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Hybrid Ministry episodes

  • Episode 205: I Tested These 5 Board Games With My Youth Group (Here’s What Happened)

    What are the best card & board games for Youth Ministry in 2026?

    I've played all of these games with students, and here's what happened!
    PLUS! One lucky winner will have an opportunity to win one of these games.

    Details inside the episode!

    🎲 GAME GUIDE, LINKS & TUTORIALS

    (Comment on this post for a chance to win!)
    https://www.patreon.com/posts/i-tested-these-5-153530309?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    SHOW NOTES

    Shownotes & Transcripts
    https://www.hybridministry.xyz/205

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    --------------

    🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉
    We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!
    The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!
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    🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
    Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
    //VIDIQ
    https://vidiq.com/hybrid

    //BEST DYM RESOURCES

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755

    //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

    https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

    //HYBRID MINISTRY MEGA GUIDE

    Everything I've ever learned in one blog post [FOR FREE!]
    https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-ministry-151264417?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    --------------

    🕰️TIMECODES
    00:00 I tried all these games with my students
    00:22 Game #1
    00:45 Game #2
    01:18 What about Social Media?
    02:36 Game #3
    03:15 Game #4
    03:27 Game #5

    --------------

    TRANSCRIPT
    00:00:00:11 - 00:00:16:28
    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I'm going to share my five favorite games that I've played in youth ministry with my students, and make sure you stick around to the end, because I am going to be giving away one of these games to one of my listeners. So make sure that you stick around so you figure out how to do that. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show.

    00:00:16:28 - 00:00:37:15

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And in this episode, my first game on the list, of course, Exploding Kittens. It's a classic. If you don't know how to play or you want to grab it, there is a link down below in the description. Or you can head over to my complete guide on my Patreon and join for free and and take a look at this along with the embedded How to Play video.

    00:00:37:15 - 00:00:58:00

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But it's just a fun, kind of chaotic, very youth ministry centric kind of game. Exploding kittens can't really beat it. And then of course, next we have spoons. And so spoons, if you don't know it, it's basically like musical chairs or like reverse, reverse musical chairs where someone gets eliminated every single time. There's one less spoon for people playing.

    00:00:58:00 - 00:01:19:20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so you have to be the first one to notice. Grab the spoon once again. Link down below. Grab this game, play it with your youth ministry. It's so replayable. Like you don't have to, like, have any real strategy, or you don't have to have a lot of, like, know how like, this one is like, just, play it as many times as you want, and this link here will take care of that for you.

    00:01:19:22 - 00:01:38:12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Hey, don't go anywhere. These games, as you know, are obviously great games to play when you're just vibin hanging out with students. But you probably can at least feel this. Maybe you don't know this empirically, but 95% of students 13 to 17 spent time on social media, and 1 in 3 of them actually say that they couldn't live without it.

    00:01:38:12 - 00:01:59:19

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so my question is, how are you showing up for it? As Brady Scheer says, you should as a church plan to show up, publicly as well as connect with students personally. And I want to let you know that I have a seasonal social media pack built just for youth pastors to do just that, for you to show up, as well as give you the personalization side of it.

    00:01:59:25 - 00:02:23:19

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    One of the problems with most social media packs is that if it can be done for you, it can be done for many. And so there's no real customization, there's no real edge to what makes your youth ministry unique and uniquely yours. And so my pack will not only help you with some of the showing up, but it will also give you the opportunity to become a little bit custom, and I'll coach you through how to do that.

    00:02:23:21 - 00:02:41:09

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It promotes customized reels and shorts and for you, your voice, your face, your church, you as a pastor, I'll coach you do it as well as how to get it scheduled. So go ahead and take a look down below. Now let's get back to the episode. So next we got like a bit of a two for 30 burrito and throw throw avocado.

    00:02:41:12 - 00:03:04:12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    These are actually made by the, the team that made Exploding Kittens. But this game, there's not a more youth ministry game than either one of these. Like, you're literally throwing these stuffed avocados or these stuffed burritos at people. And it's a great chaos game. It's a great, like, play it again. Play it for fun. It's a super fun, like, middle school game.

    00:03:04:12 - 00:03:26:10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I actually have a ton of fun playing this game with my own children. Thurso. Brita, throw their avocado. They love it. And it's a great opportunity for us to just connect and do something fun together that's a little bit more wild. The fourth game on this list, of course, it's Uno. It's a classic. You don't need me to explain to you, but if you do, head on over to my Patreon where I'll link the how to Play Uno game, as well as the link to go ahead and grab this.

    00:03:26:10 - 00:03:52:27

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then finally this game. I will be honest, I have not played it with students. It's couch. It's got some like think Harry Potter, vibes where it's like people are against wizardry. This is about psychics and ghosts. And so depending on how you and your church feel about that, but essentially it's it's clue matched with like a guessing game aimed at like, someone who's silent or the ghost, and they have to give clues to the psychics.

    00:03:52:27 - 00:04:10:26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    The setup is a little bit more involved and it's a little bit longer. So you're going to need like a little bit more time, I think like 45 minutes or so. But this is a great like 2 to 7 player game. We just play it the other night with my family. I first heard about it on a youth ministry retreat, with my friend, Tyler and Jacob.

    00:04:10:26 - 00:04:33:02

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Actually linked right here is an episode where they debated, and I moderated it. But Tyler introduced me to this game called Mysterium again over on my Patreon. Check it out. And here's the thing. Like I said at the beginning, you if you're interested in getting one of these, five. Actually six, because I combined 30 to 30 a avocado if you want one of these six games, head on over to that Patreon.

    00:04:33:04 - 00:04:55:01

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's the the guide, for the games. Head on over there and comment which of these six you would be most interested in. And next week on my YouTube video channel and podcast, I am going to use Sidekick Random Name Generator and pick one of you within this next seven days of dropping one of you to be the winner of one of these games.

    00:04:55:01 - 00:05:09:17

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So that's how you get the opportunity to do that. I will send it directly to the address that you want. You can you can take it for your house. If you don't think your church is going to go for it, maybe. Or you can give me your church address and I can send it directly to your church so that you can pray for your student ministry.

    00:05:09:20 - 00:05:28:18

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    No one's going to know whatever decision you make. I want to gift it to you and I want you to enjoy it. So I hope that this episode was helpful. If it was, listen a like and subscribe would be an amazing form of payment. I'm literally willing to send one of these games to you. The least you could do.

    00:05:28:24 - 00:05:37:20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Give me like give me a subscribe and maybe share this with a friend. If you know someone who might be interested in any of these games. But until next time my friends. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

    6 min
  • Episode 204: You Don’t Need a Media Team to Post Sermon Clips

    In this episode I’m ranking the best Sermon Clip Generators that I could find on the market, or, by googling.

