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5 Things Every Youth Pastor Should Be Doing to Kick Off 2025! · Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It is a brand new year, and so today we're going to talk about five things that every youth pastor should be thinking about as we head into 2025.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we give you weekly tips and tactics to help you fast-track the growth and health of your youth ministry.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: My name is Jeff Laskola and this is Kristen Laskola, and it is so good to be back with you guys Happy.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: New Year.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Happy New Year.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: We are about to go into the new year.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: It is about to turn into 2025.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: And when you're listening to this or watching it, it is 2025.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: But it's not for us quite yet.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: We are from the past.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, what's happening in the future?
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Tell us about it.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Comment below what's the future like?
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: So what we're going to do today is get you ready for the new year, kind of like.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: What should you be putting your attention to?
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: And so the topic for today is five things every youth pastor should be doing to kick off 2025.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: So, number one these are, by the way, all very practical, like we always do, right, everything's practical, practical things that you can be doing this week, next week when you go back to work, get started.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Number one this was an absolute game changer for us and I wish I had done it sooner, but it was planned to get video footage and photos of every single event that you do.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: I'm not talking about every single youth group or every single midweek, but the special events that you do.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: You need a little bit of that but I'm not saying every single midweek, but the special events that you do.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: You need a little bit of that, but I'm not saying every single one.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, yes, for your social media reels.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: If you do that, you want to get a little bit of footage each night.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: But I'm talking about something slightly different than just the weekly post.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: What I'm talking about is the major events that you do all year round.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: So we do one major event per month and what I realized a long time ago is when I'm trying to promote that event and tell the kids you should come to the Glover Niter.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Well, without them seeing it, the promotion, I think, is about 50% of what it could be, and I so for so many years.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I was like kicking myself, like, ah, last January, why didn't I record this event?
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Because then we could have cut it up and shown a cool little commercial for the event the next year when we announce it.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: But it's like, oh, that feels far away.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Who cares?
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: We don't need it until you are there.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Like you know, they always say what would your future self thank you for?
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: So do that.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: And here's where it's not only for your future self.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Another benefit of this is showing recap videos after your event.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: So let's say like the following week yeah.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: so let's say we do our glover nighter in january, we film it and then the next week at youth group we start off the night by watching a recap of the Glover Niter, like hey how many of you guys came to the Glover Niter and they're like, yeah, raising their hand, all right, well, here's a little recap of what we did and then you play it.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Lights go down, super fun and things relived in video with music.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: It is a bonding experience of memories and it kind of creates warm fuzzies and excitement and it really does give momentum to your events.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: So if everyone just talks about it like, oh, so fun, we played glow-in-the-dark dodgeball and had face paint and glow-in-the-dark scatterball, that's one thing and it is cool and even reliving it in pictures.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: But having someone who can just cut it up a little bit and show like a 30 to 60 second recap is fantastic.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: And then you save that and then you show it maybe in a different, shorter version next year for like a commercial for the event.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: So just make that kind of a staple of what you do.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, we're having an event in February.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Who can film?
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: And that might be the question you're asking yourself who's going to film this?
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Well, find somebody.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: It could be a student, you know.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Like everyone has a phone now so you don't have to like, oh, all this video equipment.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Like, we have a video team at our church and they have really nice stuff and those videos are incredible, but in a pinch we have a kid film it on their phone Right If somebody has a phone they have purchased within the last five years.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: So you're not talking about me.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: It's probably really good quality video.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, like no spill wouldn't be able to tell the difference, and good enough for the purpose.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Like this is not something you're selling, like it's just a little thing to show to get everyone hyped Right.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: So parent even.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, that was my next no.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: I'm moving ahead.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you are.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: You're in the future, jeff.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Future locked in hoverboards, flying cars, teleports.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: See you then, jacket.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like a parent or I was thinking a leader who is into that kind of stuff and who comes to most of the events.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, just find someone who and they don't have to like just have their phone out all night long Just say get a little bit of this game, get a little bit of that game, get a little bit of like us eating get sometimes we like to do funny interviews get a few kids on camera answering a silly question and then call it a day.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Just use the term variety, just get a variety of shots, even if it's like film a couple of the game, but don't just do the same standing spot.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Move around a little bit and it could be someone in a different ministry.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: So sometimes because we split junior high and high school as God intended, just kidding, so I'll have a high schooler come and they will film for us special events and stuff like that.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: And if you have the money and the budget, it's always nice to throw them a $25 gift card to Amazon and just say thanks so much for coming to the event and filming for us.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: You know, and some kids they like want to come back to junior high ministry, so bad they're like I'll do whatever you need and they just love being there and it's nostalgic for them and you don't even have to pay them, they just they'll do anything to get there.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: So what would you do for, let's say, you're kicking off a new event this year for, let's say, march, but you have, you haven't done it before, so what would you do to kind of hype that with a video?
