03 David Carpenter and the post was all overlaid on the photo of the student was the notes from Wednesday night, some of the notes that we'd given them, and then in the caption was information. What? Why do we encourage students to take notes? Why do we give out handouts and and give an opportunity to teach culture in in those moments? So it definitely is for the kids in the room too. 00:08:44:03 - 00:09:06:21 David Carpenter But yeah, practically speaking, we, from, September, August to May, we regularly gather for student nights. Our church takes the month of June off, and then we come back in July with some different programing on Monday nights. But for those student nights, we capture those, I capture those from our soundboard straight into GarageBand. It's nothing fancy. 00:09:06:21 - 00:09:27:24 David Carpenter I think if you listen to podcasts, you're probably smart enough to go get a it's a I think it was an $8 adapter that is a board out to a usb-C in. And I just record the audio of the speaking. and we do podcast for the reason of one number one demographic for podcast listeners is like 12 to 22. 00:09:28:01 - 00:09:43:13 David Carpenter I heard somewhere. And so our students and student aged people are listening to podcast. And also I use those as a resource for our parents always encourage our our parents to stay connected. If you listen to the podcast as a parent, hey, you can listen to what your student is learning and stay engaged and connected to our students in that way. 00:09:43:17 - 00:10:03:11 David Carpenter So we have audio in that way. And then we as a message is beginning. Our church is not a very big church. We're in a more rural area. We're about an hour, 45 minutes an hour south of Lexington, Kentucky. and so we have a canon in 100, which is not a super nice camera. it's an outdated model. 00:10:03:11 - 00:10:27:06 David Carpenter I think the 200 came out a couple of years ago. So this is a post post, you know, model camera. and we set it on a tripod high enough that it's pretty well over the students head, and we record those and, get a long form video of the message. and that goes on YouTube and that, that again, the primary purpose of that is for our parents to have a way to connect. 00:10:27:08 - 00:10:47:19 David Carpenter I don't have any visions of, of those, you know, going viral or making me famous. it's, you know, those are we're getting 2 to 6, eight views on those videos. but, you know, it's it's so that we have a digital record of it. And then, those get split into my goal is always two short form clips that go on TikTok and Instagram. 00:10:47:19 - 00:11:10:15 David Carpenter And if you can get them short enough YouTube shorts a week. as a way to reiterate, I reiterate, there's a word in there somewhere. I probably reiterate. There you go. That's the one. our teachings on Wednesday night, to connect back with those students and obviously to disciple people who, you know, they may be near to you, but are far from out or need encouragement in their faith. 00:11:10:17 - 00:11:32:20 David Carpenter so that's pretty practical. I use Premiere Pro. I've always used Adobe products. it's but the what we do, I mean, you I feel you could get a YouTube video, of your teachings. You could use a phone and a, digital recorded mic, like a, phone in usb-C mic, especially if you've got a light, you know, new model phone. 00:11:32:22 - 00:11:53:09 David Carpenter if you're not in a large space, this as your space gets larger, it's the lens being able to zoom in on the space that you're in. But it's not fancy technology. the church has invested $10 in an an adapter to record the audio, and now we just, we got better quality from the board straight into to a laptop. 00:11:53:10 - 00:12:16:05 David Carpenter So, I mean, so that's that's kind of the we build out from there because, we can stay consistent with that, especially through the school year. the other things we're doing is, we show up with a camera to everything we do. I use a canon, I'm sitting here looking at it. I think it's a. Let me look, let me tell you, for I like to. 00:12:16:07 - 00:12:36:00 David Carpenter It's a 70 day. I couldn't reference a 7080 or an 80, but with a 70 to 200 lens. I'm not a photographer. about two and a half years ago, I started taking pictures. And I've gotten better over time. You can put that thing in auto, and if you take enough pictures, you can get a couple good ones. 00:12:36:04 - 00:12:52:17 David Carpenter Some. Some will look good, right? Yes. Exactly right. If you can get a couple good ones in focus, and we have leaders now that, you know, of course, like when I'm, when I'm speaking or on stage playing a game or something, I can't get those pictures. I tell them, hey, just this is how you focus it and do your best. 00:12:52:17 - 00:13:11:01 David Carpenter And they always, you know, I've got multiple leaders who can come out with a couple good pictures. Those are great to have for your YouTube thumbnails and Instagram Reels covers. And then also just having a photo library, is helpful for for to stay consistent. That's one of the most important things I feel like with social and success in is consistency. 00:13:11:01 - 00:13:34:23 David Carpenter And I think for people like us who work, you know, a full time job as a student, pastor, youth pastor, that's probably the greatest challenge. So building rhythms into your regular weekly life to prioritize social is important. And I think that's kind of what you are in doing what you're doing, trying to encourage people towards. And something I would definitely Amen. 00:13:34:23 - 00:14:00:06 David Carpenter Yes and amen with what you're doing to say, hey, we are busy, but the five ten hours a week that it takes to, you know, record and and put a message on YouTube, cut it up into some clips, maybe find another way to to post on social once another week, once. Once a week. Twice. Like it's worth it because you are connecting to your kids where they already are. 00:14:00:06 - 00:14:20:17 David Carpenter And it's an incredible mission field. It's an incredible opportunity. And, and I think it it's one of those things where sometimes we think, well, if I had time, I would, but it's like, no, this is something we need to make time for. Digital discipleship, should should be a priority, especially, for people reaching, you know, Gen Z and Gen Alpha. 00:14:20:19 - 00:14:40:05 Nick Clason Yeah. Dude. I mean, I couldn't agree with you more. You said, like, so many things in there that, like, I like I feel like I've been saying, you know, so, like, the first thing of which is, like, you spent $10 to get better audio. And so because one of my arguments that I feel like a lot of youth pastors have is like, we're not the main room, we're not the main auditorium. 00:14:40:05 - 00:14:56:02 Nick Clason So we don't have like the live stream gear. We don't have all that type of stuff. And like, you know, you just made the case, like, you don't have to have all that. Like, you can just put a camera up in the back of the room, like one of the strategies that we recommend, here on this podcast is like just sitting down like pre filming your messages. 00:14:56:02 - 00:15:25:05 Nick Clason But if you don't even have the time to do that, like you can do it, David did. And just put a camera in the back of the room, capture your audio. And that's even one less like step of extra work, you know, and like you were saying, and it's interesting when you talk about like, having a digital library, like, that's a fantastic resource for down the road, because you might be counseling a kid, or kid might come to you with a particular issue and you're like, I've actually like studied that in Scripture. 00:15:25:05 - 00:15:45:09 Nick Clason And like, I have that information and I've packaged it in like a sermon. It just was like two months ago. But like you have the YouTube link, let me send that to you. Because maybe they weren't there, maybe they weren't coming to your church yet, or maybe they whatever the reason, right, that were to your point, they just don't remember it because our teachings aren't as valuable as we hope and think that they they would be. 00:15:45:09 - 00:16:09:17 Nick Clason And there's so there's really is so much like I agree, so much value in creating like a digital, a digital library far beyond what we can possibly think or imagine. I think. And you, if you start now, that begins to build and compound on itself, you know. So if let's say you're hearing this in the middle of this summer and this year, you're like, I'm going to start capturing my messages and posting them on YouTube. 00:16:09:19 - 00:16:27:19 Nick Clason By the end of the school year, you have a full year library worth of content. So like David said, just you gotta find the time like it's it's we it's no longer an option anymore. I don't think I think you can keep doing it and you probably won't get fired, right. You can keep living life in your very like analog youth pastor way. 00:16:27:23 - 00:16:50:05 Nick Clason And with all the irons in the fire like that is a way to keep doing the job. But I think we yeah, as youth pastors, can be more effective if we choose to invest in, engage and lean into what this digital space has to offer. For sure. David. What? if anything, is there anything that you're like, I would love it if we could get to this spot. 00:16:50:07 - 00:17:10:15 Nick Clason Like, these are some of your, like, goals or dreams for your digital stuff, but your youth pastor and you haven't, you know, but legs all the way under it yet or, you know, it's it's a down the road sort of project that you'd like to see. Certainly. you know, obviously you want to continue to work to upgrade the quality of the, the content you're putting out. 00:17:10:17 - 00:17:35:00 David Carpenter I would love to, lean into, more conversation, type content for YouTube and podcasts and even, you know, using those on social. We did a series, in the month of February. we call it All My Friends. And we sat and took three weeks. I interviewed, a couple different people, two of them. One week it was two of our students, two of our graduating seniors. 00:17:35:00 - 00:18:09:22 David Carpenter And those videos are our best videos on YouTube. bar none, you know, and did so well. And and it's, you know, it's telling those stories. Yeah. I think people really like that. So content like that and, and more, student driven content, I think is the place we're going. And for your busy youth pastor, man, lean into, you know, your students, your students, our content creators, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are born into a world where they are all create content. 