    I’m going as far as they’ll let me before hitting a paywall.

    I’ll rank and score them on my custom rubrik, and tell you which one I like the best!

    Oh - And check out the Gear Guide which will help set you on the right path for recording your messages and sermons.

    Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry Show

    BEST CLIP GENERATOR | RANKED + GEAR GUIDE

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/best-sermon-clip-156670711?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    SHOW NOTES

    Shownotes & Transcripts
    https://www.hybridministry.xyz/204

    ☀️Summer Seasonal Social Media Pack | New & Improved Strategy!

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/summer-seasonal-157209659?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    THE CAROUSEL ENGINE

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/carousel-engine-155124829?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    🦸 HYBRID HEROES GET BOTH ABOVE FOR FREE

    [& A Weekly Bonus Podcast]
    https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

    [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
    Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

    --------------

    🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉
    We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!
    The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!
    https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick

    --------------

    🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
    Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
    //VIDIQ
    https://vidiq.com/hybrid

    //BEST DYM RESOURCES

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755

    //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

    https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

    //HYBRID MINISTRY MEGA GUIDE

    Everything I've ever learned in one blog post [FOR FREE!]
    https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-ministry-151264417?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    --------------

    🕰️TIMECODES
    00:00 Sermon Clip Generator Ranking
    00:50 But first, context
    02:49 LiveStream Pros & Cons
    08:19 PreRecorded Pros & Cons
    09:07 TIER 1: Stuck at a Paywall
    13:33 TIER 2: Honorable Mentions
    15:57 TIER 3: The Winner

    --------------

    TRANSCRIPT
    00;00;00;02 - 00;00;24;11
    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    In today's episode, I'm going to be ranking the best AI sermon clip generators that I could find on the market, or by, you know, doing a quick Google search. I'm going to go as far as these services will let me before I hit a paywall. And then I'm going to rank and score them in my three custom tiers that I've created.

    00;00;24;11 - 00;00;41;14

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And I'll tell you which one I determined that I like the best. Oh, and hey, down below. Check out the gear guide, which will help you set up how to start capturing your sermons live. It's a part of our seasonal social media pack. Whether it's on your cell phone, whether it's with a webcam

    00;00;41;19 - 00;00;46;20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    in the back, how to capture audio, as well as my generator recommendation.

    00;00;46;21 - 00;01;18;24

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Welcome, everybody, to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Well, hey everybody, welcome back to the Hybrid Ministry Show. And before we dive into the, the generator like ranking, there are chapters down below. So if you wanna jump ahead to that, you can put a bit of context in my seasonal social media pack and my completely free e-book. I have been a proponent of somehow like regurgitating your message content, and for the longest time we've done prerecorded sermons, like in our own context and in our own ministry.

    00;01;18;24 - 00;01;39;20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's very similar to this sitting down direct to camera, and making a video for YouTube, paying editors and all the things. But recently a trend of like, live clips have become a little bit more, I don't know, all the rage, I guess you could say. And I want to, like, let you know. One of the reasons that I've started considering sermon clips is a little bit more of a viable option.

    00;01;39;23 - 00;01;59;26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    As Brady Shear, he said, social media is now 93% this from meta, but he's just, you know, I got this from him. He's regurgitating it 93% of what you see on Instagram, or on meta or from people that you don't follow. And so he goes, every single time you're online, you're asking yourself a series of questions, one of which is, is this real?

    00;02;00;04 - 00;02;18;10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Right. With the like, rise of AI, you see videos and you have to wonder and consider to yourself, like, is this AI or can I trust this video? And he said, there are some inherent advantages that churches have because there are certain things that you watch and you see and you know it's real. He compares like live sports clips.

    00;02;18;10 - 00;02;37;01

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    You watch someone on Instagram that's like from a live sports clip, whether it's NFL or NBA or, you know, whatever your sport of choices, you know, like, oh, this is from a real moment, he said. Stand up comics also have this. A stand up comedy on social media is also a really great way. And the third kind of like area that can kind of like lean into that.

    00;02;37;01 - 00;02;59;03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Is it real? And it just like inherently tells people's brains like this is from a real moment is from a live church service or experience. And so you can continue to pre-record your messages, especially if you've been doing it. But I want to talk a little bit about the pros and the cons of live versus recorded, and then get into my journey through the best, I sermon clip generator.

    00;02;59;03 - 00;03;20;02

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So live versus prerecorded the pro of, doing like, a live stream, like captures it. Aside from figuring out your gear, which you are gonna have to figure out the gear again. Link down below. Gear guide. We'll get into it in just a minute. So even figuring out the gear, it doesn't require anything else extra from you.

    00;03;20;02 - 00;03;36;08

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So once you get your gear set up to capture a live stream of your sermon, whether you're doing that, whether you're getting some love from your tech team to figure that out and help you out in your context, all you got to do is prep your message, which you're already doing, and then get up and present it in front of your students, which again, you're already doing.

    00;03;36;14 - 00;03;57;14

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    If you're doing like a like we've been doing a prerecorded version of your message requires some extra prep, requires extra setup, requires extra editing, require extra cost, whatever the other requirements are, it requires those things of you. And so that's one of the pros. The other pro like I said, Brady is saying, your brain on social media is asking, is this real?

    00;03;57;16 - 00;04;18;15

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It satisfies that question better than a prerecorded message does. All right. Now let's get into the cons a little bit. So some of your decent gear options are still going to be quite expensive. Like the the barrier to entry is rather high. In order to get in at a decent level. We have some gear recommendations in our context that we use.

    00;04;18;20 - 00;04;36;12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    My friend David Carpenter, you can see some of what he does over here on social. I think he's actually a wizard included in my link. It's all down there. He, gives some recommendations of what he does. I also have, like, a cell phone option with just like a clip on camera option. But let me give you the editing math.

    00;04;36;12 - 00;04;57;13

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Right. So in our context we pre-record and then we, we pay for an editor. Right. So you might save a little bit of money by putting your cell phone up in the back of the room. But if you do splurge for a little bit better of a camera, I want to say, we found an editor over on Fiverr, and he charges us far more than $5 per project.

    00;04;57;20 - 00;05;21;20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I pay about $700 per video series, which is about per month. Okay, so average out about $700 times 12 months worth of content. We're paying like $8,400 per year on editing. So we can sit down to a cell phone, direct camera, and then send it off to an editor and pay in the neighborhood of $8,000 per year.

