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5 Vital Tips to Make Your Next Youth Ministry Event a HUGE Success! · Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Preparation, a plan details weeks in advance.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: You know, you can't just huddle up that night and be like hey guys here's what we're going to do.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: You know and I think that's what a lot of youth pastors.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: They might have a vague plan in their head, but translating that to someone at 6.30 for a 7 o'clock event, it's just like wait, huh what, what are we doing?
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: And you're just like ready, go, we got to get out of here.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: So this is like weeks in advance of we're like planning these details, sending out schedules, sending out timelines, sending out to-do lists, brainstorming with leaders, talking to them individually about their roles and setting everyone up for success.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Do you wish that you could make your next youth ministry event a huge success?
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Then stick around, because today we're going to give you five essential tips to make it happen.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast where every week, we give you actionable and practical tips to help you grow the size and health of your youth ministry.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: If this is the first time we've met, my name is Jeff Laskola and this is.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Kristen Laskola, and today we're going to talk about five tips to make your youth group event a huge success.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: And I'm pretty excited about this content because I wrote it along with people who helped me do events.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: And one is a leader and a parent, and then two are my guys and my girls director.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: So the four of us wrote this content together and I said, hey, when our events go really well, why do you think that is?
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: And I let them chime in.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: And it was cool to hear from one of them, named JP, because he's a parent and a leader, like technically he's our security guy but he's the parent of a student, so he kind of sees it from the leader perspective and the parent perspective.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: And then my guys and girls director, caleb and Arden, and it was kind of cool like, hey, from where you sit, why do you think this works?
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: and yeah, let's talk about it so would you say, just cutting off for a second, would you say, this is a catch-all for any event, or like only certain types?
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: yeah.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: So I don't mean this necessarily for our midweek program, although you know it's uh, it could apply, yeah, but I meant this more for, like our special events, so like the all-overnighter, the glovernighter, just anything we do out of the norm, like something, a special event where people need to be prepared more than just come to youth group, you know.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: So, caleb, my guys, director, his first thing that he said I said when our events are like a home run, what do you attribute that to?
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: And he said leaders who are bought in and on board.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: And I thought, oh, that is so good.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: So I had him unpack that a little bit and he said that what he means by that is leaders who are very welcoming.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: So there's a group of adults just waiting to field new students and welcome them, or just the students they already know.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: You know it's creating a vibe of like hey, what's up?
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: You know high fiving kids as they come in, welcoming them.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: The kids are introducing their friends to them, just being that presence of like you're here and someone sees you.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I heard a really sad story about this girl like, who tried this youth group and not around here, but her mom was like she went and not one person talked to her and she left and she was bummed.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: I was like, ah, like, and it probably wasn't that pastor's fault.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I don't think that pastor had enough people in the room like, not enough leaders, you know.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: So it's like.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Wouldn't that be the pastor's fault, Maybe?
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Maybe the leaders were scheduled and they couldn't come, or something.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I don't know the story Cause I don't like know this church very well, sure, they have a heart of gold, probably.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, I don't know the church very well, but it was just kind of like.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: You know, she like tried it out and it wasn't really working because nobody talked to her and I was like, oh, bummer, and I remember the mom saying it would probably be good if there were more adults in the room, like because one pastor can only get to so many people.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: And so that's kind of how it is with your events.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: If you have just a lot of leaders that are going to come and be excited to see kids and start creating this friendly energy, it takes it to the next level.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: And then not only that, but leaders participating.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: So not just like leaders who are present but that are going to get the party started, like they're dancing, they're playing the game, they're sitting with kids, they're cheering, they're whatever it means to participate in that moment, but if the leaders are doing it, the enjoyment level goes through the roof right.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Isn't that true?
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: like when you're a group of friends too, and you're really excited about something, and then there's that one friend that's like nah you're just like well, now I don't really want to do it yeah, it's contagious like both ways right I don't know if I said this in my head or on the episode last week, but I remember doing an event and it was our Glover Niter and I was like we did a just dance and I was like going all out and dancing on stage, you know, and throwing out candy to kids who are dancing and we're having so much fun.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: And I remember one of my leaders went home and was telling his wife about it and she told me at church that he had such a good time and he said if Kristen's having a good time, we're all having a good time yeah, and I was like, oh, how funny.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize even my own energy, how contagious that can be or maybe just saying like you drag everybody down if you're not entertained yeah, you're just like you guys are lame, this's lame.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: I don't want to be here, right, that's so you.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I was like okay, I'm going with you.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: What did I miss that?