00:18:09:24 - 00:18:31:24 David Carpenter I mean, go watch a seven year old kid. I go to the gym and my the my gym owner, his daughter, I think she's 7 or 8 and she walks around the gym with a digital camera and makes pictures and videos and, and edits and stories of, you know, her and all her, you know, people at the gym. 00:18:32:01 - 00:18:55:17 David Carpenter They are all doing it. Yeah. Ask them, lean into them. And that's kind of a space that I would want to grow in. Is is including and and using our students, in that ministry, as, as a way to include them in the discipleship process online and also to, to tell their stories. 00:18:55:17 - 00:19:16:17 Nick Clason And that's so good. And, you know, you use Premiere Pro, I use Premiere Pro. So, like, you might hear a couple of guys on this podcast be like, man, it's like, I don't know that I'll have access to it. Like everything now is so accessible. Like I did a whole week's worth of daily recap videos off of my cell phone with cap cut a year ago. And like Canva, you know you can use Canva Pro and do tons of stuff on there. 00:19:16:17 - 00:19:34:24 Nick Clason And because you're nonprofit, if you're church, it's free. You know, Canva, Canva for, nonprofits is completely free, but they'll give you like the pro, the pro version of it. And so like, you don't have to have all of these, like, higher level skills that you used to have to have, like the barrier to entry into this stuff is is so much lower. 00:19:34:24 - 00:19:53:11 Nick Clason And you're so right. Like, our students absolutely eat this stuff up and probably want us to just get out of the way and let them do it anyway. So we should just we figure that out. All we gotta do is put a little infrastructure around it. Form. 00:19:53:11 - 00:20:18:13 David Carpenter Yeah. I mean, what better thing could we do than like, really as student pastors? What what better, greater opportunity we have then to empower students to step into ministry and to see their life as ministry? They're on social. They they're just like, we we want to encourage them to see their high school basketball team as a ministry. So we would we should do encourage them to see their digital life as a ministry. Right. It's it's not that we put it in a compartment but that all of that we all of the things we do, our ministry and opportunities to share Jesus and and what better thing could we do than to teach our students that and to include them in that, that 00:20:18:15 - 00:20:55:23 Nick Clason you're you're so right on that. Well, David, any other sort of like thoughts or words of encouragement that you would have, like, you have opportunity here to like, talk to some other youth pastors, people in church ministry like, you know, what what would you as you look out across the landscape of youth ministry and probably, if you're like me, the lack of digital integration that is existing like what? What would be your like final words or just, you know, final encouragement pieces to to other youth pastors? 00:20:55:23 - 00:21:20:05 David Carpenter Yeah. You know, I was, I'm a great resource for, for anybody listening. of course, you know, these resources here. I looked at your Linktree the other day, and, I mean, gosh, some incredible resources you've got for for student pastors on there, for a digital resource. 00:21:20:05 - 00:21:45:20 David Carpenter And also, I would encourage people to look into pro church tools. Brady here, I listened to his podcast every week. And and he is giving out, I mean, just free stuff. he did a, a poll on his Instagram, a couple months ago and asked, you know, these are church creatives. These are people like you and me who value church using digital, you know, marketing and digital opportunities to reach people. 00:21:45:20 - 00:22:18:05 David Carpenter Jesus. And he asked those churches how many of them their church has a TikTok page. And of those people, 10% said yes. and I you know, you mentioned that group on Facebook of youth pastors only. and I think every time I see someone and it may have been even in that post that we connected on ask about TikTok, I see so many comments of, well, TikTok is just, you know, naked people or dancing people or, or or music that we wouldn't want our students to listen to or whatever. 00:22:18:07 - 00:22:56:23 David Carpenter And, you know, my courage would be, don't be afraid to step into new things. as in terms of digital, you know, digital outreach, as a student pastor, as a student ministry. you know, when I came to, to this church, our, our ministry was very young, lots of middle schoolers, fewer high schoolers. And with that, fewer of our students had social media, like, a lot of our consistent students weren't on Instagram, they weren't on TikTok. 00:22:57:00 - 00:23:25:12 David Carpenter And I think sometimes we could think, well, our students aren't even there. Why would I even invest into that? The one there's students in your community who are there, and two, you know, we're we're not affirming everything on something by putting our presence there. There's bad stuff everywhere. You know, our kids grow up and go to college. 00:23:25:14 - 00:23:42:08 David Carpenter And guess what? I tell our kids all the time, hey, when you go to college, if you want to get into something, you can find it there, right? Your parents can only protect you for so long. And that's true in a lot of digital spaces. If you want to find, sinful things in on the internet, it's not really hard to do. 00:23:42:09 - 00:24:03:22 David Carpenter All right? We're all mature and old enough to know that that's true. So our choice is either to be afraid and hide and say, well, if I'm not there, I'm not encouraging anybody to go there. Or we can say, hey, there's lost people there. There's people that are far from God there. And I mean, shoot, the way that TikTok's algorithm prioritizes locality. 00:24:03:24 - 00:24:27:24 David Carpenter There are people in your community, students in your community who are there. And even if you would not encourage your students to go create an account, there, you can still go reach people there. And we have the greatest message that's ever been told. And we have the greatest means to take that message to the whole world. Why would we be afraid? 00:24:28:01 - 00:24:49:00 David Carpenter And that would be my encouragement. Man is, hey, don't be afraid, try stuff. And guess what? I made a post. shoot. It was on our I was actually on our church page and it did did well on Instagram and did well on YouTube shorts and flopped on TikTok. I mean, like seven views, like horrible, awful. and guess what? 00:24:49:02 - 00:25:27:04 David Carpenter The sun still came up the next day and not everything's going to work. But don't be afraid. Step into digital spaces because there is an incredible opportunity to minister to students and reach students in those spaces. And so I would just encourage you, don't be afraid. Yes, we have discernment from the Holy Spirit. Yes, there is wisdom. And no, we don't have to say yes to everything, but be wise and be willing to step out and trust that God can take your, a message that that someone is listening is is teaching maybe to a room of of 15 students. 00:25:27:06 - 00:25:44:06 David Carpenter And there's something you could say in that, or a guest could say in that, or one of your students could encourage somebody with and millions of people could be encouraged with the love of Jesus. And I mean, what, what kind of incredible opportunity is that? And why would we not lean into that in any way we could? you're so right. 00:25:44:06 - 00:26:12:16 Nick Clason And, you know, TikTok was just the new one, but everyone else has figured out how to compete with them. Now. So Facebook, Instagram have reels and YouTube shorts. And so if you're like, well, my kids aren't on TikTok, well, if they're on Instagram, you can still make the exact same type of content. If they're on YouTube, you can like my I, I crack up because like my hours, I have parents who are like, my kids aren't on TikTok, but they're on YouTube more like they're on than they're watching the same same things, same stuff. 00:26:12:20 - 00:26:32:04 Nick Clason You haven't done anything. They're just on YouTube now. So, yeah. you know, it's it's all that's the thing. Like I work at what I say is one of the most conservative churches, and so we have just as much parents or whatever who might be a little freaked out by some of these things. And, but YouTube seems to be like the safe one. 00:26:32:08 - 00:26:50:05 Nick Clason You know, I'm like, well, on YouTube and, like, oh, yeah, that's fine. Like, because parents watch YouTube and you can watch it on your TV in your house because there's like an app for it on your all your smart TVs and stuff like that. And so like our executive pastor, his daughter, she's not social media but do watch all of our like YouTube stuff on their TV in their house. 00:26:50:05 - 00:27:11:09 Nick Clason Like even the silly stuff that we do. Even like the little shorts in the games and stuff that we do on there. And so it's like you said, it lean into it because if that's where our students are, I think there's a stat from Pew. Like 95% of teenagers say that they will use YouTube. So if that's where they are, like, you're right, why would we not be there to get there? 00:27:11:11 - 00:27:28:09 Nick Clason So get there. Well, man, I appreciate your time. David, where would be like, if people want to see all this stuff, I'll drop some of these things in the show notes. Like, how can they get Ahold of you? How can they, check out what you're doing on your churches and youth ministry, social media? let us know where where they can find you. 00:27:28:11 - 00:27:47:20 David Carpenter Yeah. Our, our church is, everywhere. It's it's Harrodsburg dot church. So our seed ministry is Harrodsburg dot students. That's YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. You should be able to get to there. my Facebook and Instagram, our David Lee Carpenter. There's a lot of David Carpenters out there, so I put my middle name in there. You should be able to find me. and if I can help or encourage anybody along the way, I would love to do that. I'm thankful for you to to let me. Come on. And I hope it helps somebody bless somebody today. 00:27:47:22 - 00:28:44:24 Nick Clason Absolutely. Hey, thanks for being on. Appreciate your time today. And we'll talk next time. Youth Ministry Ideas, Teaching the Bible Digitally, Digital Discipleship, TikTok for Youth Ministry, The Best Camera for Church Youth Groups, How to Turn your youth group sermon into a podcast, Why churches should be on social media, David Carpenter, Hybrid Ministry, Nick Clason 🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥

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DESCRIPTION
Church Youth Pastor, David Carpenter, shares how he teaches the Bible to his teenagers and lays out his complete digital process.

The amazing thing about David's strategy is that it not only looks great online, but it's incredibly cost effective.

David is a digital discipleship genius, listen in!

======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/108

//YOUTH PASTOR FACEBOOK GROUPS
https://www.facebook.com/groups/493666560814931
https://www.facebook.com/groups/youthpastorsonly

//DAVID'S CANNON M-100
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https://walmrt.us/3W0Fu4g

//FAST & AFFORDABLE GRAPHIC DESIGN
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw

//HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
Do it all on your phone!
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//DAVID'S CANNON 70D
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Camera: https://walmrt.us/3xGoMiN
Lens: https://walmrt.us/3LkIZxu

//NICK'S LINKTR.EE
https://linktr.ee/clasonnick

//BRADY SHEARER - PRO CHURCH TOOLS
https://prochurchtools.com/

//DAVID ON SOCIAL
[CHURCH ACCOUNTS]
https://www.youtube.com/@Harrodsburg.Students
https://www.instagram.com/harrodsburg.students/
https://www.tiktok.com/@harrodsburg.students
[PERSONAL ACCOUNTS]
https://www.facebook.com/dlcarpen140
https://www.instagram.com/davidleecarpenter/

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
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Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

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🛠️TOOLS
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VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

BEST DYM RESOURCES
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OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
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//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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AUTO POD
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TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Who is David Carpenter?
02:59 What is your current youth ministry social media?
07:16 What exactly do you do?
14:19 Digital Discipleship for Cheap
16:48 The Easiest Content for Youth Pastors to Create
20:34 Don't Be Afraid!

--------------
✍️TRANSCRIPT
00:00:01:02 - 00:00:25:04
Nick Clason
What's going on, everybody? Hey, I got another interview style episode for you today. This time it is with David Carpenter. He's a youth pastor in Kentucky, and I came across David through social media, I think, in like a youth pastor, only or doing type style Facebook group. He was talking and answering a question about social media. And so his answer intrigued me.

00:00:25:04 - 00:00:45:21
David Carpenter
I clicked on his profile and I saw that David is very much leaning into a digital and hybrid ministry experience in his church and in his ministry. So I reached out and I scheduled an interview. And so, without any further ado, I have the exclusive David Carpenter interview for you to check out here on the Hybrid Ministry episode.

00:00:45:21 - 00:01:08:00
David Carpenter
If you find this helpful in any way, I would love it if you would subscribe, like, and share it with a friend, but without any further ado, check this interview out between myself and David Carpenter. I'm here with David. David, what is up, man? How are you doing this morning?

00:01:08:00 - 00:01:26:11
David Carpenter
I'm doing great. I am recovering. We're in the middle of a VBS week right now as we're recording this.
So some of I'm sure if some of you all know how that goes and, we're, you know, kind of making it through, but it's it's a good time and it's a good week. So now we're doing it. VBS at night, church or VBS in the morning. Church. Yeah, we're VBS at night. okay. And I'm, I'm crazy youth pastor David.

00:01:26:11 - 00:01:38:16
David Carpenter
So I, you know, get stuck up on the stage and then do crazy dances and jump around and, and the like. So that's kind of the kind of the rhythm, at least once a week in the summer, that, that we're in. But yeah, it's a good time.

00:01:38:11 - 00:01:45:16
Nick Clason
Yeah. We've all been there. We've all been. Yeah, we've all been there, just, you know, part as part of the gigs.
How goes. So, Well, that's awesome. I'm excited that you guys are having a good week. I hope that you're getting, at least some sleep. And I hope that your coffee this morning is strong so that you can recover. Well, it is VBS know, but I, I came across David, I think, in like a DYM or youth pastor's only or something like that Facebook group.
and someone had asked some sort of question about social media or something, and, you replied, I have no idea what you said, but I started creeping on you and your profile, and I just saw a lot of different, like, videos and like shorts and reels and stuff like that. and it was more than I was used to for, I guess I would say like the average or like or standard youth ministry, social media that I saw.
And so because of that caught my attention. and so I followed you and or became friends with you or something on Facebook. reached out to you and, and chatted a little bit. But I'm excited to have you on here today, because I'd love to know, you know, what is like your as it stands today, in your student ministry at your church.
Like what is your current sort of like social media or digital presence? What does it what does it look like? What do you what do you aim in for? And how's all that going?

00:02:51:04 - 00:03:16:19
David Carpenter
Yeah. well, I appreciate you asking and obviously honored to to be here. And we connected on, on that, question. And, you know, I started doing social media stuff when I was probably shoot 14 or 15.

00:03:16:21 - 00:03:46:04
David Carpenter
my dad was a pastor. And obviously, I'm sure lots of pastors kids out there know you get roped into doing things. And he was kind of an early innovator and had started doing a weekly YouTube show for our church. This was probably back in 2012, 2013, and I wanted to increase the views on it. So I created a Facebook page for it and kind of started to put together a logo for it and, and try to find ways to increase its, viewership and things like that.

00:03:46:04 - 00:04:15:09
David Carpenter
And kind of got my feet wet doing, you know, video editing and social media stuff at that point. But, instead of ministry, you know, we are looking at social media as an opportunity to disciple our students, but also as a, an outward opportunity to disciple, you know, literally people across the world, and, you know, practically that looks like a couple different things.

00:04:15:11 - 00:05:00:16
David Carpenter
platforms we use, we use, YouTube. We put our regular, weekly ministry teachings on podcast form. we use TikTok and we use Instagram, which is connected to a Facebook account. Our students don't engage there much, but, we, we share some of that stuff because I think it helps to keep parents connected, but, kind of a shift in the mindset going into it for us is, is that opportunity for discipleship that, you know, we are producing teachings and content that, man, it it's kind of already done and we have the opportunity to capture it and record it and then redisplay it, to potentially an audience that

00:05:00:16 - 00:05:21:21
David Carpenter
was missing on a Wednesday night or an audience that may, may never be able to come to our church. and so, you know, kind of, for you, probably about a year ago, we, we started thinking about ways for our church and our student ministry to really maximize, digital, you know, opportunities to reach people and, and disciple people.

00:05:21:23 - 00:05:41:03
David Carpenter
And over the last year, we've been kind of rolling that out and stepping into that over time. because we want to make sure that we can do it in sustainable and continuous ways. But, yeah, it's it's really just it's it's an opportunity for discipleship and for us to tell the story of our church, for us to tell the story of our state of ministry.

00:05:41:05 - 00:06:06:18
David Carpenter
people love stories. And, when, when we have the opportunity to share the stories of what Jesus is doing in the lives of our students or, or just even ways that our students are connecting and and enjoying their teenage years in a healthy Christian community. we feel like that's a win.

00:06:06:18 - 00:06:32:09
Nick Clason
So, yeah, no doubt, the most recent episodes, that I had, I had are like, year long resident on here.
And it was interesting because he mentioned the value that like, our social media sort of like presents and, and just philosophy and strategy, the value that it brought to like our attendance and our students are actually like in the room. Right. Because a lot of times, a lot of times I think it's like, we view it as like a replacement for the kids that were not at church or, for the kids that aren't even there yet.

00:06:32:09 - 00:06:57:17
Nick Clason
But he was like, no, it I thought it enhanced like the experience for the kids are already there, which was like an interesting like I'd seen it too, but I hadn't like, I hadn't come to that sort of like conclusion, like he had. So I because I do think the argument a lot of times that I feel like either we face as youth pastors or even just like me with this podcast, it's just that there's not enough time, and we need to focus on the kids that we have.

00:06:57:19 - 00:07:16:08
Nick Clason
And so to hear you say like, this is not this is an opportunity. This is a way for us to lean in with the kids that we have like that I agree with I would agree with that. And so get like get specific here, like help, help us out, help people out. Like what exactly do you do? Like what camera do you use?

00:07:16:08 - 00:07:38:00
Nick Clason
What like software are you using to edit. Like what's your because you're a real youth pastor with a real job, with real responsibilities, with real messages to write and programs to create, like, how are you, involving digital media into that? And like, what's your workflow with all that? Because it feels like it would probably be a steep learning curve or just a lot of extra work.
And maybe it is, but like, what are you doing? What's helping you out? What's what are some shortcuts? Maybe that might be out there.

00:07:38:00 - 00:07:55:02
David CarpenterYeah. Well, first, I think what you said is completely true, that it's it is an outward facing thing, but also one, I think sometimes where we as preachers assume that people come and listen to us.