    00;05;21;20 - 00;05;41;14

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's it is a steep bill, and I will not discredit that at all. I used to do all the editing myself in order to free up my time to be a better pastor, and less of an editor. We ended up shipping that often, and praise God that I go to church that is willing and sees the sacrifice of that and the value of that, and so they're willing to to come alongside and budget for that.

    00;05;41;14 - 00;05;58;26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Okay, all that being said, like this isn't a compare moment. I just want to give you a little bit of context. Now, let's say you drop a thousand or maybe $2,000 on some new gear, whether that be tripods, whether that be cameras, whether that be mounted webcams back in the room, whatever your solution is, let's say you spend in the neighborhood of 1000 or 2000.

    00;05;58;26 - 00;06;21;25

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Okay. You can go cell phone camera out. But if you do want to come in with a little bit better, quality, go a little bit more on the front end, you're coming out ahead on my annual editing cost per year, and then you have the infinite ability to create these clips. Once you've spent a little bit of money on your hardware on the front side.

    00;06;21;25 - 00;06;38;19

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Okay. The other kind of like con in this to consider is you can't manipulate your schedule quite as well. Right? So for example, in our context, we pre-record all of our messages way ahead of time. Get them to an editor, get them done early. We're we're out of habit. It helps for a lot of reasons. We get our messages done when we're going to preach, live in the room.

    00;06;38;19 - 00;06;56;24

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    The contents already written. We just got to do a little bit of, you know, manipulation. The timelines are way out in advance. It helps us be like on top of things, ahead of things. It also gives you an opportunity to practice, rehearse it live to camera. Okay. The other thing it does is we can post and we make this promise to our small group leaders who might maybe not be in the room on Wednesday night.

    00;06;56;24 - 00;07;18;16

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Most of them are not, to be able to watch the message and then be able to, prep their, you know, small group discussion based off of said message for Sunday. We say that that message will, arrive on our website first thing Monday morning and so we can manipulate that schedule. If you switch to more of a live stream, you can't manipulate your schedule quite as well.

    00;07;18;16 - 00;07;36;18

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So, for example, we like now, we would like recorded on Wednesday night live stream and have to ensure that it gets up on, on the website, you know, Thursday morning. First things first. Okay. So all that to be said, like it's a lot more difficult in my personal opinion, to manipulate the schedule. You can see that how that plays out.

    00;07;36;18 - 00;07;55;18

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    The other con, I would say, and I don't know how much this matters, but when you have a live stream and you're at a church and you have maybe like some lower thirds, like, you know, sermon, or like titles or pastor titles or scriptures or whatever, if you then take that stream and you clip, you clip stuff you can't get rid of, like the lower third stuff.

    00;07;55;18 - 00;08;18;03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And on one hand, I think that looks like terrible. But on the other hand, like I watch a lot of like sports commentary, like Michael Loeb on Stephen Smith, clips from ESPN's First Take and those lower Thursday don't give two craps about they still just like clip it and just make it happen. So maybe my personal preference is that I don't think it looks good, but maybe like on the other hand, like I still consume clips with lower thirds clipped up.

    00;08;18;05 - 00;08;33;29

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Maybe it's not that big a deal after all. Right, let's talk about prerecorded the pros. Of course, they're editable, so, like, you can mess up infinite amount of times, you can control the length if you're long and you're like, I want to shorten this. You can actually edit for content, not just like edit for like editing sake.

    00;08;34;02 - 00;08;52;13

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's direct to camera, which I've always thought is, like valuable for, like, reaching a YouTube generation. But if we're on social media, we're asking ourselves, is this real? It might actually turn out to become a con moving forward, and we might be in a bit of like a shifting landscape as as evidenced by our last video linked right up here, top screen.

    00;08;52;15 - 00;09;12;24

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    We talked about that in the very beginning. And then, of course, the kind of that is, it is expensive. I've gone through the math already, and it can also be time consuming if you choose not to pay an editor and you yourself are the editor. And so of course, those are some, some cons. Okay, now all that to be said, let's look at some of these different like sermon clips, whether you're pre-recording or whether you're live.

    00;09;12;29 - 00;09;32;08

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And here's some of like the non-negotiables that I'm looking for in a good sermon clip number one, you have to have captions. I can't remember the exact percentage, but a wide and large percentage of people watch things on social media without any volume. So you need to have captions. If you don't have captions, you're going to eliminate an entire segment of your audience.

    00;09;32;15 - 00;09;53;11

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Second, I think it's helpful and valuable. Maybe not necessary to have a watermark or an end card that gives you some sort of call to action. How people can subscribe, how people can like, how people can go watch the longer version of this. I also think it's good to start the video with like a context header, like you're dropping them into the middle of the sermon, help them understand what it is you're talking about, right when they get in.

    00;09;53;11 - 00;10;09;18

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So that that also is a good hook for like scroll stopping and stuff like that, and then music and B-roll, like sometimes just a talking head just by itself is a little bit boring. Even if you're watching this here on YouTube. You see, I've put in a lot of different B-roll. Why? Because I want to be able to help you guys, like, not lose attention.

    00;10;09;18 - 00;10;24;12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so the same is true as you're sending out clips. And so we're looking for an AI generator that you can maybe like add some music, maybe do some bureau. So of course you don't need those things. You can, you know, download them and then throw them into some sort of editor like TikTok or even like Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci resolve.

    00;10;24;14 - 00;10;44;22

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And you can add those things manually after, but it is a whole nother step. So without any further ado, let's dive in to and again reminder link down. Below is my guide to all of this for gear for how to, link your audio and then finally, my recommendation for the best AI sermon clip generator. Let's dive into two number one, which is stuck at a paywall.

    00;10;44;25 - 00;11;05;10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I found the script. And it looks pretty good. The ease of it is about. So I would give it like a three out of ten or so. Customization not applicable because I wasn't able to actually get past any sort of paywall with this one. My clips were stuck or it was too big of a file to do it, but then the cost ended up being about $288.

    00;11;05;16 - 00;11;24;24

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    In order to have access to this. The other one was vid IQ, which I've had experience using before, and I find a very reputable company, to be completely honest with you. It seems easy. However, I think this is actually I created videos not edited by AI, and so, the cost, in order to unlock this update, it was about $204.

    00;11;24;26 - 00;11;44;12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so again, I'm not sure this is going to get us exactly what we're looking for. If you're in the church space, you've maybe heard of this one before. Sermon shots. At the ease, it looked pretty easy. Five. I'll give it a five or so based on the interface that I was able to see. And again, if I paid for, it probably would be even even higher, you know, ease level.