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: he said as long as Kristen's having fun, I guess we're having a good time.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: You will have fun.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Make sure she's happy then.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: If I'm happy, we're all happy.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: No, it's true.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Though happy then, if I'm happy, we're all happy.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: No, it's true though it's contagious, for sure it is.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: And so leaders really getting hype and involved.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: One of my favorite quotes from our senior pastor is I'd rather tame a stallion than spur a donkey.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I'll admit, sometimes our leaders get too into it, you know, and the competition gets a little fierce.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: But I would way rather have to be like guys, like chill, just tone it down versus stop being a bump on a log right, you know because you just watch how hype the kids get.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: So leaders who are fully present and participating and helping with behavior I think that's another thing that makes events go smoothly is sometimes at events students I don't know are in rare form and they kind of get a license to act up, and so having a lot of leaders present kind of helps curb some of that, because students change their behavior in the presence of adults and leaders, whatever, and if there's not enough to go around, they kind of find like the dark corners of the room and do weird stuff.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Like cockroaches yeah exactly what I was going to say.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: But and then making sure those leaders actually feel empowered to help.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: So if kids are misbehaving, do they have a license to intervene and to help and have you train them on.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Here's how we handle discipline, and if it's something where you don't think you can handle it, you know, come and get me.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: But most of the things that happen, I think our leader should be able to handle, whether it's telling kids to knock it off or moving a kid, or taking a kid aside and having a talk with him of like hey, like what's going on, like I know you can do better than this, like you know, empowered to be leadership, not just empowered to go tell you you know, because you shouldn't have to field every single discipline issue.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Right, you know, that's just not balanced leadership.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: And then what JP, my security guy on this topic?
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: He brought up a really good point.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: He said and when you do events, these shouldn't be like the new leaders, like obviously there'll be new leaders mixed in.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: But what he meant was it's not like we're having an event, I need to recruit some people to help, just for this event.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like well, these should be people who already have relationship with these students, relationship with you, relationship with the ministry, and so they know how to navigate the different personalities and the DNA of the ministry.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Cause it's so funny, like people who never, ever spend time in youth ministry, their threshold for shenanigans is very low and they think the littlest thing is that was so disrespectful and it's like well you're new to youth ministry I guess, but you
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: like we've seen way worse, or they're only used to their own child.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: You know, like their own child is a perfect angel and doesn't have a phone and like is very well behaved and is very respectful.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: And maybe they're not used to all the different flavors of junior hires out there.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: And so they can not be used to what is allowed here and what's not.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: I remember having a leader and she's like I kind of had to sit back and watch the more seasoned leaders when I first came, because I'm like trying to figure out where your guys' line was on different things and like is this a time to step in?
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Is this a time to just hold back, or do they allow kids to do this or that or whatever?
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Because the way you parent your own children might be different than the culture at a youth group.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying like anything goes, but there's just a lot of different personalities, bigger than our own families, and so bringing leaders who are seasoned in that culture on your events makes events go so much smoother.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Rather, I had a parent come once on a trip who was not seasoned in our culture at all and she helped out.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: And it was just friction the entire time because it was like ah, it's not really how we do things, oh, that's not how we really talk to each other, oh, that's not really how we talk to kids, oh, that's not how we discipline, and it was kind of an emergency situation I needed her to fill in, so there wasn't really time to acclimate her to our culture and it was glaringly obvious like very much a detriment to our trip.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: So all that to say these people that you've been training and mentoring and having a part of your ministry all this time, those are the people that are going to make the events rock.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: What do you think about?
