web01.fireside.fm Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:47:41 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Hybrid Ministry - Episodes Tagged with “Youth Ministry Tips” https://www.hybridministry.xyz/tags/youth%20ministry%20tips Thu, 02 Apr 2026 05:00:00 -0500 Hybrid Ministry is complicated and hard. Or is it? How do pastors and youth pastors create a vibrant extension, not replacement, of what's already happening during their weekly church services? To cater in a digital ministry way to an online focused ministry audience. Reaching Millennials, Gen Z and even Gen Alpha is going to require us to rethink some of the ways we do church. Follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick en-us episodic Digital Discipleship made easy Nick Clason Hybrid Ministry is complicated and hard. Or is it? How do pastors and youth pastors create a vibrant extension, not replacement, of what's already happening during their weekly church services? To cater in a digital ministry way to an online focused ministry audience. Reaching Millennials, Gen Z and even Gen Alpha is going to require us to rethink some of the ways we do church. Follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick no Digital, Online Church, Hybrid Ministry, Church, Meta, Gen Z, Millennials, Digital Marketing, Church Marketing, Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Nick Clason, Digital Ministry, Church Social Media, Youth Ministry Social Media, YouTube for Church, YouTube for Youth Ministry, TikTok for Churches, TikTok for Youth Ministry, Instagram for Churches, Instagram for Youth Ministry, Facebook for Church, Facebook for Youth Ministry, Cell Phone Usage at Church Nick Clason nickclason@hybridministry.xyz Episode 195: Young Leaders vs Older Leaders: Who Connects Better? https://www.hybridministry.xyz/195 0b848eec-7a58-412f-a01e-5bcc43101a5b Thu, 02 Apr 2026 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 195 Young Leaders vs Older Leaders: Who Connects Better? full Nick Clason Volunteer Leaders are so crucial to a healthy youth ministry. But as you recruit, should you focus more on older leaders? Or younger leaders? In this debate style episode we have two leaders make their case on both sides of the aisle! Let's dive in, together! 20:45 no Volunteer Leaders are so crucial to a healthy youth ministry. But as you recruit, should you focus more on older leaders? Or younger leaders? In this debate style episode we have two leaders make their case on both sides of the aisle! Let's dive in, together! [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link 🌸 SPRING SEASONAL SOCIAL PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/spring-seasonal-151263940?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/195 //LINKS DYM Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/DYMCommunity 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //HYBRID MINISTRY MEGA GUIDE Everything I've ever learned in one blog post [FOR FREE!] https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-ministry-151264417?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Do older or younger leaders connect better with students? 01:32 Meet the Older Leaders vs Younger Leader Debate Contestants 04:38 Older People are Better Youth Ministry Volunteers 07:09 Younger People are Better Youth Ministry Volunteers 09:43 Can you clarify the emotional stability for older volunteers? 10:52 How should a busy youth pastor respond to social media? 12:54 Do younger people ever prove to be less reliable? 17:08 Closing Arguments -------------- TRANSCRIPT Nick Clason (00:01.062) What's up everybody? Here we are. I am with Jacob and Tyler. Gentlemen, how we doing this morning? Jacob (00:07.712) Doing good. It's good. Tyler Johnson (00:08.579) Doing so good. Nick Clason (00:09.93) Have we both already had coffee or is that after this is over? Jacob (00:15.057) I just finished my cup, so I'm all set. Nick Clason (00:17.18) Okay. Tyler Johnson (00:17.454) I had tea because I'm a tea guy. Nick Clason (00:19.708) Hey, there you go. Who knew? The more you know. Comment down below your favorite brand of tea for Tyler. But we're going to let each of you have a moment. I don't want to get too far into this without you guys letting us know who you are. So by random draw that happened off camera and you're just going to have to trust me because I'm a pastor and I get paid to tell the truth. Jacob, you get to go first and introduce yourself one minute on the clock. Are you ready, sir? Jacob (00:19.826) Yeah. Jacob (00:48.273) Yeah, yeah, I can do a lot in a minute, let's do it. All right, yeah, my name is Jacob Hayes. I'm a student pastor for the chapel in Wisconsin. So I work with our three campuses in Wisconsin and our main campuses in Whitewater, which is UW College Town. So I get a lot of college students and it's fun to work with them. And yeah, it's just been great. See, I did it in under a minute. Nick Clason (00:50.218) All right, let's go. Tyler Johnson (01:08.02) you Nick Clason (01:11.85) 19 seconds what a right I don't think any youth pastor has ever come in that short on their time, but my friend Impressive stuff right there Tyler the bars been set bro Jacob (01:19.858) There you go. Nick Clason (01:27.56) Alright, are you ready Tyler? Let's go! Tyler Johnson (01:28.974) I'm so ready. I will take more than 19 seconds because I read that in debate it matters to take your full time. So my name is Tyler 2 Wall Johnson. The rest of that context doesn't need to be known because I don't think I can tell it in the remaining 40 seconds that I have. I am currently in Fort Wayne at Christ Hope Ministries and Church. I have only been here for about a year. was at my previous church for about eight years and I have had a fair balance of both young and old volunteers in the ministries. And so as I come today, ready to bear the fight and the voice of the older people, as there was another person in our retreat that the three of us had had recently who strives to be an older person. Jacob (01:54.899) Okay. Okay. Tyler Johnson (02:20.556) I cannot wait and so I am ready to defend the old today. Done. Nick Clason (02:27.41) Nice, great work. wait, I got distracted. There we go. I almost didn't give you credit for that because I laid the remote down. Tyler Johnson (02:37.101) Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, let it be known that it was about 56 seconds. Nick Clason (02:40.714) Strong work, man, both of you strong work. All right, well, now that we thoroughly know everything and we know the bare minimum of Jacob's life, let's get this show on the road. So once again, by random draw, Jacob, since you went first on the last one, that means Tyler, your position that you're getting two minutes to argue is that older people are better youth ministry volunteers. Jacob (02:51.398) Okay. Okay. Nick Clason (03:10.282) and you're about to have two minutes on the clock. Are you ready? Jacob (03:11.346) Okay. Okay. Tyler Johnson (03:14.54) I will take one minute and 59 seconds. Nick Clason (03:16.99) Alright, well then my friend, take it away. Tyler Johnson (03:20.522) Yes, I am here to debate that for older volunteers, here's number one. They bring long-term faithfulness and not just energy. They model a future version of faith. They're often more emotionally stable. I do say that as a once young person, kind of middle-aged. What is 30? Am I young middle-aged or am I old young? I don't know. That's for later. I'm in my debate time. Jacob (03:42.345) . Thank Tyler Johnson (03:50.955) Here's one of the probably the biggest that I have seen more personally outside of just reading from my notes and it's this. There is more ownership with the maturity, not just ownership of the ministry, but there's ownership of the tasks that they have. Not only do they see the ministry as their own or maybe their small group as their own and the ability to without asking permission or even sometimes without asking how. Nick Clason (04:01.514) Hmm. Jacob (04:13.129) . Tyler Johnson (04:18.508) They're going to go in and say, like, you know, they're going to grab the lunches. They're going to grab the coffees. I don't have to hold their hand for some of that. At the same time in ministry, if they are teaching a lesson, if they are preparing small group questions, it is theirs. They want to own it. And they might want feedback over some of that, but they're going to have ownership of it. In the same way, finally, there's a lot of ownership of their faith. As a young adult, even a young Jacob (04:36.369) Okay. Tyler Johnson (04:47.052) volunteer. I do believe someone is supposed to have a Paul and a Timothy at all times, even into their older years. But there's a lot of times that that those 20 somethings, they are still looking very heavily towards their Paul. And so with the the 40s, I would say arguably older ministry volunteers is probably 50 up. They they have experienced that mentorship role and are more willing to be the Paul than needing to be the Timothy. Done. Nick Clason (05:18.782) Fantastic, strong work. Jacob, the bar has been set, my friend. He brought in the Bible and everything, so it's now time for you. Jacob (05:19.344) There you go. That was good. Jacob (05:25.413) Here we go. Tyler Johnson (05:28.446) shoot, I should have used the Bible. Nick Clason (05:33.5) It's that time for you to argue your side of the aisle, though you guys are friends. You once were friends. Will you still be friends after this, Jacob? Two minutes on the clock. Take it away. Jacob (05:35.44) Here we go. Jacob (05:45.85) Go for it. Yeah, so I want to clarify before I offend anybody that's 35 or older, that I'm 29, so 30 and above is still in the older mark for me. But I think there's something that younger volunteers provide that can't be replicated anywhere else. And that first thing mainly is just proximity. Proximity to culture, life stage, proximity to what students are actually experiencing right now. You know, they remember what it was like to sit in the cafeteria awkward wondering about what they're going to do with their lives. Not 25 years ago with a completely different generation, but just a couple years ago. I think the other thing that it provides is you get you get volunteers. Students look to those younger volunteers and they see a hope, not just a hope that's like, man, 45, 50 years from now, this is where I can be. But there's a hope of OK, faith can actually survive past high school like. faith can actually thrive in a college setting because I'm seeing college-age young adult students or young adult leaders actually engaging and figuring it out. And they don't have all of the answers completely. But I also think that that provides a comfortability of freedom to the students that go like, hey, it's okay if I'm not hitting college-age and I have all of the answers because they're still trying to figure out what they're gonna do. And that's okay, it's a process. And they can kind of have hope in that. And then the younger leaders can speak into that a little bit for them and give them a sense of, going be okay, you've got time to process some of these things and they can do that together. I think the other thing is that it builds a leadership pipeline. know, for all the pros that Tyler's talking about, for the older volunteers, you don't get there without some of the without starting at some point. And so you got to start as a young leader, use the skills that you have at the time and then work your way up to a place where you can be a a Paul instead of just a Timothy. But also remember that Tyler Johnson (07:31.562) you Jacob (07:34.745) Paul called Timothy when he was super young into a step of ministry. It wasn't that, let's get you to a certain age, but it was right there in that moment. Done. Nick Clason (07:45.086) Great. So each person, each member of the defense, I don't know, this isn't court, has presented their side. Does anyone have a clarifying question for the other person to try and understand their side of the argument maybe a little bit better? Tyler Johnson (07:56.747) you Jacob (08:10.063) Yeah, I'll go. Clarify a little bit on the emotional stability of older volunteers. I'm not saying I disagree. I just want to hear the specific strength that comes from as an older volunteer, because I think it's possible the younger volunteers can be in a place where they're emotionally stable. But maybe I'm missing the angle that you're coming from. Tyler Johnson (08:21.194) Yeah, I think that older volunteers can react less dramatically to maybe sometimes it's student behavior or something like that, as well as even when there are storms in their personal life, I think you'll see someone who's Jacob (08:40.374) Here you go. Jacob (08:46.447) Yeah, that's Tyler Johnson (08:50.249) keep a more calm sense in them more than when the storms of life are hitting a young person. Nick Clason (09:00.648) Tyler, you got one for Jacob? Tyler Johnson (09:02.845) I'm gonna come up with one, but I really liked Jacob's take. No, no, no, no, no, I didn't admit guilty, I'm just saying, it was a good point. Talk to me some about, obviously with the older crowd, took the stance of there's some high reliability. Nick Clason (09:05.608) Yeah. Jacob (09:10.84) Did he just admit on here that I won or we live over? Nick Clason (09:16.126) Ahem. Tyler Johnson (09:29.917) Talk to me about the lows of reliability in young people and if that has been an experience that you've experienced. Jacob (09:36.093) I mean 100 % although I would also argue that I've that I've worked with older volunteers who are sometimes just as as unreliable as as younger volunteers and so it's a little bit of a balance I think One of the things that all that I'll say and I'll push a little bit on the younger volunteers compared to older volunteers if I'm doing a and I'm hoping that all of us are in agreement that this is a horrible idea if I'm doing an overnight event right, I'm getting the young guys who can pound two red bulls and eat Taco Bell and go run with the kids then get the older volunteers to go, hey, I need you to go run around for a whole night and interact. And so there's a little bit of an energy there that they can provide. And I totally agree. think there's the emotional stability thing is super important. I do agree. think older volunteers are a lot more calm, especially in situations where like we need calmness and direction in terms of crisis, both in our lives and then also just in the craziness of Wednesday nights, we need a little bit of calm. Nick Clason (10:05.866) Yeah. Tyler Johnson (10:29.225) you Jacob (10:30.03) But I think at some point you're not going to be able to, they're not going to be able to learn that, the young leaders, unless they're in it first and see the older people do it. And so they have to experience that so that way they can also learn how to get there. Tyler Johnson (10:41.503) I do, so what's really fun is talking about the overnight, right? Because we've all been there. Sometimes it's not about just the evening, it's about the recovery. I've known some young people who pounded those two Red Bulls and then afterwards, like the next day, they are a frail Victorian child on their couch. Jacob (10:45.549) Yeah. Jacob (10:53.095) Yeah, that's right. Jacob (11:03.021) True. Tyler Johnson (11:03.857) And some older people who are like, I got my coffee and I'm going to work today. And I'm like, you're insane. Jacob (11:11.511) Fair enough. Nick Clason (11:12.522) Well, and younger people have like sometimes their life lends itself better for recovery. They're like, I will be sleeping all day Saturday and it doesn't matter. And older people are like, I have a family and we have an upward basketball game that we have to be at at 9 a.m. You know what I'm saying? And so there's definitely like there's some of the availability piece of maybe like a younger person, but there's maybe some of the wisdom piece of the older person. Tyler Johnson (11:30.407) Absolutely. Nick Clason (11:41.726) Which is probably why this is a terrible argument to have a either or stance on, right? Like that's probably why it's helpful and beneficial to have a good blend of both, right? And so that doesn't make for a strong YouTube title, but it does make probably for good youth ministry to have a good blend of older volunteers and younger volunteers because you can certainly see the pros of both sides. And let's be honest, you can also see the cons. Jacob (11:48.783) Yeah. Jacob (12:05.888) For sure. Nick Clason (12:11.89) of both stances of the argument. Tyler Johnson (12:14.44) Yeah, and to be honest, I figured that was the point anyway, right, is to have the balance. even for the older people, the idea is not they are not just mentoring the students, they're mentoring the younger leaders. There's so much wrapped up. Jacob said it, there's a pipeline. You don't get to be the older volunteer without at one point probably being also the younger volunteer. And realistically, as the younger volunteer, as I was a younger volunteer, Jacob (12:16.813) Yeah. Nick Clason (12:18.023) You Nick Clason (12:27.114) Hmm. Nick Clason (12:39.241) Yeah. Tyler Johnson (12:44.155) There were volunteers that I looked up to that said, man, I want to do discipleship that way. want to do, man, I want to have their presence when my life looks like their life. Jacob (12:44.301) Sounds like I'm I'm winning now this thing Nick Clason (12:54.652) I was gonna say objection to the pipeline because like what's the point of a pipeline? You don't actually want them past 30. So like just burn them out bro and then. Tyler Johnson (13:03.848) Are you? I'm sorry, Mr. Host, are you taking a stance? I don't feel good about this. Nick Clason (13:07.816) No, I was just, I was just. I was just playing a counterpoint. All right. Jacob (13:15.353) You Nick Clason (13:18.014) Final arguments, are we ready? So I believe since Jacob went first on the last one, Tyler, is that right? Jacob (13:24.204) That's right. Tyler Johnson (13:30.001) I went first on the last one. Nick Clason (13:31.484) since Tyler went first on the last one by random draw that you'll have to trust. Yeah, I'm pastor. Jacob, one minute on the clock to defend your younglings. Are you ready? All right, take it away. Tyler Johnson (13:37.148) You're a pastor. Jacob (13:45.366) Yeah, I'm ready. Yeah, think, yeah, close that out. I think it's also like you see the students that get to see the younger leaders engage, that gives them a hopeful passion and you can plug those guys in when they graduate into your middle school programming, right? And then that's where they can learn even more. And so it's not just you have these students from... It would be great. It would be a great world to live in if they if every single one of them came in in sixth grade and stayed until senior year, right? But we know that that some of them come in in their in their senior year or junior year or anywhere in that spectrum and you think well only have a certain amount of time right? Well these younger leaders can pour into these people and help them figure out their gifts. So maybe it's being called into ministry. Maybe it's being called into something else or jumping into serving in student ministry to see where they feel like where their spiritual gifts are right? And those can happen at a young age rather than going well I'll just figure it out when I'm 30 and go from there. Tyler Johnson (14:44.966) Thank you. Nick Clason (14:45.256) All right, well done. Let's round it out, Mr. Tyler. Older people are better than younger people as youth ministry volunteers because... Tyler Johnson (14:51.174) I'm ready. Tyler Johnson (14:57.201) The last point I want to make for older volunteers is the vision casting as well as the decisions they make are generational. There are times that think with younger people they planned sometimes as little as like they're ready for next summer, they're ready for the next summer conference, they're ready for the next big event. When a lot of the decisions in ministry that is done from some of the older volunteers is they are thinking the long term, they are thinking about the students when they're getting to their late 30s, 40s, 50s, and how they can pour into them. They have that vision of the five-year plan and not the one-year plan. And I have found that incredibly valuable, especially when establishing a ministry for even me to go to them and have those long-term vision casting conversations about the ministry. Done. Nick Clason (15:53.61) Well done, there you have it folks. Old volunteers versus young volunteers. Let us know down below who won and whose side you're on. We should probably put like an old person emoji for one person and a child emoji. Yeah, yeah, then you, yeah. Jacob (16:08.121) And then put me Tyler Johnson (16:09.657) I just assumed that there was a filter you're gonna do in post that like I'm 90 right now. Nick Clason (16:17.13) Oh, I'm good, but I might not be that good, I mean. Yeah. Tyler Johnson (16:21.336) Okay, I'm just like, well, one, I kind of wanted to see it. I wanted to see like the really greys, like my grandfather had a very good head of hair even in his 90s. So like, I'm hoping that sticks. Yeah. Jacob (16:24.142) You Jacob (16:32.978) That sounds nice, that sounds really nice, Nick Clason (16:34.154) Way to rub salt in the wounds there, Jacob (16:39.946) That's right. youth ministry, youth pastor, youth group leadership, small group leaders, youth ministry leadership, youth pastor training, youth ministry strategy, small group ministry, youth group small groups, youth ministry tips, youth ministry leadership training, youth discipleship, youth ministry structure, small group leader training, youth ministry debate, youth pastor discussion, youth ministry philosophy, student ministry leadership, youth group leaders, church youth ministry, youth ministry best practices, student ministry small groups, nick clason, hybrid ministry Volunteer Leaders are so crucial to a healthy youth ministry.
But as you recruit, should you focus more on older leaders?
Or younger leaders?

In this debate style episode we have two leaders make their case on both sides of the aisle!
Let's dive in, together!

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SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/195

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We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!
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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Do older or younger leaders connect better with students?
01:32 Meet the Older Leaders vs Younger Leader Debate Contestants
04:38 Older People are Better Youth Ministry Volunteers
07:09 Younger People are Better Youth Ministry Volunteers
09:43 Can you clarify the emotional stability for older volunteers?
10:52 How should a busy youth pastor respond to social media?
12:54 Do younger people ever prove to be less reliable?
17:08 Closing Arguments

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:01.062)
What's up everybody? Here we are. I am with Jacob and Tyler. Gentlemen, how we doing this morning?

Jacob (00:07.712)
Doing good. It's good.

Tyler Johnson (00:08.579)
Doing so good.

Nick Clason (00:09.93)
Have we both already had coffee or is that after this is over?

Jacob (00:15.057)
I just finished my cup, so I'm all set.

Nick Clason (00:17.18)
Okay.

Tyler Johnson (00:17.454)
I had tea because I'm a tea guy.

Nick Clason (00:19.708)
Hey, there you go. Who knew? The more you know. Comment down below your favorite brand of tea for Tyler. But we're going to let each of you have a moment. I don't want to get too far into this without you guys letting us know who you are. So by random draw that happened off camera and you're just going to have to trust me because I'm a pastor and I get paid to tell the truth. Jacob, you get to go first and introduce yourself one minute on the clock. Are you ready, sir?

Jacob (00:19.826)
Yeah.

Jacob (00:48.273)
Yeah, yeah, I can do a lot in a minute, let's do it. All right, yeah, my name is Jacob Hayes. I'm a student pastor for the chapel in Wisconsin. So I work with our three campuses in Wisconsin and our main campuses in Whitewater, which is UW College Town. So I get a lot of college students and it's fun to work with them. And yeah, it's just been great. See, I did it in under a minute.

Nick Clason (00:50.218)
All right, let's go.

Tyler Johnson (01:08.02)
you

Nick Clason (01:11.85)
19 seconds what a right I don't think any youth pastor has ever come in that short on their time, but my friend Impressive stuff right there Tyler the bars been set bro

Jacob (01:19.858)
There you go.

Nick Clason (01:27.56)
Alright, are you ready Tyler? Let's go!

Tyler Johnson (01:28.974)
I'm so ready. I will take more than 19 seconds because I read that in debate it matters to take your full time. So my name is Tyler 2 Wall Johnson. The rest of that context doesn't need to be known because I don't think I can tell it in the remaining 40 seconds that I have. I am currently in Fort Wayne at Christ Hope Ministries and Church.

I have only been here for about a year. was at my previous church for about eight years and I have had a fair balance of both young and old volunteers in the ministries. And so as I come today, ready to bear the fight and the voice of the older people, as there was another person in our retreat that the three of us had had recently who strives to be an older person.

Jacob (01:54.899)
Okay. Okay.

Tyler Johnson (02:20.556)
I cannot wait and so I am ready to defend the old today. Done.

Nick Clason (02:27.41)
Nice, great work. wait, I got distracted. There we go. I almost didn't give you credit for that because I laid the remote down.

Tyler Johnson (02:37.101)
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, let it be known that it was about 56 seconds.

Nick Clason (02:40.714)
Strong work, man, both of you strong work. All right, well, now that we thoroughly know everything and we know the bare minimum of Jacob's life, let's get this show on the road. So once again, by random draw, Jacob, since you went first on the last one, that means Tyler, your position that you're getting two minutes to argue is that older people are better youth ministry volunteers.

Jacob (02:51.398)
Okay. Okay.

Nick Clason (03:10.282)
and you're about to have two minutes on the clock. Are you ready?

Jacob (03:11.346)
Okay. Okay.

Tyler Johnson (03:14.54)
I will take one minute and 59 seconds.

Nick Clason (03:16.99)
Alright, well then my friend, take it away.

Tyler Johnson (03:20.522)
Yes, I am here to debate that for older volunteers, here's number one. They bring long-term faithfulness and not just energy. They model a future version of faith. They're often more emotionally stable. I do say that as a once young person, kind of middle-aged. What is 30? Am I young middle-aged or am I old young? I don't know. That's for later. I'm in my debate time.

Jacob (03:42.345)
. Thank

Tyler Johnson (03:50.955)
Here's one of the probably the biggest that I have seen more personally outside of just reading from my notes and it's this. There is more ownership with the maturity, not just ownership of the ministry, but there's ownership of the tasks that they have. Not only do they see the ministry as their own or maybe their small group as their own and the ability to without asking permission or even sometimes without asking how.

Nick Clason (04:01.514)
Hmm.

Jacob (04:13.129)
.

Tyler Johnson (04:18.508)
They're going to go in and say, like, you know, they're going to grab the lunches. They're going to grab the coffees. I don't have to hold their hand for some of that. At the same time in ministry, if they are teaching a lesson, if they are preparing small group questions, it is theirs. They want to own it. And they might want feedback over some of that, but they're going to have ownership of it. In the same way, finally, there's a lot of ownership of their faith. As a young adult, even a young

Jacob (04:36.369)
Okay.

Tyler Johnson (04:47.052)
volunteer. I do believe someone is supposed to have a Paul and a Timothy at all times, even into their older years. But there's a lot of times that that those 20 somethings, they are still looking very heavily towards their Paul. And so with the the 40s, I would say arguably older ministry volunteers is probably 50 up. They they have experienced that mentorship role and are more willing to be the Paul than needing to be the Timothy. Done.

Nick Clason (05:18.782)
Fantastic, strong work. Jacob, the bar has been set, my friend. He brought in the Bible and everything, so it's now time for you.

Jacob (05:19.344)
There you go. That was good.

Jacob (05:25.413)
Here we go.

Tyler Johnson (05:28.446)
shoot, I should have used the Bible.

Nick Clason (05:33.5)
It's that time for you to argue your side of the aisle, though you guys are friends. You once were friends. Will you still be friends after this, Jacob? Two minutes on the clock. Take it away.

Jacob (05:35.44)
Here we go.

Jacob (05:45.85)
Go for it. Yeah, so I want to clarify before I offend anybody that's 35 or older, that I'm 29, so 30 and above is still in the older mark for me. But I think there's something that younger volunteers provide that can't be replicated anywhere else. And that first thing mainly is just proximity. Proximity to culture, life stage, proximity to what students are actually experiencing right now.