    00;11;44;15 - 00;12;06;05

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    The cost ended up being about $407.88. Now, I want to be clear that this is stuck behind a paywall. I was given two free clips, but then I need to schedule a mandatory zoom call in order to unlock those clips. And so, like I said, I'm sure you can bypass that by just outright paying for it. And I also want to be clear that you get more than just the AI edited videos.

    00;12;06;05 - 00;12;25;29

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    You also get, transcript. You get podcast audio and you get some other assets to go along with it. So it is expensive, but it does do a lot more for you. In the sermon shot, you know, platform and then finally clap, bro, I got an email actually read before I was ready to do this video, and I was like, oh, sweet, let me try that out.

    00;12;26;01 - 00;12;45;19

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I tried it out, tried to sign up for it, and, I never got like the confirmation email way too way to waited. Later on that night, I was like, oh, it's probably my spam. I went, I found it, I clicked, and it was not, the link had expired. And so then, I sent an email back to the lady who had like, sent me the email in the first place.

    00;12;45;19 - 00;13;07;28

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I've been waiting all week to try and get an email back, because this is actually one of the cheapest options I was able to find. And I still haven't heard anything back, so I'm stuck in maybe not a paywall loop, but some other sort of loop. And, the cost, for ten clips, if you pay monthly, it's $348 for 30 clips, or 30 different, like uploads monthly.

    00;13;08;04 - 00;13;28;26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's $948 if you do ten a month, but you pay annualized, it's $168. So, so much cheaper. And then finally for 30 and you pay annualized is $468. So this $168 from Clapp, assuming you do, you need like ten a month, which if you do four sermons per month or five, is well within that window.

    00;13;28;29 - 00;13;45;16

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I really am interested in one to explore. But again, I wasn't able to get logged in. Let me give a couple of honorable mentions. Canva. Again, very similar to Vidiq. I think it's a I generate a videos and once I kind of got into it, I realized I could upload my entire video. But then it's like I'm genuinely editing it.

    00;13;45;17 - 00;14;03;07

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Customization as a ten because you can infinitely edit in Canva. And the cost for churches if you apply for the nonprofit, of course, is free. But if you're going to just outright edit things within basically an editor, why not use something that's built for editing? Canva, has that built in, but it's a secondary feature, I would say.

    00;14;03;07 - 00;14;21;26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so if you're going to just be editing videos, you might as well use cap cut DaVinci resolve on desktop, which is free, or one time cost or even just like TikTok in-app editor, sermon multiplier. I got a, email last year about, sermon multiplier for doing platinum members. You could use it for a minute.

    00;14;21;28 - 00;14;41;26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so it's really easy. I've uploaded it. Customization is low. I'd give it like a 1 or 2, on customization because you can't edit like the fonts or too many things. However, it is a decent service and it does a decent job. Cost is 3996 monthly, half a year, 215, and then for a full year it's $383.90.

    00;14;42;02 - 00;14;59;29

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So again, I'm not exactly sure how the credit structure tends to work. But here's an example here on screen you can see what a sermon multiplier clip might look like. From a live stream sermon. Pulpit AI is another option. And again, is pretty easy. Here's an example of a clip you can see from a webcam in the back of a room.

    00;15;00;03 - 00;15;31;15

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Costs are as follows 468 for five a month. Paid monthly, 708 for ten a month. Paid monthly, for 21 for five a month paid yearly, or ten a month for 637 paid yearly. And then, probably my runner up in all of this is captions I it's very easy, for, 9.99 or annualized 19, 1988 or 2499 for annualized 299.

    00;15;31;17 - 00;15;47;23

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    A couple different, like, tier options here. You see, these this is a clip. I used to actually be a subscriber of captions. I, if you did a live stream, you probably couldn't get rid of the lower thirds bar. And then on the customization side of thing, they have a lot of different options, but those are the options.

    00;15;47;23 - 00;16;09;03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so they create like a vibe and an esthetic, but it does a good job of adding sounds and zoom in and zoom outs and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, my favorite, and it's actually been one I've been riding with all along is Opus Stock Pro. It's very easy, very customizable. You can add all the things I'm looking for a hook caption, or screen music, B-roll.

    00;16;09;03 - 00;16;27;16

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    There's even probably more than I don't even mess with. I actually share it with another couple ministries in our church. We've never run out of clips, and only cost me $174 for the year. And so, there's a lot of, like, Christian options, but honestly, like, those tend to be a little bit more expensive. Opus seems to be a little bit the industry standard.

    00;16;27;16 - 00;16;53;24

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so that is spoiler alert. That is my winner. And so if you go download my gear guide, which is gear I recommend, or my friend David recommends or and how to get capture audio either out of your soundboard or from different style microphones. And then if you invest one time in that gear and then pay annually $174, you can include opus for your best sermon generator and part of my seasonal social media pack, which is also available.

    00;16;53;24 - 00;17;18;01

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Link down below. In the show notes, I say use sermon clips now. You don't have to use sermon clips if you don't want to spend, say, $2,000 one time on gear and then $174 annually. And then of course, $4 per month to become a hybrid hero member of my hybrid here, a Patreon tier where you get the, seasonal social media pack every single time it drops, you can just hold your video selfie style and do some devotional related content.

    00;17;18;01 - 00;17;40;03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But I think that sermons are real. Like Brady said, they they they satisfy that answer in your brain and they help your viewers know this is from something real. And as youth pastors, we're already doing it. We're already creating sermons. So why would we not repurpose that content so that we can reach more students with the good news and the benefit of the gospel?

    00;17;40;03 - 00;17;51;20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Again, all that stuff. Link down below in the show notes. Thank you guys for being here. If you found this episode helpful, leave a like, leave a comment, leave a review, share it with a friend. But until next time, as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

    18 min
  • Episode 203: Youth Ministry Social Media Has Changed… Here’s the Summer Plan

    Have you felt it?

    The winds of change?

    In this episode I’m going to share what has changed from a data driven perspective.

    How I’m adjusting my social media strategy moving forward to accommodate it
    Plus, how you can adopt my strategy for the summer, without neglecting your other important ministry priorities.

    Let me show you how!

    ☀️Summer Seasonal Social Media Pack | New & Improved Strategy!