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: I agree 100% with all of that.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: But what do you think about, like peripheral roles for the night, Like you just kind of need people to make the food, or you know, I mean, if you have enough leaders, awesome.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: But like not so much the interacting with the students, but more like we need someone to do parking, we need some, you know, maybe like you may never even interact with a student at all, like would you say that's a time where you can probably have those people in there if you need it sometimes, yes, in a pinch.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: however, I've even that's even like bit me in the back before because the way that they interact with parents, like they'll be out in the parking lot, and the way that they will interact with a parent and talk to a parent who parked where they weren't supposed to park or you know it was like you're not representing us, or yeah, I mean, I guess, if it's an event where you know they make the food and they're in the kitchen or something, yeah, I could see there being that being a OK and whatever.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: But I think, just being mindful of anyone that you're asking to help, whether they have the right heart or not I'm not saying they're bad people.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: They just might not represent you and your ministry.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Well, to the random car that pulls in and has a question about youth ministry, or the parent who's lost and had a question like it's, just be careful of those situations because, on, I wish this were not the case, but it's bit me more times than I wish it had like it's not like it was a fluke thing.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: It happens quite a bit directly or indirectly, I guess they are you know, representing you and your youth ministry.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: So yeah, and they don't really get us right off the bat you know what I mean with us like you know, like our energy is a lot for them sometimes and they're just like, oh my gosh, like they get stressed.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: And then I'm stressed that they're stressed and I'm trying to like pacify them of like hey like it's all good, we.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: We're just kind of loud, you know.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: So I don't know, it's not my favorite, but sometimes you got to do what you got to do.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Right you know All right.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Number two Number two Plan well and don't overcomplicate the plan.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Have your plan, make it clear.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: But in all of this very, very important as my staff was discussing with me about this content is never wing it, just don't wing the event.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: So make the plan in advance and it doesn't have to be complex.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: But you make the plan in advance and make it detail oriented of what needs to get set up, where is it going to set up, who is going to set it up, what time is it going to be set up, and then the timeline of what you're doing and all of those things.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: And then you communicate all those details to your leaders that are going to be helping with the event weeks in advance.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: And JP I think this was he brought up a really good point.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: He said what I love that you do is that you communicate to people what their job and what their responsibility is.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: You don't just assume that they know it.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: He's like you'll text me and say, hey, I need you here at this time.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: You're going to be in charge of all the medication and parents who have questions about medical or behavioral issues, and I'm going to have you make sure kids are taking their medication, like this would be for camp.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: But, then, like for another event, I would text him and say, hey, I need you watching the hallway from this time to this time because this is going to be going on, and blah, blah, blah.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: And then, with my other leaders, hey, I'm going to have you do check-in, I'm going to have you assist with check-in, I'm going to have you in charge of a bus and I'm going to have you in charge of a bus.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Your job is to get a bus, you get a bus you get a bus.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Nobody wants a bus.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: But like the all overnighter happened in September and that's a great example.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: We had two buses and I had one leader in charge of one bus and he had to make sure every kid on that, like you know, taking attendance, taking the head count.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: We can't pull out till you give the OK.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Another leader for the other bus.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Then I had another leader come early with me and her job was to check in all the at all the events and have the rosters or the waivers ready to go, and you know all that kind of stuff.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: And then another leader was like assistant to the bus manager, you know.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: So there's something for people to do and everybody knows their role and are prepared, and then the event goes very smoothly and people can own their little piece and it's smooth as silk.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: It was so easy and everyone knew exactly what to do.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: So JP brought that up and I'm like oh yeah, that's a really good point.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: And he said and what I love about you is that you don't like you'll tell us what to do.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: There's a plan and you trust us to execute it.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: He's like you give us the boundaries of, like this is what I want you to do, he's like, but you don't micromanage how we do it.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: So get the count done, get the attendance done, get the waivers done.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: But I'm not going to hover over you and I'll help you if you need help.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: But he's like I love that you don't micromanage the details, you trust us with the job.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: And all of that is only possible because of preparation, a plan details weeks in advance.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: You know you can't just huddle up that night and be like hey guys, here's what we're gonna do.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: You know and I think that's what a lot of youth pastors they might have a vague plan in their head, but translating that to someone at 6.30 for a seven o'clock event, it's just like wait, huh what, what are we doing?
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Where are we?
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: And you're just like wait, huh what, what are we doing?
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Where are we?
