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How I Grew My Youth Group Over 1200%! ( It's Not What You Think!! ) · Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: everyone would just be hyped up and want to invite their friends, and then they'd start talking about it at school and then they just keep coming to our youth group and then they'd invite their friends.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: And it just kind of became exponential.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Every year not only do students come to know Jesus, but they keep coming and join a small group, and now we're in a discipleship environment you know, and so it works.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Let's build a team.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Let's get camaraderie.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Let it works.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Let's build a team, let's get camaraderie.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Let's get cohesiveness.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Let's build on leadership, and I knew I can't do anything until that team is healthy.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Any healthy ministry is going to be built on healthy leadership and I cannot do it alone.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I need a healthy leadership team.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: When I first started youth ministry, my youth group was 11 students.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Now it's about 150.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: How did I do it?
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: It might not be what you think.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we are your guides in the crazy and yet rewarding world of youth ministry.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: My name is Jeff Laskola and this is Kristen.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Laskola.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Wow, that was a new intro.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I did not, I was not prepared.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Every now and then I like to change it up.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: I wasn't prepared.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Your guides through the interesting world.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: That was good.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Changing it up Caught me off guard.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Maybe, the listeners are also caught off guard what?
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: is this nonsense?
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: No, you're listening to the correct podcast.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Where we give you tips and tactics to help you fast track the growth and health of your youth ministry.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: My name is Jeff Laskola and this is Doofus Von.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Dum Dum and this is Doofus Von Dum Dum and today we're talking about how you grew your youth ministry by 1200% Is that the math, it is the math.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Woo 1200%.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: It only took me 1200 years, not quite.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Today we're going to talk about how I grew my youth group from 11 to 150.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: About 150.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Okay, you act like you don't know, but I do know I didn't know if you wanted me to say the actual number so I was hesitating yeah, go ahead.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, 11 to 150.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Then it makes the math add up that it's over 1200%.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: When you say it like that, that's quite an accomplishment.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it felt like it took 1200 years, that's for sure.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to give you a little behind the curtain of how I did it, the journey of my leadership and my ministry and all of that.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: And let me tell you, it wasn't easy and it wasn't quick.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: It took a lot of time and blood, sweat, tears, Holy Spirit prayer, questioning my life choices.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: But we're going to help you expedite this process.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: You know you don't have to pay the painful, dumb taxes that I paid.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: You know, and when we started this podcast, Jeff kind of put it this way.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: He said be what you wish you had 20 years ago.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: And so that's what I'm going to help you do today.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: If you're looking to grow your youth ministry, I'm going to give you my real life journey so that you can see where yours fits in to mine.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: So, number one when I first started, I realized I needed to focus on one area of health at a time.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: So I think sometimes youth pastors get a bit overwhelmed because they look at the project in front of them and they're like this is a mess.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: That's a mess.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: This needs attention, this needs to be changed.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: What's going on here and it and they're like this is a mess, that's a mess, this needs attention, this needs to be changed, what's going on here?
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: And it can just feel like where do I even start?
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Well, I prioritized, I think, without even really knowing I was prioritizing what I saw as nothing else can happen until this gets fixed and I would take as long as that needed.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Then nothing else can happen until this gets fixed and I would take as long as that needed, then nothing else can happen until this gets fixed and I would take as long as that needed.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: So just to give you some examples in order of importance my number one focus when I first took over our first offsite campus at our church was my leadership team.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: My adult volunteer leadership team was priority number one of figuring out them.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: What do they need, who are they?
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Let's build a team, let's get camaraderie, let's get cohesiveness, let's build on leadership, and I knew I can't do anything until that team is healthy.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I remember my very first act of junior high pastor at our campus was we went to a Mexican restaurant and I invited all the leaders and I just sat down and I'm like I just got to get to know you guys and then I started to build relationships with them.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: And then I hoped to build relationships with them with each other, and just start to develop leadership skills in them, train them on things, disciple them, do life with them, because I just knew any healthy ministry is going to be built on healthy leadership and I cannot do it alone.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I need a healthy leadership team.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: So that was priority number one just putting so much time, attention and resources to the people who are going to be leading this with me, and now when I showed up, I had probably five or six leaders that were already there.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: You might be at ground zero and have no leaders, and so obviously you would have to start like, all right, let's go recruit, let's build relationships, let's start inviting people to check out ministry.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: So your volunteer leadership team is always priority number one If you're going to grow your youth ministry.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Then I started to move on to things like okay, what's my program?
