web01.fireside.fm Fri, 01 May 2026 21:58:26 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Hybrid Ministry - Episodes Tagged with โ€œYouth Pastorโ€ https://www.hybridministry.xyz/tags/youth%20pastor Thu, 09 Apr 2026 05:00:00 -0500 Hybrid Ministry is complicated and hard. Or is it? How do pastors and youth pastors create a vibrant extension, not replacement, of what's already happening during their weekly church services? To cater in a digital ministry way to an online focused ministry audience. Reaching Millennials, Gen Z and even Gen Alpha is going to require us to rethink some of the ways we do church. Follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick en-us episodic Digital Discipleship made easy Nick Clason Hybrid Ministry is complicated and hard. Or is it? How do pastors and youth pastors create a vibrant extension, not replacement, of what's already happening during their weekly church services? To cater in a digital ministry way to an online focused ministry audience. Reaching Millennials, Gen Z and even Gen Alpha is going to require us to rethink some of the ways we do church. Follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick no Digital, Online Church, Hybrid Ministry, Church, Meta, Gen Z, Millennials, Digital Marketing, Church Marketing, Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Nick Clason, Digital Ministry, Church Social Media, Youth Ministry Social Media, YouTube for Church, YouTube for Youth Ministry, TikTok for Churches, TikTok for Youth Ministry, Instagram for Churches, Instagram for Youth Ministry, Facebook for Church, Facebook for Youth Ministry, Cell Phone Usage at Church Nick Clason nickclason@hybridministry.xyz Episode 196: Lock-Ins: Ministry Gold or Total Disaster? https://www.hybridministry.xyz/196 f5e38c94-7322-4aa4-b0d6-311b9d51f619 Thu, 09 Apr 2026 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 196 Lock-Ins: Ministry Gold or Total Disaster? full Nick Clason Lock-ins... is there a more polarizing youth ministry topic? Should you do them? Are they valuable? Or are they the worst idea ever? In this episode, two youth pastors go head to head, and you get to decide! 20:08 no Lock-ins... is there a more polarizing youth ministry topic? Should you do them? Are they valuable? Or are they the worst idea ever? In this episode, two youth pastors go head to head, and you get to decide! Take Advantage of Andrew's FREE Lock-in Planning Session: https://www.hybridministry.xyz/contact [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link ๐ŸŒธ SPRING SEASONAL SOCIAL PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/spring-seasonal-151263940?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/196 //Lock-In Survival Guide https://www.patreon.com/posts/10-year-veterans-146449370?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&utmsource=copyLink&utmcampaign=postsharecreator&utmcontent=join_link ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 -------------- ๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰ 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 -------------- ๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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 -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00 Pro or Anti Lock-in? 02:16 The Argument Against Lock-ins 05:14 The Busy Youth Workerโ€™s Guide to Social Media 06:12 The Argument For Lock-ins 09:11 What Do You do if Kids donโ€™t like boardgames? 10:56 Are Lock-ins only effective for Middle Schoolers? 12:16 What are the โ€œrisksโ€ vs the โ€œrewardsโ€ of a lock-in? 14:29 Do Lock-ins affect your Sunday morning attendance? 16:43 The Final Argument FOR Lock-ins 18:00 The Final Argument AGAINST Lock-ins 19:09 You decide - who won? -------------- TRANSCRIPT Nick Clason (00:01.102) Well, what is up everybody? Here I am this morning with Andrew and my new friend Ellen. Good morning everyone. How are we doing this morning? Ellen Partridge (00:10.995) Doing good. Nick Clason (00:12.802) Hey, are you guys, do you have coffee yet in your systems or is that long gone? All right, okay. They're doing pretty good, right, Michigan State? Andrew Jansen (00:12.964) Doing fantastic. Ellen Partridge (00:16.771) We're on the first cut. Go Spartans. Yeah, not as good as Michigan, which is a bummer, but... Andrew Jansen (00:23.46) They're doing good. Nick Clason (00:25.73) Mm, yeah. And this will drop after March Madness, so we'll all know. Comment down below, like how Michigan did. know, Michigan State, not Michigan. But I'm excited because today we are debating pro lock-in versus anti lock-in. And based on the two people that you see on your screen here, you can probably already tell who's pro lock-in. Andrew Jansen (00:33.591) it. Nick Clason (00:50.9) and who's anti-lock-in. And so I'm just so excited for you guys to get to, not only get to know these two amazing people, but also hear their positions on this. And so by random draw that happened off screen that you're gonna have to trust me because I'm a pastor and I get paid to tell the truth. Ellen, you get to go first. So one minute on the clock for you. Just introduce yourself, help the people understand your context, where you're at, how long you've been in ministry, all these types of things. Ellen, are you ready? Ellen Partridge (01:18.751) Absolutely. I'm ready. Nick Clason (01:21.58) Alright, take it away. Ellen Partridge (01:23.455) All right, everyone, my name is Ellen Partridge. I serve as the central pastor of students at Thornton Apple Valley Church. We are centralized out of Hastings at Michigan, southwest Michigan. And we are a multi-site church, but I've been in ministry for very close to two decades now. And we're in a rural context and a multi-site context. So things are a little bit different for us versus just the single site. And when I think about lock-ins, the thing that always comes to mind is the Halt analogy. If you're hungry, if you're angry, if you're tired, what are the things you shouldn't do, which is make decisions. And so we're gonna put students in a room where they are locked in together. You got the ones who, I have a kid in my youth ministry who at camp asked me if I could move our bedtime up to 9 p.m. I let him know that wasn't a thing, but you've got those kind of kids, and then you've got the kids who have snuck in. all their energy drinks and are going to be up till four in the morning. And those kids that are up are going to be picking on the kids that don't want to be up, that want to be sleeping. And then you've got a lot of that interpersonal conflict that is going on within that. And you're putting that all into a giant space where you're having to entertain them and or keep track of them as they are, you know, coming up with all of these grand ideas of how they're going to use their time. And I remember back to my youth group days, our youth ministry actually met in a old YMCA building, and for some reason, they did not lock the doors to the locker rooms, and then that locker room led to a empty pool. And I can't confirm or deny if there were children conceived in that pool, but there probably were. And it was coming from opportunities where we did lock-ins and they let us all throughout this building with lots of classrooms, lots of spaces that should have been locked that were not. And so from that perspective of hungry, angry, tired, lack of ability to, you know, keep an eye on all the students and all the places, I am very anti-lock-in. Nick Clason (03:43.896) Well, there you go. Andrew, she blew past introductions just straight into arguments. Brother, she's coming for you, right? Like she is coming in hot. So, Ellen, great argument. Man, I hope no students, babies were conceived in that pool. I don't ever want to swim there. Andrew. Andrew Jansen (03:49.24) yeah, just right past it. Yeah, she went right past it and that's okay. She's coming in hot, yeah, for sure. It's okay. Ellen Partridge (04:10.12) Me too. Andrew Jansen (04:12.365) Yeah, it's gross. Nick Clason (04:13.838) Tell us why Ellen's wrong and why lock-ins are a great idea. But first, give us a little bit of intro as you go. Are you ready, my friend? Let's go, take it away. Andrew Jansen (04:28.345) ready. Yeah, hit it. My name is Andrew Janssen. I am a middle school pastor in Manhattan, Kansas. Sorry, a couple years ago, we did play Michigan State and I know you probably knew that but we have nothing to talk about sports wise, hardly at all right now. So that's okay. But I love K State. I love serving in Manhattan. I am 36 years old. I've been a youth pastor for 10 years and I really love getting to be in Manhattan, getting to work with college students that invest in middle schoolers. That's kind of my passion. And man, I love lock-ins. just, it works within the context of our church is about 1900 people and we work with multi buildings on our campus, but not multi-site, but. It is just set up in a really easy way to execute and make lock-ins happen. And especially in our season right now where we have, and it changes, we have college students that graduate, but we have like 17, 18 youth coaches right now. And a lot of them enjoy staying up super late. And so it just really worked in this season to be able to have enough people there for a safe lock-in to happen. Middle schoolers are crazy and love staying up all night, love getting to be like, you can be at the church besides Sunday and Wednesday. And just, it was just really, really awesome. We did a New Year's Eve lock in and they just have so much fun. There's opportunities for fellowship, board games, long extended times that maybe you don't get that opportunity to play through an entire game of exploding kittens or taco cat. Mahomes cheese pizza, not taco cat goat cheese pizza. We all know Mahomes is the goat. But we play taco cat Mahomes cheese pizza and you get through two rounds and it's time for youth group to start. So we get to play through those games, have those conversations and invest in the students moving forward. Nick Clason (06:40.494) Great. All right, well there you have it. Like there's, each of you have laid down the gauntlet with your position, right? Andrews is based upon board games. Ellen's is based upon pools being present. And so with those two things in mind, plus everything else, do either of you have a question for the other that we can debate in a little bit more of an open forum? Andrew Jansen (06:55.097) You Ellen Partridge (07:10.974) All Andrea, I got one for you. So what do you do with the kids who are not your board game kids? What are your other activities that you're able to do? Because it sounds like you're pretty board game heavy. So how are you keeping the other kids occupied that are not interested in your board games? Andrew Jansen (07:27.929) Absolutely. I have, I try to make sure that every single second is accounted for at a lock-in. We have intentional time where it's like, they get to choose. We have our youth building has like carpet ball, foosball, ping pong. We have not a Nintendo switch too, but two Nintendo switches, which is kind of confusing, definitely. But so we have like Mario Kart and Smash Bros going. Nick Clason (07:49.902) That could be confusing, Andrew Jansen (07:56.882) I really try to get them away from screens as much as I can because we all know that battle. yeah, trying to have every single second with like some sort of activity, some sort of competition tournament. The last time I was on with Nick, we talked about the Assassin's like meta ongoing game that happens throughout the evening and having things like that where there isn't an opportunity to be bored. really, really is effective with middle schoolers. Because once you were right, once they're bored and exploring and they find a pool and we know what happens next, like there's just something about an empty pool. So, but with middle schoolers, that's not so much like the sneaking off and having that happen. I think that's more of a high school situation, but I just try to make sure every single second is accounted for. And that kind of helps with, you know, not having that boredom. board game time for the students that don't like board games. Ellen Partridge (08:57.362) And notice you keep saying middle school. You're not mentioning high school. So are you saying that lock-ins are only good for middle school or would you do one with high school? Nick Clason (09:06.072) Good question. Andrew Jansen (09:06.325) I would, that is a great question. I would do a, I would do a high school lock in for sure. I think that you do run that risk. They are a little bit more like, I can kind of put on the dad voice like the, Hey, what are you doing? And they'll just like freeze as a middle schooler. They still, you know, we'll listen to authority when it yells at them. So with high school, they're kind of a little bit more independent, a little bit more calloused and a little bit more. Like on their own I consider I always use this analogy of like middle schoolers are like dogs and high schoolers are like cats Like dogs are just happy that you're there and happy that you see them high schoolers. You kind of have to earn that relational like equity and I would say yes have a lock-in with high schoolers, but only do it if you have the resources and the adult volunteers and also if you're like this group is just like, this is a crazy group of high schoolers. It's not always a green light for that specific group of high schoolers if you just feel like that wouldn't be good. Does that make sense? Ellen Partridge (10:16.934) Yeah, it's good argument. Nick Clason (10:18.464) Andrew, you got a question for Ellen? Andrew Jansen (10:22.763) Yes, what do you feel is, like, I want you to tell me what is the, like, risk reward trade off where you feel like, hey, this is too risky to have a lock in for this type of reward. Ellen Partridge (10:35.422) Mmm. Ellen Partridge (10:45.35) Yeah, it's a great question. I would just say I'm a big fan of like doing late night activities, hanging out super late. The thing that gets me and where I feel like the risk comes in is once you hit that one, two, three, four a.m. that even, and you mentioned that you've got college leaders. I don't live in a college town and so I mostly have adult leaders. And so for me, I know my adult leaders are not gonna be on their A game coming into that situation. And so for me, the risk in my context is a lot higher that my leaders are gonna start maybe losing their minds or going stir crazy or sleep deprivation is gonna kick in. And it's gonna lead to students, because they're curious, ending up doing things that they don't need to do. And so for me, I would rather do a thing where it's like, hey, we're hanging out till midnight. Your parents are picking you up. and then maybe we do something again the next morning because then I know they're getting sleep, my leaders are getting sleep, and it also means that I'm not putting them at risk, I'm not putting my leaders at risk. And so for me, there doesn't seem to be necessarily, yes, there's the connection reward, but I wonder if that's always overshadowed by the sleep deprivation, the angry, hangry situations that can come up and also, I worry for my adult leaders that they're gonna say something out of their own sleep deprivation or frustration after telling the same kid eight times not to do something, that it may end up ultimately hurting a relationship that was good, and then they make a good relationship with someone that they had a bad relationship with, and so you're kind of at a net zero, is kind of how I look at Nick Clason (12:32.078) I just feel like the ultimate fact that like, I would rather sleep in my bed at two o'clock in the morning. Like that's my strongest argument for anti-lock-in. Just shooting straight. Plus I enjoy Saturdays and if I am doing a lock-in, I don't know. Also, Andrew, question for you. Do you ever notice that your Sunday morning attendance is affected post a lock-in weekend? Andrew Jansen (12:32.345) Definitely fair. Andrew Jansen (13:02.165) for sure. I mean, I tell my youth coaches, like, hey, you were just at church for 15 hours. It's OK for you to sleep in. I'll be there because I work there. And students, a lot of times parents will bring them and they might fall asleep or something during a message. Nick Clason (13:04.027) hahahaha Nick Clason (13:13.787) Yeah Yeah. Yeah. Nick Clason (13:28.622) Yeah. Andrew Jansen (13:29.079) Yeah, think it happens. There are definitely repercussions to having a lock-in, but I just think that there's just a lot of... I've seen so many good things and good conversations and relationships start at lock-ins, and it's just with a certain unchurched group of students, it's just an easy invite. It's just an easy win to get them there. Nick Clason (13:45.091) Yeah. Nick Clason (13:50.382) Yeah, which and I hear you like Sunday morning, it's like, okay, like, yeah, they didn't come on Sunday morning, which is like the senior pastor's goal. But like we had a lot more effective and fruitful time than like them sitting through a sermon or whatever, like through the lock-in and you know, the times I have done lock-ins, like it's almost always one of the number one most attended events from friends. Like we get, we would have some of our biggest. Ellen Partridge (14:12.242) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason (14:16.75) numbers and biggest reach, you know, as far as outreach is concerned. So I definitely do see like both sides for sure. So those of you listening, you're about to get your opportunity to vote. Ellen, you went first last time. Andrew, we're gonna put a minute on the clock now for you. Give us your final one minute strongest argument why Y lock-ins. Are you ready, my friend? Take it away. Ellen Partridge (14:30.173) All right. Andrew Jansen (14:42.008) I'm ready. Lock-ins are definitely the easiest first step in the door with a church. If you have the right resources, if you have the right volunteers, and you have a solid game plan going into it, you know your group of students. I think middle school or high school, it is an easy invite for the unchurched students. And that is kind of the lens in which I plan a lock-in. I don't have the whole bait and switch. Like we're going to talk to them about Jesus Christ, their Lord and savior first thing, and then just have the rest of the lock in. It is, hey, building connections, being intentional and teaching the students. That's why we're doing this. Like, Hey, we're doing this so you can bring that friend, start that relationship. And so that they associate church with fun, with safe, with They feel welcome and feel like they belong. There's something different happening here. And our hope is that continues on. Nick Clason (15:47.81) Great, almost a buzzer beater, but not quite. All right, Ellen, you get the final word, final say, anti-lock-in. Go ahead, take it away. Andrew Jansen (15:50.839) Almost. Ellen Partridge (16:00.572) All right, as fun as lock-ins can be in the memories that are made, the risk of students having bad memories, whether it's a leader who loses their cool, it's another student who says something they wouldn't have said because they're sleep deprived or because they're overtired, to me just doesn't equate to the reward. I am much more on the side of let's do a long. evening event where maybe we can start at six or seven and parents are picking up at midnight. So we're still getting that opportunity to connect with them, to have those great conversations, to have an opportunity for them to invite their friends. But at the same time, when it hits two, three in the morning, our leaders and our students are home in their beds, getting the sleep and the rest that they need. And hopefully, because they had a great time. We're gonna be able to see them on Sunday morning and they're able to stay plugged into that larger church community opposed from being just separate from the youth ministry. Nick Clason (17:05.023) Nice, nice. Another almost buzzer beater. Well, there you have it, my friends. You have your pro lock-in versus your anti lock-in debate. And so you guys get to be the decision makers. Those of you watching, let us know, comment down below. But without any further ado, we're gonna get out of here. For Andrew and for Ellen, I'm Nick. Thanks for watching everyone. See you next time. youth ministry, youth pastor, church leadership, student ministry, lock-in debate, church events, youth group games, ministry strategy, church growth, outreach ideas, student engagement, youth ministry podcast, church programming, middle school ministry, high school ministry, church safety, volunteer leadership, youth events, church culture, discipleship, student leadership, ministry burnout, church innovation, youth group ideas, Christian leadership, church community, ministry risks, church events planning, youth outreach, faith conversations Lock-ins... is there a more polarizing youth ministry topic?
Should you do them?
Are they valuable?
Or are they the worst idea ever?

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

Take Advantage of Andrew's FREE Lock-in Planning Session:
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SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/196

//Lock-In Survival Guide
https://www.patreon.com/posts/10-year-veterans-146449370?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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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๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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
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//HYBRID MINISTRY MEGA GUIDE
Everything I've ever learned in one blog post [FOR FREE!]
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--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Pro or Anti Lock-in?
02:16 The Argument Against Lock-ins
05:14 The Busy Youth Workerโ€™s Guide to Social Media
06:12 The Argument For Lock-ins
09:11 What Do You do if Kids donโ€™t like boardgames?
10:56 Are Lock-ins only effective for Middle Schoolers?
12:16 What are the โ€œrisksโ€ vs the โ€œrewardsโ€ of a lock-in?
14:29 Do Lock-ins affect your Sunday morning attendance?
16:43 The Final Argument FOR Lock-ins
18:00 The Final Argument AGAINST Lock-ins
19:09 You decide - who won?

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

Ellen Partridge (00:10.995)
Doing good.

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

Andrew Jansen (00:12.964)
Doing fantastic.

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

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

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

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

Andrew Jansen (00:33.591)
it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellen Partridge (04:10.12)
Me too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Andrew Jansen (06:55.097)
You

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nick Clason (09:06.072)
Good question.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellen Partridge (10:35.422)
Mmm.

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

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

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

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

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

Andrew Jansen (12:32.345)
Definitely fair.

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

Nick Clason (13:04.027)
hahahaha

Nick Clason (13:13.787)
Yeah

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:28.622)
Yeah.

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

Nick Clason (13:45.091)
Yeah.

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

Ellen Partridge (14:12.242)
Mm-hmm.

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

Ellen Partridge (14:30.173)
All right.

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

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

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

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

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

Andrew Jansen (15:50.839)
Almost.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Pro or Anti Lock-in?
02:16 The Argument Against Lock-ins
05:14 The Busy Youth Workerโ€™s Guide to Social Media
06:12 The Argument For Lock-ins
09:11 What Do You do if Kids donโ€™t like boardgames?
10:56 Are Lock-ins only effective for Middle Schoolers?
12:16 What are the โ€œrisksโ€ vs the โ€œrewardsโ€ of a lock-in?
14:29 Do Lock-ins affect your Sunday morning attendance?
16:43 The Final Argument FOR Lock-ins
18:00 The Final Argument AGAINST Lock-ins
19:09 You decide - who won?

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

Ellen Partridge (00:10.995)
Doing good.

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

Andrew Jansen (00:12.964)
Doing fantastic.

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

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

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

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

Andrew Jansen (00:33.591)
it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellen Partridge (04:10.12)
Me too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Andrew Jansen (06:55.097)
You

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nick Clason (09:06.072)
Good question.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellen Partridge (10:35.422)
Mmm.

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

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

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

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

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

Andrew Jansen (12:32.345)
Definitely fair.

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

Nick Clason (13:04.027)
hahahaha

Nick Clason (13:13.787)
Yeah

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:28.622)
Yeah.

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

Nick Clason (13:45.091)
Yeah.

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

Ellen Partridge (14:12.242)
Mm-hmm.

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

Ellen Partridge (14:30.173)
All right.

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

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

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

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

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

Andrew Jansen (15:50.839)
Almost.

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

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

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

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

]]> Episode 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 ๐ŸŒธ 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 ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 -------------- ๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰ 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 -------------- ๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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 -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ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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Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/195

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--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ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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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ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 <p>Small Group Leaders are the life-blood of any good student ministry. </p> <p>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?</p> <p>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!</p> <p>[FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;utm_content=join_link" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;amp;utm_content=join_link</a></p> <p>๐ŸŒธ SPRING SEASONAL SOCIAL PACK<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/spring-seasonal-151263940?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;utm_content=join_link" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/spring-seasonal-151263940?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;amp;utm_content=join_link</a></p> <p><strong>SHOW NOTES</strong><br> Shownotes &amp; Transcripts<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/194" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/194</a></p> <p>//LINKS<br> DYM Facebook Group<br> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/DYMCommunity" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/groups/DYMCommunity</a></p> <p>๐Ÿ‘‰ STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK<br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰</strong><br> We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!<br> The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!<br> <a href="https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em><br> //VIDIQ<br> <a href="https://vidiq.com/hybrid" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://vidiq.com/hybrid</a></p> <p>//BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755</a></p> <p>//OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//HYBRID MINISTRY MEGA GUIDE<br> Everything I've ever learned in one blog post [FOR FREE!]<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-ministry-151264417?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;utm_content=join_link" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-ministry-151264417?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;amp;utm_content=join_link</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00 The Same or Different Small Group Leaders<br> 02:33 Meet Stephen<br> 04:25 Meet Isaac<br> 05:25 Students should keep the same leaders<br> 08:02 Students should change to different leaders<br> 10:08 What if a student doesnโ€™t like their leader?<br> 11:56 What about Social Media?<br> 13:05 How do you discern when to move a student?<br> 16:21 How many leaders in each group?<br> 20:08 The Ultimate Small Group Win<br> 22:28 New Leader Every So Often Closing Statement<br> 23:22 Same Leader Every So Often Closing Statement</p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> Nick Clason (00:00.103)<br> 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.</p> <p>Isaac (00:04.782)<br> Hmm.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (00:12.276)<br> You</p> <p>Nick Clason (00:29.009)<br> We're about to put two minutes on the clock. are you ready?</p> <p>Isaac (00:33.026)<br> 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.</p> <p>Nick Clason (00:41.915)<br> during</p> <p>Nick Clason (00:50.235)<br> 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?</p> <p>Isaac (00:52.526)<br> Let's go.</p> <p>Isaac (00:58.254)<br> Hmm.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (01:10.656)<br> Thank</p> <p>Isaac (01:11.534)<br> I have to change all my notes right now.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (01:17.876)<br> Thank</p> <p>Isaac (01:18.178)<br> Yeah, yeah, give me new notes. All right, yep, let's go.</p> <p>Nick Clason (01:21.776)<br> Two minutes on the clock, take it away.</p> <p>Isaac (01:24.654)<br> 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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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</p> <p>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.</p> <p>Nick Clason (03:27.12)<br> Wow, did you rehearse that?</p> <p>Isaac (03:31.49)<br> No.</p> <p>Nick Clason (03:32.39)<br> Strong work, my man. Strong work. Alright, Steven. It's been laid down. Like, the challenge has been issued. Are you ready?</p> <p>Stephen Rose (03:32.788)<br> Thank</p> <p>Stephen Rose (03:42.404)<br> Yes, yes, I'm ready.</p> <p>Nick Clason (03:43.354)<br> 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.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (03:46.548)<br> Internet's not crashing out right now.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (04:07.504)<br> 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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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</p> <p>can keep happening even though we're still looking towards helping them meet more people and grow closer relationships with more people.</p> <p>Nick Clason (06:13.38)<br> 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.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (06:20.041)<br> Hehehehehe</p> <p>Nick Clason (06:40.804)<br> 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.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (06:51.316)<br> Thank</p> <p>Nick Clason (07:10.758)<br> 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.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (07:11.092)<br> Sounds good.</p> <p>Isaac (07:12.627)<br> Okay.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (07:19.216)<br> Yeah, yeah I do.</p> <p>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?</p> <p>Isaac (07:40.396)<br> 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.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (07:45.246)<br> I agree.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (07:55.732)<br> for sure.</p> <p>Isaac (08:07.854)<br> 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</p> <p>Stephen Rose (08:08.049)<br> Mm-hmm.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (08:27.252)<br> Uh-huh.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (08:30.675)<br> Right.</p> <p>Isaac (08:37.59)<br> 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.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (08:44.444)<br> Right. I'm</p> <p>Stephen Rose (08:58.772)<br> Sure. and</p> <p>Nick Clason (09:00.39)<br> 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</p> <p>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?</p> <p>Stephen Rose (09:43.219)<br> 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</p> <p>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...</p> <p>be mature about this and grow in your maturity. I part of that is definitely not being in your favorite spot at all times.</p> <p>Isaac (10:46.552)<br> 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,</p> <p>Nick Clason (10:46.587)<br> Good.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (10:56.372)<br> Mm.</p> <p>Isaac (11:14.926)<br> 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...</p> <p>Stephen Rose (11:29.78)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Isaac (11:42.742)<br> 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.</p> <p>Ultimately, what we are concerned about for you as a student is your growth. Go grow anywhere.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (12:14.045)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason (12:17.776)<br> Good.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (12:18.238)<br> That's good.</p> <p>Isaac (12:19.83)<br> 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?</p> <p>Stephen Rose (12:21.982)<br> Sure.</p> <p>Nick Clason (12:22.638)<br> Yes, yes, go.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (12:39.718)<br> .</p> <p>Stephen Rose (12:47.234)<br> 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,</p> <p>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.</p> <p>Isaac (13:30.51)<br> Sure, yeah.</p> <p>Isaac (13:38.978)<br> 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?</p> <p>Stephen Rose (13:46.608)<br> under underclassmen.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (13:58.579)<br> Yes.</p> <p>Isaac (13:59.648)<br> 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.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (14:16.923)<br> Mm-hmm, right.</p> <p>Nick Clason (14:16.966)<br> Mm-hmm.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (14:22.587)<br> Thank</p> <p>Stephen Rose (14:27.586)<br> Right.</p> <p>Isaac (14:27.84)<br> 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.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (14:32.35)<br> Thank you.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (14:37.765)<br> So.</p> <p>Right.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (14:46.388)<br> you</p> <p>Yes. Right.</p> <p>Nick Clason (14:57.05)<br> 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.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (15:17.416)<br> Hey.</p> <p>Nick Clason (15:24.462)<br> 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</p> <p>Stephen Rose (15:30.42)<br> That's how you do it. Okay.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (15:53.716)<br> 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.</p> <p>Nick Clason (15:54.694)<br> 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.</p> <p>Isaac (16:08.684)<br> Yeah, I love that. Steven, did you have any other questions?</p> <p>Stephen Rose (16:23.832)<br> 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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>Isaac (17:12.408)<br> 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?</p> <p>Stephen Rose (17:20.83)<br> But.</p> <p>Isaac (17:41.448)<br> 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.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (17:46.484)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Isaac (18:09.998)<br> 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</p> <p>Nick Clason (18:25.51)<br> .</p> <p>Stephen Rose (18:30.04)<br> Right.</p> <p>Nick Clason (18:33.03)<br> you</p> <p>Isaac (18:37.986)<br> Give me the one year intentional disciple.</p> <p>Nick Clason (18:38.34)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (18:39.572)<br> Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha</p> <p>Nick Clason (18:42.166)<br> 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</p> <p>Isaac (19:03.661)<br> Yeah, yeah. And he's a Cavs fan. Yeah, this is great. We love each other. We're best friends now. Thank you, Nick.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (19:07.704)<br> Hey, I know</p> <p>Nick Clason (19:09.51)<br> 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.</p> <p>Stephen Rose (19:36.663)<br> Yep.</p> <p>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,</p> <p>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.</p> <p>Nick Clason (20:36.282)<br> Nice, good job. All right, Isaac, one minute on the clock. Take it away.</p> <p>Isaac (20:43.66)<br> 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</p> <p>Stephen Rose (21:07.284)<br> You you</p> <p>Isaac (21:12.498)<br> 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</p> <p>Nick Clason (21:38.15)<br> Nice, strong work, both of you. </p> 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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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ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 doesnโ€™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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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ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 doesnโ€™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 192: Hybrid Ministry Masterclass- Tools, Systems, and Real Results for Youth Pastors https://www.hybridministry.xyz/192 fffb87fc-797b-4d68-a3ad-e1f613893755 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 192 Hybrid Ministry Masterclass- Tools, Systems, and Real Results for Youth Pastors full Nick Clason This episode, quite literally, has it all! Every strategy, every freebie, every way to implement hybrid into your ministry. It's horrible for me, because I'm giving away anything and everything I've ever created! 35:26 no <p>This episode, quite literally, has it all!<br> Every strategy, every freebie, every way to implement hybrid into your ministry.</p> <p>It's horrible for me, because I'm giving away anything and everything I've ever created!</p> <p>MEGA EPISODE GUIDE - Product &amp; Freebie Links<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-ministry-151264417?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;utm_content=join_link" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-ministry-151264417?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;amp;utm_content=join_link</a></p> <p><strong>SHOW NOTES</strong><br> Shownotes &amp; Transcripts<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/192" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/192</a></p> <p>๐ŸŒธ SPRING SEASONAL SOCIAL PACK<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/spring-seasonal-151263940?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;utm_content=join_link" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/spring-seasonal-151263940?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;amp;utm_content=join_link</a></p> <p>YEAR-LONG SOCIAL PACK<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/collection/1470781?view=expanded" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/collection/1470781?view=expanded</a></p> <p>HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE!<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry</a></p> <p>FREE EBOOK<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;utm_content=join_link" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&amp;amp;utm_source=copyLink&amp;amp;utm_campaign=postshare_creator&amp;amp;utm_content=join_link</a></p> <p>๐Ÿ‘‰ STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK<br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰</strong><br> We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!<br> The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!<br> <a href="https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em><br> //VIDIQ<br> <a href="https://vidiq.com/hybrid" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://vidiq.com/hybrid</a></p> <p>//BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755</a></p> <p>//OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00 Act 1 - The Problem<br> 02:40 Act 2 - The Analytics - How it REALLY works<br> 07:44 Act 3 - The Hybrid Framework<br> 16:48 Act 4 - The Execution Layer<br> 17:13 Microphones &amp; Cameras<br> 23:35 Software Recommendations<br> 26:39 Social Team Construction<br> 28:11 Act 5 - The Vision Layer<br> 30:36 Act 6 - I Can Help!</p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:13:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> As a person on church ministry, you have a slew of responsibility. You need to be a shepherd. You need to be an administrator. You need to be an evangelist. You need to be a disciple maker. And sometimes you need</p> <p>00:00:13:14 - 00:00:15:22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> to be a social media strategist.</p> <p>00:00:15:25 - 00:00:16:07<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Listen,</p> <p>00:00:16:10 - 00:00:17:05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> you know this.</p> <p>00:00:17:07 - 00:00:20:05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Not everyone can be good at everything.</p> <p>00:00:20:05 - 00:00:21:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> just recently,</p> <p>00:00:21:04 - 00:00:22:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> someone in the DYM</p> <p>00:00:22:16 - 00:00:27:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Facebook group asked like social media gurus, where are you at? I want to start up ticking my engagement</p> <p>00:00:27:27 - 00:00:30:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I probably see that question</p> <p>00:00:30:03 - 00:00:31:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> once a month</p> <p>00:00:31:00 - 00:00:33:29<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> just like you get curriculum to help you teach, just like you get</p> <p>00:00:33:29 - 00:00:36:19<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> calendar apps to help you stay organized, and you have</p> <p>00:00:36:19 - 00:00:38:05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> books to help you learn.</p> <p>00:00:38:05 - 00:00:43:05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> With so many different tools on the market, how do you know what you can actually trust? You know,</p> <p>00:00:43:08 - 00:00:52:23<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I've been leading a youth ministry leader cohort, specifically down a deep dive topic of hybrid ministry, and at the beginning</p> <p>00:00:52:29 - 00:01:04:23<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> of the cohort, it's an eight week experience at the beginning. I have people map out the next month of social media content, and every week when we circle back, we evaluate how did the last week go?</p> <p>00:01:05:00 - 00:01:11:23<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And without fail, they say I had my plans or the plans laid out, but I didn't do it because</p> <p>00:01:11:25 - 00:01:27:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> a meeting came up. Because this thing happened, because I got busy, because the weather canceled our services and I was focused and forced to do other things responsibility wise. You see, whatever the reason is why social media falls by the wayside,</p> <p>00:01:27:11 - 00:01:28:08<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> it's not a priority.</p> <p>00:01:28:08 - 00:01:39:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Leadership doesn't see the value of it. You're not creative enough. You need something to help. You need a strategy. And that's what this episode is. This is the mega episode. I've done you a favor,</p> <p>00:01:39:21 - 00:01:43:07<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> in the next several sections of this video, I'm going to share with you</p> <p>00:01:43:07 - 00:01:53:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> the analytics behind my hybrid ministry strategy and my seasonal social Media pack, which is now available and active for the spring season over on Patreon.</p> <p>00:01:53:04 - 00:01:56:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So make sure that you go take a look at that. If there's something that you're interested in.</p> <p>00:01:56:13 - 00:02:07:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And then in act number three, we're going to share with you the hybrid ministry framework. And act number four, I'm going to share with you the execution layer. How do you actually pull this thing together?</p> <p>00:02:07:18 - 00:02:22:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> What gear what software do you need. Act number five is going to be the vision layer. Where can this go if you really choose to double down on it. And then act number six, I'm just going to share with you different ways that I can help along the way. And here's the good news. I've actually shared all of this before.</p> <p>00:02:22:11 - 00:02:44:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> If you're new here, or if you don't want to go through all the various episodes I have, this is almost going to be like a clip show. I have done the hard work of combing through nearly 200 hybrid Ministry episodes to share with you each of these different sections. So we're going to dive in. Let's look first here at the analytics and what's going on behind the scenes.</p> <p>00:02:44:13 - 00:03:00:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> You know, when I released my winter season on Social Media pack, I did a vlog style video where I was at a conference that my my church was hosting. I was hosting it. I was like a stage host for the week, and I wanted to prove that I could post my pack in less than 16 minutes of total time.</p> <p>00:03:00:29 - 00:03:22:06<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Over the course of the week, though, in my pack, I propose you post three times a week. I posted eight times during that week. Every single piece of content that I include in my seasonal social media pack. Spoiler I didn't meet the challenge, but I did learn something valuable and it's that my pack can actually stand up to some of the stressors of everyday life.</p> <p>00:03:22:08 - 00:03:38:28<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> My pack was the schedule, and all I had to do was look at the schedule. It told me exactly what I was most post. I posted it and not less than 16 minutes, but however, I was able to do it in less than 20 minutes. And this right here is the analytic and the deep dive from that week of posting.</p> <p>00:03:38:28 - 00:03:48:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Now I have all different seasons and I just released spring, which means now we're also able to offer a full year of custom and DIY seasonal social media.</p> <p>00:03:48:29 - 00:03:59:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So if you want to look at the four season bundle pack for the entire year of social media, go check it out. But what I'm trying to do in my pack is I'm trying to make you and your church the hero.</p> <p>00:03:59:02 - 00:04:19:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Not just a bunch of standard graphics that every church, any church can post, but graphics that. Yeah, we'll have some of that, but also videos with you and your people, and I'll train you and give you scripts and, and give you video and graphic overlays that you can put on top of videos that you record. Because 90% of the internet's traffic is short form, vertical based video.</p> <p>00:04:19:22 - 00:04:37:01<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so I took that concept, the one that I sell to you and sell to all you pastors, church communications, people all around the world that I stand behind. And I put it to the test, and here were my results from the week. And and it's nothing crazy. We didn't go viral. We didn't get famous off of it.</p> <p>00:04:37:01 - 00:04:54:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> In some cases. We had some really low views. In other cases we had some really high views. So I want to share with you the highest view from the week. I want to share with you the lowest view from the week. I want to share with you a comment from a post that happened during that week, as well as the one the post that got the most amount of likes.</p> <p>00:04:54:27 - 00:05:14:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And I'm going to do that across three different platforms of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. So if you're watching here on YouTube right now, you'll see this graph up here on screen. But the video with the highest views on TikTok was only 235 on our verse Bible verse video 235 views on TikTok. Our lowest one was our transition style video.</p> <p>00:05:14:27 - 00:05:34:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> It only had 38 views over there on TikTok. A comment we got zero comments during the week on TikTok when I did this. And see, that's the that's the the truth. That's the hard and crass reality. Sometimes that's what happens. We also did get 37 likes on our first video. So that video did did do the best on TikTok.</p> <p>00:05:34:19 - 00:05:54:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Now let's switch over to Instagram. I got 471 devotional views on our Devo video, the one that I, the script, I wrote the script, then I copied the script verbatim and I hadn't looked at it in like three months. So I was basically going in code, which is very similar to what you would also be doing if you were to grab my pack and implement it in your own context.</p> <p>00:05:54:28 - 00:06:16:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> We had, 243 views. I was the lowest on our verse post on Instagram. So interestingly, it was our lowest on Instagram was higher than our highest on TikTok. Comments on the Devo we had two different people that left a comment on our on my devotional thing, and I asked for some sort of, hey, leave a leave this emoji in the comments if you need this.</p> <p>00:06:16:00 - 00:06:35:05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And two people did that and then the highest likes was 17 on that same devotional video. And then over on YouTube, check this one out. We had 1081 views on the transition video. We had a comment, I'm sorry, we had 23, our lowest on the verse post on YouTube and then, on the Bible trivia post on YouTube.</p> <p>00:06:35:05 - 00:06:47:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Someone said, I didn't know that, that I didn't know the answer to that last one. Not a chance. That was fun though. Good job. And then we had 28 likes on said Bible trivia. And here's just a couple of things I find interesting.</p> <p>00:06:47:03 - 00:06:59:29<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> The verse post did amazing on TikTok and it struggled on the other two, right? Each platform had a different, higher performer, the verse followed by the diva on Instagram, followed by the transition video on YouTube.</p> <p>00:07:00:02 - 00:07:20:06<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Right. A couple of things. At one point I actually had to reedit and repost some of these because I had made mistakes. But somehow my posted man on the street video, I did it without even sound. The first time around, my Wi-Fi was lagging. It's slowed me down. And right when I was getting ready to hit record at one point, I had to run across the creek to grab my SD card.</p> <p>00:07:20:06 - 00:07:40:14<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> See, even I, the creator of the seasonal social media pack, I ran into the same potential obstacles that you might, and my summary and all that is that that week was far from perfect. But what I did do is I showed up regularly, and when I got busy and I didn't have what I needed to do, I could look back at my calendar and my seasonal social media pack told me exactly what I should do.</p> <p>00:07:40:14 - 00:07:41:24<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so that's the purpose</p> <p>00:07:41:26 - 00:08:06:09<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> of this thing. It is a seasonal social media pack that's more than just static graphics. That helps you develop a team, a volunteer social media, team students, whatever to hand something off to. And it's for the less than the cost of a couple cups of coffee for the month. So now let's move into act three, and this is where we're going to share some best of clips from the Hybrid Ministry show.</p> <p>00:08:06:09 - 00:08:09:16<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I'm going to share with you the Hybrid Ministry Framework.</p> <p>00:08:09:21 - 00:08:39:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> There are kind of three core statistics. There's Gen Z, Gen Alpha. They use their mobile device more than they use any other device combined. Furthermore, 69% of students own a smartphone. But I get this the age of 12, 90%. According to Pew Research use YouTube. But there's a verse in Jeremiah chapter 29 Nov nine 2911. But right before that verse, Jeremiah is having a conversation with God.</p> <p>00:08:39:04 - 00:09:08:22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And here's what God says to Jeremiah. He says you should build homes, planned to stay, plant gardens, eat the foods that they produce, marry and have children, then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply. Do not dwindle away, but you gotta understand the context here, which we don't do for Jeremiah 2011 very often, is that the Israelites are stuck as captives in Babylon, and what God is telling Jeremiah to do is he's saying, stop complaining.</p> <p>00:09:08:22 - 00:09:35:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Stop trying to find a way out. Stop trying to leave. Instead, invest in where you live and digital ministry is not going anywhere. You may not like it. You may not even think it's the most effective. But the majority of millennials, Gen Z, and we can assume Generation Alpha, say that a digital version of church is valuable to them and one that they would lean into, and it doesn't mean that their in-person attendance is going to go away.</p> <p>00:09:35:13 - 00:09:54:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> That's a lot of the fears of us in church leadership is that if we offer a digital component, I'm just going to choose that instead of, coming to church in person, but far from it. We're also seeing in this generation, more than even older generations, that community is so much more important to them. So they don't want to forsake the in-person moments.</p> <p>00:09:54:00 - 00:10:20:07<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so when we take the in-person moments and the best that it has to offer, when we take the digital things and the best it has to offer, and we find that sweet spot right in the middle, we find what I call hybrid ministry. A great example of it is honestly, Home Depot. And think about it like you throw on your new balances and you throw on your cargo shorts on on a Saturday morning, you got a project, and then you go on Home Depot and you don't really have like a agenda, right?</p> <p>00:10:20:07 - 00:10:40:00<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> You're just walking around and you're just kind of like you're taking in the smell of lumber and you're just you're just kind of exploring what the hallways and the aisles of Home Depot have to offer. Other times. And then, like, you don't have time, right? You go online, you make an order so that it's delivered to your doorstep because you don't have time to just live out your full dad mode experience.</p> <p>00:10:40:07 - 00:11:11:24<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But my favorite honestly version to experience Home Depot is while I'm in the store on their app because their app. If you haven't seen it yet, their app shows you where every single thing in their entire store is located. And so that's what I think we should be doing as youth pastors. Finding a way to intersect where teenagers already admitted they're spending their time, not forsaking the good elements of gathering together and community and accountability and all those things, but also leaning into this hybrid sort of moment.</p> <p>00:11:12:00 - 00:11:35:19<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so what I want to do is I want to give you one of the easiest ways to kind of to kind of step foot into this hybrid space. And it's by up picking your social media engagement. Now, here's the thing. A lot of youth pastors, and if you've been following me along on this channel for a while, posts announcements on their feed, just assuming that social media is another announcement platform.</p> <p>00:11:35:19 - 00:11:57:07<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But the reality is that that's not what social media is best made for it. But what it does mean, and what we should be doing, is that we should be intersecting and invading the lives of students on the places that they spend their time, including TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Remember, 90% teenagers say that they use YouTube in the way that they're consuming it.</p> <p>00:11:57:12 - 00:12:19:24<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> for you and for me and for all of us. Like, my, like, general strategy is simply, walking down a funnel of posting short form content, silly content, as well as spiritual content, and hopefully gathering an audience with that and then pushing them to, like a long form version of some more serious content, which is what we do in our youth ministry.</p> <p>00:12:19:24 - 00:12:48:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> We pre film our messages and we adapt them and make them specific for YouTube. You know, we do that versus like a live stream type of thing. As Carrie New study said. This said the challenge is the future is to diversify what you offer online and distinguish it from what you offer in person. So not only is that going to create true options, new love continues on to say, but it will deepen engagement as your in-person and online ministries lean towards what each does best.</p> <p>00:12:48:13 - 00:13:05:28<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And then, beyond. Just like your message content, beyond your weekly sermon, so to speak, that are also going to live online, whether that's live stream, which I would argue is not as good as a pre filmed version, but it's still better than than nothing. You can also lean into things like courses and those types of things.</p> <p>00:13:06:01 - 00:13:19:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Exactly. Should you be posting? I'm glad you guys have three steps for everyone and their social media is is, three steps. Social media checklist. Step number one is make sure that your website is up to date.</p> <p>00:13:19:18 - 00:13:51:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> When you take away social as an avenue for announcements, or when you reduce your amount of stage announcements. There still has to be a full bodied, one stop, robust shop for your church people to fall to. And that also makes what I'm going to recommend here on social, which is the second step here. The second step is you kind of want to become enamored with short reels, TikTok style videos, because when your website is good, you don't have to worry about the information.</p> <p>00:13:51:27 - 00:14:24:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So now you can leave that behind and you can now move ahead towards the era that social is really made for and meant for. And according to video, 90% of the internet's traffic is found on short form vertical based video because every other platform then was trying to catch up and keep up with this brand new one called TikTok shorts, reels, Facebook has them, Instagram has, YouTube has them and even other like places like, Twitter.</p> <p>00:14:24:11 - 00:14:50:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> If you're even on there, it'll it'll be on a video, you'll be watching it again. It'll auto scroll to the next one. First of all, it's video based and it's short and it's quippy and it's fun. But secondly, like I said earlier, it's the discovery era. If you jump on Reels on Instagram, if you jump on your TikTok for you page more than I think 90% of the I believe that's the stat of the videos that you're served are from people that you've never actually even met.</p> <p>00:14:50:22 - 00:15:17:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so that's good news for you and I. As churches and youth ministries, we can get on to other people's for you pages without buying their attention or without having them have to follow or subscribe or or know about our channel. The key is producing good content. And so step one website. Step two start focusing on good shorts, which is why I've created down below my hybrid strategy guide.</p> <p>00:15:17:21 - 00:15:29:15<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> It will not only lay out my plan and what I do in my student ministry, but it will also give you different ideas and types of content that you can use for your social media.</p> <p>00:15:29:15 - 00:15:55:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Hey, real fast. Don't click away. Listen, a couple of months ago, I was running a conference at my church, and I decided that I wanted to see if, while I was in the throes of the busiest week on my calendar to date in the year of 2025, if my seasonal social media pack could have what it takes to actually carry me through and not make it more labor intensive for me to actually keep social media running, but to make it easier on me.</p> <p>00:15:55:14 - 00:16:26:19<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And here, here's what I found out. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a minute. Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social.</p> <p>00:16:26:20 - 00:16:43:22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there.</p> <p>00:16:43:22 - 00:16:47:22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But mine will at least keep you moving in the right direction.</p> <p>00:16:47:27 - 00:17:12:16<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So that's the big picture. That's the strategy. That's the philosophy. Now let's move in here to act four. This is how to do it. It's going to be gear guides and microphone guides and links. And this is going to get a little bit a little bit down in the weeds if you already know those things, softwares and gear and phones and what you need, I'll encourage you to skip past that over to act number five, which is where hybrid ministry can actually take you in the vision layer.</p> <p>00:17:12:19 - 00:17:45:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> If you take my seasonal summer social media pack, which is less than $20, and you download it, you'll realize that as I'm hoping to help youth pastors create custom content that it's going to require at some points in time, a microphone. And what I want to do in this video is I want to show you all of the different array of options that you can use all the way from like budget microphones to the most expensive Cadillac style microphones to these mid tier podcast, but really cool and vibey looking microphones that your students are going to love.</p> <p>00:17:45:16 - 00:18:08:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Because in this episode, we're going to answer the question which mics you use for the content that you're creating in your youth ministry? Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show. What's up everybody? Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. You and I haven't had a chance to meet yet. My name is Nick Klassen, and we're gonna explore microphones and they're really important because actually, right now, this exact audio is coming.</p> <p>00:18:08:27 - 00:18:37:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Me talking directly to my camera on the other side of the room. You can see that so far, of all the audios you heard is the worst style of audio. And we're going to go through budget options as well as all the way up to the most expensive style of options. And you'll notice if you follow my hybrid ministry social media recommendations, that it's going to require you filming some of your own custom content, and that's going to require you to want to have a microphone, because this audio right here is just not doing it.</p> <p>00:18:37:16 - 00:19:06:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So first we're going to look at budget audio. This is my budget audio recommendation. It's one of these Bluetooth style microphones. They are really cheap. They clip on. They are wireless which is nice. And they plug directly in to your phone. You can get these for less than $10. And at a minimum, what this does is the requirement for decent microphone audio is you just want to isolate the audio source away from the video source.</p> <p>00:19:06:10 - 00:19:33:24<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Now this one records directly into the actual video files. So you you like your video and your audio will be immediately linked up, which is good news. But I would say this one here, we're going to call this like the student ministry volunteer microphones. So this one right here is actually one of my newest recommendations. It's the Rode Wireless go to not because I've been against it, but because it's just brand new.</p> <p>00:19:33:24 - 00:19:59:27<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I just got it and so right now I'm actually talking direct into my cell phone camera. And right now I'm talking direct into my Sony ZV one camera, which that, camera is actually also linked down below in the link included in the description. I will call this one like the church intern of microphones, but it's a church intern that actually reads commentaries.</p> <p>00:20:00:00 - 00:20:24:12<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> This pro level microphone is the Sennheiser lavalier system. It is the senior pastor of microphones. It's buttoned up, it's expensive, it's intimidating, and it's very, very serious about what the job needs to be. It is wireless. So you see, I have a pack that I have right here in my pocket. And this wire that's just like clipped on.</p> <p>00:20:24:12 - 00:20:48:05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Then here through my shirt. And then I have a receiver over there on my focus. Right. So this one does require an audio interface and it's not recording directly onto any of the video. So you need to record this separately. You can use something like GarageBand or we use like Adobe Audition. But then you have to link this audio up with the audio from the camera.</p> <p>00:20:48:07 - 00:21:13:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> This microphone right here is the Sennheiser M-k 600. I would call this one if the last one was the senior pastor of microphones. This one is the executive pastor of microphones. It you know, it knows where to aim. And it's going to hit every single time. But you also better know what you're doing. So the pros and cons of this are you do not need pro as you don't need a wireless interface.</p> <p>00:21:13:25 - 00:21:35:18<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I am plugged directly into my Sony camera. A can of course, is you will probably need some sort of adapter as this goes through an audio like one eighth cable inch headphone jack. And so you're going to need some sort of adapter, probably a microphone to usb-C or to lightning to go directly into your phone. The other con, of course, is it's wired okay.</p> <p>00:21:35:18 - 00:21:53:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so like you're going to need, to have like an XLR cable. It's like what you would use for your worship, music or worship department. But you can see some of the pros of it. We'll use this a lot. We've used this almost exclusively, on our man on the Street videos. And so we've bought this, like, microphone flag with, like, our church branded logo in it.</p> <p>00:21:53:22 - 00:22:14:26<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> It's also battery powered with just double A batteries. And so that's easier than trying to remember to plug in something that's like, usb-C or like rechargeable in that way. And here we are back where we started. And these right here are the, podcast style microphones. There's once again, a link down below in the show notes. You can check these out.</p> <p>00:22:14:29 - 00:22:39:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> These microphones are kind of like the youth pastor of microphones. They are professional. They're paid. They're full time. Hopefully you're full time and they're cool looking or like try hard, cool looking. Maybe you're giving it too much. But the fact of the matter is, these much, much to the opposite of the shotgun microphones before I catch almost zero sound bleed.</p> <p>00:22:39:02 - 00:22:58:11<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so for most of our like, we do drafts and we do seven questions here in this room for most of these videos, these microphones do a fantastic job of picking up the audio of the students that are talking directly into it. Not to mention it cuts out some of the exterior wall noise that we were talking about in the last section and in the last clip.</p> <p>00:22:58:17 - 00:23:17:14<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> The cons of these, however, are they once again, they're XLR, so you are going to need like a music microphone. And oftentimes we use two of these. So you're going to need at least a two channel audio interface. We use the focus rate. Scarlett. I et you can check that out once again. Link down below for that in the show notes.</p> <p>00:23:17:16 - 00:23:34:28<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> The con of that of course, is that is going to be an upgraded and an additional cost. And so you'll just have to figure out between this one or the Bluetooth wireless or the Rode Go Wireless two, or the condenser microphone or the lavalier microphone. What microphone is best for you?</p> <p>00:23:35:00 - 00:23:54:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> All right. What about software? If everything that we're promoting you to do is short form, vertical based video, then, you know you're going to have to use and utilize some software. So this isn't a best of clip. This is actually brand new. And, as you're looking here on screen, you might be wondering where these came from.</p> <p>00:23:54:21 - 00:24:28:21<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> This is from my youth ministry leader cohort, that I'm leading deep dive. These are my, suggestions. So the top tier of suggestions are the Adobe Creative Suite, which includes Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci resolve. And those are listed in order of probably, power as well as price. I will put all three of these on the same plane, though, like, you can pretty much do everything in Final Cut or Da Vinci that you would also do in the Adobe Creative Cloud.</p> <p>00:24:28:21 - 00:24:51:06<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so depending on where you're at budget wise, these are the ones that I would recommend. If you have an appetite to learn something that's a little bit more professional and a little bit more powerful, but moving on to the next tier are three different options. I have cap cut, I have in-app editors, and then I have just, the run of the mill iMovie or Windows Movie Maker.</p> <p>00:24:51:06 - 00:25:09:08<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So cap cut, of course, there's a web app and there's also an app for your phone. You can use either of them. And there is a pro version, so you can upgrade a little bit to pay if I'm doing something just quick and short. My favorite editor is either the Instagram Reels, but my real favorite editor is the TikTok editor and then TikTok.</p> <p>00:25:09:15 - 00:25:28:29<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> When you save it, it auto saves a copy of it to your camera roll unless you turn that off in the settings. And so if you're posting to, say, Instagram or YouTube, you go to TikTok first, you edit whatever you want to edit, put whatever captions on you want to put on, and then you post it. And then if you go to the other apps after that, it'll be sitting there in your camera roll.</p> <p>00:25:29:01 - 00:25:47:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And then, iMovie or Windows Movie Maker is probably the bottom of the barrel, but it's also probably free for whatever machine you have, whether you're a mac or windows user. Let me also say another thing. If you have some sort of long form version of your clip, a live stream, or you sit down ahead of time, film, direct camera, opus clip.</p> <p>00:25:47:20 - 00:26:10:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> If you look here, you'll see on my feed all of these ones that are circle, this is my student ministries feed. All of these ones that are circled were all edited by opus clip. I post three of them per week. And so in the seasonal social media pack I recommend a devotional clip. But if you have some sort of long form version of your message that you can upload into a service like opus clip, and if you just scan this QR code that you see here on screen, you can go check out Opus Clip.</p> <p>00:26:10:20 - 00:26:25:29<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> It's free for a while, and then you have a certain number of credits, and when it runs out, then it's an upgrade for about 100 and something dollars per year. And, I've never run out of credits in opus clip and we even share it with another ministry in our church, and we still have enough credits for opus clip.</p> <p>00:26:25:29 - 00:26:38:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> So, that's something that really can help. If you have a long form version of something. If not, then I just recommend you doing a devotional, on your phone, editing it in something like Cap Cut or TikTok and then posting it everywhere.</p> <p>00:26:38:16 - 00:26:56:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> man, on the street transition style videos, drafts, seven questions. Any given night you come into our youth ministry, we're doing one of those four things. Let me just tell you, like once we started walking around with the camera, especially for like man on the street or like transition style videos, the kids came out of the woodwork in their interest level for it.</p> <p>00:26:56:23 - 00:27:21:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> We have seven, I want to say different like serving teams for students. We have welcome team. We have cafe, we have tech team. We have social team, we have photography. We have worship. Maybe that's it. Oh, no. And then we have our table leaders. That's probably like our highest, spiritual bar of of role. The team that people want to be on the most is the social team.</p> <p>00:27:21:10 - 00:27:44:25<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And so we have, like, increased our engagement around student serving because the social team exists. But the real, in my opinion, this role right here, this next role, this is really like the role that has changed everything for me. It's the student editor. So I post ten pieces of content per week. And this is a genuine, real, true, authentic statement.</p> <p>00:27:44:27 - 00:28:09:20<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I don't edit any of it. I'm going to include a checklist for you of roles, of things to do, of what to film all of that. That's over on my Patreon. Once again, that will come with a nominal fee because Patreon doesn't let me give it away for free. However, if you are a hybrid hero, you get that checklist that cost you $0 included in your $4 per month membership Hybrid Heroes tier.</p> <p>00:28:09:22 - 00:28:30:23<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> All right. Now we're going to jump into the vision layer. So you start kind of dialing in social media. Where can this go. Maybe it's pre-recording your messages and creating a library of content on YouTube. Maybe it's creating YouTube playlist courses, maybe it's a weekly podcast and you're using things like Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube. What could this take you?</p> <p>00:28:30:23 - 00:28:38:04<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> What vision do you have for some of this? Let's dive in and check out some of this vision piece. Content.</p> <p>00:28:38:07 - 00:29:14:02<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> From the most conservative parents in your church who would never even imagine letting their kids enter the World Wide Web to all the way to the least restrictive parents who gave their kids a phone and let them have wild access to the internet. YouTube is a great strategy and a great platform for students and school ministry. But if you're anything like me and you work at a church, you look around your youth and you compare it to the auditorium or the main church home that the rest of us or the rest of your, you know, big church is using where your pastor's preaching on Sunday morning and you probably look and think, man, I don't</p> <p>00:29:14:02 - 00:29:55:19<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> have the gear to capture my services and post them on YouTube. And the answer to that is probably unequivocally, 100% accurate. You'll plan your curriculum and then you'll write out your teaching, and then you'll sit down and you'll deliver the message direct to camera, all because you told your time what was going to happen to it. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't counsel students and meet with the senior pastor and plan for your Wednesday night, but if pre filming your messages, if getting the message of Jesus and the message of hope out on the internet, on YouTube is important to you, then you need to determine when you're going to place that, that</p> <p>00:29:55:19 - 00:30:20:13<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> thing on your calendar to do. Does teaching is it required in mandated to be in person? So anything that you might be tempted to turn into a class or a meeting or a workshop or a meet up or an after church, like pizza with the pastor sort of thing. Any one of those that isn't like, relationally charged, I believe.</p> <p>00:30:20:13 - 00:30:34:28<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And even if they are relationally church, we can pivot and reposition the way that we're doing it so that it can be included in a YouTube playlist. However, playlists are basically like free courses on YouTube's platform.</p> <p>00:30:35:01 - 00:30:55:03<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Listen, are you overwhelmed yet? Because it can be overwhelming. It's deep. And just like you have to be, organizational person and administrator, an executive pastor, a shepherd. Now, you're also being asked to be a social media manager. And that's the thing. That's why I have four different tiers of ways that I can help you. Number one, just grab my free e-book.</p> <p>00:30:55:05 - 00:31:21:16<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> You can also check out the seasonal social media pack, for the the three months. Or you can do for the whole year or coaching where I help walk you through it and how to implement some of these things. Or you can just reach out to me directly for coaching and communications done for you. But without any further ado, let's check out the last little bit here of the final, what this could look like and where this could take you in your church and in your ministry.</p> <p>00:31:21:19 - 00:31:40:28<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Can grab my free e-book, but if you get in there and you're like, I don't know what's best for us, and we'll let you know about some custom coaching that I have to offer. My custom coaching is four sessions long. $50 per session will be $200 out of your overall budget, which is absolutely pennies in the in the drop in the bucket in an overall church size budget.</p> <p>00:31:41:00 - 00:32:02:05<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But if you know, even that is too much, reach out. We can make something work. But the reason that custom coaching is important is because every context is different. I can tell you what I'm doing here in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth area, to reach, in my context, Gen Z or young, you know, basically almost done with Gen Z to Gen Alpha.</p> <p>00:32:02:07 - 00:32:29:01<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But and that might be helpful because if you're managing church social media for an overall church, like, well, we're doing is very going to be very cutting edge for, you know, like older Gen Z and even like millennials. But every church and every context and every geographical area is a little bit different. I was recently, coaching another guy and, my typical like strategy, I changed it and tweaked it a little bit for him because he was doing things just a little bit differently.</p> <p>00:32:29:04 - 00:32:46:12<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> His context was a little bit different, and his role was a little bit unique compared to what I typically would tell people to do. And so even I was, you know, thinking through and adjusting my model. And so it's important because everyone in every place is different. And then the final piece is this is like, as I say, all of this.</p> <p>00:32:46:12 - 00:33:01:22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And there's, you know, maybe a minute ago you gave me that sub because you were like, dude, there's just too much to do. And even with some custom coaching, there's still going to be a lot on your plate. You're 100% right. There is are still a lot of work to do, which is what I want to offer to, to some of you.</p> <p>00:33:01:22 - 00:33:25:07<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Might be worth it. Budget wise, communications done for you. It's a service that I offer, and I will run your website. Or I will do graphics and video, or I will run your YouTube and social media. Each of those different buckets and categories is a different price point. Or you can bundle them all together for a different price point link down below to inquire about that.</p> <p>00:33:25:09 - 00:33:45:19<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> But let me just tell you that it is a 10th of the cost of a full time staff person. If you were to hire me and contract me to do communications for you and for your church and for your ministry, because there's so much on your plate and you just you, you want it, but you don't have the time or bandwidth or desire maybe even to learn it.</p> <p>00:33:45:19 - 00:34:01:10<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And I understand that. And at some point it's just worth it, you know, to just get it off of your plate. And if that you're in that zone and you don't want the coaching, you don't want to learn via the e-book, then great. Then check out what I have to offer communications for you. I will do things like inspect your website.</p> <p>00:34:01:10 - 00:34:41:22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> I will optimize your search engine optimization. I will make your website as visitor friendly as possible. If you want to go in the graphics route, I can do graphic design for you. I can do series and events and pre screen and print graphics and all those types of things. Get those pesky jobs off of your plate. And if you want to optimize your church social media, live stream or YouTube prefilled messages, we can, do thumbnails, we can title the video, we can optimize the tags for search engine optimization, create chapters so that people can jump around in your videos, create playlists and online courses, and also create post shorts for your social media.</p> <p>00:34:41:27 - 00:35:02:22<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> Whatever works best and whatever you want done for you. All of it is linked down below in the description or in the show notes. I'd love to have you check those things out, but again, I appreciate you being here. And listen. It is the future of the church is online. It's not only online, but are you. A wide portion of it is.</p> <p>00:35:02:22 - 00:35:26:01<br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry<br> And the fact is, the more capacity and bandwidth that you have to take it there, the more effective I believe you will be to maximize your reach and your influence to continue to pursue reaching people for Jesus, continue to pursue the call and the assignment in which God has placed you, particularly right now in this season. And don't forget, and as always, stay hybrid. </p> hybrid ministry, youth ministry, youth pastor, social media for churches, church social media strategy, youth ministry social media, digital ministry, church communications, ministry content creation, church video strategy, church social media analytics, ministry tools, youth ministry resources, sustainable ministry, ministry burnout, rode wireless go ii, sony zve10, sennheiser mkh 416, shotgun mic for video, church video gear, best mic for churches, adobe premiere pro, final cut pro, davinci resolve, video editing for churches This episode, quite literally, has it all!
Every strategy, every freebie, every way to implement hybrid into your ministry.

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๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
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https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Act 1 - The Problem
02:40 Act 2 - The Analytics - How it REALLY works
07:44 Act 3 - The Hybrid Framework
16:48 Act 4 - The Execution Layer
17:13 Microphones & Cameras
23:35 Software Recommendations
26:39 Social Team Construction
28:11 Act 5 - The Vision Layer
30:36 Act 6 - I Can Help!

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:13:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
As a person on church ministry, you have a slew of responsibility. You need to be a shepherd. You need to be an administrator. You need to be an evangelist. You need to be a disciple maker. And sometimes you need

00:00:13:14 - 00:00:15:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to be a social media strategist.

00:00:15:25 - 00:00:16:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Listen,

00:00:16:10 - 00:00:17:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you know this.

00:00:17:07 - 00:00:20:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not everyone can be good at everything.

00:00:20:05 - 00:00:21:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
just recently,

00:00:21:04 - 00:00:22:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
someone in the DYM

00:00:22:16 - 00:00:27:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Facebook group asked like social media gurus, where are you at? I want to start up ticking my engagement

00:00:27:27 - 00:00:30:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I probably see that question

00:00:30:03 - 00:00:31:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
once a month

00:00:31:00 - 00:00:33:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
just like you get curriculum to help you teach, just like you get

00:00:33:29 - 00:00:36:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
calendar apps to help you stay organized, and you have

00:00:36:19 - 00:00:38:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
books to help you learn.

00:00:38:05 - 00:00:43:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
With so many different tools on the market, how do you know what you can actually trust? You know,

00:00:43:08 - 00:00:52:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I've been leading a youth ministry leader cohort, specifically down a deep dive topic of hybrid ministry, and at the beginning

00:00:52:29 - 00:01:04:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of the cohort, it's an eight week experience at the beginning. I have people map out the next month of social media content, and every week when we circle back, we evaluate how did the last week go?

00:01:05:00 - 00:01:11:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And without fail, they say I had my plans or the plans laid out, but I didn't do it because

00:01:11:25 - 00:01:27:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a meeting came up. Because this thing happened, because I got busy, because the weather canceled our services and I was focused and forced to do other things responsibility wise. You see, whatever the reason is why social media falls by the wayside,

00:01:27:11 - 00:01:28:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it's not a priority.

00:01:28:08 - 00:01:39:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Leadership doesn't see the value of it. You're not creative enough. You need something to help. You need a strategy. And that's what this episode is. This is the mega episode. I've done you a favor,

00:01:39:21 - 00:01:43:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in the next several sections of this video, I'm going to share with you

00:01:43:07 - 00:01:53:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the analytics behind my hybrid ministry strategy and my seasonal social Media pack, which is now available and active for the spring season over on Patreon.

00:01:53:04 - 00:01:56:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So make sure that you go take a look at that. If there's something that you're interested in.

00:01:56:13 - 00:02:07:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then in act number three, we're going to share with you the hybrid ministry framework. And act number four, I'm going to share with you the execution layer. How do you actually pull this thing together?

00:02:07:18 - 00:02:22:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What gear what software do you need. Act number five is going to be the vision layer. Where can this go if you really choose to double down on it. And then act number six, I'm just going to share with you different ways that I can help along the way. And here's the good news. I've actually shared all of this before.

00:02:22:11 - 00:02:44:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're new here, or if you don't want to go through all the various episodes I have, this is almost going to be like a clip show. I have done the hard work of combing through nearly 200 hybrid Ministry episodes to share with you each of these different sections. So we're going to dive in. Let's look first here at the analytics and what's going on behind the scenes.

00:02:44:13 - 00:03:00:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, when I released my winter season on Social Media pack, I did a vlog style video where I was at a conference that my my church was hosting. I was hosting it. I was like a stage host for the week, and I wanted to prove that I could post my pack in less than 16 minutes of total time.

00:03:00:29 - 00:03:22:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Over the course of the week, though, in my pack, I propose you post three times a week. I posted eight times during that week. Every single piece of content that I include in my seasonal social media pack. Spoiler I didn't meet the challenge, but I did learn something valuable and it's that my pack can actually stand up to some of the stressors of everyday life.

00:03:22:08 - 00:03:38:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My pack was the schedule, and all I had to do was look at the schedule. It told me exactly what I was most post. I posted it and not less than 16 minutes, but however, I was able to do it in less than 20 minutes. And this right here is the analytic and the deep dive from that week of posting.

00:03:38:28 - 00:03:48:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now I have all different seasons and I just released spring, which means now we're also able to offer a full year of custom and DIY seasonal social media.

00:03:48:29 - 00:03:59:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you want to look at the four season bundle pack for the entire year of social media, go check it out. But what I'm trying to do in my pack is I'm trying to make you and your church the hero.

00:03:59:02 - 00:04:19:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not just a bunch of standard graphics that every church, any church can post, but graphics that. Yeah, we'll have some of that, but also videos with you and your people, and I'll train you and give you scripts and, and give you video and graphic overlays that you can put on top of videos that you record. Because 90% of the internet's traffic is short form, vertical based video.

00:04:19:22 - 00:04:37:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I took that concept, the one that I sell to you and sell to all you pastors, church communications, people all around the world that I stand behind. And I put it to the test, and here were my results from the week. And and it's nothing crazy. We didn't go viral. We didn't get famous off of it.

00:04:37:01 - 00:04:54:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In some cases. We had some really low views. In other cases we had some really high views. So I want to share with you the highest view from the week. I want to share with you the lowest view from the week. I want to share with you a comment from a post that happened during that week, as well as the one the post that got the most amount of likes.

00:04:54:27 - 00:05:14:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'm going to do that across three different platforms of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. So if you're watching here on YouTube right now, you'll see this graph up here on screen. But the video with the highest views on TikTok was only 235 on our verse Bible verse video 235 views on TikTok. Our lowest one was our transition style video.

00:05:14:27 - 00:05:34:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It only had 38 views over there on TikTok. A comment we got zero comments during the week on TikTok when I did this. And see, that's the that's the the truth. That's the hard and crass reality. Sometimes that's what happens. We also did get 37 likes on our first video. So that video did did do the best on TikTok.

00:05:34:19 - 00:05:54:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now let's switch over to Instagram. I got 471 devotional views on our Devo video, the one that I, the script, I wrote the script, then I copied the script verbatim and I hadn't looked at it in like three months. So I was basically going in code, which is very similar to what you would also be doing if you were to grab my pack and implement it in your own context.

00:05:54:28 - 00:06:16:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We had, 243 views. I was the lowest on our verse post on Instagram. So interestingly, it was our lowest on Instagram was higher than our highest on TikTok. Comments on the Devo we had two different people that left a comment on our on my devotional thing, and I asked for some sort of, hey, leave a leave this emoji in the comments if you need this.

00:06:16:00 - 00:06:35:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And two people did that and then the highest likes was 17 on that same devotional video. And then over on YouTube, check this one out. We had 1081 views on the transition video. We had a comment, I'm sorry, we had 23, our lowest on the verse post on YouTube and then, on the Bible trivia post on YouTube.

00:06:35:05 - 00:06:47:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Someone said, I didn't know that, that I didn't know the answer to that last one. Not a chance. That was fun though. Good job. And then we had 28 likes on said Bible trivia. And here's just a couple of things I find interesting.

00:06:47:03 - 00:06:59:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The verse post did amazing on TikTok and it struggled on the other two, right? Each platform had a different, higher performer, the verse followed by the diva on Instagram, followed by the transition video on YouTube.

00:07:00:02 - 00:07:20:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. A couple of things. At one point I actually had to reedit and repost some of these because I had made mistakes. But somehow my posted man on the street video, I did it without even sound. The first time around, my Wi-Fi was lagging. It's slowed me down. And right when I was getting ready to hit record at one point, I had to run across the creek to grab my SD card.

00:07:20:06 - 00:07:40:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
See, even I, the creator of the seasonal social media pack, I ran into the same potential obstacles that you might, and my summary and all that is that that week was far from perfect. But what I did do is I showed up regularly, and when I got busy and I didn't have what I needed to do, I could look back at my calendar and my seasonal social media pack told me exactly what I should do.

00:07:40:14 - 00:07:41:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's the purpose

00:07:41:26 - 00:08:06:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of this thing. It is a seasonal social media pack that's more than just static graphics. That helps you develop a team, a volunteer social media, team students, whatever to hand something off to. And it's for the less than the cost of a couple cups of coffee for the month. So now let's move into act three, and this is where we're going to share some best of clips from the Hybrid Ministry show.

00:08:06:09 - 00:08:09:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to share with you the Hybrid Ministry Framework.

00:08:09:21 - 00:08:39:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There are kind of three core statistics. There's Gen Z, Gen Alpha. They use their mobile device more than they use any other device combined. Furthermore, 69% of students own a smartphone. But I get this the age of 12, 90%. According to Pew Research use YouTube. But there's a verse in Jeremiah chapter 29 Nov nine 2911. But right before that verse, Jeremiah is having a conversation with God.

00:08:39:04 - 00:09:08:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And here's what God says to Jeremiah. He says you should build homes, planned to stay, plant gardens, eat the foods that they produce, marry and have children, then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply. Do not dwindle away, but you gotta understand the context here, which we don't do for Jeremiah 2011 very often, is that the Israelites are stuck as captives in Babylon, and what God is telling Jeremiah to do is he's saying, stop complaining.

00:09:08:22 - 00:09:35:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Stop trying to find a way out. Stop trying to leave. Instead, invest in where you live and digital ministry is not going anywhere. You may not like it. You may not even think it's the most effective. But the majority of millennials, Gen Z, and we can assume Generation Alpha, say that a digital version of church is valuable to them and one that they would lean into, and it doesn't mean that their in-person attendance is going to go away.

00:09:35:13 - 00:09:54:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a lot of the fears of us in church leadership is that if we offer a digital component, I'm just going to choose that instead of, coming to church in person, but far from it. We're also seeing in this generation, more than even older generations, that community is so much more important to them. So they don't want to forsake the in-person moments.

00:09:54:00 - 00:10:20:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when we take the in-person moments and the best that it has to offer, when we take the digital things and the best it has to offer, and we find that sweet spot right in the middle, we find what I call hybrid ministry. A great example of it is honestly, Home Depot. And think about it like you throw on your new balances and you throw on your cargo shorts on on a Saturday morning, you got a project, and then you go on Home Depot and you don't really have like a agenda, right?

00:10:20:07 - 00:10:40:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're just walking around and you're just kind of like you're taking in the smell of lumber and you're just you're just kind of exploring what the hallways and the aisles of Home Depot have to offer. Other times. And then, like, you don't have time, right? You go online, you make an order so that it's delivered to your doorstep because you don't have time to just live out your full dad mode experience.

00:10:40:07 - 00:11:11:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But my favorite honestly version to experience Home Depot is while I'm in the store on their app because their app. If you haven't seen it yet, their app shows you where every single thing in their entire store is located. And so that's what I think we should be doing as youth pastors. Finding a way to intersect where teenagers already admitted they're spending their time, not forsaking the good elements of gathering together and community and accountability and all those things, but also leaning into this hybrid sort of moment.

00:11:12:00 - 00:11:35:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so what I want to do is I want to give you one of the easiest ways to kind of to kind of step foot into this hybrid space. And it's by up picking your social media engagement. Now, here's the thing. A lot of youth pastors, and if you've been following me along on this channel for a while, posts announcements on their feed, just assuming that social media is another announcement platform.

00:11:35:19 - 00:11:57:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the reality is that that's not what social media is best made for it. But what it does mean, and what we should be doing, is that we should be intersecting and invading the lives of students on the places that they spend their time, including TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Remember, 90% teenagers say that they use YouTube in the way that they're consuming it.

00:11:57:12 - 00:12:19:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
for you and for me and for all of us. Like, my, like, general strategy is simply, walking down a funnel of posting short form content, silly content, as well as spiritual content, and hopefully gathering an audience with that and then pushing them to, like a long form version of some more serious content, which is what we do in our youth ministry.

00:12:19:24 - 00:12:48:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We pre film our messages and we adapt them and make them specific for YouTube. You know, we do that versus like a live stream type of thing. As Carrie New study said. This said the challenge is the future is to diversify what you offer online and distinguish it from what you offer in person. So not only is that going to create true options, new love continues on to say, but it will deepen engagement as your in-person and online ministries lean towards what each does best.

00:12:48:13 - 00:13:05:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, beyond. Just like your message content, beyond your weekly sermon, so to speak, that are also going to live online, whether that's live stream, which I would argue is not as good as a pre filmed version, but it's still better than than nothing. You can also lean into things like courses and those types of things.

00:13:06:01 - 00:13:19:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Exactly. Should you be posting? I'm glad you guys have three steps for everyone and their social media is is, three steps. Social media checklist. Step number one is make sure that your website is up to date.

00:13:19:18 - 00:13:51:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When you take away social as an avenue for announcements, or when you reduce your amount of stage announcements. There still has to be a full bodied, one stop, robust shop for your church people to fall to. And that also makes what I'm going to recommend here on social, which is the second step here. The second step is you kind of want to become enamored with short reels, TikTok style videos, because when your website is good, you don't have to worry about the information.

00:13:51:27 - 00:14:24:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So now you can leave that behind and you can now move ahead towards the era that social is really made for and meant for. And according to video, 90% of the internet's traffic is found on short form vertical based video because every other platform then was trying to catch up and keep up with this brand new one called TikTok shorts, reels, Facebook has them, Instagram has, YouTube has them and even other like places like, Twitter.

00:14:24:11 - 00:14:50:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're even on there, it'll it'll be on a video, you'll be watching it again. It'll auto scroll to the next one. First of all, it's video based and it's short and it's quippy and it's fun. But secondly, like I said earlier, it's the discovery era. If you jump on Reels on Instagram, if you jump on your TikTok for you page more than I think 90% of the I believe that's the stat of the videos that you're served are from people that you've never actually even met.

00:14:50:22 - 00:15:17:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's good news for you and I. As churches and youth ministries, we can get on to other people's for you pages without buying their attention or without having them have to follow or subscribe or or know about our channel. The key is producing good content. And so step one website. Step two start focusing on good shorts, which is why I've created down below my hybrid strategy guide.

00:15:17:21 - 00:15:29:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It will not only lay out my plan and what I do in my student ministry, but it will also give you different ideas and types of content that you can use for your social media.

00:15:29:15 - 00:15:55:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey, real fast. Don't click away. Listen, a couple of months ago, I was running a conference at my church, and I decided that I wanted to see if, while I was in the throes of the busiest week on my calendar to date in the year of 2025, if my seasonal social media pack could have what it takes to actually carry me through and not make it more labor intensive for me to actually keep social media running, but to make it easier on me.

00:15:55:14 - 00:16:26:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And here, here's what I found out. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a minute. Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social.

00:16:26:20 - 00:16:43:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there.

00:16:43:22 - 00:16:47:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But mine will at least keep you moving in the right direction.

00:16:47:27 - 00:17:12:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that's the big picture. That's the strategy. That's the philosophy. Now let's move in here to act four. This is how to do it. It's going to be gear guides and microphone guides and links. And this is going to get a little bit a little bit down in the weeds if you already know those things, softwares and gear and phones and what you need, I'll encourage you to skip past that over to act number five, which is where hybrid ministry can actually take you in the vision layer.

00:17:12:19 - 00:17:45:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you take my seasonal summer social media pack, which is less than $20, and you download it, you'll realize that as I'm hoping to help youth pastors create custom content that it's going to require at some points in time, a microphone. And what I want to do in this video is I want to show you all of the different array of options that you can use all the way from like budget microphones to the most expensive Cadillac style microphones to these mid tier podcast, but really cool and vibey looking microphones that your students are going to love.

00:17:45:16 - 00:18:08:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because in this episode, we're going to answer the question which mics you use for the content that you're creating in your youth ministry? Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show. What's up everybody? Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. You and I haven't had a chance to meet yet. My name is Nick Klassen, and we're gonna explore microphones and they're really important because actually, right now, this exact audio is coming.

00:18:08:27 - 00:18:37:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Me talking directly to my camera on the other side of the room. You can see that so far, of all the audios you heard is the worst style of audio. And we're going to go through budget options as well as all the way up to the most expensive style of options. And you'll notice if you follow my hybrid ministry social media recommendations, that it's going to require you filming some of your own custom content, and that's going to require you to want to have a microphone, because this audio right here is just not doing it.

00:18:37:16 - 00:19:06:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So first we're going to look at budget audio. This is my budget audio recommendation. It's one of these Bluetooth style microphones. They are really cheap. They clip on. They are wireless which is nice. And they plug directly in to your phone. You can get these for less than $10. And at a minimum, what this does is the requirement for decent microphone audio is you just want to isolate the audio source away from the video source.

00:19:06:10 - 00:19:33:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now this one records directly into the actual video files. So you you like your video and your audio will be immediately linked up, which is good news. But I would say this one here, we're going to call this like the student ministry volunteer microphones. So this one right here is actually one of my newest recommendations. It's the Rode Wireless go to not because I've been against it, but because it's just brand new.

00:19:33:24 - 00:19:59:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I just got it and so right now I'm actually talking direct into my cell phone camera. And right now I'm talking direct into my Sony ZV one camera, which that, camera is actually also linked down below in the link included in the description. I will call this one like the church intern of microphones, but it's a church intern that actually reads commentaries.

00:20:00:00 - 00:20:24:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This pro level microphone is the Sennheiser lavalier system. It is the senior pastor of microphones. It's buttoned up, it's expensive, it's intimidating, and it's very, very serious about what the job needs to be. It is wireless. So you see, I have a pack that I have right here in my pocket. And this wire that's just like clipped on.

00:20:24:12 - 00:20:48:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Then here through my shirt. And then I have a receiver over there on my focus. Right. So this one does require an audio interface and it's not recording directly onto any of the video. So you need to record this separately. You can use something like GarageBand or we use like Adobe Audition. But then you have to link this audio up with the audio from the camera.

00:20:48:07 - 00:21:13:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This microphone right here is the Sennheiser M-k 600. I would call this one if the last one was the senior pastor of microphones. This one is the executive pastor of microphones. It you know, it knows where to aim. And it's going to hit every single time. But you also better know what you're doing. So the pros and cons of this are you do not need pro as you don't need a wireless interface.

00:21:13:25 - 00:21:35:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I am plugged directly into my Sony camera. A can of course, is you will probably need some sort of adapter as this goes through an audio like one eighth cable inch headphone jack. And so you're going to need some sort of adapter, probably a microphone to usb-C or to lightning to go directly into your phone. The other con, of course, is it's wired okay.

00:21:35:18 - 00:21:53:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so like you're going to need, to have like an XLR cable. It's like what you would use for your worship, music or worship department. But you can see some of the pros of it. We'll use this a lot. We've used this almost exclusively, on our man on the Street videos. And so we've bought this, like, microphone flag with, like, our church branded logo in it.

00:21:53:22 - 00:22:14:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's also battery powered with just double A batteries. And so that's easier than trying to remember to plug in something that's like, usb-C or like rechargeable in that way. And here we are back where we started. And these right here are the, podcast style microphones. There's once again, a link down below in the show notes. You can check these out.

00:22:14:29 - 00:22:39:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These microphones are kind of like the youth pastor of microphones. They are professional. They're paid. They're full time. Hopefully you're full time and they're cool looking or like try hard, cool looking. Maybe you're giving it too much. But the fact of the matter is, these much, much to the opposite of the shotgun microphones before I catch almost zero sound bleed.

00:22:39:02 - 00:22:58:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so for most of our like, we do drafts and we do seven questions here in this room for most of these videos, these microphones do a fantastic job of picking up the audio of the students that are talking directly into it. Not to mention it cuts out some of the exterior wall noise that we were talking about in the last section and in the last clip.

00:22:58:17 - 00:23:17:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The cons of these, however, are they once again, they're XLR, so you are going to need like a music microphone. And oftentimes we use two of these. So you're going to need at least a two channel audio interface. We use the focus rate. Scarlett. I et you can check that out once again. Link down below for that in the show notes.

00:23:17:16 - 00:23:34:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The con of that of course, is that is going to be an upgraded and an additional cost. And so you'll just have to figure out between this one or the Bluetooth wireless or the Rode Go Wireless two, or the condenser microphone or the lavalier microphone. What microphone is best for you?

00:23:35:00 - 00:23:54:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. What about software? If everything that we're promoting you to do is short form, vertical based video, then, you know you're going to have to use and utilize some software. So this isn't a best of clip. This is actually brand new. And, as you're looking here on screen, you might be wondering where these came from.

00:23:54:21 - 00:24:28:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is from my youth ministry leader cohort, that I'm leading deep dive. These are my, suggestions. So the top tier of suggestions are the Adobe Creative Suite, which includes Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci resolve. And those are listed in order of probably, power as well as price. I will put all three of these on the same plane, though, like, you can pretty much do everything in Final Cut or Da Vinci that you would also do in the Adobe Creative Cloud.

00:24:28:21 - 00:24:51:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so depending on where you're at budget wise, these are the ones that I would recommend. If you have an appetite to learn something that's a little bit more professional and a little bit more powerful, but moving on to the next tier are three different options. I have cap cut, I have in-app editors, and then I have just, the run of the mill iMovie or Windows Movie Maker.

00:24:51:06 - 00:25:09:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So cap cut, of course, there's a web app and there's also an app for your phone. You can use either of them. And there is a pro version, so you can upgrade a little bit to pay if I'm doing something just quick and short. My favorite editor is either the Instagram Reels, but my real favorite editor is the TikTok editor and then TikTok.

00:25:09:15 - 00:25:28:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When you save it, it auto saves a copy of it to your camera roll unless you turn that off in the settings. And so if you're posting to, say, Instagram or YouTube, you go to TikTok first, you edit whatever you want to edit, put whatever captions on you want to put on, and then you post it. And then if you go to the other apps after that, it'll be sitting there in your camera roll.

00:25:29:01 - 00:25:47:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, iMovie or Windows Movie Maker is probably the bottom of the barrel, but it's also probably free for whatever machine you have, whether you're a mac or windows user. Let me also say another thing. If you have some sort of long form version of your clip, a live stream, or you sit down ahead of time, film, direct camera, opus clip.

00:25:47:20 - 00:26:10:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you look here, you'll see on my feed all of these ones that are circle, this is my student ministries feed. All of these ones that are circled were all edited by opus clip. I post three of them per week. And so in the seasonal social media pack I recommend a devotional clip. But if you have some sort of long form version of your message that you can upload into a service like opus clip, and if you just scan this QR code that you see here on screen, you can go check out Opus Clip.

00:26:10:20 - 00:26:25:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's free for a while, and then you have a certain number of credits, and when it runs out, then it's an upgrade for about 100 and something dollars per year. And, I've never run out of credits in opus clip and we even share it with another ministry in our church, and we still have enough credits for opus clip.

00:26:25:29 - 00:26:38:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, that's something that really can help. If you have a long form version of something. If not, then I just recommend you doing a devotional, on your phone, editing it in something like Cap Cut or TikTok and then posting it everywhere.

00:26:38:16 - 00:26:56:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
man, on the street transition style videos, drafts, seven questions. Any given night you come into our youth ministry, we're doing one of those four things. Let me just tell you, like once we started walking around with the camera, especially for like man on the street or like transition style videos, the kids came out of the woodwork in their interest level for it.

00:26:56:23 - 00:27:21:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We have seven, I want to say different like serving teams for students. We have welcome team. We have cafe, we have tech team. We have social team, we have photography. We have worship. Maybe that's it. Oh, no. And then we have our table leaders. That's probably like our highest, spiritual bar of of role. The team that people want to be on the most is the social team.

00:27:21:10 - 00:27:44:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we have, like, increased our engagement around student serving because the social team exists. But the real, in my opinion, this role right here, this next role, this is really like the role that has changed everything for me. It's the student editor. So I post ten pieces of content per week. And this is a genuine, real, true, authentic statement.

00:27:44:27 - 00:28:09:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I don't edit any of it. I'm going to include a checklist for you of roles, of things to do, of what to film all of that. That's over on my Patreon. Once again, that will come with a nominal fee because Patreon doesn't let me give it away for free. However, if you are a hybrid hero, you get that checklist that cost you $0 included in your $4 per month membership Hybrid Heroes tier.

00:28:09:22 - 00:28:30:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. Now we're going to jump into the vision layer. So you start kind of dialing in social media. Where can this go. Maybe it's pre-recording your messages and creating a library of content on YouTube. Maybe it's creating YouTube playlist courses, maybe it's a weekly podcast and you're using things like Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube. What could this take you?

00:28:30:23 - 00:28:38:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What vision do you have for some of this? Let's dive in and check out some of this vision piece. Content.

00:28:38:07 - 00:29:14:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
From the most conservative parents in your church who would never even imagine letting their kids enter the World Wide Web to all the way to the least restrictive parents who gave their kids a phone and let them have wild access to the internet. YouTube is a great strategy and a great platform for students and school ministry. But if you're anything like me and you work at a church, you look around your youth and you compare it to the auditorium or the main church home that the rest of us or the rest of your, you know, big church is using where your pastor's preaching on Sunday morning and you probably look and think, man, I don't

00:29:14:02 - 00:29:55:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
have the gear to capture my services and post them on YouTube. And the answer to that is probably unequivocally, 100% accurate. You'll plan your curriculum and then you'll write out your teaching, and then you'll sit down and you'll deliver the message direct to camera, all because you told your time what was going to happen to it. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't counsel students and meet with the senior pastor and plan for your Wednesday night, but if pre filming your messages, if getting the message of Jesus and the message of hope out on the internet, on YouTube is important to you, then you need to determine when you're going to place that, that

00:29:55:19 - 00:30:20:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
thing on your calendar to do. Does teaching is it required in mandated to be in person? So anything that you might be tempted to turn into a class or a meeting or a workshop or a meet up or an after church, like pizza with the pastor sort of thing. Any one of those that isn't like, relationally charged, I believe.

00:30:20:13 - 00:30:34:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And even if they are relationally church, we can pivot and reposition the way that we're doing it so that it can be included in a YouTube playlist. However, playlists are basically like free courses on YouTube's platform.

00:30:35:01 - 00:30:55:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Listen, are you overwhelmed yet? Because it can be overwhelming. It's deep. And just like you have to be, organizational person and administrator, an executive pastor, a shepherd. Now, you're also being asked to be a social media manager. And that's the thing. That's why I have four different tiers of ways that I can help you. Number one, just grab my free e-book.

00:30:55:05 - 00:31:21:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can also check out the seasonal social media pack, for the the three months. Or you can do for the whole year or coaching where I help walk you through it and how to implement some of these things. Or you can just reach out to me directly for coaching and communications done for you. But without any further ado, let's check out the last little bit here of the final, what this could look like and where this could take you in your church and in your ministry.

00:31:21:19 - 00:31:40:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Can grab my free e-book, but if you get in there and you're like, I don't know what's best for us, and we'll let you know about some custom coaching that I have to offer. My custom coaching is four sessions long. $50 per session will be $200 out of your overall budget, which is absolutely pennies in the in the drop in the bucket in an overall church size budget.

00:31:41:00 - 00:32:02:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if you know, even that is too much, reach out. We can make something work. But the reason that custom coaching is important is because every context is different. I can tell you what I'm doing here in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth area, to reach, in my context, Gen Z or young, you know, basically almost done with Gen Z to Gen Alpha.

00:32:02:07 - 00:32:29:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But and that might be helpful because if you're managing church social media for an overall church, like, well, we're doing is very going to be very cutting edge for, you know, like older Gen Z and even like millennials. But every church and every context and every geographical area is a little bit different. I was recently, coaching another guy and, my typical like strategy, I changed it and tweaked it a little bit for him because he was doing things just a little bit differently.

00:32:29:04 - 00:32:46:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
His context was a little bit different, and his role was a little bit unique compared to what I typically would tell people to do. And so even I was, you know, thinking through and adjusting my model. And so it's important because everyone in every place is different. And then the final piece is this is like, as I say, all of this.

00:32:46:12 - 00:33:01:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And there's, you know, maybe a minute ago you gave me that sub because you were like, dude, there's just too much to do. And even with some custom coaching, there's still going to be a lot on your plate. You're 100% right. There is are still a lot of work to do, which is what I want to offer to, to some of you.

00:33:01:22 - 00:33:25:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Might be worth it. Budget wise, communications done for you. It's a service that I offer, and I will run your website. Or I will do graphics and video, or I will run your YouTube and social media. Each of those different buckets and categories is a different price point. Or you can bundle them all together for a different price point link down below to inquire about that.

00:33:25:09 - 00:33:45:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But let me just tell you that it is a 10th of the cost of a full time staff person. If you were to hire me and contract me to do communications for you and for your church and for your ministry, because there's so much on your plate and you just you, you want it, but you don't have the time or bandwidth or desire maybe even to learn it.

00:33:45:19 - 00:34:01:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I understand that. And at some point it's just worth it, you know, to just get it off of your plate. And if that you're in that zone and you don't want the coaching, you don't want to learn via the e-book, then great. Then check out what I have to offer communications for you. I will do things like inspect your website.

00:34:01:10 - 00:34:41:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I will optimize your search engine optimization. I will make your website as visitor friendly as possible. If you want to go in the graphics route, I can do graphic design for you. I can do series and events and pre screen and print graphics and all those types of things. Get those pesky jobs off of your plate. And if you want to optimize your church social media, live stream or YouTube prefilled messages, we can, do thumbnails, we can title the video, we can optimize the tags for search engine optimization, create chapters so that people can jump around in your videos, create playlists and online courses, and also create post shorts for your social media.

00:34:41:27 - 00:35:02:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Whatever works best and whatever you want done for you. All of it is linked down below in the description or in the show notes. I'd love to have you check those things out, but again, I appreciate you being here. And listen. It is the future of the church is online. It's not only online, but are you. A wide portion of it is.

00:35:02:22 - 00:35:26:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the fact is, the more capacity and bandwidth that you have to take it there, the more effective I believe you will be to maximize your reach and your influence to continue to pursue reaching people for Jesus, continue to pursue the call and the assignment in which God has placed you, particularly right now in this season. And don't forget, and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> This episode, quite literally, has it all!
Every strategy, every freebie, every way to implement hybrid into your ministry.

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๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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
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//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Act 1 - The Problem
02:40 Act 2 - The Analytics - How it REALLY works
07:44 Act 3 - The Hybrid Framework
16:48 Act 4 - The Execution Layer
17:13 Microphones & Cameras
23:35 Software Recommendations
26:39 Social Team Construction
28:11 Act 5 - The Vision Layer
30:36 Act 6 - I Can Help!

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:13:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
As a person on church ministry, you have a slew of responsibility. You need to be a shepherd. You need to be an administrator. You need to be an evangelist. You need to be a disciple maker. And sometimes you need

00:00:13:14 - 00:00:15:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
to be a social media strategist.

00:00:15:25 - 00:00:16:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Listen,

00:00:16:10 - 00:00:17:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you know this.

00:00:17:07 - 00:00:20:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not everyone can be good at everything.

00:00:20:05 - 00:00:21:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
just recently,

00:00:21:04 - 00:00:22:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
someone in the DYM

00:00:22:16 - 00:00:27:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Facebook group asked like social media gurus, where are you at? I want to start up ticking my engagement

00:00:27:27 - 00:00:30:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I probably see that question

00:00:30:03 - 00:00:31:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
once a month

00:00:31:00 - 00:00:33:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
just like you get curriculum to help you teach, just like you get

00:00:33:29 - 00:00:36:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
calendar apps to help you stay organized, and you have

00:00:36:19 - 00:00:38:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
books to help you learn.

00:00:38:05 - 00:00:43:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
With so many different tools on the market, how do you know what you can actually trust? You know,

00:00:43:08 - 00:00:52:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I've been leading a youth ministry leader cohort, specifically down a deep dive topic of hybrid ministry, and at the beginning

00:00:52:29 - 00:01:04:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of the cohort, it's an eight week experience at the beginning. I have people map out the next month of social media content, and every week when we circle back, we evaluate how did the last week go?

00:01:05:00 - 00:01:11:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And without fail, they say I had my plans or the plans laid out, but I didn't do it because

00:01:11:25 - 00:01:27:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
a meeting came up. Because this thing happened, because I got busy, because the weather canceled our services and I was focused and forced to do other things responsibility wise. You see, whatever the reason is why social media falls by the wayside,

00:01:27:11 - 00:01:28:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
it's not a priority.

00:01:28:08 - 00:01:39:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Leadership doesn't see the value of it. You're not creative enough. You need something to help. You need a strategy. And that's what this episode is. This is the mega episode. I've done you a favor,

00:01:39:21 - 00:01:43:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
in the next several sections of this video, I'm going to share with you

00:01:43:07 - 00:01:53:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
the analytics behind my hybrid ministry strategy and my seasonal social Media pack, which is now available and active for the spring season over on Patreon.

00:01:53:04 - 00:01:56:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So make sure that you go take a look at that. If there's something that you're interested in.

00:01:56:13 - 00:02:07:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then in act number three, we're going to share with you the hybrid ministry framework. And act number four, I'm going to share with you the execution layer. How do you actually pull this thing together?

00:02:07:18 - 00:02:22:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What gear what software do you need. Act number five is going to be the vision layer. Where can this go if you really choose to double down on it. And then act number six, I'm just going to share with you different ways that I can help along the way. And here's the good news. I've actually shared all of this before.

00:02:22:11 - 00:02:44:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're new here, or if you don't want to go through all the various episodes I have, this is almost going to be like a clip show. I have done the hard work of combing through nearly 200 hybrid Ministry episodes to share with you each of these different sections. So we're going to dive in. Let's look first here at the analytics and what's going on behind the scenes.

00:02:44:13 - 00:03:00:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, when I released my winter season on Social Media pack, I did a vlog style video where I was at a conference that my my church was hosting. I was hosting it. I was like a stage host for the week, and I wanted to prove that I could post my pack in less than 16 minutes of total time.

00:03:00:29 - 00:03:22:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Over the course of the week, though, in my pack, I propose you post three times a week. I posted eight times during that week. Every single piece of content that I include in my seasonal social media pack. Spoiler I didn't meet the challenge, but I did learn something valuable and it's that my pack can actually stand up to some of the stressors of everyday life.

00:03:22:08 - 00:03:38:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
My pack was the schedule, and all I had to do was look at the schedule. It told me exactly what I was most post. I posted it and not less than 16 minutes, but however, I was able to do it in less than 20 minutes. And this right here is the analytic and the deep dive from that week of posting.

00:03:38:28 - 00:03:48:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now I have all different seasons and I just released spring, which means now we're also able to offer a full year of custom and DIY seasonal social media.

00:03:48:29 - 00:03:59:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you want to look at the four season bundle pack for the entire year of social media, go check it out. But what I'm trying to do in my pack is I'm trying to make you and your church the hero.

00:03:59:02 - 00:04:19:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not just a bunch of standard graphics that every church, any church can post, but graphics that. Yeah, we'll have some of that, but also videos with you and your people, and I'll train you and give you scripts and, and give you video and graphic overlays that you can put on top of videos that you record. Because 90% of the internet's traffic is short form, vertical based video.

00:04:19:22 - 00:04:37:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I took that concept, the one that I sell to you and sell to all you pastors, church communications, people all around the world that I stand behind. And I put it to the test, and here were my results from the week. And and it's nothing crazy. We didn't go viral. We didn't get famous off of it.

00:04:37:01 - 00:04:54:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In some cases. We had some really low views. In other cases we had some really high views. So I want to share with you the highest view from the week. I want to share with you the lowest view from the week. I want to share with you a comment from a post that happened during that week, as well as the one the post that got the most amount of likes.

00:04:54:27 - 00:05:14:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'm going to do that across three different platforms of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. So if you're watching here on YouTube right now, you'll see this graph up here on screen. But the video with the highest views on TikTok was only 235 on our verse Bible verse video 235 views on TikTok. Our lowest one was our transition style video.

00:05:14:27 - 00:05:34:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It only had 38 views over there on TikTok. A comment we got zero comments during the week on TikTok when I did this. And see, that's the that's the the truth. That's the hard and crass reality. Sometimes that's what happens. We also did get 37 likes on our first video. So that video did did do the best on TikTok.

00:05:34:19 - 00:05:54:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now let's switch over to Instagram. I got 471 devotional views on our Devo video, the one that I, the script, I wrote the script, then I copied the script verbatim and I hadn't looked at it in like three months. So I was basically going in code, which is very similar to what you would also be doing if you were to grab my pack and implement it in your own context.

00:05:54:28 - 00:06:16:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We had, 243 views. I was the lowest on our verse post on Instagram. So interestingly, it was our lowest on Instagram was higher than our highest on TikTok. Comments on the Devo we had two different people that left a comment on our on my devotional thing, and I asked for some sort of, hey, leave a leave this emoji in the comments if you need this.

00:06:16:00 - 00:06:35:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And two people did that and then the highest likes was 17 on that same devotional video. And then over on YouTube, check this one out. We had 1081 views on the transition video. We had a comment, I'm sorry, we had 23, our lowest on the verse post on YouTube and then, on the Bible trivia post on YouTube.

00:06:35:05 - 00:06:47:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Someone said, I didn't know that, that I didn't know the answer to that last one. Not a chance. That was fun though. Good job. And then we had 28 likes on said Bible trivia. And here's just a couple of things I find interesting.

00:06:47:03 - 00:06:59:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The verse post did amazing on TikTok and it struggled on the other two, right? Each platform had a different, higher performer, the verse followed by the diva on Instagram, followed by the transition video on YouTube.

00:07:00:02 - 00:07:20:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. A couple of things. At one point I actually had to reedit and repost some of these because I had made mistakes. But somehow my posted man on the street video, I did it without even sound. The first time around, my Wi-Fi was lagging. It's slowed me down. And right when I was getting ready to hit record at one point, I had to run across the creek to grab my SD card.

00:07:20:06 - 00:07:40:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
See, even I, the creator of the seasonal social media pack, I ran into the same potential obstacles that you might, and my summary and all that is that that week was far from perfect. But what I did do is I showed up regularly, and when I got busy and I didn't have what I needed to do, I could look back at my calendar and my seasonal social media pack told me exactly what I should do.

00:07:40:14 - 00:07:41:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's the purpose

00:07:41:26 - 00:08:06:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of this thing. It is a seasonal social media pack that's more than just static graphics. That helps you develop a team, a volunteer social media, team students, whatever to hand something off to. And it's for the less than the cost of a couple cups of coffee for the month. So now let's move into act three, and this is where we're going to share some best of clips from the Hybrid Ministry show.

00:08:06:09 - 00:08:09:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to share with you the Hybrid Ministry Framework.

00:08:09:21 - 00:08:39:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There are kind of three core statistics. There's Gen Z, Gen Alpha. They use their mobile device more than they use any other device combined. Furthermore, 69% of students own a smartphone. But I get this the age of 12, 90%. According to Pew Research use YouTube. But there's a verse in Jeremiah chapter 29 Nov nine 2911. But right before that verse, Jeremiah is having a conversation with God.

00:08:39:04 - 00:09:08:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And here's what God says to Jeremiah. He says you should build homes, planned to stay, plant gardens, eat the foods that they produce, marry and have children, then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply. Do not dwindle away, but you gotta understand the context here, which we don't do for Jeremiah 2011 very often, is that the Israelites are stuck as captives in Babylon, and what God is telling Jeremiah to do is he's saying, stop complaining.

00:09:08:22 - 00:09:35:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Stop trying to find a way out. Stop trying to leave. Instead, invest in where you live and digital ministry is not going anywhere. You may not like it. You may not even think it's the most effective. But the majority of millennials, Gen Z, and we can assume Generation Alpha, say that a digital version of church is valuable to them and one that they would lean into, and it doesn't mean that their in-person attendance is going to go away.

00:09:35:13 - 00:09:54:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a lot of the fears of us in church leadership is that if we offer a digital component, I'm just going to choose that instead of, coming to church in person, but far from it. We're also seeing in this generation, more than even older generations, that community is so much more important to them. So they don't want to forsake the in-person moments.

00:09:54:00 - 00:10:20:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when we take the in-person moments and the best that it has to offer, when we take the digital things and the best it has to offer, and we find that sweet spot right in the middle, we find what I call hybrid ministry. A great example of it is honestly, Home Depot. And think about it like you throw on your new balances and you throw on your cargo shorts on on a Saturday morning, you got a project, and then you go on Home Depot and you don't really have like a agenda, right?

00:10:20:07 - 00:10:40:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You're just walking around and you're just kind of like you're taking in the smell of lumber and you're just you're just kind of exploring what the hallways and the aisles of Home Depot have to offer. Other times. And then, like, you don't have time, right? You go online, you make an order so that it's delivered to your doorstep because you don't have time to just live out your full dad mode experience.

00:10:40:07 - 00:11:11:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But my favorite honestly version to experience Home Depot is while I'm in the store on their app because their app. If you haven't seen it yet, their app shows you where every single thing in their entire store is located. And so that's what I think we should be doing as youth pastors. Finding a way to intersect where teenagers already admitted they're spending their time, not forsaking the good elements of gathering together and community and accountability and all those things, but also leaning into this hybrid sort of moment.

00:11:12:00 - 00:11:35:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so what I want to do is I want to give you one of the easiest ways to kind of to kind of step foot into this hybrid space. And it's by up picking your social media engagement. Now, here's the thing. A lot of youth pastors, and if you've been following me along on this channel for a while, posts announcements on their feed, just assuming that social media is another announcement platform.

00:11:35:19 - 00:11:57:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the reality is that that's not what social media is best made for it. But what it does mean, and what we should be doing, is that we should be intersecting and invading the lives of students on the places that they spend their time, including TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Remember, 90% teenagers say that they use YouTube in the way that they're consuming it.

00:11:57:12 - 00:12:19:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
for you and for me and for all of us. Like, my, like, general strategy is simply, walking down a funnel of posting short form content, silly content, as well as spiritual content, and hopefully gathering an audience with that and then pushing them to, like a long form version of some more serious content, which is what we do in our youth ministry.

00:12:19:24 - 00:12:48:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We pre film our messages and we adapt them and make them specific for YouTube. You know, we do that versus like a live stream type of thing. As Carrie New study said. This said the challenge is the future is to diversify what you offer online and distinguish it from what you offer in person. So not only is that going to create true options, new love continues on to say, but it will deepen engagement as your in-person and online ministries lean towards what each does best.

00:12:48:13 - 00:13:05:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, beyond. Just like your message content, beyond your weekly sermon, so to speak, that are also going to live online, whether that's live stream, which I would argue is not as good as a pre filmed version, but it's still better than than nothing. You can also lean into things like courses and those types of things.

00:13:06:01 - 00:13:19:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Exactly. Should you be posting? I'm glad you guys have three steps for everyone and their social media is is, three steps. Social media checklist. Step number one is make sure that your website is up to date.

00:13:19:18 - 00:13:51:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When you take away social as an avenue for announcements, or when you reduce your amount of stage announcements. There still has to be a full bodied, one stop, robust shop for your church people to fall to. And that also makes what I'm going to recommend here on social, which is the second step here. The second step is you kind of want to become enamored with short reels, TikTok style videos, because when your website is good, you don't have to worry about the information.

00:13:51:27 - 00:14:24:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So now you can leave that behind and you can now move ahead towards the era that social is really made for and meant for. And according to video, 90% of the internet's traffic is found on short form vertical based video because every other platform then was trying to catch up and keep up with this brand new one called TikTok shorts, reels, Facebook has them, Instagram has, YouTube has them and even other like places like, Twitter.

00:14:24:11 - 00:14:50:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're even on there, it'll it'll be on a video, you'll be watching it again. It'll auto scroll to the next one. First of all, it's video based and it's short and it's quippy and it's fun. But secondly, like I said earlier, it's the discovery era. If you jump on Reels on Instagram, if you jump on your TikTok for you page more than I think 90% of the I believe that's the stat of the videos that you're served are from people that you've never actually even met.

00:14:50:22 - 00:15:17:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's good news for you and I. As churches and youth ministries, we can get on to other people's for you pages without buying their attention or without having them have to follow or subscribe or or know about our channel. The key is producing good content. And so step one website. Step two start focusing on good shorts, which is why I've created down below my hybrid strategy guide.

00:15:17:21 - 00:15:29:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It will not only lay out my plan and what I do in my student ministry, but it will also give you different ideas and types of content that you can use for your social media.

00:15:29:15 - 00:15:55:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey, real fast. Don't click away. Listen, a couple of months ago, I was running a conference at my church, and I decided that I wanted to see if, while I was in the throes of the busiest week on my calendar to date in the year of 2025, if my seasonal social media pack could have what it takes to actually carry me through and not make it more labor intensive for me to actually keep social media running, but to make it easier on me.

00:15:55:14 - 00:16:26:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And here, here's what I found out. Imagine it's six minutes per week. Have your entire social media strategy done for you. I mean, think about it like three months of youth ministry content for just $0.23 a minute. Some weeks it takes me seven, other weeks it takes me five. But the point is, and especially at the end of this, as I was sitting in my youth ministry leader cohort, everyone said time management and scheduling was the issue with staying consistent on social.

00:16:26:20 - 00:16:43:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So my recommendation would be take my pack, let it be the the basics of what you do. And if you do get busy, if something else comes up, you have something to fall back. And then when you do have the creative energy to create something more custom and more elaborate, scrap one of mine and put one of your own in there.

00:16:43:22 - 00:16:47:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But mine will at least keep you moving in the right direction.

00:16:47:27 - 00:17:12:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that's the big picture. That's the strategy. That's the philosophy. Now let's move in here to act four. This is how to do it. It's going to be gear guides and microphone guides and links. And this is going to get a little bit a little bit down in the weeds if you already know those things, softwares and gear and phones and what you need, I'll encourage you to skip past that over to act number five, which is where hybrid ministry can actually take you in the vision layer.

00:17:12:19 - 00:17:45:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you take my seasonal summer social media pack, which is less than $20, and you download it, you'll realize that as I'm hoping to help youth pastors create custom content that it's going to require at some points in time, a microphone. And what I want to do in this video is I want to show you all of the different array of options that you can use all the way from like budget microphones to the most expensive Cadillac style microphones to these mid tier podcast, but really cool and vibey looking microphones that your students are going to love.

00:17:45:16 - 00:18:08:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because in this episode, we're going to answer the question which mics you use for the content that you're creating in your youth ministry? Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry Show. What's up everybody? Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. You and I haven't had a chance to meet yet. My name is Nick Klassen, and we're gonna explore microphones and they're really important because actually, right now, this exact audio is coming.

00:18:08:27 - 00:18:37:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Me talking directly to my camera on the other side of the room. You can see that so far, of all the audios you heard is the worst style of audio. And we're going to go through budget options as well as all the way up to the most expensive style of options. And you'll notice if you follow my hybrid ministry social media recommendations, that it's going to require you filming some of your own custom content, and that's going to require you to want to have a microphone, because this audio right here is just not doing it.

00:18:37:16 - 00:19:06:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So first we're going to look at budget audio. This is my budget audio recommendation. It's one of these Bluetooth style microphones. They are really cheap. They clip on. They are wireless which is nice. And they plug directly in to your phone. You can get these for less than $10. And at a minimum, what this does is the requirement for decent microphone audio is you just want to isolate the audio source away from the video source.

00:19:06:10 - 00:19:33:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now this one records directly into the actual video files. So you you like your video and your audio will be immediately linked up, which is good news. But I would say this one here, we're going to call this like the student ministry volunteer microphones. So this one right here is actually one of my newest recommendations. It's the Rode Wireless go to not because I've been against it, but because it's just brand new.

00:19:33:24 - 00:19:59:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I just got it and so right now I'm actually talking direct into my cell phone camera. And right now I'm talking direct into my Sony ZV one camera, which that, camera is actually also linked down below in the link included in the description. I will call this one like the church intern of microphones, but it's a church intern that actually reads commentaries.

00:20:00:00 - 00:20:24:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This pro level microphone is the Sennheiser lavalier system. It is the senior pastor of microphones. It's buttoned up, it's expensive, it's intimidating, and it's very, very serious about what the job needs to be. It is wireless. So you see, I have a pack that I have right here in my pocket. And this wire that's just like clipped on.

00:20:24:12 - 00:20:48:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Then here through my shirt. And then I have a receiver over there on my focus. Right. So this one does require an audio interface and it's not recording directly onto any of the video. So you need to record this separately. You can use something like GarageBand or we use like Adobe Audition. But then you have to link this audio up with the audio from the camera.

00:20:48:07 - 00:21:13:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This microphone right here is the Sennheiser M-k 600. I would call this one if the last one was the senior pastor of microphones. This one is the executive pastor of microphones. It you know, it knows where to aim. And it's going to hit every single time. But you also better know what you're doing. So the pros and cons of this are you do not need pro as you don't need a wireless interface.

00:21:13:25 - 00:21:35:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I am plugged directly into my Sony camera. A can of course, is you will probably need some sort of adapter as this goes through an audio like one eighth cable inch headphone jack. And so you're going to need some sort of adapter, probably a microphone to usb-C or to lightning to go directly into your phone. The other con, of course, is it's wired okay.

00:21:35:18 - 00:21:53:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so like you're going to need, to have like an XLR cable. It's like what you would use for your worship, music or worship department. But you can see some of the pros of it. We'll use this a lot. We've used this almost exclusively, on our man on the Street videos. And so we've bought this, like, microphone flag with, like, our church branded logo in it.

00:21:53:22 - 00:22:14:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's also battery powered with just double A batteries. And so that's easier than trying to remember to plug in something that's like, usb-C or like rechargeable in that way. And here we are back where we started. And these right here are the, podcast style microphones. There's once again, a link down below in the show notes. You can check these out.

00:22:14:29 - 00:22:39:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These microphones are kind of like the youth pastor of microphones. They are professional. They're paid. They're full time. Hopefully you're full time and they're cool looking or like try hard, cool looking. Maybe you're giving it too much. But the fact of the matter is, these much, much to the opposite of the shotgun microphones before I catch almost zero sound bleed.

00:22:39:02 - 00:22:58:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so for most of our like, we do drafts and we do seven questions here in this room for most of these videos, these microphones do a fantastic job of picking up the audio of the students that are talking directly into it. Not to mention it cuts out some of the exterior wall noise that we were talking about in the last section and in the last clip.

00:22:58:17 - 00:23:17:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The cons of these, however, are they once again, they're XLR, so you are going to need like a music microphone. And oftentimes we use two of these. So you're going to need at least a two channel audio interface. We use the focus rate. Scarlett. I et you can check that out once again. Link down below for that in the show notes.

00:23:17:16 - 00:23:34:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The con of that of course, is that is going to be an upgraded and an additional cost. And so you'll just have to figure out between this one or the Bluetooth wireless or the Rode Go Wireless two, or the condenser microphone or the lavalier microphone. What microphone is best for you?

00:23:35:00 - 00:23:54:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. What about software? If everything that we're promoting you to do is short form, vertical based video, then, you know you're going to have to use and utilize some software. So this isn't a best of clip. This is actually brand new. And, as you're looking here on screen, you might be wondering where these came from.

00:23:54:21 - 00:24:28:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is from my youth ministry leader cohort, that I'm leading deep dive. These are my, suggestions. So the top tier of suggestions are the Adobe Creative Suite, which includes Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci resolve. And those are listed in order of probably, power as well as price. I will put all three of these on the same plane, though, like, you can pretty much do everything in Final Cut or Da Vinci that you would also do in the Adobe Creative Cloud.

00:24:28:21 - 00:24:51:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so depending on where you're at budget wise, these are the ones that I would recommend. If you have an appetite to learn something that's a little bit more professional and a little bit more powerful, but moving on to the next tier are three different options. I have cap cut, I have in-app editors, and then I have just, the run of the mill iMovie or Windows Movie Maker.

00:24:51:06 - 00:25:09:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So cap cut, of course, there's a web app and there's also an app for your phone. You can use either of them. And there is a pro version, so you can upgrade a little bit to pay if I'm doing something just quick and short. My favorite editor is either the Instagram Reels, but my real favorite editor is the TikTok editor and then TikTok.

00:25:09:15 - 00:25:28:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When you save it, it auto saves a copy of it to your camera roll unless you turn that off in the settings. And so if you're posting to, say, Instagram or YouTube, you go to TikTok first, you edit whatever you want to edit, put whatever captions on you want to put on, and then you post it. And then if you go to the other apps after that, it'll be sitting there in your camera roll.

00:25:29:01 - 00:25:47:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then, iMovie or Windows Movie Maker is probably the bottom of the barrel, but it's also probably free for whatever machine you have, whether you're a mac or windows user. Let me also say another thing. If you have some sort of long form version of your clip, a live stream, or you sit down ahead of time, film, direct camera, opus clip.

00:25:47:20 - 00:26:10:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you look here, you'll see on my feed all of these ones that are circle, this is my student ministries feed. All of these ones that are circled were all edited by opus clip. I post three of them per week. And so in the seasonal social media pack I recommend a devotional clip. But if you have some sort of long form version of your message that you can upload into a service like opus clip, and if you just scan this QR code that you see here on screen, you can go check out Opus Clip.

00:26:10:20 - 00:26:25:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's free for a while, and then you have a certain number of credits, and when it runs out, then it's an upgrade for about 100 and something dollars per year. And, I've never run out of credits in opus clip and we even share it with another ministry in our church, and we still have enough credits for opus clip.

00:26:25:29 - 00:26:38:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, that's something that really can help. If you have a long form version of something. If not, then I just recommend you doing a devotional, on your phone, editing it in something like Cap Cut or TikTok and then posting it everywhere.

00:26:38:16 - 00:26:56:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
man, on the street transition style videos, drafts, seven questions. Any given night you come into our youth ministry, we're doing one of those four things. Let me just tell you, like once we started walking around with the camera, especially for like man on the street or like transition style videos, the kids came out of the woodwork in their interest level for it.

00:26:56:23 - 00:27:21:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We have seven, I want to say different like serving teams for students. We have welcome team. We have cafe, we have tech team. We have social team, we have photography. We have worship. Maybe that's it. Oh, no. And then we have our table leaders. That's probably like our highest, spiritual bar of of role. The team that people want to be on the most is the social team.

00:27:21:10 - 00:27:44:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we have, like, increased our engagement around student serving because the social team exists. But the real, in my opinion, this role right here, this next role, this is really like the role that has changed everything for me. It's the student editor. So I post ten pieces of content per week. And this is a genuine, real, true, authentic statement.

00:27:44:27 - 00:28:09:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I don't edit any of it. I'm going to include a checklist for you of roles, of things to do, of what to film all of that. That's over on my Patreon. Once again, that will come with a nominal fee because Patreon doesn't let me give it away for free. However, if you are a hybrid hero, you get that checklist that cost you $0 included in your $4 per month membership Hybrid Heroes tier.

00:28:09:22 - 00:28:30:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. Now we're going to jump into the vision layer. So you start kind of dialing in social media. Where can this go. Maybe it's pre-recording your messages and creating a library of content on YouTube. Maybe it's creating YouTube playlist courses, maybe it's a weekly podcast and you're using things like Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube. What could this take you?

00:28:30:23 - 00:28:38:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What vision do you have for some of this? Let's dive in and check out some of this vision piece. Content.

00:28:38:07 - 00:29:14:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
From the most conservative parents in your church who would never even imagine letting their kids enter the World Wide Web to all the way to the least restrictive parents who gave their kids a phone and let them have wild access to the internet. YouTube is a great strategy and a great platform for students and school ministry. But if you're anything like me and you work at a church, you look around your youth and you compare it to the auditorium or the main church home that the rest of us or the rest of your, you know, big church is using where your pastor's preaching on Sunday morning and you probably look and think, man, I don't

00:29:14:02 - 00:29:55:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
have the gear to capture my services and post them on YouTube. And the answer to that is probably unequivocally, 100% accurate. You'll plan your curriculum and then you'll write out your teaching, and then you'll sit down and you'll deliver the message direct to camera, all because you told your time what was going to happen to it. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't counsel students and meet with the senior pastor and plan for your Wednesday night, but if pre filming your messages, if getting the message of Jesus and the message of hope out on the internet, on YouTube is important to you, then you need to determine when you're going to place that, that

00:29:55:19 - 00:30:20:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
thing on your calendar to do. Does teaching is it required in mandated to be in person? So anything that you might be tempted to turn into a class or a meeting or a workshop or a meet up or an after church, like pizza with the pastor sort of thing. Any one of those that isn't like, relationally charged, I believe.

00:30:20:13 - 00:30:34:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And even if they are relationally church, we can pivot and reposition the way that we're doing it so that it can be included in a YouTube playlist. However, playlists are basically like free courses on YouTube's platform.

00:30:35:01 - 00:30:55:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Listen, are you overwhelmed yet? Because it can be overwhelming. It's deep. And just like you have to be, organizational person and administrator, an executive pastor, a shepherd. Now, you're also being asked to be a social media manager. And that's the thing. That's why I have four different tiers of ways that I can help you. Number one, just grab my free e-book.

00:30:55:05 - 00:31:21:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can also check out the seasonal social media pack, for the the three months. Or you can do for the whole year or coaching where I help walk you through it and how to implement some of these things. Or you can just reach out to me directly for coaching and communications done for you. But without any further ado, let's check out the last little bit here of the final, what this could look like and where this could take you in your church and in your ministry.

00:31:21:19 - 00:31:40:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Can grab my free e-book, but if you get in there and you're like, I don't know what's best for us, and we'll let you know about some custom coaching that I have to offer. My custom coaching is four sessions long. $50 per session will be $200 out of your overall budget, which is absolutely pennies in the in the drop in the bucket in an overall church size budget.

00:31:41:00 - 00:32:02:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But if you know, even that is too much, reach out. We can make something work. But the reason that custom coaching is important is because every context is different. I can tell you what I'm doing here in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth area, to reach, in my context, Gen Z or young, you know, basically almost done with Gen Z to Gen Alpha.

00:32:02:07 - 00:32:29:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But and that might be helpful because if you're managing church social media for an overall church, like, well, we're doing is very going to be very cutting edge for, you know, like older Gen Z and even like millennials. But every church and every context and every geographical area is a little bit different. I was recently, coaching another guy and, my typical like strategy, I changed it and tweaked it a little bit for him because he was doing things just a little bit differently.

00:32:29:04 - 00:32:46:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
His context was a little bit different, and his role was a little bit unique compared to what I typically would tell people to do. And so even I was, you know, thinking through and adjusting my model. And so it's important because everyone in every place is different. And then the final piece is this is like, as I say, all of this.

00:32:46:12 - 00:33:01:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And there's, you know, maybe a minute ago you gave me that sub because you were like, dude, there's just too much to do. And even with some custom coaching, there's still going to be a lot on your plate. You're 100% right. There is are still a lot of work to do, which is what I want to offer to, to some of you.

00:33:01:22 - 00:33:25:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Might be worth it. Budget wise, communications done for you. It's a service that I offer, and I will run your website. Or I will do graphics and video, or I will run your YouTube and social media. Each of those different buckets and categories is a different price point. Or you can bundle them all together for a different price point link down below to inquire about that.

00:33:25:09 - 00:33:45:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But let me just tell you that it is a 10th of the cost of a full time staff person. If you were to hire me and contract me to do communications for you and for your church and for your ministry, because there's so much on your plate and you just you, you want it, but you don't have the time or bandwidth or desire maybe even to learn it.

00:33:45:19 - 00:34:01:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I understand that. And at some point it's just worth it, you know, to just get it off of your plate. And if that you're in that zone and you don't want the coaching, you don't want to learn via the e-book, then great. Then check out what I have to offer communications for you. I will do things like inspect your website.

00:34:01:10 - 00:34:41:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I will optimize your search engine optimization. I will make your website as visitor friendly as possible. If you want to go in the graphics route, I can do graphic design for you. I can do series and events and pre screen and print graphics and all those types of things. Get those pesky jobs off of your plate. And if you want to optimize your church social media, live stream or YouTube prefilled messages, we can, do thumbnails, we can title the video, we can optimize the tags for search engine optimization, create chapters so that people can jump around in your videos, create playlists and online courses, and also create post shorts for your social media.

00:34:41:27 - 00:35:02:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Whatever works best and whatever you want done for you. All of it is linked down below in the description or in the show notes. I'd love to have you check those things out, but again, I appreciate you being here. And listen. It is the future of the church is online. It's not only online, but are you. A wide portion of it is.

