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ASK ME ANYTHING: Your Youth Ministry Questions Answered! (2.0) · Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today we're going to answer more of your youth ministry questions.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: We're going to be talking all about how to split junior, high and high school effectively, what to prioritize when you just take over a ministry and what you would do if you were building a ministry from the ground up.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Ministry Coach podcast, where every week we bring you actionable and practical steps that you can implement into your youth ministry.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: If this is our first time meeting, my name is Jeff Lascola and this is Kristen Lascola, and today we have another Ask Me Anything episode, so we're going to jump right in.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Let's just go right to the first question, and this came through email from Tyler Normand, who is basically asking he's looking to split his youth group.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know why I'm yelling.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Right now I feel like I'm yelling.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: You are yelling.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited the bangles just won.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: You're really intense right now.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Tyler is wanting to split and he was asking what his role as the youth minister would be if we made that split, and how to divide his energy and attention and time to ensure he's as effective as possible.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: You are laughing.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know why.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: What did I say?
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: It just was like wow, a lot of words.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: So you're talking about splitting middle school and high school?
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Tyler is.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Yes, and as you speak it, you're talking about it now.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: So Tyler wants to split junior, high and high school, so where should he put his time and attention?
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: First of all, yay for you.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Go Tyler, go Tyler.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: That's a hard thing to do because it sounds like you're a staff of one, and we know that if you're only one youth pastor, that is a really big undertaking, because now you are working two different ministries and maybe two different nights or two different locations or something.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: It's just, you've now increased your work but hopefully it's not forever and you are increasing the health of your youth ministry, which will increase the size of your youth ministry, and then maybe at some point you can hire someone to do the other job.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: But what do you do while you're in the middle there?
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Because that's a great question, but I'm proud of you for seeking health over convenience for your youth ministry.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: So ideally, Tyler, what you would do is you would focus your energy on developing two thriving teams, and so, where you used to put your effort toward content or materials and stuff like that, now you want to put most of your effort toward building teams, because if this is going to be a sustainable solution, you're going to need two really thriving teams.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: You're going to need that middle school team and you're going to need your high school team, because you're only one person and you can't do it all.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: You're going to be the glue that holds it all together, but you really need to start highly investing in people who are going to start owning stuff and running those jobs down the field and taking ownership over parts of ministry that you assign them and you're going to be the glue, like I said, you're going to be equipping them, supporting them.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: But what you really need to do hopefully these can be like intern type positions I'm not talking about necessarily paid, but intern type positions of starting to recruit people to work more alongside you, at the center of your youth ministry.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: So, for example, you would have a high school team and you'd have a middle school team.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Should he decide who goes where or let his current volunteer staff decide that?
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I think it definitely needs to be a discussion with them of who feels called where.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: I'm not a huge fan of like, oh we are middle school and then we transition to high school, and then we go back down to middle school and then we go to high school, like you mean when the leaders go with them every grade up.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I just feel like that is definitely a preference for the youth pastor.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: I'll just speak from my own experience.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I feel like my leaders, I would rather them be loyal to the ministry, because that creates momentum.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Then this continue revolving door like see you in four years, but people that come and are committed to this ministry weekend and week out.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: That works really well for me.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: So I would talk to your leaders and say, all right, we need to split this.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Who wants to stick with middle school and who wants to go to high school?
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Maybe the only way to get them on board is to say well, you're going to move with your students all the way to their senior year and that's where you need to start it because of the culture has already been set.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: It's like well, we've been one ministry, now you're telling me I have to choose.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: So in that context it might make more sense.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: But I would pick people from those volunteer teams.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: So let's say I had 10 middle school volunteers and I had 10 high school volunteers and then I'd really hone in on those people and say, well, who can I pass off MCing to Like, this is a person who's great up in front, who can host the night, who can do the announcements, who's energetic and lively, engaging, and I can start to develop that skill.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: And then I'm not saying that they're already a pro MC host, I'm saying who has a little bit of a potential that you could co-lead with for a while and make them a killer MC.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: The other role I'd look for is-.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: And also killer.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Mc could be a cool rap name, just saying Go ahead.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: In 1989, definitely so.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: The other role I'd look for is who is really great at leading games I'm not going to ask them to plan the game, but who could set it up, make sure we have the supplies and run it, so dividing the teams and MCing the game portion.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: And then I'd look for someone who has some teaching potential.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Who can I?