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: And you're just like ready, Go, we got to get out of here.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: So this is like weeks in advance of we're like planning these details, sending out schedules, sending out timelines, sending out to do lists, brainstorming with leaders, talking to them individually about their roles and setting everyone up for success.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: And when you start to build these patterns in, you can start to lead larger events.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: You know, if you're scrambling at 630 for a seven o'clock event and everyone's frazzled, you know you're not equipped to lead large events yet.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: It doesn't mean you can't be, but these are all things anybody can do.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: That's the good news.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: It's not like some secret, it's just you don't want the leadership burden to just be on the youth pastor, because then you become the bottleneck, Like you can only lead so much, you can only lead so big when nobody can have a piece of the plan.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that rapport that you have with your leaders to be able to trust them.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Obviously that takes a little bit of time to know that I can give you this task and these assignments, and I know you're going to do it.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Nobody wants to be micromanaged, but sometimes people need to be micromanaged, you know.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: But as long as they are.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: if you're familiar with them and they're well-trained, then yeah, you know, just be able to hand something off to them and you can pair them up.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Like, Like you know, if you feel like, yeah, you got some skills, but I don't know if you're quite ready to be in charge of a bus full of 50 kids.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: You pair them up.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: So you say, hey, this one's a little more experienced, you're going to help them.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: You know, and so you find, yeah, roles that fit their skills, and then they'll get there eventually.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: You know, it's amazing when they watch other leaders.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: It's inspiring for them because they're like I want to be that, I want to have that responsibility.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: I want to do that.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: One of our intern or volunteers was doing some teaching and he was very good and it kind of inspired some of the other leaders like whoa, I want to up my teaching game because you're so good at it, you know.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: so it's like that healthy competition where you look at someone and you're inspired and you want to be good like that, not like sabotage, which we also do have some of that.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: So not like in that sense.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: But we're in the battle right now, and so it's three teams and it's getting really competitive, a very competitive series.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: We're right in the middle of it.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: And Tuesday, in two days, it's the final one we're gonna find out who wins the trip, so we're all really tense right now it's a lot, but again, and then you can all be friends again yeah, I'm excited to be friends again, but again I'd rather tame a stallion yeah than spur a donkey.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's fine, we get a little heated.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: But they say every organization is a direct reflection of its leadership.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm a little competitive.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: I'm a sore loser, sore winner too I'm the worst.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: If I win, I'm obnoxious.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: If I lose, I'm obnoxious.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: I'm always obnoxious when we go, always obnoxious when we would go play games at friends' houses before we'd even get out of the car we don't get invited back.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Jeff would go okay.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: So please don't get out of control, just chill.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: But I could tell you some stories about him too.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Let's move on Good ones.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Number three so to make sure your events are a big success, make sure that there's easy access to the resources needed.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: So by that I mean are you doing online signups?
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Can anyone find the online signups?
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Are you emailing?
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: I like to make sure I email that link to parents every single week.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: We put the link in our bio on Instagram.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: We can have a QR code during announcements.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: We have a flyer with a QR code.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: You can scan it, or it mentions the link Like.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Put it everywhere.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Make sure people can access this thing.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Put on your church website but not buried under a bunch of stuff.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: I am so like please clean up your church website.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Make information easy to find, like.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I try to find, like the day and time location of a youth group or who's the youth pastor.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Who would I contact, and some church websites don't even list their youth pastor.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Like who is it?
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: It just says come to the bridge um the end.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: It's like okay, so anyways, all that to say, make information easy to find.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: If you're doing hard copies and they need to fill out a permission slip, make sure they're always available on your weekend services and your midweek programs and you can attach that as a file and send it in your emails.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Make sure people have what they need.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: So don't make signing up for an event impossible, and I think then it inspires people to sign up quickly and sign up for things often because they know it's not going to be this big ordeal.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: And like, if you're not a parent, you probably can't appreciate this quite yet, but there's so many things to fill out, like there's so many things to register for, there's so many papers and things to sign, and the easier you make it on parents, the more inspired they are.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Yep, you're going to go, let's get it done.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Bada bing, bada boom, pay online, or however you do it, make it easy, so it Make it easy.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: So, um, and then number four communication.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: So I talked to JP mostly on this one, because he is the only one of us.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Well, I have a kid in the ministry now too, but I always know what's going on because of my ministry.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Um, so he says that he loves when I give a save the date kind of thing, like leading up to the event, like maybe a couple months out, like hey, save the date, september 20th, we're going to do an all overnighter.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: And then he said when it gets to be that month out deadline, that's when you send the details of like.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: We're going to meet at the church at 7 pm.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Here's the link to sign up.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: It costs $75.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: You know here are all the places we're going, but prior to that it's more of like hey, one of our most anticipated events is coming up in a couple of months.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Definitely want to get it on your calendar Details coming in the next month.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: So it's like these stages of communication if it's two months out, they can throw it on their calendar, but they're not going to register right then they don't need to worry about the nitty-gritty, it's just on their calendar and then, the month prior, give them the details so that communication with parents is really big.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Don't ever just count on a kid to pick up a flyer or to listen to your announcement well, don't pick up the flyer, it won't't make it home.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, it may not even make it out of the youth room.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it'll just be on the floor somewhere or wadded up, it would be funny to do, like the life of a youth ministry flyer Just to follow it along Like a Disney short.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: You know, Just like what happens to this flyer.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: In my hand and immediately just dropped.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: And then my hand and immediately just dropped, and then that's that, and that's that.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe I threw it at somebody, maybe I yeah, there could be a million things that this poor little.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: It'd probably be really like a boring documentary, but it would just be interesting to see how they all do you put?