00:35:02:22 - 00:35:26:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the fact is, the more capacity and bandwidth that you have to take it there, the more effective I believe you will be to maximize your reach and your influence to continue to pursue reaching people for Jesus, continue to pursue the call and the assignment in which God has placed you, particularly right now in this season. And don't forget, and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 176: Youth Leader Resource Room | 5 Components to a Great one! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/176 1591b261-b6ef-46da-8ec1-a98b23da7088 Thu, 20 Nov 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 176 Youth Leader Resource Room | 5 Components to a Great one! full Nick Clason Ever wondered whatโ€™s inside a great youth ministry volunteer room? In this episode, Nick walks through his own spaceโ€”showing you everything from the snack and coffee setup to the leader resource area, check-in station, and supply closet. Youโ€™ll leave with practical ideas (and links!) to create a welcoming, well-equipped hub that keeps your leaders fueled, prepped, and connected every week. 7:25 no Ever wondered whatโ€™s inside a great youth ministry volunteer room? In this episode, Nick walks through his own spaceโ€”showing you everything from the snack and coffee setup to the leader resource area, check-in station, and supply closet. Youโ€™ll leave with practical ideas (and links!) to create a welcoming, well-equipped hub that keeps your leaders fueled, prepped, and connected every week. FREE SMALL GROUP CONNECTION DOWNLOAD https://www.patreon.com/posts/30-small-group-141961735?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link ๐Ÿ‚ FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link ๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/176 ITEMS FOUND IN LEADER ROOM //Leader Resource Area Decks of Cards https://walmrt.us/4hs9d0u Foam Dice https://walmrt.us/4ot5h1M Playdough https://walmrt.us/3Jc5LdJ Ice Breaker Cards https://walmrt.us/47DJz5n Find &amp; Seek Scavenger Hunt https://walmrt.us/47GrZ0I //Other Items Mini Fridge https://walmrt.us/3JmGai3 Keurig https://walmrt.us/4hKuByh Microwave https://walmrt.us/3JmG223 Personal Sized Whiteboards https://walmrt.us/475rDk6 Markers https://walmrt.us/47Gs84g First Aid Kit https://walmrt.us/4oDM25D Ultimate Guest Box Template https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront Volunteer Onboarding Process Explained https://youtu.be/s8HNzfZoiX0?si=A322a3wihRACq8ZM ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 -------------- ๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰ 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 -------------- ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00 Show me your volunteer rooms question! 00:23 Snacks &amp; Coffee Area 01:01 Office Supply Area 01:34 Fall Social Pack 02:48 Supply Closet 04:14 Leader Check-in Area 05:42 Leader Group Resource Tools -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In this episode, we are going to show you my church's youth ministry volunteer room as we're answering this question. Show me your volunteer rooms. We are looking to make a new volunteer headquarters and are looking for inspiration. We're talking snacks, decorations, and things leaders love. So let's go on a little field trip and I'm going to show you my church's leader workroom. 00:00:22:14 - 00:00:50:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Let's go. So this right here, just some basic, you know, and, like, common snacks, a leader fridge, which is also a spot where a lot of our people, store leftovers and food and then, of course, gotta have coffee. So this whole section here is filled with different, like, K-Cups, which I personally hate. Which is why I have pour over in my office in the next room over. 00:00:50:03 - 00:01:09:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But, this is something for our leaders, you know, Wednesday nights, Sunday morning, they come on in here, they grab a cup of coffee, they make it happen. This are here was actually paid for about one of our students, so that's pretty cool. Here's a printer. And this is where most of our, basic easy printer, printing needs can be done here. 00:01:09:23 - 00:01:34:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry There is a bigger one, in another part of the office, but we just use this one as much as we can, a microwave in case we need it. And then just some very basic, paper supplies and cards and, cutters and stapler. Hole punch, in fact, that the cutters are here. This right here is where we keep, radio for, our security and safety team when they need it, when they're looking for it. 00:01:34:12 - 00:01:51:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hey. Quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. 00:01:51:16 - 00:02:14:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's why I created this, the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed. So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. 00:02:14:28 - 00:02:35:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And did you know that monthly hybrid. Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799. Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. 00:02:35:09 - 00:03:00:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry, right here is meant to sort of be our like, supply closet, right? So like, a leader can theoretically come in here anytime they need it and then get anything that they might be looking for. 00:03:00:14 - 00:03:22:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So of course, we got markers and then we got some branded pens. And these are here are actually one of our favorite things. Like we use these like little personalized whiteboards all the time. They're really like good for games and stuff like that. These are here are like just labels, for, for check in and for printing and then down here and we just got to order. 00:03:22:14 - 00:03:40:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So don't be like, holy crap, those people are all about snacks. But this is, we just got a big Sam's order. These are our snacks. So these are what we include. Back over here. And this is, like, just the back up stock of it. This right here. I've gone over this before. This is our leader. 00:03:40:17 - 00:03:59:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They're not a leader. This is our our newcomer welcome box. And so, this is where we store a bunch of them, and then our check in team, they know to come and stock this for actually link right up here. Top left of the screen. I'll link to video where I detail an outline, our entire welcome box process. 00:03:59:12 - 00:04:16:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So this is like a leaders like go to spot everything that they could use, everything that they can need. Plus some just like backup stuff, you know, along with like first aid and, you know, necessary things. Like a kid gets an injury, we can go straight here, we can get all we need out of there. Turning the corner here. 00:04:16:02 - 00:04:35:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is our, leader check in station. So leaders are not allowed to check in until they've gone through our entire volunteer process, which I'll also link down below our volunteer process. And this vets them. Make sure that they went through all of our training and that they went through, all of the, the legal ministry safe things that they need to do. 00:04:35:22 - 00:04:51:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then they can go ahead and they can check in here. Well, we say is if it comes out of this printer here, you'll notice, manually, I'm going to print this here. We say that that green means screened. And so that means if someone in our ministry has on, like, a green lanyard, they're good to go. 00:04:51:20 - 00:05:16:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This board right here, you can see, different, this is like our weekly lessons, bottom lines. We'll also have the, like, connect group sheet right here, for our leaders as they come in on, like, a, Sunday to grab it. And then we have a monthly leader, a weekly I'm sorry leader podcast. And so, our leaders that win stuff, this is, our beginning of our cycle. 00:05:16:02 - 00:05:40:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So all these leaders are new to our team, and then this is where they can grab, their leader gift, their leader mug, all that type of stuff. This right here is our, Wednesday evening safety, safety laminated sheet, assignments. So we'll post this right here on the board. And then we'll also throw it into our leader group chat so that everyone knows where they should be and where they need to be. 00:05:40:27 - 00:06:06:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then right around here, just a couple more shelves and zoom out a little bit. A couple more shelves right here. This is just some more leader, resources. So this is like some, throw Intel, some yay or nay. We got Play-Doh in case we need it. We got some dice, we got some, break the ice games are all look down, and, I'll link a bunch of this stuff. 00:06:06:09 - 00:06:26:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Financing scavenger hunt, card game. I'll link some of these things so that you can, find them. You can buy them. You can, supply them for, for your own area if there's some that you want. And then the last thing we have here is just, a stack of cards so that if any of our leaders need to write cards to any of their students, they can go about doing that right here. 00:06:26:19 - 00:06:43:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then finally, this is new. Someone added this, in a little bit, unbeknownst to us. We kind of like it. So it says prayers and then, you can we can put some, like, individual, prayer requests right there, there on the screen. And so that's been something that we just added, which is pretty cool. 00:06:43:28 - 00:07:08:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So, just one more time as a, take a big someone's prayer and something right now zoom out. This is our leader workroom, and, no students are that. Well, everyone, thank you so much for hanging here for this entire episode. As a reminder, link down below in the description, there are different, links for different things and resources and stuff that we have, linking to different episodes describing our volunteer process. 00:07:08:04 - 00:07:25:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry A free episode like this, hopefully is incredibly helpful to you, but a payment in the form of a like or a subscribe would really make all the difference in the world. And thank you for being here for this questions playlist. The next episode is linked right here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends, don't forget stay habits. youth ministry, volunteer room ideas, church volunteers, youth leader resources, ministry tips, hybrid ministry, youth pastor, ministry organization, church leadership, volunteer check-in, leader training, youth group ideas, small group tools, ministry supplies, church setup, volunteer onboarding, ministry hacks, student ministry, church coffee bar, leader encouragement, youth ministry podcast, hybrid ministry show, ministry systems, leader space tour, church resource room Ever wondered whatโ€™s inside a great youth ministry volunteer room? In this episode, Nick walks through his own spaceโ€”showing you everything from the snack and coffee setup to the leader resource area, check-in station, and supply closet. Youโ€™ll leave with practical ideas (and links!) to create a welcoming, well-equipped hub that keeps your leaders fueled, prepped, and connected every week.

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

๐Ÿ‚ 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

๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/176

ITEMS FOUND IN LEADER ROOM

//Leader Resource Area
Decks of Cards
https://walmrt.us/4hs9d0u

Foam Dice
https://walmrt.us/4ot5h1M

Playdough
https://walmrt.us/3Jc5LdJ

Ice Breaker Cards
https://walmrt.us/47DJz5n

Find & Seek Scavenger Hunt
https://walmrt.us/47GrZ0I

//Other Items
Mini Fridge
https://walmrt.us/3JmGai3

Keurig
https://walmrt.us/4hKuByh

Microwave
https://walmrt.us/3JmG223

Personal Sized Whiteboards
https://walmrt.us/475rDk6

Markers
https://walmrt.us/47Gs84g

First Aid Kit
https://walmrt.us/4oDM25D

Ultimate Guest Box Template
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

Volunteer Onboarding Process Explained
https://youtu.be/s8HNzfZoiX0?si=A322a3wihRACq8ZM

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

--------------
๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰
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

--------------
๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Show me your volunteer rooms question!
00:23 Snacks & Coffee Area
01:01 Office Supply Area
01:34 Fall Social Pack
02:48 Supply Closet
04:14 Leader Check-in Area
05:42 Leader Group Resource Tools

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this episode, we are going to show you my church's youth ministry volunteer room as we're answering this question. Show me your volunteer rooms. We are looking to make a new volunteer headquarters and are looking for inspiration. We're talking snacks, decorations, and things leaders love. So let's go on a little field trip and I'm going to show you my church's leader workroom.

00:00:22:14 - 00:00:50:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's go. So this right here, just some basic, you know, and, like, common snacks, a leader fridge, which is also a spot where a lot of our people, store leftovers and food and then, of course, gotta have coffee. So this whole section here is filled with different, like, K-Cups, which I personally hate. Which is why I have pour over in my office in the next room over.

00:00:50:03 - 00:01:09:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But, this is something for our leaders, you know, Wednesday nights, Sunday morning, they come on in here, they grab a cup of coffee, they make it happen. This are here was actually paid for about one of our students, so that's pretty cool. Here's a printer. And this is where most of our, basic easy printer, printing needs can be done here.

00:01:09:23 - 00:01:34:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There is a bigger one, in another part of the office, but we just use this one as much as we can, a microwave in case we need it. And then just some very basic, paper supplies and cards and, cutters and stapler. Hole punch, in fact, that the cutters are here. This right here is where we keep, radio for, our security and safety team when they need it, when they're looking for it.

00:01:34:12 - 00:01:51:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey. Quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall.

00:01:51:16 - 00:02:14:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's why I created this, the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed. So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon.

00:02:14:28 - 00:02:35:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And did you know that monthly hybrid. Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799. Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting.

00:02:35:09 - 00:03:00:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry, right here is meant to sort of be our like, supply closet, right? So like, a leader can theoretically come in here anytime they need it and then get anything that they might be looking for.

00:03:00:14 - 00:03:22:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So of course, we got markers and then we got some branded pens. And these are here are actually one of our favorite things. Like we use these like little personalized whiteboards all the time. They're really like good for games and stuff like that. These are here are like just labels, for, for check in and for printing and then down here and we just got to order.

00:03:22:14 - 00:03:40:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So don't be like, holy crap, those people are all about snacks. But this is, we just got a big Sam's order. These are our snacks. So these are what we include. Back over here. And this is, like, just the back up stock of it. This right here. I've gone over this before. This is our leader.

00:03:40:17 - 00:03:59:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're not a leader. This is our our newcomer welcome box. And so, this is where we store a bunch of them, and then our check in team, they know to come and stock this for actually link right up here. Top left of the screen. I'll link to video where I detail an outline, our entire welcome box process.

00:03:59:12 - 00:04:16:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So this is like a leaders like go to spot everything that they could use, everything that they can need. Plus some just like backup stuff, you know, along with like first aid and, you know, necessary things. Like a kid gets an injury, we can go straight here, we can get all we need out of there. Turning the corner here.

00:04:16:02 - 00:04:35:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is our, leader check in station. So leaders are not allowed to check in until they've gone through our entire volunteer process, which I'll also link down below our volunteer process. And this vets them. Make sure that they went through all of our training and that they went through, all of the, the legal ministry safe things that they need to do.

00:04:35:22 - 00:04:51:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then they can go ahead and they can check in here. Well, we say is if it comes out of this printer here, you'll notice, manually, I'm going to print this here. We say that that green means screened. And so that means if someone in our ministry has on, like, a green lanyard, they're good to go.

00:04:51:20 - 00:05:16:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This board right here, you can see, different, this is like our weekly lessons, bottom lines. We'll also have the, like, connect group sheet right here, for our leaders as they come in on, like, a, Sunday to grab it. And then we have a monthly leader, a weekly I'm sorry leader podcast. And so, our leaders that win stuff, this is, our beginning of our cycle.

00:05:16:02 - 00:05:40:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So all these leaders are new to our team, and then this is where they can grab, their leader gift, their leader mug, all that type of stuff. This right here is our, Wednesday evening safety, safety laminated sheet, assignments. So we'll post this right here on the board. And then we'll also throw it into our leader group chat so that everyone knows where they should be and where they need to be.

00:05:40:27 - 00:06:06:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then right around here, just a couple more shelves and zoom out a little bit. A couple more shelves right here. This is just some more leader, resources. So this is like some, throw Intel, some yay or nay. We got Play-Doh in case we need it. We got some dice, we got some, break the ice games are all look down, and, I'll link a bunch of this stuff.

00:06:06:09 - 00:06:26:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Financing scavenger hunt, card game. I'll link some of these things so that you can, find them. You can buy them. You can, supply them for, for your own area if there's some that you want. And then the last thing we have here is just, a stack of cards so that if any of our leaders need to write cards to any of their students, they can go about doing that right here.

00:06:26:19 - 00:06:43:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then finally, this is new. Someone added this, in a little bit, unbeknownst to us. We kind of like it. So it says prayers and then, you can we can put some, like, individual, prayer requests right there, there on the screen. And so that's been something that we just added, which is pretty cool.

00:06:43:28 - 00:07:08:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, just one more time as a, take a big someone's prayer and something right now zoom out. This is our leader workroom, and, no students are that. Well, everyone, thank you so much for hanging here for this entire episode. As a reminder, link down below in the description, there are different, links for different things and resources and stuff that we have, linking to different episodes describing our volunteer process.

00:07:08:04 - 00:07:25:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
A free episode like this, hopefully is incredibly helpful to you, but a payment in the form of a like or a subscribe would really make all the difference in the world. And thank you for being here for this questions playlist. The next episode is linked right here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends, don't forget stay habits.

]]> Ever wondered whatโ€™s inside a great youth ministry volunteer room? In this episode, Nick walks through his own spaceโ€”showing you everything from the snack and coffee setup to the leader resource area, check-in station, and supply closet. Youโ€™ll leave with practical ideas (and links!) to create a welcoming, well-equipped hub that keeps your leaders fueled, prepped, and connected every week.

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

๐Ÿ‚ 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

๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/176

ITEMS FOUND IN LEADER ROOM

//Leader Resource Area
Decks of Cards
https://walmrt.us/4hs9d0u

Foam Dice
https://walmrt.us/4ot5h1M

Playdough
https://walmrt.us/3Jc5LdJ

Ice Breaker Cards
https://walmrt.us/47DJz5n

Find & Seek Scavenger Hunt
https://walmrt.us/47GrZ0I

//Other Items
Mini Fridge
https://walmrt.us/3JmGai3

Keurig
https://walmrt.us/4hKuByh

Microwave
https://walmrt.us/3JmG223

Personal Sized Whiteboards
https://walmrt.us/475rDk6

Markers
https://walmrt.us/47Gs84g

First Aid Kit
https://walmrt.us/4oDM25D

Ultimate Guest Box Template
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

Volunteer Onboarding Process Explained
https://youtu.be/s8HNzfZoiX0?si=A322a3wihRACq8ZM

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

--------------
๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰
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

--------------
๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Show me your volunteer rooms question!
00:23 Snacks & Coffee Area
01:01 Office Supply Area
01:34 Fall Social Pack
02:48 Supply Closet
04:14 Leader Check-in Area
05:42 Leader Group Resource Tools

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this episode, we are going to show you my church's youth ministry volunteer room as we're answering this question. Show me your volunteer rooms. We are looking to make a new volunteer headquarters and are looking for inspiration. We're talking snacks, decorations, and things leaders love. So let's go on a little field trip and I'm going to show you my church's leader workroom.

00:00:22:14 - 00:00:50:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's go. So this right here, just some basic, you know, and, like, common snacks, a leader fridge, which is also a spot where a lot of our people, store leftovers and food and then, of course, gotta have coffee. So this whole section here is filled with different, like, K-Cups, which I personally hate. Which is why I have pour over in my office in the next room over.

00:00:50:03 - 00:01:09:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But, this is something for our leaders, you know, Wednesday nights, Sunday morning, they come on in here, they grab a cup of coffee, they make it happen. This are here was actually paid for about one of our students, so that's pretty cool. Here's a printer. And this is where most of our, basic easy printer, printing needs can be done here.

00:01:09:23 - 00:01:34:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
There is a bigger one, in another part of the office, but we just use this one as much as we can, a microwave in case we need it. And then just some very basic, paper supplies and cards and, cutters and stapler. Hole punch, in fact, that the cutters are here. This right here is where we keep, radio for, our security and safety team when they need it, when they're looking for it.

00:01:34:12 - 00:01:51:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hey. Quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall.

00:01:51:16 - 00:02:14:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's why I created this, the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed. So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon.

00:02:14:28 - 00:02:35:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And did you know that monthly hybrid. Here are Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast. They get this pack completely for free, so if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799. Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting.

00:02:35:09 - 00:03:00:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry, right here is meant to sort of be our like, supply closet, right? So like, a leader can theoretically come in here anytime they need it and then get anything that they might be looking for.

00:03:00:14 - 00:03:22:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So of course, we got markers and then we got some branded pens. And these are here are actually one of our favorite things. Like we use these like little personalized whiteboards all the time. They're really like good for games and stuff like that. These are here are like just labels, for, for check in and for printing and then down here and we just got to order.

00:03:22:14 - 00:03:40:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So don't be like, holy crap, those people are all about snacks. But this is, we just got a big Sam's order. These are our snacks. So these are what we include. Back over here. And this is, like, just the back up stock of it. This right here. I've gone over this before. This is our leader.

00:03:40:17 - 00:03:59:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They're not a leader. This is our our newcomer welcome box. And so, this is where we store a bunch of them, and then our check in team, they know to come and stock this for actually link right up here. Top left of the screen. I'll link to video where I detail an outline, our entire welcome box process.

00:03:59:12 - 00:04:16:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So this is like a leaders like go to spot everything that they could use, everything that they can need. Plus some just like backup stuff, you know, along with like first aid and, you know, necessary things. Like a kid gets an injury, we can go straight here, we can get all we need out of there. Turning the corner here.

00:04:16:02 - 00:04:35:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is our, leader check in station. So leaders are not allowed to check in until they've gone through our entire volunteer process, which I'll also link down below our volunteer process. And this vets them. Make sure that they went through all of our training and that they went through, all of the, the legal ministry safe things that they need to do.

00:04:35:22 - 00:04:51:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then they can go ahead and they can check in here. Well, we say is if it comes out of this printer here, you'll notice, manually, I'm going to print this here. We say that that green means screened. And so that means if someone in our ministry has on, like, a green lanyard, they're good to go.

00:04:51:20 - 00:05:16:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This board right here, you can see, different, this is like our weekly lessons, bottom lines. We'll also have the, like, connect group sheet right here, for our leaders as they come in on, like, a, Sunday to grab it. And then we have a monthly leader, a weekly I'm sorry leader podcast. And so, our leaders that win stuff, this is, our beginning of our cycle.

00:05:16:02 - 00:05:40:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So all these leaders are new to our team, and then this is where they can grab, their leader gift, their leader mug, all that type of stuff. This right here is our, Wednesday evening safety, safety laminated sheet, assignments. So we'll post this right here on the board. And then we'll also throw it into our leader group chat so that everyone knows where they should be and where they need to be.

00:05:40:27 - 00:06:06:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then right around here, just a couple more shelves and zoom out a little bit. A couple more shelves right here. This is just some more leader, resources. So this is like some, throw Intel, some yay or nay. We got Play-Doh in case we need it. We got some dice, we got some, break the ice games are all look down, and, I'll link a bunch of this stuff.

00:06:06:09 - 00:06:26:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Financing scavenger hunt, card game. I'll link some of these things so that you can, find them. You can buy them. You can, supply them for, for your own area if there's some that you want. And then the last thing we have here is just, a stack of cards so that if any of our leaders need to write cards to any of their students, they can go about doing that right here.

00:06:26:19 - 00:06:43:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then finally, this is new. Someone added this, in a little bit, unbeknownst to us. We kind of like it. So it says prayers and then, you can we can put some, like, individual, prayer requests right there, there on the screen. And so that's been something that we just added, which is pretty cool.

00:06:43:28 - 00:07:08:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, just one more time as a, take a big someone's prayer and something right now zoom out. This is our leader workroom, and, no students are that. Well, everyone, thank you so much for hanging here for this entire episode. As a reminder, link down below in the description, there are different, links for different things and resources and stuff that we have, linking to different episodes describing our volunteer process.

00:07:08:04 - 00:07:25:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
A free episode like this, hopefully is incredibly helpful to you, but a payment in the form of a like or a subscribe would really make all the difference in the world. And thank you for being here for this questions playlist. The next episode is linked right here on screen. But until next time. And as always my friends, don't forget stay habits.

]]> Episode 175: The Calendar that Rules Them All! [Most Skip Step 1!] https://www.hybridministry.xyz/175 b7eb79c1-7238-487b-b390-9fcaaf8707c2 Thu, 13 Nov 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 175 The Calendar that Rules Them All! [Most Skip Step 1!] full Nick Clason Struggling with youth ministry planning, church communications, or ministry calendars? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, learn the 5 levels to create the ultimate Youth Ministry Calendar that rules them all! Most skip Level 1โ€”but stick around for the one strategy that fixes all your communication issues and grabs parentsโ€™ attention with tips, visuals, and free downloadable designs. 10:56 no Struggling with youth ministry planning, church communications, or ministry calendars? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, learn the 5 levels to create the ultimate Youth Ministry Calendar that rules them all! Most skip Level 1โ€”but stick around for the one strategy that fixes all your communication issues and grabs parentsโ€™ attention with tips, visuals, and free downloadable designs. FREE CALENDAR TEMPLATE https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-spring-141564188?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link ๐Ÿ‚ FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link ๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/175 Custom Curated Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaK80OxdNPbfrvTH_6cML8VB Nucleus https://www.nucleus.church ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 -------------- ๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰ 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 -------------- ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00 At a Glance Calendars 00:44 Level 1 - Most Miss! 02:51 Level 2 - FREE Download 05:27 Level 3 06:58 Level 4 - An All Time Idea! 08:10 Level 5 - THIS RULES THEM ALL -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:07 - 00:00:24:17 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:34:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Have you been doing your planning and creation of your youth ministry calendars all wrong this whole time? Well, in today's episode, I'm going to share with you the five levels to create a solid youth ministry calendar, the one that will rule them all. While most don't make it past level one, you should stick around to the end of the video and see the whole thing because I reveal at the end the one trick that I've started adding to all of my calendars that it solves the communication problem once and for all. 00:00:34:16 - 00:01:06:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Oh, and plus there's a free calendar link down below in the YouTube video or the podcast description. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nicolas, and excited to be with you. As we're talking through the five levels of a youth ministry calendar creation. And the reason we're doing this because we're actually, and we actually are and have been in a playlist where we've been discussing different questions that I have come across on different youth pastor Facebook groups. 00:01:06:25 - 00:01:30:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And today, this one, I have, a question that says, hey everyone, I'm looking for examples of an at a glance calendar that highlight your major annual events. Pictures, please. You don't need to include spontaneous or smaller events, just the main ones that plan each year. And so we're going to be looking at what I have been passing out historically, and how we've tried to not only solve the communication problem, but it also helps with our, our visitors and all that sort of thing. 00:01:30:17 - 00:01:51:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So actually, there's a carefully curated playlist with all of those elements, calendar discussions and a welcome box that we have and communication issues linked right here. Tap the video. Go ahead and check it out on YouTube. But step number one is you need to have and this is the one that most skipped. But you need to have a reputable website okay. 00:01:51:28 - 00:02:17:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Because if you want a quote as this question says an at a glance calendar, then you need to have a website that is actually up to date that when people don't have the information that they need from your calendar, they know where they can go and what they should do. In fact, everyone in our student ministry knows and understands that like the calendar doesn't exist with this this piece of literature that they're bringing home. 00:02:17:08 - 00:02:43:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is, again, as the question as this is high level, this is simply highlights. This isn't every single thing. I've seen calendars designed with every single thing, the entire calendar for the year. But like that, that is not what we pass out. And I'm going to share multiple different reasons why. But one of the reasons is because our website handles a lot of the rest of the stuff that is going to be needed in order to communicate that. 00:02:43:05 - 00:03:04:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you need to make sure that you have a website that's actually like navigate. Well, that's decent. It's a decent guest experience and it's up to date. The second thing is you want something that's designed well. If you look at the one here on screen, this is one that we, are giving away. Link down below. The templated, the blank version. 00:03:05:01 - 00:03:29:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is within our church's approved brand color palette and guides. So like, these are the student ministry colors within our church's color palette. So that's the first step of it. The second thing is like when I'm designing it, I typically choose a font or two that are like our fonts for the year. And then I'm just gonna be honest, like, icons are fun, but like, emojis are great. 00:03:29:13 - 00:03:50:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I try to just like link an emoji to some of the different events that we have. And that does a great job for it. The other thing is, like you see off to the side, here's like I also try to create some sort of icon that goes with like this season. So for fall we've done like coffee cups or we've done football helmets for the summer, we've done suns. 00:03:50:09 - 00:04:11:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And we, you know, in the spring we've done flowers. And so it gets tricky, especially if you're trying to do different ones and you're like doing them year over year. But you'll see the one linked right here. And you can go ahead and get the templated version link down below in the description. But you want your design to be something that, like, feels a little bit familiar but doesn't feel identical because you don't want them to think I've already got this. 00:04:11:18 - 00:04:28:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like they need to understand, like, no, this is a new one. Hey, quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet. 00:04:28:15 - 00:04:50:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created these the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed. 00:04:50:29 - 00:05:10:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid here? A Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast? They get this pack completely for free. So if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799. 00:05:10:25 - 00:05:37:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. And another major thing that you're going to want to do here, which is level three, is you only want to include events that you, particularly and specifically choose. 00:05:37:27 - 00:06:00:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And want to highlight. You don't want to put every single thing on your calendar. No, no, you want things that you only want at a high level. And so the way to make it visually appealing, in my opinion, and in my book, and to make it small and concise, is to not overwhelm it with information, but to only make it things that are noteworthy for families to know. 00:06:00:21 - 00:06:23:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry For example, we a lot of times say we meet every single Sunday. We meet every single Wednesday. However, these are ones you want to know about, and these are also ones that you want to know that we're not meeting because we meet every single week. But these in particular take note. We are not meeting. Additionally, and especially as it pertains to our spring calendar, we will post things about our, about our like winter weekend. 00:06:23:26 - 00:06:44:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And we'll also post, say, the dates for our summer camp communications already gone out for that. By the time this calendar gets in the hands of our students mid-year and like December. But this one is important that it just, you know, it gets on there because it's actually going to happen during this cycle, which I should say, for context, we produce three calendars per year. 00:06:44:09 - 00:07:05:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We produce a fall one, we produce a spring one, and then we also produce a summer one. And so in light of that, we're pumping out calendars three different times per year to get into the hands of students. The fourth level, and this I think, is, one of them, the most impressive, like, decisions that I ever stumbled into. 00:07:05:20 - 00:07:24:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I honestly can't even tell you how I stumbled into it. And I would say that this is the key. However, level five, is a new one that we've recently unlocked, and I think it's even better. But number four is we make this design and then we print this using like sticker mule. We print this on a magnet. 00:07:24:25 - 00:07:43:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Here's the psychology. Here's my thought behind it. Right. Everyone passes out a calendar for the year. There's the sports calendar. There's the academic calendar. And in a lot of cases, there's the youth group calendar. But what I want and maybe this is just my competitiveness, but like I want my calendar to be the thing holding on other calendars. 00:07:43:07 - 00:08:05:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Right. Like if you got your sports calendar, I want the youth calendar to be the thing that is keeping the sports calendar affixed to the fridge. That puts us on top of it. And they're probably going to choose sports over student ministry. But I just like to think in my own head, like, think about all of these calendars that are on magnets, that are on people's fridges, that are at the top of line, top of sight. 00:08:05:03 - 00:08:33:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And hopefully they're seeing, and remembering and keeping us again, top of mind. The fifth and final level, which I think is like the ultimate is, you'll see here. And you've probably noticed that we actually and this is helpful because of our website, we build our website and our calendar on our website, on the provider of, of nucleus, and on nucleus, what you can do is you can link in a dot ICS, which is an iCal calendar extension. 00:08:33:21 - 00:08:48:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So it's all you put in like your phone. But it's also like a shareable option out of like even a Google calendar. So we create just like a Google Calendar, we keep the Google Calendar up to date. That auto populates to our website, right? Which is like again, and I said, like, you want to make sure that your, your website is up to date. 00:08:48:27 - 00:09:09:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if people land on your website, that's information is not on your your big calendar, your highlight calendar, your magnet calendar that they do end up on your website, they're able to obtain the information that they need and that they're looking for. But then we've created a QR code where they can simply subscribe to the calendar in their phones. 00:09:09:07 - 00:09:32:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so this is, in my opinion, the penultimate, because this makes these, at a glance calendars great, but not the most crucial thing. I think a lot of youth pastors treat this calendars the most crucial thing. But what happens when students don't have access to it? What happens when they lose it? What happens when you give it to them and they accidentally set it down before they get it into the hands of their parents? 00:09:32:18 - 00:09:56:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If a parent can subscribe to our calendar, then they will never miss an event. They'll never miss an update. It will be populated onto the very device and onto the very app that they use to manage and control their entire life. Their calendar app. And what a better place than for your youth ministry and your church calendar to be on parents phones and on students phones. 00:09:56:22 - 00:10:18:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so put a QR code, put some sort of link where they can go and they can subscribe to the events. And so all of the events are exactly where they're supposed to be and where you ultimately want them to be at the end of the day, remember, the goal of this is communication so that people know what's going on and that they then also hopefully choose to attend your church and your event in your youth group. 00:10:18:04 - 00:10:39:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The the goal and this is not a beautiful calendar. Hopefully we can help you create one. And once again link down below free in the in the podcast or YouTube description. But the goal is communication at its core. And so that fifth and final layer adding adding a QR code so that people and parents can, subscribe to your church and your youth ministry calendar. 00:10:40:01 - 00:10:54:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Such a game changer. Well, hey everyone, the next episode is linked right here on the screen as well as the subscribe button. If you found this episode helpful, a payment for this free calendar would be amazing. A like a subscribe and share it with a friend. But until next time. And as always, don't forget. Stay hybrid. youth ministry, youth pastor, student ministry, hybrid ministry, church communications, church marketing, ministry calendar, ministry planning, church leadership, church growth, youth group ideas, youth group events, digital ministry, church media, church event planning, social media for churches, free ministry resources, youth pastor training, ministry systems, qr code calendar, church website design, hybrid church, next gen ministry, discipleship tools, church content creation Struggling with youth ministry planning, church communications, or ministry calendars? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, learn the 5 levels to create the ultimate Youth Ministry Calendar that rules them all! Most skip Level 1โ€”but stick around for the one strategy that fixes all your communication issues and grabs parentsโ€™ attention with tips, visuals, and free downloadable designs.

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

๐Ÿ‚ 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

๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/175

Custom Curated Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaK80OxdNPbfrvTH_6cML8VB

Nucleus
https://www.nucleus.church

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

--------------
๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰
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

--------------
๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 At a Glance Calendars
00:44 Level 1 - Most Miss!
02:51 Level 2 - FREE Download
05:27 Level 3
06:58 Level 4 - An All Time Idea!
08:10 Level 5 - THIS RULES THEM ALL

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:07 - 00:00:24:17
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:34:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Have you been doing your planning and creation of your youth ministry calendars all wrong this whole time? Well, in today's episode, I'm going to share with you the five levels to create a solid youth ministry calendar, the one that will rule them all. While most don't make it past level one, you should stick around to the end of the video and see the whole thing because I reveal at the end the one trick that I've started adding to all of my calendars that it solves the communication problem once and for all.

00:00:34:16 - 00:01:06:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh, and plus there's a free calendar link down below in the YouTube video or the podcast description. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nicolas, and excited to be with you. As we're talking through the five levels of a youth ministry calendar creation. And the reason we're doing this because we're actually, and we actually are and have been in a playlist where we've been discussing different questions that I have come across on different youth pastor Facebook groups.

00:01:06:25 - 00:01:30:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And today, this one, I have, a question that says, hey everyone, I'm looking for examples of an at a glance calendar that highlight your major annual events. Pictures, please. You don't need to include spontaneous or smaller events, just the main ones that plan each year. And so we're going to be looking at what I have been passing out historically, and how we've tried to not only solve the communication problem, but it also helps with our, our visitors and all that sort of thing.

00:01:30:17 - 00:01:51:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So actually, there's a carefully curated playlist with all of those elements, calendar discussions and a welcome box that we have and communication issues linked right here. Tap the video. Go ahead and check it out on YouTube. But step number one is you need to have and this is the one that most skipped. But you need to have a reputable website okay.

00:01:51:28 - 00:02:17:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because if you want a quote as this question says an at a glance calendar, then you need to have a website that is actually up to date that when people don't have the information that they need from your calendar, they know where they can go and what they should do. In fact, everyone in our student ministry knows and understands that like the calendar doesn't exist with this this piece of literature that they're bringing home.

00:02:17:08 - 00:02:43:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is, again, as the question as this is high level, this is simply highlights. This isn't every single thing. I've seen calendars designed with every single thing, the entire calendar for the year. But like that, that is not what we pass out. And I'm going to share multiple different reasons why. But one of the reasons is because our website handles a lot of the rest of the stuff that is going to be needed in order to communicate that.

00:02:43:05 - 00:03:04:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you need to make sure that you have a website that's actually like navigate. Well, that's decent. It's a decent guest experience and it's up to date. The second thing is you want something that's designed well. If you look at the one here on screen, this is one that we, are giving away. Link down below. The templated, the blank version.

00:03:05:01 - 00:03:29:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is within our church's approved brand color palette and guides. So like, these are the student ministry colors within our church's color palette. So that's the first step of it. The second thing is like when I'm designing it, I typically choose a font or two that are like our fonts for the year. And then I'm just gonna be honest, like, icons are fun, but like, emojis are great.

00:03:29:13 - 00:03:50:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I try to just like link an emoji to some of the different events that we have. And that does a great job for it. The other thing is, like you see off to the side, here's like I also try to create some sort of icon that goes with like this season. So for fall we've done like coffee cups or we've done football helmets for the summer, we've done suns.

00:03:50:09 - 00:04:11:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we, you know, in the spring we've done flowers. And so it gets tricky, especially if you're trying to do different ones and you're like doing them year over year. But you'll see the one linked right here. And you can go ahead and get the templated version link down below in the description. But you want your design to be something that, like, feels a little bit familiar but doesn't feel identical because you don't want them to think I've already got this.

00:04:11:18 - 00:04:28:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like they need to understand, like, no, this is a new one. Hey, quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet.

00:04:28:15 - 00:04:50:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created these the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed.

00:04:50:29 - 00:05:10:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid here? A Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast? They get this pack completely for free. So if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799.

00:05:10:25 - 00:05:37:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. And another major thing that you're going to want to do here, which is level three, is you only want to include events that you, particularly and specifically choose.

00:05:37:27 - 00:06:00:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And want to highlight. You don't want to put every single thing on your calendar. No, no, you want things that you only want at a high level. And so the way to make it visually appealing, in my opinion, and in my book, and to make it small and concise, is to not overwhelm it with information, but to only make it things that are noteworthy for families to know.

00:06:00:21 - 00:06:23:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For example, we a lot of times say we meet every single Sunday. We meet every single Wednesday. However, these are ones you want to know about, and these are also ones that you want to know that we're not meeting because we meet every single week. But these in particular take note. We are not meeting. Additionally, and especially as it pertains to our spring calendar, we will post things about our, about our like winter weekend.

00:06:23:26 - 00:06:44:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we'll also post, say, the dates for our summer camp communications already gone out for that. By the time this calendar gets in the hands of our students mid-year and like December. But this one is important that it just, you know, it gets on there because it's actually going to happen during this cycle, which I should say, for context, we produce three calendars per year.

00:06:44:09 - 00:07:05:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We produce a fall one, we produce a spring one, and then we also produce a summer one. And so in light of that, we're pumping out calendars three different times per year to get into the hands of students. The fourth level, and this I think, is, one of them, the most impressive, like, decisions that I ever stumbled into.

00:07:05:20 - 00:07:24:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I honestly can't even tell you how I stumbled into it. And I would say that this is the key. However, level five, is a new one that we've recently unlocked, and I think it's even better. But number four is we make this design and then we print this using like sticker mule. We print this on a magnet.

00:07:24:25 - 00:07:43:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Here's the psychology. Here's my thought behind it. Right. Everyone passes out a calendar for the year. There's the sports calendar. There's the academic calendar. And in a lot of cases, there's the youth group calendar. But what I want and maybe this is just my competitiveness, but like I want my calendar to be the thing holding on other calendars.

00:07:43:07 - 00:08:05:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Like if you got your sports calendar, I want the youth calendar to be the thing that is keeping the sports calendar affixed to the fridge. That puts us on top of it. And they're probably going to choose sports over student ministry. But I just like to think in my own head, like, think about all of these calendars that are on magnets, that are on people's fridges, that are at the top of line, top of sight.

00:08:05:03 - 00:08:33:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And hopefully they're seeing, and remembering and keeping us again, top of mind. The fifth and final level, which I think is like the ultimate is, you'll see here. And you've probably noticed that we actually and this is helpful because of our website, we build our website and our calendar on our website, on the provider of, of nucleus, and on nucleus, what you can do is you can link in a dot ICS, which is an iCal calendar extension.

00:08:33:21 - 00:08:48:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's all you put in like your phone. But it's also like a shareable option out of like even a Google calendar. So we create just like a Google Calendar, we keep the Google Calendar up to date. That auto populates to our website, right? Which is like again, and I said, like, you want to make sure that your, your website is up to date.

00:08:48:27 - 00:09:09:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if people land on your website, that's information is not on your your big calendar, your highlight calendar, your magnet calendar that they do end up on your website, they're able to obtain the information that they need and that they're looking for. But then we've created a QR code where they can simply subscribe to the calendar in their phones.

00:09:09:07 - 00:09:32:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this is, in my opinion, the penultimate, because this makes these, at a glance calendars great, but not the most crucial thing. I think a lot of youth pastors treat this calendars the most crucial thing. But what happens when students don't have access to it? What happens when they lose it? What happens when you give it to them and they accidentally set it down before they get it into the hands of their parents?

00:09:32:18 - 00:09:56:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If a parent can subscribe to our calendar, then they will never miss an event. They'll never miss an update. It will be populated onto the very device and onto the very app that they use to manage and control their entire life. Their calendar app. And what a better place than for your youth ministry and your church calendar to be on parents phones and on students phones.

00:09:56:22 - 00:10:18:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so put a QR code, put some sort of link where they can go and they can subscribe to the events. And so all of the events are exactly where they're supposed to be and where you ultimately want them to be at the end of the day, remember, the goal of this is communication so that people know what's going on and that they then also hopefully choose to attend your church and your event in your youth group.

00:10:18:04 - 00:10:39:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The the goal and this is not a beautiful calendar. Hopefully we can help you create one. And once again link down below free in the in the podcast or YouTube description. But the goal is communication at its core. And so that fifth and final layer adding adding a QR code so that people and parents can, subscribe to your church and your youth ministry calendar.

00:10:40:01 - 00:10:54:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Such a game changer. Well, hey everyone, the next episode is linked right here on the screen as well as the subscribe button. If you found this episode helpful, a payment for this free calendar would be amazing. A like a subscribe and share it with a friend. But until next time. And as always, don't forget. Stay hybrid.

]]> Struggling with youth ministry planning, church communications, or ministry calendars? In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Podcast, learn the 5 levels to create the ultimate Youth Ministry Calendar that rules them all! Most skip Level 1โ€”but stick around for the one strategy that fixes all your communication issues and grabs parentsโ€™ attention with tips, visuals, and free downloadable designs.

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

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๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE!
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SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/175

Custom Curated Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaK80OxdNPbfrvTH_6cML8VB

Nucleus
https://www.nucleus.church

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Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

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We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!
The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!
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๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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
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https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 At a Glance Calendars
00:44 Level 1 - Most Miss!
02:51 Level 2 - FREE Download
05:27 Level 3
06:58 Level 4 - An All Time Idea!
08:10 Level 5 - THIS RULES THEM ALL

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:07 - 00:00:24:17
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:34:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Have you been doing your planning and creation of your youth ministry calendars all wrong this whole time? Well, in today's episode, I'm going to share with you the five levels to create a solid youth ministry calendar, the one that will rule them all. While most don't make it past level one, you should stick around to the end of the video and see the whole thing because I reveal at the end the one trick that I've started adding to all of my calendars that it solves the communication problem once and for all.

00:00:34:16 - 00:01:06:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Oh, and plus there's a free calendar link down below in the YouTube video or the podcast description. Welcome everyone to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am your host, Nicolas, and excited to be with you. As we're talking through the five levels of a youth ministry calendar creation. And the reason we're doing this because we're actually, and we actually are and have been in a playlist where we've been discussing different questions that I have come across on different youth pastor Facebook groups.

00:01:06:25 - 00:01:30:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And today, this one, I have, a question that says, hey everyone, I'm looking for examples of an at a glance calendar that highlight your major annual events. Pictures, please. You don't need to include spontaneous or smaller events, just the main ones that plan each year. And so we're going to be looking at what I have been passing out historically, and how we've tried to not only solve the communication problem, but it also helps with our, our visitors and all that sort of thing.

00:01:30:17 - 00:01:51:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So actually, there's a carefully curated playlist with all of those elements, calendar discussions and a welcome box that we have and communication issues linked right here. Tap the video. Go ahead and check it out on YouTube. But step number one is you need to have and this is the one that most skipped. But you need to have a reputable website okay.

00:01:51:28 - 00:02:17:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because if you want a quote as this question says an at a glance calendar, then you need to have a website that is actually up to date that when people don't have the information that they need from your calendar, they know where they can go and what they should do. In fact, everyone in our student ministry knows and understands that like the calendar doesn't exist with this this piece of literature that they're bringing home.

00:02:17:08 - 00:02:43:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is, again, as the question as this is high level, this is simply highlights. This isn't every single thing. I've seen calendars designed with every single thing, the entire calendar for the year. But like that, that is not what we pass out. And I'm going to share multiple different reasons why. But one of the reasons is because our website handles a lot of the rest of the stuff that is going to be needed in order to communicate that.

00:02:43:05 - 00:03:04:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you need to make sure that you have a website that's actually like navigate. Well, that's decent. It's a decent guest experience and it's up to date. The second thing is you want something that's designed well. If you look at the one here on screen, this is one that we, are giving away. Link down below. The templated, the blank version.

00:03:05:01 - 00:03:29:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is within our church's approved brand color palette and guides. So like, these are the student ministry colors within our church's color palette. So that's the first step of it. The second thing is like when I'm designing it, I typically choose a font or two that are like our fonts for the year. And then I'm just gonna be honest, like, icons are fun, but like, emojis are great.

00:03:29:13 - 00:03:50:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I try to just like link an emoji to some of the different events that we have. And that does a great job for it. The other thing is, like you see off to the side, here's like I also try to create some sort of icon that goes with like this season. So for fall we've done like coffee cups or we've done football helmets for the summer, we've done suns.

00:03:50:09 - 00:04:11:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we, you know, in the spring we've done flowers. And so it gets tricky, especially if you're trying to do different ones and you're like doing them year over year. But you'll see the one linked right here. And you can go ahead and get the templated version link down below in the description. But you want your design to be something that, like, feels a little bit familiar but doesn't feel identical because you don't want them to think I've already got this.

00:04:11:18 - 00:04:28:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like they need to understand, like, no, this is a new one. Hey, quick break. Let me ask you a question. Are you still waking up every day? Is youth pastor scrambling to figure out what you need to post on your social media? Blurry dodgeball. Pick a video that your leader sent you that's a little bit pixelated, because iPhone still hasn't updated fully to RCS yet.

00:04:28:15 - 00:04:50:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You see, you don't need that kind of stress this fall. That's why I created these the fall seasonal social media pack for youth pastors. It is three months worth of done for you content done for you, paired with some customization so that you and your leaders and your students are the faces and the personalities on your student ministry Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube shorts feed.

00:04:50:29 - 00:05:10:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So here's the thing. You can grab my pack right now over on Patreon. And did you know that monthly hybrid here? A Patreon members who only pay $4 per month and get a bonus podcast? They get this pack completely for free. So if you do the math for three months worth of social media content, it's only $12 where the pack is 1799.

00:05:10:25 - 00:05:37:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Either way, it is a steal for you and it will take away the stress of posting. And you can grab that pack right now and start becoming a master at social media and hybrid ministry. In your youth ministry context, rooting for you as you are crushing it this fall in your student ministry. And another major thing that you're going to want to do here, which is level three, is you only want to include events that you, particularly and specifically choose.

00:05:37:27 - 00:06:00:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And want to highlight. You don't want to put every single thing on your calendar. No, no, you want things that you only want at a high level. And so the way to make it visually appealing, in my opinion, and in my book, and to make it small and concise, is to not overwhelm it with information, but to only make it things that are noteworthy for families to know.

00:06:00:21 - 00:06:23:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For example, we a lot of times say we meet every single Sunday. We meet every single Wednesday. However, these are ones you want to know about, and these are also ones that you want to know that we're not meeting because we meet every single week. But these in particular take note. We are not meeting. Additionally, and especially as it pertains to our spring calendar, we will post things about our, about our like winter weekend.

00:06:23:26 - 00:06:44:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we'll also post, say, the dates for our summer camp communications already gone out for that. By the time this calendar gets in the hands of our students mid-year and like December. But this one is important that it just, you know, it gets on there because it's actually going to happen during this cycle, which I should say, for context, we produce three calendars per year.

00:06:44:09 - 00:07:05:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We produce a fall one, we produce a spring one, and then we also produce a summer one. And so in light of that, we're pumping out calendars three different times per year to get into the hands of students. The fourth level, and this I think, is, one of them, the most impressive, like, decisions that I ever stumbled into.

00:07:05:20 - 00:07:24:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I honestly can't even tell you how I stumbled into it. And I would say that this is the key. However, level five, is a new one that we've recently unlocked, and I think it's even better. But number four is we make this design and then we print this using like sticker mule. We print this on a magnet.

00:07:24:25 - 00:07:43:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Here's the psychology. Here's my thought behind it. Right. Everyone passes out a calendar for the year. There's the sports calendar. There's the academic calendar. And in a lot of cases, there's the youth group calendar. But what I want and maybe this is just my competitiveness, but like I want my calendar to be the thing holding on other calendars.

00:07:43:07 - 00:08:05:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Right. Like if you got your sports calendar, I want the youth calendar to be the thing that is keeping the sports calendar affixed to the fridge. That puts us on top of it. And they're probably going to choose sports over student ministry. But I just like to think in my own head, like, think about all of these calendars that are on magnets, that are on people's fridges, that are at the top of line, top of sight.

00:08:05:03 - 00:08:33:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And hopefully they're seeing, and remembering and keeping us again, top of mind. The fifth and final level, which I think is like the ultimate is, you'll see here. And you've probably noticed that we actually and this is helpful because of our website, we build our website and our calendar on our website, on the provider of, of nucleus, and on nucleus, what you can do is you can link in a dot ICS, which is an iCal calendar extension.

00:08:33:21 - 00:08:48:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's all you put in like your phone. But it's also like a shareable option out of like even a Google calendar. So we create just like a Google Calendar, we keep the Google Calendar up to date. That auto populates to our website, right? Which is like again, and I said, like, you want to make sure that your, your website is up to date.

00:08:48:27 - 00:09:09:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if people land on your website, that's information is not on your your big calendar, your highlight calendar, your magnet calendar that they do end up on your website, they're able to obtain the information that they need and that they're looking for. But then we've created a QR code where they can simply subscribe to the calendar in their phones.

00:09:09:07 - 00:09:32:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so this is, in my opinion, the penultimate, because this makes these, at a glance calendars great, but not the most crucial thing. I think a lot of youth pastors treat this calendars the most crucial thing. But what happens when students don't have access to it? What happens when they lose it? What happens when you give it to them and they accidentally set it down before they get it into the hands of their parents?

00:09:32:18 - 00:09:56:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If a parent can subscribe to our calendar, then they will never miss an event. They'll never miss an update. It will be populated onto the very device and onto the very app that they use to manage and control their entire life. Their calendar app. And what a better place than for your youth ministry and your church calendar to be on parents phones and on students phones.

00:09:56:22 - 00:10:18:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so put a QR code, put some sort of link where they can go and they can subscribe to the events. And so all of the events are exactly where they're supposed to be and where you ultimately want them to be at the end of the day, remember, the goal of this is communication so that people know what's going on and that they then also hopefully choose to attend your church and your event in your youth group.

00:10:18:04 - 00:10:39:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The the goal and this is not a beautiful calendar. Hopefully we can help you create one. And once again link down below free in the in the podcast or YouTube description. But the goal is communication at its core. And so that fifth and final layer adding adding a QR code so that people and parents can, subscribe to your church and your youth ministry calendar.

00:10:40:01 - 00:10:54:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Such a game changer. Well, hey everyone, the next episode is linked right here on the screen as well as the subscribe button. If you found this episode helpful, a payment for this free calendar would be amazing. A like a subscribe and share it with a friend. But until next time. And as always, don't forget. Stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 172: The Cellphone Problem in Youth Groups https://www.hybridministry.xyz/172 638ad9c0-ba4b-4a3f-99e7-f1127a82e225 Thu, 23 Oct 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 172 The Cellphone Problem in Youth Groups full Nick Clason In this episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show, we tackle the cellphone problem in youth groups and reveal a 3-step phone prevention strategy for youth ministry that actually works. Instead of fighting students for their phones, youโ€™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 youโ€™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, youโ€™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 youโ€™re looking for practical youth ministry tips, phone management strategies, and digital discipleship tools to keep students engaged, this episode is for you. ๐Ÿ‚ FALL SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=postsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link ๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROES GET THE PACK FOR FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/172 LINKS https://www.Coleader.co CODE: HybridMinistry10 Sidekick + Pro Presenter Setup https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 -------------- ๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰ 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 -------------- ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ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, youโ€™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 youโ€™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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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ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, youโ€™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 youโ€™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.patreon.com/posts/fall-seasonal-137477671?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

๐Ÿฆธ 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

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

--------------
๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰
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

--------------
๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ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 155: The Secret Sauce to Consistent Summer Engagement https://www.hybridministry.xyz/155 35b1d4fd-91ec-4113-acbc-2dc376af63e6 Thu, 26 Jun 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 155 The Secret Sauce to Consistent Summer Engagement full Nick Clason Consistency is hardโ€”unless you steal my system. In this episode, I break down my exact weekly summer content rhythm for youth ministry using the โ˜€๏ธ Summer Seasonal Social Media Pack: 1 spiritual reel, 1 fun reel, 1 carousel, and some bonus hybrid magic. Youโ€™ll get the full template, schedule, and contentโ€”so you can stay consistent, connected, and (mostly) sane all summer long. 8:09 no Consistency is hardโ€”unless you steal my system. In this episode, I break down my exact weekly summer content rhythm for youth ministry using the โ˜€๏ธ Summer Seasonal Social Media Pack: 1 spiritual reel, 1 fun reel, 1 carousel, and some bonus hybrid magic. Youโ€™ll get the full template, schedule, and contentโ€”so you can stay consistent, connected, and (mostly) sane all summer long. โ˜€๏ธ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=productsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link *๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/155 โœ… CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms ๐Ÿ“Š [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ๐Ÿ“‹ "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 -------------- ๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰ 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 -------------- ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00 Dodgeball in a Cornfield &amp; Summer Youth Ministry 00:55 My Secret Sauce Strategy 01:46 Mondayโ€™s Post 03:17 Wednesdayโ€™s Post 04:25 Fridayโ€™s Post 05:08 Bonus Ideas 06:11 Amazing Deal -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:06 - 00:00:29:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Consistency is hard unless you have a system. So steal mine if I'm giving you permission. So can we just be honest? Like summer youth ministry is kind of like playing dodgeball in a cornfield. No walls, no rules. Just pure chaos. You're leaders gone. You're students at camp. You simply trying to keep your Instagram feed, not looking like a ghost town. 00:00:29:08 - 00:00:56:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well, in this video, I'm going to share with you my weekly social media strategy and how I grew a YouTube channel, along with several other social accounts to over 900 subscribers, completely organically. And best yet, it's actually all available to you. Link in the description. For less than a cost of a weekly cup of Starbucks. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. 00:00:56:24 - 00:01:18:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Well hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet you. My name is Nick Clayton and in the trenches youth pastor currently serving on assignment in the DFW Dallas Fort Worth area. And I've been passionate about this thing. Digital ministry. I'm trying to make it, possible, accessible and frankly, easy for all of us. 00:01:18:22 - 00:01:45:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I have a full proof system that I actually I want to share with you. And like I said in the open, steal it, man, it is yours. And so every single Monday, I post some sort of spiritual real. My goal, my goal is to post two pieces of content per day. However, what I recommend for most churches and most youth pastors who, maybe don't have as big of a team or as much experience with content is to post three reels per week. 00:01:45:12 - 00:02:04:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you are following my proposed and recommended secret sauce strategy, it would be posting some sort of spiritual reel per day. Now, if you prefilled your messages, or even if you like, capture your video live in the room somehow, then I recommend posting it into something like an opus clip. There's a link down below for you to check out. 00:02:04:25 - 00:02:28:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Opus clip where I'll take your message and I'll just chop it up for you using I super easy, super great. The other good thing is, if you do have some sort of like long form message version of your, of your message, if you're teaching in some way, shape or form, when you upload that to like YouTube shorts, you can link a featured video to the short and it can link out to your long form of that. 00:02:28:28 - 00:02:57:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so that's what that's what we do. If you don't have either a, the capacity to sit down ahead of time film, that's what we do and that's what I recommend or B, capture it live in the room when you're teaching, then see if you download my social media pack. I actually have, but a bunch of different scripts to help you get through the summer of videos that you can just shoot on your phone selfie style and edit directly in something like a TikTok editor, an Instagram Reels editor, or even something like Cap Cut. 00:02:57:15 - 00:03:16:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so that's what I would recommend you doing on Monday. And listen, if you're going to steal this, you're just going to grab my strategy. The number one way that you could give back to this channel is a very simple like or a subscribe. It really it costs you nothing over on YouTube or on your podcast catcher. And it really does help us out a whole bunch. 00:03:17:01 - 00:03:35:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Moving on. The second style of post I recommend that you do is do something fun. You know, I think a lot of times in youth ministry we feel like we have to be serious all the time, especially when it comes to what's going on on social media. But the fact of the matter is that think about your personal social media habits, whatever platform it is for you. 00:03:35:23 - 00:03:56:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Maybe it's Instagram, maybe it's TikTok, maybe it's YouTube, maybe it's even something like Reddit or Facebook. You know, I feel a lot of youth pastors on Facebook. Why do you get on social media? Maybe you always get on to, like, do your devotions in a low key sort of sense of the way, hoping that your church that you follow is going to post scripture and, and some sort of reels like that. 00:03:57:01 - 00:04:15:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Or if you're like me, you get on to laugh, to be entertained. Maybe I'm a huge basketball fan. I get on to, watch basketball content. And sometimes, sometimes I'm just going to be very honest with you. Sometimes I even I even get in arguments about my favorite team. So, that's a confession I'm willing to make, but post something fun. 00:04:15:12 - 00:04:48:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And in this downloaded pack, I include some done for you fun content, emoji guesses, or transition hook style videos. Things to have fun with your students. And then Friday, go ahead and post some sort of carousel post. Post a Bible verse or post, something spiritual like what to do if you're facing anxiety. You know, I, I posted that, recently, actually, this link right up here at the top of the screen is, from a video what I posted using my weekly summer content pack and the carousel post performed incredibly well. 00:04:48:08 - 00:05:02:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Go back and listen to that one. You'll see the ways that people were responding to it and says what to do when I'm facing anxiety, what to do when I'm struggling with anger, what to do when I'm struggling with lust, and we feel some of those in there completely done for you. Grab them, download them, post them to your feed and use them. 00:05:02:24 - 00:05:38:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And they're there for you and they're there for the taking. But I also recommend, in addition to some of these things that I've given to you, I've included some of my bonus content. And every week we get together with some of our students and we do man on the street interview style videos, or we do, tier rankings, or we do a guessing game called seven questions like, and we'll get students together on camera, either me versus them, them versus a staff person or them versus each other with podcast microphones or just a little like Bluetooth connected to your phone's sort of microphone, and which interview them we like, have fun, chatting it 00:05:38:26 - 00:05:57:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry up with students, hearing their opinion, and then also like kind of messing around with them on on the edit, which is another really kind of like fun way to create content not only for your students, but also with your students and all of that, all of that. The good news is included in my summer seasonal social media pack. 00:05:57:20 - 00:06:20:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's it. That's my one week. You take that, you repeat, you rinse, you repeat. You do it again, copy it, steal it, and implement it in your ministry. But hold on a second. I got an amazing deal for you on the other side. Check it out. So there's a lot going on this summer, I get it. And you want to stay active even when you're doing slip and slide kickball. 00:06:20:16 - 00:06:42:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This isn't a metaphor. I really own this, and someone's probably definitely gotten hurt on it before. So here's the deal I don't spend six hours a day. I don't spend six hours a week on all of this. I've put all of this together. So all you need to do is hit the link in the description and go download the Summer Seasonal Social Media pack. 00:06:42:02 - 00:07:01:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It has my weekly proposed schedule for you for the summer. It also has some pre-made templates, things like man on the street, questions, graphics. All you got to do is overlay that in an editor and you can do it directly on your phone, or even in something a little bit more upgraded, like an Adobe Premiere Pro or a DaVinci resolve. 00:07:01:09 - 00:07:21:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then half of the post that you're going to get are completely done for you. Plug and play and you're off to the races. The other 50% is custom, because I don't think that a fully downloadable, where it removes your face and removes your voice and it removes your personality. I don't think that's a good strategy for social media in 2025. 00:07:21:07 - 00:07:40:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so the good news about my pack is that I still allow you to be the voice, to be the face, to create content with and for your students. And you and your students are featured on your social platforms. But I've done all the heavy lifting on their scripts and graphics and templates and, telling you exactly what to do. 00:07:40:02 - 00:08:04:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All you gotta do is follow my instructions, put a cell phone camera and you are off to the races. The result? Consistency, engagement, and not fumbling the bag on your social media feeds this summer. Listen, I got you a link down in the description. Thank you guys so much for being here on the Hybrid Ministry Show as we attempt to make digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible. 00:08:04:10 - 00:08:08:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid. youth ministry, youth pastor, student ministry, church social media, summer social media, consistent content, hybrid ministry, church growth, social media strategy, youth group, summer engagement, church reels, Instagram for churches, TikTok for ministry, Brady Shearer, Pro Church Tools, ministry marketing, social media pack, done for you content, seasonal content, youth group tips, digital discipleship, church communication, summer ministry Consistency is hardโ€”unless you steal my system. In this episode, I break down my exact weekly summer content rhythm for youth ministry using the โ˜€๏ธ Summer Seasonal Social Media Pack: 1 spiritual reel, 1 fun reel, 1 carousel, and some bonus hybrid magic. Youโ€™ll get the full template, schedule, and contentโ€”so you can stay consistent, connected, and (mostly) sane all summer long.

โ˜€๏ธ 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

*๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/155

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

๐Ÿ“Š [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐Ÿ“‹ "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

--------------
๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰
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

--------------
๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Dodgeball in a Cornfield & Summer Youth Ministry
00:55 My Secret Sauce Strategy
01:46 Mondayโ€™s Post
03:17 Wednesdayโ€™s Post
04:25 Fridayโ€™s Post
05:08 Bonus Ideas
06:11 Amazing Deal

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:06 - 00:00:29:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Consistency is hard unless you have a system. So steal mine if I'm giving you permission. So can we just be honest? Like summer youth ministry is kind of like playing dodgeball in a cornfield. No walls, no rules. Just pure chaos. You're leaders gone. You're students at camp. You simply trying to keep your Instagram feed, not looking like a ghost town.

00:00:29:08 - 00:00:56:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, in this video, I'm going to share with you my weekly social media strategy and how I grew a YouTube channel, along with several other social accounts to over 900 subscribers, completely organically. And best yet, it's actually all available to you. Link in the description. For less than a cost of a weekly cup of Starbucks. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00:00:56:24 - 00:01:18:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet you. My name is Nick Clayton and in the trenches youth pastor currently serving on assignment in the DFW Dallas Fort Worth area. And I've been passionate about this thing. Digital ministry. I'm trying to make it, possible, accessible and frankly, easy for all of us.

00:01:18:22 - 00:01:45:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I have a full proof system that I actually I want to share with you. And like I said in the open, steal it, man, it is yours. And so every single Monday, I post some sort of spiritual real. My goal, my goal is to post two pieces of content per day. However, what I recommend for most churches and most youth pastors who, maybe don't have as big of a team or as much experience with content is to post three reels per week.

00:01:45:12 - 00:02:04:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you are following my proposed and recommended secret sauce strategy, it would be posting some sort of spiritual reel per day. Now, if you prefilled your messages, or even if you like, capture your video live in the room somehow, then I recommend posting it into something like an opus clip. There's a link down below for you to check out.

00:02:04:25 - 00:02:28:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Opus clip where I'll take your message and I'll just chop it up for you using I super easy, super great. The other good thing is, if you do have some sort of like long form message version of your, of your message, if you're teaching in some way, shape or form, when you upload that to like YouTube shorts, you can link a featured video to the short and it can link out to your long form of that.

00:02:28:28 - 00:02:57:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's what that's what we do. If you don't have either a, the capacity to sit down ahead of time film, that's what we do and that's what I recommend or B, capture it live in the room when you're teaching, then see if you download my social media pack. I actually have, but a bunch of different scripts to help you get through the summer of videos that you can just shoot on your phone selfie style and edit directly in something like a TikTok editor, an Instagram Reels editor, or even something like Cap Cut.

00:02:57:15 - 00:03:16:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's what I would recommend you doing on Monday. And listen, if you're going to steal this, you're just going to grab my strategy. The number one way that you could give back to this channel is a very simple like or a subscribe. It really it costs you nothing over on YouTube or on your podcast catcher. And it really does help us out a whole bunch.

00:03:17:01 - 00:03:35:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Moving on. The second style of post I recommend that you do is do something fun. You know, I think a lot of times in youth ministry we feel like we have to be serious all the time, especially when it comes to what's going on on social media. But the fact of the matter is that think about your personal social media habits, whatever platform it is for you.

00:03:35:23 - 00:03:56:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Maybe it's Instagram, maybe it's TikTok, maybe it's YouTube, maybe it's even something like Reddit or Facebook. You know, I feel a lot of youth pastors on Facebook. Why do you get on social media? Maybe you always get on to, like, do your devotions in a low key sort of sense of the way, hoping that your church that you follow is going to post scripture and, and some sort of reels like that.

00:03:57:01 - 00:04:15:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or if you're like me, you get on to laugh, to be entertained. Maybe I'm a huge basketball fan. I get on to, watch basketball content. And sometimes, sometimes I'm just going to be very honest with you. Sometimes I even I even get in arguments about my favorite team. So, that's a confession I'm willing to make, but post something fun.

00:04:15:12 - 00:04:48:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in this downloaded pack, I include some done for you fun content, emoji guesses, or transition hook style videos. Things to have fun with your students. And then Friday, go ahead and post some sort of carousel post. Post a Bible verse or post, something spiritual like what to do if you're facing anxiety. You know, I, I posted that, recently, actually, this link right up here at the top of the screen is, from a video what I posted using my weekly summer content pack and the carousel post performed incredibly well.

00:04:48:08 - 00:05:02:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Go back and listen to that one. You'll see the ways that people were responding to it and says what to do when I'm facing anxiety, what to do when I'm struggling with anger, what to do when I'm struggling with lust, and we feel some of those in there completely done for you. Grab them, download them, post them to your feed and use them.

00:05:02:24 - 00:05:38:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And they're there for you and they're there for the taking. But I also recommend, in addition to some of these things that I've given to you, I've included some of my bonus content. And every week we get together with some of our students and we do man on the street interview style videos, or we do, tier rankings, or we do a guessing game called seven questions like, and we'll get students together on camera, either me versus them, them versus a staff person or them versus each other with podcast microphones or just a little like Bluetooth connected to your phone's sort of microphone, and which interview them we like, have fun, chatting it

00:05:38:26 - 00:05:57:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
up with students, hearing their opinion, and then also like kind of messing around with them on on the edit, which is another really kind of like fun way to create content not only for your students, but also with your students and all of that, all of that. The good news is included in my summer seasonal social media pack.

00:05:57:20 - 00:06:20:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's it. That's my one week. You take that, you repeat, you rinse, you repeat. You do it again, copy it, steal it, and implement it in your ministry. But hold on a second. I got an amazing deal for you on the other side. Check it out. So there's a lot going on this summer, I get it. And you want to stay active even when you're doing slip and slide kickball.

00:06:20:16 - 00:06:42:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This isn't a metaphor. I really own this, and someone's probably definitely gotten hurt on it before. So here's the deal I don't spend six hours a day. I don't spend six hours a week on all of this. I've put all of this together. So all you need to do is hit the link in the description and go download the Summer Seasonal Social Media pack.

00:06:42:02 - 00:07:01:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It has my weekly proposed schedule for you for the summer. It also has some pre-made templates, things like man on the street, questions, graphics. All you got to do is overlay that in an editor and you can do it directly on your phone, or even in something a little bit more upgraded, like an Adobe Premiere Pro or a DaVinci resolve.

00:07:01:09 - 00:07:21:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then half of the post that you're going to get are completely done for you. Plug and play and you're off to the races. The other 50% is custom, because I don't think that a fully downloadable, where it removes your face and removes your voice and it removes your personality. I don't think that's a good strategy for social media in 2025.

00:07:21:07 - 00:07:40:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the good news about my pack is that I still allow you to be the voice, to be the face, to create content with and for your students. And you and your students are featured on your social platforms. But I've done all the heavy lifting on their scripts and graphics and templates and, telling you exactly what to do.

00:07:40:02 - 00:08:04:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All you gotta do is follow my instructions, put a cell phone camera and you are off to the races. The result? Consistency, engagement, and not fumbling the bag on your social media feeds this summer. Listen, I got you a link down in the description. Thank you guys so much for being here on the Hybrid Ministry Show as we attempt to make digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible.

00:08:04:10 - 00:08:08:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Consistency is hardโ€”unless you steal my system. In this episode, I break down my exact weekly summer content rhythm for youth ministry using the โ˜€๏ธ Summer Seasonal Social Media Pack: 1 spiritual reel, 1 fun reel, 1 carousel, and some bonus hybrid magic. Youโ€™ll get the full template, schedule, and contentโ€”so you can stay consistent, connected, and (mostly) sane all summer long.

โ˜€๏ธ 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

*๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

SHOW NOTES
Shownotes & Transcripts
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/155

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

๐Ÿ“Š [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐Ÿ“‹ "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

๐Ÿ‘‰ STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

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

--------------
๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Dodgeball in a Cornfield & Summer Youth Ministry
00:55 My Secret Sauce Strategy
01:46 Mondayโ€™s Post
03:17 Wednesdayโ€™s Post
04:25 Fridayโ€™s Post
05:08 Bonus Ideas
06:11 Amazing Deal

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:06 - 00:00:29:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Consistency is hard unless you have a system. So steal mine if I'm giving you permission. So can we just be honest? Like summer youth ministry is kind of like playing dodgeball in a cornfield. No walls, no rules. Just pure chaos. You're leaders gone. You're students at camp. You simply trying to keep your Instagram feed, not looking like a ghost town.

00:00:29:08 - 00:00:56:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, in this video, I'm going to share with you my weekly social media strategy and how I grew a YouTube channel, along with several other social accounts to over 900 subscribers, completely organically. And best yet, it's actually all available to you. Link in the description. For less than a cost of a weekly cup of Starbucks. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show.

00:00:56:24 - 00:01:18:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet you. My name is Nick Clayton and in the trenches youth pastor currently serving on assignment in the DFW Dallas Fort Worth area. And I've been passionate about this thing. Digital ministry. I'm trying to make it, possible, accessible and frankly, easy for all of us.

00:01:18:22 - 00:01:45:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I have a full proof system that I actually I want to share with you. And like I said in the open, steal it, man, it is yours. And so every single Monday, I post some sort of spiritual real. My goal, my goal is to post two pieces of content per day. However, what I recommend for most churches and most youth pastors who, maybe don't have as big of a team or as much experience with content is to post three reels per week.

00:01:45:12 - 00:02:04:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you are following my proposed and recommended secret sauce strategy, it would be posting some sort of spiritual reel per day. Now, if you prefilled your messages, or even if you like, capture your video live in the room somehow, then I recommend posting it into something like an opus clip. There's a link down below for you to check out.

00:02:04:25 - 00:02:28:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Opus clip where I'll take your message and I'll just chop it up for you using I super easy, super great. The other good thing is, if you do have some sort of like long form message version of your, of your message, if you're teaching in some way, shape or form, when you upload that to like YouTube shorts, you can link a featured video to the short and it can link out to your long form of that.

00:02:28:28 - 00:02:57:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's what that's what we do. If you don't have either a, the capacity to sit down ahead of time film, that's what we do and that's what I recommend or B, capture it live in the room when you're teaching, then see if you download my social media pack. I actually have, but a bunch of different scripts to help you get through the summer of videos that you can just shoot on your phone selfie style and edit directly in something like a TikTok editor, an Instagram Reels editor, or even something like Cap Cut.

00:02:57:15 - 00:03:16:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so that's what I would recommend you doing on Monday. And listen, if you're going to steal this, you're just going to grab my strategy. The number one way that you could give back to this channel is a very simple like or a subscribe. It really it costs you nothing over on YouTube or on your podcast catcher. And it really does help us out a whole bunch.

00:03:17:01 - 00:03:35:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Moving on. The second style of post I recommend that you do is do something fun. You know, I think a lot of times in youth ministry we feel like we have to be serious all the time, especially when it comes to what's going on on social media. But the fact of the matter is that think about your personal social media habits, whatever platform it is for you.

00:03:35:23 - 00:03:56:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Maybe it's Instagram, maybe it's TikTok, maybe it's YouTube, maybe it's even something like Reddit or Facebook. You know, I feel a lot of youth pastors on Facebook. Why do you get on social media? Maybe you always get on to, like, do your devotions in a low key sort of sense of the way, hoping that your church that you follow is going to post scripture and, and some sort of reels like that.

00:03:57:01 - 00:04:15:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Or if you're like me, you get on to laugh, to be entertained. Maybe I'm a huge basketball fan. I get on to, watch basketball content. And sometimes, sometimes I'm just going to be very honest with you. Sometimes I even I even get in arguments about my favorite team. So, that's a confession I'm willing to make, but post something fun.

00:04:15:12 - 00:04:48:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in this downloaded pack, I include some done for you fun content, emoji guesses, or transition hook style videos. Things to have fun with your students. And then Friday, go ahead and post some sort of carousel post. Post a Bible verse or post, something spiritual like what to do if you're facing anxiety. You know, I, I posted that, recently, actually, this link right up here at the top of the screen is, from a video what I posted using my weekly summer content pack and the carousel post performed incredibly well.

00:04:48:08 - 00:05:02:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Go back and listen to that one. You'll see the ways that people were responding to it and says what to do when I'm facing anxiety, what to do when I'm struggling with anger, what to do when I'm struggling with lust, and we feel some of those in there completely done for you. Grab them, download them, post them to your feed and use them.

00:05:02:24 - 00:05:38:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And they're there for you and they're there for the taking. But I also recommend, in addition to some of these things that I've given to you, I've included some of my bonus content. And every week we get together with some of our students and we do man on the street interview style videos, or we do, tier rankings, or we do a guessing game called seven questions like, and we'll get students together on camera, either me versus them, them versus a staff person or them versus each other with podcast microphones or just a little like Bluetooth connected to your phone's sort of microphone, and which interview them we like, have fun, chatting it

00:05:38:26 - 00:05:57:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
up with students, hearing their opinion, and then also like kind of messing around with them on on the edit, which is another really kind of like fun way to create content not only for your students, but also with your students and all of that, all of that. The good news is included in my summer seasonal social media pack.

00:05:57:20 - 00:06:20:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's it. That's my one week. You take that, you repeat, you rinse, you repeat. You do it again, copy it, steal it, and implement it in your ministry. But hold on a second. I got an amazing deal for you on the other side. Check it out. So there's a lot going on this summer, I get it. And you want to stay active even when you're doing slip and slide kickball.

00:06:20:16 - 00:06:42:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This isn't a metaphor. I really own this, and someone's probably definitely gotten hurt on it before. So here's the deal I don't spend six hours a day. I don't spend six hours a week on all of this. I've put all of this together. So all you need to do is hit the link in the description and go download the Summer Seasonal Social Media pack.

00:06:42:02 - 00:07:01:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It has my weekly proposed schedule for you for the summer. It also has some pre-made templates, things like man on the street, questions, graphics. All you got to do is overlay that in an editor and you can do it directly on your phone, or even in something a little bit more upgraded, like an Adobe Premiere Pro or a DaVinci resolve.

00:07:01:09 - 00:07:21:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then half of the post that you're going to get are completely done for you. Plug and play and you're off to the races. The other 50% is custom, because I don't think that a fully downloadable, where it removes your face and removes your voice and it removes your personality. I don't think that's a good strategy for social media in 2025.

00:07:21:07 - 00:07:40:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the good news about my pack is that I still allow you to be the voice, to be the face, to create content with and for your students. And you and your students are featured on your social platforms. But I've done all the heavy lifting on their scripts and graphics and templates and, telling you exactly what to do.

00:07:40:02 - 00:08:04:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All you gotta do is follow my instructions, put a cell phone camera and you are off to the races. The result? Consistency, engagement, and not fumbling the bag on your social media feeds this summer. Listen, I got you a link down in the description. Thank you guys so much for being here on the Hybrid Ministry Show as we attempt to make digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible.

00:08:04:10 - 00:08:08:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 153: What I Posted This Week Using My Summer Content Pack https://www.hybridministry.xyz/153 7c241597-e283-4fe6-9237-1a0906357f1a Thu, 12 Jun 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 153 What I Posted This Week Using My Summer Content Pack full Nick Clason I didnโ€™t make anything new this week. I literally just hit post. Let me show you exactly what I shared using my Summer Content Packโ€”and how it performed. Plus two bonus pieces of content that were the true all-stars at the end of this video! 10:11 no I didnโ€™t make anything new this week. I literally just hit post. Let me show you exactly what I shared using my Summer Content Packโ€”and how it performed. Plus two bonus pieces of content that were the true all-stars at the end of this video! โ˜€๏ธ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=productsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link *๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/153 โœ… CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms ๐Ÿ“Š [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ๐Ÿ“‹ "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 -------------- ๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰ 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 -------------- ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00 I didn't make anything new this week! 00:29 Post #1 01:13 Post #2 02:18 Post #3 03:05 When a post doesn't performโ€ฆ 04:34 Easy Summer Social Media Strategy 06:06 Post #4 07:16 Bonus Post: 7 Questions 07:55 Bonus Post #2: Drafts 08:37 The Power of Variety -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I didn't make anything new this week. 00:00:02:10 - 00:00:06:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I downloaded, I posted, or I used the scripts included. 00:00:06:29 - 00:00:15:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I'm going to show you exactly what I use out of my summer social Media content pack, as well as let you know how it performed, 00:00:15:02 - 00:00:17:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry plus two bonus 00:00:17:08 - 00:00:23:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry pieces of content that are also included in the pack. And I'm gonna let you know how those perform as well. 00:00:23:08 - 00:00:28:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They were really the all stars of the week. Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. 00:00:28:17 - 00:00:44:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right, so first up, we have the what to do if archetype. This is included in the done for you section of the Summer social media pack. And this particular post if you're watching here on screen, which is why you should definitely be subscribe to our YouTube channel. 00:00:44:11 - 00:01:03:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you can see some of this stuff is because, this one says what to do if you're feeling anxious. We had a lot of great engagement on this, including some shares. One of our leaders shared the whole carousel to her Instagram story. Why? Because it's relevant to what people are going through. And so here's what's so cool on Instagram, we had 00:01:03:15 - 00:01:08:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry 483 people view the post, 13 likes, five shares. 00:01:08:13 - 00:01:09:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then over on 00:01:09:08 - 00:01:13:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry TikTok we had 151 views with 12 likes. 00:01:13:12 - 00:01:29:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The second post type that you're going to see is the Devo style clip. Now this one is included in the custom for use section, where I've included scripts and graphics and templates, and depending on what that type of post is. But this particular one, I use one of the scripts that I've included. 00:01:29:14 - 00:01:52:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so I shot this 1 in 1 take. You'll notice I'm going to cut off because I'm just getting ready to play pickup basketball on Tuesday morning of, before staff meeting this week. And so I just still had that outfit on. I grab my phone selfie style video, low pressure sitting in my office, and then I use this script, like I said, included in the social media pack, and I think it landed perfectly. 00:01:52:13 - 00:01:56:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But best of all, again, if you're watching here on YouTube, check this thing out. 00:01:56:00 - 00:02:06:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I edited this whole thing in the TikTok TikTok video. TikTok was that TikTok video editor at man, and it looks so professional. 00:02:06:24 - 00:02:10:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And here's how it performed on Instagram. We got 179 views, ten likes, 00:02:10:21 - 00:02:18:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry YouTube, 895 views, four likes and then TikTok 535 views and 55 likes. 00:02:18:17 - 00:02:40:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Post three is another one of the custom for you. This is the transition hook style video, so this one is a vertical piece of content where I include the start of the video and then here at the very end, it cuts to one of our, students in our ministry that's actually, acting out the rest of it, where he then stands up and he talks to people about God. 00:02:40:27 - 00:02:52:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And, sometimes we invite people to church. Sometimes we invite people to events to Sunday morning to Wednesday night, or we just simply talk about the importance of leaning in to God and trusting him. But what I want you to see here is look at this on 00:02:52:07 - 00:02:55:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Instagram. 427 views, 16 likes 00:02:55:01 - 00:02:59:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry YouTube 1686 views 16 likes. Check this one out 00:02:59:13 - 00:03:03:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry TikTok only 50 views zero likes. 00:03:03:13 - 00:03:03:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now I want to 00:03:03:23 - 00:03:20:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry stop here and talk for a second. What do you do when you experience a post like this? My guess is, you've done something like this before. You've tried something before, you've tried your hand at social media, and you've gotten a post like this one, right? Here's the thing. Just like basketball, many of you know I'm a huge basketball fan. 00:03:20:13 - 00:03:41:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Just like basketball, you have to trust the process. Sometimes you guard your kids to the best of your ability. And here is where we do turn around. Three pointer at the end of the shot clock and it goes in. But all you can do is control what you can control, get in position, practice and use and do the fundamentals and just continue to execute. 00:03:41:29 - 00:04:00:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Sometimes it goes well for you and other times not so well. But the fact of the matter is you just got to keep showing up. And that's really the game with social media. And that's what makes it so hard. I think a lot of times for youth pastors is to continue to show up when you experience less than, you know, less than encouraging results. 00:04:00:29 - 00:04:19:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Kind of like this one, right? And you'll notice this is a clunker, but it's a clunker on TikTok. And that's why I recommend diversifying the platforms that you use. I have analytics from YouTube. I have analytics from Instagram, and I like how both of those performed, even though on TikTok it didn't quite perform how I want it to. 00:04:19:16 - 00:04:33:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But that's okay because I still got over 2000 views, or at least close to it. I'm doing math in my head on the fly. Never a good recipe, but, I and I got over 2000 views, across two other platforms, even though I only got 50 on one. 00:04:33:28 - 00:05:11:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hey, youth pastors, church communications people, would you like to have your social media dialed in for the next 90 days, especially with summer on the horizon? Listen, that's exactly what you're going to get with the summer and seasonal social media packets. A new product that I'm rolling out exclusively on my Patreon is three months of custom strategic content for less than $20, and this is built specifically for busy youth pastors like you who want to stay active on TikTok and Instagram Reels and YouTube without spending ten plus hours a month figuring out what to post. 00:05:11:19 - 00:05:32:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So here's what you're going to get. You're going to get 50% of the content completely done. It's turnkey. Plug and play, post it and go. The other 50% is custom content for you to still shoot. However, I'm going to provide scripts and templates and frameworks so that your face, your students and your volunteers are who are seen on your social media feeds. 00:05:32:24 - 00:05:54:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is not just pretty graphics. This is a full blown social media strategy for the next three months, designed by someone who knows both youth ministry and digital ministry. And so if you're tired of scrambling for the cost of less than a pizza and frankly, more nourishing than a pizza, grab the seasonal social media pack today. Oh, and I almost forgot. 00:05:55:02 - 00:05:57:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Patreon members get it for free. 00:05:57:20 - 00:06:11:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right, post number four is the fourth and final one I'm going to share with you today. This one is again from the done for you section. And this woman is so plug and play. I've already created it for you, even though the thumbnail says I created none of these. 00:06:11:15 - 00:06:27:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I created all of these, but I created them for you to take and to do and to download. And I supply all of the different verse texts. And here's how it performed. Instagram 207 views eight likes YouTube 1198 views 62 likes 00:06:27:01 - 00:06:30:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry one comment from Jenna Jack which says I memorized this passage. 00:06:30:29 - 00:06:36:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then on TikTok 507 views 95 likes one comment to save 00:06:36:12 - 00:06:41:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry the summer social media pack includes eight different types of videos. 00:06:41:10 - 00:07:00:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I've shared four of them with you. Two of the ones I share with you were from the done for you section, and two of the ones I share with you are from the custom for you section. The custom for you are making your social media about you, you, your leaders, your students like making you guys the real heroes on your social media. 00:07:00:24 - 00:07:07:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But to channel my inner Billy Mays here, I want to say, but wait, there's more. 00:07:07:04 - 00:07:25:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I also pulled out one of our seven questions archetypes, and that's included in the bonus section of the content with over 100 different topic type ideas. And on this particular seven questions, we took it to our studio in our church, and I sat down with two of our students, two of our high school girls, and they played seven questions. 00:07:25:03 - 00:07:45:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry One of them was thinking of something in their head, and the category was beach item, and she was thinking of Beach Umbrella. And the other one had to guess. And for that one on Instagram, we had 431 views and 19 likes. On YouTube we had 227 views, eight likes, and on TikTok we had 963 views and 21 likes. 00:07:46:00 - 00:08:02:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We also then, with a couple of our high school boys, sat down and did a NBA dress section, which I do have words for these guys because nobody, nobody included the MVP of the NBA this year one Shay Gilgeous Alexander. Regardless of that, here's 00:08:02:18 - 00:08:08:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry how their post performed on our social media on Instagram 500 views, 17 likes, two comments, seven shares 00:08:08:27 - 00:08:17:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry YouTube 1244 views 13 likes TikTok 862 views 36 likes three 00:08:17:04 - 00:08:18:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry comments and two saves. 00:08:18:05 - 00:08:27:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And listen, the comments are not always the nicest, especially when you do sports stuff. So just be on the lookout for that. Protect your students. Or, you know, I don't know, maybe don't. 00:08:27:19 - 00:08:39:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But here's what I notice, right? Variety works. You'll notice I share with you, two from our PAC, two from Denver. Done for you, two from custom, and then two of my bonus ideas. 00:08:40:01 - 00:09:05:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All very different varieties. Some spiritual, some not spiritual, some plug and play, some where you have to do a little bit of editing, but every style hits differently. Some are more reflective, some were more scroll stopping. But the big takeaway is that I didn't actually create any of these from scratch. And so like I said, every single one of these comes straight out of my summer content social media pack. 00:09:05:17 - 00:09:10:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You get it for just 1799 is linked down below in the description, which is 00:09:10:17 - 00:09:32:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry three months worth of your social media strategy. And that's actually only $0.07 per post idea. It's insane value. You would not avoid buying something for $0.07 if it was going to really increase. And add so much value to your life. Just look at how performed on our social channels. 00:09:32:16 - 00:09:58:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry These are real results from a real student ministry in Dallas, Texas area. They can be your results to. All you got to do is head over to the link and download those. You won't. You will not regret it. Listen, I want you to save actual time this summer for actual ministry. Let me do the work. Let me play on your social media calendar and hey, I'll see you next week with more info and deep dives like this. 00:09:58:27 - 00:10:02:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And don't forget, as always my friends, to stay hybrid. youth ministry, summer social media, church social media, youth pastor, digital discipleship, brady shearer, pro church tools, hybrid ministry, youth group content, social media strategy, summer content pack, church instagram, church reels, youth ministry ideas, content for churches, youth pastor tools, digital ministry, church tiktok, what to post, instagram for youth ministry, social posts for church, student ministry content, discipleship online I didnโ€™t make anything new this week. I literally just hit post. Let me show you exactly what I shared using my Summer Content Packโ€”and how it performed.
Plus two bonus pieces of content that were the true all-stars at the end of this video!

โ˜€๏ธ 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

*๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

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

๐Ÿ“Š [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐Ÿ“‹ "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

--------------
๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰
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

--------------
๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 I didn't make anything new this week!
00:29 Post #1
01:13 Post #2
02:18 Post #3
03:05 When a post doesn't performโ€ฆ
04:34 Easy Summer Social Media Strategy
06:06 Post #4
07:16 Bonus Post: 7 Questions
07:55 Bonus Post #2: Drafts
08:37 The Power of Variety

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:08:18:05 - 00:08:27:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And listen, the comments are not always the nicest, especially when you do sports stuff. So just be on the lookout for that. Protect your students. Or, you know, I don't know, maybe don't.

00:08:27:19 - 00:08:39:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's what I notice, right? Variety works. You'll notice I share with you, two from our PAC, two from Denver. Done for you, two from custom, and then two of my bonus ideas.

00:08:40:01 - 00:09:05:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All very different varieties. Some spiritual, some not spiritual, some plug and play, some where you have to do a little bit of editing, but every style hits differently. Some are more reflective, some were more scroll stopping. But the big takeaway is that I didn't actually create any of these from scratch. And so like I said, every single one of these comes straight out of my summer content social media pack.

00:09:05:17 - 00:09:10:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You get it for just 1799 is linked down below in the description, which is

00:09:10:17 - 00:09:32:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
three months worth of your social media strategy. And that's actually only $0.07 per post idea. It's insane value. You would not avoid buying something for $0.07 if it was going to really increase. And add so much value to your life. Just look at how performed on our social channels.

00:09:32:16 - 00:09:58:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are real results from a real student ministry in Dallas, Texas area. They can be your results to. All you got to do is head over to the link and download those. You won't. You will not regret it. Listen, I want you to save actual time this summer for actual ministry. Let me do the work. Let me play on your social media calendar and hey, I'll see you next week with more info and deep dives like this.

00:09:58:27 - 00:10:02:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And don't forget, as always my friends, to stay hybrid.

]]> I didnโ€™t make anything new this week. I literally just hit post. Let me show you exactly what I shared using my Summer Content Packโ€”and how it performed.
Plus two bonus pieces of content that were the true all-stars at the end of this video!

โ˜€๏ธ 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

*๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! *
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

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

๐Ÿ“Š [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐Ÿ“‹ "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

--------------
๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰
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

--------------
๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 I didn't make anything new this week!
00:29 Post #1
01:13 Post #2
02:18 Post #3
03:05 When a post doesn't performโ€ฆ
04:34 Easy Summer Social Media Strategy
06:06 Post #4
07:16 Bonus Post: 7 Questions
07:55 Bonus Post #2: Drafts
08:37 The Power of Variety

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:08:18:05 - 00:08:27:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And listen, the comments are not always the nicest, especially when you do sports stuff. So just be on the lookout for that. Protect your students. Or, you know, I don't know, maybe don't.

00:08:27:19 - 00:08:39:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But here's what I notice, right? Variety works. You'll notice I share with you, two from our PAC, two from Denver. Done for you, two from custom, and then two of my bonus ideas.

00:08:40:01 - 00:09:05:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All very different varieties. Some spiritual, some not spiritual, some plug and play, some where you have to do a little bit of editing, but every style hits differently. Some are more reflective, some were more scroll stopping. But the big takeaway is that I didn't actually create any of these from scratch. And so like I said, every single one of these comes straight out of my summer content social media pack.

00:09:05:17 - 00:09:10:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You get it for just 1799 is linked down below in the description, which is

00:09:10:17 - 00:09:32:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
three months worth of your social media strategy. And that's actually only $0.07 per post idea. It's insane value. You would not avoid buying something for $0.07 if it was going to really increase. And add so much value to your life. Just look at how performed on our social channels.

00:09:32:16 - 00:09:58:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are real results from a real student ministry in Dallas, Texas area. They can be your results to. All you got to do is head over to the link and download those. You won't. You will not regret it. Listen, I want you to save actual time this summer for actual ministry. Let me do the work. Let me play on your social media calendar and hey, I'll see you next week with more info and deep dives like this.

00:09:58:27 - 00:10:02:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And don't forget, as always my friends, to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 148: How Iโ€™m Doing 3 Months of Content with THIS One Resource https://www.hybridministry.xyz/148 c79a0b09-243c-4014-a15d-b50527f0c93d Thu, 08 May 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 148 How Iโ€™m Doing 3 Months of Content with THIS One Resource full Nick Clason This is your youth ministry summer social media game-changer. With 3 months of ready-to-go posts, training videos, and templates, youโ€™ll never stress about what to post again. Designed for youth pastors by a youth pastor using a proven hybrid ministry model. 20:28 no This is your youth ministry summer social media game-changer. With 3 months of ready-to-go posts, training videos, and templates, youโ€™ll never stress about what to post again. Designed for youth pastors by a youth pastor using a proven hybrid ministry model. โ˜€๏ธ SUMMER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/summer-seasonal-social-media-1540452?utmmedium=clipboardcopy&amp;utmsource=copyLink&amp;utmcampaign=productsharecreator&amp;utmcontent=join_link *๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! * https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/148 //TRY OPUS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //SOCIAL CHALLENGE PLAYLIST https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKLwZqOkQe7NzOqSVR0-P1s โœ… CHURCH COMMS DONE FOR YOU Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms ๐Ÿ“Š [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ๐Ÿ“‹ "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 -------------- ๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰ 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 -------------- ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00 Digital vs In-Person Ministry 01:02 Why Hybrid Ministry Matters 06:47 Summer Social Media 09:22 Gear Youโ€™ll Need 09:39 Summer Social Posting Schedule 10:01 Done For You 1 10:21 Done For You 2 10:41 Done For You 3 11:11 Done For You 4 11:51 Custom For You 1 13:26 Custom For You 2 15:57 Custom For You 3 16:51 Custom For You 4 17:40 Bonus Idea -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:09:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In this video, we're going to explore the world between digital ministry and in-person ministry, a thing that I like to call hybrid 00:00:09:27 - 00:00:37:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry ministry. Welcome to the hybrid Ministry show, My friends. And in today's episode, what I want to look at is I want to look at the competition between hybrid ministry and in-person ministry. In fact, linked right here at the very top of the video is one of my favorite episodes I've ever done, where my friend Josh sat down with me and he he asked me to take an in-person youth ministry program and make it hybrid or bring about a hybrid component. 00:00:37:07 - 00:00:55:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we're going to explore what exactly I mean by that. What exactly is digital ministry? And make sure you stick around to the end, because I have a resource that I think will help you absolutely crush, lock in and make your summer youth ministry social media absolutely 00:00:55:14 - 00:00:59:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry pop. I have a resource for you. It's going to blow your mind. 00:00:59:17 - 00:01:19:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Klassen. I'm a youth pastor of 14.5 years, and I have been pursuing this thing called hybrid ministry for a while now. And let me just help you understand some 00:01:19:15 - 00:01:20:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry of the reasons why. 00:01:20:12 - 00:01:24:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry For me. So for me, there are kind of three core 00:01:24:15 - 00:01:30:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry statistics. There's several out there, honestly, but three that really stick with me is that Gen 00:01:30:21 - 00:01:45:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Z. And we can assume Gen Alpha because we don't have data yet on them. But but this we can assume this to be true. Gen z, Gen Alpha. They use their mobile device more than they use any other device combined. 00:01:45:08 - 00:02:03:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Furthermore, 69% of students own a smartphone, but I get this the age of 12. We do have data for them, and then also 90%, according to Pew Research, use YouTube. 90% of teenagers say that they use YouTube. And I get it, man. Like if you're a youth 00:02:03:06 - 00:02:08:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry pastor, you're like, phones are a distraction. Gotta get rid of, use paper Bibles. 00:02:08:19 - 00:02:36:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You know, digital Bibles don't count all the things like I've heard it. I've been there. I've been a part of youth ministry for a long time. But there's a verse in Jeremiah chapter 29, no, not 2911, but right before that verse, Jeremiah is having a conversation with God. And here's what God says to Jeremiah. He says you should build homes, plan to stay, plant gardens, eat the foods that they produce, marry and have children, and find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. 00:02:36:18 - 00:02:41:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Multiply. Do not dwindle away. But you gotta understand the context here, 00:02:41:21 - 00:03:04:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry which we don't do for Jeremiah 2011 very often, is that the Israelites are stuck as captives in Babylon, and what God is telling Jeremiah to do is he's saying, stop complaining. Stop trying to find a way out. Stop trying to leave. Instead, invest in where you live and youth pastors, pastors, church communications people, discipleship pastors, college pastors. 00:03:04:23 - 00:03:22:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Digital ministry is not going anywhere. You may not like it. You may not even think it's the most effective. But the majority of millennials, Gen Z and we can assume Generation Alpha, say that a digital version of church is valuable to them and one that they would lean into, and it doesn't 00:03:22:01 - 00:03:24:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry mean that their in-person attendance is going to go away. 00:03:24:22 - 00:03:43:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's a lot of the fears of us in church leadership is that if we offer a digital component, they're just going to choose that instead of, coming to church in person. But far from it. We're also seeing in this generation, more than even older generations, that community is so much more important to them. So they don't want to forsake the in-person moments. 00:03:43:07 - 00:04:06:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so when we take the in-person moments and the best that it has to offer, when we take the digital things and the best it has to offer, and we find that sweet spot right in the middle, we find what I call hybrid ministry. A great example of it is honestly, Home Depot. And think about it like you throw on your new balances and you throw on your cargo shorts on on a Saturday morning, you got a project and then you're going Home Depot. 00:04:07:01 - 00:04:29:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And but you don't really have like an agenda, right? You're just walking around. You're just kind of like you're taking in the smell of lumber and you're just you're just kind of exploring what the hallways and the aisles of Home Depot have to offer other times, and then, like, you don't have time, right? You go online, you make an order so that it's delivered to your doorstep because you don't have time to just live out your full dad mode experience. 00:04:29:15 - 00:04:37:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But my favorite, honestly version to experience Home Depot is while I'm in the store on their app because their app. If you haven't seen it yet, their app shows you 00:04:37:05 - 00:05:01:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry where every single thing in their entire store is located. And so that's what I think we should be doing as youth pastors. Finding a way to intersect where teenagers already admitted they're spending their time, not forsaking the good elements of gathering together and community and accountability and all those things, but also leaning into this hybrid sort of moment. 00:05:01:08 - 00:05:19:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, well, I want to do is I want to give you one of the easiest ways to kind of to kind of step foot into this hybrid space. And it's by up taking your social media engagement. Now, here's the thing. A lot of youth pastors, and if you've been following me along on this channel for a while, posts 00:05:19:28 - 00:05:24:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry announcements on their feed, just assuming that social media is another announcement platform. 00:05:24:27 - 00:05:45:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But the reality is that that's not what social media is best made for. It doesn't mean that we can't still get the word out about what we have going on, but what it does mean, and what we should be doing is that we should be intersecting and invading the lives of students on the places that they spend their time, including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. 00:05:45:07 - 00:05:51:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Remember, 90% teenagers say that they use YouTube in the ways that they're consuming it reels TikTok videos and 00:05:51:27 - 00:06:05:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry YouTube shorts. And so the good news is that you can create the same type of content short form, vertical based video that goes on TikTok, that goes on Instagram, that goes on YouTube, and maybe even Facebook if you choose to post it there as well. 00:06:05:17 - 00:06:25:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But you don't have to create multiple different types of content like I did when I first started in youth ministry 15 years ago. Instead, you post that, you know, 180 or 1080 by 1920, vertical based video. And then you post it in all the places that you want to post it. Don't have a TikTok account, no 00:06:25:26 - 00:06:27:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry video post on Instagram and YouTube. 00:06:27:22 - 00:06:48:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Don't have a YouTube account? No big deal. Post on TikTok and Instagram. Don't have an Instagram account? No problem. Post on TikTok and YouTube. Don't have any of them? Start a YouTube account and start posting YouTube shorts because 90% of teenagers self-identify that they're on it. So what should you post? I'm glad that you asked. Let's dive! 00:06:48:25 - 00:07:10:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So I'm so excited to roll this out because I can't lie, I have been looking for a thing to provide for youth pastors on a social media platform. Landscape that is custom. That's not just a bunch of pretty graphics, but also doesn't add more work to your plate. And I can't lie, I've been wrestling with what kind of service can I offer? 00:07:10:21 - 00:07:37:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I think I have something, at least messaging wise, for youth pastors, but once they get into it becomes a lot of work and it gets a little bit overwhelming. So if you're watching here on screen, you'll see my screen. And this is what I'm offering. So I'm offering this brand new program called Seasonal Social Media, which essentially is 40 posts, three months worth. 00:07:37:02 - 00:07:58:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you follow my recommended posting strategy, I recommend that youth pastors post three times per week and this will satisfy that reality. And so what you get is three months of custom, youth, ministry, social media content and it all costs less than $20. And here's the good news. Just like this ad copy here says it's not just content. 00:07:58:06 - 00:08:19:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It really is a full social media strategy included in the download. If you choose to go ahead and do this, is you get my complete Hybrid Strategy guide, which will detail and outline a lot of what I have just been saying on this video and I've been saying in other podcasts for years and years and years. And so this will lay the foundation and the philosophy. 00:08:19:15 - 00:08:46:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then this is what you're actually going to get. You're going to, take this, this social media, package. And it's got two different categories, and it's got completely done for you content that you literally download and you post and you plug and you play, set it and forget it. The other 50% is custom content. So you're going to be filming this, but the good news is you don't need to film every single thing yourself. 00:08:46:17 - 00:09:04:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You don't need to edit everything yourself. And if you don't have any of those skills, I'll walk you through how to do all of that on this podcast, as well as in this little document here. If you go ahead and download this thing where you can import some of what I have to offer, that's custom, but I have templates and I have layovers and I have scripts and I have things that you can do 00:09:04:28 - 00:09:15:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry and things that you should say, and all of those things that you can edit in an in-app editor, like a TikTok or an Instagram Reels, or even over on something like Cap Cut. 00:09:15:17 - 00:09:32:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you got, like I said, you got done for you. You got things that are still left for you to shoot, but I provide all the assets that you're going to need for it. Here are things that you can buy all you really, honestly need is your camera phone. You can upgrade some microphones, which I do recommend upgrading some microphones. 00:09:32:03 - 00:09:50:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You can check out some of those links there. And optionally if you want to buy a better camera, if you have a little bit of budget, here's what I recommend. Here is also your posting schedule. Okay, so the week of June 2nd post this video, then post this video, then post this video the week of June 9th. 00:09:50:20 - 00:10:09:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This video, this video, this video all the way on through. Don't like my schedule? No big deal. Make your own. All right. Here you go. But what's going to happen? Let me show you first when you open these up. Here's what the done for you package looks like in, you open it up and there are four different types of videos. 00:10:09:15 - 00:10:25:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, there are Bible verse videos and there are five different Bible verse videos. And so what you can do is you'll see right here, you just very simply posted Bible verse, add a caption and you're good to go. This one right here is one of my all time favorites a sell it over and download youth ministry as well. 00:10:25:18 - 00:10:47:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But it is emoji phraseology and I combine these two together because I used to make these for stories, but now I'm trying to make them for reals. So see if you can comment what this summer edition emoji phraseology is intending to say. The correct answer of courses. Sunburn. You continue on down. I have five of those. And here I have five different spiritual practice videos. 00:10:47:09 - 00:11:08:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So for example, a student scrolling and they stop across one of your reels or TikToks or YouTubes that you post and you encourage them to actually lean in to some spiritual practices that they can actually, they can actually, while they're on social media, connect with God in a real and meaningful way. And so this one is a 32nd take time to pray. 00:11:08:23 - 00:11:32:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this timer counts down that. And then lastly this is the only non video post. These are like carousel based posts like that you can post on Instagram. But the good news once again you can also post photo slides on TikTok. And you can also post that on your YouTube, post feed as well on your on your community use, because the community tab now is just called the Post Feed. 00:11:32:12 - 00:11:52:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so I created these. What do you do if you feel anxious. And it's got Bible verses, along with the header of an instruction of what you can do. And I got it for five different categories about anxiety, loneliness, giving up temptation or anger. So those are the done for you. Those are turnkey okay. Here's the custom for you. 00:11:52:12 - 00:12:18:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right. So in every single one of these there's an instruction. And then the instruction video tells you exactly what to do along with gives you an example along with in most cases gives you some sort of script. So in this case this is Bible trivia. You hop on your cell phone, you shoot a selfie style video under 60s, and you simply ask these questions and all you gotta do is print this out, or pull this up on your computer screen and read it directly to the camera. 00:12:18:13 - 00:12:23:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then when you're done, you can go ahead and you can, post a video and you can 00:12:23:06 - 00:12:37:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry overlay it with one of these overlays. In fact, right here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube, is an example of me editing a video that I did for our ministry in our context, using this exact same overlay, using the TikTok, video editor. 00:12:38:05 - 00:13:00:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry When I was done and I posted it, TikTok now auto saved my video without a watermark, and so then I could go to Instagram and post that same video. And then I could also go over to YouTube shorts and post that exact same video. If you don't have TikTok, you can also use it in the Instagram Reels editor by using the little sticker, button and then put this in, drag it to full screen. 00:13:00:14 - 00:13:21:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And the only thing you're probably gonna have to do at the end, because Instagram doesn't auto save your reels that you post, go on to Google Chrome, search it, download Instagram reel without watermark, save that, video, and then go post it wherever else you choose to post it. Perhaps TikTok or perhaps YouTube. Let me just recommend, if you do have TikTok, just start there. 00:13:21:05 - 00:13:26:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it's a lot easier than some of these other platforms to start with. So that's Bible trivia. This 00:13:26:13 - 00:13:44:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry one right here is either your devotional or your recap content. So let me let me speak to what your options are here. You preach a sermon every week, so get on your cellphone again. Self-styled video lesson 60s. And just riff on one of the points of your last sermon. 00:13:44:17 - 00:14:00:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So, for example, you talked about God is Love. Pull up in your camera and say, you know what? Sometimes it's hard to love people and go on and talk for 60s I know you can do it. All right. Here are three best practices with that. Number one, always add a caption. Number two 00:14:00:27 - 00:14:03:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry add some sort of title on screen. 00:14:03:13 - 00:14:04:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry All right. And then number three 00:14:04:17 - 00:14:09:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry add music. And then a bonus. Best practice a hack is do 00:14:09:06 - 00:14:18:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry not listen to me. Do not reference your in-person gathering. Not that you shouldn't. And other people shouldn't have to know about it. But 00:14:18:15 - 00:14:25:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry don't say something like, you know, last Wednesday we talked about such, such and such. Leave that be on social media. 00:14:25:11 - 00:14:49:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry People are stumbling upon your content organically. They have no frame of reference for what you're talking about. So you can both serve your current students because they're going to remember what you just talked about, along with any potential new viewers. The other thing you do is if you're only given 60s, which is what I recommend to keep under, is that if you say under 60s saying, you know, last Wednesday night, it was great. 00:14:49:27 - 00:15:13:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We had a lot of good time. Remember that dessert auction we had? Don't forget those of you that were there. And maybe if you weren't, that we talked about love, you just wasted, like, five, eight, seven seconds of your precious 62nd real estate. Now, you don't have to just recap your videos. You can do like if you click on this little example here, this is a a clip from a long form message that that I do, which is what I recommend doing. 00:15:13:20 - 00:15:26:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you see my hybrid strategy guys also included in here, I recommend long form versions of videos posted on YouTube. But for right now, if you're just downloading this pack and you're just focusing on social media, do some 00:15:26:01 - 00:15:37:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry sort of devotional recap. If you don't have a video of your sermon, if you do, go ahead and, throw it into a service like Opus Stock Pro, which is what we use, to clip our long form down into short form. 00:15:38:03 - 00:15:59:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But again, if not just use a Devo style, video or, if you don't have like a recap or something to say, you can use some of these, scripts that I've created that you can, just follow verbatim, follow some of the instructions, and you can post those and you'll be good to go. These right here are called man on the street style interviews. 00:15:59:25 - 00:16:32:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry These are one of the lowest hanging fruit ways to, interact with your students. You basically go around, you just interview them. And this is where you get any, like, a microphone, to buy, you can get a super cheap USB Bluetooth microphone that plugs directly into your phone, but you go around, you interview students. And what I always recommend doing is interviewing 5 to 8 students, ask them these same five questions, and then you can splice that up again in something like the TikTok editor or in something like Cap Cut and I've also created this transparent overlays that you can use that you can import in. 00:16:32:29 - 00:16:50:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so the question would you rather sing instead of speak, or would you have to dance everywhere? Would you rather hop like a frog or moo whenever you get nervous? These are completely included. You can put those over. You can look like a pro. Add captions from the in-app editor that does it for you completely. For free, and you're off to the races. 00:16:50:29 - 00:17:09:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And the last one. Here are some of my favorite style videos. These transition invite style videos. This is the best way to invite people to what's going on at your church. And so what I've done is I've created these videos here that are the beginning of a hook. And so you see right here, this guy is skateboarding. Immediately he falls on this railing right here. 00:17:09:11 - 00:17:28:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what you would do as you would cut to a student on a railing somewhere else, sitting just like that, acting like he's a guy falling off the skateboard. And then he says, hey man, come to youth Wednesday night. We'd love to see you. And I gave you five of these that you can do, right? Including right here in the instruction video, an example with inspiration. 00:17:28:22 - 00:17:52:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I think it's inspiration from this, this bike video right here. Now, that's for three posts, you know, per week. What if you got bandwidth for more? Well, right here is your, bonus content. 100 different ideas here. 100 social challenge ideas. This is what we do in our ministry. We post two times a day, five days a week. 00:17:52:19 - 00:18:15:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so the way that we accomplish that is by this is from this playlist right here, linked right here in this document. And then here all of the bonus ideas and ways that you can not only see examples, but also bonus content to be able to see, you know what what our students are up to, and different like different categories that you can use for these different challenge style videos. 00:18:15:19 - 00:18:24:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is the summer social media pack. All right. This will last you for three months. And so you download it now 00:18:24:29 - 00:18:39:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry you got 50% film your own content. And again you can you can do selfie style videos in your office for these first two right here. And then you can hand these off to a volunteer on any given Wednesday or any given Sunday night. 00:18:39:22 - 00:19:12:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But I just want to encourage you that it is time to stop ignoring digital and social media. It is the way of the future is where our students are again, not as Hebrews 1024 and 25 says, not forsaking and neglecting, meeting together, but we're using the medium of the day. Just like the Apostle Paul wrote and sent letters, we're using the medium of the day that we have an advantage on of many other people in church history, because they wouldn't have had this kind of access into the lives of the people that they're trying to minister to. 00:19:12:04 - 00:19:31:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's why I think hybrid ministry is so important, and that's why I think that this product is so valuable. So check it out down below, link in the description. And let me just say, I also post and host a weekly bonus podcast where I talk about everything I'm doing in hybrid ministry, everything I'm doing on social media, and everything I'm doing in my programing. 00:19:32:02 - 00:19:53:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I'm only doing it for $4 per month. If you become a Patreon, a hybrid here for $4 a month, you will get this social media pack which is valued at greater than what, three months worth it? Becoming a Patreon will be. You will get it completely for free or at least completely included in your membership. $4 a month. 00:19:53:23 - 00:20:15:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Charge it to your church budget. Call it a developing expense because it's what it is. It's a professional expense for you to become more creative, more hybrid, in your programing and on your social media. And it'll also unlock this seasonal summer, social media pack, which we're going to start releasing for every single season. And this right here is the summer version. 00:20:15:04 - 00:20:28:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I hope you guys found this episode helpful. Share it with a friend. Let somebody know that the summer season the social media pack is finally here. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid. youth ministry, youth pastor, social media strategy, youth group content, church social media, done for you youth content, youth ministry ideas, hybrid ministry, sermon recap, Instagram reels for church, TikTok youth ministry, summer youth ministry, ministry content calendar, church Instagram ideas, Bible verse reels, spiritual practices video, youth ministry planning, student ministry social media, church video ideas, content for youth pastors, Gen Z ministry tools, digital discipleship This is your youth ministry summer social media game-changer. With 3 months of ready-to-go posts, training videos, and templates, youโ€™ll never stress about what to post again. Designed for youth pastors by a youth pastor using a proven hybrid ministry model.

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--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Digital vs In-Person Ministry
01:02 Why Hybrid Ministry Matters
06:47 Summer Social Media
09:22 Gear Youโ€™ll Need
09:39 Summer Social Posting Schedule
10:01 Done For You 1
10:21 Done For You 2
10:41 Done For You 3
11:11 Done For You 4
11:51 Custom For You 1
13:26 Custom For You 2
15:57 Custom For You 3
16:51 Custom For You 4
17:40 Bonus Idea

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:09:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this video, we're going to explore the world between digital ministry and in-person ministry, a thing that I like to call hybrid

00:00:09:27 - 00:00:37:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
ministry. Welcome to the hybrid Ministry show, My friends. And in today's episode, what I want to look at is I want to look at the competition between hybrid ministry and in-person ministry. In fact, linked right here at the very top of the video is one of my favorite episodes I've ever done, where my friend Josh sat down with me and he he asked me to take an in-person youth ministry program and make it hybrid or bring about a hybrid component.

00:00:37:07 - 00:00:55:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're going to explore what exactly I mean by that. What exactly is digital ministry? And make sure you stick around to the end, because I have a resource that I think will help you absolutely crush, lock in and make your summer youth ministry social media absolutely

00:00:55:14 - 00:00:59:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pop. I have a resource for you. It's going to blow your mind.

00:00:59:17 - 00:01:19:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Klassen. I'm a youth pastor of 14.5 years, and I have been pursuing this thing called hybrid ministry for a while now. And let me just help you understand some

00:01:19:15 - 00:01:20:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of the reasons why.

00:01:20:12 - 00:01:24:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For me. So for me, there are kind of three core

00:01:24:15 - 00:01:30:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
statistics. There's several out there, honestly, but three that really stick with me is that Gen

00:01:30:21 - 00:01:45:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Z. And we can assume Gen Alpha because we don't have data yet on them. But but this we can assume this to be true. Gen z, Gen Alpha. They use their mobile device more than they use any other device combined.

00:01:45:08 - 00:02:03:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Furthermore, 69% of students own a smartphone, but I get this the age of 12. We do have data for them, and then also 90%, according to Pew Research, use YouTube. 90% of teenagers say that they use YouTube. And I get it, man. Like if you're a youth

00:02:03:06 - 00:02:08:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pastor, you're like, phones are a distraction. Gotta get rid of, use paper Bibles.

00:02:08:19 - 00:02:36:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, digital Bibles don't count all the things like I've heard it. I've been there. I've been a part of youth ministry for a long time. But there's a verse in Jeremiah chapter 29, no, not 2911, but right before that verse, Jeremiah is having a conversation with God. And here's what God says to Jeremiah. He says you should build homes, plan to stay, plant gardens, eat the foods that they produce, marry and have children, and find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren.

00:02:36:18 - 00:02:41:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Multiply. Do not dwindle away. But you gotta understand the context here,

00:02:41:21 - 00:03:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
which we don't do for Jeremiah 2011 very often, is that the Israelites are stuck as captives in Babylon, and what God is telling Jeremiah to do is he's saying, stop complaining. Stop trying to find a way out. Stop trying to leave. Instead, invest in where you live and youth pastors, pastors, church communications people, discipleship pastors, college pastors.

00:03:04:23 - 00:03:22:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Digital ministry is not going anywhere. You may not like it. You may not even think it's the most effective. But the majority of millennials, Gen Z and we can assume Generation Alpha, say that a digital version of church is valuable to them and one that they would lean into, and it doesn't

00:03:22:01 - 00:03:24:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
mean that their in-person attendance is going to go away.

00:03:24:22 - 00:03:43:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a lot of the fears of us in church leadership is that if we offer a digital component, they're just going to choose that instead of, coming to church in person. But far from it. We're also seeing in this generation, more than even older generations, that community is so much more important to them. So they don't want to forsake the in-person moments.

00:03:43:07 - 00:04:06:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when we take the in-person moments and the best that it has to offer, when we take the digital things and the best it has to offer, and we find that sweet spot right in the middle, we find what I call hybrid ministry. A great example of it is honestly, Home Depot. And think about it like you throw on your new balances and you throw on your cargo shorts on on a Saturday morning, you got a project and then you're going Home Depot.

00:04:07:01 - 00:04:29:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And but you don't really have like an agenda, right? You're just walking around. You're just kind of like you're taking in the smell of lumber and you're just you're just kind of exploring what the hallways and the aisles of Home Depot have to offer other times, and then, like, you don't have time, right? You go online, you make an order so that it's delivered to your doorstep because you don't have time to just live out your full dad mode experience.

00:04:29:15 - 00:04:37:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But my favorite, honestly version to experience Home Depot is while I'm in the store on their app because their app. If you haven't seen it yet, their app shows you

00:04:37:05 - 00:05:01:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
where every single thing in their entire store is located. And so that's what I think we should be doing as youth pastors. Finding a way to intersect where teenagers already admitted they're spending their time, not forsaking the good elements of gathering together and community and accountability and all those things, but also leaning into this hybrid sort of moment.

00:05:01:08 - 00:05:19:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, well, I want to do is I want to give you one of the easiest ways to kind of to kind of step foot into this hybrid space. And it's by up taking your social media engagement. Now, here's the thing. A lot of youth pastors, and if you've been following me along on this channel for a while, posts

00:05:19:28 - 00:05:24:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
announcements on their feed, just assuming that social media is another announcement platform.

00:05:24:27 - 00:05:45:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the reality is that that's not what social media is best made for. It doesn't mean that we can't still get the word out about what we have going on, but what it does mean, and what we should be doing is that we should be intersecting and invading the lives of students on the places that they spend their time, including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

00:05:45:07 - 00:05:51:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Remember, 90% teenagers say that they use YouTube in the ways that they're consuming it reels TikTok videos and

00:05:51:27 - 00:06:05:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube shorts. And so the good news is that you can create the same type of content short form, vertical based video that goes on TikTok, that goes on Instagram, that goes on YouTube, and maybe even Facebook if you choose to post it there as well.

00:06:05:17 - 00:06:25:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But you don't have to create multiple different types of content like I did when I first started in youth ministry 15 years ago. Instead, you post that, you know, 180 or 1080 by 1920, vertical based video. And then you post it in all the places that you want to post it. Don't have a TikTok account, no

00:06:25:26 - 00:06:27:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video post on Instagram and YouTube.

00:06:27:22 - 00:06:48:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't have a YouTube account? No big deal. Post on TikTok and Instagram. Don't have an Instagram account? No problem. Post on TikTok and YouTube. Don't have any of them? Start a YouTube account and start posting YouTube shorts because 90% of teenagers self-identify that they're on it. So what should you post? I'm glad that you asked. Let's dive!

00:06:48:25 - 00:07:10:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I'm so excited to roll this out because I can't lie, I have been looking for a thing to provide for youth pastors on a social media platform. Landscape that is custom. That's not just a bunch of pretty graphics, but also doesn't add more work to your plate. And I can't lie, I've been wrestling with what kind of service can I offer?

00:07:10:21 - 00:07:37:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think I have something, at least messaging wise, for youth pastors, but once they get into it becomes a lot of work and it gets a little bit overwhelming. So if you're watching here on screen, you'll see my screen. And this is what I'm offering. So I'm offering this brand new program called Seasonal Social Media, which essentially is 40 posts, three months worth.

00:07:37:02 - 00:07:58:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you follow my recommended posting strategy, I recommend that youth pastors post three times per week and this will satisfy that reality. And so what you get is three months of custom, youth, ministry, social media content and it all costs less than $20. And here's the good news. Just like this ad copy here says it's not just content.

00:07:58:06 - 00:08:19:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It really is a full social media strategy included in the download. If you choose to go ahead and do this, is you get my complete Hybrid Strategy guide, which will detail and outline a lot of what I have just been saying on this video and I've been saying in other podcasts for years and years and years. And so this will lay the foundation and the philosophy.

00:08:19:15 - 00:08:46:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then this is what you're actually going to get. You're going to, take this, this social media, package. And it's got two different categories, and it's got completely done for you content that you literally download and you post and you plug and you play, set it and forget it. The other 50% is custom content. So you're going to be filming this, but the good news is you don't need to film every single thing yourself.

00:08:46:17 - 00:09:04:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You don't need to edit everything yourself. And if you don't have any of those skills, I'll walk you through how to do all of that on this podcast, as well as in this little document here. If you go ahead and download this thing where you can import some of what I have to offer, that's custom, but I have templates and I have layovers and I have scripts and I have things that you can do

00:09:04:28 - 00:09:15:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and things that you should say, and all of those things that you can edit in an in-app editor, like a TikTok or an Instagram Reels, or even over on something like Cap Cut.

00:09:15:17 - 00:09:32:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you got, like I said, you got done for you. You got things that are still left for you to shoot, but I provide all the assets that you're going to need for it. Here are things that you can buy all you really, honestly need is your camera phone. You can upgrade some microphones, which I do recommend upgrading some microphones.

00:09:32:03 - 00:09:50:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can check out some of those links there. And optionally if you want to buy a better camera, if you have a little bit of budget, here's what I recommend. Here is also your posting schedule. Okay, so the week of June 2nd post this video, then post this video, then post this video the week of June 9th.

00:09:50:20 - 00:10:09:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This video, this video, this video all the way on through. Don't like my schedule? No big deal. Make your own. All right. Here you go. But what's going to happen? Let me show you first when you open these up. Here's what the done for you package looks like in, you open it up and there are four different types of videos.

00:10:09:15 - 00:10:25:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, there are Bible verse videos and there are five different Bible verse videos. And so what you can do is you'll see right here, you just very simply posted Bible verse, add a caption and you're good to go. This one right here is one of my all time favorites a sell it over and download youth ministry as well.

00:10:25:18 - 00:10:47:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But it is emoji phraseology and I combine these two together because I used to make these for stories, but now I'm trying to make them for reals. So see if you can comment what this summer edition emoji phraseology is intending to say. The correct answer of courses. Sunburn. You continue on down. I have five of those. And here I have five different spiritual practice videos.

00:10:47:09 - 00:11:08:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So for example, a student scrolling and they stop across one of your reels or TikToks or YouTubes that you post and you encourage them to actually lean in to some spiritual practices that they can actually, they can actually, while they're on social media, connect with God in a real and meaningful way. And so this one is a 32nd take time to pray.

00:11:08:23 - 00:11:32:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this timer counts down that. And then lastly this is the only non video post. These are like carousel based posts like that you can post on Instagram. But the good news once again you can also post photo slides on TikTok. And you can also post that on your YouTube, post feed as well on your on your community use, because the community tab now is just called the Post Feed.

00:11:32:12 - 00:11:52:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I created these. What do you do if you feel anxious. And it's got Bible verses, along with the header of an instruction of what you can do. And I got it for five different categories about anxiety, loneliness, giving up temptation or anger. So those are the done for you. Those are turnkey okay. Here's the custom for you.

00:11:52:12 - 00:12:18:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. So in every single one of these there's an instruction. And then the instruction video tells you exactly what to do along with gives you an example along with in most cases gives you some sort of script. So in this case this is Bible trivia. You hop on your cell phone, you shoot a selfie style video under 60s, and you simply ask these questions and all you gotta do is print this out, or pull this up on your computer screen and read it directly to the camera.

00:12:18:13 - 00:12:23:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then when you're done, you can go ahead and you can, post a video and you can

00:12:23:06 - 00:12:37:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
overlay it with one of these overlays. In fact, right here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube, is an example of me editing a video that I did for our ministry in our context, using this exact same overlay, using the TikTok, video editor.

00:12:38:05 - 00:13:00:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When I was done and I posted it, TikTok now auto saved my video without a watermark, and so then I could go to Instagram and post that same video. And then I could also go over to YouTube shorts and post that exact same video. If you don't have TikTok, you can also use it in the Instagram Reels editor by using the little sticker, button and then put this in, drag it to full screen.

00:13:00:14 - 00:13:21:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the only thing you're probably gonna have to do at the end, because Instagram doesn't auto save your reels that you post, go on to Google Chrome, search it, download Instagram reel without watermark, save that, video, and then go post it wherever else you choose to post it. Perhaps TikTok or perhaps YouTube. Let me just recommend, if you do have TikTok, just start there.

00:13:21:05 - 00:13:26:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's a lot easier than some of these other platforms to start with. So that's Bible trivia. This

00:13:26:13 - 00:13:44:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
one right here is either your devotional or your recap content. So let me let me speak to what your options are here. You preach a sermon every week, so get on your cellphone again. Self-styled video lesson 60s. And just riff on one of the points of your last sermon.

00:13:44:17 - 00:14:00:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, for example, you talked about God is Love. Pull up in your camera and say, you know what? Sometimes it's hard to love people and go on and talk for 60s I know you can do it. All right. Here are three best practices with that. Number one, always add a caption. Number two

00:14:00:27 - 00:14:03:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
add some sort of title on screen.

00:14:03:13 - 00:14:04:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. And then number three

00:14:04:17 - 00:14:09:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
add music. And then a bonus. Best practice a hack is do

00:14:09:06 - 00:14:18:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
not listen to me. Do not reference your in-person gathering. Not that you shouldn't. And other people shouldn't have to know about it. But

00:14:18:15 - 00:14:25:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
don't say something like, you know, last Wednesday we talked about such, such and such. Leave that be on social media.

00:14:25:11 - 00:14:49:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
People are stumbling upon your content organically. They have no frame of reference for what you're talking about. So you can both serve your current students because they're going to remember what you just talked about, along with any potential new viewers. The other thing you do is if you're only given 60s, which is what I recommend to keep under, is that if you say under 60s saying, you know, last Wednesday night, it was great.

00:14:49:27 - 00:15:13:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We had a lot of good time. Remember that dessert auction we had? Don't forget those of you that were there. And maybe if you weren't, that we talked about love, you just wasted, like, five, eight, seven seconds of your precious 62nd real estate. Now, you don't have to just recap your videos. You can do like if you click on this little example here, this is a a clip from a long form message that that I do, which is what I recommend doing.

00:15:13:20 - 00:15:26:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you see my hybrid strategy guys also included in here, I recommend long form versions of videos posted on YouTube. But for right now, if you're just downloading this pack and you're just focusing on social media, do some

00:15:26:01 - 00:15:37:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
sort of devotional recap. If you don't have a video of your sermon, if you do, go ahead and, throw it into a service like Opus Stock Pro, which is what we use, to clip our long form down into short form.

00:15:38:03 - 00:15:59:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But again, if not just use a Devo style, video or, if you don't have like a recap or something to say, you can use some of these, scripts that I've created that you can, just follow verbatim, follow some of the instructions, and you can post those and you'll be good to go. These right here are called man on the street style interviews.

00:15:59:25 - 00:16:32:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are one of the lowest hanging fruit ways to, interact with your students. You basically go around, you just interview them. And this is where you get any, like, a microphone, to buy, you can get a super cheap USB Bluetooth microphone that plugs directly into your phone, but you go around, you interview students. And what I always recommend doing is interviewing 5 to 8 students, ask them these same five questions, and then you can splice that up again in something like the TikTok editor or in something like Cap Cut and I've also created this transparent overlays that you can use that you can import in.

00:16:32:29 - 00:16:50:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the question would you rather sing instead of speak, or would you have to dance everywhere? Would you rather hop like a frog or moo whenever you get nervous? These are completely included. You can put those over. You can look like a pro. Add captions from the in-app editor that does it for you completely. For free, and you're off to the races.

00:16:50:29 - 00:17:09:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the last one. Here are some of my favorite style videos. These transition invite style videos. This is the best way to invite people to what's going on at your church. And so what I've done is I've created these videos here that are the beginning of a hook. And so you see right here, this guy is skateboarding. Immediately he falls on this railing right here.

00:17:09:11 - 00:17:28:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what you would do as you would cut to a student on a railing somewhere else, sitting just like that, acting like he's a guy falling off the skateboard. And then he says, hey man, come to youth Wednesday night. We'd love to see you. And I gave you five of these that you can do, right? Including right here in the instruction video, an example with inspiration.

00:17:28:22 - 00:17:52:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think it's inspiration from this, this bike video right here. Now, that's for three posts, you know, per week. What if you got bandwidth for more? Well, right here is your, bonus content. 100 different ideas here. 100 social challenge ideas. This is what we do in our ministry. We post two times a day, five days a week.

00:17:52:19 - 00:18:15:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the way that we accomplish that is by this is from this playlist right here, linked right here in this document. And then here all of the bonus ideas and ways that you can not only see examples, but also bonus content to be able to see, you know what what our students are up to, and different like different categories that you can use for these different challenge style videos.

00:18:15:19 - 00:18:24:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is the summer social media pack. All right. This will last you for three months. And so you download it now

00:18:24:29 - 00:18:39:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you got 50% film your own content. And again you can you can do selfie style videos in your office for these first two right here. And then you can hand these off to a volunteer on any given Wednesday or any given Sunday night.

00:18:39:22 - 00:19:12:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I just want to encourage you that it is time to stop ignoring digital and social media. It is the way of the future is where our students are again, not as Hebrews 1024 and 25 says, not forsaking and neglecting, meeting together, but we're using the medium of the day. Just like the Apostle Paul wrote and sent letters, we're using the medium of the day that we have an advantage on of many other people in church history, because they wouldn't have had this kind of access into the lives of the people that they're trying to minister to.

00:19:12:04 - 00:19:31:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's why I think hybrid ministry is so important, and that's why I think that this product is so valuable. So check it out down below, link in the description. And let me just say, I also post and host a weekly bonus podcast where I talk about everything I'm doing in hybrid ministry, everything I'm doing on social media, and everything I'm doing in my programing.

00:19:32:02 - 00:19:53:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'm only doing it for $4 per month. If you become a Patreon, a hybrid here for $4 a month, you will get this social media pack which is valued at greater than what, three months worth it? Becoming a Patreon will be. You will get it completely for free or at least completely included in your membership. $4 a month.

00:19:53:23 - 00:20:15:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Charge it to your church budget. Call it a developing expense because it's what it is. It's a professional expense for you to become more creative, more hybrid, in your programing and on your social media. And it'll also unlock this seasonal summer, social media pack, which we're going to start releasing for every single season. And this right here is the summer version.

00:20:15:04 - 00:20:28:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I hope you guys found this episode helpful. Share it with a friend. Let somebody know that the summer season the social media pack is finally here. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> This is your youth ministry summer social media game-changer. With 3 months of ready-to-go posts, training videos, and templates, youโ€™ll never stress about what to post again. Designed for youth pastors by a youth pastor using a proven hybrid ministry model.

โ˜€๏ธ 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

*๐Ÿฆธ HYBRID HEROS GET IT FOR FREE! *
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SHOW NOTES
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//TRY OPUS
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Hire me to run your church website, social media or communications!
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๐Ÿ“‹ "PICK NICK'S BRAIN" Coaching Call
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๐Ÿ‘‰ STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
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๐Ÿ› ๏ธ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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https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Digital vs In-Person Ministry
01:02 Why Hybrid Ministry Matters
06:47 Summer Social Media
09:22 Gear Youโ€™ll Need
09:39 Summer Social Posting Schedule
10:01 Done For You 1
10:21 Done For You 2
10:41 Done For You 3
11:11 Done For You 4
11:51 Custom For You 1
13:26 Custom For You 2
15:57 Custom For You 3
16:51 Custom For You 4
17:40 Bonus Idea

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:09:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In this video, we're going to explore the world between digital ministry and in-person ministry, a thing that I like to call hybrid

00:00:09:27 - 00:00:37:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
ministry. Welcome to the hybrid Ministry show, My friends. And in today's episode, what I want to look at is I want to look at the competition between hybrid ministry and in-person ministry. In fact, linked right here at the very top of the video is one of my favorite episodes I've ever done, where my friend Josh sat down with me and he he asked me to take an in-person youth ministry program and make it hybrid or bring about a hybrid component.

