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The 7 Types of Events That Your Youth Ministry NEEDS! · Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is the perfect time to start thinking of the New Year's event.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I like to do about one event per month.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And on paper, does it vary enough?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Is this all one type?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: We designed the youth group around the easiest invitation you'll ever make.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: We want to make it accessible for kids so they feel successful.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like I really did something.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Are you getting ready to plan your youth ministry calendar for the next year?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're gonna give you the seven types of events you want to make sure you include.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we give you weekly tips and tactics to help you fast-track the growth and health of your youth ministry.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Jeff Lascola, and this is Kristen Lascola.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're talking about events and the seven different types of events that you need to schedule in your youth ministry.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is the perfect time of year to do it.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: My campus pastor told me today to come ready at our next Monday morning meeting with all the events ready for the following year.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's only in the first week in October, second week of October.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the perfect time to start thinking of the new year's events.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: What are you gonna do in January, February, March?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at that calendar, is it all the same type of event?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Is it heavy on one type or the other?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I like to do about one event per month.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at it on paper, does it vary enough?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is this all one type?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now's the time to ask that question.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: So the first type of event you want to make sure you get on your calendar for the next year is outreach.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And this is maybe not what you think.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I used to think of outreach as like making students like go knock on doors and be like, you should come to my church or something like that.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: But really, outreach is when you design your youth ministry to be perfectly poised for people to invite their friends.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, people should invite their friends all the time, like that's a given.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And our students do.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really proud of them.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's always a new kid from a baseball team or a neighbor or someone from school coming with a with a friend, which is great.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: But once a year, I like to do a big push where we surround it with a series.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: The series we call it search and rescue, and it's based off of the scripture Jesus came to seek and save what was lost, and that we get on mission with Jesus to search and rescue those who don't know him.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we design the youth group around the easiest invitation you'll ever make.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we do something called the battle.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's four weeks, three teams, and the students win a discounted trip to an amusement park, and we share the gospel in four different parts over the course of that.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it's super hype.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, wow, we put a lot into this.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just like, hey, come play a game.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like everyone's in a costume.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have it's loud.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: It we film all these videos to make it extra hype.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: We have referees, we have hosts that are dressed up, we have music, we have lights, the whole shebang.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I know sometimes people are like, church shouldn't be a production, you know, and not every week it is, but I like to do something extra special and extra fun to kind of it's it's just once a year, you know, we do it every um October.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we're in the middle of it right now.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And after that, like we go back to regular youth group, and the kids that got invited get plugged into small groups and they get plugged into community, and a lot of them end up getting baptized in the summer and uh we retain them, you know.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if it was kind of like a flash in the pan kind of event and it was like, wow, that was a lot of work and we didn't get any retention, I would I would reinvent the wheel, but because it's way too much work for no fruit.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: However, there's always fruit.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that works for us.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what works for you.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do something that fits your ministry and your personality.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I like to do this kind of stuff once in a while, but all that to say, where on your calendar is the outreach event?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Where are your students going that extra challenge or accepting that extra challenge?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this is the time to invite your friends.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because what I like to tell my students is I think like growing up in church, and maybe we've talked about this before, but it was always just like go tell people about Jesus or you're not a brave Christian.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, eat or malfunction, like I don't know what to say.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, come to church.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I did, I evangelized to my neighbors growing up, and one of them is a Christian to this day, and she wrote me on Instagram telling me about it, which is cool.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes kids don't really know what to say.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I say, Well, maybe the point that you're at in your evangelistic journey is you have access to people that I don't.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So your part is the invitation and the access.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: My part is the planning and the preaching and all that.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And someday you'll be there, you'll be able to communicate why you believe what you believe in a way that makes sense out loud.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can probably know it in your heart, in your head, but when sometimes when you try to say it out loud, you just don't, it doesn't come across the right way.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then you kind of are like, never mind, I'm not gonna say anything.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: I sounded stupid.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: I said, just give it time.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think sometimes we need to make sure that we're not over pressuring students.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Should they be able to communicate the Romans road and lead someone in a salvation prayer?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, of course, every Christian should, but we can't guilt them if they're not quite there yet.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're working on it, they're learning, we're discipling and equipping them.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I love doing outreach events because it helps them feel successful at evangelism because they realize I can invite my friends, and then their friends are excited and then they feel like it's a win.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, what we want to do anytime you do an outreach event is make sure that you remove the burden of embarrassment for anyone.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning, have you ever invited a friend to church and then you felt the weight of the embarrassment because you wanted to say something like it's not normally like this, you know, like they start talking about something weird or doing something weird, or it feels and like you incur that weight because it's like when you pick the movie and it's like, is everyone liking it?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, it's like almost like you're the producer, right?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I encourage my students to invite their friends to church, I don't want them to regret it.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to create an experience that they can feel proud of their church and feel like, oh, I'm so glad I did that.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Not I had to explain on the way home why my church is weird or something like that.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just me.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, filter that through your own metric or whatever, but outreach event.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: What does that look like for you?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then number two, kind of along the same lines, I like to have a missional event.