You know, they remember what it was like to sit in the cafeteria awkward wondering about what they're going to do with their lives. Not 25 years ago with a completely different generation, but just a couple years ago. I think the other thing that it provides is you get you get volunteers. Students look to those younger volunteers and they see a hope, not just a hope that's like, man, 45, 50 years from now, this is where I can be. But there's a hope of OK, faith can actually survive past high school like.

faith can actually thrive in a college setting because I'm seeing college-age young adult students or young adult leaders actually engaging and figuring it out. And they don't have all of the answers completely. But I also think that that provides a comfortability of freedom to the students that go like, hey, it's okay if I'm not hitting college-age and I have all of the answers because they're still trying to figure out what they're gonna do. And that's okay, it's a process. And they can kind of have hope in that. And then the younger leaders can speak into that a little bit for them and give them a sense of,

going be okay, you've got time to process some of these things and they can do that together. I think the other thing is that it builds a leadership pipeline. know, for all the pros that Tyler's talking about, for the older volunteers, you don't get there without some of the without starting at some point. And so you got to start as a young leader, use the skills that you have at the time and then work your way up to a place where you can be a a Paul instead of just a Timothy. But also remember that

Tyler Johnson (07:31.562)
you

Jacob (07:34.745)
Paul called Timothy when he was super young into a step of ministry. It wasn't that, let's get you to a certain age, but it was right there in that moment. Done.

Nick Clason (07:45.086)
Great. So each person, each member of the defense, I don't know, this isn't court, has presented their side. Does anyone have a clarifying question for the other person to try and understand their side of the argument maybe a little bit better?

Tyler Johnson (07:56.747)
you

Jacob (08:10.063)
Yeah, I'll go. Clarify a little bit on the emotional stability of older volunteers. I'm not saying I disagree. I just want to hear the specific strength that comes from as an older volunteer, because I think it's possible the younger volunteers can be in a place where they're emotionally stable. But maybe I'm missing the angle that you're coming from.

Tyler Johnson (08:21.194)
Yeah, I think that older volunteers can react less dramatically to maybe sometimes it's student behavior or something like that, as well as even when there are storms in their personal life, I think you'll see someone who's

Jacob (08:40.374)
Here you go.

Jacob (08:46.447)
Yeah, that's

Tyler Johnson (08:50.249)
keep a more calm sense in them more than when the storms of life are hitting a young person.

Nick Clason (09:00.648)
Tyler, you got one for Jacob?

Tyler Johnson (09:02.845)
I'm gonna come up with one, but I really liked Jacob's take. No, no, no, no, no, I didn't admit guilty, I'm just saying, it was a good point. Talk to me some about, obviously with the older crowd, took the stance of there's some high reliability.

Nick Clason (09:05.608)
Yeah.

Jacob (09:10.84)
Did he just admit on here that I won or we live over?

Nick Clason (09:16.126)
Ahem.

Tyler Johnson (09:29.917)
Talk to me about the lows of reliability in young people and if that has been an experience that you've experienced.

Jacob (09:36.093)
I mean 100 % although I would also argue that I've that I've worked with older volunteers who are sometimes just as as unreliable as as younger volunteers and so it's a little bit of a balance I think One of the things that all that I'll say and I'll push a little bit on the younger volunteers compared to older volunteers if I'm doing a and I'm hoping that all of us are in agreement that this is a horrible idea if I'm doing an overnight event right, I'm getting the young guys who can

pound two red bulls and eat Taco Bell and go run with the kids then get the older volunteers to go, hey, I need you to go run around for a whole night and interact. And so there's a little bit of an energy there that they can provide. And I totally agree. think there's the emotional stability thing is super important. I do agree. think older volunteers are a lot more calm, especially in situations where like we need calmness and direction in terms of crisis, both in our lives and then also just in the craziness of Wednesday nights, we need a little bit of calm.

Nick Clason (10:05.866)
Yeah.

Tyler Johnson (10:29.225)
you

Jacob (10:30.03)
But I think at some point you're not going to be able to, they're not going to be able to learn that, the young leaders, unless they're in it first and see the older people do it. And so they have to experience that so that way they can also learn how to get there.

Tyler Johnson (10:41.503)
I do, so what's really fun is talking about the overnight, right? Because we've all been there. Sometimes it's not about just the evening, it's about the recovery. I've known some young people who pounded those two Red Bulls and then afterwards, like the next day, they are a frail Victorian child on their couch.

Jacob (10:45.549)
Yeah.

Jacob (10:53.095)
Yeah, that's right.

Jacob (11:03.021)
True.

Tyler Johnson (11:03.857)
And some older people who are like, I got my coffee and I'm going to work today. And I'm like, you're insane.

Jacob (11:11.511)
Fair enough.

Nick Clason (11:12.522)
Well, and younger people have like sometimes their life lends itself better for recovery. They're like, I will be sleeping all day Saturday and it doesn't matter. And older people are like, I have a family and we have an upward basketball game that we have to be at at 9 a.m. You know what I'm saying? And so there's definitely like there's some of the availability piece of maybe like a younger person, but there's maybe some of the wisdom piece of the older person.

Tyler Johnson (11:30.407)
Absolutely.

Nick Clason (11:41.726)
Which is probably why this is a terrible argument to have a either or stance on, right? Like that's probably why it's helpful and beneficial to have a good blend of both, right? And so that doesn't make for a strong YouTube title, but it does make probably for good youth ministry to have a good blend of older volunteers and younger volunteers because you can certainly see the pros of both sides. And let's be honest, you can also see the cons.

Jacob (11:48.783)
Yeah.

Jacob (12:05.888)
For sure.

Nick Clason (12:11.89)
of both stances of the argument.

Tyler Johnson (12:14.44)
Yeah, and to be honest, I figured that was the point anyway, right, is to have the balance. even for the older people, the idea is not they are not just mentoring the students, they're mentoring the younger leaders. There's so much wrapped up. Jacob said it, there's a pipeline. You don't get to be the older volunteer without at one point probably being also the younger volunteer. And realistically, as the younger volunteer, as I was a younger volunteer,

Jacob (12:16.813)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (12:18.023)
You

Nick Clason (12:27.114)
Hmm.

Nick Clason (12:39.241)
Yeah.

Tyler Johnson (12:44.155)
There were volunteers that I looked up to that said, man, I want to do discipleship that way. want to do, man, I want to have their presence when my life looks like their life.

Jacob (12:44.301)
Sounds like I'm I'm winning now this thing

Nick Clason (12:54.652)
I was gonna say objection to the pipeline because like what's the point of a pipeline? You don't actually want them past 30. So like just burn them out bro and then.

Tyler Johnson (13:03.848)
Are you? I'm sorry, Mr. Host, are you taking a stance? I don't feel good about this.

Nick Clason (13:07.816)
No, I was just, I was just.

I was just playing a counterpoint. All right.

Jacob (13:15.353)
You

Nick Clason (13:18.014)
Final arguments, are we ready? So I believe since Jacob went first on the last one, Tyler, is that right?

Jacob (13:24.204)
That's right.

Tyler Johnson (13:30.001)
I went first on the last one.

Nick Clason (13:31.484)
since Tyler went first on the last one by random draw that you'll have to trust. Yeah, I'm pastor. Jacob, one minute on the clock to defend your younglings. Are you ready? All right, take it away.

Tyler Johnson (13:37.148)
You're a pastor.

Jacob (13:45.366)
Yeah, I'm ready.

Yeah, think, yeah, close that out. I think it's also like you see the students that get to see the younger leaders engage, that gives them a hopeful passion and you can plug those guys in when they graduate into your middle school programming, right? And then that's where they can learn even more. And so it's not just you have these students from...

It would be great. It would be a great world to live in if they if every single one of them came in in sixth grade and stayed until senior year, right? But we know that that some of them come in in their in their senior year or junior year or anywhere in that spectrum and you think well only have a certain amount of time right? Well these younger leaders can pour into these people and help them figure out their gifts. So maybe it's being called into ministry. Maybe it's being called into something else or jumping into serving in student ministry to see where they feel like where their spiritual gifts are right? And those can happen at a young age rather than going well I'll just figure it out when I'm 30 and go from there.

Tyler Johnson (14:44.966)
Thank you.

Nick Clason (14:45.256)
All right, well done. Let's round it out, Mr. Tyler. Older people are better than younger people as youth ministry volunteers because...

Tyler Johnson (14:51.174)
I'm ready.

Tyler Johnson (14:57.201)
The last point I want to make for older volunteers is the vision casting as well as the decisions they make are generational. There are times that think with younger people they planned sometimes as little as like they're ready for next summer, they're ready for the next summer conference, they're ready for the next big event. When a lot of the decisions in ministry that is done from some of the older volunteers is they are thinking the long term, they are thinking about the students when they're getting to their

late 30s, 40s, 50s, and how they can pour into them. They have that vision of the five-year plan and not the one-year plan. And I have found that incredibly valuable, especially when establishing a ministry for even me to go to them and have those long-term vision casting conversations about the ministry. Done.

Nick Clason (15:53.61)
Well done, there you have it folks. Old volunteers versus young volunteers. Let us know down below who won and whose side you're on. We should probably put like an old person emoji for one person and a child emoji. Yeah, yeah, then you, yeah.

Jacob (16:08.121)
And then put me

Tyler Johnson (16:09.657)
I just assumed that there was a filter you're gonna do in post that like I'm 90 right now.

Nick Clason (16:17.13)
Oh, I'm good, but I might not be that good, I mean. Yeah.

Tyler Johnson (16:21.336)
Okay, I'm just like, well, one, I kind of wanted to see it. I wanted to see like the really greys, like my grandfather had a very good head of hair even in his 90s. So like, I'm hoping that sticks. Yeah.

Jacob (16:24.142)
You

Jacob (16:32.978)
That sounds nice, that sounds really nice,

Nick Clason (16:34.154)
Way to rub salt in the wounds there,

Jacob (16:39.946)
That's right.

]]> Volunteer Leaders are so crucial to a healthy youth ministry.
But as you recruit, should you focus more on older leaders?
Or younger leaders?

In this debate style episode we have two leaders make their case on both sides of the aisle!
Let's dive in, together!

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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Do older or younger leaders connect better with students?
01:32 Meet the Older Leaders vs Younger Leader Debate Contestants
04:38 Older People are Better Youth Ministry Volunteers
07:09 Younger People are Better Youth Ministry Volunteers
09:43 Can you clarify the emotional stability for older volunteers?
10:52 How should a busy youth pastor respond to social media?
12:54 Do younger people ever prove to be less reliable?
17:08 Closing Arguments

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:01.062)
What's up everybody? Here we are. I am with Jacob and Tyler. Gentlemen, how we doing this morning?

Jacob (00:07.712)
Doing good. It's good.

Tyler Johnson (00:08.579)
Doing so good.

Nick Clason (00:09.93)
Have we both already had coffee or is that after this is over?

Jacob (00:15.057)
I just finished my cup, so I'm all set.

Nick Clason (00:17.18)
Okay.

Tyler Johnson (00:17.454)
I had tea because I'm a tea guy.

Nick Clason (00:19.708)
Hey, there you go. Who knew? The more you know. Comment down below your favorite brand of tea for Tyler. But we're going to let each of you have a moment. I don't want to get too far into this without you guys letting us know who you are. So by random draw that happened off camera and you're just going to have to trust me because I'm a pastor and I get paid to tell the truth. Jacob, you get to go first and introduce yourself one minute on the clock. Are you ready, sir?

Jacob (00:19.826)
Yeah.

Jacob (00:48.273)
Yeah, yeah, I can do a lot in a minute, let's do it. All right, yeah, my name is Jacob Hayes. I'm a student pastor for the chapel in Wisconsin. So I work with our three campuses in Wisconsin and our main campuses in Whitewater, which is UW College Town. So I get a lot of college students and it's fun to work with them. And yeah, it's just been great. See, I did it in under a minute.

Nick Clason (00:50.218)
All right, let's go.

Tyler Johnson (01:08.02)
you

Nick Clason (01:11.85)
19 seconds what a right I don't think any youth pastor has ever come in that short on their time, but my friend Impressive stuff right there Tyler the bars been set bro

Jacob (01:19.858)
There you go.

Nick Clason (01:27.56)
Alright, are you ready Tyler? Let's go!

Tyler Johnson (01:28.974)
I'm so ready. I will take more than 19 seconds because I read that in debate it matters to take your full time. So my name is Tyler 2 Wall Johnson. The rest of that context doesn't need to be known because I don't think I can tell it in the remaining 40 seconds that I have. I am currently in Fort Wayne at Christ Hope Ministries and Church.

I have only been here for about a year. was at my previous church for about eight years and I have had a fair balance of both young and old volunteers in the ministries. And so as I come today, ready to bear the fight and the voice of the older people, as there was another person in our retreat that the three of us had had recently who strives to be an older person.

Jacob (01:54.899)
Okay. Okay.

Tyler Johnson (02:20.556)
I cannot wait and so I am ready to defend the old today. Done.

Nick Clason (02:27.41)
Nice, great work. wait, I got distracted. There we go. I almost didn't give you credit for that because I laid the remote down.

Tyler Johnson (02:37.101)
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, let it be known that it was about 56 seconds.

Nick Clason (02:40.714)
Strong work, man, both of you strong work. All right, well, now that we thoroughly know everything and we know the bare minimum of Jacob's life, let's get this show on the road. So once again, by random draw, Jacob, since you went first on the last one, that means Tyler, your position that you're getting two minutes to argue is that older people are better youth ministry volunteers.

Jacob (02:51.398)
Okay. Okay.

Nick Clason (03:10.282)
and you're about to have two minutes on the clock. Are you ready?

Jacob (03:11.346)
Okay. Okay.

Tyler Johnson (03:14.54)
I will take one minute and 59 seconds.

Nick Clason (03:16.99)
Alright, well then my friend, take it away.

Tyler Johnson (03:20.522)
Yes, I am here to debate that for older volunteers, here's number one. They bring long-term faithfulness and not just energy. They model a future version of faith. They're often more emotionally stable. I do say that as a once young person, kind of middle-aged. What is 30? Am I young middle-aged or am I old young? I don't know. That's for later. I'm in my debate time.

Jacob (03:42.345)
. Thank

Tyler Johnson (03:50.955)
Here's one of the probably the biggest that I have seen more personally outside of just reading from my notes and it's this. There is more ownership with the maturity, not just ownership of the ministry, but there's ownership of the tasks that they have. Not only do they see the ministry as their own or maybe their small group as their own and the ability to without asking permission or even sometimes without asking how.

Nick Clason (04:01.514)
Hmm.

Jacob (04:13.129)
.

Tyler Johnson (04:18.508)
They're going to go in and say, like, you know, they're going to grab the lunches. They're going to grab the coffees. I don't have to hold their hand for some of that. At the same time in ministry, if they are teaching a lesson, if they are preparing small group questions, it is theirs. They want to own it. And they might want feedback over some of that, but they're going to have ownership of it. In the same way, finally, there's a lot of ownership of their faith. As a young adult, even a young

Jacob (04:36.369)
Okay.

Tyler Johnson (04:47.052)
volunteer. I do believe someone is supposed to have a Paul and a Timothy at all times, even into their older years. But there's a lot of times that that those 20 somethings, they are still looking very heavily towards their Paul. And so with the the 40s, I would say arguably older ministry volunteers is probably 50 up. They they have experienced that mentorship role and are more willing to be the Paul than needing to be the Timothy. Done.

Nick Clason (05:18.782)
Fantastic, strong work. Jacob, the bar has been set, my friend. He brought in the Bible and everything, so it's now time for you.

Jacob (05:19.344)
There you go. That was good.

Jacob (05:25.413)
Here we go.

Tyler Johnson (05:28.446)
shoot, I should have used the Bible.

Nick Clason (05:33.5)
It's that time for you to argue your side of the aisle, though you guys are friends. You once were friends. Will you still be friends after this, Jacob? Two minutes on the clock. Take it away.

Jacob (05:35.44)
Here we go.

Jacob (05:45.85)
Go for it. Yeah, so I want to clarify before I offend anybody that's 35 or older, that I'm 29, so 30 and above is still in the older mark for me. But I think there's something that younger volunteers provide that can't be replicated anywhere else. And that first thing mainly is just proximity. Proximity to culture, life stage, proximity to what students are actually experiencing right now.

You know, they remember what it was like to sit in the cafeteria awkward wondering about what they're going to do with their lives. Not 25 years ago with a completely different generation, but just a couple years ago. I think the other thing that it provides is you get you get volunteers. Students look to those younger volunteers and they see a hope, not just a hope that's like, man, 45, 50 years from now, this is where I can be. But there's a hope of OK, faith can actually survive past high school like.

faith can actually thrive in a college setting because I'm seeing college-age young adult students or young adult leaders actually engaging and figuring it out. And they don't have all of the answers completely. But I also think that that provides a comfortability of freedom to the students that go like, hey, it's okay if I'm not hitting college-age and I have all of the answers because they're still trying to figure out what they're gonna do. And that's okay, it's a process. And they can kind of have hope in that. And then the younger leaders can speak into that a little bit for them and give them a sense of,

going be okay, you've got time to process some of these things and they can do that together. I think the other thing is that it builds a leadership pipeline. know, for all the pros that Tyler's talking about, for the older volunteers, you don't get there without some of the without starting at some point. And so you got to start as a young leader, use the skills that you have at the time and then work your way up to a place where you can be a a Paul instead of just a Timothy. But also remember that

Tyler Johnson (07:31.562)
you

Jacob (07:34.745)
Paul called Timothy when he was super young into a step of ministry. It wasn't that, let's get you to a certain age, but it was right there in that moment. Done.

Nick Clason (07:45.086)
Great. So each person, each member of the defense, I don't know, this isn't court, has presented their side. Does anyone have a clarifying question for the other person to try and understand their side of the argument maybe a little bit better?

Tyler Johnson (07:56.747)
you

Jacob (08:10.063)
Yeah, I'll go. Clarify a little bit on the emotional stability of older volunteers. I'm not saying I disagree. I just want to hear the specific strength that comes from as an older volunteer, because I think it's possible the younger volunteers can be in a place where they're emotionally stable. But maybe I'm missing the angle that you're coming from.

Tyler Johnson (08:21.194)
Yeah, I think that older volunteers can react less dramatically to maybe sometimes it's student behavior or something like that, as well as even when there are storms in their personal life, I think you'll see someone who's

Jacob (08:40.374)
Here you go.

Jacob (08:46.447)
Yeah, that's

Tyler Johnson (08:50.249)
keep a more calm sense in them more than when the storms of life are hitting a young person.

Nick Clason (09:00.648)
Tyler, you got one for Jacob?

Tyler Johnson (09:02.845)
I'm gonna come up with one, but I really liked Jacob's take. No, no, no, no, no, I didn't admit guilty, I'm just saying, it was a good point. Talk to me some about, obviously with the older crowd, took the stance of there's some high reliability.

Nick Clason (09:05.608)
Yeah.

Jacob (09:10.84)
Did he just admit on here that I won or we live over?

Nick Clason (09:16.126)
Ahem.

Tyler Johnson (09:29.917)
Talk to me about the lows of reliability in young people and if that has been an experience that you've experienced.

Jacob (09:36.093)
I mean 100 % although I would also argue that I've that I've worked with older volunteers who are sometimes just as as unreliable as as younger volunteers and so it's a little bit of a balance I think One of the things that all that I'll say and I'll push a little bit on the younger volunteers compared to older volunteers if I'm doing a and I'm hoping that all of us are in agreement that this is a horrible idea if I'm doing an overnight event right, I'm getting the young guys who can

pound two red bulls and eat Taco Bell and go run with the kids then get the older volunteers to go, hey, I need you to go run around for a whole night and interact. And so there's a little bit of an energy there that they can provide. And I totally agree. think there's the emotional stability thing is super important. I do agree. think older volunteers are a lot more calm, especially in situations where like we need calmness and direction in terms of crisis, both in our lives and then also just in the craziness of Wednesday nights, we need a little bit of calm.

Nick Clason (10:05.866)
Yeah.

Tyler Johnson (10:29.225)
you

Jacob (10:30.03)
But I think at some point you're not going to be able to, they're not going to be able to learn that, the young leaders, unless they're in it first and see the older people do it. And so they have to experience that so that way they can also learn how to get there.

Tyler Johnson (10:41.503)
I do, so what's really fun is talking about the overnight, right? Because we've all been there. Sometimes it's not about just the evening, it's about the recovery. I've known some young people who pounded those two Red Bulls and then afterwards, like the next day, they are a frail Victorian child on their couch.

Jacob (10:45.549)
Yeah.

Jacob (10:53.095)
Yeah, that's right.

Jacob (11:03.021)
True.

Tyler Johnson (11:03.857)
And some older people who are like, I got my coffee and I'm going to work today. And I'm like, you're insane.

Jacob (11:11.511)
Fair enough.

Nick Clason (11:12.522)
Well, and younger people have like sometimes their life lends itself better for recovery. They're like, I will be sleeping all day Saturday and it doesn't matter. And older people are like, I have a family and we have an upward basketball game that we have to be at at 9 a.m. You know what I'm saying? And so there's definitely like there's some of the availability piece of maybe like a younger person, but there's maybe some of the wisdom piece of the older person.

Tyler Johnson (11:30.407)
Absolutely.

Nick Clason (11:41.726)
Which is probably why this is a terrible argument to have a either or stance on, right? Like that's probably why it's helpful and beneficial to have a good blend of both, right? And so that doesn't make for a strong YouTube title, but it does make probably for good youth ministry to have a good blend of older volunteers and younger volunteers because you can certainly see the pros of both sides. And let's be honest, you can also see the cons.

Jacob (11:48.783)
Yeah.

Jacob (12:05.888)
For sure.

Nick Clason (12:11.89)
of both stances of the argument.

Tyler Johnson (12:14.44)
Yeah, and to be honest, I figured that was the point anyway, right, is to have the balance. even for the older people, the idea is not they are not just mentoring the students, they're mentoring the younger leaders. There's so much wrapped up. Jacob said it, there's a pipeline. You don't get to be the older volunteer without at one point probably being also the younger volunteer. And realistically, as the younger volunteer, as I was a younger volunteer,

Jacob (12:16.813)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (12:18.023)
You

Nick Clason (12:27.114)
Hmm.

Nick Clason (12:39.241)
Yeah.

Tyler Johnson (12:44.155)
There were volunteers that I looked up to that said, man, I want to do discipleship that way. want to do, man, I want to have their presence when my life looks like their life.

Jacob (12:44.301)
Sounds like I'm I'm winning now this thing

Nick Clason (12:54.652)
I was gonna say objection to the pipeline because like what's the point of a pipeline? You don't actually want them past 30. So like just burn them out bro and then.

Tyler Johnson (13:03.848)
Are you? I'm sorry, Mr. Host, are you taking a stance? I don't feel good about this.

Nick Clason (13:07.816)
No, I was just, I was just.

I was just playing a counterpoint. All right.

Jacob (13:15.353)
You

Nick Clason (13:18.014)
Final arguments, are we ready? So I believe since Jacob went first on the last one, Tyler, is that right?

Jacob (13:24.204)
That's right.

Tyler Johnson (13:30.001)
I went first on the last one.

Nick Clason (13:31.484)
since Tyler went first on the last one by random draw that you'll have to trust. Yeah, I'm pastor. Jacob, one minute on the clock to defend your younglings. Are you ready? All right, take it away.

Tyler Johnson (13:37.148)
You're a pastor.

Jacob (13:45.366)
Yeah, I'm ready.

Yeah, think, yeah, close that out. I think it's also like you see the students that get to see the younger leaders engage, that gives them a hopeful passion and you can plug those guys in when they graduate into your middle school programming, right? And then that's where they can learn even more. And so it's not just you have these students from...

It would be great. It would be a great world to live in if they if every single one of them came in in sixth grade and stayed until senior year, right? But we know that that some of them come in in their in their senior year or junior year or anywhere in that spectrum and you think well only have a certain amount of time right? Well these younger leaders can pour into these people and help them figure out their gifts. So maybe it's being called into ministry. Maybe it's being called into something else or jumping into serving in student ministry to see where they feel like where their spiritual gifts are right? And those can happen at a young age rather than going well I'll just figure it out when I'm 30 and go from there.

Tyler Johnson (14:44.966)
Thank you.

Nick Clason (14:45.256)
All right, well done. Let's round it out, Mr. Tyler. Older people are better than younger people as youth ministry volunteers because...

Tyler Johnson (14:51.174)
I'm ready.

Tyler Johnson (14:57.201)
The last point I want to make for older volunteers is the vision casting as well as the decisions they make are generational. There are times that think with younger people they planned sometimes as little as like they're ready for next summer, they're ready for the next summer conference, they're ready for the next big event. When a lot of the decisions in ministry that is done from some of the older volunteers is they are thinking the long term, they are thinking about the students when they're getting to their

late 30s, 40s, 50s, and how they can pour into them. They have that vision of the five-year plan and not the one-year plan. And I have found that incredibly valuable, especially when establishing a ministry for even me to go to them and have those long-term vision casting conversations about the ministry. Done.

Nick Clason (15:53.61)
Well done, there you have it folks. Old volunteers versus young volunteers. Let us know down below who won and whose side you're on. We should probably put like an old person emoji for one person and a child emoji. Yeah, yeah, then you, yeah.

Jacob (16:08.121)
And then put me

Tyler Johnson (16:09.657)
I just assumed that there was a filter you're gonna do in post that like I'm 90 right now.

Nick Clason (16:17.13)
Oh, I'm good, but I might not be that good, I mean. Yeah.