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Well, let me tell you what you can do.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I don't have the footage, I don't know.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Google image search cool event well there are.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: You can use some stock footage of you know, just kind of like hype it up with music.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I like I'm answering my own question here.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: I thought you'd have a good one.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: I froze I don't know.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Make a pro.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Presenter slide you can.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you could do that.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Just put it some cool music, but you can get some stock footage just free.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Royalty free or ai stuff is cool too, but just can.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: It doesn't necessarily have to be like this is what you guys are going to be doing in this event.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Hey, that's not me, that's not us, but it could just be like anybody with 17 fingers.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: And in the future that's allowed.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: The lamp looks weird.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: No, but you can just use some stock footage and kind of make it look cool, Put some cool music to it and just sort of get the the just the hype up.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: a event which is going to probably be an event placeholder, which will be a placeholder until you can actually have footage for that, because there's.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's so much better when you can use some kind of hype video for, like you're saying, a commercial advertisement for an event, versus just standing up on stage.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Hey, in March we're going to be doing this and there's nothing that goes with it.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: So anyways, any other questions you want to?
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: ask, ask myself.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Why are you so weird?
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Answer that one.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Why are you so annoying?
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: No idea, no answers for that.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Why are you so cute?
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: All right, Enough of that Number two, make a plan for your leader discipleship.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Jeff, how would you make a?
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Plan for your leader discipleship.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: I would go to the Ministry Coach podcast and listen to what Kristen has to say.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: All right, yes, yes, what do you have?
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, oh, oh, give me a sec so leader discipleship, I think, is a really big deal.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: We talk a lot about discipleship in ministry and a lot of times our mind goes straight to our students.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: How are we discipling them, how are we growing them in the lord?
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: What tools are we giving them?
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: And I think hopefully you're the kind of youth pastor that doesn't neglect that same process in your leaders.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: We talk a lot about the fact that our leaders need us as a pastor as well.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Don't underestimate their need for you and your contribution and your speaking into their life, like it's happened so many times now that I'm like, okay, this is just not a coincidence.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Leaders really do need us as a youth pastor, cause sometimes you're like, oh, wow, that like was a really deep, great conversation with a leader and I used to just assume, oh, that was just kind of like a one-off kind of thing, and then I started to realize, like, don't think, these are exceptions, this is your job as well, and so thinking critically about how we're discipling our leaders I think adds immensely to the overall health of your ministry, because leaders who are poured into pour into students and so tangibly what that might look like is, you know, pastoring these leaders and these interns, the adults you know make a list of them and see where you can plug each one of them on your calendar in a month.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Depending how many you have, it might take two months or you know, you might be done in one week.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: You know of the month, but I love to have this kind of vague goal of, okay, getting everyone on my calendar, and it usually will take me about three months, you know, to get through them.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: But like did I schedule a coffee with everyone?
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Did I maybe take them to lunch?
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Did I have them over for dinner?
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Did we take them out to dinner or something like that.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Just like, is this happening regularly?
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Enough of me spending one-on-one time and not like a performance review kind of thing?
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: of like.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: so like your small group attendance is going down more like how are you Talk to me about your life and how I can be praying for you and how are things going?
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: You know you could ask the ministry questions of how's your small group going?
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Is there anything you need from me to make your experience better or easier or more enjoyable?
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Like how can I support you and your role?