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that they're like, oh, I don't have any teachers on my team.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: These are people you're going to have to develop.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: So, tyler, buckle up, because this is going to be a season of really high intentional development of your team.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: But trust me, if you can do it, it'll pay off so hard in the end.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: And so if you could get three killer people that are intern, like for your middle school team and then for your high school team, and then your part is, like I said, develop the heck out of them, but also plan the heck ahead.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: So that will be what saves you in this season, is it's?
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: You know we're coming up on Christmas break here, spend some time sitting down and developing your teaching calendar for the year and your game calendar for the year.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: If I were in your position, what I would do is I would come up with teaching series that have the potential to overlap, so I'm not running to teaching series simultaneously.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: I would change up my illustrations and my intensity depending on if I'm talking to junior hires or high schoolers, but I would try to keep the content, the topic, as similar as possible, yes, as similar as possible.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: And then the other thing I would do is I would go on dym, download the industry.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: And here's why is because a screen game will save your life on a weekend or a midweek.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Screen games are especially popular for high school.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: I would do half and half games for high school.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I would do every other week one more active game and then a screen game from dym I would do every other and then I would use those screen games for the weekend also, and then I would look into their co-leader program.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: It's like this new thing that kind of gives you a roadmap for youth ministry.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: It's a graphics package, it's a sermon series package, it's talk sheets, it's everything you need.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: And in this season, like I said, you've got to kind of put content building on the back burner and people developing on the front burner, and so any help you can get co-leader from download youth ministry will literally save your life.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: And if you just want to dabble, just go to download youth ministry and you could buy sermon series a la carte or you could buy the games or whatever.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: But you're going to need a lot of crutches when it comes to your content for a while until you get these teams up and running and this whole plan with the bottom line goal of being we don't want Tyler to burn out and quit, we want him to, at the end of this, have two very thriving, very healthy, very separate youth ministries that are doing so well that his senior pastor says which one do you want to run?
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Let's hire someone to do the other way.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so chicken and the egg here.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: What do you do first, when it's like you're building up this team?
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Are you saying like, okay, like, let's say, starting January 1st, we're now in early December, january 1st we're splitting.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: So do you say, like, now that we've figured out who's going to be on which team, is it like as you have split, then you're now pouring into this junior high ministry and you're pouring into the high school ministry?
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Or do you say we're going to split in spring and now you take from this longer runway, from now until the beginning of spring, to train up those teams, to launch them?
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you're going to be more right away and then training on the fly, or training and then breaking off?
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: I feel like the best kind of training is on the job training, and so I would say Split sooner than later and figure it out.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because how am I supposed to teach someone how to MC in front of a bunch of junior hires when we don't have a bunch of junior hires?
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: It's junior, higher and high schoolers mixed together, so I would just.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: That's how I learned.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: It's like we're doing it, let's go and you're going to.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: It's like a coach player mentality.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: You know like I'm going to be alongside you, we MC together or we're that makes sense.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Next question I have is a lot of people would like to, and I'm sure parents are a fan of this too, but it's like, instead of having it's like genie or I is Tuesday night, high school is Wednesday night or whatever night you choose instead of having it the two nights, saying we're having both Wednesday night and this is assuming you have enough space, I guess, to account for both.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: But sometimes they'll do like we meet and play games together and then we split off, like what are your thoughts on those situations?