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Like?
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: We didn't have worship.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, all right, I think worship is an essential part of a youth ministry program.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: So I spent all my time trying to figure that out.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Is there someone who has musical talent, who's willing to lead worship?
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Who I can buy them dinner once a month?
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Say, hey, could you please?
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: You know if you're on a shoestring budget.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Then I started looking at all the elements of our program.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: What is our teaching like?
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: What do the kids need to hear?
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: And is my teaching up to up to par?
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Small groups?
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Are small groups healthy games?
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Are we playing fun, relevant, engaging games?
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: What's the environment like?
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I remember it was a long time ago, so I started like printing out pictures of all the kids and posting them on these boards and trying to create any little fun environmental element that I could and like bringing in our speaker because we had no system, so I wanted music.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: When they came in and man there's, I'll go to little Caesars and grab pizza so the kids can have pizza when they come into youth group.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Um, that's what I started the would you rather board, you know, for them to write a fun question.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: And I just started to look around at the environment, say, does this, is this a magnetic environment for the age group I'm trying to meet, because we were just meeting at a community center so it was like this random classroom that says eat your fruits and vegetables.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: You know, not even like the, the gymnasium community center.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: It was like little classroom and it literally had like posters about like how to eat healthy and brush your teeth and hygiene and stuff like that, and so I just was like all very important things very important, very, not saying it's not, but it just didn't scream youth ministry, you know, and then buying games and having those out and just and everything needed to be portable.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Bring everything I used to have a bin in my car all the time that had every flyer and every speaker and game and whatever, and I'd have to load up the bin and unload the bin and then I started getting curtains so that I could cover up some of the like classroom elements so I'd have these poles and I'd be setting up curtains.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Well, then I wanted to upgrade my curtains with our logo.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: So then I upgraded that to a vinyl banner, you know, and I just always was looking at, like how can I make this?
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Like, teenagers do care about their environment, you know, they want it to feel like this is a place that was created for me.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: So that's what I did.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I started to fine tooth comb, go through everything with a fine tooth comb.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Like what's our worship, like what's our program, like what are our games, like what's the small group vibe, like all those programs that make up a Tuesday or Wednesday night, whatever night you meet on.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: And I just would hone in on one area and I would try to fix it up, make it good, make it thriving, make it healthy.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Then I move on to the next one and, like I said, that could take a while.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: You know it wasn't like this week worship, next week games.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: And worship is a season, and then figuring out my game system is a season.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Figuring out, you know, all these things take time.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: So that was program and then I started.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: I was the first worship leader you had.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: You never bought me dinner.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: I married you Not enough.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, fine.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was someone else I bought dinner for, wasn't me.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: You know who you are.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Then I started looking at like our organizational systems.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: So that would be like communication with parents and leaders in the church at large about what's going on in the youth ministry.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Keeping attendance even became like a system that I needed to sort of figure out.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, am I really keeping track of who's coming and who's not, and where's this kid?
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: And you know so.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Then I started looking at systems so it was a leader's program, organizational structures and systems and then I started looking at our events and our camps.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Once I felt like, okay, we have a good Tuesday night thing going.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: It has all the elements Like I bet we could expand and start doing some cool events.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: And what does our group want to do?
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: What works good for our size and our resources?
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: And getting some events on the calendar and making sure those are really well run.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: And then figuring out what works for us for camp.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Some youth ministries it takes them years to find their camp, like they try little different trips and things and it was like, ah, it was okay, but what you're looking for is that camp that everyone comes back and was like that's amazing, can't wait to go back.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: And so and be affordable, yeah.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I know getting all those things like super cool, super affordable, a great experience for everyone, like checking all those boxes, could take years because you only get one a year to try it out exactly and that didn't work, so let's wait a whole three years give yourself time, get, get the camp.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Get like I do a summer camp and a winter camp and it took me years to figure out like this is fun, but what about this?
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Or Ooh, that was cool but that was really expensive.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Or oh, I liked this, but it was too crowded or too far to whatever.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: So, anyways, that was kind of an element that I needed to check off, and then I would start to look at my student leadership team.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: That is a huge pillar, in my opinion, of youth ministry, of like do we have students who are pulled to the center, that they're creating the culture for other students?