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: And keeping that mindset of leaders aren't there for us.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: They're not there to support our ministry.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: The youth pastor is there to support them doing the ministry.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: So the more you hand that away and equip and support people doing that, the more dynamic and thriving the volunteer culture comes.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Because here's the truth and this sounds so rude to say, but people are not that excited to help you accomplish your dreams, you know it's not like yay, we just want you to be the best youth pastor you can be.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: I think they would say that out loud.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: But I think, deep down, what motivates someone over the long haul is you helping support their dreams, their comfortability, their potential, their development spiritually and in a ministry setting.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: It was like is there anything new you want to try this year, you know, is there any new responsibilities you want to have?
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Is there an area you know that you see a problem in?
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: And we'll talk about that whole concept in a minute.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: But changing that dynamic of like you don't exist for me, for my goals.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: I exist for you because you are the shepherds of these students.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: So, creating that plan for discipleship, I think a lot of youth pastors are missing.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: I think they just are like well, the leaders come, they have their talk sheet, they know what they're talking about, bada bing, bada, boom, let's move on.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: But instead of, like, putting the emphasis of the discipleship on the students than putting the emphasis of discipleship on leaders and helping those leaders disciple their students, if that makes sense, it does.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: And I think if you are the kind of person youth pastor who's like, well, I would love to, but I don't know how do I hang out with a girl if I'm a guy and all of that and we've talked about that before Don't let that stop you.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: If that's a concern or consideration, solve the problem.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: You know, you know, and I think that should be a new year's resolution Don't be a person who gets bottlenecked by perceived problems.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Find ways around them.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: So, like you and I took a couple out to dinner and it was a blast and it was kind of a thank you for everything they'd been doing.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: You know, if you're a single youth pastor you could in your volunteer is married, you could take out that couple as well.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: I mean it doesn't have to be a double date or anything.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: And I find that there's like casual settings that aren't super weird, like, hey, like, do you have an hour?
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: We could grab coffee and just chat about ministry.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you're uncomfortable, don't force it and just chat about ministry.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you're uncomfortable, don't force it.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: But there are certain like people who I'm like I would totally like just like oh hey, there's a busy coffee shop in town.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Like you want to chat about, uh, your vision for your small group for a little bit, and then we'll call it a day.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: You know, but you have to work around your comfortability.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: But the point is, find a way.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: You know, don't just say, well, I guess I just never will talk to you or disciple you.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Like I just feel like, oh, we're missing out on so much and we don't find ways to disciple the people that we are to care for.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: You know what a, what a bummer, what a miss.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Number three.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: You know it's funny on here it just says one, one, one one.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: I saw that when I was printing those out.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Good thing I can count for myself, good thing.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Number three clean and organize your youth ministry supplies.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: The youth ministry closet what a wonderland of all kinds of nonsense.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: So a big value in our youth ministry has been organization of the things, because it's very frustrating when you're like let's play glow in the dark dodgeball.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Where are the glow in the dark?
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: dodgeball.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: So keeping your stuff in labeled bins or visible places where you can see exactly what you have and it can be locked up because people come in and take stuff.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: So making sure you know what you have, you know where it is, and then that gives you a great idea of what do we have and what do we need.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: And then when you go to plan a game and you need the cones or what costumes or something, you know exactly where they are and here's costumes or something.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: You know exactly where they are and here's, here's the hard part putting it back.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: You know like, yeah, we, we have the stuff where it's supposed to be, and then someone will just go throw it in the closet and you're like, okay, now we have to start all over, right.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: And it's been a bummer because sometimes I've set up like a relay race or something and I'm like, shoot, where's our puzzles?
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: And it's like, well, we had them.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: They were just on the floor and the box got torn open and who knows if all the pieces are there.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: So it's like keeping your stuff nice.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I've been convicted of it in the past few years of that's being a good steward of our stuff and a good manager of the things that we have.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: So keep your stuff nice and tidy and your future self will thank you for it and your team will thank you for it, because things will be accessible and in good condition and you won't have to scramble at the last minute because you can't find your whatever ball pump.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Where's the ball pump?
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Right the ball pump's never where it's supposed to be, so that's kind of a quick one there.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Not much to more to say on something like that quick as in easy to say, much more difficult to do, probably depending on your closet.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, our closet was pretty darn bad and it took hours to do.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: And it's nice, because then you just look through it you're like why is there?