00:07:55:03 - 00:08:27:07
David Carpenter
I speak to our students on Wednesday nights for about 18 to 22 minutes. Sunday morning there's a, you know, 28 to 32 minutes. And we think they probably remember everything we said, right. Like they they wrote the notes. They've got it in. They've already applied every one of these points. You know, it was all iterated. And I remember my great illustration and one, you know, when, when we're including things that are reflecting on the teachings, I think that reinforces and reminds those who were in the room and also, things like we did a post on our social that did really well a few months ago of, yeah, a picture of a student taking notes,

00:08:27:09 - 00:08:44:03
David Carpenter
and the post was all overlaid on the photo of the student was the notes from Wednesday night, some of the notes that we'd given them, and then in the caption was information. What? Why do we encourage students to take notes? Why do we give out handouts and and give an opportunity to teach culture in in those moments? So it definitely is for the kids in the room too.

00:08:44:03 - 00:09:06:21
David Carpenter
But yeah, practically speaking, we, from, September, August to May, we regularly gather for student nights. Our church takes the month of June off, and then we come back in July with some different programing on Monday nights. But for those student nights, we capture those, I capture those from our soundboard straight into GarageBand. It's nothing fancy.

00:09:06:21 - 00:09:27:24
David Carpenter
I think if you listen to podcasts, you're probably smart enough to go get a it's a I think it was an $8 adapter that is a board out to a usb-C in. And I just record the audio of the speaking. and we do podcast for the reason of one number one demographic for podcast listeners is like 12 to 22.

00:09:28:01 - 00:09:43:13
David Carpenter
I heard somewhere. And so our students and student aged people are listening to podcast. And also I use those as a resource for our parents always encourage our our parents to stay connected. If you listen to the podcast as a parent, hey, you can listen to what your student is learning and stay engaged and connected to our students in that way.

00:09:43:17 - 00:10:03:11
David Carpenter
So we have audio in that way. And then we as a message is beginning. Our church is not a very big church. We're in a more rural area. We're about an hour, 45 minutes an hour south of Lexington, Kentucky. and so we have a canon in 100, which is not a super nice camera. it's an outdated model.

00:10:03:11 - 00:10:27:06
David Carpenter
I think the 200 came out a couple of years ago. So this is a post post, you know, model camera. and we set it on a tripod high enough that it's pretty well over the students head, and we record those and, get a long form video of the message. and that goes on YouTube and that, that again, the primary purpose of that is for our parents to have a way to connect.

00:10:27:08 - 00:10:47:19
David Carpenter
I don't have any visions of, of those, you know, going viral or making me famous. it's, you know, those are we're getting 2 to 6, eight views on those videos. but, you know, it's it's so that we have a digital record of it. And then, those get split into my goal is always two short form clips that go on TikTok and Instagram.

00:10:47:19 - 00:11:10:15
David Carpenter
And if you can get them short enough YouTube shorts a week. as a way to reiterate, I reiterate, there's a word in there somewhere. I probably reiterate. There you go. That's the one. our teachings on Wednesday night, to connect back with those students and obviously to disciple people who, you know, they may be near to you, but are far from out or need encouragement in their faith.

00:11:10:17 - 00:11:32:20
David Carpenter
so that's pretty practical. I use Premiere Pro. I've always used Adobe products. it's but the what we do, I mean, you I feel you could get a YouTube video, of your teachings. You could use a phone and a, digital recorded mic, like a, phone in usb-C mic, especially if you've got a light, you know, new model phone.

00:11:32:22 - 00:11:53:09
David Carpenter
if you're not in a large space, this as your space gets larger, it's the lens being able to zoom in on the space that you're in. But it's not fancy technology. the church has invested $10 in an an adapter to record the audio, and now we just, we got better quality from the board straight into to a laptop.

00:11:53:10 - 00:12:16:05
David Carpenter
So, I mean, so that's that's kind of the we build out from there because, we can stay consistent with that, especially through the school year. the other things we're doing is, we show up with a camera to everything we do. I use a canon, I'm sitting here looking at it. I think it's a. Let me look, let me tell you, for I like to.

00:12:16:07 - 00:12:36:00
David Carpenter
It's a 70 day. I couldn't reference a 7080 or an 80, but with a 70 to 200 lens. I'm not a photographer. about two and a half years ago, I started taking pictures. And I've gotten better over time. You can put that thing in auto, and if you take enough pictures, you can get a couple good ones.

00:12:36:04 - 00:12:52:17
David Carpenter
Some. Some will look good, right? Yes. Exactly right. If you can get a couple good ones in focus, and we have leaders now that, you know, of course, like when I'm, when I'm speaking or on stage playing a game or something, I can't get those pictures. I tell them, hey, just this is how you focus it and do your best.

00:12:52:17 - 00:13:11:01
David Carpenter
And they always, you know, I've got multiple leaders who can come out with a couple good pictures. Those are great to have for your YouTube thumbnails and Instagram Reels covers. And then also just having a photo library, is helpful for for to stay consistent. That's one of the most important things I feel like with social and success in is consistency.

00:13:11:01 - 00:13:34:23
David Carpenter
And I think for people like us who work, you know, a full time job as a student, pastor, youth pastor, that's probably the greatest challenge. So building rhythms into your regular weekly life to prioritize social is important. And I think that's kind of what you are in doing what you're doing, trying to encourage people towards. And something I would definitely Amen.

00:13:34:23 - 00:14:00:06
David Carpenter
Yes and amen with what you're doing to say, hey, we are busy, but the five ten hours a week that it takes to, you know, record and and put a message on YouTube, cut it up into some clips, maybe find another way to to post on social once another week, once. Once a week. Twice. Like it's worth it because you are connecting to your kids where they already are.

00:14:00:06 - 00:14:20:17
David Carpenter
And it's an incredible mission field. It's an incredible opportunity. And, and I think it it's one of those things where sometimes we think, well, if I had time, I would, but it's like, no, this is something we need to make time for. Digital discipleship, should should be a priority, especially, for people reaching, you know, Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

00:14:20:19 - 00:14:40:05
Nick Clason
Yeah. Dude. I mean, I couldn't agree with you more. You said, like, so many things in there that, like, I like I feel like I've been saying, you know, so, like, the first thing of which is, like, you spent $10 to get better audio. And so because one of my arguments that I feel like a lot of youth pastors have is like, we're not the main room, we're not the main auditorium.

00:14:40:05 - 00:14:56:02
Nick Clason
So we don't have like the live stream gear. We don't have all that type of stuff. And like, you know, you just made the case, like, you don't have to have all that. Like, you can just put a camera up in the back of the room, like one of the strategies that we recommend, here on this podcast is like just sitting down like pre filming your messages.

00:14:56:02 - 00:15:25:05
Nick Clason
But if you don't even have the time to do that, like you can do it, David did. And just put a camera in the back of the room, capture your audio. And that's even one less like step of extra work, you know, and like you were saying, and it's interesting when you talk about like, having a digital library, like, that's a fantastic resource for down the road, because you might be counseling a kid, or kid might come to you with a particular issue and you're like, I've actually like studied that in Scripture.

00:15:25:05 - 00:15:45:09
Nick Clason
And like, I have that information and I've packaged it in like a sermon. It just was like two months ago. But like you have the YouTube link, let me send that to you. Because maybe they weren't there, maybe they weren't coming to your church yet, or maybe they whatever the reason, right, that were to your point, they just don't remember it because our teachings aren't as valuable as we hope and think that they they would be.

00:15:45:09 - 00:16:09:17
Nick Clason
And there's so there's really is so much like I agree, so much value in creating like a digital, a digital library far beyond what we can possibly think or imagine. I think. And you, if you start now, that begins to build and compound on itself, you know. So if let's say you're hearing this in the middle of this summer and this year, you're like, I'm going to start capturing my messages and posting them on YouTube.

00:16:09:19 - 00:16:27:19
Nick Clason
By the end of the school year, you have a full year library worth of content. So like David said, just you gotta find the time like it's it's we it's no longer an option anymore. I don't think I think you can keep doing it and you probably won't get fired, right. You can keep living life in your very like analog youth pastor way.

00:16:27:23 - 00:16:50:05
Nick Clason
And with all the irons in the fire like that is a way to keep doing the job. But I think we yeah, as youth pastors, can be more effective if we choose to invest in, engage and lean into what this digital space has to offer. For sure. David. What? if anything, is there anything that you're like, I would love it if we could get to this spot.

00:16:50:07 - 00:17:10:15
Nick Clason
Like, these are some of your, like, goals or dreams for your digital stuff, but your youth pastor and you haven't, you know, but legs all the way under it yet or, you know, it's it's a down the road sort of project that you'd like to see. Certainly. you know, obviously you want to continue to work to upgrade the quality of the, the content you're putting out.

00:17:10:17 - 00:17:35:00
David Carpenter
I would love to, lean into, more conversation, type content for YouTube and podcasts and even, you know, using those on social. We did a series, in the month of February. we call it All My Friends. And we sat and took three weeks. I interviewed, a couple different people, two of them. One week it was two of our students, two of our graduating seniors.