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: like sad music behind it or something.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Let's make it artistic.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Uh, yeah, so like don't count on them.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we know, we know, know, from that Disney short where those flyers are ending up and it's not good.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: So you want to reach the parents, parents, parents, parents and especially if you work with middle schoolers, I think that's even more imperative.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I think high school parents should be kept in the loop as well.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: High schoolers don't always relay the information.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: You have a better chance, but still parents need to know, and the things kids tell their parents are always not correct.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Like I had a parent ask me a question today about a student leadership thing and I'm like no, she goes oh, that's what my son told me, and she's like it didn't sound right, but that's what he said.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: I'm like I've told them that like a million times.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: She's like, well, I don't know.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: So it's just so funny what you say, what.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: It's just so funny what you say, what they hear, what they tell their parents.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: It's telephone, but it's only from you to them, and then they mismanage with that in their head, I guess.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: And then number five and finally, is the execution of the event itself.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: So I was talking to my girls director about this and she was talking about like how much like lights and music make the atmosphere just like go like next level when people are showing up.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Like, what are the lights like?
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Are they all the way up, are they kind of down, or is there fun music?
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Is there an energy going, you know?
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: And throughout the night too, is there different music for different things?
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Uh, we were at a DYM conference recently and their soundboard is just awesome.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Off the charts.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Amazing, Like he's list the, the tech and the sound booth is listening to everything Doug and Josh say and it will be like sound effect for everything.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Like it's so and I loved it.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: It enhances the experience.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: So much but like, even like fun food, like make sure there's like um, my kids love when we go beyond just the snack shack and then we have like root beer floats.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: They're like the easiest thing in the world third dollar, but being about a boom or we'll do nachos or cotton candy dollar for the kids to buy or to make okay yeah, we just charge one dollar and we break even most of the time.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: And or if it's valentine's day, we do cupid float, so it's like strawberry soda with ice cream, and you know we do hot chocolate bar, which they usually destroy, so I kind of stopped doing that.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: But snow cones for the lua, I don't know, just like some kind of fun food element.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: It just it's not about like I need a snow cone, it's just like it created an atmosphere and it's fun.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: And junior hires love treats.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: They are like the most treat oriented people I know.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: And then make sure you're giving all that the schedule to your tech team or whoever's going to run tech for you, so that they can pair their songs or sound effects or lights or whatever to what you're doing, kind of like how you prepare your leaders but prepare any support staff that's going to help you so that they can make that experience just all encompassing.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: You know, I think I've talked about Noah before.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: He's our tech and sound guy and I give him a schedule prior to our programs every week and prior to our events and he tailors it, tailors his lights, his music sounds, whatever perfectly to what we're doing and.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: I mean it makes like.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: For example, today at church we just played this random game called ghost cup stack challenge.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: You're just stacking cups that look like ghosts to make it.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Today at church we just played this random game called Ghost Cup Stack Challenge.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: You're just stacking cups that look like ghosts to make it Halloween-ish and we played Ghostbusters while we did it and the kids' energy changed dramatically and all the kids were doing was stacking cups.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: But if you're stacking ghost cups to the song Ghostbusters and it's blasting out of the speakers, everyone's like cheering and getting excited and you've just created an atmosphere with like very easy things.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: So just don't neglect the execution piece of.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Are we making this exciting and have we thought of like the little detailed elements?