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: This isn't ours, why is?
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: This in here, you know, and you could just keep things the way that they should be.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I think that's a gift that keeps on giving itself all year round.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah on the front and obviously you need to organize it on the back end, like you're mentioning and this is this for me is the hardest thing to do is like when I'm done with something, a lot of times I'm like I don't feel like putting it, or where does it belong, I don't know.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: So it's gonna go here and then there it lies forever.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: But if you can take that time at the end and really discipline yourself to say, okay, I need to put this away, so that because you think I'll do it tomorrow, but tomorrow never seems to happen, so you just discipline yourself to be able to put that stuff where it belongs, and then you won't have to worry the next time you go yeah, a place for everything and everything in its place is a good motto.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Said Dr Seuss.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: I don't know who said that.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Sounds like something Maya Angelou, maya Angelou.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Eleanor Roosevelt once said something like that she, her too.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: I can see that Number one Number four I could see that Number one, number four brainstorm together.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: So the beginning of the year is a great time to gather your team and whatever that means for you.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Some of you, your only team is your volunteers.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Some of you have a few interns, some of you might have some staff members, but whatever your team looks like and whoever you want to include, brainstorm together.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: And this is a great time of the year to just sit down and say, all right, everyone answered this question and they can write it on the board or something like that what's going well, what's not going well and what are some new ideas that you have?
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: And it's so important to give everyone a voice.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Again, we've talked a lot about this idea of don't be the bottleneck of your own ministry.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Nobody expects you to know everything.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Have all the answers, have all the creativity, have all the ideas.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Here's what your job is as a leader to steward the ideas and the suggestions and the visions and the dreams for the ministry.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: You know like you navigate them, help steward them, help implement them.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: You don't have to be the manufacturer of them all.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: You know, because everyone's voice makes things better.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: And you know like we talked about this, I think, on a last episode or a couple episodes ago, of just the youth pastor kind of sifting through okay, there's a million ideas.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: What has our name on?
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: it.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Which ones are worth implementing.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: But giving your team a voice because, just remember, each one of them sits at a different position and has a different perspective is having different conversations with different kids and sees things that you may not.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: So never be afraid to open up the floor and be like all right, let's just really talk about our ministry.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: And if you're afraid to do that, that should be a little warning bell, right?
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: So if you're afraid to ask the question of how's our ministry doing, what would I love asking the question.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: If you were me, what would you do?
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: What would you do next If you you know like were the youth pastor and could implement anything or take away anything like what would be a value to you?
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: or what would be first order of business for you, cause I I'm fully capable of missing something that is important, like how could I possibly know everything?
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: So let yourself off the hook, for, yeah, how could you possibly know everything?
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: So if you're afraid to ask that question, a, it could be a pride issue, or B it could be, you know, something's wrong and you're afraid that, like, maybe if we just don't talk about it it'll go away or nobody will notice.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Uh, they notice and just be brave.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: And I think, oh, what does craig rochelle say?
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: He always says people would.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, I love this sorry, share it with the rest of us please.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's good, ah, there it was.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Um.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: So he says people would rather follow a leader who's always real than who's always right and I'm like yes, like I don't.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: I think we overestimate people will respect us if we have all the answers.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: I think craig rochelle's right.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: I don't think people just respect us because we're right.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: But it's that realness and that vulnerability of like, hey, I might need some help.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Or yeah, you're right, that is a problem.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Or hey, how can we work together to solve this, instead of just like la la la, I'm a good youth pastor.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with my ministry Well, there probably is.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Just like I could do things better.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: And I need my staff to say, hey, why do we do things like this, like why can't we do that, or how can we never do this, or we need to change that?
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: And for the most part I'm just like okay, like sure, like let me see if we can make that happen.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: And then most of the time they were right.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: So if you had, let's say, five volunteers and they each had like a new idea that they want to bring the table?
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: Now, ultimately, you are the youth pastor and you're kind of like the gatekeeper of all these ideas.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: It doesn't mean if they bring an idea that you have to implement it, but it's really easy, if there's a great idea, to run with it and be like, oh my gosh, I can't believe we don't already have that.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: We definitely need to do that.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: How do you manage and handle the ones that you're like that's horrible or that's not feasible or that's?