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: People aren't going to like it.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you have to be at the same location at the same time and then they're just separate, it's like okay, sunday morning my kids are in junior high room, high school is in their room, we don't really cross paths.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Tuesday night we get the whole church to ourselves and it's junior highville and we grow because we have the room for it.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: More and more kids come because I feel like they know their space.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: You know they say when the room feels 80% full, a person attending feels like it's 100% full and people are a lot less likely to invite their friends if things feel like they're at capacity.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: So those are a couple reasons I like to keep it only junior high, only high school.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: If I were a pastor that had to do both and I had to share space, you know I would have to do what I had to do and maybe I toggle back and forth between the two ministries, but it's to me more ideal to have it be your own space, your own night.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: But I get like, hey, that's two full nights of program that I would have to do.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Right, I think there's a lot of, and it's easier said than done, like getting your feet wet and then getting a little further in and then getting deeper and deeper.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: But I think from what I'm gathering from you is you're saying just jump in or just rip that band-aid off, split your nights and just go for it.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: And I think a lot of it will be.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: There's that initial maybe you will have.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: They might both shrink Like, and it's kind of that multiplication by division Totally and all of a sudden people think like it feels empty all of a sudden.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: But I think ultimately it's for the health.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Don't panic, stay the course.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, people will panic because they're like we split, no, I have nobody.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, well, there might be, I mean, any change, and that's a drastic change.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: There's going to be a pain point that you're going to have to continue, but again, it's a long term goal of health and I'm not a huge fan of like let's combine for the game and then break up because this problem remains the same.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: I don't think high schoolers want to invite their high school friends to anything where there's a seventh grade boy there.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: If they get to pelt him in the head with a dodgeball, it might sweeten the pot a little bit.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: I mean maybe, but you know there are games that only high schoolers like to play, and there are games that junior highers prefer to play, so you are watering it down.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: I just feel like yeah, what's that saying?
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: If you try to reach everyone, you're reaching no one.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: And maybe that's a little bit too dramatic of a statement for this context, because some people might be saying well, there's not a huge difference between junior high and high school, you know, I just think there is a huge difference between them.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: And the games that my junior highers want to play, my high schoolers don't.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: The style of worship that my junior highers want, my high schoolers don't.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: The level of teaching that my junior highers want is not.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: It's just none of.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: It's the same.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it makes sense.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: But I've heard people that are like we stayed together and it's awesome.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: So I mean, do here's what I was telling one of our listeners today is like you have to lead your ministry.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: You have to lead it.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: I am one pastor and that is just my opinion, and since Tyler was asking, I'm like, hey, and if he's doing it, I'm going to help you.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: But if you find, for whatever, like your context is for some reason, it just works so well and you're bursting up the seams and it's healthy and growing combining, then by all means, I guess, if it's not broke, don't fix it.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: I personally just I think and we cover this, if you guys wanna check out another episode all about splitting your middle school and high school and the point we kept or you kept, driving home was ideal.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: This is ideal to split, so there might be these outliers where you say yeah, but this and yeah but.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: A combined youth ministry is better than no youth ministry, that's for sure.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: So if you're doing youth ministry and it's combined good, it's better than not doing it at all.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you're doing great, but you're right.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: In an ideal world it would be that way.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Can it always be?
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: In an ideal world I'd have a $50,000 budget.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: So, ideally, if you can split and make it work, and I think it really boils down to and I don't wanna beat it at a horse, we're gonna move on to the next question but it really just comes down to are you willing to put in the hard work and effort for a season to make it happen?
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: So make sure you check out the other episode we did why splitting your middle school and high school is a good idea.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: It can end up being a controversial topic, which I did not like at face value.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: I'm like, how would that be controversial?
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: But it kind of does get that way.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: But I think Well, check it out, let us know what you think.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: All right, let's move on to the next question.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: This comes from and I'm probably gonna pronounce your name wrong and I apologize in advance Kevin Sentinahe, it's my best shot at it who says last week our student pastor was fired.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: And now I'm filling in.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: What are the top three things I should prioritize?
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Well, that is again.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I'm proud of you.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Good for you.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Like it sounds like you're being thrown into some deep waters, and that's how you use my words, flurry my words.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: That's how youth ministry is, sometimes Like, here's the deep end, we're throwing you in.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: You will sink, you will swim, it's up to you.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: You'll definitely be wet.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and cold and shivering and alone.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: But here's what I would prioritize if I were you.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Number one relationships.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: I wanna make this number one, two and three, but I'm gonna give you three.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: The first one relationships with leaders and staff.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: All the way before you try to win over a student, before you start hanging out with kids, leaders and staff, staff and leaders, relationship, relationship, relationship with them.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: And then, since you're kind of I mean, I don't really know from your question if you've already been a part of the ministry or if you're just getting thrown into a brand new ministry you know nothing about.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: But here's what I would say, along with that is, ask really good questions.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: They have been there.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: You have not, I assume.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: I don't really know, you didn't say, but I always think, like, when you step into a new place and you're taking over, there's a whole story there that you don't know anything about and you need to ask really good questions to help to understand where they've been and where they are.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Like you need to get the story of the ministry and the people and what have we been through and where are we at and what are we excited about and what are we scared about, and start to put together this puzzle of who are these people, and don't come in assuming, just because you're in charge now, that you have all the answers.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: You've got to listen, listen, listen, listen, Leaders, don't listen.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Nobody listens.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: People don't listen and nobody listens to anybody.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: You have got to be a good listener, you've got to ask the right questions, you've got to serve them, you've got to encourage them.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: And what I would do if I were you is I would just set up one-on-ones constantly.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Every day of the week, I'd be going to coffee with a different person, I'd be on the phone with a different person, I'd be hanging out inviting a couple over every weekend and until I, like, got through all these people of, let me get the story of who these people are.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: What have I missed out on in the last season and what do I need to know?