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: totally like decorated or you know, and you don't have to go all out because you know budget stuff and whatever but just create, use what you have to make the atmosphere like electric yeah, I was at a wedding one time speaking of lights and sound to add or take away from an event.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: But I was at a wedding reception one time where there were no like dj stage light kind of thing.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: So it was just lights on like fluorescent lights in the nobody hall and music so quiet you could hear like the shuffling of feet so it's a squeak, yeah I talk about self-conscious.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: You're like this is happening and so, needless to say, like hardly anybody, Well, and I think what people want to do is kind of absorb into the atmosphere, blend in and be as obnoxious as you feel comfortable being yeah For someone like you way over the top.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: I don't need any help, I'll be obnoxious no matter what lights are on.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: no matter, I'll be obnoxious no matter what lights are on, no matter.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I wish you guys could see me.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I just dance and how rude, how dare you.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: It's a sight, that's to be sure.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Make sure you guys check out the episode we did on Glover Nighter.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: It's a super fun event.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: I know weather is getting colder a lot of places, so if it's a great indoor all night event, so make sure you guys check that out they love it so now we're gonna do a question of the day, which is what is a store that once existed, that no longer does?
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: That you loved?
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: so it might exist somewhere, but at our mall there used to be a store called Sanrio Surprises and it was all the Hello Kitty characters.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: And it was like Hello Kitty, karopi the frog, there was a dog, I forget his name, a pig, and they had each section.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Like Karopi was green, hello Kitty was red, the pig was pink, there was like a penguin that was blue, and my friends and I would go in and we all had our character and we would only buy supplies of that.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Like they had pencil boxes and little school supplies and erasers and backpacks and I was croppy, I had all the green stuff and my friend, she had all the pink pig stuff.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: And so I just remember going into Sanrio surprises and it was like like cause they would like section it off by color and character.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: So you would go in and it was like this is the green section, this is the blue section, like it was so cool.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: And it was at the Carlsbad mall.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: It's obviously not there anymore, but I hello kitty is still a thing, so I think there must be a Sanrio surprises store somewhere google it.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: I yeah, I guess I should google it.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: I don't need to get anything anymore, but I just was like that was like literally my element upper elementary, junior high like stomping grounds forever.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: I loved it.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: Mine would be.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: It was a camera shop, which is really boring, but it was a camera shop in escondido, so a town pretty close to where we're at, and it just was had a lot of good stuff there, you know, for videography, for camera stuff, which I'm, you know, I nerd out on those things and there's other camera shops but they're just not that close.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: So I feel like it's just a bummer to have to be like I could drive 20 minutes to that one or like an hour, and so since that one's gone, it's just kind of a bummer not that exciting.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: It's not the other one I was gonna say was mervin's.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Yes, that was more fun, mervin, but I feel, like it's.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: That's cole's now, true, it's basically the same yeah, you're the same thing so I don't.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: I don't miss it that much, so I'm gonna go with camera shop.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Put in the comment section below what's the store that no longer exists that you really, really miss longs drugs.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: I used to go there all the time yeah, because there's not like a drug store I know.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: That's why I didn't say it, but they had three for one candy bars like three for a dollar yeah mars, as long as you got mars brand you can't even get a candy bar for under a dollar anymore, and they had clearly Canadian.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: So I would get a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos, three candy bars and a clearly Canadian, and diarrhea Nope.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: All right, this is a community comment of the day.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: This comes from Intentional Woman who says Thank you so very much for sharing your story.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: This was beautiful and I definitely shed some tears.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: This was beautiful and I definitely shed some tears.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: I thank God for leading you to help put things into perspective for others.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: God bless you and family.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: So it was the episode we did on whether or not you're called to youth ministry.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Wow yeah.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: So make sure you guys check that out, if that's something you are interested in.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Thank you, that means a lot.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Appreciate it.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: I forgot about that episode.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go back and listen to it.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Maybe I so much appreciate it, I forgot about that episode.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go back and listen to it.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Maybe I'll shed a tear, maybe you will thank you guys so much for watching and listening and we'll see you next time.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: You gotta be in land.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: It's electric.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: A huge success.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: Do you want to make your next youth ministry event a huge success?
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: Then stick around, because I'm gonna give you five tips no-transcript.