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And those are different.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So missional is more like global or outreach in the sense of like service or ministry.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: So it could be a homeless outreach.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: It could be the one we do is called Starving to Serve, and we fast for 27 hours and raise money for a really cool organization called Outside the Bowl.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually local to us, but they're global.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: So they serve kids in Mexico, South Africa, Haiti, and I'm probably missing one.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: But, anyways, they have these huge industrial kitchens where people can go and they serve meals to them.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: But the new thing they do is they have these packs of it's like a porridge called Vitakids.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And this guy, I he came to our church this week and I got to meet him.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: He used to be in the food industry, and he had a dream that God was telling him, use what you know to feed starving children.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: So he packs this porridge in these little instant pouches that they just have to add water.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: They manufacture it themselves, and it's like 80% of your daily nutritional needs, like macro and micronutrients.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like you look at the fine print, and there's like a million lines, like vitamin B12, A, folic acid, all this stuff.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they can transport it anywhere.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if people can't get to the kitchens, they take these packets to kids who are starving.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a very worthwhile cause, in my opinion.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And my students get so hype about it.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'll ask them when they are in eighth grade, leaving my ministry, what was the favorite, your favorite part of our junior high ministry?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times they say starving to serve.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's the reason I say we need like a missional event on our calendar is because students get very self-centered.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: We all do, right?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not just students, and they can get kind of trapped in their own little world and their own little drama and think that the world revolves around who's mad at who this week and like what boy or girl likes or doesn't like them, and what teacher, quote, hates them, and when they didn't make the basketball team or whatever it might be, but then you get them to step back and just look, hey, there's a whole world going on out here, guys, and there's people that you can help.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't take a lot.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, you look at global hunger and you're like, oh my gosh, it's too big of a problem.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: But honestly, it doesn't take that much to move the needle.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like the guy who came, he like held up a bag of chips and he goes, How much do you guys pay for this?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like a buck, right?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, because it was a really small bag, like at our snack shack.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he was like, This would feed, this would be three meals for a kid.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: For a dollar, you mean?
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, you could feed one kid, he said, like a whole year for$60 or something like that.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was crazy.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyways, just getting them to see, hey, I can really have an impact, even though I'm not like a missionary on an airplane going to some remote country, but what can I do?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: And again, it's the same thing as the outreach.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: We want to make it accessible for kids so they feel successful.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like I really did something.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we watched a video of the kids in South Africa, and they're so cute.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And they were like, Thank you for starring this serve.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they were eating their stuff.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I told the kids that was you.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like you raised the money, and then you just went about your business.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: But this is all this going on in the background.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: So visit outsidebowl.com and you can see their mission and what they do.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: You could do this wherever you are.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was cool.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: We were at a uh gala that they put on uh last year, I think.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they really quantified kind of like you're saying like this much money equals this.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think a lot of times uh there'll be organizations where it's like, you know, please donate.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like you're donating an amount.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I I don't really know what you did with it.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trusting that you did the right thing with it, obviously, but I don't know where it went specifically.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: And even if it's like this is going towards feeding starving children, you're like, that's a great cause.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't it it's not tangible though.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah when they break it down where it's like if you donate ten dollars, it's this many millions.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's really like wow, yeah.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I can really wrap my head around that.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it is a really cool organization.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: I like how they do that.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the guy, Mark, who came to speak, he said 100% of what you guys give goes straight to the children.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know where his salary comes from.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Separate donors, maybe just probably.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't obviously ask, but he said a hundred percent of all donations go to that.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And our church, like we're a large church, so we get tons of missional organizations.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Support me, support me, support me.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we have a lot of organizations we support, but they go through a pretty rigorous test to make sure that the funds go where they say, that they're on mission, that it's not just humanitarian, but it's also spiritual at the same time.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And outside the bull checks all those boxes.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: So highly, highly recommend.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a missional event.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then number three would be a connection type event.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: So this is like connection meaning like internal, right?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like for your people, not throwing a, you know, community event, but like what about the people here?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like they've got to connect.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: So this would be something that centers around like fun, right?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Relational.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we do like the overnighter.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just like your classic lock-in kind of thing.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Another relational um event we have that centers around connection is small group night out.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So once a year, our high school does it twice a year.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I do it once a year, where the small groups, instead of coming to youth group, they all plan their own fun night out.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: So some of them go to the beach and have a bonfire, some of them go to someone's house and have a pool party, you know, all kinds of stuff.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: So trampoline park is always on there.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just like a cool way for small groups themselves to bond.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: We love doing things that center around small groups themselves because that's where the most life is happening.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't want to neglect those kinds of events.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, quick question for you.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever felt like you were working really hard in your youth ministry every week, but you don't know what the next step is or how to grow your youth ministry?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you are not alone.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that is exactly why we created our course and coaching program called Youth Ministry Growth Accelerator.