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/summer-seasonal-157209659?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    THE CAROUSEL ENGINE

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/carousel-engine-155124829?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    🦸 HYBRID HEROES GET BOTH ABOVE FOR FREE

    [& A Weekly Bonus Podcast]
    https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

    SHOW NOTES

    Shownotes & Transcripts
    https://www.hybridministry.xyz/203

    [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    LINKS

    Pro Church Episode
    https://youtu.be/poXpd_G3bFM?si=QRuVS8aHmngxlAA9

    Camera Recommendations

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/best-sermon-clip-156670711?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
    Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

    --------------

    🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉
    We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!
    The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!
    https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick

    --------------

    🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
    Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
    //VIDIQ
    https://vidiq.com/hybrid

    //BEST DYM RESOURCES

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755

    //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

    https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

    //HYBRID MINISTRY MEGA GUIDE

    Everything I've ever learned in one blog post [FOR FREE!]
    https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-ministry-151264417?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    --------------

    🕰️TIMECODES
    00:00 New Social Media Era
    00:47 How to Post More Often
    02:35 My Updated Strategy
    06:08 Adopt My Strategy - Keep Crushing Summer Ministry

    --------------

    TRANSCRIPT
    00:00:00:23 - 00:00:23:23
    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Have you felt it? Have you felt the winds of change shifting underneath your feet on social media? In this episode, I am going to share with you what is actually been changing from a data and kind of analytics standpoint. And I'm also going to tell you how I, in my own context, am going to adjust my strategy moving forward.

    00:00:23:29 - 00:00:45:09

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Right on here as we are about to enter into summer. And I'm going to share with you how you can adopt that exact same strategy while not abandoning your youth ministry responsibilities and goals. You got summer camp, you got mission trip. You got things you need to do. How in the world can you possibly adapt to this ever changing social media landscape I got you.

    00:00:45:11 - 00:01:17:07

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Welcome, everybody, to the Hybrid Ministry Show. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Hybrid in Ministry show. If you and I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Nick Klassen and I have been doing this podcast for over 200 episodes. I have been trying to keep my finger on the pulse of social media. According to Brady Shearer, who is the ultimate goat in church communications, he says that 93% and this according to, Instagram and Meta, 93% of what you consume on Instagram is not from people that you know or follow.

    00:01:17:08 - 00:01:37:10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So what he actually says is he's like, it's not even social media anymore. It's just media. It's basically TV on your phone. He recently in a Pro Church Tools episode, he dropped some incredible like knowledge and wisdom. And so I'm just going to borrow from some of it. You can go listen to the episode down below if you want some more.

    00:01:37:10 - 00:02:04:29

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's really, really fantastic information. But he compared a couple of different churches. Church number one, for example, he said, 200,000 followers with 600 or 468% increase post volume, they saw a 508% correlated views on their Instagram. Secondarily, church number two 857 followers. So not not a crazy amount. Actually, that's less followers. And I have on my church Instagram.

    00:02:04:29 - 00:02:28:11

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So that gives you just like a little bit of context. We're not talking about major massive churches. They increased 427% on their post volume and their impressions went up 874%. So essentially the bottom line is this on social media, you need to post more often. Now I get it. You're probably thinking like I don't have any idea when where, how.

    00:02:28:11 - 00:02:50:18

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Like I'm new at this. It's overwhelming. It's it's intimidating, I get it. Okay, so let me share with you what my upcoming strategy is for this next, summer. What has happened in my context is I have a resident who took, special interest in social media. So I handed him the reins of social media. He's getting set to leave here in about a month.

    00:02:50:25 - 00:03:12:26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But to take it back. And as I take it back, I'm going to adjust my hybrid ministry strategy. And so, actually link down below is my complete guide to social media. Newly revised. Updated, renovated for the summer of 2026. And included in that is going to be a tie into my seasonal social media pack.

    00:03:12:26 - 00:03:35:10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    We'll get to that in just a minute. But you'll see here on screen a couple of screenshots. This is what I've been running one full cycle of the seasonal social media pack. If you don't know, it's three months of social media content coach for you, done for you, helping you stay regular on social media again, his contention need you to post more often and so my pack helps you post more often so that you be seen.

    00:03:35:10 - 00:03:51:28

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Be visible. And honestly, that's been let's be real. The most important part is so that people out there who don't know Jesus can hear the message of hope found in the gospel, like Gen Z, Gen Alpha. That's what they want. They're looking for answers and they're looking for hope. And your church has the opportunity to show up in that way.

    00:03:51:28 - 00:04:14:06

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So how do you post more often? This my pack is, attempted to kind of accomplish that. We here on screen this is what the last year cycle. This is what it's been. It's been three basically video even look across the top here three video based posts. Now I'm adjusting that strategy. And so instead of three times per week I'm actually going to increase it to four.

    00:04:14:08 - 00:04:35:26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    After this one year of doing it. And I'm going to add in, some less video options. There's still a lot of video options, like that's still the primary kind of driver. And that's still the best way to get discovered. We talked about it, and in last week's episode, carousel based post helps your audience go deeper where video posts help help you reach and expand to new audience.

    00:04:35:26 - 00:04:56:27

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so in adding some of these carousel based posts, which again, my Carousel Engine link down below, that's a one time charge. You can add that tool without buying the seasonal social media pack. If you do, purchase the seasonal social media pack, it points you towards the carousel engine. And so, that's going to be a plus $9 charge or best yet, become a hybrid hero member $4 a month.

    00:04:57:02 - 00:05:16:16

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So if my pack is 1799 and the carousel engine is $9, you're looking at 18 plus nine. Carry the $127, or $4 per month. So the next three months, your summer, June, July, August is $12. It's literally less than half of what, you know, kind of our carting all of this together ends up being. Anyway, I digress.

    00:05:16:16 - 00:05:34:20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    The other thing I'm going to add is a sermon clip. Now you're going to have to find a way to, capture your sermon live, whether that's put a cell phone on a tripod, just like I have right now in the back of your room, or you get a better camera link down below is the camera solution that we just came up with full disclosure, it's over $1,000.

    00:05:34:25 - 00:06:07:01

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's expensive, but you can see the quality here on screen, and you can see how you can take clips from that. No extra work. All you got to do is click record and then go preach a sermon that you've already prepared that you're already going to be doing. And you take that link and then you can throw it into an AI, sermon clips creator, and that will give you your sermon clips or use some of my devotional content, which is selfie style cell phone camera, like straight, straight to, you know, straight to camera that you can, post your students as just topic adjacent.

    00:06:07:04 - 00:06:41:25

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But that's my adjustment. Four times per week. I'm including sermon clips, and I'm also including, carousel based, posts. Okay, now, all that to be said, right, this summer, seasonal social media pack is now live. And so my new adjustment for it, you heard kind of like the high overview essentially weekly, there's going to be a carousel based post that's probably going to be tied to your topic in a sermon clip by weekly, I'm doing a man on the street interview style video that's going to be your students, your volunteers, or you your custom faces, right?