00:00:37:07 - 00:00:55:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so we're going to explore what exactly I mean by that. What exactly is digital ministry? And make sure you stick around to the end, because I have a resource that I think will help you absolutely crush, lock in and make your summer youth ministry social media absolutely

00:00:55:14 - 00:00:59:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pop. I have a resource for you. It's going to blow your mind.

00:00:59:17 - 00:01:19:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Welcome, my friends, to the Hybrid Ministry show. Well, hey everyone, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Klassen. I'm a youth pastor of 14.5 years, and I have been pursuing this thing called hybrid ministry for a while now. And let me just help you understand some

00:01:19:15 - 00:01:20:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
of the reasons why.

00:01:20:12 - 00:01:24:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For me. So for me, there are kind of three core

00:01:24:15 - 00:01:30:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
statistics. There's several out there, honestly, but three that really stick with me is that Gen

00:01:30:21 - 00:01:45:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Z. And we can assume Gen Alpha because we don't have data yet on them. But but this we can assume this to be true. Gen z, Gen Alpha. They use their mobile device more than they use any other device combined.

00:01:45:08 - 00:02:03:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Furthermore, 69% of students own a smartphone, but I get this the age of 12. We do have data for them, and then also 90%, according to Pew Research, use YouTube. 90% of teenagers say that they use YouTube. And I get it, man. Like if you're a youth

00:02:03:06 - 00:02:08:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
pastor, you're like, phones are a distraction. Gotta get rid of, use paper Bibles.

00:02:08:19 - 00:02:36:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, digital Bibles don't count all the things like I've heard it. I've been there. I've been a part of youth ministry for a long time. But there's a verse in Jeremiah chapter 29, no, not 2911, but right before that verse, Jeremiah is having a conversation with God. And here's what God says to Jeremiah. He says you should build homes, plan to stay, plant gardens, eat the foods that they produce, marry and have children, and find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren.

00:02:36:18 - 00:02:41:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Multiply. Do not dwindle away. But you gotta understand the context here,

00:02:41:21 - 00:03:04:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
which we don't do for Jeremiah 2011 very often, is that the Israelites are stuck as captives in Babylon, and what God is telling Jeremiah to do is he's saying, stop complaining. Stop trying to find a way out. Stop trying to leave. Instead, invest in where you live and youth pastors, pastors, church communications people, discipleship pastors, college pastors.

00:03:04:23 - 00:03:22:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Digital ministry is not going anywhere. You may not like it. You may not even think it's the most effective. But the majority of millennials, Gen Z and we can assume Generation Alpha, say that a digital version of church is valuable to them and one that they would lean into, and it doesn't

00:03:22:01 - 00:03:24:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
mean that their in-person attendance is going to go away.

00:03:24:22 - 00:03:43:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a lot of the fears of us in church leadership is that if we offer a digital component, they're just going to choose that instead of, coming to church in person. But far from it. We're also seeing in this generation, more than even older generations, that community is so much more important to them. So they don't want to forsake the in-person moments.

00:03:43:07 - 00:04:06:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so when we take the in-person moments and the best that it has to offer, when we take the digital things and the best it has to offer, and we find that sweet spot right in the middle, we find what I call hybrid ministry. A great example of it is honestly, Home Depot. And think about it like you throw on your new balances and you throw on your cargo shorts on on a Saturday morning, you got a project and then you're going Home Depot.

00:04:07:01 - 00:04:29:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And but you don't really have like an agenda, right? You're just walking around. You're just kind of like you're taking in the smell of lumber and you're just you're just kind of exploring what the hallways and the aisles of Home Depot have to offer other times, and then, like, you don't have time, right? You go online, you make an order so that it's delivered to your doorstep because you don't have time to just live out your full dad mode experience.

00:04:29:15 - 00:04:37:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But my favorite, honestly version to experience Home Depot is while I'm in the store on their app because their app. If you haven't seen it yet, their app shows you

00:04:37:05 - 00:05:01:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
where every single thing in their entire store is located. And so that's what I think we should be doing as youth pastors. Finding a way to intersect where teenagers already admitted they're spending their time, not forsaking the good elements of gathering together and community and accountability and all those things, but also leaning into this hybrid sort of moment.

00:05:01:08 - 00:05:19:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, well, I want to do is I want to give you one of the easiest ways to kind of to kind of step foot into this hybrid space. And it's by up taking your social media engagement. Now, here's the thing. A lot of youth pastors, and if you've been following me along on this channel for a while, posts

00:05:19:28 - 00:05:24:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
announcements on their feed, just assuming that social media is another announcement platform.

00:05:24:27 - 00:05:45:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But the reality is that that's not what social media is best made for. It doesn't mean that we can't still get the word out about what we have going on, but what it does mean, and what we should be doing is that we should be intersecting and invading the lives of students on the places that they spend their time, including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

00:05:45:07 - 00:05:51:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Remember, 90% teenagers say that they use YouTube in the ways that they're consuming it reels TikTok videos and

00:05:51:27 - 00:06:05:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
YouTube shorts. And so the good news is that you can create the same type of content short form, vertical based video that goes on TikTok, that goes on Instagram, that goes on YouTube, and maybe even Facebook if you choose to post it there as well.

00:06:05:17 - 00:06:25:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But you don't have to create multiple different types of content like I did when I first started in youth ministry 15 years ago. Instead, you post that, you know, 180 or 1080 by 1920, vertical based video. And then you post it in all the places that you want to post it. Don't have a TikTok account, no

00:06:25:26 - 00:06:27:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
video post on Instagram and YouTube.

00:06:27:22 - 00:06:48:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Don't have a YouTube account? No big deal. Post on TikTok and Instagram. Don't have an Instagram account? No problem. Post on TikTok and YouTube. Don't have any of them? Start a YouTube account and start posting YouTube shorts because 90% of teenagers self-identify that they're on it. So what should you post? I'm glad that you asked. Let's dive!

00:06:48:25 - 00:07:10:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I'm so excited to roll this out because I can't lie, I have been looking for a thing to provide for youth pastors on a social media platform. Landscape that is custom. That's not just a bunch of pretty graphics, but also doesn't add more work to your plate. And I can't lie, I've been wrestling with what kind of service can I offer?

00:07:10:21 - 00:07:37:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think I have something, at least messaging wise, for youth pastors, but once they get into it becomes a lot of work and it gets a little bit overwhelming. So if you're watching here on screen, you'll see my screen. And this is what I'm offering. So I'm offering this brand new program called Seasonal Social Media, which essentially is 40 posts, three months worth.

00:07:37:02 - 00:07:58:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you follow my recommended posting strategy, I recommend that youth pastors post three times per week and this will satisfy that reality. And so what you get is three months of custom, youth, ministry, social media content and it all costs less than $20. And here's the good news. Just like this ad copy here says it's not just content.

00:07:58:06 - 00:08:19:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It really is a full social media strategy included in the download. If you choose to go ahead and do this, is you get my complete Hybrid Strategy guide, which will detail and outline a lot of what I have just been saying on this video and I've been saying in other podcasts for years and years and years. And so this will lay the foundation and the philosophy.

00:08:19:15 - 00:08:46:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then this is what you're actually going to get. You're going to, take this, this social media, package. And it's got two different categories, and it's got completely done for you content that you literally download and you post and you plug and you play, set it and forget it. The other 50% is custom content. So you're going to be filming this, but the good news is you don't need to film every single thing yourself.

00:08:46:17 - 00:09:04:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You don't need to edit everything yourself. And if you don't have any of those skills, I'll walk you through how to do all of that on this podcast, as well as in this little document here. If you go ahead and download this thing where you can import some of what I have to offer, that's custom, but I have templates and I have layovers and I have scripts and I have things that you can do

00:09:04:28 - 00:09:15:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and things that you should say, and all of those things that you can edit in an in-app editor, like a TikTok or an Instagram Reels, or even over on something like Cap Cut.

00:09:15:17 - 00:09:32:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you got, like I said, you got done for you. You got things that are still left for you to shoot, but I provide all the assets that you're going to need for it. Here are things that you can buy all you really, honestly need is your camera phone. You can upgrade some microphones, which I do recommend upgrading some microphones.

00:09:32:03 - 00:09:50:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can check out some of those links there. And optionally if you want to buy a better camera, if you have a little bit of budget, here's what I recommend. Here is also your posting schedule. Okay, so the week of June 2nd post this video, then post this video, then post this video the week of June 9th.

00:09:50:20 - 00:10:09:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This video, this video, this video all the way on through. Don't like my schedule? No big deal. Make your own. All right. Here you go. But what's going to happen? Let me show you first when you open these up. Here's what the done for you package looks like in, you open it up and there are four different types of videos.

00:10:09:15 - 00:10:25:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, there are Bible verse videos and there are five different Bible verse videos. And so what you can do is you'll see right here, you just very simply posted Bible verse, add a caption and you're good to go. This one right here is one of my all time favorites a sell it over and download youth ministry as well.

00:10:25:18 - 00:10:47:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But it is emoji phraseology and I combine these two together because I used to make these for stories, but now I'm trying to make them for reals. So see if you can comment what this summer edition emoji phraseology is intending to say. The correct answer of courses. Sunburn. You continue on down. I have five of those. And here I have five different spiritual practice videos.

00:10:47:09 - 00:11:08:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So for example, a student scrolling and they stop across one of your reels or TikToks or YouTubes that you post and you encourage them to actually lean in to some spiritual practices that they can actually, they can actually, while they're on social media, connect with God in a real and meaningful way. And so this one is a 32nd take time to pray.

00:11:08:23 - 00:11:32:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And this timer counts down that. And then lastly this is the only non video post. These are like carousel based posts like that you can post on Instagram. But the good news once again you can also post photo slides on TikTok. And you can also post that on your YouTube, post feed as well on your on your community use, because the community tab now is just called the Post Feed.

00:11:32:12 - 00:11:52:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so I created these. What do you do if you feel anxious. And it's got Bible verses, along with the header of an instruction of what you can do. And I got it for five different categories about anxiety, loneliness, giving up temptation or anger. So those are the done for you. Those are turnkey okay. Here's the custom for you.

00:11:52:12 - 00:12:18:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. So in every single one of these there's an instruction. And then the instruction video tells you exactly what to do along with gives you an example along with in most cases gives you some sort of script. So in this case this is Bible trivia. You hop on your cell phone, you shoot a selfie style video under 60s, and you simply ask these questions and all you gotta do is print this out, or pull this up on your computer screen and read it directly to the camera.

00:12:18:13 - 00:12:23:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then when you're done, you can go ahead and you can, post a video and you can

00:12:23:06 - 00:12:37:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
overlay it with one of these overlays. In fact, right here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube, is an example of me editing a video that I did for our ministry in our context, using this exact same overlay, using the TikTok, video editor.

00:12:38:05 - 00:13:00:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When I was done and I posted it, TikTok now auto saved my video without a watermark, and so then I could go to Instagram and post that same video. And then I could also go over to YouTube shorts and post that exact same video. If you don't have TikTok, you can also use it in the Instagram Reels editor by using the little sticker, button and then put this in, drag it to full screen.

00:13:00:14 - 00:13:21:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the only thing you're probably gonna have to do at the end, because Instagram doesn't auto save your reels that you post, go on to Google Chrome, search it, download Instagram reel without watermark, save that, video, and then go post it wherever else you choose to post it. Perhaps TikTok or perhaps YouTube. Let me just recommend, if you do have TikTok, just start there.

00:13:21:05 - 00:13:26:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it's a lot easier than some of these other platforms to start with. So that's Bible trivia. This

00:13:26:13 - 00:13:44:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
one right here is either your devotional or your recap content. So let me let me speak to what your options are here. You preach a sermon every week, so get on your cellphone again. Self-styled video lesson 60s. And just riff on one of the points of your last sermon.

00:13:44:17 - 00:14:00:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, for example, you talked about God is Love. Pull up in your camera and say, you know what? Sometimes it's hard to love people and go on and talk for 60s I know you can do it. All right. Here are three best practices with that. Number one, always add a caption. Number two

00:14:00:27 - 00:14:03:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
add some sort of title on screen.

00:14:03:13 - 00:14:04:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
All right. And then number three

00:14:04:17 - 00:14:09:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
add music. And then a bonus. Best practice a hack is do

00:14:09:06 - 00:14:18:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
not listen to me. Do not reference your in-person gathering. Not that you shouldn't. And other people shouldn't have to know about it. But

00:14:18:15 - 00:14:25:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
don't say something like, you know, last Wednesday we talked about such, such and such. Leave that be on social media.

00:14:25:11 - 00:14:49:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
People are stumbling upon your content organically. They have no frame of reference for what you're talking about. So you can both serve your current students because they're going to remember what you just talked about, along with any potential new viewers. The other thing you do is if you're only given 60s, which is what I recommend to keep under, is that if you say under 60s saying, you know, last Wednesday night, it was great.

00:14:49:27 - 00:15:13:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We had a lot of good time. Remember that dessert auction we had? Don't forget those of you that were there. And maybe if you weren't, that we talked about love, you just wasted, like, five, eight, seven seconds of your precious 62nd real estate. Now, you don't have to just recap your videos. You can do like if you click on this little example here, this is a a clip from a long form message that that I do, which is what I recommend doing.

00:15:13:20 - 00:15:26:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you see my hybrid strategy guys also included in here, I recommend long form versions of videos posted on YouTube. But for right now, if you're just downloading this pack and you're just focusing on social media, do some

00:15:26:01 - 00:15:37:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
sort of devotional recap. If you don't have a video of your sermon, if you do, go ahead and, throw it into a service like Opus Stock Pro, which is what we use, to clip our long form down into short form.

00:15:38:03 - 00:15:59:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But again, if not just use a Devo style, video or, if you don't have like a recap or something to say, you can use some of these, scripts that I've created that you can, just follow verbatim, follow some of the instructions, and you can post those and you'll be good to go. These right here are called man on the street style interviews.

00:15:59:25 - 00:16:32:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
These are one of the lowest hanging fruit ways to, interact with your students. You basically go around, you just interview them. And this is where you get any, like, a microphone, to buy, you can get a super cheap USB Bluetooth microphone that plugs directly into your phone, but you go around, you interview students. And what I always recommend doing is interviewing 5 to 8 students, ask them these same five questions, and then you can splice that up again in something like the TikTok editor or in something like Cap Cut and I've also created this transparent overlays that you can use that you can import in.

00:16:32:29 - 00:16:50:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the question would you rather sing instead of speak, or would you have to dance everywhere? Would you rather hop like a frog or moo whenever you get nervous? These are completely included. You can put those over. You can look like a pro. Add captions from the in-app editor that does it for you completely. For free, and you're off to the races.

00:16:50:29 - 00:17:09:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the last one. Here are some of my favorite style videos. These transition invite style videos. This is the best way to invite people to what's going on at your church. And so what I've done is I've created these videos here that are the beginning of a hook. And so you see right here, this guy is skateboarding. Immediately he falls on this railing right here.

00:17:09:11 - 00:17:28:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And what you would do as you would cut to a student on a railing somewhere else, sitting just like that, acting like he's a guy falling off the skateboard. And then he says, hey man, come to youth Wednesday night. We'd love to see you. And I gave you five of these that you can do, right? Including right here in the instruction video, an example with inspiration.

00:17:28:22 - 00:17:52:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I think it's inspiration from this, this bike video right here. Now, that's for three posts, you know, per week. What if you got bandwidth for more? Well, right here is your, bonus content. 100 different ideas here. 100 social challenge ideas. This is what we do in our ministry. We post two times a day, five days a week.

00:17:52:19 - 00:18:15:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so the way that we accomplish that is by this is from this playlist right here, linked right here in this document. And then here all of the bonus ideas and ways that you can not only see examples, but also bonus content to be able to see, you know what what our students are up to, and different like different categories that you can use for these different challenge style videos.

00:18:15:19 - 00:18:24:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This is the summer social media pack. All right. This will last you for three months. And so you download it now

00:18:24:29 - 00:18:39:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
you got 50% film your own content. And again you can you can do selfie style videos in your office for these first two right here. And then you can hand these off to a volunteer on any given Wednesday or any given Sunday night.

00:18:39:22 - 00:19:12:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But I just want to encourage you that it is time to stop ignoring digital and social media. It is the way of the future is where our students are again, not as Hebrews 1024 and 25 says, not forsaking and neglecting, meeting together, but we're using the medium of the day. Just like the Apostle Paul wrote and sent letters, we're using the medium of the day that we have an advantage on of many other people in church history, because they wouldn't have had this kind of access into the lives of the people that they're trying to minister to.

00:19:12:04 - 00:19:31:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's why I think hybrid ministry is so important, and that's why I think that this product is so valuable. So check it out down below, link in the description. And let me just say, I also post and host a weekly bonus podcast where I talk about everything I'm doing in hybrid ministry, everything I'm doing on social media, and everything I'm doing in my programing.

00:19:32:02 - 00:19:53:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I'm only doing it for $4 per month. If you become a Patreon, a hybrid here for $4 a month, you will get this social media pack which is valued at greater than what, three months worth it? Becoming a Patreon will be. You will get it completely for free or at least completely included in your membership. $4 a month.

00:19:53:23 - 00:20:15:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Charge it to your church budget. Call it a developing expense because it's what it is. It's a professional expense for you to become more creative, more hybrid, in your programing and on your social media. And it'll also unlock this seasonal summer, social media pack, which we're going to start releasing for every single season. And this right here is the summer version.

00:20:15:04 - 00:20:28:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I hope you guys found this episode helpful. Share it with a friend. Let somebody know that the summer season the social media pack is finally here. But until next time. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 142: How I Got Started doing Youth Group Social Media from scratch with Andrew Ostrander https://www.hybridministry.xyz/142 2d14e0f2-e3de-4786-9659-03fa1c5f9531 Thu, 27 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 142 How I Got Started doing Youth Group Social Media from scratch with Andrew Ostrander full Nick Clason In this episode, I interview Andrew Ostrander, who shares his journey from education to youth ministry, discussing the challenges and surprises he faced during the transition. He walks you through the importance of engaging social media content to connect with students, detailing his approach to creating interview-style videos that resonate with youth culture. Andrew also highlights the benefits of delegating tasks, the significance of personal connections in ministry, and his future plans for expanding social media efforts. The conversation concludes with encouragement for new youth pastors to embrace social media as a tool for building community and fostering relationships. 22:18 no <p>In this episode, I interview Andrew Ostrander, who shares his journey from education to youth ministry, discussing the challenges and surprises he faced during the transition. He walks you through the importance of engaging social media content to connect with students, detailing his approach to creating interview-style videos that resonate with youth culture. Andrew also highlights the benefits of delegating tasks, the significance of personal connections in ministry, and his future plans for expanding social media efforts. The conversation concludes with encouragement for new youth pastors to embrace social media as a tool for building community and fostering relationships.</p> <p>๐Ÿ“Š HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>โœ… CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms</a></p> <p><strong>SHOW NOTES</strong><br> Shownotes &amp; Transcripts<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/142" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/142</a></p> <p>//COHORT LINK [ITโ€™S FREE!]<br> <a href="https://www.ymlcohort.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.ymlcohort.com/</a></p> <p>//COHORT EPISODE<br> <a href="https://youtu.be/ucvXfaVRJ6E?si=uh66yl3hNsu2TsGO" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtu.be/ucvXfaVRJ6E?si=uh66yl3hNsu2TsGO</a></p> <p>//E-BOOK<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>//ANDREWโ€™S YOUTH ACCOUNTS<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@WakarusaStudentMinistries" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@WakarusaStudentMinistries</a><br> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wakymc_stumin/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/wakymc_stumin/</a></p> <p>๐Ÿ‘‰ STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK<br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰</strong><br> We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!<br> The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!<br> <a href="https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em><br> VIDIQ<br> <a href="https://vidiq.com/hybrid" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://vidiq.com/hybrid</a></p> <p>BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00 How I Run My Youth Group Social Media<br> 02:16 How did you end up here?<br> 04:42 Tell us your social media journey<br> 06:39 What Type of Content do you Make?<br> 10:31 What Equipment do you use?<br> 12:36 In-Person Benefits Have you Seen?<br> 14:55 Do you have Future Plans?<br> 17:20 What Would you Tell a Hesitant Youth Pastor?</p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> <strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:29.856)<br> Well hey what is up everybody I am here with none other than Andrew Ostrander did I say that right? Yes! It doesn't feel like it's that difficult but it feels like it might trip some people up you know what saying?</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (00:47.413)<br> You nailed it.</p> <p>Thanks.</p> <p>I've gotten Ostrander more than I've ever gotten Ostrander. So you're in the right.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:57.918)<br> Really? Yes, okay, nice, good. My gut, my intuition was right. So you and I, met through a youth ministry leader cohort and we were in that together on calls together and stuff like that. But I started just kind of noticing and paying attention to you and your social media, because that's really the only way to like...</p> <p>pay attention to some thing from someone who lives over a thousand miles away. And so, but I started noticing, I was like, I like what this guy's doing. And so that's why you're here. Talk to me, you know, we're gonna talk a little bit about your social media, but before we do, why don't you let like the people know like, who are you, where are you at, how long you've been in youth ministry, all that, you good stuff.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (01:29.518)<br> the</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (01:46.712)<br> Yep, so you've already touched on it. I'm Andrew Ostrander and I'm currently the director of student ministries at Waukerusa Missionary Church in a super small town, Waukerusa, Indiana. This is month seven or eight of my role in youth ministry. I had volunteered for multiple years beforehand, but I actually came from the education world. So I was a fifth and sixth grade teacher for three years before this position opened up and</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (01:53.396)<br> Nice.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:05.055)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (02:13.206)<br> was very clearly that God was shoving me through this doorway in youth ministry. And so that's how I ended up where I am.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:17.426)<br> Nice. Yeah, so you didn't even go to like school for youth ministry or whatever. And so here you find yourself now kind of like thrust into it. Before we hop into like the particular social media stuff, tell me what's been like the biggest shift or the biggest surprise or the biggest just difference that you've noticed between your two kind of careers if you put them side by side.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (02:42.85)<br> Yeah, I think there's a glaring amount of similarities that people wouldn't expect between education and ministry, but those are definitely there. I think the biggest difference or thing that we weren't fully prepared for, I was to the point where after God had clearly guided me here and I knew this is where I needed to be, I was ready to switch jobs. But then the act of switching churches is what really hit us hardest. I had grown up and attended one church for much of my, all of my upbringing.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:59.637)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:02.912)<br> Mm.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:10.098)<br> Yeah. Yeah.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (03:12.396)<br> And then most of my adult life after college. And so that was just such a huge change of pace and where you're so used to being on Sundays, you're no longer there on Sundays. So I think that was the biggest.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:20.256)<br> Mmm.</p> <p>Yeah. Yeah. One thing about it too, like, I mean, I've always said this, but like when you move and you're in ministry, like you don't just like move jobs, but like you move everything, like everything up roots, including your community and your, you know, your church, your, family, like your church family, all that type of stuff. So yeah, that's, that is so true and probably super relatable to, you know, most youth pastors. okay. But then go ahead.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (03:47.79)<br> I know you've experienced that even way more than I have, so you can relate.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:53.2)<br> Yeah, yeah, definitely can. But if you're not used to it or know it, right, you're like, whoa, it is a little culture shocky or whatever, for sure. So, okay, then tell me then what sort of spurred you, led you towards what you're doing with your student ministry social media? Maybe first of all, what shone a light to you that was like, I should do more than just post announcement graphics on my social media feed.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (04:21.868)<br> Yeah, so I was never a super avid social media user. Twitter and sports Twitter was where I was at in college and after. But I had just always seen the church. Like you said, it's like a hey, Wednesday nights coming up tomorrow, that type of thing, or ice skating this Friday. Join us for week three of this series. even even I was like, wow, that's not not that that's dumb, but I was uninspired.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:30.665)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:37.844)<br> Don't forget, yes, yeah. Yeah, no one cares about your series, yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:47.944)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (04:50.986)<br> And so when I started here, I was interested in social media. But then as you touched on the way that we met through that cohort, you had given a specific lesson and not to stroke your ego or build you up. But it's a lot of credit towards you and just how you guided that. It's really stuck with me when you said, we know that the students are there and it doesn't matter how we feel about it or if we like it. Why are we not meeting them where they're at?</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:51.026)<br> Right.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:59.029)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:03.904)<br> Hahaha</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:13.215)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Hmm. Hmm, yeah.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (05:18.722)<br> And so that was just a huge challenge to me of making engaging social media of some sort and really just trying to get students to buy in.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:23.946)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Yeah, yeah, and you know, like the cohort was an interactive deal and you know, the kind of like lesson or whatever that I led on all that was made for exactly that. But I'll link down below an episode that's like really similar to like that conversation that we walked through on that. So if any of you are like, what was that? Like you can check that out down below. But so now you, that was your inspiration sort of.</p> <p>And everyone does things a little different, know, and I my like ebook and stuff like that I give tips and whatever like what exactly Did you like or what have you sort of like stumbled into like doing that's like been working really well For like you and like your particular like church student ministry social media</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (06:13.944)<br> Yeah, so when talking about the sports social media background that I've interacted with, I never ran anything as myself, but I've just interacted with that a ton. And so one of the podcasts I had previously listened to talked about the difference of short form and long form video. And so I had really, and you had touched on it as well, the importance and prevalence of short form video. So that's really where we started to focus in and without having any...</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:18.302)<br> Yeah, yeah, yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:23.402)<br> Sure.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:30.665)<br> Mm-hmm.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:37.568)<br> Mm-hmm.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (06:42.964)<br> studio or recording equipment. Yeah. We really appreciate and love the space that we have. It's not set up for having a quiet, conducive recording area for anything longer or even anything specifically for social media. And so we really went on the interview style, man on the street style videos. And so when I transferred over here, one of my former students also came along with me as a now volunteer.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:43.976)<br> Right. Space. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:52.864)<br> Right, right.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:58.73)<br> Mm-hmm.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:03.017)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:09.733)<br> cool. That's awesome.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (07:12.118)<br> And so I knew that I wouldn't have the capacity on Wednesday nights to record and do all of these. And so I proposed to him of a weekly routine of when students are welcome into the doors, but we haven't started programming, that I give him a question of the week and he goes around and asks random, funny, sometimes not as funny questions just to hear what students say. And the results are pretty amusing.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:18.154)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:25.321)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:32.766)<br> Sure.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:36.287)<br> Oh, bro, there's so much good in that, right? So like a couple of principles I heard. Number one, like, cause this is one of the common pushbacks I feel like I hear is like, I don't have time and you acknowledge that, right? You, you knew your limits already, but you were like, that's okay. I'm going to hand this off to somebody else. So like in and of itself right there, genius, like get it off your plate. You're</p> <p>promoting it, facilitating an opportunity for it to happen. However, so like that's leadership, but you're getting out of the way and delegating and letting somebody else kind of like own it, which is just fantastic. And then the second is like you said, like you didn't let the constraints of what you felt like your space offered or maybe didn't offer like stop you. And that's again, another like thing that I think is so good because we oftentimes like, I don't have, you know, the best equipment or the, you know,</p> <p>bougie is set up or whatever and it's like, who cares? We all carry around a camera in our pockets and the ability to use that to make content that ends up where students are, like you said, so, good. So tell us a little bit of what are some of your favorite questions or what have been some of the things that have maybe taken root culturally within your student ministry that people are like, that video was hilarious because X, Y, and Z. What are some of the...</p> <p>The funniest ones you've had are the ones that have gotten the most talk about afterwards or just even been like, yeah, the most amusing.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (09:07.736)<br> Yeah, the first one that we actually did, so I had wanted to do it after you talked about social media and I was just figuring out what I wanted to do. And then my wife and I were out to dinner with two of our volunteers, our sponsors, and we got into controversies or like conspiracy theories that this individual was bigly bought into. And so that actually stemmed our first question of, you believe in aliens? And so I think that question has provided the most like,</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:13.896)<br> Yeah. Okay.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:20.156)<br> Okay.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:25.728)<br> You</p> <p>Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:33.248)<br> that's so funny.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (09:38.2)<br> people would pause and then they automatically had the answer that they believed in, but could not explain why or why not that they believed the way that they did.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:40.224)<br> Right, so funny. Yeah. yeah, that's funny. So then how, like, what are you doing for that? Like, tell me what exactly, you know, your volunteer is doing. Is he using his camera? Is he using any gear? you know, get kind of nerdy on us. Like, what actual stuff are you doing to capture it, record it, and then maybe even like edit it?</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (10:08.12)<br> Yeah, so it's about to be like the lamest set of nerdy equipment that we use.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:12.468)<br> That's okay. Here's the thing, before you answer, this is what the boat, almost everyone is in. And that's why I love it, is because you're not letting whatever constraints you have stop you, you're just going for it. And yeah, it might just be a cell phone camera or whatever, but that's okay. Just do it. So yeah, let us have it.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (10:33.015)<br> so the compilation of questions that we've come up with is stored on my phone notes app. And then we, sat down and decide what question we're going to ask that night. And then it is just a cell phone camera. And so I had gone online and was looking out for mic options quickly realizing that most of them were super expensive. So we have, I think it was like a $10 pair of the, lav mics and it's so cheap and old that</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:38.857)<br> Yep.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:45.077)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:50.174)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (10:59.616)<br> My phone is the only one that we can use because it has the lightning connector. And so he takes my phone and those $10, $20 lav mics. And that is how it gets recorded. We just figured out how to change video settings to try to increase the video quality a little bit, but that took a couple of months before we got to. then editing is something that I set aside time for every week. So I've been using Final Cut Pro on my Mac and that's, go through and edit and.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:02.464)<br> nice.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:07.456)<br> A $10 microphone,</p> <p>Okay.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:17.16)<br> There you go.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:23.88)<br> Yeah. Nice.</p> <p>Yeah. And so then are you doing, are you just sending him around all throughout the program? Like is he doing it ahead of time, after, both? Like what's sort of like his schedule as far as like the interview person?</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (11:29.464)<br> change scenes how I want to.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (11:42.318)<br> Yep. So we have like a team volunteer huddle every Wednesday night. So we're there until 6.15, 6.20. And then by that time, a lot of the students are here after our doors open. So he goes out from 6.20 until we start programming at 6.35, 6.40. So he only really does it for 15 or 20 minutes. So some weeks it's pretty limited if it's a longer question.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:46.196)<br> Mm-hmm.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:51.124)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:01.76)<br> Okay.</p> <p>Yeah.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (12:08.11)<br> but it just has that time where students are roaming and choosing what to do before programming starts to get those interviews in.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:08.117)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:13.192)<br> Yeah, so okay, so now my question is, do you have students who seek him out now every week wanting to answer so that they can be on social?</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (12:22.993)<br> Yes, I have certain students that I see their video every single week after he records. I'm pushing like, hey, let's try to get some others. But there's clearly students that are super excited. And I see the students that run away from him as soon as they see the mic out.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:32.435)<br> Yeah, yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:36.648)<br> Sure, yeah, Yeah, that's been my experience too, right? Like we do a social challenge every single week and we try to like batch record as much as we can, kind of like you. And almost every week as I like look at the footage after I'm like that kid's always in there, you know? And that's fine, right? Like that's fine for them to want to do it because it's whatever, it's how they connect and how they want to connect. Have you noticed any like...</p> <p>in-person benefits to what you're doing on social? Like anything that has camaraderie, even just creating conversation because of a certain video or topic or whatever, or the, I don't know, even like the feel and the vibe because you're filming something to go online. Has there been any in-person benefits that you've noticed?</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (13:23.16)<br> Yeah, I think absolutely. think the specific content or question that gets talked about for that day and then after programming a little bit, but then that conversation dies down. And there are a lot of different factors that I think have played into this, but since adding it and rolling it out and how our ministry has adjusted the pre-service time a little bit, students are really excited to be there and excited to interact whether or not it's with a camera in front of them.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:27.156)<br> Mm-hmm.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:31.602)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:45.758)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:52.794)<br> Interesting. Yeah.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (13:52.812)<br> And so there's just been that shift of that vibe of being willing to be open or just hanging out together.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:59.88)<br> That's cool. like that's a really that not even when I started on this whole journey and podcast, whatever, that's not even a thing that was even like on my radar, you know, but I've noticed that too in our in our context. And it's it's really cool to hear that for sure. What would you say like is anything that you're maybe like thinking about for the future? Like this is kind of your current rhythm and iteration. Are you like</p> <p>content with it and you just want to keep doing this or what if you had the capacity would be something that's maybe on the horizon that you've been thinking about or maybe wanting to do.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (14:38.254)<br> So there are multiple different things that where I'm wanting to take it. And so I've created a weekly posting schedule that I want to figure out either for the end of the school year or just really gear up to do it next school year. We're redesigning a little bit of our space to better meet our needs. And part of that, I'm really trying to push or find a spot to create a more studio like area so that we could do longer form or like five, 10 minute videos.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:43.199)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:51.518)<br> Okay.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:54.952)<br> Nice.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:02.814)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:07.401)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (15:07.724)<br> while the interviews are happening elsewhere. And so there are lots of different places that I'm wanting to take in it, just seeing whether or not any of them are possible.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:10.089)<br> Nice.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:15.888)<br> Yeah, cool. So cool. What do you mind? Like, are you able off top your head or pull it up? Like, what is your proposed posting schedule that you want to aim for, you know, start the next school year?</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (15:29.1)<br> Yeah. So it would just be the weekdays because I know like content limits and I try to set time aside to network. Monday, we want to be doing a message Monday. And so that's just a one, two minute Devo, primarily probably just adults. And then I have a student intern. And so just whatever word is laid on our hearts or minds for that day for Monday, Tuesday would be one of our interview style videos. So that's the ones that we're currently posting most frequently.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:33.353)<br> Yeah, yeah, yeah.</p> <p>Yeah, it's great.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:41.362)<br> Okay. Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:47.689)<br> Nice.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:51.796)<br> great.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:58.463)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (15:58.994)<br> the Wednesday one would be dependent on having a space to record it, but I want to do like a Wednesday word from a student. there again, pretty similar to Monday minute or two, Devo reading scripture style video Thursday, my intern and I have been recording, what we think are funny videos when we have internships together. And so Thursday would be that type of video right now. We're asking chat GPT to create a video for us and we just.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:05.522)<br> Nice.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:09.289)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:19.072)<br> You</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:23.85)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (16:28.106)<br> acted out. So those will be Thursday and then Friday. My idea would be for the slightly longer form video like drafts or tier list type things if we have the capability of doing that.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:28.927)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:37.842)<br> Nice. Nice, cool. Okay, so like last little thing here. What would you say to anybody who was like you, you know, you're not even a year yet into like student ministry and all the demands and all the things that like come with the job are there and you know, have to.</p> <p>manage it, schedules, manage relationships and personalities, and they just feel overwhelmed by even the thought of social. What would just be your encouragement to other youth pastors out there who are maybe on the fence or not sure if doubling down on creating social content is for them?</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (17:18.626)<br> Yeah, so I think a couple of things come to mind. The first one you kind of touched on, it's a mix of starting small and passing it off. So my church leadership, my bosses are huge on a leader doesn't have to do everything. Like we're to the point where it's better if you're training up other people to do it than doing it yourself. So start small or find someone to do it for you on your big programming nights. But then also find whatever part of social media sounds fun to you.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:25.382)<br> Mm-hmm. Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:33.119)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:37.812)<br> Yeah, it's great. Yeah.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (17:48.288)<br> start with that. Like I've loved editing so far up to this point because I'm amused by it. And so find whatever part of the process you enjoy and really just start and focus there learning how to do that so that it's more fun for you.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:49.151)<br> Hmm.</p> <p>Nice.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:59.794)<br> Yeah, yeah, that's so true. Okay, is there anything else about what you do social media-wise that I haven't really asked you, but you're like, this is important, I wanna make sure I share that too.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (18:14.382)<br> I think we've touched a lot on it. It's been fun. The personal connections that I form through it. So my volunteer that does the Wednesday night, we get to talk and reflect and discuss it a lot. And then my relationship with my intern has taken a huge upswing because of we're just hanging out together and making stupid, fun youth videos together. so like you asked about the in-person effects, even just on</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:25.78)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:29.386)<br> Sure.</p> <p>Mm.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:39.007)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:42.654)<br> Yeah.</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (18:43.754)<br> on my personal and my perspective. It's had a huge impact on relationships that I get to form because of these seemingly what a lot of people would view as pointless or menial impact videos.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:46.942)<br> Hmm. Yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:53.64)<br> Yeah. No, that's really, that's actually really like profound. And I really appreciate you saying that because I do think it's more than just, you know.</p> <p>satisfying social media algorithms or feeding the beast or you know, that's what I call it. Like you gotta keep feeding the beast. But I like that you're saying like, there's been some, you know, relational equity that kind of comes out of that. And that really is the ultimate goal. Like if you look at the inception of social, like it's social, right? In nature, like that's where it came from. And so if it's not at least, you know, playing a part in that within like the context of your local community, like you might be missing out on it, but it's,</p> <p>The fact that you're doing it is creating a good vibe and good energy. that's, I think, one of my main goals always in social is not like to go viral on our church account and have a bunch of views and all that stuff. Like really it's to serve our community like best, you know? And then if it goes viral or if it gets a lot of views or whatever, like that's great, but that's like a secondary.</p> <p>thing that I'm looking for. Primarily it's just like I want to serve the students that God has entrusted to me here and disciple them as best I can through the means and avenues of social. So it's great. Okay, so last thing, people want to know if they want to see what you're doing, they want to see some of the stuff you're doing, where do they go? What can they go follow and go check out online or whatever?</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (20:23.042)<br> Yeah, so right now I'm posting on two separate places, the YouTube channel, Walker's Student Ministries, and then the Instagram, which is either Walker's Student Ministries or Waukee with a Y Student Ministries. I would have to go shuffle check. I'm not sure that was created.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:35.936)<br> We'll link them both down below. We'll get it locked in. So if you're like, I don't know how to WakaRusa, the type text down below will be spelled hopefully correctly and it'll take you where you need to go. Nice. Andrew, anything else before we cut you loose?</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (20:47.438)<br> You</p> <p>Andrew Ostrander (20:53.646)<br> I think just obviously with the people that you have or the following you have, it's either of interest to them or could be something that they're already doing. I think it is really just super important to try one. The first video I made lasted me for three weeks because you just had enough to work with from it. And so it feels like huge undertaking. It's not as bad as what I initially went into it expecting.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:01.152)<br> Mm.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:05.6)<br> Mm.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:11.838)<br> Yeah, yeah.</p> <p>Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:16.748)<br> Yeah, no, that's a really good point. It's a new skill for a lot of people. So it is gonna feel a little bit overwhelming. But like you said, once you kind of get into it, you might learn something like, like editing, like you said, and you'll find a new skill or at least something else that you enjoy. So it's awesome. All right, guys, well, for Andrew, this is Nick. We're signing off and talk to you next time. See ya. </p> youth ministry, social media, student engagement, content creation, church community, youth pastor, interview style videos, digital ministry, youth culture, leadership In this episode, I interview Andrew Ostrander, who shares his journey from education to youth ministry, discussing the challenges and surprises he faced during the transition. He walks you through the importance of engaging social media content to connect with students, detailing his approach to creating interview-style videos that resonate with youth culture. Andrew also highlights the benefits of delegating tasks, the significance of personal connections in ministry, and his future plans for expanding social media efforts. The conversation concludes with encouragement for new youth pastors to embrace social media as a tool for building community and fostering relationships.

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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 How I Run My Youth Group Social Media
02:16 How did you end up here?
04:42 Tell us your social media journey
06:39 What Type of Content do you Make?
10:31 What Equipment do you use?
12:36 In-Person Benefits Have you Seen?
14:55 Do you have Future Plans?
17:20 What Would you Tell a Hesitant Youth Pastor?

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TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:29.856)
Well hey what is up everybody I am here with none other than Andrew Ostrander did I say that right? Yes! It doesn't feel like it's that difficult but it feels like it might trip some people up you know what saying?

Andrew Ostrander (00:47.413)
You nailed it.

Thanks.

I've gotten Ostrander more than I've ever gotten Ostrander. So you're in the right.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:57.918)
Really? Yes, okay, nice, good. My gut, my intuition was right. So you and I, met through a youth ministry leader cohort and we were in that together on calls together and stuff like that. But I started just kind of noticing and paying attention to you and your social media, because that's really the only way to like...

pay attention to some thing from someone who lives over a thousand miles away. And so, but I started noticing, I was like, I like what this guy's doing. And so that's why you're here. Talk to me, you know, we're gonna talk a little bit about your social media, but before we do, why don't you let like the people know like, who are you, where are you at, how long you've been in youth ministry, all that, you good stuff.

Andrew Ostrander (01:29.518)
the

Andrew Ostrander (01:46.712)
Yep, so you've already touched on it. I'm Andrew Ostrander and I'm currently the director of student ministries at Waukerusa Missionary Church in a super small town, Waukerusa, Indiana. This is month seven or eight of my role in youth ministry. I had volunteered for multiple years beforehand, but I actually came from the education world. So I was a fifth and sixth grade teacher for three years before this position opened up and

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (01:53.396)
Nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:05.055)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (02:13.206)
was very clearly that God was shoving me through this doorway in youth ministry. And so that's how I ended up where I am.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:17.426)
Nice. Yeah, so you didn't even go to like school for youth ministry or whatever. And so here you find yourself now kind of like thrust into it. Before we hop into like the particular social media stuff, tell me what's been like the biggest shift or the biggest surprise or the biggest just difference that you've noticed between your two kind of careers if you put them side by side.

Andrew Ostrander (02:42.85)
Yeah, I think there's a glaring amount of similarities that people wouldn't expect between education and ministry, but those are definitely there. I think the biggest difference or thing that we weren't fully prepared for, I was to the point where after God had clearly guided me here and I knew this is where I needed to be, I was ready to switch jobs. But then the act of switching churches is what really hit us hardest. I had grown up and attended one church for much of my, all of my upbringing.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:59.637)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:02.912)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:10.098)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (03:12.396)
And then most of my adult life after college. And so that was just such a huge change of pace and where you're so used to being on Sundays, you're no longer there on Sundays. So I think that was the biggest.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:20.256)
Mmm.

Yeah. Yeah. One thing about it too, like, I mean, I've always said this, but like when you move and you're in ministry, like you don't just like move jobs, but like you move everything, like everything up roots, including your community and your, you know, your church, your, family, like your church family, all that type of stuff. So yeah, that's, that is so true and probably super relatable to, you know, most youth pastors. okay. But then go ahead.

Andrew Ostrander (03:47.79)
I know you've experienced that even way more than I have, so you can relate.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:53.2)
Yeah, yeah, definitely can. But if you're not used to it or know it, right, you're like, whoa, it is a little culture shocky or whatever, for sure. So, okay, then tell me then what sort of spurred you, led you towards what you're doing with your student ministry social media? Maybe first of all, what shone a light to you that was like, I should do more than just post announcement graphics on my social media feed.

Andrew Ostrander (04:21.868)
Yeah, so I was never a super avid social media user. Twitter and sports Twitter was where I was at in college and after. But I had just always seen the church. Like you said, it's like a hey, Wednesday nights coming up tomorrow, that type of thing, or ice skating this Friday. Join us for week three of this series. even even I was like, wow, that's not not that that's dumb, but I was uninspired.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:30.665)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:37.844)
Don't forget, yes, yeah. Yeah, no one cares about your series, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:47.944)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (04:50.986)
And so when I started here, I was interested in social media. But then as you touched on the way that we met through that cohort, you had given a specific lesson and not to stroke your ego or build you up. But it's a lot of credit towards you and just how you guided that. It's really stuck with me when you said, we know that the students are there and it doesn't matter how we feel about it or if we like it. Why are we not meeting them where they're at?

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:51.026)
Right.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:59.029)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:03.904)
Hahaha

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:13.215)
Yeah.

Hmm. Hmm, yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (05:18.722)
And so that was just a huge challenge to me of making engaging social media of some sort and really just trying to get students to buy in.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:23.946)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, and you know, like the cohort was an interactive deal and you know, the kind of like lesson or whatever that I led on all that was made for exactly that. But I'll link down below an episode that's like really similar to like that conversation that we walked through on that. So if any of you are like, what was that? Like you can check that out down below. But so now you, that was your inspiration sort of.

And everyone does things a little different, know, and I my like ebook and stuff like that I give tips and whatever like what exactly Did you like or what have you sort of like stumbled into like doing that's like been working really well For like you and like your particular like church student ministry social media

Andrew Ostrander (06:13.944)
Yeah, so when talking about the sports social media background that I've interacted with, I never ran anything as myself, but I've just interacted with that a ton. And so one of the podcasts I had previously listened to talked about the difference of short form and long form video. And so I had really, and you had touched on it as well, the importance and prevalence of short form video. So that's really where we started to focus in and without having any...

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:18.302)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:23.402)
Sure.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:30.665)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:37.568)
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Ostrander (06:42.964)
studio or recording equipment. Yeah. We really appreciate and love the space that we have. It's not set up for having a quiet, conducive recording area for anything longer or even anything specifically for social media. And so we really went on the interview style, man on the street style videos. And so when I transferred over here, one of my former students also came along with me as a now volunteer.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:43.976)
Right. Space. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:52.864)
Right, right.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:58.73)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:03.017)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:09.733)
cool. That's awesome.

Andrew Ostrander (07:12.118)
And so I knew that I wouldn't have the capacity on Wednesday nights to record and do all of these. And so I proposed to him of a weekly routine of when students are welcome into the doors, but we haven't started programming, that I give him a question of the week and he goes around and asks random, funny, sometimes not as funny questions just to hear what students say. And the results are pretty amusing.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:18.154)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:25.321)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:32.766)
Sure.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:36.287)
Oh, bro, there's so much good in that, right? So like a couple of principles I heard. Number one, like, cause this is one of the common pushbacks I feel like I hear is like, I don't have time and you acknowledge that, right? You, you knew your limits already, but you were like, that's okay. I'm going to hand this off to somebody else. So like in and of itself right there, genius, like get it off your plate. You're

promoting it, facilitating an opportunity for it to happen. However, so like that's leadership, but you're getting out of the way and delegating and letting somebody else kind of like own it, which is just fantastic. And then the second is like you said, like you didn't let the constraints of what you felt like your space offered or maybe didn't offer like stop you. And that's again, another like thing that I think is so good because we oftentimes like, I don't have, you know, the best equipment or the, you know,

bougie is set up or whatever and it's like, who cares? We all carry around a camera in our pockets and the ability to use that to make content that ends up where students are, like you said, so, good. So tell us a little bit of what are some of your favorite questions or what have been some of the things that have maybe taken root culturally within your student ministry that people are like, that video was hilarious because X, Y, and Z. What are some of the...

The funniest ones you've had are the ones that have gotten the most talk about afterwards or just even been like, yeah, the most amusing.

Andrew Ostrander (09:07.736)
Yeah, the first one that we actually did, so I had wanted to do it after you talked about social media and I was just figuring out what I wanted to do. And then my wife and I were out to dinner with two of our volunteers, our sponsors, and we got into controversies or like conspiracy theories that this individual was bigly bought into. And so that actually stemmed our first question of, you believe in aliens? And so I think that question has provided the most like,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:13.896)
Yeah. Okay.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:20.156)
Okay.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:25.728)
You

Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:33.248)
that's so funny.

Andrew Ostrander (09:38.2)
people would pause and then they automatically had the answer that they believed in, but could not explain why or why not that they believed the way that they did.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:40.224)
Right, so funny. Yeah. yeah, that's funny. So then how, like, what are you doing for that? Like, tell me what exactly, you know, your volunteer is doing. Is he using his camera? Is he using any gear? you know, get kind of nerdy on us. Like, what actual stuff are you doing to capture it, record it, and then maybe even like edit it?

Andrew Ostrander (10:08.12)
Yeah, so it's about to be like the lamest set of nerdy equipment that we use.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:12.468)
That's okay. Here's the thing, before you answer, this is what the boat, almost everyone is in. And that's why I love it, is because you're not letting whatever constraints you have stop you, you're just going for it. And yeah, it might just be a cell phone camera or whatever, but that's okay. Just do it. So yeah, let us have it.

Andrew Ostrander (10:33.015)
so the compilation of questions that we've come up with is stored on my phone notes app. And then we, sat down and decide what question we're going to ask that night. And then it is just a cell phone camera. And so I had gone online and was looking out for mic options quickly realizing that most of them were super expensive. So we have, I think it was like a $10 pair of the, lav mics and it's so cheap and old that

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:38.857)
Yep.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:45.077)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:50.174)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (10:59.616)
My phone is the only one that we can use because it has the lightning connector. And so he takes my phone and those $10, $20 lav mics. And that is how it gets recorded. We just figured out how to change video settings to try to increase the video quality a little bit, but that took a couple of months before we got to. then editing is something that I set aside time for every week. So I've been using Final Cut Pro on my Mac and that's, go through and edit and.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:02.464)
nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:07.456)
A $10 microphone,

Okay.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:17.16)
There you go.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:23.88)
Yeah. Nice.

Yeah. And so then are you doing, are you just sending him around all throughout the program? Like is he doing it ahead of time, after, both? Like what's sort of like his schedule as far as like the interview person?

Andrew Ostrander (11:29.464)
change scenes how I want to.

Andrew Ostrander (11:42.318)
Yep. So we have like a team volunteer huddle every Wednesday night. So we're there until 6.15, 6.20. And then by that time, a lot of the students are here after our doors open. So he goes out from 6.20 until we start programming at 6.35, 6.40. So he only really does it for 15 or 20 minutes. So some weeks it's pretty limited if it's a longer question.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:46.196)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:51.124)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:01.76)
Okay.

Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (12:08.11)
but it just has that time where students are roaming and choosing what to do before programming starts to get those interviews in.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:08.117)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:13.192)
Yeah, so okay, so now my question is, do you have students who seek him out now every week wanting to answer so that they can be on social?

Andrew Ostrander (12:22.993)
Yes, I have certain students that I see their video every single week after he records. I'm pushing like, hey, let's try to get some others. But there's clearly students that are super excited. And I see the students that run away from him as soon as they see the mic out.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:32.435)
Yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:36.648)
Sure, yeah, Yeah, that's been my experience too, right? Like we do a social challenge every single week and we try to like batch record as much as we can, kind of like you. And almost every week as I like look at the footage after I'm like that kid's always in there, you know? And that's fine, right? Like that's fine for them to want to do it because it's whatever, it's how they connect and how they want to connect. Have you noticed any like...

in-person benefits to what you're doing on social? Like anything that has camaraderie, even just creating conversation because of a certain video or topic or whatever, or the, I don't know, even like the feel and the vibe because you're filming something to go online. Has there been any in-person benefits that you've noticed?

Andrew Ostrander (13:23.16)
Yeah, I think absolutely. think the specific content or question that gets talked about for that day and then after programming a little bit, but then that conversation dies down. And there are a lot of different factors that I think have played into this, but since adding it and rolling it out and how our ministry has adjusted the pre-service time a little bit, students are really excited to be there and excited to interact whether or not it's with a camera in front of them.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:27.156)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:31.602)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:45.758)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:52.794)
Interesting. Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (13:52.812)
And so there's just been that shift of that vibe of being willing to be open or just hanging out together.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:59.88)
That's cool. like that's a really that not even when I started on this whole journey and podcast, whatever, that's not even a thing that was even like on my radar, you know, but I've noticed that too in our in our context. And it's it's really cool to hear that for sure. What would you say like is anything that you're maybe like thinking about for the future? Like this is kind of your current rhythm and iteration. Are you like

content with it and you just want to keep doing this or what if you had the capacity would be something that's maybe on the horizon that you've been thinking about or maybe wanting to do.

Andrew Ostrander (14:38.254)
So there are multiple different things that where I'm wanting to take it. And so I've created a weekly posting schedule that I want to figure out either for the end of the school year or just really gear up to do it next school year. We're redesigning a little bit of our space to better meet our needs. And part of that, I'm really trying to push or find a spot to create a more studio like area so that we could do longer form or like five, 10 minute videos.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:43.199)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:51.518)
Okay.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:54.952)
Nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:02.814)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:07.401)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (15:07.724)
while the interviews are happening elsewhere. And so there are lots of different places that I'm wanting to take in it, just seeing whether or not any of them are possible.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:10.089)
Nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:15.888)
Yeah, cool. So cool. What do you mind? Like, are you able off top your head or pull it up? Like, what is your proposed posting schedule that you want to aim for, you know, start the next school year?

Andrew Ostrander (15:29.1)
Yeah. So it would just be the weekdays because I know like content limits and I try to set time aside to network. Monday, we want to be doing a message Monday. And so that's just a one, two minute Devo, primarily probably just adults. And then I have a student intern. And so just whatever word is laid on our hearts or minds for that day for Monday, Tuesday would be one of our interview style videos. So that's the ones that we're currently posting most frequently.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:33.353)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's great.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:41.362)
Okay. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:47.689)
Nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:51.796)
great.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:58.463)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (15:58.994)
the Wednesday one would be dependent on having a space to record it, but I want to do like a Wednesday word from a student. there again, pretty similar to Monday minute or two, Devo reading scripture style video Thursday, my intern and I have been recording, what we think are funny videos when we have internships together. And so Thursday would be that type of video right now. We're asking chat GPT to create a video for us and we just.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:05.522)
Nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:09.289)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:19.072)
You

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:23.85)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (16:28.106)
acted out. So those will be Thursday and then Friday. My idea would be for the slightly longer form video like drafts or tier list type things if we have the capability of doing that.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:28.927)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:37.842)
Nice. Nice, cool. Okay, so like last little thing here. What would you say to anybody who was like you, you know, you're not even a year yet into like student ministry and all the demands and all the things that like come with the job are there and you know, have to.

manage it, schedules, manage relationships and personalities, and they just feel overwhelmed by even the thought of social. What would just be your encouragement to other youth pastors out there who are maybe on the fence or not sure if doubling down on creating social content is for them?

Andrew Ostrander (17:18.626)
Yeah, so I think a couple of things come to mind. The first one you kind of touched on, it's a mix of starting small and passing it off. So my church leadership, my bosses are huge on a leader doesn't have to do everything. Like we're to the point where it's better if you're training up other people to do it than doing it yourself. So start small or find someone to do it for you on your big programming nights. But then also find whatever part of social media sounds fun to you.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:25.382)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:33.119)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:37.812)
Yeah, it's great. Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (17:48.288)
start with that. Like I've loved editing so far up to this point because I'm amused by it. And so find whatever part of the process you enjoy and really just start and focus there learning how to do that so that it's more fun for you.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:49.151)
Hmm.

Nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:59.794)
Yeah, yeah, that's so true. Okay, is there anything else about what you do social media-wise that I haven't really asked you, but you're like, this is important, I wanna make sure I share that too.

Andrew Ostrander (18:14.382)
I think we've touched a lot on it. It's been fun. The personal connections that I form through it. So my volunteer that does the Wednesday night, we get to talk and reflect and discuss it a lot. And then my relationship with my intern has taken a huge upswing because of we're just hanging out together and making stupid, fun youth videos together. so like you asked about the in-person effects, even just on

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:25.78)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:29.386)
Sure.

Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:39.007)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:42.654)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (18:43.754)
on my personal and my perspective. It's had a huge impact on relationships that I get to form because of these seemingly what a lot of people would view as pointless or menial impact videos.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:46.942)
Hmm. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:53.64)
Yeah. No, that's really, that's actually really like profound. And I really appreciate you saying that because I do think it's more than just, you know.

satisfying social media algorithms or feeding the beast or you know, that's what I call it. Like you gotta keep feeding the beast. But I like that you're saying like, there's been some, you know, relational equity that kind of comes out of that. And that really is the ultimate goal. Like if you look at the inception of social, like it's social, right? In nature, like that's where it came from. And so if it's not at least, you know, playing a part in that within like the context of your local community, like you might be missing out on it, but it's,

The fact that you're doing it is creating a good vibe and good energy. that's, I think, one of my main goals always in social is not like to go viral on our church account and have a bunch of views and all that stuff. Like really it's to serve our community like best, you know? And then if it goes viral or if it gets a lot of views or whatever, like that's great, but that's like a secondary.

thing that I'm looking for. Primarily it's just like I want to serve the students that God has entrusted to me here and disciple them as best I can through the means and avenues of social. So it's great. Okay, so last thing, people want to know if they want to see what you're doing, they want to see some of the stuff you're doing, where do they go? What can they go follow and go check out online or whatever?

Andrew Ostrander (20:23.042)
Yeah, so right now I'm posting on two separate places, the YouTube channel, Walker's Student Ministries, and then the Instagram, which is either Walker's Student Ministries or Waukee with a Y Student Ministries. I would have to go shuffle check. I'm not sure that was created.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:35.936)
We'll link them both down below. We'll get it locked in. So if you're like, I don't know how to WakaRusa, the type text down below will be spelled hopefully correctly and it'll take you where you need to go. Nice. Andrew, anything else before we cut you loose?

Andrew Ostrander (20:47.438)
You

Andrew Ostrander (20:53.646)
I think just obviously with the people that you have or the following you have, it's either of interest to them or could be something that they're already doing. I think it is really just super important to try one. The first video I made lasted me for three weeks because you just had enough to work with from it. And so it feels like huge undertaking. It's not as bad as what I initially went into it expecting.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:01.152)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:05.6)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:11.838)
Yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:16.748)
Yeah, no, that's a really good point. It's a new skill for a lot of people. So it is gonna feel a little bit overwhelming. But like you said, once you kind of get into it, you might learn something like, like editing, like you said, and you'll find a new skill or at least something else that you enjoy. So it's awesome. All right, guys, well, for Andrew, this is Nick. We're signing off and talk to you next time. See ya.

]]> In this episode, I interview Andrew Ostrander, who shares his journey from education to youth ministry, discussing the challenges and surprises he faced during the transition. He walks you through the importance of engaging social media content to connect with students, detailing his approach to creating interview-style videos that resonate with youth culture. Andrew also highlights the benefits of delegating tasks, the significance of personal connections in ministry, and his future plans for expanding social media efforts. The conversation concludes with encouragement for new youth pastors to embrace social media as a tool for building community and fostering relationships.

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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 How I Run My Youth Group Social Media
02:16 How did you end up here?
04:42 Tell us your social media journey
06:39 What Type of Content do you Make?
10:31 What Equipment do you use?
12:36 In-Person Benefits Have you Seen?
14:55 Do you have Future Plans?
17:20 What Would you Tell a Hesitant Youth Pastor?

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:29.856)
Well hey what is up everybody I am here with none other than Andrew Ostrander did I say that right? Yes! It doesn't feel like it's that difficult but it feels like it might trip some people up you know what saying?

Andrew Ostrander (00:47.413)
You nailed it.

Thanks.

I've gotten Ostrander more than I've ever gotten Ostrander. So you're in the right.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (00:57.918)
Really? Yes, okay, nice, good. My gut, my intuition was right. So you and I, met through a youth ministry leader cohort and we were in that together on calls together and stuff like that. But I started just kind of noticing and paying attention to you and your social media, because that's really the only way to like...

pay attention to some thing from someone who lives over a thousand miles away. And so, but I started noticing, I was like, I like what this guy's doing. And so that's why you're here. Talk to me, you know, we're gonna talk a little bit about your social media, but before we do, why don't you let like the people know like, who are you, where are you at, how long you've been in youth ministry, all that, you good stuff.

Andrew Ostrander (01:29.518)
the

Andrew Ostrander (01:46.712)
Yep, so you've already touched on it. I'm Andrew Ostrander and I'm currently the director of student ministries at Waukerusa Missionary Church in a super small town, Waukerusa, Indiana. This is month seven or eight of my role in youth ministry. I had volunteered for multiple years beforehand, but I actually came from the education world. So I was a fifth and sixth grade teacher for three years before this position opened up and

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (01:53.396)
Nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:05.055)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (02:13.206)
was very clearly that God was shoving me through this doorway in youth ministry. And so that's how I ended up where I am.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:17.426)
Nice. Yeah, so you didn't even go to like school for youth ministry or whatever. And so here you find yourself now kind of like thrust into it. Before we hop into like the particular social media stuff, tell me what's been like the biggest shift or the biggest surprise or the biggest just difference that you've noticed between your two kind of careers if you put them side by side.

Andrew Ostrander (02:42.85)
Yeah, I think there's a glaring amount of similarities that people wouldn't expect between education and ministry, but those are definitely there. I think the biggest difference or thing that we weren't fully prepared for, I was to the point where after God had clearly guided me here and I knew this is where I needed to be, I was ready to switch jobs. But then the act of switching churches is what really hit us hardest. I had grown up and attended one church for much of my, all of my upbringing.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (02:59.637)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:02.912)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:10.098)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (03:12.396)
And then most of my adult life after college. And so that was just such a huge change of pace and where you're so used to being on Sundays, you're no longer there on Sundays. So I think that was the biggest.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:20.256)
Mmm.

Yeah. Yeah. One thing about it too, like, I mean, I've always said this, but like when you move and you're in ministry, like you don't just like move jobs, but like you move everything, like everything up roots, including your community and your, you know, your church, your, family, like your church family, all that type of stuff. So yeah, that's, that is so true and probably super relatable to, you know, most youth pastors. okay. But then go ahead.

Andrew Ostrander (03:47.79)
I know you've experienced that even way more than I have, so you can relate.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (03:53.2)
Yeah, yeah, definitely can. But if you're not used to it or know it, right, you're like, whoa, it is a little culture shocky or whatever, for sure. So, okay, then tell me then what sort of spurred you, led you towards what you're doing with your student ministry social media? Maybe first of all, what shone a light to you that was like, I should do more than just post announcement graphics on my social media feed.

Andrew Ostrander (04:21.868)
Yeah, so I was never a super avid social media user. Twitter and sports Twitter was where I was at in college and after. But I had just always seen the church. Like you said, it's like a hey, Wednesday nights coming up tomorrow, that type of thing, or ice skating this Friday. Join us for week three of this series. even even I was like, wow, that's not not that that's dumb, but I was uninspired.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:30.665)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:37.844)
Don't forget, yes, yeah. Yeah, no one cares about your series, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:47.944)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (04:50.986)
And so when I started here, I was interested in social media. But then as you touched on the way that we met through that cohort, you had given a specific lesson and not to stroke your ego or build you up. But it's a lot of credit towards you and just how you guided that. It's really stuck with me when you said, we know that the students are there and it doesn't matter how we feel about it or if we like it. Why are we not meeting them where they're at?

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:51.026)
Right.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (04:59.029)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:03.904)
Hahaha

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:13.215)
Yeah.

Hmm. Hmm, yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (05:18.722)
And so that was just a huge challenge to me of making engaging social media of some sort and really just trying to get students to buy in.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (05:23.946)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, and you know, like the cohort was an interactive deal and you know, the kind of like lesson or whatever that I led on all that was made for exactly that. But I'll link down below an episode that's like really similar to like that conversation that we walked through on that. So if any of you are like, what was that? Like you can check that out down below. But so now you, that was your inspiration sort of.

And everyone does things a little different, know, and I my like ebook and stuff like that I give tips and whatever like what exactly Did you like or what have you sort of like stumbled into like doing that's like been working really well For like you and like your particular like church student ministry social media

Andrew Ostrander (06:13.944)
Yeah, so when talking about the sports social media background that I've interacted with, I never ran anything as myself, but I've just interacted with that a ton. And so one of the podcasts I had previously listened to talked about the difference of short form and long form video. And so I had really, and you had touched on it as well, the importance and prevalence of short form video. So that's really where we started to focus in and without having any...

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:18.302)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:23.402)
Sure.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:30.665)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:37.568)
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Ostrander (06:42.964)
studio or recording equipment. Yeah. We really appreciate and love the space that we have. It's not set up for having a quiet, conducive recording area for anything longer or even anything specifically for social media. And so we really went on the interview style, man on the street style videos. And so when I transferred over here, one of my former students also came along with me as a now volunteer.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:43.976)
Right. Space. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:52.864)
Right, right.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (06:58.73)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:03.017)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:09.733)
cool. That's awesome.

Andrew Ostrander (07:12.118)
And so I knew that I wouldn't have the capacity on Wednesday nights to record and do all of these. And so I proposed to him of a weekly routine of when students are welcome into the doors, but we haven't started programming, that I give him a question of the week and he goes around and asks random, funny, sometimes not as funny questions just to hear what students say. And the results are pretty amusing.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:18.154)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:25.321)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:32.766)
Sure.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (07:36.287)
Oh, bro, there's so much good in that, right? So like a couple of principles I heard. Number one, like, cause this is one of the common pushbacks I feel like I hear is like, I don't have time and you acknowledge that, right? You, you knew your limits already, but you were like, that's okay. I'm going to hand this off to somebody else. So like in and of itself right there, genius, like get it off your plate. You're

promoting it, facilitating an opportunity for it to happen. However, so like that's leadership, but you're getting out of the way and delegating and letting somebody else kind of like own it, which is just fantastic. And then the second is like you said, like you didn't let the constraints of what you felt like your space offered or maybe didn't offer like stop you. And that's again, another like thing that I think is so good because we oftentimes like, I don't have, you know, the best equipment or the, you know,

bougie is set up or whatever and it's like, who cares? We all carry around a camera in our pockets and the ability to use that to make content that ends up where students are, like you said, so, good. So tell us a little bit of what are some of your favorite questions or what have been some of the things that have maybe taken root culturally within your student ministry that people are like, that video was hilarious because X, Y, and Z. What are some of the...

The funniest ones you've had are the ones that have gotten the most talk about afterwards or just even been like, yeah, the most amusing.

Andrew Ostrander (09:07.736)
Yeah, the first one that we actually did, so I had wanted to do it after you talked about social media and I was just figuring out what I wanted to do. And then my wife and I were out to dinner with two of our volunteers, our sponsors, and we got into controversies or like conspiracy theories that this individual was bigly bought into. And so that actually stemmed our first question of, you believe in aliens? And so I think that question has provided the most like,

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:13.896)
Yeah. Okay.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:20.156)
Okay.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:25.728)
You

Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:33.248)
that's so funny.

Andrew Ostrander (09:38.2)
people would pause and then they automatically had the answer that they believed in, but could not explain why or why not that they believed the way that they did.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (09:40.224)
Right, so funny. Yeah. yeah, that's funny. So then how, like, what are you doing for that? Like, tell me what exactly, you know, your volunteer is doing. Is he using his camera? Is he using any gear? you know, get kind of nerdy on us. Like, what actual stuff are you doing to capture it, record it, and then maybe even like edit it?

Andrew Ostrander (10:08.12)
Yeah, so it's about to be like the lamest set of nerdy equipment that we use.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:12.468)
That's okay. Here's the thing, before you answer, this is what the boat, almost everyone is in. And that's why I love it, is because you're not letting whatever constraints you have stop you, you're just going for it. And yeah, it might just be a cell phone camera or whatever, but that's okay. Just do it. So yeah, let us have it.

Andrew Ostrander (10:33.015)
so the compilation of questions that we've come up with is stored on my phone notes app. And then we, sat down and decide what question we're going to ask that night. And then it is just a cell phone camera. And so I had gone online and was looking out for mic options quickly realizing that most of them were super expensive. So we have, I think it was like a $10 pair of the, lav mics and it's so cheap and old that

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:38.857)
Yep.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:45.077)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (10:50.174)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (10:59.616)
My phone is the only one that we can use because it has the lightning connector. And so he takes my phone and those $10, $20 lav mics. And that is how it gets recorded. We just figured out how to change video settings to try to increase the video quality a little bit, but that took a couple of months before we got to. then editing is something that I set aside time for every week. So I've been using Final Cut Pro on my Mac and that's, go through and edit and.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:02.464)
nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:07.456)
A $10 microphone,

Okay.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:17.16)
There you go.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:23.88)
Yeah. Nice.

Yeah. And so then are you doing, are you just sending him around all throughout the program? Like is he doing it ahead of time, after, both? Like what's sort of like his schedule as far as like the interview person?

Andrew Ostrander (11:29.464)
change scenes how I want to.

Andrew Ostrander (11:42.318)
Yep. So we have like a team volunteer huddle every Wednesday night. So we're there until 6.15, 6.20. And then by that time, a lot of the students are here after our doors open. So he goes out from 6.20 until we start programming at 6.35, 6.40. So he only really does it for 15 or 20 minutes. So some weeks it's pretty limited if it's a longer question.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:46.196)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (11:51.124)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:01.76)
Okay.

Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (12:08.11)
but it just has that time where students are roaming and choosing what to do before programming starts to get those interviews in.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:08.117)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:13.192)
Yeah, so okay, so now my question is, do you have students who seek him out now every week wanting to answer so that they can be on social?

Andrew Ostrander (12:22.993)
Yes, I have certain students that I see their video every single week after he records. I'm pushing like, hey, let's try to get some others. But there's clearly students that are super excited. And I see the students that run away from him as soon as they see the mic out.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:32.435)
Yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (12:36.648)
Sure, yeah, Yeah, that's been my experience too, right? Like we do a social challenge every single week and we try to like batch record as much as we can, kind of like you. And almost every week as I like look at the footage after I'm like that kid's always in there, you know? And that's fine, right? Like that's fine for them to want to do it because it's whatever, it's how they connect and how they want to connect. Have you noticed any like...

in-person benefits to what you're doing on social? Like anything that has camaraderie, even just creating conversation because of a certain video or topic or whatever, or the, I don't know, even like the feel and the vibe because you're filming something to go online. Has there been any in-person benefits that you've noticed?

Andrew Ostrander (13:23.16)
Yeah, I think absolutely. think the specific content or question that gets talked about for that day and then after programming a little bit, but then that conversation dies down. And there are a lot of different factors that I think have played into this, but since adding it and rolling it out and how our ministry has adjusted the pre-service time a little bit, students are really excited to be there and excited to interact whether or not it's with a camera in front of them.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:27.156)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:31.602)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:45.758)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:52.794)
Interesting. Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (13:52.812)
And so there's just been that shift of that vibe of being willing to be open or just hanging out together.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (13:59.88)
That's cool. like that's a really that not even when I started on this whole journey and podcast, whatever, that's not even a thing that was even like on my radar, you know, but I've noticed that too in our in our context. And it's it's really cool to hear that for sure. What would you say like is anything that you're maybe like thinking about for the future? Like this is kind of your current rhythm and iteration. Are you like

content with it and you just want to keep doing this or what if you had the capacity would be something that's maybe on the horizon that you've been thinking about or maybe wanting to do.

Andrew Ostrander (14:38.254)
So there are multiple different things that where I'm wanting to take it. And so I've created a weekly posting schedule that I want to figure out either for the end of the school year or just really gear up to do it next school year. We're redesigning a little bit of our space to better meet our needs. And part of that, I'm really trying to push or find a spot to create a more studio like area so that we could do longer form or like five, 10 minute videos.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:43.199)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:51.518)
Okay.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (14:54.952)
Nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:02.814)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:07.401)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (15:07.724)
while the interviews are happening elsewhere. And so there are lots of different places that I'm wanting to take in it, just seeing whether or not any of them are possible.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:10.089)
Nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:15.888)
Yeah, cool. So cool. What do you mind? Like, are you able off top your head or pull it up? Like, what is your proposed posting schedule that you want to aim for, you know, start the next school year?

Andrew Ostrander (15:29.1)
Yeah. So it would just be the weekdays because I know like content limits and I try to set time aside to network. Monday, we want to be doing a message Monday. And so that's just a one, two minute Devo, primarily probably just adults. And then I have a student intern. And so just whatever word is laid on our hearts or minds for that day for Monday, Tuesday would be one of our interview style videos. So that's the ones that we're currently posting most frequently.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:33.353)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's great.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:41.362)
Okay. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:47.689)
Nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:51.796)
great.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (15:58.463)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (15:58.994)
the Wednesday one would be dependent on having a space to record it, but I want to do like a Wednesday word from a student. there again, pretty similar to Monday minute or two, Devo reading scripture style video Thursday, my intern and I have been recording, what we think are funny videos when we have internships together. And so Thursday would be that type of video right now. We're asking chat GPT to create a video for us and we just.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:05.522)
Nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:09.289)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:19.072)
You

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:23.85)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (16:28.106)
acted out. So those will be Thursday and then Friday. My idea would be for the slightly longer form video like drafts or tier list type things if we have the capability of doing that.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:28.927)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (16:37.842)
Nice. Nice, cool. Okay, so like last little thing here. What would you say to anybody who was like you, you know, you're not even a year yet into like student ministry and all the demands and all the things that like come with the job are there and you know, have to.

manage it, schedules, manage relationships and personalities, and they just feel overwhelmed by even the thought of social. What would just be your encouragement to other youth pastors out there who are maybe on the fence or not sure if doubling down on creating social content is for them?

Andrew Ostrander (17:18.626)
Yeah, so I think a couple of things come to mind. The first one you kind of touched on, it's a mix of starting small and passing it off. So my church leadership, my bosses are huge on a leader doesn't have to do everything. Like we're to the point where it's better if you're training up other people to do it than doing it yourself. So start small or find someone to do it for you on your big programming nights. But then also find whatever part of social media sounds fun to you.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:25.382)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:33.119)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:37.812)
Yeah, it's great. Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (17:48.288)
start with that. Like I've loved editing so far up to this point because I'm amused by it. And so find whatever part of the process you enjoy and really just start and focus there learning how to do that so that it's more fun for you.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:49.151)
Hmm.

Nice.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (17:59.794)
Yeah, yeah, that's so true. Okay, is there anything else about what you do social media-wise that I haven't really asked you, but you're like, this is important, I wanna make sure I share that too.

Andrew Ostrander (18:14.382)
I think we've touched a lot on it. It's been fun. The personal connections that I form through it. So my volunteer that does the Wednesday night, we get to talk and reflect and discuss it a lot. And then my relationship with my intern has taken a huge upswing because of we're just hanging out together and making stupid, fun youth videos together. so like you asked about the in-person effects, even just on

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:25.78)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:29.386)
Sure.

Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:39.007)
Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:42.654)
Yeah.

Andrew Ostrander (18:43.754)
on my personal and my perspective. It's had a huge impact on relationships that I get to form because of these seemingly what a lot of people would view as pointless or menial impact videos.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:46.942)
Hmm. Yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (18:53.64)
Yeah. No, that's really, that's actually really like profound. And I really appreciate you saying that because I do think it's more than just, you know.

satisfying social media algorithms or feeding the beast or you know, that's what I call it. Like you gotta keep feeding the beast. But I like that you're saying like, there's been some, you know, relational equity that kind of comes out of that. And that really is the ultimate goal. Like if you look at the inception of social, like it's social, right? In nature, like that's where it came from. And so if it's not at least, you know, playing a part in that within like the context of your local community, like you might be missing out on it, but it's,

The fact that you're doing it is creating a good vibe and good energy. that's, I think, one of my main goals always in social is not like to go viral on our church account and have a bunch of views and all that stuff. Like really it's to serve our community like best, you know? And then if it goes viral or if it gets a lot of views or whatever, like that's great, but that's like a secondary.

thing that I'm looking for. Primarily it's just like I want to serve the students that God has entrusted to me here and disciple them as best I can through the means and avenues of social. So it's great. Okay, so last thing, people want to know if they want to see what you're doing, they want to see some of the stuff you're doing, where do they go? What can they go follow and go check out online or whatever?

Andrew Ostrander (20:23.042)
Yeah, so right now I'm posting on two separate places, the YouTube channel, Walker's Student Ministries, and then the Instagram, which is either Walker's Student Ministries or Waukee with a Y Student Ministries. I would have to go shuffle check. I'm not sure that was created.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (20:35.936)
We'll link them both down below. We'll get it locked in. So if you're like, I don't know how to WakaRusa, the type text down below will be spelled hopefully correctly and it'll take you where you need to go. Nice. Andrew, anything else before we cut you loose?

Andrew Ostrander (20:47.438)
You

Andrew Ostrander (20:53.646)
I think just obviously with the people that you have or the following you have, it's either of interest to them or could be something that they're already doing. I think it is really just super important to try one. The first video I made lasted me for three weeks because you just had enough to work with from it. And so it feels like huge undertaking. It's not as bad as what I initially went into it expecting.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:01.152)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:05.6)
Mm.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:11.838)
Yeah, yeah.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry (21:16.748)
Yeah, no, that's a really good point. It's a new skill for a lot of people. So it is gonna feel a little bit overwhelming. But like you said, once you kind of get into it, you might learn something like, like editing, like you said, and you'll find a new skill or at least something else that you enjoy. So it's awesome. All right, guys, well, for Andrew, this is Nick. We're signing off and talk to you next time. See ya.

]]> Episode 141: How I Plan Events with Kaylen Adams https://www.hybridministry.xyz/141 f992a4dd-81ca-4648-8551-3cda7ef24ce7 Thu, 20 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 141 How I Plan Events with Kaylen Adams full Nick Clason This episode of the *Hybrid Ministry Show* kicks off the "How I..." playlist with a deep dive into event planning with guest Kaylen Adams, an expert in coordination and logistics. Kaylen shares her step-by-step approach to organizing youth ministry events, covering everything from volunteer recruitment and communication to detailed schedules and contingency planning. Whether you're a youth pastor who struggles with organization or looking to refine your event strategy, this conversation is packed with practical insights to help you run seamless, high-impact events. 31:35 no This episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show kicks off the "How I..." playlist with a deep dive into event planning with guest Kaylen Adams, an expert in coordination and logistics. Kaylen shares her step-by-step approach to organizing youth ministry events, covering everything from volunteer recruitment and communication to detailed schedules and contingency planning. Whether you're a youth pastor who struggles with organization or looking to refine your event strategy, this conversation is packed with practical insights to help you run seamless, high-impact events. ๐ŸฆธBECOME A HYBRID HERO patreon.com/hybridministry โœ… CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS DONE FOR YOU https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms SHOW NOTES Shownotes &amp; Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/141 ๐Ÿ‘‰ STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz CONNECT WITH KAYLEN ON SOCIAL https://www.facebook.com/kaylen.maltais https://www.instagram.com/kmaltais_/ -------------- ๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰ 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 -------------- ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00 How I Plan Events like a Pro! 01:10 Kaylen, who are you? 05:06 What Lanes did you own? 07:03 How can you help someone think? 08:07 How did you communicate? 11:54 How did you determine call times? 16:30 How do you recruit for an event? 20:05 How many jobs do you give a leader? 21:24 How do you calculate for food? 24:21 What Else? 26:28 What if my church doesn't do all that? 28:34 Keep People's Personalities in Mind -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry For what is up everybody? Today I am going to introduce you and have you in for a treat, because I am going to be interviewing one of my friends and coworkers, Kaylen Adams, who's fantastic at event planning. This is going to be the start of a new little playlist series on my podcast, and here on YouTube, where I am going to introduce you to some of the people that I know who do things the best in youth ministry and particular lanes. 00:00:25:00 - 00:00:46:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And Kaylen is the queen of event coordination and event management. Not only is she like, really fun and have a really good mind, but she is fantastic at getting volunteers, recruiting them. And when a volunteer comes in just feeling like they know exactly what to do. And you will. If you implement these things, you will look like a rock star. 00:00:46:09 - 00:01:04:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So if you're a typical youth worker who's not very organized, this episode is for you because it will help you and if you think that all hope is lost on you, then this is a great, podcast to send to a volunteer or a high level admin who might step in and help you with some of the logistical things, but you are in for a treat regardless. 00:01:04:10 - 00:01:31:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry With my interview today with my friend and coworker Kaylen Adams. What's up everyone? Here we are. I am with Kaylen Adams. Which yes, you don't even find that on your name on here because that's how that's how new this is. So it is formerly known as Maltais, not hyphenated. Straight up Adams. Which means you just got married and, 00:01:31:08 - 00:01:52:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you might not know Kaylen, but I know Kaylen. I worked with Kaylen. Worked in the past tense. We are still on staff together, but she has switched departments, so now she's in the kids department. And the reason I ask Kaylen on here is, what was it last weekend? Two weekends ago, we had our high school weekend. 00:01:52:02 - 00:02:14:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you still worked with me then, and, oh, my gosh, Kaylen crushed it. Like, you guys don't have any idea. And as she was, like, literally crushing every, like, logistical and administrative detail of the weekend, in the back of my mind, I was like, we got to get Kaylen on so I can ask her, how do you plan for these big events? 00:02:14:01 - 00:02:38:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So why don't you give us just kind of a quick overview? Kaylen, first of all, like a 20 or 30 second like synopsis of who you are, how we ended up working together. But then, like, what did you oversee, at these events? Like what particular? Like lanes and areas and avenues. And then I just think what you did is such a helpful tool to many of the youth passers that I've ever seen or worked with. And so I just think this would be helpful to get out, you know, to people. Yeah. Yeah. 00:02:38:10 - 00:03:02:13 Kaylen Adams So we've started working together because I, I went to college at the University of Wyoming and I got a degree in human resources management and entrepreneurship with minors in hospitality anthropology. There you go. So so that was. Yeah. Yeah. And so I did that. 00:03:02:13 - 00:03:29:13 Kaylen Adams Fell in love with ministry there. And then around like my senior year, I learned the opportunity to do a residency in Texas, which I hate sweating. So my family was like, I was like, I think because I love Jesus, I don't know. So I applied and I ended up getting hired in January. And so after I graduated, I moved to Texas, and I did a residency at Cross Creek Church and guest services. 00:03:29:15 - 00:03:50:22 Kaylen Adams But I love that, like ministerial aspect. And I still was kind of doing some of more of that support ministry with it. So needed and very, very special. Big shout out to everybody in support ministries. And so that's when I transitioned into students and I kind of brought a lot of my guest services and undergrad knowledge, which infuse that into what I was doing. 00:03:50:22 - 00:04:08:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And students. Yeah. So then like for the first little bit, I remember you're like, I don't really know exactly what you guys want me to do. And we were like, just keep doing like, I mean, like, you guys don't understand. Like, Kaylen was just she just knew what to do. Like, even if she didn't know what to do, she pretend like she knew what to do. 00:04:08:00 - 00:04:30:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it seemed like she's known what she she's doing. But it was this last high school weekend where, like, you were pulling out, like, spreadsheets and folders and instructions and, even, like, I remember distinctly I was talking with you about our t shirt order number, and, like, our student registration was, like, lower than anticipated. And you were like, no, we're going to need this many t shirts. 00:04:30:06 - 00:04:50:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I was like, why? And you're like, because of all of our volunteers. And I was like, do you really like, do you really think that? And your confidence, you're like, absolutely. And you were right, by the way. So what like lanes did you let's talk about specifically our high school weekend, which for those of you who don't know the context, it's like a D now without the spending the night element. 00:04:50:22 - 00:05:10:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So it's like two days on campus. Yeah. Like Friday night, Saturday until like 3:00. And so it's probably like our second biggest event next to, like, a thing like summer camp, right? So yeah, in that event, what particularly did you own, like, what were those areas? And I just want to ask you kind of pepper you questions. 00:05:10:02 - 00:05:33:02 Kaylen Adams Yeah. In that in those arenas. Well so this was we originally had one winter we to middle school and high school. Was it split into middle school night high school. Well for middle school night Darren, the student pastor at Rush Creek pitched and I met my boss, so he. Yeah. So he did a lot of the the directional things for that division. 00:05:33:02 - 00:05:56:21 Kaylen Adams And then programing. And I took everything else and like, did the logistics of the event planned it all. So by the time high school weekend came around, because I wasn't middle school night, so I didn't play a part at all, which is relevant because when we played high school night, we did a lot of the same stuff. We just like copy and paste a lot of the stuff that worked and made it a little more, for high school and that middle school. 00:05:56:23 - 00:06:20:20 Kaylen Adams Oh yeah. And then we had known, like, what worked and what didn't. So we're check in by the time we got to high school again. Yeah, that's good. But yeah, by the time we got there, Nick you did programing. So like everything that you were sitting in a session and watching and experiencing. Nick was all in of planning and talking to the people, like worship people and yeah, yeah, I did everything outside of that. 00:06:20:22 - 00:06:44:20 Kaylen Adams So and how we move through the timelines, you know, when were kids eating, where were they going to be, what activities were they going to be doing. And then we had food making sure we had enough food, making sure. Yeah, we had t shirts. And there they were out and that, you know, we gave away a little like pin to all of our students, like, you made sure that that was where it needed to get and left, you know, passing out our note sheets and pens. 00:06:44:20 - 00:07:08:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And, I mean, you just you thought of like, every detail. So, like, I know your background helps you with that, but like, imagine you're talking to someone who's not as organized as you like. So you come by that naturally, which is what was just like a marvel to behold. But like what? What would you tell someone? Or how would you encourage someone to think if they're like planning something like that? 00:07:08:09 - 00:07:29:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like what? What's the way that you help us get inside your brain for some of the logistics? Kaylen Adams Well, when you're planning an event, yes, for a job, for ministry, ever. You write down all of your ideas like, no one is like, I'm just taking this all right here. I will accept it later. It's going to be there like you always write it down. 00:07:29:11 - 00:07:54:20 Kaylen Adams You make it through for you. And I just thought, you know, would probably be really helpful for a volunteers to see that map. Like, I don't know why I would keep it from them. They should know, like how we got from point A to point B, because by the time we're at point B and we're doing the thing, they deeply understand what they're doing and not only do what I'm telling them to do, they can actually take initiative and do the things that I missed. 00:07:54:22 - 00:08:13:05 Kaylen Adams Yeah. And so that's a huge part of it is just like, if I were a volunteer, what would I want to know? So I could do my job? Well, I feel good about it. Yeah. So then how how did you go about communicating? Like, did you have a meeting? Did you send them a text? Did you send them an email? 00:08:13:05 - 00:08:31:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like what? Because that's probably, I would imagine, a lot of stuff. And I think again, most youth pastors are like, I don't either have the time or be want to overwhelm my volunteers, or maybe see just another reason I didn't actually write it down. It is all in my head. So, I mean, I would say probably for all of us. 00:08:31:06 - 00:08:55:12 Kaylen Adams Step one is get it out of your head onto paper somehow. And then two, how did you communicate it? Yeah. So I communicated a couple different ways. So the only time that I was texting volunteers instructions or anything was a, when I was recruiting them. Okay. I never sent them like, all the information they needed individually because I needed them all to be kind of in one part. 00:08:55:12 - 00:09:16:24 Kaylen Adams So I knew who was getting one information and it always the same. Yeah. If I ever was giving instructions, it was in a group chat or a group of people that had a specialized role. Those came last minute. They weren't actually accounted for. Next time we did an event, I probably would account for them in advance. So I'm not texting information because for the smaller like you're saying, the. 00:09:17:01 - 00:09:51:02 Kaylen Adams Yeah, the smaller, more specialized groups groupings of people. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I like to create an escape room. We had game masters and we didn't know about that until like pretty close to the event. I probably would have included them into all the mass event communication before that time. Got it as okay. Got it. Yeah. Okay. So and then and then putting together all this information, I'm kind of stockpiling it in a folder called Volunteer Prep, and I'm organizing it by like, this document, they need to know this document. 00:09:51:02 - 00:10:11:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry They need to know if they don't really need to know that, I'll pull it back. What are those documents? Can you give us just a few examples, like pull back the curtain a little bit? Kaylen Adams Yeah, yeah. So I'll make a volunteer schedule that's like five position. And then I sang people to that position per day. So it's not by time blocks, it's by day and what they're doing okay. 00:10:11:16 - 00:10:28:21 Kaylen Adams And then I have a document a volunteer job description. They need to know what they're doing, why they're doing how they do it. Yeah. And then I do a document. If we're doing anything outside or in a weird space, I'll do an aerial map and I'll make, like, different stations and positions of where they're going to be. 00:10:28:23 - 00:10:51:09 Kaylen Adams I'll give them a service order so they can see just how we do, how the whole day is going to go through. They even see like how different session parts are going to work, like what sounds work. It's going to do all the stuff because they help with transitions, like really help because it's easier to be like, hey, after they do a million little miracles, I need you to come out here rather than at 737. 00:10:51:09 - 00:11:11:20 Kaylen Adams I need you to. Yeah. The more like more like, big landmarks on a map. Yeah. Once you get this song, then this is your cue to come out and help set up for lunch, like, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. That's why the service order is so important. And for them to see what's in Planning Center is for that. 00:11:11:20 - 00:11:34:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We updated everything for the whole event kind of revolves around that. And you're doing the same for your volunteers. And so because then I would imagine, correct me if I'm wrong, you're able to be like, hey, if you're in charge of lunch, like, these are your three areas or meals, I guess, like these are your three. So like Friday night dinner, Saturday morning breakfast and, you know, Saturday lunch. 00:11:34:07 - 00:11:56:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like at this time you need to be here for this. Because if we say lunch is at 12, let's say I'm imagining you're having your volunteer get there at 11:15 or 11:30 or something like that. So how do you real quick answer this question for me. How do you determine, what time to to call for them? Like, yeah. 00:11:56:10 - 00:12:18:11 Kaylen Adams So when it comes to like food stuff because you're dealing with catering and vendors usually like I wouldn't have that start. So we had lunch at like, what was it this year? 12 I think it started and I don't remember the exact time. I just know we had it and it was ready. And that's why you're here. We had food dropped off at like 1115. 00:12:18:16 - 00:12:41:10 Kaylen Adams Okay. So plenty of time. And most of that was not because I was worried about my volunteers because they knew what to do. And we're not in like the biggest space ever is to account for vendors being late or not knowing where to park and, stuff. Yeah. When it comes to other transitions, they're a lot tighter windows and they're a lot quicker usually it was like the song before something started. 00:12:41:10 - 00:13:04:10 Kaylen Adams I would send them to go do something, but again, that's also because their space isn't really big and any materials they needed or resources. I set out in a central location, a table in the main space. We all were operating out of the auditorium, and I labeled everything with all the different times that it's going to be needed, and even put under, like during this song, you should take that, this place. 00:13:04:10 - 00:13:25:17 Kaylen Adams So my volunteers knew to flock to that table when transition times are happening. Yeah, that was so good. So then are you. So you're just labeling those like yeah, color you label like for anything. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You label like crazy. If you think like oh that'd be really obvious for someone to know it's now you should label. 00:13:25:23 - 00:13:45:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Because again, your brain versus reality. Right. Like it makes sense in your brain, our brain as we're planning the events. But it might not make sense to volunteer. Yeah, because they're just dropping in. Right. You know. Yeah. After work. Right. They've been at work all day and their mind is in a million other places. 00:13:45:10 - 00:14:06:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so like, they're, you know, giving up their time and they're willing and they're helpful and all those things. But like I like that. I like what you're saying, like, almost, almost dummy proof it. Right? Not that they're dumb, but, like, make it so simple. Okay. Yeah. Do it. Yeah. Well, my volunteers, they do best when they're confident. 00:14:06:24 - 00:14:24:06 Kaylen Adams When they're confident, they are empowered to take initiative, make decisions, do something really well when they're not confident in whether or not they're in the right place, holding the right thing, putting it where it should be. Then you have a lot of lag and you have a lot of like question. And that's when things start to like frame fall apart. 00:14:24:09 - 00:14:59:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yeah. So your job as an event coordinator is just to how can I give my volunteers the most confidence they need in this decision. That's good. Okay. So then anything else on what you tell volunteers? I want to maybe go a different direction if you feel like you've kind of got everything in that lack thing is leading up to the event, you want to send out the longest email of your life, and then is where all of the equipment I talked about keeping in that volunteer folder and you go through, you give an overview and you kind of describe how the event's going, and they need to read those attachments. 00:14:59:24 - 00:15:26:05 Kaylen Adams I sent it all beforehand because that's our big meeting, and they can refer back to you and have in writing. And then by the time we are at the event, like 30 minutes an hour before the start, that meeting is a refresher or a question. That's not the entire meeting. Yeah, yeah. And then the other thing you did, which I thought was brilliant, was you, taped all those attachments to a wall of one of our leader workrooms. 00:15:26:07 - 00:15:47:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So, yeah, if they didn't want to, you know, fight with their email to find it again, they could just go reference quickly off a printed copy. So again, you don't like you think about your dummy proofing it like, yes, you communicated it in the email. And this is one of the concepts I talk about in communication a lot is like, we live in like a Netflix culture, so people live it with like an on demand mindset. 00:15:47:10 - 00:16:05:03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so you sent it on like a Thursday at 3:30 p.m., but like, they were in the middle of like a business meeting. And so it wasn't in their mind then, but it will be in their mind when they show up on Friday at six. But like they've gotten 27 more emails since then and so. Oh yeah, where is that? 00:16:05:03 - 00:16:24:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I think it's brilliant to put it somewhere just quick and accessible and maybe even another hack that we didn't even do or think about, but like maybe even having like a static like landing page or like QR code that they could like scan and pull open, like in a, just a tab in their safari. And then that gives them access to everything, you know, that they need. 00:16:24:23 - 00:16:58:15 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But yeah, I think that was that was so smart. So then how do you go about, like, help us get in your brain because, you know, you had a couple volunteers there that I was like, oh, like, I wouldn't have thought that they would be here. Not because they did, like a bad job or they're just they weren't like as maybe like involved or like, maybe they're only serving like once a month or once every other, week, like in our student ministry and like, you had the, like, in charge of, like, food or like certain like, you know, snack type areas, like, how did you go through and think, who am 00:16:58:15 - 00:17:16:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I going to recruit? Because I thought that was one of the other really special things was like, you asked a very particular or like, dedicated ask for like just very, again, very specific volunteers. You didn't I didn't feel like you did like an all call, though. You maybe you did to kind of pick up anyone who might be interested. 00:17:16:22 - 00:17:39:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But then I think you went particularly after, like certain names or certain individuals. How did you how did you like, think about them to, to ask them and like what goes into you? You know, determining this person would be good for that. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you definitely do an all call because, well, we are desperate for people to help. 00:17:39:13 - 00:18:06:02 Kaylen Adams We're not gonna act like or not, but, honestly, I just kind of go with a philosophy of I'll never say no for somebody like, you know, I think sometimes we do that even if we say that we're not like, well, they only serve on Sundays and they're very particular about their job. And I'm like, yes. But they also probably like high school is I don't know, maybe the chances are, and so I just kind of like we always have conversations for like, oh, that person would be like, so good at this. 00:18:06:02 - 00:18:27:03 Kaylen Adams Or if only they do it. And I usually take that person and then ask, yeah, like I make a list of all. Yeah. As I am planning events and I just keep people's personalities in mind like I, we see them work all Sunday and we see them work Wednesday. And you kind of see like what things kind of light them up and what things they're like, oh can I do anything else but that. 00:18:27:07 - 00:18:42:18 Kaylen Adams Yeah. And so I just kind of catalog that and that way. And I do kind of mentally. But it wouldn't hurt to like make a list of people like I love reaching out to this person for this. This is this. And I've noticed that they've done events. We have volunteers that really get fired up for events like that. 00:18:42:18 - 00:19:02:24 Kaylen Adams Just being a part of a big beast of a programing thing, like kind of lights them up and exciting. And so I have people that I regularly reach out with, like Kyra Allen Love. She's one of our checking people. I remember when I came in, she was on like some sort of kind of understanding that she was only going to volunteer a couple times because she had some things going on. 00:19:02:24 - 00:19:26:20 Kaylen Adams And I just remember, like, she was so stoked to do this back to school bash experience. That was like a Wednesday night special because, like, I definitely would love to do events and she's been my event checking person every single time I day. Yeah, yeah that's good. Yeah. She loves it. So you have like a you're very in tune to to them like just ongoing right. 00:19:26:20 - 00:19:44:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like you're keeping an eye as you're doing your job. And so that makes it easier obviously. Then when you go to to think and yeah I like that it is not creepy but it is. No. Yeah. But I think that's part of the that again I when I saw some of those people that was like interesting but also awesome and like that was all kudos to you right. 00:19:44:20 - 00:20:01:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like I'll kudos you because like I wouldn't have thought to ask that person. Like I would have thrown a link in our leader group chat. Hey, you know, want to volunteer? They did it. And now I'm desperate, you know? And, so yeah, I was we were more than fully staffed, you know, for. Yeah. And so that was the other thing. 00:20:01:11 - 00:20:20:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like how, like how many jobs do you try to give a leader? Like how many are you trying to, like, let people do double duty? Or like, hey, you're in charge of like, food and like, that's your job the whole weekend. Like, how do you make those decisions? Kaylen Adams Yeah, some of our jobs, like, they feel very crucial and important because they are. 00:20:20:13 - 00:20:40:05 Kaylen Adams But they're not crucial. Important in that they happen the entire time of the program. Like right there. Yeah. There are a window a very important window. But then and. Yeah, and you have to remember, when you're dealing with these volunteers, they're adults with full time jobs are like at the leaders, if they're they're at your event, they are high capacity. 00:20:40:07 - 00:21:01:24 Kaylen Adams They don't do well, bored or sitting and doing nothing. They want to do something. And if they're doing something that morale is high and they'll probably do another event because they're like, that was awesome though. So yeah, it's good. Yeah. So I assign generally like 2 or 3 roles throughout the service order to people. So they're like constantly transitioning and moving to do so. 00:21:02:01 - 00:21:22:02 Kaylen Adams Yeah. And that comes back to your like schedule your map. And you're like you're thinking that ahead. Like okay. Do they after this window closes they can go to this, but then they maybe can't do this next thing because they're going to be busy doing that. Like, again, that's the next level stuff, Kaylen, that you're like, you're very good at. 00:21:22:02 - 00:21:44:02 Kaylen Adams So, okay, so then, let's talk a little bit about like, food. Okay. How do you determine, how much to order? Like, is it just as simple as, like, as many as there are registered. How do you account for, like, walk ins at an event like this where we do leave registration open all the way up until you know, it starts. 00:21:44:02 - 00:22:05:20 Kaylen Adams And so theoretically, a kid could walk in and do you have enough food for them, like how do you how do you kind of try and manage that or think about that? Yeah. It all it does depend on how, big of an invite event. This is like I think high school weekend was an invite like, but we didn't like push super hard and say like my friends going for it. 00:22:05:22 - 00:22:25:12 Kaylen Adams Yeah, yeah. So always keep that in mind. Yes. You keep the registration number, but you also want to account for all of the adults in the building. Don't forget yourself or your staff then volunteers. And if you're providing food for tech and worship or if they're doing their own thing so that all is in that number. Yeah. 00:22:25:14 - 00:22:49:00 Kaylen Adams But registration, I just kind of. I don't want to have too big of a margin because then we're spending a lot of money on food. But things that I can give out is like door prizes, like pizza. I'm a little more willing to have extra of because we could have done or do to make their night, but like, same with, you know, because no one wants like a cold, soggy sandwich by the end of like 12 of them. 00:22:49:06 - 00:23:10:08 Kaylen Adams Yeah. So I would be a little bit more tight on food like that. And also keep in mind that everyone's like, kids are so hungry they're going to eat three slices of pizza. You keep in mind the girls, because girls don't eat as much food as boys. And, like, I definitely like they're just there's camping retreat food. 00:23:10:08 - 00:23:32:14 Kaylen Adams That is great because you're hungry, but it's not a lot of kids. First choice. Really like one of it. Yeah, they'll like maybe one and a half will split with a friend. Yeah. So just keep that in mind. Like the ratio is not as monstrous as you think. Yeah, I think the ratio I've tried to use for pizza is, two and a half times your number. 00:23:32:14 - 00:23:51:06 Kaylen Adams So, like, think you're big number of all the people including tech and worship and check in and staff and everyone. And then you multiply it by two and a half. That'll give you the total number of slices that you need. And then you can divide that by eight, because that's how many slices of pizza are in, your pizza box. 00:23:51:06 - 00:24:06:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then that'll give you a number with a decimal. And you can either round up around whatever you, you know, feel. And what's really nice is like, you know, you do the random picker thing, like, with their name. And for those who don't know, you picked the names and then they just get a random prize for doing nothing. 00:24:06:03 - 00:24:22:03 Kaylen Adams Yeah, that great. Pick that food leftovers too, because you don't want to bank on having extra if you're just kind of guessing because kids might be really hungry and you don't have it, and then you just lost a prize for a game. Yeah. So you want that to be like a random moment that if they don't get it, they have no idea. 00:24:22:05 - 00:24:48:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. All right. Let's see what else. What else do you what else do you think about for an event that I'm not thinking even to, like, ask you? Listen, you have to know if your church has any sort of, like, admin team, administrative volunteers that help put these things together with your operations at all, like your facilities and your finance people or whatever it might be. 00:24:48:04 - 00:25:09:00 Kaylen Adams You need to meet with them, like way ahead of time. So I see way ahead of time. Yeah. So I start meeting with people. We've been cutting it kind of close and cutting it close to meeting two months in advance. Okay. So you need to some of us that might be like, oh, that's when I start thinking about it. 00:25:09:02 - 00:25:34:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yeah. No. Especially if it's like a really big event. Which high school weekend is a really big event for us? We need to start planning that month in advance. And depending on, like, the capacity of your team, that could fluctuate a little bit. Like if it's just you and one other person, I would say probably start looking at that at like six months and having if you have a couple other people who can share that, you could maybe do a little bit less. 00:25:34:19 - 00:25:59:21 Kaylen Adams But you definitely need to start meeting with administrative people on your church staff that are handling this, because their personalities are a lot different than yours. As a ministry person, you're used to pivoting and being creative and all the things and pulling it off at the last minute. Yeah, they are not. They love systems and processes and if you break their system, it's going to be really, really hard to get them to like be on the same wavelength with you. 00:26:00:01 - 00:26:22:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Good. Yeah, yeah. And like in our particular, you know, setting, we have like our facilities people like they set everything up for us, which is fantastic. But to your point, like, only if we're on top of it, if we slide in in the ninth hour and we're like, this is what we want, they're like, yo, we're already on to like, stuff for like later, next weekend. 00:26:22:11 - 00:26:43:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like we've already, you know, planned our day. So, you know, to her point like, and whether you know so like, here's the thing I do know if like you're listening, you're like, okay, I don't work at a church anywhere near that. Has any of that. Like, I am the operations, I am the admin. And what I would say is, lean into your volunteers if you're like that sounds fantastic. 00:26:43:23 - 00:27:15:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I would love that. But I don't have anyone that works for me with me on my team. Anything like that like that doesn't mean you can't do it, and it doesn't mean you still can't delegate and dish out. You just may have to do that more of like a volunteer capacity. So find a mother. Or like someone who, like, works in like an administrative like role that has a little bit of, bandwidth and margin and like, ask them, you know, like, I'm sure if I'm saying that many of you right now, as you're listening, you're like, oh, yeah, I could probably ask so and so, like that person's come into your mind like, let 00:27:15:12 - 00:27:33:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry that person be your Kaylen for your event. And like, yes, we had the luxury of like Kaylen being on our team payroll, but like, you know, it doesn't it doesn't, they don't have to be right. And like. Yeah, setting up you can. I mean, we employ teenagers, like, students to, like, come early and do stuff like that. 00:27:33:00 - 00:28:00:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And, you know, we call them what we call them. Simps. Yet SMPs student is tone texting is for like, student oh my gosh. Okay. Do not disturb do that anyway. Ministry student minutes protege. Protege. Yeah yeah yeah. Protege. Yeah. And so anyway, we employ them, they, get free camp, and stuff like that, but they come early in, like, sets, set things up. 00:28:00:12 - 00:28:25:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So, like, they can be like facilities team. So again, as we're saying it like, don't don't be like I had never be there like you for sure can like employ volunteers and people that'll do it for free. And they like to to Kaylen's point. Yeah they do. That might not be your gifting. And you're like, no one would ever want to run administrative or set chairs up like some people genuinely do. 00:28:25:02 - 00:28:47:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so don't rob other people of being able to serve your youth ministry, God's kingdom, whatever. By not asking them. What else Kaylen. Anything else or do we hit it all. I just would in mind people's personalities. You're going to have people who, when they're planning events, they just run just like that's just their personality and that's how they work best. 00:28:47:19 - 00:29:06:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so they're going to ask a lot of questions and they're going to want to meet with you last minute and their vibe might kind of like make you kind of thrown off because you're like, I thought we had all this plan. Why do you need to meet and double check? They've probably done a great job. They just want to make sure that they've done everything you need to help you. 00:29:06:14 - 00:29:25:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so if you have someone in your life who's like that, just remember, like, just have your questions kind of written out of what you know, that they text and have those input ready for them. And that's going to help those meetings a lot quicker. I had a at one churches I worked at, I had a volunteer like that. 00:29:25:20 - 00:29:47:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Her name was Sarah. And the way that I would think logistically when I was planning things because, like, I was a one man band, we had a church secretary 20 hours a week that served the entire church. Right. So, like, I could get some stuff, you know, to for her to do for the youth ministry, but not like she wasn't like, there to, like at my beck and call for everything. 00:29:48:00 - 00:30:12:16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so as I was like dishing things off to volunteers and whatnot, like my, my filter in my head was always like, what would Sarah want to know? Right? It's I think that's a good like a good way to think about it is like, think about the volunteer who has the most questions for you. And then ask the question like, would the amount of information that I'm sending up, would it satisfy that person? 00:30:12:16 - 00:30:37:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And if yes, then you're on the right track. If not, then you probably need more detail. So yeah. Yeah, I love that. Cool. Kaylen, is that it? Do we hit it? Yeah. There's our all events for future and for always going to be planned, do you think? I think I think so well, yeah probably. All right. Well hey, this was how I plan events with Kaylen. 00:30:37:14 - 00:30:57:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Not Morty's Kaylen Adams. And, she's awesome. So, Kaylen, I mean, like, can people, like, follow you, like, on social media or anything if they want to? Yeah. Yeah. Where, where where can they find you? It's funny. I have to, like, go double check. Well, I can't fake my name. Oh, wait. What is it? Now that I just had to change my social media handles? 00:30:57:18 - 00:31:22:13 Kaylen Adams Because I just got mail? I know well, and Instagram is actually really hard to change your last name on, so it hasn't been changed yet. My handle, but my name on there stage so you can find me at K Maltese Underscore on Instagram. It's cmake lta s underscore on Instagram Facebook Palin Adams look me up. I think that's all in I'm on because I'm old and TikTok that's okay. 00:31:22:17 - 00:31:32:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's banned anyway. So actually it's back. I don't know if you heard but oh all right people. Well I'm signing off for Kayla and this is Nick. Talk to you next time. Stay hybrid guys. youth ministry, youth pastor, church event planning, church leadership, student ministry, hybrid ministry, church communication, volunteer management, event coordination, church growth, church social media, youth group ideas, ministry podcast, digital ministry, church marketing, sermon planning, discipleship, church strategy, youth ministry training, church media, church tech, ministry leadership This episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show kicks off the "How I..." playlist with a deep dive into event planning with guest Kaylen Adams, an expert in coordination and logistics. Kaylen shares her step-by-step approach to organizing youth ministry events, covering everything from volunteer recruitment and communication to detailed schedules and contingency planning. Whether you're a youth pastor who struggles with organization or looking to refine your event strategy, this conversation is packed with practical insights to help you run seamless, high-impact events.

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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 How I Plan Events like a Pro!
01:10 Kaylen, who are you?
05:06 What Lanes did you own?
07:03 How can you help someone think?
08:07 How did you communicate?
11:54 How did you determine call times?
16:30 How do you recruit for an event?
20:05 How many jobs do you give a leader?
21:24 How do you calculate for food?
24:21 What Else?
26:28 What if my church doesn't do all that?
28:34 Keep People's Personalities in Mind

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For what is up everybody? Today I am going to introduce you and have you in for a treat, because I am going to be interviewing one of my friends and coworkers, Kaylen Adams, who's fantastic at event planning. This is going to be the start of a new little playlist series on my podcast, and here on YouTube, where I am going to introduce you to some of the people that I know who do things the best in youth ministry and particular lanes.

00:00:25:00 - 00:00:46:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And Kaylen is the queen of event coordination and event management. Not only is she like, really fun and have a really good mind, but she is fantastic at getting volunteers, recruiting them. And when a volunteer comes in just feeling like they know exactly what to do. And you will. If you implement these things, you will look like a rock star.

00:00:46:09 - 00:01:04:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're a typical youth worker who's not very organized, this episode is for you because it will help you and if you think that all hope is lost on you, then this is a great, podcast to send to a volunteer or a high level admin who might step in and help you with some of the logistical things, but you are in for a treat regardless.

00:01:04:10 - 00:01:31:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
With my interview today with my friend and coworker Kaylen Adams. What's up everyone? Here we are. I am with Kaylen Adams. Which yes, you don't even find that on your name on here because that's how that's how new this is. So it is formerly known as Maltais, not hyphenated. Straight up Adams. Which means you just got married and,

00:01:31:08 - 00:01:52:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you might not know Kaylen, but I know Kaylen. I worked with Kaylen. Worked in the past tense. We are still on staff together, but she has switched departments, so now she's in the kids department. And the reason I ask Kaylen on here is, what was it last weekend? Two weekends ago, we had our high school weekend.

00:01:52:02 - 00:02:14:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you still worked with me then, and, oh, my gosh, Kaylen crushed it. Like, you guys don't have any idea. And as she was, like, literally crushing every, like, logistical and administrative detail of the weekend, in the back of my mind, I was like, we got to get Kaylen on so I can ask her, how do you plan for these big events?

00:02:14:01 - 00:02:38:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So why don't you give us just kind of a quick overview? Kaylen, first of all, like a 20 or 30 second like synopsis of who you are, how we ended up working together. But then, like, what did you oversee, at these events? Like what particular? Like lanes and areas and avenues. And then I just think what you did is such a helpful tool to many of the youth passers that I've ever seen or worked with. And so I just think this would be helpful to get out, you know, to people. Yeah. Yeah.

00:02:38:10 - 00:03:02:13
Kaylen Adams
So we've started working together because I, I went to college at the University of Wyoming and I got a degree in human resources management and entrepreneurship with minors in hospitality anthropology. There you go. So so that was. Yeah. Yeah. And so I did that.

00:03:02:13 - 00:03:29:13
Kaylen Adams
Fell in love with ministry there. And then around like my senior year, I learned the opportunity to do a residency in Texas, which I hate sweating. So my family was like, I was like, I think because I love Jesus, I don't know. So I applied and I ended up getting hired in January. And so after I graduated, I moved to Texas, and I did a residency at Cross Creek Church and guest services.

00:03:29:15 - 00:03:50:22
Kaylen Adams
But I love that, like ministerial aspect. And I still was kind of doing some of more of that support ministry with it. So needed and very, very special. Big shout out to everybody in support ministries. And so that's when I transitioned into students and I kind of brought a lot of my guest services and undergrad knowledge, which infuse that into what I was doing.

00:03:50:22 - 00:04:08:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And students. Yeah. So then like for the first little bit, I remember you're like, I don't really know exactly what you guys want me to do. And we were like, just keep doing like, I mean, like, you guys don't understand. Like, Kaylen was just she just knew what to do. Like, even if she didn't know what to do, she pretend like she knew what to do.

00:04:08:00 - 00:04:30:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it seemed like she's known what she she's doing. But it was this last high school weekend where, like, you were pulling out, like, spreadsheets and folders and instructions and, even, like, I remember distinctly I was talking with you about our t shirt order number, and, like, our student registration was, like, lower than anticipated. And you were like, no, we're going to need this many t shirts.

00:04:30:06 - 00:04:50:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I was like, why? And you're like, because of all of our volunteers. And I was like, do you really like, do you really think that? And your confidence, you're like, absolutely. And you were right, by the way. So what like lanes did you let's talk about specifically our high school weekend, which for those of you who don't know the context, it's like a D now without the spending the night element.

00:04:50:22 - 00:05:10:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's like two days on campus. Yeah. Like Friday night, Saturday until like 3:00. And so it's probably like our second biggest event next to, like, a thing like summer camp, right? So yeah, in that event, what particularly did you own, like, what were those areas? And I just want to ask you kind of pepper you questions.

00:05:10:02 - 00:05:33:02
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. In that in those arenas. Well so this was we originally had one winter we to middle school and high school. Was it split into middle school night high school. Well for middle school night Darren, the student pastor at Rush Creek pitched and I met my boss, so he. Yeah. So he did a lot of the the directional things for that division.

00:05:33:02 - 00:05:56:21
Kaylen Adams
And then programing. And I took everything else and like, did the logistics of the event planned it all. So by the time high school weekend came around, because I wasn't middle school night, so I didn't play a part at all, which is relevant because when we played high school night, we did a lot of the same stuff. We just like copy and paste a lot of the stuff that worked and made it a little more, for high school and that middle school.

00:05:56:23 - 00:06:20:20
Kaylen Adams
Oh yeah. And then we had known, like, what worked and what didn't. So we're check in by the time we got to high school again. Yeah, that's good. But yeah, by the time we got there, Nick you did programing. So like everything that you were sitting in a session and watching and experiencing. Nick was all in of planning and talking to the people, like worship people and yeah, yeah, I did everything outside of that.

00:06:20:22 - 00:06:44:20
Kaylen Adams
So and how we move through the timelines, you know, when were kids eating, where were they going to be, what activities were they going to be doing. And then we had food making sure we had enough food, making sure. Yeah, we had t shirts. And there they were out and that, you know, we gave away a little like pin to all of our students, like, you made sure that that was where it needed to get and left, you know, passing out our note sheets and pens.

00:06:44:20 - 00:07:08:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, I mean, you just you thought of like, every detail. So, like, I know your background helps you with that, but like, imagine you're talking to someone who's not as organized as you like. So you come by that naturally, which is what was just like a marvel to behold. But like what? What would you tell someone? Or how would you encourage someone to think if they're like planning something like that?

00:07:08:09 - 00:07:29:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like what? What's the way that you help us get inside your brain for some of the logistics?

Kaylen Adams
Well, when you're planning an event, yes, for a job, for ministry, ever. You write down all of your ideas like, no one is like, I'm just taking this all right here. I will accept it later. It's going to be there like you always write it down.

00:07:29:11 - 00:07:54:20
Kaylen Adams
You make it through for you. And I just thought, you know, would probably be really helpful for a volunteers to see that map. Like, I don't know why I would keep it from them. They should know, like how we got from point A to point B, because by the time we're at point B and we're doing the thing, they deeply understand what they're doing and not only do what I'm telling them to do, they can actually take initiative and do the things that I missed.

00:07:54:22 - 00:08:13:05
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. And so that's a huge part of it is just like, if I were a volunteer, what would I want to know? So I could do my job? Well, I feel good about it. Yeah. So then how how did you go about communicating? Like, did you have a meeting? Did you send them a text? Did you send them an email?

00:08:13:05 - 00:08:31:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like what? Because that's probably, I would imagine, a lot of stuff. And I think again, most youth pastors are like, I don't either have the time or be want to overwhelm my volunteers, or maybe see just another reason I didn't actually write it down. It is all in my head. So, I mean, I would say probably for all of us.

00:08:31:06 - 00:08:55:12
Kaylen Adams
Step one is get it out of your head onto paper somehow. And then two, how did you communicate it? Yeah. So I communicated a couple different ways. So the only time that I was texting volunteers instructions or anything was a, when I was recruiting them. Okay. I never sent them like, all the information they needed individually because I needed them all to be kind of in one part.

00:08:55:12 - 00:09:16:24
Kaylen Adams
So I knew who was getting one information and it always the same. Yeah. If I ever was giving instructions, it was in a group chat or a group of people that had a specialized role. Those came last minute. They weren't actually accounted for. Next time we did an event, I probably would account for them in advance. So I'm not texting information because for the smaller like you're saying, the.

00:09:17:01 - 00:09:51:02
Kaylen Adams
Yeah, the smaller, more specialized groups groupings of people. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I like to create an escape room. We had game masters and we didn't know about that until like pretty close to the event. I probably would have included them into all the mass event communication before that time. Got it as okay. Got it. Yeah. Okay. So and then and then putting together all this information, I'm kind of stockpiling it in a folder called Volunteer Prep, and I'm organizing it by like, this document, they need to know this document.

00:09:51:02 - 00:10:11:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They need to know if they don't really need to know that, I'll pull it back. What are those documents? Can you give us just a few examples, like pull back the curtain a little bit?

Kaylen Adams
Yeah, yeah. So I'll make a volunteer schedule that's like five position. And then I sang people to that position per day. So it's not by time blocks, it's by day and what they're doing okay.

00:10:11:16 - 00:10:28:21
Kaylen Adams
And then I have a document a volunteer job description. They need to know what they're doing, why they're doing how they do it. Yeah. And then I do a document. If we're doing anything outside or in a weird space, I'll do an aerial map and I'll make, like, different stations and positions of where they're going to be.

00:10:28:23 - 00:10:51:09
Kaylen Adams
I'll give them a service order so they can see just how we do, how the whole day is going to go through. They even see like how different session parts are going to work, like what sounds work. It's going to do all the stuff because they help with transitions, like really help because it's easier to be like, hey, after they do a million little miracles, I need you to come out here rather than at 737.

00:10:51:09 - 00:11:11:20
Kaylen Adams
I need you to. Yeah. The more like more like, big landmarks on a map. Yeah. Once you get this song, then this is your cue to come out and help set up for lunch, like, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. That's why the service order is so important. And for them to see what's in Planning Center is for that.

00:11:11:20 - 00:11:34:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We updated everything for the whole event kind of revolves around that. And you're doing the same for your volunteers. And so because then I would imagine, correct me if I'm wrong, you're able to be like, hey, if you're in charge of lunch, like, these are your three areas or meals, I guess, like these are your three. So like Friday night dinner, Saturday morning breakfast and, you know, Saturday lunch.

00:11:34:07 - 00:11:56:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like at this time you need to be here for this. Because if we say lunch is at 12, let's say I'm imagining you're having your volunteer get there at 11:15 or 11:30 or something like that. So how do you real quick answer this question for me. How do you determine, what time to to call for them? Like, yeah.

00:11:56:10 - 00:12:18:11
Kaylen Adams
So when it comes to like food stuff because you're dealing with catering and vendors usually like I wouldn't have that start. So we had lunch at like, what was it this year? 12 I think it started and I don't remember the exact time. I just know we had it and it was ready. And that's why you're here. We had food dropped off at like 1115.

00:12:18:16 - 00:12:41:10
Kaylen Adams
Okay. So plenty of time. And most of that was not because I was worried about my volunteers because they knew what to do. And we're not in like the biggest space ever is to account for vendors being late or not knowing where to park and, stuff. Yeah. When it comes to other transitions, they're a lot tighter windows and they're a lot quicker usually it was like the song before something started.

00:12:41:10 - 00:13:04:10
Kaylen Adams
I would send them to go do something, but again, that's also because their space isn't really big and any materials they needed or resources. I set out in a central location, a table in the main space. We all were operating out of the auditorium, and I labeled everything with all the different times that it's going to be needed, and even put under, like during this song, you should take that, this place.

00:13:04:10 - 00:13:25:17
Kaylen Adams
So my volunteers knew to flock to that table when transition times are happening. Yeah, that was so good. So then are you. So you're just labeling those like yeah, color you label like for anything. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You label like crazy. If you think like oh that'd be really obvious for someone to know it's now you should label.

00:13:25:23 - 00:13:45:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Because again, your brain versus reality. Right. Like it makes sense in your brain, our brain as we're planning the events. But it might not make sense to volunteer. Yeah, because they're just dropping in. Right. You know. Yeah. After work. Right. They've been at work all day and their mind is in a million other places.

00:13:45:10 - 00:14:06:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so like, they're, you know, giving up their time and they're willing and they're helpful and all those things. But like I like that. I like what you're saying, like, almost, almost dummy proof it. Right? Not that they're dumb, but, like, make it so simple. Okay. Yeah. Do it. Yeah. Well, my volunteers, they do best when they're confident.

00:14:06:24 - 00:14:24:06
Kaylen Adams
When they're confident, they are empowered to take initiative, make decisions, do something really well when they're not confident in whether or not they're in the right place, holding the right thing, putting it where it should be. Then you have a lot of lag and you have a lot of like question. And that's when things start to like frame fall apart.

00:14:24:09 - 00:14:59:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. So your job as an event coordinator is just to how can I give my volunteers the most confidence they need in this decision. That's good. Okay. So then anything else on what you tell volunteers? I want to maybe go a different direction if you feel like you've kind of got everything in that lack thing is leading up to the event, you want to send out the longest email of your life, and then is where all of the equipment I talked about keeping in that volunteer folder and you go through, you give an overview and you kind of describe how the event's going, and they need to read those attachments.

00:14:59:24 - 00:15:26:05
Kaylen Adams
I sent it all beforehand because that's our big meeting, and they can refer back to you and have in writing. And then by the time we are at the event, like 30 minutes an hour before the start, that meeting is a refresher or a question. That's not the entire meeting. Yeah, yeah. And then the other thing you did, which I thought was brilliant, was you, taped all those attachments to a wall of one of our leader workrooms.

00:15:26:07 - 00:15:47:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, yeah, if they didn't want to, you know, fight with their email to find it again, they could just go reference quickly off a printed copy. So again, you don't like you think about your dummy proofing it like, yes, you communicated it in the email. And this is one of the concepts I talk about in communication a lot is like, we live in like a Netflix culture, so people live it with like an on demand mindset.

00:15:47:10 - 00:16:05:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you sent it on like a Thursday at 3:30 p.m., but like, they were in the middle of like a business meeting. And so it wasn't in their mind then, but it will be in their mind when they show up on Friday at six. But like they've gotten 27 more emails since then and so. Oh yeah, where is that?

00:16:05:03 - 00:16:24:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think it's brilliant to put it somewhere just quick and accessible and maybe even another hack that we didn't even do or think about, but like maybe even having like a static like landing page or like QR code that they could like scan and pull open, like in a, just a tab in their safari. And then that gives them access to everything, you know, that they need.

00:16:24:23 - 00:16:58:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But yeah, I think that was that was so smart. So then how do you go about, like, help us get in your brain because, you know, you had a couple volunteers there that I was like, oh, like, I wouldn't have thought that they would be here. Not because they did, like a bad job or they're just they weren't like as maybe like involved or like, maybe they're only serving like once a month or once every other, week, like in our student ministry and like, you had the, like, in charge of, like, food or like certain like, you know, snack type areas, like, how did you go through and think, who am

00:16:58:15 - 00:17:16:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I going to recruit? Because I thought that was one of the other really special things was like, you asked a very particular or like, dedicated ask for like just very, again, very specific volunteers. You didn't I didn't feel like you did like an all call, though. You maybe you did to kind of pick up anyone who might be interested.

00:17:16:22 - 00:17:39:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then I think you went particularly after, like certain names or certain individuals. How did you how did you like, think about them to, to ask them and like what goes into you? You know, determining this person would be good for that. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you definitely do an all call because, well, we are desperate for people to help.

00:17:39:13 - 00:18:06:02
Kaylen Adams
We're not gonna act like or not, but, honestly, I just kind of go with a philosophy of I'll never say no for somebody like, you know, I think sometimes we do that even if we say that we're not like, well, they only serve on Sundays and they're very particular about their job. And I'm like, yes. But they also probably like high school is I don't know, maybe the chances are, and so I just kind of like we always have conversations for like, oh, that person would be like, so good at this.

00:18:06:02 - 00:18:27:03
Kaylen Adams
Or if only they do it. And I usually take that person and then ask, yeah, like I make a list of all. Yeah. As I am planning events and I just keep people's personalities in mind like I, we see them work all Sunday and we see them work Wednesday. And you kind of see like what things kind of light them up and what things they're like, oh can I do anything else but that.

00:18:27:07 - 00:18:42:18
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. And so I just kind of catalog that and that way. And I do kind of mentally. But it wouldn't hurt to like make a list of people like I love reaching out to this person for this. This is this. And I've noticed that they've done events. We have volunteers that really get fired up for events like that.

00:18:42:18 - 00:19:02:24
Kaylen Adams
Just being a part of a big beast of a programing thing, like kind of lights them up and exciting. And so I have people that I regularly reach out with, like Kyra Allen Love. She's one of our checking people. I remember when I came in, she was on like some sort of kind of understanding that she was only going to volunteer a couple times because she had some things going on.

00:19:02:24 - 00:19:26:20
Kaylen Adams
And I just remember, like, she was so stoked to do this back to school bash experience. That was like a Wednesday night special because, like, I definitely would love to do events and she's been my event checking person every single time I day. Yeah, yeah that's good. Yeah. She loves it. So you have like a you're very in tune to to them like just ongoing right.

00:19:26:20 - 00:19:44:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like you're keeping an eye as you're doing your job. And so that makes it easier obviously. Then when you go to to think and yeah I like that it is not creepy but it is. No. Yeah. But I think that's part of the that again I when I saw some of those people that was like interesting but also awesome and like that was all kudos to you right.

00:19:44:20 - 00:20:01:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I'll kudos you because like I wouldn't have thought to ask that person. Like I would have thrown a link in our leader group chat. Hey, you know, want to volunteer? They did it. And now I'm desperate, you know? And, so yeah, I was we were more than fully staffed, you know, for. Yeah. And so that was the other thing.

00:20:01:11 - 00:20:20:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like how, like how many jobs do you try to give a leader? Like how many are you trying to, like, let people do double duty? Or like, hey, you're in charge of like, food and like, that's your job the whole weekend. Like, how do you make those decisions?

Kaylen Adams
Yeah, some of our jobs, like, they feel very crucial and important because they are.

00:20:20:13 - 00:20:40:05
Kaylen Adams
But they're not crucial. Important in that they happen the entire time of the program. Like right there. Yeah. There are a window a very important window. But then and. Yeah, and you have to remember, when you're dealing with these volunteers, they're adults with full time jobs are like at the leaders, if they're they're at your event, they are high capacity.

00:20:40:07 - 00:21:01:24
Kaylen Adams
They don't do well, bored or sitting and doing nothing. They want to do something. And if they're doing something that morale is high and they'll probably do another event because they're like, that was awesome though. So yeah, it's good. Yeah. So I assign generally like 2 or 3 roles throughout the service order to people. So they're like constantly transitioning and moving to do so.

00:21:02:01 - 00:21:22:02
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. And that comes back to your like schedule your map. And you're like you're thinking that ahead. Like okay. Do they after this window closes they can go to this, but then they maybe can't do this next thing because they're going to be busy doing that. Like, again, that's the next level stuff, Kaylen, that you're like, you're very good at.

00:21:22:02 - 00:21:44:02
Kaylen Adams
So, okay, so then, let's talk a little bit about like, food. Okay. How do you determine, how much to order? Like, is it just as simple as, like, as many as there are registered. How do you account for, like, walk ins at an event like this where we do leave registration open all the way up until you know, it starts.

00:21:44:02 - 00:22:05:20
Kaylen Adams
And so theoretically, a kid could walk in and do you have enough food for them, like how do you how do you kind of try and manage that or think about that? Yeah. It all it does depend on how, big of an invite event. This is like I think high school weekend was an invite like, but we didn't like push super hard and say like my friends going for it.