Tyler Johnson (16:21.336)
Okay, I'm just like, well, one, I kind of wanted to see it. I wanted to see like the really greys, like my grandfather had a very good head of hair even in his 90s. So like, I'm hoping that sticks. Yeah.

Jacob (16:24.142)
You

Jacob (16:32.978)
That sounds nice, that sounds really nice,

Nick Clason (16:34.154)
Way to rub salt in the wounds there,

Jacob (16:39.946)
That's right.

]]> Episode 194: Same Small Group Leader for 7 Years vs Changing Every Year https://www.hybridministry.xyz/194 9de57a9c-5534-442d-9342-af632845b958 Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 194 Same Small Group Leader for 7 Years vs Changing Every Year full Nick Clason Small Group Leaders are the life-blood of any good student ministry. But what is our most effective strategy to deploy them? Is it to saddle a great leader with students for their entire careeer? Or is it rather to introduce students to great leaders along their journey? In this first debate style episode we have two amazing youth pastors, on two different sides of the argument, and they're going head to head, and you get to be the voter! 25:44 no Small Group Leaders are the life-blood of any good student ministry. But what is our most effective strategy to deploy them? Is it to saddle a great leader with students for their entire careeer? Or is it rather to introduce students to great leaders along their journey? In this first debate style episode we have two amazing youth pastors, on two different sides of the argument, and they're going head to head, and you get to be the voter! [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link 🌸 SPRING SEASONAL SOCIAL PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/spring-seasonal-151263940?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/194 //LINKS DYM Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/DYMCommunity 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755 //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //HYBRID MINISTRY MEGA GUIDE Everything I've ever learned in one blog post [FOR FREE!] https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-ministry-151264417?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 The Same or Different Small Group Leaders 02:33 Meet Stephen 04:25 Meet Isaac 05:25 Students should keep the same leaders 08:02 Students should change to different leaders 10:08 What if a student doesn’t like their leader? 11:56 What about Social Media? 13:05 How do you discern when to move a student? 16:21 How many leaders in each group? 20:08 The Ultimate Small Group Win 22:28 New Leader Every So Often Closing Statement 23:22 Same Leader Every So Often Closing Statement -------------- TRANSCRIPT Nick Clason (00:00.103) All right, well here we are. I mean, this is about to get really, really like real now because we have two amazing youth pastors with two completely different points of view on what's best for small group student leadership. And so again, by random draw that you'll have to trust because I'm a youth pastor, so I get paid to tell the truth. Isaac was randomly drawn to give his first two minute argument. So. Isaac (00:04.782) Hmm. Stephen Rose (00:12.276) You Nick Clason (00:29.009) We're about to put two minutes on the clock. are you ready? Isaac (00:33.026) Yeah, and just just clarifying because I want to make sure we are talking about leaders walking with students like. Are is it better? Is it better for them to go each year with them or every year? Let's recycle. That's the main question. Nick Clason (00:41.915) during Nick Clason (00:50.235) That's the question at hand. Yeah, I mean, we won't get into like the pizza lock-in, like social media debate. Those are, you know, those are meaningful ones in youth ministry as well, but this one in particular, yes, that's what I'd like you to argue. I hope that you came prepared for that and not like your pro lock-in debate, cause it might not fit. Real quick here at chat GPT, real quick, give me new notes. All right, are we ready? Isaac (00:52.526) Let's go. Isaac (00:58.254) Hmm. Stephen Rose (01:10.656) Thank Isaac (01:11.534) I have to change all my notes right now. Stephen Rose (01:17.876) Thank Isaac (01:18.178) Yeah, yeah, give me new notes. All right, yep, let's go. Nick Clason (01:21.776) Two minutes on the clock, take it away. Isaac (01:24.654) All right, two minutes, here we go. The key word that I'm looking at is discipleship and what does discipleship really look like? And so, and this is something that I've been kind of studying and learning about in my 17 years of youth ministry. And so I've changed and I've morphed, but I keep leaning more towards, man, let's really walk alongside these students. Here's some examples from the Bible. Jesus, he's come down, he's like, let me really pray over who I'm really going to invest in. because he had other people that were interested in following him, but he said, no, I'm really going to invest in these 12. And he did that for three years. And then you have Paul and his relationship with Timothy, and he's being able to say things like, hey, Timothy, your grandmother, and he's naming family members and stuff, which I just don't think that you can do that in a year's time of knowing someone that you really want to get into that. So discipleship really means relationship and knowing. How does someone come in and they're fully known and fully loved? So when you're with them longer, you know the students, you know their parents, you know the deaths that happened in their family, you know what sports they're involved in, you know the injury that set them back a few years prior. And so when they confess this thing, you go, I know the meaning behind that because I've had this relationship with you for a while. I guess my main question that I would ask is why don't we go in and hire a new youth pastor every one year? You want a youth pastor to be there and and longevity breeds just this this trust that's that parents now have and I feel like as a youth pastor I'm trying to equip other leaders to come in and essentially be youth pastors And so I don't want to hire new youth pastors every year because I want that trust and that relationship and that discipleship to happen. And that can only happen over a stretch of time and not hitting the reset button every single year. Nick Clason (03:27.12) Wow, did you rehearse that? Isaac (03:31.49) No. Nick Clason (03:32.39) Strong work, my man. Strong work. Alright, Steven. It's been laid down. Like, the challenge has been issued. Are you ready? Stephen Rose (03:32.788) Thank Stephen Rose (03:42.404) Yes, yes, I'm ready. Nick Clason (03:43.354) All right, and the microphone's working and the internet is streaming and yeah, yeah. All right, sweet. All right, bro, two minutes on the clock for you, Steven. Your side is you think that it's useful for students to have a variety of leaders year in, year out, or every so often. So, my friend, take it away. Stephen Rose (03:46.548) Internet's not crashing out right now. Stephen Rose (04:07.504) Awesome. Yeah, I love what you said about discipleship. Couldn't agree more. And for me, one of the things I think is so important and what we really focus on in my context is helping students own their faith by the time they graduate. And there's been like some studies done where the more, not like infinitely, but the more adults, specifically the number was around five. If you have five good relationships. with adults who are like spiritual mentors or people that you know on at least a relatively deeper level, then you're much more likely to stick with a faith post-graduation. And I would argue that the reason for that is because their faith is hopefully being more grounded in Jesus than a specific leader. And they're rooted in Jesus. He is their firm foundation, not like an awesome leader or the youth pastor or something like that. And so when you move, not necessarily every year, but every so often, you're just more likely to build relationships with more adults. And I view that as a huge win. And so what I like to see is them build relationships, be really intentional in the year or the two years span that they're with that leader, and then really focus on the transition so they can then build a new relationship. with new leaders and the students stay together. So they're able to keep building those long-term relationships where they can grow alongside of each other. But the leaders can shift as far as small group goes. But the long-term relationships still stay the same. Just like a small group leader that I had when I was in eighth grade, I still got to talk to them later in later years and they still knew me and they still could pour into me and disciple me. And so the process can keep happening even though we're still looking towards helping them meet more people and grow closer relationships with more people. Nick Clason (06:13.38) Right on time, my man, both of you. This might be the first time two youth pastors hit their time mark right when they're supposed to. That's crazy. All right, so what we'll do now, guess, I like this. I think we're gonna go to a more open forum, all right? So let's do two minutes, but here's the thing, just so you guys know. Stephen Rose (06:20.041) Hehehehehe Nick Clason (06:40.804) I don't need to include the clock. like if it's good and free flowing, like I'm just not going to interrupt it. Like don't, don't worry about it. I'm just trying to keep things moving and make it not be like a, you know, long and boring episode. so I'll put this on, but why don't you, why don't you guys ask some clarifying questions just like back and forth and just like answer, ask, answer, ask, answer. and then, when, when we feel satisfied with that, we'll, we'll move on to the like closing testimony or whatever, whatever they call it in the courtroom. Stephen Rose (06:51.316) Thank Nick Clason (07:10.758) I don't watch enough court TV. So, does anyone have like a question to start? Like to ask the other person? All right, great. You go first then. Stephen Rose (07:11.092) Sounds good. Isaac (07:12.627) Okay. Stephen Rose (07:19.216) Yeah, yeah I do. Perfect. So Isaac, wonder in your context, if a student doesn't get, like we'll just say student doesn't get along great with a certain leader. What does that look like? Like do you go about that? Isaac (07:40.396) Yeah, man, that's great. Context, I think, matters a lot. So I've worked in a small church, a medium church, and a large church. So let's just talk about the numbers that I have here. It's weird to talk about that in church culture, but that helps context so much. So I have about 160 leaders. And in that, have, for sixth grade boys, we have five sixth grade boy groups. Stephen Rose (07:45.246) I agree. Stephen Rose (07:55.732) for sure. Isaac (08:07.854) And then each one of those groups has four leaders. And so I think that that helps so much for the person watching right now. They're like, well, this might make sense because of this. And the dynamics can shift because for you saying, hey, does a sixth grade boy, if he's if he's not enjoying this, then what? Well, he he can move to another group. He can go to one of the other four options. And that's easy. Now, when I was at a church for six and a half years and it was like Stephen Rose (08:08.049) Mm-hmm. Stephen Rose (08:27.252) Uh-huh. Stephen Rose (08:30.675) Right. Isaac (08:37.59) You have middle school boys, high school boys, middle school girls, high school girls. That's your option. Then it's like, well, what do we do when they don't like that person? And so for us in our context, it makes sense of if there's not someone getting along, there is another option in another group that they can go to. Stephen Rose (08:44.444) Right. I'm Stephen Rose (08:58.772) Sure. and Nick Clason (09:00.39) How do you guys, either of you, discern this is not a good fit and we need to quote unquote rescue the student from the fit? Or this is an opportunity to lean in and disciple the student to push through something more difficult and maybe getting along with their leader is like what God has for them in this season of their spiritual growth. Like how do you discern between those two? Because I feel like Like a parent can come to you like they hate their leader and you want to like solve that so so that the kid doesn't get mad or the family doesn't leave the church or whatever. But I think sometimes it's like, dude, you need to stop being so entitled. You know what I mean? How do you how do know? Stephen Rose (09:43.219) Yeah, that's really good. For me, I tend toward having them stay either way because I don't want for students just to pick a leader based off of, I love this leader. I can't stand that leader, which by the way, my team is awesome. I have awesome leaders, all that. And so it's really a side point. But of course, if there was if it was like coming to an unhealthy place, then I would say I'd be more willing to like figure it out. Especially if it was like a newer student, you know, who maybe isn't even a follower of Jesus yet. And okay, I'm trying to help them get comfortable first, help them feel accepted and have a good experience. And so that'd be a little different if it's someone I've been walking with for a while. And then, hey, it's time for you to grow up and, you know, and be... be mature about this and grow in your maturity. I part of that is definitely not being in your favorite spot at all times. Isaac (10:46.552) Yeah, that's good. I think that, you know, scripture says if at all possible as far as it depends on you, live at peace with with everyone. And if there's some kind of disunity there, obviously that's what the enemy is trying to seek out and bring to light is some kind of disunity. So it's our jobs as the shepherds of that to say, well, what's causing this? And so it should start with a conversation with both student and leader and saying, Nick Clason (10:46.587) Good. Stephen Rose (10:56.372) Mm. Isaac (11:14.926) Why? Why is there a disunity and how can we go towards unity? What's the conversation? Maybe you just need to say some things. Let's get it out on the table. Truth is gonna be great. Let's get it out on the table. But if it becomes a thing where it's like, we're not coming here. My kid doesn't wanna show up. I'm even pro, well, there's also another church in town because... Stephen Rose (11:29.78) Yeah. Isaac (11:42.742) The gospel doesn't just happen at this address. It happens in lot of places in discipleship. And so hopefully I am then connecting with other youth pastors in the area where I can then give a trusted, hey, why don't you go over here to this church? Because this youth pastor is also going to teach the Bible. Discipleship is also happening. But I'm not nervous to, I don't want to say threatened. It's not threatened, but to give, go ahead. If you can't grow here. Ultimately, what we are concerned about for you as a student is your growth. Go grow anywhere. Stephen Rose (12:14.045) Yeah. Nick Clason (12:17.776) Good. Stephen Rose (12:18.238) That's good. Isaac (12:19.83) Steven, got a question for you if I'm allowed to ask. Yeah, because I love what you said about having five good relationships with adults. Yes, man, let's try to, as youth pastors, bring in as many adults and as many leaders as possible in their time of being there. What does it look like in your context for how many leaders do you have in each group? Yeah, what does that look like for you? Stephen Rose (12:21.982) Sure. Nick Clason (12:22.638) Yes, yes, go. Stephen Rose (12:39.718) . Stephen Rose (12:47.234) Yeah, we have two leaders in each group. so, over time, would naturally develop relationships with multiple, I mean, hopefully, in prayerfully, you would develop relationships with your small group leaders in that time. And for us, we're, I guess, the medium church size. And so, Like for high school, for example, we have two high school guys groups, underclassmen and upperclassmen currently. And so you would meet four of the people right then and there. And then hopefully, like even like myself and some other people, because certainly our youth ministry is not the only context which you can have a relationship with an adult. But as far as what we're trying to do, it fits that mold pretty well. Isaac (13:30.51) Sure, yeah. Isaac (13:38.978) Yeah, so when you say upperclassmen leader and, what is it called? Underclassmen? That just sounded weird. Underclassmen? That just sounds underwear. Anyhow, when you have both of the, so the upperclassmen, are you saying then that those two leaders are with them for two years? Stephen Rose (13:46.608) under underclassmen. Stephen Rose (13:58.579) Yes. Isaac (13:59.648) Okay, so it's kind of like a hybrid then of it's not, I'm not thinking every year it's I'm still kind of building this. I'm in this context. So it's still once because for me, I don't even know if I'm pro you should be with them for seven years. I do like the for me, three years of middle school, you get a new high school leader, because there's just a difference between high school and middle school. Stephen Rose (14:16.923) Mm-hmm, right. Nick Clason (14:16.966) Mm-hmm. Stephen Rose (14:22.587) Thank Stephen Rose (14:27.586) Right. Isaac (14:27.84) If there is someone that's committed for seven years, my hope is that they are bringing in dads, moms, and other people to it. Because I think that what you said is key. They need to have five adults in their life or more that where they can say, it's not just one person that believes this. It's not just their characteristics, but that in discipleship, they are inviting others to be a part of it as well. If you're going to do that seven year plan. Yeah. Stephen Rose (14:32.35) Thank you. Stephen Rose (14:37.765) So. Right. Stephen Rose (14:46.388) you Yes. Right. Nick Clason (14:57.05) Yeah, yeah. And I'll just say from a youth pastor logistical standpoint, you get someone to commit for seven years, that's amazing. Are they still committed to loop back down and start a sixth grade group? Going from being a 12th grade leader to a sixth grade leader is tough. And so I've been in situations where they're committed all the way through, but then I'm always having to recruit. Stephen Rose (15:17.416) Hey. Nick Clason (15:24.462) at the entry point because no one wants to loop back down. They feel like they've quote unquote done their time and they want to be involved in student ministry, but then they want to be involved in more of like a consulting role or a coaching role. And it's like, I love that for you, but I really could use a sixth grade leader, my friend. And so that's been, that's been my experience when they loop all the way through as we, we pool all the way down at the end of the quote unquote conveyor belt, if you will. And I got some really great leaders who aren't doing ministry anymore, but if you're doing Stephen Rose (15:30.42) That's how you do it. Okay. Stephen Rose (15:53.716) What am I? You just answered about the full seven years or if it's more of a middle school to high school, because I'm I agree. I'm a little less. Nick Clason (15:54.694) Like if you're like, yo, you're the underclassmen leader and you're just going to be an expert in ninth and 10th grade. Like, and then you'll see every kid's face, hopefully as they, as they loop through. Um, it's just, it's just the way I think about it. Isaac (16:08.684) Yeah, I love that. Steven, did you have any other questions? Stephen Rose (16:23.832) cause I can see there's definitely real positives in doing both ways. And, but the seven years is the one where I really, I don't want to say worry, but for lack of a better word, worry about like a students attaching to a certain leader and, that, is a good thing. but especially if they're, if they're not a part of the church at large, like the whole church body, and they're just attached to youth group and just attached to the leader. I just saw so many examples before I even got in youth ministry. And then those kids, the leader's gone, they're done with youth ministry and they're they're toast. know, they just kind of walk away. And so I guess it was really just on my heart to like, I don't want to see like that happen. And I know there's other intentional ways of working against that too. But that was just really like on my heart. Isaac (17:12.408) Yeah, yeah, I would. Here's I mean, Nick, you kind of set us up. You're like, haha, caught you. You're in a trap coming debate this. And so I'm going to I'm going to, you know, share. The perspective of everyone wins, I guess, because here's what I would rather see if this is a would you rather question of would you rather have one leader who intentionally disciples a student for one year or have a leader that walks alongside? Stephen Rose (17:20.83) But. Isaac (17:41.448) and invest in a student for seven years, I would say give me the one year intentionally disciple. Because so often we recruit leaders that they won't say, I'm just a babysitter. They're not going to say that. We're not going to say that. But if you're like, we're just hanging out, I'm going to their games and they're doing some good things, but they're not intentionally discipling, we're still missing out. And so I would say that the key thing for me is find the leader that's going to disciple. Stephen Rose (17:46.484) Yeah. Isaac (18:09.998) Which means that they are really getting in and saying do you know Jesus? What is he teaching you? Are you opening up the Word of God? Are you praying? Are you building a community around you? Where are you serving? How's your evangelism life? And they're really working out all of these disciplines And it's more than just let me show up to your play Let me high-five and we'll go get coffee together because you can just hang out But you're not just being friends. You're intentionally discipling so Nick Clason (18:25.51) . Stephen Rose (18:30.04) Right. Nick Clason (18:33.03) you Isaac (18:37.986) Give me the one year intentional disciple. Nick Clason (18:38.34) Yeah. Stephen Rose (18:39.572) Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Nick Clason (18:42.166) That's good. That's good for youth pastors. That's good for Like that's good for this whole conversation. Just like having like a well-rounded perspective of it. It's bad for Trying to elicit emotion and you guys like hating each other. So Way to be a Christian way to ruin YouTube, but no, I agree and Isaac (19:03.661) Yeah, yeah. And he's a Cavs fan. Yeah, this is great. We love each other. We're best friends now. Thank you, Nick. Stephen Rose (19:07.704) Hey, I know Nick Clason (19:09.51) Yeah, you're so welcome. Congratulations. Yeah. Well, let's do like your final statement, right? We'll just do a minute on the clock or less. Just give like your final word, kind of like put a bow on it. And then, yeah, then I guess we'll take it from there. So who went first last time? I think it was Isaac, right? So Steven, we'll have you minute on the clock, finalize your argument. You ready? All right, let's go. Stephen Rose (19:36.663) Yep. All right, so I believe that transitioning through different small groups is best for students because they get to build multiple relationships with adults, which helps them own their faith, not just the youth's faith or my faith or their leader's faith, but their faith in Jesus. And so I think it's best to move them through. And then I also, as a side note, I think it can create a spot for leaders to star in their roles where, hey, if I'm always with freshmen girls, then I'm gonna be able to really get good at welcoming them. Or if I'm always with the senior and junior guys, I'm gonna get really good at helping them through this transition as they get older, as their problems change. But they kinda are the same perpetually for new juniors, new seniors. And so they get to start starring in their roles as they get year after year of experience with them. Nick Clason (20:36.282) Nice, good job. All right, Isaac, one minute on the clock. Take it away. Isaac (20:43.66) Awesome. Quantity will produce quality. The more that you're hanging out with someone, the better the conversations. And so getting someone there for a length of time, it's just going to produce the quality that we're looking for. It avoids the six months, like, do I actually know this person? Can I make that inside joke? I accidentally said something about their parents or Stephen Rose (21:07.284) You you Isaac (21:12.498) Whatever all their life story the more opportunity that you have with their story the more that they can feel Fully known fully seen and fully loved which really I think just shows grace more discipleship more and and what Jesus was Really trying to aim for when he said this is what a disciple maker Nick Clason (21:38.15) Nice, strong work, both of you. youth ministry, youth pastor, youth group leadership, small group leaders, youth ministry leadership, youth pastor training, youth ministry strategy, small group ministry, youth group small groups, youth ministry tips, youth ministry leadership training, youth discipleship, youth ministry structure, small group leader training, youth ministry debate, youth pastor discussion, youth ministry philosophy, student ministry leadership, youth group leaders, church youth ministry, youth ministry best practices, student ministry small groups, nick clason, hybrid ministry Small Group Leaders are the life-blood of any good student ministry.

But what is our most effective strategy to deploy them? Is it to saddle a great leader with students for their entire careeer? Or is it rather to introduce students to great leaders along their journey?

In this first debate style episode we have two amazing youth pastors, on two different sides of the argument, and they're going head to head, and you get to be the voter!

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Same or Different Small Group Leaders
02:33 Meet Stephen
04:25 Meet Isaac
05:25 Students should keep the same leaders
08:02 Students should change to different leaders
10:08 What if a student doesn’t like their leader?
11:56 What about Social Media?
13:05 How do you discern when to move a student?
16:21 How many leaders in each group?
20:08 The Ultimate Small Group Win
22:28 New Leader Every So Often Closing Statement
23:22 Same Leader Every So Often Closing Statement

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:00.103)
All right, well here we are. I mean, this is about to get really, really like real now because we have two amazing youth pastors with two completely different points of view on what's best for small group student leadership. And so again, by random draw that you'll have to trust because I'm a youth pastor, so I get paid to tell the truth. Isaac was randomly drawn to give his first two minute argument. So.

Isaac (00:04.782)
Hmm.

Stephen Rose (00:12.276)
You

Nick Clason (00:29.009)
We're about to put two minutes on the clock. are you ready?

Isaac (00:33.026)
Yeah, and just just clarifying because I want to make sure we are talking about leaders walking with students like. Are is it better? Is it better for them to go each year with them or every year? Let's recycle. That's the main question.

Nick Clason (00:41.915)
during

Nick Clason (00:50.235)
That's the question at hand. Yeah, I mean, we won't get into like the pizza lock-in, like social media debate. Those are, you know, those are meaningful ones in youth ministry as well, but this one in particular, yes, that's what I'd like you to argue. I hope that you came prepared for that and not like your pro lock-in debate, cause it might not fit. Real quick here at chat GPT, real quick, give me new notes. All right, are we ready?

Isaac (00:52.526)
Let's go.

Isaac (00:58.254)
Hmm.

Stephen Rose (01:10.656)
Thank

Isaac (01:11.534)
I have to change all my notes right now.

Stephen Rose (01:17.876)
Thank

Isaac (01:18.178)
Yeah, yeah, give me new notes. All right, yep, let's go.

Nick Clason (01:21.776)
Two minutes on the clock, take it away.

Isaac (01:24.654)
All right, two minutes, here we go. The key word that I'm looking at is discipleship and what does discipleship really look like? And so, and this is something that I've been kind of studying and learning about in my 17 years of youth ministry. And so I've changed and I've morphed, but I keep leaning more towards, man, let's really walk alongside these students. Here's some examples from the Bible. Jesus, he's come down, he's like, let me really pray over who I'm really going to invest in.

because he had other people that were interested in following him, but he said, no, I'm really going to invest in these 12. And he did that for three years. And then you have Paul and his relationship with Timothy, and he's being able to say things like, hey, Timothy, your grandmother, and he's naming family members and stuff, which I just don't think that you can do that in a year's time of knowing someone that you really want to get into that. So discipleship really means relationship and knowing.

How does someone come in and they're fully known and fully loved? So when you're with them longer, you know the students, you know their parents, you know the deaths that happened in their family, you know what sports they're involved in, you know the injury that set them back a few years prior. And so when they confess this thing, you go, I know the meaning behind that because I've had this relationship with you for a while.

I guess my main question that I would ask is why don't we go in and hire a new youth pastor every one year? You want a youth pastor to be there and and longevity breeds just this this trust that's that parents now have and I feel like as a youth pastor I'm trying to equip other leaders to come in and essentially be youth pastors And so I don't want to hire new youth pastors every year because I want that trust

and that relationship and that discipleship to happen. And that can only happen over a stretch of time and not hitting the reset button every single year.

Nick Clason (03:27.12)
Wow, did you rehearse that?

Isaac (03:31.49)
No.

Nick Clason (03:32.39)
Strong work, my man. Strong work. Alright, Steven. It's been laid down. Like, the challenge has been issued. Are you ready?

Stephen Rose (03:32.788)
Thank

Stephen Rose (03:42.404)
Yes, yes, I'm ready.

Nick Clason (03:43.354)
All right, and the microphone's working and the internet is streaming and yeah, yeah. All right, sweet. All right, bro, two minutes on the clock for you, Steven. Your side is you think that it's useful for students to have a variety of leaders year in, year out, or every so often. So, my friend, take it away.

Stephen Rose (03:46.548)
Internet's not crashing out right now.