    00:06:41:25 - 00:07:06:03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    You got to get rid of the nameless faces. Just graphics. In fact, Brady Shearer, the Goat. We've been talking about him this whole episode. His son said it his daily Dunphy social media pack saying it's essentially it's an antiquated way of doing social media. You got to get on camera and you don't need crazy amounts of gear. The cell phone that you're likely watching this video on is your tool to create more content.

    00:07:06:09 - 00:07:26:12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Hand it over to a student. Have a student use their own cell phone by a $10 or $20 or $200 microphone, and then you're off to the races. Really don't need to overthink it too much. My, link down below is my my full microphone video and guide. Go check it out, go find one that works for you, and then just make it happen.

    00:07:26:15 - 00:07:49:11

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then the sprinkle pieces of content that I'm including, like, that's going to happen once a month or once every couple weeks is Bible trivia transition videos, Bible verse videos, and spiritual practice videos. Those four archetypes of content are going to remain the Bible and the transition. Those are still going to be custom. It's going to still be you getting your cell phone out or, you know, coaching someone else to get their cell phone out.

    00:07:49:18 - 00:08:11:11

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Then the verse and spiritual practice video, those are nameless, faceless, those you can still use and download post, set it and forget it. You're off to the races. And then like I said, I'm adding in the carousel. So carousel Engine that's linked down below as well as sermon clips. And next week on this, channel and you can see right here linked on screen, the best I clip makers.

    00:08:11:11 - 00:08:26:18

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I'm going to try every single one of them. And the results are behind this video that is linked on screen. So be sure to click that. Check that out. And don't forget my friends, as you are crushing social media this summer. Tuesday hybrid Tuesday, hybrid.

    9 min
  • Episode 202: I’m Adding This Social Media Strategy to My Youth Ministry (It’s Working)

    I’ve been doing social media for ministry the same way for years… mostly reels, short-form video…

    But recently, I added THIS one new strategy…

    And it’s getting more engagement than almost anything else I post.

    And the crazy part?

    Most people are either ignoring this… or doing it completely wrong.

    I’m not replacing video…

    I’m stacking this on top of it.

    Stick around, because I’m going to show you how you can get a tool, to do it for you, for FREE.

    Yeah, not joking!

    THE CAROUSEL ENGINE

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/carousel-engine-155124829?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    🦸 HYBRID HEROES GET THE ENGINE FOR FREE

    https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry

    SHOW NOTES

    Shownotes & Transcripts
    https://www.hybridministry.xyz/202

    [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-guide-142500019?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    🌸 SPRING SEASONAL SOCIAL PACK

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/spring-seasonal-151263940?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    Andrew Interview

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFhry-v_Tg

    👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
    Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

    --------------

    🎉 FREE STUFF 🎉
    We have all kinds of FREE Things that you can use in your context!
    The best way to pay us back is a review or a YouTube Subscribe!
    https://www.linktr.ee/clasonnick

    --------------

    🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
    Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
    //VIDIQ
    https://vidiq.com/hybrid

    //BEST DYM RESOURCES

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755

    //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

    https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

    //HYBRID MINISTRY MEGA GUIDE

    Everything I've ever learned in one blog post [FOR FREE!]
    https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-ministry-151264417?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    --------------

    🕰️TIMECODES
    00:00 New Hybrid & Social Media Strategy
    00:46 SECTION 1: HISTORY
    02:10 SECTION 2: THE SHIFT
    03:07 SECTION 3: PROOF
    04:40 SECTION 4: PROVEN FRAMEWORK
    06:25 SECTION 5: LIVE DEMO
    10:22 Start Posting!

    --------------

    TRANSCRIPT
    00:00:00:00 - 00:00:04:25
    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I've been doing social media for my youth ministry the same way for honestly

    00:00:04:25 - 00:00:05:28

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    years now.

    00:00:06:00 - 00:00:06:13

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Very

    00:00:06:19 - 00:00:20:14

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    focused on reels and short form video content, but recently I actually added a new strategy and I'm Beyonce's, who's been getting more engagement than anything else that I post, which is wild. And here's the crazy part,

    00:00:20:16 - 00:00:25:02

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    because most people are either ignoring this or just doing it completely wrong.

    00:00:25:03 - 00:00:46:22

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I'm not replacing the short form vertical based video. I'm actually going to stack this new strategy on top of it and make sure that you stick around, because I'm going to show you how you can get this new strategy, a completely done for you AI powered tool for. That's right. Free. I'm not joking. Welcome, everyone to the hybrid Ministry show

    00:00:46:24 - 00:00:47:08

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    for everyone.

    00:00:47:08 - 00:01:05:19

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Welcome to the Hybrid Minister show. My name is Nicolas. And in this podcast we talk about making digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. And I'm excited to share with you how this particular tool is actually going to start doing that. And like I said in the intro. For the longest time, my social media strategy, the history was very simple.

    00:01:05:19 - 00:01:43:03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I was posting short form, vertical based video files on Instagram or Facebook. That's call it a real feels on YouTube. It's called a short. And of course on TikTok it's just I guess called a TikTok video, right? Because that's what grows your audience. And to be clear, that's actually still true. In fact, if you take a look here on screen, if you're watching on YouTube, this is the results from a carousel based post, which is the new strategy that I'm going to be talking about versus a real and the carousel based post almost 99.1%, almost 100% follower based interactions, which is good for us as churches, right?

    00:01:43:03 - 00:02:05:28

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Our people who are in our congregation that we're shepherding, it's, they're they're the ones that are going to be, you know, targeted and seeing some of these carousel based posts. But if you look over here at real, it's nearly 50% follower to 50%, non follower, content. So video is still the best way to reach new people.

    00:02:05:28 - 00:02:08:01

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so what I started noticing

    00:02:08:07 - 00:02:11:08

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    right when I would start posting these follower

    00:02:11:12 - 00:02:27:03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    based or carousel based posts, is that if I was only ever targeting new people, my own audience was never able to go deeper and if I'm just going to be completely honest with you, reels bring in new people care. So go deeper with the people that are already there.

    00:02:27:03 - 00:02:48:02

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so this is where and how discipleship can happen on line. Now listen, I know that like discipleship happens best, needle in the eye in person. However, there are learning and micro learning opportunities and micro like, discipleship, simple making opportunities online as well. And I'm going to show you how this works. And so,

    00:02:48:05 - 00:02:50:26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    these carousel based posts, right?

    00:02:50:28 - 00:03:18:02

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I kid you not, they're getting more saves, they're getting more shares, they're getting more swipes. And the reach, of new people is still going to continue to happen by continually, posting videos, which is a core part of my hybrid strategy. So let me show you, these are some of the top performing carousel based posts. And they're a little bit misleading because if you look at the big number that Instagram provides, that's the number of views on Instagram.