00:22:05:22 - 00:22:25:12
Kaylen Adams
Yeah, yeah. So always keep that in mind. Yes. You keep the registration number, but you also want to account for all of the adults in the building. Don't forget yourself or your staff then volunteers. And if you're providing food for tech and worship or if they're doing their own thing so that all is in that number. Yeah.

00:22:25:14 - 00:22:49:00
Kaylen Adams
But registration, I just kind of. I don't want to have too big of a margin because then we're spending a lot of money on food. But things that I can give out is like door prizes, like pizza. I'm a little more willing to have extra of because we could have done or do to make their night, but like, same with, you know, because no one wants like a cold, soggy sandwich by the end of like 12 of them.

00:22:49:06 - 00:23:10:08
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. So I would be a little bit more tight on food like that. And also keep in mind that everyone's like, kids are so hungry they're going to eat three slices of pizza. You keep in mind the girls, because girls don't eat as much food as boys. And, like, I definitely like they're just there's camping retreat food.

00:23:10:08 - 00:23:32:14
Kaylen Adams
That is great because you're hungry, but it's not a lot of kids. First choice. Really like one of it. Yeah, they'll like maybe one and a half will split with a friend. Yeah. So just keep that in mind. Like the ratio is not as monstrous as you think. Yeah, I think the ratio I've tried to use for pizza is, two and a half times your number.

00:23:32:14 - 00:23:51:06
Kaylen Adams
So, like, think you're big number of all the people including tech and worship and check in and staff and everyone. And then you multiply it by two and a half. That'll give you the total number of slices that you need. And then you can divide that by eight, because that's how many slices of pizza are in, your pizza box.

00:23:51:06 - 00:24:06:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then that'll give you a number with a decimal. And you can either round up around whatever you, you know, feel. And what's really nice is like, you know, you do the random picker thing, like, with their name. And for those who don't know, you picked the names and then they just get a random prize for doing nothing.

00:24:06:03 - 00:24:22:03
Kaylen Adams
Yeah, that great. Pick that food leftovers too, because you don't want to bank on having extra if you're just kind of guessing because kids might be really hungry and you don't have it, and then you just lost a prize for a game. Yeah. So you want that to be like a random moment that if they don't get it, they have no idea.

00:24:22:05 - 00:24:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. All right. Let's see what else. What else do you what else do you think about for an event that I'm not thinking even to, like, ask you? Listen, you have to know if your church has any sort of, like, admin team, administrative volunteers that help put these things together with your operations at all, like your facilities and your finance people or whatever it might be.

00:24:48:04 - 00:25:09:00
Kaylen Adams
You need to meet with them, like way ahead of time. So I see way ahead of time. Yeah. So I start meeting with people. We've been cutting it kind of close and cutting it close to meeting two months in advance. Okay. So you need to some of us that might be like, oh, that's when I start thinking about it.

00:25:09:02 - 00:25:34:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. No. Especially if it's like a really big event. Which high school weekend is a really big event for us? We need to start planning that month in advance. And depending on, like, the capacity of your team, that could fluctuate a little bit. Like if it's just you and one other person, I would say probably start looking at that at like six months and having if you have a couple other people who can share that, you could maybe do a little bit less.

00:25:34:19 - 00:25:59:21
Kaylen Adams
But you definitely need to start meeting with administrative people on your church staff that are handling this, because their personalities are a lot different than yours. As a ministry person, you're used to pivoting and being creative and all the things and pulling it off at the last minute. Yeah, they are not. They love systems and processes and if you break their system, it's going to be really, really hard to get them to like be on the same wavelength with you.

00:26:00:01 - 00:26:22:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Good. Yeah, yeah. And like in our particular, you know, setting, we have like our facilities people like they set everything up for us, which is fantastic. But to your point, like, only if we're on top of it, if we slide in in the ninth hour and we're like, this is what we want, they're like, yo, we're already on to like, stuff for like later, next weekend.

00:26:22:11 - 00:26:43:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like we've already, you know, planned our day. So, you know, to her point like, and whether you know so like, here's the thing I do know if like you're listening, you're like, okay, I don't work at a church anywhere near that. Has any of that. Like, I am the operations, I am the admin. And what I would say is, lean into your volunteers if you're like that sounds fantastic.

00:26:43:23 - 00:27:15:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I would love that. But I don't have anyone that works for me with me on my team. Anything like that like that doesn't mean you can't do it, and it doesn't mean you still can't delegate and dish out. You just may have to do that more of like a volunteer capacity. So find a mother. Or like someone who, like, works in like an administrative like role that has a little bit of, bandwidth and margin and like, ask them, you know, like, I'm sure if I'm saying that many of you right now, as you're listening, you're like, oh, yeah, I could probably ask so and so, like that person's come into your mind like, let

00:27:15:12 - 00:27:33:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that person be your Kaylen for your event. And like, yes, we had the luxury of like Kaylen being on our team payroll, but like, you know, it doesn't it doesn't, they don't have to be right. And like. Yeah, setting up you can. I mean, we employ teenagers, like, students to, like, come early and do stuff like that.

00:27:33:00 - 00:28:00:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, you know, we call them what we call them. Simps. Yet SMPs student is tone texting is for like, student oh my gosh. Okay. Do not disturb do that anyway. Ministry student minutes protege. Protege. Yeah yeah yeah. Protege. Yeah. And so anyway, we employ them, they, get free camp, and stuff like that, but they come early in, like, sets, set things up.

00:28:00:12 - 00:28:25:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, like, they can be like facilities team. So again, as we're saying it like, don't don't be like I had never be there like you for sure can like employ volunteers and people that'll do it for free. And they like to to Kaylen's point. Yeah they do. That might not be your gifting. And you're like, no one would ever want to run administrative or set chairs up like some people genuinely do.

00:28:25:02 - 00:28:47:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so don't rob other people of being able to serve your youth ministry, God's kingdom, whatever. By not asking them. What else Kaylen. Anything else or do we hit it all. I just would in mind people's personalities. You're going to have people who, when they're planning events, they just run just like that's just their personality and that's how they work best.

00:28:47:19 - 00:29:06:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so they're going to ask a lot of questions and they're going to want to meet with you last minute and their vibe might kind of like make you kind of thrown off because you're like, I thought we had all this plan. Why do you need to meet and double check? They've probably done a great job. They just want to make sure that they've done everything you need to help you.

00:29:06:14 - 00:29:25:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you have someone in your life who's like that, just remember, like, just have your questions kind of written out of what you know, that they text and have those input ready for them. And that's going to help those meetings a lot quicker. I had a at one churches I worked at, I had a volunteer like that.

00:29:25:20 - 00:29:47:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Her name was Sarah. And the way that I would think logistically when I was planning things because, like, I was a one man band, we had a church secretary 20 hours a week that served the entire church. Right. So, like, I could get some stuff, you know, to for her to do for the youth ministry, but not like she wasn't like, there to, like at my beck and call for everything.

00:29:48:00 - 00:30:12:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so as I was like dishing things off to volunteers and whatnot, like my, my filter in my head was always like, what would Sarah want to know? Right? It's I think that's a good like a good way to think about it is like, think about the volunteer who has the most questions for you. And then ask the question like, would the amount of information that I'm sending up, would it satisfy that person?

00:30:12:16 - 00:30:37:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if yes, then you're on the right track. If not, then you probably need more detail. So yeah. Yeah, I love that. Cool. Kaylen, is that it? Do we hit it? Yeah. There's our all events for future and for always going to be planned, do you think? I think I think so well, yeah probably. All right. Well hey, this was how I plan events with Kaylen.

00:30:37:14 - 00:30:57:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not Morty's Kaylen Adams. And, she's awesome. So, Kaylen, I mean, like, can people, like, follow you, like, on social media or anything if they want to? Yeah. Yeah. Where, where where can they find you? It's funny. I have to, like, go double check. Well, I can't fake my name. Oh, wait. What is it? Now that I just had to change my social media handles?

00:30:57:18 - 00:31:22:13
Kaylen Adams
Because I just got mail? I know well, and Instagram is actually really hard to change your last name on, so it hasn't been changed yet. My handle, but my name on there stage so you can find me at K Maltese Underscore on Instagram. It's cmake lta s underscore on Instagram Facebook Palin Adams look me up. I think that's all in I'm on because I'm old and TikTok that's okay.

00:31:22:17 - 00:31:32:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's banned anyway. So actually it's back. I don't know if you heard but oh all right people. Well I'm signing off for Kayla and this is Nick. Talk to you next time. Stay hybrid guys.

]]> This episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show kicks off the "How I..." playlist with a deep dive into event planning with guest Kaylen Adams, an expert in coordination and logistics. Kaylen shares her step-by-step approach to organizing youth ministry events, covering everything from volunteer recruitment and communication to detailed schedules and contingency planning. Whether you're a youth pastor who struggles with organization or looking to refine your event strategy, this conversation is packed with practical insights to help you run seamless, high-impact events.

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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 How I Plan Events like a Pro!
01:10 Kaylen, who are you?
05:06 What Lanes did you own?
07:03 How can you help someone think?
08:07 How did you communicate?
11:54 How did you determine call times?
16:30 How do you recruit for an event?
20:05 How many jobs do you give a leader?
21:24 How do you calculate for food?
24:21 What Else?
26:28 What if my church doesn't do all that?
28:34 Keep People's Personalities in Mind

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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
For what is up everybody? Today I am going to introduce you and have you in for a treat, because I am going to be interviewing one of my friends and coworkers, Kaylen Adams, who's fantastic at event planning. This is going to be the start of a new little playlist series on my podcast, and here on YouTube, where I am going to introduce you to some of the people that I know who do things the best in youth ministry and particular lanes.

00:00:25:00 - 00:00:46:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And Kaylen is the queen of event coordination and event management. Not only is she like, really fun and have a really good mind, but she is fantastic at getting volunteers, recruiting them. And when a volunteer comes in just feeling like they know exactly what to do. And you will. If you implement these things, you will look like a rock star.

00:00:46:09 - 00:01:04:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So if you're a typical youth worker who's not very organized, this episode is for you because it will help you and if you think that all hope is lost on you, then this is a great, podcast to send to a volunteer or a high level admin who might step in and help you with some of the logistical things, but you are in for a treat regardless.

00:01:04:10 - 00:01:31:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
With my interview today with my friend and coworker Kaylen Adams. What's up everyone? Here we are. I am with Kaylen Adams. Which yes, you don't even find that on your name on here because that's how that's how new this is. So it is formerly known as Maltais, not hyphenated. Straight up Adams. Which means you just got married and,

00:01:31:08 - 00:01:52:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you might not know Kaylen, but I know Kaylen. I worked with Kaylen. Worked in the past tense. We are still on staff together, but she has switched departments, so now she's in the kids department. And the reason I ask Kaylen on here is, what was it last weekend? Two weekends ago, we had our high school weekend.

00:01:52:02 - 00:02:14:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you still worked with me then, and, oh, my gosh, Kaylen crushed it. Like, you guys don't have any idea. And as she was, like, literally crushing every, like, logistical and administrative detail of the weekend, in the back of my mind, I was like, we got to get Kaylen on so I can ask her, how do you plan for these big events?

00:02:14:01 - 00:02:38:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So why don't you give us just kind of a quick overview? Kaylen, first of all, like a 20 or 30 second like synopsis of who you are, how we ended up working together. But then, like, what did you oversee, at these events? Like what particular? Like lanes and areas and avenues. And then I just think what you did is such a helpful tool to many of the youth passers that I've ever seen or worked with. And so I just think this would be helpful to get out, you know, to people. Yeah. Yeah.

00:02:38:10 - 00:03:02:13
Kaylen Adams
So we've started working together because I, I went to college at the University of Wyoming and I got a degree in human resources management and entrepreneurship with minors in hospitality anthropology. There you go. So so that was. Yeah. Yeah. And so I did that.

00:03:02:13 - 00:03:29:13
Kaylen Adams
Fell in love with ministry there. And then around like my senior year, I learned the opportunity to do a residency in Texas, which I hate sweating. So my family was like, I was like, I think because I love Jesus, I don't know. So I applied and I ended up getting hired in January. And so after I graduated, I moved to Texas, and I did a residency at Cross Creek Church and guest services.

00:03:29:15 - 00:03:50:22
Kaylen Adams
But I love that, like ministerial aspect. And I still was kind of doing some of more of that support ministry with it. So needed and very, very special. Big shout out to everybody in support ministries. And so that's when I transitioned into students and I kind of brought a lot of my guest services and undergrad knowledge, which infuse that into what I was doing.

00:03:50:22 - 00:04:08:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And students. Yeah. So then like for the first little bit, I remember you're like, I don't really know exactly what you guys want me to do. And we were like, just keep doing like, I mean, like, you guys don't understand. Like, Kaylen was just she just knew what to do. Like, even if she didn't know what to do, she pretend like she knew what to do.

00:04:08:00 - 00:04:30:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it seemed like she's known what she she's doing. But it was this last high school weekend where, like, you were pulling out, like, spreadsheets and folders and instructions and, even, like, I remember distinctly I was talking with you about our t shirt order number, and, like, our student registration was, like, lower than anticipated. And you were like, no, we're going to need this many t shirts.

00:04:30:06 - 00:04:50:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I was like, why? And you're like, because of all of our volunteers. And I was like, do you really like, do you really think that? And your confidence, you're like, absolutely. And you were right, by the way. So what like lanes did you let's talk about specifically our high school weekend, which for those of you who don't know the context, it's like a D now without the spending the night element.

00:04:50:22 - 00:05:10:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So it's like two days on campus. Yeah. Like Friday night, Saturday until like 3:00. And so it's probably like our second biggest event next to, like, a thing like summer camp, right? So yeah, in that event, what particularly did you own, like, what were those areas? And I just want to ask you kind of pepper you questions.

00:05:10:02 - 00:05:33:02
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. In that in those arenas. Well so this was we originally had one winter we to middle school and high school. Was it split into middle school night high school. Well for middle school night Darren, the student pastor at Rush Creek pitched and I met my boss, so he. Yeah. So he did a lot of the the directional things for that division.

00:05:33:02 - 00:05:56:21
Kaylen Adams
And then programing. And I took everything else and like, did the logistics of the event planned it all. So by the time high school weekend came around, because I wasn't middle school night, so I didn't play a part at all, which is relevant because when we played high school night, we did a lot of the same stuff. We just like copy and paste a lot of the stuff that worked and made it a little more, for high school and that middle school.

00:05:56:23 - 00:06:20:20
Kaylen Adams
Oh yeah. And then we had known, like, what worked and what didn't. So we're check in by the time we got to high school again. Yeah, that's good. But yeah, by the time we got there, Nick you did programing. So like everything that you were sitting in a session and watching and experiencing. Nick was all in of planning and talking to the people, like worship people and yeah, yeah, I did everything outside of that.

00:06:20:22 - 00:06:44:20
Kaylen Adams
So and how we move through the timelines, you know, when were kids eating, where were they going to be, what activities were they going to be doing. And then we had food making sure we had enough food, making sure. Yeah, we had t shirts. And there they were out and that, you know, we gave away a little like pin to all of our students, like, you made sure that that was where it needed to get and left, you know, passing out our note sheets and pens.

00:06:44:20 - 00:07:08:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, I mean, you just you thought of like, every detail. So, like, I know your background helps you with that, but like, imagine you're talking to someone who's not as organized as you like. So you come by that naturally, which is what was just like a marvel to behold. But like what? What would you tell someone? Or how would you encourage someone to think if they're like planning something like that?

00:07:08:09 - 00:07:29:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like what? What's the way that you help us get inside your brain for some of the logistics?

Kaylen Adams
Well, when you're planning an event, yes, for a job, for ministry, ever. You write down all of your ideas like, no one is like, I'm just taking this all right here. I will accept it later. It's going to be there like you always write it down.

00:07:29:11 - 00:07:54:20
Kaylen Adams
You make it through for you. And I just thought, you know, would probably be really helpful for a volunteers to see that map. Like, I don't know why I would keep it from them. They should know, like how we got from point A to point B, because by the time we're at point B and we're doing the thing, they deeply understand what they're doing and not only do what I'm telling them to do, they can actually take initiative and do the things that I missed.

00:07:54:22 - 00:08:13:05
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. And so that's a huge part of it is just like, if I were a volunteer, what would I want to know? So I could do my job? Well, I feel good about it. Yeah. So then how how did you go about communicating? Like, did you have a meeting? Did you send them a text? Did you send them an email?

00:08:13:05 - 00:08:31:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like what? Because that's probably, I would imagine, a lot of stuff. And I think again, most youth pastors are like, I don't either have the time or be want to overwhelm my volunteers, or maybe see just another reason I didn't actually write it down. It is all in my head. So, I mean, I would say probably for all of us.

00:08:31:06 - 00:08:55:12
Kaylen Adams
Step one is get it out of your head onto paper somehow. And then two, how did you communicate it? Yeah. So I communicated a couple different ways. So the only time that I was texting volunteers instructions or anything was a, when I was recruiting them. Okay. I never sent them like, all the information they needed individually because I needed them all to be kind of in one part.

00:08:55:12 - 00:09:16:24
Kaylen Adams
So I knew who was getting one information and it always the same. Yeah. If I ever was giving instructions, it was in a group chat or a group of people that had a specialized role. Those came last minute. They weren't actually accounted for. Next time we did an event, I probably would account for them in advance. So I'm not texting information because for the smaller like you're saying, the.

00:09:17:01 - 00:09:51:02
Kaylen Adams
Yeah, the smaller, more specialized groups groupings of people. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I like to create an escape room. We had game masters and we didn't know about that until like pretty close to the event. I probably would have included them into all the mass event communication before that time. Got it as okay. Got it. Yeah. Okay. So and then and then putting together all this information, I'm kind of stockpiling it in a folder called Volunteer Prep, and I'm organizing it by like, this document, they need to know this document.

00:09:51:02 - 00:10:11:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They need to know if they don't really need to know that, I'll pull it back. What are those documents? Can you give us just a few examples, like pull back the curtain a little bit?

Kaylen Adams
Yeah, yeah. So I'll make a volunteer schedule that's like five position. And then I sang people to that position per day. So it's not by time blocks, it's by day and what they're doing okay.

00:10:11:16 - 00:10:28:21
Kaylen Adams
And then I have a document a volunteer job description. They need to know what they're doing, why they're doing how they do it. Yeah. And then I do a document. If we're doing anything outside or in a weird space, I'll do an aerial map and I'll make, like, different stations and positions of where they're going to be.

00:10:28:23 - 00:10:51:09
Kaylen Adams
I'll give them a service order so they can see just how we do, how the whole day is going to go through. They even see like how different session parts are going to work, like what sounds work. It's going to do all the stuff because they help with transitions, like really help because it's easier to be like, hey, after they do a million little miracles, I need you to come out here rather than at 737.

00:10:51:09 - 00:11:11:20
Kaylen Adams
I need you to. Yeah. The more like more like, big landmarks on a map. Yeah. Once you get this song, then this is your cue to come out and help set up for lunch, like, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. That's why the service order is so important. And for them to see what's in Planning Center is for that.

00:11:11:20 - 00:11:34:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We updated everything for the whole event kind of revolves around that. And you're doing the same for your volunteers. And so because then I would imagine, correct me if I'm wrong, you're able to be like, hey, if you're in charge of lunch, like, these are your three areas or meals, I guess, like these are your three. So like Friday night dinner, Saturday morning breakfast and, you know, Saturday lunch.

00:11:34:07 - 00:11:56:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like at this time you need to be here for this. Because if we say lunch is at 12, let's say I'm imagining you're having your volunteer get there at 11:15 or 11:30 or something like that. So how do you real quick answer this question for me. How do you determine, what time to to call for them? Like, yeah.

00:11:56:10 - 00:12:18:11
Kaylen Adams
So when it comes to like food stuff because you're dealing with catering and vendors usually like I wouldn't have that start. So we had lunch at like, what was it this year? 12 I think it started and I don't remember the exact time. I just know we had it and it was ready. And that's why you're here. We had food dropped off at like 1115.

00:12:18:16 - 00:12:41:10
Kaylen Adams
Okay. So plenty of time. And most of that was not because I was worried about my volunteers because they knew what to do. And we're not in like the biggest space ever is to account for vendors being late or not knowing where to park and, stuff. Yeah. When it comes to other transitions, they're a lot tighter windows and they're a lot quicker usually it was like the song before something started.

00:12:41:10 - 00:13:04:10
Kaylen Adams
I would send them to go do something, but again, that's also because their space isn't really big and any materials they needed or resources. I set out in a central location, a table in the main space. We all were operating out of the auditorium, and I labeled everything with all the different times that it's going to be needed, and even put under, like during this song, you should take that, this place.

00:13:04:10 - 00:13:25:17
Kaylen Adams
So my volunteers knew to flock to that table when transition times are happening. Yeah, that was so good. So then are you. So you're just labeling those like yeah, color you label like for anything. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You label like crazy. If you think like oh that'd be really obvious for someone to know it's now you should label.

00:13:25:23 - 00:13:45:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Because again, your brain versus reality. Right. Like it makes sense in your brain, our brain as we're planning the events. But it might not make sense to volunteer. Yeah, because they're just dropping in. Right. You know. Yeah. After work. Right. They've been at work all day and their mind is in a million other places.

00:13:45:10 - 00:14:06:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so like, they're, you know, giving up their time and they're willing and they're helpful and all those things. But like I like that. I like what you're saying, like, almost, almost dummy proof it. Right? Not that they're dumb, but, like, make it so simple. Okay. Yeah. Do it. Yeah. Well, my volunteers, they do best when they're confident.

00:14:06:24 - 00:14:24:06
Kaylen Adams
When they're confident, they are empowered to take initiative, make decisions, do something really well when they're not confident in whether or not they're in the right place, holding the right thing, putting it where it should be. Then you have a lot of lag and you have a lot of like question. And that's when things start to like frame fall apart.

00:14:24:09 - 00:14:59:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. So your job as an event coordinator is just to how can I give my volunteers the most confidence they need in this decision. That's good. Okay. So then anything else on what you tell volunteers? I want to maybe go a different direction if you feel like you've kind of got everything in that lack thing is leading up to the event, you want to send out the longest email of your life, and then is where all of the equipment I talked about keeping in that volunteer folder and you go through, you give an overview and you kind of describe how the event's going, and they need to read those attachments.

00:14:59:24 - 00:15:26:05
Kaylen Adams
I sent it all beforehand because that's our big meeting, and they can refer back to you and have in writing. And then by the time we are at the event, like 30 minutes an hour before the start, that meeting is a refresher or a question. That's not the entire meeting. Yeah, yeah. And then the other thing you did, which I thought was brilliant, was you, taped all those attachments to a wall of one of our leader workrooms.

00:15:26:07 - 00:15:47:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, yeah, if they didn't want to, you know, fight with their email to find it again, they could just go reference quickly off a printed copy. So again, you don't like you think about your dummy proofing it like, yes, you communicated it in the email. And this is one of the concepts I talk about in communication a lot is like, we live in like a Netflix culture, so people live it with like an on demand mindset.

00:15:47:10 - 00:16:05:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so you sent it on like a Thursday at 3:30 p.m., but like, they were in the middle of like a business meeting. And so it wasn't in their mind then, but it will be in their mind when they show up on Friday at six. But like they've gotten 27 more emails since then and so. Oh yeah, where is that?

00:16:05:03 - 00:16:24:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I think it's brilliant to put it somewhere just quick and accessible and maybe even another hack that we didn't even do or think about, but like maybe even having like a static like landing page or like QR code that they could like scan and pull open, like in a, just a tab in their safari. And then that gives them access to everything, you know, that they need.

00:16:24:23 - 00:16:58:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But yeah, I think that was that was so smart. So then how do you go about, like, help us get in your brain because, you know, you had a couple volunteers there that I was like, oh, like, I wouldn't have thought that they would be here. Not because they did, like a bad job or they're just they weren't like as maybe like involved or like, maybe they're only serving like once a month or once every other, week, like in our student ministry and like, you had the, like, in charge of, like, food or like certain like, you know, snack type areas, like, how did you go through and think, who am

00:16:58:15 - 00:17:16:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I going to recruit? Because I thought that was one of the other really special things was like, you asked a very particular or like, dedicated ask for like just very, again, very specific volunteers. You didn't I didn't feel like you did like an all call, though. You maybe you did to kind of pick up anyone who might be interested.

00:17:16:22 - 00:17:39:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then I think you went particularly after, like certain names or certain individuals. How did you how did you like, think about them to, to ask them and like what goes into you? You know, determining this person would be good for that. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you definitely do an all call because, well, we are desperate for people to help.

00:17:39:13 - 00:18:06:02
Kaylen Adams
We're not gonna act like or not, but, honestly, I just kind of go with a philosophy of I'll never say no for somebody like, you know, I think sometimes we do that even if we say that we're not like, well, they only serve on Sundays and they're very particular about their job. And I'm like, yes. But they also probably like high school is I don't know, maybe the chances are, and so I just kind of like we always have conversations for like, oh, that person would be like, so good at this.

00:18:06:02 - 00:18:27:03
Kaylen Adams
Or if only they do it. And I usually take that person and then ask, yeah, like I make a list of all. Yeah. As I am planning events and I just keep people's personalities in mind like I, we see them work all Sunday and we see them work Wednesday. And you kind of see like what things kind of light them up and what things they're like, oh can I do anything else but that.

00:18:27:07 - 00:18:42:18
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. And so I just kind of catalog that and that way. And I do kind of mentally. But it wouldn't hurt to like make a list of people like I love reaching out to this person for this. This is this. And I've noticed that they've done events. We have volunteers that really get fired up for events like that.

00:18:42:18 - 00:19:02:24
Kaylen Adams
Just being a part of a big beast of a programing thing, like kind of lights them up and exciting. And so I have people that I regularly reach out with, like Kyra Allen Love. She's one of our checking people. I remember when I came in, she was on like some sort of kind of understanding that she was only going to volunteer a couple times because she had some things going on.

00:19:02:24 - 00:19:26:20
Kaylen Adams
And I just remember, like, she was so stoked to do this back to school bash experience. That was like a Wednesday night special because, like, I definitely would love to do events and she's been my event checking person every single time I day. Yeah, yeah that's good. Yeah. She loves it. So you have like a you're very in tune to to them like just ongoing right.

00:19:26:20 - 00:19:44:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like you're keeping an eye as you're doing your job. And so that makes it easier obviously. Then when you go to to think and yeah I like that it is not creepy but it is. No. Yeah. But I think that's part of the that again I when I saw some of those people that was like interesting but also awesome and like that was all kudos to you right.

00:19:44:20 - 00:20:01:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I'll kudos you because like I wouldn't have thought to ask that person. Like I would have thrown a link in our leader group chat. Hey, you know, want to volunteer? They did it. And now I'm desperate, you know? And, so yeah, I was we were more than fully staffed, you know, for. Yeah. And so that was the other thing.

00:20:01:11 - 00:20:20:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like how, like how many jobs do you try to give a leader? Like how many are you trying to, like, let people do double duty? Or like, hey, you're in charge of like, food and like, that's your job the whole weekend. Like, how do you make those decisions?

Kaylen Adams
Yeah, some of our jobs, like, they feel very crucial and important because they are.

00:20:20:13 - 00:20:40:05
Kaylen Adams
But they're not crucial. Important in that they happen the entire time of the program. Like right there. Yeah. There are a window a very important window. But then and. Yeah, and you have to remember, when you're dealing with these volunteers, they're adults with full time jobs are like at the leaders, if they're they're at your event, they are high capacity.

00:20:40:07 - 00:21:01:24
Kaylen Adams
They don't do well, bored or sitting and doing nothing. They want to do something. And if they're doing something that morale is high and they'll probably do another event because they're like, that was awesome though. So yeah, it's good. Yeah. So I assign generally like 2 or 3 roles throughout the service order to people. So they're like constantly transitioning and moving to do so.

00:21:02:01 - 00:21:22:02
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. And that comes back to your like schedule your map. And you're like you're thinking that ahead. Like okay. Do they after this window closes they can go to this, but then they maybe can't do this next thing because they're going to be busy doing that. Like, again, that's the next level stuff, Kaylen, that you're like, you're very good at.

00:21:22:02 - 00:21:44:02
Kaylen Adams
So, okay, so then, let's talk a little bit about like, food. Okay. How do you determine, how much to order? Like, is it just as simple as, like, as many as there are registered. How do you account for, like, walk ins at an event like this where we do leave registration open all the way up until you know, it starts.

00:21:44:02 - 00:22:05:20
Kaylen Adams
And so theoretically, a kid could walk in and do you have enough food for them, like how do you how do you kind of try and manage that or think about that? Yeah. It all it does depend on how, big of an invite event. This is like I think high school weekend was an invite like, but we didn't like push super hard and say like my friends going for it.

00:22:05:22 - 00:22:25:12
Kaylen Adams
Yeah, yeah. So always keep that in mind. Yes. You keep the registration number, but you also want to account for all of the adults in the building. Don't forget yourself or your staff then volunteers. And if you're providing food for tech and worship or if they're doing their own thing so that all is in that number. Yeah.

00:22:25:14 - 00:22:49:00
Kaylen Adams
But registration, I just kind of. I don't want to have too big of a margin because then we're spending a lot of money on food. But things that I can give out is like door prizes, like pizza. I'm a little more willing to have extra of because we could have done or do to make their night, but like, same with, you know, because no one wants like a cold, soggy sandwich by the end of like 12 of them.

00:22:49:06 - 00:23:10:08
Kaylen Adams
Yeah. So I would be a little bit more tight on food like that. And also keep in mind that everyone's like, kids are so hungry they're going to eat three slices of pizza. You keep in mind the girls, because girls don't eat as much food as boys. And, like, I definitely like they're just there's camping retreat food.

00:23:10:08 - 00:23:32:14
Kaylen Adams
That is great because you're hungry, but it's not a lot of kids. First choice. Really like one of it. Yeah, they'll like maybe one and a half will split with a friend. Yeah. So just keep that in mind. Like the ratio is not as monstrous as you think. Yeah, I think the ratio I've tried to use for pizza is, two and a half times your number.

00:23:32:14 - 00:23:51:06
Kaylen Adams
So, like, think you're big number of all the people including tech and worship and check in and staff and everyone. And then you multiply it by two and a half. That'll give you the total number of slices that you need. And then you can divide that by eight, because that's how many slices of pizza are in, your pizza box.

00:23:51:06 - 00:24:06:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then that'll give you a number with a decimal. And you can either round up around whatever you, you know, feel. And what's really nice is like, you know, you do the random picker thing, like, with their name. And for those who don't know, you picked the names and then they just get a random prize for doing nothing.

00:24:06:03 - 00:24:22:03
Kaylen Adams
Yeah, that great. Pick that food leftovers too, because you don't want to bank on having extra if you're just kind of guessing because kids might be really hungry and you don't have it, and then you just lost a prize for a game. Yeah. So you want that to be like a random moment that if they don't get it, they have no idea.

00:24:22:05 - 00:24:48:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. All right. Let's see what else. What else do you what else do you think about for an event that I'm not thinking even to, like, ask you? Listen, you have to know if your church has any sort of, like, admin team, administrative volunteers that help put these things together with your operations at all, like your facilities and your finance people or whatever it might be.

00:24:48:04 - 00:25:09:00
Kaylen Adams
You need to meet with them, like way ahead of time. So I see way ahead of time. Yeah. So I start meeting with people. We've been cutting it kind of close and cutting it close to meeting two months in advance. Okay. So you need to some of us that might be like, oh, that's when I start thinking about it.

00:25:09:02 - 00:25:34:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. No. Especially if it's like a really big event. Which high school weekend is a really big event for us? We need to start planning that month in advance. And depending on, like, the capacity of your team, that could fluctuate a little bit. Like if it's just you and one other person, I would say probably start looking at that at like six months and having if you have a couple other people who can share that, you could maybe do a little bit less.

00:25:34:19 - 00:25:59:21
Kaylen Adams
But you definitely need to start meeting with administrative people on your church staff that are handling this, because their personalities are a lot different than yours. As a ministry person, you're used to pivoting and being creative and all the things and pulling it off at the last minute. Yeah, they are not. They love systems and processes and if you break their system, it's going to be really, really hard to get them to like be on the same wavelength with you.

00:26:00:01 - 00:26:22:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Good. Yeah, yeah. And like in our particular, you know, setting, we have like our facilities people like they set everything up for us, which is fantastic. But to your point, like, only if we're on top of it, if we slide in in the ninth hour and we're like, this is what we want, they're like, yo, we're already on to like, stuff for like later, next weekend.

00:26:22:11 - 00:26:43:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like we've already, you know, planned our day. So, you know, to her point like, and whether you know so like, here's the thing I do know if like you're listening, you're like, okay, I don't work at a church anywhere near that. Has any of that. Like, I am the operations, I am the admin. And what I would say is, lean into your volunteers if you're like that sounds fantastic.

00:26:43:23 - 00:27:15:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I would love that. But I don't have anyone that works for me with me on my team. Anything like that like that doesn't mean you can't do it, and it doesn't mean you still can't delegate and dish out. You just may have to do that more of like a volunteer capacity. So find a mother. Or like someone who, like, works in like an administrative like role that has a little bit of, bandwidth and margin and like, ask them, you know, like, I'm sure if I'm saying that many of you right now, as you're listening, you're like, oh, yeah, I could probably ask so and so, like that person's come into your mind like, let

00:27:15:12 - 00:27:33:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
that person be your Kaylen for your event. And like, yes, we had the luxury of like Kaylen being on our team payroll, but like, you know, it doesn't it doesn't, they don't have to be right. And like. Yeah, setting up you can. I mean, we employ teenagers, like, students to, like, come early and do stuff like that.

00:27:33:00 - 00:28:00:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, you know, we call them what we call them. Simps. Yet SMPs student is tone texting is for like, student oh my gosh. Okay. Do not disturb do that anyway. Ministry student minutes protege. Protege. Yeah yeah yeah. Protege. Yeah. And so anyway, we employ them, they, get free camp, and stuff like that, but they come early in, like, sets, set things up.

00:28:00:12 - 00:28:25:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So, like, they can be like facilities team. So again, as we're saying it like, don't don't be like I had never be there like you for sure can like employ volunteers and people that'll do it for free. And they like to to Kaylen's point. Yeah they do. That might not be your gifting. And you're like, no one would ever want to run administrative or set chairs up like some people genuinely do.

00:28:25:02 - 00:28:47:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so don't rob other people of being able to serve your youth ministry, God's kingdom, whatever. By not asking them. What else Kaylen. Anything else or do we hit it all. I just would in mind people's personalities. You're going to have people who, when they're planning events, they just run just like that's just their personality and that's how they work best.

00:28:47:19 - 00:29:06:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so they're going to ask a lot of questions and they're going to want to meet with you last minute and their vibe might kind of like make you kind of thrown off because you're like, I thought we had all this plan. Why do you need to meet and double check? They've probably done a great job. They just want to make sure that they've done everything you need to help you.

00:29:06:14 - 00:29:25:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you have someone in your life who's like that, just remember, like, just have your questions kind of written out of what you know, that they text and have those input ready for them. And that's going to help those meetings a lot quicker. I had a at one churches I worked at, I had a volunteer like that.

00:29:25:20 - 00:29:47:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Her name was Sarah. And the way that I would think logistically when I was planning things because, like, I was a one man band, we had a church secretary 20 hours a week that served the entire church. Right. So, like, I could get some stuff, you know, to for her to do for the youth ministry, but not like she wasn't like, there to, like at my beck and call for everything.

00:29:48:00 - 00:30:12:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so as I was like dishing things off to volunteers and whatnot, like my, my filter in my head was always like, what would Sarah want to know? Right? It's I think that's a good like a good way to think about it is like, think about the volunteer who has the most questions for you. And then ask the question like, would the amount of information that I'm sending up, would it satisfy that person?

00:30:12:16 - 00:30:37:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if yes, then you're on the right track. If not, then you probably need more detail. So yeah. Yeah, I love that. Cool. Kaylen, is that it? Do we hit it? Yeah. There's our all events for future and for always going to be planned, do you think? I think I think so well, yeah probably. All right. Well hey, this was how I plan events with Kaylen.

00:30:37:14 - 00:30:57:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Not Morty's Kaylen Adams. And, she's awesome. So, Kaylen, I mean, like, can people, like, follow you, like, on social media or anything if they want to? Yeah. Yeah. Where, where where can they find you? It's funny. I have to, like, go double check. Well, I can't fake my name. Oh, wait. What is it? Now that I just had to change my social media handles?

00:30:57:18 - 00:31:22:13
Kaylen Adams
Because I just got mail? I know well, and Instagram is actually really hard to change your last name on, so it hasn't been changed yet. My handle, but my name on there stage so you can find me at K Maltese Underscore on Instagram. It's cmake lta s underscore on Instagram Facebook Palin Adams look me up. I think that's all in I'm on because I'm old and TikTok that's okay.

00:31:22:17 - 00:31:32:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's banned anyway. So actually it's back. I don't know if you heard but oh all right people. Well I'm signing off for Kayla and this is Nick. Talk to you next time. Stay hybrid guys.

]]> Episode 131: Secrets Revealed for Middle School Phone Usage https://www.hybridministry.xyz/131 41825e85-7af8-4bbf-80c6-61bae7bef0cf Thu, 09 Jan 2025 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 131 Secrets Revealed for Middle School Phone Usage full Nick Clason In this conversation, Nick Clason and Ronald Long discuss the challenges and opportunities of youth ministry in the digital age, particularly focusing on the role of technology and cell phones among middle schoolers. They explore the importance of engagement in content creation, the necessity of guidelines for responsible phone use, and the balance between digital and in-person ministry. The discussion emphasizes the need for open conversations between parents and children regarding technology, as well as collaborative resources for youth pastors to navigate these challenges effectively. 26:37 no โœ๏ธCollaborative Worksheet https://share.hsforms.com/1t_3g3O3XTBqI-vq1Orq7ngnumis ๐ŸŽง Ronald's Podcast https://podcast.downloadyouthministry.com/category/middle-school-ministry/ DESCRIPTION In this conversation, Nick Clason and Ronald Long discuss the challenges and opportunities of youth ministry in the digital age, particularly focusing on the role of technology and cell phones among middle schoolers. They explore the importance of engagement in content creation, the necessity of guidelines for responsible phone use, and the balance between digital and in-person ministry. The discussion emphasizes the need for open conversations between parents and children regarding technology, as well as collaborative resources for youth pastors to navigate these challenges effectively. ๐Ÿ““ SHOWNOTES http://www.hybridministry.xyz/131 ๐ŸŽง Become a Hybrid Hero https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 -------------- ๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰ 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 -------------- ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affiliate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit //SIDEKICK SETUP GUIDE https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup โŒšTIMECODES 00:00 The Role of Technology in Middle School Ministry 04:50 Guidelines for Responsible Cell Phone Use 09:50 Balancing Digital and In-Person Youth Ministry 14:53 Encouraging Healthy Conversations About Technology 20:01 Collaborative Resources for Youth Pastors TRANSCRIPT Nick Clason (00:00) What's up everybody? I'm Nick and this is. Ronald (00:04) Hey guys, I'm Ronald Long. How you doing? Nick Clason (00:06) We're excited to be here, Ronald. This is a weird thing. This is your show, this is my show, this is our show. Ronald (00:08) we are excited to be here. Whose show is it really? That's a question. Nick Clason (00:15) That is the question that people want to know the answer to. Ronald (00:19) Did I just take over hybrid youth ministry? I think I did. I did. great. This is mine now. And yours? You get middle school ministry. Yeah, this is it. Tell Andrea. no. Nick Clason (00:23) You did, you did. Yeah. Welcome. Well, actually, yeah, and I'm taking over middle school. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you have exactly. Bye, Andrea. Bye. Anyway, you know, Ronald, it's interesting and I'm excited to have this conversation because probably the biggest, one of the biggest pushbacks I get when I'm pushing stuff like in my hybrid ministry, just idea and whatnot is what about middle schoolers? especially like in our context, we don't get middle schoolers until like, or we get them at sixth grade, which there's an inflection point. And depending on the conservative nature of your church, there could be a lot of those students that have cell phones. And then a lot of students that don't, you know? And so like my main thing with hybrid ministry is trying to intersect people where they are. And I think the cell phone is just a great spot to try and aim for. Right. But what about those middle schoolers that are young and like don't have cell phones? And so. Ronald (00:57) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Nick Clason (01:21) I'm excited to have this conversation with you because you as a lifelong middle school youth pastor and host of podcasts, like you and a dad of daughters in that age age range, right? Like I want to hear your perspective because I'm it feels to me and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it feels to me like middle schoolers kind of run the gamut. Some that don't even have access to any technology and then some that are just all in way too much. You're a little scared for their well-being, you know. Ronald (01:29) EW. Yeah. Absolutely, and you're right because their parents also run the gambit too. So for people listening who don't know, I have in my house four teenage daughters. I have 18 year old senior graduating this year, then I have a freshman, a seventh grader, and a fifth grader. So I've got everybody. Nick Clason (01:54) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you're right there. Ronald (02:15) And my elementary school kid who's in fifth grade, Ruth is telling me about like her friends who have cell phones and have had cell phones since like third and fourth grade. Like that's just been their reality. They have always had a phone. Think of the iPad kid who just like parents are like, yeah, whatever here, right? Here's just the next step up. Go ahead and have a phone. Don't care. Put whatever on it. And then like, Nick Clason (02:42) So Ronald (02:45) me and my family, this has become our rule, it was our rule with our first, you get your cell phone at the end of fifth grade. And so, and we'll talk a little bit more about this too because I have really appreciated what other parents like told me and helped me figure out. That cell phone only can do a couple things, right? And we stair-step eventually through it. Nick Clason (02:54) Okay. Hmm. So as we like lean into this, first of all, everyone should know, no matter where you're listening, hit the link down below, because Ronald and I put together kind of like a collaborative hybrid ministry for middle schoolers kind of resource. So take it, download it, use it, share it with your parents, whatever you want to do. But especially like here we are post-Christmas, and isn't it so true that most middle schoolers Ronald (03:30) Use it. Nick Clason (03:41) there's a lot of technology that's given under the tree. And so this is just a very timely conversation, right? Like let's talk about technology use and middle schoolers. give us, like, why you start there where you did a little bit, like dive a little deeper into that. Fifth grader, that's your rule. Is that your recommendation? Do you take it, would you recommend parents take that on more of a case by case type basis? What's the wisdom principle in that, or is it? Ronald (03:44) 100%. yeah. Nick Clason (04:08) you know, hard and fast, like, yeah, as soon as they're done with fifth grade, they're mature enough to have a cell phone or like, what's your, how do you make that decision? I guess, or how would you coach parents to make that decision? Ronald (04:17) So what we went through and what was kind of like the deciding factor for us is, I live in San Antonio and so we have, once my kid was finished with elementary school, our oldest, she had friends who were splitting up into like the four winds, right? And we wanted to give her a way to stay connected to them and so we were like, okay, we're going to give you a phone, but. Nick Clason (04:36) Mm. Yeah. Ronald (04:46) Big stipulations. We had it, it's an iPhone, so we locked it down pretty tight to where she couldn't download any apps without requesting permission, so that's a big deal. There's no browser on it. So in fact, my high schooler just got a browser this year for ninth grade. to put that in, yeah, no browser. Nick Clason (04:51) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay, so that's like all of middle school. Yeah. Ronald (05:16) Specifically also, no social media. She actually also just got her first social media, which was Pinterest. you, stair steppin' man. That's a stair step. But that, okay, here's what I tell parents, and here's what I have told parents and what I am taking through. Imagine a cell phone like a car, right? You are, even for the visual. Nick Clason (05:25) Okay. Which, does that even count? know, like that's one of those fringe ones. For sure. Mm-hmm. Ronald (05:46) You're giving keys away to your kid. for the audio too. on. There we go. Little foley. Little foley for our audio listeners. You don't just give the Ferrari away to a 16 year old or a 15 year old and say, right, go figure that out. guess you know more about this than I do. Like, no, no. Nick Clason (05:46) There you go. Those are car keys, people. Ronald's jingling them. We'll narrate this. Yeah. Ronald (06:15) you start that kid backing in and out of your driveway in the beater, right? And so we took that principle and applied it to our kids having cell phones. So like, okay, you're going to get like a not great iPhones, not the brand new one. It's going to be like, the one with the one camera. Yeah. The one camera type deal. And we're going to stair step you through this. Well, that's just an Android, Nick. That's what you. Nick Clason (06:30) Mm-hmm. me down. Yeah. Maybe some crack screens like my Android here. The glass is apparently weaker. Ronald (06:45) That's fine. No, and so we've stair-stepped. so my seventh grader who has a phone, also has a phone in middle school, has a phone but doesn't have, again, social media doesn't have a browser. And we also put like a stipulation on where the phone can go. My girls, I live in a two-story house. All the bedrooms are upstairs. No phones upstairs. Like that's a rule for us. And so when ... Nick Clason (07:11) Great rule, by the way. I approve. Yeah. Ronald (07:14) When it's time to go to bed, the charger's downstairs and they have to charge their phone downstairs. No phones at the dinner table. In fact, even it's no phones after dinner. So we say, hey, get it done after dinner, no phones. Those are just like things that we have done as a family to be like, hey, here's the deal. We are going to give you permission that expands with responsibility. And then also cool thing as a parent, my kids don't have a cell phone after supper. Nick Clason (07:18) Yeah, good. Mmm. It's good. It's good. Mm-hmm. Ronald (07:44) So if I'm just scrolling on my cell phone after supper, they're like, hey dad, what are you doing? I'm like, yeah, you're right. I need to be off my phone. I need to pay attention to you. Nick Clason (07:46) They're calling you out. That's so smart. That's just like built in accountability right there, for sure. Yeah. And you know, the thing that I, I try and tell parents as well in our context and other youth ministry avenues and whatever, honestly, just like a lot of times the question is what product or what resource do you use to like monitor like your kids screen usage and all those types of things. And rest assured, there are a million different like resources and things out there that you can use and you can lean into. Ronald (07:57) It's huge. Absolutely. Nick Clason (08:22) But at the end of the day, the goal is for that thing not to become your kid's parent. The goal is for you to be the parent of it. Right. And so I love your rules because those guidelines are things that you've put in place. Like you can lock down an iPhone all you want, but you can still abuse it if it's in the room and they're on it until way after bedtime or you know, the no, no phones after dinner thing. Like there can be indiscriminate use or just like mindless use of it. And so. Ronald (08:50) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason (08:51) You're being proactive and in on top of it, you know, and that's, that's what I really like and appreciate because that's the tech. There's always a workaround in the technology. That's what I've found. Like there's no foolproof piece of technology. It's always a work. Ronald (09:02) Heck yeah. No, I figured it out when I was dealing dial-up modem internet and my parents had the protective things when I was in high school. like, I can figure this out, you know? So no amount of blocking software or things like that will get around actual discipleship of your kids. Because you are a person who is imperfect, just like your kids. They're gonna make mistakes. So what do do? Nick Clason (09:10) Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That's it. That's it. That's good. That's good. Let's shift gears a little bit then. Let's talk about your, how you've noticed technology, cell phones, whatever, within actual confines of youth ministry. Not just, you you parenting your kids with it, but like, what's it like navigating? Cause in a lot of cases, like we said, you got kids that don't even have it at all versus kids who are like using and fully on like all the social apps. So. Ronald (09:36) Like, how do you figure that out? Big deal. Yeah. Nick Clason (10:03) What was your typical practice as a middle school pastor with technology? Ronald (10:10) Yeah, of it was just being open about that being a potential barrier between you and other people. And the other thing was not, because I was in a real conservative context, there was almost like some judgment to kids who did have a phone, which was really funny. And so I had to like stamp, yeah, I'm glad you get it. So. Nick Clason (10:28) Mm Yeah, same here by the way, so I can relate to that. Ronald (10:39) On the one hand, whenever I had a parent being like, you know what, my kid just say that they don't connect very, they don't have any friends in youth ministry. And I'm looking at their kid, I so remember this one specific instance of girl, phone here, face down, and even her hair like covered the side of her face to where all it was, and she was in a corner on her phone looking down at it and not engaging with the room. Nick Clason (10:59) Yeah. Ronald (11:07) And then like I got a email three weeks later being like, my daughter is just not making any friends. I'm like, yeah, no joke. I've tried. And so trying to have a conversation with students where it's both not being judgmental, but also making sure they're aware of like, hey guys, if you feel lonely, one of the reasons in a list might be you're on your phone too much and you're missing what's going on right in front of you. Nick Clason (11:13) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Ronald (11:36) you care more about your online persona or the next funny video than you do your friend who's literally sitting three feet away from you. so trying to navigate that well was always the thing. And so that would just be like application. But on the other hand, you can do that in really great ways to be like, Hey guys, if you've got a phone, text a friend verse right now, someone who's not in this room, text an encouraging verse. Nick Clason (11:52) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ronald (12:03) so that you can be a light in their life, right? It's both and, right? So I don't like telling a kid, hey, cell phones are the devil, you should never have one. And I don't like telling parents, just give your kid a phone and don't worry about it, because it's absolutely both and. Nick Clason (12:08) Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah, yeah. Well, and that's honestly, that's exactly like what I feel like my entire podcast is predicated on. what this started out of, I don't know, I guess like a moment of frustration and a little bit of like an inflection point. like we'd gone pretty hard in on like digital ministry during COVID. I was working in Chicago and so it was necessitated, like it had to happen. But then we found some really fun and cool wins out of doing ministry in a digital sort of context and some opportunities that actually opened up for us that weren't available to us doing ministry pre-COVID. And so as we were all sort of coming back from, you know, restrictions and lockdown and all those types of things, we were then trying to navigate this like tension between like how much should we swing the pendulum, right? And so my whole, like my whole thing, like the whole name of this like hybrid ministry is like, Ronald (13:08) Yeah. Nick Clason (13:13) It's not just your digital, but it's not just your in-person. It's kind of that both and, and I think in all of life, it's easier for us. We like to draw hard and hard and fast lines and be like, cell phones are bad. So you should not, but I like your, you know, your Ferrari example because you have to work, you have to work up to it. You don't just earn it immediately. And so like my contention is as much as we, especially older generations want to lament cell phones and how difficult they are for ministry and connection and they are like in some cases they definitely are, but like there's also a lot of good, you know, that comes out of them. your friend a verse or group chats. Like group chats are such a simple thing that didn't exist. Was it 10 years ago? 15 years ago? Like even if you have people with Android, like group chats are still a way to stay connected, you know, to one another. but you know, so like that's, that's kind of like my contention is like Ronald (13:54) Mm-hmm. No, you can't connect with people with Androids over group chat. It doesn't happen. Nick Clason (14:11) we have to help students navigate this well and not just settle for the easy answer of just throw your cell phone in a river. It's terrible and it's the enemy. And if we think that, then why are we getting our kids these things for Christmas? It's like, I just need to call them at practice. Okay, but now you've opened Pandora's box and that's not necessarily a bad thing, not condemning any parent for doing that. I'm just saying now we have to help them navigate that well, both at the parent level and also while we're like... Ronald (14:20) Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Nick Clason (14:40) navigating and managing that within like our student ministries. Ronald (14:44) Sure, and it's just as important as showing your kid what you version can do and be like, hey, you know what's really cool about you version? It's a Bible reading plan. Let's you and me do it together, parent and kid. Or, hey, as a ministry, we're gonna do this month long Bible reading plan. That's on your phone. Yeah, it's absolutely being able to use the tools that are available to us, because we could have said the same thing about lamenting the invention of the car, taking away our, aw man, we're not as Nick Clason (14:50) Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Course privileges. Ronald (15:14) connected. So yeah, and since this is the middle school ministry podcast too, it matters to a middle school student what you model to them. Because they take that to heart. so my whole thing was not trying to judge those who had a cell phone. But yeah, absolutely. If they're going to be on YouTube, Nick Clason (15:22) Mm-hmm. Mm. Mm-hmm. Ronald (15:44) watching you know Mr. Beast do whatever Mr. Beast does then I kind of also want them to hear from their youth pastor every now and then and so that's an easy thing to do like you pastor to take your phone spend five minutes making five reels and then or five shorts for YouTube and be like hey look my kids are gonna get some encouragement for me this week that's it's out there Nick Clason (15:51) Why not? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I absolutely. And one thing I've noticed and I've seen in like studies and stuff here recently is like, you know, Gen X boomers even have all sort of like settled in on Facebook millennials. Are you millennial, Ronald? Yeah. All right. Me too. Me too. Instagram, right? It's kind of like millennials favorite platform. Gen Z sort of like made tick tock its thing. We're noticing Ronald (16:22) yes, and how dare you. Mm-hmm. Nick Clason (16:34) Jen Alpha's making YouTube kind of their spot. And I, yeah. And I even read that it, for Jen Alpha, it's taking the place of Google as its preferred search engine. And so what an opportunity for us like to be on there, you know, and for middle school kids to see us, to see their youth pastor, to maybe even see themselves or their friends from youth group. You know, if you post shorts, reels, all that type of stuff on there, like Ronald (16:36) Yeah, it is YouTube. Absolutely. Nick Clason (17:01) You're so right. Like it's such a fantastic opportunity. it really, just exactly what my whole goal with hybrid is like showing up where they are. Like if they're on YouTube, how cool is it? Like they can get on there and they can watch MrBeast who's all across the country and also their church. Ronald (17:17) Well, and to even use the platform like it's currently being used then, how cool would it be if your kid typed in how to study the Bible and they got an answer from their youth pastor immediately? Like you already had a five minute video on how to study the Bible that you had prepared for your kids and it was there, right? Because that's how they're using the platform. Nick Clason (17:30) Right? Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, it's not just like, it's not just there for you as a youth pastor to have another channel for announcements, though you can be, but I would, what I encourage people to do is use the platforms for their intended uses. And so if you're going to use it for a thing that you think is what your ministry needs, but it's not in alignment with the intended use of the platform, you're not going to see the same types of results than if you actually use it for what it's being used for, which is answering specific questions. Ronald (17:46) Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Nick Clason (18:09) And frankly, entertainment, right? And maybe like a little bit of inspiration too. So that's good. So what would you say to a middle school youth pastor or any youth pastor out there, like who's got people in their church like you and like me who are a little leery about cell phone, cell phone usage, middle school. Like what's the, how would you coach them, you know, to either lean in and have that conversation or. Ronald (18:26) Mm-hmm. Nick Clason (18:38) with parents or how to like manage maybe some of that potential like turbulent waters of, you know, angry parents who think cell phones are evil and of the devil. Ronald (18:48) You know what's funny is when I first started in ministry, there was a big deal where we said, don't bring any cell phones to camp. And then there was a really turbulent season in between when we arrived to my kid as a parent saying, my kid will bring their phone to camp or they're not going. Nick Clason (18:58) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. yeah. Ronald (19:18) And so navigating that in between, I think there are far fewer parents who are going to say that a cell phone is evil. They might be saying, my kid has to have one because I need to be connected and know what's up with my kid at all times. Nick Clason (19:27) Yeah. Yeah. Ronald (19:35) which is a different type of unhealth, that's fine. We can go from there. To help a youth pastor navigate the cell phones. Cell phones are bad, right? A cell phone is the same, to use the car analogy. It's a tool. can take you someplace great. It can take you someplace awful. And if you want to be the youth pastor who's like, no cell phones in the youth room. They go in this box over here and we use paper Bible still. Like that's fine. Nick Clason (19:45) Yeah. Yeah, you can do that. Yeah, yeah. Ronald (20:04) if you explain that, right? As long as you're saying, why we do this as a ministry, this is the vision, this is what we're trying to accomplish. Do that, but you're going to have parents who, when you go to camp, when you go to retreat, they're gonna push back on you and be like, hey, my kid is going to take their cell phone. I don't care what their rules are. Nick Clason (20:28) Yeah. Well, like when did you get a cell phone? Like how old were you when you got a cell phone? Yeah. Ronald (20:31) I was 16 and I got a cell phone because my parents were afraid that I was going to get lost when I started driving by myself. So I got my dad's secretary's old Nokia phone. Nick Clason (20:45) But so you're 16, right? And now you're the type of parent in that particular age bracket and demographic, you're sending your daughter's kids to camp. like that's all, know, cell phones from the age of 16 for you and on up. Like I was about the same, you know, so here in a couple of years when my kids are old enough to go to camp, I only, that's my like comfort zone, you know? And so like I get their scary stuff on it, but Ronald (20:56) Yeah. Yeah. Nick Clason (21:14) It's also gonna, it's not, you're not never gonna give your kid a cell phone. So how do we, and that's my thing, how do we help lean in and teach them the good things of it? Put good, good rules and guidelines and guardrails all around it so that you're hopefully protecting your kids and having conversations, you know, with it. Ronald (21:25) Yeah. It's exactly that. It's continued conversations with kids. And even as a parent being okay to say, these are our non-cell phone times to where we're going to talk. I know parents who like to say no phones in the car because that 15 minute, 20 minute drive can be like, hey, we can actually have a conversation as we drive around. But just having conversations about your phone usage. Hey, who are you following? Hey. Nick Clason (21:35) That's it, yeah. Yeah, yeah, so true. Mm-hmm. Ronald (22:00) I or even telling like I will do this with my girls. I'll send them goofy videos and goofy memes Not because I think they're the funniest thing in the world But I'm trying to connect with them on their level like to my own kids and so like It's funny because they don't have social media what I'm doing is screen recording a funny reel I saw and then sending that to them as a message Nick Clason (22:09) Yeah, yeah. Yeah dude. Yeah, for sure. Bro, that's so committed, but I love it. Like that's, you you're like, we're not doing the social media thing, but I still want you to see this thing that I saw on social media and it's funny. So you'll like it. It's great. Ronald (22:34) Yeah, and I want you to know that I'm thinking of you throughout the day. I want you to laugh. This is a funny thing. And yeah, phones aren't the devil. Yeah, so it's trying to continually have a conversation with your kid. And even where you're saying, hopefully they're coming to you and being like, my friend is being dumb in the group chat. They go, okay, what did they say? Talking through what's good to text, what's not good to text, how... Nick Clason (22:43) That's great, Ronald (23:02) inflection matters and be like, Hey, I know you hate it, but this might be a FaceTime moment because it sounds like you guys are not seeing each other texting back and forth. Maybe you need to like actually talk. Nick Clason (23:12) Yeah. Yeah, man, that's so good. Well, anything else, Ronald, before we hang this sucker up? Ronald (23:19) I think the most important thing a parent can do with their kid and having a phone is have some guidelines and have lots of conversations. I think if you stick into those two places, like you're gonna be in a spot where maybe sometimes it's uncomfortable, maybe it's sometimes you're giving a little bit more, you're giving more unearned responsibility away than you're ready for, but like that's parenting as a whole. You don't want your 18 year old kid. to get a cell phone and all social media all at once and be like, well, now I'm gonna learn everything. It's much, I think it's a much better experience for you and the kid if you walk them through the process together with you in the driver's seat sometimes and them in the driver's seat sometimes. Nick Clason (24:04) That's good. Yeah, actually, if anyone's listening to this, watching this like here live, like in the next several weeks, like that's what I'm doing on my podcast is I'm doing like some parent and kid kind of like tech talks. And so they're like aimed for youth pastors to like curate or have that conversation with like some downloadable worksheets and stuff like that that they can share. because I think that's, that's the key in all of this. Like it's, it's easier to draw a line in the sand and be like, no, this, like this is it. We're not doing that, but like we, Ronald (24:16) Mmm, yeah. Nick Clason (24:34) That's the phone has not allowed us to do that. It's not going away. So instead we got to figure out how do we lean into it into what's uncomfortable and maybe like uncertain waters, like lean into it to just open up that continued kind of conversation thing. So I think that's, that's so good. So, yo, if you're listening here for me on my channel, go follow everything Ronald's doing, middle school ministry podcast. It's dope. It's all about middle schoolers and he's got dope co-hosts. Ronald (24:48) Absolutely. Yeah. I just want to thank everybody for listening to my podcast, the hybrid ministry podcast. Thank you so much. That's really great. No, and if you're, if you're listening to this from middle school ministry podcast, you should definitely go check out what Nick Clayson is doing over in hybrid ministry. Some really good stuff, some really helpful things to carry the conversation forward when it comes to the digital world and youth ministry. Nick Clason (25:05) that you've taken over. Yeah, no, I love it. So good. And like I said, we both collabed on a little resource. It's free in both of our show notes, so go grab that. that's it, man. We'll talk to guys next time. Ronald (25:34) See you around. youth ministry, technology, middle school, cell phone use, digital ministry, engagement, content creation, parenting, social media, youth pastor, hybrid ministry, nick clason, ronald long, download youth ministry โœ๏ธCollaborative Worksheet
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DESCRIPTION
In this conversation, Nick Clason and Ronald Long discuss the challenges and opportunities of youth ministry in the digital age, particularly focusing on the role of technology and cell phones among middle schoolers. They explore the importance of engagement in content creation, the necessity of guidelines for responsible phone use, and the balance between digital and in-person ministry. The discussion emphasizes the need for open conversations between parents and children regarding technology, as well as collaborative resources for youth pastors to navigate these challenges effectively.

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โŒšTIMECODES
00:00 The Role of Technology in Middle School Ministry
04:50 Guidelines for Responsible Cell Phone Use
09:50 Balancing Digital and In-Person Youth Ministry
14:53 Encouraging Healthy Conversations About Technology
20:01 Collaborative Resources for Youth Pastors

TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:00)
What's up everybody? I'm Nick and this is.

Ronald (00:04)
Hey guys, I'm Ronald Long. How you doing?

Nick Clason (00:06)
We're excited to be here, Ronald. This is a weird thing. This is your show, this is my show, this is our show.

Ronald (00:08)
we are excited to be here.

Whose show is it really? That's a question.

Nick Clason (00:15)
That is the question that people want to know the answer to.

Ronald (00:19)
Did I just take over hybrid youth ministry? I think I did. I did. great. This is mine now. And yours? You get middle school ministry. Yeah, this is it. Tell Andrea. no.

Nick Clason (00:23)
You did, you did. Yeah. Welcome. Well, actually, yeah, and I'm taking over middle school. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you have exactly. Bye, Andrea. Bye. Anyway, you know, Ronald, it's interesting and I'm excited to have this conversation because probably the biggest, one of the biggest pushbacks I get when I'm pushing stuff like in my hybrid ministry, just idea and whatnot is what about middle schoolers?

especially like in our context, we don't get middle schoolers until like, or we get them at sixth grade, which there's an inflection point. And depending on the conservative nature of your church, there could be a lot of those students that have cell phones. And then a lot of students that don't, you know? And so like my main thing with hybrid ministry is trying to intersect people where they are. And I think the cell phone is just a great spot to try and aim for. Right. But what about those middle schoolers that are young and like don't have cell phones? And so.

Ronald (00:57)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Nick Clason (01:21)
I'm excited to have this conversation with you because you as a lifelong middle school youth pastor and host of podcasts, like you and a dad of daughters in that age age range, right? Like I want to hear your perspective because I'm it feels to me and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it feels to me like middle schoolers kind of run the gamut. Some that don't even have access to any technology and then some that are just all in way too much. You're a little scared for their well-being, you know.

Ronald (01:29)
EW.

Yeah.

Absolutely, and you're right because their parents also run the gambit too. So for people listening who don't know, I have in my house four teenage daughters. I have 18 year old senior graduating this year, then I have a freshman, a seventh grader, and a fifth grader. So I've got everybody.

Nick Clason (01:54)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, you're right there.

Ronald (02:15)
And my elementary school kid who's in fifth grade, Ruth is telling me about like her friends who have cell phones and have had cell phones since like third and fourth grade. Like that's just been their reality. They have always had a phone. Think of the iPad kid who just like parents are like, yeah, whatever here, right? Here's just the next step up. Go ahead and have a phone. Don't care. Put whatever on it. And then like,

Nick Clason (02:42)
So

Ronald (02:45)
me and my family, this has become our rule, it was our rule with our first, you get your cell phone at the end of fifth grade. And so, and we'll talk a little bit more about this too because I have really appreciated what other parents like told me and helped me figure out. That cell phone only can do a couple things, right? And we stair-step eventually through it.

Nick Clason (02:54)
Okay.

Hmm. So as we like lean into this, first of all, everyone should know, no matter where you're listening, hit the link down below, because Ronald and I put together kind of like a collaborative hybrid ministry for middle schoolers kind of resource. So take it, download it, use it, share it with your parents, whatever you want to do. But especially like here we are post-Christmas, and isn't it so true that most middle schoolers

Ronald (03:30)
Use it.

Nick Clason (03:41)
there's a lot of technology that's given under the tree. And so this is just a very timely conversation, right? Like let's talk about technology use and middle schoolers. give us, like, why you start there where you did a little bit, like dive a little deeper into that. Fifth grader, that's your rule. Is that your recommendation? Do you take it, would you recommend parents take that on more of a case by case type basis? What's the wisdom principle in that, or is it?

Ronald (03:44)
100%.

yeah.

Nick Clason (04:08)
you know, hard and fast, like, yeah, as soon as they're done with fifth grade, they're mature enough to have a cell phone or like, what's your, how do you make that decision? I guess, or how would you coach parents to make that decision?

Ronald (04:17)
So what we went through and what was kind of like the deciding factor for us is, I live in San Antonio and so we have, once my kid was finished with elementary school, our oldest, she had friends who were splitting up into like the four winds, right? And we wanted to give her a way to stay connected to them and so we were like, okay, we're going to give you a phone, but.

Nick Clason (04:36)
Mm.

Yeah.

Ronald (04:46)
Big stipulations. We had it, it's an iPhone, so we locked it down pretty tight to where she couldn't download any apps without requesting permission, so that's a big deal. There's no browser on it. So in fact, my high schooler just got a browser this year for ninth grade. to put that in, yeah, no browser.

Nick Clason (04:51)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Okay, so that's like all of middle school. Yeah.

Ronald (05:16)
Specifically also, no social media. She actually also just got her first social media, which was Pinterest. you, stair steppin' man. That's a stair step. But that, okay, here's what I tell parents, and here's what I have told parents and what I am taking through. Imagine a cell phone like a car, right? You are, even for the visual.

Nick Clason (05:25)
Okay. Which, does that even count? know, like that's one of those fringe ones.

For sure.

Mm-hmm.

Ronald (05:46)
You're giving keys away to your kid. for the audio too. on. There we go. Little foley. Little foley for our audio listeners. You don't just give the Ferrari away to a 16 year old or a 15 year old and say, right, go figure that out. guess you know more about this than I do. Like, no, no.

Nick Clason (05:46)
There you go.

Those are car keys, people. Ronald's jingling them. We'll narrate this.

Yeah.

Ronald (06:15)
you start that kid backing in and out of your driveway in the beater, right? And so we took that principle and applied it to our kids having cell phones. So like, okay, you're going to get like a not great iPhones, not the brand new one. It's going to be like, the one with the one camera. Yeah. The one camera type deal. And we're going to stair step you through this. Well, that's just an Android, Nick. That's what you.

Nick Clason (06:30)
Mm-hmm. me down. Yeah.

Maybe some crack screens like my Android here.

The glass is apparently weaker.

Ronald (06:45)
That's fine. No, and so we've stair-stepped. so my seventh grader who has a phone, also has a phone in middle school, has a phone but doesn't have, again, social media doesn't have a browser. And we also put like a stipulation on where the phone can go. My girls, I live in a two-story house. All the bedrooms are upstairs. No phones upstairs. Like that's a rule for us. And so when ...

Nick Clason (07:11)
Great rule, by the way. I approve. Yeah.

Ronald (07:14)
When it's time to go to bed, the charger's downstairs and they have to charge their phone downstairs. No phones at the dinner table. In fact, even it's no phones after dinner. So we say, hey, get it done after dinner, no phones. Those are just like things that we have done as a family to be like, hey, here's the deal. We are going to give you permission that expands with responsibility. And then also cool thing as a parent, my kids don't have a cell phone after supper.

Nick Clason (07:18)
Yeah, good.

Mmm. It's good. It's good.

Mm-hmm.

Ronald (07:44)
So if I'm just scrolling on my cell phone after supper, they're like, hey dad, what are you doing? I'm like, yeah, you're right. I need to be off my phone. I need to pay attention to you.

Nick Clason (07:46)
They're calling you out.

That's so smart. That's just like built in accountability right there, for sure. Yeah. And you know, the thing that I, I try and tell parents as well in our context and other youth ministry avenues and whatever, honestly, just like a lot of times the question is what product or what resource do you use to like monitor like your kids screen usage and all those types of things. And rest assured, there are a million different like resources and things out there that you can use and you can lean into.

Ronald (07:57)
It's huge.

Absolutely.

Nick Clason (08:22)
But at the end of the day, the goal is for that thing not to become your kid's parent. The goal is for you to be the parent of it. Right. And so I love your rules because those guidelines are things that you've put in place. Like you can lock down an iPhone all you want, but you can still abuse it if it's in the room and they're on it until way after bedtime or you know, the no, no phones after dinner thing. Like there can be indiscriminate use or just like mindless use of it. And so.

Ronald (08:50)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (08:51)
You're being proactive and in on top of it, you know, and that's, that's what I really like and appreciate because that's the tech. There's always a workaround in the technology. That's what I've found. Like there's no foolproof piece of technology. It's always a work.

Ronald (09:02)
Heck yeah.

No, I figured it out when I was dealing dial-up modem internet and my parents had the protective things when I was in high school. like, I can figure this out, you know? So no amount of blocking software or things like that will get around actual discipleship of your kids. Because you are a person who is imperfect, just like your kids. They're gonna make mistakes. So what do do?

Nick Clason (09:10)
Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

That's it. That's it. That's good. That's good. Let's shift gears a little bit then. Let's talk about your, how you've noticed technology, cell phones, whatever, within actual confines of youth ministry. Not just, you you parenting your kids with it, but like, what's it like navigating? Cause in a lot of cases, like we said, you got kids that don't even have it at all versus kids who are like using and fully on like all the social apps. So.

Ronald (09:36)
Like, how do you figure that out? Big deal.

Yeah.

Nick Clason (10:03)
What was your typical practice as a middle school pastor with technology?

Ronald (10:10)
Yeah, of it was just being open about that being a potential barrier between you and other people. And the other thing was not, because I was in a real conservative context, there was almost like some judgment to kids who did have a phone, which was really funny. And so I had to like stamp, yeah, I'm glad you get it. So.

Nick Clason (10:28)
Mm

Yeah, same here by the way, so I can relate to that.

Ronald (10:39)
On the one hand, whenever I had a parent being like, you know what, my kid just say that they don't connect very, they don't have any friends in youth ministry. And I'm looking at their kid, I so remember this one specific instance of girl, phone here, face down, and even her hair like covered the side of her face to where all it was, and she was in a corner on her phone looking down at it and not engaging with the room.

Nick Clason (10:59)
Yeah.

Ronald (11:07)
And then like I got a email three weeks later being like, my daughter is just not making any friends. I'm like, yeah, no joke. I've tried. And so trying to have a conversation with students where it's both not being judgmental, but also making sure they're aware of like, hey guys, if you feel lonely, one of the reasons in a list might be you're on your phone too much and you're missing what's going on right in front of you.

Nick Clason (11:13)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ronald (11:36)
you care more about your online persona or the next funny video than you do your friend who's literally sitting three feet away from you. so trying to navigate that well was always the thing. And so that would just be like application. But on the other hand, you can do that in really great ways to be like, Hey guys, if you've got a phone, text a friend verse right now, someone who's not in this room, text an encouraging verse.

Nick Clason (11:52)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Ronald (12:03)
so that you can be a light in their life, right? It's both and, right? So I don't like telling a kid, hey, cell phones are the devil, you should never have one. And I don't like telling parents, just give your kid a phone and don't worry about it, because it's absolutely both and.

Nick Clason (12:08)
Yeah. Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, yeah. Well, and that's honestly, that's exactly like what I feel like my entire podcast is predicated on. what this started out of, I don't know, I guess like a moment of frustration and a little bit of like an inflection point. like we'd gone pretty hard in on like digital ministry during COVID. I was working in Chicago and so it was necessitated, like it had to happen.

But then we found some really fun and cool wins out of doing ministry in a digital sort of context and some opportunities that actually opened up for us that weren't available to us doing ministry pre-COVID. And so as we were all sort of coming back from, you know, restrictions and lockdown and all those types of things, we were then trying to navigate this like tension between like how much should we swing the pendulum, right? And so my whole, like my whole thing, like the whole name of this like hybrid ministry is like,

Ronald (13:08)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:13)
It's not just your digital, but it's not just your in-person. It's kind of that both and, and I think in all of life, it's easier for us. We like to draw hard and hard and fast lines and be like, cell phones are bad. So you should not, but I like your, you know, your Ferrari example because you have to work, you have to work up to it. You don't just earn it immediately. And so like my contention is as much as we, especially older generations want to lament cell phones and how difficult they are for

ministry and connection and they are like in some cases they definitely are, but like there's also a lot of good, you know, that comes out of them. your friend a verse or group chats. Like group chats are such a simple thing that didn't exist. Was it 10 years ago? 15 years ago? Like even if you have people with Android, like group chats are still a way to stay connected, you know, to one another. but you know, so like that's, that's kind of like my contention is like

Ronald (13:54)
Mm-hmm.

No, you can't connect with people with Androids over group chat. It doesn't happen.

Nick Clason (14:11)
we have to help students navigate this well and not just settle for the easy answer of just throw your cell phone in a river. It's terrible and it's the enemy. And if we think that, then why are we getting our kids these things for Christmas? It's like, I just need to call them at practice. Okay, but now you've opened Pandora's box and that's not necessarily a bad thing, not condemning any parent for doing that. I'm just saying now we have to help them navigate that well, both at the parent level and also while we're like...

Ronald (14:20)
Yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely.

Nick Clason (14:40)
navigating and managing that within like our student ministries.

Ronald (14:44)
Sure, and it's just as important as showing your kid what you version can do and be like, hey, you know what's really cool about you version? It's a Bible reading plan. Let's you and me do it together, parent and kid. Or, hey, as a ministry, we're gonna do this month long Bible reading plan. That's on your phone. Yeah, it's absolutely being able to use the tools that are available to us, because we could have said the same thing about lamenting the invention of the car, taking away our, aw man, we're not as

Nick Clason (14:50)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Course privileges.

Ronald (15:14)
connected. So yeah, and since this is the middle school ministry podcast too, it matters to a middle school student what you model to them. Because they take that to heart. so my whole thing was not trying to judge those who had a cell phone. But yeah, absolutely. If they're going to be on YouTube,

Nick Clason (15:22)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Ronald (15:44)
watching you know Mr. Beast do whatever Mr. Beast does then I kind of also want them to hear from their youth pastor every now and then and so that's an easy thing to do like you pastor to take your phone spend five minutes making five reels and then or five shorts for YouTube and be like hey look my kids are gonna get some encouragement for me this week that's it's out there

Nick Clason (15:51)
Why not? Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I absolutely. And one thing I've noticed and I've seen in like studies and stuff here recently is like, you know, Gen X boomers even have all sort of like settled in on Facebook millennials. Are you millennial, Ronald? Yeah. All right. Me too. Me too. Instagram, right? It's kind of like millennials favorite platform. Gen Z sort of like made tick tock its thing. We're noticing

Ronald (16:22)
yes, and how dare you.

Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (16:34)
Jen Alpha's making YouTube kind of their spot. And I, yeah. And I even read that it, for Jen Alpha, it's taking the place of Google as its preferred search engine. And so what an opportunity for us like to be on there, you know, and for middle school kids to see us, to see their youth pastor, to maybe even see themselves or their friends from youth group. You know, if you post shorts, reels, all that type of stuff on there, like

Ronald (16:36)
Yeah, it is YouTube.

Absolutely.

Nick Clason (17:01)
You're so right. Like it's such a fantastic opportunity. it really, just exactly what my whole goal with hybrid is like showing up where they are. Like if they're on YouTube, how cool is it? Like they can get on there and they can watch MrBeast who's all across the country and also their church.

Ronald (17:17)
Well, and to even use the platform like it's currently being used then, how cool would it be if your kid typed in how to study the Bible and they got an answer from their youth pastor immediately? Like you already had a five minute video on how to study the Bible that you had prepared for your kids and it was there, right? Because that's how they're using the platform.

Nick Clason (17:30)
Right? Yeah. Exactly.

Exactly. Yeah, it's not just like, it's not just there for you as a youth pastor to have another channel for announcements, though you can be, but I would, what I encourage people to do is use the platforms for their intended uses. And so if you're going to use it for a thing that you think is what your ministry needs, but it's not in alignment with the intended use of the platform, you're not going to see the same types of results than if you actually use it for what it's being used for, which is answering specific questions.

Ronald (17:46)
Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yep.

Nick Clason (18:09)
And frankly, entertainment, right? And maybe like a little bit of inspiration too. So that's good. So what would you say to a middle school youth pastor or any youth pastor out there, like who's got people in their church like you and like me who are a little leery about cell phone, cell phone usage, middle school. Like what's the, how would you coach them, you know, to either lean in and have that conversation or.

Ronald (18:26)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (18:38)
with parents or how to like manage maybe some of that potential like turbulent waters of, you know, angry parents who think cell phones are evil and of the devil.

Ronald (18:48)
You know what's funny is when I first started in ministry, there was a big deal where we said, don't bring any cell phones to camp. And then there was a really turbulent season in between when we arrived to my kid as a parent saying, my kid will bring their phone to camp or they're not going.

Nick Clason (18:58)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

yeah.

Ronald (19:18)
And so navigating that in between, I think there are far fewer parents who are going to say that a cell phone is evil. They might be saying, my kid has to have one because I need to be connected and know what's up with my kid at all times.

Nick Clason (19:27)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ronald (19:35)
which is a different type of unhealth, that's fine. We can go from there. To help a youth pastor navigate the cell phones. Cell phones are bad, right? A cell phone is the same, to use the car analogy. It's a tool. can take you someplace great. It can take you someplace awful. And if you want to be the youth pastor who's like, no cell phones in the youth room. They go in this box over here and we use paper Bible still. Like that's fine.

Nick Clason (19:45)
Yeah.

Yeah, you can do that. Yeah, yeah.

Ronald (20:04)
if you explain that, right? As long as you're saying, why we do this as a ministry, this is the vision, this is what we're trying to accomplish. Do that, but you're going to have parents who, when you go to camp, when you go to retreat, they're gonna push back on you and be like, hey, my kid is going to take their cell phone. I don't care what their rules are.

Nick Clason (20:28)
Yeah. Well, like when did you get a cell phone? Like how old were you when you got a cell phone? Yeah.

Ronald (20:31)
I was 16 and I got a cell phone because my parents were afraid that I was going to get lost when I started driving by myself. So I got my dad's secretary's old Nokia phone.

Nick Clason (20:45)
But so you're 16, right? And now you're the type of parent in that particular age bracket and demographic, you're sending your daughter's kids to camp. like that's all, know, cell phones from the age of 16 for you and on up. Like I was about the same, you know, so here in a couple of years when my kids are old enough to go to camp, I only, that's my like comfort zone, you know? And so like I get their scary stuff on it, but

Ronald (20:56)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (21:14)
It's also gonna, it's not, you're not never gonna give your kid a cell phone. So how do we, and that's my thing, how do we help lean in and teach them the good things of it? Put good, good rules and guidelines and guardrails all around it so that you're hopefully protecting your kids and having conversations, you know, with it.

Ronald (21:25)
Yeah.

It's exactly that. It's continued conversations with kids. And even as a parent being okay to say, these are our non-cell phone times to where we're going to talk. I know parents who like to say no phones in the car because that 15 minute, 20 minute drive can be like, hey, we can actually have a conversation as we drive around. But just having conversations about your phone usage. Hey, who are you following? Hey.

Nick Clason (21:35)
That's it, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, so true.

Mm-hmm.

Ronald (22:00)
I or even telling like I will do this with my girls. I'll send them goofy videos and goofy memes Not because I think they're the funniest thing in the world But I'm trying to connect with them on their level like to my own kids and so like It's funny because they don't have social media what I'm doing is screen recording a funny reel I saw and then sending that to them as a message

Nick Clason (22:09)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah dude. Yeah, for sure.

Bro, that's so committed, but I love it. Like that's, you you're like, we're not doing the social media thing, but I still want you to see this thing that I saw on social media and it's funny. So you'll like it. It's great.

Ronald (22:34)
Yeah, and I want you to know that I'm thinking of you throughout the day. I want you to laugh. This is a funny thing. And yeah, phones aren't the devil. Yeah, so it's trying to continually have a conversation with your kid. And even where you're saying, hopefully they're coming to you and being like, my friend is being dumb in the group chat. They go, okay, what did they say? Talking through what's good to text, what's not good to text, how...

Nick Clason (22:43)
That's great,

Ronald (23:02)
inflection matters and be like, Hey, I know you hate it, but this might be a FaceTime moment because it sounds like you guys are not seeing each other texting back and forth. Maybe you need to like actually talk.

Nick Clason (23:12)
Yeah. Yeah, man, that's so good. Well, anything else, Ronald, before we hang this sucker up?

Ronald (23:19)
I think the most important thing a parent can do with their kid and having a phone is have some guidelines and have lots of conversations. I think if you stick into those two places, like you're gonna be in a spot where maybe sometimes it's uncomfortable, maybe it's sometimes you're giving a little bit more, you're giving more unearned responsibility away than you're ready for, but like that's parenting as a whole. You don't want your 18 year old kid.

to get a cell phone and all social media all at once and be like, well, now I'm gonna learn everything. It's much, I think it's a much better experience for you and the kid if you walk them through the process together with you in the driver's seat sometimes and them in the driver's seat sometimes.

Nick Clason (24:04)
That's good. Yeah, actually, if anyone's listening to this, watching this like here live, like in the next several weeks, like that's what I'm doing on my podcast is I'm doing like some parent and kid kind of like tech talks. And so they're like aimed for youth pastors to like curate or have that conversation with like some downloadable worksheets and stuff like that that they can share. because I think that's, that's the key in all of this. Like it's, it's easier to draw a line in the sand and be like, no, this, like this is it. We're not doing that, but like we,

Ronald (24:16)
Mmm, yeah.

Nick Clason (24:34)
That's the phone has not allowed us to do that. It's not going away. So instead we got to figure out how do we lean into it into what's uncomfortable and maybe like uncertain waters, like lean into it to just open up that continued kind of conversation thing. So I think that's, that's so good. So, yo, if you're listening here for me on my channel, go follow everything Ronald's doing, middle school ministry podcast. It's dope. It's all about middle schoolers and he's got dope co-hosts.

Ronald (24:48)
Absolutely.

Yeah. I just want to thank everybody for listening to my podcast, the hybrid ministry podcast. Thank you so much. That's really great. No, and if you're, if you're listening to this from middle school ministry podcast, you should definitely go check out what Nick Clayson is doing over in hybrid ministry. Some really good stuff, some really helpful things to carry the conversation forward when it comes to the digital world and youth ministry.

Nick Clason (25:05)
that you've taken over.

Yeah, no, I love it. So good. And like I said, we both collabed on a little resource. It's free in both of our show notes, so go grab that. that's it, man. We'll talk to guys next time.

Ronald (25:34)
See you around.

]]> โœ๏ธCollaborative Worksheet
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๐ŸŽง Ronald's Podcast
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DESCRIPTION
In this conversation, Nick Clason and Ronald Long discuss the challenges and opportunities of youth ministry in the digital age, particularly focusing on the role of technology and cell phones among middle schoolers. They explore the importance of engagement in content creation, the necessity of guidelines for responsible phone use, and the balance between digital and in-person ministry. The discussion emphasizes the need for open conversations between parents and children regarding technology, as well as collaborative resources for youth pastors to navigate these challenges effectively.

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โŒšTIMECODES
00:00 The Role of Technology in Middle School Ministry
04:50 Guidelines for Responsible Cell Phone Use
09:50 Balancing Digital and In-Person Youth Ministry
14:53 Encouraging Healthy Conversations About Technology
20:01 Collaborative Resources for Youth Pastors

TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:00)
What's up everybody? I'm Nick and this is.

Ronald (00:04)
Hey guys, I'm Ronald Long. How you doing?

Nick Clason (00:06)
We're excited to be here, Ronald. This is a weird thing. This is your show, this is my show, this is our show.

Ronald (00:08)
we are excited to be here.

Whose show is it really? That's a question.

Nick Clason (00:15)
That is the question that people want to know the answer to.

Ronald (00:19)
Did I just take over hybrid youth ministry? I think I did. I did. great. This is mine now. And yours? You get middle school ministry. Yeah, this is it. Tell Andrea. no.

Nick Clason (00:23)
You did, you did. Yeah. Welcome. Well, actually, yeah, and I'm taking over middle school. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you have exactly. Bye, Andrea. Bye. Anyway, you know, Ronald, it's interesting and I'm excited to have this conversation because probably the biggest, one of the biggest pushbacks I get when I'm pushing stuff like in my hybrid ministry, just idea and whatnot is what about middle schoolers?

especially like in our context, we don't get middle schoolers until like, or we get them at sixth grade, which there's an inflection point. And depending on the conservative nature of your church, there could be a lot of those students that have cell phones. And then a lot of students that don't, you know? And so like my main thing with hybrid ministry is trying to intersect people where they are. And I think the cell phone is just a great spot to try and aim for. Right. But what about those middle schoolers that are young and like don't have cell phones? And so.

Ronald (00:57)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Nick Clason (01:21)
I'm excited to have this conversation with you because you as a lifelong middle school youth pastor and host of podcasts, like you and a dad of daughters in that age age range, right? Like I want to hear your perspective because I'm it feels to me and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it feels to me like middle schoolers kind of run the gamut. Some that don't even have access to any technology and then some that are just all in way too much. You're a little scared for their well-being, you know.

Ronald (01:29)
EW.

Yeah.

Absolutely, and you're right because their parents also run the gambit too. So for people listening who don't know, I have in my house four teenage daughters. I have 18 year old senior graduating this year, then I have a freshman, a seventh grader, and a fifth grader. So I've got everybody.

Nick Clason (01:54)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, you're right there.

Ronald (02:15)
And my elementary school kid who's in fifth grade, Ruth is telling me about like her friends who have cell phones and have had cell phones since like third and fourth grade. Like that's just been their reality. They have always had a phone. Think of the iPad kid who just like parents are like, yeah, whatever here, right? Here's just the next step up. Go ahead and have a phone. Don't care. Put whatever on it. And then like,

Nick Clason (02:42)
So

Ronald (02:45)
me and my family, this has become our rule, it was our rule with our first, you get your cell phone at the end of fifth grade. And so, and we'll talk a little bit more about this too because I have really appreciated what other parents like told me and helped me figure out. That cell phone only can do a couple things, right? And we stair-step eventually through it.

Nick Clason (02:54)
Okay.

Hmm. So as we like lean into this, first of all, everyone should know, no matter where you're listening, hit the link down below, because Ronald and I put together kind of like a collaborative hybrid ministry for middle schoolers kind of resource. So take it, download it, use it, share it with your parents, whatever you want to do. But especially like here we are post-Christmas, and isn't it so true that most middle schoolers

Ronald (03:30)
Use it.

Nick Clason (03:41)
there's a lot of technology that's given under the tree. And so this is just a very timely conversation, right? Like let's talk about technology use and middle schoolers. give us, like, why you start there where you did a little bit, like dive a little deeper into that. Fifth grader, that's your rule. Is that your recommendation? Do you take it, would you recommend parents take that on more of a case by case type basis? What's the wisdom principle in that, or is it?

Ronald (03:44)
100%.

yeah.

Nick Clason (04:08)
you know, hard and fast, like, yeah, as soon as they're done with fifth grade, they're mature enough to have a cell phone or like, what's your, how do you make that decision? I guess, or how would you coach parents to make that decision?

Ronald (04:17)
So what we went through and what was kind of like the deciding factor for us is, I live in San Antonio and so we have, once my kid was finished with elementary school, our oldest, she had friends who were splitting up into like the four winds, right? And we wanted to give her a way to stay connected to them and so we were like, okay, we're going to give you a phone, but.

Nick Clason (04:36)
Mm.

Yeah.

Ronald (04:46)
Big stipulations. We had it, it's an iPhone, so we locked it down pretty tight to where she couldn't download any apps without requesting permission, so that's a big deal. There's no browser on it. So in fact, my high schooler just got a browser this year for ninth grade. to put that in, yeah, no browser.

Nick Clason (04:51)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Okay, so that's like all of middle school. Yeah.

Ronald (05:16)
Specifically also, no social media. She actually also just got her first social media, which was Pinterest. you, stair steppin' man. That's a stair step. But that, okay, here's what I tell parents, and here's what I have told parents and what I am taking through. Imagine a cell phone like a car, right? You are, even for the visual.

Nick Clason (05:25)
Okay. Which, does that even count? know, like that's one of those fringe ones.

For sure.

Mm-hmm.

Ronald (05:46)
You're giving keys away to your kid. for the audio too. on. There we go. Little foley. Little foley for our audio listeners. You don't just give the Ferrari away to a 16 year old or a 15 year old and say, right, go figure that out. guess you know more about this than I do. Like, no, no.

Nick Clason (05:46)
There you go.

Those are car keys, people. Ronald's jingling them. We'll narrate this.

Yeah.

Ronald (06:15)
you start that kid backing in and out of your driveway in the beater, right? And so we took that principle and applied it to our kids having cell phones. So like, okay, you're going to get like a not great iPhones, not the brand new one. It's going to be like, the one with the one camera. Yeah. The one camera type deal. And we're going to stair step you through this. Well, that's just an Android, Nick. That's what you.

Nick Clason (06:30)
Mm-hmm. me down. Yeah.

Maybe some crack screens like my Android here.

The glass is apparently weaker.

Ronald (06:45)
That's fine. No, and so we've stair-stepped. so my seventh grader who has a phone, also has a phone in middle school, has a phone but doesn't have, again, social media doesn't have a browser. And we also put like a stipulation on where the phone can go. My girls, I live in a two-story house. All the bedrooms are upstairs. No phones upstairs. Like that's a rule for us. And so when ...

Nick Clason (07:11)
Great rule, by the way. I approve. Yeah.

Ronald (07:14)
When it's time to go to bed, the charger's downstairs and they have to charge their phone downstairs. No phones at the dinner table. In fact, even it's no phones after dinner. So we say, hey, get it done after dinner, no phones. Those are just like things that we have done as a family to be like, hey, here's the deal. We are going to give you permission that expands with responsibility. And then also cool thing as a parent, my kids don't have a cell phone after supper.

Nick Clason (07:18)
Yeah, good.

Mmm. It's good. It's good.

Mm-hmm.

Ronald (07:44)
So if I'm just scrolling on my cell phone after supper, they're like, hey dad, what are you doing? I'm like, yeah, you're right. I need to be off my phone. I need to pay attention to you.

Nick Clason (07:46)
They're calling you out.

That's so smart. That's just like built in accountability right there, for sure. Yeah. And you know, the thing that I, I try and tell parents as well in our context and other youth ministry avenues and whatever, honestly, just like a lot of times the question is what product or what resource do you use to like monitor like your kids screen usage and all those types of things. And rest assured, there are a million different like resources and things out there that you can use and you can lean into.

Ronald (07:57)
It's huge.

Absolutely.

Nick Clason (08:22)
But at the end of the day, the goal is for that thing not to become your kid's parent. The goal is for you to be the parent of it. Right. And so I love your rules because those guidelines are things that you've put in place. Like you can lock down an iPhone all you want, but you can still abuse it if it's in the room and they're on it until way after bedtime or you know, the no, no phones after dinner thing. Like there can be indiscriminate use or just like mindless use of it. And so.

Ronald (08:50)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (08:51)
You're being proactive and in on top of it, you know, and that's, that's what I really like and appreciate because that's the tech. There's always a workaround in the technology. That's what I've found. Like there's no foolproof piece of technology. It's always a work.

Ronald (09:02)
Heck yeah.

No, I figured it out when I was dealing dial-up modem internet and my parents had the protective things when I was in high school. like, I can figure this out, you know? So no amount of blocking software or things like that will get around actual discipleship of your kids. Because you are a person who is imperfect, just like your kids. They're gonna make mistakes. So what do do?

Nick Clason (09:10)
Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

That's it. That's it. That's good. That's good. Let's shift gears a little bit then. Let's talk about your, how you've noticed technology, cell phones, whatever, within actual confines of youth ministry. Not just, you you parenting your kids with it, but like, what's it like navigating? Cause in a lot of cases, like we said, you got kids that don't even have it at all versus kids who are like using and fully on like all the social apps. So.

Ronald (09:36)
Like, how do you figure that out? Big deal.

Yeah.

Nick Clason (10:03)
What was your typical practice as a middle school pastor with technology?

Ronald (10:10)
Yeah, of it was just being open about that being a potential barrier between you and other people. And the other thing was not, because I was in a real conservative context, there was almost like some judgment to kids who did have a phone, which was really funny. And so I had to like stamp, yeah, I'm glad you get it. So.

Nick Clason (10:28)
Mm

Yeah, same here by the way, so I can relate to that.

Ronald (10:39)
On the one hand, whenever I had a parent being like, you know what, my kid just say that they don't connect very, they don't have any friends in youth ministry. And I'm looking at their kid, I so remember this one specific instance of girl, phone here, face down, and even her hair like covered the side of her face to where all it was, and she was in a corner on her phone looking down at it and not engaging with the room.

Nick Clason (10:59)
Yeah.

Ronald (11:07)
And then like I got a email three weeks later being like, my daughter is just not making any friends. I'm like, yeah, no joke. I've tried. And so trying to have a conversation with students where it's both not being judgmental, but also making sure they're aware of like, hey guys, if you feel lonely, one of the reasons in a list might be you're on your phone too much and you're missing what's going on right in front of you.

Nick Clason (11:13)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ronald (11:36)
you care more about your online persona or the next funny video than you do your friend who's literally sitting three feet away from you. so trying to navigate that well was always the thing. And so that would just be like application. But on the other hand, you can do that in really great ways to be like, Hey guys, if you've got a phone, text a friend verse right now, someone who's not in this room, text an encouraging verse.

Nick Clason (11:52)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Ronald (12:03)
so that you can be a light in their life, right? It's both and, right? So I don't like telling a kid, hey, cell phones are the devil, you should never have one. And I don't like telling parents, just give your kid a phone and don't worry about it, because it's absolutely both and.

Nick Clason (12:08)
Yeah. Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, yeah. Well, and that's honestly, that's exactly like what I feel like my entire podcast is predicated on. what this started out of, I don't know, I guess like a moment of frustration and a little bit of like an inflection point. like we'd gone pretty hard in on like digital ministry during COVID. I was working in Chicago and so it was necessitated, like it had to happen.

But then we found some really fun and cool wins out of doing ministry in a digital sort of context and some opportunities that actually opened up for us that weren't available to us doing ministry pre-COVID. And so as we were all sort of coming back from, you know, restrictions and lockdown and all those types of things, we were then trying to navigate this like tension between like how much should we swing the pendulum, right? And so my whole, like my whole thing, like the whole name of this like hybrid ministry is like,

Ronald (13:08)
Yeah.

Nick Clason (13:13)
It's not just your digital, but it's not just your in-person. It's kind of that both and, and I think in all of life, it's easier for us. We like to draw hard and hard and fast lines and be like, cell phones are bad. So you should not, but I like your, you know, your Ferrari example because you have to work, you have to work up to it. You don't just earn it immediately. And so like my contention is as much as we, especially older generations want to lament cell phones and how difficult they are for

ministry and connection and they are like in some cases they definitely are, but like there's also a lot of good, you know, that comes out of them. your friend a verse or group chats. Like group chats are such a simple thing that didn't exist. Was it 10 years ago? 15 years ago? Like even if you have people with Android, like group chats are still a way to stay connected, you know, to one another. but you know, so like that's, that's kind of like my contention is like

Ronald (13:54)
Mm-hmm.

No, you can't connect with people with Androids over group chat. It doesn't happen.

Nick Clason (14:11)
we have to help students navigate this well and not just settle for the easy answer of just throw your cell phone in a river. It's terrible and it's the enemy. And if we think that, then why are we getting our kids these things for Christmas? It's like, I just need to call them at practice. Okay, but now you've opened Pandora's box and that's not necessarily a bad thing, not condemning any parent for doing that. I'm just saying now we have to help them navigate that well, both at the parent level and also while we're like...

Ronald (14:20)
Yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely.

Nick Clason (14:40)
navigating and managing that within like our student ministries.

Ronald (14:44)
Sure, and it's just as important as showing your kid what you version can do and be like, hey, you know what's really cool about you version? It's a Bible reading plan. Let's you and me do it together, parent and kid. Or, hey, as a ministry, we're gonna do this month long Bible reading plan. That's on your phone. Yeah, it's absolutely being able to use the tools that are available to us, because we could have said the same thing about lamenting the invention of the car, taking away our, aw man, we're not as

Nick Clason (14:50)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Course privileges.

Ronald (15:14)
connected. So yeah, and since this is the middle school ministry podcast too, it matters to a middle school student what you model to them. Because they take that to heart. so my whole thing was not trying to judge those who had a cell phone. But yeah, absolutely. If they're going to be on YouTube,

Nick Clason (15:22)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Ronald (15:44)
watching you know Mr. Beast do whatever Mr. Beast does then I kind of also want them to hear from their youth pastor every now and then and so that's an easy thing to do like you pastor to take your phone spend five minutes making five reels and then or five shorts for YouTube and be like hey look my kids are gonna get some encouragement for me this week that's it's out there

Nick Clason (15:51)
Why not? Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I absolutely. And one thing I've noticed and I've seen in like studies and stuff here recently is like, you know, Gen X boomers even have all sort of like settled in on Facebook millennials. Are you millennial, Ronald? Yeah. All right. Me too. Me too. Instagram, right? It's kind of like millennials favorite platform. Gen Z sort of like made tick tock its thing. We're noticing

Ronald (16:22)
yes, and how dare you.

Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (16:34)
Jen Alpha's making YouTube kind of their spot. And I, yeah. And I even read that it, for Jen Alpha, it's taking the place of Google as its preferred search engine. And so what an opportunity for us like to be on there, you know, and for middle school kids to see us, to see their youth pastor, to maybe even see themselves or their friends from youth group. You know, if you post shorts, reels, all that type of stuff on there, like

Ronald (16:36)
Yeah, it is YouTube.

Absolutely.

Nick Clason (17:01)
You're so right. Like it's such a fantastic opportunity. it really, just exactly what my whole goal with hybrid is like showing up where they are. Like if they're on YouTube, how cool is it? Like they can get on there and they can watch MrBeast who's all across the country and also their church.

Ronald (17:17)
Well, and to even use the platform like it's currently being used then, how cool would it be if your kid typed in how to study the Bible and they got an answer from their youth pastor immediately? Like you already had a five minute video on how to study the Bible that you had prepared for your kids and it was there, right? Because that's how they're using the platform.

Nick Clason (17:30)
Right? Yeah. Exactly.

Exactly. Yeah, it's not just like, it's not just there for you as a youth pastor to have another channel for announcements, though you can be, but I would, what I encourage people to do is use the platforms for their intended uses. And so if you're going to use it for a thing that you think is what your ministry needs, but it's not in alignment with the intended use of the platform, you're not going to see the same types of results than if you actually use it for what it's being used for, which is answering specific questions.

Ronald (17:46)
Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yep.

Nick Clason (18:09)
And frankly, entertainment, right? And maybe like a little bit of inspiration too. So that's good. So what would you say to a middle school youth pastor or any youth pastor out there, like who's got people in their church like you and like me who are a little leery about cell phone, cell phone usage, middle school. Like what's the, how would you coach them, you know, to either lean in and have that conversation or.

Ronald (18:26)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Clason (18:38)
with parents or how to like manage maybe some of that potential like turbulent waters of, you know, angry parents who think cell phones are evil and of the devil.

Ronald (18:48)
You know what's funny is when I first started in ministry, there was a big deal where we said, don't bring any cell phones to camp. And then there was a really turbulent season in between when we arrived to my kid as a parent saying, my kid will bring their phone to camp or they're not going.

Nick Clason (18:58)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

yeah.

Ronald (19:18)
And so navigating that in between, I think there are far fewer parents who are going to say that a cell phone is evil. They might be saying, my kid has to have one because I need to be connected and know what's up with my kid at all times.

Nick Clason (19:27)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ronald (19:35)
which is a different type of unhealth, that's fine. We can go from there. To help a youth pastor navigate the cell phones. Cell phones are bad, right? A cell phone is the same, to use the car analogy. It's a tool. can take you someplace great. It can take you someplace awful. And if you want to be the youth pastor who's like, no cell phones in the youth room. They go in this box over here and we use paper Bible still. Like that's fine.

Nick Clason (19:45)
Yeah.

Yeah, you can do that. Yeah, yeah.

Ronald (20:04)
if you explain that, right? As long as you're saying, why we do this as a ministry, this is the vision, this is what we're trying to accomplish. Do that, but you're going to have parents who, when you go to camp, when you go to retreat, they're gonna push back on you and be like, hey, my kid is going to take their cell phone. I don't care what their rules are.

Nick Clason (20:28)
Yeah. Well, like when did you get a cell phone? Like how old were you when you got a cell phone? Yeah.

Ronald (20:31)
I was 16 and I got a cell phone because my parents were afraid that I was going to get lost when I started driving by myself. So I got my dad's secretary's old Nokia phone.

Nick Clason (20:45)
But so you're 16, right? And now you're the type of parent in that particular age bracket and demographic, you're sending your daughter's kids to camp. like that's all, know, cell phones from the age of 16 for you and on up. Like I was about the same, you know, so here in a couple of years when my kids are old enough to go to camp, I only, that's my like comfort zone, you know? And so like I get their scary stuff on it, but

Ronald (20:56)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Clason (21:14)
It's also gonna, it's not, you're not never gonna give your kid a cell phone. So how do we, and that's my thing, how do we help lean in and teach them the good things of it? Put good, good rules and guidelines and guardrails all around it so that you're hopefully protecting your kids and having conversations, you know, with it.

Ronald (21:25)
Yeah.

It's exactly that. It's continued conversations with kids. And even as a parent being okay to say, these are our non-cell phone times to where we're going to talk. I know parents who like to say no phones in the car because that 15 minute, 20 minute drive can be like, hey, we can actually have a conversation as we drive around. But just having conversations about your phone usage. Hey, who are you following? Hey.

Nick Clason (21:35)
That's it, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, so true.

Mm-hmm.

Ronald (22:00)
I or even telling like I will do this with my girls. I'll send them goofy videos and goofy memes Not because I think they're the funniest thing in the world But I'm trying to connect with them on their level like to my own kids and so like It's funny because they don't have social media what I'm doing is screen recording a funny reel I saw and then sending that to them as a message

Nick Clason (22:09)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah dude. Yeah, for sure.

Bro, that's so committed, but I love it. Like that's, you you're like, we're not doing the social media thing, but I still want you to see this thing that I saw on social media and it's funny. So you'll like it. It's great.

Ronald (22:34)
Yeah, and I want you to know that I'm thinking of you throughout the day. I want you to laugh. This is a funny thing. And yeah, phones aren't the devil. Yeah, so it's trying to continually have a conversation with your kid. And even where you're saying, hopefully they're coming to you and being like, my friend is being dumb in the group chat. They go, okay, what did they say? Talking through what's good to text, what's not good to text, how...

Nick Clason (22:43)
That's great,

Ronald (23:02)
inflection matters and be like, Hey, I know you hate it, but this might be a FaceTime moment because it sounds like you guys are not seeing each other texting back and forth. Maybe you need to like actually talk.

Nick Clason (23:12)
Yeah. Yeah, man, that's so good. Well, anything else, Ronald, before we hang this sucker up?

Ronald (23:19)
I think the most important thing a parent can do with their kid and having a phone is have some guidelines and have lots of conversations. I think if you stick into those two places, like you're gonna be in a spot where maybe sometimes it's uncomfortable, maybe it's sometimes you're giving a little bit more, you're giving more unearned responsibility away than you're ready for, but like that's parenting as a whole. You don't want your 18 year old kid.

to get a cell phone and all social media all at once and be like, well, now I'm gonna learn everything. It's much, I think it's a much better experience for you and the kid if you walk them through the process together with you in the driver's seat sometimes and them in the driver's seat sometimes.

Nick Clason (24:04)
That's good. Yeah, actually, if anyone's listening to this, watching this like here live, like in the next several weeks, like that's what I'm doing on my podcast is I'm doing like some parent and kid kind of like tech talks. And so they're like aimed for youth pastors to like curate or have that conversation with like some downloadable worksheets and stuff like that that they can share. because I think that's, that's the key in all of this. Like it's, it's easier to draw a line in the sand and be like, no, this, like this is it. We're not doing that, but like we,

Ronald (24:16)
Mmm, yeah.

Nick Clason (24:34)
That's the phone has not allowed us to do that. It's not going away. So instead we got to figure out how do we lean into it into what's uncomfortable and maybe like uncertain waters, like lean into it to just open up that continued kind of conversation thing. So I think that's, that's so good. So, yo, if you're listening here for me on my channel, go follow everything Ronald's doing, middle school ministry podcast. It's dope. It's all about middle schoolers and he's got dope co-hosts.

Ronald (24:48)
Absolutely.

Yeah. I just want to thank everybody for listening to my podcast, the hybrid ministry podcast. Thank you so much. That's really great. No, and if you're, if you're listening to this from middle school ministry podcast, you should definitely go check out what Nick Clayson is doing over in hybrid ministry. Some really good stuff, some really helpful things to carry the conversation forward when it comes to the digital world and youth ministry.

Nick Clason (25:05)
that you've taken over.

Yeah, no, I love it. So good. And like I said, we both collabed on a little resource. It's free in both of our show notes, so go grab that. that's it, man. We'll talk to guys next time.

Ronald (25:34)
See you around.

]]> Episode 130: 2024 - A Celebration of You: Hybrid Ministry Stats & Stories in Review https://www.hybridministry.xyz/130 b6148737-e982-4f12-bdb4-539d62ad5d80 Thu, 02 Jan 2025 05:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 130 2024 - A Celebration of You: Hybrid Ministry Stats & Stories in Review full Nick Clason We're celebrating YOU in the 2024 "Year in Review." We'll look back at stats, shout out some of the best comment and I've put together a "Best of 2024 Highlight Reel!" Join us! 11:24 no ๐ŸŽง Become a โ€œHybrid Heroโ€ https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry โœ…Let me Run Your Church Social Media https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/comms DESCRIPTION Join us as we celebrate YOU in the "Year in Review for 2024" of the Hybrid Ministry show. We'll celebrate some statistics, give some shout outs and share the "best of" clips from the 2024 Hybrid Ministry Show. ๐Ÿ““ SHOWNOTES http://www.hybridministry.xyz/130 //BONUS Pod! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry //Custom Coaching https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching //GIFlashback Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVHcraeNlC8&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaIui8LNpnlUI3yFAm9SGrLy&amp;index=5&amp;t=24s //9 Best DYM Games https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //No Prep Games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=melm8BS97es&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg&amp;index=6&amp;t=164s //Youth Ministry Planning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQXsananwI&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaKjRX2ytO0tvzo8VnF6X03t&amp;index=2&amp;t=202s //YouTube for Youth Ministry https://youtu.be/ucvXfaVRJ6E?si=aNYGzB08DV6HHD3G //Interview Series https://youtu.be/D4vE7ZqBpE?si=Hdk5X2KRnSGr6HM //Hybrid Tools https://youtu.be/0np1d4Trcn0?si=7OkkCVCmY8Kvx6ha //Meet Gen Alpha https://youtu.be/DWYvsn2Kglk?si=FrnlS3C1xDHITyDb //Social Challenge Framework https://youtu.be/K_9Ch2KVNH0?si=THozXMi9NqzxJeUt //Sidekick https://youtu.be/lXI3ZKSvFY0?si=O-Em7X00hV9waXBE //Sidekick + ProPresenter Setup https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/setup //Interview with Nate Clason https://youtu.be/uplCz1S1nz4?si=sne7LvdGvAgrKU72 //DYM Blog Post https://blog.downloadyouthministry.com/introducing-hybrid-ministry-with-nick-clason/ โŒšTIMECODES 00:00 Welcome to 2025! 00:40 Some Stats &amp; Wins 08:47 Personal Reflections 11:21 Thank You to our Amazing Guests! 14:45 Year in Review -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00;00;00;00 - 00;00;36;11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry What a year it has been. From the incredible wins to the unforgettable moments, we have covered so much ground together. And in this special Year in Review episode, we on the Hybrid Ministry show, we are celebrating you, our amazing community with highlights and stats and the best of the hybrid minstrel show here in 2024. Make sure that you stick around because I've actually distilled a highlight reel of the 2024 Hybrid Mr. Podcast Best Moments. 00;00;36;14 - 00;01;08;04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This just might be your favorite episode yet. Welcome back, everybody to the Hybrid Minister Show. I as always, I'm your host, Nick Claassen. And today we're going to be taking a little bit of a trip down memory lane to celebrate the amazing year and this incredible journey that you and I have been on together. As we always have on this podcast, we're going to be exploring the cutting edge ministry ideas and equip you with the tools to dominate the digital space in 2025. 00;01;08;04 - 00;01;35;14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's been a ride in 2024, and 2025 is only going to get better. And it is all thank you to you. You know, in 2024, we released a total of 52 audio podcast episodes because we release one every single Thursday. If you haven't liked or subscribed yet, wherever you listen to your podcast, it's free and it will show up in your podcast. 00;01;35;14 - 00;02;13;17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Catcher. Every single Thursday. Why? Because youth ministry often happens for most youth ministries across the country on Wednesday, so who doesn't need a little jolt of energy to get the to get them through the rest of their week on Thursdays? But 52 episodes released because we have not missed a single Thursday in the two and a half or so plus years that we've been doing this podcast, I just want to share with you some some highlights of the top performing video over this last year was a video that I titled top five Last Minute Game Ideas. 00;02;13;17 - 00;02;36;22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry If you're watching here on YouTube, you can see some of the clips being overlaid with B-roll. We also over this year we've had nine different playlists that we've worked through. And so in each of those playlists, there's a obviously a top performing video in each of those playlists. And so our very first playlist we had was the 2024 On Demand masterclass. 00;02;36;22 - 00;02;56;28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And in that video, the five No Prep games was a part of the masterclass. And that video had to, 361 views. And so that was not only the number one video for the year, but obviously the number one in the masterclass playlist. We also dropped a bonus you might not notice we dropped a bonus playlist called the Friday Game Day Series. 00;02;56;28 - 00;03;28;06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It released every Friday on YouTube, and, we covered nine of my favorite DRM games that I use. And so actually, if you had any of those or linked down below in this episode nine of my all time favorite do swim games, I'm giving them away to you completely for free. They are games that are on the, they're on the, they're on the website, the download Youth Ministry website, but I'm giving them away to you in this episode, 100% completely for free. 00;03;28;06 - 00;03;49;29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And the best performing video in that playlist was the GIF flashback episode. We also went through a playlist titled some of the Youth Pastor's Biggest Problems, and the number one episode in that was youth Ministry planning weekend services versus mid week programing. And actually in that episode we ranked youth ministry curriculum. Spoiler it's clear you should try it. 00;03;49;29 - 00;04;12;22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In fact, if you haven't yet, hit the link down below. Sidekick.tv/pricing if you've never signed up for anything with Diam or Calendar, use the code Hybrid Ministry ten. All one word for get 10% off your first order. We went through the YouTube for Youth Ministry Play lesson playlist in the best performing video, and that playlist was the flagship title episode YouTube for Youth Ministry. 00;04;12;22 - 00;04;33;07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I then took you through some of the hybrid ministry tools and gear that you needed and the the best episode, and that the highest performing episode was the best gear for Digital Ministry in 2024. Must have tech accessories. Then over the summer, we went through an interview series and that episode, the one that was best in that playlist, was the solution to distractions. 00;04;33;07 - 00;04;56;24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry At youth group, where I interviewed my good friend Josh Baldwin from Download Youth Ministry sidekick and co-leader. Then we went through Meat Generation Alpha, and in that playlist, the Ora and Bach versus Covenant Eyes. An honest youth pastor review was the highest performing video in that playlist. Finally, I went to my Social Challenge framework, which is the four things that I'm creating content with students and for students. 00;04;56;24 - 00;05;17;16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I can't tell you, I think that might be my most popular playlist to date cumulatively, and just word of mouth and things I've heard from youth pastors on the street. So thank you so much for that feedback. But the best episode and that one was the third one, how churches can use social media ideas and examples. And finally, the sidekick more engaging youth ministry. 00;05;17;16 - 00;05;39;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Again, the best episode on that one was the live sidekick demo at the day of recording. And again, don't forget Code Hybrid Ministry ten. If you're interested in sidekick or link down below for how we are using to computers to run Sidekick and Pro Presenter seamlessly. To switch between the two, grab that black magic video switcher, it will make your life so much easier. 00;05;39;10 - 00;06;05;21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now listen on YouTube. In total, we had 84,569 views, including our shorts content with 522 hours of watch time and 151 new subscribers. And in the youth ministry space is a fantastic number and I'm so thrilled, with those stats and with those numbers, simply because here I am in my guest bedroom late at night, recording a podcast into the back of my cell phone. 00;06;05;23 - 00;06;26;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And, I have a real job, and I'm just doing this on the side with my own. Sort of like, equipment at home. And so thank you so much for your support. You might also not know this, but we have an audio only podcast. It drops anywhere you get your podcasts, including Spotify or Apple Music, not Apple Music, Apple Podcasts. 00;06;26;12 - 00;06;51;11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And we had almost 5000 downloads. Our biggest month was by far August, with almost nearly 1000 downloads in that month alone. And the number one downloaded audio podcast was my interview with my brother himself. The, YouTube video is linked down below in the show notes. But here's my interview with my brother, Nate Clayson. We talked about social media and how he's doing it in his context and in his youth ministry. 00;06;51;11 - 00;07;13;00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So shout out to all of you again, thank you for an amazing year. Thank you for cruising through the stats with me. But what I wanted to do now is I wanted to share some of the best comments that we've gotten so far this year, and so far today. So from Jesse Johnson, first of all, he disagreed with my take on coffee and saying that Duncan was terrible, which I'll give him that it's not great. 00;07;13;00 - 00;07;30;01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's a chain. But if I have to choose between that and Starbucks, that's what I'm stuck with. That's what I'm going to choose. But he said he said using polls in the welcome loop in sidekick is so easy, I can't believe I didn't think of it. Excited to try that one out. Claire said this in our best parenting app podcast. 00;07;30;01 - 00;07;49;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We use bark and it has been so wonderful for our family. We have an 11 year old, and it has been a lifesaver. We can monitor everything that she does online, block her from seeing certain websites, track her locations, etc. recently, she disabled the app because her and my husband, we both get notifications, so we went to our daughter immediately. 00;07;49;05 - 00;08;06;29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It turns out she had disabled it because she wanted to watch South Park and Family Guy, as well as some other PG 13 movies. She said nope. Luckily, my husband and I got there before she could see anything inappropriate. We're grateful for bark to bark, for protecting our little girl from online dangers, and protecting her from innocence and inappropriate content. 00;08;06;29 - 00;08;26;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We love bark. Paul Turner said this about our, why youth ministry. Follow up isn't working. He said, this is great stuff. Lots of idea. I went and bought it. Talking about the box that I sold. I'll be sharing this with my newsletter. If you ever want to collab, let me know. Keep up the great work! And finally, a frequent guest here on this podcast. 00;08;26;05 - 00;08;59;05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Over a year ago we did a Christmas episode together. He was also on one of my interview series over the summer, Eric with the K Williams. He said this is great. Anyone starting out needs to watch this and he's talking about my church social media from scratch episode in the hybrid ministry tools. Man, what an amazing year. But if I'm looking back and if I'm taking on some of my reflections and kind of key moments, I'd have to say it's two individuals, a guy by the name of Tim Kelly and Kendall Eaton, both, by the way, who happen to live in the state of Indiana. 00;08;59;05 - 00;09;21;14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I don't think that the collab done this, but both of them at two different times. Tim actually reached out to me for some custom coaching this year, and that was a super fun and super, just a honestly rewarding process to walk through. And it showed me the value of custom coaching, because what I would have recommended to you in my guest bedroom and to the back of my cell phone camera was a little bit different. 00;09;21;14 - 00;09;38;14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Once I started talking to Tim, which is why I believe custom coaching is valuable for anyone who's interested it. Link down below if you want to inquire about what that looks like. It is a very modest and a very cheap price for custom coaching. Or if you don't want like the one on one zoom type interaction and consider joining our Patreon page. 00;09;38;21 - 00;09;55;04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's a dollar per week for a bonus episode, $4 per month, and I'll just share, stream of consciousness ideas. And you might not need the actual, like, coaching to do this, to do this, but you'll get to glean ideas. And then I was at the I 100 conference, a month ago or so, and Kendall walked up to me. 00;09;55;04 - 00;10;20;02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry He said, man, thank you so much for your podcast is really helpful. It's really beneficial. I shared your playlist, your ideas with some of our social media people and is incredibly, incredibly helpful. And so it's just really rewarding for me to be able to do this and just put this content out into the world, out into the ether and get feedback from real, live human beings and real life people who've come to me, in different instances, in different cases. 00;10;20;02 - 00;10;39;21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Tim, all virtually Kendall in person to say, man, thank you for what you're doing. It really is helpful to me to hear that. And so if if you know you have feedback or anything like that, I would obviously and always welcome that. Lines and channels of communication are completely open. You know, here on this podcast we have a couple of really cool benchmarks. 00;10;40;12 - 00;10;56;27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Just in the month of December, we launched a Patreon page, are selling a couple of products over there, as well as that monthly podcast that I'm talking about. And so that's a pretty fun kind of benchmark kind of new thing for us. And new endeavor. Would love to have you, check that out if that's something you're interested in. 00;10;56;27 - 00;11;19;06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then also, back in August, I got the opportunity to start posting these podcasts to the Download a Youth Ministry blog. So if you're interested in that, you can go blog that download Youth ministry.com to check that out. And the link down below introduces my very first, post on there, actually, Josh Bowman, he introduced me and then I now am an author there on the doing blog. 00;11;19;06 - 00;11;48;07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So that's something that's really, really exciting. But speaking of Josh Bullman, as well as many of our other guests, I would like to thank my different guests that I had on this year. So Josh Boardman, of course, from down the youth ministry, we actually had him on twice. We talked once about sidekick and solutions to distractions and youth ministry and harnessing sidekick and utilizing and using cell phones, to not be a distraction, but instead to be something that you can use to help promote creativity and involvement engagement. 00;11;48;07 - 00;12;13;09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But then one episode, my all time, my favorite episode this entire year was there. Him and I sat down and he brought a service, a mock service order sheet that he put on, and then he said, hey, how can you hybridize this? How can you, make this, accessible to the people sitting online streaming at home? Man, both those episodes go to either one of them now, but that was one of my all time favorite episodes. 00;12;13;11 - 00;12;31;21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I had, Eric with a K on when we talked about better event for promotion, and that was actually a collaborative episode. So the first part of that interview was on his channel, Practical Youth Ministry Tips, and the second part was over here on my channel. And so if you only listen to on my channel, you only heard really half of that conversation. 00;12;31;24 - 00;12;53;00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Of course, I mentioned earlier, my brother, we had David Carpenter, youth pastor from Kentucky, my former resident, Caleb Fly mule, fly wheel, Miata, and again, Zeus take on what we've been doing. And youth ministry and student ministry. He worked with and for me for an entire year in this sort of hybrid, infrastructure. So if you want to hear an honest take here from him. 00;12;53;00 - 00;13;18;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then we had a really special episode dropped this year, our 100th episode. And so for our 100th episode, I went all the way back to the beginning, even before this podcast started. And I talked about, when I started at church in Covid. And so I interviewed my current boss now and my boss then, Darren Sutton, his son, who is our video editor for much of what we did, for our digital online presence, for a show that we created on YouTube called unscripted. 00;13;18;10 - 00;13;44;03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So his son Isaac was on the show. And then I also interviewed Sam Voss, good friend of mine and host of the unscripted show and podcast Super Fun Time. But hey, listen, this year, like, I'm wondering if, as you know, I'm recapping and recounting 2024 if as you got your eyes set on 2025, what are you doing to have a more hybrid, more digital, more creative youth ministry? 00;13;44;03 - 00;14;14;16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Because as my friend and boss Darren says, digital is no longer a luxury. It is now a necessity. And so that's what we're trying to accomplish again over on our Patreon page. If that's something that you're interested in, where I will talk about what we're doing on a week to week basis in our youth ministry over on Patreon, I would love to have you just come check out, listen in on what we're doing, and hopefully maybe just that $4 a month is an investment, enough to help kickstart and spur on your own creativity. 00;14;14;16 - 00;14;38;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We love to have you join us over there. It's super fun. Community. There's all sorts of perks as well. But hey, thank you so much for sticking around for this entire episode. And as promised, at the very top right here, we have an amazing, recap overlay. I went back through every single episode, and I pulled out some of my favorite snippets and clips from the last year. 00;14;38;16 - 00;15;00;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So enjoy this. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid. Okay, so there are like three kind of core tenets philosophical things that you guys need to understand when it comes to time management. These aren't tips. These aren't tactics. These are things that you have to understand first. And these have to inform the tips and the tactics. 00;15;00;10 - 00;15;24;16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Know my tips. No amount of tactics will be helpful to you if you don't understand these things. So core tenet number one is that you are 100% responsible for your time. The reason this matters is because this is the difference between is that kid and kid in ministry or is that kid and youth ministry? And if we're talking about youth group numbers and youth group attendance, we need to understand Gen Alpha, but we also need to understand Gen Z. 00;15;24;19 - 00;15;47;01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The kicker on this is that Gen Z, really the youngest Gen Z that we have, is going to be freshmen and sophomores in high school. And now after that, they're waiting on up there in college already, and they are entering the workforce. What should you be? Gen one, number one, start posting longform to YouTube, get a DUI gym membership. 00;15;47;03 - 00;16;14;00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it looks very different in 2024 and frankly, beyond because of generation Z and now Generation Alpha saving up Z into the adult ministry, conversation Alpha into the youth ministry conversation, it makes me wonder if the future is already here. I think it might be Megan and all her friends, and she brought a lot of her friends to youth group, so this, like kind of mattered because, like, she could bring two, 3 or 4 different friends with her. 00;16;14;00 - 00;16;35;17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry The youth group, they had show choir and it met every single Wednesday night. And so that made Wednesday nights a really tricky night to do youth ministry. But Brandon, the only other boy in the youth ministry, had Tuesday night and Thursday night karate. And then of course, Friday nights are like the football game. Like for most towns USA. 00;16;35;23 - 00;16;58;18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry That's when the high school team is playing his football game. So that really left us with Monday night as an option, which but the pro of, of Wednesday night to me is probably the your most traditional youth night. It's been what, a lot of churches, a lot of youth groups have done for years. And like down here where I live in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth area, a lot of churches do. 00;16;58;18 - 00;17;22;13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Wednesday night, and I came from Chicago. Not many churches did did Wednesday night. And that's just kind of a cultural thing, right. But the pro to me is it's like a midweek kind of jolt of energy. Well. Hey, everyone, welcome to Friday Game Day. In this episode, link down below 100% completely for free. I have for you back to school. 00;17;22;15 - 00;18;04;03 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Bingo. And if you're like, I don't need back to school bingo, it's not back to school yet. Well, then head on over to download Youth ministry.com and you can grab my end of the school year. Bingo! Well, that idea of course, is go hybrid. And listen, I'm not saying to completely abandon your in-person meetings. In fact, that would go completely against the hybrid strategy because hybrid is melding together of your digital presence in your in-person presence and making it one in the same, but linked right here on screen and down in the description or wherever you're getting this or hybrid ministry X, y, Z/089 is my 100% completely free strategy guide, is my e-book on 00;18;04;03 - 00;18;32;07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry how I build out a full fledged digital strategy. It's mostly focusing on a done for you social media strategy, but it's anchored by the, long form teaching video, which takes place and is posted weekly every time we teach pre filmed messages on YouTube direct to Camera Pro. Number one, of course, is like develop mentally splitting middle school and high school seems to be appropriate. 00;18;32;09 - 00;19;07;16 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry In my over a year journey on this podcast, I have grown to love YouTube. When I started with social media and what I started trying to reach students on the internet, YouTube was a distant kind of far strategy that was on my radar. Like it was like, I'll post some videos over there. But in my time since that, which was probably five, six, seven years ago, I have come to love YouTube and I am more and more convinced that YouTube, in addition to all other digital and social mediums that we can effectively reach students with. 00;19;07;19 - 00;19;30;04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But YouTube is one of the best resources out there. You can always say down below in the description are links. And so for every single video that I post on my Student Ministries YouTube channel, we post two links. The first link is a Next Steps digital type Connect card, and I think about your own viewing habits on social media. 00;19;30;04 - 00;19;55;08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry When you're on there, you're not necessarily on there to just, be informed, right? Link down below is a complete log of every single piece of gear that I have built in the studio. Isaac Sutton All of the students in the room who are watching unscripted have bingo cards that coordinated to stuff that know yes, digital integration is not a luxury, it's a necessity. 00;19;55;10 - 00;20;19;09 Sam Vos It was probably I probably felt God's hand more in like my career, my life in that moment than a lot of other moments. Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Unscripted played a really major role in like the catalyst to especially my podcast and everything like that. I would say the reason for that is simply realizing and understand that students live online. Darren Sutton There's a lot I've messed up in my years of youth ministry, but that is one thing that I'm really proud of. 00;20;19;13 - 00;20;30;14 Darren Sutton Like in the middle of the pandemic, there was not a blank ministry kept going. We're going to try something different. 00;20;30;17 - 00;20;53;12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you should use your cell phone to your advantage. Caleb "Flywheel" Maeda I think. I think the things that have been working the most has been getting students involved on the page, not even in terms of like on the page traction as much as like in-person traction. David Carpenter We speak to our students on Wednesday nights for about 18 to 22 minutes. Sunday morning there's a, you know, 28 to 32 minutes. 00;20;53;14 - 00;21;24;18 David Carpenter And we think they probably remember everything we said, right? Like they they wrote the notes, they've got it and they've already applied every one of these points. You know, it was alliterative. And remember my great illustration. And one, you know, when when we're including things that are reflecting on the teachings, I think that reinforces and reminds those who were in the room. Nate Clason and seeing you, like, super passionate about it and watching your podcast really, honestly like, and your different videos and clips on like TikTok and stuff to sign it Josh Boldman | Download Youth Ministry &amp; The Greatest programming specialist in America every single time you had to type in the password. 00;21;24;19 - 00;21;47;00 Josh Boldman | Download Youth Ministry &amp; The Greatest programming specialist in America It was a great and I, I got into trouble. One time I was in front of our I like our whole camp, like it was like a thousand kids, right? And sidekick was running and then it crashed and then they had to reopen it. And they're like, from the booth they yell out, what's the password? And in front of 1000 students, I had to say a password into the microphone. 00;21;47;00 - 00;22;09;14 Josh Boldman | Download Youth Ministry &amp; The Greatest programming specialist in America And here's the best part. You ready for this? It was the same password for everything. Like my my bank account and, all this stuff. So, like, we need to not be afraid of what our students want, and we need to not be afraid of them expressing their opinion. And we need to not be afraid of them disagreeing with each other or with us. 00;22;09;14 - 00;22;36;20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Better event promotion as well as a holistic digital and social media approach for your church and your youth ministry. And this is actually part two. Part one is linked right here at the top of the screen over on another channel, because we're doing a massive mashup collab. And I am joined today by my friend Eric with the K petition, because in just a minute, we're gonna look at the Bark vs Aura 00;22;36;20 - 00;23;01;20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But Aura has parental controls and they are now in partnership with circle. You might remember Circle by Disney, the first video idea that we do it's called Drafts challenge idea number two that we do in our church and in our student ministry is a game called name of the game is seven Questions. A man on the street named transition stab video is where it starts with the video of something else. 00;23;01;20 - 00;23;22;24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And the most popular one I can think about is like a a bull, ramming a guy during the running of the bulls. And then all these people cutting right there to jumping into the back of some chairs and millennial churchgoers said this. They said hybrid church just as much as physical church will be a get this good fit for them. 00;23;22;26 - 00;23;44;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry One of the things about five minute countdowns that I actually hate, and I know that as talking to a guy who works for Download Youth Ministry, and that's where a lot of the money is made and a lot of five minute countdowns are sold. I actually prefer, which, by the way, talking to you right now, let this be an unofficial sidekick feature request. 00;23;44;24 - 00;24;11;13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Yeah. Because right now in sidekick, you can, you can loop your announcements, right? You can loop some, like, graphic slides. And I actually prefer that to be the five minute countdown with just the five minute countdown overlaid in the corner, so that all of the announcements that you're announcing and trying to let your students know about are happening, is being seen on the screen. 00;24;11;18 - 00;24;37;06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then the very last piece of it, my favorite piece of it, the piece that I think makes it hybrid, is right. When you open the box, you see this QR code here and it just says welcome video. Scan me. And so we'll have students who are new to the open this up theoretically on their porch, on their patio or wherever they will scan it, and then it will take them to a video right here will be launching here during the course of this playlist, starting officially on December 2nd. 00;24;37;09 - 00;25;00;21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry A brand new bonus podcast. I'm going to be releasing it one time per week. Going to be over on my Patreon page, but a student give them an opportunity to to be a part of this. Give them a seat at the table to let them know that that this church is about the next generation and that matters. Again, it's no longer the day where we can just hand this off to to an unpaid intern. 00;25;00;24 - 00;25;11;10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hope that they keep our social media on life support. Like get after it. My friends, 2025 is going to be your year. We are here in the Hybrid Ministry show to help. Hybrid Ministry, Youth Ministry, Online Church,Youth Group Games, Youth Group Games for Large Groups indoor, Youth Group games for large groups, Youth Group Games indoor, Youth Ministry Games, Youth Ministry Games for Large Groups, Youth Group Games for Church, Youth Group Games for Church indoor, Youth Ministry Games Indoor, Student Ministry Games, Student Ministry Games indoor, Youth Group, Student Ministry, Youth Pastor, Church Games for Youth, digital discipleship ๐ŸŽง Become a โ€œHybrid Heroโ€
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

DESCRIPTION
Join us as we celebrate YOU in the "Year in Review for 2024" of the Hybrid Ministry show.
We'll celebrate some statistics, give some shout outs and share the "best of" clips from the 2024 Hybrid Ministry Show.