Stephen Rose (04:07.504)
Awesome. Yeah, I love what you said about discipleship. Couldn't agree more. And for me, one of the things I think is so important and what we really focus on in my context is helping students own their faith by the time they graduate. And there's been like some studies done where the more, not like infinitely, but the more adults, specifically the number was around five. If you have five good relationships.

with adults who are like spiritual mentors or people that you know on at least a relatively deeper level, then you're much more likely to stick with a faith post-graduation. And I would argue that the reason for that is because their faith is hopefully being more grounded in Jesus than a specific leader. And they're rooted in Jesus. He is their firm foundation, not like an awesome leader or the youth pastor or something like that.

And so when you move, not necessarily every year, but every so often, you're just more likely to build relationships with more adults. And I view that as a huge win. And so what I like to see is them build relationships, be really intentional in the year or the two years span that they're with that leader, and then really focus on the transition so they can then build a new relationship.

with new leaders and the students stay together. So they're able to keep building those long-term relationships where they can grow alongside of each other. But the leaders can shift as far as small group goes. But the long-term relationships still stay the same. Just like a small group leader that I had when I was in eighth grade, I still got to talk to them later in later years and they still knew me and they still could pour into me and disciple me. And so the process

can keep happening even though we're still looking towards helping them meet more people and grow closer relationships with more people.

Nick Clason (06:13.38)
Right on time, my man, both of you. This might be the first time two youth pastors hit their time mark right when they're supposed to. That's crazy. All right, so what we'll do now, guess, I like this. I think we're gonna go to a more open forum, all right? So let's do two minutes, but here's the thing, just so you guys know.

Stephen Rose (06:20.041)
Hehehehehe

Nick Clason (06:40.804)
I don't need to include the clock. like if it's good and free flowing, like I'm just not going to interrupt it. Like don't, don't worry about it. I'm just trying to keep things moving and make it not be like a, you know, long and boring episode. so I'll put this on, but why don't you, why don't you guys ask some clarifying questions just like back and forth and just like answer, ask, answer, ask, answer. and then, when, when we feel satisfied with that, we'll, we'll move on to the like closing testimony or whatever, whatever they call it in the courtroom.

Stephen Rose (06:51.316)
Thank

Nick Clason (07:10.758)
I don't watch enough court TV. So, does anyone have like a question to start? Like to ask the other person? All right, great. You go first then.

Stephen Rose (07:11.092)
Sounds good.

Isaac (07:12.627)
Okay.

Stephen Rose (07:19.216)
Yeah, yeah I do.

Perfect. So Isaac, wonder in your context, if a student doesn't get, like we'll just say student doesn't get along great with a certain leader. What does that look like? Like do you go about that?

Isaac (07:40.396)
Yeah, man, that's great. Context, I think, matters a lot. So I've worked in a small church, a medium church, and a large church. So let's just talk about the numbers that I have here. It's weird to talk about that in church culture, but that helps context so much. So I have about 160 leaders. And in that, have, for sixth grade boys, we have five sixth grade boy groups.

Stephen Rose (07:45.246)
I agree.

Stephen Rose (07:55.732)
for sure.

Isaac (08:07.854)
And then each one of those groups has four leaders. And so I think that that helps so much for the person watching right now. They're like, well, this might make sense because of this. And the dynamics can shift because for you saying, hey, does a sixth grade boy, if he's if he's not enjoying this, then what? Well, he he can move to another group. He can go to one of the other four options. And that's easy. Now, when I was at a church for six and a half years and it was like

Stephen Rose (08:08.049)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Rose (08:27.252)
Uh-huh.

Stephen Rose (08:30.675)
Right.

Isaac (08:37.59)
You have middle school boys, high school boys, middle school girls, high school girls. That's your option. Then it's like, well, what do we do when they don't like that person? And so for us in our context, it makes sense of if there's not someone getting along, there is another option in another group that they can go to.

Stephen Rose (08:44.444)
Right. I'm

Stephen Rose (08:58.772)
Sure. and

Nick Clason (09:00.39)
How do you guys, either of you, discern this is not a good fit and we need to quote unquote rescue the student from the fit? Or this is an opportunity to lean in and disciple the student to push through something more difficult and maybe getting along with their leader is like what God has for them in this season of their spiritual growth. Like how do you discern between those two? Because I feel like

Like a parent can come to you like they hate their leader and you want to like solve that so so that the kid doesn't get mad or the family doesn't leave the church or whatever. But I think sometimes it's like, dude, you need to stop being so entitled. You know what I mean? How do you how do know?

Stephen Rose (09:43.219)
Yeah, that's really good. For me, I tend toward having them stay either way because I don't want for students just to pick a leader based off of, I love this leader. I can't stand that leader, which by the way, my team is awesome. I have awesome leaders, all that. And so it's really a side point. But of course, if there was

if it was like coming to an unhealthy place, then I would say I'd be more willing to like figure it out. Especially if it was like a newer student, you know, who maybe isn't even a follower of Jesus yet. And okay, I'm trying to help them get comfortable first, help them feel accepted and have a good experience. And so that'd be a little different if it's someone I've been walking with for a while. And then, hey, it's time for you to grow up and, you know, and be...

be mature about this and grow in your maturity. I part of that is definitely not being in your favorite spot at all times.

Isaac (10:46.552)
Yeah, that's good. I think that, you know, scripture says if at all possible as far as it depends on you, live at peace with with everyone. And if there's some kind of disunity there, obviously that's what the enemy is trying to seek out and bring to light is some kind of disunity. So it's our jobs as the shepherds of that to say, well, what's causing this? And so it should start with a conversation with both student and leader and saying,

Nick Clason (10:46.587)
Good.

Stephen Rose (10:56.372)
Mm.

Isaac (11:14.926)
Why? Why is there a disunity and how can we go towards unity? What's the conversation? Maybe you just need to say some things. Let's get it out on the table. Truth is gonna be great. Let's get it out on the table. But if it becomes a thing where it's like, we're not coming here. My kid doesn't wanna show up. I'm even pro, well, there's also another church in town because...

Stephen Rose (11:29.78)
Yeah.

Isaac (11:42.742)
The gospel doesn't just happen at this address. It happens in lot of places in discipleship. And so hopefully I am then connecting with other youth pastors in the area where I can then give a trusted, hey, why don't you go over here to this church? Because this youth pastor is also going to teach the Bible. Discipleship is also happening. But I'm not nervous to, I don't want to say threatened. It's not threatened, but to give, go ahead. If you can't grow here.

Ultimately, what we are concerned about for you as a student is your growth. Go grow anywhere.

Stephen Rose (12:14.045)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (12:17.776)
Good.

Stephen Rose (12:18.238)
That's good.

Isaac (12:19.83)
Steven, got a question for you if I'm allowed to ask. Yeah, because I love what you said about having five good relationships with adults. Yes, man, let's try to, as youth pastors, bring in as many adults and as many leaders as possible in their time of being there. What does it look like in your context for how many leaders do you have in each group? Yeah, what does that look like for you?

Stephen Rose (12:21.982)
Sure.

Nick Clason (12:22.638)
Yes, yes, go.

Stephen Rose (12:39.718)
.

Stephen Rose (12:47.234)
Yeah, we have two leaders in each group. so, over time, would naturally develop relationships with multiple, I mean, hopefully, in prayerfully, you would develop relationships with your small group leaders in that time. And for us, we're, I guess, the medium church size. And so,

Like for high school, for example, we have two high school guys groups, underclassmen and upperclassmen currently. And so you would meet four of the people right then and there. And then hopefully, like even like myself and some other people, because certainly our youth ministry is not the only context which you can have a relationship with an adult. But as far as what we're trying to do, it fits that mold pretty well.

Isaac (13:30.51)
Sure, yeah.

Isaac (13:38.978)
Yeah, so when you say upperclassmen leader and, what is it called? Underclassmen? That just sounded weird. Underclassmen? That just sounds underwear. Anyhow, when you have both of the, so the upperclassmen, are you saying then that those two leaders are with them for two years?

Stephen Rose (13:46.608)
under underclassmen.

Stephen Rose (13:58.579)
Yes.

Isaac (13:59.648)
Okay, so it's kind of like a hybrid then of it's not, I'm not thinking every year it's I'm still kind of building this. I'm in this context. So it's still once because for me, I don't even know if I'm pro you should be with them for seven years. I do like the for me, three years of middle school, you get a new high school leader, because there's just a difference between high school and middle school.

Stephen Rose (14:16.923)
Mm-hmm, right.

Nick Clason (14:16.966)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Rose (14:22.587)
Thank

Stephen Rose (14:27.586)
Right.

Isaac (14:27.84)
If there is someone that's committed for seven years, my hope is that they are bringing in dads, moms, and other people to it. Because I think that what you said is key. They need to have five adults in their life or more that where they can say, it's not just one person that believes this. It's not just their characteristics, but that in discipleship, they are inviting others to be a part of it as well. If you're going to do that seven year plan. Yeah.

Stephen Rose (14:32.35)
Thank you.

Stephen Rose (14:37.765)
So.

Right.

Stephen Rose (14:46.388)
you

Yes. Right.

Nick Clason (14:57.05)
Yeah, yeah. And I'll just say from a youth pastor logistical standpoint, you get someone to commit for seven years, that's amazing. Are they still committed to loop back down and start a sixth grade group? Going from being a 12th grade leader to a sixth grade leader is tough. And so I've been in situations where they're committed all the way through, but then I'm always having to recruit.

Stephen Rose (15:17.416)
Hey.

Nick Clason (15:24.462)
at the entry point because no one wants to loop back down. They feel like they've quote unquote done their time and they want to be involved in student ministry, but then they want to be involved in more of like a consulting role or a coaching role. And it's like, I love that for you, but I really could use a sixth grade leader, my friend. And so that's been, that's been my experience when they loop all the way through as we, we pool all the way down at the end of the quote unquote conveyor belt, if you will. And I got some really great leaders who aren't doing ministry anymore, but if you're doing

Stephen Rose (15:30.42)
That's how you do it. Okay.

Stephen Rose (15:53.716)
What am I? You just answered about the full seven years or if it's more of a middle school to high school, because I'm I agree. I'm a little less.

Nick Clason (15:54.694)
Like if you're like, yo, you're the underclassmen leader and you're just going to be an expert in ninth and 10th grade. Like, and then you'll see every kid's face, hopefully as they, as they loop through. Um, it's just, it's just the way I think about it.

Isaac (16:08.684)
Yeah, I love that. Steven, did you have any other questions?

Stephen Rose (16:23.832)
cause I can see there's definitely real positives in doing both ways. And, but the seven years is the one where I really, I don't want to say worry, but for lack of a better word, worry about like a students attaching to a certain leader and, that, is a good thing. but especially if they're, if they're not a part of the church at large, like the whole church body, and they're just attached to youth group and just attached to the leader. I just saw so many examples before I even got in youth ministry.

And then those kids, the leader's gone, they're done with youth ministry and they're they're toast. know, they just kind of walk away. And so I guess it was really just on my heart to like, I don't want to see like that happen. And I know there's other intentional ways of working against that too. But that was just really like on my heart.

Isaac (17:12.408)
Yeah, yeah, I would. Here's I mean, Nick, you kind of set us up. You're like, haha, caught you. You're in a trap coming debate this. And so I'm going to I'm going to, you know, share. The perspective of everyone wins, I guess, because here's what I would rather see if this is a would you rather question of would you rather have one leader who intentionally disciples a student for one year or have a leader that walks alongside?

Stephen Rose (17:20.83)
But.

Isaac (17:41.448)
and invest in a student for seven years, I would say give me the one year intentionally disciple. Because so often we recruit leaders that they won't say, I'm just a babysitter. They're not going to say that. We're not going to say that. But if you're like, we're just hanging out, I'm going to their games and they're doing some good things, but they're not intentionally discipling, we're still missing out. And so I would say that the key thing for me is find the leader that's going to disciple.

Stephen Rose (17:46.484)
Yeah.

Isaac (18:09.998)
Which means that they are really getting in and saying do you know Jesus? What is he teaching you? Are you opening up the Word of God? Are you praying? Are you building a community around you? Where are you serving? How's your evangelism life? And they're really working out all of these disciplines And it's more than just let me show up to your play Let me high-five and we'll go get coffee together because you can just hang out But you're not just being friends. You're intentionally discipling so

Nick Clason (18:25.51)
.

Stephen Rose (18:30.04)
Right.

Nick Clason (18:33.03)
you

Isaac (18:37.986)
Give me the one year intentional disciple.

Nick Clason (18:38.34)
Yeah.

Stephen Rose (18:39.572)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Nick Clason (18:42.166)
That's good. That's good for youth pastors. That's good for Like that's good for this whole conversation. Just like having like a well-rounded perspective of it. It's bad for Trying to elicit emotion and you guys like hating each other. So Way to be a Christian way to ruin YouTube, but no, I agree and

Isaac (19:03.661)
Yeah, yeah. And he's a Cavs fan. Yeah, this is great. We love each other. We're best friends now. Thank you, Nick.

Stephen Rose (19:07.704)
Hey, I know

Nick Clason (19:09.51)
Yeah, you're so welcome. Congratulations. Yeah. Well, let's do like your final statement, right? We'll just do a minute on the clock or less. Just give like your final word, kind of like put a bow on it. And then, yeah, then I guess we'll take it from there. So who went first last time? I think it was Isaac, right? So Steven, we'll have you minute on the clock, finalize your argument. You ready? All right, let's go.

Stephen Rose (19:36.663)
Yep.

All right, so I believe that transitioning through different small groups is best for students because they get to build multiple relationships with adults, which helps them own their faith, not just the youth's faith or my faith or their leader's faith, but their faith in Jesus. And so I think it's best to move them through. And then I also, as a side note, I think it can create a spot for leaders to star in their roles where, hey, if I'm always with freshmen girls,

then I'm gonna be able to really get good at welcoming them. Or if I'm always with the senior and junior guys, I'm gonna get really good at helping them through this transition as they get older, as their problems change. But they kinda are the same perpetually for new juniors, new seniors. And so they get to start starring in their roles as they get year after year of experience with them.

Nick Clason (20:36.282)
Nice, good job. All right, Isaac, one minute on the clock. Take it away.

Isaac (20:43.66)
Awesome. Quantity will produce quality. The more that you're hanging out with someone, the better the conversations. And so getting someone there for a length of time, it's just going to produce the quality that we're looking for. It avoids the six months, like, do I actually know this person? Can I make that inside joke? I accidentally said something about their parents or

Stephen Rose (21:07.284)
You you

Isaac (21:12.498)
Whatever all their life story the more opportunity that you have with their story the more that they can feel Fully known fully seen and fully loved which really I think just shows grace more discipleship more and and what Jesus was Really trying to aim for when he said this is what a disciple maker

Nick Clason (21:38.15)
Nice, strong work, both of you.

]]> Small Group Leaders are the life-blood of any good student ministry.

But what is our most effective strategy to deploy them? Is it to saddle a great leader with students for their entire careeer? Or is it rather to introduce students to great leaders along their journey?

In this first debate style episode we have two amazing youth pastors, on two different sides of the argument, and they're going head to head, and you get to be the voter!

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Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/194

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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
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Everything I've ever learned in one blog post [FOR FREE!]
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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The Same or Different Small Group Leaders
02:33 Meet Stephen
04:25 Meet Isaac
05:25 Students should keep the same leaders
08:02 Students should change to different leaders
10:08 What if a student doesn’t like their leader?
11:56 What about Social Media?
13:05 How do you discern when to move a student?
16:21 How many leaders in each group?
20:08 The Ultimate Small Group Win
22:28 New Leader Every So Often Closing Statement
23:22 Same Leader Every So Often Closing Statement

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:00.103)
All right, well here we are. I mean, this is about to get really, really like real now because we have two amazing youth pastors with two completely different points of view on what's best for small group student leadership. And so again, by random draw that you'll have to trust because I'm a youth pastor, so I get paid to tell the truth. Isaac was randomly drawn to give his first two minute argument. So.

Isaac (00:04.782)
Hmm.

Stephen Rose (00:12.276)
You

Nick Clason (00:29.009)
We're about to put two minutes on the clock. are you ready?

Isaac (00:33.026)
Yeah, and just just clarifying because I want to make sure we are talking about leaders walking with students like. Are is it better? Is it better for them to go each year with them or every year? Let's recycle. That's the main question.

Nick Clason (00:41.915)
during

Nick Clason (00:50.235)
That's the question at hand. Yeah, I mean, we won't get into like the pizza lock-in, like social media debate. Those are, you know, those are meaningful ones in youth ministry as well, but this one in particular, yes, that's what I'd like you to argue. I hope that you came prepared for that and not like your pro lock-in debate, cause it might not fit. Real quick here at chat GPT, real quick, give me new notes. All right, are we ready?

Isaac (00:52.526)
Let's go.

Isaac (00:58.254)
Hmm.

Stephen Rose (01:10.656)
Thank

Isaac (01:11.534)
I have to change all my notes right now.

Stephen Rose (01:17.876)
Thank

Isaac (01:18.178)
Yeah, yeah, give me new notes. All right, yep, let's go.

Nick Clason (01:21.776)
Two minutes on the clock, take it away.

Isaac (01:24.654)
All right, two minutes, here we go. The key word that I'm looking at is discipleship and what does discipleship really look like? And so, and this is something that I've been kind of studying and learning about in my 17 years of youth ministry. And so I've changed and I've morphed, but I keep leaning more towards, man, let's really walk alongside these students. Here's some examples from the Bible. Jesus, he's come down, he's like, let me really pray over who I'm really going to invest in.

because he had other people that were interested in following him, but he said, no, I'm really going to invest in these 12. And he did that for three years. And then you have Paul and his relationship with Timothy, and he's being able to say things like, hey, Timothy, your grandmother, and he's naming family members and stuff, which I just don't think that you can do that in a year's time of knowing someone that you really want to get into that. So discipleship really means relationship and knowing.

How does someone come in and they're fully known and fully loved? So when you're with them longer, you know the students, you know their parents, you know the deaths that happened in their family, you know what sports they're involved in, you know the injury that set them back a few years prior. And so when they confess this thing, you go, I know the meaning behind that because I've had this relationship with you for a while.

I guess my main question that I would ask is why don't we go in and hire a new youth pastor every one year? You want a youth pastor to be there and and longevity breeds just this this trust that's that parents now have and I feel like as a youth pastor I'm trying to equip other leaders to come in and essentially be youth pastors And so I don't want to hire new youth pastors every year because I want that trust

and that relationship and that discipleship to happen. And that can only happen over a stretch of time and not hitting the reset button every single year.

Nick Clason (03:27.12)
Wow, did you rehearse that?

Isaac (03:31.49)
No.

Nick Clason (03:32.39)
Strong work, my man. Strong work. Alright, Steven. It's been laid down. Like, the challenge has been issued. Are you ready?

Stephen Rose (03:32.788)
Thank

Stephen Rose (03:42.404)
Yes, yes, I'm ready.

Nick Clason (03:43.354)
All right, and the microphone's working and the internet is streaming and yeah, yeah. All right, sweet. All right, bro, two minutes on the clock for you, Steven. Your side is you think that it's useful for students to have a variety of leaders year in, year out, or every so often. So, my friend, take it away.

Stephen Rose (03:46.548)
Internet's not crashing out right now.

Stephen Rose (04:07.504)
Awesome. Yeah, I love what you said about discipleship. Couldn't agree more. And for me, one of the things I think is so important and what we really focus on in my context is helping students own their faith by the time they graduate. And there's been like some studies done where the more, not like infinitely, but the more adults, specifically the number was around five. If you have five good relationships.

with adults who are like spiritual mentors or people that you know on at least a relatively deeper level, then you're much more likely to stick with a faith post-graduation. And I would argue that the reason for that is because their faith is hopefully being more grounded in Jesus than a specific leader. And they're rooted in Jesus. He is their firm foundation, not like an awesome leader or the youth pastor or something like that.

And so when you move, not necessarily every year, but every so often, you're just more likely to build relationships with more adults. And I view that as a huge win. And so what I like to see is them build relationships, be really intentional in the year or the two years span that they're with that leader, and then really focus on the transition so they can then build a new relationship.

with new leaders and the students stay together. So they're able to keep building those long-term relationships where they can grow alongside of each other. But the leaders can shift as far as small group goes. But the long-term relationships still stay the same. Just like a small group leader that I had when I was in eighth grade, I still got to talk to them later in later years and they still knew me and they still could pour into me and disciple me. And so the process

can keep happening even though we're still looking towards helping them meet more people and grow closer relationships with more people.

Nick Clason (06:13.38)
Right on time, my man, both of you. This might be the first time two youth pastors hit their time mark right when they're supposed to. That's crazy. All right, so what we'll do now, guess, I like this. I think we're gonna go to a more open forum, all right? So let's do two minutes, but here's the thing, just so you guys know.

Stephen Rose (06:20.041)
Hehehehehe

Nick Clason (06:40.804)
I don't need to include the clock. like if it's good and free flowing, like I'm just not going to interrupt it. Like don't, don't worry about it. I'm just trying to keep things moving and make it not be like a, you know, long and boring episode. so I'll put this on, but why don't you, why don't you guys ask some clarifying questions just like back and forth and just like answer, ask, answer, ask, answer. and then, when, when we feel satisfied with that, we'll, we'll move on to the like closing testimony or whatever, whatever they call it in the courtroom.

Stephen Rose (06:51.316)
Thank

Nick Clason (07:10.758)
I don't watch enough court TV. So, does anyone have like a question to start? Like to ask the other person? All right, great. You go first then.

Stephen Rose (07:11.092)
Sounds good.

Isaac (07:12.627)
Okay.

Stephen Rose (07:19.216)
Yeah, yeah I do.

Perfect. So Isaac, wonder in your context, if a student doesn't get, like we'll just say student doesn't get along great with a certain leader. What does that look like? Like do you go about that?

Isaac (07:40.396)
Yeah, man, that's great. Context, I think, matters a lot. So I've worked in a small church, a medium church, and a large church. So let's just talk about the numbers that I have here. It's weird to talk about that in church culture, but that helps context so much. So I have about 160 leaders. And in that, have, for sixth grade boys, we have five sixth grade boy groups.

Stephen Rose (07:45.246)
I agree.

Stephen Rose (07:55.732)
for sure.

Isaac (08:07.854)
And then each one of those groups has four leaders. And so I think that that helps so much for the person watching right now. They're like, well, this might make sense because of this. And the dynamics can shift because for you saying, hey, does a sixth grade boy, if he's if he's not enjoying this, then what? Well, he he can move to another group. He can go to one of the other four options. And that's easy. Now, when I was at a church for six and a half years and it was like

Stephen Rose (08:08.049)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Rose (08:27.252)
Uh-huh.

Stephen Rose (08:30.675)
Right.

Isaac (08:37.59)
You have middle school boys, high school boys, middle school girls, high school girls. That's your option. Then it's like, well, what do we do when they don't like that person? And so for us in our context, it makes sense of if there's not someone getting along, there is another option in another group that they can go to.

Stephen Rose (08:44.444)
Right. I'm

Stephen Rose (08:58.772)
Sure. and

Nick Clason (09:00.39)
How do you guys, either of you, discern this is not a good fit and we need to quote unquote rescue the student from the fit? Or this is an opportunity to lean in and disciple the student to push through something more difficult and maybe getting along with their leader is like what God has for them in this season of their spiritual growth. Like how do you discern between those two? Because I feel like

Like a parent can come to you like they hate their leader and you want to like solve that so so that the kid doesn't get mad or the family doesn't leave the church or whatever. But I think sometimes it's like, dude, you need to stop being so entitled. You know what I mean? How do you how do know?

Stephen Rose (09:43.219)
Yeah, that's really good. For me, I tend toward having them stay either way because I don't want for students just to pick a leader based off of, I love this leader. I can't stand that leader, which by the way, my team is awesome. I have awesome leaders, all that. And so it's really a side point. But of course, if there was

if it was like coming to an unhealthy place, then I would say I'd be more willing to like figure it out. Especially if it was like a newer student, you know, who maybe isn't even a follower of Jesus yet. And okay, I'm trying to help them get comfortable first, help them feel accepted and have a good experience. And so that'd be a little different if it's someone I've been walking with for a while. And then, hey, it's time for you to grow up and, you know, and be...

be mature about this and grow in your maturity. I part of that is definitely not being in your favorite spot at all times.

Isaac (10:46.552)
Yeah, that's good. I think that, you know, scripture says if at all possible as far as it depends on you, live at peace with with everyone. And if there's some kind of disunity there, obviously that's what the enemy is trying to seek out and bring to light is some kind of disunity. So it's our jobs as the shepherds of that to say, well, what's causing this? And so it should start with a conversation with both student and leader and saying,

Nick Clason (10:46.587)
Good.

Stephen Rose (10:56.372)
Mm.

Isaac (11:14.926)
Why? Why is there a disunity and how can we go towards unity? What's the conversation? Maybe you just need to say some things. Let's get it out on the table. Truth is gonna be great. Let's get it out on the table. But if it becomes a thing where it's like, we're not coming here. My kid doesn't wanna show up. I'm even pro, well, there's also another church in town because...

Stephen Rose (11:29.78)
Yeah.

Isaac (11:42.742)
The gospel doesn't just happen at this address. It happens in lot of places in discipleship. And so hopefully I am then connecting with other youth pastors in the area where I can then give a trusted, hey, why don't you go over here to this church? Because this youth pastor is also going to teach the Bible. Discipleship is also happening. But I'm not nervous to, I don't want to say threatened. It's not threatened, but to give, go ahead. If you can't grow here.