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: What do I need to be caught up on?
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: I need to be immersed, and number two this kind of goes right into that.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't change anything.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: I'd make a commitment to myself I'm not changing anything in this ministry for at least six months.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: There might be some gaping holes.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: It's like well, we Safety issues.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, or we don't even meet ever as a junior high ministry or high school ministry.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: We're just in with the adults and you just sit with them in there.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: If there's some like like a warning sign and you've got to act, please do.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: But don't come in and change a logo.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Don't come in and changing name.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Don't come in and paint a wall.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Don't come in and change the time or look, just don't do anything for at least six months, just observe, observe, observe, observe.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: It's hard to say that so many times.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: You heard me.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Observe.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: I think changing things too quickly comes off as kind of a naive like and then juxtaposition, I know it all you know Well, depending on the situation, if the previous student pastor was very loved and you come in and change everything, you're now going to be the anti, that guy.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: You know girl.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: And it feels prideful too.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: It feels like, okay, everyone, new sheriff in town.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: You might not know what you need, but I do, so buckle up.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: If you are going to make change, make sure you say it in that voice, because that Doesn't it feel like that fits Like, okay, a little like Piawns new sheriff in town, sounds like the Californians from SNL, but why?
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: One reason is you're enough change already, like how you were saying that old pastor is gone and maybe it was a good change, maybe they needed to leave, I don't know, but that's already enough of a change.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: So just observe, just ask questions, just build those relationships.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: And then, thirdly, get to know the students.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: So, after you've done all of the get to know the leaders, get to know the staff, ask a lot of questions, committed to not changing anything and only observing.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Then get to know the students and create a ton of space to just hang with them, laugh with them, play with them, build relationships with them, get to know every single student.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: If I were in your position, those are the three things that I would do.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: I would have kids over at my house.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I would try to go to as many sports events in the community as possible.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: I'd be at the Friday night football games.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: I'd be at the performances, the band performances, whatever performances there are.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I would get my face out there to as many things as possible and just create these bridges of you.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Know like I'm coming to you.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: I'm not like, all right, new youth pastor in town, like come to me or get to know me.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: I would be going and getting to know everyone and, like, how I said, a lot of people aren't good listeners.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: I think, in the same token, it's very refreshing when a person is a there you are rather than a here I am kind of person, and I think people in leadership just have to be disciplined to be a there you are kind of person Like, and by that I mean you're not like here I am, come in, find me, but more like Count to 10.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: First Close your eyes.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: I'll be in the junior high room, spoiler alert, that's where I always am, but like be a.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, jeff, how are you?
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: How was your weekend?
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: I heard the Bengals one.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: Congratulations.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a great game.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Wow, you must be so excited.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: I am super excited.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Tell me more about you, though no no, no, hey, I used to be like black.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: You look great.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: I love black, so anyways, slimming.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Clearly have you been working out.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: I'm withering away over here.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Not quite.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Your head is slimmed in this black hat, but you're reaching out to people.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: You're going to them.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Where are the people, and you should be there.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: So that's what I would do.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: All right, what's our third question?
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: Third question comes from Will Sutton, who says I inherited a church with zero youth.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: What do I need to do?
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: First?