๐Ÿ““ SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/130

//BONUS Pod!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

//GIFlashback Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVHcraeNlC8&list=PLngXlSr64YaIui8LNpnlUI3yFAm9SGrLy&index=5&t=24s

//9 Best DYM Games
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

//No Prep Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=melm8BS97es&list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg&index=6&t=164s

//Youth Ministry Planning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQXsananwI&list=PLngXlSr64YaKjRX2ytO0tvzo8VnF6X03t&index=2&t=202s

//YouTube for Youth Ministry
https://youtu.be/ucvXfaVRJ6E?si=aNYGzB08DV6HHD3G

//Interview Series
https://youtu.be/D4vE7_ZqBpE?si=Hdk5X2KRn_SGr6HM

//Hybrid Tools
https://youtu.be/0np1d4Trcn0?si=7OkkCVCmY8Kvx6ha

//Meet Gen Alpha
https://youtu.be/DWYvsn2Kglk?si=FrnlS3C1xDHITyDb

//Social Challenge Framework
https://youtu.be/K_9Ch2KVNH0?si=THozXMi9NqzxJeUt

//Sidekick
https://youtu.be/lXI3ZKSvFY0?si=O-Em7X00hV9waXBE

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

//Interview with Nate Clason
https://youtu.be/uplCz1S1nz4?si=sne7LvdGvAgrKU72

//DYM Blog Post
https://blog.downloadyouthministry.com/introducing-hybrid-ministry-with-nick-clason/

โŒšTIMECODES
00:00 Welcome to 2025!
00:40 Some Stats & Wins
08:47 Personal Reflections
11:21 Thank You to our Amazing Guests!
14:45 Year in Review

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;36;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What a year it has been. From the incredible wins to the unforgettable moments, we have covered so much ground together. And in this special Year in Review episode, we on the Hybrid Ministry show, we are celebrating you, our amazing community with highlights and stats and the best of the hybrid minstrel show here in 2024. Make sure that you stick around because I've actually distilled a highlight reel of the 2024 Hybrid Mr. Podcast Best Moments.

00;00;36;14 - 00;01;08;04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This just might be your favorite episode yet. Welcome back, everybody to the Hybrid Minister Show. I as always, I'm your host, Nick Claassen. And today we're going to be taking a little bit of a trip down memory lane to celebrate the amazing year and this incredible journey that you and I have been on together. As we always have on this podcast, we're going to be exploring the cutting edge ministry ideas and equip you with the tools to dominate the digital space in 2025.

00;01;08;04 - 00;01;35;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's been a ride in 2024, and 2025 is only going to get better. And it is all thank you to you. You know, in 2024, we released a total of 52 audio podcast episodes because we release one every single Thursday. If you haven't liked or subscribed yet, wherever you listen to your podcast, it's free and it will show up in your podcast.

00;01;35;14 - 00;02;13;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Catcher. Every single Thursday. Why? Because youth ministry often happens for most youth ministries across the country on Wednesday, so who doesn't need a little jolt of energy to get the to get them through the rest of their week on Thursdays? But 52 episodes released because we have not missed a single Thursday in the two and a half or so plus years that we've been doing this podcast, I just want to share with you some some highlights of the top performing video over this last year was a video that I titled top five Last Minute Game Ideas.

00;02;13;17 - 00;02;36;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're watching here on YouTube, you can see some of the clips being overlaid with B-roll. We also over this year we've had nine different playlists that we've worked through. And so in each of those playlists, there's a obviously a top performing video in each of those playlists. And so our very first playlist we had was the 2024 On Demand masterclass.

00;02;36;22 - 00;02;56;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in that video, the five No Prep games was a part of the masterclass. And that video had to, 361 views. And so that was not only the number one video for the year, but obviously the number one in the masterclass playlist. We also dropped a bonus you might not notice we dropped a bonus playlist called the Friday Game Day Series.

00;02;56;28 - 00;03;28;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It released every Friday on YouTube, and, we covered nine of my favorite DRM games that I use. And so actually, if you had any of those or linked down below in this episode nine of my all time favorite do swim games, I'm giving them away to you completely for free. They are games that are on the, they're on the, they're on the website, the download Youth Ministry website, but I'm giving them away to you in this episode, 100% completely for free.

00;03;28;06 - 00;03;49;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the best performing video in that playlist was the GIF flashback episode. We also went through a playlist titled some of the Youth Pastor's Biggest Problems, and the number one episode in that was youth Ministry planning weekend services versus mid week programing. And actually in that episode we ranked youth ministry curriculum. Spoiler it's clear you should try it.

00;03;49;29 - 00;04;12;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, if you haven't yet, hit the link down below. Sidekick.tv/pricing if you've never signed up for anything with Diam or Calendar, use the code Hybrid Ministry ten. All one word for get 10% off your first order. We went through the YouTube for Youth Ministry Play lesson playlist in the best performing video, and that playlist was the flagship title episode YouTube for Youth Ministry.

00;04;12;22 - 00;04;33;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I then took you through some of the hybrid ministry tools and gear that you needed and the the best episode, and that the highest performing episode was the best gear for Digital Ministry in 2024. Must have tech accessories. Then over the summer, we went through an interview series and that episode, the one that was best in that playlist, was the solution to distractions.

00;04;33;07 - 00;04;56;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
At youth group, where I interviewed my good friend Josh Baldwin from Download Youth Ministry sidekick and co-leader. Then we went through Meat Generation Alpha, and in that playlist, the Ora and Bach versus Covenant Eyes. An honest youth pastor review was the highest performing video in that playlist. Finally, I went to my Social Challenge framework, which is the four things that I'm creating content with students and for students.

00;04;56;24 - 00;05;17;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I can't tell you, I think that might be my most popular playlist to date cumulatively, and just word of mouth and things I've heard from youth pastors on the street. So thank you so much for that feedback. But the best episode and that one was the third one, how churches can use social media ideas and examples. And finally, the sidekick more engaging youth ministry.

00;05;17;16 - 00;05;39;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, the best episode on that one was the live sidekick demo at the day of recording. And again, don't forget Code Hybrid Ministry ten. If you're interested in sidekick or link down below for how we are using to computers to run Sidekick and Pro Presenter seamlessly. To switch between the two, grab that black magic video switcher, it will make your life so much easier.

00;05;39;10 - 00;06;05;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now listen on YouTube. In total, we had 84,569 views, including our shorts content with 522 hours of watch time and 151 new subscribers. And in the youth ministry space is a fantastic number and I'm so thrilled, with those stats and with those numbers, simply because here I am in my guest bedroom late at night, recording a podcast into the back of my cell phone.

00;06;05;23 - 00;06;26;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, I have a real job, and I'm just doing this on the side with my own. Sort of like, equipment at home. And so thank you so much for your support. You might also not know this, but we have an audio only podcast. It drops anywhere you get your podcasts, including Spotify or Apple Music, not Apple Music, Apple Podcasts.

00;06;26;12 - 00;06;51;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we had almost 5000 downloads. Our biggest month was by far August, with almost nearly 1000 downloads in that month alone. And the number one downloaded audio podcast was my interview with my brother himself. The, YouTube video is linked down below in the show notes. But here's my interview with my brother, Nate Clayson. We talked about social media and how he's doing it in his context and in his youth ministry.

00;06;51;11 - 00;07;13;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So shout out to all of you again, thank you for an amazing year. Thank you for cruising through the stats with me. But what I wanted to do now is I wanted to share some of the best comments that we've gotten so far this year, and so far today. So from Jesse Johnson, first of all, he disagreed with my take on coffee and saying that Duncan was terrible, which I'll give him that it's not great.

00;07;13;00 - 00;07;30;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's a chain. But if I have to choose between that and Starbucks, that's what I'm stuck with. That's what I'm going to choose. But he said he said using polls in the welcome loop in sidekick is so easy, I can't believe I didn't think of it. Excited to try that one out. Claire said this in our best parenting app podcast.

00;07;30;01 - 00;07;49;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We use bark and it has been so wonderful for our family. We have an 11 year old, and it has been a lifesaver. We can monitor everything that she does online, block her from seeing certain websites, track her locations, etc. recently, she disabled the app because her and my husband, we both get notifications, so we went to our daughter immediately.

00;07;49;05 - 00;08;06;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It turns out she had disabled it because she wanted to watch South Park and Family Guy, as well as some other PG 13 movies. She said nope. Luckily, my husband and I got there before she could see anything inappropriate. We're grateful for bark to bark, for protecting our little girl from online dangers, and protecting her from innocence and inappropriate content.

00;08;06;29 - 00;08;26;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We love bark. Paul Turner said this about our, why youth ministry. Follow up isn't working. He said, this is great stuff. Lots of idea. I went and bought it. Talking about the box that I sold. I'll be sharing this with my newsletter. If you ever want to collab, let me know. Keep up the great work! And finally, a frequent guest here on this podcast.

00;08;26;05 - 00;08;59;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Over a year ago we did a Christmas episode together. He was also on one of my interview series over the summer, Eric with the K Williams. He said this is great. Anyone starting out needs to watch this and he's talking about my church social media from scratch episode in the hybrid ministry tools. Man, what an amazing year. But if I'm looking back and if I'm taking on some of my reflections and kind of key moments, I'd have to say it's two individuals, a guy by the name of Tim Kelly and Kendall Eaton, both, by the way, who happen to live in the state of Indiana.

00;08;59;05 - 00;09;21;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I don't think that the collab done this, but both of them at two different times. Tim actually reached out to me for some custom coaching this year, and that was a super fun and super, just a honestly rewarding process to walk through. And it showed me the value of custom coaching, because what I would have recommended to you in my guest bedroom and to the back of my cell phone camera was a little bit different.

00;09;21;14 - 00;09;38;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Once I started talking to Tim, which is why I believe custom coaching is valuable for anyone who's interested it. Link down below if you want to inquire about what that looks like. It is a very modest and a very cheap price for custom coaching. Or if you don't want like the one on one zoom type interaction and consider joining our Patreon page.

00;09;38;21 - 00;09;55;04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a dollar per week for a bonus episode, $4 per month, and I'll just share, stream of consciousness ideas. And you might not need the actual, like, coaching to do this, to do this, but you'll get to glean ideas. And then I was at the I 100 conference, a month ago or so, and Kendall walked up to me.

00;09;55;04 - 00;10;20;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
He said, man, thank you so much for your podcast is really helpful. It's really beneficial. I shared your playlist, your ideas with some of our social media people and is incredibly, incredibly helpful. And so it's just really rewarding for me to be able to do this and just put this content out into the world, out into the ether and get feedback from real, live human beings and real life people who've come to me, in different instances, in different cases.

00;10;20;02 - 00;10;39;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Tim, all virtually Kendall in person to say, man, thank you for what you're doing. It really is helpful to me to hear that. And so if if you know you have feedback or anything like that, I would obviously and always welcome that. Lines and channels of communication are completely open. You know, here on this podcast we have a couple of really cool benchmarks.

00;10;40;12 - 00;10;56;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just in the month of December, we launched a Patreon page, are selling a couple of products over there, as well as that monthly podcast that I'm talking about. And so that's a pretty fun kind of benchmark kind of new thing for us. And new endeavor. Would love to have you, check that out if that's something you're interested in.

00;10;56;27 - 00;11;19;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then also, back in August, I got the opportunity to start posting these podcasts to the Download a Youth Ministry blog. So if you're interested in that, you can go blog that download Youth ministry.com to check that out. And the link down below introduces my very first, post on there, actually, Josh Bowman, he introduced me and then I now am an author there on the doing blog.

00;11;19;06 - 00;11;48;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that's something that's really, really exciting. But speaking of Josh Bullman, as well as many of our other guests, I would like to thank my different guests that I had on this year. So Josh Boardman, of course, from down the youth ministry, we actually had him on twice. We talked once about sidekick and solutions to distractions and youth ministry and harnessing sidekick and utilizing and using cell phones, to not be a distraction, but instead to be something that you can use to help promote creativity and involvement engagement.

00;11;48;07 - 00;12;13;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then one episode, my all time, my favorite episode this entire year was there. Him and I sat down and he brought a service, a mock service order sheet that he put on, and then he said, hey, how can you hybridize this? How can you, make this, accessible to the people sitting online streaming at home? Man, both those episodes go to either one of them now, but that was one of my all time favorite episodes.

00;12;13;11 - 00;12;31;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I had, Eric with a K on when we talked about better event for promotion, and that was actually a collaborative episode. So the first part of that interview was on his channel, Practical Youth Ministry Tips, and the second part was over here on my channel. And so if you only listen to on my channel, you only heard really half of that conversation.

00;12;31;24 - 00;12;53;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Of course, I mentioned earlier, my brother, we had David Carpenter, youth pastor from Kentucky, my former resident, Caleb Fly mule, fly wheel, Miata, and again, Zeus take on what we've been doing. And youth ministry and student ministry. He worked with and for me for an entire year in this sort of hybrid, infrastructure. So if you want to hear an honest take here from him.

00;12;53;00 - 00;13;18;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we had a really special episode dropped this year, our 100th episode. And so for our 100th episode, I went all the way back to the beginning, even before this podcast started. And I talked about, when I started at church in Covid. And so I interviewed my current boss now and my boss then, Darren Sutton, his son, who is our video editor for much of what we did, for our digital online presence, for a show that we created on YouTube called unscripted.

00;13;18;10 - 00;13;44;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So his son Isaac was on the show. And then I also interviewed Sam Voss, good friend of mine and host of the unscripted show and podcast Super Fun Time. But hey, listen, this year, like, I'm wondering if, as you know, I'm recapping and recounting 2024 if as you got your eyes set on 2025, what are you doing to have a more hybrid, more digital, more creative youth ministry?

00;13;44;03 - 00;14;14;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because as my friend and boss Darren says, digital is no longer a luxury. It is now a necessity. And so that's what we're trying to accomplish again over on our Patreon page. If that's something that you're interested in, where I will talk about what we're doing on a week to week basis in our youth ministry over on Patreon, I would love to have you just come check out, listen in on what we're doing, and hopefully maybe just that $4 a month is an investment, enough to help kickstart and spur on your own creativity.

00;14;14;16 - 00;14;38;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We love to have you join us over there. It's super fun. Community. There's all sorts of perks as well. But hey, thank you so much for sticking around for this entire episode. And as promised, at the very top right here, we have an amazing, recap overlay. I went back through every single episode, and I pulled out some of my favorite snippets and clips from the last year.

00;14;38;16 - 00;15;00;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So enjoy this. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid. Okay, so there are like three kind of core tenets philosophical things that you guys need to understand when it comes to time management. These aren't tips. These aren't tactics. These are things that you have to understand first. And these have to inform the tips and the tactics.

00;15;00;10 - 00;15;24;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Know my tips. No amount of tactics will be helpful to you if you don't understand these things. So core tenet number one is that you are 100% responsible for your time. The reason this matters is because this is the difference between is that kid and kid in ministry or is that kid and youth ministry? And if we're talking about youth group numbers and youth group attendance, we need to understand Gen Alpha, but we also need to understand Gen Z.

00;15;24;19 - 00;15;47;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The kicker on this is that Gen Z, really the youngest Gen Z that we have, is going to be freshmen and sophomores in high school. And now after that, they're waiting on up there in college already, and they are entering the workforce. What should you be? Gen one, number one, start posting longform to YouTube, get a DUI gym membership.

00;15;47;03 - 00;16;14;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it looks very different in 2024 and frankly, beyond because of generation Z and now Generation Alpha saving up Z into the adult ministry, conversation Alpha into the youth ministry conversation, it makes me wonder if the future is already here. I think it might be Megan and all her friends, and she brought a lot of her friends to youth group, so this, like kind of mattered because, like, she could bring two, 3 or 4 different friends with her.

00;16;14;00 - 00;16;35;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The youth group, they had show choir and it met every single Wednesday night. And so that made Wednesday nights a really tricky night to do youth ministry. But Brandon, the only other boy in the youth ministry, had Tuesday night and Thursday night karate. And then of course, Friday nights are like the football game. Like for most towns USA.

00;16;35;23 - 00;16;58;18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's when the high school team is playing his football game. So that really left us with Monday night as an option, which but the pro of, of Wednesday night to me is probably the your most traditional youth night. It's been what, a lot of churches, a lot of youth groups have done for years. And like down here where I live in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth area, a lot of churches do.

00;16;58;18 - 00;17;22;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Wednesday night, and I came from Chicago. Not many churches did did Wednesday night. And that's just kind of a cultural thing, right. But the pro to me is it's like a midweek kind of jolt of energy. Well. Hey, everyone, welcome to Friday Game Day. In this episode, link down below 100% completely for free. I have for you back to school.

00;17;22;15 - 00;18;04;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Bingo. And if you're like, I don't need back to school bingo, it's not back to school yet. Well, then head on over to download Youth ministry.com and you can grab my end of the school year. Bingo! Well, that idea of course, is go hybrid. And listen, I'm not saying to completely abandon your in-person meetings. In fact, that would go completely against the hybrid strategy because hybrid is melding together of your digital presence in your in-person presence and making it one in the same, but linked right here on screen and down in the description or wherever you're getting this or hybrid ministry X, y, Z/089 is my 100% completely free strategy guide, is my e-book on

00;18;04;03 - 00;18;32;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
how I build out a full fledged digital strategy. It's mostly focusing on a done for you social media strategy, but it's anchored by the, long form teaching video, which takes place and is posted weekly every time we teach pre filmed messages on YouTube direct to Camera Pro. Number one, of course, is like develop mentally splitting middle school and high school seems to be appropriate.

00;18;32;09 - 00;19;07;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In my over a year journey on this podcast, I have grown to love YouTube. When I started with social media and what I started trying to reach students on the internet, YouTube was a distant kind of far strategy that was on my radar. Like it was like, I'll post some videos over there. But in my time since that, which was probably five, six, seven years ago, I have come to love YouTube and I am more and more convinced that YouTube, in addition to all other digital and social mediums that we can effectively reach students with.

00;19;07;19 - 00;19;30;04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But YouTube is one of the best resources out there. You can always say down below in the description are links. And so for every single video that I post on my Student Ministries YouTube channel, we post two links. The first link is a Next Steps digital type Connect card, and I think about your own viewing habits on social media.

00;19;30;04 - 00;19;55;08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When you're on there, you're not necessarily on there to just, be informed, right? Link down below is a complete log of every single piece of gear that I have built in the studio.

Isaac Sutton
All of the students in the room who are watching unscripted have bingo cards that coordinated to stuff that know yes, digital integration is not a luxury, it's a necessity.

00;19;55;10 - 00;20;19;09
Sam Vos
It was probably I probably felt God's hand more in like my career, my life in that moment than a lot of other moments.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Unscripted played a really major role in like the catalyst to especially my podcast and everything like that. I would say the reason for that is simply realizing and understand that students live online.

Darren Sutton
There's a lot I've messed up in my years of youth ministry, but that is one thing that I'm really proud of.

00;20;19;13 - 00;20;30;14
Darren Sutton
Like in the middle of the pandemic, there was not a blank ministry kept going. We're going to try something different.

00;20;30;17 - 00;20;53;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you should use your cell phone to your advantage.

Caleb "Flywheel" Maeda
I think. I think the things that have been working the most has been getting students involved on the page, not even in terms of like on the page traction as much as like in-person traction.

David Carpenter
We speak to our students on Wednesday nights for about 18 to 22 minutes. Sunday morning there's a, you know, 28 to 32 minutes.

00;20;53;14 - 00;21;24;18
David Carpenter
And we think they probably remember everything we said, right? Like they they wrote the notes, they've got it and they've already applied every one of these points. You know, it was alliterative. And remember my great illustration. And one, you know, when when we're including things that are reflecting on the teachings, I think that reinforces and reminds those who were in the room.

Nate Clason
and seeing you, like, super passionate about it and watching your podcast really, honestly like, and your different videos and clips on like TikTok and stuff to sign it

Josh Boldman | Download Youth Ministry & The Greatest programming specialist in America
every single time you had to type in the password.

00;21;24;19 - 00;21;47;00
Josh Boldman | Download Youth Ministry & The Greatest programming specialist in America
It was a great and I, I got into trouble. One time I was in front of our I like our whole camp, like it was like a thousand kids, right? And sidekick was running and then it crashed and then they had to reopen it. And they're like, from the booth they yell out, what's the password? And in front of 1000 students, I had to say a password into the microphone.

00;21;47;00 - 00;22;09;14
Josh Boldman | Download Youth Ministry & The Greatest programming specialist in America
And here's the best part. You ready for this? It was the same password for everything. Like my my bank account and, all this stuff. So, like, we need to not be afraid of what our students want, and we need to not be afraid of them expressing their opinion. And we need to not be afraid of them disagreeing with each other or with us.

00;22;09;14 - 00;22;36;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Better event promotion as well as a holistic digital and social media approach for your church and your youth ministry. And this is actually part two. Part one is linked right here at the top of the screen over on another channel, because we're doing a massive mashup collab. And I am joined today by my friend Eric with the K petition, because in just a minute, we're gonna look at the Bark vs Aura

00;22;36;20 - 00;23;01;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But Aura has parental controls and they are now in partnership with circle. You might remember Circle by Disney, the first video idea that we do it's called Drafts challenge idea number two that we do in our church and in our student ministry is a game called name of the game is seven Questions. A man on the street named transition stab video is where it starts with the video of something else.

00;23;01;20 - 00;23;22;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the most popular one I can think about is like a a bull, ramming a guy during the running of the bulls. And then all these people cutting right there to jumping into the back of some chairs and millennial churchgoers said this. They said hybrid church just as much as physical church will be a get this good fit for them.

00;23;22;26 - 00;23;44;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One of the things about five minute countdowns that I actually hate, and I know that as talking to a guy who works for Download Youth Ministry, and that's where a lot of the money is made and a lot of five minute countdowns are sold. I actually prefer, which, by the way, talking to you right now, let this be an unofficial sidekick feature request.

00;23;44;24 - 00;24;11;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. Because right now in sidekick, you can, you can loop your announcements, right? You can loop some, like, graphic slides. And I actually prefer that to be the five minute countdown with just the five minute countdown overlaid in the corner, so that all of the announcements that you're announcing and trying to let your students know about are happening, is being seen on the screen.

00;24;11;18 - 00;24;37;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the very last piece of it, my favorite piece of it, the piece that I think makes it hybrid, is right. When you open the box, you see this QR code here and it just says welcome video. Scan me. And so we'll have students who are new to the open this up theoretically on their porch, on their patio or wherever they will scan it, and then it will take them to a video right here will be launching here during the course of this playlist, starting officially on December 2nd.

00;24;37;09 - 00;25;00;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
A brand new bonus podcast. I'm going to be releasing it one time per week. Going to be over on my Patreon page, but a student give them an opportunity to to be a part of this. Give them a seat at the table to let them know that that this church is about the next generation and that matters. Again, it's no longer the day where we can just hand this off to to an unpaid intern.

00;25;00;24 - 00;25;11;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hope that they keep our social media on life support. Like get after it. My friends, 2025 is going to be your year. We are here in the Hybrid Ministry show to help.

]]> ๐ŸŽง Become a โ€œHybrid Heroโ€
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

DESCRIPTION
Join us as we celebrate YOU in the "Year in Review for 2024" of the Hybrid Ministry show.
We'll celebrate some statistics, give some shout outs and share the "best of" clips from the 2024 Hybrid Ministry Show.

๐Ÿ““ SHOWNOTES
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/130

//BONUS Pod!
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

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

//GIFlashback Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVHcraeNlC8&list=PLngXlSr64YaIui8LNpnlUI3yFAm9SGrLy&index=5&t=24s

//9 Best DYM Games
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

//No Prep Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=melm8BS97es&list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg&index=6&t=164s

//Youth Ministry Planning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQXsananwI&list=PLngXlSr64YaKjRX2ytO0tvzo8VnF6X03t&index=2&t=202s

//YouTube for Youth Ministry
https://youtu.be/ucvXfaVRJ6E?si=aNYGzB08DV6HHD3G

//Interview Series
https://youtu.be/D4vE7_ZqBpE?si=Hdk5X2KRn_SGr6HM

//Hybrid Tools
https://youtu.be/0np1d4Trcn0?si=7OkkCVCmY8Kvx6ha

//Meet Gen Alpha
https://youtu.be/DWYvsn2Kglk?si=FrnlS3C1xDHITyDb

//Social Challenge Framework
https://youtu.be/K_9Ch2KVNH0?si=THozXMi9NqzxJeUt

//Sidekick
https://youtu.be/lXI3ZKSvFY0?si=O-Em7X00hV9waXBE

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

//Interview with Nate Clason
https://youtu.be/uplCz1S1nz4?si=sne7LvdGvAgrKU72

//DYM Blog Post
https://blog.downloadyouthministry.com/introducing-hybrid-ministry-with-nick-clason/

โŒšTIMECODES
00:00 Welcome to 2025!
00:40 Some Stats & Wins
08:47 Personal Reflections
11:21 Thank You to our Amazing Guests!
14:45 Year in Review

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;36;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
What a year it has been. From the incredible wins to the unforgettable moments, we have covered so much ground together. And in this special Year in Review episode, we on the Hybrid Ministry show, we are celebrating you, our amazing community with highlights and stats and the best of the hybrid minstrel show here in 2024. Make sure that you stick around because I've actually distilled a highlight reel of the 2024 Hybrid Mr. Podcast Best Moments.

00;00;36;14 - 00;01;08;04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
This just might be your favorite episode yet. Welcome back, everybody to the Hybrid Minister Show. I as always, I'm your host, Nick Claassen. And today we're going to be taking a little bit of a trip down memory lane to celebrate the amazing year and this incredible journey that you and I have been on together. As we always have on this podcast, we're going to be exploring the cutting edge ministry ideas and equip you with the tools to dominate the digital space in 2025.

00;01;08;04 - 00;01;35;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's been a ride in 2024, and 2025 is only going to get better. And it is all thank you to you. You know, in 2024, we released a total of 52 audio podcast episodes because we release one every single Thursday. If you haven't liked or subscribed yet, wherever you listen to your podcast, it's free and it will show up in your podcast.

00;01;35;14 - 00;02;13;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Catcher. Every single Thursday. Why? Because youth ministry often happens for most youth ministries across the country on Wednesday, so who doesn't need a little jolt of energy to get the to get them through the rest of their week on Thursdays? But 52 episodes released because we have not missed a single Thursday in the two and a half or so plus years that we've been doing this podcast, I just want to share with you some some highlights of the top performing video over this last year was a video that I titled top five Last Minute Game Ideas.

00;02;13;17 - 00;02;36;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
If you're watching here on YouTube, you can see some of the clips being overlaid with B-roll. We also over this year we've had nine different playlists that we've worked through. And so in each of those playlists, there's a obviously a top performing video in each of those playlists. And so our very first playlist we had was the 2024 On Demand masterclass.

00;02;36;22 - 00;02;56;28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And in that video, the five No Prep games was a part of the masterclass. And that video had to, 361 views. And so that was not only the number one video for the year, but obviously the number one in the masterclass playlist. We also dropped a bonus you might not notice we dropped a bonus playlist called the Friday Game Day Series.

00;02;56;28 - 00;03;28;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It released every Friday on YouTube, and, we covered nine of my favorite DRM games that I use. And so actually, if you had any of those or linked down below in this episode nine of my all time favorite do swim games, I'm giving them away to you completely for free. They are games that are on the, they're on the, they're on the website, the download Youth Ministry website, but I'm giving them away to you in this episode, 100% completely for free.

00;03;28;06 - 00;03;49;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the best performing video in that playlist was the GIF flashback episode. We also went through a playlist titled some of the Youth Pastor's Biggest Problems, and the number one episode in that was youth Ministry planning weekend services versus mid week programing. And actually in that episode we ranked youth ministry curriculum. Spoiler it's clear you should try it.

00;03;49;29 - 00;04;12;22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In fact, if you haven't yet, hit the link down below. Sidekick.tv/pricing if you've never signed up for anything with Diam or Calendar, use the code Hybrid Ministry ten. All one word for get 10% off your first order. We went through the YouTube for Youth Ministry Play lesson playlist in the best performing video, and that playlist was the flagship title episode YouTube for Youth Ministry.

00;04;12;22 - 00;04;33;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I then took you through some of the hybrid ministry tools and gear that you needed and the the best episode, and that the highest performing episode was the best gear for Digital Ministry in 2024. Must have tech accessories. Then over the summer, we went through an interview series and that episode, the one that was best in that playlist, was the solution to distractions.

00;04;33;07 - 00;04;56;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
At youth group, where I interviewed my good friend Josh Baldwin from Download Youth Ministry sidekick and co-leader. Then we went through Meat Generation Alpha, and in that playlist, the Ora and Bach versus Covenant Eyes. An honest youth pastor review was the highest performing video in that playlist. Finally, I went to my Social Challenge framework, which is the four things that I'm creating content with students and for students.

00;04;56;24 - 00;05;17;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I can't tell you, I think that might be my most popular playlist to date cumulatively, and just word of mouth and things I've heard from youth pastors on the street. So thank you so much for that feedback. But the best episode and that one was the third one, how churches can use social media ideas and examples. And finally, the sidekick more engaging youth ministry.

00;05;17;16 - 00;05;39;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, the best episode on that one was the live sidekick demo at the day of recording. And again, don't forget Code Hybrid Ministry ten. If you're interested in sidekick or link down below for how we are using to computers to run Sidekick and Pro Presenter seamlessly. To switch between the two, grab that black magic video switcher, it will make your life so much easier.

00;05;39;10 - 00;06;05;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now listen on YouTube. In total, we had 84,569 views, including our shorts content with 522 hours of watch time and 151 new subscribers. And in the youth ministry space is a fantastic number and I'm so thrilled, with those stats and with those numbers, simply because here I am in my guest bedroom late at night, recording a podcast into the back of my cell phone.

00;06;05;23 - 00;06;26;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, I have a real job, and I'm just doing this on the side with my own. Sort of like, equipment at home. And so thank you so much for your support. You might also not know this, but we have an audio only podcast. It drops anywhere you get your podcasts, including Spotify or Apple Music, not Apple Music, Apple Podcasts.

00;06;26;12 - 00;06;51;11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we had almost 5000 downloads. Our biggest month was by far August, with almost nearly 1000 downloads in that month alone. And the number one downloaded audio podcast was my interview with my brother himself. The, YouTube video is linked down below in the show notes. But here's my interview with my brother, Nate Clayson. We talked about social media and how he's doing it in his context and in his youth ministry.

00;06;51;11 - 00;07;13;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So shout out to all of you again, thank you for an amazing year. Thank you for cruising through the stats with me. But what I wanted to do now is I wanted to share some of the best comments that we've gotten so far this year, and so far today. So from Jesse Johnson, first of all, he disagreed with my take on coffee and saying that Duncan was terrible, which I'll give him that it's not great.

00;07;13;00 - 00;07;30;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's a chain. But if I have to choose between that and Starbucks, that's what I'm stuck with. That's what I'm going to choose. But he said he said using polls in the welcome loop in sidekick is so easy, I can't believe I didn't think of it. Excited to try that one out. Claire said this in our best parenting app podcast.

00;07;30;01 - 00;07;49;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We use bark and it has been so wonderful for our family. We have an 11 year old, and it has been a lifesaver. We can monitor everything that she does online, block her from seeing certain websites, track her locations, etc. recently, she disabled the app because her and my husband, we both get notifications, so we went to our daughter immediately.

00;07;49;05 - 00;08;06;29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It turns out she had disabled it because she wanted to watch South Park and Family Guy, as well as some other PG 13 movies. She said nope. Luckily, my husband and I got there before she could see anything inappropriate. We're grateful for bark to bark, for protecting our little girl from online dangers, and protecting her from innocence and inappropriate content.

00;08;06;29 - 00;08;26;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We love bark. Paul Turner said this about our, why youth ministry. Follow up isn't working. He said, this is great stuff. Lots of idea. I went and bought it. Talking about the box that I sold. I'll be sharing this with my newsletter. If you ever want to collab, let me know. Keep up the great work! And finally, a frequent guest here on this podcast.

00;08;26;05 - 00;08;59;05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Over a year ago we did a Christmas episode together. He was also on one of my interview series over the summer, Eric with the K Williams. He said this is great. Anyone starting out needs to watch this and he's talking about my church social media from scratch episode in the hybrid ministry tools. Man, what an amazing year. But if I'm looking back and if I'm taking on some of my reflections and kind of key moments, I'd have to say it's two individuals, a guy by the name of Tim Kelly and Kendall Eaton, both, by the way, who happen to live in the state of Indiana.

00;08;59;05 - 00;09;21;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I don't think that the collab done this, but both of them at two different times. Tim actually reached out to me for some custom coaching this year, and that was a super fun and super, just a honestly rewarding process to walk through. And it showed me the value of custom coaching, because what I would have recommended to you in my guest bedroom and to the back of my cell phone camera was a little bit different.

00;09;21;14 - 00;09;38;14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Once I started talking to Tim, which is why I believe custom coaching is valuable for anyone who's interested it. Link down below if you want to inquire about what that looks like. It is a very modest and a very cheap price for custom coaching. Or if you don't want like the one on one zoom type interaction and consider joining our Patreon page.

00;09;38;21 - 00;09;55;04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's a dollar per week for a bonus episode, $4 per month, and I'll just share, stream of consciousness ideas. And you might not need the actual, like, coaching to do this, to do this, but you'll get to glean ideas. And then I was at the I 100 conference, a month ago or so, and Kendall walked up to me.

00;09;55;04 - 00;10;20;02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
He said, man, thank you so much for your podcast is really helpful. It's really beneficial. I shared your playlist, your ideas with some of our social media people and is incredibly, incredibly helpful. And so it's just really rewarding for me to be able to do this and just put this content out into the world, out into the ether and get feedback from real, live human beings and real life people who've come to me, in different instances, in different cases.

00;10;20;02 - 00;10;39;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Tim, all virtually Kendall in person to say, man, thank you for what you're doing. It really is helpful to me to hear that. And so if if you know you have feedback or anything like that, I would obviously and always welcome that. Lines and channels of communication are completely open. You know, here on this podcast we have a couple of really cool benchmarks.

00;10;40;12 - 00;10;56;27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Just in the month of December, we launched a Patreon page, are selling a couple of products over there, as well as that monthly podcast that I'm talking about. And so that's a pretty fun kind of benchmark kind of new thing for us. And new endeavor. Would love to have you, check that out if that's something you're interested in.

00;10;56;27 - 00;11;19;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then also, back in August, I got the opportunity to start posting these podcasts to the Download a Youth Ministry blog. So if you're interested in that, you can go blog that download Youth ministry.com to check that out. And the link down below introduces my very first, post on there, actually, Josh Bowman, he introduced me and then I now am an author there on the doing blog.

00;11;19;06 - 00;11;48;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that's something that's really, really exciting. But speaking of Josh Bullman, as well as many of our other guests, I would like to thank my different guests that I had on this year. So Josh Boardman, of course, from down the youth ministry, we actually had him on twice. We talked once about sidekick and solutions to distractions and youth ministry and harnessing sidekick and utilizing and using cell phones, to not be a distraction, but instead to be something that you can use to help promote creativity and involvement engagement.

00;11;48;07 - 00;12;13;09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But then one episode, my all time, my favorite episode this entire year was there. Him and I sat down and he brought a service, a mock service order sheet that he put on, and then he said, hey, how can you hybridize this? How can you, make this, accessible to the people sitting online streaming at home? Man, both those episodes go to either one of them now, but that was one of my all time favorite episodes.

00;12;13;11 - 00;12;31;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I had, Eric with a K on when we talked about better event for promotion, and that was actually a collaborative episode. So the first part of that interview was on his channel, Practical Youth Ministry Tips, and the second part was over here on my channel. And so if you only listen to on my channel, you only heard really half of that conversation.

00;12;31;24 - 00;12;53;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Of course, I mentioned earlier, my brother, we had David Carpenter, youth pastor from Kentucky, my former resident, Caleb Fly mule, fly wheel, Miata, and again, Zeus take on what we've been doing. And youth ministry and student ministry. He worked with and for me for an entire year in this sort of hybrid, infrastructure. So if you want to hear an honest take here from him.

00;12;53;00 - 00;13;18;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then we had a really special episode dropped this year, our 100th episode. And so for our 100th episode, I went all the way back to the beginning, even before this podcast started. And I talked about, when I started at church in Covid. And so I interviewed my current boss now and my boss then, Darren Sutton, his son, who is our video editor for much of what we did, for our digital online presence, for a show that we created on YouTube called unscripted.

00;13;18;10 - 00;13;44;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So his son Isaac was on the show. And then I also interviewed Sam Voss, good friend of mine and host of the unscripted show and podcast Super Fun Time. But hey, listen, this year, like, I'm wondering if, as you know, I'm recapping and recounting 2024 if as you got your eyes set on 2025, what are you doing to have a more hybrid, more digital, more creative youth ministry?

00;13;44;03 - 00;14;14;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Because as my friend and boss Darren says, digital is no longer a luxury. It is now a necessity. And so that's what we're trying to accomplish again over on our Patreon page. If that's something that you're interested in, where I will talk about what we're doing on a week to week basis in our youth ministry over on Patreon, I would love to have you just come check out, listen in on what we're doing, and hopefully maybe just that $4 a month is an investment, enough to help kickstart and spur on your own creativity.

00;14;14;16 - 00;14;38;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
We love to have you join us over there. It's super fun. Community. There's all sorts of perks as well. But hey, thank you so much for sticking around for this entire episode. And as promised, at the very top right here, we have an amazing, recap overlay. I went back through every single episode, and I pulled out some of my favorite snippets and clips from the last year.

00;14;38;16 - 00;15;00;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So enjoy this. And as always, my friends, don't forget to stay hybrid. Okay, so there are like three kind of core tenets philosophical things that you guys need to understand when it comes to time management. These aren't tips. These aren't tactics. These are things that you have to understand first. And these have to inform the tips and the tactics.

00;15;00;10 - 00;15;24;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Know my tips. No amount of tactics will be helpful to you if you don't understand these things. So core tenet number one is that you are 100% responsible for your time. The reason this matters is because this is the difference between is that kid and kid in ministry or is that kid and youth ministry? And if we're talking about youth group numbers and youth group attendance, we need to understand Gen Alpha, but we also need to understand Gen Z.

00;15;24;19 - 00;15;47;01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The kicker on this is that Gen Z, really the youngest Gen Z that we have, is going to be freshmen and sophomores in high school. And now after that, they're waiting on up there in college already, and they are entering the workforce. What should you be? Gen one, number one, start posting longform to YouTube, get a DUI gym membership.

00;15;47;03 - 00;16;14;00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And it looks very different in 2024 and frankly, beyond because of generation Z and now Generation Alpha saving up Z into the adult ministry, conversation Alpha into the youth ministry conversation, it makes me wonder if the future is already here. I think it might be Megan and all her friends, and she brought a lot of her friends to youth group, so this, like kind of mattered because, like, she could bring two, 3 or 4 different friends with her.

00;16;14;00 - 00;16;35;17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The youth group, they had show choir and it met every single Wednesday night. And so that made Wednesday nights a really tricky night to do youth ministry. But Brandon, the only other boy in the youth ministry, had Tuesday night and Thursday night karate. And then of course, Friday nights are like the football game. Like for most towns USA.

00;16;35;23 - 00;16;58;18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's when the high school team is playing his football game. So that really left us with Monday night as an option, which but the pro of, of Wednesday night to me is probably the your most traditional youth night. It's been what, a lot of churches, a lot of youth groups have done for years. And like down here where I live in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth area, a lot of churches do.

00;16;58;18 - 00;17;22;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Wednesday night, and I came from Chicago. Not many churches did did Wednesday night. And that's just kind of a cultural thing, right. But the pro to me is it's like a midweek kind of jolt of energy. Well. Hey, everyone, welcome to Friday Game Day. In this episode, link down below 100% completely for free. I have for you back to school.

00;17;22;15 - 00;18;04;03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Bingo. And if you're like, I don't need back to school bingo, it's not back to school yet. Well, then head on over to download Youth ministry.com and you can grab my end of the school year. Bingo! Well, that idea of course, is go hybrid. And listen, I'm not saying to completely abandon your in-person meetings. In fact, that would go completely against the hybrid strategy because hybrid is melding together of your digital presence in your in-person presence and making it one in the same, but linked right here on screen and down in the description or wherever you're getting this or hybrid ministry X, y, Z/089 is my 100% completely free strategy guide, is my e-book on

00;18;04;03 - 00;18;32;07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
how I build out a full fledged digital strategy. It's mostly focusing on a done for you social media strategy, but it's anchored by the, long form teaching video, which takes place and is posted weekly every time we teach pre filmed messages on YouTube direct to Camera Pro. Number one, of course, is like develop mentally splitting middle school and high school seems to be appropriate.

00;18;32;09 - 00;19;07;16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In my over a year journey on this podcast, I have grown to love YouTube. When I started with social media and what I started trying to reach students on the internet, YouTube was a distant kind of far strategy that was on my radar. Like it was like, I'll post some videos over there. But in my time since that, which was probably five, six, seven years ago, I have come to love YouTube and I am more and more convinced that YouTube, in addition to all other digital and social mediums that we can effectively reach students with.

00;19;07;19 - 00;19;30;04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But YouTube is one of the best resources out there. You can always say down below in the description are links. And so for every single video that I post on my Student Ministries YouTube channel, we post two links. The first link is a Next Steps digital type Connect card, and I think about your own viewing habits on social media.

00;19;30;04 - 00;19;55;08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When you're on there, you're not necessarily on there to just, be informed, right? Link down below is a complete log of every single piece of gear that I have built in the studio.

Isaac Sutton
All of the students in the room who are watching unscripted have bingo cards that coordinated to stuff that know yes, digital integration is not a luxury, it's a necessity.

00;19;55;10 - 00;20;19;09
Sam Vos
It was probably I probably felt God's hand more in like my career, my life in that moment than a lot of other moments.

Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Unscripted played a really major role in like the catalyst to especially my podcast and everything like that. I would say the reason for that is simply realizing and understand that students live online.

Darren Sutton
There's a lot I've messed up in my years of youth ministry, but that is one thing that I'm really proud of.

00;20;19;13 - 00;20;30;14
Darren Sutton
Like in the middle of the pandemic, there was not a blank ministry kept going. We're going to try something different.

00;20;30;17 - 00;20;53;12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you should use your cell phone to your advantage.

Caleb "Flywheel" Maeda
I think. I think the things that have been working the most has been getting students involved on the page, not even in terms of like on the page traction as much as like in-person traction.

David Carpenter
We speak to our students on Wednesday nights for about 18 to 22 minutes. Sunday morning there's a, you know, 28 to 32 minutes.

00;20;53;14 - 00;21;24;18
David Carpenter
And we think they probably remember everything we said, right? Like they they wrote the notes, they've got it and they've already applied every one of these points. You know, it was alliterative. And remember my great illustration. And one, you know, when when we're including things that are reflecting on the teachings, I think that reinforces and reminds those who were in the room.

Nate Clason
and seeing you, like, super passionate about it and watching your podcast really, honestly like, and your different videos and clips on like TikTok and stuff to sign it

Josh Boldman | Download Youth Ministry & The Greatest programming specialist in America
every single time you had to type in the password.

00;21;24;19 - 00;21;47;00
Josh Boldman | Download Youth Ministry & The Greatest programming specialist in America
It was a great and I, I got into trouble. One time I was in front of our I like our whole camp, like it was like a thousand kids, right? And sidekick was running and then it crashed and then they had to reopen it. And they're like, from the booth they yell out, what's the password? And in front of 1000 students, I had to say a password into the microphone.

00;21;47;00 - 00;22;09;14
Josh Boldman | Download Youth Ministry & The Greatest programming specialist in America
And here's the best part. You ready for this? It was the same password for everything. Like my my bank account and, all this stuff. So, like, we need to not be afraid of what our students want, and we need to not be afraid of them expressing their opinion. And we need to not be afraid of them disagreeing with each other or with us.

00;22;09;14 - 00;22;36;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Better event promotion as well as a holistic digital and social media approach for your church and your youth ministry. And this is actually part two. Part one is linked right here at the top of the screen over on another channel, because we're doing a massive mashup collab. And I am joined today by my friend Eric with the K petition, because in just a minute, we're gonna look at the Bark vs Aura

00;22;36;20 - 00;23;01;20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But Aura has parental controls and they are now in partnership with circle. You might remember Circle by Disney, the first video idea that we do it's called Drafts challenge idea number two that we do in our church and in our student ministry is a game called name of the game is seven Questions. A man on the street named transition stab video is where it starts with the video of something else.

00;23;01;20 - 00;23;22;24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the most popular one I can think about is like a a bull, ramming a guy during the running of the bulls. And then all these people cutting right there to jumping into the back of some chairs and millennial churchgoers said this. They said hybrid church just as much as physical church will be a get this good fit for them.

00;23;22;26 - 00;23;44;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
One of the things about five minute countdowns that I actually hate, and I know that as talking to a guy who works for Download Youth Ministry, and that's where a lot of the money is made and a lot of five minute countdowns are sold. I actually prefer, which, by the way, talking to you right now, let this be an unofficial sidekick feature request.

00;23;44;24 - 00;24;11;13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Yeah. Because right now in sidekick, you can, you can loop your announcements, right? You can loop some, like, graphic slides. And I actually prefer that to be the five minute countdown with just the five minute countdown overlaid in the corner, so that all of the announcements that you're announcing and trying to let your students know about are happening, is being seen on the screen.

00;24;11;18 - 00;24;37;06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then the very last piece of it, my favorite piece of it, the piece that I think makes it hybrid, is right. When you open the box, you see this QR code here and it just says welcome video. Scan me. And so we'll have students who are new to the open this up theoretically on their porch, on their patio or wherever they will scan it, and then it will take them to a video right here will be launching here during the course of this playlist, starting officially on December 2nd.

00;24;37;09 - 00;25;00;21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
A brand new bonus podcast. I'm going to be releasing it one time per week. Going to be over on my Patreon page, but a student give them an opportunity to to be a part of this. Give them a seat at the table to let them know that that this church is about the next generation and that matters. Again, it's no longer the day where we can just hand this off to to an unpaid intern.

00;25;00;24 - 00;25;11;10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Hope that they keep our social media on life support. Like get after it. My friends, 2025 is going to be your year. We are here in the Hybrid Ministry show to help.

]]> Episode 122: Why Your Youth Ministry Follow-Up Isn't Working https://www.hybridministry.xyz/122 7e9ff220-abb7-4e9c-ae3d-6d53c625a0be Thu, 07 Nov 2024 07:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 122 Why Your Youth Ministry Follow-Up Isn't Working full Nick Clason New Visitor to your Youth Group? Yay! Now what? How do you follow-up in a way that doesn't feel weird or creepy? Good question! Let's explore it together! 14:59 no THE ULTIMATE GUEST FOLLOW UP BOX https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront DESCRIPTION New Visitor to your Youth Group? Yay! Now what? How do you follow-up in a way that doesn't feel weird or creepy? Good question! Let's explore it together! SHOWNOTES http://www.hybridministry.xyz/122 //THE ULTIMATE GUEST FOLLOW UP BOX https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront //OUR WELCOME VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neb34eYasCY //EPISODE 100 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0L-Dxhs7cI ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 -------------- ๐ŸŽ‰ FREE STUFF ๐ŸŽ‰ 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 -------------- ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU! Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00 Better First Time Guest Followup 01:31 Guest Follow-Up Gone Hybrid 02:42 Where the Idea Began 05:08 Mailing Boxes Begins! 06:47 The Ultimate Welcome Box -------------- TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you have a 00:00:01:00 - 00:00:03:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry brand new student or 00:00:03:05 - 00:00:04:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry person to your church. 00:00:04:20 - 00:00:05:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hooray! 00:00:05:01 - 00:00:06:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Congratulations! That's 00:00:06:08 - 00:00:07:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry so exciting. 00:00:08:00 - 00:00:09:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now how do 00:00:09:24 - 00:00:14:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry we make sure that they return well, without seeming 00:00:14:29 - 00:00:20:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry weird or creepy or old and out of touch? 00:00:20:06 - 00:00:35:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So here's the thing. We all want our students to attend our church. We want them also to feel comfortable and then hopefully ultimately find a home at our church or in our group or with our student ministry. 00:00:35:23 - 00:01:01:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so a visitor is great, but a returning guest even better. See in this podcast, in this episode, what I want to do is I'm going to share with you our step by step guest follow up process and the physical and in-person product that we are using to turn our process hybrid. And I want to give you this box artwork. 00:01:01:17 - 00:01:02:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So go ahead and you 00:01:02:17 - 00:01:08:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry can scrub ahead. You can click the link down below in the description or go to I start talking about the box design 00:01:08:21 - 00:01:09:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry in 00:01:09:02 - 00:01:17:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry this YouTube playlist, and you can go ahead and grab that link from us and go check it out. If you're following along here on YouTube, just a reminder there are chapters 00:01:17:14 - 00:01:17:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry down 00:01:17:27 - 00:01:22:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry along at the bottom so that you can skip straight ahead to the parts of the video that make the most sense to you. 00:01:22:25 - 00:01:28:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But just as a reminder, hybrid is taking your in-person moment and your digital and finding a way to 00:01:28:10 - 00:01:31:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry intersect them together. So my 00:01:31:18 - 00:01:37:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry guess is give me a like, if you are the type of person who, when you have a student, you send them 00:01:37:00 - 00:01:37:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry a 00:01:37:10 - 00:01:40:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry postcard or go ahead and give me a 00:01:40:06 - 00:01:43:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry subscribe, if maybe not just a postcard, but 00:01:43:09 - 00:01:45:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry you're also sending a text message, right? 00:01:45:14 - 00:02:05:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So early on I would I would send postcards. That was and I still do send postcards as, the way that I was kind of trained and I even like as a youth group student received postcards and, and I still do believe in the power of the personal touch. And I, I think that mail, does actually play an important role in youth ministry. 00:02:05:05 - 00:02:25:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I think students don't receive mail very often. So I think it's helpful and beneficial for them to get it. Text messages. I do also believe they're important, especially as we talk about hybrid and the intersection of that hybrid being where, it often lands in the hands and in the palms of a student's cell phone. But I don't know about you, but I send a postcard, and it's like 00:02:27:07 - 00:02:28:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry where I send a text. 00:02:28:18 - 00:02:40:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And one time, literally, I got I sent a text from my personal cell phone number, and I got the word stop like, no, no, this was not an automated text like, this is a human being, but okay. 00:02:40:04 - 00:02:47:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Got it. I'll stop. So enter Covid when Covid hit. For those of you watching 00:02:47:19 - 00:02:50:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Linked Up, here is our 100th episode 00:02:50:05 - 00:03:07:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry where I did a recap about where this all sort of hybrid thing started, but we created this full scale and full length digital expression of youth ministry like a full, almost like YouTube variety show, Think like Jimmy Fallon, but youth ministry and YouTube. 00:03:07:26 - 00:03:10:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so our Covid experience was so 00:03:10:22 - 00:03:11:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry of our show. And so therefore we would drop a rubber duck and a postcard, but we would do a physical door drop at their, house and at their, their door. And so, I would then get students, or even parents come talk to me on the weekends and be like, thank you. 00:03:44:00 - 00:04:00:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry our show. And so therefore we would drop a rubber duck and a postcard, but we would do a physical door drop at their, house and at their, their door. And so, I would then get students, or even parents come talk to me on the weekends and be like, thank you. 00:04:00:14 - 00:04:31:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So much. I mean, long gone now were the days of the, unanswered texts or the postcards sent into a black hole. Like, now I'm getting students and parents who are actually acknowledging our efforts and acknowledging us, helping roll out the red carpet to help make them feel welcome. It was a great response, but unfortunately, due to like where I lived and how regionally drawn our churches our church was and how far students drove to to come and attend our campus, and the fact that they could do it online. 00:04:31:26 - 00:04:32:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Us they didn't have to 00:04:32:18 - 00:04:52:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry get in the car and come drive a certain distance to our church. It took me a whole day like I remember one Thursday. So our youth night was Wednesday, one Thursday I spent like 9 to 5 in the car just doing these, these door drops. And so, I was just, you know, I was like, I guess that's part of the job, right? 00:04:52:01 - 00:05:13:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I was talking to my boss and I was like, hey, like, I spent my whole Thursday driving around new, so great. And I saw him all the great things. And he's like, you spent your whole day driving. I was like, we can on. Yeah. And he's like, oh, let's, let's, let's change that. And so, what we started doing as opposed to like the physical, me getting in my car, taking it and putting it on their doorstep. 00:05:13:24 - 00:05:33:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We started, taking the same concept, getting it to their hands. But instead of me doing it, we started paying the post office to do it as if there were some sort of service that could take something from point A to point B, and that is woven all throughout the fabric of our country being it's the post office. 00:05:33:14 - 00:05:56:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we started shipping things and it was expensive. Don't get me wrong, we created like a branded box, and now it's like we had to include a little bit more than just a duck in a postcard, so that the box didn't seem boring and empty. But we started shipping it. And so, that that strategy, we kind of laid that over and carried that over, here where I work now. 00:05:56:04 - 00:06:00:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it's I started for the first probably like two years of my, my tenure here at this church 00:06:00:29 - 00:06:17:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry with text message, follow up for first time guess. And I can count on one finger, the amount of times I got a response. And that response was in those two years, the word stop. And so I said, hey, listen, maybe I'm just too old for this. 00:06:17:20 - 00:06:37:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like I'm in my mid 30s and maybe students are like, I that's weird to text the guy in the in his 30s, or maybe text messages to students who they don't have the contact info from, especially from a phone number that it's not local. I live in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth, Texas. My phone number is from Dayton, Ohio. Like there is a massive difference in those two area codes. 00:06:37:01 - 00:06:52:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so they see someone down here with an 807 area code seeing a nine, three seven area code. They don't know what to do with it. So they ghosted as they do. And so I suggest and I propose what if we bring back the boxes. And so what I want to do is I want to share with you this right here. 00:06:52:14 - 00:07:10:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is our welcome box. It's branded. It's custom for us. And so if you look on all the sides, it's got a little, it's great to meet you. It's got, you know, yay! You're here. And then the top here, says welcome, along with a return address and a spot for us to put their address. 00:07:10:15 - 00:07:30:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then on the back, it's got our social handles. And what I want to do is I want to go through step by step, item by item, and, boxes here with you. And so, one of the things that we do is every single, every single semester, but three times a year, we do like a four, we do a winter, and then we do a summer calendar. 00:07:30:04 - 00:07:50:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what we do is we make our calendars into magnets. And so you look here, this is a magnet. It's about eight inches long. And so, truth be told, this box right here is about eight inches, and it's eight inches because the magnet is eight inches. I made the decision to make the box the same size as the magnet. 00:07:50:28 - 00:08:11:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so then I made sure that everything from the size of the magnet on down would be able to fit into the box. So, we put the magnet in there. The magnet has all of our events. And you'll also notice here's an opportunity to go hybrid. This right here is just a link to subscribe to the IX or the calendar type things. 00:08:11:14 - 00:08:29:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's a calendar, extension you can get it from, like creating, a Google calendar, a calendar, a Google calendar calendar. And then you can share that out. And so that's what we did. And so students can add this and subscribe to their calendar. We haven't gotten as many of those from students, but I know we've gotten some scans from parents. 00:08:29:13 - 00:08:48:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And also we give specific and particular leader magnet. And so our leaders also can go ahead and scan that. And so that is our magnet. We also have this sticker here, and these frankly, they're just laying around. We got these for free. So these didn't really cost the anything. So so far I want to point out these. 00:08:48:07 - 00:09:08:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We already print like we already pay for these for our students. And these are already laying around. So so far we're $0 into the box. Don't worry. It gets more expensive. This right here is just a little, promo, a nod to our social media. And so down the road, we will send them this postcard that simply says, life can be hard. 00:09:08:15 - 00:09:27:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You don't have to do it alone. This is a QR code to our link tree. And then here's just a little preview of our churches, YouTube handle right there. And, probably our most popular video, which is what is anxiety? What do I do about it if I have it? And we'll just, God have to say about anxiety. 00:09:27:16 - 00:09:44:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we will send this out a couple weeks after we send the box out. This is, this is a separate pieces doesn't go in the box that sent later. This is an additional kind of piece of merch. And again, once again, we have just some stuff kind of laying around that we inherited from the old regime. 00:09:44:19 - 00:10:07:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we try to, like, get rid of it. The little guest box checklist that we have this, and like an extra piece of merch from our merch cabinet. So here's a piece of merch from our merch cabinet. Right here. This one's kind of unique. Okay, we have a lanyard. And the reason that we have a lanyard branded and all the things is that right here, we do, we do pins right? 00:10:07:29 - 00:10:29:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Kind of like, think like Disney pin trading. So we'll create pins. And this right here is our little mascot guy. We call him Pugsley the platypus, because a baby platypus is a puggle. So one of our sixth graders one year recommended that we name them Pugsley. And so thus we did. And so we have this lanyard. And I actually have a lanyard for, like, my, staff nametag lanyard. 00:10:29:22 - 00:10:51:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this is full of pins. So like summer camp, Water wars, the Back to School bash, Space Jam night, like any, any event that we deem pin worthy. So coming up, we'll have our Christmas at the movies event. We'll. We've done costume parties. Any of those, they get designed. We just found a dude on Fiverr. He designed these for us. 00:10:51:01 - 00:11:12:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then we send these, after sticker mule and sticker mule creates the pins. And so then we stick this pin. This is the, like, og original. Pugsley pin. It's just a traditional guy. He's just wearing, like, our logo on his t shirt there. And, we put the original pin on the lanyard for the students, and then, right here, this has three for free. 00:11:12:29 - 00:11:32:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this is a, redeemable coupon at our student ministry cafe. They can turn this in and get three things for free. And then, we have these life books and these life books. We've gotten them, from the Gideons, the the Bible translator and the Bible, providers. And so you can actually get these for free. 00:11:32:23 - 00:11:51:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it's just it's like the book of John with like some notes, and it's designed well and graphically. And so you've probably seen these before, and truth be told, I like these. I also like the life and Six words book, that comes from, dare to share. But these we had like three cases of these again from the old regime. 00:11:51:19 - 00:12:07:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we're like, let's go ahead and give these away. When these run out, we may reorder these. We may do a different sort of devotional, but but this is like the one sort of like devotional, sort of like spiritual peace. And then that's now the emptiness of the box and say, look down at the box there and you'll see, it's got this word right here. 00:12:07:26 - 00:12:24:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's got some copy and it simply says, hey there, we're so glad you joined us. Meet Pugsley, our platypus mascot, voted on and named by our students. We love it when students invest in student ministry. So in this box, you will find everything that you need to get started. And then it's a numbered list. You'll see one, two, three, four. 00:12:24:23 - 00:12:42:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Number one. This lanyard is a great spot to hold pins. Number two, we started you with your first one and there's more to come at our Pin events and milestones throughout the year. Number three, this life book is a great place to find out about what Jesus is all about. Number four, some other random stuff because we wanted you to know how glad we are that you joined us. 00:12:42:09 - 00:12:57:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We can't wait to get to know you. And then the very last piece of it, my favorite piece of it, the piece that I think makes it hybrid, is right. When you open the box, you see this QR code here and it just says welcome video, scan me. And so we'll have students who are new the open this up 00:12:57:25 - 00:13:01:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry theoretically on their porch, on their patio, wherever they will scan it. 00:13:01:26 - 00:13:24:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then we'll take them to a video right here. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll be able to see a preview of it, but linked right here, linked below is what I want to do is I want to offer you, the art for this box if you want to start creating your own. I'll also, give you like, a detailed tutorial, like where I ordered it from, as well as the copy for the welcome video. 00:13:24:02 - 00:13:49:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you can feel free to film that, throw that on a teleprompter, memorize it however you want to film it, and you can start creating better welcome and better guest returns for your youth ministry and for your student ministry. And once again, here's the reason that I like this is because this, gets them connected to us. This at a very minimum, one of the sections on this video right here says, we're so glad that you came. 00:13:49:29 - 00:14:10:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And also welcome to our YouTube channel. And if you've been around this podcast or this YouTube playlist, any link or a YouTube channel, any length of time you know that 95% of teenagers are claiming to be and be active on YouTube. And so therefore, I think we as youth ministries should make that a priority. We and our student ministry have made it a priority. 00:14:10:21 - 00:14:27:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, I, I think that that's a fantastic way to expose, in a sort of like, non-threatening way, expose your students to your channel, then maybe next time to log in to the YouTube account. One of our video shows up because they've already watched one. Or maybe they like that video. Maybe they subscribe to that video. 00:14:27:23 - 00:14:52:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now we're in their subscriptions with all of our teachings and all of those types of things, which, by the way, I can explain and show to you how to start posting your teachings to YouTube so that they live beyond your Sunday or Wednesday services. That video is going to be linked right here on screen, and I can't wait for you to take a look at that, because we're trying to make digital discipleship here at the Hybrid Ministry Podcast easy, possible and accessible. 00:14:52:04 - 00:14:55:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So as always, don't forget to stay hybrid. Youth Ministry, Student Ministry, Visitor Follow Up, Guest Follow Up, First Time Guest, Hybrid Ministry, YouTube for Youth Ministry, Youth Ministry Podcast, Youth Pastor, Youth Ministry Coach, Nick Clason THE ULTIMATE GUEST FOLLOW UP BOX
https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

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

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

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

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

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

๐Ÿ‘‰ STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
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//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Better First Time Guest Followup
01:31 Guest Follow-Up Gone Hybrid
02:42 Where the Idea Began
05:08 Mailing Boxes Begins!
06:47 The Ultimate Welcome Box

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SHOWNOTES
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https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/shop/ultimate-first-time-guest-box-579557?source=storefront

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

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

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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Better First Time Guest Followup
01:31 Guest Follow-Up Gone Hybrid
02:42 Where the Idea Began
05:08 Mailing Boxes Begins!
06:47 The Ultimate Welcome Box

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

]]> Episode 110: Distractions During Youth Group: The Solution https://www.hybridministry.xyz/110 00ce8b1a-164b-47e1-9c79-d97acd4acc5e Thu, 15 Aug 2024 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 110 Distractions During Youth Group: The Solution full Nick Clason What in the world do we do about cellphone usage during youth group?! It seems like it's getting worse and worse! Well, Josh Boldman, of DYM (downloadyouthministry.com) is here to help reveal his thoughts, as well as a full-proof program to not only take care of the cell phone epidemic, but to unveil the future of youth ministry as we all know it! 38:26 no ๐Ÿ”ฅ [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide๐Ÿ”ฅ https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ๐Ÿ’ฅ[CUSTOM] Hybrid Coaching๐Ÿ’ฅ https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching ====================================== DESCRIPTION What in the world do we do about cellphone usage during youth group?! It seems like it's getting worse and worse! Well, Josh Boldman, of DYM (downloadyouthministry.com) is here to help reveal his thoughts, as well as a full-proof program to not only take care of the cell phone epidemic, but to unveil the future of youth ministry as we all know it! ====================================== ๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/110 //CO-LEADER CURRICULUM https://www.coleader.co/ //SIDEKICK https://sidekick.tv/ //JOSH ON DYM https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/featured-authors/josh-boldman/ //SIDEKICK FEATURE REQUEST https://sidekick-tv.canny.io/feature-requests //JOSH ON SOCIAL https://www.tiktok.com/@joshboldman https://www.instagram.com/joshboldman/ https://www.facebook.com/joshboldman https://x.com/joshboldman ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 ====================================== ๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“ Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies! ๐Ÿ”— https://linktr.ee/clasonnick ====================================== ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit AUTO POD https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00 Intro - How your experience got you where you are now 04:15 Sidekick's Introduction into the Digital Realm of Youth Ministry 09:00 Sidekick's most user friendly features 13:50 What's next for Sidekick? 17:36 How Sidekick aids in showing up where students are 19:25 The Recipe to Engaging Students where they are 30:42 Final Thoughts on Hybrid Ministry -------------- โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:15 - 00:00:23:04 Nick Clason What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry show. I, as always my host Nick Klassen. And I'm really excited. Today I got the one and only Josh Boldman who works at Diam now. He also has years of experience in youth ministry. And so we are going to interview Josh today. What's up everybody? I'm here with Josh Boldman. Josh how you doing this morning bro? 00:00:23:04 - 00:00:44:07 Josh Boldman I am good man. How are you doing I'm great. I'm glad to have you on Nick Clason the long awaited Josh Boldman interview. Josh Boldman Most podcasts are still waiting. I just wanted to make it very clear. Nick Clason Oh man, I feel like I'm in an exclusive club. Yeah, or something. Josh Boldman So they just don't know. They don't know it yet, but they're still waiting. 00:00:44:07 - 00:01:10:12 Nick Clason Yeah, they definitely are. But not me. Not us. Josh, like, tell the people, how did. Who are you and how did you get to where you are today? Josh Boldman Oh my gosh. Okay. That is it all started on a cold with. No. okay. So I have, right there. So I'll start with where I'm at. right now I am I am the team lead for co-leader, which is, a part of the download Youth Ministry family. 00:01:10:14 - 00:01:39:17 Josh Boldman I also, run lead in the sidekick arena, which is our presentation software. We'll get to that. but that's only been for about the last year. before that, I spent, somewhere in the neighborhood of. Right at about 20 years in student ministry, as a youth pastor or youth minister or student pastor or student ministries director, or any of the other myriad ways that you can you can describe it. 00:01:39:19 - 00:02:03:18 Josh Boldman but I did that. Gosh, from Florida, to Illinois, to, tiny, tiny little churches to big old churches to, single site to multi-site to we do youth ministry on Sunday morning to we do youth ministry on Wednesday nights like normal people do. all that, you know, so, you know, it's just kind of been all over the place. 00:02:03:24 - 00:02:27:24 Josh Boldman Yeah. but for the last ten, I'll say ten. It's probably like six, but I'll say ten years. I pastor mother, with Dwight. Yeah. It's like, how many kids were there? The 400. I don't know, it was too many to count. but yeah. So I, I've been an author with Tim, putting resources like games and teaching content and countdowns and videos and stuff together for DYM. 00:02:27:27 - 00:02:47:11 Josh Boldman And then about a year ago, they had somebody that was going on maternity leave and they're like, hey, you want to cover for that person? I was like, yeah, yeah, I do. And then I spent all 90 days of that maternity leave, trying to make it where there was literally no way they could let me go afterward. 00:02:47:11 - 00:03:08:12 Nick Clason And it it worked nice. Josh Boldman Absolutely worked. I was it was dicey for about about 45 days. And then I was like, nah, I think I got I think, I think I got this. So she came back and I was not asked to pack up and leave. so that has worked out for everybody. Yeah. You didn't put her on the job either? 00:03:08:12 - 00:03:31:27 Josh Boldman No, no, it's kind of great. Yeah. So, you know, it's been it's been a ride. this last year, co-leader has transitioned from a, a platform where you can plan ministry to a full blown annual curriculum. we've launched sidekick. sidekick, which is now in beta. we had Sidekick Legacy, which was a standalone app. 00:03:31:27 - 00:03:53:26 Josh Boldman Now it's built in the browser. So you open it in Chrome and you can you can play. You know, play your presentation literally anywhere. we did that all with any I mean, it's like literally anything we could have done, we we decided we were like, hey, you know what? If we just take everything we ever want to do and we just jam it all into one calendar year, and we got this. 00:03:53:27 - 00:04:08:28 Nick Clason Yeah, we got this guy now who's covering for this girl on maternity leave, and now we can. We had him go. So we're we need to get our money's worth out of him. That's there. Like, we have so many staff. We have so we have so many. And now, now we need to have them do things, so. 00:04:08:28 - 00:04:30:10 Nick Clason Oh, man, I gotta say the like this, I don't there's no pitch. Like, no, like kickback. None of this. I love co-leader and I love sidekick. And, we, I made our church and I think I told you this, but we'll tell everyone I was like, I made our church by two computers so that we could run pro presenter. 00:04:30:10 - 00:04:52:19 Nick Clason Because the musicians need the confidence monitor, like the not not what's on the screen mirror, but like what's coming. So like what? So that's valid. Josh Boldman So they don't practice is what you're telling me. Nick Clason Exactly. They're ill prepared. So I had to give them what they needed at the give the musicians you know, throw my bone. But I made them buy another computer and a like a black magic video switcher. 00:04:52:19 - 00:05:11:04 Josh Boldman And we running everything else now. Yeah. Off of sidekick. And so, so, so what I'm hearing you say is because of the worship ministry, you guys have to rely on dark magic. Is that. What is that where he is? Oh, black. Matt. Oh, it's a black. It's a company that's different. Okay. All right. I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised either. 00:05:11:11 - 00:05:37:06 Nick Clason Yeah, yeah, either way. But I love the like I love a lot of things about it. But my favorite part about it is the phone integration. Right. And, we played last week like a game like, multiple choice game. And they could literally play on their phones. And this was the first time I'd, I'd use that particular, like, setting there and sidekick, like the, the question with, with the quiz like type of. 00:05:37:08 - 00:06:02:05 Nick Clason Yeah. Like what the correct answer. Yes. Yes. And I loved that. That was super fun. so talk to me just a little bit about, like, you know, you jump in. Were there rumblings and plans about sidekick being revamped or did you see some of like those opportunities and be like, this is what I see in youth ministry as a youth pastor, 20 plus years and now, yeah, I want to help kind of evolve it to the next stage, like give us that kind of background. 00:06:02:08 - 00:06:26:01 Josh Boldman Yeah. So something that, I it's really funny because I don't know that many youth workers realize, although I feel like we should is that, software development takes billions of dollars and lots and lots of time. and so, so when I started at downloading Ministry, the plan had already been. We are revamping sidekick. I'm. You know, I'm just gonna peel back the curtain, you know? 00:06:26:01 - 00:06:50:24 Josh Boldman You don't know. Yeah. Sorry. I took the original app. All right. Was written in a, in a programing environment that got depreciate. All right, so it is. It was built long, so it was built on something called chromium. and it it it is a like sidekick. Legacy is a work of art. Like it is a it was a game changer for me when I was in ministry. 00:06:50:24 - 00:07:14:13 Josh Boldman The the spinning wheel boxes. Yeah. it was one of a kind. No one was. Oh, my gosh, nobody was doing it right. And then, what happened about two years ago, maybe three years ago now is chromium got depreciated. And we realized what that meant was there was now no way to update the legacy. I don't know at all, like, impossible, like literally impossible. 00:07:14:16 - 00:07:31:17 Josh Boldman And and so it was like, okay, well, we can either rebuild a new one or we can take it in a different direction. And one of the really things that people that people hated was every time you open the legacy app, you have to sign in every single time you had to type in the password. It was a great time. 00:07:31:20 - 00:07:52:23 Josh Boldman I got into trouble. One time I was in front of our, like our whole camp, like it was like a thousand kids, right? And sidekick was running, and then it crashed. And then they had to reopen it, and they're like, from the booth, they yell out, what's the password? No. And in front of 1000 students, I had to say a password into the microphone. 00:07:52:23 - 00:08:14:14 Josh Boldman And here's the best part. You ready for this? It was the same password for everything. Like my my bank account and, all this stuff. So, like, so like, I immediately I started teaching, and then I get off stage and I'm like, I gotta change every password I mean, ever had. It was a nightmare. so we thought, okay, what is the best way to make this as portable as possible? 00:08:14:14 - 00:08:33:01 Josh Boldman So we went with putting it in, in the browser. Yeah. which I'll be honest, I mean, it was basically like it was a trade off, right? It gave us a lot of, functionality as far as portability, as far as far as syncing. Yeah. but it there are trade offs, right? Like Google Chrome. both. 00:08:33:01 - 00:08:52:11 Josh Boldman Google. Safari, Apple. you know, Firefox, they all have different rules about like window management. And so like you'll know like when you open sidekick and you go to present, you have to drag the window over to your other browser. Like that's not ideal right now. We that's why we have a video switcher now that's why. Right. 00:08:52:13 - 00:09:22:11 Josh Boldman Yeah. That's why we that's why we as Christians rely on dark black magic. Black. It's that's what it is. and so, so, you know, so there are some trade offs for sure. For sure. But, but what we started realizing was, the, the pitch that we started telling people that when it, I think it really kind of clicked for people how how different was good is we would tell them, like, we would show them what we could do with, with voting, with spinning wheel, with, with pick me like the main ideas. 00:09:22:14 - 00:09:41:11 Josh Boldman And I said, what's really cool is I can create this presentation. I can, immediately, as soon as I add an element to a slide, I can close the laptop, I can break it over my knee, I can set it on fire and throw it in the ocean. And then I can just go to church, open the computer, and it's it's there like it is there. 00:09:41:12 - 00:10:03:18 Josh Boldman It does not miss a beat. you probably have to like on the computer at church, though, because yours is God's an ocean. Oh yeah. No no no no. Yeah. There's no recovering from it really at the point. Not sidekicks. Not that good yet. Yeah. No, I mean, yeah. but. Yeah. So so it's, Yeah, it's it's being able to sync and being able to to go remote. 00:10:03:25 - 00:10:28:19 Josh Boldman That's awesome. But then when we started showing people, hey, all you have to do is the same thing you did to log in on your computer, do that on your phone. And what it does is it turns your phone into a remote for the exact same presentation that's running on your presentation computer. and I mean, just suddenly being able to when you're doing polls on your phone, you can see the results, before they're even shown on the screen. 00:10:28:22 - 00:10:57:09 Josh Boldman you can go to next, go back. You can do slide notes. You can. I mean, it did really any of the functionality that's there except for editing on the computer. You can do that literally on your phone in real time because I don't know if you've ever I'm certainly you've never been in this situation where you have a sixth grader who is so well intentioned is like, I want to run the computer and you're like, yes, that is a that is a thing a sixth grader can do. 00:10:57:09 - 00:11:26:24 Josh Boldman You can hit the spacebar. Yeah. And and then, and then they, and then they don't, they, they just don't hit the spacebar. And so like I would always use it as just like my, my phone was, I wasn't there. So I was running it, but it was my fallback. Like I was like, okay, that kid in the back, there was one time, I swear to you, right, at an unnamed church that I worked at for a while. 00:11:26:27 - 00:11:51:12 Josh Boldman I remember once, so I would always try, so I was a student ministry director there, and so I always I would always try, like, I would. Yeah, I was either teaching or whatever, but I would always try to do anytime I wasn't teaching, I would try to do something else. So like anytime I wasn't teaching, I would be in the booth or the, you know, doing the game or, you know, but so there's one time I'm in the booth and, and the lyrics for the songs are not firing on time. 00:11:51:12 - 00:12:18:01 Josh Boldman And I, so I'm like, leaning over and I'm looking. The kid is watching Star Wars the movie. Like, like an actual movie on his phone. Not a TikTok, not a YouTube. No. The two hour movie, two hour movie with subtitles. And he is holding his phone like screamed. Is it because the subtitles are so small? And I'm like, hey, I know, I know, you're looking at that because words are important. 00:12:18:03 - 00:12:38:25 Josh Boldman However, everyone else in the room is looking up here because words are important. So maybe I don't know, I don't know, that's just jump up and just jump on that. That's a win right there. Yeah. So but being able to you know when you're on stage and things go wrong there are like a couple of options. And and one of them is to make the person in the booth feel really bad. 00:12:38:25 - 00:13:00:09 Nick Clason And that is never the right option. Right. It's never to call attention to the person messed up. But we want to sometimes. Oh oh yes, yes, yes we do. But being able to just say, okay, I've got my phone here. Hey, Mr. Cube, don't worry, I'm just going to jump it like, yeah, was that was the game changer for me. 00:13:00:11 - 00:13:22:15 Josh Boldman and so now we're just on this journey of trying to reach full parity between the legacy version and what is right now, the lovingly called the beta version of sidekick. until it until it has all the same features. yeah. But what we're finding is that is, like I said, the original The legacy is a work of art. 00:13:22:17 - 00:13:47:09 Josh Boldman And, right now, we are working on boxes and that is in the browser proving to be a challenging. Yeah, it is, it's just, you know, it's one of those things like, you wouldn't think like even when we first, the first go around, we did, wheel and pick me. Right. Those were the first two things. And so with the wheel, you know, you think how this is, it's a spinning wheel. 00:13:47:10 - 00:14:04:24 Josh Boldman Like there's no. Yeah, there's nothing complicated here. Oh, but there is, friend, because pixels are square. Yeah. I don't know if you knew that or not, but pixels was great. So when you try and rotate them around and center axis that's a. Yeah. It's just it's one of those things like, you know, you think you got it. 00:14:04:24 - 00:14:21:03 Josh Boldman And then suddenly you're like, oh, that looks really bad. And so then it just it's like you have to go right back to the drawing board and, and so, so yeah. So right now we're working on boxes. It's, it's taking a little longer than we had hoped, but but you're working with square pixels now. So square pixels. 00:14:21:06 - 00:14:35:10 Josh Boldman We know what we're doing. Yeah. Yes. Wouldn't it be funny if like, in the like when, when it was the wheel, we had a problem because it was squares. But then like we're like, alright, now we're going to move the boxes and like just the world, like was like, you know what we figured out round pixels are better. 00:14:35:12 - 00:14:57:21 Josh Boldman And I was like, no, no. Yeah. But but yeah. So we're that. So we got boxes, in the pipeline. we're we, we here and I know anybody that knows sidekick already. Their first question that they have been asking is what about, survey says, which is our family feud builder. Right. And, that one is, it's coming. 00:14:57:21 - 00:15:19:27 Josh Boldman It's like, but it's it is it all takes a yeah, it all takes time. And, so, best way anybody, anybody that, you know, can help me go to sidekick.TV. There's a link there where you can, you can submit ideas and requests and you can even vote on other people's. And and that always helps us know kind of what's next. 00:15:19:29 - 00:15:36:15 Josh Boldman yeah. But yeah, we'll drop. That'll be. We're loving it, dude. I mean, and. Oh, I, I know the sound is starting to sound like a commercial and I apologize, but it's, it's it is. It's like it's just so fun is, when, when one of the most recent things we did was we connected everyone's dim accounts to the download youth ministry. 00:15:36:15 - 00:16:04:05 Josh Boldman If you buy something, there, he just automatically shows up. And that is that was awesome. Sweet. Because, I mean, it used to be, I don't know. I mean, you you make games for GM that are video based, right. And and when you do that those those files are massive. Like, you know, I mean, it's not uncommon for a game to be three, four gigabytes, you know, but it's also 3 or 4GB of, you know, that's 20, 30 videos for the game. 00:16:04:05 - 00:16:21:05 Josh Boldman And so then adding each of those in is kind of a nightmare. And so we figured out a way to do it is we do it on our end once and then it when you buy it, it just you can just it shows up in your library. You click on it and it's just in that is yeah, man, I'm telling you I will. 00:16:21:08 - 00:16:38:28 Josh Boldman I never have to worry about losing a thumb drive ever again. Yeah, because I don't know if you know this or not, but I don't know where my thumb drive it is right now. I lost it in 1997. so. Sounds like there are some important things on there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Knows it was, I don't know, something. 00:16:38:28 - 00:17:04:23 Josh Boldman Call it bitcoin. Bitcoin I don't remember. You could have been rich. You wouldn't even have to be here right now. Well I'll tell you what. Of all the things like all the things you're talking about, there's like, there's phone usage on both sides, right? So if you're presenting, you can use your phone as a remote, but if you're, you're, watching your in the audience, there are like integrations where there's like voting and games and all that stuff. 00:17:04:23 - 00:17:25:07 Nick Clason Yeah. And, I think that's my favorite part. Like as a youth pastor now for, over ten years, like I've always been trying to figure out how to get ourselves in youth ministry. Like relevant to our students are, as opposed to, like, when they're at church, make them do something that's so completely foreign to like their current culture. 00:17:25:07 - 00:17:56:28 Nick Clason Right? Like youth culture, like they're all messaging one another through their phones. They're all like consuming news articles and social media through their phones. And then we get to church and like the church I was at, like when I started the previous regime, no shade. but they had, like, phone lockers, like they would take kids cellphones and lock them and like, and what we're do, in my opinion, is like, okay, so we're, we're just trying to modify their behavior, but we haven't actually like change their true authentic like desire to like be here and listen. 00:17:56:28 - 00:18:19:26 Nick Clason We just want them quieter for us. And like that we should just be better. Like, yeah. And so y'all start rolling out all this stuff on sidekick. And I'm like, here's the opportunity for us to use what is native to them in our environment and in a way that doesn't, like, break the bank anymore, because to get some of these features through other third party like platforms, we just don't have the money. 00:18:19:26 - 00:18:45:09 Nick Clason As a youth pastor, you know what I'm saying? In your budget, whatever the case might be. So yeah, so that's my favorite part. And so I would love it if you would talk about not just necessarily like the sidekick integration, but what has been your experience and your unique perspective as a youth pastor with how what we've done in youth culture and how like we've then asked them to come to church culture and how they don't all they're like oil and water sometimes. 00:18:45:09 - 00:19:07:04 Nick Clason Like, how are we? How can we reach students better and to find ourselves where they are, which is online, on phones, all those things. Josh Boldman I mean, okay, so you remember, man, even I mean, when I was growing up and especially early in my ministry, you know, it was always the, the thing was, you were always fighting against like, like travel sports, right? 00:19:07:04 - 00:19:30:07 Josh Boldman Like that was like the, the, the bane of youth ministry existence was like, oh, we still are really, by the way. Oh, to be cool. Yeah. Oh, no doubt. But it was like, I don't know, there was like a point where I think we just we got tired of seeing no results from shame, shaming those kids. Like, it's like you want to play travel ball. 00:19:30:11 - 00:19:47:28 Josh Boldman We'll play travel ball. Yeah. With the devil. You know, it's like that. Doesn't like it doesn't help anybody. When? When all we're doing is. Or like. Like, oh, you have a phone, go lock it up because it's, you know, it's like that, doesn't it? Yeah. What does that do? All that does is like when you're locking up a kid's phone. 00:19:48:05 - 00:20:10:09 Josh Boldman I feel like the way that you can know that it's not working is as soon as the the time, like the lockdown is over, was the very first thing they do. They run to go get it. Yeah. Which means that it was, it was on their mind still. So it's not like you really saved you know them any, any trouble or any like you didn't gain anything by pulling it away, you know, because their attention is still stuck on it. 00:20:10:11 - 00:20:36:16 Josh Boldman so really what I think, I think is we're seeing right now in youth ministry as a whole, in, in what we're trying to do, a sidekick is really we're trying to figure out ways to engage students, literally where they are. And so, I guess, have you, did you ever do camps where the rule was the kids couldn't even bring their phone to camp? 00:20:36:18 - 00:20:59:04 Nick Clason I never did. No, I could have, right. But I never I always I've always run my own camp, so I make the rules. So. Yeah. And I've always been in churches or youth ministries where the goal is to bring kids who don't go to our church to camp. And like, I'm not going to get a kid and their family who's never met me, send their kid like hours away without a lifeline back to them. 00:20:59:04 - 00:21:24:10 Josh Boldman Oh yeah. Kids. Oh, no. So I've never tried to fight that battle, but it was fake because we used to almost use that, like as an advertisement. We were like, come to camp where you get away from your phone and kids are like, I don't want to do that, you know? And so, like, there was a point where I think maybe 20 years ago, you probably could do it, but even now, it's not even just the kid, it's the parents that are like, I'm not sending my kid without their phone. 00:21:24:10 - 00:21:58:02 Josh Boldman What's wrong with you? You know? Yeah. So, like, so what we decided to do with with sidekick is like, okay, what if instead of constantly harping on, he put your phone away or go lock it up or don't even bring it, or, you know, trying to make it seem like the phone itself was the enemy. What if we decided to say like, hey, we understand that that phone, it's an extension of you now like that just, I mean, and that, I mean, you know, I mean, I think you can get really, like, dystopian, you know, like, like Blade Runner type type vibes from, like, the phone is an extension of you, but but it is 00:21:58:03 - 00:22:21:24 Josh Boldman mine is an extension of me like, I mean, I literally if I, I don't know when the last time I walked out of my house without my phone was like, it's not just because I didn't forget it, it's because if it's not in my pocket, it feels like I'm missing something. I feel like I know I'm missing it, and you're gonna need it, you know, like, oh, sure, it's your calendar, it's your wallet, it's your navigation, it's your everything. 00:22:21:24 - 00:22:49:12 Nick Clason Like it. So you can't so much. That's my argument is like this. It's not going anywhere. So we can try our hardest as youth pastors and churches to fight against culture. But it's a losing battle eventually. And it's not like, oh, let's give in to culture because it's evil, right? No, no, no. It's how do we take this thing that is not moral, it's not morally right or morally wrong, but how do we take this thing and just use it as a tool? 00:22:49:12 - 00:23:07:12 Josh Boldman It's it's a tool, 100% tool that we we would have died for 15, 20 years ago, like, oh yeah, I was talking on the last episode like we didn't have group chats 15 years ago. If you want to talk to your student, you talk to them when they came to your building and that was it. But now you can do pastoral care. 00:23:07:12 - 00:23:39:02 Nick Clason You can, and just do a basic thing like texting. When I'm talking about something like software development right now. Yeah. So one of the things, that has been really cool to experiment with, and we've seen a couple people do this really well is is using like polls like, okay, so there's a there are different ways you can use it, but the like, so say as you're teaching, if, if you're saying something that you know is going to fly right over their heads, right? 00:23:39:05 - 00:24:11:11 Josh Boldman Pausing literally at that moment and asking the question, hey, did you catch that? And yes or no, like literally something super simple like, did you catch that? Yes or no? And then adjusting what you say next based on their response or, we've even seen people take their entire services in like a, choose your own adventure type approach where, I mean, it is it seems minor, but it's something like, hey, we've got the worship team has two songs that they prepared, but we're only going to do one. 00:24:11:13 - 00:24:29:15 Josh Boldman Hey, you all, they're here. Yeah. Which one you want to do? You know, or, you know, I've, done a couple teaching times where, like, so, you know, every youth pastor has, like, their, like, bag of tricks, like the, the saw or the stories that they tell that it's like, okay, I can tell this story, like drop of a hat. 00:24:29:15 - 00:25:00:17 Josh Boldman Yeah. you know, and so, like, I, I'll start with, like, right at the beginning of a message will say, hey, guys, I can tell you one of, three stories. You know, when when I got hit by a car, one when I accidentally killed my girlfriend's cat and one when I, when I stubbed my toe, you know, and so, like, you take your pick, you know, and just let them pick, and it doesn't change anything about where that message is going, but letting them have a moment where they can speak into it. 00:25:00:17 - 00:25:27:22 Josh Boldman Like, I guarantee you, when the room picks the story, the room pays attention to the story more. Yeah. or or even at the end, you know, be a great way to, to really, especially if you're trying to reach students that are not familiar with church a lot, you know, like that aren't around a lot is, at the end of the message just saying, like, hey, on a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you agree with what you just heard? 00:25:27:25 - 00:25:46:26 Josh Boldman can you met and live in live results on the screen like, hey, okay, so but can you imagine how much that might change your small group conversations that are going to happen right after the lesson? If if you suddenly see, like, oh, we just talked about this and 80% of the room says, I don't agree, okay, great. 00:25:47:03 - 00:26:10:20 Josh Boldman Then let's go to our small groups and let's see this mess out. You know, or I think that there's, there's stuff like that or or you could even say if you're doing a series, you could, you could say, hey, here are the four weeks of the series. we did the intro this week. Which one you want to hear about next week and let them pick where you're going to go, and then you have a whole week to figure out how to get there. 00:26:10:22 - 00:26:29:11 Josh Boldman yeah. But it but I guarantee you, those students that voted are going to be more likely to be there if they know what you're talking about. And they actually helped get to to choose what that was going to be. Yeah, I think I think there's a lot there. And we're working love to say like we're working like it's like in development, right, right now. 00:26:29:11 - 00:26:49:09 Josh Boldman But it's like I mean, one of the things on the, on the docket is, is, you know, being able to have students from their seat ask questions, be able to give feedback, you know, in real time so that you, as you're standing there on the, you know, platform with your phone that you're able to see the questions as they come in. 00:26:49:11 - 00:27:06:03 Josh Boldman we're trying to figure out things like how to moderate those things because I don't know about you, but if you ask open ended questions and just have the answers up on the screen without, you might get some filtering. Yeah. Inappropriate answer, I don't know, I don't know. I mean, my the students that I've ever worked with are always saints and so they would not do that. 00:27:06:03 - 00:27:30:01 Nick Clason But I would imagine yours. Well you know it's crazy is like here's another like just interesting youth culture is like I was working at a church in Chicago and it was very like it, it prided itself on we reach people who are far from God. And so, you know, that's going to come with a certain like, oh, I student and now I'm in the Bible Belt in Dallas, Texas. 00:27:30:08 - 00:27:55:00 Nick Clason And, it's like it prides itself on being like the church for Christians almost. And like the kids, the students, they're the same, like it's oh, no doubt. Right. That's the crazy thing is what the internet has done is it's leveled that like playing field of like, yeah, certain cultures, their youth culture is very consistent now and despite the demographic. 00:27:55:00 - 00:28:16:08 Nick Clason And so the unique part is not our students. The unique part is helping our parents understand, that the students are still the same, you know, so, you know, something, we've seen is actually really cool that somebody was doing was they were using the live polls in their lobby for parents to answer as they were dropping their kids off. 00:28:16:08 - 00:28:40:12 Josh Boldman That's cool. And, it was yeah, it was very cool. Was like, and it was, you know, some like, minor stuff that it was like, you know, what time is your middle schoolers? Bedtime. Like, you know. Yeah. Seven, eight, nine, ten, 11. You know, just pick one, you know, stuff like that. And it was minor. But again, it's, not just that you get individuals to engage, but the fact that everybody can see the responses as it as it goes. 00:28:40:14 - 00:29:09:00 Josh Boldman There's, I think there's a lot of even still some untapped, untapped potential there. think about how to help people engage. Yeah. I think, we went to a conference a while back, and they're talking about the differences in generational ways of thinking. And like one of the things and I think this is true, despite like being an older, older generation of like all of us, but like Gen Z, Gen Alpha, like they're just looking to be known individually, like they don't want to be part of, like a sea of numbers. 00:29:09:00 - 00:29:32:20 Nick Clason Right. And so when you are in a bigger context and you have 100,000 kids, like it's hard to it's hard for them to, to stand out and stuff like this helps them get to just yeah, speak their, their voice. Right. And they get to play a role. And even if they're voting for something and their choice doesn't get picked like they were heard and that's oh yeah, that's all it needs to be. 00:29:32:20 - 00:29:52:17 Nick Clason It doesn't have to always go their way, you know? And there's probably some opportunity for them to learn some life lessons and stuff in there. But just like realizing like, hey, we're doing all this for you, but what what do you want? Like, that's I don't know. That's the key. So, Josh, as we wind this sucker down, like final thoughts. 00:29:52:17 - 00:30:16:09 Nick Clason Final words. What what what if anything's, like burning on your soul to get out there? Josh Boldman Oh, man. All right, well, here. I'm glad you asked, Nick. no. okay, here's the thing is. Yeah, I think we need to not be afraid of what our students want. And we need to not be afraid of them expressing their opinion. 00:30:16:11 - 00:30:48:22 Josh Boldman And we need to not be afraid of them disagreeing with each other or with us. I think that that is, you know, where where we are heading is a world that values, a diversity of opinion. And the value placed on each of those opinions, is crucial. And so, like, I mean, I think people really can very easily get confused into thinking that that means that every opinion is right or that every opinion carries the same weight. 00:30:48:22 - 00:31:09:12 Josh Boldman And it's a that's not at all what it but it. I think there is a I think we we do ourselves and honestly the gospel and miss service when we, are a disservice. I don't think Miss Service is a word, a disservice when we, when we say, here is the correct answer, we don't even want to hear anything else. 00:31:09:15 - 00:31:42:02 Josh Boldman because our students are coming into our, our, our environments with their own opinions and own presuppositions. And yes, they probably heard them all from the same TikTok channel. Like, that's fine, but they all still want it. They want to be heard. And so I think any time we can even begin to open the door to showing them that we value what they are walking in with, I think just builds, it builds credibility in their eyes. 00:31:42:05 - 00:32:07:01 Josh Boldman I think in all honesty, I don't know, you know, I would argue that most students are they do not often find themselves in environments where their opinion is valued. so, I mean, whether that's school, I mean, and please don't hear me, teachers are awesome, but it is it is tough when especially when you have like a curriculum in a, in a school environment, you're like, hey, I need you to learn this thing. 00:32:07:07 - 00:32:31:22 Josh Boldman Like, and there's not a lot of debate in biology, you know, like, it's just this is where we're at, you know? And so, but I think if we can create environments where it's, we're inviting students into a conversation where their voice matters, whether that's a, a deep theological conversation or whether that is a game that is literally, hey, I need you to pick A, B, or C because it's a trivia question. 00:32:31:22 - 00:32:57:01 Josh Boldman Like it's it like, but but still valuing what they bring to the table. I think that that pays dividends in the long run in a, in a massive, massive way. I mean, whether that's later in the small group or whether that's ten years later or, you know, I'm at a point right now where kids, when I first started that were in sixth grade, now have their own sixth graders, and that is awful. 00:32:57:03 - 00:33:14:19 Josh Boldman but but it's the same thing is those those kids are now in the place where they're deciding, am I going to bring my own kid to a youth group or not? And, you know, and I think that the way we treat our students now will influence how they raise their own families and what that looks like for them in the future. 00:33:14:19 - 00:33:34:17 Josh Boldman So, never underestimate how important it is to for for a student's voice to be valued. Yeah. And what better spot in the world than for that to happen at church? Crazy, right? Who would've thought? Yeah, well, Josh, we're running out of time. But I appreciate you, man. Anywhere, anywhere else people can find, find the Josh Boldman, like. 00:33:34:19 - 00:34:00:20 Nick Clason Oh, yeah, they want to, like, untap some of these other thoughts and deeper musings of the word is, oh, I don't know if deeper is going to be with the find, but, all the social media is, it's at Josh Boldman. I know, I'm so glad it wasn't taken. Yeah. You're lucky. all right, I know. Yeah. but then, again, you know, the download youth ministry store, you know, I mean, this is not to sell stuff, but like, a lot of the stuff I've written really does reflect where I'm at, you know? 00:34:00:20 - 00:34:09:15 Josh Boldman And so, you know, check out any of that stuff there, but. Well, yeah. Love it. Man. Will appreciate you being on. And, everyone else, we'll talk next time. All right, bye friends. cell phones, teenagers and cell phones, cell phones at church, download youth ministry, sidekick, sidekick and cell phones, youth ministry ideas, youth ministry presentation, youth ministry programming, creative youth ministry messages, Generation Alpha value, individual, church games, church ideas, church cell phone involvement, youth pastor, youth group, youth pastor coach, youth ministry coaching, digital ministry, digital integration, hybrid ministry, nick clason, josh boldman ๐Ÿ”ฅ [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide๐Ÿ”ฅ

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

๐Ÿ’ฅ[CUSTOM] Hybrid Coaching๐Ÿ’ฅ

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
What in the world do we do about cellphone usage during youth group?!
It seems like it's getting worse and worse!

Well, Josh Boldman, of DYM (downloadyouthministry.com) is here to help reveal his thoughts, as well as a full-proof program to not only take care of the cell phone epidemic, but to unveil the future of youth ministry as we all know it!

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๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/110

//CO-LEADER CURRICULUM
https://www.coleader.co/

//SIDEKICK
https://sidekick.tv/

//JOSH ON DYM
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/featured-authors/josh-boldman/

//SIDEKICK FEATURE REQUEST
https://sidekick-tv.canny.io/feature-requests

//JOSH ON SOCIAL
https://www.tiktok.com/@joshboldman
https://www.instagram.com/joshboldman/
https://www.facebook.com/joshboldman
https://x.com/joshboldman

๐Ÿ‘‰ STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

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๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies!
๐Ÿ”— https://linktr.ee/clasonnick

======================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

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

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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Intro - How your experience got you where you are now
04:15 Sidekick's Introduction into the Digital Realm of Youth Ministry
09:00 Sidekick's most user friendly features
13:50 What's next for Sidekick?
17:36 How Sidekick aids in showing up where students are
19:25 The Recipe to Engaging Students where they are
30:42 Final Thoughts on Hybrid Ministry
--------------
โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:15 - 00:00:23:04
Nick Clason
What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry show. I, as always my host Nick Klassen. And I'm really excited. Today I got the one and only Josh Boldman who works at Diam now. He also has years of experience in youth ministry. And so we are going to interview Josh today. What's up everybody? I'm here with Josh Boldman. Josh how you doing this morning bro?

00:00:23:04 - 00:00:44:07
Josh Boldman
I am good man. How are you doing I'm great. I'm glad to have you on

Nick Clason
the long awaited Josh Boldman interview.

Josh Boldman
Most podcasts are still waiting. I just wanted to make it very clear.

Nick Clason
Oh man, I feel like I'm in an exclusive club. Yeah, or something.

Josh Boldman
So they just don't know. They don't know it yet, but they're still waiting.

00:00:44:07 - 00:01:10:12
Nick Clason
Yeah, they definitely are. But not me. Not us. Josh, like, tell the people, how did. Who are you and how did you get to where you are today?

Josh Boldman
Oh my gosh. Okay. That is it all started on a cold with. No. okay. So I have, right there. So I'll start with where I'm at. right now I am I am the team lead for co-leader, which is, a part of the download Youth Ministry family.

00:01:10:14 - 00:01:39:17
Josh Boldman
I also, run lead in the sidekick arena, which is our presentation software. We'll get to that. but that's only been for about the last year. before that, I spent, somewhere in the neighborhood of. Right at about 20 years in student ministry, as a youth pastor or youth minister or student pastor or student ministries director, or any of the other myriad ways that you can you can describe it.

00:01:39:19 - 00:02:03:18
Josh Boldman
but I did that. Gosh, from Florida, to Illinois, to, tiny, tiny little churches to big old churches to, single site to multi-site to we do youth ministry on Sunday morning to we do youth ministry on Wednesday nights like normal people do. all that, you know, so, you know, it's just kind of been all over the place.

00:02:03:24 - 00:02:27:24
Josh Boldman
Yeah. but for the last ten, I'll say ten. It's probably like six, but I'll say ten years. I pastor mother, with Dwight. Yeah. It's like, how many kids were there? The 400. I don't know, it was too many to count. but yeah. So I, I've been an author with Tim, putting resources like games and teaching content and countdowns and videos and stuff together for DYM.

00:02:27:27 - 00:02:47:11
Josh Boldman
And then about a year ago, they had somebody that was going on maternity leave and they're like, hey, you want to cover for that person? I was like, yeah, yeah, I do. And then I spent all 90 days of that maternity leave, trying to make it where there was literally no way they could let me go afterward.

00:02:47:11 - 00:03:08:12
Nick Clason
And it it worked nice.

Josh Boldman
Absolutely worked. I was it was dicey for about about 45 days. And then I was like, nah, I think I got I think, I think I got this. So she came back and I was not asked to pack up and leave. so that has worked out for everybody. Yeah. You didn't put her on the job either?

00:03:08:12 - 00:03:31:27
Josh Boldman
No, no, it's kind of great. Yeah. So, you know, it's been it's been a ride. this last year, co-leader has transitioned from a, a platform where you can plan ministry to a full blown annual curriculum. we've launched sidekick. sidekick, which is now in beta. we had Sidekick Legacy, which was a standalone app.

00:03:31:27 - 00:03:53:26
Josh Boldman
Now it's built in the browser. So you open it in Chrome and you can you can play. You know, play your presentation literally anywhere. we did that all with any I mean, it's like literally anything we could have done, we we decided we were like, hey, you know what? If we just take everything we ever want to do and we just jam it all into one calendar year, and we got this.

00:03:53:27 - 00:04:08:28
Nick Clason
Yeah, we got this guy now who's covering for this girl on maternity leave, and now we can. We had him go. So we're we need to get our money's worth out of him. That's there. Like, we have so many staff. We have so we have so many. And now, now we need to have them do things, so.

00:04:08:28 - 00:04:30:10
Nick Clason
Oh, man, I gotta say the like this, I don't there's no pitch. Like, no, like kickback. None of this. I love co-leader and I love sidekick. And, we, I made our church and I think I told you this, but we'll tell everyone I was like, I made our church by two computers so that we could run pro presenter.

00:04:30:10 - 00:04:52:19
Nick Clason
Because the musicians need the confidence monitor, like the not not what's on the screen mirror, but like what's coming. So like what? So that's valid.

Josh Boldman
So they don't practice is what you're telling me.

Nick Clason
Exactly. They're ill prepared. So I had to give them what they needed at the give the musicians you know, throw my bone. But I made them buy another computer and a like a black magic video switcher.

00:04:52:19 - 00:05:11:04
Josh Boldman
And we running everything else now. Yeah. Off of sidekick. And so, so, so what I'm hearing you say is because of the worship ministry, you guys have to rely on dark magic. Is that. What is that where he is? Oh, black. Matt. Oh, it's a black. It's a company that's different. Okay. All right. I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised either.

00:05:11:11 - 00:05:37:06
Nick Clason
Yeah, yeah, either way. But I love the like I love a lot of things about it. But my favorite part about it is the phone integration. Right. And, we played last week like a game like, multiple choice game. And they could literally play on their phones. And this was the first time I'd, I'd use that particular, like, setting there and sidekick, like the, the question with, with the quiz like type of.

00:05:37:08 - 00:06:02:05
Nick Clason
Yeah. Like what the correct answer. Yes. Yes. And I loved that. That was super fun. so talk to me just a little bit about, like, you know, you jump in. Were there rumblings and plans about sidekick being revamped or did you see some of like those opportunities and be like, this is what I see in youth ministry as a youth pastor, 20 plus years and now, yeah, I want to help kind of evolve it to the next stage, like give us that kind of background.

00:06:02:08 - 00:06:26:01
Josh Boldman
Yeah. So something that, I it's really funny because I don't know that many youth workers realize, although I feel like we should is that, software development takes billions of dollars and lots and lots of time. and so, so when I started at downloading Ministry, the plan had already been. We are revamping sidekick. I'm. You know, I'm just gonna peel back the curtain, you know?

00:06:26:01 - 00:06:50:24
Josh Boldman
You don't know. Yeah. Sorry. I took the original app. All right. Was written in a, in a programing environment that got depreciate. All right, so it is. It was built long, so it was built on something called chromium. and it it it is a like sidekick. Legacy is a work of art. Like it is a it was a game changer for me when I was in ministry.

00:06:50:24 - 00:07:14:13
Josh Boldman
The the spinning wheel boxes. Yeah. it was one of a kind. No one was. Oh, my gosh, nobody was doing it right. And then, what happened about two years ago, maybe three years ago now is chromium got depreciated. And we realized what that meant was there was now no way to update the legacy. I don't know at all, like, impossible, like literally impossible.

00:07:14:16 - 00:07:31:17
Josh Boldman
And and so it was like, okay, well, we can either rebuild a new one or we can take it in a different direction. And one of the really things that people that people hated was every time you open the legacy app, you have to sign in every single time you had to type in the password. It was a great time.

00:07:31:20 - 00:07:52:23
Josh Boldman
I got into trouble. One time I was in front of our, like our whole camp, like it was like a thousand kids, right? And sidekick was running, and then it crashed. And then they had to reopen it, and they're like, from the booth, they yell out, what's the password? No. And in front of 1000 students, I had to say a password into the microphone.

00:07:52:23 - 00:08:14:14
Josh Boldman
And here's the best part. You ready for this? It was the same password for everything. Like my my bank account and, all this stuff. So, like, so like, I immediately I started teaching, and then I get off stage and I'm like, I gotta change every password I mean, ever had. It was a nightmare. so we thought, okay, what is the best way to make this as portable as possible?

00:08:14:14 - 00:08:33:01
Josh Boldman
So we went with putting it in, in the browser. Yeah. which I'll be honest, I mean, it was basically like it was a trade off, right? It gave us a lot of, functionality as far as portability, as far as far as syncing. Yeah. but it there are trade offs, right? Like Google Chrome. both.

00:08:33:01 - 00:08:52:11
Josh Boldman
Google. Safari, Apple. you know, Firefox, they all have different rules about like window management. And so like you'll know like when you open sidekick and you go to present, you have to drag the window over to your other browser. Like that's not ideal right now. We that's why we have a video switcher now that's why. Right.

00:08:52:13 - 00:09:22:11
Josh Boldman
Yeah. That's why we that's why we as Christians rely on dark black magic. Black. It's that's what it is. and so, so, you know, so there are some trade offs for sure. For sure. But, but what we started realizing was, the, the pitch that we started telling people that when it, I think it really kind of clicked for people how how different was good is we would tell them, like, we would show them what we could do with, with voting, with spinning wheel, with, with pick me like the main ideas.

00:09:22:14 - 00:09:41:11
Josh Boldman
And I said, what's really cool is I can create this presentation. I can, immediately, as soon as I add an element to a slide, I can close the laptop, I can break it over my knee, I can set it on fire and throw it in the ocean. And then I can just go to church, open the computer, and it's it's there like it is there.

00:09:41:12 - 00:10:03:18
Josh Boldman
It does not miss a beat. you probably have to like on the computer at church, though, because yours is God's an ocean. Oh yeah. No no no no. Yeah. There's no recovering from it really at the point. Not sidekicks. Not that good yet. Yeah. No, I mean, yeah. but. Yeah. So so it's, Yeah, it's it's being able to sync and being able to to go remote.

00:10:03:25 - 00:10:28:19
Josh Boldman
That's awesome. But then when we started showing people, hey, all you have to do is the same thing you did to log in on your computer, do that on your phone. And what it does is it turns your phone into a remote for the exact same presentation that's running on your presentation computer. and I mean, just suddenly being able to when you're doing polls on your phone, you can see the results, before they're even shown on the screen.

00:10:28:22 - 00:10:57:09
Josh Boldman
you can go to next, go back. You can do slide notes. You can. I mean, it did really any of the functionality that's there except for editing on the computer. You can do that literally on your phone in real time because I don't know if you've ever I'm certainly you've never been in this situation where you have a sixth grader who is so well intentioned is like, I want to run the computer and you're like, yes, that is a that is a thing a sixth grader can do.

00:10:57:09 - 00:11:26:24
Josh Boldman
You can hit the spacebar. Yeah. And and then, and then they, and then they don't, they, they just don't hit the spacebar. And so like I would always use it as just like my, my phone was, I wasn't there. So I was running it, but it was my fallback. Like I was like, okay, that kid in the back, there was one time, I swear to you, right, at an unnamed church that I worked at for a while.

00:11:26:27 - 00:11:51:12
Josh Boldman
I remember once, so I would always try, so I was a student ministry director there, and so I always I would always try, like, I would. Yeah, I was either teaching or whatever, but I would always try to do anytime I wasn't teaching, I would try to do something else. So like anytime I wasn't teaching, I would be in the booth or the, you know, doing the game or, you know, but so there's one time I'm in the booth and, and the lyrics for the songs are not firing on time.

00:11:51:12 - 00:12:18:01
Josh Boldman
And I, so I'm like, leaning over and I'm looking. The kid is watching Star Wars the movie. Like, like an actual movie on his phone. Not a TikTok, not a YouTube. No. The two hour movie, two hour movie with subtitles. And he is holding his phone like screamed. Is it because the subtitles are so small? And I'm like, hey, I know, I know, you're looking at that because words are important.

00:12:18:03 - 00:12:38:25
Josh Boldman
However, everyone else in the room is looking up here because words are important. So maybe I don't know, I don't know, that's just jump up and just jump on that. That's a win right there. Yeah. So but being able to you know when you're on stage and things go wrong there are like a couple of options. And and one of them is to make the person in the booth feel really bad.

00:12:38:25 - 00:13:00:09
Nick Clason
And that is never the right option. Right. It's never to call attention to the person messed up. But we want to sometimes. Oh oh yes, yes, yes we do. But being able to just say, okay, I've got my phone here. Hey, Mr. Cube, don't worry, I'm just going to jump it like, yeah, was that was the game changer for me.

00:13:00:11 - 00:13:22:15
Josh Boldman
and so now we're just on this journey of trying to reach full parity between the legacy version and what is right now, the lovingly called the beta version of sidekick. until it until it has all the same features. yeah. But what we're finding is that is, like I said, the original The legacy is a work of art.

00:13:22:17 - 00:13:47:09
Josh Boldman
And, right now, we are working on boxes and that is in the browser proving to be a challenging. Yeah, it is, it's just, you know, it's one of those things like, you wouldn't think like even when we first, the first go around, we did, wheel and pick me. Right. Those were the first two things. And so with the wheel, you know, you think how this is, it's a spinning wheel.

00:13:47:10 - 00:14:04:24
Josh Boldman
Like there's no. Yeah, there's nothing complicated here. Oh, but there is, friend, because pixels are square. Yeah. I don't know if you knew that or not, but pixels was great. So when you try and rotate them around and center axis that's a. Yeah. It's just it's one of those things like, you know, you think you got it.

00:14:04:24 - 00:14:21:03
Josh Boldman
And then suddenly you're like, oh, that looks really bad. And so then it just it's like you have to go right back to the drawing board and, and so, so yeah. So right now we're working on boxes. It's, it's taking a little longer than we had hoped, but but you're working with square pixels now. So square pixels.

00:14:21:06 - 00:14:35:10
Josh Boldman
We know what we're doing. Yeah. Yes. Wouldn't it be funny if like, in the like when, when it was the wheel, we had a problem because it was squares. But then like we're like, alright, now we're going to move the boxes and like just the world, like was like, you know what we figured out round pixels are better.

00:14:35:12 - 00:14:57:21
Josh Boldman
And I was like, no, no. Yeah. But but yeah. So we're that. So we got boxes, in the pipeline. we're we, we here and I know anybody that knows sidekick already. Their first question that they have been asking is what about, survey says, which is our family feud builder. Right. And, that one is, it's coming.

00:14:57:21 - 00:15:19:27
Josh Boldman
It's like, but it's it is it all takes a yeah, it all takes time. And, so, best way anybody, anybody that, you know, can help me go to sidekick.TV. There's a link there where you can, you can submit ideas and requests and you can even vote on other people's. And and that always helps us know kind of what's next.

00:15:19:29 - 00:15:36:15
Josh Boldman
yeah. But yeah, we'll drop. That'll be. We're loving it, dude. I mean, and. Oh, I, I know the sound is starting to sound like a commercial and I apologize, but it's, it's it is. It's like it's just so fun is, when, when one of the most recent things we did was we connected everyone's dim accounts to the download youth ministry.

00:15:36:15 - 00:16:04:05
Josh Boldman
If you buy something, there, he just automatically shows up. And that is that was awesome. Sweet. Because, I mean, it used to be, I don't know. I mean, you you make games for GM that are video based, right. And and when you do that those those files are massive. Like, you know, I mean, it's not uncommon for a game to be three, four gigabytes, you know, but it's also 3 or 4GB of, you know, that's 20, 30 videos for the game.

00:16:04:05 - 00:16:21:05
Josh Boldman
And so then adding each of those in is kind of a nightmare. And so we figured out a way to do it is we do it on our end once and then it when you buy it, it just you can just it shows up in your library. You click on it and it's just in that is yeah, man, I'm telling you I will.

00:16:21:08 - 00:16:38:28
Josh Boldman
I never have to worry about losing a thumb drive ever again. Yeah, because I don't know if you know this or not, but I don't know where my thumb drive it is right now. I lost it in 1997. so. Sounds like there are some important things on there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Knows it was, I don't know, something.

00:16:38:28 - 00:17:04:23
Josh Boldman
Call it bitcoin. Bitcoin I don't remember. You could have been rich. You wouldn't even have to be here right now. Well I'll tell you what. Of all the things like all the things you're talking about, there's like, there's phone usage on both sides, right? So if you're presenting, you can use your phone as a remote, but if you're, you're, watching your in the audience, there are like integrations where there's like voting and games and all that stuff.

00:17:04:23 - 00:17:25:07
Nick Clason
Yeah. And, I think that's my favorite part. Like as a youth pastor now for, over ten years, like I've always been trying to figure out how to get ourselves in youth ministry. Like relevant to our students are, as opposed to, like, when they're at church, make them do something that's so completely foreign to like their current culture.

00:17:25:07 - 00:17:56:28
Nick Clason
Right? Like youth culture, like they're all messaging one another through their phones. They're all like consuming news articles and social media through their phones. And then we get to church and like the church I was at, like when I started the previous regime, no shade. but they had, like, phone lockers, like they would take kids cellphones and lock them and like, and what we're do, in my opinion, is like, okay, so we're, we're just trying to modify their behavior, but we haven't actually like change their true authentic like desire to like be here and listen.

00:17:56:28 - 00:18:19:26
Nick Clason
We just want them quieter for us. And like that we should just be better. Like, yeah. And so y'all start rolling out all this stuff on sidekick. And I'm like, here's the opportunity for us to use what is native to them in our environment and in a way that doesn't, like, break the bank anymore, because to get some of these features through other third party like platforms, we just don't have the money.

00:18:19:26 - 00:18:45:09
Nick Clason
As a youth pastor, you know what I'm saying? In your budget, whatever the case might be. So yeah, so that's my favorite part. And so I would love it if you would talk about not just necessarily like the sidekick integration, but what has been your experience and your unique perspective as a youth pastor with how what we've done in youth culture and how like we've then asked them to come to church culture and how they don't all they're like oil and water sometimes.

00:18:45:09 - 00:19:07:04
Nick Clason
Like, how are we? How can we reach students better and to find ourselves where they are, which is online, on phones, all those things.

Josh Boldman
I mean, okay, so you remember, man, even I mean, when I was growing up and especially early in my ministry, you know, it was always the, the thing was, you were always fighting against like, like travel sports, right?

00:19:07:04 - 00:19:30:07
Josh Boldman
Like that was like the, the, the bane of youth ministry existence was like, oh, we still are really, by the way. Oh, to be cool. Yeah. Oh, no doubt. But it was like, I don't know, there was like a point where I think we just we got tired of seeing no results from shame, shaming those kids. Like, it's like you want to play travel ball.

00:19:30:11 - 00:19:47:28
Josh Boldman
We'll play travel ball. Yeah. With the devil. You know, it's like that. Doesn't like it doesn't help anybody. When? When all we're doing is. Or like. Like, oh, you have a phone, go lock it up because it's, you know, it's like that, doesn't it? Yeah. What does that do? All that does is like when you're locking up a kid's phone.

00:19:48:05 - 00:20:10:09
Josh Boldman
I feel like the way that you can know that it's not working is as soon as the the time, like the lockdown is over, was the very first thing they do. They run to go get it. Yeah. Which means that it was, it was on their mind still. So it's not like you really saved you know them any, any trouble or any like you didn't gain anything by pulling it away, you know, because their attention is still stuck on it.

00:20:10:11 - 00:20:36:16
Josh Boldman
so really what I think, I think is we're seeing right now in youth ministry as a whole, in, in what we're trying to do, a sidekick is really we're trying to figure out ways to engage students, literally where they are. And so, I guess, have you, did you ever do camps where the rule was the kids couldn't even bring their phone to camp?

00:20:36:18 - 00:20:59:04
Nick Clason
I never did. No, I could have, right. But I never I always I've always run my own camp, so I make the rules. So. Yeah. And I've always been in churches or youth ministries where the goal is to bring kids who don't go to our church to camp. And like, I'm not going to get a kid and their family who's never met me, send their kid like hours away without a lifeline back to them.

00:20:59:04 - 00:21:24:10
Josh Boldman
Oh yeah. Kids. Oh, no. So I've never tried to fight that battle, but it was fake because we used to almost use that, like as an advertisement. We were like, come to camp where you get away from your phone and kids are like, I don't want to do that, you know? And so, like, there was a point where I think maybe 20 years ago, you probably could do it, but even now, it's not even just the kid, it's the parents that are like, I'm not sending my kid without their phone.

00:21:24:10 - 00:21:58:02
Josh Boldman
What's wrong with you? You know? Yeah. So, like, so what we decided to do with with sidekick is like, okay, what if instead of constantly harping on, he put your phone away or go lock it up or don't even bring it, or, you know, trying to make it seem like the phone itself was the enemy. What if we decided to say like, hey, we understand that that phone, it's an extension of you now like that just, I mean, and that, I mean, you know, I mean, I think you can get really, like, dystopian, you know, like, like Blade Runner type type vibes from, like, the phone is an extension of you, but but it is

00:21:58:03 - 00:22:21:24
Josh Boldman
mine is an extension of me like, I mean, I literally if I, I don't know when the last time I walked out of my house without my phone was like, it's not just because I didn't forget it, it's because if it's not in my pocket, it feels like I'm missing something. I feel like I know I'm missing it, and you're gonna need it, you know, like, oh, sure, it's your calendar, it's your wallet, it's your navigation, it's your everything.

00:22:21:24 - 00:22:49:12
Nick Clason
Like it. So you can't so much. That's my argument is like this. It's not going anywhere. So we can try our hardest as youth pastors and churches to fight against culture. But it's a losing battle eventually. And it's not like, oh, let's give in to culture because it's evil, right? No, no, no. It's how do we take this thing that is not moral, it's not morally right or morally wrong, but how do we take this thing and just use it as a tool?

00:22:49:12 - 00:23:07:12
Josh Boldman
It's it's a tool, 100% tool that we we would have died for 15, 20 years ago, like, oh yeah, I was talking on the last episode like we didn't have group chats 15 years ago. If you want to talk to your student, you talk to them when they came to your building and that was it. But now you can do pastoral care.

00:23:07:12 - 00:23:39:02
Nick Clason
You can, and just do a basic thing like texting. When I'm talking about something like software development right now. Yeah. So one of the things, that has been really cool to experiment with, and we've seen a couple people do this really well is is using like polls like, okay, so there's a there are different ways you can use it, but the like, so say as you're teaching, if, if you're saying something that you know is going to fly right over their heads, right?

00:23:39:05 - 00:24:11:11
Josh Boldman
Pausing literally at that moment and asking the question, hey, did you catch that? And yes or no, like literally something super simple like, did you catch that? Yes or no? And then adjusting what you say next based on their response or, we've even seen people take their entire services in like a, choose your own adventure type approach where, I mean, it is it seems minor, but it's something like, hey, we've got the worship team has two songs that they prepared, but we're only going to do one.

00:24:11:13 - 00:24:29:15
Josh Boldman
Hey, you all, they're here. Yeah. Which one you want to do? You know, or, you know, I've, done a couple teaching times where, like, so, you know, every youth pastor has, like, their, like, bag of tricks, like the, the saw or the stories that they tell that it's like, okay, I can tell this story, like drop of a hat.

00:24:29:15 - 00:25:00:17
Josh Boldman
Yeah. you know, and so, like, I, I'll start with, like, right at the beginning of a message will say, hey, guys, I can tell you one of, three stories. You know, when when I got hit by a car, one when I accidentally killed my girlfriend's cat and one when I, when I stubbed my toe, you know, and so, like, you take your pick, you know, and just let them pick, and it doesn't change anything about where that message is going, but letting them have a moment where they can speak into it.

00:25:00:17 - 00:25:27:22
Josh Boldman
Like, I guarantee you, when the room picks the story, the room pays attention to the story more. Yeah. or or even at the end, you know, be a great way to, to really, especially if you're trying to reach students that are not familiar with church a lot, you know, like that aren't around a lot is, at the end of the message just saying, like, hey, on a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you agree with what you just heard?

00:25:27:25 - 00:25:46:26
Josh Boldman
can you met and live in live results on the screen like, hey, okay, so but can you imagine how much that might change your small group conversations that are going to happen right after the lesson? If if you suddenly see, like, oh, we just talked about this and 80% of the room says, I don't agree, okay, great.

00:25:47:03 - 00:26:10:20
Josh Boldman
Then let's go to our small groups and let's see this mess out. You know, or I think that there's, there's stuff like that or or you could even say if you're doing a series, you could, you could say, hey, here are the four weeks of the series. we did the intro this week. Which one you want to hear about next week and let them pick where you're going to go, and then you have a whole week to figure out how to get there.

00:26:10:22 - 00:26:29:11
Josh Boldman
yeah. But it but I guarantee you, those students that voted are going to be more likely to be there if they know what you're talking about. And they actually helped get to to choose what that was going to be. Yeah, I think I think there's a lot there. And we're working love to say like we're working like it's like in development, right, right now.

00:26:29:11 - 00:26:49:09
Josh Boldman
But it's like I mean, one of the things on the, on the docket is, is, you know, being able to have students from their seat ask questions, be able to give feedback, you know, in real time so that you, as you're standing there on the, you know, platform with your phone that you're able to see the questions as they come in.

00:26:49:11 - 00:27:06:03
Josh Boldman
we're trying to figure out things like how to moderate those things because I don't know about you, but if you ask open ended questions and just have the answers up on the screen without, you might get some filtering. Yeah. Inappropriate answer, I don't know, I don't know. I mean, my the students that I've ever worked with are always saints and so they would not do that.

00:27:06:03 - 00:27:30:01
Nick Clason
But I would imagine yours. Well you know it's crazy is like here's another like just interesting youth culture is like I was working at a church in Chicago and it was very like it, it prided itself on we reach people who are far from God. And so, you know, that's going to come with a certain like, oh, I student and now I'm in the Bible Belt in Dallas, Texas.

00:27:30:08 - 00:27:55:00
Nick Clason
And, it's like it prides itself on being like the church for Christians almost. And like the kids, the students, they're the same, like it's oh, no doubt. Right. That's the crazy thing is what the internet has done is it's leveled that like playing field of like, yeah, certain cultures, their youth culture is very consistent now and despite the demographic.

00:27:55:00 - 00:28:16:08
Nick Clason
And so the unique part is not our students. The unique part is helping our parents understand, that the students are still the same, you know, so, you know, something, we've seen is actually really cool that somebody was doing was they were using the live polls in their lobby for parents to answer as they were dropping their kids off.

00:28:16:08 - 00:28:40:12
Josh Boldman
That's cool. And, it was yeah, it was very cool. Was like, and it was, you know, some like, minor stuff that it was like, you know, what time is your middle schoolers? Bedtime. Like, you know. Yeah. Seven, eight, nine, ten, 11. You know, just pick one, you know, stuff like that. And it was minor. But again, it's, not just that you get individuals to engage, but the fact that everybody can see the responses as it as it goes.

00:28:40:14 - 00:29:09:00
Josh Boldman
There's, I think there's a lot of even still some untapped, untapped potential there. think about how to help people engage. Yeah. I think, we went to a conference a while back, and they're talking about the differences in generational ways of thinking. And like one of the things and I think this is true, despite like being an older, older generation of like all of us, but like Gen Z, Gen Alpha, like they're just looking to be known individually, like they don't want to be part of, like a sea of numbers.