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Cause leaders create a certain culture, but we also need students to create a certain culture for their peers, and I don't think I could run healthy youth ministry without a student leadership team.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: It's that important.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: So I had to really figure out okay, we have one, but why is it only girls that sign up?
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Okay, we need some more guys.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Are we selling this in the correct way that gets students excited, or do they feel like it's a burden, a chore?
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Just another commitment, you know?
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: So I had a student leadership team but like I wasn't getting the signups that I was hoping for, we did an episode on that recently.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Jeff will link that below, won't you, jeff?
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Sure, why not?
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: You can give me dinner.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: No, that ship has sailed.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I made you dinner tonight, that's true, homemade.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: That is true, it was very good.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Pizza bread.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: It was good, it was better than it sounds, just.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: And then I started.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: This honestly was a huge growth engine for us and we've talked about it before the battle.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: The battle is a competition series we do every fall where the students get on teams and they compete for four weeks for we send our students to six flags.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Magic mountain Whatever theme park is nearest to you will also work.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Or, if you don't have the budget, you could do like a trampoline park or a water park.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: We used to do that too when my budget was smaller, so that was a great outreach and those kids really did stick around.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: It was this thing where everyone would just be hyped up and want to invite their friends and then they'd start talking about it at school and then they just keep coming to our youth group and then they'd invite their friends and it just kind of became exponential, like you invited him and he invited her and she invited them and you know it, just like over the years.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: I mean I can point to so many students like you didn't start coming until the battle and now you're a part of our ministry and now your family comes.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Like it really does work.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: So we had to put a lot of time and money into it, but, to be honest, I saved my budget almost for the whole year, so I can pull that off because I give them a free trip to Magic Mountain, and the higher, the more we grow, the more tickets that is, and a bus and all of that so, but it's worth it.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: It's worth it, like every year, not only do students come to know Jesus, but they keep coming in, join a small group and now we're in a discipleship environment you know, and so it works, and until it doesn't work, I you know like I'm going to keep doing it until it
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: doesn't work.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: So that was a huge growth engine for us, even though we only did it once a year.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Those kids they come in October and they stick around for the rest of the year.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: It's amazing.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: And then back to environment, of environment.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Again, I would re look at this stuff all the time, and in fact every year.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I kind of look at my budget and see what's left and I think, before the fiscal year is over, I'm like man, what else could I do in this room to make it scream?
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: We are here for the junior hires, you know.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: And that's really the question you want to be asking yourself is does this space scream?
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Junior hires, welcome here.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Junior hires plan to be here, not like, okay, guys, like don't touch anything because, like, this isn't our room and so we got to to be careful.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: It's like no, like create a space that screams.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: We were expecting you and and we're happier here.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Not like all creepy, like that, though, but Was that creepy we were expecting waggling your fingers?
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: I didn't say it like that.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: So those were the areas that, like I said, I was kind of prioritizing and that, and it took years to kind of perfect those Like this isn't just, though, like a weekly checklist, but these are really big areas of ministry that you're going to need to get right and get healthy and have the long view in mind, that, and then you kind of come back to stuff.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: It's like cool, worship was doing well, but okay, what's happening?
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: We lost our worship leader.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: How can we prevent this in the future?
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Well, man, we should probably have people waiting in the wings as the worship leader, developing students who can eventually take over that role, because in youth ministry, keep in mind, you're always going to need to replace yours Hopefully not yourself too soon.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: You're going to need more small group leaders than you need people waiting in the wings because all of a sudden it's like oh, two people left for college.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Well, now, the eighth graders don't have a small group leader.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: It's like Whoa always be planning Well, I can move this person here.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Always have worship people being developed, always have leaders and interns being developed.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Like the name of the game is always development, development, development, develop people all the time, always, in every circumstance, and you will have a steady flow of people who can continue this kingdom work.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: It's like an all hands on deck thing.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: But if they're not invited to the party, they just might not, they might miss it.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: So you're always bringing people and teaching them, training them, developing them, discipling them, mentoring them, coaching them.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: It's like all about people, people, people, people, people and that's what keeps the ministry going and healthy and and happening and thriving and people wanting to be a part of that and happening and thriving and people wanting to be a part of that.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: So once you have all these systems kind of up and running, one thing I try to really do is seek a consistent standard of excellence in everything.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: So once things are running, you need to look at them and say is this reaching its maximum potential?