    00:03:18:02 - 00:03:33:15

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But the top number here that I wrote in real small, you'll notice that there is a number that also includes Facebook numbers. So while this is 4268 on Instagram, it's actually 12,569 when you include the Facebook numbers.

    00:03:33:21 - 00:03:49:08

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Same with 3541 and 8689. So these are some of the performing views from carousel based post. If you look down beneath the little graph there, that's where you see the breakdown between followers and non followers.

    00:03:49:14 - 00:04:11:23

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then if you look across the top here you'll see comments, you'll see likes, you'll see shares and you'll see saves. And you'll see that these carousel based posts are performing incredibly well. Not to be outdone, here are the top my recent top performing reels. And just to be honest, I. Yes, I cherry picked the best performing carousel based posts.

    00:04:11:23 - 00:04:40:22

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I also cherry picked the best performing reels so we have one that had 12,000, views and impressions on carousels. Over on reels, our best one is 2761. Still absolutely nothing to sneeze at, but not as strong as 12,000. You see what I'm saying? So you can see the breakdown. But once again, look down beneath this little graph here and you'll see the breakdown between follower versus non follower.

    00:04:40:22 - 00:05:08:11

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so what I want to be very clear about this isn't this isn't an either or strategy. It's actually both right. Let's say this. If reels are your front door, carousels are your discipleship tool. And so once I realize this, I realize I need to create a new system. So my four step process for creating a good carousel based post, well let's just dive into it.

    00:05:08:18 - 00:05:33:10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Step number one decide your length. Do you want five slides or do you want to go a little bit deeper with, say, seven slides? Then I, have have actually been using and leaning into AI to help me generate my content. It's helping me create scroll stopping headlines, which I'm going to be honest with you, I've had to train a AI on how to do it, but eventually I have gotten around to telling it exactly what I need.

    00:05:33:12 - 00:05:58:03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Student language. So language that isn't overly churchy is going to actually resonate and relate to where they are in their life right now. And I've instructed AI to create, biblically grounded so that it actually is pulling from a biblical reference and not just what it thinks. And of course, you're you're going to want to double check that too, because I can make mistakes, as ChatGPT so lovingly reminds us.

    00:05:58:05 - 00:06:18:15

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then in step three, I design it. A lot of times I use Photoshop. But I've also started using Canva. I've been really impressed with what I can get out of Canva, and then unfortunately, to make one of those seamless, like swipe ones, Canva doesn't actually offer something that goes, like slide by side by side.

    00:06:18:21 - 00:06:37:28

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So it only exports the whole big thing. And so I have to slice it real quick and then post it. You know what? Actually, I think here's what I want to do. So if you were to check out this link down below in the show notes, you would, gain access to this post, if you chose to jump into it.

    00:06:37:28 - 00:06:53:09

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And I'm going to share with you how you can actually get it for free. But, you would number one, you'd select your length. So, I'm just going to say, we'll go with seven. Okay. And then this right here, you're going to deploy the AI architect.

    00:06:53:10 - 00:06:59:23

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so, you're going to copy and paste everything here that is, italicized.

    00:06:59:23 - 00:07:08:01

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So copy. And now I'm going to go over here to ChatGPT, and I'm going to put it in, and there's a couple of spots are you need to adjust. So right

    00:07:08:03 - 00:07:23:16

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    here we're going to say seven slides. And then right here the topic let's say let's say over, let's say handling grief. Okay.

    00:07:23:18 - 00:07:25:13

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then everything else should be good to go.

    00:07:25:13 - 00:07:41:09

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    This right here is instructing it to mimic the post style from from me. And then everything else, you might not be able to see it all because, you know, you got to go get it. Like, I'm not just going to give it away here on this video, but, boom, I sent it off to ChatGPT

    00:07:41:11 - 00:07:54:27

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So now, now I got my, my different headlines and what it's going to give me. And so next I'm going to drop it into this design.

    00:07:54:27 - 00:07:55:26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So,

    00:07:55:29 - 00:08:04:00

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    let's go ahead and get it rolling. So, back over here, grief doesn't just go away.

    00:08:04:05 - 00:08:09:20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Grief.

    00:08:09:22 - 00:08:29:15

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Boom! That's step three right there. By the way. This Canva design is included in the tool. And I'm going to make a promise I'm going to add to this post. I'm going to add bottomless Canva tool. So as I create them I'll share my templates with you. And you can take either 5 or 7, slide posts.

    00:08:29:15 - 00:08:46:18

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So now I'm going to, just export this sucker real fast and it's going to, save as one big thing, right? Like I was saying, like Canva doesn't break it up for us. And then, we got to get back over here

    00:08:46:20 - 00:09:09:18

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Okay. And then, this tour here, all the instructions, of course, are going to be, in the thing that you just purchase, we're going to split them horizontally, we're going to do seven, and we're going to maximize the output, split the image, download.

    00:09:09:20 - 00:09:23:02

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then look here you have a seamless carousel post and the time you see how long this took. I did it right here live on screen for you.

    00:09:23:07 - 00:09:42:11

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    This post is going to save you hours. It's going to, I've honed in this AI strategy. So the headlines are scroll stopping. And I'm going to tell you what, my headline formula, which is baked into the AI prompt, is going to be the key to your success.

    00:09:42:13 - 00:10:00:25

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    The engine, this engine, this post is $9 and is a one time cost for you. If you want to create better carousel post and you want access to all of my Canva designs as well as I've included a Photoshop design. If you have Photoshop skills, you can jump in there and you can use the Photoshop included file as well.

    00:10:00:27 - 00:10:18:27

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Either one of those $9 for you, you'll get the exact prompt, you'll get ten points. And like I said, I'm going to add new Canva designs, every month or so. Now, here's how you get this free. It's not completely free because you have to become a member first, but for $4 a month you would get access to this post.

    00:10:19:04 - 00:10:41:10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    In addition to that, you're going to get access to my seasonal social media pack, which is now going to include, a like a tie over into the, carousel engine, moving forward. And that's going to be an adjustment to my overall hybrid strategy. And finally, you're going to get access to my weekly bonus podcast, where I'm trying to lean into hybrid ministry and creativity on a week to week basis.

    00:10:41:10 - 00:11:01:16

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And I'm going to, recap our service every single week. And you're going to get that podcast bonus podcast on Monday morning. And so for $4 a month, you'll get this post for and completely included as a member of your hybrid, hero membership tier and $4 a month, in case you didn't know, that breaks out to $48 over the course of a year.