00:29:09:00 - 00:29:32:20
Nick Clason
Right. And so when you are in a bigger context and you have 100,000 kids, like it's hard to it's hard for them to, to stand out and stuff like this helps them get to just yeah, speak their, their voice. Right. And they get to play a role. And even if they're voting for something and their choice doesn't get picked like they were heard and that's oh yeah, that's all it needs to be.

00:29:32:20 - 00:29:52:17
Nick Clason
It doesn't have to always go their way, you know? And there's probably some opportunity for them to learn some life lessons and stuff in there. But just like realizing like, hey, we're doing all this for you, but what what do you want? Like, that's I don't know. That's the key. So, Josh, as we wind this sucker down, like final thoughts.

00:29:52:17 - 00:30:16:09
Nick Clason
Final words. What what what if anything's, like burning on your soul to get out there?

Josh Boldman
Oh, man. All right, well, here. I'm glad you asked, Nick. no. okay, here's the thing is. Yeah, I think we need to not be afraid of what our students want. And we need to not be afraid of them expressing their opinion.

00:30:16:11 - 00:30:48:22
Josh Boldman
And we need to not be afraid of them disagreeing with each other or with us. I think that that is, you know, where where we are heading is a world that values, a diversity of opinion. And the value placed on each of those opinions, is crucial. And so, like, I mean, I think people really can very easily get confused into thinking that that means that every opinion is right or that every opinion carries the same weight.

00:30:48:22 - 00:31:09:12
Josh Boldman
And it's a that's not at all what it but it. I think there is a I think we we do ourselves and honestly the gospel and miss service when we, are a disservice. I don't think Miss Service is a word, a disservice when we, when we say, here is the correct answer, we don't even want to hear anything else.

00:31:09:15 - 00:31:42:02
Josh Boldman
because our students are coming into our, our, our environments with their own opinions and own presuppositions. And yes, they probably heard them all from the same TikTok channel. Like, that's fine, but they all still want it. They want to be heard. And so I think any time we can even begin to open the door to showing them that we value what they are walking in with, I think just builds, it builds credibility in their eyes.

00:31:42:05 - 00:32:07:01
Josh Boldman
I think in all honesty, I don't know, you know, I would argue that most students are they do not often find themselves in environments where their opinion is valued. so, I mean, whether that's school, I mean, and please don't hear me, teachers are awesome, but it is it is tough when especially when you have like a curriculum in a, in a school environment, you're like, hey, I need you to learn this thing.

00:32:07:07 - 00:32:31:22
Josh Boldman
Like, and there's not a lot of debate in biology, you know, like, it's just this is where we're at, you know? And so, but I think if we can create environments where it's, we're inviting students into a conversation where their voice matters, whether that's a, a deep theological conversation or whether that is a game that is literally, hey, I need you to pick A, B, or C because it's a trivia question.

00:32:31:22 - 00:32:57:01
Josh Boldman
Like it's it like, but but still valuing what they bring to the table. I think that that pays dividends in the long run in a, in a massive, massive way. I mean, whether that's later in the small group or whether that's ten years later or, you know, I'm at a point right now where kids, when I first started that were in sixth grade, now have their own sixth graders, and that is awful.

00:32:57:03 - 00:33:14:19
Josh Boldman
but but it's the same thing is those those kids are now in the place where they're deciding, am I going to bring my own kid to a youth group or not? And, you know, and I think that the way we treat our students now will influence how they raise their own families and what that looks like for them in the future.

00:33:14:19 - 00:33:34:17
Josh Boldman
So, never underestimate how important it is to for for a student's voice to be valued. Yeah. And what better spot in the world than for that to happen at church? Crazy, right? Who would've thought? Yeah, well, Josh, we're running out of time. But I appreciate you, man. Anywhere, anywhere else people can find, find the Josh Boldman, like.

00:33:34:19 - 00:34:00:20
Nick Clason
Oh, yeah, they want to, like, untap some of these other thoughts and deeper musings of the word is, oh, I don't know if deeper is going to be with the find, but, all the social media is, it's at Josh Boldman. I know, I'm so glad it wasn't taken. Yeah. You're lucky. all right, I know. Yeah. but then, again, you know, the download youth ministry store, you know, I mean, this is not to sell stuff, but like, a lot of the stuff I've written really does reflect where I'm at, you know?

00:34:00:20 - 00:34:09:15
Josh Boldman
And so, you know, check out any of that stuff there, but. Well, yeah. Love it. Man. Will appreciate you being on. And, everyone else, we'll talk next time. All right, bye friends.

]]> ๐Ÿ”ฅ [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide๐Ÿ”ฅ

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

๐Ÿ’ฅ[CUSTOM] Hybrid Coaching๐Ÿ’ฅ

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
What in the world do we do about cellphone usage during youth group?!
It seems like it's getting worse and worse!

Well, Josh Boldman, of DYM (downloadyouthministry.com) is here to help reveal his thoughts, as well as a full-proof program to not only take care of the cell phone epidemic, but to unveil the future of youth ministry as we all know it!

======================================
๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/110

//CO-LEADER CURRICULUM
https://www.coleader.co/

//SIDEKICK
https://sidekick.tv/

//JOSH ON DYM
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/featured-authors/josh-boldman/

//SIDEKICK FEATURE REQUEST
https://sidekick-tv.canny.io/feature-requests

//JOSH ON SOCIAL
https://www.tiktok.com/@joshboldman
https://www.instagram.com/joshboldman/
https://www.facebook.com/joshboldman
https://x.com/joshboldman

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
Level up your youth ministry game with these freebies!
๐Ÿ”— https://linktr.ee/clasonnick

======================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

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

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

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

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

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Intro - How your experience got you where you are now
04:15 Sidekick's Introduction into the Digital Realm of Youth Ministry
09:00 Sidekick's most user friendly features
13:50 What's next for Sidekick?
17:36 How Sidekick aids in showing up where students are
19:25 The Recipe to Engaging Students where they are
30:42 Final Thoughts on Hybrid Ministry
--------------
โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:15 - 00:00:23:04
Nick Clason
What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry show. I, as always my host Nick Klassen. And I'm really excited. Today I got the one and only Josh Boldman who works at Diam now. He also has years of experience in youth ministry. And so we are going to interview Josh today. What's up everybody? I'm here with Josh Boldman. Josh how you doing this morning bro?

00:00:23:04 - 00:00:44:07
Josh Boldman
I am good man. How are you doing I'm great. I'm glad to have you on

Nick Clason
the long awaited Josh Boldman interview.

Josh Boldman
Most podcasts are still waiting. I just wanted to make it very clear.

Nick Clason
Oh man, I feel like I'm in an exclusive club. Yeah, or something.

Josh Boldman
So they just don't know. They don't know it yet, but they're still waiting.

00:00:44:07 - 00:01:10:12
Nick Clason
Yeah, they definitely are. But not me. Not us. Josh, like, tell the people, how did. Who are you and how did you get to where you are today?

Josh Boldman
Oh my gosh. Okay. That is it all started on a cold with. No. okay. So I have, right there. So I'll start with where I'm at. right now I am I am the team lead for co-leader, which is, a part of the download Youth Ministry family.

00:01:10:14 - 00:01:39:17
Josh Boldman
I also, run lead in the sidekick arena, which is our presentation software. We'll get to that. but that's only been for about the last year. before that, I spent, somewhere in the neighborhood of. Right at about 20 years in student ministry, as a youth pastor or youth minister or student pastor or student ministries director, or any of the other myriad ways that you can you can describe it.

00:01:39:19 - 00:02:03:18
Josh Boldman
but I did that. Gosh, from Florida, to Illinois, to, tiny, tiny little churches to big old churches to, single site to multi-site to we do youth ministry on Sunday morning to we do youth ministry on Wednesday nights like normal people do. all that, you know, so, you know, it's just kind of been all over the place.

00:02:03:24 - 00:02:27:24
Josh Boldman
Yeah. but for the last ten, I'll say ten. It's probably like six, but I'll say ten years. I pastor mother, with Dwight. Yeah. It's like, how many kids were there? The 400. I don't know, it was too many to count. but yeah. So I, I've been an author with Tim, putting resources like games and teaching content and countdowns and videos and stuff together for DYM.

00:02:27:27 - 00:02:47:11
Josh Boldman
And then about a year ago, they had somebody that was going on maternity leave and they're like, hey, you want to cover for that person? I was like, yeah, yeah, I do. And then I spent all 90 days of that maternity leave, trying to make it where there was literally no way they could let me go afterward.

00:02:47:11 - 00:03:08:12
Nick Clason
And it it worked nice.

Josh Boldman
Absolutely worked. I was it was dicey for about about 45 days. And then I was like, nah, I think I got I think, I think I got this. So she came back and I was not asked to pack up and leave. so that has worked out for everybody. Yeah. You didn't put her on the job either?

00:03:08:12 - 00:03:31:27
Josh Boldman
No, no, it's kind of great. Yeah. So, you know, it's been it's been a ride. this last year, co-leader has transitioned from a, a platform where you can plan ministry to a full blown annual curriculum. we've launched sidekick. sidekick, which is now in beta. we had Sidekick Legacy, which was a standalone app.

00:03:31:27 - 00:03:53:26
Josh Boldman
Now it's built in the browser. So you open it in Chrome and you can you can play. You know, play your presentation literally anywhere. we did that all with any I mean, it's like literally anything we could have done, we we decided we were like, hey, you know what? If we just take everything we ever want to do and we just jam it all into one calendar year, and we got this.

00:03:53:27 - 00:04:08:28
Nick Clason
Yeah, we got this guy now who's covering for this girl on maternity leave, and now we can. We had him go. So we're we need to get our money's worth out of him. That's there. Like, we have so many staff. We have so we have so many. And now, now we need to have them do things, so.

00:04:08:28 - 00:04:30:10
Nick Clason
Oh, man, I gotta say the like this, I don't there's no pitch. Like, no, like kickback. None of this. I love co-leader and I love sidekick. And, we, I made our church and I think I told you this, but we'll tell everyone I was like, I made our church by two computers so that we could run pro presenter.

00:04:30:10 - 00:04:52:19
Nick Clason
Because the musicians need the confidence monitor, like the not not what's on the screen mirror, but like what's coming. So like what? So that's valid.

Josh Boldman
So they don't practice is what you're telling me.

Nick Clason
Exactly. They're ill prepared. So I had to give them what they needed at the give the musicians you know, throw my bone. But I made them buy another computer and a like a black magic video switcher.

00:04:52:19 - 00:05:11:04
Josh Boldman
And we running everything else now. Yeah. Off of sidekick. And so, so, so what I'm hearing you say is because of the worship ministry, you guys have to rely on dark magic. Is that. What is that where he is? Oh, black. Matt. Oh, it's a black. It's a company that's different. Okay. All right. I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised either.

00:05:11:11 - 00:05:37:06
Nick Clason
Yeah, yeah, either way. But I love the like I love a lot of things about it. But my favorite part about it is the phone integration. Right. And, we played last week like a game like, multiple choice game. And they could literally play on their phones. And this was the first time I'd, I'd use that particular, like, setting there and sidekick, like the, the question with, with the quiz like type of.

00:05:37:08 - 00:06:02:05
Nick Clason
Yeah. Like what the correct answer. Yes. Yes. And I loved that. That was super fun. so talk to me just a little bit about, like, you know, you jump in. Were there rumblings and plans about sidekick being revamped or did you see some of like those opportunities and be like, this is what I see in youth ministry as a youth pastor, 20 plus years and now, yeah, I want to help kind of evolve it to the next stage, like give us that kind of background.

00:06:02:08 - 00:06:26:01
Josh Boldman
Yeah. So something that, I it's really funny because I don't know that many youth workers realize, although I feel like we should is that, software development takes billions of dollars and lots and lots of time. and so, so when I started at downloading Ministry, the plan had already been. We are revamping sidekick. I'm. You know, I'm just gonna peel back the curtain, you know?

00:06:26:01 - 00:06:50:24
Josh Boldman
You don't know. Yeah. Sorry. I took the original app. All right. Was written in a, in a programing environment that got depreciate. All right, so it is. It was built long, so it was built on something called chromium. and it it it is a like sidekick. Legacy is a work of art. Like it is a it was a game changer for me when I was in ministry.

00:06:50:24 - 00:07:14:13
Josh Boldman
The the spinning wheel boxes. Yeah. it was one of a kind. No one was. Oh, my gosh, nobody was doing it right. And then, what happened about two years ago, maybe three years ago now is chromium got depreciated. And we realized what that meant was there was now no way to update the legacy. I don't know at all, like, impossible, like literally impossible.

00:07:14:16 - 00:07:31:17
Josh Boldman
And and so it was like, okay, well, we can either rebuild a new one or we can take it in a different direction. And one of the really things that people that people hated was every time you open the legacy app, you have to sign in every single time you had to type in the password. It was a great time.

00:07:31:20 - 00:07:52:23
Josh Boldman
I got into trouble. One time I was in front of our, like our whole camp, like it was like a thousand kids, right? And sidekick was running, and then it crashed. And then they had to reopen it, and they're like, from the booth, they yell out, what's the password? No. And in front of 1000 students, I had to say a password into the microphone.

00:07:52:23 - 00:08:14:14
Josh Boldman
And here's the best part. You ready for this? It was the same password for everything. Like my my bank account and, all this stuff. So, like, so like, I immediately I started teaching, and then I get off stage and I'm like, I gotta change every password I mean, ever had. It was a nightmare. so we thought, okay, what is the best way to make this as portable as possible?

00:08:14:14 - 00:08:33:01
Josh Boldman
So we went with putting it in, in the browser. Yeah. which I'll be honest, I mean, it was basically like it was a trade off, right? It gave us a lot of, functionality as far as portability, as far as far as syncing. Yeah. but it there are trade offs, right? Like Google Chrome. both.

00:08:33:01 - 00:08:52:11
Josh Boldman
Google. Safari, Apple. you know, Firefox, they all have different rules about like window management. And so like you'll know like when you open sidekick and you go to present, you have to drag the window over to your other browser. Like that's not ideal right now. We that's why we have a video switcher now that's why. Right.

00:08:52:13 - 00:09:22:11
Josh Boldman
Yeah. That's why we that's why we as Christians rely on dark black magic. Black. It's that's what it is. and so, so, you know, so there are some trade offs for sure. For sure. But, but what we started realizing was, the, the pitch that we started telling people that when it, I think it really kind of clicked for people how how different was good is we would tell them, like, we would show them what we could do with, with voting, with spinning wheel, with, with pick me like the main ideas.

00:09:22:14 - 00:09:41:11
Josh Boldman
And I said, what's really cool is I can create this presentation. I can, immediately, as soon as I add an element to a slide, I can close the laptop, I can break it over my knee, I can set it on fire and throw it in the ocean. And then I can just go to church, open the computer, and it's it's there like it is there.

00:09:41:12 - 00:10:03:18
Josh Boldman
It does not miss a beat. you probably have to like on the computer at church, though, because yours is God's an ocean. Oh yeah. No no no no. Yeah. There's no recovering from it really at the point. Not sidekicks. Not that good yet. Yeah. No, I mean, yeah. but. Yeah. So so it's, Yeah, it's it's being able to sync and being able to to go remote.

00:10:03:25 - 00:10:28:19
Josh Boldman
That's awesome. But then when we started showing people, hey, all you have to do is the same thing you did to log in on your computer, do that on your phone. And what it does is it turns your phone into a remote for the exact same presentation that's running on your presentation computer. and I mean, just suddenly being able to when you're doing polls on your phone, you can see the results, before they're even shown on the screen.

00:10:28:22 - 00:10:57:09
Josh Boldman
you can go to next, go back. You can do slide notes. You can. I mean, it did really any of the functionality that's there except for editing on the computer. You can do that literally on your phone in real time because I don't know if you've ever I'm certainly you've never been in this situation where you have a sixth grader who is so well intentioned is like, I want to run the computer and you're like, yes, that is a that is a thing a sixth grader can do.

00:10:57:09 - 00:11:26:24
Josh Boldman
You can hit the spacebar. Yeah. And and then, and then they, and then they don't, they, they just don't hit the spacebar. And so like I would always use it as just like my, my phone was, I wasn't there. So I was running it, but it was my fallback. Like I was like, okay, that kid in the back, there was one time, I swear to you, right, at an unnamed church that I worked at for a while.

00:11:26:27 - 00:11:51:12
Josh Boldman
I remember once, so I would always try, so I was a student ministry director there, and so I always I would always try, like, I would. Yeah, I was either teaching or whatever, but I would always try to do anytime I wasn't teaching, I would try to do something else. So like anytime I wasn't teaching, I would be in the booth or the, you know, doing the game or, you know, but so there's one time I'm in the booth and, and the lyrics for the songs are not firing on time.

00:11:51:12 - 00:12:18:01
Josh Boldman
And I, so I'm like, leaning over and I'm looking. The kid is watching Star Wars the movie. Like, like an actual movie on his phone. Not a TikTok, not a YouTube. No. The two hour movie, two hour movie with subtitles. And he is holding his phone like screamed. Is it because the subtitles are so small? And I'm like, hey, I know, I know, you're looking at that because words are important.

00:12:18:03 - 00:12:38:25
Josh Boldman
However, everyone else in the room is looking up here because words are important. So maybe I don't know, I don't know, that's just jump up and just jump on that. That's a win right there. Yeah. So but being able to you know when you're on stage and things go wrong there are like a couple of options. And and one of them is to make the person in the booth feel really bad.

00:12:38:25 - 00:13:00:09
Nick Clason
And that is never the right option. Right. It's never to call attention to the person messed up. But we want to sometimes. Oh oh yes, yes, yes we do. But being able to just say, okay, I've got my phone here. Hey, Mr. Cube, don't worry, I'm just going to jump it like, yeah, was that was the game changer for me.

00:13:00:11 - 00:13:22:15
Josh Boldman
and so now we're just on this journey of trying to reach full parity between the legacy version and what is right now, the lovingly called the beta version of sidekick. until it until it has all the same features. yeah. But what we're finding is that is, like I said, the original The legacy is a work of art.

00:13:22:17 - 00:13:47:09
Josh Boldman
And, right now, we are working on boxes and that is in the browser proving to be a challenging. Yeah, it is, it's just, you know, it's one of those things like, you wouldn't think like even when we first, the first go around, we did, wheel and pick me. Right. Those were the first two things. And so with the wheel, you know, you think how this is, it's a spinning wheel.

00:13:47:10 - 00:14:04:24
Josh Boldman
Like there's no. Yeah, there's nothing complicated here. Oh, but there is, friend, because pixels are square. Yeah. I don't know if you knew that or not, but pixels was great. So when you try and rotate them around and center axis that's a. Yeah. It's just it's one of those things like, you know, you think you got it.

00:14:04:24 - 00:14:21:03
Josh Boldman
And then suddenly you're like, oh, that looks really bad. And so then it just it's like you have to go right back to the drawing board and, and so, so yeah. So right now we're working on boxes. It's, it's taking a little longer than we had hoped, but but you're working with square pixels now. So square pixels.

00:14:21:06 - 00:14:35:10
Josh Boldman
We know what we're doing. Yeah. Yes. Wouldn't it be funny if like, in the like when, when it was the wheel, we had a problem because it was squares. But then like we're like, alright, now we're going to move the boxes and like just the world, like was like, you know what we figured out round pixels are better.

00:14:35:12 - 00:14:57:21
Josh Boldman
And I was like, no, no. Yeah. But but yeah. So we're that. So we got boxes, in the pipeline. we're we, we here and I know anybody that knows sidekick already. Their first question that they have been asking is what about, survey says, which is our family feud builder. Right. And, that one is, it's coming.

00:14:57:21 - 00:15:19:27
Josh Boldman
It's like, but it's it is it all takes a yeah, it all takes time. And, so, best way anybody, anybody that, you know, can help me go to sidekick.TV. There's a link there where you can, you can submit ideas and requests and you can even vote on other people's. And and that always helps us know kind of what's next.

00:15:19:29 - 00:15:36:15
Josh Boldman
yeah. But yeah, we'll drop. That'll be. We're loving it, dude. I mean, and. Oh, I, I know the sound is starting to sound like a commercial and I apologize, but it's, it's it is. It's like it's just so fun is, when, when one of the most recent things we did was we connected everyone's dim accounts to the download youth ministry.

00:15:36:15 - 00:16:04:05
Josh Boldman
If you buy something, there, he just automatically shows up. And that is that was awesome. Sweet. Because, I mean, it used to be, I don't know. I mean, you you make games for GM that are video based, right. And and when you do that those those files are massive. Like, you know, I mean, it's not uncommon for a game to be three, four gigabytes, you know, but it's also 3 or 4GB of, you know, that's 20, 30 videos for the game.

00:16:04:05 - 00:16:21:05
Josh Boldman
And so then adding each of those in is kind of a nightmare. And so we figured out a way to do it is we do it on our end once and then it when you buy it, it just you can just it shows up in your library. You click on it and it's just in that is yeah, man, I'm telling you I will.

00:16:21:08 - 00:16:38:28
Josh Boldman
I never have to worry about losing a thumb drive ever again. Yeah, because I don't know if you know this or not, but I don't know where my thumb drive it is right now. I lost it in 1997. so. Sounds like there are some important things on there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Knows it was, I don't know, something.

00:16:38:28 - 00:17:04:23
Josh Boldman
Call it bitcoin. Bitcoin I don't remember. You could have been rich. You wouldn't even have to be here right now. Well I'll tell you what. Of all the things like all the things you're talking about, there's like, there's phone usage on both sides, right? So if you're presenting, you can use your phone as a remote, but if you're, you're, watching your in the audience, there are like integrations where there's like voting and games and all that stuff.

00:17:04:23 - 00:17:25:07
Nick Clason
Yeah. And, I think that's my favorite part. Like as a youth pastor now for, over ten years, like I've always been trying to figure out how to get ourselves in youth ministry. Like relevant to our students are, as opposed to, like, when they're at church, make them do something that's so completely foreign to like their current culture.

00:17:25:07 - 00:17:56:28
Nick Clason
Right? Like youth culture, like they're all messaging one another through their phones. They're all like consuming news articles and social media through their phones. And then we get to church and like the church I was at, like when I started the previous regime, no shade. but they had, like, phone lockers, like they would take kids cellphones and lock them and like, and what we're do, in my opinion, is like, okay, so we're, we're just trying to modify their behavior, but we haven't actually like change their true authentic like desire to like be here and listen.

00:17:56:28 - 00:18:19:26
Nick Clason
We just want them quieter for us. And like that we should just be better. Like, yeah. And so y'all start rolling out all this stuff on sidekick. And I'm like, here's the opportunity for us to use what is native to them in our environment and in a way that doesn't, like, break the bank anymore, because to get some of these features through other third party like platforms, we just don't have the money.

00:18:19:26 - 00:18:45:09
Nick Clason
As a youth pastor, you know what I'm saying? In your budget, whatever the case might be. So yeah, so that's my favorite part. And so I would love it if you would talk about not just necessarily like the sidekick integration, but what has been your experience and your unique perspective as a youth pastor with how what we've done in youth culture and how like we've then asked them to come to church culture and how they don't all they're like oil and water sometimes.

00:18:45:09 - 00:19:07:04
Nick Clason
Like, how are we? How can we reach students better and to find ourselves where they are, which is online, on phones, all those things.

Josh Boldman
I mean, okay, so you remember, man, even I mean, when I was growing up and especially early in my ministry, you know, it was always the, the thing was, you were always fighting against like, like travel sports, right?

00:19:07:04 - 00:19:30:07
Josh Boldman
Like that was like the, the, the bane of youth ministry existence was like, oh, we still are really, by the way. Oh, to be cool. Yeah. Oh, no doubt. But it was like, I don't know, there was like a point where I think we just we got tired of seeing no results from shame, shaming those kids. Like, it's like you want to play travel ball.

00:19:30:11 - 00:19:47:28
Josh Boldman
We'll play travel ball. Yeah. With the devil. You know, it's like that. Doesn't like it doesn't help anybody. When? When all we're doing is. Or like. Like, oh, you have a phone, go lock it up because it's, you know, it's like that, doesn't it? Yeah. What does that do? All that does is like when you're locking up a kid's phone.

00:19:48:05 - 00:20:10:09
Josh Boldman
I feel like the way that you can know that it's not working is as soon as the the time, like the lockdown is over, was the very first thing they do. They run to go get it. Yeah. Which means that it was, it was on their mind still. So it's not like you really saved you know them any, any trouble or any like you didn't gain anything by pulling it away, you know, because their attention is still stuck on it.

00:20:10:11 - 00:20:36:16
Josh Boldman
so really what I think, I think is we're seeing right now in youth ministry as a whole, in, in what we're trying to do, a sidekick is really we're trying to figure out ways to engage students, literally where they are. And so, I guess, have you, did you ever do camps where the rule was the kids couldn't even bring their phone to camp?

00:20:36:18 - 00:20:59:04
Nick Clason
I never did. No, I could have, right. But I never I always I've always run my own camp, so I make the rules. So. Yeah. And I've always been in churches or youth ministries where the goal is to bring kids who don't go to our church to camp. And like, I'm not going to get a kid and their family who's never met me, send their kid like hours away without a lifeline back to them.

00:20:59:04 - 00:21:24:10
Josh Boldman
Oh yeah. Kids. Oh, no. So I've never tried to fight that battle, but it was fake because we used to almost use that, like as an advertisement. We were like, come to camp where you get away from your phone and kids are like, I don't want to do that, you know? And so, like, there was a point where I think maybe 20 years ago, you probably could do it, but even now, it's not even just the kid, it's the parents that are like, I'm not sending my kid without their phone.

00:21:24:10 - 00:21:58:02
Josh Boldman
What's wrong with you? You know? Yeah. So, like, so what we decided to do with with sidekick is like, okay, what if instead of constantly harping on, he put your phone away or go lock it up or don't even bring it, or, you know, trying to make it seem like the phone itself was the enemy. What if we decided to say like, hey, we understand that that phone, it's an extension of you now like that just, I mean, and that, I mean, you know, I mean, I think you can get really, like, dystopian, you know, like, like Blade Runner type type vibes from, like, the phone is an extension of you, but but it is

00:21:58:03 - 00:22:21:24
Josh Boldman
mine is an extension of me like, I mean, I literally if I, I don't know when the last time I walked out of my house without my phone was like, it's not just because I didn't forget it, it's because if it's not in my pocket, it feels like I'm missing something. I feel like I know I'm missing it, and you're gonna need it, you know, like, oh, sure, it's your calendar, it's your wallet, it's your navigation, it's your everything.

00:22:21:24 - 00:22:49:12
Nick Clason
Like it. So you can't so much. That's my argument is like this. It's not going anywhere. So we can try our hardest as youth pastors and churches to fight against culture. But it's a losing battle eventually. And it's not like, oh, let's give in to culture because it's evil, right? No, no, no. It's how do we take this thing that is not moral, it's not morally right or morally wrong, but how do we take this thing and just use it as a tool?

00:22:49:12 - 00:23:07:12
Josh Boldman
It's it's a tool, 100% tool that we we would have died for 15, 20 years ago, like, oh yeah, I was talking on the last episode like we didn't have group chats 15 years ago. If you want to talk to your student, you talk to them when they came to your building and that was it. But now you can do pastoral care.

00:23:07:12 - 00:23:39:02
Nick Clason
You can, and just do a basic thing like texting. When I'm talking about something like software development right now. Yeah. So one of the things, that has been really cool to experiment with, and we've seen a couple people do this really well is is using like polls like, okay, so there's a there are different ways you can use it, but the like, so say as you're teaching, if, if you're saying something that you know is going to fly right over their heads, right?

00:23:39:05 - 00:24:11:11
Josh Boldman
Pausing literally at that moment and asking the question, hey, did you catch that? And yes or no, like literally something super simple like, did you catch that? Yes or no? And then adjusting what you say next based on their response or, we've even seen people take their entire services in like a, choose your own adventure type approach where, I mean, it is it seems minor, but it's something like, hey, we've got the worship team has two songs that they prepared, but we're only going to do one.

00:24:11:13 - 00:24:29:15
Josh Boldman
Hey, you all, they're here. Yeah. Which one you want to do? You know, or, you know, I've, done a couple teaching times where, like, so, you know, every youth pastor has, like, their, like, bag of tricks, like the, the saw or the stories that they tell that it's like, okay, I can tell this story, like drop of a hat.

00:24:29:15 - 00:25:00:17
Josh Boldman
Yeah. you know, and so, like, I, I'll start with, like, right at the beginning of a message will say, hey, guys, I can tell you one of, three stories. You know, when when I got hit by a car, one when I accidentally killed my girlfriend's cat and one when I, when I stubbed my toe, you know, and so, like, you take your pick, you know, and just let them pick, and it doesn't change anything about where that message is going, but letting them have a moment where they can speak into it.

00:25:00:17 - 00:25:27:22
Josh Boldman
Like, I guarantee you, when the room picks the story, the room pays attention to the story more. Yeah. or or even at the end, you know, be a great way to, to really, especially if you're trying to reach students that are not familiar with church a lot, you know, like that aren't around a lot is, at the end of the message just saying, like, hey, on a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you agree with what you just heard?

00:25:27:25 - 00:25:46:26
Josh Boldman
can you met and live in live results on the screen like, hey, okay, so but can you imagine how much that might change your small group conversations that are going to happen right after the lesson? If if you suddenly see, like, oh, we just talked about this and 80% of the room says, I don't agree, okay, great.

00:25:47:03 - 00:26:10:20
Josh Boldman
Then let's go to our small groups and let's see this mess out. You know, or I think that there's, there's stuff like that or or you could even say if you're doing a series, you could, you could say, hey, here are the four weeks of the series. we did the intro this week. Which one you want to hear about next week and let them pick where you're going to go, and then you have a whole week to figure out how to get there.

00:26:10:22 - 00:26:29:11
Josh Boldman
yeah. But it but I guarantee you, those students that voted are going to be more likely to be there if they know what you're talking about. And they actually helped get to to choose what that was going to be. Yeah, I think I think there's a lot there. And we're working love to say like we're working like it's like in development, right, right now.

00:26:29:11 - 00:26:49:09
Josh Boldman
But it's like I mean, one of the things on the, on the docket is, is, you know, being able to have students from their seat ask questions, be able to give feedback, you know, in real time so that you, as you're standing there on the, you know, platform with your phone that you're able to see the questions as they come in.

00:26:49:11 - 00:27:06:03
Josh Boldman
we're trying to figure out things like how to moderate those things because I don't know about you, but if you ask open ended questions and just have the answers up on the screen without, you might get some filtering. Yeah. Inappropriate answer, I don't know, I don't know. I mean, my the students that I've ever worked with are always saints and so they would not do that.

00:27:06:03 - 00:27:30:01
Nick Clason
But I would imagine yours. Well you know it's crazy is like here's another like just interesting youth culture is like I was working at a church in Chicago and it was very like it, it prided itself on we reach people who are far from God. And so, you know, that's going to come with a certain like, oh, I student and now I'm in the Bible Belt in Dallas, Texas.

00:27:30:08 - 00:27:55:00
Nick Clason
And, it's like it prides itself on being like the church for Christians almost. And like the kids, the students, they're the same, like it's oh, no doubt. Right. That's the crazy thing is what the internet has done is it's leveled that like playing field of like, yeah, certain cultures, their youth culture is very consistent now and despite the demographic.

00:27:55:00 - 00:28:16:08
Nick Clason
And so the unique part is not our students. The unique part is helping our parents understand, that the students are still the same, you know, so, you know, something, we've seen is actually really cool that somebody was doing was they were using the live polls in their lobby for parents to answer as they were dropping their kids off.

00:28:16:08 - 00:28:40:12
Josh Boldman
That's cool. And, it was yeah, it was very cool. Was like, and it was, you know, some like, minor stuff that it was like, you know, what time is your middle schoolers? Bedtime. Like, you know. Yeah. Seven, eight, nine, ten, 11. You know, just pick one, you know, stuff like that. And it was minor. But again, it's, not just that you get individuals to engage, but the fact that everybody can see the responses as it as it goes.

00:28:40:14 - 00:29:09:00
Josh Boldman
There's, I think there's a lot of even still some untapped, untapped potential there. think about how to help people engage. Yeah. I think, we went to a conference a while back, and they're talking about the differences in generational ways of thinking. And like one of the things and I think this is true, despite like being an older, older generation of like all of us, but like Gen Z, Gen Alpha, like they're just looking to be known individually, like they don't want to be part of, like a sea of numbers.

00:29:09:00 - 00:29:32:20
Nick Clason
Right. And so when you are in a bigger context and you have 100,000 kids, like it's hard to it's hard for them to, to stand out and stuff like this helps them get to just yeah, speak their, their voice. Right. And they get to play a role. And even if they're voting for something and their choice doesn't get picked like they were heard and that's oh yeah, that's all it needs to be.

00:29:32:20 - 00:29:52:17
Nick Clason
It doesn't have to always go their way, you know? And there's probably some opportunity for them to learn some life lessons and stuff in there. But just like realizing like, hey, we're doing all this for you, but what what do you want? Like, that's I don't know. That's the key. So, Josh, as we wind this sucker down, like final thoughts.

00:29:52:17 - 00:30:16:09
Nick Clason
Final words. What what what if anything's, like burning on your soul to get out there?

Josh Boldman
Oh, man. All right, well, here. I'm glad you asked, Nick. no. okay, here's the thing is. Yeah, I think we need to not be afraid of what our students want. And we need to not be afraid of them expressing their opinion.

00:30:16:11 - 00:30:48:22
Josh Boldman
And we need to not be afraid of them disagreeing with each other or with us. I think that that is, you know, where where we are heading is a world that values, a diversity of opinion. And the value placed on each of those opinions, is crucial. And so, like, I mean, I think people really can very easily get confused into thinking that that means that every opinion is right or that every opinion carries the same weight.

00:30:48:22 - 00:31:09:12
Josh Boldman
And it's a that's not at all what it but it. I think there is a I think we we do ourselves and honestly the gospel and miss service when we, are a disservice. I don't think Miss Service is a word, a disservice when we, when we say, here is the correct answer, we don't even want to hear anything else.

00:31:09:15 - 00:31:42:02
Josh Boldman
because our students are coming into our, our, our environments with their own opinions and own presuppositions. And yes, they probably heard them all from the same TikTok channel. Like, that's fine, but they all still want it. They want to be heard. And so I think any time we can even begin to open the door to showing them that we value what they are walking in with, I think just builds, it builds credibility in their eyes.

00:31:42:05 - 00:32:07:01
Josh Boldman
I think in all honesty, I don't know, you know, I would argue that most students are they do not often find themselves in environments where their opinion is valued. so, I mean, whether that's school, I mean, and please don't hear me, teachers are awesome, but it is it is tough when especially when you have like a curriculum in a, in a school environment, you're like, hey, I need you to learn this thing.

00:32:07:07 - 00:32:31:22
Josh Boldman
Like, and there's not a lot of debate in biology, you know, like, it's just this is where we're at, you know? And so, but I think if we can create environments where it's, we're inviting students into a conversation where their voice matters, whether that's a, a deep theological conversation or whether that is a game that is literally, hey, I need you to pick A, B, or C because it's a trivia question.

00:32:31:22 - 00:32:57:01
Josh Boldman
Like it's it like, but but still valuing what they bring to the table. I think that that pays dividends in the long run in a, in a massive, massive way. I mean, whether that's later in the small group or whether that's ten years later or, you know, I'm at a point right now where kids, when I first started that were in sixth grade, now have their own sixth graders, and that is awful.

00:32:57:03 - 00:33:14:19
Josh Boldman
but but it's the same thing is those those kids are now in the place where they're deciding, am I going to bring my own kid to a youth group or not? And, you know, and I think that the way we treat our students now will influence how they raise their own families and what that looks like for them in the future.

00:33:14:19 - 00:33:34:17
Josh Boldman
So, never underestimate how important it is to for for a student's voice to be valued. Yeah. And what better spot in the world than for that to happen at church? Crazy, right? Who would've thought? Yeah, well, Josh, we're running out of time. But I appreciate you, man. Anywhere, anywhere else people can find, find the Josh Boldman, like.

00:33:34:19 - 00:34:00:20
Nick Clason
Oh, yeah, they want to, like, untap some of these other thoughts and deeper musings of the word is, oh, I don't know if deeper is going to be with the find, but, all the social media is, it's at Josh Boldman. I know, I'm so glad it wasn't taken. Yeah. You're lucky. all right, I know. Yeah. but then, again, you know, the download youth ministry store, you know, I mean, this is not to sell stuff, but like, a lot of the stuff I've written really does reflect where I'm at, you know?

00:34:00:20 - 00:34:09:15
Josh Boldman
And so, you know, check out any of that stuff there, but. Well, yeah. Love it. Man. Will appreciate you being on. And, everyone else, we'll talk next time. All right, bye friends.

]]> Episode 095: ๐Ÿ’ป Posting Your Teaching Message to YouTube https://www.hybridministry.xyz/095 5ab1c8e8-2b99-47f7-ba27-6e212dc59836 Thu, 02 May 2024 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 095 ๐Ÿ’ป Posting Your Teaching Message to YouTube full Nick Clason Whether you think it or not, if you're a youth pastor, you're in the content creation business! In this episode we'll walk you through how to create Epic Titles SEO Infused Tags Meaningful Descriptions Links that get clicks Helpful Chapters Eye-Popping Thumbnails YouTube Cards & End Screens This step-by-step guide is your way to get started growing on YouTube, today! 18:42 no ๐Ÿ’ฅ [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Video Editing for Youth Pastors๐Ÿ’ฅ https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/editing ๐Ÿ”ฅ [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide๐Ÿ”ฅ https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ====================================== DESCRIPTION Whether you think it or not, if you're a youth pastor, you're in the content creation business! In this episode we'll walk you through how to create โ€ขEpic Titles โ€ขSEO Infused Tags โ€ขMeaningful Descriptions โ€ขLinks that get clicks โ€ขHelpful Chapters โ€ขEye-Popping Thumbnails โ€ขYouTube Cards &amp; End Screens This step-by-step guide is your way to get started growing on YouTube, today! FULL PLAYLIST https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl ====================================== ๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/095 //YOUTUBE VIDEO TITLES "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book //SONY ZVE-10 https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv TAGS //VIDIQ https://vidiq.com/hybrid DESCRIPTIONS &amp; LINKS //ONLINE MESSAGE EXAMPLE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVc2Ij_Wo9w //DIGITAL NOTES (YOUVERSION EVENTS) https://my.bible.com/events CHAPTERS THUMBNAILS //ADOBE TUTORIALS https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKVpQBDSQV6Q9hFeXCptHSu //CANVA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0FQWvKjP_E&amp;list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw&amp;index=2 CARDS ๐Ÿ’ฅ [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Video Editing for Youth Pastors๐Ÿ’ฅ https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/editing ๐Ÿ’ฅ [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Social Coaching for Youth Pastors๐Ÿ’ฅ https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching //TELEPROMPTER https://walmrt.us/4a6ZJU1 END SCREENS //MOTION ARRAY http://www.motionarray.com ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 ====================================== ๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“ ๐Ÿ“… "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym ๐Ÿ“จ Full Proof Recruiting Email EMAIL: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email ๐Ÿฉ "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut ๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook ๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers" https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis ====================================== ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit AUTO POD https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00 Youth Pastors are Content Creators 01:48 Creating Captivating Titles on YouTube 04:57 Adding Relevant Tags 07:07 Creating Descriptions that Matter 11:00 Create Chapter and Timecodes 11:55 Eye-Popping Thumbnails 13:14 What are YouTube Cards? 15:44 End Screens on YouTube -------------- โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:38:18 Nick Clason Mr. Beast, Dave Ramsey, Sean Cannell and you? What do all four of these people have in common? Well, all four of them, including you, by the way, are a content creator. And if you're a youth pastor, you are in the content creation business and maybe not yet creating online content, but you have the skill set necessary because we right now are in a playlist linked right here at the top of the screen where we are talking about YouTube for youth ministry. 00:00:38:18 - 00:01:07:10 Nick Clason And if you've done the things that we've talked about in this playlist so far, while you start pre-recording your messages and you start scoping them out ahead of time, and you start with the idea of posting them to YouTube, which, by the way, right now I'm offering a very limited time free editing offer. So if you pre film your messages and you want to send them to me, once you get to the whole kind of editing part, which tends to be what trips people up on YouTube, I would be happy to do that. 00:01:07:10 - 00:01:28:24 Nick Clason Click the link down below in the show notes and reach out and let me know and inquire if those spaces are still available. But you know, content is one thing, right? Like creating the content, shooting the content, even posting the content, right? But when you post it, there are actually some pretty incredibly important things that you need to make sure that you are doing. 00:01:29:00 - 00:02:00:16 Nick Clason And we are going to talk through all of those things today in this video where we are talking about your titling, your tags, your description, the links that you include in your description, how to make chapters, thumbnails, cards and end screens. I know it seems overwhelming, but let's hang out and let's dive into that today. So if you head on over to YouTube, once you've created an account and you click create and you click upload video, you will get a screen just like this and you will click select file. 00:02:00:16 - 00:02:20:11 Nick Clason And then you will begin uploading it. And once it begins to upload on YouTube it will look like this. So this is from episode 93 on video editing. And so I've already input all the details. But if you are watching, on YouTube right now, you'll see this. If you're on a podcast catcher, head to the link in the show notes and scrub ahead to this section. 00:02:20:11 - 00:02:41:23 Nick Clason But you will see right up here at the top your title. Now, this is what most people do in churches. This is certainly what we did in church, especially when we started in the middle of the pandemic. We had a show, it was called unscripted and we would, have them classify by seasons, which I thought was pretty cool and pretty innovative. 00:02:41:23 - 00:03:16:01 Nick Clason So we would say like unscripted season two episode four, which was great for us as far as indexing and titling and categorizing. However, think about this. If we had a lesson on unscripted that week and unscripted was every single thing in the, show. So that included like the game and the worship and all the thing. But like, if we had a message on suffering, let's say, like it would just say season two, episode four, there was no titling there that, you know, indicated, what the actual topic was of the message. 00:03:16:01 - 00:03:38:00 Nick Clason So your title, just like your thumbnail, both are really important as far as communicating to your audience what your video is going to be talking about. And so if you're in church, a lot of times we do this in churches where in the middle of like a series and we're like, David series, sermon three. Right. Which like, that's great. 00:03:38:00 - 00:04:00:27 Nick Clason And you can actually on YouTube really easily include your series into a thing called a playlist. And so they can all be included. David, you know, can be included into a playlist, but talk about what you're talking about, you know. So if you're talking about David and Bathsheba, maybe your title is like coming back from Giant Mistakes or leaning in to God's grace. 00:04:00:27 - 00:04:25:14 Nick Clason Right. And I'm going to talk to you in just a minute about ways that you can figure out the best words and the ways to title these things. But very simply, if you make this small shift from just creating it for your church people, where you're explaining, like David, you know, message three and instead shifting it to like what the actual topic is like, that is going to be one major and massive shift. 00:04:25:14 - 00:04:50:10 Nick Clason And in my completely free e-book, which is linked right here on screen with a little bit of a rebrand, new new title, we are now switching the name if you've already downloaded it. Still the same content. I just changed the title to The Complete Hybrid Strategy Guide. and we actually talked to you, in this e-book in detail for you how to start pre filming your messages and how to get going on YouTube. 00:04:50:10 - 00:05:08:10 Nick Clason So maybe you've been watching this playlist, but if you download this e-book it will be kind of your step by step guide to starting to create content on YouTube. Once you get past your titling, there's another really important part. And it's all the way down here at the bottom. it's passed you a little description box. It's pass it thumbnail thing. 00:05:08:12 - 00:05:28:26 Nick Clason It's pass your playlist selector and it's in this area here called tags. Okay. Now you'll see right here on mine I have these little like, ranking things and that's from a service called vid IQ which link down below is a vid IQ link if you're interested in grabbing that for a free trial or for a period of time. 00:05:28:28 - 00:05:48:25 Nick Clason But this will help rank what some of your tags are. So if you are talking about David and Bathsheba, you might write in David and you might write in Overcoming Sin, and you might write in God's restorative grace. And just these tags, these are ways in which people, that search for things on YouTube. Because, remember, YouTube is owned by Google. 00:05:48:25 - 00:06:12:24 Nick Clason And so people are going to YouTube and they are searching things like they went on Google, for example, how do I come back from a massive mistake that I've made and maybe your video on David will actually help communicate that. Or maybe someone's looking for some research on David and they're saying, hey, I want to know, like, when were David and Bathsheba like, you know, what year did David and Bathsheba take place or something like that? 00:06:12:24 - 00:06:32:05 Nick Clason I don't know, but just begin to think like the people that are searching on YouTube. And so you may answer certain things like, you know, how to overcome sin, but you may also answer David and Bathsheba, you know, whatever year it was or something like that. And so you can put some of those things in. And this little plug in here is from vid IQ. 00:06:32:05 - 00:06:54:24 Nick Clason And so I have that plugged in right here at the top, watch some of my stats and gives me kind of some, some analytic type stuff. And so it also can give me you know, some, some suggestions for tags and stuff like that. And so if you are interested in that, something like that, you can get that for a pretty nominal, pretty minimal fee and also a trial to go ahead and get the ball rolling on that. 00:06:54:24 - 00:07:14:24 Nick Clason You should definitely check that out. But tags are pretty important. And you'll see that it has, 500 potential characters. So whatever you do, try your hardest to, get your tags filled all the way out to as close to 500 tags as possible. after that, I want to talk here for just a minute about the, description section. 00:07:14:24 - 00:07:33:13 Nick Clason So the description section, this is where I include a lot of, like, relevant links. And so if you're watching on YouTube and you're watching my video right here, this is my, you know, hey, I'm offering free editing right now, so click that link. And since that's one of my main kind of call to actions out of this message, out of this video, like, I want you to click that. 00:07:33:13 - 00:07:50:29 Nick Clason I'm putting it right up at the top. I also have my strategy guide right here. and you can also grab that as well. then right here, this is like just a description. So just think like think like a little mini, you know, paragraph two paragraphs, three paragraphs, kind of blog post. So same kind of idea as the tags. 00:07:50:29 - 00:08:19:13 Nick Clason But this one is you're typing it out. You're typing it out, for the audience that may find it because YouTube and the algorithm, they're always crawling every single piece of text and every single piece of content from the video. So all the captions that you have, all the words that you say, all the things you write, all the tags you have, all the title that you have, all those things go into account as people are searching and looking for different videos on YouTube. 00:08:19:13 - 00:08:37:26 Nick Clason And so, just fill this thing out and I'll show you an example. if you are watching on YouTube, you can see me navigating over to it live time right now. But our student ministry YouTube account, and you'll see that we have every single one. We have, a next step. So this just takes us to we use, Church Community builder. 00:08:37:26 - 00:08:58:27 Nick Clason So this is our digital Next step card that's included in every single description. And we have a thing called digital notes, which students can use to follow along, both live in the room and also here on YouTube. And so, this is free a free service from the YouVersion Bible app. It's just a way to continually make things more hybrid in your space. 00:08:58:29 - 00:09:18:28 Nick Clason and so look, you look we're talking about David this week as well on this episode. and so this is just an example of a couple of links that you can include. And I like to try to include every single, next step, every single link into here, into the digital notes. And so, you know, right here it says Ready to surrender Control. 00:09:18:28 - 00:09:40:27 Nick Clason Let us know by taking a next step. This is the exact same link as the one I just showed you, right. It takes it out to that next steps form as well. And so we're all this is like our final last step. And so in my sort of like ultimate strategy guide I'm posting fun shorts that people will find as I'm posting spiritual shorts so that people will be inspired, that then push to our long form content. 00:09:40:29 - 00:09:55:26 Nick Clason So then they go watch a long form version of our video, and then that drives them to a next step, and then they take the next step here. And that's how we capture and gather their information. That's how it is in a pie in the sky type of world. It doesn't always work that way. You know that as a youth pastor as well. 00:09:55:28 - 00:10:14:06 Nick Clason But this is how I can reconcile and say like, this is why we post fun content. This is why we post short inspirational shorts, because we're driving to this long form version of our video, which is then driving toward a next step which allows us to capture information from students, gather their their info and follow up with them, and ultimately disciple them. 00:10:14:06 - 00:10:36:04 Nick Clason Right. And so that's that description. Place is also where you can include, the links like, you know, digital notes. If you want to do that, feel free to borrow that, steal that. You use that in your own space, or in next steps form or whatever the case may be, if you are not, you know, like if you're, not a youth pastor and you're also just looking to post videos on YouTube, that would be where you might post things like affiliate links and whatever. 00:10:36:04 - 00:10:55:02 Nick Clason And so you'll see that for me as well. Like right here, these are my show notes. And so these are different things like you know this it takes you to the show notes on my podcast page. This is you know we talked about Cap Cut, DaVinci resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, some other links about growing as an editor, tutorials, limited time offer. 00:10:55:04 - 00:11:17:11 Nick Clason Here's all my socials. Here's some other freebies. Here's some affiliate links, like so. All that stuff is kind of chock full in there. But then this is another really important thing. This is really, key thing to do. I think when you're posting videos to YouTube is create chapter and time codes, and all you got to do is just add them right here in the description. 00:11:17:11 - 00:11:39:21 Nick Clason If you're watching live on YouTube, you can see that. And I just go back through the video and I watch it manually, and I type out when I started talking about each of these things. And if you are watching on YouTube, you'll see down below. I'm also now starting to highlight that on screen with some text right? So that whenever anyone's watching, they can scrub ahead and see what I'm actually talking about in each section of the video. 00:11:39:21 - 00:12:00:15 Nick Clason Because I don't know about you, but there are some times where I don't want all the fluff at the beginning, I just want the direct answer. So YouTube helps index better when you include chapters, and just by putting them in there, YouTube will auto break that up and it will, create chapters and create divisions within your video for the people in your in your space that are watching it. 00:12:00:17 - 00:12:27:20 Nick Clason beyond chapters. the other thing that is really important, probably just as important I would say, is the title is your thumbnail. And so your thumbnail is very simply your, your, your like first impression, right, of what's going on. And so, a lot of experts say you want anywhere from, 2 to 6 words on the thumbnail, as little as possible. 00:12:27:21 - 00:12:51:07 Nick Clason Because think about if someone's scrolling through on their phone. They're just getting a small image of it. So you want it to be enough to incite curiosity that will cause someone to click on it and then get started on your video. And so rather than David, invest Sheba week three of the David series, your church name in your, you know, date that you preach it or whatever. 00:12:51:10 - 00:13:14:20 Nick Clason Like just simply post like, you know, returning to God. Something like that. Right. And you can put, like a screenshot of yourself or a screenshot of whoever's speaking and do some graphic editing. With that, you can use things like Adobe Photoshop. You can use things like Canva, links to those all down in the description of this podcast episode. 00:13:14:22 - 00:13:20:01 Nick Clason but you can use some of those things so that you can create a good first impression. 00:13:20:01 - 00:13:35:08 Nick Clason One other, couple other kind of like next level sections. And you'll see here, here's my vidiq optimize score. there are a couple of things here that I have not, you know, like, they don't they don't think my titles very easy to understand. 00:13:35:10 - 00:13:53:06 Nick Clason but one of the things that can help increase your score is adding things like cards. And so you get one card per playlist. And if you're watching this video, I did it right, the very top. Right. So we're in a playlist called YouTube for Youth Ministry. In this video I did it as well. I did it at 45 seconds. 00:13:53:13 - 00:14:09:28 Nick Clason And so I'm just highlighting like, hey, you're in the middle of a playlist. If you want to go back to the beginning, catch up, or you may reference another video from another time. Maybe somebody, doesn't want this video that you're talking about, but you can help point them out to another type of thing that they may be interested in. 00:14:10:01 - 00:14:33:04 Nick Clason It'll show up on screen, similar to something like this. Someone can click on it while they're on YouTube and take them to another video on YouTube. Sean Cannell has, a Ten Commandments for YouTube. And one of the things is keep people on YouTube's platform as long as possible. At least that's YouTube's cool, right? And so, all these things help help you rank better. 00:14:33:04 - 00:14:54:19 Nick Clason So that's an example of a card. You get one of those per video. And when you're pre filming you can write that in. And if you're using a teleprompter like we had talked about in a previous episode, linked to a teleprompter down below in the show notes. Grab that. But you can write that in so that you make sure that you include the card in your video, but you can, you know, kind of point to it. 00:14:54:21 - 00:15:12:28 Nick Clason and here's like a little hack, like if you are filming direct camera, if you point with your left finger, it'll pop up right here on top of your screen. A lot of times I'll add a sound effect and maybe like the thumbnail of the playlist or the video I'm talking about, and pop it right in right where my finger comes in, and also have it come across right above it as well. 00:15:13:00 - 00:15:33:11 Nick Clason That's just a little editing thing. And again, if you're interested in editing, reach out to me down below in the show notes. but finally the last piece. And, you know, also, by the way, hey, listen, here's the thing. Maybe you don't have a budget for editing and you're like, I want to do this. and I'm going to learn editing, but, like, I just I need someone to help me walk through this. 00:15:33:11 - 00:15:53:19 Nick Clason Like, I'm also offering some coaching right now at a smaller rate. for sessions of coaching, just a few. Just a few bucks. If that's something that you're interested in, I can help you go from wherever you are and start making progress on your hybrid strategy today. And then the final piece that you want to include is your end screens. 00:15:53:19 - 00:16:17:29 Nick Clason And it's the same concept as the card where you want to keep people on the YouTube platform. As long as possible. You'll notice on, this video here, I included, four different end screens. I have, and this is, this is a little hack. I often, dovetail onto the next video on my on my playlist, but this is the most recent video I've uploaded. 00:16:18:03 - 00:16:36:27 Nick Clason And so right now I don't actually have the next video on my playlist. all the way edited and all the way uploaded to YouTube. And so right here, this is just a placeholder once I upload, video 94, this is video 93. Once I upload video 94, I'll go back into here and I'll replace this video right here, which is called video, which is best for viewer. 00:16:36:27 - 00:17:03:04 Nick Clason That's YouTube's algorithm doing its thing. And I'll add video 94. Now you might be thinking, Nick, aren't if I post it and I say next videos on screen and it's not uploaded yet, won't that be a problem? And yes, for that like one week or so it won't be there. Okay. But from that moment on, once you upload or the the second video on the playlist goes live, it will live there on for the rest of eternity and time. 00:17:03:04 - 00:17:29:12 Nick Clason And so one of the things we got to start getting, getting used to as youth pastors and people using the internet is that YouTube will live on in perpetuity forever, as long as you keep it up there and so. Well, the people that watch your video now, for your church, maybe in the series with David and Bathsheba, when you move on to the next section of the The Playlist and you're talking about David at the end of his life, and that's video number four. 00:17:29:15 - 00:17:51:09 Nick Clason If people discover this a year down the road, two years down the road, ten years down the road, they will have access to that next video. And you can serve the people on YouTube forever. And that's one of the beautiful things about you and I as youth pastors, becoming content creators is that we can, effectively reach more people than just the people in our direct physical care. 00:17:51:09 - 00:18:10:14 Nick Clason And that's one of the reasons I think going hybrid as at least one of the other benefits and I don't even think it should be the main or primary benefit of what we're doing, but it is at least something that we can use and utilize to our advantage. I also oftentimes include the playlist on here and the subscribe thing as well. 00:18:10:14 - 00:18:26:14 Nick Clason And so you can add those to the end of your video as well. You can create a little Endor screen like I do, which has like little placeholders. And you just pop the video right in there. You can use something like a motion or a.com to find a thing like that. Speaking event screens. You will see right here on screen. 00:18:26:14 - 00:18:45:19 Nick Clason If you're watching on YouTube our next video, which is the importance of playlists and courses. And so we're going to talk in depth about those. How do you utilize them and the advantage that you and I as youth pastors have, and how playlists are the perfect solution for us in our churches, in our youth ministries. So go ahead and check that video out. 00:18:45:19 - 00:18:49:08 Nick Clason And don't forget, and as always, to stay hybrid. YouTube for Youth Ministry, Hybrid Ministry, Social Media, Adobe Premiere Pro, Shorts, Reels, TikTok, Sermons, Editing, Short Form Vertical Video Based Content, Church Social Media, Church Communications, Church Video Editing, Social Media for Youth Ministry, Social media approach for youth pastors, TikTok for Youth Ministry, Make Social Media Better, Youth Pastor, Nick Clason, Posting Videos to YouTube, VID IQ for YouTube, Youth Ministry and YouTube, SEO on YouTube ๐Ÿ’ฅ [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Video Editing for Youth Pastors๐Ÿ’ฅ

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======================================
DESCRIPTION
Whether you think it or not, if you're a youth pastor, you're in the content creation business!

In this episode we'll walk you through how to create
โ€ขEpic Titles
โ€ขSEO Infused Tags
โ€ขMeaningful Descriptions
โ€ขLinks that get clicks
โ€ขHelpful Chapters
โ€ขEye-Popping Thumbnails
โ€ขYouTube Cards & End Screens

This step-by-step guide is your way to get started growing on YouTube, today!

FULL PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl
======================================
๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/095

//YOUTUBE VIDEO

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

//SONY ZVE-10
https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv

TAGS
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

DESCRIPTIONS & LINKS
//ONLINE MESSAGE EXAMPLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVc2Ij_Wo9w

//DIGITAL NOTES (YOUVERSION EVENTS)
https://my.bible.com/events

CHAPTERS

THUMBNAILS
//ADOBE TUTORIALS
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKVpQBDSQV6Q9hFeXCptHSu

//CANVA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0FQWvKjP_E&list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw&index=2

CARDS
๐Ÿ’ฅ [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Video Editing for Youth Pastors๐Ÿ’ฅ
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/editing

๐Ÿ’ฅ [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Social Coaching for Youth Pastors๐Ÿ’ฅ
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

//TELEPROMPTER
https://walmrt.us/4a6ZJU1

END SCREENS
//MOTION ARRAY
http://www.motionarray.com

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
๐Ÿ“… "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

๐Ÿ“จ Full Proof Recruiting Email
EMAIL: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email

๐Ÿฉ "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook

๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

======================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Youth Pastors are Content Creators
01:48 Creating Captivating Titles on YouTube
04:57 Adding Relevant Tags
07:07 Creating Descriptions that Matter
11:00 Create Chapter and Timecodes
11:55 Eye-Popping Thumbnails
13:14 What are YouTube Cards?
15:44 End Screens on YouTube

--------------
โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:38:18
Nick Clason
Mr. Beast, Dave Ramsey, Sean Cannell and you? What do all four of these people have in common? Well, all four of them, including you, by the way, are a content creator. And if you're a youth pastor, you are in the content creation business and maybe not yet creating online content, but you have the skill set necessary because we right now are in a playlist linked right here at the top of the screen where we are talking about YouTube for youth ministry.

00:00:38:18 - 00:01:07:10
Nick Clason
And if you've done the things that we've talked about in this playlist so far, while you start pre-recording your messages and you start scoping them out ahead of time, and you start with the idea of posting them to YouTube, which, by the way, right now I'm offering a very limited time free editing offer. So if you pre film your messages and you want to send them to me, once you get to the whole kind of editing part, which tends to be what trips people up on YouTube, I would be happy to do that.

00:01:07:10 - 00:01:28:24
Nick Clason
Click the link down below in the show notes and reach out and let me know and inquire if those spaces are still available. But you know, content is one thing, right? Like creating the content, shooting the content, even posting the content, right? But when you post it, there are actually some pretty incredibly important things that you need to make sure that you are doing.

00:01:29:00 - 00:02:00:16
Nick Clason
And we are going to talk through all of those things today in this video where we are talking about your titling, your tags, your description, the links that you include in your description, how to make chapters, thumbnails, cards and end screens. I know it seems overwhelming, but let's hang out and let's dive into that today. So if you head on over to YouTube, once you've created an account and you click create and you click upload video, you will get a screen just like this and you will click select file.

00:02:00:16 - 00:02:20:11
Nick Clason
And then you will begin uploading it. And once it begins to upload on YouTube it will look like this. So this is from episode 93 on video editing. And so I've already input all the details. But if you are watching, on YouTube right now, you'll see this. If you're on a podcast catcher, head to the link in the show notes and scrub ahead to this section.

00:02:20:11 - 00:02:41:23
Nick Clason
But you will see right up here at the top your title. Now, this is what most people do in churches. This is certainly what we did in church, especially when we started in the middle of the pandemic. We had a show, it was called unscripted and we would, have them classify by seasons, which I thought was pretty cool and pretty innovative.

00:02:41:23 - 00:03:16:01
Nick Clason
So we would say like unscripted season two episode four, which was great for us as far as indexing and titling and categorizing. However, think about this. If we had a lesson on unscripted that week and unscripted was every single thing in the, show. So that included like the game and the worship and all the thing. But like, if we had a message on suffering, let's say, like it would just say season two, episode four, there was no titling there that, you know, indicated, what the actual topic was of the message.

00:03:16:01 - 00:03:38:00
Nick Clason
So your title, just like your thumbnail, both are really important as far as communicating to your audience what your video is going to be talking about. And so if you're in church, a lot of times we do this in churches where in the middle of like a series and we're like, David series, sermon three. Right. Which like, that's great.

00:03:38:00 - 00:04:00:27
Nick Clason
And you can actually on YouTube really easily include your series into a thing called a playlist. And so they can all be included. David, you know, can be included into a playlist, but talk about what you're talking about, you know. So if you're talking about David and Bathsheba, maybe your title is like coming back from Giant Mistakes or leaning in to God's grace.

00:04:00:27 - 00:04:25:14
Nick Clason
Right. And I'm going to talk to you in just a minute about ways that you can figure out the best words and the ways to title these things. But very simply, if you make this small shift from just creating it for your church people, where you're explaining, like David, you know, message three and instead shifting it to like what the actual topic is like, that is going to be one major and massive shift.

00:04:25:14 - 00:04:50:10
Nick Clason
And in my completely free e-book, which is linked right here on screen with a little bit of a rebrand, new new title, we are now switching the name if you've already downloaded it. Still the same content. I just changed the title to The Complete Hybrid Strategy Guide. and we actually talked to you, in this e-book in detail for you how to start pre filming your messages and how to get going on YouTube.

00:04:50:10 - 00:05:08:10
Nick Clason
So maybe you've been watching this playlist, but if you download this e-book it will be kind of your step by step guide to starting to create content on YouTube. Once you get past your titling, there's another really important part. And it's all the way down here at the bottom. it's passed you a little description box. It's pass it thumbnail thing.

00:05:08:12 - 00:05:28:26
Nick Clason
It's pass your playlist selector and it's in this area here called tags. Okay. Now you'll see right here on mine I have these little like, ranking things and that's from a service called vid IQ which link down below is a vid IQ link if you're interested in grabbing that for a free trial or for a period of time.

00:05:28:28 - 00:05:48:25
Nick Clason
But this will help rank what some of your tags are. So if you are talking about David and Bathsheba, you might write in David and you might write in Overcoming Sin, and you might write in God's restorative grace. And just these tags, these are ways in which people, that search for things on YouTube. Because, remember, YouTube is owned by Google.

00:05:48:25 - 00:06:12:24
Nick Clason
And so people are going to YouTube and they are searching things like they went on Google, for example, how do I come back from a massive mistake that I've made and maybe your video on David will actually help communicate that. Or maybe someone's looking for some research on David and they're saying, hey, I want to know, like, when were David and Bathsheba like, you know, what year did David and Bathsheba take place or something like that?

00:06:12:24 - 00:06:32:05
Nick Clason
I don't know, but just begin to think like the people that are searching on YouTube. And so you may answer certain things like, you know, how to overcome sin, but you may also answer David and Bathsheba, you know, whatever year it was or something like that. And so you can put some of those things in. And this little plug in here is from vid IQ.

00:06:32:05 - 00:06:54:24
Nick Clason
And so I have that plugged in right here at the top, watch some of my stats and gives me kind of some, some analytic type stuff. And so it also can give me you know, some, some suggestions for tags and stuff like that. And so if you are interested in that, something like that, you can get that for a pretty nominal, pretty minimal fee and also a trial to go ahead and get the ball rolling on that.

00:06:54:24 - 00:07:14:24
Nick Clason
You should definitely check that out. But tags are pretty important. And you'll see that it has, 500 potential characters. So whatever you do, try your hardest to, get your tags filled all the way out to as close to 500 tags as possible. after that, I want to talk here for just a minute about the, description section.

00:07:14:24 - 00:07:33:13
Nick Clason
So the description section, this is where I include a lot of, like, relevant links. And so if you're watching on YouTube and you're watching my video right here, this is my, you know, hey, I'm offering free editing right now, so click that link. And since that's one of my main kind of call to actions out of this message, out of this video, like, I want you to click that.

00:07:33:13 - 00:07:50:29
Nick Clason
I'm putting it right up at the top. I also have my strategy guide right here. and you can also grab that as well. then right here, this is like just a description. So just think like think like a little mini, you know, paragraph two paragraphs, three paragraphs, kind of blog post. So same kind of idea as the tags.

00:07:50:29 - 00:08:19:13
Nick Clason
But this one is you're typing it out. You're typing it out, for the audience that may find it because YouTube and the algorithm, they're always crawling every single piece of text and every single piece of content from the video. So all the captions that you have, all the words that you say, all the things you write, all the tags you have, all the title that you have, all those things go into account as people are searching and looking for different videos on YouTube.

00:08:19:13 - 00:08:37:26
Nick Clason
And so, just fill this thing out and I'll show you an example. if you are watching on YouTube, you can see me navigating over to it live time right now. But our student ministry YouTube account, and you'll see that we have every single one. We have, a next step. So this just takes us to we use, Church Community builder.

00:08:37:26 - 00:08:58:27
Nick Clason
So this is our digital Next step card that's included in every single description. And we have a thing called digital notes, which students can use to follow along, both live in the room and also here on YouTube. And so, this is free a free service from the YouVersion Bible app. It's just a way to continually make things more hybrid in your space.

00:08:58:29 - 00:09:18:28
Nick Clason
and so look, you look we're talking about David this week as well on this episode. and so this is just an example of a couple of links that you can include. And I like to try to include every single, next step, every single link into here, into the digital notes. And so, you know, right here it says Ready to surrender Control.

00:09:18:28 - 00:09:40:27
Nick Clason
Let us know by taking a next step. This is the exact same link as the one I just showed you, right. It takes it out to that next steps form as well. And so we're all this is like our final last step. And so in my sort of like ultimate strategy guide I'm posting fun shorts that people will find as I'm posting spiritual shorts so that people will be inspired, that then push to our long form content.

00:09:40:29 - 00:09:55:26
Nick Clason
So then they go watch a long form version of our video, and then that drives them to a next step, and then they take the next step here. And that's how we capture and gather their information. That's how it is in a pie in the sky type of world. It doesn't always work that way. You know that as a youth pastor as well.

00:09:55:28 - 00:10:14:06
Nick Clason
But this is how I can reconcile and say like, this is why we post fun content. This is why we post short inspirational shorts, because we're driving to this long form version of our video, which is then driving toward a next step which allows us to capture information from students, gather their their info and follow up with them, and ultimately disciple them.

00:10:14:06 - 00:10:36:04
Nick Clason
Right. And so that's that description. Place is also where you can include, the links like, you know, digital notes. If you want to do that, feel free to borrow that, steal that. You use that in your own space, or in next steps form or whatever the case may be, if you are not, you know, like if you're, not a youth pastor and you're also just looking to post videos on YouTube, that would be where you might post things like affiliate links and whatever.

00:10:36:04 - 00:10:55:02
Nick Clason
And so you'll see that for me as well. Like right here, these are my show notes. And so these are different things like you know this it takes you to the show notes on my podcast page. This is you know we talked about Cap Cut, DaVinci resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, some other links about growing as an editor, tutorials, limited time offer.

00:10:55:04 - 00:11:17:11
Nick Clason
Here's all my socials. Here's some other freebies. Here's some affiliate links, like so. All that stuff is kind of chock full in there. But then this is another really important thing. This is really, key thing to do. I think when you're posting videos to YouTube is create chapter and time codes, and all you got to do is just add them right here in the description.

00:11:17:11 - 00:11:39:21
Nick Clason
If you're watching live on YouTube, you can see that. And I just go back through the video and I watch it manually, and I type out when I started talking about each of these things. And if you are watching on YouTube, you'll see down below. I'm also now starting to highlight that on screen with some text right? So that whenever anyone's watching, they can scrub ahead and see what I'm actually talking about in each section of the video.

00:11:39:21 - 00:12:00:15
Nick Clason
Because I don't know about you, but there are some times where I don't want all the fluff at the beginning, I just want the direct answer. So YouTube helps index better when you include chapters, and just by putting them in there, YouTube will auto break that up and it will, create chapters and create divisions within your video for the people in your in your space that are watching it.

00:12:00:17 - 00:12:27:20
Nick Clason
beyond chapters. the other thing that is really important, probably just as important I would say, is the title is your thumbnail. And so your thumbnail is very simply your, your, your like first impression, right, of what's going on. And so, a lot of experts say you want anywhere from, 2 to 6 words on the thumbnail, as little as possible.

00:12:27:21 - 00:12:51:07
Nick Clason
Because think about if someone's scrolling through on their phone. They're just getting a small image of it. So you want it to be enough to incite curiosity that will cause someone to click on it and then get started on your video. And so rather than David, invest Sheba week three of the David series, your church name in your, you know, date that you preach it or whatever.

00:12:51:10 - 00:13:14:20
Nick Clason
Like just simply post like, you know, returning to God. Something like that. Right. And you can put, like a screenshot of yourself or a screenshot of whoever's speaking and do some graphic editing. With that, you can use things like Adobe Photoshop. You can use things like Canva, links to those all down in the description of this podcast episode.

00:13:14:22 - 00:13:20:01
Nick Clason
but you can use some of those things so that you can create a good first impression.

00:13:20:01 - 00:13:35:08
Nick Clason
One other, couple other kind of like next level sections. And you'll see here, here's my vidiq optimize score. there are a couple of things here that I have not, you know, like, they don't they don't think my titles very easy to understand.

00:13:35:10 - 00:13:53:06
Nick Clason
but one of the things that can help increase your score is adding things like cards. And so you get one card per playlist. And if you're watching this video, I did it right, the very top. Right. So we're in a playlist called YouTube for Youth Ministry. In this video I did it as well. I did it at 45 seconds.

00:13:53:13 - 00:14:09:28
Nick Clason
And so I'm just highlighting like, hey, you're in the middle of a playlist. If you want to go back to the beginning, catch up, or you may reference another video from another time. Maybe somebody, doesn't want this video that you're talking about, but you can help point them out to another type of thing that they may be interested in.

00:14:10:01 - 00:14:33:04
Nick Clason
It'll show up on screen, similar to something like this. Someone can click on it while they're on YouTube and take them to another video on YouTube. Sean Cannell has, a Ten Commandments for YouTube. And one of the things is keep people on YouTube's platform as long as possible. At least that's YouTube's cool, right? And so, all these things help help you rank better.

00:14:33:04 - 00:14:54:19
Nick Clason
So that's an example of a card. You get one of those per video. And when you're pre filming you can write that in. And if you're using a teleprompter like we had talked about in a previous episode, linked to a teleprompter down below in the show notes. Grab that. But you can write that in so that you make sure that you include the card in your video, but you can, you know, kind of point to it.

00:14:54:21 - 00:15:12:28
Nick Clason
and here's like a little hack, like if you are filming direct camera, if you point with your left finger, it'll pop up right here on top of your screen. A lot of times I'll add a sound effect and maybe like the thumbnail of the playlist or the video I'm talking about, and pop it right in right where my finger comes in, and also have it come across right above it as well.

00:15:13:00 - 00:15:33:11
Nick Clason
That's just a little editing thing. And again, if you're interested in editing, reach out to me down below in the show notes. but finally the last piece. And, you know, also, by the way, hey, listen, here's the thing. Maybe you don't have a budget for editing and you're like, I want to do this. and I'm going to learn editing, but, like, I just I need someone to help me walk through this.

00:15:33:11 - 00:15:53:19
Nick Clason
Like, I'm also offering some coaching right now at a smaller rate. for sessions of coaching, just a few. Just a few bucks. If that's something that you're interested in, I can help you go from wherever you are and start making progress on your hybrid strategy today. And then the final piece that you want to include is your end screens.

00:15:53:19 - 00:16:17:29
Nick Clason
And it's the same concept as the card where you want to keep people on the YouTube platform. As long as possible. You'll notice on, this video here, I included, four different end screens. I have, and this is, this is a little hack. I often, dovetail onto the next video on my on my playlist, but this is the most recent video I've uploaded.

00:16:18:03 - 00:16:36:27
Nick Clason
And so right now I don't actually have the next video on my playlist. all the way edited and all the way uploaded to YouTube. And so right here, this is just a placeholder once I upload, video 94, this is video 93. Once I upload video 94, I'll go back into here and I'll replace this video right here, which is called video, which is best for viewer.

00:16:36:27 - 00:17:03:04
Nick Clason
That's YouTube's algorithm doing its thing. And I'll add video 94. Now you might be thinking, Nick, aren't if I post it and I say next videos on screen and it's not uploaded yet, won't that be a problem? And yes, for that like one week or so it won't be there. Okay. But from that moment on, once you upload or the the second video on the playlist goes live, it will live there on for the rest of eternity and time.

00:17:03:04 - 00:17:29:12
Nick Clason
And so one of the things we got to start getting, getting used to as youth pastors and people using the internet is that YouTube will live on in perpetuity forever, as long as you keep it up there and so. Well, the people that watch your video now, for your church, maybe in the series with David and Bathsheba, when you move on to the next section of the The Playlist and you're talking about David at the end of his life, and that's video number four.

00:17:29:15 - 00:17:51:09
Nick Clason
If people discover this a year down the road, two years down the road, ten years down the road, they will have access to that next video. And you can serve the people on YouTube forever. And that's one of the beautiful things about you and I as youth pastors, becoming content creators is that we can, effectively reach more people than just the people in our direct physical care.

00:17:51:09 - 00:18:10:14
Nick Clason
And that's one of the reasons I think going hybrid as at least one of the other benefits and I don't even think it should be the main or primary benefit of what we're doing, but it is at least something that we can use and utilize to our advantage. I also oftentimes include the playlist on here and the subscribe thing as well.

00:18:10:14 - 00:18:26:14
Nick Clason
And so you can add those to the end of your video as well. You can create a little Endor screen like I do, which has like little placeholders. And you just pop the video right in there. You can use something like a motion or a.com to find a thing like that. Speaking event screens. You will see right here on screen.

00:18:26:14 - 00:18:45:19
Nick Clason
If you're watching on YouTube our next video, which is the importance of playlists and courses. And so we're going to talk in depth about those. How do you utilize them and the advantage that you and I as youth pastors have, and how playlists are the perfect solution for us in our churches, in our youth ministries. So go ahead and check that video out.

00:18:45:19 - 00:18:49:08
Nick Clason
And don't forget, and as always, to stay hybrid.

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======================================
DESCRIPTION
Whether you think it or not, if you're a youth pastor, you're in the content creation business!

In this episode we'll walk you through how to create
โ€ขEpic Titles
โ€ขSEO Infused Tags
โ€ขMeaningful Descriptions
โ€ขLinks that get clicks
โ€ขHelpful Chapters
โ€ขEye-Popping Thumbnails
โ€ขYouTube Cards & End Screens

This step-by-step guide is your way to get started growing on YouTube, today!

FULL PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl
======================================
๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/095

//YOUTUBE VIDEO

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

//SONY ZVE-10
https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv

TAGS
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

DESCRIPTIONS & LINKS
//ONLINE MESSAGE EXAMPLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVc2Ij_Wo9w

//DIGITAL NOTES (YOUVERSION EVENTS)
https://my.bible.com/events

CHAPTERS

THUMBNAILS
//ADOBE TUTORIALS
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKVpQBDSQV6Q9hFeXCptHSu

//CANVA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0FQWvKjP_E&list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw&index=2

CARDS
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๐Ÿ’ฅ [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Social Coaching for Youth Pastors๐Ÿ’ฅ
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

//TELEPROMPTER
https://walmrt.us/4a6ZJU1

END SCREENS
//MOTION ARRAY
http://www.motionarray.com

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
๐Ÿ“… "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

๐Ÿ“จ Full Proof Recruiting Email
EMAIL: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email

๐Ÿฉ "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook

๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

======================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Youth Pastors are Content Creators
01:48 Creating Captivating Titles on YouTube
04:57 Adding Relevant Tags
07:07 Creating Descriptions that Matter
11:00 Create Chapter and Timecodes
11:55 Eye-Popping Thumbnails
13:14 What are YouTube Cards?
15:44 End Screens on YouTube

--------------
โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:38:18
Nick Clason
Mr. Beast, Dave Ramsey, Sean Cannell and you? What do all four of these people have in common? Well, all four of them, including you, by the way, are a content creator. And if you're a youth pastor, you are in the content creation business and maybe not yet creating online content, but you have the skill set necessary because we right now are in a playlist linked right here at the top of the screen where we are talking about YouTube for youth ministry.

00:00:38:18 - 00:01:07:10
Nick Clason
And if you've done the things that we've talked about in this playlist so far, while you start pre-recording your messages and you start scoping them out ahead of time, and you start with the idea of posting them to YouTube, which, by the way, right now I'm offering a very limited time free editing offer. So if you pre film your messages and you want to send them to me, once you get to the whole kind of editing part, which tends to be what trips people up on YouTube, I would be happy to do that.

00:01:07:10 - 00:01:28:24
Nick Clason
Click the link down below in the show notes and reach out and let me know and inquire if those spaces are still available. But you know, content is one thing, right? Like creating the content, shooting the content, even posting the content, right? But when you post it, there are actually some pretty incredibly important things that you need to make sure that you are doing.

00:01:29:00 - 00:02:00:16
Nick Clason
And we are going to talk through all of those things today in this video where we are talking about your titling, your tags, your description, the links that you include in your description, how to make chapters, thumbnails, cards and end screens. I know it seems overwhelming, but let's hang out and let's dive into that today. So if you head on over to YouTube, once you've created an account and you click create and you click upload video, you will get a screen just like this and you will click select file.

00:02:00:16 - 00:02:20:11
Nick Clason
And then you will begin uploading it. And once it begins to upload on YouTube it will look like this. So this is from episode 93 on video editing. And so I've already input all the details. But if you are watching, on YouTube right now, you'll see this. If you're on a podcast catcher, head to the link in the show notes and scrub ahead to this section.

00:02:20:11 - 00:02:41:23
Nick Clason
But you will see right up here at the top your title. Now, this is what most people do in churches. This is certainly what we did in church, especially when we started in the middle of the pandemic. We had a show, it was called unscripted and we would, have them classify by seasons, which I thought was pretty cool and pretty innovative.

00:02:41:23 - 00:03:16:01
Nick Clason
So we would say like unscripted season two episode four, which was great for us as far as indexing and titling and categorizing. However, think about this. If we had a lesson on unscripted that week and unscripted was every single thing in the, show. So that included like the game and the worship and all the thing. But like, if we had a message on suffering, let's say, like it would just say season two, episode four, there was no titling there that, you know, indicated, what the actual topic was of the message.

00:03:16:01 - 00:03:38:00
Nick Clason
So your title, just like your thumbnail, both are really important as far as communicating to your audience what your video is going to be talking about. And so if you're in church, a lot of times we do this in churches where in the middle of like a series and we're like, David series, sermon three. Right. Which like, that's great.

00:03:38:00 - 00:04:00:27
Nick Clason
And you can actually on YouTube really easily include your series into a thing called a playlist. And so they can all be included. David, you know, can be included into a playlist, but talk about what you're talking about, you know. So if you're talking about David and Bathsheba, maybe your title is like coming back from Giant Mistakes or leaning in to God's grace.

00:04:00:27 - 00:04:25:14
Nick Clason
Right. And I'm going to talk to you in just a minute about ways that you can figure out the best words and the ways to title these things. But very simply, if you make this small shift from just creating it for your church people, where you're explaining, like David, you know, message three and instead shifting it to like what the actual topic is like, that is going to be one major and massive shift.

00:04:25:14 - 00:04:50:10
Nick Clason
And in my completely free e-book, which is linked right here on screen with a little bit of a rebrand, new new title, we are now switching the name if you've already downloaded it. Still the same content. I just changed the title to The Complete Hybrid Strategy Guide. and we actually talked to you, in this e-book in detail for you how to start pre filming your messages and how to get going on YouTube.

00:04:50:10 - 00:05:08:10
Nick Clason
So maybe you've been watching this playlist, but if you download this e-book it will be kind of your step by step guide to starting to create content on YouTube. Once you get past your titling, there's another really important part. And it's all the way down here at the bottom. it's passed you a little description box. It's pass it thumbnail thing.

00:05:08:12 - 00:05:28:26
Nick Clason
It's pass your playlist selector and it's in this area here called tags. Okay. Now you'll see right here on mine I have these little like, ranking things and that's from a service called vid IQ which link down below is a vid IQ link if you're interested in grabbing that for a free trial or for a period of time.

00:05:28:28 - 00:05:48:25
Nick Clason
But this will help rank what some of your tags are. So if you are talking about David and Bathsheba, you might write in David and you might write in Overcoming Sin, and you might write in God's restorative grace. And just these tags, these are ways in which people, that search for things on YouTube. Because, remember, YouTube is owned by Google.

00:05:48:25 - 00:06:12:24
Nick Clason
And so people are going to YouTube and they are searching things like they went on Google, for example, how do I come back from a massive mistake that I've made and maybe your video on David will actually help communicate that. Or maybe someone's looking for some research on David and they're saying, hey, I want to know, like, when were David and Bathsheba like, you know, what year did David and Bathsheba take place or something like that?

00:06:12:24 - 00:06:32:05
Nick Clason
I don't know, but just begin to think like the people that are searching on YouTube. And so you may answer certain things like, you know, how to overcome sin, but you may also answer David and Bathsheba, you know, whatever year it was or something like that. And so you can put some of those things in. And this little plug in here is from vid IQ.

00:06:32:05 - 00:06:54:24
Nick Clason
And so I have that plugged in right here at the top, watch some of my stats and gives me kind of some, some analytic type stuff. And so it also can give me you know, some, some suggestions for tags and stuff like that. And so if you are interested in that, something like that, you can get that for a pretty nominal, pretty minimal fee and also a trial to go ahead and get the ball rolling on that.

00:06:54:24 - 00:07:14:24
Nick Clason
You should definitely check that out. But tags are pretty important. And you'll see that it has, 500 potential characters. So whatever you do, try your hardest to, get your tags filled all the way out to as close to 500 tags as possible. after that, I want to talk here for just a minute about the, description section.

00:07:14:24 - 00:07:33:13
Nick Clason
So the description section, this is where I include a lot of, like, relevant links. And so if you're watching on YouTube and you're watching my video right here, this is my, you know, hey, I'm offering free editing right now, so click that link. And since that's one of my main kind of call to actions out of this message, out of this video, like, I want you to click that.

00:07:33:13 - 00:07:50:29
Nick Clason
I'm putting it right up at the top. I also have my strategy guide right here. and you can also grab that as well. then right here, this is like just a description. So just think like think like a little mini, you know, paragraph two paragraphs, three paragraphs, kind of blog post. So same kind of idea as the tags.

00:07:50:29 - 00:08:19:13
Nick Clason
But this one is you're typing it out. You're typing it out, for the audience that may find it because YouTube and the algorithm, they're always crawling every single piece of text and every single piece of content from the video. So all the captions that you have, all the words that you say, all the things you write, all the tags you have, all the title that you have, all those things go into account as people are searching and looking for different videos on YouTube.

00:08:19:13 - 00:08:37:26
Nick Clason
And so, just fill this thing out and I'll show you an example. if you are watching on YouTube, you can see me navigating over to it live time right now. But our student ministry YouTube account, and you'll see that we have every single one. We have, a next step. So this just takes us to we use, Church Community builder.

00:08:37:26 - 00:08:58:27
Nick Clason
So this is our digital Next step card that's included in every single description. And we have a thing called digital notes, which students can use to follow along, both live in the room and also here on YouTube. And so, this is free a free service from the YouVersion Bible app. It's just a way to continually make things more hybrid in your space.

00:08:58:29 - 00:09:18:28
Nick Clason
and so look, you look we're talking about David this week as well on this episode. and so this is just an example of a couple of links that you can include. And I like to try to include every single, next step, every single link into here, into the digital notes. And so, you know, right here it says Ready to surrender Control.

00:09:18:28 - 00:09:40:27
Nick Clason
Let us know by taking a next step. This is the exact same link as the one I just showed you, right. It takes it out to that next steps form as well. And so we're all this is like our final last step. And so in my sort of like ultimate strategy guide I'm posting fun shorts that people will find as I'm posting spiritual shorts so that people will be inspired, that then push to our long form content.

00:09:40:29 - 00:09:55:26
Nick Clason
So then they go watch a long form version of our video, and then that drives them to a next step, and then they take the next step here. And that's how we capture and gather their information. That's how it is in a pie in the sky type of world. It doesn't always work that way. You know that as a youth pastor as well.

00:09:55:28 - 00:10:14:06
Nick Clason
But this is how I can reconcile and say like, this is why we post fun content. This is why we post short inspirational shorts, because we're driving to this long form version of our video, which is then driving toward a next step which allows us to capture information from students, gather their their info and follow up with them, and ultimately disciple them.

00:10:14:06 - 00:10:36:04
Nick Clason
Right. And so that's that description. Place is also where you can include, the links like, you know, digital notes. If you want to do that, feel free to borrow that, steal that. You use that in your own space, or in next steps form or whatever the case may be, if you are not, you know, like if you're, not a youth pastor and you're also just looking to post videos on YouTube, that would be where you might post things like affiliate links and whatever.

00:10:36:04 - 00:10:55:02
Nick Clason
And so you'll see that for me as well. Like right here, these are my show notes. And so these are different things like you know this it takes you to the show notes on my podcast page. This is you know we talked about Cap Cut, DaVinci resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, some other links about growing as an editor, tutorials, limited time offer.

00:10:55:04 - 00:11:17:11
Nick Clason
Here's all my socials. Here's some other freebies. Here's some affiliate links, like so. All that stuff is kind of chock full in there. But then this is another really important thing. This is really, key thing to do. I think when you're posting videos to YouTube is create chapter and time codes, and all you got to do is just add them right here in the description.

00:11:17:11 - 00:11:39:21
Nick Clason
If you're watching live on YouTube, you can see that. And I just go back through the video and I watch it manually, and I type out when I started talking about each of these things. And if you are watching on YouTube, you'll see down below. I'm also now starting to highlight that on screen with some text right? So that whenever anyone's watching, they can scrub ahead and see what I'm actually talking about in each section of the video.

00:11:39:21 - 00:12:00:15
Nick Clason
Because I don't know about you, but there are some times where I don't want all the fluff at the beginning, I just want the direct answer. So YouTube helps index better when you include chapters, and just by putting them in there, YouTube will auto break that up and it will, create chapters and create divisions within your video for the people in your in your space that are watching it.

00:12:00:17 - 00:12:27:20
Nick Clason
beyond chapters. the other thing that is really important, probably just as important I would say, is the title is your thumbnail. And so your thumbnail is very simply your, your, your like first impression, right, of what's going on. And so, a lot of experts say you want anywhere from, 2 to 6 words on the thumbnail, as little as possible.

00:12:27:21 - 00:12:51:07
Nick Clason
Because think about if someone's scrolling through on their phone. They're just getting a small image of it. So you want it to be enough to incite curiosity that will cause someone to click on it and then get started on your video. And so rather than David, invest Sheba week three of the David series, your church name in your, you know, date that you preach it or whatever.

00:12:51:10 - 00:13:14:20
Nick Clason
Like just simply post like, you know, returning to God. Something like that. Right. And you can put, like a screenshot of yourself or a screenshot of whoever's speaking and do some graphic editing. With that, you can use things like Adobe Photoshop. You can use things like Canva, links to those all down in the description of this podcast episode.

00:13:14:22 - 00:13:20:01
Nick Clason
but you can use some of those things so that you can create a good first impression.

00:13:20:01 - 00:13:35:08
Nick Clason
One other, couple other kind of like next level sections. And you'll see here, here's my vidiq optimize score. there are a couple of things here that I have not, you know, like, they don't they don't think my titles very easy to understand.

00:13:35:10 - 00:13:53:06
Nick Clason
but one of the things that can help increase your score is adding things like cards. And so you get one card per playlist. And if you're watching this video, I did it right, the very top. Right. So we're in a playlist called YouTube for Youth Ministry. In this video I did it as well. I did it at 45 seconds.

00:13:53:13 - 00:14:09:28
Nick Clason
And so I'm just highlighting like, hey, you're in the middle of a playlist. If you want to go back to the beginning, catch up, or you may reference another video from another time. Maybe somebody, doesn't want this video that you're talking about, but you can help point them out to another type of thing that they may be interested in.

00:14:10:01 - 00:14:33:04
Nick Clason
It'll show up on screen, similar to something like this. Someone can click on it while they're on YouTube and take them to another video on YouTube. Sean Cannell has, a Ten Commandments for YouTube. And one of the things is keep people on YouTube's platform as long as possible. At least that's YouTube's cool, right? And so, all these things help help you rank better.

00:14:33:04 - 00:14:54:19
Nick Clason
So that's an example of a card. You get one of those per video. And when you're pre filming you can write that in. And if you're using a teleprompter like we had talked about in a previous episode, linked to a teleprompter down below in the show notes. Grab that. But you can write that in so that you make sure that you include the card in your video, but you can, you know, kind of point to it.

00:14:54:21 - 00:15:12:28
Nick Clason
and here's like a little hack, like if you are filming direct camera, if you point with your left finger, it'll pop up right here on top of your screen. A lot of times I'll add a sound effect and maybe like the thumbnail of the playlist or the video I'm talking about, and pop it right in right where my finger comes in, and also have it come across right above it as well.

00:15:13:00 - 00:15:33:11
Nick Clason
That's just a little editing thing. And again, if you're interested in editing, reach out to me down below in the show notes. but finally the last piece. And, you know, also, by the way, hey, listen, here's the thing. Maybe you don't have a budget for editing and you're like, I want to do this. and I'm going to learn editing, but, like, I just I need someone to help me walk through this.

00:15:33:11 - 00:15:53:19
Nick Clason
Like, I'm also offering some coaching right now at a smaller rate. for sessions of coaching, just a few. Just a few bucks. If that's something that you're interested in, I can help you go from wherever you are and start making progress on your hybrid strategy today. And then the final piece that you want to include is your end screens.

00:15:53:19 - 00:16:17:29
Nick Clason
And it's the same concept as the card where you want to keep people on the YouTube platform. As long as possible. You'll notice on, this video here, I included, four different end screens. I have, and this is, this is a little hack. I often, dovetail onto the next video on my on my playlist, but this is the most recent video I've uploaded.

00:16:18:03 - 00:16:36:27
Nick Clason
And so right now I don't actually have the next video on my playlist. all the way edited and all the way uploaded to YouTube. And so right here, this is just a placeholder once I upload, video 94, this is video 93. Once I upload video 94, I'll go back into here and I'll replace this video right here, which is called video, which is best for viewer.

00:16:36:27 - 00:17:03:04
Nick Clason
That's YouTube's algorithm doing its thing. And I'll add video 94. Now you might be thinking, Nick, aren't if I post it and I say next videos on screen and it's not uploaded yet, won't that be a problem? And yes, for that like one week or so it won't be there. Okay. But from that moment on, once you upload or the the second video on the playlist goes live, it will live there on for the rest of eternity and time.

00:17:03:04 - 00:17:29:12
Nick Clason
And so one of the things we got to start getting, getting used to as youth pastors and people using the internet is that YouTube will live on in perpetuity forever, as long as you keep it up there and so. Well, the people that watch your video now, for your church, maybe in the series with David and Bathsheba, when you move on to the next section of the The Playlist and you're talking about David at the end of his life, and that's video number four.

00:17:29:15 - 00:17:51:09
Nick Clason
If people discover this a year down the road, two years down the road, ten years down the road, they will have access to that next video. And you can serve the people on YouTube forever. And that's one of the beautiful things about you and I as youth pastors, becoming content creators is that we can, effectively reach more people than just the people in our direct physical care.

00:17:51:09 - 00:18:10:14
Nick Clason
And that's one of the reasons I think going hybrid as at least one of the other benefits and I don't even think it should be the main or primary benefit of what we're doing, but it is at least something that we can use and utilize to our advantage. I also oftentimes include the playlist on here and the subscribe thing as well.

00:18:10:14 - 00:18:26:14
Nick Clason
And so you can add those to the end of your video as well. You can create a little Endor screen like I do, which has like little placeholders. And you just pop the video right in there. You can use something like a motion or a.com to find a thing like that. Speaking event screens. You will see right here on screen.

00:18:26:14 - 00:18:45:19
Nick Clason
If you're watching on YouTube our next video, which is the importance of playlists and courses. And so we're going to talk in depth about those. How do you utilize them and the advantage that you and I as youth pastors have, and how playlists are the perfect solution for us in our churches, in our youth ministries. So go ahead and check that video out.

00:18:45:19 - 00:18:49:08
Nick Clason
And don't forget, and as always, to stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 092: ๐Ÿ–๏ธ 5 Secret Benefits of Filming YouTube Videos for Youth Ministries https://www.hybridministry.xyz/092 05087092-0158-4127-b402-401393069189 Thu, 11 Apr 2024 04:00:00 -0500 Nick Clason 092 ๐Ÿ–๏ธ 5 Secret Benefits of Filming YouTube Videos for Youth Ministries full Nick Clason ๐Ÿ“นYouTube is the perfect platform for youth pastors and youth ministries. Why? * 95% of youth group teenagers are on YouTube * YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, powered by Google * YouTube plays to the skillset of all youth pastors In this video, let's help you start sitting down in front of the camera and filming messages and content for your youth group! 19:23 no <h3>๐Ÿ’ฅ [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Video Editing for Youth Pastors๐Ÿ’ฅ</h3> <p><a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/editing" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/editing</a></p> <h3>๐Ÿ”ฅ [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide๐Ÿ”ฅ</h3> <p><a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p><strong>======================================</strong><br> <strong>DESCRIPTION</strong><br> ๐Ÿ“นYouTube is the perfect platform for youth pastors and youth ministries.<br> Why?</p> <ul> <li>95% of youth group teenagers are on YouTube</li> <li>YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, powered by Google</li> <li>YouTube plays to the skillset of all youth pastors</li> </ul> <p>In this video, let's help you start sitting down in front of the camera and filming messages and content for your youth group!<br> Follow along as we unpack the best practices guide of YouTube for Youth Pastors:<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl</a><br> <strong>======================================</strong><br> ๐Ÿ““<strong>SHOWNOTES</strong><br> //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS<br> <a href="http://www.hybridministry.xyz/092" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.hybridministry.xyz/092</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE VIDEO<br> <a href="https://youtu.be/3bq5CGstZmE" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtu.be/3bq5CGstZmE</a></p> <p>//GET STARTED FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>//SONY ZVE-10<br> <a href="https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv</a></p> <p>//SEAN CANNEL &amp; THINK MEDIA<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@seanTHiNKs" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@seanTHiNKs</a></p> <p>//FULL-PROOF TIME MANAGEMENT GUIDE<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8&amp;t=189s" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8&amp;amp;t=189s</a></p> <p>//YOUVERSION LIVE EVENTS<br> <a href="https://my.bible.com/events" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://my.bible.com/events</a></p> <p>//TELEPROMPTER<br> <a href="https://walmrt.us/4a6ZJU1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://walmrt.us/4a6ZJU1</a></p> <p>//TOP 5 YOUTH CURRICULUMS: RANKED!<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQXsananwI" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQXsananwI</a></p> <p>//WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN<br> [Link Placeholder]</p> <p>//SIDEKICK<br> <a href="http://www.sidekick.tv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://www.sidekick.tv</a></p> <p>FREE VIDEO EDITING OPTIONS<br> //CAPCUT<br> <a href="https://www.capcut.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.capcut.com</a></p> <p>//DAVINCI RESOLVE</p> <h2><a href="https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/event/davinciresolvedownload" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/event/davinciresolvedownload</a></h2> <p>๐Ÿ‘‰ <strong>STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK</strong><br> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/</a><br> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick</a><br> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry</a><br> Website: <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz</a><br> <strong>======================================</strong></p> <p><strong>๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“</strong><br> ๐Ÿ“… "<strong>The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy</strong>"<br> <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book</a></p> <p>๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ "<strong>My 9 Favorite DYM Resources</strong>"<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>๐Ÿ“จ <strong>Full Proof Recruiting Email</strong><br> EMAIL: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email</a></p> <p>๐Ÿฉ <strong>"FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"</strong><br> GUIDE: <a href="https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut</a></p> <p><strong>๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"</strong><br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook</a></p> <p><strong>๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"</strong><br> <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis</a></p> <p><strong>======================================</strong><br> ๐Ÿ› ๏ธ<strong>TOOLS</strong><br> <em><em>Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products</em></em></p> <p>SONY ZVE-10<br> <a href="https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv</a></p> <p>BEST DYM RESOURCES<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym</a></p> <p>OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS<br> <a href="https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361</a></p> <p>//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100<br> <a href="https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit</a></p> <p>AUTO POD<br> <a href="https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv</a></p> <p>TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING<br> <a href="https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa</a></p> <p><strong>--------------</strong><br> ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ<strong>TIMECODES</strong><br> 00:00 Why Youth Pastors should Pre-Film their Messages<br> 02:10 Leveling Up Your YouTube Gear<br> 06:54 Adding Shownotes to your YouTube Videos<br> 10:31 Top 5 Benefits of Pre-Filming Your Messages to YouTube</p> <p><strong>TRANSCRIPT</strong><br> 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:31:03<br> Nick Clason<br> Youth Pastor, Let me guess, you have a desire for the students that you have been entrusted to in your care to come, to learn, know, love and follow Jesus. And let me guess, part of that strategy, part of that way that you hope students do that is to show up for them and to be there when they have difficult and tough questions to help them answer and make sense of life which is around them.</p> <p>00:00:31:04 - 00:00:57:13<br> Nick Clason<br> Well, according to Pew Research, 95% of teenagers have used will use or plan to use the platform of YouTube. And so from the most conservative parents in your church who would never even imagine letting their kids enter the World Wide Web to all the way to the least restrictive parents who gave their kids a phone and let them have wild access to the Internet.</p> <p>00:00:57:15 - 00:01:21:28<br> Nick Clason<br> YouTube is a great strategy and a great platform for students and student ministry. Like if in your youth ministry context, you're using YouTube, subscribe if you're not and hey, either way, hit the bell because we're in a playlist called YouTube for Youth Ministries. But how do we start posting content to YouTube? Like you might know these stats, You might know it's important.</p> <p>00:01:21:28 - 00:01:44:06<br> Nick Clason<br> You might know students are on the you might know it's a really accessible platform, but how do you actually begin filming editing, recording and posting videos to YouTube? Well, this is the perfect video because in it I want to share with you what gear you can use to start leveling up your YouTube game with simply just shooting on your cell phone.</p> <p>00:01:44:06 - 00:02:07:27<br> Nick Clason<br> I also want to talk about how you can manage your time to fit in the process of filming YouTube videos and posting it. I'm also going to give you some next steps directly out of this video so that you can start doing some side benefits for you. And then finally, how to actually edit your video so that it looks good and professional and fits the vibe that's going on YouTube.</p> <p>00:02:08:03 - 00:02:33:28<br> Nick Clason<br> Welcome to the Hybrid ministry show. So if you're anything like me and you work at church, you look around your youth room and you compare it to the auditorium or the main church room that the rest of the or the rest of your, you know, big church is using where your pastors preaching on Sunday morning and you probably look and think, man, I don't have the gear to capture my services and post them on YouTube.</p> <p>00:02:34:00 - 00:03:05:24<br> Nick Clason<br> And the answer to that is probably unequivocally 100% accurate. You probably don't. Right. But I actually have linked right here on screen my 100% completely free e-book, which is called 40 done for you posting tools, which really, honestly maybe needs a new title because what it ultimately is, is my complete philosophy as well as strategy guide for leveling up your YouTube and your social media game.</p> <p>00:03:05:24 - 00:03:32:00<br> Nick Clason<br> It's all about creating custom content for YouTube. And so one of the elements in that e-book, if you click it and if you download it, is a link to a blog that I have created called YouTube Gear on a Budget. And simply what it is is it will help you level up your YouTube gear if you choose to shoot video on your phone that is of course the most expensive piece is that camera piece.</p> <p>00:03:32:03 - 00:04:04:25<br> Nick Clason<br> But you can level up your game for less than $100 by adding in some external microphones. I have linked on in the e-book. Bluetooth wireless microphones, a shotgun style microphone for Android. The same thing's for for iPhones as well. Also, just like a phone based tripod, you can get a tabletop one that's a little shorter or you can get a full, full length standing tripod as well as a basic ring light that so, you know, your videos look decent with lighting.</p> <p>00:04:05:01 - 00:04:27:25<br> Nick Clason<br> You can also take care of most of that by just filming in a space that has some good lighting. And then if you do want to go the next layer beyond just $100 or less, if you want to stop shooting on your phone and you want to start shooting on a good camera, the one that I recommend that was recommended to me by Sean Cannell via his YouTube channel, check out and Think Media.</p> <p>00:04:27:27 - 00:04:50:29<br> Nick Clason<br> If you haven't had a chance. He is a YouTube guru, but the Sony ZVE-10. Itโ€™s a Great camera. We bought it along with the lens for about $700 in our student ministry space one time purchase. But now we're using it and we're using it for everything. We're using it for long form videos as well as vertically shot and vertically based videos.</p> <p>00:04:51:04 - 00:05:15:19<br> Nick Clason<br> But one of the pieces, one of the challenges for most youth pastors is that we're running from fire to fire to fire to fire and meeting to meeting to me and to meeting this kid, kid who needs counseling, counseling, counseling, counseling, all the different things, all the different demands of our space and our time. We're linked right here at the top of this video is my 100% completely free, foolproof strategy for good time management.</p> <p>00:05:15:19 - 00:05:38:26<br> Nick Clason<br> And here's the honest truth that frankly, like there are always going to be issues, are always going to be struggles, are always going to be fires and things that pop up on your calendar. But if you manage your time and just a little sneak peek like you are 100% completely in charge of your time and your time management.</p> <p>00:05:38:26 - 00:06:02:17<br> Nick Clason<br> And so if you don't make a priority and a space in your calendar to sit down and pre film your messages, just like we're talking about here, like you are not going to be able to to start posting content to YouTube, you have to make it a priority just like you make sitting down and crafting a Wednesday night program a priority.</p> <p>00:06:02:23 - 00:06:25:04<br> Nick Clason<br> You also have to make sitting down and pre filming your messages a priority. So you're probably going to have to get several weeks in advance on this, both on your teaching scope and curriculum, which link down below. I have link to my five favorite teaching curriculum, so go check that out. And in a video that we've dropped not too long ago, you can check that out if you're interested in something like that.</p> <p>00:06:25:06 - 00:06:58:24<br> Nick Clason<br> But your plan, your curriculum, and then you'll write out your teaching and then you'll sit down and you'll deliver the message direct to camera, all because you told your time what was going to happen to it. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't counsel students and mute their senior pastor and plan for your Wednesday night, but if pre filming your message is if getting the message of Jesus and the message of hope out on the Internet, on YouTube is important to you, then you need to determine when you're going to place that that thing on your calendar to do it.</p> <p>00:06:58:26 - 00:07:21:11<br> Nick Clason<br> Now, just like this YouTube video, all YouTube videos have a description section. And so when you are preaching or teaching or delivering some piece of content direct to camera on screen, you can always say down below in the description are links. And so for every single video that I post on my student Ministry's YouTube channel, we post two links.</p> <p>00:07:21:11 - 00:07:45:00<br> Nick Clason<br> The first link is a next steps digital type connect card. And I think about if you live in the room and you want to challenge students to take the next step of getting baptized, or if you're alive in the room and they prayed to receive Christ or they just need some sort of prayer, you might point them to a physical connect card in the seatback in front of them, or at the middle of like a table or something like that.</p> <p>00:07:45:00 - 00:08:07:07<br> Nick Clason<br> If you're sitting around tables in your space on the same way, you can offer a digital version. And I mean, let's be honest, if they fill out a physical connect card, probably you are taking that caption that information digitally somehow, whether that be in your church management system, in software, or if it's just by tracking that information via something more basic like Excel.</p> <p>00:08:07:08 - 00:08:31:29<br> Nick Clason<br> Nonetheless, you take it from a physical moment to digital. And so if you can offer a digital based connect card, then you know that you are going to be getting that information and you're going to be cutting out that middleman portion. The other thing that I offer in our digital are link in our description in most of our YouTube videos is what we call our digital Notes platform.</p> <p>00:08:31:29 - 00:08:53:20<br> Nick Clason<br> And our digital notes is simply using the free, by the way, free YouVersion live events. And so if you've ever used that before, it's a thing that you can create. And on the back end on you version of the Bible app, you create a live service. And so I set our digital notes to go quote unquote live.</p> <p>00:08:53:20 - 00:09:24:27<br> Nick Clason<br> So it's discovered in the live kind of panel of your you you version Bible app. It's when you discover when your church is live. And so I set that for when we're teaching our message live same day same time. However it does at the end give you a small URL. And so then the play, the digital notes plan, the live event can be clicked on and accessed at any time, regardless of if it is quote unquote live in the version Bible app.</p> <p>00:09:24:29 - 00:09:45:16<br> Nick Clason<br> And so you can put text, you can put images, you can put Bible passages, and then they, the followers along, they can create private notes based off of all of those things. They can save them so that they can kind of archive them and come back later. But one of my favorite pieces to the digital notes is that you can create an external link.</p> <p>00:09:45:16 - 00:10:09:01<br> Nick Clason<br> And so again, if a student is following along, live in the room or on YouTube at the end, they can they can have a live link to go out to Digital Connect card. They can have a live link to go out to camp signups. They can have a live link to go out to whatever you want it to be, whatever sort of call to action, whatever sort of next step your message may be pointing students toward.</p> <p>00:10:09:03 - 00:10:38:21<br> Nick Clason<br> The other thing is, of course, it is on you version. And so you can also link Bible reading plans directly in there as well. And so think about it. What if you had a whole message on the importance of reading the Bible and getting in God's Word? And then what if you actually had a Bible reading plan that they could start reading that night or the next morning that they could start enjoying and begin reading to help them follow through on what you were talking about?</p> <p>00:10:38:23 - 00:11:04:15<br> Nick Clason<br> So obviously, in addition, right, like in addition to posting videos to YouTube to reach more students for 95% of teenagers have or will plan to spend some of their time or at least use the app in some way, shape or form. There are, I think, five additional like benefits to sitting down and pre filming your talks direct to camera benefit number one is more practice.</p> <p>00:11:04:15 - 00:11:22:23<br> Nick Clason<br> It gives you an opportunity to engage with your content more frequently than just getting up and teaching it live on a Wednesday night or Sunday morning or whenever that might be. And so by the time you do actually get around on Wednesday night or Sunday morning to deliver your content, direct camera, you've already delivered it at least once.</p> <p>00:11:22:23 - 00:11:56:02<br> Nick Clason<br> And if you need more takes, maybe two or three, and so you're much more familiar with the content and the concepts that you were teaching. Benefit number two is, of course, you're going to be forced to get ahead. You're going to be forced to to be working ahead in your delivery of of this content and preparation. So my workflow goes, I sit down and I write it all out and not linked in my $100 or less leveling up guide.</p> <p>00:11:56:05 - 00:12:17:19<br> Nick Clason<br> But one that is recommended potentially you may have to get a beefier tripod is using a using a teleprompter holder. And so you can get a teleprompter and you can use an iPad with the free teleprompter app. But so I sit down, I prep my message and I script it out and I may script it word for word.</p> <p>00:12:17:22 - 00:12:48:25<br> Nick Clason<br> 2000 or 2500 words is usually a good length for YouTube. It helps me hopefully shoot in under the 15 minute mark. That's always my goal on time. Write it all out and then deliver it Direct camera. That's where I include things like subscribe and cards linked up at the top and end screens like I write and spell every single thing out word for word, so that then the teleprompter will just kind of do its thing and flow right in front of me and I just read it directly there.</p> <p>00:12:48:28 - 00:13:17:08<br> Nick Clason<br> It does take a little bit of work to get used to it. It is a skill that's not exactly natural. You can do it. But, you know, I'm just letting you know, get get used to it. Then also I have I then take the the manuscript, the full YouTube manuscript, and I use Google Drive. And so I create a new copy of that an in a different folder, and I rename it live talk notes.</p> <p>00:13:17:12 - 00:13:50:08<br> Nick Clason<br> And so then I go back through that and I add highlights and I add all of those types of things, like, you know, yellow is, is like on screen or slide. Green is like any scripture or whatever, any video clips because like I may not actually like show a video clip on when I'm filming it to YouTube. If I do, it might just be some B-roll over top of the background as opposed to like showing a full on like video clip, like stop, pause the room, watch screen, come back type of thing, video clips and interactive elements.</p> <p>00:13:50:08 - 00:14:09:00<br> Nick Clason<br> I add all those things, but I do it in a completely different document. I adapt it from the manuscript to more of like an outline type style. And then as I'm doing that, I'm also building slides and putting it into a thing like Sidekick, where I can use integrated tools like the wheel and name Picker and the live voting elements and all those types of things.</p> <p>00:14:09:00 - 00:14:34:10<br> Nick Clason<br> More info link down below on Sidekick Sidekick.tv And so my workflow is my head. I write it, I deliver it, direct camera, and then I also readapt it to be taught in the room in between. When I shoot it and readapt it is when we're editing it or posting it, we're adding thumbnails or adding time codes, all the YouTube type things that need to take place.</p> <p>00:14:34:10 - 00:15:05:04<br> Nick Clason<br> So that is live. Usually the Monday before what we we posted on Monday and then deliver it live in the room on Wednesday. And then our students discuss it again on the following Sunday morning. So that whole week on social, our focus is, you know, Monday it drops, Wednesdays are live teaching and then Sunday they discuss it and then woven all throughout there are you know several different like kind of teaching videos social media type clips.</p> <p>00:15:05:06 - 00:15:32:29<br> Nick Clason<br> Benefit number three is it will help you create evergreen type content. Evergreen content is just a marketing word for content that is always relevant. In fact, last night I had a student from a former ministry and a former church that's going through a difficult and tough time. So hey, like I'm having a hard time. Like things are rough, you know, and some have had some some bad news and some kind of tragedy hit their family.</p> <p>00:15:32:29 - 00:16:07:10<br> Nick Clason<br> And so we don't even have this live yet. Like we're getting these back right now from our editor. But we are about to launch into a series called When Bad Things Happen. I have a link actually down below if you're interested in that series that is available on ym360 curriculum site. But we taught it as a student ministry team and like I said, it's not live on YouTube yet, but I was sending her the links to our direct drop box like videos so or Google Drive videos so that she could watch it.</p> <p>00:16:07:12 - 00:16:32:07<br> Nick Clason<br> And that's again like that's one of the benefits of filming your content is that when someone's going through a hard time who lives a thousand miles away, you can send them stuff like this that might be able to help them get through it and navigate through life. You see, this isn't just a vanity thing. Like you can help students, you can help care for students, shepherds, students, disciple students, teach students.</p> <p>00:16:32:07 - 00:16:55:16<br> Nick Clason<br> When you film, you're content. That's what you want to do. Live in the room, right? The difference is church is often built like a organization that's trying to capture people through a cable TV style of of marketing as opposed to an OnDemand style of marketing. And when you preach from your messages, you can start to wade into that quote unquote, on demand type of messaging.</p> <p>00:16:55:16 - 00:17:13:11<br> Nick Clason<br> So when someone's going through a hard time or when someone needs a guide to how to use the Bible or whatever it is that you have taught that you know is valuable, you can send them to your YouTube channel for a link to evergreen content, to content that matters. And so benefit number four, of course, is it's the antidote.</p> <p>00:17:13:11 - 00:17:37:02<br> Nick Clason<br> It is the cure to travel sports. Not entirely like that. Kids still traveling to baseball, but if you film your messages while they're still going to be traveling to baseball, would you rather them travel to baseball, miss out on church altogether, or would you rather them travel to baseball and still have the opportunity to catch up on the series, to hear the message to learn the thing?</p> <p>00:17:37:02 - 00:18:03:04<br> Nick Clason<br> Like I think we would all take option two. I mean, maybe we all like option three, which is like nuking travel baseball so that it never happens again. But since that's probably not going to be an option, we'll settle for option number two and options are an option. But side benefit number five of pre filming your messages is Sean Cannell the guru of YouTube, has a strategy called Ask specific questions.</p> <p>00:18:03:04 - 00:18:32:06<br> Nick Clason<br> ASQ or actually not ask answer specific questions. So think about it, right? You can answer your students specific questions. For example, how do I respond when bad things happen? Boom, That's a teaching series. Answer that question posted to YouTube. The goal is not necessarily to go viral and be caught and seen by other students in other states and other student ministries, though that can be something that happens.</p> <p>00:18:32:06 - 00:18:54:22<br> Nick Clason<br> But that's not the goal, right? The goal is to create content that is going to be helpful and beneficial to answer specific questions about God, about faith, about theology to the students that God has entrusted into you and into your care. Once you've shot the content, you now move into the hardest space of all of this process, probably, which is editing.</p> <p>00:18:54:25 - 00:19:19:10<br> Nick Clason<br> And there are some three different ways that you can do it. Cap Cut, DaVinci Resolve. Those are linked down below in the description, but also linked right here on screen is the best editing tools in the best editing apps, how to edit, how to level up your editing and why editing on videos does actually matter. So go ahead.</p> <p>00:19:19:10 - 00:19:35:04<br> Nick Clason<br> Take a look at that video. We love to catch you over there as we're continuing on our YouTube for Youth Ministry playlist. But don't forget and as always, stay hybrid. </p> YouTube, YouTube for Youth Ministry, YouTube Shorts for Youth Ministry, YouTube Thumbnails for Youth Ministry, YouTube for Student Ministry, Sean Cannell, YouTube Gear on a Budget, Start Posting Videos on Social Media, Youth Pastor, Hybrid Ministry, Student Ministry, Youth Group, How do I post my Youth Group Messages on the internet? ๐Ÿ’ฅ [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Video Editing for Youth Pastors๐Ÿ’ฅ

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DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿ“นYouTube is the perfect platform for youth pastors and youth ministries.
Why?

  • 95% of youth group teenagers are on YouTube
  • YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, powered by Google
  • YouTube plays to the skillset of all youth pastors

In this video, let's help you start sitting down in front of the camera and filming messages and content for your youth group!
Follow along as we unpack the best practices guide of YouTube for Youth Pastors:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl
======================================
๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/092

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/3bq5CGstZmE

//GET STARTED FOR UNDER $100
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

//SONY ZVE-10
https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv

//SEAN CANNEL & THINK MEDIA
https://www.youtube.com/@seanTHiNKs

//FULL-PROOF TIME MANAGEMENT GUIDE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8&t=189s

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

//TELEPROMPTER
https://walmrt.us/4a6ZJU1

//TOP 5 YOUTH CURRICULUMS: RANKED!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQXsananwI

//WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN
[Link Placeholder]

//SIDEKICK
http://www.sidekick.tv

FREE VIDEO EDITING OPTIONS
//CAPCUT
https://www.capcut.com

//DAVINCI RESOLVE

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/event/davinciresolvedownload

๐Ÿ‘‰ STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
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๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources"
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๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

SONY ZVE-10
https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv

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

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

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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AUTO POD
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TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
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--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Why Youth Pastors should Pre-Film their Messages
02:10 Leveling Up Your YouTube Gear
06:54 Adding Shownotes to your YouTube Videos
10:31 Top 5 Benefits of Pre-Filming Your Messages to YouTube

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:31:03
Nick Clason
Youth Pastor, Let me guess, you have a desire for the students that you have been entrusted to in your care to come, to learn, know, love and follow Jesus. And let me guess, part of that strategy, part of that way that you hope students do that is to show up for them and to be there when they have difficult and tough questions to help them answer and make sense of life which is around them.

00:00:31:04 - 00:00:57:13
Nick Clason
Well, according to Pew Research, 95% of teenagers have used will use or plan to use the platform of YouTube. And so from the most conservative parents in your church who would never even imagine letting their kids enter the World Wide Web to all the way to the least restrictive parents who gave their kids a phone and let them have wild access to the Internet.

00:00:57:15 - 00:01:21:28
Nick Clason
YouTube is a great strategy and a great platform for students and student ministry. Like if in your youth ministry context, you're using YouTube, subscribe if you're not and hey, either way, hit the bell because we're in a playlist called YouTube for Youth Ministries. But how do we start posting content to YouTube? Like you might know these stats, You might know it's important.

00:01:21:28 - 00:01:44:06
Nick Clason
You might know students are on the you might know it's a really accessible platform, but how do you actually begin filming editing, recording and posting videos to YouTube? Well, this is the perfect video because in it I want to share with you what gear you can use to start leveling up your YouTube game with simply just shooting on your cell phone.

00:01:44:06 - 00:02:07:27
Nick Clason
I also want to talk about how you can manage your time to fit in the process of filming YouTube videos and posting it. I'm also going to give you some next steps directly out of this video so that you can start doing some side benefits for you. And then finally, how to actually edit your video so that it looks good and professional and fits the vibe that's going on YouTube.

00:02:08:03 - 00:02:33:28
Nick Clason
Welcome to the Hybrid ministry show. So if you're anything like me and you work at church, you look around your youth room and you compare it to the auditorium or the main church room that the rest of the or the rest of your, you know, big church is using where your pastors preaching on Sunday morning and you probably look and think, man, I don't have the gear to capture my services and post them on YouTube.

00:02:34:00 - 00:03:05:24
Nick Clason
And the answer to that is probably unequivocally 100% accurate. You probably don't. Right. But I actually have linked right here on screen my 100% completely free e-book, which is called 40 done for you posting tools, which really, honestly maybe needs a new title because what it ultimately is, is my complete philosophy as well as strategy guide for leveling up your YouTube and your social media game.

00:03:05:24 - 00:03:32:00
Nick Clason
It's all about creating custom content for YouTube. And so one of the elements in that e-book, if you click it and if you download it, is a link to a blog that I have created called YouTube Gear on a Budget. And simply what it is is it will help you level up your YouTube gear if you choose to shoot video on your phone that is of course the most expensive piece is that camera piece.

00:03:32:03 - 00:04:04:25
Nick Clason
But you can level up your game for less than $100 by adding in some external microphones. I have linked on in the e-book. Bluetooth wireless microphones, a shotgun style microphone for Android. The same thing's for for iPhones as well. Also, just like a phone based tripod, you can get a tabletop one that's a little shorter or you can get a full, full length standing tripod as well as a basic ring light that so, you know, your videos look decent with lighting.

00:04:05:01 - 00:04:27:25
Nick Clason
You can also take care of most of that by just filming in a space that has some good lighting. And then if you do want to go the next layer beyond just $100 or less, if you want to stop shooting on your phone and you want to start shooting on a good camera, the one that I recommend that was recommended to me by Sean Cannell via his YouTube channel, check out and Think Media.

00:04:27:27 - 00:04:50:29
Nick Clason
If you haven't had a chance. He is a YouTube guru, but the Sony ZVE-10. Itโ€™s a Great camera. We bought it along with the lens for about $700 in our student ministry space one time purchase. But now we're using it and we're using it for everything. We're using it for long form videos as well as vertically shot and vertically based videos.

00:04:51:04 - 00:05:15:19
Nick Clason
But one of the pieces, one of the challenges for most youth pastors is that we're running from fire to fire to fire to fire and meeting to meeting to me and to meeting this kid, kid who needs counseling, counseling, counseling, counseling, all the different things, all the different demands of our space and our time. We're linked right here at the top of this video is my 100% completely free, foolproof strategy for good time management.

00:05:15:19 - 00:05:38:26
Nick Clason
And here's the honest truth that frankly, like there are always going to be issues, are always going to be struggles, are always going to be fires and things that pop up on your calendar. But if you manage your time and just a little sneak peek like you are 100% completely in charge of your time and your time management.

00:05:38:26 - 00:06:02:17
Nick Clason
And so if you don't make a priority and a space in your calendar to sit down and pre film your messages, just like we're talking about here, like you are not going to be able to to start posting content to YouTube, you have to make it a priority just like you make sitting down and crafting a Wednesday night program a priority.

00:06:02:23 - 00:06:25:04
Nick Clason
You also have to make sitting down and pre filming your messages a priority. So you're probably going to have to get several weeks in advance on this, both on your teaching scope and curriculum, which link down below. I have link to my five favorite teaching curriculum, so go check that out. And in a video that we've dropped not too long ago, you can check that out if you're interested in something like that.

00:06:25:06 - 00:06:58:24
Nick Clason
But your plan, your curriculum, and then you'll write out your teaching and then you'll sit down and you'll deliver the message direct to camera, all because you told your time what was going to happen to it. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't counsel students and mute their senior pastor and plan for your Wednesday night, but if pre filming your message is if getting the message of Jesus and the message of hope out on the Internet, on YouTube is important to you, then you need to determine when you're going to place that that thing on your calendar to do it.

00:06:58:26 - 00:07:21:11
Nick Clason
Now, just like this YouTube video, all YouTube videos have a description section. And so when you are preaching or teaching or delivering some piece of content direct to camera on screen, you can always say down below in the description are links. And so for every single video that I post on my student Ministry's YouTube channel, we post two links.

00:07:21:11 - 00:07:45:00
Nick Clason
The first link is a next steps digital type connect card. And I think about if you live in the room and you want to challenge students to take the next step of getting baptized, or if you're alive in the room and they prayed to receive Christ or they just need some sort of prayer, you might point them to a physical connect card in the seatback in front of them, or at the middle of like a table or something like that.

00:07:45:00 - 00:08:07:07
Nick Clason
If you're sitting around tables in your space on the same way, you can offer a digital version. And I mean, let's be honest, if they fill out a physical connect card, probably you are taking that caption that information digitally somehow, whether that be in your church management system, in software, or if it's just by tracking that information via something more basic like Excel.

00:08:07:08 - 00:08:31:29
Nick Clason
Nonetheless, you take it from a physical moment to digital. And so if you can offer a digital based connect card, then you know that you are going to be getting that information and you're going to be cutting out that middleman portion. The other thing that I offer in our digital are link in our description in most of our YouTube videos is what we call our digital Notes platform.

00:08:31:29 - 00:08:53:20
Nick Clason
And our digital notes is simply using the free, by the way, free YouVersion live events. And so if you've ever used that before, it's a thing that you can create. And on the back end on you version of the Bible app, you create a live service. And so I set our digital notes to go quote unquote live.

00:08:53:20 - 00:09:24:27
Nick Clason
So it's discovered in the live kind of panel of your you you version Bible app. It's when you discover when your church is live. And so I set that for when we're teaching our message live same day same time. However it does at the end give you a small URL. And so then the play, the digital notes plan, the live event can be clicked on and accessed at any time, regardless of if it is quote unquote live in the version Bible app.

00:09:24:29 - 00:09:45:16
Nick Clason
And so you can put text, you can put images, you can put Bible passages, and then they, the followers along, they can create private notes based off of all of those things. They can save them so that they can kind of archive them and come back later. But one of my favorite pieces to the digital notes is that you can create an external link.

00:09:45:16 - 00:10:09:01
Nick Clason
And so again, if a student is following along, live in the room or on YouTube at the end, they can they can have a live link to go out to Digital Connect card. They can have a live link to go out to camp signups. They can have a live link to go out to whatever you want it to be, whatever sort of call to action, whatever sort of next step your message may be pointing students toward.

00:10:09:03 - 00:10:38:21
Nick Clason
The other thing is, of course, it is on you version. And so you can also link Bible reading plans directly in there as well. And so think about it. What if you had a whole message on the importance of reading the Bible and getting in God's Word? And then what if you actually had a Bible reading plan that they could start reading that night or the next morning that they could start enjoying and begin reading to help them follow through on what you were talking about?

00:10:38:23 - 00:11:04:15
Nick Clason
So obviously, in addition, right, like in addition to posting videos to YouTube to reach more students for 95% of teenagers have or will plan to spend some of their time or at least use the app in some way, shape or form. There are, I think, five additional like benefits to sitting down and pre filming your talks direct to camera benefit number one is more practice.

00:11:04:15 - 00:11:22:23
Nick Clason
It gives you an opportunity to engage with your content more frequently than just getting up and teaching it live on a Wednesday night or Sunday morning or whenever that might be. And so by the time you do actually get around on Wednesday night or Sunday morning to deliver your content, direct camera, you've already delivered it at least once.

00:11:22:23 - 00:11:56:02
Nick Clason
And if you need more takes, maybe two or three, and so you're much more familiar with the content and the concepts that you were teaching. Benefit number two is, of course, you're going to be forced to get ahead. You're going to be forced to to be working ahead in your delivery of of this content and preparation. So my workflow goes, I sit down and I write it all out and not linked in my $100 or less leveling up guide.

00:11:56:05 - 00:12:17:19
Nick Clason
But one that is recommended potentially you may have to get a beefier tripod is using a using a teleprompter holder. And so you can get a teleprompter and you can use an iPad with the free teleprompter app. But so I sit down, I prep my message and I script it out and I may script it word for word.

00:12:17:22 - 00:12:48:25
Nick Clason
2000 or 2500 words is usually a good length for YouTube. It helps me hopefully shoot in under the 15 minute mark. That's always my goal on time. Write it all out and then deliver it Direct camera. That's where I include things like subscribe and cards linked up at the top and end screens like I write and spell every single thing out word for word, so that then the teleprompter will just kind of do its thing and flow right in front of me and I just read it directly there.

00:12:48:28 - 00:13:17:08
Nick Clason
It does take a little bit of work to get used to it. It is a skill that's not exactly natural. You can do it. But, you know, I'm just letting you know, get get used to it. Then also I have I then take the the manuscript, the full YouTube manuscript, and I use Google Drive. And so I create a new copy of that an in a different folder, and I rename it live talk notes.

00:13:17:12 - 00:13:50:08
Nick Clason
And so then I go back through that and I add highlights and I add all of those types of things, like, you know, yellow is, is like on screen or slide. Green is like any scripture or whatever, any video clips because like I may not actually like show a video clip on when I'm filming it to YouTube. If I do, it might just be some B-roll over top of the background as opposed to like showing a full on like video clip, like stop, pause the room, watch screen, come back type of thing, video clips and interactive elements.