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: You know all these things.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: You don't want to shoot them down, but how do you navigate that?
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: I mean my yeah, that's a great question case to case but yeah, and maybe that's another reason why people are afraid to ask is they're afraid to have to say no.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Right, because everyone would love to say well, I shouldn't say everyone.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: Most people would probably love to say yes to a great idea, yeah, but saying no to a bad one.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: I've handled it a couple of ways.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I have knowingly let bad ideas go and fly and be implemented.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Either.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Because I'm like this isn't going to cost me anything.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: And you will see, this isn't going to work.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: So if, or you could be magically surprised, and exactly so if it's and I I don't want to be too specific here, but if I have nothing, oh, here's a great idea I kept on saying you guys need to do, instead of an all-nighter.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: For years I was saying you need to do an all-dayer, yeah, and you did, do it, I did, and then you stopped.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Why I loved it.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: The kids really missed the all-nighter.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Who cares about?
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: the kids, the youth beneficiaries.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: For me, and me only, and my sleep and my sanity yeah, they, they liked it, but it did not get the rave response.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: So here's how you figure that out.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: No well, just while I'm on the thigh, I don't want to leave.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Tell them the night before the event to stay up all night, then do an all day and you let them decide if that was a good idea.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Let's see if anyone else has any ideas.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Anyone Anyone?
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, go ahead, go ahead.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, so if I have nothing to lose meaning if it fails, it didn't really cost as much, not anything in our reputation or safety or money, whatever.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: It just was like hey, you want to do this, go for it, right, if it fails and whatever.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: If it succeeds, awesome win.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: So I've had major hesitancies, not like in a red flag, but just like I don't think that.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: But you seem excited.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to let you run with this ball, Let me know how I can help kind of thing, Other things that I can see more of a red flag or just like oh no, because that's a really extravagant yeah like that will be a loss for us.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: You know, I might say, hey, I'll modify the idea to make it work like ah, I like where you're going with that.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: I want to keep the spirit of this, but let's talk through some details of how we can make it work for us.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: And now we're a team and we're talking about together.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: It was your idea and I'm just going to help fix it up a little bit.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: And I think the leader has to have some skin in the game too.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: You know, it's very easy to bring ideas.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: It's very hard to bring execution.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: So you could kind of put it in their court hey, I'm here to support you.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you need, and then we'll see if they really liked the idea.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: You know, it's not like you're just like, okay, yes, go and do it, but they have to bring something to the table as well, and people that are really passionate about their ideas normally do.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: They normally bring the necessary resources to the situation to make it happen.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, I feel like modifying it, or If possible.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: If possible, or you know, a nice no of like gosh.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: You know, I bet that would work somewhere else, so take it somewhere else, buddy, no of like, there's the door bye.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Just meaning like the idea itself is not bad.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: I just don't think I can implement it here.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: And you can give some reasons.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Like you know, we don't have that in the budget, or yeah, man, I wish we could do something like that.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: We don't have the bandwidth for that, right, I don't know.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: But there's nice ways to say no without crushing someone's dreams.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: But I also you could even like proactively say before we start throwing out ideas, most of these are not going to probably happen.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: And don't take it personally, we're just looking to maybe fine-tune some things.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Here's what I will say most of them are good.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't feel like, oh shoot, what a problem I have 10 horrible ideas in one.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: I I feel like, for the most part, when leaders who are very invested in the ministry have ideas, they know us enough to know what would be a potential go.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: You know like, hey, we should play this game.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Like I saw this at another youth group or I saw this online.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: I think this would be so fun in our group.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, cause you've been here, you know us, you know that would work, would work.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Or hey, I wish we could get like more kids, like in our announcement videos, like what shouldn't we schedule them?
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: And blah, blah, blah.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, of course yeah so most of the ideas in my experience are good ideas and so that's a very low, like it's very low concern for me, like how, how do I crush their souls and tell them there how do I crush you nicely, I feel like that doesn't come up very often for me yeah, that's good, that's not a maybe a concern.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: And going with the mindset of take a risk.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: I've had people say I think we should paint the walls pink in our youth room and everyone said what are you doing?