00:17:35:00 - 00:18:09:22
David Carpenter
And those videos are our best videos on YouTube. bar none, you know, and did so well. And and it's, you know, it's telling those stories. Yeah. I think people really like that. So content like that and, and more, student driven content, I think is the place we're going. And for your busy youth pastor, man, lean into, you know, your students, your students, our content creators, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are born into a world where they are all create content.

00:18:09:24 - 00:18:31:24
David Carpenter
I mean, go watch a seven year old kid. I go to the gym and my the my gym owner, his daughter, I think she's 7 or 8 and she walks around the gym with a digital camera and makes pictures and videos and, and edits and stories of, you know, her and all her, you know, people at the gym.

00:18:32:01 - 00:18:55:17
David Carpenter
They are all doing it. Yeah. Ask them, lean into them. And that's kind of a space that I would want to grow in. Is is including and and using our students, in that ministry, as, as a way to include them in the discipleship process online and also to, to tell their stories.

00:18:55:17 - 00:19:16:17
Nick Clason
And that's so good. And, you know, you use Premiere Pro, I use Premiere Pro.
So, like, you might hear a couple of guys on this podcast be like, man, it's like, I don't know that I'll have access to it. Like everything now is so accessible. Like I did a whole week's worth of daily recap videos off of my cell phone with cap cut a year ago. And like Canva, you know you can use Canva Pro and do tons of stuff on there.

00:19:16:17 - 00:19:34:24
Nick Clason
And because you're nonprofit, if you're church, it's free. You know, Canva, Canva for, nonprofits is completely free, but they'll give you like the pro, the pro version of it. And so like, you don't have to have all of these, like, higher level skills that you used to have to have, like the barrier to entry into this stuff is is so much lower.

00:19:34:24 - 00:19:53:11
Nick Clason
And you're so right. Like, our students absolutely eat this stuff up and probably want us to just get out of the way and let them do it anyway. So we should just we figure that out. All we gotta do is put a little infrastructure around it. Form.

00:19:53:11 - 00:20:18:13
David Carpenter
Yeah. I mean, what better thing could we do than like, really as student pastors?
What what better, greater opportunity we have then to empower students to step into ministry and to see their life as ministry? They're on social. They they're just like, we we want to encourage them to see their high school basketball team as a ministry. So we would we should do encourage them to see their digital life as a ministry.
Right. It's it's not that we put it in a compartment but that all of that we all of the things we do, our ministry and opportunities to share Jesus and and what better thing could we do than to teach our students that and to include them in that, that

00:20:18:15 - 00:20:55:23
Nick Clason
you're you're so right on that. Well, David, any other sort of like thoughts or words of encouragement that you would have, like, you have opportunity here to like, talk to some other youth pastors, people in church ministry like, you know, what what would you as you look out across the landscape of youth ministry and probably, if you're like me, the lack of digital integration that is existing like what? What would be your like final words or just, you know, final encouragement pieces to to other youth pastors?

00:20:55:23 - 00:21:20:05
David Carpenter
Yeah. You know, I was, I'm a great resource for, for anybody listening. of course, you know, these resources here. I looked at your Linktree the other day, and, I mean, gosh, some incredible resources you've got for for student pastors on there, for a digital resource.

00:21:20:05 - 00:21:45:20
David Carpenter
And also, I would encourage people to look into pro church tools. Brady here, I listened to his podcast every week. And and he is giving out, I mean, just free stuff. he did a, a poll on his Instagram, a couple months ago and asked, you know, these are church creatives. These are people like you and me who value church using digital, you know, marketing and digital opportunities to reach people.

00:21:45:20 - 00:22:18:05
David Carpenter
Jesus. And he asked those churches how many of them their church has a TikTok page. And of those people, 10% said yes. and I you know, you mentioned that group on Facebook of youth pastors only. and I think every time I see someone and it may have been even in that post that we connected on ask about TikTok, I see so many comments of, well, TikTok is just, you know, naked people or dancing people or, or or music that we wouldn't want our students to listen to or whatever.

00:22:18:07 - 00:22:56:23
David Carpenter
And, you know, my courage would be, don't be afraid to step into new things. as in terms of digital, you know, digital outreach, as a student pastor, as a student ministry. you know, when I came to, to this church, our, our ministry was very young, lots of middle schoolers, fewer high schoolers. And with that, fewer of our students had social media, like, a lot of our consistent students weren't on Instagram, they weren't on TikTok.

00:22:57:00 - 00:23:25:12
David Carpenter
And I think sometimes we could think, well, our students aren't even there. Why would I even invest into that? The one there's students in your community who are there, and two, you know, we're we're not affirming everything on something by putting our presence there. There's bad stuff everywhere. You know, our kids grow up and go to college.

00:23:25:14 - 00:23:42:08
David Carpenter
And guess what? I tell our kids all the time, hey, when you go to college, if you want to get into something, you can find it there, right? Your parents can only protect you for so long. And that's true in a lot of digital spaces. If you want to find, sinful things in on the internet, it's not really hard to do.

00:23:42:09 - 00:24:03:22
David Carpenter
All right? We're all mature and old enough to know that that's true. So our choice is either to be afraid and hide and say, well, if I'm not there, I'm not encouraging anybody to go there. Or we can say, hey, there's lost people there. There's people that are far from God there. And I mean, shoot, the way that TikTok's algorithm prioritizes locality.

00:24:03:24 - 00:24:27:24
David Carpenter
There are people in your community, students in your community who are there. And even if you would not encourage your students to go create an account, there, you can still go reach people there. And we have the greatest message that's ever been told. And we have the greatest means to take that message to the whole world. Why would we be afraid?

00:24:28:01 - 00:24:49:00
David Carpenter
And that would be my encouragement. Man is, hey, don't be afraid, try stuff. And guess what? I made a post. shoot. It was on our I was actually on our church page and it did did well on Instagram and did well on YouTube shorts and flopped on TikTok. I mean, like seven views, like horrible, awful. and guess what?

00:24:49:02 - 00:25:27:04
David Carpenter
The sun still came up the next day and not everything's going to work. But don't be afraid. Step into digital spaces because there is an incredible opportunity to minister to students and reach students in those spaces. And so I would just encourage you, don't be afraid. Yes, we have discernment from the Holy Spirit. Yes, there is wisdom. And no, we don't have to say yes to everything, but be wise and be willing to step out and trust that God can take your, a message that that someone is listening is is teaching maybe to a room of of 15 students.

00:25:27:06 - 00:25:44:06
David Carpenter
And there's something you could say in that, or a guest could say in that, or one of your students could encourage somebody with and millions of people could be encouraged with the love of Jesus. And I mean, what, what kind of incredible opportunity is that? And why would we not lean into that in any way we could? you're so right.

00:25:44:06 - 00:26:12:16
Nick Clason
And, you know, TikTok was just the new one, but everyone else has figured out how to compete with them. Now. So Facebook, Instagram have reels and YouTube shorts. And so if you're like, well, my kids aren't on TikTok, well, if they're on Instagram, you can still make the exact same type of content. If they're on YouTube, you can like my I, I crack up because like my hours, I have parents who are like, my kids aren't on TikTok, but they're on YouTube more like they're on than they're watching the same same things, same stuff.

00:26:12:20 - 00:26:32:04
Nick Clason
You haven't done anything. They're just on YouTube now. So, yeah. you know, it's it's all that's the thing. Like I work at what I say is one of the most conservative churches, and so we have just as much parents or whatever who might be a little freaked out by some of these things. And, but YouTube seems to be like the safe one.

00:26:32:08 - 00:26:50:05
Nick Clason
You know, I'm like, well, on YouTube and, like, oh, yeah, that's fine. Like, because parents watch YouTube and you can watch it on your TV in your house because there's like an app for it on your all your smart TVs and stuff like that. And so like our executive pastor, his daughter, she's not social media but do watch all of our like YouTube stuff on their TV in their house.

00:26:50:05 - 00:27:11:09
Nick Clason
Like even the silly stuff that we do. Even like the little shorts in the games and stuff that we do on there. And so it's like you said, it lean into it because if that's where our students are, I think there's a stat from Pew. Like 95% of teenagers say that they will use YouTube. So if that's where they are, like, you're right, why would we not be there to get there?

00:27:11:11 - 00:27:28:09
Nick Clason
So get there. Well, man, I appreciate your time. David, where would be like, if people want to see all this stuff, I'll drop some of these things in the show notes. Like, how can they get Ahold of you? How can they, check out what you're doing on your churches and youth ministry, social media? let us know where where they can find you.

00:27:28:11 - 00:27:47:20
David Carpenter
Yeah. Our, our church is, everywhere. It's it's Harrodsburg dot church. So our seed ministry is Harrodsburg dot students. That's YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. You should be able to get to there. my Facebook and Instagram, our David Lee Carpenter. There's a lot of David Carpenters out there, so I put my middle name in there. You should be able to find me. and if I can help or encourage anybody along the way, I would love to do that. I'm thankful for you to to let me. Come on. And I hope it helps somebody bless somebody today.