00:13:50:08 - 00:14:09:00
Nick Clason
I add all those things, but I do it in a completely different document. I adapt it from the manuscript to more of like an outline type style. And then as I'm doing that, I'm also building slides and putting it into a thing like Sidekick, where I can use integrated tools like the wheel and name Picker and the live voting elements and all those types of things.

00:14:09:00 - 00:14:34:10
Nick Clason
More info link down below on Sidekick Sidekick.tv And so my workflow is my head. I write it, I deliver it, direct camera, and then I also readapt it to be taught in the room in between. When I shoot it and readapt it is when we're editing it or posting it, we're adding thumbnails or adding time codes, all the YouTube type things that need to take place.

00:14:34:10 - 00:15:05:04
Nick Clason
So that is live. Usually the Monday before what we we posted on Monday and then deliver it live in the room on Wednesday. And then our students discuss it again on the following Sunday morning. So that whole week on social, our focus is, you know, Monday it drops, Wednesdays are live teaching and then Sunday they discuss it and then woven all throughout there are you know several different like kind of teaching videos social media type clips.

00:15:05:06 - 00:15:32:29
Nick Clason
Benefit number three is it will help you create evergreen type content. Evergreen content is just a marketing word for content that is always relevant. In fact, last night I had a student from a former ministry and a former church that's going through a difficult and tough time. So hey, like I'm having a hard time. Like things are rough, you know, and some have had some some bad news and some kind of tragedy hit their family.

00:15:32:29 - 00:16:07:10
Nick Clason
And so we don't even have this live yet. Like we're getting these back right now from our editor. But we are about to launch into a series called When Bad Things Happen. I have a link actually down below if you're interested in that series that is available on ym360 curriculum site. But we taught it as a student ministry team and like I said, it's not live on YouTube yet, but I was sending her the links to our direct drop box like videos so or Google Drive videos so that she could watch it.

00:16:07:12 - 00:16:32:07
Nick Clason
And that's again like that's one of the benefits of filming your content is that when someone's going through a hard time who lives a thousand miles away, you can send them stuff like this that might be able to help them get through it and navigate through life. You see, this isn't just a vanity thing. Like you can help students, you can help care for students, shepherds, students, disciple students, teach students.

00:16:32:07 - 00:16:55:16
Nick Clason
When you film, you're content. That's what you want to do. Live in the room, right? The difference is church is often built like a organization that's trying to capture people through a cable TV style of of marketing as opposed to an OnDemand style of marketing. And when you preach from your messages, you can start to wade into that quote unquote, on demand type of messaging.

00:16:55:16 - 00:17:13:11
Nick Clason
So when someone's going through a hard time or when someone needs a guide to how to use the Bible or whatever it is that you have taught that you know is valuable, you can send them to your YouTube channel for a link to evergreen content, to content that matters. And so benefit number four, of course, is it's the antidote.

00:17:13:11 - 00:17:37:02
Nick Clason
It is the cure to travel sports. Not entirely like that. Kids still traveling to baseball, but if you film your messages while they're still going to be traveling to baseball, would you rather them travel to baseball, miss out on church altogether, or would you rather them travel to baseball and still have the opportunity to catch up on the series, to hear the message to learn the thing?

00:17:37:02 - 00:18:03:04
Nick Clason
Like I think we would all take option two. I mean, maybe we all like option three, which is like nuking travel baseball so that it never happens again. But since that's probably not going to be an option, we'll settle for option number two and options are an option. But side benefit number five of pre filming your messages is Sean Cannell the guru of YouTube, has a strategy called Ask specific questions.

00:18:03:04 - 00:18:32:06
Nick Clason
ASQ or actually not ask answer specific questions. So think about it, right? You can answer your students specific questions. For example, how do I respond when bad things happen? Boom, That's a teaching series. Answer that question posted to YouTube. The goal is not necessarily to go viral and be caught and seen by other students in other states and other student ministries, though that can be something that happens.

00:18:32:06 - 00:18:54:22
Nick Clason
But that's not the goal, right? The goal is to create content that is going to be helpful and beneficial to answer specific questions about God, about faith, about theology to the students that God has entrusted into you and into your care. Once you've shot the content, you now move into the hardest space of all of this process, probably, which is editing.

00:18:54:25 - 00:19:19:10
Nick Clason
And there are some three different ways that you can do it. Cap Cut, DaVinci Resolve. Those are linked down below in the description, but also linked right here on screen is the best editing tools in the best editing apps, how to edit, how to level up your editing and why editing on videos does actually matter. So go ahead.

00:19:19:10 - 00:19:35:04
Nick Clason
Take a look at that video. We love to catch you over there as we're continuing on our YouTube for Youth Ministry playlist. But don't forget and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> ๐Ÿ’ฅ [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Video Editing for Youth Pastors๐Ÿ’ฅ

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DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿ“นYouTube is the perfect platform for youth pastors and youth ministries.
Why?

  • 95% of youth group teenagers are on YouTube
  • YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, powered by Google
  • YouTube plays to the skillset of all youth pastors

In this video, let's help you start sitting down in front of the camera and filming messages and content for your youth group!
Follow along as we unpack the best practices guide of YouTube for Youth Pastors:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl
======================================
๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/092

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/3bq5CGstZmE

//GET STARTED FOR UNDER $100
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

//SONY ZVE-10
https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv

//SEAN CANNEL & THINK MEDIA
https://www.youtube.com/@seanTHiNKs

//FULL-PROOF TIME MANAGEMENT GUIDE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8&t=189s

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

//TELEPROMPTER
https://walmrt.us/4a6ZJU1

//TOP 5 YOUTH CURRICULUMS: RANKED!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQXsananwI

//WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN
[Link Placeholder]

//SIDEKICK
http://www.sidekick.tv

FREE VIDEO EDITING OPTIONS
//CAPCUT
https://www.capcut.com

//DAVINCI RESOLVE

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/event/davinciresolvedownload

๐Ÿ‘‰ STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
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Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz
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๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
๐Ÿ“… "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy"
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๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources"
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======================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

SONY ZVE-10
https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv

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

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

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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AUTO POD
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TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
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--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00 Why Youth Pastors should Pre-Film their Messages
02:10 Leveling Up Your YouTube Gear
06:54 Adding Shownotes to your YouTube Videos
10:31 Top 5 Benefits of Pre-Filming Your Messages to YouTube

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:31:03
Nick Clason
Youth Pastor, Let me guess, you have a desire for the students that you have been entrusted to in your care to come, to learn, know, love and follow Jesus. And let me guess, part of that strategy, part of that way that you hope students do that is to show up for them and to be there when they have difficult and tough questions to help them answer and make sense of life which is around them.

00:00:31:04 - 00:00:57:13
Nick Clason
Well, according to Pew Research, 95% of teenagers have used will use or plan to use the platform of YouTube. And so from the most conservative parents in your church who would never even imagine letting their kids enter the World Wide Web to all the way to the least restrictive parents who gave their kids a phone and let them have wild access to the Internet.

00:00:57:15 - 00:01:21:28
Nick Clason
YouTube is a great strategy and a great platform for students and student ministry. Like if in your youth ministry context, you're using YouTube, subscribe if you're not and hey, either way, hit the bell because we're in a playlist called YouTube for Youth Ministries. But how do we start posting content to YouTube? Like you might know these stats, You might know it's important.

00:01:21:28 - 00:01:44:06
Nick Clason
You might know students are on the you might know it's a really accessible platform, but how do you actually begin filming editing, recording and posting videos to YouTube? Well, this is the perfect video because in it I want to share with you what gear you can use to start leveling up your YouTube game with simply just shooting on your cell phone.

00:01:44:06 - 00:02:07:27
Nick Clason
I also want to talk about how you can manage your time to fit in the process of filming YouTube videos and posting it. I'm also going to give you some next steps directly out of this video so that you can start doing some side benefits for you. And then finally, how to actually edit your video so that it looks good and professional and fits the vibe that's going on YouTube.

00:02:08:03 - 00:02:33:28
Nick Clason
Welcome to the Hybrid ministry show. So if you're anything like me and you work at church, you look around your youth room and you compare it to the auditorium or the main church room that the rest of the or the rest of your, you know, big church is using where your pastors preaching on Sunday morning and you probably look and think, man, I don't have the gear to capture my services and post them on YouTube.

00:02:34:00 - 00:03:05:24
Nick Clason
And the answer to that is probably unequivocally 100% accurate. You probably don't. Right. But I actually have linked right here on screen my 100% completely free e-book, which is called 40 done for you posting tools, which really, honestly maybe needs a new title because what it ultimately is, is my complete philosophy as well as strategy guide for leveling up your YouTube and your social media game.

00:03:05:24 - 00:03:32:00
Nick Clason
It's all about creating custom content for YouTube. And so one of the elements in that e-book, if you click it and if you download it, is a link to a blog that I have created called YouTube Gear on a Budget. And simply what it is is it will help you level up your YouTube gear if you choose to shoot video on your phone that is of course the most expensive piece is that camera piece.

00:03:32:03 - 00:04:04:25
Nick Clason
But you can level up your game for less than $100 by adding in some external microphones. I have linked on in the e-book. Bluetooth wireless microphones, a shotgun style microphone for Android. The same thing's for for iPhones as well. Also, just like a phone based tripod, you can get a tabletop one that's a little shorter or you can get a full, full length standing tripod as well as a basic ring light that so, you know, your videos look decent with lighting.

00:04:05:01 - 00:04:27:25
Nick Clason
You can also take care of most of that by just filming in a space that has some good lighting. And then if you do want to go the next layer beyond just $100 or less, if you want to stop shooting on your phone and you want to start shooting on a good camera, the one that I recommend that was recommended to me by Sean Cannell via his YouTube channel, check out and Think Media.

00:04:27:27 - 00:04:50:29
Nick Clason
If you haven't had a chance. He is a YouTube guru, but the Sony ZVE-10. Itโ€™s a Great camera. We bought it along with the lens for about $700 in our student ministry space one time purchase. But now we're using it and we're using it for everything. We're using it for long form videos as well as vertically shot and vertically based videos.

00:04:51:04 - 00:05:15:19
Nick Clason
But one of the pieces, one of the challenges for most youth pastors is that we're running from fire to fire to fire to fire and meeting to meeting to me and to meeting this kid, kid who needs counseling, counseling, counseling, counseling, all the different things, all the different demands of our space and our time. We're linked right here at the top of this video is my 100% completely free, foolproof strategy for good time management.

00:05:15:19 - 00:05:38:26
Nick Clason
And here's the honest truth that frankly, like there are always going to be issues, are always going to be struggles, are always going to be fires and things that pop up on your calendar. But if you manage your time and just a little sneak peek like you are 100% completely in charge of your time and your time management.

00:05:38:26 - 00:06:02:17
Nick Clason
And so if you don't make a priority and a space in your calendar to sit down and pre film your messages, just like we're talking about here, like you are not going to be able to to start posting content to YouTube, you have to make it a priority just like you make sitting down and crafting a Wednesday night program a priority.

00:06:02:23 - 00:06:25:04
Nick Clason
You also have to make sitting down and pre filming your messages a priority. So you're probably going to have to get several weeks in advance on this, both on your teaching scope and curriculum, which link down below. I have link to my five favorite teaching curriculum, so go check that out. And in a video that we've dropped not too long ago, you can check that out if you're interested in something like that.

00:06:25:06 - 00:06:58:24
Nick Clason
But your plan, your curriculum, and then you'll write out your teaching and then you'll sit down and you'll deliver the message direct to camera, all because you told your time what was going to happen to it. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't counsel students and mute their senior pastor and plan for your Wednesday night, but if pre filming your message is if getting the message of Jesus and the message of hope out on the Internet, on YouTube is important to you, then you need to determine when you're going to place that that thing on your calendar to do it.

00:06:58:26 - 00:07:21:11
Nick Clason
Now, just like this YouTube video, all YouTube videos have a description section. And so when you are preaching or teaching or delivering some piece of content direct to camera on screen, you can always say down below in the description are links. And so for every single video that I post on my student Ministry's YouTube channel, we post two links.

00:07:21:11 - 00:07:45:00
Nick Clason
The first link is a next steps digital type connect card. And I think about if you live in the room and you want to challenge students to take the next step of getting baptized, or if you're alive in the room and they prayed to receive Christ or they just need some sort of prayer, you might point them to a physical connect card in the seatback in front of them, or at the middle of like a table or something like that.

00:07:45:00 - 00:08:07:07
Nick Clason
If you're sitting around tables in your space on the same way, you can offer a digital version. And I mean, let's be honest, if they fill out a physical connect card, probably you are taking that caption that information digitally somehow, whether that be in your church management system, in software, or if it's just by tracking that information via something more basic like Excel.

00:08:07:08 - 00:08:31:29
Nick Clason
Nonetheless, you take it from a physical moment to digital. And so if you can offer a digital based connect card, then you know that you are going to be getting that information and you're going to be cutting out that middleman portion. The other thing that I offer in our digital are link in our description in most of our YouTube videos is what we call our digital Notes platform.

00:08:31:29 - 00:08:53:20
Nick Clason
And our digital notes is simply using the free, by the way, free YouVersion live events. And so if you've ever used that before, it's a thing that you can create. And on the back end on you version of the Bible app, you create a live service. And so I set our digital notes to go quote unquote live.

00:08:53:20 - 00:09:24:27
Nick Clason
So it's discovered in the live kind of panel of your you you version Bible app. It's when you discover when your church is live. And so I set that for when we're teaching our message live same day same time. However it does at the end give you a small URL. And so then the play, the digital notes plan, the live event can be clicked on and accessed at any time, regardless of if it is quote unquote live in the version Bible app.

00:09:24:29 - 00:09:45:16
Nick Clason
And so you can put text, you can put images, you can put Bible passages, and then they, the followers along, they can create private notes based off of all of those things. They can save them so that they can kind of archive them and come back later. But one of my favorite pieces to the digital notes is that you can create an external link.

00:09:45:16 - 00:10:09:01
Nick Clason
And so again, if a student is following along, live in the room or on YouTube at the end, they can they can have a live link to go out to Digital Connect card. They can have a live link to go out to camp signups. They can have a live link to go out to whatever you want it to be, whatever sort of call to action, whatever sort of next step your message may be pointing students toward.

00:10:09:03 - 00:10:38:21
Nick Clason
The other thing is, of course, it is on you version. And so you can also link Bible reading plans directly in there as well. And so think about it. What if you had a whole message on the importance of reading the Bible and getting in God's Word? And then what if you actually had a Bible reading plan that they could start reading that night or the next morning that they could start enjoying and begin reading to help them follow through on what you were talking about?

00:10:38:23 - 00:11:04:15
Nick Clason
So obviously, in addition, right, like in addition to posting videos to YouTube to reach more students for 95% of teenagers have or will plan to spend some of their time or at least use the app in some way, shape or form. There are, I think, five additional like benefits to sitting down and pre filming your talks direct to camera benefit number one is more practice.

00:11:04:15 - 00:11:22:23
Nick Clason
It gives you an opportunity to engage with your content more frequently than just getting up and teaching it live on a Wednesday night or Sunday morning or whenever that might be. And so by the time you do actually get around on Wednesday night or Sunday morning to deliver your content, direct camera, you've already delivered it at least once.

00:11:22:23 - 00:11:56:02
Nick Clason
And if you need more takes, maybe two or three, and so you're much more familiar with the content and the concepts that you were teaching. Benefit number two is, of course, you're going to be forced to get ahead. You're going to be forced to to be working ahead in your delivery of of this content and preparation. So my workflow goes, I sit down and I write it all out and not linked in my $100 or less leveling up guide.

00:11:56:05 - 00:12:17:19
Nick Clason
But one that is recommended potentially you may have to get a beefier tripod is using a using a teleprompter holder. And so you can get a teleprompter and you can use an iPad with the free teleprompter app. But so I sit down, I prep my message and I script it out and I may script it word for word.

00:12:17:22 - 00:12:48:25
Nick Clason
2000 or 2500 words is usually a good length for YouTube. It helps me hopefully shoot in under the 15 minute mark. That's always my goal on time. Write it all out and then deliver it Direct camera. That's where I include things like subscribe and cards linked up at the top and end screens like I write and spell every single thing out word for word, so that then the teleprompter will just kind of do its thing and flow right in front of me and I just read it directly there.

00:12:48:28 - 00:13:17:08
Nick Clason
It does take a little bit of work to get used to it. It is a skill that's not exactly natural. You can do it. But, you know, I'm just letting you know, get get used to it. Then also I have I then take the the manuscript, the full YouTube manuscript, and I use Google Drive. And so I create a new copy of that an in a different folder, and I rename it live talk notes.

00:13:17:12 - 00:13:50:08
Nick Clason
And so then I go back through that and I add highlights and I add all of those types of things, like, you know, yellow is, is like on screen or slide. Green is like any scripture or whatever, any video clips because like I may not actually like show a video clip on when I'm filming it to YouTube. If I do, it might just be some B-roll over top of the background as opposed to like showing a full on like video clip, like stop, pause the room, watch screen, come back type of thing, video clips and interactive elements.

00:13:50:08 - 00:14:09:00
Nick Clason
I add all those things, but I do it in a completely different document. I adapt it from the manuscript to more of like an outline type style. And then as I'm doing that, I'm also building slides and putting it into a thing like Sidekick, where I can use integrated tools like the wheel and name Picker and the live voting elements and all those types of things.

00:14:09:00 - 00:14:34:10
Nick Clason
More info link down below on Sidekick Sidekick.tv And so my workflow is my head. I write it, I deliver it, direct camera, and then I also readapt it to be taught in the room in between. When I shoot it and readapt it is when we're editing it or posting it, we're adding thumbnails or adding time codes, all the YouTube type things that need to take place.

00:14:34:10 - 00:15:05:04
Nick Clason
So that is live. Usually the Monday before what we we posted on Monday and then deliver it live in the room on Wednesday. And then our students discuss it again on the following Sunday morning. So that whole week on social, our focus is, you know, Monday it drops, Wednesdays are live teaching and then Sunday they discuss it and then woven all throughout there are you know several different like kind of teaching videos social media type clips.

00:15:05:06 - 00:15:32:29
Nick Clason
Benefit number three is it will help you create evergreen type content. Evergreen content is just a marketing word for content that is always relevant. In fact, last night I had a student from a former ministry and a former church that's going through a difficult and tough time. So hey, like I'm having a hard time. Like things are rough, you know, and some have had some some bad news and some kind of tragedy hit their family.

00:15:32:29 - 00:16:07:10
Nick Clason
And so we don't even have this live yet. Like we're getting these back right now from our editor. But we are about to launch into a series called When Bad Things Happen. I have a link actually down below if you're interested in that series that is available on ym360 curriculum site. But we taught it as a student ministry team and like I said, it's not live on YouTube yet, but I was sending her the links to our direct drop box like videos so or Google Drive videos so that she could watch it.

00:16:07:12 - 00:16:32:07
Nick Clason
And that's again like that's one of the benefits of filming your content is that when someone's going through a hard time who lives a thousand miles away, you can send them stuff like this that might be able to help them get through it and navigate through life. You see, this isn't just a vanity thing. Like you can help students, you can help care for students, shepherds, students, disciple students, teach students.

00:16:32:07 - 00:16:55:16
Nick Clason
When you film, you're content. That's what you want to do. Live in the room, right? The difference is church is often built like a organization that's trying to capture people through a cable TV style of of marketing as opposed to an OnDemand style of marketing. And when you preach from your messages, you can start to wade into that quote unquote, on demand type of messaging.

00:16:55:16 - 00:17:13:11
Nick Clason
So when someone's going through a hard time or when someone needs a guide to how to use the Bible or whatever it is that you have taught that you know is valuable, you can send them to your YouTube channel for a link to evergreen content, to content that matters. And so benefit number four, of course, is it's the antidote.

00:17:13:11 - 00:17:37:02
Nick Clason
It is the cure to travel sports. Not entirely like that. Kids still traveling to baseball, but if you film your messages while they're still going to be traveling to baseball, would you rather them travel to baseball, miss out on church altogether, or would you rather them travel to baseball and still have the opportunity to catch up on the series, to hear the message to learn the thing?

00:17:37:02 - 00:18:03:04
Nick Clason
Like I think we would all take option two. I mean, maybe we all like option three, which is like nuking travel baseball so that it never happens again. But since that's probably not going to be an option, we'll settle for option number two and options are an option. But side benefit number five of pre filming your messages is Sean Cannell the guru of YouTube, has a strategy called Ask specific questions.

00:18:03:04 - 00:18:32:06
Nick Clason
ASQ or actually not ask answer specific questions. So think about it, right? You can answer your students specific questions. For example, how do I respond when bad things happen? Boom, That's a teaching series. Answer that question posted to YouTube. The goal is not necessarily to go viral and be caught and seen by other students in other states and other student ministries, though that can be something that happens.

00:18:32:06 - 00:18:54:22
Nick Clason
But that's not the goal, right? The goal is to create content that is going to be helpful and beneficial to answer specific questions about God, about faith, about theology to the students that God has entrusted into you and into your care. Once you've shot the content, you now move into the hardest space of all of this process, probably, which is editing.

00:18:54:25 - 00:19:19:10
Nick Clason
And there are some three different ways that you can do it. Cap Cut, DaVinci Resolve. Those are linked down below in the description, but also linked right here on screen is the best editing tools in the best editing apps, how to edit, how to level up your editing and why editing on videos does actually matter. So go ahead.

00:19:19:10 - 00:19:35:04
Nick Clason
Take a look at that video. We love to catch you over there as we're continuing on our YouTube for Youth Ministry playlist. But don't forget and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 081: ๐Ÿ˜ฒ Your Youth Sermons Donโ€™t Matter https://www.hybridministry.xyz/081 844670c9-eba3-41fb-9348-f0506a27b082 Thu, 25 Jan 2024 07:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 081 ๐Ÿ˜ฒ Your Youth Sermons Donโ€™t Matter full Nick Clason ๐Ÿ‘Ž Do your youth group sermons stink? ๐ŸคทThe ultimate goal we have for our students is to grow in their love for God and their love for others. However, does what you teach actually matter? ๐ŸคฏIn this vide we are going to share the surprising things that need to be in place, for your teaching to be effective! And GOOD NEWS: None of them have anything to do with your actual teaching! This is part 5 of the 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg 10:53 no โšก Youth Ministry [On-Demand] Masterclass โšก https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg [FREE] 2024 Social Media Strategy https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ====================================== DESCRIPTION ๐Ÿ‘Ž Do your youth group sermons stink? ๐ŸคทThe ultimate goal we have for our students is to grow in their love for God and their love for others. However, does what you teach actually matter? ๐ŸคฏIn this vide we are going to share the surprising things that need to be in place, for your teaching to be effective! And GOOD NEWS: None of them have anything to do with your actual teaching! This is part 5 of the 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg ====================================== ๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/081 //YOUTUBE VIDEO https://youtu.be/gqOPjD5hN-g //7 CHECKPOINTS https://www.christianbook.com/the-seven-checkpoints-for-student-leaders/andy-stanley/9781439189337/pd/189337?utmsource=google&amp;kw=161716281504&amp;mt=&amp;dv=c&amp;event=PPCSRC&amp;p=1186432&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKqsBhC3ARIsAEEjuJhcSbVsWbqnq8WgKR-HbmYbSVDHHSUTO1p-Np1urnuMYt6U5dstMaAjwvEALwwcB //ATTENDANCE CONUNDRUM https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utmsource=adaptivemailer&amp;utmmedium=email&amp;utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&amp;org=982&amp;lvl=100&amp;ite=9703&amp;lea=2048393&amp;ctr=0&amp;par=1&amp;trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae //HYBRID MINISTRY E-BOOK https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 ====================================== ๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“ ๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym ๐ŸŽ… "The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet PRACTICAL YM TIPS: https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips ๐Ÿฉ "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut ๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook ๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers" https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis ====================================== ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit AUTO POD https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00-01:26 Why Youth Group Sermons Don't Do We Want them to do!v 01:26-06:10 The Best Youth Sermon Curriculum Scope in Existence 06:10-10:04 2 Things Your Youth Group Needs for Better Sermons 10:04-10:53 The #1 Thing Our Students Needc โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa 00:00:00:03 - 00:00:27:08 Nick Clason Teaching in discipleship. Honestly, the core components of what we do in youth ministry. But what if you're teaching sucks? I mean, listen, like you probably think I'm here to sell you some sort of curriculum or something. That's not it, right? But what if what you're doing is not actually contributing to your students attending the way that you and, frankly, your boss want them to be attending? 00:00:27:09 - 00:00:47:11 Nick Clason I mean, let's be honest. The entire reason that that youth ministry exists is because we want to help teach students about Jesus. Jesus taught us the aim. What we should be teaching our students is to love God and to love others. And so the goal of all youth ministry is be to help students grow in that love of God and love of others. 00:00:47:14 - 00:01:14:28 Nick Clason So today I want to talk to you about, number one, a great scope and sequence for your teaching calendar for your students. However, the problem which we talked about in the video length right here is that 57% of regular church goers didn't go to church during the course of one month. And so we're going to talk in this video about the two key things that you actually need to address in your youth ministry and in your youth ministry space before you can even solve the attendance issues as it relates to teaching. 00:01:14:29 - 00:01:36:00 Nick Clason And finally, I have the number one thing that you and I need to disciple our students. I think it's an ultimate game changer. Welcome to the hybrid ministry show. Welcome, everyone to the Hybrid Ministries show. My name is Nicholas and coming at you during the flex week in between Christmas and New Year. At least that's when I'm recording. 00:01:36:03 - 00:01:57:20 Nick Clason I almost forgot my glasses. I don't have my watch on. I got my new Christmas mug that my five year old made for me at preschool. It's an amazing week, but we are still going strong in the 2024 Youth Ministry OnDemand Masterclass. You're going to want to make sure that you subscribe because we're going to lay out all of everything that I've ever learned in my 13 years of youth ministry experience. 00:01:57:20 - 00:02:14:15 Nick Clason My name is Nick Clason, youth pastor now living and working in the DFW Dallas, Texas area. But when we talk about scope and sequence, one of my favorite resources of all time, I mean, it's so dated. I mean, just look at the graphic here. If you're not watching on YouTube, you can see it. If not, you'll just have to go check out the show notes. 00:02:14:15 - 00:02:33:09 Nick Clason But it's called seven Check points for Students. It's written by Andy Stanley. And I think this is a really, like thorough and a really good swath of things that students need and should be learning as it pertains to what we teach them when they're in youth ministry. So some of those check point, some of those things are, number one, an authentic faith. 00:02:33:12 - 00:03:04:04 Nick Clason Number two, spiritual disciplines. Number three, more boundaries. Number four, meaningful friendships. Number five, why is choices Number six, ultimate authority? And then finally, number seven, putting others first. I mean, if you want to try to poke holes in that like you may, there may be some things that you're like that's missing here, that's missing there. But like, if were to say love God, love others, you can almost go back through that, similar to what Jesus did with the 635 different commandments and put all of them into a classification of love, God love others, right? 00:03:04:04 - 00:03:23:04 Nick Clason So like an authentic faith that we love God and spiritual disciplines, it's like love God and moral boundaries, a combination of the two. But I would probably put it in love. Others and meaningful friendships is also love others. But there's also a benefit to us in that as well, making wise choices about loving others and ultimate authority is probably about loving God and finally putting others first. 00:03:23:04 - 00:03:39:26 Nick Clason Let's love others, right? And so if you break it down to those different categories, like if you just have those seven things sort of on your mind of like, okay, these are the main kind of core things that we want our students to learn. What I would do is I would kind of sprinkle those throughout the year, kind of kind of space them out. 00:03:39:26 - 00:04:06:25 Nick Clason Right? And so I'll just give you a quick snapshot into what we're doing in our student ministry. You know, I'm not trying to say any sort of curriculum. I have a curriculum to sell you, but there are a ton of different resources out there. Why? I'm through 60 so series do you I am has series even have a new thing called co-leader if you haven't checked that out Collider does everything for you, not just your message content but also like your slides and your smog questions and your games and your content in your worship, like it does everything for you. 00:04:06:25 - 00:04:28:02 Nick Clason It is, and it's much cheaper than some of the other content companies out there, like, say, like an XP three or like an orange. But if you have the budget, you might want to try them out too, because they have a lot of really good resources. So back in September, what we talked about is we actually led the year off starting a few weeks early in August, kind of more like the back to school around August 20th is when our students go back to school in Texas. 00:04:28:05 - 00:04:48:15 Nick Clason And we did a three ways How to not ruin your school year. That was kind of like our focus and is basically like, if you don't connect with God, if you don't connect with us, if you're not in a small group, right, like those are some of the ways in which you can like ruin your school year. Then we moved on in October and we talked about Elephants In the Room is one of my favorite series that we did. 00:04:48:15 - 00:05:08:02 Nick Clason We talked about racism and cheating and bullying and some of the bigger kind of like hot topic things. Like everyone know the label. If we don't really address them very often, Then we did a series called Gratitude or Gratitude is your typical Thanksgiving series doing did a Christmas series. And that's one of the tricky things about that's what the tricky things about the scope and sequence is. 00:05:08:02 - 00:05:30:00 Nick Clason You only really get a few months and then you kind of into your like Thanksgiving and your Christmas kind of vibes. In January, we're doing a series called Kings, and it is exploring four different kings of Israel. We got David, we got Joe Joash, we got real boom and then we got Hezekiah. So everyone knows David, but the other three are a little bit less known and it's about how to make the most of the hand that you're dealt. 00:05:30:02 - 00:05:47:25 Nick Clason In February, we're going to look at like a biblical literacy type of thing and basically teaching students how to navigate the Bible, how to read it, why it's important, why the Bible should have, you know, ultimate authority in your life. In March, we're going to do a Easter type series, and then we're going to end the year with Faith's biggest questions. 00:05:47:25 - 00:06:07:04 Nick Clason And we're going to, again, kind of zero in and some more hotter topic type of things. And so that's how we laid out our scope in our sequence. If you look back at any Stanleys, like some of them tie in there, some of them don't, you know, But at the end of the day, like we're trying to give our students a good understanding of how to love God and how to love others. 00:06:07:04 - 00:06:28:21 Nick Clason But the problem is that we've all been trying to navigate what do we do when our students don't show up to hear what we have to teach them? So what do we do about this attendance conundrum? People are attending church less and less, especially post pandemic. And so I think there really like two things that we need to try and create in our student ministry. 00:06:28:21 - 00:06:48:15 Nick Clason And these things actually have nothing to do with teaching. But if we create these things, they will enhance our teaching. And the first one is this Students need a place to belong. It's no longer if you build it, they will come. I worked at a large church in Cincinnati. Eric Geiger, who is now the lead pastor at a manchester. 00:06:48:19 - 00:07:08:24 Nick Clason He was a youth pastor there, and they built the space that I inherited for Eric Geiger. I don't think he ever made it into that building during his tenure there, but there were people that that grew up in Eric's youth ministry, and they said that like that youth ministry was the talk of the town and everyone like to come in and play billiards. 00:07:08:24 - 00:07:30:21 Nick Clason And so I inherited so many billiards tables and you know, that that's like ultimately a curse because you can't actually move those things. And so that was sort of under the mindset that like if we build it, if we have this thing, they will come. But I think now it's shifting in a more and more digital sort of way, a more digital sort of mindset. 00:07:30:21 - 00:07:51:04 Nick Clason I think students and teenagers are more thinking like, if my friends are here, then I'll show up, has and listen, you should still do a good job, you should still focus, you should still plan, you should still prep. But I think far less of that has to do anything with what you produce, what you put out there, what your programing and more. 00:07:51:06 - 00:08:12:20 Nick Clason Are we creating a place for students to belong? I it doesn't really sound very spiritual and no amount of prep on your message is really going to help create some of that. Right? But that really is, I think, the crux of where we find ourselves. That's the first one. The second thing is that students need to have ownership and they will stick and they will stay attached to youth ministry, especially the older they get. 00:08:12:20 - 00:08:36:03 Nick Clason And once they start getting keys and driver's license and cars, if they feel a sense of ownership of what's going on in our youth ministry. And so for teaching right to be good, you need students to find a place to belong. And you also want to help them find an opportunity to attach and be accessibly owning some of what your student ministry has to offer. 00:08:36:03 - 00:08:57:15 Nick Clason So as far as your content goes, like you should, you should care about your scope and sequence, you should pray about it, you should think about it, you should pore over it. However, oftentimes that isn't what is keeping sticking and attracting students, right? As far as the content goes, you can preach more than just the one time a week that you live in the room with all of your students. 00:08:57:18 - 00:09:28:27 Nick Clason Right? And that's why I would say I'd actually make the argument that I think the Internet is better for content delivery. Obviously, community ownership, serving prayer, some of those those are not better on the Internet, but content delivery and teaching can be done on the Internet. And so if students and if people are attending 57% not coming to church during the course of the month, then I want to I want to ask you to consider would you think about the idea of going hybrid? 00:09:28:27 - 00:09:49:09 Nick Clason And when I say hybrid, I'm not just talking about only your online presence. I'm not just talking about only your in-person presence. I'm talking about a melding of the two. What can you produce? What can you put out there digitally? What kind of teaching content can you create? Can you do more podcasts? Can you do smaller bite sized social media, short type things? 00:09:49:11 - 00:10:14:04 Nick Clason I have a fully laid out strategy right here linked down below in my completely free e-book, and that will help you be able to focus on the belonging and the ownership pieces and still deliver content. Because we need students to have content, We need students to learn things. We need students to be disabled. But the only way in which are disabled does not have to be live and in the room. 00:10:14:07 - 00:10:34:04 Nick Clason So as I said at the beginning, what is the ultimate number one thing that we need from our students is this is we need to help create for them a meaningful attach statement to Jesus. And when you choose to go hybrid, you can offer all of this content, all the content that you want in the world, paired with a warm community. 00:10:34:04 - 00:10:59:01 Nick Clason And that really is the best of both worlds. Your environment matters, which is why I think the way in which we approach programing and games is such a crucial component of youth ministry, especially in the face of this mental health crisis that we're all facing with teenagers helping students be able to laugh. And that video is linked right here on the screen because we're making digital discipleship not only easy, but also accessible. 00:10:59:01 - 00:11:02:28 Nick Clason So as always, don't forget stay hybrid. Youth Pastor, Youth Ministry, Student Pastor, Student Ministry, Youth Ministry Podcast, Student Ministry Podcast, Hybrid Ministry, Digital Ministry, Digital Discipleship Tools, Teaching Teenagers, Discipleship for Teenagers, Andy Stanley 7 Checkpoints, Student Ministry Scope and Sequence, Teenagers Mental Health Crisis, Youth Ministry and Mental Health, โšก Youth Ministry [On-Demand] Masterclass โšก

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

[FREE] 2024 Social Media Strategy
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book
======================================
DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿ‘Ž Do your youth group sermons stink?

๐ŸคทThe ultimate goal we have for our students is to grow in their love for God and their love for others. However, does what you teach actually matter?

๐ŸคฏIn this vide we are going to share the surprising things that need to be in place, for your teaching to be effective! And GOOD NEWS: None of them have anything to do with your actual teaching! This is part 5 of the 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg
======================================
๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/081

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/gqOPjD5hN-g

//7 CHECKPOINTS
https://www.christianbook.com/the-seven-checkpoints-for-student-leaders/andy-stanley/9781439189337/pd/189337?utm_source=google&kw=161716281504&mt=&dv=c&event=PPCSRC&p=1186432&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKqsBhC3ARIsAEEjuJhcSbVs_Wbqnq8WgKR-HbmYbSVDHHSUTO1p-Np1urnuM_Yt6U5dstMaAjwvEALw_wcB

//ATTENDANCE CONUNDRUM
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&org=982&lvl=100&ite=9703&lea=2048393&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae

//HYBRID MINISTRY E-BOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
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๐ŸŽ… "The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet
PRACTICAL YM TIPS: https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips

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๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
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======================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
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//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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AUTO POD
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TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00-01:26 Why Youth Group Sermons Don't Do We Want them to do!v
01:26-06:10 The Best Youth Sermon Curriculum Scope in Existence
06:10-10:04 2 Things Your Youth Group Needs for Better Sermons
10:04-10:53 The #1 Thing Our Students Needc

โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:27:08
Nick Clason
Teaching in discipleship. Honestly, the core components of what we do in youth ministry. But what if you're teaching sucks? I mean, listen, like you probably think I'm here to sell you some sort of curriculum or something. That's not it, right? But what if what you're doing is not actually contributing to your students attending the way that you and, frankly, your boss want them to be attending?

00:00:27:09 - 00:00:47:11
Nick Clason
I mean, let's be honest. The entire reason that that youth ministry exists is because we want to help teach students about Jesus. Jesus taught us the aim. What we should be teaching our students is to love God and to love others. And so the goal of all youth ministry is be to help students grow in that love of God and love of others.

00:00:47:14 - 00:01:14:28
Nick Clason
So today I want to talk to you about, number one, a great scope and sequence for your teaching calendar for your students. However, the problem which we talked about in the video length right here is that 57% of regular church goers didn't go to church during the course of one month. And so we're going to talk in this video about the two key things that you actually need to address in your youth ministry and in your youth ministry space before you can even solve the attendance issues as it relates to teaching.

00:01:14:29 - 00:01:36:00
Nick Clason
And finally, I have the number one thing that you and I need to disciple our students. I think it's an ultimate game changer. Welcome to the hybrid ministry show. Welcome, everyone to the Hybrid Ministries show. My name is Nicholas and coming at you during the flex week in between Christmas and New Year. At least that's when I'm recording.

00:01:36:03 - 00:01:57:20
Nick Clason
I almost forgot my glasses. I don't have my watch on. I got my new Christmas mug that my five year old made for me at preschool. It's an amazing week, but we are still going strong in the 2024 Youth Ministry OnDemand Masterclass. You're going to want to make sure that you subscribe because we're going to lay out all of everything that I've ever learned in my 13 years of youth ministry experience.

00:01:57:20 - 00:02:14:15
Nick Clason
My name is Nick Clason, youth pastor now living and working in the DFW Dallas, Texas area. But when we talk about scope and sequence, one of my favorite resources of all time, I mean, it's so dated. I mean, just look at the graphic here. If you're not watching on YouTube, you can see it. If not, you'll just have to go check out the show notes.

00:02:14:15 - 00:02:33:09
Nick Clason
But it's called seven Check points for Students. It's written by Andy Stanley. And I think this is a really, like thorough and a really good swath of things that students need and should be learning as it pertains to what we teach them when they're in youth ministry. So some of those check point, some of those things are, number one, an authentic faith.

00:02:33:12 - 00:03:04:04
Nick Clason
Number two, spiritual disciplines. Number three, more boundaries. Number four, meaningful friendships. Number five, why is choices Number six, ultimate authority? And then finally, number seven, putting others first. I mean, if you want to try to poke holes in that like you may, there may be some things that you're like that's missing here, that's missing there. But like, if were to say love God, love others, you can almost go back through that, similar to what Jesus did with the 635 different commandments and put all of them into a classification of love, God love others, right?

00:03:04:04 - 00:03:23:04
Nick Clason
So like an authentic faith that we love God and spiritual disciplines, it's like love God and moral boundaries, a combination of the two. But I would probably put it in love. Others and meaningful friendships is also love others. But there's also a benefit to us in that as well, making wise choices about loving others and ultimate authority is probably about loving God and finally putting others first.

00:03:23:04 - 00:03:39:26
Nick Clason
Let's love others, right? And so if you break it down to those different categories, like if you just have those seven things sort of on your mind of like, okay, these are the main kind of core things that we want our students to learn. What I would do is I would kind of sprinkle those throughout the year, kind of kind of space them out.

00:03:39:26 - 00:04:06:25
Nick Clason
Right? And so I'll just give you a quick snapshot into what we're doing in our student ministry. You know, I'm not trying to say any sort of curriculum. I have a curriculum to sell you, but there are a ton of different resources out there. Why? I'm through 60 so series do you I am has series even have a new thing called co-leader if you haven't checked that out Collider does everything for you, not just your message content but also like your slides and your smog questions and your games and your content in your worship, like it does everything for you.

00:04:06:25 - 00:04:28:02
Nick Clason
It is, and it's much cheaper than some of the other content companies out there, like, say, like an XP three or like an orange. But if you have the budget, you might want to try them out too, because they have a lot of really good resources. So back in September, what we talked about is we actually led the year off starting a few weeks early in August, kind of more like the back to school around August 20th is when our students go back to school in Texas.

00:04:28:05 - 00:04:48:15
Nick Clason
And we did a three ways How to not ruin your school year. That was kind of like our focus and is basically like, if you don't connect with God, if you don't connect with us, if you're not in a small group, right, like those are some of the ways in which you can like ruin your school year. Then we moved on in October and we talked about Elephants In the Room is one of my favorite series that we did.

00:04:48:15 - 00:05:08:02
Nick Clason
We talked about racism and cheating and bullying and some of the bigger kind of like hot topic things. Like everyone know the label. If we don't really address them very often, Then we did a series called Gratitude or Gratitude is your typical Thanksgiving series doing did a Christmas series. And that's one of the tricky things about that's what the tricky things about the scope and sequence is.

00:05:08:02 - 00:05:30:00
Nick Clason
You only really get a few months and then you kind of into your like Thanksgiving and your Christmas kind of vibes. In January, we're doing a series called Kings, and it is exploring four different kings of Israel. We got David, we got Joe Joash, we got real boom and then we got Hezekiah. So everyone knows David, but the other three are a little bit less known and it's about how to make the most of the hand that you're dealt.

00:05:30:02 - 00:05:47:25
Nick Clason
In February, we're going to look at like a biblical literacy type of thing and basically teaching students how to navigate the Bible, how to read it, why it's important, why the Bible should have, you know, ultimate authority in your life. In March, we're going to do a Easter type series, and then we're going to end the year with Faith's biggest questions.

00:05:47:25 - 00:06:07:04
Nick Clason
And we're going to, again, kind of zero in and some more hotter topic type of things. And so that's how we laid out our scope in our sequence. If you look back at any Stanleys, like some of them tie in there, some of them don't, you know, But at the end of the day, like we're trying to give our students a good understanding of how to love God and how to love others.

00:06:07:04 - 00:06:28:21
Nick Clason
But the problem is that we've all been trying to navigate what do we do when our students don't show up to hear what we have to teach them? So what do we do about this attendance conundrum? People are attending church less and less, especially post pandemic. And so I think there really like two things that we need to try and create in our student ministry.

00:06:28:21 - 00:06:48:15
Nick Clason
And these things actually have nothing to do with teaching. But if we create these things, they will enhance our teaching. And the first one is this Students need a place to belong. It's no longer if you build it, they will come. I worked at a large church in Cincinnati. Eric Geiger, who is now the lead pastor at a manchester.

00:06:48:19 - 00:07:08:24
Nick Clason
He was a youth pastor there, and they built the space that I inherited for Eric Geiger. I don't think he ever made it into that building during his tenure there, but there were people that that grew up in Eric's youth ministry, and they said that like that youth ministry was the talk of the town and everyone like to come in and play billiards.

00:07:08:24 - 00:07:30:21
Nick Clason
And so I inherited so many billiards tables and you know, that that's like ultimately a curse because you can't actually move those things. And so that was sort of under the mindset that like if we build it, if we have this thing, they will come. But I think now it's shifting in a more and more digital sort of way, a more digital sort of mindset.

00:07:30:21 - 00:07:51:04
Nick Clason
I think students and teenagers are more thinking like, if my friends are here, then I'll show up, has and listen, you should still do a good job, you should still focus, you should still plan, you should still prep. But I think far less of that has to do anything with what you produce, what you put out there, what your programing and more.

00:07:51:06 - 00:08:12:20
Nick Clason
Are we creating a place for students to belong? I it doesn't really sound very spiritual and no amount of prep on your message is really going to help create some of that. Right? But that really is, I think, the crux of where we find ourselves. That's the first one. The second thing is that students need to have ownership and they will stick and they will stay attached to youth ministry, especially the older they get.

00:08:12:20 - 00:08:36:03
Nick Clason
And once they start getting keys and driver's license and cars, if they feel a sense of ownership of what's going on in our youth ministry. And so for teaching right to be good, you need students to find a place to belong. And you also want to help them find an opportunity to attach and be accessibly owning some of what your student ministry has to offer.

00:08:36:03 - 00:08:57:15
Nick Clason
So as far as your content goes, like you should, you should care about your scope and sequence, you should pray about it, you should think about it, you should pore over it. However, oftentimes that isn't what is keeping sticking and attracting students, right? As far as the content goes, you can preach more than just the one time a week that you live in the room with all of your students.

00:08:57:18 - 00:09:28:27
Nick Clason
Right? And that's why I would say I'd actually make the argument that I think the Internet is better for content delivery. Obviously, community ownership, serving prayer, some of those those are not better on the Internet, but content delivery and teaching can be done on the Internet. And so if students and if people are attending 57% not coming to church during the course of the month, then I want to I want to ask you to consider would you think about the idea of going hybrid?

00:09:28:27 - 00:09:49:09
Nick Clason
And when I say hybrid, I'm not just talking about only your online presence. I'm not just talking about only your in-person presence. I'm talking about a melding of the two. What can you produce? What can you put out there digitally? What kind of teaching content can you create? Can you do more podcasts? Can you do smaller bite sized social media, short type things?

00:09:49:11 - 00:10:14:04
Nick Clason
I have a fully laid out strategy right here linked down below in my completely free e-book, and that will help you be able to focus on the belonging and the ownership pieces and still deliver content. Because we need students to have content, We need students to learn things. We need students to be disabled. But the only way in which are disabled does not have to be live and in the room.

00:10:14:07 - 00:10:34:04
Nick Clason
So as I said at the beginning, what is the ultimate number one thing that we need from our students is this is we need to help create for them a meaningful attach statement to Jesus. And when you choose to go hybrid, you can offer all of this content, all the content that you want in the world, paired with a warm community.

00:10:34:04 - 00:10:59:01
Nick Clason
And that really is the best of both worlds. Your environment matters, which is why I think the way in which we approach programing and games is such a crucial component of youth ministry, especially in the face of this mental health crisis that we're all facing with teenagers helping students be able to laugh. And that video is linked right here on the screen because we're making digital discipleship not only easy, but also accessible.

00:10:59:01 - 00:11:02:28
Nick Clason
So as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> โšก Youth Ministry [On-Demand] Masterclass โšก

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

[FREE] 2024 Social Media Strategy
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book
======================================
DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿ‘Ž Do your youth group sermons stink?

๐ŸคทThe ultimate goal we have for our students is to grow in their love for God and their love for others. However, does what you teach actually matter?

๐ŸคฏIn this vide we are going to share the surprising things that need to be in place, for your teaching to be effective! And GOOD NEWS: None of them have anything to do with your actual teaching! This is part 5 of the 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg
======================================
๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/081

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/gqOPjD5hN-g

//7 CHECKPOINTS
https://www.christianbook.com/the-seven-checkpoints-for-student-leaders/andy-stanley/9781439189337/pd/189337?utm_source=google&kw=161716281504&mt=&dv=c&event=PPCSRC&p=1186432&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKqsBhC3ARIsAEEjuJhcSbVs_Wbqnq8WgKR-HbmYbSVDHHSUTO1p-Np1urnuM_Yt6U5dstMaAjwvEALw_wcB

//ATTENDANCE CONUNDRUM
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&org=982&lvl=100&ite=9703&lea=2048393&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae

//HYBRID MINISTRY E-BOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
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๐ŸŽ… "The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude"
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๐Ÿฉ "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
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๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
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๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
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๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

//BEST DYM RESOURCES
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OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
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TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
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--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00-01:26 Why Youth Group Sermons Don't Do We Want them to do!v
01:26-06:10 The Best Youth Sermon Curriculum Scope in Existence
06:10-10:04 2 Things Your Youth Group Needs for Better Sermons
10:04-10:53 The #1 Thing Our Students Needc

โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:27:08
Nick Clason
Teaching in discipleship. Honestly, the core components of what we do in youth ministry. But what if you're teaching sucks? I mean, listen, like you probably think I'm here to sell you some sort of curriculum or something. That's not it, right? But what if what you're doing is not actually contributing to your students attending the way that you and, frankly, your boss want them to be attending?

00:00:27:09 - 00:00:47:11
Nick Clason
I mean, let's be honest. The entire reason that that youth ministry exists is because we want to help teach students about Jesus. Jesus taught us the aim. What we should be teaching our students is to love God and to love others. And so the goal of all youth ministry is be to help students grow in that love of God and love of others.

00:00:47:14 - 00:01:14:28
Nick Clason
So today I want to talk to you about, number one, a great scope and sequence for your teaching calendar for your students. However, the problem which we talked about in the video length right here is that 57% of regular church goers didn't go to church during the course of one month. And so we're going to talk in this video about the two key things that you actually need to address in your youth ministry and in your youth ministry space before you can even solve the attendance issues as it relates to teaching.

00:01:14:29 - 00:01:36:00
Nick Clason
And finally, I have the number one thing that you and I need to disciple our students. I think it's an ultimate game changer. Welcome to the hybrid ministry show. Welcome, everyone to the Hybrid Ministries show. My name is Nicholas and coming at you during the flex week in between Christmas and New Year. At least that's when I'm recording.

00:01:36:03 - 00:01:57:20
Nick Clason
I almost forgot my glasses. I don't have my watch on. I got my new Christmas mug that my five year old made for me at preschool. It's an amazing week, but we are still going strong in the 2024 Youth Ministry OnDemand Masterclass. You're going to want to make sure that you subscribe because we're going to lay out all of everything that I've ever learned in my 13 years of youth ministry experience.

00:01:57:20 - 00:02:14:15
Nick Clason
My name is Nick Clason, youth pastor now living and working in the DFW Dallas, Texas area. But when we talk about scope and sequence, one of my favorite resources of all time, I mean, it's so dated. I mean, just look at the graphic here. If you're not watching on YouTube, you can see it. If not, you'll just have to go check out the show notes.

00:02:14:15 - 00:02:33:09
Nick Clason
But it's called seven Check points for Students. It's written by Andy Stanley. And I think this is a really, like thorough and a really good swath of things that students need and should be learning as it pertains to what we teach them when they're in youth ministry. So some of those check point, some of those things are, number one, an authentic faith.

00:02:33:12 - 00:03:04:04
Nick Clason
Number two, spiritual disciplines. Number three, more boundaries. Number four, meaningful friendships. Number five, why is choices Number six, ultimate authority? And then finally, number seven, putting others first. I mean, if you want to try to poke holes in that like you may, there may be some things that you're like that's missing here, that's missing there. But like, if were to say love God, love others, you can almost go back through that, similar to what Jesus did with the 635 different commandments and put all of them into a classification of love, God love others, right?

00:03:04:04 - 00:03:23:04
Nick Clason
So like an authentic faith that we love God and spiritual disciplines, it's like love God and moral boundaries, a combination of the two. But I would probably put it in love. Others and meaningful friendships is also love others. But there's also a benefit to us in that as well, making wise choices about loving others and ultimate authority is probably about loving God and finally putting others first.

00:03:23:04 - 00:03:39:26
Nick Clason
Let's love others, right? And so if you break it down to those different categories, like if you just have those seven things sort of on your mind of like, okay, these are the main kind of core things that we want our students to learn. What I would do is I would kind of sprinkle those throughout the year, kind of kind of space them out.

00:03:39:26 - 00:04:06:25
Nick Clason
Right? And so I'll just give you a quick snapshot into what we're doing in our student ministry. You know, I'm not trying to say any sort of curriculum. I have a curriculum to sell you, but there are a ton of different resources out there. Why? I'm through 60 so series do you I am has series even have a new thing called co-leader if you haven't checked that out Collider does everything for you, not just your message content but also like your slides and your smog questions and your games and your content in your worship, like it does everything for you.

00:04:06:25 - 00:04:28:02
Nick Clason
It is, and it's much cheaper than some of the other content companies out there, like, say, like an XP three or like an orange. But if you have the budget, you might want to try them out too, because they have a lot of really good resources. So back in September, what we talked about is we actually led the year off starting a few weeks early in August, kind of more like the back to school around August 20th is when our students go back to school in Texas.

00:04:28:05 - 00:04:48:15
Nick Clason
And we did a three ways How to not ruin your school year. That was kind of like our focus and is basically like, if you don't connect with God, if you don't connect with us, if you're not in a small group, right, like those are some of the ways in which you can like ruin your school year. Then we moved on in October and we talked about Elephants In the Room is one of my favorite series that we did.

00:04:48:15 - 00:05:08:02
Nick Clason
We talked about racism and cheating and bullying and some of the bigger kind of like hot topic things. Like everyone know the label. If we don't really address them very often, Then we did a series called Gratitude or Gratitude is your typical Thanksgiving series doing did a Christmas series. And that's one of the tricky things about that's what the tricky things about the scope and sequence is.

00:05:08:02 - 00:05:30:00
Nick Clason
You only really get a few months and then you kind of into your like Thanksgiving and your Christmas kind of vibes. In January, we're doing a series called Kings, and it is exploring four different kings of Israel. We got David, we got Joe Joash, we got real boom and then we got Hezekiah. So everyone knows David, but the other three are a little bit less known and it's about how to make the most of the hand that you're dealt.

00:05:30:02 - 00:05:47:25
Nick Clason
In February, we're going to look at like a biblical literacy type of thing and basically teaching students how to navigate the Bible, how to read it, why it's important, why the Bible should have, you know, ultimate authority in your life. In March, we're going to do a Easter type series, and then we're going to end the year with Faith's biggest questions.

00:05:47:25 - 00:06:07:04
Nick Clason
And we're going to, again, kind of zero in and some more hotter topic type of things. And so that's how we laid out our scope in our sequence. If you look back at any Stanleys, like some of them tie in there, some of them don't, you know, But at the end of the day, like we're trying to give our students a good understanding of how to love God and how to love others.

00:06:07:04 - 00:06:28:21
Nick Clason
But the problem is that we've all been trying to navigate what do we do when our students don't show up to hear what we have to teach them? So what do we do about this attendance conundrum? People are attending church less and less, especially post pandemic. And so I think there really like two things that we need to try and create in our student ministry.

00:06:28:21 - 00:06:48:15
Nick Clason
And these things actually have nothing to do with teaching. But if we create these things, they will enhance our teaching. And the first one is this Students need a place to belong. It's no longer if you build it, they will come. I worked at a large church in Cincinnati. Eric Geiger, who is now the lead pastor at a manchester.

00:06:48:19 - 00:07:08:24
Nick Clason
He was a youth pastor there, and they built the space that I inherited for Eric Geiger. I don't think he ever made it into that building during his tenure there, but there were people that that grew up in Eric's youth ministry, and they said that like that youth ministry was the talk of the town and everyone like to come in and play billiards.

00:07:08:24 - 00:07:30:21
Nick Clason
And so I inherited so many billiards tables and you know, that that's like ultimately a curse because you can't actually move those things. And so that was sort of under the mindset that like if we build it, if we have this thing, they will come. But I think now it's shifting in a more and more digital sort of way, a more digital sort of mindset.

00:07:30:21 - 00:07:51:04
Nick Clason
I think students and teenagers are more thinking like, if my friends are here, then I'll show up, has and listen, you should still do a good job, you should still focus, you should still plan, you should still prep. But I think far less of that has to do anything with what you produce, what you put out there, what your programing and more.

00:07:51:06 - 00:08:12:20
Nick Clason
Are we creating a place for students to belong? I it doesn't really sound very spiritual and no amount of prep on your message is really going to help create some of that. Right? But that really is, I think, the crux of where we find ourselves. That's the first one. The second thing is that students need to have ownership and they will stick and they will stay attached to youth ministry, especially the older they get.

00:08:12:20 - 00:08:36:03
Nick Clason
And once they start getting keys and driver's license and cars, if they feel a sense of ownership of what's going on in our youth ministry. And so for teaching right to be good, you need students to find a place to belong. And you also want to help them find an opportunity to attach and be accessibly owning some of what your student ministry has to offer.

00:08:36:03 - 00:08:57:15
Nick Clason
So as far as your content goes, like you should, you should care about your scope and sequence, you should pray about it, you should think about it, you should pore over it. However, oftentimes that isn't what is keeping sticking and attracting students, right? As far as the content goes, you can preach more than just the one time a week that you live in the room with all of your students.

00:08:57:18 - 00:09:28:27
Nick Clason
Right? And that's why I would say I'd actually make the argument that I think the Internet is better for content delivery. Obviously, community ownership, serving prayer, some of those those are not better on the Internet, but content delivery and teaching can be done on the Internet. And so if students and if people are attending 57% not coming to church during the course of the month, then I want to I want to ask you to consider would you think about the idea of going hybrid?

00:09:28:27 - 00:09:49:09
Nick Clason
And when I say hybrid, I'm not just talking about only your online presence. I'm not just talking about only your in-person presence. I'm talking about a melding of the two. What can you produce? What can you put out there digitally? What kind of teaching content can you create? Can you do more podcasts? Can you do smaller bite sized social media, short type things?

00:09:49:11 - 00:10:14:04
Nick Clason
I have a fully laid out strategy right here linked down below in my completely free e-book, and that will help you be able to focus on the belonging and the ownership pieces and still deliver content. Because we need students to have content, We need students to learn things. We need students to be disabled. But the only way in which are disabled does not have to be live and in the room.

00:10:14:07 - 00:10:34:04
Nick Clason
So as I said at the beginning, what is the ultimate number one thing that we need from our students is this is we need to help create for them a meaningful attach statement to Jesus. And when you choose to go hybrid, you can offer all of this content, all the content that you want in the world, paired with a warm community.

00:10:34:04 - 00:10:59:01
Nick Clason
And that really is the best of both worlds. Your environment matters, which is why I think the way in which we approach programing and games is such a crucial component of youth ministry, especially in the face of this mental health crisis that we're all facing with teenagers helping students be able to laugh. And that video is linked right here on the screen because we're making digital discipleship not only easy, but also accessible.

00:10:59:01 - 00:11:02:28
Nick Clason
So as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 079: ๐Ÿคท Youth Pastor: Event Coordinators? or Disciple-Makers? https://www.hybridministry.xyz/079 ac0ac724-dc9a-4652-8ce5-a51c3c872e8b Thu, 11 Jan 2024 07:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 079 ๐Ÿคท Youth Pastor: Event Coordinators? or Disciple-Makers? full Nick Clason ๐Ÿ“ˆ How do we get more people to show up to our events? How do we grow our group? How do we attract and retain teens? 57% of American Church Goers, according to Pew Research, donโ€™t even attend church once a month!! ๐Ÿ‘ŒIn this episode weโ€™re going to explore 3 key shifts in our thinking โš™๏ธAnd I have the ultimate tool to accessing and resourcing people/students in the digital age. 14:39 no โšก [FREE] Crush Social Media This New Year โšก ๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 2024 [FREE] Youth Ministry Masterclass on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg ======================================== DESCRIPTION ๐Ÿ“ˆ How do we get more people to show up to our events? How do we grow our group? How do we attract and retain teens? 57% of American Church Goers, according to Pew Research, donโ€™t even attend church once a month!! ๐Ÿ‘ŒIn this episode weโ€™re going to explore 3 key shifts in our thinking โš™๏ธAnd I have the ultimate tool to accessing and resourcing people/students in the digital age. Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg ======================================== ๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/079 //YOUTUBE VIDEO https://youtu.be/EzhYluEKZ_I SHIFT #1 FROM PRODUCTION TO ACCESS //PEW RESEARCH ARTICLES ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utmsource=adaptivemailer&amp;utmmedium=email&amp;utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&amp;org=982&amp;lvl=100&amp;ite=9703&amp;lea=2048393&amp;ctr=0&amp;par=1&amp;trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae //TERRY PARKMAN https://www.terryparkman.com/ //GEN ALPHA DATA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpeDaLS3oo //PRO CHURCH TOOLS https://prochurchtools.com/ //FULL DIGITAL STRATEGY https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book SHIFT #2 FROM PERFORMANCE TO ENGAGEMENT //EVERY YOUTH MINISTRY NEEDS A GOOD DIGITAL PRESENCE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM SHIFT #3 FROM QUANTITY TO COMMUNITY //THE QUESTIONS OF BELONGING https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpeDaLS3oo //WORLD'S GREATEST DONUT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ryhkIRyDb4 //MASTER YOUR TIME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8 ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 ======================================== ๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“ ๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ๐ŸŽ… "The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet PRACTICAL YM TIPS: https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips ๐Ÿฉ "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut ๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook ๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers" https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis ======================================== ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit AUTO POD https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa -------------- ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00-01:21 Event Coordinator? Or Disciple-Maker? 01:21-07:18 SHIFT #1 from PRODUCTION to ACCESS 07:18-09:20 SHIFT #2 from PERFORMANCE to ENGAGEMENT 09:20-16:14 SHIFT #3 from QUANTITY to COMMUNITY โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa Nick Clason (00:00): Youth pastors. How do we get more people to show up to our events? How do we grow the size of our youth groups? How do we attract and retain teenagers? See, all these questions are common questions. They're things that we're all facing at least at some level. And regardless of if you think that the attendance debate matters or not, we talked about it in our very last video linked up here in our playlist, in our youth ministry 2024 masterclass that we are going through completely free all here online on YouTube. Love to have you subscribe, check it out, and make sure you don't miss another one. We talked about the church attendance conundrum because 54% of American Christians are not attending church according to Pew Research at least one time per month. So in this episode, I want to talk to you about three key shifts that are going to help us reach the next generation as we explore this question. Nick Clason (00:50): Are we in the event making business or are we in the disciple making business? And I also have the ultimate tool that I believe can help you become more accessible in resourcing both your people and your students in this new found digital age. Like I said, we'd love to have you subscribe, like leave a comment, leave a rating, leave a review. All of those things help us get found and make sure that you can get the very next episode as soon as it drops episode 80 in our 2024 Youth Ministry masterclass. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, everyone, my name's Nick Clason. I'm a youth pastor in DFW Dallas Fort Worth. Been in youth ministry now being January of 2024. Mark's my 13th year in youth ministry and I've most recently went to a conference with the Gen Z guru himself. Terry Parkman. If you don't know Terry, he's amazing, but he talked about some of these shifts, so I just want to kind of elaborate on them and kick some of them around a little bit more. Nick Clason (01:46): But he talked about the difference that Generation Z and now subsequently generation Alpha, who if you didn't see in our last episode, we classified them being born somewhere between 2010 and 2018, probably more than 2012 rage, which is what Pew research kind of settles on as the origin date of generation alpha. Nonetheless, Terry Parkman specifically talking about Gen Z, talks about the shift in thinking from Gen Z who thinks more in a digital age, digital mindset versus all of US millennials and older Gen x boomers and so on and so forth, who are more raised in a industrial aged way of thinking and industrial age way frankly of living. And so what the first shift that is important that he talks about is we need to shift from an industrial minded way of production, which is an industrial value to one of access. The way that we talk about it is just simply build access points onto your ministry, so an industrial way of thinking and the production value production kind of mindset. Nick Clason (02:54): Think about seeker style churches back in the early nineties or early two thousands where you may open with a secular song, one that's familiar, one that's relatable. You may try to go for relevant lighting, you may really try to put the entire screws down on the production, the value of how important production is, and that a really well-produced thing will draw out consumers, it's almost like the mentality if we build it, they will come. It also comes down to simply how much can we produce the amount of production value that we can add? The more production value that we can add, the better, the greater, the higher the number, the more that we can produce, the more that we can attract. That's an industrial way of thinking. Meanwhile, a digital way of thinking, they don't necessarily Gen Z Gen and Alpha and the generations that are coming on behind, they don't necessarily want those things. Nick Clason (03:49): They're looking more for access. They're wondering, do I fit here? Can I gain access to this place and how can I let my gifts be utilized and flourish and shine here? Honestly, one of my number one pet peeves in churches is when we from a volunteer aspect say things like, we need you to do our job. That is not enticing in any way, shape, or form, and it's especially not enticing to the next generation. What I think they otherwise might more importantly, more interestingly want to hear is, Hey, we want you to shine here and how can we partner with you to make a difference in this world? It goes from US centric to them centric, and I get it. I'm hearing you scream on the other side, but that's not what a disciple of Jesus does. Correct. However, how are we ever going to be relevant and make any sort of inroads with the next generation? Nick Clason (04:46): If the way in which we posture ourselves is fundamentally and vehemently different than them, are we asking them to acquiesce to us as opposed to us finding ways that it's not that big of a deal to make a subtle shift? Because in the same way, we can still ask Gen Z and Gen Alpha to serve, we are just making it them centric instead of US centric. And again, you might be screaming that they shouldn't be them centric, but isn't it just as Unbiblical and Christlike for us to be US centric, organization centric, pastor centric in the land of access points. Our church right now, honestly, probably right now as I'm recording this on a random night in December, we have these things, these events, and they're amazing and they get talked about and they get promoted and they're all over social, and someone asked me how do I sign up for it and do you know what? Nick Clason (05:37): I said? I work there at the church, I don't actually have anything to do with it, and obviously I'm not there right now. I said, I have no idea. We have these events. There's sort of this lore about them, but how to actually access it. It's confusing, and I frankly haven't tried, so that's probably on me, but point of it is, is your church accessible? How easy to navigate is your website. I love what Brady Sheer and all of them at Pro Church Tools up in Canada say all the time and say, make your website, be a one stop shop. Don't for one thing, go sign up via the bulletin for the other thing. Send an email for the third thing, head to the website and for the fourth thing, find someone in the lobby. You never know what to do, where to go, and so only the most loyal and only the person with the most headstrong sort of stubbornness is going to ever actually find anything out. Nick Clason (06:29): Anybody else who comes upon any sort of roadblock or opposition, all of a sudden it's just really easy for them to crumble. And here's the fact, I don't believe I have all the answers, but one of the ways in which we are trying to create more access points in our ministry is through our digital strategy, which I have completely laid out in my 100% completely free ebook free for you. Grab the link, go download it. All I need is your name. All I need is your email and that's it. It's yours to use. It's my strategy that I've used to grow YouTube channel in a year from zero subscribers all the way up to almost 400 subscribers. It might be even past 400 by the time that this video actually drops, it's completely laid out. It's basically my social media masterclass and guess what I gave it and I'm giving it to you for free, and I would love to encourage you to just grab it, try it, implement it, and check it all out. Nick Clason (07:18): Shift number two is we need to shift from performance based and industrial way of thinking to more engagement based. So if you think about an industrial way of thinking where performance is king, think about the best, the prettiest, the nicest, the smelliest people on stage with a good swath of diversity and all those things, or just even in youth ministry, we've all sort of had the basis of like, let's just have some fun, and if the kids have fun, then they'll definitely want to come back. If we perform really well for them and we don't screw up, then they'll be like, man, that place was so good. I just want to come back. That's an industrial way of thinking, and here's the problem. If you are a youth pastor and you're my age or you're a millennial, that's the way that you think because that's the way and that's the age in which you were raised in. Nick Clason (08:03): To think that that's what is valued, but the next generation that's more in a digital age, they're not worried about performance. They want to know, am I able to engage with this? When it's all about performance, think about a conveyor belt and a factory. The way that that goes is if there's a certain part in the conveyor belt that's causing a backup, what do we do? We just stick another person in there. We don't care what that person does, who that person is, what that person can do for us or our organization. We just want to know, can that person keep the conveyor belt from stopping? Can that person keep the performance going? But a digital way of thinking, a digital shift when you go from performance to more engagement based thinking is you're wondering, Hey, how can we create good content that students want to engage with? Nick Clason (08:48): Which is why I link right down below or right up here on the screen, whichever one, I'm not sure if I've used my card yet or not in this video, but every youth ministry needs a good digital presence. It's my full YouTube strategy. It's my full social media strategy. It's the one that's tied to my ebook. It's the video explaining the ebook if you want to go check that out. Again, I don't have all the answers. It's just my way to sort of attempt to try and engage more with our students who are different, who are digital thinkers, who are Gen Z and coming quick behind them, generation alpha. The third shift is we need to switch from a value of quantity to a value of community, an industrial way of thinking. We are entirely built in most churches for quantity. Think about it. If you have a church with auditorium style seating, the goal of that room is to get the most amount of quantity of people in to listen to one captivating speaker, wax eloquent for a week, and listen, honestly, no shade thrown. Nick Clason (09:48): Most pastors, you're really good at your job, you're good at crafting sermons and you're good at delivering sermons, but the fact of the matter is, while you may be awesome at it, that's just not what's as highly valued in our world, especially in the world of digital. With audio, podcasts, YouTube podcast, people can listen to audio books, sermons. They can listen to the best preachers in the entire world. Again, no offense to you at the drop of a hat, instantly binging them, never actually running out of content. That's how accessible all of this stuff is, and so when people come to church, they don't want to just be another number kind of filtered into the auditorium to look at the back of someone's seat. That's why I believe link down below in the show notes. In this episode, we talked about why churches are dying. Nick Clason (10:32): I think churches are not adapting to the new issues and the new way of thinking that this next generation is so adamant about, and again, that generation, this next generation, this digital way of generation, they're not looking for a room to come and consume some more content. They're looking for community. And so if our rooms are built for quantity, thus they're not then built at least optimally for community. I mean, I know I worked at a church one time that we had Longwood ews and they were bolted to the ground. We couldn't do anything about those things, and even if they weren't bolted to the ground, they were heavy as sin. Man, I could not lift one of those things because once we finally did try to lift them, I was like, dang, who got these in here? It's like a five man job. The goal was get these things in here, never to be moved again. Nick Clason (11:22): This room is for one purpose and one purpose only, and the purpose that most younger people are looking for is not that. A dangerous way I believe of thinking is that we often value a Christian culture more than the Christ of the culture, and so therefore, I believe that what we're trying to do is we're trying to force people into a way of thinking, and when community trump's performance, we actually get a messy, authentic, real interaction with other believers who love Jesus and are trying to pursue and follow him. And so in a digital way of thinking, I think people who value community are looking for asking questions like, where do I belong? And are these people at my church? Are they my people? The students, they're asking those questions and they may, like we said in our last video and this masterclass in video two, this is not video three, they may be asking, are these people my people? Nick Clason (12:15): And they may be coming to your youth ministry, and just because they're there doesn't necessarily mean that they're engaging in religious practice. And it also doesn't necessarily mean that they're there because they want to be, because almost 50% of no, it's 65% of students come to church with at least one parent. That's where they're coming to church. They're not coming to church. They love God. They're not coming to church. They love you. They're not coming to church. They love your youth ministry. They're coming to church. They're coming to church with their parents, but if they can find a real captivating community that they can't say no to, they're not going anywhere. So it's not about what you produce, it's about the community that's available to them. We live now with the very first global generation. Students spend on average, shockingly five to eight hours on their phones screens per day. Nick Clason (13:06): The church world was built for consumers, and what's happening now is in that generation what's being internalized, they want to find a place to externalize it. And so one of the ideas that I have, again, I don't have all the answers, I don't know if this is a good idea or not. We did it in our space. It seemed to work well. It's a hybrid event. It's called the World's Greatest Donut, completely free event guide right here. You can click it, and it's just an opportunity to engage with students beyond your program times because I think a lot of times what we try to do is we try to get as many people, as much quantity into a room and call that success. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to expand the relationship beyond just the one time per week, and that's what this event is all built on. Nick Clason (13:46): It's a one-time event for an in-person event, however it lives on for an entire month. Not only live in the room, but it also lives live on your social media. That's the in-person versus the digital creating a hybrid moment together. Hey, the ultimate tool that I teased at the beginning of this video is, and I've already said it, it's my ebook. It's my full digital strategy. The fact is I don't have it all together, but the way in which you can utilize that is you have to become a master of your time, which is a video that's linked right here on the screen. It was a couple of videos ago, and the next video in this playlist is how to implement a good social media strategy where you're not simply just posting announcements. Click either one of those and we would love to see you on the other side. And as always, my friends stay hybrid. 2024 Church Attendance, Hybrid Ministry, Youth Ministry, Youth Group, Youth Group Attendance, Student Ministry, Student Ministry Attendance, Generation Alpha Attendance at Church, Church Attendance, How to Grow my Youth Group in 2024, Church Attendance Trends, Church Growth, Youth Ministry Growth, Student Ministry Growth, Church Ministry, Youth Pastor, Youth Pastor Coach โšก [FREE] Crush Social Media This New Year โšก

๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

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

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

DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿ“ˆ How do we get more people to show up to our events?
How do we grow our group?
How do we attract and retain teens?

57% of American Church Goers, according to Pew Research, donโ€™t even attend church once a month!!

๐Ÿ‘ŒIn this episode weโ€™re going to explore 3 key shifts in our thinking
โš™๏ธAnd I have the ultimate tool to accessing and resourcing people/students in the digital age.

Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

========================================
๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/079

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

SHIFT #1 FROM PRODUCTION TO ACCESS
//PEW RESEARCH ARTICLES ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&org=982&lvl=100&ite=9703&lea=2048393&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae

//TERRY PARKMAN
https://www.terryparkman.com/

//GEN ALPHA DATA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpeDaLS3oo

//PRO CHURCH TOOLS
https://prochurchtools.com/

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

SHIFT #2 FROM PERFORMANCE TO ENGAGEMENT

//EVERY YOUTH MINISTRY NEEDS A GOOD DIGITAL PRESENCE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM

SHIFT #3 FROM QUANTITY TO COMMUNITY

//THE QUESTIONS OF BELONGING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpeDaLS3oo

//WORLD'S GREATEST DONUT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ryhkIRyDb4

//MASTER YOUR TIME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐ŸŽ… "The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet
PRACTICAL YM TIPS: https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips

๐Ÿฉ "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook

๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

========================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00-01:21 Event Coordinator? Or Disciple-Maker?
01:21-07:18 SHIFT #1 from PRODUCTION to ACCESS
07:18-09:20 SHIFT #2 from PERFORMANCE to ENGAGEMENT
09:20-16:14 SHIFT #3 from QUANTITY to COMMUNITY

โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Youth pastors. How do we get more people to show up to our events? How do we grow the size of our youth groups? How do we attract and retain teenagers? See, all these questions are common questions. They're things that we're all facing at least at some level. And regardless of if you think that the attendance debate matters or not, we talked about it in our very last video linked up here in our playlist, in our youth ministry 2024 masterclass that we are going through completely free all here online on YouTube. Love to have you subscribe, check it out, and make sure you don't miss another one. We talked about the church attendance conundrum because 54% of American Christians are not attending church according to Pew Research at least one time per month. So in this episode, I want to talk to you about three key shifts that are going to help us reach the next generation as we explore this question.

Nick Clason (00:50):
Are we in the event making business or are we in the disciple making business? And I also have the ultimate tool that I believe can help you become more accessible in resourcing both your people and your students in this new found digital age. Like I said, we'd love to have you subscribe, like leave a comment, leave a rating, leave a review. All of those things help us get found and make sure that you can get the very next episode as soon as it drops episode 80 in our 2024 Youth Ministry masterclass. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, everyone, my name's Nick Clason. I'm a youth pastor in DFW Dallas Fort Worth. Been in youth ministry now being January of 2024. Mark's my 13th year in youth ministry and I've most recently went to a conference with the Gen Z guru himself. Terry Parkman. If you don't know Terry, he's amazing, but he talked about some of these shifts, so I just want to kind of elaborate on them and kick some of them around a little bit more.

Nick Clason (01:46):
But he talked about the difference that Generation Z and now subsequently generation Alpha, who if you didn't see in our last episode, we classified them being born somewhere between 2010 and 2018, probably more than 2012 rage, which is what Pew research kind of settles on as the origin date of generation alpha. Nonetheless, Terry Parkman specifically talking about Gen Z, talks about the shift in thinking from Gen Z who thinks more in a digital age, digital mindset versus all of US millennials and older Gen x boomers and so on and so forth, who are more raised in a industrial aged way of thinking and industrial age way frankly of living. And so what the first shift that is important that he talks about is we need to shift from an industrial minded way of production, which is an industrial value to one of access. The way that we talk about it is just simply build access points onto your ministry, so an industrial way of thinking and the production value production kind of mindset.

Nick Clason (02:54):
Think about seeker style churches back in the early nineties or early two thousands where you may open with a secular song, one that's familiar, one that's relatable. You may try to go for relevant lighting, you may really try to put the entire screws down on the production, the value of how important production is, and that a really well-produced thing will draw out consumers, it's almost like the mentality if we build it, they will come. It also comes down to simply how much can we produce the amount of production value that we can add? The more production value that we can add, the better, the greater, the higher the number, the more that we can produce, the more that we can attract. That's an industrial way of thinking. Meanwhile, a digital way of thinking, they don't necessarily Gen Z Gen and Alpha and the generations that are coming on behind, they don't necessarily want those things.

Nick Clason (03:49):
They're looking more for access. They're wondering, do I fit here? Can I gain access to this place and how can I let my gifts be utilized and flourish and shine here? Honestly, one of my number one pet peeves in churches is when we from a volunteer aspect say things like, we need you to do our job. That is not enticing in any way, shape, or form, and it's especially not enticing to the next generation. What I think they otherwise might more importantly, more interestingly want to hear is, Hey, we want you to shine here and how can we partner with you to make a difference in this world? It goes from US centric to them centric, and I get it. I'm hearing you scream on the other side, but that's not what a disciple of Jesus does. Correct. However, how are we ever going to be relevant and make any sort of inroads with the next generation?

Nick Clason (04:46):
If the way in which we posture ourselves is fundamentally and vehemently different than them, are we asking them to acquiesce to us as opposed to us finding ways that it's not that big of a deal to make a subtle shift? Because in the same way, we can still ask Gen Z and Gen Alpha to serve, we are just making it them centric instead of US centric. And again, you might be screaming that they shouldn't be them centric, but isn't it just as Unbiblical and Christlike for us to be US centric, organization centric, pastor centric in the land of access points. Our church right now, honestly, probably right now as I'm recording this on a random night in December, we have these things, these events, and they're amazing and they get talked about and they get promoted and they're all over social, and someone asked me how do I sign up for it and do you know what?

Nick Clason (05:37):
I said? I work there at the church, I don't actually have anything to do with it, and obviously I'm not there right now. I said, I have no idea. We have these events. There's sort of this lore about them, but how to actually access it. It's confusing, and I frankly haven't tried, so that's probably on me, but point of it is, is your church accessible? How easy to navigate is your website. I love what Brady Sheer and all of them at Pro Church Tools up in Canada say all the time and say, make your website, be a one stop shop. Don't for one thing, go sign up via the bulletin for the other thing. Send an email for the third thing, head to the website and for the fourth thing, find someone in the lobby. You never know what to do, where to go, and so only the most loyal and only the person with the most headstrong sort of stubbornness is going to ever actually find anything out.

Nick Clason (06:29):
Anybody else who comes upon any sort of roadblock or opposition, all of a sudden it's just really easy for them to crumble. And here's the fact, I don't believe I have all the answers, but one of the ways in which we are trying to create more access points in our ministry is through our digital strategy, which I have completely laid out in my 100% completely free ebook free for you. Grab the link, go download it. All I need is your name. All I need is your email and that's it. It's yours to use. It's my strategy that I've used to grow YouTube channel in a year from zero subscribers all the way up to almost 400 subscribers. It might be even past 400 by the time that this video actually drops, it's completely laid out. It's basically my social media masterclass and guess what I gave it and I'm giving it to you for free, and I would love to encourage you to just grab it, try it, implement it, and check it all out.

Nick Clason (07:18):
Shift number two is we need to shift from performance based and industrial way of thinking to more engagement based. So if you think about an industrial way of thinking where performance is king, think about the best, the prettiest, the nicest, the smelliest people on stage with a good swath of diversity and all those things, or just even in youth ministry, we've all sort of had the basis of like, let's just have some fun, and if the kids have fun, then they'll definitely want to come back. If we perform really well for them and we don't screw up, then they'll be like, man, that place was so good. I just want to come back. That's an industrial way of thinking, and here's the problem. If you are a youth pastor and you're my age or you're a millennial, that's the way that you think because that's the way and that's the age in which you were raised in.

Nick Clason (08:03):
To think that that's what is valued, but the next generation that's more in a digital age, they're not worried about performance. They want to know, am I able to engage with this? When it's all about performance, think about a conveyor belt and a factory. The way that that goes is if there's a certain part in the conveyor belt that's causing a backup, what do we do? We just stick another person in there. We don't care what that person does, who that person is, what that person can do for us or our organization. We just want to know, can that person keep the conveyor belt from stopping? Can that person keep the performance going? But a digital way of thinking, a digital shift when you go from performance to more engagement based thinking is you're wondering, Hey, how can we create good content that students want to engage with?

Nick Clason (08:48):
Which is why I link right down below or right up here on the screen, whichever one, I'm not sure if I've used my card yet or not in this video, but every youth ministry needs a good digital presence. It's my full YouTube strategy. It's my full social media strategy. It's the one that's tied to my ebook. It's the video explaining the ebook if you want to go check that out. Again, I don't have all the answers. It's just my way to sort of attempt to try and engage more with our students who are different, who are digital thinkers, who are Gen Z and coming quick behind them, generation alpha. The third shift is we need to switch from a value of quantity to a value of community, an industrial way of thinking. We are entirely built in most churches for quantity. Think about it. If you have a church with auditorium style seating, the goal of that room is to get the most amount of quantity of people in to listen to one captivating speaker, wax eloquent for a week, and listen, honestly, no shade thrown.

Nick Clason (09:48):
Most pastors, you're really good at your job, you're good at crafting sermons and you're good at delivering sermons, but the fact of the matter is, while you may be awesome at it, that's just not what's as highly valued in our world, especially in the world of digital. With audio, podcasts, YouTube podcast, people can listen to audio books, sermons. They can listen to the best preachers in the entire world. Again, no offense to you at the drop of a hat, instantly binging them, never actually running out of content. That's how accessible all of this stuff is, and so when people come to church, they don't want to just be another number kind of filtered into the auditorium to look at the back of someone's seat. That's why I believe link down below in the show notes. In this episode, we talked about why churches are dying.

Nick Clason (10:32):
I think churches are not adapting to the new issues and the new way of thinking that this next generation is so adamant about, and again, that generation, this next generation, this digital way of generation, they're not looking for a room to come and consume some more content. They're looking for community. And so if our rooms are built for quantity, thus they're not then built at least optimally for community. I mean, I know I worked at a church one time that we had Longwood ews and they were bolted to the ground. We couldn't do anything about those things, and even if they weren't bolted to the ground, they were heavy as sin. Man, I could not lift one of those things because once we finally did try to lift them, I was like, dang, who got these in here? It's like a five man job. The goal was get these things in here, never to be moved again.

Nick Clason (11:22):
This room is for one purpose and one purpose only, and the purpose that most younger people are looking for is not that. A dangerous way I believe of thinking is that we often value a Christian culture more than the Christ of the culture, and so therefore, I believe that what we're trying to do is we're trying to force people into a way of thinking, and when community trump's performance, we actually get a messy, authentic, real interaction with other believers who love Jesus and are trying to pursue and follow him. And so in a digital way of thinking, I think people who value community are looking for asking questions like, where do I belong? And are these people at my church? Are they my people? The students, they're asking those questions and they may, like we said in our last video and this masterclass in video two, this is not video three, they may be asking, are these people my people?

Nick Clason (12:15):
And they may be coming to your youth ministry, and just because they're there doesn't necessarily mean that they're engaging in religious practice. And it also doesn't necessarily mean that they're there because they want to be, because almost 50% of no, it's 65% of students come to church with at least one parent. That's where they're coming to church. They're not coming to church. They love God. They're not coming to church. They love you. They're not coming to church. They love your youth ministry. They're coming to church. They're coming to church with their parents, but if they can find a real captivating community that they can't say no to, they're not going anywhere. So it's not about what you produce, it's about the community that's available to them. We live now with the very first global generation. Students spend on average, shockingly five to eight hours on their phones screens per day.

Nick Clason (13:06):
The church world was built for consumers, and what's happening now is in that generation what's being internalized, they want to find a place to externalize it. And so one of the ideas that I have, again, I don't have all the answers, I don't know if this is a good idea or not. We did it in our space. It seemed to work well. It's a hybrid event. It's called the World's Greatest Donut, completely free event guide right here. You can click it, and it's just an opportunity to engage with students beyond your program times because I think a lot of times what we try to do is we try to get as many people, as much quantity into a room and call that success. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to expand the relationship beyond just the one time per week, and that's what this event is all built on.

Nick Clason (13:46):
It's a one-time event for an in-person event, however it lives on for an entire month. Not only live in the room, but it also lives live on your social media. That's the in-person versus the digital creating a hybrid moment together. Hey, the ultimate tool that I teased at the beginning of this video is, and I've already said it, it's my ebook. It's my full digital strategy. The fact is I don't have it all together, but the way in which you can utilize that is you have to become a master of your time, which is a video that's linked right here on the screen. It was a couple of videos ago, and the next video in this playlist is how to implement a good social media strategy where you're not simply just posting announcements. Click either one of those and we would love to see you on the other side. And as always, my friends stay hybrid.

]]> โšก [FREE] Crush Social Media This New Year โšก

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

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

DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿ“ˆ How do we get more people to show up to our events?
How do we grow our group?
How do we attract and retain teens?

57% of American Church Goers, according to Pew Research, donโ€™t even attend church once a month!!

๐Ÿ‘ŒIn this episode weโ€™re going to explore 3 key shifts in our thinking
โš™๏ธAnd I have the ultimate tool to accessing and resourcing people/students in the digital age.

Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

========================================
๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/079

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

SHIFT #1 FROM PRODUCTION TO ACCESS
//PEW RESEARCH ARTICLES ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&org=982&lvl=100&ite=9703&lea=2048393&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae

//TERRY PARKMAN
https://www.terryparkman.com/

//GEN ALPHA DATA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpeDaLS3oo

//PRO CHURCH TOOLS
https://prochurchtools.com/

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

SHIFT #2 FROM PERFORMANCE TO ENGAGEMENT

//EVERY YOUTH MINISTRY NEEDS A GOOD DIGITAL PRESENCE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxepdu4iiM

SHIFT #3 FROM QUANTITY TO COMMUNITY

//THE QUESTIONS OF BELONGING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpeDaLS3oo

//WORLD'S GREATEST DONUT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ryhkIRyDb4

//MASTER YOUR TIME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐ŸŽ… "The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet
PRACTICAL YM TIPS: https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips

๐Ÿฉ "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook

๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

========================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

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

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

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

--------------
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00-01:21 Event Coordinator? Or Disciple-Maker?
01:21-07:18 SHIFT #1 from PRODUCTION to ACCESS
07:18-09:20 SHIFT #2 from PERFORMANCE to ENGAGEMENT
09:20-16:14 SHIFT #3 from QUANTITY to COMMUNITY

โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Youth pastors. How do we get more people to show up to our events? How do we grow the size of our youth groups? How do we attract and retain teenagers? See, all these questions are common questions. They're things that we're all facing at least at some level. And regardless of if you think that the attendance debate matters or not, we talked about it in our very last video linked up here in our playlist, in our youth ministry 2024 masterclass that we are going through completely free all here online on YouTube. Love to have you subscribe, check it out, and make sure you don't miss another one. We talked about the church attendance conundrum because 54% of American Christians are not attending church according to Pew Research at least one time per month. So in this episode, I want to talk to you about three key shifts that are going to help us reach the next generation as we explore this question.

Nick Clason (00:50):
Are we in the event making business or are we in the disciple making business? And I also have the ultimate tool that I believe can help you become more accessible in resourcing both your people and your students in this new found digital age. Like I said, we'd love to have you subscribe, like leave a comment, leave a rating, leave a review. All of those things help us get found and make sure that you can get the very next episode as soon as it drops episode 80 in our 2024 Youth Ministry masterclass. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, everyone, my name's Nick Clason. I'm a youth pastor in DFW Dallas Fort Worth. Been in youth ministry now being January of 2024. Mark's my 13th year in youth ministry and I've most recently went to a conference with the Gen Z guru himself. Terry Parkman. If you don't know Terry, he's amazing, but he talked about some of these shifts, so I just want to kind of elaborate on them and kick some of them around a little bit more.

Nick Clason (01:46):
But he talked about the difference that Generation Z and now subsequently generation Alpha, who if you didn't see in our last episode, we classified them being born somewhere between 2010 and 2018, probably more than 2012 rage, which is what Pew research kind of settles on as the origin date of generation alpha. Nonetheless, Terry Parkman specifically talking about Gen Z, talks about the shift in thinking from Gen Z who thinks more in a digital age, digital mindset versus all of US millennials and older Gen x boomers and so on and so forth, who are more raised in a industrial aged way of thinking and industrial age way frankly of living. And so what the first shift that is important that he talks about is we need to shift from an industrial minded way of production, which is an industrial value to one of access. The way that we talk about it is just simply build access points onto your ministry, so an industrial way of thinking and the production value production kind of mindset.

Nick Clason (02:54):
Think about seeker style churches back in the early nineties or early two thousands where you may open with a secular song, one that's familiar, one that's relatable. You may try to go for relevant lighting, you may really try to put the entire screws down on the production, the value of how important production is, and that a really well-produced thing will draw out consumers, it's almost like the mentality if we build it, they will come. It also comes down to simply how much can we produce the amount of production value that we can add? The more production value that we can add, the better, the greater, the higher the number, the more that we can produce, the more that we can attract. That's an industrial way of thinking. Meanwhile, a digital way of thinking, they don't necessarily Gen Z Gen and Alpha and the generations that are coming on behind, they don't necessarily want those things.

Nick Clason (03:49):
They're looking more for access. They're wondering, do I fit here? Can I gain access to this place and how can I let my gifts be utilized and flourish and shine here? Honestly, one of my number one pet peeves in churches is when we from a volunteer aspect say things like, we need you to do our job. That is not enticing in any way, shape, or form, and it's especially not enticing to the next generation. What I think they otherwise might more importantly, more interestingly want to hear is, Hey, we want you to shine here and how can we partner with you to make a difference in this world? It goes from US centric to them centric, and I get it. I'm hearing you scream on the other side, but that's not what a disciple of Jesus does. Correct. However, how are we ever going to be relevant and make any sort of inroads with the next generation?

Nick Clason (04:46):
If the way in which we posture ourselves is fundamentally and vehemently different than them, are we asking them to acquiesce to us as opposed to us finding ways that it's not that big of a deal to make a subtle shift? Because in the same way, we can still ask Gen Z and Gen Alpha to serve, we are just making it them centric instead of US centric. And again, you might be screaming that they shouldn't be them centric, but isn't it just as Unbiblical and Christlike for us to be US centric, organization centric, pastor centric in the land of access points. Our church right now, honestly, probably right now as I'm recording this on a random night in December, we have these things, these events, and they're amazing and they get talked about and they get promoted and they're all over social, and someone asked me how do I sign up for it and do you know what?

Nick Clason (05:37):
I said? I work there at the church, I don't actually have anything to do with it, and obviously I'm not there right now. I said, I have no idea. We have these events. There's sort of this lore about them, but how to actually access it. It's confusing, and I frankly haven't tried, so that's probably on me, but point of it is, is your church accessible? How easy to navigate is your website. I love what Brady Sheer and all of them at Pro Church Tools up in Canada say all the time and say, make your website, be a one stop shop. Don't for one thing, go sign up via the bulletin for the other thing. Send an email for the third thing, head to the website and for the fourth thing, find someone in the lobby. You never know what to do, where to go, and so only the most loyal and only the person with the most headstrong sort of stubbornness is going to ever actually find anything out.

Nick Clason (06:29):
Anybody else who comes upon any sort of roadblock or opposition, all of a sudden it's just really easy for them to crumble. And here's the fact, I don't believe I have all the answers, but one of the ways in which we are trying to create more access points in our ministry is through our digital strategy, which I have completely laid out in my 100% completely free ebook free for you. Grab the link, go download it. All I need is your name. All I need is your email and that's it. It's yours to use. It's my strategy that I've used to grow YouTube channel in a year from zero subscribers all the way up to almost 400 subscribers. It might be even past 400 by the time that this video actually drops, it's completely laid out. It's basically my social media masterclass and guess what I gave it and I'm giving it to you for free, and I would love to encourage you to just grab it, try it, implement it, and check it all out.

Nick Clason (07:18):
Shift number two is we need to shift from performance based and industrial way of thinking to more engagement based. So if you think about an industrial way of thinking where performance is king, think about the best, the prettiest, the nicest, the smelliest people on stage with a good swath of diversity and all those things, or just even in youth ministry, we've all sort of had the basis of like, let's just have some fun, and if the kids have fun, then they'll definitely want to come back. If we perform really well for them and we don't screw up, then they'll be like, man, that place was so good. I just want to come back. That's an industrial way of thinking, and here's the problem. If you are a youth pastor and you're my age or you're a millennial, that's the way that you think because that's the way and that's the age in which you were raised in.

Nick Clason (08:03):
To think that that's what is valued, but the next generation that's more in a digital age, they're not worried about performance. They want to know, am I able to engage with this? When it's all about performance, think about a conveyor belt and a factory. The way that that goes is if there's a certain part in the conveyor belt that's causing a backup, what do we do? We just stick another person in there. We don't care what that person does, who that person is, what that person can do for us or our organization. We just want to know, can that person keep the conveyor belt from stopping? Can that person keep the performance going? But a digital way of thinking, a digital shift when you go from performance to more engagement based thinking is you're wondering, Hey, how can we create good content that students want to engage with?

Nick Clason (08:48):
Which is why I link right down below or right up here on the screen, whichever one, I'm not sure if I've used my card yet or not in this video, but every youth ministry needs a good digital presence. It's my full YouTube strategy. It's my full social media strategy. It's the one that's tied to my ebook. It's the video explaining the ebook if you want to go check that out. Again, I don't have all the answers. It's just my way to sort of attempt to try and engage more with our students who are different, who are digital thinkers, who are Gen Z and coming quick behind them, generation alpha. The third shift is we need to switch from a value of quantity to a value of community, an industrial way of thinking. We are entirely built in most churches for quantity. Think about it. If you have a church with auditorium style seating, the goal of that room is to get the most amount of quantity of people in to listen to one captivating speaker, wax eloquent for a week, and listen, honestly, no shade thrown.

Nick Clason (09:48):
Most pastors, you're really good at your job, you're good at crafting sermons and you're good at delivering sermons, but the fact of the matter is, while you may be awesome at it, that's just not what's as highly valued in our world, especially in the world of digital. With audio, podcasts, YouTube podcast, people can listen to audio books, sermons. They can listen to the best preachers in the entire world. Again, no offense to you at the drop of a hat, instantly binging them, never actually running out of content. That's how accessible all of this stuff is, and so when people come to church, they don't want to just be another number kind of filtered into the auditorium to look at the back of someone's seat. That's why I believe link down below in the show notes. In this episode, we talked about why churches are dying.

Nick Clason (10:32):
I think churches are not adapting to the new issues and the new way of thinking that this next generation is so adamant about, and again, that generation, this next generation, this digital way of generation, they're not looking for a room to come and consume some more content. They're looking for community. And so if our rooms are built for quantity, thus they're not then built at least optimally for community. I mean, I know I worked at a church one time that we had Longwood ews and they were bolted to the ground. We couldn't do anything about those things, and even if they weren't bolted to the ground, they were heavy as sin. Man, I could not lift one of those things because once we finally did try to lift them, I was like, dang, who got these in here? It's like a five man job. The goal was get these things in here, never to be moved again.

Nick Clason (11:22):
This room is for one purpose and one purpose only, and the purpose that most younger people are looking for is not that. A dangerous way I believe of thinking is that we often value a Christian culture more than the Christ of the culture, and so therefore, I believe that what we're trying to do is we're trying to force people into a way of thinking, and when community trump's performance, we actually get a messy, authentic, real interaction with other believers who love Jesus and are trying to pursue and follow him. And so in a digital way of thinking, I think people who value community are looking for asking questions like, where do I belong? And are these people at my church? Are they my people? The students, they're asking those questions and they may, like we said in our last video and this masterclass in video two, this is not video three, they may be asking, are these people my people?

Nick Clason (12:15):
And they may be coming to your youth ministry, and just because they're there doesn't necessarily mean that they're engaging in religious practice. And it also doesn't necessarily mean that they're there because they want to be, because almost 50% of no, it's 65% of students come to church with at least one parent. That's where they're coming to church. They're not coming to church. They love God. They're not coming to church. They love you. They're not coming to church. They love your youth ministry. They're coming to church. They're coming to church with their parents, but if they can find a real captivating community that they can't say no to, they're not going anywhere. So it's not about what you produce, it's about the community that's available to them. We live now with the very first global generation. Students spend on average, shockingly five to eight hours on their phones screens per day.

Nick Clason (13:06):
The church world was built for consumers, and what's happening now is in that generation what's being internalized, they want to find a place to externalize it. And so one of the ideas that I have, again, I don't have all the answers, I don't know if this is a good idea or not. We did it in our space. It seemed to work well. It's a hybrid event. It's called the World's Greatest Donut, completely free event guide right here. You can click it, and it's just an opportunity to engage with students beyond your program times because I think a lot of times what we try to do is we try to get as many people, as much quantity into a room and call that success. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to expand the relationship beyond just the one time per week, and that's what this event is all built on.

Nick Clason (13:46):
It's a one-time event for an in-person event, however it lives on for an entire month. Not only live in the room, but it also lives live on your social media. That's the in-person versus the digital creating a hybrid moment together. Hey, the ultimate tool that I teased at the beginning of this video is, and I've already said it, it's my ebook. It's my full digital strategy. The fact is I don't have it all together, but the way in which you can utilize that is you have to become a master of your time, which is a video that's linked right here on the screen. It was a couple of videos ago, and the next video in this playlist is how to implement a good social media strategy where you're not simply just posting announcements. Click either one of those and we would love to see you on the other side. And as always, my friends stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 078: ๐Ÿ“ˆ Youth Group Growth: Reaching Gen Z & Gen Alpha https://www.hybridministry.xyz/078 f04a3693-e236-4113-9f75-42c655a4d0c6 Thu, 04 Jan 2024 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 078 ๐Ÿ“ˆ Youth Group Growth: Reaching Gen Z & Gen Alpha full Nick Clason ๐Ÿ“ˆ Youth Ministry Growth and Attendance ๐Ÿ”ข Do number really matter? ๐Ÿ˜ค Itโ€™s an agonizing pursuit that all of us as youth pastors and leaders are constantly feel the tension. Data suggests that church attendance is going down. Which means we have our work cut out for us as youth pastors. How do we reach Generation Z or Generation Alpha students? Especially in light of this new reality? 16:22 no โšก [FREE] Social Media Mastery Awaits! Get Your Hands on Our Free One-Month Ebook โšก ๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book 2024 [FREE] Youth Ministry Masterclass on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg Try Sidekick Beta!! https://app.sidekick.tv/auth/create?code=NickClason ======================================== DESCRIPTION ๐Ÿ“ˆ Youth Ministry Growth and Attendance ๐Ÿ”ข Do number really matter? ๐Ÿ˜ค Itโ€™s an agonizing pursuit that all of us as youth pastors and leaders are constantly feel the tension. Whether we buy into the debate or not, pressure is real. Maybe pressure from your senior pastor Maybe pressure from other parents Maybe even pressure from yourself And furthermore, according to Pew Research, one in five church goeers in 2022 participated in virtual church once a month. However, 57% did not attend in person or watch online per month. Not just anyone in general.. But Americans who TYPICALLY attend services. How do we reach Generation Z or Generation Alpha students? Especially in light of this new reality? Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube ======================================== ๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“ ๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ๐ŸŽ… "The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet PRACTICAL YM TIPS: https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips ๐Ÿฉ "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut ๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook ๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers" https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis ======================================== ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit AUTO POD https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 ๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/078 //YOUTUBE VIDEO https://youtu.be/BHpeDaLS3oo //PEW RESEARCH ARTICLES ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utmsource=adaptivemailer&amp;utmmedium=email&amp;utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&amp;org=982&amp;lvl=100&amp;ite=9703&amp;lea=2048393&amp;ctr=0&amp;par=1&amp;trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae //DATA ON GEN ALPHA https://explodingtopics.com/blog/generation-alpha-guide //DR. ELMORE'S BOOK https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Unfiltered-Challenges-Anxious-Population-ebook/dp/B07YQ9XT8N/ref=sr12?hvadid=580669290679&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvlocphy=9027211&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvqmt=e&amp;hvrand=8887138684661202423&amp;hvtargid=kwd-831658052586&amp;hydadcr=24309_13537702&amp;keywords=gen+z+unfiltered&amp;qid=1701783263&amp;sr=8-2 //TEEN CHURCH ATTENDANCE PATTERNS https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2020/09/10/u-s-teens-take-after-their-parents-religiously-attend-services-together-and-enjoy-family-rituals/ //TEENS AND THEIR PARENTS https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/09/10/10-key-findings-about-the-religious-lives-of-u-s-teens-and-their-parents/ //4 CHAIR DISCIPLING https://www.amazon.com/Chair-Discipling-What-Jesus-Calls/dp/0802418813/ref=ascdf0802418813/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=266167140404&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=13879828523234723627&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9027211&amp;hvtargid=pla-557460291481&amp;psc=1&amp;mcid=c72abb3a6997315793653dc9cbd8d965&amp;gclid=CjwKCAiApuCrBhAuEiwA8VJ6Jry6x6cwpQRcpt1hnTOOVAIdS6r9rmBPSQleT8QwxqgYzqAeu6RyuBoCFo4QAvD_BwE //GOOD TIME MANAGEMENT FOR A HYBRID STRATEGY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8 ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00-02:05 Do numbers matter? 02:05-05:30 Who are Generation Z and Generation Alpha? 05:30-07:13 Attendance Finding 1: Teens share religion with parents 07:13-10:48 Attendance Finding 2: Teens go to service, but don't engage in religious practices 10:48-16:22 Attendance Finding 3: Teens attend church with one or both of their parents โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa Nick Clason (00:00): Youth ministry growth in attendance in the age old Questions do numbers really matter? Here's what I know. I was one time called by a church that said, Hey, just a couple weeks ago in our church of multiple thousands, we've had only eight students show up. So whether you buy into the debate or not, the pressure is always there. Maybe pressure from your senior pastor, maybe pressure from youth parents, maybe even internal pressure that you just put on yourself. And what's even crazier is according to Pew Research, one in five, churchgoers back in 2022, participated in a virtual church service at least one time, which is a good thing. I mean, heck, we're in the hybrid ministry podcast, you know what I'm saying? However, 57% did not attend church in person or watch online during the course of at least one month, which means greater than 50%, not just of anyone in general of churchgoers are not typically attending church services. Nick Clason (01:05): So how in the world with that as the framework for church attendance and the way that youth ministry attendance is going, how in the world do we even reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha students, especially in light of this brand new reality? We're going to be sharing in this episode three key findings about teens and their attendance trends. And furthermore, I'm going to share with you one way that I as a youth pastor am shifting my thinking and maybe you can also shift your thinking about reaching this next generation. And finally, I have a bonus tip that I think is going to actually be the number one game changer in this entire conversation. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. You're in youth ministry, or if you're just a church leader and you're at least overseeing at some level some capacity, generation Z generation alpha, it's important because we're talking about youth group attendance and it's important to understand who we're actually talking about. Nick Clason (02:01): So Generation Z and Generation Alpha are kind of the two generations in play in this conversation. In fact, I have a video linked at the top of the screen. Go ahead and check it out where we did a deep dive into Generation Alpha and started to explore them. And quite frankly, it's one of the only videos I know that's out there about Generation Alpha. The data is still really new and still really young because the fact of the matter is that according to exploding topics.com link in the description, if you're watching on YouTube, you might be able to see some of these things online. If you're not watching on YouTube, you should definitely check that out. But Gen Alpha is made up of people born between 2010 and 2025. Wait, what? 2025? Yeah, you heard that, right? They're not even born yet. Okay. And so the fact of the matter is that that data actually is in opposition to some other experts such as Tim Elmore, who by the way, I have a chart right here on screen. Nick Clason (02:53): Again, if you're not watching on YouTube, go grab it or link in the show notes. It's from his book, generation Z Unfiltered, the Nine Hidden Challenges of Facing the Most Anxious Population of All Time. This chart is absolute goal, but you'll notice that he draws the line for the end of generation Z at 2018. So we have exploding topics at 2010. We have Tim Elmore at 2018, all of that to be said, Elmore's book is a little bit dated, and so I think that more research and just time we've honed in a little bit and gotten a little bit closer. And so while this chart is gold, you should definitely look at it and inspect it and learn a little bit more. Elmore doesn't talk about Gen Alpha. They're not on his radar yet when he wrote the book. And so according to this chart, pew research draws the line for Gen Alpha at 2012. Nick Clason (03:40): But again, the reason why any of this matters, not to bog you down with dates and things like that is that if you're a youth pastor or if you're in church leadership, what you need to understand is that the conversation we're having is like, do we take Elmore's date or do we take Pew Research's Day or do we take exploding topics day? Whatever it is, the reason this matters is because this is a difference between is that kid in kid's ministry or is that kid in youth ministry? And if we're talking about youth group numbers and youth group attendance, we need to understand Gen Alpha, but we also need to understand Gen Z. The kicker on this is that Gen Z, really the youngest Gen Z that we have is going to be freshmen, sophomores in high school, and now after that they're waving on up, they're in college already and they are entering the workforce. Nick Clason (04:23): So if you are not a youth pastor, but just like a regular pastor listening, no longer is Gen Z, something that the youth pastor needs to try and understand and uncover this matters for you. This is important for you as a pastor. And so if you've gotten value so far out of this video, I would love to encourage you to like and subscribe and hit the notification bell because we're actually in the middle of a series right now, the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass, this is section number two in that class. The rest of them are going to be dropped in the playlist that's linked down below in the description. So if you have not seen every single video, go back and check out video number one. We talked about time management, but without any further ado here, let's dive into the three key findings about Generation Z, generation alpha and church attendance in youth ministry moving forward in 2024 and frankly beyond. Nick Clason (05:12): All right, so the three key findings that are really important to understand about Generation Z and Gen Alpha is a lot of this data pulled from Pew research articles pulled and included in the description, whether you're in a podcast catcher or on YouTube, if you are not watching on YouTube, you will notice that some charts and graphs and stuff like that are going to show up on screen here on YouTube. If you're not watching, you're just listening, you can go grab the link in the show notes at http://www.hybridministry.xyz, and this is episode 78, so slash 0 7 8. But the first key finding that I want to share with you is this is that most teens share the same religious affiliation as their parents, meaning this, your attendance as a youth pastor, youth ministry leader is highly derived from the adult attendance in your church. Nick Clason (06:00): You've probably heard this before, but that's why it's important that we don't have silos. It's just as important for you as a youth pastor to lean in to what is going on in the rest of your church. You can't neglect it, you can't forsake it, and you can't take on a posture of arrogance that what you're doing is better than the rest of the church. Even if you low key think that the fact of the matter is that your youth ministry attendance is highly, highly tied to your adult attendance. So if your church is growing, odds are your youth ministry is growing, and if your church is struggling, odds are your youth ministry might be struggling. The biggest dropoff that you'll notice in this graph here and in this research from Pew is that the biggest dropoff from parents who attend church to teenagers who attend church happens in mainline denominations where the highest proportion is in evangelical churches. Nick Clason (06:53): Key finding. Number two, teens are just as likely as their parents to say that they go to services, but when it comes to more personal forms of religious expression, teens actually appear to be less devout and less religious. I have a stat I want to share with you from my own context, my own anecdotal experience in our church, cross Creek Church located in Colleyville, Texas, we have four parts to a four-part discipleship pathway. So we have explore, which is people who are far from God looking for God or maybe seeking God connect. And so once they've made a decision, cross the line, faith, connect with Jesus, connect with this church, connect with community, grow, grow in your faith, get closer to God, learn to walk with God, learn to invest in a few, learn to multiply. And then finally, the fourth one is a multiplier. Nick Clason (07:38): Someone who is not only making disciples, but making disciples who makes disciples. So we're very christocentric, disciple making, Bible-based church, all that to be said, we explained all of that one day on a Sunday morning to our students and we asked them to self-identify where they would put themselves in the pathway, explore, connect, grow, multiply. We used kind of pulled from one of my favorite books, link in the show notes, Dan Bader's book four chair discipling. So we used four different chairs to illustrate the sections of the pathway. The explorer phase was illustrated by a camping chair because it's really mobile portable. You can get close to church, then you can pull it back away if that's a decision that you want to make. We talked about how the connect chair is actually like a recliner. People tend to get across that line of faith and then get very fat and happy. Nick Clason (08:23): The grow chair is one that's marked by suffering and sacrifice, and so we got the hard metal chair, the one that hurts your butt when you sit in it for a little bit too long. And then finally the multiply phase was illustrated by a couch because the goal of it is to bring people back onto that couch with you, go back down through the pipeline, go back down through the process. So we illustrated that and we asked students to self-identify. We had 40.76 of our students say that they were in the connect phase, the recliner phase, but the overwhelming majority said that they were in 45.2% said that they were in the grow phase. So nearly half of our students self-identified as being in the grow phase where only like 4% said they're in the explore phase, and 9.5 said they were actually all the way in the multiply phase. Nick Clason (09:07): Now we have identifiers in our church metrics that we say if you've done these three or four things, then you are in this phase and you've moved on to the next phase. So we can pull that data on our students as well, but this is just them classifying themselves. I now lead a group of four other guys on a Sunday morning in our grow phase, we have a book that we go through a curriculum, and we just got done with the first book. There's three totals. So we just got done with the first book. It's seven weeks. It's daily reading. I mean it's a high bar. Every single one of them. At the beginning of this time, they said, I read the Bible, I pray I do all this stuff. Now that we've actually been in it, now that the rubber has met the road. Nick Clason (09:49): At the end of this, all of their summarization of it was like, man, this was a lot more than I'm used to. And one of the kids said back to this, teens are just as, they may go to service, but they may not practice religious expression. Part of the problem is they've gone to church so much, and so they know what the right answers are and they know what they should be doing. And so even when you ask them, how do you grow in your faith? What are you doing to grow in your faith? They would answer with the right answers. Well, I pray, read the Bible, but they all admitted at the end of it, you always said that, but we weren't really actually doing it, at least not at this level. So that just bears it out in that key finding. Key finding. Nick Clason (10:29): Number three, most teens report attending religious services with either both at 40% or one 25% of their parents. Again, meaning your attendance is again highly derived from your adult attendance. Again, in my own context, our own experience or Wednesday night, we would mostly say that that's classified under the explore classification. So let's bring outsiders and we probably, we average somewhere south of 45 to 40% of our Sunday morning attendance, which is our second step in our pathway, our connect phase. So I would not say that we have more students in connect than in the explore phase. What I would actually say is that Sunday morning is more convenient and that's when parents, and that's when students are also naturally making Sunday morning or just any church attendance a priority. And so that's the reason why I believe that our attendance is a little bit out of balance between Wednesday night and Sunday morning, and that's not a problem to be solved. Nick Clason (11:29): It's more attention to lean into and be managed, but it really just underscores this point that most teens attend church with either a parent or a single parent, meaning once again, like I said, your students are attending church either with both parents at 40% or one parent at 25%. Again, as much as we think that our programming is so relevant, captivating, so much better than the rest of the church, the reality is our success as youth pastors is often tied to the overall success of the church. However, I do think that there is something that matters and that there is something that we need to focus our mindset to shift a little bit on. So let's dive into that into the next section. All right, so the shift that I believe all of us should consider if 57% of born again claim Christians, self-proclaimed Christians are not attending church online or in person at least one time per month, I think that you and I should consider finding a way to go hybrid. Nick Clason (12:26): And I know you said, Hey, hey, hey, that last stat that said they weren't going online or in person. When I say hybrid, I don't just mean streaming your services. That can be an element of it, but I really believe that's a small portion of a good digital strategy. And again, I hear you. You're like, dude, I don't have time for it, and I get it. It is a lot of work and it's going to require a little bit of time management, thankfully, linked down below, I have this playlist where the last video I talked about good time management, but a good digital hybrid integrated strategy is more than just putting a camera in the back of the room and letting someone watch what's going on in the room. You're not interested in that, frankly, and neither am I. We want something that's made for the internet, something like this, something that's more relational, something that's more direct to camera, maybe something that's a little bit more interactive, but find a way to make it more hybrid. Nick Clason (13:18): Find a way to make it more integrated. I also hear you on the other side, but churches of family church should be about one-on-one relationships, and I agree with that. Full fledge, a hundred percent church about relationships. The best, most dynamic experiences I ever have is when I'm rubbing shoulders or sitting knee to knee with somebody. However, I'll also make the argument that churches are in the content creation and content production business. Think about it. What do you spend the majority of your time on? Programming, message prep, planning, worship services, small group, all things that are content based, and especially pastors, senior pastors, no offense to you, but Sunday morning services are some of the least relational moments in the entire week in the lifecycle of a church. Here's my deal. I'm a youth pastor, so I get in early, I get set up. Sometimes I'm a little bit late because of my setup into church. Nick Clason (14:12): I walk in, I sit down, I sing some songs, I sit down, I stare at the back of someone's head, I listen to a sermon for 30 something minutes. I get up early because I have stuff to do as a youth pastor, to get ready for the student ministry that meets during the last two services of our three service Sunday morning set. I'm not talking to a single human being in that entire service, but what I could do is I could consume all of that digitally. I could listen to it, my headphones on a run. I could listen to that honestly, while I'm across the way in the student building, getting things ready, having the Facebook live stream on in my ears while I'm getting things set up. I'm not saying that I should do that. I'm not saying that that's a recommended strategy, but I am saying the content consumption side, so much of what we're producing content-wise, can be done digitally. Nick Clason (14:57): So as youth pastors, as we're trying to reach Gen Z, as we're trying to reach Gen Alpha, a completely different generation, I wonder if it's worth considering a shift from focusing only on to finding a way to be a little bit more hybrid, which is why I've created this 100% completely free ebook right here on the screen, linked down below in the description. Also, you're going to see that as I bring about this bonus question. This is really the crux of this entire kind of argument. The question is this, are we as youth pastors, are we as youth ministry leaders? Are we in the event business or are we in the disciple making business? And you know what the fact of the matter is, we're actually going to dive even deeper into that question on the screen linked right here. So go ahead and take a look at that. If you're interested in exploring more about my hybrid strategy, that ebook, as well as that episode is linked right here on the screen as well. Hey, check you on the other side. Continue to enjoy this free masterclass, and as always, stay hybrid. 2024 Church Attendance, Hybrid Ministry, Youth Ministry, Youth Group, Youth Group Attendance, Student Ministry, Student Ministry Attendance, Generation Alpha Attendance at Church, Generation Z Attendance at Church, Church Attendance, How to Grow my Youth Group, Church Attendance Trends, Church Attendance Patterns, Church Growth, Youth Ministry Growth, Student Ministry Growth, Church Ministry, Youth Pastor, Youth Pastor Coach โšก [FREE] Social Media Mastery Awaits! Get Your Hands on Our Free One-Month Ebook โšก

๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

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

Try Sidekick Beta!!
https://app.sidekick.tv/auth/create?code=NickClason

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

DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿ“ˆ Youth Ministry Growth and Attendance

๐Ÿ”ข Do number really matter?

๐Ÿ˜ค Itโ€™s an agonizing pursuit that all of us as youth pastors and leaders are constantly feel the tension.

Whether we buy into the debate or not, pressure is real.

Maybe pressure from your senior pastor
Maybe pressure from other parents
Maybe even pressure from yourself

And furthermore, according to Pew Research, one in five church goeers in 2022 participated in virtual church once a month.
However, 57% did not attend in person or watch online per month.
Not just anyone in general.. But Americans who TYPICALLY attend services.

How do we reach Generation Z or Generation Alpha students?
Especially in light of this new reality?

Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐ŸŽ… "The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet
PRACTICAL YM TIPS: https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips

๐Ÿฉ "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook

๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

========================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

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

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

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

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/078

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/BHpeDaLS3oo

//PEW RESEARCH ARTICLES ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&org=982&lvl=100&ite=9703&lea=2048393&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae

//DATA ON GEN ALPHA
https://explodingtopics.com/blog/generation-alpha-guide

//DR. ELMORE'S BOOK
https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Unfiltered-Challenges-Anxious-Population-ebook/dp/B07YQ9XT8N/ref=sr_1_2?hvadid=580669290679&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9027211&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8887138684661202423&hvtargid=kwd-831658052586&hydadcr=24309_13537702&keywords=gen+z+unfiltered&qid=1701783263&sr=8-2

//TEEN CHURCH ATTENDANCE PATTERNS
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2020/09/10/u-s-teens-take-after-their-parents-religiously-attend-services-together-and-enjoy-family-rituals/

//TEENS AND THEIR PARENTS
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/09/10/10-key-findings-about-the-religious-lives-of-u-s-teens-and-their-parents/

//4 CHAIR DISCIPLING
https://www.amazon.com/Chair-Discipling-What-Jesus-Calls/dp/0802418813/ref=asc_df_0802418813/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=266167140404&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13879828523234723627&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9027211&hvtargid=pla-557460291481&psc=1&mcid=c72abb3a6997315793653dc9cbd8d965&gclid=CjwKCAiApuCrBhAuEiwA8VJ6Jry6x6cwpQRcpt1hnTOOVAIdS6r9rmBPSQleT8QwxqgYzqAeu6RyuBoCFo4QAvD_BwE

//GOOD TIME MANAGEMENT FOR A HYBRID STRATEGY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8

๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00-02:05 Do numbers matter?
02:05-05:30 Who are Generation Z and Generation Alpha?
05:30-07:13 Attendance Finding 1: Teens share religion with parents
07:13-10:48 Attendance Finding 2: Teens go to service, but don't engage in religious practices
10:48-16:22 Attendance Finding 3: Teens attend church with one or both of their parents

โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Youth ministry growth in attendance in the age old Questions do numbers really matter? Here's what I know. I was one time called by a church that said, Hey, just a couple weeks ago in our church of multiple thousands, we've had only eight students show up. So whether you buy into the debate or not, the pressure is always there. Maybe pressure from your senior pastor, maybe pressure from youth parents, maybe even internal pressure that you just put on yourself. And what's even crazier is according to Pew Research, one in five, churchgoers back in 2022, participated in a virtual church service at least one time, which is a good thing. I mean, heck, we're in the hybrid ministry podcast, you know what I'm saying? However, 57% did not attend church in person or watch online during the course of at least one month, which means greater than 50%, not just of anyone in general of churchgoers are not typically attending church services.

Nick Clason (01:05):
So how in the world with that as the framework for church attendance and the way that youth ministry attendance is going, how in the world do we even reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha students, especially in light of this brand new reality? We're going to be sharing in this episode three key findings about teens and their attendance trends. And furthermore, I'm going to share with you one way that I as a youth pastor am shifting my thinking and maybe you can also shift your thinking about reaching this next generation. And finally, I have a bonus tip that I think is going to actually be the number one game changer in this entire conversation. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. You're in youth ministry, or if you're just a church leader and you're at least overseeing at some level some capacity, generation Z generation alpha, it's important because we're talking about youth group attendance and it's important to understand who we're actually talking about.

Nick Clason (02:01):
So Generation Z and Generation Alpha are kind of the two generations in play in this conversation. In fact, I have a video linked at the top of the screen. Go ahead and check it out where we did a deep dive into Generation Alpha and started to explore them. And quite frankly, it's one of the only videos I know that's out there about Generation Alpha. The data is still really new and still really young because the fact of the matter is that according to exploding topics.com link in the description, if you're watching on YouTube, you might be able to see some of these things online. If you're not watching on YouTube, you should definitely check that out. But Gen Alpha is made up of people born between 2010 and 2025. Wait, what? 2025? Yeah, you heard that, right? They're not even born yet. Okay. And so the fact of the matter is that that data actually is in opposition to some other experts such as Tim Elmore, who by the way, I have a chart right here on screen.

Nick Clason (02:53):
Again, if you're not watching on YouTube, go grab it or link in the show notes. It's from his book, generation Z Unfiltered, the Nine Hidden Challenges of Facing the Most Anxious Population of All Time. This chart is absolute goal, but you'll notice that he draws the line for the end of generation Z at 2018. So we have exploding topics at 2010. We have Tim Elmore at 2018, all of that to be said, Elmore's book is a little bit dated, and so I think that more research and just time we've honed in a little bit and gotten a little bit closer. And so while this chart is gold, you should definitely look at it and inspect it and learn a little bit more. Elmore doesn't talk about Gen Alpha. They're not on his radar yet when he wrote the book. And so according to this chart, pew research draws the line for Gen Alpha at 2012.

Nick Clason (03:40):
But again, the reason why any of this matters, not to bog you down with dates and things like that is that if you're a youth pastor or if you're in church leadership, what you need to understand is that the conversation we're having is like, do we take Elmore's date or do we take Pew Research's Day or do we take exploding topics day? Whatever it is, the reason this matters is because this is a difference between is that kid in kid's ministry or is that kid in youth ministry? And if we're talking about youth group numbers and youth group attendance, we need to understand Gen Alpha, but we also need to understand Gen Z. The kicker on this is that Gen Z, really the youngest Gen Z that we have is going to be freshmen, sophomores in high school, and now after that they're waving on up, they're in college already and they are entering the workforce.

Nick Clason (04:23):
So if you are not a youth pastor, but just like a regular pastor listening, no longer is Gen Z, something that the youth pastor needs to try and understand and uncover this matters for you. This is important for you as a pastor. And so if you've gotten value so far out of this video, I would love to encourage you to like and subscribe and hit the notification bell because we're actually in the middle of a series right now, the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass, this is section number two in that class. The rest of them are going to be dropped in the playlist that's linked down below in the description. So if you have not seen every single video, go back and check out video number one. We talked about time management, but without any further ado here, let's dive into the three key findings about Generation Z, generation alpha and church attendance in youth ministry moving forward in 2024 and frankly beyond.

Nick Clason (05:12):
All right, so the three key findings that are really important to understand about Generation Z and Gen Alpha is a lot of this data pulled from Pew research articles pulled and included in the description, whether you're in a podcast catcher or on YouTube, if you are not watching on YouTube, you will notice that some charts and graphs and stuff like that are going to show up on screen here on YouTube. If you're not watching, you're just listening, you can go grab the link in the show notes at http://www.hybridministry.xyz, and this is episode 78, so slash 0 7 8. But the first key finding that I want to share with you is this is that most teens share the same religious affiliation as their parents, meaning this, your attendance as a youth pastor, youth ministry leader is highly derived from the adult attendance in your church.

Nick Clason (06:00):
You've probably heard this before, but that's why it's important that we don't have silos. It's just as important for you as a youth pastor to lean in to what is going on in the rest of your church. You can't neglect it, you can't forsake it, and you can't take on a posture of arrogance that what you're doing is better than the rest of the church. Even if you low key think that the fact of the matter is that your youth ministry attendance is highly, highly tied to your adult attendance. So if your church is growing, odds are your youth ministry is growing, and if your church is struggling, odds are your youth ministry might be struggling. The biggest dropoff that you'll notice in this graph here and in this research from Pew is that the biggest dropoff from parents who attend church to teenagers who attend church happens in mainline denominations where the highest proportion is in evangelical churches.

Nick Clason (06:53):
Key finding. Number two, teens are just as likely as their parents to say that they go to services, but when it comes to more personal forms of religious expression, teens actually appear to be less devout and less religious. I have a stat I want to share with you from my own context, my own anecdotal experience in our church, cross Creek Church located in Colleyville, Texas, we have four parts to a four-part discipleship pathway. So we have explore, which is people who are far from God looking for God or maybe seeking God connect. And so once they've made a decision, cross the line, faith, connect with Jesus, connect with this church, connect with community, grow, grow in your faith, get closer to God, learn to walk with God, learn to invest in a few, learn to multiply. And then finally, the fourth one is a multiplier.

Nick Clason (07:38):
Someone who is not only making disciples, but making disciples who makes disciples. So we're very christocentric, disciple making, Bible-based church, all that to be said, we explained all of that one day on a Sunday morning to our students and we asked them to self-identify where they would put themselves in the pathway, explore, connect, grow, multiply. We used kind of pulled from one of my favorite books, link in the show notes, Dan Bader's book four chair discipling. So we used four different chairs to illustrate the sections of the pathway. The explorer phase was illustrated by a camping chair because it's really mobile portable. You can get close to church, then you can pull it back away if that's a decision that you want to make. We talked about how the connect chair is actually like a recliner. People tend to get across that line of faith and then get very fat and happy.

Nick Clason (08:23):
The grow chair is one that's marked by suffering and sacrifice, and so we got the hard metal chair, the one that hurts your butt when you sit in it for a little bit too long. And then finally the multiply phase was illustrated by a couch because the goal of it is to bring people back onto that couch with you, go back down through the pipeline, go back down through the process. So we illustrated that and we asked students to self-identify. We had 40.76 of our students say that they were in the connect phase, the recliner phase, but the overwhelming majority said that they were in 45.2% said that they were in the grow phase. So nearly half of our students self-identified as being in the grow phase where only like 4% said they're in the explore phase, and 9.5 said they were actually all the way in the multiply phase.

Nick Clason (09:07):
Now we have identifiers in our church metrics that we say if you've done these three or four things, then you are in this phase and you've moved on to the next phase. So we can pull that data on our students as well, but this is just them classifying themselves. I now lead a group of four other guys on a Sunday morning in our grow phase, we have a book that we go through a curriculum, and we just got done with the first book. There's three totals. So we just got done with the first book. It's seven weeks. It's daily reading. I mean it's a high bar. Every single one of them. At the beginning of this time, they said, I read the Bible, I pray I do all this stuff. Now that we've actually been in it, now that the rubber has met the road.

Nick Clason (09:49):
At the end of this, all of their summarization of it was like, man, this was a lot more than I'm used to. And one of the kids said back to this, teens are just as, they may go to service, but they may not practice religious expression. Part of the problem is they've gone to church so much, and so they know what the right answers are and they know what they should be doing. And so even when you ask them, how do you grow in your faith? What are you doing to grow in your faith? They would answer with the right answers. Well, I pray, read the Bible, but they all admitted at the end of it, you always said that, but we weren't really actually doing it, at least not at this level. So that just bears it out in that key finding. Key finding.

Nick Clason (10:29):
Number three, most teens report attending religious services with either both at 40% or one 25% of their parents. Again, meaning your attendance is again highly derived from your adult attendance. Again, in my own context, our own experience or Wednesday night, we would mostly say that that's classified under the explore classification. So let's bring outsiders and we probably, we average somewhere south of 45 to 40% of our Sunday morning attendance, which is our second step in our pathway, our connect phase. So I would not say that we have more students in connect than in the explore phase. What I would actually say is that Sunday morning is more convenient and that's when parents, and that's when students are also naturally making Sunday morning or just any church attendance a priority. And so that's the reason why I believe that our attendance is a little bit out of balance between Wednesday night and Sunday morning, and that's not a problem to be solved.