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: We have social media already.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: So here's what I would do.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: These are all like if I were you, here's what I would do kind of solutions.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: So number one hopefully you have some kind of tracking software for people at your church, otherwise this will be really difficult.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I would try to get a report of every high school and junior high student who has attended our church in the last six months to a year.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: However big you want to make that, I wouldn't go past a year, I think year's kind of stretching it Six months, I think, is like the sweet spot.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: So how many families have students, how, who are they and what are their names?
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: And do we have their contact information?
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: That would be my first step.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I'd want to see a compiled list of this is my potential youth group.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: These are kids who have come to our church.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Now, if you're telling me no kids have ever come to our church, I don't even know how to answer that question, but I'm assuming you mean your church doesn't have a youth group.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: But you've got to find these families that have junior high and high school students that are attending your church.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: So then I would start the communication process.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: I would start communicating to the parents and to the students.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: So I might send out a little mailer, like a little postcard with our ministry logo and maybe a little handwritten thing like hey, less goal of family.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: You know, I just want to introduce myself.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I'm christen.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: I'm the new youth pastor.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: We are going to have some exciting stuff coming up for youth in the next couple months.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Stay tuned.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: I'm really looking forward to getting to meet you, something like that.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: So you send out these post cards, maybe if your church is small and you can do it like literally picking up the phone and calling people or sending a little text or live announcements at church, whatever method of communication works best for you.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: But you just kind of want to raise awareness.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Hey, our church has a youth pastor.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: It's me and we we're going to start some stuff.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Because you said you already have a social media, which makes me think you've got some plans and a youth group is brewing.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: You just are like where are the people?
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: So you've got to find that list who are the people already, before you go outside your church walls and like let me go capture kids out in the neighborhood, which sounds so scary.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Don't do that, don't do that Just drive a fan around Say youth group.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Get your youth group, youth group.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Get on my van, I'll take you to church.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: We've got kids so creepy.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: You just want to like who are the people already in the walls before we're like doing outreach.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Get them out of those walls.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Who are the people in Horrible drywall at your church?
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Hello, hello, I hear a student in there.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Watch your head doc.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Move to your right so so dumb.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: You want to capture people that already have a vested interest or a presence in your church, right?
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: So you've started communicating a little bit and it sounds like you have an Instagram.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: So you need a name for this youth group, which I'm sure you do, a logo for this youth group and some kind of online presence, which it sounds like you do.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: So if it weren't social media, a website or a link on your church's website leading to the youth, just somewhere where people can access information.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Once you've done that, now you want to move into some hangout things.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: So I would have sort of like an open house where I'd invite students and parents.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: So if this is a whole new thing and your church has never had a youth group before, I think it's really smart to invite the parents, or at least give the parents an option to come.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: So find someone at your church that has a nice house, maybe with a pool, a great entertaining space, that's willing to host a little open house thing.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: If you'd rather have it at the church, in the youth room, so that they can see this is where their kids will be, this is where we'll be hanging out.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: It's up to you, whatever you think is a better fit.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: If your youth room is terrible and un-inviting, don't invite parents.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: They're just that simple.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: I might shy away from the pool just in case only two kids show up and you're like all right, go in.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Have fun, kiddos.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Push them in.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, some kind of space and maybe it's like a dessert and coffee or you know, it's some kind of you could do dinner, I don't know just something where it feels like an open house and you can do a quick little thing of like introducing yourself and letting people know.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Hey, I just want to give you a little bit.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: It'd be like a vision night.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: You know I'm so excited to start this youth ministry.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Here's my vision for what it's going to look like and what we're going to be doing.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Here's some of the ideas we have, and then you might give them some material to take home of, like hey, here's a flyer that says what night of the week we're going to be meeting, on starting, when, what time.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: So let's say you had this open house event in February and then you give them the paper and it says starting March 17th, every Tuesday night we're meeting 6, 30 to 8, 30 here.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: You know I look forward to seeing you guys.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: And then, between that open house and when your youth group actually starts, I would do one more little mixer event, and this time I'd invite just the students and so I'd make that something like a pizza making night or dodgeball tournament or some kind of fun activity, activity like low key event, where it's just sort of like we're hanging out, there's food, there's something that we're doing besides just mingling, like some kind of activity.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: That way, now it's kind of that next step in the relationship.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: It's been like them and their parents and now it's them.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: And then I'd actually start youth group at that point.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: So I would start a midweek program, because I think this is gonna be the fuel in the tank before you start thinking about camps and events and this, and that you've just got to have your midweek youth group program and get really good at that, get momentum with that, get kids coming to that and make that program really good, and when that starts attracting more and more people, then you can start adding things as you go.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Don't feel like you have to do everything all at once.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: So start with, like just your midweek event and it has a game, worship, if you can pull it off, if you have someone who's willing to lead a small teaching time and then small groups and do that every single week.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Don't be like, oh, we're gonna meet the first Wednesday of it, no, meet every single week, same time, same place.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Consistency is key.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: And then, as you build momentum with that, start adding in fun events or camps or student leadership team stuff like that.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: That will build on the momentum that you have from the midweek.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: But what I've really noticed is the midweek program is the perfect platform for launching other things because you ride those waves and you ride that momentum and that excitement.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: So if your midweek program is awesome, then people will want to come to your camp because they'll think it's awesome.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: They'll want to come to your events because they'll think it's awesome.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Like that's kind of where you build your reputation as a youth group, as a youth pastor, as a youth ministry is what's your midweek program like?