00:27:47:22 - 00:28:44:24
Nick Clason
Absolutely. Hey, thanks for being on. Appreciate your time today. And we'll talk next time.

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DESCRIPTION
Church Youth Pastor, David Carpenter, shares how he teaches the Bible to his teenagers and lays out his complete digital process.

The amazing thing about David's strategy is that it not only looks great online, but it's incredibly cost effective.

David is a digital discipleship genius, listen in!

======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/108

//YOUTH PASTOR FACEBOOK GROUPS
https://www.facebook.com/groups/493666560814931
https://www.facebook.com/groups/youthpastorsonly

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//NICK'S LINKTR.EE
https://linktr.ee/clasonnick

//BRADY SHEARER - PRO CHURCH TOOLS
https://prochurchtools.com/

//DAVID ON SOCIAL
[CHURCH ACCOUNTS]
https://www.youtube.com/@Harrodsburg.Students
https://www.instagram.com/harrodsburg.students/
https://www.tiktok.com/@harrodsburg.students
[PERSONAL ACCOUNTS]
https://www.facebook.com/dlcarpen140
https://www.instagram.com/davidleecarpenter/

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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Who is David Carpenter?
02:59 What is your current youth ministry social media?
07:16 What exactly do you do?
14:19 Digital Discipleship for Cheap
16:48 The Easiest Content for Youth Pastors to Create
20:34 Don't Be Afraid!

--------------
✍️TRANSCRIPT
00:00:01:02 - 00:00:25:04
Nick Clason
What's going on, everybody? Hey, I got another interview style episode for you today. This time it is with David Carpenter. He's a youth pastor in Kentucky, and I came across David through social media, I think, in like a youth pastor, only or doing type style Facebook group. He was talking and answering a question about social media. And so his answer intrigued me.

00:00:25:04 - 00:00:45:21
David Carpenter
I clicked on his profile and I saw that David is very much leaning into a digital and hybrid ministry experience in his church and in his ministry. So I reached out and I scheduled an interview. And so, without any further ado, I have the exclusive David Carpenter interview for you to check out here on the Hybrid Ministry episode.

00:00:45:21 - 00:01:08:00
David Carpenter
If you find this helpful in any way, I would love it if you would subscribe, like, and share it with a friend, but without any further ado, check this interview out between myself and David Carpenter. I'm here with David. David, what is up, man? How are you doing this morning?

00:01:08:00 - 00:01:26:11
David Carpenter
I'm doing great. I am recovering. We're in the middle of a VBS week right now as we're recording this.
So some of I'm sure if some of you all know how that goes and, we're, you know, kind of making it through, but it's it's a good time and it's a good week. So now we're doing it. VBS at night, church or VBS in the morning. Church. Yeah, we're VBS at night. okay. And I'm, I'm crazy youth pastor David.

00:01:26:11 - 00:01:38:16
David Carpenter
So I, you know, get stuck up on the stage and then do crazy dances and jump around and, and the like. So that's kind of the kind of the rhythm, at least once a week in the summer, that, that we're in. But yeah, it's a good time.

00:01:38:11 - 00:01:45:16
Nick Clason
Yeah. We've all been there. We've all been. Yeah, we've all been there, just, you know, part as part of the gigs.
How goes. So, Well, that's awesome. I'm excited that you guys are having a good week. I hope that you're getting, at least some sleep. And I hope that your coffee this morning is strong so that you can recover. Well, it is VBS know, but I, I came across David, I think, in like a DYM or youth pastor's only or something like that Facebook group.
and someone had asked some sort of question about social media or something, and, you replied, I have no idea what you said, but I started creeping on you and your profile, and I just saw a lot of different, like, videos and like shorts and reels and stuff like that. and it was more than I was used to for, I guess I would say like the average or like or standard youth ministry, social media that I saw.
And so because of that caught my attention. and so I followed you and or became friends with you or something on Facebook. reached out to you and, and chatted a little bit. But I'm excited to have you on here today, because I'd love to know, you know, what is like your as it stands today, in your student ministry at your church.
Like what is your current sort of like social media or digital presence? What does it what does it look like? What do you what do you aim in for? And how's all that going?

00:02:51:04 - 00:03:16:19
David Carpenter
Yeah. well, I appreciate you asking and obviously honored to to be here. And we connected on, on that, question. And, you know, I started doing social media stuff when I was probably shoot 14 or 15.

00:03:16:21 - 00:03:46:04
David Carpenter
my dad was a pastor. And obviously, I'm sure lots of pastors kids out there know you get roped into doing things. And he was kind of an early innovator and had started doing a weekly YouTube show for our church. This was probably back in 2012, 2013, and I wanted to increase the views on it. So I created a Facebook page for it and kind of started to put together a logo for it and, and try to find ways to increase its, viewership and things like that.

00:03:46:04 - 00:04:15:09
David Carpenter
And kind of got my feet wet doing, you know, video editing and social media stuff at that point. But, instead of ministry, you know, we are looking at social media as an opportunity to disciple our students, but also as a, an outward opportunity to disciple, you know, literally people across the world, and, you know, practically that looks like a couple different things.

00:04:15:11 - 00:05:00:16
David Carpenter
platforms we use, we use, YouTube. We put our regular, weekly ministry teachings on podcast form. we use TikTok and we use Instagram, which is connected to a Facebook account. Our students don't engage there much, but, we, we share some of that stuff because I think it helps to keep parents connected, but, kind of a shift in the mindset going into it for us is, is that opportunity for discipleship that, you know, we are producing teachings and content that, man, it it's kind of already done and we have the opportunity to capture it and record it and then redisplay it, to potentially an audience that

00:05:00:16 - 00:05:21:21
David Carpenter
was missing on a Wednesday night or an audience that may, may never be able to come to our church. and so, you know, kind of, for you, probably about a year ago, we, we started thinking about ways for our church and our student ministry to really maximize, digital, you know, opportunities to reach people and, and disciple people.

00:05:21:23 - 00:05:41:03
David Carpenter
And over the last year, we've been kind of rolling that out and stepping into that over time. because we want to make sure that we can do it in sustainable and continuous ways. But, yeah, it's it's really just it's it's an opportunity for discipleship and for us to tell the story of our church, for us to tell the story of our state of ministry.

00:05:41:05 - 00:06:06:18
David Carpenter
people love stories. And, when, when we have the opportunity to share the stories of what Jesus is doing in the lives of our students or, or just even ways that our students are connecting and and enjoying their teenage years in a healthy Christian community. we feel like that's a win.

00:06:06:18 - 00:06:32:09
Nick Clason
So, yeah, no doubt, the most recent episodes, that I had, I had are like, year long resident on here.
And it was interesting because he mentioned the value that like, our social media sort of like presents and, and just philosophy and strategy, the value that it brought to like our attendance and our students are actually like in the room. Right. Because a lot of times, a lot of times I think it's like, we view it as like a replacement for the kids that were not at church or, for the kids that aren't even there yet.

00:06:32:09 - 00:06:57:17
Nick Clason
But he was like, no, it I thought it enhanced like the experience for the kids are already there, which was like an interesting like I'd seen it too, but I hadn't like, I hadn't come to that sort of like conclusion, like he had. So I because I do think the argument a lot of times that I feel like either we face as youth pastors or even just like me with this podcast, it's just that there's not enough time, and we need to focus on the kids that we have.

00:06:57:19 - 00:07:16:08
Nick Clason
And so to hear you say like, this is not this is an opportunity. This is a way for us to lean in with the kids that we have like that I agree with I would agree with that. And so get like get specific here, like help, help us out, help people out. Like what exactly do you do? Like what camera do you use?

00:07:16:08 - 00:07:38:00
Nick Clason
What like software are you using to edit. Like what's your because you're a real youth pastor with a real job, with real responsibilities, with real messages to write and programs to create, like, how are you, involving digital media into that? And like, what's your workflow with all that? Because it feels like it would probably be a steep learning curve or just a lot of extra work.
And maybe it is, but like, what are you doing? What's helping you out? What's what are some shortcuts? Maybe that might be out there.

00:07:38:00 - 00:07:55:02
David CarpenterYeah. Well, first, I think what you said is completely true, that it's it is an outward facing thing, but also one, I think sometimes where we as preachers assume that people come and listen to us.

00:07:55:03 - 00:08:27:07
David Carpenter
I speak to our students on Wednesday nights for about 18 to 22 minutes. Sunday morning there's a, you know, 28 to 32 minutes. And we think they probably remember everything we said, right. Like they they wrote the notes. They've got it in. They've already applied every one of these points. You know, it was all iterated. And I remember my great illustration and one, you know, when, when we're including things that are reflecting on the teachings, I think that reinforces and reminds those who were in the room and also, things like we did a post on our social that did really well a few months ago of, yeah, a picture of a student taking notes,

00:08:27:09 - 00:08:44:03
David Carpenter
and the post was all overlaid on the photo of the student was the notes from Wednesday night, some of the notes that we'd given them, and then in the caption was information. What? Why do we encourage students to take notes? Why do we give out handouts and and give an opportunity to teach culture in in those moments? So it definitely is for the kids in the room too.