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: And I'm like he's got a vision, he has a plan.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: We painted them pink and it looks phenomenal.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: You know, they're not all.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: It's like pink, dark pink, gray, like we just redid our room and that was not my idea and that was a pretty large investment.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Like those walls, repainting them and getting new logos and things printed, and getting new logos and things printed and ordering new stuff.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: I'm like what's wrong with our old room?
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: And now I'm like, oh yes, this was a hundred percent.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: But see, I would have never done that.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: I would have left it green and blue forever you know.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: So sometimes us as leaders, we need a little nudge, like hey, I have an idea, and you're like if it's not broke, don't fix it but you don't realize how much better something could be if you run with someone else's idea.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, when you're ordering all that pink paint you really do question what are you doing?
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: And pink is my favorite color and I was like oh no, what are we doing here?
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Looks great All right Number one.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Number five.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: You already said that joke.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: I wanted to make sure I got it in.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in case you didn't hear the first time, did everyone hear his joke?
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: So you see in the future repetitive.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: I love this one Reflect on your big prayers for your ministry and ask your team, your prayer team, your church staff, whoever, to pray alongside you for that.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: So I just really realized in this many years of ministry that we do our due diligence of work, but the Holy Spirit makes like, lights it on fire like, makes our work become more like spiritual work.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: There's only like.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: I think we talked about this quote maybe a few episodes ago.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: They all just mix in my head.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: I don't know what one, what episode we talked about what.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: But our senior pastor asked us once if the Holy Spirit were to leave your ministry, how long would it take you to notice?
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: And he's like I would never notice because I was running on my gifts and my know-how and my talents alone, you know.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: And so a good question to ask ourselves as we enter this new year is how involved is the Holy Spirit in my planning and my problem solving and my?
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Because leaders get burnt out.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: I think for a lot of reasons, but one reason is you're trying to do spiritual work without the work of the Spirit and it becomes a very dry place and a very hard and arduous and hopeless place and inviting the Holy Spirit into our work because, we have to remember, it gets mechanical but our work is spiritual, so don't ever leave that part out, so that weekly and daily commitment to praying for your ministry and bringing others in on it.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: So one thing I love at our church our prayer team.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: They started doing this thing where they ask each ministry like what do you need prayer for this month month?
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: And we share that with them and they send it out to the prayer team and those people are committed to praying for your ministry.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: So I had sent out a prayer request to them two months in a row.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: I like I cannot explain this, but the two requests I have, not only were they answered, but, like, overflowingly answered, and I was just like, whoa, like, and I couldn't have, I could not have done that myself.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't things where it's like, well, yeah, cause you just put an extra hour.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: No, it was stuff that I'm like I could have never, ever made that happen.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: That was the Holy Spirit.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: So not only yourself praying but getting like.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: If your church doesn't have a prayer team, that would be a great idea to suggest that your next staff meeting of hey, these people could be praying for our ministries, like, do we need volunteers?
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Let's pray or let's send that to the prayer team.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, obviously we are praying for it too.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: But getting a multitude of people to be praying over our ministries and our students and our families, and the challenges and like bringing, just don't neglect bringing the Holy Spirit into your work space and into your ministry space and we know that because we're pastors.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Of course we know that.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: But our jobs sometimes get mechanical and they become jobs and we forget how deeply spiritual our work is and that we alone can't do the work that needs to be done.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: We can do the maintenance of it, but the deep soul, life-changing, soul-changing work that needs to be done, that's beyond our grasp.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Hey friend, I just wanted to interrupt this episode for a second to let you know about an awesome opportunity for you and your youth ministry.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: So last year we launched our course and coaching program called Youth Ministry Growth Accelerator and the response has been amazing.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: So we've helped tons of youth pastors grow the size and health of their youth ministry and we want to invite you to be a part of that as well, because maybe you're just sort of feeling stuck in a rut.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Maybe you don't know what to do next.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Maybe you just have a vague plan in your mind of what you're doing and you want some real help to get you from where you are to where you want to go.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: So if that sounds like something you've been looking for, go to growyouryouthministrycom and check it out for more details.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get back to the episode.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: You know, what my staff and I did once that I really liked.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: I kind of forgot about this, but we did a 24 hour prayer and fast for our ministry too.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: We were in some dire straits and I was like Lord, have mercy on us.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: I cannot do this anymore, because these kids are so bad.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: They were like ruining everything all the time and I was like what is my job?