• 14:05
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• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't just theory, it's the exact framework we've used and taught to youth pastors all over the country and even globally.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: In addition to the course and coaching, you will also have the opportunity to join a cohort community where you can meet with other youth leaders who are on the same journey to encourage each other, share ideas, and stay accountable as you put things into practice.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're looking for a clearer path to grow your ministry, head over to grow your youth ministry.com to see everything that's included.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, that's growyour youth ministry.com.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get back to the episode.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then number four is an event that has to do with some kind of spiritual formation.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: So for us, I mean, obviously camp is part of that.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm putting camp in another category, but for us, that's worship nights or baptisms.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: So about two times a year, we have a student ministry worship night.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's incredible.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: We've done an episode on it.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Jeff will link it for you because he's just that kind of guy.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we talk about how to do your own worship night.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing, literally amazing.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Two hours, and it feels feels like it goes by in the blink of an eye.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: We pick a great set and we vary it with testimonies or a message and communion.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: You could do baptisms that night, but just a hardcore spiritual event.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, I do youth group and church every week, and there's like a game and there's an icebreaker and there's a funny video, you know.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is just here we are to worship.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, here we are to do communion, baptism.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a spiritual night.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I like doing that a couple times a year.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think it keeps us centered, and the kids who are really hungry for that kind of stuff are the ones who come.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's usually our core kids who come and it's beautiful.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: And uh like the adults honestly should take a page out of the students' books.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like if the adults were to see this, and some parents will kind of come in and watch, but I mean, it the place, like, I feel like it's gonna light on fire in a good way.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, so the fifth type of event that I always make sure is on my calendar is uh like the promotion transition type event.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're saying goodbye and saying hello to your new grades.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: So for eighth grade, we do our eighth grade luau.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's an end of the year event before they go up to high school in May.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: I know some of you transition at the end of summer.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: I would challenge that because I think if you do summer camp, it's much better to have the incoming class go with the new ministry to summer camp.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning, I would like the relational equity that it builds during that time.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: You mean?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, camp is worth six months of relationships.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're together 24-7 and having all kinds of weird adventures, you know?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: But like my fifth graders, they come in in May and then they sign up and go to camp with us in July.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: If they did summer with the fifth grade ministry, that makes no sense to me.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then you would have gone to camp with fifth grade only to promote to me in the fall.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, what was the point of camp with them?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: You should go to camp with the ministry you're entering.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I've never understood promotion at the end of summer, just me.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: But we do the eighth grade luau to say goodbye to our eighth graders and honor them.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's an event, obviously, it's a luau, like I said.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we have like an end of the year video.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And when I was a smaller ministry, I would like put up their baby pictures or maybe a message from their parents or, you know, a special touch like that.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then to welcome our sixth graders, we do something called the Royal Rumble, where it's just classic boy versus girl competition, and the winning team wins an ice cream party served to them by the losers.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: They love that part.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: We ham it up like no eye contact.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Losers cannot make eye contact with the winners.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it ends up being a lot of fun.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, all right.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then the sixth type of event would be a leader-only event.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we sprinkle these throughout the year, like a leader night out.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: So when I say leader, I mean adult leaders, like your small group leaders, stuff like that.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we go to someone's house and have a pickleball tournament, maybe we go see a movie, maybe we go bowling.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, we've done a lot of different things.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, our our thing right now that we always seem to default to is we always play volleyball.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we like to get ice cream after, do something fun.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: So leader stuff, and then we plan one leader retreat a year.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like winter camp without students, and we're going to a new place this year, and I'm really excited.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a big, like ranch style VRBO that fits us all, and we're gonna plan some fun stuff in there, like a hike.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think we might have a fall dessert competition, play a ton of games.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: We love sardines, murder in the dark, pickleball.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I already said that.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: So lots to do.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just a cool way to get away with just your leaders.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: And again, you were talking about relational equity.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: I just feel like that week ends up being the highlight for everyone, and we just grow closer together.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've mentioned on an episode before I do something called the rug of affirmation where I invite everyone up individually.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: I have to do it in two separate nights now because we've grown.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it just could take forever.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: But like I would say, Jeff, come on up, and then I would publicly just go on and on about how awesome you are.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: It started getting longer because then people wanted to chime in, right?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I was like, no, no, no, no, because I could go like three hours.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: It goes on and on.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then, oh, and celebrations with leaders too.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, kind of a random leader night out is fun, but like I mentioned we're doing the battle right now.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of work.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of work for my leaders.