00:08:44:03 - 00:09:06:21
David Carpenter
But yeah, practically speaking, we, from, September, August to May, we regularly gather for student nights. Our church takes the month of June off, and then we come back in July with some different programing on Monday nights. But for those student nights, we capture those, I capture those from our soundboard straight into GarageBand. It's nothing fancy.

00:09:06:21 - 00:09:27:24
David Carpenter
I think if you listen to podcasts, you're probably smart enough to go get a it's a I think it was an $8 adapter that is a board out to a usb-C in. And I just record the audio of the speaking. and we do podcast for the reason of one number one demographic for podcast listeners is like 12 to 22.

00:09:28:01 - 00:09:43:13
David Carpenter
I heard somewhere. And so our students and student aged people are listening to podcast. And also I use those as a resource for our parents always encourage our our parents to stay connected. If you listen to the podcast as a parent, hey, you can listen to what your student is learning and stay engaged and connected to our students in that way.

00:09:43:17 - 00:10:03:11
David Carpenter
So we have audio in that way. And then we as a message is beginning. Our church is not a very big church. We're in a more rural area. We're about an hour, 45 minutes an hour south of Lexington, Kentucky. and so we have a canon in 100, which is not a super nice camera. it's an outdated model.

00:10:03:11 - 00:10:27:06
David Carpenter
I think the 200 came out a couple of years ago. So this is a post post, you know, model camera. and we set it on a tripod high enough that it's pretty well over the students head, and we record those and, get a long form video of the message. and that goes on YouTube and that, that again, the primary purpose of that is for our parents to have a way to connect.

00:10:27:08 - 00:10:47:19
David Carpenter
I don't have any visions of, of those, you know, going viral or making me famous. it's, you know, those are we're getting 2 to 6, eight views on those videos. but, you know, it's it's so that we have a digital record of it. And then, those get split into my goal is always two short form clips that go on TikTok and Instagram.

00:10:47:19 - 00:11:10:15
David Carpenter
And if you can get them short enough YouTube shorts a week. as a way to reiterate, I reiterate, there's a word in there somewhere. I probably reiterate. There you go. That's the one. our teachings on Wednesday night, to connect back with those students and obviously to disciple people who, you know, they may be near to you, but are far from out or need encouragement in their faith.

00:11:10:17 - 00:11:32:20
David Carpenter
so that's pretty practical. I use Premiere Pro. I've always used Adobe products. it's but the what we do, I mean, you I feel you could get a YouTube video, of your teachings. You could use a phone and a, digital recorded mic, like a, phone in usb-C mic, especially if you've got a light, you know, new model phone.

00:11:32:22 - 00:11:53:09
David Carpenter
if you're not in a large space, this as your space gets larger, it's the lens being able to zoom in on the space that you're in. But it's not fancy technology. the church has invested $10 in an an adapter to record the audio, and now we just, we got better quality from the board straight into to a laptop.

00:11:53:10 - 00:12:16:05
David Carpenter
So, I mean, so that's that's kind of the we build out from there because, we can stay consistent with that, especially through the school year. the other things we're doing is, we show up with a camera to everything we do. I use a canon, I'm sitting here looking at it. I think it's a. Let me look, let me tell you, for I like to.

00:12:16:07 - 00:12:36:00
David Carpenter
It's a 70 day. I couldn't reference a 7080 or an 80, but with a 70 to 200 lens. I'm not a photographer. about two and a half years ago, I started taking pictures. And I've gotten better over time. You can put that thing in auto, and if you take enough pictures, you can get a couple good ones.

00:12:36:04 - 00:12:52:17
David Carpenter
Some. Some will look good, right? Yes. Exactly right. If you can get a couple good ones in focus, and we have leaders now that, you know, of course, like when I'm, when I'm speaking or on stage playing a game or something, I can't get those pictures. I tell them, hey, just this is how you focus it and do your best.

00:12:52:17 - 00:13:11:01
David Carpenter
And they always, you know, I've got multiple leaders who can come out with a couple good pictures. Those are great to have for your YouTube thumbnails and Instagram Reels covers. And then also just having a photo library, is helpful for for to stay consistent. That's one of the most important things I feel like with social and success in is consistency.

00:13:11:01 - 00:13:34:23
David Carpenter
And I think for people like us who work, you know, a full time job as a student, pastor, youth pastor, that's probably the greatest challenge. So building rhythms into your regular weekly life to prioritize social is important. And I think that's kind of what you are in doing what you're doing, trying to encourage people towards. And something I would definitely Amen.

00:13:34:23 - 00:14:00:06
David Carpenter
Yes and amen with what you're doing to say, hey, we are busy, but the five ten hours a week that it takes to, you know, record and and put a message on YouTube, cut it up into some clips, maybe find another way to to post on social once another week, once. Once a week. Twice. Like it's worth it because you are connecting to your kids where they already are.

00:14:00:06 - 00:14:20:17
David Carpenter
And it's an incredible mission field. It's an incredible opportunity. And, and I think it it's one of those things where sometimes we think, well, if I had time, I would, but it's like, no, this is something we need to make time for. Digital discipleship, should should be a priority, especially, for people reaching, you know, Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

00:14:20:19 - 00:14:40:05
Nick Clason
Yeah. Dude. I mean, I couldn't agree with you more. You said, like, so many things in there that, like, I like I feel like I've been saying, you know, so, like, the first thing of which is, like, you spent $10 to get better audio. And so because one of my arguments that I feel like a lot of youth pastors have is like, we're not the main room, we're not the main auditorium.

00:14:40:05 - 00:14:56:02
Nick Clason
So we don't have like the live stream gear. We don't have all that type of stuff. And like, you know, you just made the case, like, you don't have to have all that. Like, you can just put a camera up in the back of the room, like one of the strategies that we recommend, here on this podcast is like just sitting down like pre filming your messages.

00:14:56:02 - 00:15:25:05
Nick Clason
But if you don't even have the time to do that, like you can do it, David did. And just put a camera in the back of the room, capture your audio. And that's even one less like step of extra work, you know, and like you were saying, and it's interesting when you talk about like, having a digital library, like, that's a fantastic resource for down the road, because you might be counseling a kid, or kid might come to you with a particular issue and you're like, I've actually like studied that in Scripture.

00:15:25:05 - 00:15:45:09
Nick Clason
And like, I have that information and I've packaged it in like a sermon. It just was like two months ago. But like you have the YouTube link, let me send that to you. Because maybe they weren't there, maybe they weren't coming to your church yet, or maybe they whatever the reason, right, that were to your point, they just don't remember it because our teachings aren't as valuable as we hope and think that they they would be.

00:15:45:09 - 00:16:09:17
Nick Clason
And there's so there's really is so much like I agree, so much value in creating like a digital, a digital library far beyond what we can possibly think or imagine. I think. And you, if you start now, that begins to build and compound on itself, you know. So if let's say you're hearing this in the middle of this summer and this year, you're like, I'm going to start capturing my messages and posting them on YouTube.

00:16:09:19 - 00:16:27:19
Nick Clason
By the end of the school year, you have a full year library worth of content. So like David said, just you gotta find the time like it's it's we it's no longer an option anymore. I don't think I think you can keep doing it and you probably won't get fired, right. You can keep living life in your very like analog youth pastor way.

00:16:27:23 - 00:16:50:05
Nick Clason
And with all the irons in the fire like that is a way to keep doing the job. But I think we yeah, as youth pastors, can be more effective if we choose to invest in, engage and lean into what this digital space has to offer. For sure. David. What? if anything, is there anything that you're like, I would love it if we could get to this spot.

00:16:50:07 - 00:17:10:15
Nick Clason
Like, these are some of your, like, goals or dreams for your digital stuff, but your youth pastor and you haven't, you know, but legs all the way under it yet or, you know, it's it's a down the road sort of project that you'd like to see. Certainly. you know, obviously you want to continue to work to upgrade the quality of the, the content you're putting out.

00:17:10:17 - 00:17:35:00
David Carpenter
I would love to, lean into, more conversation, type content for YouTube and podcasts and even, you know, using those on social. We did a series, in the month of February. we call it All My Friends. And we sat and took three weeks. I interviewed, a couple different people, two of them. One week it was two of our students, two of our graduating seniors.

00:17:35:00 - 00:18:09:22
David Carpenter
And those videos are our best videos on YouTube. bar none, you know, and did so well. And and it's, you know, it's telling those stories. Yeah. I think people really like that. So content like that and, and more, student driven content, I think is the place we're going. And for your busy youth pastor, man, lean into, you know, your students, your students, our content creators, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are born into a world where they are all create content.