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: I felt like I was like a Prison ward.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what do they call those?
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: people Like the like working at a yeah, Detention facility, Something like that.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Prison guard yeah.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: All of those things and I was like getting.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: I was getting out of steam, you know, and so Zookeeper animal trainer.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: We just stopped what we were doing and I'm like, okay, guys, every hour I'm going to send like a different prompt over like our text message everyone fast as much or to the best of your ability.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: And we fasted together and we prayed for 24 hours, and sometimes our church will host a 24 hour prayer thing and people like can come and pray all hours of the night, and you know.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, I mean that's a great idea starting off your ministry, if you have leaders who would be into something like that with you, of like, let's pray for these students, let's fast together, let's like start the year knowing, okay, this is not just like let's get back in the routine of youth ministry, but let's set our hearts and our minds straight on.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: This is spiritual work 2025, this is your year, so we're gonna do a question of the day, because that's the most logical thing to do.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: We shot down several ideas for the question of the day One of them.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: I think we'd already done.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if you guys have any questions that you think would be fun for other people to answer put it in the comment section below.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: The one we came up with was if there was any non-biblical point in history that you would love to have been a witness all history is biblical, true, I know?
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: yeah, it's the next comment someone will make uh put that in the comment section below.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: We see you, yeah, so what would that be for you?
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: okay, obviously the biblical ones are like those are the most amazing.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: So nothing like particular to that.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Um, I want to see how they made the pyramids because I used to think I knew and then I've heard so many theories about it of like that technology didn't exist and there's no way that timeline works and you know, I, I just I'm like I need to, just I want to see it because I feel like there's so much speculation around it and mystery that that would be fascinating no, that's a good one.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: I am just gonna pick off the top of my head.
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: I thought it would be cool to be when they landed on the moon.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: We've landed on the moon.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: One, to make sure it really did happen, because there's those people that think it was just totally made up, and two, I just think that'd be a really cool experience they sang jingle bells on the mountain.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: I heard this christmas trivia.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: What was the first song ever?
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Played on the moon and they said jingle bells, so this, and they took communion which is also a urban legend?
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: I don't know that's certain things you definitely need to fact check, and we at one point.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: Had a time to fact check someone read or say on stage that the first thing that the astronauts did when they landed on the moon was take communion, which was like wow, that's so cool.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: Turns out that was not true.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Careful when you add stuff into your sermon from Google or Wikipedia.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: I remember the person who's like.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: I told them that story.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: I don't even know if it was true, but then they just went up on stage and just announced it, and so that was what was really happening I hope it's true, but so always fact check yeah so put in the comment section below, that's so random like okay, like a list of things we need to do.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: What's the first card game we're gonna play?
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: When on the moon these things did not happen.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: They did bring a golf club up there, though, because I remember there's like a video of them hitting a golf ball, so that I could say the first sport play.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: Anyways, I would like to be there and I can answer all your questions.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: What?
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: are the comments actually low.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: Is there a non-biblical historical moment that you would have loved to have been a witness to?
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: And also second question of the day are there any questions you think would be fun for us or other people to answer?
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: Please share them below.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: The community comment of the day first of the year comes from Brandwise Gamgee.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: Love the name, all right.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: He says there are so many things I've gained over the years from your videos.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: I began pursuing student ministry full-time since listening to your your podcast.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: As a volunteer in my church's student ministry At this moment, I was able to use the practices mentioned in each and every episode as a sort of standard for how healthy our ministry is and the ministry has become better for it.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: So thank you guys for the amazing content.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: So thank you so much.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: Brand wise Gamgee Appreciate that.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: We love that.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you guys for watching Brand Wise.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Gamgee Appreciate that.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: We love that.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you guys for watching and listening and we'll see you next time.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: It is a brand new year, and so today we're going to talk about five things that every youth pastor should be thinking about in this time.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: What are their names?
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: I'm just kidding Huey Dewey Lewis and Huey Dewey Lewis, louis, as quickly.