Ultimately, what we are concerned about for you as a student is your growth. Go grow anywhere.

Stephen Rose (12:14.045)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (12:17.776)
Good.

Stephen Rose (12:18.238)
That's good.

Isaac (12:19.83)
Steven, got a question for you if I'm allowed to ask. Yeah, because I love what you said about having five good relationships with adults. Yes, man, let's try to, as youth pastors, bring in as many adults and as many leaders as possible in their time of being there. What does it look like in your context for how many leaders do you have in each group? Yeah, what does that look like for you?

Stephen Rose (12:21.982)
Sure.

Nick Clason (12:22.638)
Yes, yes, go.

Stephen Rose (12:39.718)
.

Stephen Rose (12:47.234)
Yeah, we have two leaders in each group. so, over time, would naturally develop relationships with multiple, I mean, hopefully, in prayerfully, you would develop relationships with your small group leaders in that time. And for us, we're, I guess, the medium church size. And so,

Like for high school, for example, we have two high school guys groups, underclassmen and upperclassmen currently. And so you would meet four of the people right then and there. And then hopefully, like even like myself and some other people, because certainly our youth ministry is not the only context which you can have a relationship with an adult. But as far as what we're trying to do, it fits that mold pretty well.

Isaac (13:30.51)
Sure, yeah.

Isaac (13:38.978)
Yeah, so when you say upperclassmen leader and, what is it called? Underclassmen? That just sounded weird. Underclassmen? That just sounds underwear. Anyhow, when you have both of the, so the upperclassmen, are you saying then that those two leaders are with them for two years?

Stephen Rose (13:46.608)
under underclassmen.

Stephen Rose (13:58.579)
Yes.

Isaac (13:59.648)
Okay, so it's kind of like a hybrid then of it's not, I'm not thinking every year it's I'm still kind of building this. I'm in this context. So it's still once because for me, I don't even know if I'm pro you should be with them for seven years. I do like the for me, three years of middle school, you get a new high school leader, because there's just a difference between high school and middle school.

Stephen Rose (14:16.923)
Mm-hmm, right.

Nick Clason (14:16.966)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Rose (14:22.587)
Thank

Stephen Rose (14:27.586)
Right.

Isaac (14:27.84)
If there is someone that's committed for seven years, my hope is that they are bringing in dads, moms, and other people to it. Because I think that what you said is key. They need to have five adults in their life or more that where they can say, it's not just one person that believes this. It's not just their characteristics, but that in discipleship, they are inviting others to be a part of it as well. If you're going to do that seven year plan. Yeah.

Stephen Rose (14:32.35)
Thank you.

Stephen Rose (14:37.765)
So.

Right.

Stephen Rose (14:46.388)
you

Yes. Right.

Nick Clason (14:57.05)
Yeah, yeah. And I'll just say from a youth pastor logistical standpoint, you get someone to commit for seven years, that's amazing. Are they still committed to loop back down and start a sixth grade group? Going from being a 12th grade leader to a sixth grade leader is tough. And so I've been in situations where they're committed all the way through, but then I'm always having to recruit.

Stephen Rose (15:17.416)
Hey.

Nick Clason (15:24.462)
at the entry point because no one wants to loop back down. They feel like they've quote unquote done their time and they want to be involved in student ministry, but then they want to be involved in more of like a consulting role or a coaching role. And it's like, I love that for you, but I really could use a sixth grade leader, my friend. And so that's been, that's been my experience when they loop all the way through as we, we pool all the way down at the end of the quote unquote conveyor belt, if you will. And I got some really great leaders who aren't doing ministry anymore, but if you're doing

Stephen Rose (15:30.42)
That's how you do it. Okay.

Stephen Rose (15:53.716)
What am I? You just answered about the full seven years or if it's more of a middle school to high school, because I'm I agree. I'm a little less.

Nick Clason (15:54.694)
Like if you're like, yo, you're the underclassmen leader and you're just going to be an expert in ninth and 10th grade. Like, and then you'll see every kid's face, hopefully as they, as they loop through. Um, it's just, it's just the way I think about it.

Isaac (16:08.684)
Yeah, I love that. Steven, did you have any other questions?

Stephen Rose (16:23.832)
cause I can see there's definitely real positives in doing both ways. And, but the seven years is the one where I really, I don't want to say worry, but for lack of a better word, worry about like a students attaching to a certain leader and, that, is a good thing. but especially if they're, if they're not a part of the church at large, like the whole church body, and they're just attached to youth group and just attached to the leader. I just saw so many examples before I even got in youth ministry.

And then those kids, the leader's gone, they're done with youth ministry and they're they're toast. know, they just kind of walk away. And so I guess it was really just on my heart to like, I don't want to see like that happen. And I know there's other intentional ways of working against that too. But that was just really like on my heart.

Isaac (17:12.408)
Yeah, yeah, I would. Here's I mean, Nick, you kind of set us up. You're like, haha, caught you. You're in a trap coming debate this. And so I'm going to I'm going to, you know, share. The perspective of everyone wins, I guess, because here's what I would rather see if this is a would you rather question of would you rather have one leader who intentionally disciples a student for one year or have a leader that walks alongside?

Stephen Rose (17:20.83)
But.

Isaac (17:41.448)
and invest in a student for seven years, I would say give me the one year intentionally disciple. Because so often we recruit leaders that they won't say, I'm just a babysitter. They're not going to say that. We're not going to say that. But if you're like, we're just hanging out, I'm going to their games and they're doing some good things, but they're not intentionally discipling, we're still missing out. And so I would say that the key thing for me is find the leader that's going to disciple.

Stephen Rose (17:46.484)
Yeah.

Isaac (18:09.998)
Which means that they are really getting in and saying do you know Jesus? What is he teaching you? Are you opening up the Word of God? Are you praying? Are you building a community around you? Where are you serving? How's your evangelism life? And they're really working out all of these disciplines And it's more than just let me show up to your play Let me high-five and we'll go get coffee together because you can just hang out But you're not just being friends. You're intentionally discipling so

Nick Clason (18:25.51)
.

Stephen Rose (18:30.04)
Right.

Nick Clason (18:33.03)
you

Isaac (18:37.986)
Give me the one year intentional disciple.

Nick Clason (18:38.34)
Yeah.

Stephen Rose (18:39.572)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Nick Clason (18:42.166)
That's good. That's good for youth pastors. That's good for Like that's good for this whole conversation. Just like having like a well-rounded perspective of it. It's bad for Trying to elicit emotion and you guys like hating each other. So Way to be a Christian way to ruin YouTube, but no, I agree and

Isaac (19:03.661)
Yeah, yeah. And he's a Cavs fan. Yeah, this is great. We love each other. We're best friends now. Thank you, Nick.

Stephen Rose (19:07.704)
Hey, I know

Nick Clason (19:09.51)
Yeah, you're so welcome. Congratulations. Yeah. Well, let's do like your final statement, right? We'll just do a minute on the clock or less. Just give like your final word, kind of like put a bow on it. And then, yeah, then I guess we'll take it from there. So who went first last time? I think it was Isaac, right? So Steven, we'll have you minute on the clock, finalize your argument. You ready? All right, let's go.

Stephen Rose (19:36.663)
Yep.

All right, so I believe that transitioning through different small groups is best for students because they get to build multiple relationships with adults, which helps them own their faith, not just the youth's faith or my faith or their leader's faith, but their faith in Jesus. And so I think it's best to move them through. And then I also, as a side note, I think it can create a spot for leaders to star in their roles where, hey, if I'm always with freshmen girls,

then I'm gonna be able to really get good at welcoming them. Or if I'm always with the senior and junior guys, I'm gonna get really good at helping them through this transition as they get older, as their problems change. But they kinda are the same perpetually for new juniors, new seniors. And so they get to start starring in their roles as they get year after year of experience with them.

Nick Clason (20:36.282)
Nice, good job. All right, Isaac, one minute on the clock. Take it away.

Isaac (20:43.66)
Awesome. Quantity will produce quality. The more that you're hanging out with someone, the better the conversations. And so getting someone there for a length of time, it's just going to produce the quality that we're looking for. It avoids the six months, like, do I actually know this person? Can I make that inside joke? I accidentally said something about their parents or

Stephen Rose (21:07.284)
You you

Isaac (21:12.498)
Whatever all their life story the more opportunity that you have with their story the more that they can feel Fully known fully seen and fully loved which really I think just shows grace more discipleship more and and what Jesus was Really trying to aim for when he said this is what a disciple maker

Nick Clason (21:38.15)
Nice, strong work, both of you.

]]> Episode 172: The Cellphone Problem in Youth Groups https://www.hybridministry.xyz/172 638ad9c0-ba4b-4a3f-99e7-f1127a82e225 Thu, 23 Oct 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 172 The Cellphone Problem in Youth Groups full Nick Clason In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we tackle the cellphone problem in youth groups and reveal a 3-step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry that actually works. Instead of fighting students for their phones, you’ll learn how youth pastors can use a variety of tools to their benefit, including how to turn phones from a distraction to an actual asset. If you’re looking for practical youth ministry tips, phone management strategies, and digital discipleship tools to keep students engaged, this episode is for you. 11:51 no In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we tackle the cellphone problem in youth groups and reveal a 3-step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry that actually works. Instead of fighting students for their phones, you’ll learn how youth pastors can use a variety of tools to their benefit, including how to turn phones from a distraction to an actual asset. If you’re looking for practical youth ministry tips, phone management strategies, and digital discipleship tools to keep students engaged, this episode is for you. 🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&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/172 LINKS https://www.Coleader.co CODE: HybridMinistry10 Sidekick + Pro Presenter Setup https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉 We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context! The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe! https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick -------------- 🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- 🕰️TIMECODES 00:00 Phones in Youth Group 00:23 How Do you Keep Kids off Phones? 00:38 Step #1 01:24 Step #2 02:15 Step #3 04:09 Idea #1 06:09 Fall Social Media Plan 07:22 Idea #2 -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:08:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In this episode, we're going to talk about my three step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry. 00:00:08:05 - 00:00:17:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But what I also want to show you is how I've turned phones from a distraction to an asset in our youth ministry. And frankly, it's 00:00:17:01 - 00:00:24:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry a lot easier than fighting kids to get rid of their phones. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry Show. 00:00:24:10 - 00:00:29:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well, hey, everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. In this episode, we are answering this question. 00:00:29:05 - 00:00:34:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What are the ways that you have been able to keep students from being on phones during lessons and smog? 00:00:34:17 - 00:00:34:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Glad you 00:00:34:26 - 00:00:51:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry asked. Here's my three step strategy. Step number one is a central parking location. Like you read the comments of this post and just about everyone has either like some charging stations solution a little like hanging basket, 00:00:51:02 - 00:00:54:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry place for them to just like, leave their phones in the middle. 00:00:54:23 - 00:01:11:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Some different pictures, some different links to different things. We even had at our church at one point in time, we had like cell phone lockers. So this is like lockers with temporary codes where you go, you put your phone in, you create your own code, and then you come back and you get it. At the end of the night, we no longer have them. 00:01:11:12 - 00:01:30:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I tell you why in a minute, but, that's an option that was like the most, like next level solution. But basically everybody does it. Like, you just make that the thing. Hey, everyone, put your phones here before we go on into the room for youth group. The other option, let's be honest, like one of the good things that they could be using on their phone is like the Bible app. 00:01:30:26 - 00:01:49:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so if you're teaching from the Bible, you're going to give them some sort of like scripture lesson, and they're going to pull their Bibles out on their phone to read it. But then you know how phones work. That's because distraction there, over there, then playing clash clans in a minute, and they're no longer reading the Bible because you stopped reading the Bible in your lesson. 00:01:49:19 - 00:02:15:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, the solution set in two is just very simply like, provide paper Bibles, like if you want kids not on their phones and you want kids in the Bible, provide paper Bibles everywhere, all throughout your space so that there's no excuse for it and or also encourage, and even like potentially bribe and reward students who do bring their paper, Bibles to youth group to engage with Scripture in that way. 00:02:15:23 - 00:02:16:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The third 00:02:16:13 - 00:02:20:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and most effective way, in my opinion, this is more of like in a small group setting. 00:02:20:04 - 00:02:25:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you're in like a large group, room, this doesn't quite work. But in a small group setting, 00:02:25:04 - 00:02:35:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm a huge fan of the idea of a thing called a group covenant. Okay. And a group covenant is essentially something that you do at the beginning of a small group term or cycle. 00:02:36:09 - 00:02:55:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you got to think about this. If you have like groups that never break for any sort of rhythm or any sort of reason, then you got to create natural kind of like start points. So, you know, beginning of the school year, maybe like beginning of the calendar year, something like that. Or in certain contexts I've worked in, we've, we had three distinct small groups cycles. 00:02:55:12 - 00:03:15:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we had the fall, the winter and then the summer. And so and then each of those ran for 12 weeks at a time or whatever. And so, during the beginning section of those, you, you have a small group covenant. So you talk about rules and expectations. What's the expectation in this group for treating one another and all those types of things? 00:03:15:21 - 00:03:20:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry However, in that the other thing that I recommend, 00:03:20:13 - 00:03:41:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry is you ask, what are we going to do about phones? And you let the students decide, and that's more powerful than you having temporary cell phone lockers. That's more powerful than you having paper Bibles. When you let the student say, decide and dictate what's going to happen with phones, that's where the wind is found. 00:03:41:10 - 00:04:07:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you just simply ask, what are we going to do about phones? They come up with it. And I've always found that students in a group covenant setting actually make stricter rules than rules that you would probably want to make for them. And so let them decide through the avenue of a group covenant, which, by the way, is one of the things I did not see in the comments of the description, however, of that of that question. 00:04:07:11 - 00:04:24:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry However, this is the hybrid ministry show, and so I would be remiss to not talk about the ways in which I have actually tried to use phones as an asset. And so in our student ministry, when I started here and this episode links right 00:04:24:00 - 00:04:31:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry here, I detailed and discussed how our hybrid ministry strategy has to our growth over the last three years. 00:04:31:29 - 00:04:55:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so when I got here, one of the moves we made was we went from rows to tables. That was a major decision and quite frankly, a thing that people had. Some issue with that at first. But now we do tables pretty much consistently. And whenever we take them away, people like you don't like rows anymore. So it's just funny to watch how people kind of change and transform over time. 00:04:55:18 - 00:05:21:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But one of the things that we're leaning into is sidekick. And so we have a poll, a QR based poll, which is one of the features of the new beta sidekick, which, by the way, if you didn't know, you can jump into co-leader or co-leader Premium plus, with code Hybrid Ministry 1001 word. They'll give you 10% off co-leader, which also gives you access to all of the sidekick stuff. 00:05:21:08 - 00:05:41:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so one of the benefits and they're still kind of working out some of the kinks, about sidekick and its relationship with the legacy version. But one of the kinks or but one of the best parts about the new version, the beta version of sidekick is, the, the poll voting. And so we use that all the time. 00:05:41:20 - 00:05:59:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so poll voting kids get their phone out their skin and they can vote. They can use it for games. They can use it for messages. We even use it sometimes in the pre-roll. I tell you what, I'm going to do that I'm going to link down below our sidekick set up because, it's still not all the way full proof yet. 00:05:59:12 - 00:06:09:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so sometimes pro presenter is a better option. And so we actually run both on two different machines, and show you how we set that up. Link down below. 00:06:09:06 - 00:06:16:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hey, quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? 00:06:16:11 - 00:06:45:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created this the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed. 00:06:45:27 - 00:07:05:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid. Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799. 00:07:05:24 - 00:07:22:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. 00:07:22:24 - 00:07:37:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The other thing that we use is a feature called Digital Notes, which is just a US leaning into the resource and the platform of the YouVersion Bible app, live event section that, YouVersion includes. 00:07:37:06 - 00:07:59:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we set up a YouVersion live events, reading plan. Or it's not even a reading plan necessarily, but a YouVersion live events to follow along with the notes every single week. And like I said, we sit at tables and so we have like a little placard, plastic about this big. It sits in the middle of the table and it says, follow along with this week's digital notes, and it's got a QR code. 00:07:59:28 - 00:08:27:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so the QR code stays the same. But then on our QR code service generator, we turn around and we change the link to that every single week. So we change the link to the newest, iteration of the digital notes of the YouVersion, events plan. And so, they can also, you know, navigate into it and find it on the YouVersion live, section of the YouVersion events, and they can follow along. 00:08:27:10 - 00:08:49:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry As you know, we're very like, video centric and hybrid ministry centric youth ministry. So we create thumbnails for all of our talks. And so all of our in-room talks also have the thumbnails that go at the top of the YouVersion live events plan. But the, other beautiful thing, frankly, about the YouVersion live events plan is you can link to things external. 00:08:49:16 - 00:09:10:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So once they're on there, you got them hooked in and you can help them follow along. You can ask them questions and they're things that they can interact with. They can highlight scripture, they can take notes. But then you can also include external links. So we have a next step like form on our website that we use. And so at the end of every single lesson we say are you ready to take a next step? 00:09:10:12 - 00:09:30:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Click here to let us know and it'll navigate them off to our website. And then the final piece in the YouVersion events is we include a Bible reading plan that relates to the topic of sorts. And so any single given week a student on the YouVersion live event plan, they are encouraged or asked at least if they want to take some sort of spiritual next step. 00:09:30:13 - 00:09:37:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And they're also fed some sort of Bible reading plan. And so I want to point that out as a way to say we have 00:09:37:13 - 00:09:55:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry use phones and sidekick gives us a sliver of that. But our digital notes really opens up a wide avenue of ways that we can help students take next steps and be more intentional and meaningful during the lesson, so that they're using their phones to follow along with what's going on. 00:09:55:15 - 00:10:15:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, I told you I made a calculated risk with tables. I also want to let you know that phones is another calculated risk. And in fact, like one of the one of the comments on this post of the question that I'm reading said, man, just let kids have their phones, stop making it a fight. And like I tend to actually agree with that guy, but I will let you know. 00:10:15:00 - 00:10:37:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like phones are still a fight and they are still a distraction. Just last week, two nights ago in our youth group, one of our leaders, one of our table leaders. So we have students that are in, senior high that are leading groups in discussions. He was playing a game on his phone, and one of our staff one up, and they said, our table leaders are allowed to play games on their phones. 00:10:37:01 - 00:10:54:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And he knew the answer to that was like, no. And so he had to go to that kid and say, hey, put your phone down. So if that's coming from one of our leaders, it's there's that much even trickle down to the rest of students. So, well, hear me say, what we do is not foolproof, all right. But it's a calculated risk that I'm willing to take. 00:10:54:01 - 00:11:12:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And one that when a student brings their friend for the first time and a mom and dad. Imagine this. Your parent, you send your kid to imagine you send your kid to a completely different denomination or different religion to go with one of their friends, and then they don't have their phones for an hour. How would you feel if you couldn't get in contact with them? 00:11:12:17 - 00:11:32:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, we're the millennial generation of of parents. We want to have contact with our children, especially if we've paid for and given them a phone. And so we try not to make that an obstacle for people to be able to come into our ministry. But again, it's a calculated risk and one that we are, used to, fighting and using. 00:11:32:11 - 00:11:48:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So let us know down below in the comments what you do in your youth ministry as it pertains to cell phones. And go ahead and subscribe what you see right here on the screen and check out the next question. Video. There's also here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends, don't forget stay happy. youth ministry, youth group, youth pastor, hybrid ministry, student ministry, youth group ideas, youth group games, discipleship, phones in youth group, cellphone problem, youth ministry tips, youth pastor training, how to keep kids off phones, youth ministry strategy, youth group teaching, paper bibles, group covenants, sidekick, pro presenter, digital notes, fall social media plan, youth leaders, church leadership, youth group discipleship, student engagement, church tech, youth ministry growth In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we tackle the cellphone problem in youth groups and reveal a 3-step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry that actually works. Instead of fighting students for their phones, you’ll learn how youth pastors can use a variety of tools to their benefit, including how to turn phones from a distraction to an actual asset. If you’re looking for practical youth ministry tips, phone management strategies, and digital discipleship tools to keep students engaged, this episode is for you.

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https://www.hybridministry.xyz/172

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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Phones in Youth Group
00:23 How Do you Keep Kids off Phones?
00:38 Step #1
01:24 Step #2
02:15 Step #3
04:09 Idea #1
06:09 Fall Social Media Plan
07:22 Idea #2

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:08:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this episode, we're going to talk about my three step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry.

00:00:08:05 - 00:00:17:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But what I also want to show you is how I've turned phones from a distraction to an asset in our youth ministry. And frankly, it's

00:00:17:01 - 00:00:24:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a lot easier than fighting kids to get rid of their phones. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry Show.

00:00:24:10 - 00:00:29:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, hey, everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. In this episode, we are answering this question.

00:00:29:05 - 00:00:34:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What are the ways that you have been able to keep students from being on phones during lessons and smog?

00:00:34:17 - 00:00:34:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Glad you

00:00:34:26 - 00:00:51:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
asked. Here's my three step strategy. Step number one is a central parking location. Like you read the comments of this post and just about everyone has either like some charging stations solution a little like hanging basket,

00:00:51:02 - 00:00:54:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
place for them to just like, leave their phones in the middle.

00:00:54:23 - 00:01:11:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some different pictures, some different links to different things. We even had at our church at one point in time, we had like cell phone lockers. So this is like lockers with temporary codes where you go, you put your phone in, you create your own code, and then you come back and you get it. At the end of the night, we no longer have them.

00:01:11:12 - 00:01:30:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I tell you why in a minute, but, that's an option that was like the most, like next level solution. But basically everybody does it. Like, you just make that the thing. Hey, everyone, put your phones here before we go on into the room for youth group. The other option, let's be honest, like one of the good things that they could be using on their phone is like the Bible app.

00:01:30:26 - 00:01:49:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you're teaching from the Bible, you're going to give them some sort of like scripture lesson, and they're going to pull their Bibles out on their phone to read it. But then you know how phones work. That's because distraction there, over there, then playing clash clans in a minute, and they're no longer reading the Bible because you stopped reading the Bible in your lesson.

00:01:49:19 - 00:02:15:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, the solution set in two is just very simply like, provide paper Bibles, like if you want kids not on their phones and you want kids in the Bible, provide paper Bibles everywhere, all throughout your space so that there's no excuse for it and or also encourage, and even like potentially bribe and reward students who do bring their paper, Bibles to youth group to engage with Scripture in that way.

00:02:15:23 - 00:02:16:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The third

00:02:16:13 - 00:02:20:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and most effective way, in my opinion, this is more of like in a small group setting.

00:02:20:04 - 00:02:25:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're in like a large group, room, this doesn't quite work. But in a small group setting,

00:02:25:04 - 00:02:35:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm a huge fan of the idea of a thing called a group covenant. Okay. And a group covenant is essentially something that you do at the beginning of a small group term or cycle.

00:02:36:09 - 00:02:55:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you got to think about this. If you have like groups that never break for any sort of rhythm or any sort of reason, then you got to create natural kind of like start points. So, you know, beginning of the school year, maybe like beginning of the calendar year, something like that. Or in certain contexts I've worked in, we've, we had three distinct small groups cycles.

00:02:55:12 - 00:03:15:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we had the fall, the winter and then the summer. And so and then each of those ran for 12 weeks at a time or whatever. And so, during the beginning section of those, you, you have a small group covenant. So you talk about rules and expectations. What's the expectation in this group for treating one another and all those types of things?

00:03:15:21 - 00:03:20:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, in that the other thing that I recommend,

00:03:20:13 - 00:03:41:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is you ask, what are we going to do about phones? And you let the students decide, and that's more powerful than you having temporary cell phone lockers. That's more powerful than you having paper Bibles. When you let the student say, decide and dictate what's going to happen with phones, that's where the wind is found.

00:03:41:10 - 00:04:07:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you just simply ask, what are we going to do about phones? They come up with it. And I've always found that students in a group covenant setting actually make stricter rules than rules that you would probably want to make for them. And so let them decide through the avenue of a group covenant, which, by the way, is one of the things I did not see in the comments of the description, however, of that of that question.

00:04:07:11 - 00:04:24:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, this is the hybrid ministry show, and so I would be remiss to not talk about the ways in which I have actually tried to use phones as an asset. And so in our student ministry, when I started here and this episode links right

00:04:24:00 - 00:04:31:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here, I detailed and discussed how our hybrid ministry strategy has to our growth over the last three years.

00:04:31:29 - 00:04:55:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when I got here, one of the moves we made was we went from rows to tables. That was a major decision and quite frankly, a thing that people had. Some issue with that at first. But now we do tables pretty much consistently. And whenever we take them away, people like you don't like rows anymore. So it's just funny to watch how people kind of change and transform over time.

00:04:55:18 - 00:05:21:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But one of the things that we're leaning into is sidekick. And so we have a poll, a QR based poll, which is one of the features of the new beta sidekick, which, by the way, if you didn't know, you can jump into co-leader or co-leader Premium plus, with code Hybrid Ministry 1001 word. They'll give you 10% off co-leader, which also gives you access to all of the sidekick stuff.

00:05:21:08 - 00:05:41:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so one of the benefits and they're still kind of working out some of the kinks, about sidekick and its relationship with the legacy version. But one of the kinks or but one of the best parts about the new version, the beta version of sidekick is, the, the poll voting. And so we use that all the time.