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Like excellence in everything you do really does breed growth.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: So it's not like like when I was small, I think, like the, the temptation was to think we're small, so excellence doesn't matter, people won't care, it will be forgivable, they're just junior hires.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: But as long as you keep thinking like that, like people will believe that.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: So, like, whatever picture you're painting of your ministry, that's the picture people will believe.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: So what I did is I remember saying to the church like, hey, my youth ministry needs security.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: And it was kind of like well, I don't know if they do or not, and it's like no, my ministry is important enough that we need security, we need a safety team.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if we have the people to give to that size of ministry right now.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: And then I said, well, then I will figure it out.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: All right, you are you a cop?
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Are you off duty?
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Do you know?
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: martial arts or any kind of battling sort of strategies, we'll take it.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: You know, like just trying to recruit people on my own and kind of train them up and say could you just watch the perimeter of our building while we're in youth group, Cause I can't see what's going on outside.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: I need someone who can, or can you help direct traffic and make parents see that there's people here like that are Capable adults.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: see that there's people here like that are capable adults.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I don't know like the age demographic of your volunteer team, but like having some people who look older than 18 outside just to say, hey, this is a safe place, like we took our kid to vbs um this summer and it was great.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Right when you pull in the parking lot there was these people wearing yellow vests and they had walkie talkies and they were oh, I mean, I don't know if they were going to, like you know, fight anyone necessarily, but they at least knew who was coming in and out kind of patrolling.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like they could see, oh, this person clearly shouldn't be here.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: They kind of wandered in.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Let's talk to them and say, hey, you know, can we help you?
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Just so that there's no nothing weird going on.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: And that's a great thing that I was like I want that standard of excellence, that everything we do is safe and everything we do has your children in mind, that we're going to do our best to make sure this is a really great place to be.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: So maybe you feel like, oh well, our ministry is so small, we don't need an online presence.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Well, I would say, yes, you do Like, if you're going to need one when you have 100 kids, you need one when you have 15 kids.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: So I just think, not selling your ministry short because it's small, but treating it and we've talked about this before on the podcast, but I really believe, treating it as if it like deserves the same excellence, as if it were a ministry of 100, 200, 300, whatever.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: So if you would do it for that, then do it for this.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: You know, and I just think we can get in that odd mindset of like, well's small, it doesn't matter you're kind of going the other way around, where you're saying if, if and when we grow, we'll need volunteers.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: so instead of let's try and grow, then get volunteers, let's get volunteers so that when we grow it's healthy growth, yeah, and everything is.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: Is that way?
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: It's like let's, let's make the path healthy and then you know the growth will will be able to accommodate it in a healthy way.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, instead of always kind of playing catch up.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: That's happened.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, growth you always think is a good thing, but we talked to a pastor a few months back whose youth ministry exploded.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: He wasn't the pastor, I think, when it really took off.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: He kind of took over this and was telling us how unhealthy it was, where it was, at the point where, like, the students were running it and not in a good way, yeah and just kind of going through and talking about like he's like what can I do?
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: and it's like you kind of almost need to tear it down and build it back up because it's all backwards.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: You know when that growth happens but you don't have the the systems in place and the people in place to withstand it.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Right, like he was playing catch up and was not not winning that game at all.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that is probably a pretty common scenario.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: I remember starting to see that happen when we started to really grow and me thinking I've got to build some infrastructure here so that the growth I'm seeing if this continues, we're going to need some systems in place that can support it, more protocol and more help and more, you know, like a pickup system, a safety system, a small group system.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Like you know, these doors are locked at this time, kind of like what we talked about last week.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: You know, these doors are locked at this time, kind of like what we talked about last week, just the more organizational structure to it.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Another way that I grew and this was never a huge problem for me and my context, necessarily, but I see it all the time is is splitting age groups that have no business being together.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: So I think, whether you're putting elementary and junior high together or junior high and high school together, both like a lot of times we talk about no junior high and high school together, but I know there are some churches out there that do elementary and junior high together and that will be a growth killer.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Absolutely Going back to what we just talked about, because I think this is what Kristen thinks you can think differently.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: I think it's impossible to have your highest level of excellence with those grades together because somebody is going to be compromising somewhere, somebody's going to have to put up with something somewhere Like my eighth graders are already annoyed with the sixth graders Like that's and that's two years apart.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: They're compromising a little bit in that sense, but I feel like you will lose excellence because there is no way you can serve both elementary and junior high at the same time at their highest potential.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: You can like the Bible, you can just teach it to everyone, but you're not going to hone in on the needs of that particular age group and even where they're at developmentally.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: And I would say too, like it's almost like for protection for the younger kids as well.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: It's not just like, oh, these little kids, they're not cool, so I don't want them here.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: It's not even so much that like thinking about it in the reverse way.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: It's like to protect these kids they should not be mixed in with junior hires and to protect junior hires they shouldn't be mixed in with high schoolers.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: So maybe that would help motivate you.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: If it's just like cause I always think like, oh, high schoolers aren't going to invite their friends if they show up and there's an 11 year old there, but also think of the protection for that kid.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Like it hit me so hard when our oldest daughter was like nine, eight or nine, and she wanted to come to our beach day with us and I had been giving some junior hires a ride, so she was in the car and they were in the car and I didn't think anything of it until I heard the things they were talking about and I couldn't age appropriate for them and I couldn't say you guys be quiet, that's so inappropriate.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like that level.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: But it was just so junior high that I was like cringing and like, oh, like, I don't really.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: When it's like, well, you could argue well, they have siblings that age, you know, whatever they're going to be exposed to it at some point.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: But I just kind of felt this responsibility of like I don't know if I should be like having this group of junior high boys and then my nine-year-old daughter and her hearing their conversations, and again, was it bad enough for me to shut it down?