00:18:09:24 - 00:18:31:24
David Carpenter
I mean, go watch a seven year old kid. I go to the gym and my the my gym owner, his daughter, I think she's 7 or 8 and she walks around the gym with a digital camera and makes pictures and videos and, and edits and stories of, you know, her and all her, you know, people at the gym.

00:18:32:01 - 00:18:55:17
David Carpenter
They are all doing it. Yeah. Ask them, lean into them. And that's kind of a space that I would want to grow in. Is is including and and using our students, in that ministry, as, as a way to include them in the discipleship process online and also to, to tell their stories.

00:18:55:17 - 00:19:16:17
Nick Clason
And that's so good. And, you know, you use Premiere Pro, I use Premiere Pro.
So, like, you might hear a couple of guys on this podcast be like, man, it's like, I don't know that I'll have access to it. Like everything now is so accessible. Like I did a whole week's worth of daily recap videos off of my cell phone with cap cut a year ago. And like Canva, you know you can use Canva Pro and do tons of stuff on there.

00:19:16:17 - 00:19:34:24
Nick Clason
And because you're nonprofit, if you're church, it's free. You know, Canva, Canva for, nonprofits is completely free, but they'll give you like the pro, the pro version of it. And so like, you don't have to have all of these, like, higher level skills that you used to have to have, like the barrier to entry into this stuff is is so much lower.

00:19:34:24 - 00:19:53:11
Nick Clason
And you're so right. Like, our students absolutely eat this stuff up and probably want us to just get out of the way and let them do it anyway. So we should just we figure that out. All we gotta do is put a little infrastructure around it. Form.

00:19:53:11 - 00:20:18:13
David Carpenter
Yeah. I mean, what better thing could we do than like, really as student pastors?
What what better, greater opportunity we have then to empower students to step into ministry and to see their life as ministry? They're on social. They they're just like, we we want to encourage them to see their high school basketball team as a ministry. So we would we should do encourage them to see their digital life as a ministry.
Right. It's it's not that we put it in a compartment but that all of that we all of the things we do, our ministry and opportunities to share Jesus and and what better thing could we do than to teach our students that and to include them in that, that

00:20:18:15 - 00:20:55:23
Nick Clason
you're you're so right on that. Well, David, any other sort of like thoughts or words of encouragement that you would have, like, you have opportunity here to like, talk to some other youth pastors, people in church ministry like, you know, what what would you as you look out across the landscape of youth ministry and probably, if you're like me, the lack of digital integration that is existing like what? What would be your like final words or just, you know, final encouragement pieces to to other youth pastors?

00:20:55:23 - 00:21:20:05
David Carpenter
Yeah. You know, I was, I'm a great resource for, for anybody listening. of course, you know, these resources here. I looked at your Linktree the other day, and, I mean, gosh, some incredible resources you've got for for student pastors on there, for a digital resource.

00:21:20:05 - 00:21:45:20
David Carpenter
And also, I would encourage people to look into pro church tools. Brady here, I listened to his podcast every week. And and he is giving out, I mean, just free stuff. he did a, a poll on his Instagram, a couple months ago and asked, you know, these are church creatives. These are people like you and me who value church using digital, you know, marketing and digital opportunities to reach people.

00:21:45:20 - 00:22:18:05
David Carpenter
Jesus. And he asked those churches how many of them their church has a TikTok page. And of those people, 10% said yes. and I you know, you mentioned that group on Facebook of youth pastors only. and I think every time I see someone and it may have been even in that post that we connected on ask about TikTok, I see so many comments of, well, TikTok is just, you know, naked people or dancing people or, or or music that we wouldn't want our students to listen to or whatever.

00:22:18:07 - 00:22:56:23
David Carpenter
And, you know, my courage would be, don't be afraid to step into new things. as in terms of digital, you know, digital outreach, as a student pastor, as a student ministry. you know, when I came to, to this church, our, our ministry was very young, lots of middle schoolers, fewer high schoolers. And with that, fewer of our students had social media, like, a lot of our consistent students weren't on Instagram, they weren't on TikTok.

00:22:57:00 - 00:23:25:12
David Carpenter
And I think sometimes we could think, well, our students aren't even there. Why would I even invest into that? The one there's students in your community who are there, and two, you know, we're we're not affirming everything on something by putting our presence there. There's bad stuff everywhere. You know, our kids grow up and go to college.

00:23:25:14 - 00:23:42:08
David Carpenter
And guess what? I tell our kids all the time, hey, when you go to college, if you want to get into something, you can find it there, right? Your parents can only protect you for so long. And that's true in a lot of digital spaces. If you want to find, sinful things in on the internet, it's not really hard to do.

00:23:42:09 - 00:24:03:22
David Carpenter
All right? We're all mature and old enough to know that that's true. So our choice is either to be afraid and hide and say, well, if I'm not there, I'm not encouraging anybody to go there. Or we can say, hey, there's lost people there. There's people that are far from God there. And I mean, shoot, the way that TikTok's algorithm prioritizes locality.

00:24:03:24 - 00:24:27:24
David Carpenter
There are people in your community, students in your community who are there. And even if you would not encourage your students to go create an account, there, you can still go reach people there. And we have the greatest message that's ever been told. And we have the greatest means to take that message to the whole world. Why would we be afraid?

00:24:28:01 - 00:24:49:00
David Carpenter
And that would be my encouragement. Man is, hey, don't be afraid, try stuff. And guess what? I made a post. shoot. It was on our I was actually on our church page and it did did well on Instagram and did well on YouTube shorts and flopped on TikTok. I mean, like seven views, like horrible, awful. and guess what?

00:24:49:02 - 00:25:27:04
David Carpenter
The sun still came up the next day and not everything's going to work. But don't be afraid. Step into digital spaces because there is an incredible opportunity to minister to students and reach students in those spaces. And so I would just encourage you, don't be afraid. Yes, we have discernment from the Holy Spirit. Yes, there is wisdom. And no, we don't have to say yes to everything, but be wise and be willing to step out and trust that God can take your, a message that that someone is listening is is teaching maybe to a room of of 15 students.

00:25:27:06 - 00:25:44:06
David Carpenter
And there's something you could say in that, or a guest could say in that, or one of your students could encourage somebody with and millions of people could be encouraged with the love of Jesus. And I mean, what, what kind of incredible opportunity is that? And why would we not lean into that in any way we could? you're so right.

00:25:44:06 - 00:26:12:16
Nick Clason
And, you know, TikTok was just the new one, but everyone else has figured out how to compete with them. Now. So Facebook, Instagram have reels and YouTube shorts. And so if you're like, well, my kids aren't on TikTok, well, if they're on Instagram, you can still make the exact same type of content. If they're on YouTube, you can like my I, I crack up because like my hours, I have parents who are like, my kids aren't on TikTok, but they're on YouTube more like they're on than they're watching the same same things, same stuff.

00:26:12:20 - 00:26:32:04
Nick Clason
You haven't done anything. They're just on YouTube now. So, yeah. you know, it's it's all that's the thing. Like I work at what I say is one of the most conservative churches, and so we have just as much parents or whatever who might be a little freaked out by some of these things. And, but YouTube seems to be like the safe one.

00:26:32:08 - 00:26:50:05
Nick Clason
You know, I'm like, well, on YouTube and, like, oh, yeah, that's fine. Like, because parents watch YouTube and you can watch it on your TV in your house because there's like an app for it on your all your smart TVs and stuff like that. And so like our executive pastor, his daughter, she's not social media but do watch all of our like YouTube stuff on their TV in their house.

00:26:50:05 - 00:27:11:09
Nick Clason
Like even the silly stuff that we do. Even like the little shorts in the games and stuff that we do on there. And so it's like you said, it lean into it because if that's where our students are, I think there's a stat from Pew. Like 95% of teenagers say that they will use YouTube. So if that's where they are, like, you're right, why would we not be there to get there?

00:27:11:11 - 00:27:28:09
Nick Clason
So get there. Well, man, I appreciate your time. David, where would be like, if people want to see all this stuff, I'll drop some of these things in the show notes. Like, how can they get Ahold of you? How can they, check out what you're doing on your churches and youth ministry, social media? let us know where where they can find you.

00:27:28:11 - 00:27:47:20
David Carpenter
Yeah. Our, our church is, everywhere. It's it's Harrodsburg dot church. So our seed ministry is Harrodsburg dot students. That's YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. You should be able to get to there. my Facebook and Instagram, our David Lee Carpenter. There's a lot of David Carpenters out there, so I put my middle name in there. You should be able to find me. and if I can help or encourage anybody along the way, I would love to do that. I'm thankful for you to to let me. Come on. And I hope it helps somebody bless somebody today.

00:27:47:22 - 00:28:44:24
Nick Clason
Absolutely. Hey, thanks for being on. Appreciate your time today. And we'll talk next time.

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