00:05:41:20 - 00:05:59:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so poll voting kids get their phone out their skin and they can vote. They can use it for games. They can use it for messages. We even use it sometimes in the pre-roll. I tell you what, I'm going to do that I'm going to link down below our sidekick set up because, it's still not all the way full proof yet.

00:05:59:12 - 00:06:09:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so sometimes pro presenter is a better option. And so we actually run both on two different machines, and show you how we set that up. Link down below.

00:06:09:06 - 00:06:16:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey, quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media?

00:06:16:11 - 00:06:45:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created this the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed.

00:06:45:27 - 00:07:05:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid. Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799.

00:07:05:24 - 00:07:22:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry.

00:07:22:24 - 00:07:37:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The other thing that we use is a feature called Digital Notes, which is just a US leaning into the resource and the platform of the YouVersion Bible app, live event section that, YouVersion includes.

00:07:37:06 - 00:07:59:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we set up a YouVersion live events, reading plan. Or it's not even a reading plan necessarily, but a YouVersion live events to follow along with the notes every single week. And like I said, we sit at tables and so we have like a little placard, plastic about this big. It sits in the middle of the table and it says, follow along with this week's digital notes, and it's got a QR code.

00:07:59:28 - 00:08:27:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the QR code stays the same. But then on our QR code service generator, we turn around and we change the link to that every single week. So we change the link to the newest, iteration of the digital notes of the YouVersion, events plan. And so, they can also, you know, navigate into it and find it on the YouVersion live, section of the YouVersion events, and they can follow along.

00:08:27:10 - 00:08:49:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
As you know, we're very like, video centric and hybrid ministry centric youth ministry. So we create thumbnails for all of our talks. And so all of our in-room talks also have the thumbnails that go at the top of the YouVersion live events plan. But the, other beautiful thing, frankly, about the YouVersion live events plan is you can link to things external.

00:08:49:16 - 00:09:10:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So once they're on there, you got them hooked in and you can help them follow along. You can ask them questions and they're things that they can interact with. They can highlight scripture, they can take notes. But then you can also include external links. So we have a next step like form on our website that we use. And so at the end of every single lesson we say are you ready to take a next step?

00:09:10:12 - 00:09:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Click here to let us know and it'll navigate them off to our website. And then the final piece in the YouVersion events is we include a Bible reading plan that relates to the topic of sorts. And so any single given week a student on the YouVersion live event plan, they are encouraged or asked at least if they want to take some sort of spiritual next step.

00:09:30:13 - 00:09:37:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And they're also fed some sort of Bible reading plan. And so I want to point that out as a way to say we have

00:09:37:13 - 00:09:55:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
use phones and sidekick gives us a sliver of that. But our digital notes really opens up a wide avenue of ways that we can help students take next steps and be more intentional and meaningful during the lesson, so that they're using their phones to follow along with what's going on.

00:09:55:15 - 00:10:15:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, I told you I made a calculated risk with tables. I also want to let you know that phones is another calculated risk. And in fact, like one of the one of the comments on this post of the question that I'm reading said, man, just let kids have their phones, stop making it a fight. And like I tend to actually agree with that guy, but I will let you know.

00:10:15:00 - 00:10:37:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like phones are still a fight and they are still a distraction. Just last week, two nights ago in our youth group, one of our leaders, one of our table leaders. So we have students that are in, senior high that are leading groups in discussions. He was playing a game on his phone, and one of our staff one up, and they said, our table leaders are allowed to play games on their phones.

00:10:37:01 - 00:10:54:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And he knew the answer to that was like, no. And so he had to go to that kid and say, hey, put your phone down. So if that's coming from one of our leaders, it's there's that much even trickle down to the rest of students. So, well, hear me say, what we do is not foolproof, all right. But it's a calculated risk that I'm willing to take.

00:10:54:01 - 00:11:12:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And one that when a student brings their friend for the first time and a mom and dad. Imagine this. Your parent, you send your kid to imagine you send your kid to a completely different denomination or different religion to go with one of their friends, and then they don't have their phones for an hour. How would you feel if you couldn't get in contact with them?

00:11:12:17 - 00:11:32:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, we're the millennial generation of of parents. We want to have contact with our children, especially if we've paid for and given them a phone. And so we try not to make that an obstacle for people to be able to come into our ministry. But again, it's a calculated risk and one that we are, used to, fighting and using.

00:11:32:11 - 00:11:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let us know down below in the comments what you do in your youth ministry as it pertains to cell phones. And go ahead and subscribe what you see right here on the screen and check out the next question. Video. There's also here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends, don't forget stay happy.

]]> In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we tackle the cellphone problem in youth groups and reveal a 3-step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry that actually works. Instead of fighting students for their phones, you’ll learn how youth pastors can use a variety of tools to their benefit, including how to turn phones from a distraction to an actual asset. If you’re looking for practical youth ministry tips, phone management strategies, and digital discipleship tools to keep students engaged, this episode is for you.

🍂 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/172

LINKS
https://www.Coleader.co
CODE: HybridMinistry10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Phones in Youth Group
00:23 How Do you Keep Kids off Phones?
00:38 Step #1
01:24 Step #2
02:15 Step #3
04:09 Idea #1
06:09 Fall Social Media Plan
07:22 Idea #2

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:08:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this episode, we're going to talk about my three step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry.

00:00:08:05 - 00:00:17:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But what I also want to show you is how I've turned phones from a distraction to an asset in our youth ministry. And frankly, it's

00:00:17:01 - 00:00:24:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a lot easier than fighting kids to get rid of their phones. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry Show.

00:00:24:10 - 00:00:29:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, hey, everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. In this episode, we are answering this question.

00:00:29:05 - 00:00:34:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What are the ways that you have been able to keep students from being on phones during lessons and smog?

00:00:34:17 - 00:00:34:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Glad you

00:00:34:26 - 00:00:51:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
asked. Here's my three step strategy. Step number one is a central parking location. Like you read the comments of this post and just about everyone has either like some charging stations solution a little like hanging basket,

00:00:51:02 - 00:00:54:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
place for them to just like, leave their phones in the middle.

00:00:54:23 - 00:01:11:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Some different pictures, some different links to different things. We even had at our church at one point in time, we had like cell phone lockers. So this is like lockers with temporary codes where you go, you put your phone in, you create your own code, and then you come back and you get it. At the end of the night, we no longer have them.

00:01:11:12 - 00:01:30:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I tell you why in a minute, but, that's an option that was like the most, like next level solution. But basically everybody does it. Like, you just make that the thing. Hey, everyone, put your phones here before we go on into the room for youth group. The other option, let's be honest, like one of the good things that they could be using on their phone is like the Bible app.

00:01:30:26 - 00:01:49:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you're teaching from the Bible, you're going to give them some sort of like scripture lesson, and they're going to pull their Bibles out on their phone to read it. But then you know how phones work. That's because distraction there, over there, then playing clash clans in a minute, and they're no longer reading the Bible because you stopped reading the Bible in your lesson.

00:01:49:19 - 00:02:15:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, the solution set in two is just very simply like, provide paper Bibles, like if you want kids not on their phones and you want kids in the Bible, provide paper Bibles everywhere, all throughout your space so that there's no excuse for it and or also encourage, and even like potentially bribe and reward students who do bring their paper, Bibles to youth group to engage with Scripture in that way.

00:02:15:23 - 00:02:16:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The third

00:02:16:13 - 00:02:20:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and most effective way, in my opinion, this is more of like in a small group setting.

00:02:20:04 - 00:02:25:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're in like a large group, room, this doesn't quite work. But in a small group setting,

00:02:25:04 - 00:02:35:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm a huge fan of the idea of a thing called a group covenant. Okay. And a group covenant is essentially something that you do at the beginning of a small group term or cycle.

00:02:36:09 - 00:02:55:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you got to think about this. If you have like groups that never break for any sort of rhythm or any sort of reason, then you got to create natural kind of like start points. So, you know, beginning of the school year, maybe like beginning of the calendar year, something like that. Or in certain contexts I've worked in, we've, we had three distinct small groups cycles.

00:02:55:12 - 00:03:15:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So we had the fall, the winter and then the summer. And so and then each of those ran for 12 weeks at a time or whatever. And so, during the beginning section of those, you, you have a small group covenant. So you talk about rules and expectations. What's the expectation in this group for treating one another and all those types of things?

00:03:15:21 - 00:03:20:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, in that the other thing that I recommend,

00:03:20:13 - 00:03:41:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
is you ask, what are we going to do about phones? And you let the students decide, and that's more powerful than you having temporary cell phone lockers. That's more powerful than you having paper Bibles. When you let the student say, decide and dictate what's going to happen with phones, that's where the wind is found.

00:03:41:10 - 00:04:07:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you just simply ask, what are we going to do about phones? They come up with it. And I've always found that students in a group covenant setting actually make stricter rules than rules that you would probably want to make for them. And so let them decide through the avenue of a group covenant, which, by the way, is one of the things I did not see in the comments of the description, however, of that of that question.

00:04:07:11 - 00:04:24:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, this is the hybrid ministry show, and so I would be remiss to not talk about the ways in which I have actually tried to use phones as an asset. And so in our student ministry, when I started here and this episode links right

00:04:24:00 - 00:04:31:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
here, I detailed and discussed how our hybrid ministry strategy has to our growth over the last three years.

00:04:31:29 - 00:04:55:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when I got here, one of the moves we made was we went from rows to tables. That was a major decision and quite frankly, a thing that people had. Some issue with that at first. But now we do tables pretty much consistently. And whenever we take them away, people like you don't like rows anymore. So it's just funny to watch how people kind of change and transform over time.

00:04:55:18 - 00:05:21:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But one of the things that we're leaning into is sidekick. And so we have a poll, a QR based poll, which is one of the features of the new beta sidekick, which, by the way, if you didn't know, you can jump into co-leader or co-leader Premium plus, with code Hybrid Ministry 1001 word. They'll give you 10% off co-leader, which also gives you access to all of the sidekick stuff.

00:05:21:08 - 00:05:41:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so one of the benefits and they're still kind of working out some of the kinks, about sidekick and its relationship with the legacy version. But one of the kinks or but one of the best parts about the new version, the beta version of sidekick is, the, the poll voting. And so we use that all the time.

00:05:41:20 - 00:05:59:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so poll voting kids get their phone out their skin and they can vote. They can use it for games. They can use it for messages. We even use it sometimes in the pre-roll. I tell you what, I'm going to do that I'm going to link down below our sidekick set up because, it's still not all the way full proof yet.

00:05:59:12 - 00:06:09:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so sometimes pro presenter is a better option. And so we actually run both on two different machines, and show you how we set that up. Link down below.

00:06:09:06 - 00:06:16:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey, quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media?

00:06:16:11 - 00:06:45:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created this the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed.

00:06:45:27 - 00:07:05:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid. Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799.

00:07:05:24 - 00:07:22:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry.

00:07:22:24 - 00:07:37:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The other thing that we use is a feature called Digital Notes, which is just a US leaning into the resource and the platform of the YouVersion Bible app, live event section that, YouVersion includes.

00:07:37:06 - 00:07:59:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we set up a YouVersion live events, reading plan. Or it's not even a reading plan necessarily, but a YouVersion live events to follow along with the notes every single week. And like I said, we sit at tables and so we have like a little placard, plastic about this big. It sits in the middle of the table and it says, follow along with this week's digital notes, and it's got a QR code.

00:07:59:28 - 00:08:27:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the QR code stays the same. But then on our QR code service generator, we turn around and we change the link to that every single week. So we change the link to the newest, iteration of the digital notes of the YouVersion, events plan. And so, they can also, you know, navigate into it and find it on the YouVersion live, section of the YouVersion events, and they can follow along.

00:08:27:10 - 00:08:49:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
As you know, we're very like, video centric and hybrid ministry centric youth ministry. So we create thumbnails for all of our talks. And so all of our in-room talks also have the thumbnails that go at the top of the YouVersion live events plan. But the, other beautiful thing, frankly, about the YouVersion live events plan is you can link to things external.

00:08:49:16 - 00:09:10:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So once they're on there, you got them hooked in and you can help them follow along. You can ask them questions and they're things that they can interact with. They can highlight scripture, they can take notes. But then you can also include external links. So we have a next step like form on our website that we use. And so at the end of every single lesson we say are you ready to take a next step?

00:09:10:12 - 00:09:30:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Click here to let us know and it'll navigate them off to our website. And then the final piece in the YouVersion events is we include a Bible reading plan that relates to the topic of sorts. And so any single given week a student on the YouVersion live event plan, they are encouraged or asked at least if they want to take some sort of spiritual next step.

00:09:30:13 - 00:09:37:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And they're also fed some sort of Bible reading plan. And so I want to point that out as a way to say we have

00:09:37:13 - 00:09:55:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
use phones and sidekick gives us a sliver of that. But our digital notes really opens up a wide avenue of ways that we can help students take next steps and be more intentional and meaningful during the lesson, so that they're using their phones to follow along with what's going on.

00:09:55:15 - 00:10:15:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, I told you I made a calculated risk with tables. I also want to let you know that phones is another calculated risk. And in fact, like one of the one of the comments on this post of the question that I'm reading said, man, just let kids have their phones, stop making it a fight. And like I tend to actually agree with that guy, but I will let you know.

00:10:15:00 - 00:10:37:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like phones are still a fight and they are still a distraction. Just last week, two nights ago in our youth group, one of our leaders, one of our table leaders. So we have students that are in, senior high that are leading groups in discussions. He was playing a game on his phone, and one of our staff one up, and they said, our table leaders are allowed to play games on their phones.

00:10:37:01 - 00:10:54:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And he knew the answer to that was like, no. And so he had to go to that kid and say, hey, put your phone down. So if that's coming from one of our leaders, it's there's that much even trickle down to the rest of students. So, well, hear me say, what we do is not foolproof, all right. But it's a calculated risk that I'm willing to take.

00:10:54:01 - 00:11:12:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And one that when a student brings their friend for the first time and a mom and dad. Imagine this. Your parent, you send your kid to imagine you send your kid to a completely different denomination or different religion to go with one of their friends, and then they don't have their phones for an hour. How would you feel if you couldn't get in contact with them?

00:11:12:17 - 00:11:32:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, we're the millennial generation of of parents. We want to have contact with our children, especially if we've paid for and given them a phone. And so we try not to make that an obstacle for people to be able to come into our ministry. But again, it's a calculated risk and one that we are, used to, fighting and using.

00:11:32:11 - 00:11:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let us know down below in the comments what you do in your youth ministry as it pertains to cell phones. And go ahead and subscribe what you see right here on the screen and check out the next question. Video. There's also here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends, don't forget stay happy.

]]> Episode 166: How Our Youth Group Doubled in 3 Years https://www.hybridministry.xyz/166 443c9b0f-32a5-4335-8b61-bdb5ea659759 Thu, 11 Sep 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 166 How Our Youth Group Doubled in 3 Years full Nick Clason In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, I share how our youth group doubled in just 3 years using simple hybrid ministry strategies that any youth pastor can apply. You’ll learn practical tips for increasing youth group attendance, retaining volunteers, engaging parents, and building a student ministry that makes more and better disciples of Jesus. Whether you’re leading a small church youth group or looking for big youth ministry ideas on a budget, these proven hybrid ministry strategies for youth pastors will help your ministry grow. 15:13 no In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, I share how our youth group doubled in just 3 years using simple hybrid ministry strategies that any youth pastor can apply. You’ll learn practical tips for increasing youth group attendance, retaining volunteers, engaging parents, and building a student ministry that makes more and better disciples of Jesus. Whether you’re leading a small church youth group or looking for big youth ministry ideas on a budget, these proven hybrid ministry strategies for youth pastors will help your ministry grow. SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/166 //STUDIO TOUR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVT1xvh9-5k INTERN BUDGET 📊 [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book YOUTH PASTOR BUDGET 🍂 FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link *🦸 HYBRID HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SENIOR PASTOR BUDGET 📋 "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching ✅ CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms //TRY OPUS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz -------------- 🎉 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 We Experienced 2x Growth using this! 02:01 How we got here - The Hybrid History 07:00 The Intern Budget Option 08:12 The Youth Pastor Budget Option 10:57 The Senior Pastor Budget Option -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I posted this way and 00:00:01:23 - 00:00:03:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry this often for the last 00:00:03:06 - 00:00:04:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry three years. And here's 00:00:04:13 - 00:00:34:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry what happened on YouTube alone. We've had over 6000 views, 4000 plus hours of watch time, and over 900 subscribers. That's awesome success online. However, it doesn't just stop there. We've experienced 100.6% growth in our youth ministry in that exact same amount of time while we've been posting like, okay, here's a good news I am real life boots on the ground youth pastor. 00:00:34:01 - 00:01:02:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I also have to do things just like you like write a message, recruit volunteers, meet with my senior pastor as well as dream up, create, and post on social media regularly. Now if you do this, I will say that you'll experience 100.6% growth. But there are many additional benefits to this strategy. Things like attendance obviously being one of them. 00:01:02:22 - 00:01:23:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But you'll also see an uptick in student ministry volunteers, an uptick in your parent ministry. It can increase your leader, retention, and you'll have the ability to lean into your true calling as a pastor, where you get the opportunity to equip the saints for the works and acts of service, which actually we talked about in my last video linked right here. 00:01:23:18 - 00:01:44:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And here's the thing. I can help you do it. I have three different tiers of help available. Like if you're on the intern budget, I can give you completely free rundown version. If you're on the youth pastor budget for less than $6 a month, I have an option for you there as well. Or if you have the Senior Pastor Cadillac option, I'll do it for you. 00:01:44:08 - 00:02:08:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is where the parent and the leader piece really comes into play in that final option. Don't forget there are some chapters listed down below so that you can jump ahead to the part of this episode that makes the most sense to you. Welcome my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. So I've been on staff here at this church exactly three years and in the exact same amount of time. 00:02:08:23 - 00:02:31:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Just like I said in the intro, we've been posting with this rhythm. In fact, when we started, we were posting all of our long form messages to YouTube and we were doing so with just a cell phone camera. In fact, as soon as I moved here, I bought the brand new Google Pixel nine Plus Pro so that I could use it for social media and for its its camera purposes. 00:02:31:15 - 00:02:59:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They were telling me at the time that it was the best phone on the market, and so we were using it. And that was our that was our primary avenue. Bought a couple of different like microphone options to pair with the camera. And that was it. That's all we had and that's all we used. And so we would post not only long form YouTube messages, but also all of our short form content, which, speaking of short form content, we were posting three times per day on social media. 00:02:59:03 - 00:03:34:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry My goal at the time was aggressive growth, and I had just moved here from Chicago. And I had just, you know, for the previous about six months or so, been kind of dabbling in the tick tock Instagram Reels realm and was learning that three times a day was aggressive. But it also, you had more bites at the apple for an opportunity to be seen, you know, at the time, the kind of go on on those platforms TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube shorts was get as many bites at the apple so that you have more chances to be discovered, to be seen, and then to go viral. 00:03:35:00 - 00:03:54:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This my strategy has since shifted a little bit. And, you know, of course we'll get into that. But then we were filming any of these pieces of content just in and around our space. So in offices or in like the lobby or like even just main on the street, like anywhere we found any of our other, like, staff. 00:03:54:21 - 00:04:18:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But eventually we built a full studio, which is actually the room I am sitting in right now. And over time, we've progressively spent more on gear and on set design and budget for it. But to start, it was a pretty basic studio build. We spent a little bit on paint and, you know, some wall treatment type options and some tchotchkes for shelves. 00:04:18:19 - 00:04:38:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And that was it. I will actually post full, tour studio link down below if you're interested in that, along with much of the gear that we use for that. But I would say one of the key shifts was once we had our studio built out, I had a resident shout out to my good friend Caleb Flywheel. 00:04:38:00 - 00:05:01:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Maita, who had this idea, because we were posting long form pieces of content, for all of our messages on YouTube. So that was myself and any, anyone else on staff that was, that was delivering a message that was being posted to YouTube. He wanted to see more students in long form on YouTube. So he created this idea this weekly social challenge. 00:05:01:23 - 00:05:22:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry He would film it on Wednesday night, in long form, in horizontal mode, and then he would edit all day Thursday and post a social challenge by the end of the day Thursday. It was a great idea. It's a great concept, but it was cooking his Thursdays like he never got anything else done except for just working on, you know, social challenge stuff. 00:05:22:20 - 00:05:41:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we eventually, adapted and shifted that strategy to be where we captured the majority and the lion's share of our student based short form content. We would do it in the studio any single time that we met on Wednesday nights. And I've detailed an outline that in previous episodes. So make sure that you subscribe and go back and listen to some of those. 00:05:41:12 - 00:05:59:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But here's the thing that you might be thinking as you hear this, you might be thinking, this sounds both overwhelming and hard, and I just want to let you know that I have, recently yesterday, a guy on my team came to me and he said, I am over budgeting my time. And as a what do you mean by that? 00:05:59:04 - 00:06:20:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry He said, I'm giving myself like two hour blocks of time and it's not taking quite that long. And right now he is owning the majority of our social media content. I've shifted into a little bit of a new role. I've given him a lot more to do with with editing and posting and what he is saying in his own words, and I would I would echo this to be true. 00:06:20:01 - 00:06:38:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What I've learned is once you learn how to use some of these platforms and some of these programs, it's not as time consuming as you might think it is. The learning curve on the front side might feel steep, but once you get up over that hump, the actual maintenance mode of some of these things isn't as difficult as you think. 00:06:38:17 - 00:06:58:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And as I as I outlined in my last episode, you can hand over as much of that as you feel comfortable to your students. So let me share with you the three different tiers of options and solutions I have that you can lean into this hybrid strategy, which for us gave us two growth in a three year period of time. 00:06:58:12 - 00:07:25:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Let's chat. Let's check it out okay, so you have the intern budget. How do you get started? Well, I would recommend hopping down in the description to grab my 100% completely free e-book. In my original iteration, you heard me say, if you're listening to the contact section of this that I posted three times per day, I've scaled that back, but it's still two times per day, which is still an aggressive growth strategy and mindset. 00:07:25:09 - 00:08:00:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I'll just be honest, one of the main reasons that I post that aggressively is because we film enough content that I have enough things to keep my feed going and being posted, but it's a lot of students and it's a lot of leaders, and so a lot of custom content for our student ministry. But I even recommend now, and I've done it and I've seen it in some coaching relationships that I've had that if you post three times a week, if you're starting completely from scratch, it's still a good strategy to lean into from a hybrid ministry standpoint. 00:08:00:08 - 00:08:21:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so link down below is my 100% completely free e-book. And if you want the start from scratch version, if you want the hey only post three times per week, then I recommend this next one, which is the youth pastor budget. And I can get this all for you via my Patreon account and my four seasonal social media pack. 00:08:21:23 - 00:08:39:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hey quick break, let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day as a youth pastor, scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. 00:08:39:03 - 00:09:02:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's why I created this, the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry. Instagram, TikTok and YouTube shorts. See? See? Here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. 00:09:02:11 - 00:09:22:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And did you know that monthly hybrid hero Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast? They get this pack completely for free. So if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12. Where the pack is 1799. Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. 00:09:22:20 - 00:09:44:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. So as you just heard, the fall season of Social Media Pack is here. Go grab it. Go download it. It is the youth pastor version of this budget 1799. 00:09:45:03 - 00:10:07:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry However, in and on top of that, if you head over to my Patreon and you become a $4 a month member, you will not only receive that pack for free as a part of that membership, but you'll also then be subscribed to a weekly bonus podcast where I sit down on a microphone every single week and I explain and I outline and I flesh out all that we did. 00:10:07:16 - 00:10:32:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I basically go through our service order, and I talk about one things we could have done to be more creative and things that hit really well, and what we're doing on social media and how we're capturing certain things and all these different things. And so if you pair my bonus podcast with the social media pack, which again, reminder is free if you're a hybrid hero member, all of those things can be used to your advantage. 00:10:32:23 - 00:10:58:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry To get you started in this track of hybrid ministry. Listen, it's not here to help me get rich. It's really just here to help resource you and give you the foundation and the building blocks for what it takes to really, truly lean into a hybrid strategy, which again, as a reminder to our growth in the course of a three year period of time. 00:10:58:11 - 00:11:21:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now, in both of those options, they're going to talk to you a lot about the value of your social media platforms. However, the real ultimate goal, I would say, is to find a way to post your weekly messages to YouTube. Now, if you have live streaming capabilities or at least live captioning capabilities, then that's a fantastic strategy. It gets the job done. 00:11:21:22 - 00:11:43:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We, both prefer. And also due to the constraints of not having, you know, camera capabilities in our main meeting room, we film our messages very similar to this direct to camera. We'll use a teleprompter at times and we will post those directly to YouTube. And at this point now we've built up our budget in order to be able to pay for editors to do that. 00:11:43:02 - 00:12:13:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But in the very early iterations, I was the editor. And you can use something like, you know, Adobe Premiere Pro Final Cut Pro, DaVinci resolve, or even something like Cap Cut to get the job done. But once you get a long form, like, posted version to YouTube, this is the senior pastor budget. If you need an editor or if you need someone to do it for you, I can either offer coaching, which is like a, an agreement for a set of time or I can do it for you in my communications. 00:12:13:21 - 00:12:30:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Done for you pack in my free time. Off to the side of me being a real life youth pastor, getting those long form clips is really helpful because then you can use an AI service like Opus Stock Pro to clip them up for you. They're not as good as if a human does them. But again, you're busy. 00:12:30:16 - 00:12:46:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You got things going on and, open Stop Pro is a really reasonable rate to kind of offer to do that. And it really does help flesh out and fill out your strategy, because if your strategy's all bunch of fun and games that you're doing with your students, that's great. Hopefully that's going to hook some viewers in your audience. 00:12:46:06 - 00:13:22:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But then you also want to win, or at least, have the algorithm feed them some of your spiritual content as well. And that's where this really comes into play. And you can add the Patreon pack right on top of what this is, where, like, I'll be doing this for you. You can add in that Patreon pack, which will help help give you the, the coaching and the framework and the resources to hand this off to someone if you don't want to go all into this senior pastor budget option, if you just need to stick with your main youth ministry budget, here's what I would recommend. 00:13:22:05 - 00:13:47:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Of all of these things, lean in to the youth ministry budget option because it is $4 a month for the Hybrid Heroes bonus podcast tier, and that nets out to only $48 a year. Four times per year. You're going to get the social pack for free included in your membership. So for $48, you will have a fully locked and loaded social media hybrid strategy. 00:13:47:02 - 00:14:11:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And just as a reminder, that strategy is what led us to to growth in our student ministry. Now, once you start filming and posting your long form, messages to YouTube, that's really where you can start to see the parent rewards and the leader rewards and all of this, as I teased at the beginning, because you're posting your messages to YouTube and so parents can go watch it and see what their kids are learning. 00:14:11:08 - 00:14:36:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it's a great tool and resource in that regard. And also, leaders like we teach our message on Wednesday, but we also post the film YouTube adaptation to it as well. And so far, our leaders who lead a discussion based off the topic on Sunday morning, they have access to that teaching as well. And both of those are ways in which we've both, found incredible amounts of, like, help and resources to both our parents and our leaders. 00:14:36:11 - 00:15:00:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Not no matter which of those options you choose. I want you to know this going hybrid is not the end goal. You know this. The end goal is to make more and better disciples of Jesus. Whatever your mission statement is, I hope it's rooted and tied to the great commission of Jesus. And this hybrid strategy is simply a strategy that sits inside this great commission from Jesus. 00:15:00:06 - 00:15:12:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so keep doing great youth ministry. Keep doing what you're doing, and if this can help you, I hope that it does. And I want you to know I'm rooting for you. So don't forget my friends. And as always, stay hybrid. youth ministry growth, how to grow your youth group, youth group attendance tips, youth pastor advice, church growth strategies, student ministry ideas, how to double your youth group, youth ministry tips, grow your church youth ministry, youth pastor training, youth ministry leadership, small church youth group ideas, youth ministry outreach, youth group volunteer ideas, disciple making in youth ministry, youth group leader tips, hybrid ministry, student ministry growth In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, I share how our youth group doubled in just 3 years using simple hybrid ministry strategies that any youth pastor can apply. You’ll learn practical tips for increasing youth group attendance, retaining volunteers, engaging parents, and building a student ministry that makes more and better disciples of Jesus. Whether you’re leading a small church youth group or looking for big youth ministry ideas on a budget, these proven hybrid ministry strategies for youth pastors will help your ministry grow.