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: No, it was just how junior hires think and talk and whatever that an elementary age kid, it's like, uh, these aren't, you're not compatible.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: So I think that's a huge one.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Keeping those age groups split by all means necessary.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I think it's really hard for churches because they just are like well, we don't have enough people, like can you raise up a volunteer team?
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Can you find a killer volunteer who can kind of be the point person for some of this?
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Like, where there's a will, there's a way.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: I just feel like you've got to figure out how to split these age groups if you're looking to grow you know and if you're looking for healthy growth as well.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a high school nearby us, that there is a high school.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: They want a new building.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: They want to, they want to grow, they need more, more room to grow, but currently they don't have it and they wanted to put the new building on the same campus as a local college, community college.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: And the parents were like throwing a fit because they're like I don't want my high school student on the same campus as 18, 19, 20, you know, same idea, it's just like you just don't want.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: That's just different stage of life.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: It is you know, and so even if high schools are saying that they don't want that, like shouldn't the church be that much more cautious about those age groups?
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's what I mean.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Someone's going to be compromising, like maybe it's kind of like well, we all know this is the way it has to be, but it's never excellence, it's never thriving, it's never best case scenario, it's never full potential, it's compromise.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: It's always when age groups are combined.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's always compromised somewhere.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: And real quick.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Going back to the leadership team, you know I had said that I really focused on my adult volunteers and here's a here's a reason why too, that I was talking to one of my interns about today at church.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: There was three of us working, so one of the services we had like 25 kids at second service or something, and there were three leaders in the room.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: It was me, my guy director and my intern, and her and I were talking and I was saying, wow, like I'm thinking back in the day of when it was just me leading everything and I, I said not only was I running everything like push play on the computer, and then like, hey, guys, welcome.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: And then I said, but it was the relational weight I had to carry that made me so tired.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: I used to come home from church after Sunday services and just be like a zombie, and it wasn't necessarily because I was teaching announcements, games like this and that, but it was like every kid who came in the room I was taking the relational burden for of like making you feel welcome.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Hi, how was your weekend?
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: What's going on?
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, you had your game.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Hey, I haven't seen you in a while.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Good to see you.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, do you need help checking in?
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, hi, you're new.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Why don't you fill this out?
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: And I was doing all of that being a team of one.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: And so, going back to the focus on your adult leaders, the reason you can grow is because you are duplicated in your relational capacity.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Everyone who comes in your room on a Sunday or a midweek program or whatever, what are they?
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Bottom line looking for Relationship.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: You know I talk about environment and worship and all this stuff and all that stuff's important, but bottom line, what do my students want?
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Most is me.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: In fact, we just got back from camp and one of my leaders had to tell the kids like, stop saying her name.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Like do I can help you, can someone else help you?
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Because she's like, oh my gosh, everywhere you walk, kristen, kristen, kristen, kristen, Kristen, kristen, kristen she's like I heard your name said like a hundred times a day, like how do you do it?
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, I need other people to step in and take some of that relational weight.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Because what do they want?