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're getting costumes, they're yelling, they're losing their voice.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's so high energy.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's sweating their like faces off.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like, whoo! Like you feel like you just went through a car wash, you like, you know, like dodging things.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I like to do something at the end, like, hey, let's celebrate.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then we talk about how many first-time decisions we had and how many rededications we had.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we celebrate like that was a lot of work, but here's why this was worth it.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we talk about the stories of new students coming and all of that.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: So always take time to celebrate.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: If your team has done a big thing and pulled it off, like after Whitewater, that's our summer camp.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: We go Whitewater rafting, that is so much work.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is so fun.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: But we come home like we just went to war or something.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're sleeping outside, it's hot, you got bug bites.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: There could have been a snake, like, you know, dealing with all kinds of adventures.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Every year, there's some weird adventure we end up on.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I like to thank them when we get back, hey, let's come down from this and celebrate.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's have a dinner together or worship together or something.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: A leader-only worship night, too, has been one of our new go-tos.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: We do that before camps, where we just do a worship night and communion, just us in one of the classrooms after all the kids go home.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same night as youth group.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: After all the kids get picked up, we just go and hang out, and our worship leader plays a few songs, we pray, we take communion, and that's been like a really cool bonding experience as well.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, the spiritual formation for your leaders also don't neglect that.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then, lastly, we've already kind of touched on this the seventh kind of event our Camps and retreats.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I know a lot of you do fall retreats, which I think is awesome because you just got you your new class in there and school's just started and everyone's excited to be at youth group.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Some people take a break from the summer or for the summer and then they're kind of back into a retreat.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think fall is great.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: We do a winter one because the battle is so much work and that's in October, and then our leader retreat is in November, and then it's Christmas.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we do winter camp in February, and then we do summer camp in July.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then, like I said, uh the leader retreat is in November.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think you could go even a step further and do a student leader retreat.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when I used to work at our larger campus in Vista, we did a retreat just for our student leaders.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I had someone at a different campus ask me about it the other day.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: JJ's like, hey, do you do a student leadership retreat?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I said, no, but I'm not opposed to it.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's just bandwidth for me right now, because then we'd be planning one more thing in May.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it's an awesome idea, just taking your student leaders to the mountains and kind of doing a big end-of-the-year finale, especially if you have like a leadership team that's just for seniors or just for eighth grade, just kind of like those upperclassmen just saying a really good goodbye to them and honoring the work that they've put in.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I love it.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a goal of mine to get that back on the calendar.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes, you know, you're just like, whew, okay.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: One more thing.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a lot.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I think, you know, when I worked at our larger campus, we had a larger staff.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it just kind of felt like no big deal.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: But now my staff is small, so it's like, whew, we pull off a lot of events, and usually we're working on getting white water off the ground at that time.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you say you do way too many details.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: When when you did do that, you did it at the end of the school year, yeah.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: As a send-off.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think we did it in like April, May, but you could do it mid-year and kind of like have that halfway point kind of thing, which I think could be cool as well.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've been thinking about it.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe in the future I'll have an episode on how to plan that.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure whichever one you went with, you could just emphasize.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: If it was the end of the school year, it was look at all we've accomplished, you know, this year.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was in the middle of the year, you could kind of just make it a different focus, like uh that halftime sort of, hey, we've made it, we're got halfway to go, you know, whatever.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm into it.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: I just, you know, not there.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, I can link some of the episodes we've done before.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned the worship night.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then we also have um, this is just another event, but uh Glover Knighter event.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: We have an episode that we did all about that, as well as fall events, fall kickoff events.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit late, but it's good something for maybe to uh start preparing for for next year.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: We have an episode all about those, and there I'm missing one and I can't think of what it is right now.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the um ultimate movie night, which is a great, sometimes a winter thing because it's an indoor thing.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: So if you guys want to check out those episodes, all of them will be linked in the description movie night.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we did that whole episode.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, oh sure.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, here's a community comment of the day.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: This comes from Hope in Utah, who says, Great for small youth groups.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: I stumbled on this podcast while searching for a youth group game, and I'm so thankful our youth ministry team is all volunteer, so time is limited.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Ministry Coach does a great job of encouraging listeners and incorporating fantastic suggestions to those of us who have smaller youth groups.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Engaging in youth ministry in our community is a challenge because our students are in the minority as evangelical Christians.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: So we so we appreciate all the help we can get to encourage them in their journey.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, wow.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm assuming that's because you say in Utah.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I was just thinking.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, why would that be?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you, Hope.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: We appreciate that.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: And thank you guys so much for watching and listening, and we'll see you next time.