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/166

//STUDIO TOUR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVT1xvh9-5k

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

YOUTH PASTOR BUDGET
🍂 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 HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

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

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

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

--------------
🎉 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 We Experienced 2x Growth using this!
02:01 How we got here - The Hybrid History
07:00 The Intern Budget Option
08:12 The Youth Pastor Budget Option
10:57 The Senior Pastor Budget Option

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I posted this way and

00:00:01:23 - 00:00:03:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this often for the last

00:00:03:06 - 00:00:04:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
three years. And here's

00:00:04:13 - 00:00:34:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
what happened on YouTube alone. We've had over 6000 views, 4000 plus hours of watch time, and over 900 subscribers. That's awesome success online. However, it doesn't just stop there. We've experienced 100.6% growth in our youth ministry in that exact same amount of time while we've been posting like, okay, here's a good news I am real life boots on the ground youth pastor.

00:00:34:01 - 00:01:02:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I also have to do things just like you like write a message, recruit volunteers, meet with my senior pastor as well as dream up, create, and post on social media regularly. Now if you do this, I will say that you'll experience 100.6% growth. But there are many additional benefits to this strategy. Things like attendance obviously being one of them.

00:01:02:22 - 00:01:23:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But you'll also see an uptick in student ministry volunteers, an uptick in your parent ministry. It can increase your leader, retention, and you'll have the ability to lean into your true calling as a pastor, where you get the opportunity to equip the saints for the works and acts of service, which actually we talked about in my last video linked right here.

00:01:23:18 - 00:01:44:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And here's the thing. I can help you do it. I have three different tiers of help available. Like if you're on the intern budget, I can give you completely free rundown version. If you're on the youth pastor budget for less than $6 a month, I have an option for you there as well. Or if you have the Senior Pastor Cadillac option, I'll do it for you.

00:01:44:08 - 00:02:08:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is where the parent and the leader piece really comes into play in that final option. Don't forget there are some chapters listed down below so that you can jump ahead to the part of this episode that makes the most sense to you. Welcome my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. So I've been on staff here at this church exactly three years and in the exact same amount of time.

00:02:08:23 - 00:02:31:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just like I said in the intro, we've been posting with this rhythm. In fact, when we started, we were posting all of our long form messages to YouTube and we were doing so with just a cell phone camera. In fact, as soon as I moved here, I bought the brand new Google Pixel nine Plus Pro so that I could use it for social media and for its its camera purposes.

00:02:31:15 - 00:02:59:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They were telling me at the time that it was the best phone on the market, and so we were using it. And that was our that was our primary avenue. Bought a couple of different like microphone options to pair with the camera. And that was it. That's all we had and that's all we used. And so we would post not only long form YouTube messages, but also all of our short form content, which, speaking of short form content, we were posting three times per day on social media.

00:02:59:03 - 00:03:34:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My goal at the time was aggressive growth, and I had just moved here from Chicago. And I had just, you know, for the previous about six months or so, been kind of dabbling in the tick tock Instagram Reels realm and was learning that three times a day was aggressive. But it also, you had more bites at the apple for an opportunity to be seen, you know, at the time, the kind of go on on those platforms TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube shorts was get as many bites at the apple so that you have more chances to be discovered, to be seen, and then to go viral.

00:03:35:00 - 00:03:54:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This my strategy has since shifted a little bit. And, you know, of course we'll get into that. But then we were filming any of these pieces of content just in and around our space. So in offices or in like the lobby or like even just main on the street, like anywhere we found any of our other, like, staff.

00:03:54:21 - 00:04:18:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But eventually we built a full studio, which is actually the room I am sitting in right now. And over time, we've progressively spent more on gear and on set design and budget for it. But to start, it was a pretty basic studio build. We spent a little bit on paint and, you know, some wall treatment type options and some tchotchkes for shelves.

00:04:18:19 - 00:04:38:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that was it. I will actually post full, tour studio link down below if you're interested in that, along with much of the gear that we use for that. But I would say one of the key shifts was once we had our studio built out, I had a resident shout out to my good friend Caleb Flywheel.

00:04:38:00 - 00:05:01:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Maita, who had this idea, because we were posting long form pieces of content, for all of our messages on YouTube. So that was myself and any, anyone else on staff that was, that was delivering a message that was being posted to YouTube. He wanted to see more students in long form on YouTube. So he created this idea this weekly social challenge.

00:05:01:23 - 00:05:22:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
He would film it on Wednesday night, in long form, in horizontal mode, and then he would edit all day Thursday and post a social challenge by the end of the day Thursday. It was a great idea. It's a great concept, but it was cooking his Thursdays like he never got anything else done except for just working on, you know, social challenge stuff.

00:05:22:20 - 00:05:41:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we eventually, adapted and shifted that strategy to be where we captured the majority and the lion's share of our student based short form content. We would do it in the studio any single time that we met on Wednesday nights. And I've detailed an outline that in previous episodes. So make sure that you subscribe and go back and listen to some of those.

00:05:41:12 - 00:05:59:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's the thing that you might be thinking as you hear this, you might be thinking, this sounds both overwhelming and hard, and I just want to let you know that I have, recently yesterday, a guy on my team came to me and he said, I am over budgeting my time. And as a what do you mean by that?

00:05:59:04 - 00:06:20:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
He said, I'm giving myself like two hour blocks of time and it's not taking quite that long. And right now he is owning the majority of our social media content. I've shifted into a little bit of a new role. I've given him a lot more to do with with editing and posting and what he is saying in his own words, and I would I would echo this to be true.

00:06:20:01 - 00:06:38:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What I've learned is once you learn how to use some of these platforms and some of these programs, it's not as time consuming as you might think it is. The learning curve on the front side might feel steep, but once you get up over that hump, the actual maintenance mode of some of these things isn't as difficult as you think.

00:06:38:17 - 00:06:58:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as I as I outlined in my last episode, you can hand over as much of that as you feel comfortable to your students. So let me share with you the three different tiers of options and solutions I have that you can lean into this hybrid strategy, which for us gave us two growth in a three year period of time.

00:06:58:12 - 00:07:25:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's chat. Let's check it out okay, so you have the intern budget. How do you get started? Well, I would recommend hopping down in the description to grab my 100% completely free e-book. In my original iteration, you heard me say, if you're listening to the contact section of this that I posted three times per day, I've scaled that back, but it's still two times per day, which is still an aggressive growth strategy and mindset.

00:07:25:09 - 00:08:00:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'll just be honest, one of the main reasons that I post that aggressively is because we film enough content that I have enough things to keep my feed going and being posted, but it's a lot of students and it's a lot of leaders, and so a lot of custom content for our student ministry. But I even recommend now, and I've done it and I've seen it in some coaching relationships that I've had that if you post three times a week, if you're starting completely from scratch, it's still a good strategy to lean into from a hybrid ministry standpoint.

00:08:00:08 - 00:08:21:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so link down below is my 100% completely free e-book. And if you want the start from scratch version, if you want the hey only post three times per week, then I recommend this next one, which is the youth pastor budget. And I can get this all for you via my Patreon account and my four seasonal social media pack.

00:08:21:23 - 00:08:39:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey quick break, let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day as a youth pastor, scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall.

00:08:39:03 - 00:09:02:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's why I created this, the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry. Instagram, TikTok and YouTube shorts. See? See? Here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon.

00:09:02:11 - 00:09:22:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And did you know that monthly hybrid hero Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast? They get this pack completely for free. So if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12. Where the pack is 1799. Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting.

00:09:22:20 - 00:09:44:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. So as you just heard, the fall season of Social Media Pack is here. Go grab it. Go download it. It is the youth pastor version of this budget 1799.

00:09:45:03 - 00:10:07:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, in and on top of that, if you head over to my Patreon and you become a $4 a month member, you will not only receive that pack for free as a part of that membership, but you'll also then be subscribed to a weekly bonus podcast where I sit down on a microphone every single week and I explain and I outline and I flesh out all that we did.

00:10:07:16 - 00:10:32:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I basically go through our service order, and I talk about one things we could have done to be more creative and things that hit really well, and what we're doing on social media and how we're capturing certain things and all these different things. And so if you pair my bonus podcast with the social media pack, which again, reminder is free if you're a hybrid hero member, all of those things can be used to your advantage.

00:10:32:23 - 00:10:58:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
To get you started in this track of hybrid ministry. Listen, it's not here to help me get rich. It's really just here to help resource you and give you the foundation and the building blocks for what it takes to really, truly lean into a hybrid strategy, which again, as a reminder to our growth in the course of a three year period of time.

00:10:58:11 - 00:11:21:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, in both of those options, they're going to talk to you a lot about the value of your social media platforms. However, the real ultimate goal, I would say, is to find a way to post your weekly messages to YouTube. Now, if you have live streaming capabilities or at least live captioning capabilities, then that's a fantastic strategy. It gets the job done.

00:11:21:22 - 00:11:43:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We, both prefer. And also due to the constraints of not having, you know, camera capabilities in our main meeting room, we film our messages very similar to this direct to camera. We'll use a teleprompter at times and we will post those directly to YouTube. And at this point now we've built up our budget in order to be able to pay for editors to do that.

00:11:43:02 - 00:12:13:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in the very early iterations, I was the editor. And you can use something like, you know, Adobe Premiere Pro Final Cut Pro, DaVinci resolve, or even something like Cap Cut to get the job done. But once you get a long form, like, posted version to YouTube, this is the senior pastor budget. If you need an editor or if you need someone to do it for you, I can either offer coaching, which is like a, an agreement for a set of time or I can do it for you in my communications.

00:12:13:21 - 00:12:30:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Done for you pack in my free time. Off to the side of me being a real life youth pastor, getting those long form clips is really helpful because then you can use an AI service like Opus Stock Pro to clip them up for you. They're not as good as if a human does them. But again, you're busy.

00:12:30:16 - 00:12:46:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You got things going on and, open Stop Pro is a really reasonable rate to kind of offer to do that. And it really does help flesh out and fill out your strategy, because if your strategy's all bunch of fun and games that you're doing with your students, that's great. Hopefully that's going to hook some viewers in your audience.

00:12:46:06 - 00:13:22:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then you also want to win, or at least, have the algorithm feed them some of your spiritual content as well. And that's where this really comes into play. And you can add the Patreon pack right on top of what this is, where, like, I'll be doing this for you. You can add in that Patreon pack, which will help help give you the, the coaching and the framework and the resources to hand this off to someone if you don't want to go all into this senior pastor budget option, if you just need to stick with your main youth ministry budget, here's what I would recommend.

00:13:22:05 - 00:13:47:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Of all of these things, lean in to the youth ministry budget option because it is $4 a month for the Hybrid Heroes bonus podcast tier, and that nets out to only $48 a year. Four times per year. You're going to get the social pack for free included in your membership. So for $48, you will have a fully locked and loaded social media hybrid strategy.

00:13:47:02 - 00:14:11:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And just as a reminder, that strategy is what led us to to growth in our student ministry. Now, once you start filming and posting your long form, messages to YouTube, that's really where you can start to see the parent rewards and the leader rewards and all of this, as I teased at the beginning, because you're posting your messages to YouTube and so parents can go watch it and see what their kids are learning.

00:14:11:08 - 00:14:36:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's a great tool and resource in that regard. And also, leaders like we teach our message on Wednesday, but we also post the film YouTube adaptation to it as well. And so far, our leaders who lead a discussion based off the topic on Sunday morning, they have access to that teaching as well. And both of those are ways in which we've both, found incredible amounts of, like, help and resources to both our parents and our leaders.

00:14:36:11 - 00:15:00:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not no matter which of those options you choose. I want you to know this going hybrid is not the end goal. You know this. The end goal is to make more and better disciples of Jesus. Whatever your mission statement is, I hope it's rooted and tied to the great commission of Jesus. And this hybrid strategy is simply a strategy that sits inside this great commission from Jesus.

00:15:00:06 - 00:15:12:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so keep doing great youth ministry. Keep doing what you're doing, and if this can help you, I hope that it does. And I want you to know I'm rooting for you. So don't forget my friends. And as always, stay hybrid.

]]> In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, I share how our youth group doubled in just 3 years using simple hybrid ministry strategies that any youth pastor can apply. You’ll learn practical tips for increasing youth group attendance, retaining volunteers, engaging parents, and building a student ministry that makes more and better disciples of Jesus. Whether you’re leading a small church youth group or looking for big youth ministry ideas on a budget, these proven hybrid ministry strategies for youth pastors will help your ministry grow.

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/166

//STUDIO TOUR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVT1xvh9-5k

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

YOUTH PASTOR BUDGET
🍂 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 HEROS GET THE PACK FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

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

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

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

--------------
🎉 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 We Experienced 2x Growth using this!
02:01 How we got here - The Hybrid History
07:00 The Intern Budget Option
08:12 The Youth Pastor Budget Option
10:57 The Senior Pastor Budget Option

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I posted this way and

00:00:01:23 - 00:00:03:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this often for the last

00:00:03:06 - 00:00:04:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
three years. And here's

00:00:04:13 - 00:00:34:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
what happened on YouTube alone. We've had over 6000 views, 4000 plus hours of watch time, and over 900 subscribers. That's awesome success online. However, it doesn't just stop there. We've experienced 100.6% growth in our youth ministry in that exact same amount of time while we've been posting like, okay, here's a good news I am real life boots on the ground youth pastor.

00:00:34:01 - 00:01:02:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I also have to do things just like you like write a message, recruit volunteers, meet with my senior pastor as well as dream up, create, and post on social media regularly. Now if you do this, I will say that you'll experience 100.6% growth. But there are many additional benefits to this strategy. Things like attendance obviously being one of them.

00:01:02:22 - 00:01:23:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But you'll also see an uptick in student ministry volunteers, an uptick in your parent ministry. It can increase your leader, retention, and you'll have the ability to lean into your true calling as a pastor, where you get the opportunity to equip the saints for the works and acts of service, which actually we talked about in my last video linked right here.

00:01:23:18 - 00:01:44:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And here's the thing. I can help you do it. I have three different tiers of help available. Like if you're on the intern budget, I can give you completely free rundown version. If you're on the youth pastor budget for less than $6 a month, I have an option for you there as well. Or if you have the Senior Pastor Cadillac option, I'll do it for you.

00:01:44:08 - 00:02:08:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is where the parent and the leader piece really comes into play in that final option. Don't forget there are some chapters listed down below so that you can jump ahead to the part of this episode that makes the most sense to you. Welcome my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. So I've been on staff here at this church exactly three years and in the exact same amount of time.

00:02:08:23 - 00:02:31:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just like I said in the intro, we've been posting with this rhythm. In fact, when we started, we were posting all of our long form messages to YouTube and we were doing so with just a cell phone camera. In fact, as soon as I moved here, I bought the brand new Google Pixel nine Plus Pro so that I could use it for social media and for its its camera purposes.

00:02:31:15 - 00:02:59:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They were telling me at the time that it was the best phone on the market, and so we were using it. And that was our that was our primary avenue. Bought a couple of different like microphone options to pair with the camera. And that was it. That's all we had and that's all we used. And so we would post not only long form YouTube messages, but also all of our short form content, which, speaking of short form content, we were posting three times per day on social media.

00:02:59:03 - 00:03:34:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My goal at the time was aggressive growth, and I had just moved here from Chicago. And I had just, you know, for the previous about six months or so, been kind of dabbling in the tick tock Instagram Reels realm and was learning that three times a day was aggressive. But it also, you had more bites at the apple for an opportunity to be seen, you know, at the time, the kind of go on on those platforms TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube shorts was get as many bites at the apple so that you have more chances to be discovered, to be seen, and then to go viral.

00:03:35:00 - 00:03:54:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This my strategy has since shifted a little bit. And, you know, of course we'll get into that. But then we were filming any of these pieces of content just in and around our space. So in offices or in like the lobby or like even just main on the street, like anywhere we found any of our other, like, staff.

00:03:54:21 - 00:04:18:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But eventually we built a full studio, which is actually the room I am sitting in right now. And over time, we've progressively spent more on gear and on set design and budget for it. But to start, it was a pretty basic studio build. We spent a little bit on paint and, you know, some wall treatment type options and some tchotchkes for shelves.

00:04:18:19 - 00:04:38:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And that was it. I will actually post full, tour studio link down below if you're interested in that, along with much of the gear that we use for that. But I would say one of the key shifts was once we had our studio built out, I had a resident shout out to my good friend Caleb Flywheel.

00:04:38:00 - 00:05:01:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Maita, who had this idea, because we were posting long form pieces of content, for all of our messages on YouTube. So that was myself and any, anyone else on staff that was, that was delivering a message that was being posted to YouTube. He wanted to see more students in long form on YouTube. So he created this idea this weekly social challenge.

00:05:01:23 - 00:05:22:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
He would film it on Wednesday night, in long form, in horizontal mode, and then he would edit all day Thursday and post a social challenge by the end of the day Thursday. It was a great idea. It's a great concept, but it was cooking his Thursdays like he never got anything else done except for just working on, you know, social challenge stuff.

00:05:22:20 - 00:05:41:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we eventually, adapted and shifted that strategy to be where we captured the majority and the lion's share of our student based short form content. We would do it in the studio any single time that we met on Wednesday nights. And I've detailed an outline that in previous episodes. So make sure that you subscribe and go back and listen to some of those.

00:05:41:12 - 00:05:59:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's the thing that you might be thinking as you hear this, you might be thinking, this sounds both overwhelming and hard, and I just want to let you know that I have, recently yesterday, a guy on my team came to me and he said, I am over budgeting my time. And as a what do you mean by that?

00:05:59:04 - 00:06:20:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
He said, I'm giving myself like two hour blocks of time and it's not taking quite that long. And right now he is owning the majority of our social media content. I've shifted into a little bit of a new role. I've given him a lot more to do with with editing and posting and what he is saying in his own words, and I would I would echo this to be true.

00:06:20:01 - 00:06:38:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What I've learned is once you learn how to use some of these platforms and some of these programs, it's not as time consuming as you might think it is. The learning curve on the front side might feel steep, but once you get up over that hump, the actual maintenance mode of some of these things isn't as difficult as you think.

00:06:38:17 - 00:06:58:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as I as I outlined in my last episode, you can hand over as much of that as you feel comfortable to your students. So let me share with you the three different tiers of options and solutions I have that you can lean into this hybrid strategy, which for us gave us two growth in a three year period of time.

00:06:58:12 - 00:07:25:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's chat. Let's check it out okay, so you have the intern budget. How do you get started? Well, I would recommend hopping down in the description to grab my 100% completely free e-book. In my original iteration, you heard me say, if you're listening to the contact section of this that I posted three times per day, I've scaled that back, but it's still two times per day, which is still an aggressive growth strategy and mindset.

00:07:25:09 - 00:08:00:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'll just be honest, one of the main reasons that I post that aggressively is because we film enough content that I have enough things to keep my feed going and being posted, but it's a lot of students and it's a lot of leaders, and so a lot of custom content for our student ministry. But I even recommend now, and I've done it and I've seen it in some coaching relationships that I've had that if you post three times a week, if you're starting completely from scratch, it's still a good strategy to lean into from a hybrid ministry standpoint.

00:08:00:08 - 00:08:21:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so link down below is my 100% completely free e-book. And if you want the start from scratch version, if you want the hey only post three times per week, then I recommend this next one, which is the youth pastor budget. And I can get this all for you via my Patreon account and my four seasonal social media pack.

00:08:21:23 - 00:08:39:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey quick break, let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day as a youth pastor, scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall.

00:08:39:03 - 00:09:02:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's why I created this, the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry. Instagram, TikTok and YouTube shorts. See? See? Here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon.

00:09:02:11 - 00:09:22:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And did you know that monthly hybrid hero Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast? They get this pack completely for free. So if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12. Where the pack is 1799. Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting.

00:09:22:20 - 00:09:44:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. So as you just heard, the fall season of Social Media Pack is here. Go grab it. Go download it. It is the youth pastor version of this budget 1799.

00:09:45:03 - 00:10:07:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
However, in and on top of that, if you head over to my Patreon and you become a $4 a month member, you will not only receive that pack for free as a part of that membership, but you'll also then be subscribed to a weekly bonus podcast where I sit down on a microphone every single week and I explain and I outline and I flesh out all that we did.

00:10:07:16 - 00:10:32:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I basically go through our service order, and I talk about one things we could have done to be more creative and things that hit really well, and what we're doing on social media and how we're capturing certain things and all these different things. And so if you pair my bonus podcast with the social media pack, which again, reminder is free if you're a hybrid hero member, all of those things can be used to your advantage.

00:10:32:23 - 00:10:58:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
To get you started in this track of hybrid ministry. Listen, it's not here to help me get rich. It's really just here to help resource you and give you the foundation and the building blocks for what it takes to really, truly lean into a hybrid strategy, which again, as a reminder to our growth in the course of a three year period of time.

00:10:58:11 - 00:11:21:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, in both of those options, they're going to talk to you a lot about the value of your social media platforms. However, the real ultimate goal, I would say, is to find a way to post your weekly messages to YouTube. Now, if you have live streaming capabilities or at least live captioning capabilities, then that's a fantastic strategy. It gets the job done.

00:11:21:22 - 00:11:43:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We, both prefer. And also due to the constraints of not having, you know, camera capabilities in our main meeting room, we film our messages very similar to this direct to camera. We'll use a teleprompter at times and we will post those directly to YouTube. And at this point now we've built up our budget in order to be able to pay for editors to do that.

00:11:43:02 - 00:12:13:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But in the very early iterations, I was the editor. And you can use something like, you know, Adobe Premiere Pro Final Cut Pro, DaVinci resolve, or even something like Cap Cut to get the job done. But once you get a long form, like, posted version to YouTube, this is the senior pastor budget. If you need an editor or if you need someone to do it for you, I can either offer coaching, which is like a, an agreement for a set of time or I can do it for you in my communications.