Nick Clason (11:29):
It's more attention to lean into and be managed, but it really just underscores this point that most teens attend church with either a parent or a single parent, meaning once again, like I said, your students are attending church either with both parents at 40% or one parent at 25%. Again, as much as we think that our programming is so relevant, captivating, so much better than the rest of the church, the reality is our success as youth pastors is often tied to the overall success of the church. However, I do think that there is something that matters and that there is something that we need to focus our mindset to shift a little bit on. So let's dive into that into the next section. All right, so the shift that I believe all of us should consider if 57% of born again claim Christians, self-proclaimed Christians are not attending church online or in person at least one time per month, I think that you and I should consider finding a way to go hybrid.

Nick Clason (12:26):
And I know you said, Hey, hey, hey, that last stat that said they weren't going online or in person. When I say hybrid, I don't just mean streaming your services. That can be an element of it, but I really believe that's a small portion of a good digital strategy. And again, I hear you. You're like, dude, I don't have time for it, and I get it. It is a lot of work and it's going to require a little bit of time management, thankfully, linked down below, I have this playlist where the last video I talked about good time management, but a good digital hybrid integrated strategy is more than just putting a camera in the back of the room and letting someone watch what's going on in the room. You're not interested in that, frankly, and neither am I. We want something that's made for the internet, something like this, something that's more relational, something that's more direct to camera, maybe something that's a little bit more interactive, but find a way to make it more hybrid.

Nick Clason (13:18):
Find a way to make it more integrated. I also hear you on the other side, but churches of family church should be about one-on-one relationships, and I agree with that. Full fledge, a hundred percent church about relationships. The best, most dynamic experiences I ever have is when I'm rubbing shoulders or sitting knee to knee with somebody. However, I'll also make the argument that churches are in the content creation and content production business. Think about it. What do you spend the majority of your time on? Programming, message prep, planning, worship services, small group, all things that are content based, and especially pastors, senior pastors, no offense to you, but Sunday morning services are some of the least relational moments in the entire week in the lifecycle of a church. Here's my deal. I'm a youth pastor, so I get in early, I get set up. Sometimes I'm a little bit late because of my setup into church.

Nick Clason (14:12):
I walk in, I sit down, I sing some songs, I sit down, I stare at the back of someone's head, I listen to a sermon for 30 something minutes. I get up early because I have stuff to do as a youth pastor, to get ready for the student ministry that meets during the last two services of our three service Sunday morning set. I'm not talking to a single human being in that entire service, but what I could do is I could consume all of that digitally. I could listen to it, my headphones on a run. I could listen to that honestly, while I'm across the way in the student building, getting things ready, having the Facebook live stream on in my ears while I'm getting things set up. I'm not saying that I should do that. I'm not saying that that's a recommended strategy, but I am saying the content consumption side, so much of what we're producing content-wise, can be done digitally.

Nick Clason (14:57):
So as youth pastors, as we're trying to reach Gen Z, as we're trying to reach Gen Alpha, a completely different generation, I wonder if it's worth considering a shift from focusing only on to finding a way to be a little bit more hybrid, which is why I've created this 100% completely free ebook right here on the screen, linked down below in the description. Also, you're going to see that as I bring about this bonus question. This is really the crux of this entire kind of argument. The question is this, are we as youth pastors, are we as youth ministry leaders? Are we in the event business or are we in the disciple making business? And you know what the fact of the matter is, we're actually going to dive even deeper into that question on the screen linked right here. So go ahead and take a look at that. If you're interested in exploring more about my hybrid strategy, that ebook, as well as that episode is linked right here on the screen as well. Hey, check you on the other side. Continue to enjoy this free masterclass, and as always, stay hybrid.

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DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿ“ˆ Youth Ministry Growth and Attendance

๐Ÿ”ข Do number really matter?

๐Ÿ˜ค Itโ€™s an agonizing pursuit that all of us as youth pastors and leaders are constantly feel the tension.

Whether we buy into the debate or not, pressure is real.

Maybe pressure from your senior pastor
Maybe pressure from other parents
Maybe even pressure from yourself

And furthermore, according to Pew Research, one in five church goeers in 2022 participated in virtual church once a month.
However, 57% did not attend in person or watch online per month.
Not just anyone in general.. But Americans who TYPICALLY attend services.

How do we reach Generation Z or Generation Alpha students?
Especially in light of this new reality?

Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
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PRACTICAL YM TIPS: https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips

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GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

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========================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

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

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

TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
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๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/078

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/BHpeDaLS3oo

//PEW RESEARCH ARTICLES ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/22/more-houses-of-worship-are-returning-to-normal-operations-but-in-person-attendance-is-unchanged-since-fall/?utm_source=adaptivemailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rel%20-%2022-03-22%20worship%20attendance&org=982&lvl=100&ite=9703&lea=2048393&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a0d3j0000112o9deae

//DATA ON GEN ALPHA
https://explodingtopics.com/blog/generation-alpha-guide

//DR. ELMORE'S BOOK
https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Unfiltered-Challenges-Anxious-Population-ebook/dp/B07YQ9XT8N/ref=sr_1_2?hvadid=580669290679&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9027211&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8887138684661202423&hvtargid=kwd-831658052586&hydadcr=24309_13537702&keywords=gen+z+unfiltered&qid=1701783263&sr=8-2

//TEEN CHURCH ATTENDANCE PATTERNS
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2020/09/10/u-s-teens-take-after-their-parents-religiously-attend-services-together-and-enjoy-family-rituals/

//TEENS AND THEIR PARENTS
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/09/10/10-key-findings-about-the-religious-lives-of-u-s-teens-and-their-parents/

//4 CHAIR DISCIPLING
https://www.amazon.com/Chair-Discipling-What-Jesus-Calls/dp/0802418813/ref=asc_df_0802418813/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=266167140404&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13879828523234723627&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9027211&hvtargid=pla-557460291481&psc=1&mcid=c72abb3a6997315793653dc9cbd8d965&gclid=CjwKCAiApuCrBhAuEiwA8VJ6Jry6x6cwpQRcpt1hnTOOVAIdS6r9rmBPSQleT8QwxqgYzqAeu6RyuBoCFo4QAvD_BwE

//GOOD TIME MANAGEMENT FOR A HYBRID STRATEGY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlS1kWcQBS8

๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00-02:05 Do numbers matter?
02:05-05:30 Who are Generation Z and Generation Alpha?
05:30-07:13 Attendance Finding 1: Teens share religion with parents
07:13-10:48 Attendance Finding 2: Teens go to service, but don't engage in religious practices
10:48-16:22 Attendance Finding 3: Teens attend church with one or both of their parents

โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Youth ministry growth in attendance in the age old Questions do numbers really matter? Here's what I know. I was one time called by a church that said, Hey, just a couple weeks ago in our church of multiple thousands, we've had only eight students show up. So whether you buy into the debate or not, the pressure is always there. Maybe pressure from your senior pastor, maybe pressure from youth parents, maybe even internal pressure that you just put on yourself. And what's even crazier is according to Pew Research, one in five, churchgoers back in 2022, participated in a virtual church service at least one time, which is a good thing. I mean, heck, we're in the hybrid ministry podcast, you know what I'm saying? However, 57% did not attend church in person or watch online during the course of at least one month, which means greater than 50%, not just of anyone in general of churchgoers are not typically attending church services.

Nick Clason (01:05):
So how in the world with that as the framework for church attendance and the way that youth ministry attendance is going, how in the world do we even reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha students, especially in light of this brand new reality? We're going to be sharing in this episode three key findings about teens and their attendance trends. And furthermore, I'm going to share with you one way that I as a youth pastor am shifting my thinking and maybe you can also shift your thinking about reaching this next generation. And finally, I have a bonus tip that I think is going to actually be the number one game changer in this entire conversation. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. You're in youth ministry, or if you're just a church leader and you're at least overseeing at some level some capacity, generation Z generation alpha, it's important because we're talking about youth group attendance and it's important to understand who we're actually talking about.

Nick Clason (02:01):
So Generation Z and Generation Alpha are kind of the two generations in play in this conversation. In fact, I have a video linked at the top of the screen. Go ahead and check it out where we did a deep dive into Generation Alpha and started to explore them. And quite frankly, it's one of the only videos I know that's out there about Generation Alpha. The data is still really new and still really young because the fact of the matter is that according to exploding topics.com link in the description, if you're watching on YouTube, you might be able to see some of these things online. If you're not watching on YouTube, you should definitely check that out. But Gen Alpha is made up of people born between 2010 and 2025. Wait, what? 2025? Yeah, you heard that, right? They're not even born yet. Okay. And so the fact of the matter is that that data actually is in opposition to some other experts such as Tim Elmore, who by the way, I have a chart right here on screen.

Nick Clason (02:53):
Again, if you're not watching on YouTube, go grab it or link in the show notes. It's from his book, generation Z Unfiltered, the Nine Hidden Challenges of Facing the Most Anxious Population of All Time. This chart is absolute goal, but you'll notice that he draws the line for the end of generation Z at 2018. So we have exploding topics at 2010. We have Tim Elmore at 2018, all of that to be said, Elmore's book is a little bit dated, and so I think that more research and just time we've honed in a little bit and gotten a little bit closer. And so while this chart is gold, you should definitely look at it and inspect it and learn a little bit more. Elmore doesn't talk about Gen Alpha. They're not on his radar yet when he wrote the book. And so according to this chart, pew research draws the line for Gen Alpha at 2012.

Nick Clason (03:40):
But again, the reason why any of this matters, not to bog you down with dates and things like that is that if you're a youth pastor or if you're in church leadership, what you need to understand is that the conversation we're having is like, do we take Elmore's date or do we take Pew Research's Day or do we take exploding topics day? Whatever it is, the reason this matters is because this is a difference between is that kid in kid's ministry or is that kid in youth ministry? And if we're talking about youth group numbers and youth group attendance, we need to understand Gen Alpha, but we also need to understand Gen Z. The kicker on this is that Gen Z, really the youngest Gen Z that we have is going to be freshmen, sophomores in high school, and now after that they're waving on up, they're in college already and they are entering the workforce.

Nick Clason (04:23):
So if you are not a youth pastor, but just like a regular pastor listening, no longer is Gen Z, something that the youth pastor needs to try and understand and uncover this matters for you. This is important for you as a pastor. And so if you've gotten value so far out of this video, I would love to encourage you to like and subscribe and hit the notification bell because we're actually in the middle of a series right now, the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass, this is section number two in that class. The rest of them are going to be dropped in the playlist that's linked down below in the description. So if you have not seen every single video, go back and check out video number one. We talked about time management, but without any further ado here, let's dive into the three key findings about Generation Z, generation alpha and church attendance in youth ministry moving forward in 2024 and frankly beyond.

Nick Clason (05:12):
All right, so the three key findings that are really important to understand about Generation Z and Gen Alpha is a lot of this data pulled from Pew research articles pulled and included in the description, whether you're in a podcast catcher or on YouTube, if you are not watching on YouTube, you will notice that some charts and graphs and stuff like that are going to show up on screen here on YouTube. If you're not watching, you're just listening, you can go grab the link in the show notes at http://www.hybridministry.xyz, and this is episode 78, so slash 0 7 8. But the first key finding that I want to share with you is this is that most teens share the same religious affiliation as their parents, meaning this, your attendance as a youth pastor, youth ministry leader is highly derived from the adult attendance in your church.

Nick Clason (06:00):
You've probably heard this before, but that's why it's important that we don't have silos. It's just as important for you as a youth pastor to lean in to what is going on in the rest of your church. You can't neglect it, you can't forsake it, and you can't take on a posture of arrogance that what you're doing is better than the rest of the church. Even if you low key think that the fact of the matter is that your youth ministry attendance is highly, highly tied to your adult attendance. So if your church is growing, odds are your youth ministry is growing, and if your church is struggling, odds are your youth ministry might be struggling. The biggest dropoff that you'll notice in this graph here and in this research from Pew is that the biggest dropoff from parents who attend church to teenagers who attend church happens in mainline denominations where the highest proportion is in evangelical churches.

Nick Clason (06:53):
Key finding. Number two, teens are just as likely as their parents to say that they go to services, but when it comes to more personal forms of religious expression, teens actually appear to be less devout and less religious. I have a stat I want to share with you from my own context, my own anecdotal experience in our church, cross Creek Church located in Colleyville, Texas, we have four parts to a four-part discipleship pathway. So we have explore, which is people who are far from God looking for God or maybe seeking God connect. And so once they've made a decision, cross the line, faith, connect with Jesus, connect with this church, connect with community, grow, grow in your faith, get closer to God, learn to walk with God, learn to invest in a few, learn to multiply. And then finally, the fourth one is a multiplier.

Nick Clason (07:38):
Someone who is not only making disciples, but making disciples who makes disciples. So we're very christocentric, disciple making, Bible-based church, all that to be said, we explained all of that one day on a Sunday morning to our students and we asked them to self-identify where they would put themselves in the pathway, explore, connect, grow, multiply. We used kind of pulled from one of my favorite books, link in the show notes, Dan Bader's book four chair discipling. So we used four different chairs to illustrate the sections of the pathway. The explorer phase was illustrated by a camping chair because it's really mobile portable. You can get close to church, then you can pull it back away if that's a decision that you want to make. We talked about how the connect chair is actually like a recliner. People tend to get across that line of faith and then get very fat and happy.

Nick Clason (08:23):
The grow chair is one that's marked by suffering and sacrifice, and so we got the hard metal chair, the one that hurts your butt when you sit in it for a little bit too long. And then finally the multiply phase was illustrated by a couch because the goal of it is to bring people back onto that couch with you, go back down through the pipeline, go back down through the process. So we illustrated that and we asked students to self-identify. We had 40.76 of our students say that they were in the connect phase, the recliner phase, but the overwhelming majority said that they were in 45.2% said that they were in the grow phase. So nearly half of our students self-identified as being in the grow phase where only like 4% said they're in the explore phase, and 9.5 said they were actually all the way in the multiply phase.

Nick Clason (09:07):
Now we have identifiers in our church metrics that we say if you've done these three or four things, then you are in this phase and you've moved on to the next phase. So we can pull that data on our students as well, but this is just them classifying themselves. I now lead a group of four other guys on a Sunday morning in our grow phase, we have a book that we go through a curriculum, and we just got done with the first book. There's three totals. So we just got done with the first book. It's seven weeks. It's daily reading. I mean it's a high bar. Every single one of them. At the beginning of this time, they said, I read the Bible, I pray I do all this stuff. Now that we've actually been in it, now that the rubber has met the road.

Nick Clason (09:49):
At the end of this, all of their summarization of it was like, man, this was a lot more than I'm used to. And one of the kids said back to this, teens are just as, they may go to service, but they may not practice religious expression. Part of the problem is they've gone to church so much, and so they know what the right answers are and they know what they should be doing. And so even when you ask them, how do you grow in your faith? What are you doing to grow in your faith? They would answer with the right answers. Well, I pray, read the Bible, but they all admitted at the end of it, you always said that, but we weren't really actually doing it, at least not at this level. So that just bears it out in that key finding. Key finding.

Nick Clason (10:29):
Number three, most teens report attending religious services with either both at 40% or one 25% of their parents. Again, meaning your attendance is again highly derived from your adult attendance. Again, in my own context, our own experience or Wednesday night, we would mostly say that that's classified under the explore classification. So let's bring outsiders and we probably, we average somewhere south of 45 to 40% of our Sunday morning attendance, which is our second step in our pathway, our connect phase. So I would not say that we have more students in connect than in the explore phase. What I would actually say is that Sunday morning is more convenient and that's when parents, and that's when students are also naturally making Sunday morning or just any church attendance a priority. And so that's the reason why I believe that our attendance is a little bit out of balance between Wednesday night and Sunday morning, and that's not a problem to be solved.

Nick Clason (11:29):
It's more attention to lean into and be managed, but it really just underscores this point that most teens attend church with either a parent or a single parent, meaning once again, like I said, your students are attending church either with both parents at 40% or one parent at 25%. Again, as much as we think that our programming is so relevant, captivating, so much better than the rest of the church, the reality is our success as youth pastors is often tied to the overall success of the church. However, I do think that there is something that matters and that there is something that we need to focus our mindset to shift a little bit on. So let's dive into that into the next section. All right, so the shift that I believe all of us should consider if 57% of born again claim Christians, self-proclaimed Christians are not attending church online or in person at least one time per month, I think that you and I should consider finding a way to go hybrid.

Nick Clason (12:26):
And I know you said, Hey, hey, hey, that last stat that said they weren't going online or in person. When I say hybrid, I don't just mean streaming your services. That can be an element of it, but I really believe that's a small portion of a good digital strategy. And again, I hear you. You're like, dude, I don't have time for it, and I get it. It is a lot of work and it's going to require a little bit of time management, thankfully, linked down below, I have this playlist where the last video I talked about good time management, but a good digital hybrid integrated strategy is more than just putting a camera in the back of the room and letting someone watch what's going on in the room. You're not interested in that, frankly, and neither am I. We want something that's made for the internet, something like this, something that's more relational, something that's more direct to camera, maybe something that's a little bit more interactive, but find a way to make it more hybrid.

Nick Clason (13:18):
Find a way to make it more integrated. I also hear you on the other side, but churches of family church should be about one-on-one relationships, and I agree with that. Full fledge, a hundred percent church about relationships. The best, most dynamic experiences I ever have is when I'm rubbing shoulders or sitting knee to knee with somebody. However, I'll also make the argument that churches are in the content creation and content production business. Think about it. What do you spend the majority of your time on? Programming, message prep, planning, worship services, small group, all things that are content based, and especially pastors, senior pastors, no offense to you, but Sunday morning services are some of the least relational moments in the entire week in the lifecycle of a church. Here's my deal. I'm a youth pastor, so I get in early, I get set up. Sometimes I'm a little bit late because of my setup into church.

Nick Clason (14:12):
I walk in, I sit down, I sing some songs, I sit down, I stare at the back of someone's head, I listen to a sermon for 30 something minutes. I get up early because I have stuff to do as a youth pastor, to get ready for the student ministry that meets during the last two services of our three service Sunday morning set. I'm not talking to a single human being in that entire service, but what I could do is I could consume all of that digitally. I could listen to it, my headphones on a run. I could listen to that honestly, while I'm across the way in the student building, getting things ready, having the Facebook live stream on in my ears while I'm getting things set up. I'm not saying that I should do that. I'm not saying that that's a recommended strategy, but I am saying the content consumption side, so much of what we're producing content-wise, can be done digitally.

Nick Clason (14:57):
So as youth pastors, as we're trying to reach Gen Z, as we're trying to reach Gen Alpha, a completely different generation, I wonder if it's worth considering a shift from focusing only on to finding a way to be a little bit more hybrid, which is why I've created this 100% completely free ebook right here on the screen, linked down below in the description. Also, you're going to see that as I bring about this bonus question. This is really the crux of this entire kind of argument. The question is this, are we as youth pastors, are we as youth ministry leaders? Are we in the event business or are we in the disciple making business? And you know what the fact of the matter is, we're actually going to dive even deeper into that question on the screen linked right here. So go ahead and take a look at that. If you're interested in exploring more about my hybrid strategy, that ebook, as well as that episode is linked right here on the screen as well. Hey, check you on the other side. Continue to enjoy this free masterclass, and as always, stay hybrid.

]]> Episode 077: ๐Ÿ’ช Get More Done: Time Management for Youth Pastors https://www.hybridministry.xyz/077 89c78567-a788-4322-9f7d-49c0c45f5953 Thu, 28 Dec 2023 07:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 077 ๐Ÿ’ช Get More Done: Time Management for Youth Pastors full Nick Clason ๐Ÿฅฑ Are you tired? ๐Ÿซ  Overwhelmed? ๐Ÿ Even if youโ€™re not, donโ€™t you just feel like the rat race of church ministry never ends? ๐Ÿ•ฅ Don't let time slip through your fingers; start streamlining your schedule today to make the most of every minute you invest in your ministry and the lives of young people. ๐Ÿ’ช Prepare to be empowered, motivated, and equipped to take your time management skills to the next level. By implementing the strategies shared in this video, you'll be well on your way to becoming a more organized, efficient, and impactful youth pastor. โšก If you're ready to take charge of your time and elevate your ministry to new heights, hit that play button and let "The Ultimate Guide to Time Management for Youth Pastors" be your guiding light. Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the **2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube** 19:25 no โšก [FREE] Social Media Mastery Awaits! Get Your Hands on Our Free One-Month Ebook โšก ๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book โ˜๏ธONE-CLICK SOLUTION FOR REELS &amp; SHORTS OPUS FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 2024 [FREE] Youth Ministry Masterclass on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick ======================================== DESCRIPTION ๐Ÿฅฑ Are you tired? ๐Ÿซ  Overwhelmed? ๐Ÿ Even if youโ€™re not, donโ€™t you just feel like the rat race of church ministry never ends? ๐Ÿ•ฅ Don't let time slip through your fingers; start streamlining your schedule today to make the most of every minute you invest in your ministry and the lives of young people. ๐Ÿ’ช Prepare to be empowered, motivated, and equipped to take your time management skills to the next level. By implementing the strategies shared in this video, you'll be well on your way to becoming a more organized, efficient, and impactful youth pastor. โšก If you're ready to take charge of your time and elevate your ministry to new heights, hit that play button and let "The Ultimate Guide to Time Management for Youth Pastors" be your guiding light. Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube ======================================== ๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“ ๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ๐ŸŽ… "The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet PRACTICAL YM TIPS: https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips ๐Ÿฉ "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide" GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut ๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook ๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers" https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis ======================================== ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //BEST DYM RESOURCES https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit AUTO POD https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 ๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/077 //YOUTUBE VIDEO https://youtu.be/xlS1kWcQBS8 //94% OF BORN AGAIN CHRISTIANS https://amotherfarfromhome.com/94-of-christians-were-saved-before-18-years-of-age/ //MY YOUTH MIN BY YM360 https://myyouthmin.com/ //DOWNLOADYOUTHMINISTRY https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/search?q=Nick+Clason&amp;search-button=&amp;lang=null Technique #1: Make a list //MICROSOFT TO-DO https://to-do.office.com/tasks/ //TODOIST https://todoist.com/ //ANY.DO https://www.any.do/en Technique#2: Calendaring //GOOGLE CALENDAR http://calendar.google.com Technique #3: Make appointments with yourself //CALENDLY.COM https://calendly.com/ Technique #4: Schedule your relationships //CALENDLY.COM https://calendly.com/ Technique #5: Delegate, Automate or Eliminate //DOWNLOAD YOUTH MINISTRY (DYM) http://www.downloadyouthministry.com ~psst... these are my 9 favorite DYM products! https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym //CANVA PRO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0FQWvKjP_E&amp;t=15s //MY FREE EBOOK https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00-02:21 Get More Done 02:21-04:57 The 3 Core Tenets of Time Management 04:57-07:15 Technique #1: Make a list 07:15-08:48 Technique #2: Calendaring 08:48-11:18 Technique #3: Make appointments with yourself 11:18-13:06 Technique #4: Schedule your relationships 13:06-15:25 Technique #5: Delegate, Automate or Eliminiate 15:25-16:04 Avoid Sacrificing your Family on the Altar of Youth Ministry 16:04-17:44 Hack 1: Evenings Count Double 17:44-18:11 Hack 2: Take Advantage of Slower Seasons 18:11-19:24 Hack 3: Take Advantage of your job's flexibility โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa Nick Clason (00:01): Time management for youth pastors? Is it even possible? I mean, think about it. It's like you and I, I'm a youth pastor too. We have multiple jobs. We have pastors, we have executive pastors, we have parents, we have stepparents, we have spouses, our own spouses, we have our children, we have our youth kids that we're trying to minister to. We have the youth leaders. It's like we're answering to so many different people. It can feel so confusing. Who do we try to make happy? Who do we try to cater to? And at the end of the day, how do we make sense of any of this? Because the reality is we have the most important job in the world. Think about it, a hundred years from now, no one's going to care what kind of whipped cream you bought at Walmart for the hot cocoa bar for the upcoming Christmas party, but a hundred years from now, what matters? Nick Clason (00:50): What hangs in the balance is the lives and souls of these students, and you've probably heard it before, 94% of born again Christians have made a decision to follow Jesus before the age of 18. I know that that stat alone is the reason why I do what I do. And in this episode we're going to talk about the pillars of time management, what you need to understand from kind of like a philosophical standpoint. Then we're going to chat through the Surefire framework, and then finally, I'm going to give you three hacks to avoid sacrificing your family on the altar of your job. And here's why this is important and here's why I can even talk about this right now. I am currently offering a two-part video series to YM 360 once per month. I'm writing a weekly teaching series for them. I'm also doing weekly YouTube videos right here on this channel. Nick Clason (01:39): I'm posting two times daily on social media. I have my very own free ebook, which I'm following that exact strategy for myself on this channel as well as in my student ministry. You can download a copy of that for free link in the show notes. I try to create a weekly game for download youth ministry, and by the way, I have a real job as a youth pastor as well. My boss asked me, do you just never sleep? Do you work all the weekends? How do you get it all done? The reality is I follow these techniques and I want to encourage you to subscribe because we are dropping. This is part one of the 2024 on-Demand Youth Pastor Masterclass, time management. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Okay, so there are three kind of core tenets, philosophical things that you actually to understand when it comes to time management. Nick Clason (02:29): These aren't tips, these aren't tactics. These are things that you have to understand first and these have to inform the tips and the tactics. No amount of tips, no amount of tactics will be helpful to you if you don't understand these things. So core tenant number one is that you are 100% responsible for your time and again, like I said at the top, it may not feel that way. It may feel like you have multiple different bosses and that is true. The reality is you are going to be answering to different people and there are going to be times where they are going to dictate Nick Clason (02:58): What do, but at the end of the day, your boss is not flushing out your 40, 45, 50, 55 hour a week schedule. He's just not or she's just not. You are responsible for your time 100%. So you understand that basis. You can then operate out of that. If you are waiting for someone to tell you what to do, then this time management thing is going to just be fleeting and you're not going to be able to get any of this stuff done because you're going to be playing the victim mentality as opposed to taking agency and control for your time. Core tenant number two is this is your overwhelmed. The reason that you may feel overwhelmed, have anxiety, not know what to do, be confused about which task to tackle. It comes from this. It comes from the fact that you have no direction. We're going to get to more about that in a second, but that lack of direction, you need direction. Nick Clason (03:52): That direction is what helps give your brain clarity, focus and the ability to just crush tasks on what comes next and get things done. Number three, not all time is created equal. Here's an example. I'm a morning person. You give me two hours in the morning from like 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM I can crush just about any youth sermon. It will be good, it will be coherent, it will make sense, but if you give me that same block of time from 3:00 PM to say 5:00 PM I'm toast. I'm not getting the same amount of work done. You need to know what your key hours are, the hours that you can get the most amount of optimal thinking time done so that you can knock things out. Now let's move on. If we understand those things that you're in charge of your time that you're overwhelmed comes from the fact that you may not have any direction. Nick Clason (04:41): And then number three, not all time is created equal with those as the core tenants, with those as the philosophy. Let's build on that and let's get really practical, really hands-on and some things that you can implement in your time management skills in your workweek today. So technique number one is start with a list. I know it sounds basic and you're like, bro, we're on the hybrid ministry show. I thought you're going to give me some bougie next level digital tool. Sure, grab a list that's digital if that's what you want to do. That's what I do. I use Microsoft to do. I hate Microsoft. It used to be called Wonderlist and I use it because it has the ability to be shared. So my wife and I do our groceries on it, but then Microsoft took it over and I still use it, but it's a digital list. Nick Clason (05:27): I can use it on my phone, I can use it on a computer. You can use anything. I mean you can use the notes app in your phone. You can use a Daytimer. You can write it down physically with paper, but make a list of everything you have to do and get specific. For example, if you say Plain Wednesday night, yes, you have to do that. You're a youth pastor, that's part of your job. But what goes into planning Wednesday night? That's not very specific because specifically you to write a lesson, you need to send the leader email. You need to schedule your tech team. You need to schedule your greeters, you need to plan the worship set. You need to play in the game. You need to set up chairs. You need to set up the cafe, make sure that the cafe is stocked. Nick Clason (06:10): You need to make announcement slides. You need to post a social to remind people about Wednesday and to crush social, you should grab my 100% completely free ebook. It's right down here, link in the description, but nonetheless, you see that, right? You see how Wednesday night planning versus all this other stuff. You see how that is an example of a good to-do list versus a bad to-Do list. Again, if you're like, I know I need to get done with Wednesday, break it all apart. List down every single thing you need to do because you know this as well as I do that as a youth pastor, that's not your only job because in addition to planning Wednesday, maybe you have to plan Sunday and all the little elements that go within that, maybe you have to meet with a volunteer. You need to grab coffee with the student. Nick Clason (06:55): You need to have a check-in with your senior pastor. You need to fill in the blank. You know what you have to do, and that's the problem. Not only do we have multiple different jobs, not only do we have multiple different kind of fighters that we might feel like we have to put out, but we also have multiple different focuses in our time. So get them all on paper. That's step one. Step two, calendar. If you are not using a calendar, and once again this is the hybrid ministry show, you got to figure out what works for you, but your calendar needs to dictate what you're doing not only beforehand, but also then you can look back and see how well am I keeping these things if I give myself or you give yourself one hour to craft your Wednesday night, but you have all those tasks to do and it takes you a full day, then you can go back next week and be like, all I'm going to need more hours than one to get ready for Wednesday night. Nick Clason (07:49): You can use your calendar to go back and audit how much time it actually takes. You don't shortchange yourself. And that's one of the keys. One of the reasons we get overwhelmed is we try and cram too many things into our calendar and it's just not humanly possible. So look ahead on your calendar, but also look back on your calendar and whatever you do integrate your work and your personal, it's one of the ways that you don't sacrifice your family on the altar of ministry. You don't have to have a calendar that's work and personal together. But when big major things that your personal and family calendar need to be aware of or vice versa, put those things in there, right? If you have a child's doctor appointment during the day, during the weekday when doctor's offices are only open, put it in there so that no one schedules a meeting with you. Nick Clason (08:38): No one sees you're out of office, that you're not available, that you are available when you're really not. So make sure that those things talk and communicate with each other. The second, third thing, I'm sorry, third thing, make appointments with yourself. A lot of times people calendar when there's an appointment. I have a meeting with my senior pastor that's on my calendar from nine to 10:00 AM Okay, well, when are you going to write your sermon? Well, just whenever I'm not in that. If you get a notice or a text message from someone and they say, Hey, I want to meet with you, then you can say, Hey, I am available from this time to this time. Because what we often do is pull open our calendar and see a bunch of blank space and be like, I'm free all day. What that's doing is when you're giving someone else control of your calendar, they're going to take whatever time works best for them as opposed to whatever time works best for you. Nick Clason (09:30): And so if they take morning sometime between six and 8:00 AM let's say they go to work and they want that morning appointment, well, for me, that's going to eat into my prep time and I'm not going to say no, I'm not going to decline meeting with them, but I am going to drive and dictate and point to where I am most available. I like to do lunches because I can get my work done in the morning and then I have an opportunity for lunch. And if a person's only available for breakfast, then I might have one breakfast slot per week where I will allow someone into there as opposed to let that be prep time. But you can use things like calendly.com and you can give that to people for them to book times with you. And so as long as your calendar is up to date, you've made appointments with other people and you've made appointments with yourself, then now other people can slide into those things. Nick Clason (10:22): It is okay to tell somebody no that you're not available to meet with them, not because you don't want to, but because you're busy, but because you've made an appointment with yourself. And then as you're blocking out your calendar, you need to figure out what works best for you, but you need to leave either 60 to 70% margin unscheduled time, and you can block it. You can put it in a calendar, but you can call it margin. You can call it buffer, you can call it reach ahead time. You can call whatever you want to call it. But one of the reasons that we get stressed out is that we schedule ourselves with no margin at all. And so if plan Wednesday night is supposed to take six hours and it takes seven and it eats into the next task that's supposed to come after in the seventh hour, we start to get overwhelmed. Nick Clason (11:12): But if we leave a little bit of space, we can leave some of that flex time. We can allow interruptions and we can allow people. Number four, make sure that you do in fact schedule your relationships. Don't just make your calendar, task, task test, test, test, test task, right? Relationships often are the things that feel like interruptions, but if you can account for them, if you have space for them, listen, here's the fact you're probably in youth ministry because you're a relational person. You probably prefer relationships over tasks. I'm more of a task guy. I like prefer tasks over relationships. So you need to figure out your zone and what works for you. But for me, what works for me is I need to relationships. I need to grab lunch with leaders. All right? So a couple of times a week, I got lunch in there for leaders. Nick Clason (11:58): I got lunch in there for students. I got space in there after school for students, whatever the case might be, but know where you're going to slide those things in. And again, if you leave that margin, then you can account for the interruptions. If you work on a little bit slightly bigger staff, I know I do. There'll be people, especially people I work with who pop into my office, have conversations. Those can feel frustrating and those can feel like interruptions. But the fact is, if I don't schedule my calendar my week at a hundred percent tasks, then when someone comes in, I can stop. I can pause, I can be present, I can get back to my tasks when that conversation's over and when they are ready to move on. So schedule time for those things. And like I said, a tool that you can use hybridize, this thing is Calendly. Nick Clason (12:40): It is a great way, especially if you're like, Hey, I want to grab lunch with you here. Grab a slot here that works for you. Then you take all of that back and forth out like, what about Thursday at six? No, it doesn't work. How about Wednesday at two? No, no, I got appointment. Then you go back and forth, back and forth. You can just be like, Hey, want to grab lunch? Sure, here's what I have available. They book it, boom, you're done. And then they slide right in to your calendar. And then the fifth and final thing in this framework is I stole this from Michael Hyatt and he's the productivity king and guru, but delegate and automate every single thing that you can. He actually challenges you to delegate, automate, and then terminate. So is there anything in your to-do list that you can just be done doing altogether? Nick Clason (13:30): Additionally, let's go back to our good example from earlier. Plan Wednesday night, write a lesson that might be a you and you only task, but every single thing else, check this out. Send the leader email. You could probably hand that off to a high level admin, maybe a volunteer, maybe even an intern. Schedule the tech team. Well, that should be the tech leader's job. If you don't have a tech leader, enlist a tech leader and then make that the tech leader's job. How about scheduling the greeters? Well let that be your greeter team lead's job and then planning the worship set. You can hand that off to a worship leader. If you don't have a paid worship leader, you can get a volunteer worship leader that you trust to plan the worship set maybe for a while they run it by you, but then you officially hand that off onto their plate planning the game. Nick Clason (14:16): Well, you can hand that off to a high level student who you even want to host. You can let them grab games off of DYM, give them your password, and then boom, they're off and running. What about setting up chairs? Well, that can be your student work crew who comes in once a week and maybe you're giving your student work crew a discount on camp this summer to come in and set up chairs. How about setting up the cafe? You can hand that off to your admin, maybe a cafe. Volunteer team leader. What about making the announcement slides? Hand a student, your Canva Pro password, link to that right here at the top of the video and give them the keys to making your announcement slides. What about posting to social media to remind people about it? Give that job to your students and grab my free ebook so that you are not just posting announcements, but you're posting them in a fun, relevant and witty way. Nick Clason (15:06): You see, that's the thing. You can delegate all of that. And so in that list, all you're doing is you are preparing the lesson, but all these other delegations, you have to set those up. They take time. It will take more time to set those up on the front side, but once it gets up and running, you will be a task master. Inevitably part of the job in youth ministry because it's relationships based and because we do our ministry when other people are not at work, when other people are not at school, you and I are going to have moments where youth ministry invades elements of being a dad, of being a family person of relationship with your wife. So how do you avoid sacrificing your family on the altar of ministry? Well, here's three principles and three ideas that I personally live by and that I try to implement in my ministry to help me. Nick Clason (16:03): The first one is this is keep in mind that evenings count double. I remember one time a pastor was like, well, if you work on Wednesday night, just don't work Wednesday morning. And that's true, and I'm going to give you that hack here in just a minute as well. However, a Wednesday morning time at home, which I record this podcast every single Wednesday morning, super early in the morning, as soon as I'm done, I'm going to go hang with my family, drive my kids to school, and then hang out with my wife and my youngest who's going to be home. But when I'm not home tonight because of programming, they would rather me be home in the evening. I would rather me be home in the evening, evening hours, count, double. So use your evening hours that you inevitably have to use. You have to use evening hours, but use them sparingly and don't be so quick to give them up. Nick Clason (16:51): Be very, very measured in your evening hours. One of the rules of life that me and my wife stumbled into haphazardly because we were giving up way too many evening hours early on in our marriage, was no more than three evenings out per week. We like to be home. You figure out what works best for you, but there's seven nights a week. We can be out three. The other four, we want to be home more than we're out. And that includes youth ministry that included our own personal grow group together as a couple. And then one other thing. And so if someone would ask us like, Hey, do you guys want to get together? We would look at our calendar and for like, well, we're already full this week. We would kick 'em to the next week or something like that, but we knew our limit. Nick Clason (17:35): So know your limit. If you're out every single evening and you're just trying to make up for that by being home in the morning, just remember that those count double. The second thing is this, take advantage of slower seasons. Okay? The fact is, Christmas season may be a busy hefty season for your church, especially your worship team, your tech team, your worship leaders, people setting up the stage. But for student ministry, it's often a little slower. So take advantage of that because the reality is those people are not going to be at summer camp, come June when you are and you're away from your family. And so budget for those things and lean into the different rhythms of life. And the third thing is take advantage of the fact that your job has flexibility. You might have work from home capabilities. I know I try to work from home a lot of Thursdays, which is a nice thing that I get to do or I can even do when my kids are at school lunch or breakfast dates with my wife. Nick Clason (18:27): It's cheaper. Don't have to pay for a babysitter, don't have to bring our kids with us. And also, I can comp my Wednesday mornings because I'm going to be working late on Wednesday night, or I might comp a Thursday morning if I work a full day, like a full 12 hour day on Wednesday because of programming. I may come in a little bit late on Thursday. And the fact is, you can make some of those things up. You are responsible for your time, so take advantage of those things. Get approval, make sure your supervisor's okay with it, but take advantage of the flexibility that you have because the thing is this, healthy leaders lead healthy ministries, and we're going to talk about that in the very next episode, which is going to be up here on the screen talking about how to grow your youth ministry, which is one of the things that your boss wants, and probably you want not just for vanity metrics, but also because you want to make an impact on the kingdom of God. So as always, don't forget we're making digital discipleship easy, accessible and possible. Stay hybrid, my friend. Youth Pastor, Hybrid Ministry, Time Management, Time Management for Pastors, Time Management for Youth Pastors, Time Management for Youth Ministry, Time Management Tips, Time Management Skills, How to Manage Time for Youth Pastor, How to Manage time in church work, How to Manage my time as a pastor, โšก [FREE] Social Media Mastery Awaits! Get Your Hands on Our Free One-Month Ebook โšก

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DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿฅฑ Are you tired?
๐Ÿซ  Overwhelmed?
๐Ÿ Even if youโ€™re not, donโ€™t you just feel like the rat race of church ministry never ends?

๐Ÿ•ฅ Don't let time slip through your fingers; start streamlining your schedule today to make the most of every minute you invest in your ministry and the lives of young people.

๐Ÿ’ช Prepare to be empowered, motivated, and equipped to take your time management skills to the next level. By implementing the strategies shared in this video, you'll be well on your way to becoming a more organized, efficient, and impactful youth pastor.

โšก If you're ready to take charge of your time and elevate your ministry to new heights, hit that play button and let "The Ultimate Guide to Time Management for Youth Pastors" be your guiding light.

Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
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๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
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TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
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๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/077

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/xlS1kWcQBS8

//94% OF BORN AGAIN CHRISTIANS
https://amotherfarfromhome.com/94-of-christians-were-saved-before-18-years-of-age/

//MY YOUTH MIN BY YM360
https://myyouthmin.com/

//DOWNLOADYOUTHMINISTRY
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/search?q=Nick+Clason&search-button=&lang=null

Technique #1: Make a list
//MICROSOFT TO-DO
https://to-do.office.com/tasks/

//TODOIST
https://todoist.com/

//ANY.DO
https://www.any.do/en

Technique#2: Calendaring
//GOOGLE CALENDAR
http://calendar.google.com

Technique #3: Make appointments with yourself
//CALENDLY.COM
https://calendly.com/

Technique #4: Schedule your relationships
//CALENDLY.COM
https://calendly.com/

Technique #5: Delegate, Automate or Eliminate
//DOWNLOAD YOUTH MINISTRY (DYM)
http://www.downloadyouthministry.com
~psst... these are my 9 favorite DYM products!
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//MY FREE EBOOK

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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00-02:21 Get More Done
02:21-04:57 The 3 Core Tenets of Time Management
04:57-07:15 Technique #1: Make a list
07:15-08:48 Technique #2: Calendaring
08:48-11:18 Technique #3: Make appointments with yourself
11:18-13:06 Technique #4: Schedule your relationships
13:06-15:25 Technique #5: Delegate, Automate or Eliminiate
15:25-16:04 Avoid Sacrificing your Family on the Altar of Youth Ministry
16:04-17:44 Hack 1: Evenings Count Double
17:44-18:11 Hack 2: Take Advantage of Slower Seasons
18:11-19:24 Hack 3: Take Advantage of your job's flexibility

โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:01):
Time management for youth pastors? Is it even possible? I mean, think about it. It's like you and I, I'm a youth pastor too. We have multiple jobs. We have pastors, we have executive pastors, we have parents, we have stepparents, we have spouses, our own spouses, we have our children, we have our youth kids that we're trying to minister to. We have the youth leaders. It's like we're answering to so many different people. It can feel so confusing. Who do we try to make happy? Who do we try to cater to? And at the end of the day, how do we make sense of any of this? Because the reality is we have the most important job in the world. Think about it, a hundred years from now, no one's going to care what kind of whipped cream you bought at Walmart for the hot cocoa bar for the upcoming Christmas party, but a hundred years from now, what matters?

Nick Clason (00:50):
What hangs in the balance is the lives and souls of these students, and you've probably heard it before, 94% of born again Christians have made a decision to follow Jesus before the age of 18. I know that that stat alone is the reason why I do what I do. And in this episode we're going to talk about the pillars of time management, what you need to understand from kind of like a philosophical standpoint. Then we're going to chat through the Surefire framework, and then finally, I'm going to give you three hacks to avoid sacrificing your family on the altar of your job. And here's why this is important and here's why I can even talk about this right now. I am currently offering a two-part video series to YM 360 once per month. I'm writing a weekly teaching series for them. I'm also doing weekly YouTube videos right here on this channel.

Nick Clason (01:39):
I'm posting two times daily on social media. I have my very own free ebook, which I'm following that exact strategy for myself on this channel as well as in my student ministry. You can download a copy of that for free link in the show notes. I try to create a weekly game for download youth ministry, and by the way, I have a real job as a youth pastor as well. My boss asked me, do you just never sleep? Do you work all the weekends? How do you get it all done? The reality is I follow these techniques and I want to encourage you to subscribe because we are dropping. This is part one of the 2024 on-Demand Youth Pastor Masterclass, time management. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Okay, so there are three kind of core tenets, philosophical things that you actually to understand when it comes to time management.

Nick Clason (02:29):
These aren't tips, these aren't tactics. These are things that you have to understand first and these have to inform the tips and the tactics. No amount of tips, no amount of tactics will be helpful to you if you don't understand these things. So core tenant number one is that you are 100% responsible for your time and again, like I said at the top, it may not feel that way. It may feel like you have multiple different bosses and that is true. The reality is you are going to be answering to different people and there are going to be times where they are going to dictate

Nick Clason (02:58):
What do, but at the end of the day, your boss is not flushing out your 40, 45, 50, 55 hour a week schedule. He's just not or she's just not. You are responsible for your time 100%. So you understand that basis. You can then operate out of that. If you are waiting for someone to tell you what to do, then this time management thing is going to just be fleeting and you're not going to be able to get any of this stuff done because you're going to be playing the victim mentality as opposed to taking agency and control for your time. Core tenant number two is this is your overwhelmed. The reason that you may feel overwhelmed, have anxiety, not know what to do, be confused about which task to tackle. It comes from this. It comes from the fact that you have no direction. We're going to get to more about that in a second, but that lack of direction, you need direction.

Nick Clason (03:52):
That direction is what helps give your brain clarity, focus and the ability to just crush tasks on what comes next and get things done. Number three, not all time is created equal. Here's an example. I'm a morning person. You give me two hours in the morning from like 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM I can crush just about any youth sermon. It will be good, it will be coherent, it will make sense, but if you give me that same block of time from 3:00 PM to say 5:00 PM I'm toast. I'm not getting the same amount of work done. You need to know what your key hours are, the hours that you can get the most amount of optimal thinking time done so that you can knock things out. Now let's move on. If we understand those things that you're in charge of your time that you're overwhelmed comes from the fact that you may not have any direction.

Nick Clason (04:41):
And then number three, not all time is created equal with those as the core tenants, with those as the philosophy. Let's build on that and let's get really practical, really hands-on and some things that you can implement in your time management skills in your workweek today. So technique number one is start with a list. I know it sounds basic and you're like, bro, we're on the hybrid ministry show. I thought you're going to give me some bougie next level digital tool. Sure, grab a list that's digital if that's what you want to do. That's what I do. I use Microsoft to do. I hate Microsoft. It used to be called Wonderlist and I use it because it has the ability to be shared. So my wife and I do our groceries on it, but then Microsoft took it over and I still use it, but it's a digital list.

Nick Clason (05:27):
I can use it on my phone, I can use it on a computer. You can use anything. I mean you can use the notes app in your phone. You can use a Daytimer. You can write it down physically with paper, but make a list of everything you have to do and get specific. For example, if you say Plain Wednesday night, yes, you have to do that. You're a youth pastor, that's part of your job. But what goes into planning Wednesday night? That's not very specific because specifically you to write a lesson, you need to send the leader email. You need to schedule your tech team. You need to schedule your greeters, you need to plan the worship set. You need to play in the game. You need to set up chairs. You need to set up the cafe, make sure that the cafe is stocked.

Nick Clason (06:10):
You need to make announcement slides. You need to post a social to remind people about Wednesday and to crush social, you should grab my 100% completely free ebook. It's right down here, link in the description, but nonetheless, you see that, right? You see how Wednesday night planning versus all this other stuff. You see how that is an example of a good to-do list versus a bad to-Do list. Again, if you're like, I know I need to get done with Wednesday, break it all apart. List down every single thing you need to do because you know this as well as I do that as a youth pastor, that's not your only job because in addition to planning Wednesday, maybe you have to plan Sunday and all the little elements that go within that, maybe you have to meet with a volunteer. You need to grab coffee with the student.

Nick Clason (06:55):
You need to have a check-in with your senior pastor. You need to fill in the blank. You know what you have to do, and that's the problem. Not only do we have multiple different jobs, not only do we have multiple different kind of fighters that we might feel like we have to put out, but we also have multiple different focuses in our time. So get them all on paper. That's step one. Step two, calendar. If you are not using a calendar, and once again this is the hybrid ministry show, you got to figure out what works for you, but your calendar needs to dictate what you're doing not only beforehand, but also then you can look back and see how well am I keeping these things if I give myself or you give yourself one hour to craft your Wednesday night, but you have all those tasks to do and it takes you a full day, then you can go back next week and be like, all I'm going to need more hours than one to get ready for Wednesday night.

Nick Clason (07:49):
You can use your calendar to go back and audit how much time it actually takes. You don't shortchange yourself. And that's one of the keys. One of the reasons we get overwhelmed is we try and cram too many things into our calendar and it's just not humanly possible. So look ahead on your calendar, but also look back on your calendar and whatever you do integrate your work and your personal, it's one of the ways that you don't sacrifice your family on the altar of ministry. You don't have to have a calendar that's work and personal together. But when big major things that your personal and family calendar need to be aware of or vice versa, put those things in there, right? If you have a child's doctor appointment during the day, during the weekday when doctor's offices are only open, put it in there so that no one schedules a meeting with you.

Nick Clason (08:38):
No one sees you're out of office, that you're not available, that you are available when you're really not. So make sure that those things talk and communicate with each other. The second, third thing, I'm sorry, third thing, make appointments with yourself. A lot of times people calendar when there's an appointment. I have a meeting with my senior pastor that's on my calendar from nine to 10:00 AM Okay, well, when are you going to write your sermon? Well, just whenever I'm not in that. If you get a notice or a text message from someone and they say, Hey, I want to meet with you, then you can say, Hey, I am available from this time to this time. Because what we often do is pull open our calendar and see a bunch of blank space and be like, I'm free all day. What that's doing is when you're giving someone else control of your calendar, they're going to take whatever time works best for them as opposed to whatever time works best for you.

Nick Clason (09:30):
And so if they take morning sometime between six and 8:00 AM let's say they go to work and they want that morning appointment, well, for me, that's going to eat into my prep time and I'm not going to say no, I'm not going to decline meeting with them, but I am going to drive and dictate and point to where I am most available. I like to do lunches because I can get my work done in the morning and then I have an opportunity for lunch. And if a person's only available for breakfast, then I might have one breakfast slot per week where I will allow someone into there as opposed to let that be prep time. But you can use things like calendly.com and you can give that to people for them to book times with you. And so as long as your calendar is up to date, you've made appointments with other people and you've made appointments with yourself, then now other people can slide into those things.

Nick Clason (10:22):
It is okay to tell somebody no that you're not available to meet with them, not because you don't want to, but because you're busy, but because you've made an appointment with yourself. And then as you're blocking out your calendar, you need to figure out what works best for you, but you need to leave either 60 to 70% margin unscheduled time, and you can block it. You can put it in a calendar, but you can call it margin. You can call it buffer, you can call it reach ahead time. You can call whatever you want to call it. But one of the reasons that we get stressed out is that we schedule ourselves with no margin at all. And so if plan Wednesday night is supposed to take six hours and it takes seven and it eats into the next task that's supposed to come after in the seventh hour, we start to get overwhelmed.

Nick Clason (11:12):
But if we leave a little bit of space, we can leave some of that flex time. We can allow interruptions and we can allow people. Number four, make sure that you do in fact schedule your relationships. Don't just make your calendar, task, task test, test, test, test task, right? Relationships often are the things that feel like interruptions, but if you can account for them, if you have space for them, listen, here's the fact you're probably in youth ministry because you're a relational person. You probably prefer relationships over tasks. I'm more of a task guy. I like prefer tasks over relationships. So you need to figure out your zone and what works for you. But for me, what works for me is I need to relationships. I need to grab lunch with leaders. All right? So a couple of times a week, I got lunch in there for leaders.

Nick Clason (11:58):
I got lunch in there for students. I got space in there after school for students, whatever the case might be, but know where you're going to slide those things in. And again, if you leave that margin, then you can account for the interruptions. If you work on a little bit slightly bigger staff, I know I do. There'll be people, especially people I work with who pop into my office, have conversations. Those can feel frustrating and those can feel like interruptions. But the fact is, if I don't schedule my calendar my week at a hundred percent tasks, then when someone comes in, I can stop. I can pause, I can be present, I can get back to my tasks when that conversation's over and when they are ready to move on. So schedule time for those things. And like I said, a tool that you can use hybridize, this thing is Calendly.

Nick Clason (12:40):
It is a great way, especially if you're like, Hey, I want to grab lunch with you here. Grab a slot here that works for you. Then you take all of that back and forth out like, what about Thursday at six? No, it doesn't work. How about Wednesday at two? No, no, I got appointment. Then you go back and forth, back and forth. You can just be like, Hey, want to grab lunch? Sure, here's what I have available. They book it, boom, you're done. And then they slide right in to your calendar. And then the fifth and final thing in this framework is I stole this from Michael Hyatt and he's the productivity king and guru, but delegate and automate every single thing that you can. He actually challenges you to delegate, automate, and then terminate. So is there anything in your to-do list that you can just be done doing altogether?

Nick Clason (13:30):
Additionally, let's go back to our good example from earlier. Plan Wednesday night, write a lesson that might be a you and you only task, but every single thing else, check this out. Send the leader email. You could probably hand that off to a high level admin, maybe a volunteer, maybe even an intern. Schedule the tech team. Well, that should be the tech leader's job. If you don't have a tech leader, enlist a tech leader and then make that the tech leader's job. How about scheduling the greeters? Well let that be your greeter team lead's job and then planning the worship set. You can hand that off to a worship leader. If you don't have a paid worship leader, you can get a volunteer worship leader that you trust to plan the worship set maybe for a while they run it by you, but then you officially hand that off onto their plate planning the game.

Nick Clason (14:16):
Well, you can hand that off to a high level student who you even want to host. You can let them grab games off of DYM, give them your password, and then boom, they're off and running. What about setting up chairs? Well, that can be your student work crew who comes in once a week and maybe you're giving your student work crew a discount on camp this summer to come in and set up chairs. How about setting up the cafe? You can hand that off to your admin, maybe a cafe. Volunteer team leader. What about making the announcement slides? Hand a student, your Canva Pro password, link to that right here at the top of the video and give them the keys to making your announcement slides. What about posting to social media to remind people about it? Give that job to your students and grab my free ebook so that you are not just posting announcements, but you're posting them in a fun, relevant and witty way.

Nick Clason (15:06):
You see, that's the thing. You can delegate all of that. And so in that list, all you're doing is you are preparing the lesson, but all these other delegations, you have to set those up. They take time. It will take more time to set those up on the front side, but once it gets up and running, you will be a task master. Inevitably part of the job in youth ministry because it's relationships based and because we do our ministry when other people are not at work, when other people are not at school, you and I are going to have moments where youth ministry invades elements of being a dad, of being a family person of relationship with your wife. So how do you avoid sacrificing your family on the altar of ministry? Well, here's three principles and three ideas that I personally live by and that I try to implement in my ministry to help me.

Nick Clason (16:03):
The first one is this is keep in mind that evenings count double. I remember one time a pastor was like, well, if you work on Wednesday night, just don't work Wednesday morning. And that's true, and I'm going to give you that hack here in just a minute as well. However, a Wednesday morning time at home, which I record this podcast every single Wednesday morning, super early in the morning, as soon as I'm done, I'm going to go hang with my family, drive my kids to school, and then hang out with my wife and my youngest who's going to be home. But when I'm not home tonight because of programming, they would rather me be home in the evening. I would rather me be home in the evening, evening hours, count, double. So use your evening hours that you inevitably have to use. You have to use evening hours, but use them sparingly and don't be so quick to give them up.

Nick Clason (16:51):
Be very, very measured in your evening hours. One of the rules of life that me and my wife stumbled into haphazardly because we were giving up way too many evening hours early on in our marriage, was no more than three evenings out per week. We like to be home. You figure out what works best for you, but there's seven nights a week. We can be out three. The other four, we want to be home more than we're out. And that includes youth ministry that included our own personal grow group together as a couple. And then one other thing. And so if someone would ask us like, Hey, do you guys want to get together? We would look at our calendar and for like, well, we're already full this week. We would kick 'em to the next week or something like that, but we knew our limit.

Nick Clason (17:35):
So know your limit. If you're out every single evening and you're just trying to make up for that by being home in the morning, just remember that those count double. The second thing is this, take advantage of slower seasons. Okay? The fact is, Christmas season may be a busy hefty season for your church, especially your worship team, your tech team, your worship leaders, people setting up the stage. But for student ministry, it's often a little slower. So take advantage of that because the reality is those people are not going to be at summer camp, come June when you are and you're away from your family. And so budget for those things and lean into the different rhythms of life. And the third thing is take advantage of the fact that your job has flexibility. You might have work from home capabilities. I know I try to work from home a lot of Thursdays, which is a nice thing that I get to do or I can even do when my kids are at school lunch or breakfast dates with my wife.

Nick Clason (18:27):
It's cheaper. Don't have to pay for a babysitter, don't have to bring our kids with us. And also, I can comp my Wednesday mornings because I'm going to be working late on Wednesday night, or I might comp a Thursday morning if I work a full day, like a full 12 hour day on Wednesday because of programming. I may come in a little bit late on Thursday. And the fact is, you can make some of those things up. You are responsible for your time, so take advantage of those things. Get approval, make sure your supervisor's okay with it, but take advantage of the flexibility that you have because the thing is this, healthy leaders lead healthy ministries, and we're going to talk about that in the very next episode, which is going to be up here on the screen talking about how to grow your youth ministry, which is one of the things that your boss wants, and probably you want not just for vanity metrics, but also because you want to make an impact on the kingdom of God. So as always, don't forget we're making digital discipleship easy, accessible and possible. Stay hybrid, my friend.

]]> โšก [FREE] Social Media Mastery Awaits! Get Your Hands on Our Free One-Month Ebook โšก

๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

โ˜๏ธONE-CLICK SOLUTION FOR REELS & SHORTS
OPUS FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

2024 [FREE] Youth Ministry Masterclass on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick

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

DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿฅฑ Are you tired?
๐Ÿซ  Overwhelmed?
๐Ÿ Even if youโ€™re not, donโ€™t you just feel like the rat race of church ministry never ends?

๐Ÿ•ฅ Don't let time slip through your fingers; start streamlining your schedule today to make the most of every minute you invest in your ministry and the lives of young people.

๐Ÿ’ช Prepare to be empowered, motivated, and equipped to take your time management skills to the next level. By implementing the strategies shared in this video, you'll be well on your way to becoming a more organized, efficient, and impactful youth pastor.

โšก If you're ready to take charge of your time and elevate your ministry to new heights, hit that play button and let "The Ultimate Guide to Time Management for Youth Pastors" be your guiding light.

Subscribe to our channel and don't miss any more videos from the 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass FREE on YouTube

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๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//BEST DYM RESOURCES
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OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
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๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/077

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/xlS1kWcQBS8

//94% OF BORN AGAIN CHRISTIANS
https://amotherfarfromhome.com/94-of-christians-were-saved-before-18-years-of-age/

//MY YOUTH MIN BY YM360
https://myyouthmin.com/

//DOWNLOADYOUTHMINISTRY
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Technique #1: Make a list
//MICROSOFT TO-DO
https://to-do.office.com/tasks/

//TODOIST
https://todoist.com/

//ANY.DO
https://www.any.do/en

Technique#2: Calendaring
//GOOGLE CALENDAR
http://calendar.google.com

Technique #3: Make appointments with yourself
//CALENDLY.COM
https://calendly.com/

Technique #4: Schedule your relationships
//CALENDLY.COM
https://calendly.com/

Technique #5: Delegate, Automate or Eliminate
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๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00-02:21 Get More Done
02:21-04:57 The 3 Core Tenets of Time Management
04:57-07:15 Technique #1: Make a list
07:15-08:48 Technique #2: Calendaring
08:48-11:18 Technique #3: Make appointments with yourself
11:18-13:06 Technique #4: Schedule your relationships
13:06-15:25 Technique #5: Delegate, Automate or Eliminiate
15:25-16:04 Avoid Sacrificing your Family on the Altar of Youth Ministry
16:04-17:44 Hack 1: Evenings Count Double
17:44-18:11 Hack 2: Take Advantage of Slower Seasons
18:11-19:24 Hack 3: Take Advantage of your job's flexibility

โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:01):
Time management for youth pastors? Is it even possible? I mean, think about it. It's like you and I, I'm a youth pastor too. We have multiple jobs. We have pastors, we have executive pastors, we have parents, we have stepparents, we have spouses, our own spouses, we have our children, we have our youth kids that we're trying to minister to. We have the youth leaders. It's like we're answering to so many different people. It can feel so confusing. Who do we try to make happy? Who do we try to cater to? And at the end of the day, how do we make sense of any of this? Because the reality is we have the most important job in the world. Think about it, a hundred years from now, no one's going to care what kind of whipped cream you bought at Walmart for the hot cocoa bar for the upcoming Christmas party, but a hundred years from now, what matters?

Nick Clason (00:50):
What hangs in the balance is the lives and souls of these students, and you've probably heard it before, 94% of born again Christians have made a decision to follow Jesus before the age of 18. I know that that stat alone is the reason why I do what I do. And in this episode we're going to talk about the pillars of time management, what you need to understand from kind of like a philosophical standpoint. Then we're going to chat through the Surefire framework, and then finally, I'm going to give you three hacks to avoid sacrificing your family on the altar of your job. And here's why this is important and here's why I can even talk about this right now. I am currently offering a two-part video series to YM 360 once per month. I'm writing a weekly teaching series for them. I'm also doing weekly YouTube videos right here on this channel.

Nick Clason (01:39):
I'm posting two times daily on social media. I have my very own free ebook, which I'm following that exact strategy for myself on this channel as well as in my student ministry. You can download a copy of that for free link in the show notes. I try to create a weekly game for download youth ministry, and by the way, I have a real job as a youth pastor as well. My boss asked me, do you just never sleep? Do you work all the weekends? How do you get it all done? The reality is I follow these techniques and I want to encourage you to subscribe because we are dropping. This is part one of the 2024 on-Demand Youth Pastor Masterclass, time management. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Okay, so there are three kind of core tenets, philosophical things that you actually to understand when it comes to time management.

Nick Clason (02:29):
These aren't tips, these aren't tactics. These are things that you have to understand first and these have to inform the tips and the tactics. No amount of tips, no amount of tactics will be helpful to you if you don't understand these things. So core tenant number one is that you are 100% responsible for your time and again, like I said at the top, it may not feel that way. It may feel like you have multiple different bosses and that is true. The reality is you are going to be answering to different people and there are going to be times where they are going to dictate

Nick Clason (02:58):
What do, but at the end of the day, your boss is not flushing out your 40, 45, 50, 55 hour a week schedule. He's just not or she's just not. You are responsible for your time 100%. So you understand that basis. You can then operate out of that. If you are waiting for someone to tell you what to do, then this time management thing is going to just be fleeting and you're not going to be able to get any of this stuff done because you're going to be playing the victim mentality as opposed to taking agency and control for your time. Core tenant number two is this is your overwhelmed. The reason that you may feel overwhelmed, have anxiety, not know what to do, be confused about which task to tackle. It comes from this. It comes from the fact that you have no direction. We're going to get to more about that in a second, but that lack of direction, you need direction.

Nick Clason (03:52):
That direction is what helps give your brain clarity, focus and the ability to just crush tasks on what comes next and get things done. Number three, not all time is created equal. Here's an example. I'm a morning person. You give me two hours in the morning from like 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM I can crush just about any youth sermon. It will be good, it will be coherent, it will make sense, but if you give me that same block of time from 3:00 PM to say 5:00 PM I'm toast. I'm not getting the same amount of work done. You need to know what your key hours are, the hours that you can get the most amount of optimal thinking time done so that you can knock things out. Now let's move on. If we understand those things that you're in charge of your time that you're overwhelmed comes from the fact that you may not have any direction.

Nick Clason (04:41):
And then number three, not all time is created equal with those as the core tenants, with those as the philosophy. Let's build on that and let's get really practical, really hands-on and some things that you can implement in your time management skills in your workweek today. So technique number one is start with a list. I know it sounds basic and you're like, bro, we're on the hybrid ministry show. I thought you're going to give me some bougie next level digital tool. Sure, grab a list that's digital if that's what you want to do. That's what I do. I use Microsoft to do. I hate Microsoft. It used to be called Wonderlist and I use it because it has the ability to be shared. So my wife and I do our groceries on it, but then Microsoft took it over and I still use it, but it's a digital list.

Nick Clason (05:27):
I can use it on my phone, I can use it on a computer. You can use anything. I mean you can use the notes app in your phone. You can use a Daytimer. You can write it down physically with paper, but make a list of everything you have to do and get specific. For example, if you say Plain Wednesday night, yes, you have to do that. You're a youth pastor, that's part of your job. But what goes into planning Wednesday night? That's not very specific because specifically you to write a lesson, you need to send the leader email. You need to schedule your tech team. You need to schedule your greeters, you need to plan the worship set. You need to play in the game. You need to set up chairs. You need to set up the cafe, make sure that the cafe is stocked.

Nick Clason (06:10):
You need to make announcement slides. You need to post a social to remind people about Wednesday and to crush social, you should grab my 100% completely free ebook. It's right down here, link in the description, but nonetheless, you see that, right? You see how Wednesday night planning versus all this other stuff. You see how that is an example of a good to-do list versus a bad to-Do list. Again, if you're like, I know I need to get done with Wednesday, break it all apart. List down every single thing you need to do because you know this as well as I do that as a youth pastor, that's not your only job because in addition to planning Wednesday, maybe you have to plan Sunday and all the little elements that go within that, maybe you have to meet with a volunteer. You need to grab coffee with the student.

Nick Clason (06:55):
You need to have a check-in with your senior pastor. You need to fill in the blank. You know what you have to do, and that's the problem. Not only do we have multiple different jobs, not only do we have multiple different kind of fighters that we might feel like we have to put out, but we also have multiple different focuses in our time. So get them all on paper. That's step one. Step two, calendar. If you are not using a calendar, and once again this is the hybrid ministry show, you got to figure out what works for you, but your calendar needs to dictate what you're doing not only beforehand, but also then you can look back and see how well am I keeping these things if I give myself or you give yourself one hour to craft your Wednesday night, but you have all those tasks to do and it takes you a full day, then you can go back next week and be like, all I'm going to need more hours than one to get ready for Wednesday night.

Nick Clason (07:49):
You can use your calendar to go back and audit how much time it actually takes. You don't shortchange yourself. And that's one of the keys. One of the reasons we get overwhelmed is we try and cram too many things into our calendar and it's just not humanly possible. So look ahead on your calendar, but also look back on your calendar and whatever you do integrate your work and your personal, it's one of the ways that you don't sacrifice your family on the altar of ministry. You don't have to have a calendar that's work and personal together. But when big major things that your personal and family calendar need to be aware of or vice versa, put those things in there, right? If you have a child's doctor appointment during the day, during the weekday when doctor's offices are only open, put it in there so that no one schedules a meeting with you.

Nick Clason (08:38):
No one sees you're out of office, that you're not available, that you are available when you're really not. So make sure that those things talk and communicate with each other. The second, third thing, I'm sorry, third thing, make appointments with yourself. A lot of times people calendar when there's an appointment. I have a meeting with my senior pastor that's on my calendar from nine to 10:00 AM Okay, well, when are you going to write your sermon? Well, just whenever I'm not in that. If you get a notice or a text message from someone and they say, Hey, I want to meet with you, then you can say, Hey, I am available from this time to this time. Because what we often do is pull open our calendar and see a bunch of blank space and be like, I'm free all day. What that's doing is when you're giving someone else control of your calendar, they're going to take whatever time works best for them as opposed to whatever time works best for you.

Nick Clason (09:30):
And so if they take morning sometime between six and 8:00 AM let's say they go to work and they want that morning appointment, well, for me, that's going to eat into my prep time and I'm not going to say no, I'm not going to decline meeting with them, but I am going to drive and dictate and point to where I am most available. I like to do lunches because I can get my work done in the morning and then I have an opportunity for lunch. And if a person's only available for breakfast, then I might have one breakfast slot per week where I will allow someone into there as opposed to let that be prep time. But you can use things like calendly.com and you can give that to people for them to book times with you. And so as long as your calendar is up to date, you've made appointments with other people and you've made appointments with yourself, then now other people can slide into those things.

Nick Clason (10:22):
It is okay to tell somebody no that you're not available to meet with them, not because you don't want to, but because you're busy, but because you've made an appointment with yourself. And then as you're blocking out your calendar, you need to figure out what works best for you, but you need to leave either 60 to 70% margin unscheduled time, and you can block it. You can put it in a calendar, but you can call it margin. You can call it buffer, you can call it reach ahead time. You can call whatever you want to call it. But one of the reasons that we get stressed out is that we schedule ourselves with no margin at all. And so if plan Wednesday night is supposed to take six hours and it takes seven and it eats into the next task that's supposed to come after in the seventh hour, we start to get overwhelmed.

Nick Clason (11:12):
But if we leave a little bit of space, we can leave some of that flex time. We can allow interruptions and we can allow people. Number four, make sure that you do in fact schedule your relationships. Don't just make your calendar, task, task test, test, test, test task, right? Relationships often are the things that feel like interruptions, but if you can account for them, if you have space for them, listen, here's the fact you're probably in youth ministry because you're a relational person. You probably prefer relationships over tasks. I'm more of a task guy. I like prefer tasks over relationships. So you need to figure out your zone and what works for you. But for me, what works for me is I need to relationships. I need to grab lunch with leaders. All right? So a couple of times a week, I got lunch in there for leaders.

Nick Clason (11:58):
I got lunch in there for students. I got space in there after school for students, whatever the case might be, but know where you're going to slide those things in. And again, if you leave that margin, then you can account for the interruptions. If you work on a little bit slightly bigger staff, I know I do. There'll be people, especially people I work with who pop into my office, have conversations. Those can feel frustrating and those can feel like interruptions. But the fact is, if I don't schedule my calendar my week at a hundred percent tasks, then when someone comes in, I can stop. I can pause, I can be present, I can get back to my tasks when that conversation's over and when they are ready to move on. So schedule time for those things. And like I said, a tool that you can use hybridize, this thing is Calendly.

Nick Clason (12:40):
It is a great way, especially if you're like, Hey, I want to grab lunch with you here. Grab a slot here that works for you. Then you take all of that back and forth out like, what about Thursday at six? No, it doesn't work. How about Wednesday at two? No, no, I got appointment. Then you go back and forth, back and forth. You can just be like, Hey, want to grab lunch? Sure, here's what I have available. They book it, boom, you're done. And then they slide right in to your calendar. And then the fifth and final thing in this framework is I stole this from Michael Hyatt and he's the productivity king and guru, but delegate and automate every single thing that you can. He actually challenges you to delegate, automate, and then terminate. So is there anything in your to-do list that you can just be done doing altogether?

Nick Clason (13:30):
Additionally, let's go back to our good example from earlier. Plan Wednesday night, write a lesson that might be a you and you only task, but every single thing else, check this out. Send the leader email. You could probably hand that off to a high level admin, maybe a volunteer, maybe even an intern. Schedule the tech team. Well, that should be the tech leader's job. If you don't have a tech leader, enlist a tech leader and then make that the tech leader's job. How about scheduling the greeters? Well let that be your greeter team lead's job and then planning the worship set. You can hand that off to a worship leader. If you don't have a paid worship leader, you can get a volunteer worship leader that you trust to plan the worship set maybe for a while they run it by you, but then you officially hand that off onto their plate planning the game.

Nick Clason (14:16):
Well, you can hand that off to a high level student who you even want to host. You can let them grab games off of DYM, give them your password, and then boom, they're off and running. What about setting up chairs? Well, that can be your student work crew who comes in once a week and maybe you're giving your student work crew a discount on camp this summer to come in and set up chairs. How about setting up the cafe? You can hand that off to your admin, maybe a cafe. Volunteer team leader. What about making the announcement slides? Hand a student, your Canva Pro password, link to that right here at the top of the video and give them the keys to making your announcement slides. What about posting to social media to remind people about it? Give that job to your students and grab my free ebook so that you are not just posting announcements, but you're posting them in a fun, relevant and witty way.

Nick Clason (15:06):
You see, that's the thing. You can delegate all of that. And so in that list, all you're doing is you are preparing the lesson, but all these other delegations, you have to set those up. They take time. It will take more time to set those up on the front side, but once it gets up and running, you will be a task master. Inevitably part of the job in youth ministry because it's relationships based and because we do our ministry when other people are not at work, when other people are not at school, you and I are going to have moments where youth ministry invades elements of being a dad, of being a family person of relationship with your wife. So how do you avoid sacrificing your family on the altar of ministry? Well, here's three principles and three ideas that I personally live by and that I try to implement in my ministry to help me.

Nick Clason (16:03):
The first one is this is keep in mind that evenings count double. I remember one time a pastor was like, well, if you work on Wednesday night, just don't work Wednesday morning. And that's true, and I'm going to give you that hack here in just a minute as well. However, a Wednesday morning time at home, which I record this podcast every single Wednesday morning, super early in the morning, as soon as I'm done, I'm going to go hang with my family, drive my kids to school, and then hang out with my wife and my youngest who's going to be home. But when I'm not home tonight because of programming, they would rather me be home in the evening. I would rather me be home in the evening, evening hours, count, double. So use your evening hours that you inevitably have to use. You have to use evening hours, but use them sparingly and don't be so quick to give them up.

Nick Clason (16:51):
Be very, very measured in your evening hours. One of the rules of life that me and my wife stumbled into haphazardly because we were giving up way too many evening hours early on in our marriage, was no more than three evenings out per week. We like to be home. You figure out what works best for you, but there's seven nights a week. We can be out three. The other four, we want to be home more than we're out. And that includes youth ministry that included our own personal grow group together as a couple. And then one other thing. And so if someone would ask us like, Hey, do you guys want to get together? We would look at our calendar and for like, well, we're already full this week. We would kick 'em to the next week or something like that, but we knew our limit.

Nick Clason (17:35):
So know your limit. If you're out every single evening and you're just trying to make up for that by being home in the morning, just remember that those count double. The second thing is this, take advantage of slower seasons. Okay? The fact is, Christmas season may be a busy hefty season for your church, especially your worship team, your tech team, your worship leaders, people setting up the stage. But for student ministry, it's often a little slower. So take advantage of that because the reality is those people are not going to be at summer camp, come June when you are and you're away from your family. And so budget for those things and lean into the different rhythms of life. And the third thing is take advantage of the fact that your job has flexibility. You might have work from home capabilities. I know I try to work from home a lot of Thursdays, which is a nice thing that I get to do or I can even do when my kids are at school lunch or breakfast dates with my wife.

Nick Clason (18:27):
It's cheaper. Don't have to pay for a babysitter, don't have to bring our kids with us. And also, I can comp my Wednesday mornings because I'm going to be working late on Wednesday night, or I might comp a Thursday morning if I work a full day, like a full 12 hour day on Wednesday because of programming. I may come in a little bit late on Thursday. And the fact is, you can make some of those things up. You are responsible for your time, so take advantage of those things. Get approval, make sure your supervisor's okay with it, but take advantage of the flexibility that you have because the thing is this, healthy leaders lead healthy ministries, and we're going to talk about that in the very next episode, which is going to be up here on the screen talking about how to grow your youth ministry, which is one of the things that your boss wants, and probably you want not just for vanity metrics, but also because you want to make an impact on the kingdom of God. So as always, don't forget we're making digital discipleship easy, accessible and possible. Stay hybrid, my friend.

]]> Episode 071: ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ New Frontiers in Digital Discipleship for the Church: Youth Ministry Games ๐ŸŽฎ https://www.hybridministry.xyz/071 a0215907-29bd-46db-838a-50f2ccc0ebee Thu, 16 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0600 Nick Clason 071 ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ New Frontiers in Digital Discipleship for the Church: Youth Ministry Games ๐ŸŽฎ full Nick Clason ๐ŸŽฎ Games and Youth Ministry. They go together like peanut butter and jelly Macaroni and Cheese Batman and Robin ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ But how can we, as youth pastors, readjust the way we do games to lean more into the digital space we find ourselves in? 17:35 no ๐Ÿ”ฅSURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME ๐Ÿ”ฅ ๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book โ˜๏ธONE-CLICK SOLUTION FOR REELS &amp; SHORTS OPUS FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS PLAYLIST Exploring The New Way to Approach Ministry, Full Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ ======================================== DESCRIPTION ๐Ÿ‘‹ Welcome to our YouTube channel &amp; podcast! ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ In this playlist, we are exploring the 3 new digital frontiers for churches and youth ministry pastors and leaders. ๐ŸŽฎ And in this video we're exploring the world of Youth Ministry Games and Fun! What is different? Where did games even come from in the first place? And how should we adjust as we move forward into this new digital frontier? In the subsequent videos we'll talk about ๐Ÿ’ฌ Message Enhancement ๐Ÿ‘ Shepherding So be sure to subscribe, so you don't miss a thing! churchattendance #hiddentruth #unveiling #2023 #church #truth #revelation #faith #spirituality #religion #worship #community #christianity #belief #sunday #sacred #divine #belief #sermon #christian ======================================== ๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“ ๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool" https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book ๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?" https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook ๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers" https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis ======================================== ๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products //YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100 https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit AUTO POD https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS &amp; REELS https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361 ๐Ÿ‘‰ 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 ๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES //SHOWNOTES &amp; TRANSCRIPTS http://www.hybridministry.xyz/071 //View all the Charts and Graphs via YouTube https://youtu.be/OiBjI9dMxu8 //Rank 'Em https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em---fall-edition/fall-8962.html //Visual Variance Voyage https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/visual-variance-voyage%3A-fall-edition/holiday-or-seasonal/fall-9043.html //Adobe Photoshop &amp; Premiere Crash Course https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKVpQBDSQV6Q9hFeXCptHSu //Budget Friendly Design Options https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw //Emoji Phraseology Vol 1 https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology/social-media/instagram-6801.html //Emoji Phraseology Camp Edition https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---camp-edition/games/sequels-8122.html //Emoji Phraseology: Summer Edition https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---summer-edition/games/bundles-and-sequels-8088.html //Emoji Phraseology: Easter Edition https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology-easter-edition/games/pop-culture-6957.html //Emoji Phraseology: Vol 2 https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---vol-2/games/sequels-8640.html //Emoji Phraseology: Halloween Edition https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---halloween-edition/fall/halloween-8320.html //Emoji Phraseology: March Madness https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---madness-edition/spring/march-madness-8594.html //Emoji Phraseology: 4th of July https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---patriotic-edition/summer/4th-of-july-8780.html //Emoji Phraseology: St. Patrick's Day https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology-shamrock-edition/games-6929.html //Emoji Phraseology: Christmas Edition https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology%3A-christmas-edition/christmas-games-8426.html //Emoji Phraseology: Superhero Edition https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---superhero-edition/games/pop-culture-8827.html //Emoji Phraseology: SuperBowl https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---big-game-edition/sports/football-8520.html //Emoji Phraseology: Bible Story Edition https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---bible-story-edition/games/bible-based-8687.html //Emoji Phraseology: Back 2 School https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---back-2-school-edition/fall/back-to-school-8900.html //Emoji Phraseology: Valentine's Day https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology%3A-love-edition---game-%26-social-media/games/humor-6855.html ๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES 00:00-02:08 Exploring New Digital Frontiers in Youth Ministry 02:08-04:10 What is Hybrid Ministry? 04:10-08:20 Why do we play games in Youth Ministry? 08:20-17:35 3 Hybrid Game Ideas you can use this week! โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa Nick Clason (00:00): Games and youth ministry, they go together like peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, Batman and Robin. But how can we as youth pastors or ministry leaders readjust the way in which we approach games and lean more into this digital space that we found ourselves in? Should we ignore it or should we find a way to capitalize on it? My approach and my mission for this podcast is to turn your ministry hybrid. How do we make your ministry hybrid, not just in person, not just digital, but a melding of the two. Does that mean that we should play more like cell phone based games, Kahoot games, zoom screen games? In this three part playlist, I want to give you the three new frontiers that we should be exploring as youth pastors, as youth ministry leaders into the digital space and frontier number one. Today. In this episode, we are going to be exploring the world of youth ministry and youth ministry games. Nick Clason (01:02): We're going to delve into the why and the philosophy of youth ministry and give you three games that you can adopt and take into your student ministry immediately today. All of this in effort as we are in this new digital frontier, this new digital space to effectively reach the students that God has placed in our trust with the message of hope and the mission of the gospel. We're also going to be exploring in this playlist how you can bring up your message enhancement in the hybrid world, and finally, how you can implement ongoing care, shepherding and relationships to the students that God has entrusted into you and your care in your student ministry. But let's dive further into this new frontier of digital discipleship through the means and avenues of games. Make sure also that you stick around to the very end because at the end I'm going to leave with you a one surefire resource that you can implement with multiple done for you game ideas and ways that you can hybridize your ministry. Nick Clason (01:58): And I have the ultimate hack that you can bring just about any game and turn it into a hybrid game. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everyone. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am Nick Clason, a 13 year youth ministry veteran, currently serving in the great state of Texas. And I want to let you know that I am on a mission, as I said in the intro, to help youth pastors usher themselves more and more into this digital age. And I want to make sure that we are keeping the integrity of our in-person gatherings while also offering more and more of an opportunity for our students to engage with us from a digital mindset and digital framework. And so what I actually have for you as a surefire link in the description, I have a ebook. I have created 40 a whole month's worth of posting strategy for you as a youth pastor implement the strategy that I'm currently using, the one that I've used to grow our YouTube account and our followership in our social media from zero to around 300 up to this point and just under a calendar year. Nick Clason (03:03): And it will give you ideas and games that you can use and implement that are turnkey right now that you can use. But they're custom. You and your students and your volunteers get to be the heroes on your youth ministry. It's not just a bunch of static on account of foreign kind of boring graphics. It's real faces, real human beings. If you put a little bit of work in, you can totally revolutionize your student ministry. And I also want to let you know that links right here at the top of this video is a link to a video, what I believe every youth ministry needs and why this is also important. It's basically the thesis for this entire podcast. Hey, and finally, I want to make sure that you like and subscribe to this episode because here's why we are going to be dropping more and more episodes, especially this one as we're exploring new frontiers of hybrid ministry in the next episodes to come. Nick Clason (03:49): And I want to make sure that you don't miss it and likes, honestly, they're free and they really, really help us out and they help us get this mission to more and more people. But let's explore before we dive into the actual nitty gritty of games and youth ministry, let's talk about the philosophy and even the history of youth ministry and youth ministry games. Where did games come from? Why do we do them? It seems like it's the rite of passage. Every single youth ministry needs games. You look at resources like YM 360, download, youth ministry, even old school back in the day group. They're all trying to help solve this problem of how can you have games and what do games look like and where can you best take care of supplying games for you and your students? And we have screen-based games and active games and digital games and hybrid games, and we're going to get into all of that. Nick Clason (04:43): But I wanted to take a step back and be like, where did this even come from? So back in the 18 hundreds when students were not going to school on a regular basis, they were working six days a week, they invented this idea of Sunday School to bring about an age graded focus for students and an age graded Bible study, one that was a little bit more relevant to them in their timeframe, a little bit more relevant to them in their age group. And so what they did was they created this breakdown by age and grade and gender even. And they started to create this school vibe where they would teach the Bible. Well then fast forward to the 1940s, churches were maybe not super relevant to reaching young people. And so these two organizations popped up right around the same time, young Life and youth for Christ. Nick Clason (05:34): And so they both came with the mindset with the entire goal is to reach young people, reach 'em for Christ, and help change them from the inside out and revolutionize them with the power of the gospel. And then finally in the 1970s, churches began to start to see a void of that because what they were doing was in Sunday school mode, they're having volunteers and parents kind of lead these groups, but they started to identify this need for pastors, for people who could come in and who could be specialists in this area for teenagers and for the young people in their churches because they saw what was going on with Youth for Christ and Young Life. And they wanted to also bring that and usher that into the local church. And so since about the 1970s and the Jesus Revolution time, shout out to that movie if you haven't seen it yet, but they're bringing about this young people, this place for young people to come and find belonging, meaning, and purpose. Nick Clason (06:28): So that's the history of youth ministry. But why games? So if you look over time, there's always an element of fun and something that will bring about a draw of a crowd. And so to get the maximum amount of people you might feed people, you might offer fun, you might offer warmth, you might offer a great environment or a good vibe. And the truth of matter is, is that games have always sort of been a staple in what we've done in youth ministry, so much so that I do think at some point we've gotten a little bit rote with them and they're benign, and we just do them without even thinking like, well, what's the game going to be? Well, why are we even doing games? What's the purpose? And so what I've seen in my 13 years of student ministry experience is that if you just do games for game's sake, it doesn't have much to offer. Nick Clason (07:17): But in my mind, the purpose of a game is to help speak the language of teenagers, which by the way is the entire reason why I have this ebook linked in the description below for you to become more hybrid and for you to become more digitally focused. Because I believe it's a way for us to speak the language better of our teenagers and teenagers, whether they want to admit it or not, they love fun. Fun is the currency of teenagers. Fun helps break down the walls of people who may or may not know why they're at your church or who God is, or they're exploring this faith thing for the very first time. And fun helps alleviate and reduce the tension out of the room why we do what we do. And so with that in mind, I want to give you three game ideas, three hybrid game ideas that you can take use and even download immediately with links in the description of this episode that you can use both on your social media in person, and better yet, maybe you can find a way to meld the two together. Nick Clason (08:17): So let's explore that in the next section. All right, so link below in the description are three games that I have in my Download Youth Ministry store right now, and they are fun ones that I like to use. But I also just want to let you know that in all of this, many of the things that I'm going to be suggesting to you are also linked in my completely free ebook. So if you don't want to go pay for it, you can come up with some of these ideas on your very own by just looking at my completely free ebook, which is 40 done for You Ideas to help you and your students and your volunteers become the heroes on your church's social media and in your church's digital presence. And listen, in my ebook, I'm going to give you just a little bit of a sneak peek and a little bit of a hack. Nick Clason (09:01): I recommend that you sit just like this direct to camera and present and preach your message ahead of time before you deliver it live into the room. You then use that to clip up, make short sermon clips. But if you aren't willing and don't have the time to do that, I do recommend the remainder of my strategy, which is having fun with your students and having fun with your leaders and having fun with maybe even other staff on camera and posting that to your social media because it's a way that you can interact and engage with something that's live and happening real and in the room, but you can also show that content out to the rest of the world, and if not the rest of the world, at least the rest of your church, the rest of your youth ministry, the parents that are connected to the students in your ministry. Nick Clason (09:45): And so three of these ideas are ideas that I have either detailed or outlined before, or ones that I've come up with since I released the ebook. So the first one is a game called Rank 'em, and there's two different ways to do it. I believe right now I have the fall version online on DYM and coming up soon, I should be having the Christmas version drop onto Download Youth Ministry. But Rank 'em is basically a, Hey, let your students take these five things and rank them one through five. Now, one of my favorite variations to that is what's called, and maybe you've seen it if you've been on TikTok or Reels, is the blind ranking thing, which is where different categories of things come in. So let's say you're doing Nick Clason (10:24): A blind ranking of a TV show, and I say The Office, and then you have to put it in one through five list. And so for me, if I got the office, I'd be like, well, that's one. But then if someone was like, fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna Gaines, I'd be like, man, I like that show a lot. Probably put it at three. I'm afraid to give away two. And then if someone's like, okay, Ted Lasso, I'll be like, oh, Ted Lasso so good. I want to put it at one, but I can't start putting the office there. So I guess I'll put it in at two. And then if someone was like the ugliest houses in America, I'd be like, okay, I can put that at five. I like it, but I want to reserve four for something. And then they said, the Mandalorian, I'd be like, all right, four. Nick Clason (11:00): And I'd be like, you know what? I don't hate that list. What do you think Office, Ted Lasso Fixer Upper Mandalorian houses in America. I'm okay with that list, right? But the point is, I didn't know what was coming next. That's the idea of a blind ranking. And so I have two versions in this actual game. Rank 'em where you can play live in the room with five things. You can do the one by one where they come in one at a time and you have to choose to rank 'em. I also have a social media version where you can take it and you can post it on your reels tos, YouTube shorts, and you can let students interact with it there and give their rankings. You can post it on YouTube story, or I'm sorry, Instagram stories if you don't have any of the other short kind of form platforms. Nick Clason (11:39): But you can use this. And again, if you get this game, I played this game in my context, live in the room a couple of weeks ago, and we only got to three questions. So what I did was, the way that I played it was I had myself and a co-host. And so the first one was me. They had to guess my rankings of these certain things at their tables together. And then how they did. Then we went to my co-host, they had to guess his rankings of the certain things, and then finally we switched that and they could rank them themselves. But the game has 10 questions, and so we only used three. So that leaves me seven more that I can use kind of sprinkled throughout on my socials throughout the rest of the week. Game idea number two is the visual variance voyage. Nick Clason (12:20): And because I'm a good Baptist, I like a good alliteration, but essentially it's a spot the difference game. And so if you get the widescreen version on DYM, I should have a fall version as well as a Christmas version coming out here soon. You have two graphics come in side by side, and you have to spot the difference. And listen, the best thing right now is that Adobe Photoshop, generative AI is letting you just add things to pictures kind of here and there. And it is a game changer for a game like this. By the way, if you want to level up your Photoshop skills, I have a link in the playlist to my Adobe editing and Photoshop. If that's something that you're interested, go check that out if you want a cheaper version. I also have link down there below Budget graphics for people who are looking to save time and money going through PowerPoint, Canva, Adobe Express and Instagram. Nick Clason (13:04): But in the visual variance voyage, you have two different pictures and you're just trying to identify what is different. But there's a timer on the screen and it's counting down. So you can play that live in your room, you can get contestants, you can play it in groups, you can play it at tables. But I also like that I have created a vertical based graphic that you can use, and you can then take those, and you can post those on Instagram stories or on shorts, whatever. And again, in both of these, rank 'em and in the visual variance voyage, if you don't want to use my canned graphics with a canned background, you can take the concept, right? You can take the two pictures and you can show them to somebody on a camera walking around your youth space like, Hey, spot the difference in less than 10 seconds. Nick Clason (13:45): Go. And then have them try to guess it, but you film them and you post that to your TikTok or to your YouTube short or whatever, and you can do just a simple picture and picture. Take my graphic that I've created and do a picture and picture with the video that you take of the person trying to guess. And so that's taking it to the next level where you take a game that you could just post a game in and of itself. But if you take that game and you film somebody trying to play it, then that's a whole nother level to it. Which leads me to my third option, which is my favorite option is emoji phraseology. I have just about any variant of season and game that you can think of. And basically what it is is you're trying to guess the emoji phrase, whether it's Christmas, whether it's fall, whether it's New Year's, whether it's February for Valentine's Day, whether it's St. Nick Clason (14:28): Patrick's. I mean, I literally have just about every season on download youth ministry, every single variation is linked down below in the show notes. But one of the favorite ways that I've done with this is I've just done one question by one question where we've gone up to people and we've asked them to guess, and then we've taken that graphic and they looked at it, and then I did a little picture and picture, or I actually put the actual icons on. I've done it where I did full editing and Adobe Premiere Pro with animations and sounds. And I've also done it where I just, in the TikTok editor, I just put the emojis on the screen and people had to try and guess and see what was playing. And so in all of those are games that you could play physically. Those are also games that you can play only digitally. Nick Clason (15:10): And my favorite is film other people playing those games and then post those out to your socials. One of the ones that was the biggest hit for the emoji was we went around and we did bible story emojis, and we asked different members of our staff and those, those were a massive hit, seeing other pastors and staff and senior pastors out there trying to guess those things on our socials. So here's the thing. The last way, the Ultimate Hack, I told you I was going to give you this ultimate hack. You can play just about any game, any game on download, youth ministry. It doesn't have to be one of my games. It can be any game that you find on there. It doesn't even have to have a phone-based formatting for it, but play any game. And then at the end of it, if it's a subjective based game where people are creating something, making a song, doing a lip sync, decorating a donut, whatever the case might be, take pictures of those things and then post them to social media and tell them that the vote is going to be what determines the winner. Nick Clason (16:09): And the voting is done on Instagram that does two things. It promotes your social media and it allows the students to be the judge, not just some random celebrity judge, not just you trying to pull something out of your hat at the last minute, right? Because Gen Z and Gen Alpha love to be publishers, they love to contribute to publishing the content, not just simply basic consumers being told what has happened to them. That is an older school, older industrial minded way of doing things. They want to know that their voice matters and that they actually even have a voice that you care about and that you want to listen to. And so that, I believe, is way number one, that you can wade into this exploring of a new frontier of how you can implement fun and games, not just in your room, not just online, but also in a hybrid way to help give students an opportunity to lean in and have their voice be heard in this hybrid way of doing things. Nick Clason (16:59): Which reminder is why I said in my ebook, I outline all the ways that you can flesh this out with posts twice a day for five days a week. You can scale it back if you don't have the bandwidth to do that, but whatever the case might be, I have millions of ideas in there from spiritual practice to fun, to your message content and ways that you can get that message out to spread the message of hope. So click the link for that down below in the description, and in the next video, we're going to be exploring how you can enhance your message and your ministry live in the room with hybrid versions. You're not going to want to miss it. Click that on the screen and we'll catch you on that side. Hybrid Ministry, Youth Ministry, Online Church,Youth Group Games, Youth Group Games for Large Groups indoor, Youth Group games for large groups, Youth Group Games indoor, Youth Ministry Games, Youth Ministry Games for Large Groups, Youth Group Games for Church, Youth Group Games for Church indoor, Youth Ministry Games Indoor, Student Ministry Games, Student Ministry Games indoor, Youth Group, Student Ministry, Youth Pastor, Church Games for Youth, digital discipleship ๐Ÿ”ฅSURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME ๐Ÿ”ฅ

๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

โ˜๏ธONE-CLICK SOLUTION FOR REELS & SHORTS
OPUS FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS PLAYLIST
Exploring The New Way to Approach Ministry, Full Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ

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

DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿ‘‹ Welcome to our YouTube channel & podcast!

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ In this playlist, we are exploring the 3 new digital frontiers for churches and youth ministry pastors and leaders.

๐ŸŽฎ And in this video we're exploring the world of Youth Ministry Games and Fun!
What is different?
Where did games even come from in the first place?
And how should we adjust as we move forward into this new digital frontier?

In the subsequent videos we'll talk about
๐Ÿ’ฌ Message Enhancement
๐Ÿ‘ Shepherding

So be sure to subscribe, so you don't miss a thing!

churchattendance #hiddentruth #unveiling #2023 #church #truth #revelation #faith #spirituality #religion #worship #community #christianity #belief #sunday #sacred #divine #belief #sermon #christian

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook

๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

========================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

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

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

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

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

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/071

//View all the Charts and Graphs via YouTube
https://youtu.be/OiBjI9dMxu8

//Rank 'Em
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em---fall-edition/fall-8962.html

//Visual Variance Voyage
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/visual-variance-voyage%3A-fall-edition/holiday-or-seasonal/fall-9043.html

//Adobe Photoshop & Premiere Crash Course
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKVpQBDSQV6Q9hFeXCptHSu

//Budget Friendly Design Options
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw

//Emoji Phraseology Vol 1
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology/social-media/instagram-6801.html

//Emoji Phraseology Camp Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---camp-edition/games/sequels-8122.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Summer Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---summer-edition/games/bundles-and-sequels-8088.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Easter Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology-easter-edition/games/pop-culture-6957.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Vol 2
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---vol-2/games/sequels-8640.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Halloween Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---halloween-edition/fall/halloween-8320.html

//Emoji Phraseology: March Madness
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---madness-edition/spring/march-madness-8594.html

//Emoji Phraseology: 4th of July
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---patriotic-edition/summer/4th-of-july-8780.html

//Emoji Phraseology: St. Patrick's Day
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology-shamrock-edition/games-6929.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Christmas Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology%3A-christmas-edition/christmas-games-8426.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Superhero Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---superhero-edition/games/pop-culture-8827.html

//Emoji Phraseology: SuperBowl
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---big-game-edition/sports/football-8520.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Bible Story Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---bible-story-edition/games/bible-based-8687.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Back 2 School
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---back-2-school-edition/fall/back-to-school-8900.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Valentine's Day
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology%3A-love-edition---game-%26-social-media/games/humor-6855.html

๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00-02:08 Exploring New Digital Frontiers in Youth Ministry
02:08-04:10 What is Hybrid Ministry?
04:10-08:20 Why do we play games in Youth Ministry?

08:20-17:35 3 Hybrid Game Ideas you can use this week!

โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Games and youth ministry, they go together like peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, Batman and Robin. But how can we as youth pastors or ministry leaders readjust the way in which we approach games and lean more into this digital space that we found ourselves in? Should we ignore it or should we find a way to capitalize on it? My approach and my mission for this podcast is to turn your ministry hybrid. How do we make your ministry hybrid, not just in person, not just digital, but a melding of the two. Does that mean that we should play more like cell phone based games, Kahoot games, zoom screen games? In this three part playlist, I want to give you the three new frontiers that we should be exploring as youth pastors, as youth ministry leaders into the digital space and frontier number one. Today. In this episode, we are going to be exploring the world of youth ministry and youth ministry games.

Nick Clason (01:02):
We're going to delve into the why and the philosophy of youth ministry and give you three games that you can adopt and take into your student ministry immediately today. All of this in effort as we are in this new digital frontier, this new digital space to effectively reach the students that God has placed in our trust with the message of hope and the mission of the gospel. We're also going to be exploring in this playlist how you can bring up your message enhancement in the hybrid world, and finally, how you can implement ongoing care, shepherding and relationships to the students that God has entrusted into you and your care in your student ministry. But let's dive further into this new frontier of digital discipleship through the means and avenues of games. Make sure also that you stick around to the very end because at the end I'm going to leave with you a one surefire resource that you can implement with multiple done for you game ideas and ways that you can hybridize your ministry.

Nick Clason (01:58):
And I have the ultimate hack that you can bring just about any game and turn it into a hybrid game. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everyone. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am Nick Clason, a 13 year youth ministry veteran, currently serving in the great state of Texas. And I want to let you know that I am on a mission, as I said in the intro, to help youth pastors usher themselves more and more into this digital age. And I want to make sure that we are keeping the integrity of our in-person gatherings while also offering more and more of an opportunity for our students to engage with us from a digital mindset and digital framework. And so what I actually have for you as a surefire link in the description, I have a ebook. I have created 40 a whole month's worth of posting strategy for you as a youth pastor implement the strategy that I'm currently using, the one that I've used to grow our YouTube account and our followership in our social media from zero to around 300 up to this point and just under a calendar year.

Nick Clason (03:03):
And it will give you ideas and games that you can use and implement that are turnkey right now that you can use. But they're custom. You and your students and your volunteers get to be the heroes on your youth ministry. It's not just a bunch of static on account of foreign kind of boring graphics. It's real faces, real human beings. If you put a little bit of work in, you can totally revolutionize your student ministry. And I also want to let you know that links right here at the top of this video is a link to a video, what I believe every youth ministry needs and why this is also important. It's basically the thesis for this entire podcast. Hey, and finally, I want to make sure that you like and subscribe to this episode because here's why we are going to be dropping more and more episodes, especially this one as we're exploring new frontiers of hybrid ministry in the next episodes to come.

Nick Clason (03:49):
And I want to make sure that you don't miss it and likes, honestly, they're free and they really, really help us out and they help us get this mission to more and more people. But let's explore before we dive into the actual nitty gritty of games and youth ministry, let's talk about the philosophy and even the history of youth ministry and youth ministry games. Where did games come from? Why do we do them? It seems like it's the rite of passage. Every single youth ministry needs games. You look at resources like YM 360, download, youth ministry, even old school back in the day group. They're all trying to help solve this problem of how can you have games and what do games look like and where can you best take care of supplying games for you and your students? And we have screen-based games and active games and digital games and hybrid games, and we're going to get into all of that.

Nick Clason (04:43):
But I wanted to take a step back and be like, where did this even come from? So back in the 18 hundreds when students were not going to school on a regular basis, they were working six days a week, they invented this idea of Sunday School to bring about an age graded focus for students and an age graded Bible study, one that was a little bit more relevant to them in their timeframe, a little bit more relevant to them in their age group. And so what they did was they created this breakdown by age and grade and gender even. And they started to create this school vibe where they would teach the Bible. Well then fast forward to the 1940s, churches were maybe not super relevant to reaching young people. And so these two organizations popped up right around the same time, young Life and youth for Christ.

Nick Clason (05:34):
And so they both came with the mindset with the entire goal is to reach young people, reach 'em for Christ, and help change them from the inside out and revolutionize them with the power of the gospel. And then finally in the 1970s, churches began to start to see a void of that because what they were doing was in Sunday school mode, they're having volunteers and parents kind of lead these groups, but they started to identify this need for pastors, for people who could come in and who could be specialists in this area for teenagers and for the young people in their churches because they saw what was going on with Youth for Christ and Young Life. And they wanted to also bring that and usher that into the local church. And so since about the 1970s and the Jesus Revolution time, shout out to that movie if you haven't seen it yet, but they're bringing about this young people, this place for young people to come and find belonging, meaning, and purpose.

Nick Clason (06:28):
So that's the history of youth ministry. But why games? So if you look over time, there's always an element of fun and something that will bring about a draw of a crowd. And so to get the maximum amount of people you might feed people, you might offer fun, you might offer warmth, you might offer a great environment or a good vibe. And the truth of matter is, is that games have always sort of been a staple in what we've done in youth ministry, so much so that I do think at some point we've gotten a little bit rote with them and they're benign, and we just do them without even thinking like, well, what's the game going to be? Well, why are we even doing games? What's the purpose? And so what I've seen in my 13 years of student ministry experience is that if you just do games for game's sake, it doesn't have much to offer.

Nick Clason (07:17):
But in my mind, the purpose of a game is to help speak the language of teenagers, which by the way is the entire reason why I have this ebook linked in the description below for you to become more hybrid and for you to become more digitally focused. Because I believe it's a way for us to speak the language better of our teenagers and teenagers, whether they want to admit it or not, they love fun. Fun is the currency of teenagers. Fun helps break down the walls of people who may or may not know why they're at your church or who God is, or they're exploring this faith thing for the very first time. And fun helps alleviate and reduce the tension out of the room why we do what we do. And so with that in mind, I want to give you three game ideas, three hybrid game ideas that you can take use and even download immediately with links in the description of this episode that you can use both on your social media in person, and better yet, maybe you can find a way to meld the two together.

Nick Clason (08:17):
So let's explore that in the next section. All right, so link below in the description are three games that I have in my Download Youth Ministry store right now, and they are fun ones that I like to use. But I also just want to let you know that in all of this, many of the things that I'm going to be suggesting to you are also linked in my completely free ebook. So if you don't want to go pay for it, you can come up with some of these ideas on your very own by just looking at my completely free ebook, which is 40 done for You Ideas to help you and your students and your volunteers become the heroes on your church's social media and in your church's digital presence. And listen, in my ebook, I'm going to give you just a little bit of a sneak peek and a little bit of a hack.

Nick Clason (09:01):
I recommend that you sit just like this direct to camera and present and preach your message ahead of time before you deliver it live into the room. You then use that to clip up, make short sermon clips. But if you aren't willing and don't have the time to do that, I do recommend the remainder of my strategy, which is having fun with your students and having fun with your leaders and having fun with maybe even other staff on camera and posting that to your social media because it's a way that you can interact and engage with something that's live and happening real and in the room, but you can also show that content out to the rest of the world, and if not the rest of the world, at least the rest of your church, the rest of your youth ministry, the parents that are connected to the students in your ministry.

Nick Clason (09:45):
And so three of these ideas are ideas that I have either detailed or outlined before, or ones that I've come up with since I released the ebook. So the first one is a game called Rank 'em, and there's two different ways to do it. I believe right now I have the fall version online on DYM and coming up soon, I should be having the Christmas version drop onto Download Youth Ministry. But Rank 'em is basically a, Hey, let your students take these five things and rank them one through five. Now, one of my favorite variations to that is what's called, and maybe you've seen it if you've been on TikTok or Reels, is the blind ranking thing, which is where different categories of things come in. So let's say you're doing

Nick Clason (10:24):
A blind ranking of a TV show, and I say The Office, and then you have to put it in one through five list. And so for me, if I got the office, I'd be like, well, that's one. But then if someone was like, fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna Gaines, I'd be like, man, I like that show a lot. Probably put it at three. I'm afraid to give away two. And then if someone's like, okay, Ted Lasso, I'll be like, oh, Ted Lasso so good. I want to put it at one, but I can't start putting the office there. So I guess I'll put it in at two. And then if someone was like the ugliest houses in America, I'd be like, okay, I can put that at five. I like it, but I want to reserve four for something. And then they said, the Mandalorian, I'd be like, all right, four.

Nick Clason (11:00):
And I'd be like, you know what? I don't hate that list. What do you think Office, Ted Lasso Fixer Upper Mandalorian houses in America. I'm okay with that list, right? But the point is, I didn't know what was coming next. That's the idea of a blind ranking. And so I have two versions in this actual game. Rank 'em where you can play live in the room with five things. You can do the one by one where they come in one at a time and you have to choose to rank 'em. I also have a social media version where you can take it and you can post it on your reels tos, YouTube shorts, and you can let students interact with it there and give their rankings. You can post it on YouTube story, or I'm sorry, Instagram stories if you don't have any of the other short kind of form platforms.

Nick Clason (11:39):
But you can use this. And again, if you get this game, I played this game in my context, live in the room a couple of weeks ago, and we only got to three questions. So what I did was, the way that I played it was I had myself and a co-host. And so the first one was me. They had to guess my rankings of these certain things at their tables together. And then how they did. Then we went to my co-host, they had to guess his rankings of the certain things, and then finally we switched that and they could rank them themselves. But the game has 10 questions, and so we only used three. So that leaves me seven more that I can use kind of sprinkled throughout on my socials throughout the rest of the week. Game idea number two is the visual variance voyage.

Nick Clason (12:20):
And because I'm a good Baptist, I like a good alliteration, but essentially it's a spot the difference game. And so if you get the widescreen version on DYM, I should have a fall version as well as a Christmas version coming out here soon. You have two graphics come in side by side, and you have to spot the difference. And listen, the best thing right now is that Adobe Photoshop, generative AI is letting you just add things to pictures kind of here and there. And it is a game changer for a game like this. By the way, if you want to level up your Photoshop skills, I have a link in the playlist to my Adobe editing and Photoshop. If that's something that you're interested, go check that out if you want a cheaper version. I also have link down there below Budget graphics for people who are looking to save time and money going through PowerPoint, Canva, Adobe Express and Instagram.

Nick Clason (13:04):
But in the visual variance voyage, you have two different pictures and you're just trying to identify what is different. But there's a timer on the screen and it's counting down. So you can play that live in your room, you can get contestants, you can play it in groups, you can play it at tables. But I also like that I have created a vertical based graphic that you can use, and you can then take those, and you can post those on Instagram stories or on shorts, whatever. And again, in both of these, rank 'em and in the visual variance voyage, if you don't want to use my canned graphics with a canned background, you can take the concept, right? You can take the two pictures and you can show them to somebody on a camera walking around your youth space like, Hey, spot the difference in less than 10 seconds.

Nick Clason (13:45):
Go. And then have them try to guess it, but you film them and you post that to your TikTok or to your YouTube short or whatever, and you can do just a simple picture and picture. Take my graphic that I've created and do a picture and picture with the video that you take of the person trying to guess. And so that's taking it to the next level where you take a game that you could just post a game in and of itself. But if you take that game and you film somebody trying to play it, then that's a whole nother level to it. Which leads me to my third option, which is my favorite option is emoji phraseology. I have just about any variant of season and game that you can think of. And basically what it is is you're trying to guess the emoji phrase, whether it's Christmas, whether it's fall, whether it's New Year's, whether it's February for Valentine's Day, whether it's St.

Nick Clason (14:28):
Patrick's. I mean, I literally have just about every season on download youth ministry, every single variation is linked down below in the show notes. But one of the favorite ways that I've done with this is I've just done one question by one question where we've gone up to people and we've asked them to guess, and then we've taken that graphic and they looked at it, and then I did a little picture and picture, or I actually put the actual icons on. I've done it where I did full editing and Adobe Premiere Pro with animations and sounds. And I've also done it where I just, in the TikTok editor, I just put the emojis on the screen and people had to try and guess and see what was playing. And so in all of those are games that you could play physically. Those are also games that you can play only digitally.

Nick Clason (15:10):
And my favorite is film other people playing those games and then post those out to your socials. One of the ones that was the biggest hit for the emoji was we went around and we did bible story emojis, and we asked different members of our staff and those, those were a massive hit, seeing other pastors and staff and senior pastors out there trying to guess those things on our socials. So here's the thing. The last way, the Ultimate Hack, I told you I was going to give you this ultimate hack. You can play just about any game, any game on download, youth ministry. It doesn't have to be one of my games. It can be any game that you find on there. It doesn't even have to have a phone-based formatting for it, but play any game. And then at the end of it, if it's a subjective based game where people are creating something, making a song, doing a lip sync, decorating a donut, whatever the case might be, take pictures of those things and then post them to social media and tell them that the vote is going to be what determines the winner.

Nick Clason (16:09):
And the voting is done on Instagram that does two things. It promotes your social media and it allows the students to be the judge, not just some random celebrity judge, not just you trying to pull something out of your hat at the last minute, right? Because Gen Z and Gen Alpha love to be publishers, they love to contribute to publishing the content, not just simply basic consumers being told what has happened to them. That is an older school, older industrial minded way of doing things. They want to know that their voice matters and that they actually even have a voice that you care about and that you want to listen to. And so that, I believe, is way number one, that you can wade into this exploring of a new frontier of how you can implement fun and games, not just in your room, not just online, but also in a hybrid way to help give students an opportunity to lean in and have their voice be heard in this hybrid way of doing things.

Nick Clason (16:59):
Which reminder is why I said in my ebook, I outline all the ways that you can flesh this out with posts twice a day for five days a week. You can scale it back if you don't have the bandwidth to do that, but whatever the case might be, I have millions of ideas in there from spiritual practice to fun, to your message content and ways that you can get that message out to spread the message of hope. So click the link for that down below in the description, and in the next video, we're going to be exploring how you can enhance your message and your ministry live in the room with hybrid versions. You're not going to want to miss it. Click that on the screen and we'll catch you on that side.

]]> ๐Ÿ”ฅSURE FIRE RESOURCES TO LEVEL UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME ๐Ÿ”ฅ

๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

โ˜๏ธONE-CLICK SOLUTION FOR REELS & SHORTS
OPUS FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS PLAYLIST
Exploring The New Way to Approach Ministry, Full Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLQ3UpL1HRb3FFtEu-7S1XZ

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

DESCRIPTION
๐Ÿ‘‹ Welcome to our YouTube channel & podcast!

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš€ In this playlist, we are exploring the 3 new digital frontiers for churches and youth ministry pastors and leaders.

๐ŸŽฎ And in this video we're exploring the world of Youth Ministry Games and Fun!
What is different?
Where did games even come from in the first place?
And how should we adjust as we move forward into this new digital frontier?

In the subsequent videos we'll talk about
๐Ÿ’ฌ Message Enhancement
๐Ÿ‘ Shepherding

So be sure to subscribe, so you don't miss a thing!

churchattendance #hiddentruth #unveiling #2023 #church #truth #revelation #faith #spirituality #religion #worship #community #christianity #belief #sunday #sacred #divine #belief #sermon #christian

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

๐Ÿ†“ FREEBIES ๐Ÿ†“
๐Ÿ“… "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

๐Ÿ˜จ "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook

๐Ÿ“น "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

========================================
๐Ÿ› ๏ธTOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

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

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

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

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

๐Ÿ‘‰ 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

๐Ÿ““SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/071

//View all the Charts and Graphs via YouTube
https://youtu.be/OiBjI9dMxu8

//Rank 'Em
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em---fall-edition/fall-8962.html

//Visual Variance Voyage
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/visual-variance-voyage%3A-fall-edition/holiday-or-seasonal/fall-9043.html

//Adobe Photoshop & Premiere Crash Course
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKVpQBDSQV6Q9hFeXCptHSu

//Budget Friendly Design Options
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw

//Emoji Phraseology Vol 1
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology/social-media/instagram-6801.html

//Emoji Phraseology Camp Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---camp-edition/games/sequels-8122.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Summer Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---summer-edition/games/bundles-and-sequels-8088.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Easter Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology-easter-edition/games/pop-culture-6957.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Vol 2
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---vol-2/games/sequels-8640.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Halloween Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---halloween-edition/fall/halloween-8320.html

//Emoji Phraseology: March Madness
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---madness-edition/spring/march-madness-8594.html

//Emoji Phraseology: 4th of July
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---patriotic-edition/summer/4th-of-july-8780.html

//Emoji Phraseology: St. Patrick's Day
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology-shamrock-edition/games-6929.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Christmas Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology%3A-christmas-edition/christmas-games-8426.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Superhero Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---superhero-edition/games/pop-culture-8827.html

//Emoji Phraseology: SuperBowl
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---big-game-edition/sports/football-8520.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Bible Story Edition
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---bible-story-edition/games/bible-based-8687.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Back 2 School
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology---back-2-school-edition/fall/back-to-school-8900.html

//Emoji Phraseology: Valentine's Day
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/emoji-phraseology%3A-love-edition---game-%26-social-media/games/humor-6855.html

๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธTIMECODES
00:00-02:08 Exploring New Digital Frontiers in Youth Ministry
02:08-04:10 What is Hybrid Ministry?
04:10-08:20 Why do we play games in Youth Ministry?

08:20-17:35 3 Hybrid Game Ideas you can use this week!

โœ๏ธTRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Games and youth ministry, they go together like peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, Batman and Robin. But how can we as youth pastors or ministry leaders readjust the way in which we approach games and lean more into this digital space that we found ourselves in? Should we ignore it or should we find a way to capitalize on it? My approach and my mission for this podcast is to turn your ministry hybrid. How do we make your ministry hybrid, not just in person, not just digital, but a melding of the two. Does that mean that we should play more like cell phone based games, Kahoot games, zoom screen games? In this three part playlist, I want to give you the three new frontiers that we should be exploring as youth pastors, as youth ministry leaders into the digital space and frontier number one. Today. In this episode, we are going to be exploring the world of youth ministry and youth ministry games.

Nick Clason (01:02):
We're going to delve into the why and the philosophy of youth ministry and give you three games that you can adopt and take into your student ministry immediately today. All of this in effort as we are in this new digital frontier, this new digital space to effectively reach the students that God has placed in our trust with the message of hope and the mission of the gospel. We're also going to be exploring in this playlist how you can bring up your message enhancement in the hybrid world, and finally, how you can implement ongoing care, shepherding and relationships to the students that God has entrusted into you and your care in your student ministry. But let's dive further into this new frontier of digital discipleship through the means and avenues of games. Make sure also that you stick around to the very end because at the end I'm going to leave with you a one surefire resource that you can implement with multiple done for you game ideas and ways that you can hybridize your ministry.

Nick Clason (01:58):
And I have the ultimate hack that you can bring just about any game and turn it into a hybrid game. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everyone. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show. I am Nick Clason, a 13 year youth ministry veteran, currently serving in the great state of Texas. And I want to let you know that I am on a mission, as I said in the intro, to help youth pastors usher themselves more and more into this digital age. And I want to make sure that we are keeping the integrity of our in-person gatherings while also offering more and more of an opportunity for our students to engage with us from a digital mindset and digital framework. And so what I actually have for you as a surefire link in the description, I have a ebook. I have created 40 a whole month's worth of posting strategy for you as a youth pastor implement the strategy that I'm currently using, the one that I've used to grow our YouTube account and our followership in our social media from zero to around 300 up to this point and just under a calendar year.

Nick Clason (03:03):
And it will give you ideas and games that you can use and implement that are turnkey right now that you can use. But they're custom. You and your students and your volunteers get to be the heroes on your youth ministry. It's not just a bunch of static on account of foreign kind of boring graphics. It's real faces, real human beings. If you put a little bit of work in, you can totally revolutionize your student ministry. And I also want to let you know that links right here at the top of this video is a link to a video, what I believe every youth ministry needs and why this is also important. It's basically the thesis for this entire podcast. Hey, and finally, I want to make sure that you like and subscribe to this episode because here's why we are going to be dropping more and more episodes, especially this one as we're exploring new frontiers of hybrid ministry in the next episodes to come.

Nick Clason (03:49):
And I want to make sure that you don't miss it and likes, honestly, they're free and they really, really help us out and they help us get this mission to more and more people. But let's explore before we dive into the actual nitty gritty of games and youth ministry, let's talk about the philosophy and even the history of youth ministry and youth ministry games. Where did games come from? Why do we do them? It seems like it's the rite of passage. Every single youth ministry needs games. You look at resources like YM 360, download, youth ministry, even old school back in the day group. They're all trying to help solve this problem of how can you have games and what do games look like and where can you best take care of supplying games for you and your students? And we have screen-based games and active games and digital games and hybrid games, and we're going to get into all of that.

Nick Clason (04:43):
But I wanted to take a step back and be like, where did this even come from? So back in the 18 hundreds when students were not going to school on a regular basis, they were working six days a week, they invented this idea of Sunday School to bring about an age graded focus for students and an age graded Bible study, one that was a little bit more relevant to them in their timeframe, a little bit more relevant to them in their age group. And so what they did was they created this breakdown by age and grade and gender even. And they started to create this school vibe where they would teach the Bible. Well then fast forward to the 1940s, churches were maybe not super relevant to reaching young people. And so these two organizations popped up right around the same time, young Life and youth for Christ.

Nick Clason (05:34):
And so they both came with the mindset with the entire goal is to reach young people, reach 'em for Christ, and help change them from the inside out and revolutionize them with the power of the gospel. And then finally in the 1970s, churches began to start to see a void of that because what they were doing was in Sunday school mode, they're having volunteers and parents kind of lead these groups, but they started to identify this need for pastors, for people who could come in and who could be specialists in this area for teenagers and for the young people in their churches because they saw what was going on with Youth for Christ and Young Life. And they wanted to also bring that and usher that into the local church. And so since about the 1970s and the Jesus Revolution time, shout out to that movie if you haven't seen it yet, but they're bringing about this young people, this place for young people to come and find belonging, meaning, and purpose.

Nick Clason (06:28):
So that's the history of youth ministry. But why games? So if you look over time, there's always an element of fun and something that will bring about a draw of a crowd. And so to get the maximum amount of people you might feed people, you might offer fun, you might offer warmth, you might offer a great environment or a good vibe. And the truth of matter is, is that games have always sort of been a staple in what we've done in youth ministry, so much so that I do think at some point we've gotten a little bit rote with them and they're benign, and we just do them without even thinking like, well, what's the game going to be? Well, why are we even doing games? What's the purpose? And so what I've seen in my 13 years of student ministry experience is that if you just do games for game's sake, it doesn't have much to offer.

Nick Clason (07:17):
But in my mind, the purpose of a game is to help speak the language of teenagers, which by the way is the entire reason why I have this ebook linked in the description below for you to become more hybrid and for you to become more digitally focused. Because I believe it's a way for us to speak the language better of our teenagers and teenagers, whether they want to admit it or not, they love fun. Fun is the currency of teenagers. Fun helps break down the walls of people who may or may not know why they're at your church or who God is, or they're exploring this faith thing for the very first time. And fun helps alleviate and reduce the tension out of the room why we do what we do. And so with that in mind, I want to give you three game ideas, three hybrid game ideas that you can take use and even download immediately with links in the description of this episode that you can use both on your social media in person, and better yet, maybe you can find a way to meld the two together.

Nick Clason (08:17):
So let's explore that in the next section. All right, so link below in the description are three games that I have in my Download Youth Ministry store right now, and they are fun ones that I like to use. But I also just want to let you know that in all of this, many of the things that I'm going to be suggesting to you are also linked in my completely free ebook. So if you don't want to go pay for it, you can come up with some of these ideas on your very own by just looking at my completely free ebook, which is 40 done for You Ideas to help you and your students and your volunteers become the heroes on your church's social media and in your church's digital presence. And listen, in my ebook, I'm going to give you just a little bit of a sneak peek and a little bit of a hack.

Nick Clason (09:01):
I recommend that you sit just like this direct to camera and present and preach your message ahead of time before you deliver it live into the room. You then use that to clip up, make short sermon clips. But if you aren't willing and don't have the time to do that, I do recommend the remainder of my strategy, which is having fun with your students and having fun with your leaders and having fun with maybe even other staff on camera and posting that to your social media because it's a way that you can interact and engage with something that's live and happening real and in the room, but you can also show that content out to the rest of the world, and if not the rest of the world, at least the rest of your church, the rest of your youth ministry, the parents that are connected to the students in your ministry.

Nick Clason (09:45):
And so three of these ideas are ideas that I have either detailed or outlined before, or ones that I've come up with since I released the ebook. So the first one is a game called Rank 'em, and there's two different ways to do it. I believe right now I have the fall version online on DYM and coming up soon, I should be having the Christmas version drop onto Download Youth Ministry. But Rank 'em is basically a, Hey, let your students take these five things and rank them one through five. Now, one of my favorite variations to that is what's called, and maybe you've seen it if you've been on TikTok or Reels, is the blind ranking thing, which is where different categories of things come in. So let's say you're doing

Nick Clason (10:24):
A blind ranking of a TV show, and I say The Office, and then you have to put it in one through five list. And so for me, if I got the office, I'd be like, well, that's one. But then if someone was like, fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna Gaines, I'd be like, man, I like that show a lot. Probably put it at three. I'm afraid to give away two. And then if someone's like, okay, Ted Lasso, I'll be like, oh, Ted Lasso so good. I want to put it at one, but I can't start putting the office there. So I guess I'll put it in at two. And then if someone was like the ugliest houses in America, I'd be like, okay, I can put that at five. I like it, but I want to reserve four for something. And then they said, the Mandalorian, I'd be like, all right, four.

Nick Clason (11:00):
And I'd be like, you know what? I don't hate that list. What do you think Office, Ted Lasso Fixer Upper Mandalorian houses in America. I'm okay with that list, right? But the point is, I didn't know what was coming next. That's the idea of a blind ranking. And so I have two versions in this actual game. Rank 'em where you can play live in the room with five things. You can do the one by one where they come in one at a time and you have to choose to rank 'em. I also have a social media version where you can take it and you can post it on your reels tos, YouTube shorts, and you can let students interact with it there and give their rankings. You can post it on YouTube story, or I'm sorry, Instagram stories if you don't have any of the other short kind of form platforms.

Nick Clason (11:39):
But you can use this. And again, if you get this game, I played this game in my context, live in the room a couple of weeks ago, and we only got to three questions. So what I did was, the way that I played it was I had myself and a co-host. And so the first one was me. They had to guess my rankings of these certain things at their tables together. And then how they did. Then we went to my co-host, they had to guess his rankings of the certain things, and then finally we switched that and they could rank them themselves. But the game has 10 questions, and so we only used three. So that leaves me seven more that I can use kind of sprinkled throughout on my socials throughout the rest of the week. Game idea number two is the visual variance voyage.

Nick Clason (12:20):
And because I'm a good Baptist, I like a good alliteration, but essentially it's a spot the difference game. And so if you get the widescreen version on DYM, I should have a fall version as well as a Christmas version coming out here soon. You have two graphics come in side by side, and you have to spot the difference. And listen, the best thing right now is that Adobe Photoshop, generative AI is letting you just add things to pictures kind of here and there. And it is a game changer for a game like this. By the way, if you want to level up your Photoshop skills, I have a link in the playlist to my Adobe editing and Photoshop. If that's something that you're interested, go check that out if you want a cheaper version. I also have link down there below Budget graphics for people who are looking to save time and money going through PowerPoint, Canva, Adobe Express and Instagram.

Nick Clason (13:04):
But in the visual variance voyage, you have two different pictures and you're just trying to identify what is different. But there's a timer on the screen and it's counting down. So you can play that live in your room, you can get contestants, you can play it in groups, you can play it at tables. But I also like that I have created a vertical based graphic that you can use, and you can then take those, and you can post those on Instagram stories or on shorts, whatever. And again, in both of these, rank 'em and in the visual variance voyage, if you don't want to use my canned graphics with a canned background, you can take the concept, right? You can take the two pictures and you can show them to somebody on a camera walking around your youth space like, Hey, spot the difference in less than 10 seconds.

Nick Clason (13:45):
Go. And then have them try to guess it, but you film them and you post that to your TikTok or to your YouTube short or whatever, and you can do just a simple picture and picture. Take my graphic that I've created and do a picture and picture with the video that you take of the person trying to guess. And so that's taking it to the next level where you take a game that you could just post a game in and of itself. But if you take that game and you film somebody trying to play it, then that's a whole nother level to it. Which leads me to my third option, which is my favorite option is emoji phraseology. I have just about any variant of season and game that you can think of. And basically what it is is you're trying to guess the emoji phrase, whether it's Christmas, whether it's fall, whether it's New Year's, whether it's February for Valentine's Day, whether it's St.

Nick Clason (14:28):
Patrick's. I mean, I literally have just about every season on download youth ministry, every single variation is linked down below in the show notes. But one of the favorite ways that I've done with this is I've just done one question by one question where we've gone up to people and we've asked them to guess, and then we've taken that graphic and they looked at it, and then I did a little picture and picture, or I actually put the actual icons on. I've done it where I did full editing and Adobe Premiere Pro with animations and sounds. And I've also done it where I just, in the TikTok editor, I just put the emojis on the screen and people had to try and guess and see what was playing. And so in all of those are games that you could play physically. Those are also games that you can play only digitally.

Nick Clason (15:10):
And my favorite is film other people playing those games and then post those out to your socials. One of the ones that was the biggest hit for the emoji was we went around and we did bible story emojis, and we asked different members of our staff and those, those were a massive hit, seeing other pastors and staff and senior pastors out there trying to guess those things on our socials. So here's the thing. The last way, the Ultimate Hack, I told you I was going to give you this ultimate hack. You can play just about any game, any game on download, youth ministry. It doesn't have to be one of my games. It can be any game that you find on there. It doesn't even have to have a phone-based formatting for it, but play any game. And then at the end of it, if it's a subjective based game where people are creating something, making a song, doing a lip sync, decorating a donut, whatever the case might be, take pictures of those things and then post them to social media and tell them that the vote is going to be what determines the winner.

Nick Clason (16:09):
And the voting is done on Instagram that does two things. It promotes your social media and it allows the students to be the judge, not just some random celebrity judge, not just you trying to pull something out of your hat at the last minute, right? Because Gen Z and Gen Alpha love to be publishers, they love to contribute to publishing the content, not just simply basic consumers being told what has happened to them. That is an older school, older industrial minded way of doing things. They want to know that their voice matters and that they actually even have a voice that you care about and that you want to listen to. And so that, I believe, is way number one, that you can wade into this exploring of a new frontier of how you can implement fun and games, not just in your room, not just online, but also in a hybrid way to help give students an opportunity to lean in and have their voice be heard in this hybrid way of doing things.

Nick Clason (16:59):
Which reminder is why I said in my ebook, I outline all the ways that you can flesh this out with posts twice a day for five days a week. You can scale it back if you don't have the bandwidth to do that, but whatever the case might be, I have millions of ideas in there from spiritual practice to fun, to your message content and ways that you can get that message out to spread the message of hope. So click the link for that down below in the description, and in the next video, we're going to be exploring how you can enhance your message and your ministry live in the room with hybrid versions. You're not going to want to miss it. Click that on the screen and we'll catch you on that side.

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