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: And if that's solid, then chances are everything else you do is solid.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: But if that's weak and you don't really feel like it's thriving, it's going to be hard to sell them on.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: And also, come to my event.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: It's like you can't even do your midweek program, well why would I come to your event?
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: That sounds harsh.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: I don't think a kid is really thinking that.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: But you know, subconsciously you're kind of like this is kind of janky.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: So get really really good at your midweek program and then use that for the fuel and the tank for everything else you do.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: So those would kind of be my steps if I were in your position.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if you want, you can check out the episode we did on how to throw a really awesome parent meeting.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: That would help you kind of get some ideas there.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: And I would also suggest you had mentioned like a dodgeball tournament, kind of feel it out and sort of know like how many students are you going to have and?
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Try and do an activity that could be expanded or shrunk down and it would not be lame either way.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: But if again we're having a pool party with the two of you plus a dodgeball tournament, you versus you might not be the best idea.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: So try and get a feel for how many you're going to show.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Maybe you just play Yatsi because you know, and that's the cool thing too, there are so many cool games now, like I was playing Taco Cat goat cheese pizza which is totally classic with a few girls this weekend and it was a blast and I thought like you know, if we did this and then you had, oh you know, if you have a lot of high school students, they love like doing like the Boba Bar or the my junior high school, I love an Italian cream, so Italian, I can't talk Italian cream, so do bar and just like kind of something a little fun and like that feels a little grown up sometimes for them is fun too.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, are you looking at me like that?
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: I don't know, I just look weird all the time.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: I just want to throw out.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: I kind of forgot to mention for the if you just got hired on or you're taking over a youth ministry we did an episode on that.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: It's actually called just youth faster, just hired here the things that you should do or something like that.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: It's a great episode.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: No, it is good, so make sure you check that out, but right now we'll do a question of the day, and this is actually not for us.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: This is for you Coming to the end of the year.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: We would love to know if you have any suggestions like these on episode ideas, whether it's just a quick kind of like ask me anything, episode like this, or if it's something that you know we can go more in depth on.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: I feel like you guys have some of the best ideas for shows, so please keep them coming.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: Put them in the comment section below on YouTube.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: We want to give you what you're, what you came for, right that's right, so you can also email us at ministry coach podcast at gmailcom or, like I said, put it in the comment section here on YouTube.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: We're going to do a quick community comment of the day and then you can feel free to enjoy the rest of your day.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: You are dismissed, this comes from Nixxel.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: I'm going to pronounce your name really poorly.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: Nixxel is Batista7539, who says I love you guys.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: Thanks always for these ideas.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: I love you too.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you, appreciate that.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: Are you guys really nice listeners?
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: We?
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: do.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: I really, really appreciate the comments that you guys leave, the comments on YouTube and also the reviews that we get on the podcast or on Apple podcast.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Apple podcast yeah, that's what's called Apple podcast.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: We really appreciate reading those and the input you guys have.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: You guys are awesome.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: So thank you guys so much for watching and listening and we'll see you next time.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Today we're answering more of your youth ministry questions.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Today we're answering your questions about youth ministry.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the ministry coach podcast, where every week.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the ministry coach podcast, where every what do we have for today?
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: What do we have for today?