00:12:13:21 - 00:12:30:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Done for you pack in my free time. Off to the side of me being a real life youth pastor, getting those long form clips is really helpful because then you can use an AI service like Opus Stock Pro to clip them up for you. They're not as good as if a human does them. But again, you're busy.

00:12:30:16 - 00:12:46:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You got things going on and, open Stop Pro is a really reasonable rate to kind of offer to do that. And it really does help flesh out and fill out your strategy, because if your strategy's all bunch of fun and games that you're doing with your students, that's great. Hopefully that's going to hook some viewers in your audience.

00:12:46:06 - 00:13:22:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then you also want to win, or at least, have the algorithm feed them some of your spiritual content as well. And that's where this really comes into play. And you can add the Patreon pack right on top of what this is, where, like, I'll be doing this for you. You can add in that Patreon pack, which will help help give you the, the coaching and the framework and the resources to hand this off to someone if you don't want to go all into this senior pastor budget option, if you just need to stick with your main youth ministry budget, here's what I would recommend.

00:13:22:05 - 00:13:47:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Of all of these things, lean in to the youth ministry budget option because it is $4 a month for the Hybrid Heroes bonus podcast tier, and that nets out to only $48 a year. Four times per year. You're going to get the social pack for free included in your membership. So for $48, you will have a fully locked and loaded social media hybrid strategy.

00:13:47:02 - 00:14:11:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And just as a reminder, that strategy is what led us to to growth in our student ministry. Now, once you start filming and posting your long form, messages to YouTube, that's really where you can start to see the parent rewards and the leader rewards and all of this, as I teased at the beginning, because you're posting your messages to YouTube and so parents can go watch it and see what their kids are learning.

00:14:11:08 - 00:14:36:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's a great tool and resource in that regard. And also, leaders like we teach our message on Wednesday, but we also post the film YouTube adaptation to it as well. And so far, our leaders who lead a discussion based off the topic on Sunday morning, they have access to that teaching as well. And both of those are ways in which we've both, found incredible amounts of, like, help and resources to both our parents and our leaders.

00:14:36:11 - 00:15:00:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not no matter which of those options you choose. I want you to know this going hybrid is not the end goal. You know this. The end goal is to make more and better disciples of Jesus. Whatever your mission statement is, I hope it's rooted and tied to the great commission of Jesus. And this hybrid strategy is simply a strategy that sits inside this great commission from Jesus.

00:15:00:06 - 00:15:12:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so keep doing great youth ministry. Keep doing what you're doing, and if this can help you, I hope that it does. And I want you to know I'm rooting for you. So don't forget my friends. And as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 154: Summer Social Media Mistakes (And How I’m Avoiding Them) https://www.hybridministry.xyz/154 c88d08b1-4f71-4c78-97a7-4e57ba74b1f7 Thu, 19 Jun 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 154 Summer Social Media Mistakes (And How I’m Avoiding Them) full Nick Clason Here’s what usually tanks your social media engagement every summer—and what I’m doing instead. Because posting a blurry pic of your youth group playing dodgeball again is not a strategy. I’ve made all the summer mistakes—so you don’t have to! 8:11 no Here’s what usually tanks your social media engagement every summer—and what I’m doing instead. Because posting a blurry pic of your youth group playing dodgeball again is not a strategy. I’ve made all the summer mistakes—so you don’t have to! ☀️ 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/154 ✅ 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 What is your Social Media Strategy? 00:25 Mistake #1 02:49 Mistake #2 04:18 Mistake #3 05:30 Mistake #4 06:32 The Summer Social Media Pack -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:09 - 00:00:22:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Here's what's probably tanking your engagement on social media this summer, and here's what I'm doing to try and combat that, because posting a blurry dodgeball pic is not really a strategy on social media. In this video, we're going to look at some common social mistakes at youth pastors just like you and just like me tend to make as well as I offer a solution for each and every one of those mistakes. 00:00:22:26 - 00:00:48:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I've been in youth ministry for 15 years, and I have made all of these mistakes. And I want to help you avoid stepping in those pitfalls. So let's hop in to these common social media mistakes. And mistake number one that most youth pastors make in the summer is they go radio silent. 00:00:48:24 - 00:01:12:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry No, the video is not. Pause. I'm just showing you what your social feed might look like, because I know if you're anything like me, you get busy, you got VBS, you got camp, you got missions trips, you got events. One summer I did a kickball event, and I sprained my ankle in front of all of the kids, and I had to literally crawl my way back to the pavilion because I was so hurt. 00:01:12:07 - 00:01:29:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But I was out doing ministry, and I thought to myself, I can't do social media like I'm these are the important things. This is social and this is this is real ministry, social media that can go on the back burner and you need to show up on social media. And here's why. Because our students are showing up on social media. 00:01:29:08 - 00:01:55:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we two in an effort to try and be where they are, we want to show up where they are. And guess what? You don't have to just pull away in your office and create a bunch of content quietly void of interaction with students. No, you can actually create content with students. And if you grab my summer social media pack, it's actually designed to be three posts per week, some of which are just plug and play like you're at the park playing kickball. 00:01:55:25 - 00:02:12:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You're like, oh, I need to post something. Boom. You drop it when the kids get home, they see it. But there's also content that you can create and film with your students, and not just for your students, but since it's with your students, it also ends up being for your students. So mistake number one is go radio silent. 00:02:12:10 - 00:02:46:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The fixes. In my social media pack, I've baked in three posts per week at a minimum. And then if you are downloading anything else, say like you're a dying member and they give you the social pack monthly. You can filter those things in every other week, and you can actually show up every single day, not only with some custom, content, which is what I offer for you, where you or your students are the actual voices and faces on your social media, but you also then have some of this other kind of like done for you content, which will just still kind of give proof of life to everybody else on your social feed. 00:02:46:14 - 00:03:10:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Let's hop in here to mistake number two. So mistake number two is using static done for you posts. Now listen, I get it. I just actually said to do that. But I say do that in compliment to what I'm offering. But actually my my package here allows you to, to use like half done for you. You need these where you don't have to think about it. 00:03:10:22 - 00:03:37:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You forgot. Oh no I'm supposed to post. You pull it open, you post it, maybe you're on the toilet and you get it done. Okay. But other times I actually give you and carve out for you an opportunity to engage with your students, your leaders, for you and your students and your leaders to be the heroes on your social media packs and so like it allows you to to lean into those inside jokes and, and the the culture that exists within your student ministry. 00:03:37:07 - 00:03:56:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I do it all for you. I tell you exactly how to do it. I tell you exactly what to do. So link down below. Go grab it. Go check it out so that you don't just become a random, generic boring like no context for your ministry social media feed, but you actually become one that is, relevant. 00:03:56:00 - 00:04:18:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it's popping and it's it's leaning into what's popular on social media now, which is short form, vertical based video. I'm gonna help you, film some stuff. Reels, TikToks, YouTube shorts, whatever works in your context. But you can use it in your context. You can use what I've created, but then you and your student ministry can actually be the heroes in these, on your feed. 00:04:18:22 - 00:04:37:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Which leads me to mistake number three. Not thinking ahead like, you know, you got camp, you know, you got VBS, you know, you got that mission trip. What are you going to post? You don't have a plan? Then that's what causes you to do. Mistake number one, which is go radio silent or you just part of my French fart. 00:04:37:07 - 00:05:01:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Something out. That's no good, because you're like, I ran out of time. I just got to do something. My pack will help you think ahead. I literally scripted it out. June and then July and then August. Away is mid-June already. No problem. Bump it down. July, August, September. Some of them, like emoji phrases like those are summer guess, themed. 00:05:01:12 - 00:05:20:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But like a lot of the other stuff, like it does not tied directly to a season. Grab it and then hey, guess what? Best news of all coming in the fall. I'm going to be offering a fall social media pack. The same archetypes, the same concepts, but fall themed and fall, base and fall topics for you to lean in. 00:05:20:08 - 00:05:41:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I will help you plan ahead on social media so that you can spend time on the parts of ministry that mean and matter the most to you and your group. Which leads me to my fourth and final mistake that youth pastors tend to make and is forgetting the hybrid strategy we think it's all about in person, and we're all we're fully present. 00:05:41:03 - 00:06:00:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And by the way, you should be fully present. You definitely don't want to get fired, but you also want to show up digitally. You want to show where students are spending most of their time. You know, Pew Research did a study that said 90% of teenagers spend time, meaningful time on YouTube. Why are we not there? Why are we not there? 00:06:00:10 - 00:06:27:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Showing up as youth pastors, as student ministries, answering some of life's hard questions, and I will show you how to do all of that, not only in the summer pack, but hey, guess what? Maybe you don't want to spend any money. Grab my hybrid strategy. God, it is completely free. And it's also linked down below for your convenience, all you gotta do is pop in your name and your email and, hey, maybe, you know, if you want to give some sort of payment to this podcast, a subscribe would be fantastic. 00:06:27:02 - 00:06:44:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It literally costs you nothing, but it does actually help us out quite a bit. Listen, I know this all feels like a big sales pitch, but the fact of the matter is that the key to social media is consistency. And that's what my pack is going to help you do. Maybe by the end of it you don't need me to be consistent on social media. 00:06:44:18 - 00:07:02:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's great. That's the goal. I want you to graduate from this. Maybe you're the type of person that's never going to really lean in hard on social media. That's fine too. Keep coming back. These packs are going to continue to recycle with new content every single season, which is going to be three months worth for you to be able to take and make your own. 00:07:02:22 - 00:07:23:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I want you to win because I want you to take these packs and make your social media come to life with your smiling faces and your students. So like I said, link down below, grab it. And guess what? If you are, interested in this, the best deal, the best value. Honestly, take my money is to become a member. 00:07:23:06 - 00:07:43:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry $4 per month. You get this pack at the, the Hybrid Heroes tier, completely included, as well as a weekly bonus podcast. You know, we just got back from summer camp. I've been talking to my students and talking to all my hybrid. Here's about everything we did at camp. All of the creative elements that we woven to what we're doing. 00:07:43:26 - 00:08:03:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you get that completely for free drops every single Monday. What we're doing in our context, what we're doing in our ministry, a real youth pastor with real boots on the ground experience, helping you lean into the creativity and the hybrid ministry that students so crave. I want to help you, win on social media and win in creativity in your student ministry. 00:08:03:10 - 00:08:09:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Check out the pack or become a member so good that you're here. Don't forget, my friends, as always, to stay hybrid. hybrid ministry, nick clason, youth ministry social media, summer youth ministry, church social media strategy, done for you social media, seasonal content, youth group ideas, church content strategy, youth pastor help, church instagram tips, easy social media, summer ministry ideas, student ministry content, social media for youth pastors, church reels, church tiktok, youth ministry tips, church marketing, youth group engagement, summer ministry mistakes Here’s what usually tanks your social media engagement every summer—and what I’m doing instead. Because posting a blurry pic of your youth group playing dodgeball again is not a strategy.
I’ve made all the summer mistakes—so you don’t have to!

☀️ 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/154

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

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

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

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

BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.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 What is your Social Media Strategy?
00:25 Mistake #1
02:49 Mistake #2
04:18 Mistake #3
05:30 Mistake #4
06:32 The Summer Social Media Pack

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:09 - 00:00:22:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Here's what's probably tanking your engagement on social media this summer, and here's what I'm doing to try and combat that, because posting a blurry dodgeball pic is not really a strategy on social media. In this video, we're going to look at some common social mistakes at youth pastors just like you and just like me tend to make as well as I offer a solution for each and every one of those mistakes.

00:00:22:26 - 00:00:48:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I've been in youth ministry for 15 years, and I have made all of these mistakes. And I want to help you avoid stepping in those pitfalls. So let's hop in to these common social media mistakes. And mistake number one that most youth pastors make in the summer is they go radio silent.

00:00:48:24 - 00:01:12:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
No, the video is not. Pause. I'm just showing you what your social feed might look like, because I know if you're anything like me, you get busy, you got VBS, you got camp, you got missions trips, you got events. One summer I did a kickball event, and I sprained my ankle in front of all of the kids, and I had to literally crawl my way back to the pavilion because I was so hurt.

00:01:12:07 - 00:01:29:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I was out doing ministry, and I thought to myself, I can't do social media like I'm these are the important things. This is social and this is this is real ministry, social media that can go on the back burner and you need to show up on social media. And here's why. Because our students are showing up on social media.

00:01:29:08 - 00:01:55:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we two in an effort to try and be where they are, we want to show up where they are. And guess what? You don't have to just pull away in your office and create a bunch of content quietly void of interaction with students. No, you can actually create content with students. And if you grab my summer social media pack, it's actually designed to be three posts per week, some of which are just plug and play like you're at the park playing kickball.

00:01:55:25 - 00:02:12:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're like, oh, I need to post something. Boom. You drop it when the kids get home, they see it. But there's also content that you can create and film with your students, and not just for your students, but since it's with your students, it also ends up being for your students. So mistake number one is go radio silent.

00:02:12:10 - 00:02:46:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The fixes. In my social media pack, I've baked in three posts per week at a minimum. And then if you are downloading anything else, say like you're a dying member and they give you the social pack monthly. You can filter those things in every other week, and you can actually show up every single day, not only with some custom, content, which is what I offer for you, where you or your students are the actual voices and faces on your social media, but you also then have some of this other kind of like done for you content, which will just still kind of give proof of life to everybody else on your social feed.

00:02:46:14 - 00:03:10:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's hop in here to mistake number two. So mistake number two is using static done for you posts. Now listen, I get it. I just actually said to do that. But I say do that in compliment to what I'm offering. But actually my my package here allows you to, to use like half done for you. You need these where you don't have to think about it.

00:03:10:22 - 00:03:37:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You forgot. Oh no I'm supposed to post. You pull it open, you post it, maybe you're on the toilet and you get it done. Okay. But other times I actually give you and carve out for you an opportunity to engage with your students, your leaders, for you and your students and your leaders to be the heroes on your social media packs and so like it allows you to to lean into those inside jokes and, and the the culture that exists within your student ministry.

00:03:37:07 - 00:03:56:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I do it all for you. I tell you exactly how to do it. I tell you exactly what to do. So link down below. Go grab it. Go check it out so that you don't just become a random, generic boring like no context for your ministry social media feed, but you actually become one that is, relevant.

00:03:56:00 - 00:04:18:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's popping and it's it's leaning into what's popular on social media now, which is short form, vertical based video. I'm gonna help you, film some stuff. Reels, TikToks, YouTube shorts, whatever works in your context. But you can use it in your context. You can use what I've created, but then you and your student ministry can actually be the heroes in these, on your feed.

00:04:18:22 - 00:04:37:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Which leads me to mistake number three. Not thinking ahead like, you know, you got camp, you know, you got VBS, you know, you got that mission trip. What are you going to post? You don't have a plan? Then that's what causes you to do. Mistake number one, which is go radio silent or you just part of my French fart.

00:04:37:07 - 00:05:01:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Something out. That's no good, because you're like, I ran out of time. I just got to do something. My pack will help you think ahead. I literally scripted it out. June and then July and then August. Away is mid-June already. No problem. Bump it down. July, August, September. Some of them, like emoji phrases like those are summer guess, themed.

00:05:01:12 - 00:05:20:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like a lot of the other stuff, like it does not tied directly to a season. Grab it and then hey, guess what? Best news of all coming in the fall. I'm going to be offering a fall social media pack. The same archetypes, the same concepts, but fall themed and fall, base and fall topics for you to lean in.

00:05:20:08 - 00:05:41:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I will help you plan ahead on social media so that you can spend time on the parts of ministry that mean and matter the most to you and your group. Which leads me to my fourth and final mistake that youth pastors tend to make and is forgetting the hybrid strategy we think it's all about in person, and we're all we're fully present.

00:05:41:03 - 00:06:00:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And by the way, you should be fully present. You definitely don't want to get fired, but you also want to show up digitally. You want to show where students are spending most of their time. You know, Pew Research did a study that said 90% of teenagers spend time, meaningful time on YouTube. Why are we not there? Why are we not there?

00:06:00:10 - 00:06:27:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Showing up as youth pastors, as student ministries, answering some of life's hard questions, and I will show you how to do all of that, not only in the summer pack, but hey, guess what? Maybe you don't want to spend any money. Grab my hybrid strategy. God, it is completely free. And it's also linked down below for your convenience, all you gotta do is pop in your name and your email and, hey, maybe, you know, if you want to give some sort of payment to this podcast, a subscribe would be fantastic.

00:06:27:02 - 00:06:44:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It literally costs you nothing, but it does actually help us out quite a bit. Listen, I know this all feels like a big sales pitch, but the fact of the matter is that the key to social media is consistency. And that's what my pack is going to help you do. Maybe by the end of it you don't need me to be consistent on social media.

00:06:44:18 - 00:07:02:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's great. That's the goal. I want you to graduate from this. Maybe you're the type of person that's never going to really lean in hard on social media. That's fine too. Keep coming back. These packs are going to continue to recycle with new content every single season, which is going to be three months worth for you to be able to take and make your own.

00:07:02:22 - 00:07:23:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I want you to win because I want you to take these packs and make your social media come to life with your smiling faces and your students. So like I said, link down below, grab it. And guess what? If you are, interested in this, the best deal, the best value. Honestly, take my money is to become a member.

00:07:23:06 - 00:07:43:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
$4 per month. You get this pack at the, the Hybrid Heroes tier, completely included, as well as a weekly bonus podcast. You know, we just got back from summer camp. I've been talking to my students and talking to all my hybrid. Here's about everything we did at camp. All of the creative elements that we woven to what we're doing.

00:07:43:26 - 00:08:03:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you get that completely for free drops every single Monday. What we're doing in our context, what we're doing in our ministry, a real youth pastor with real boots on the ground experience, helping you lean into the creativity and the hybrid ministry that students so crave. I want to help you, win on social media and win in creativity in your student ministry.

00:08:03:10 - 00:08:09:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Check out the pack or become a member so good that you're here. Don't forget, my friends, as always, to stay hybrid.

]]> Here’s what usually tanks your social media engagement every summer—and what I’m doing instead. Because posting a blurry pic of your youth group playing dodgeball again is not a strategy.
I’ve made all the summer mistakes—so you don’t have to!

☀️ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK
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SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/154

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👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
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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
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BEST DYM RESOURCES
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OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 What is your Social Media Strategy?
00:25 Mistake #1
02:49 Mistake #2
04:18 Mistake #3
05:30 Mistake #4
06:32 The Summer Social Media Pack

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:09 - 00:00:22:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Here's what's probably tanking your engagement on social media this summer, and here's what I'm doing to try and combat that, because posting a blurry dodgeball pic is not really a strategy on social media. In this video, we're going to look at some common social mistakes at youth pastors just like you and just like me tend to make as well as I offer a solution for each and every one of those mistakes.

00:00:22:26 - 00:00:48:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I've been in youth ministry for 15 years, and I have made all of these mistakes. And I want to help you avoid stepping in those pitfalls. So let's hop in to these common social media mistakes. And mistake number one that most youth pastors make in the summer is they go radio silent.

00:00:48:24 - 00:01:12:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
No, the video is not. Pause. I'm just showing you what your social feed might look like, because I know if you're anything like me, you get busy, you got VBS, you got camp, you got missions trips, you got events. One summer I did a kickball event, and I sprained my ankle in front of all of the kids, and I had to literally crawl my way back to the pavilion because I was so hurt.

00:01:12:07 - 00:01:29:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I was out doing ministry, and I thought to myself, I can't do social media like I'm these are the important things. This is social and this is this is real ministry, social media that can go on the back burner and you need to show up on social media. And here's why. Because our students are showing up on social media.

00:01:29:08 - 00:01:55:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we two in an effort to try and be where they are, we want to show up where they are. And guess what? You don't have to just pull away in your office and create a bunch of content quietly void of interaction with students. No, you can actually create content with students. And if you grab my summer social media pack, it's actually designed to be three posts per week, some of which are just plug and play like you're at the park playing kickball.

00:01:55:25 - 00:02:12:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're like, oh, I need to post something. Boom. You drop it when the kids get home, they see it. But there's also content that you can create and film with your students, and not just for your students, but since it's with your students, it also ends up being for your students. So mistake number one is go radio silent.

00:02:12:10 - 00:02:46:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The fixes. In my social media pack, I've baked in three posts per week at a minimum. And then if you are downloading anything else, say like you're a dying member and they give you the social pack monthly. You can filter those things in every other week, and you can actually show up every single day, not only with some custom, content, which is what I offer for you, where you or your students are the actual voices and faces on your social media, but you also then have some of this other kind of like done for you content, which will just still kind of give proof of life to everybody else on your social feed.

00:02:46:14 - 00:03:10:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's hop in here to mistake number two. So mistake number two is using static done for you posts. Now listen, I get it. I just actually said to do that. But I say do that in compliment to what I'm offering. But actually my my package here allows you to, to use like half done for you. You need these where you don't have to think about it.

00:03:10:22 - 00:03:37:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You forgot. Oh no I'm supposed to post. You pull it open, you post it, maybe you're on the toilet and you get it done. Okay. But other times I actually give you and carve out for you an opportunity to engage with your students, your leaders, for you and your students and your leaders to be the heroes on your social media packs and so like it allows you to to lean into those inside jokes and, and the the culture that exists within your student ministry.

00:03:37:07 - 00:03:56:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I do it all for you. I tell you exactly how to do it. I tell you exactly what to do. So link down below. Go grab it. Go check it out so that you don't just become a random, generic boring like no context for your ministry social media feed, but you actually become one that is, relevant.

00:03:56:00 - 00:04:18:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's popping and it's it's leaning into what's popular on social media now, which is short form, vertical based video. I'm gonna help you, film some stuff. Reels, TikToks, YouTube shorts, whatever works in your context. But you can use it in your context. You can use what I've created, but then you and your student ministry can actually be the heroes in these, on your feed.

00:04:18:22 - 00:04:37:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Which leads me to mistake number three. Not thinking ahead like, you know, you got camp, you know, you got VBS, you know, you got that mission trip. What are you going to post? You don't have a plan? Then that's what causes you to do. Mistake number one, which is go radio silent or you just part of my French fart.

00:04:37:07 - 00:05:01:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Something out. That's no good, because you're like, I ran out of time. I just got to do something. My pack will help you think ahead. I literally scripted it out. June and then July and then August. Away is mid-June already. No problem. Bump it down. July, August, September. Some of them, like emoji phrases like those are summer guess, themed.

00:05:01:12 - 00:05:20:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But like a lot of the other stuff, like it does not tied directly to a season. Grab it and then hey, guess what? Best news of all coming in the fall. I'm going to be offering a fall social media pack. The same archetypes, the same concepts, but fall themed and fall, base and fall topics for you to lean in.

00:05:20:08 - 00:05:41:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I will help you plan ahead on social media so that you can spend time on the parts of ministry that mean and matter the most to you and your group. Which leads me to my fourth and final mistake that youth pastors tend to make and is forgetting the hybrid strategy we think it's all about in person, and we're all we're fully present.

00:05:41:03 - 00:06:00:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And by the way, you should be fully present. You definitely don't want to get fired, but you also want to show up digitally. You want to show where students are spending most of their time. You know, Pew Research did a study that said 90% of teenagers spend time, meaningful time on YouTube. Why are we not there? Why are we not there?

00:06:00:10 - 00:06:27:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Showing up as youth pastors, as student ministries, answering some of life's hard questions, and I will show you how to do all of that, not only in the summer pack, but hey, guess what? Maybe you don't want to spend any money. Grab my hybrid strategy. God, it is completely free. And it's also linked down below for your convenience, all you gotta do is pop in your name and your email and, hey, maybe, you know, if you want to give some sort of payment to this podcast, a subscribe would be fantastic.

00:06:27:02 - 00:06:44:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It literally costs you nothing, but it does actually help us out quite a bit. Listen, I know this all feels like a big sales pitch, but the fact of the matter is that the key to social media is consistency. And that's what my pack is going to help you do. Maybe by the end of it you don't need me to be consistent on social media.

00:06:44:18 - 00:07:02:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's great. That's the goal. I want you to graduate from this. Maybe you're the type of person that's never going to really lean in hard on social media. That's fine too. Keep coming back. These packs are going to continue to recycle with new content every single season, which is going to be three months worth for you to be able to take and make your own.

00:07:02:22 - 00:07:23:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I want you to win because I want you to take these packs and make your social media come to life with your smiling faces and your students. So like I said, link down below, grab it. And guess what? If you are, interested in this, the best deal, the best value. Honestly, take my money is to become a member.

00:07:23:06 - 00:07:43:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
$4 per month. You get this pack at the, the Hybrid Heroes tier, completely included, as well as a weekly bonus podcast. You know, we just got back from summer camp. I've been talking to my students and talking to all my hybrid. Here's about everything we did at camp. All of the creative elements that we woven to what we're doing.

00:07:43:26 - 00:08:03:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you get that completely for free drops every single Monday. What we're doing in our context, what we're doing in our ministry, a real youth pastor with real boots on the ground experience, helping you lean into the creativity and the hybrid ministry that students so crave. I want to help you, win on social media and win in creativity in your student ministry.

00:08:03:10 - 00:08:09:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Check out the pack or become a member so good that you're here. Don't forget, my friends, as always, to stay hybrid.

]]>