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: They want my attention, they want my focus, they want my relationship, they want to tell me all the stories they like, them and their friends this weekend and what they did and I was at junior lifeguards and how many miles I ran or swam or whatever, and they're just like they want to tell you, tell you, tell you, which is great, but if you're one person you're not going to, I mean, how could you possibly get to everyone?
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: So building this team gives you the the resource to grow, not just like oh, so people can do tasks, but so that people can engage with people.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: You need as many people available to engage with other people as possible and that creates that healthy environment and people know I can come and be seen and heard and known and listened to, and all of that because there's no way you can do that, just you.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: It's tough.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: So, like I said, the more leaders the better.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Like you know, we had a three to there's 25 of them, three of us today, and it felt perfect it felt like great, I still talk to students.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: I played four square, I played Mario Kart with them, I hung out and I felt like great, I still talk to students.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: I played Foursquare, I played Mario Kart with them, I hung out and I felt filled, not depleted.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: You know it was great.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: So keep that in mind for the leader thing.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: And then just remember, you know, at the end of the day, look at your ministry, look at where you meet, look at and just ask yourself is this a place where students can easily invite friends?
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Are we the kind of youth group where it's so easy to invite a friend?
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: They're not going to come in with a bunch of insider language and insider things that, like a visitor, would be like what the heck are you guys doing?
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: But that someone could come and feel comfortable right off the bat and feel comfortable right off the bat.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: I just think sometimes we need to keep a visitor in mind when we, like our pastor does the littlest things where it's like, okay, turn to 1 Timothy, don't just assume everyone knows where 1 Timothy is.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Like, walk them through it, you know, make it so they know.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Like, oh, it's not just like obvious, everybody knows this.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Or little insider things Like.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Every youth group has traditions, but be very careful of like weird abbreviations that you're using that only someone who would be attending would know.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Explain things as if you're explaining it to new people every single time so that they know oh, there's other new people here too.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: I'm not like the one random that everyone's like oh, just for them.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: You know, if you're other new people, it's explaining things to a point where it's like, oh good, I'm glad they explained that, cause I had no idea I didn't want to have to ask.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, who would write?
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: You know a new person.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: So, anyways, all this took me a lot of time and my gift to you is that it doesn't have to take you a lot of time.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Jeff and I like that has always been our heart for youth pastors of take what I've learned in 20 years and condense it down and just kind of hand it over so that your growth trajectory can be quicker, smoother and easier, like this, a little roadmap that somebody said hey, I've been here, let me write it in reverse for you, um, and you'll have a much smoother time.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: You won't be wearing a blindfold navigating through all of this.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: So we have the youth ministry growth accelerator course and it's basically these little modules of all these different topics from leaders to a lot of almost everything.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: You've actually everything you've talked about and more, I think.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it comes with a workbook so that you can actually be a student, like if youth ministry were a course at your local college.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: That's something you actually had any interest in learning.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what this feels like.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, make sure you go to grow youryouthministrycom and you can check out everything that it includes.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: And also, what you didn't even mention was we do the monthly coaching calls which is a great way to live, which is a great way to ask the questions that you have in youth ministries, certain things that maybe you're stuck on in your certain context, and we kind of talk through that as a group, which is really fun.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: So make sure you guys check that out Again.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: It's growyouryouthministrycom.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Right now.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: We're gonna do our last giveaway for our 200th episode giveaway.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: This is the final one, and the winner today is going to be receiving a one-year subscription to G Shades Youth Ministry Curriculum.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Ooh lucky winner.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, g Shades Youth Ministry Curriculum.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: Ooh, lucky winner.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: G Shades Youth Ministry Curriculum, which is the season six base G curriculum, and it is valued at $579.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: It is a year's worth of video messages, teaching manuscripts, small group guides, games and graphics everything that you could possibly want.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: I want that.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: This is gospel-centered youth ministry curriculum to help you and your students grow in their faith.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: So make sure you do check out gshadesorg for more information.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: But the winner for the.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: G Shades curriculum is Mirab Joy Guillen.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: Congratulations.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: We will be in contact with you and G Shades will be in contact with you about how to get your season six curriculum so congratulations, that's a good price.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: Thank you, G Shades, for donating that to this giveaway.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: We really appreciate that and we also appreciate all you watching and listening and we will see you next time.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: Today we're talking all about how to give you the ultimate UV nuvi nuvul, welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast where every week we bring you no the forefoot, the front foot, being Sorry, which?
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: foot.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: Leading with the foot.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Your best drama, best comedy, best quote, best wig.