    00:11:01:19 - 00:11:20:11

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    If you charge this to your continuing a professional development account, you can probably swing less than $50, out of your church ministry, professional development pocket and if you can't, it's less than the cost of a cup of coffee. So brew one at home. It's probably even better. Let's just be honest. I'm drinking Oak Cliff coffee this morning.

    00:11:20:11 - 00:11:42:17

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Shout out to all of my favorite, drop your favorite coffee roaster down below in the comments, because mine's Oak Cliff. I get it from the grocery store once a week, and I'm just drinking it here on a Friday morning at my house. Less than the cost of a cup of coffee, especially from Starbucks. $4 month whiskey bonus podcast, seasonal social media pack, and now access to everything on my Patreon, which includes this, carousel engine.

    00:11:42:22 - 00:11:56:00

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    My friend Scott Tinman, he actually taught his youth Mr. Leader cohort yesterday. He said, hey, listen, next Patreon weekly recap show have been so helpful for me to hear how and what he's doing. And it's been helping me in my own context.

    00:11:56:00 - 00:12:01:00

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so all of the links, the engine as well as the membership are link down below in the podcast description.

    00:12:01:00 - 00:12:09:08

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Like I said earlier, we are here to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So my friends, as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

    14 min
  • Episode 201: These Youth Ministries Are CRUSHING Social Media (You’ve Never Heard of Them)

    These youth ministries are crushing social media, and here’s the thing…. You’ve probably never heard of a single one of them.

    Today, I’m breaking down 5 accounts that are absolutely crushing social media right now — and more importantly, I’m going to show you exactly why their posts work.

    Because here’s the truth… it’s not about having a big church, a big budget, or a full media team.

    It’s about strategy.

    And if you stick around, I’ll show you how you can start applying the same ideas this week — even if you’re starting from scratch.

    These Churches are Crushing it!

    https://www.instagram.com/lexumcyouth/
    https://www.instagram.com/impactfindlay/
    https://www.instagram.com/harrodsburg.students/
    https://www.instagram.com/wakymc_stumin/
    https://www.instagram.com/crosscreekstudents/

    SHOW NOTES

    Shownotes & Transcripts
    https://www.hybridministry.xyz/201

    Bracket Episode: Links in Video Description

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntXEQG8KW0o

    Opus Clip

    https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

    Mic Guide (in Act 4 “The Execution Layer”)

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    Andrew Interview

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFhry-v_Tg

    👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK

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    🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
    Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
    //VIDIQ
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    Everything I've ever learned in one blog post [FOR FREE!]
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    --------------

    🕰️TIMECODES
    00:00 Youth Ministries that are crushing social media!
    0:22 Church #1
    03:22 Church #2
    05:13 Church #3
    07:10 Church #4
    09:07 Church #5
    10:54 How Can You Do this?

    --------------

    TRANSCRIPT
    00:00:00:02 - 00:00:02:27
    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    These youth ministers are crushing it on social media, and

    00:00:02:29 - 00:00:03:18

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    you've probably

    00:00:03:18 - 00:00:04:14

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    never even heard of them.

    00:00:04:17 - 00:00:04:23

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Today

    00:00:04:26 - 00:00:22:12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I'm breaking down five accounts and why their post types are working. It's not about big budget. It's not about being flashy. It's about strategy. And if you stick around to the end of the video, I'm going to share with you how you can unlock that, even for your own context of the first one you've probably never heard of is Lexington United Methodist Church.

    00:00:22:12 - 00:00:40:05

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    My friend Todd is over there, and I love what Todd's doing. First and foremost, Todd was in a youth ministry leader cohort with me and Todd has been, diving into social media and trying to make his youth ministry and student ministry a little bit more hybrid. So, the first post type that I like is this

    00:00:40:07 - 00:00:40:13

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    one.

    00:00:40:13 - 00:00:52:18

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Check it out.

    00:00:52:21 - 00:01:03:10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So if you look at this one in his algorithm here, you'll see that it has, 165, likes it's pinned. You can see to the top of his profile,

    00:01:03:12 - 00:01:15:10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    which means it's probably his best performing post. But what I like about it is look at this like it's not even a difficult post for anyone to do. It's a voice over.

    00:01:15:12 - 00:01:56:04

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's him and to students, and it's a cell phone camera. And it went crazy viral. And so Todd's just having fun filming content with students in his ministry. The second post type that I like, from Todd, is this one.

    00:01:56:06 - 00:02:04:09

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But not like that.

    00:02:04:11 - 00:02:22:03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Three times I mode on.

    00:02:22:06 - 00:02:57:08

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Oh, man. Okay, so here's what I love about this. This is a bracket style. And, you've heard us talk about it on this podcast a bajillion times. I'll link down below. Some free or, cheap bracket options that you can use. But like, look at the commitment to the bit like Spud Sinner, esp and he's got, like, graphics, he's using AI, he's got a whole bracket on his wall and he's using, like, stats and analytics, and he's just going for the like, bracketology bit and vibe, which is one of the things we've done in our context as well.

    00:02:57:11 - 00:03:16:28

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    He's just having fun, like he's just having a good time. And to be clear, like, these are just two posts that I cherry picked out of Todd's, repertoire here. Absolutely nothing like, you know, he he does serious stuff too, so don't come at him, but like, he's just having a good time with the students. And that's what I love about how simple this is.

    00:03:16:28 - 00:03:34:01

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Like that one. Obviously a little bit more involved, a little bit more committed to the bit. But I bet you if you ask Todd if his students enjoyed the potato bracket, I think he called it Starch Madness. They probably would. And it's a lot because of what Todd's doing on social. The second church. I want to introduce you to is impact.

    00:03:34:08 - 00:03:47:14

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Finley. And Bree is the social media manager there. I know her boss, Scott, and. But Bree was in one of my youth Mr. leader cohorts. I want to show you this post from Bree and their church.

    00:03:47:16 - 00:03:55:02

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I got a pizza delivery for a package. Johari. I am Tonka Johari, but I would never order a whole pizza for myself.

    00:03:55:04 - 00:03:59:13

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I'm now taking you. I mean,

    00:03:59:16 - 00:04:24:20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    This one's like. This one's so simple. Like, I want you to just notice, like, she probably found this voice over, and then she just recruited some students with her to, like, help perform this skit out, right? Like, just a great post. And then this one right here. This one went, viral, 22,000 views. This is during our, youth ministry leader cohort.

    00:04:24:23 - 00:04:46:29

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And I was like, Bree, you should be leading this thing. Check this out.

    00:04:47:02 - 00:05:04:25

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Yeah. I mean, look at this like, it's it's so easy. It's so simple. You've probably seen this before. It's a trend. They did it. It took off. Look at how much work it probably took. She wrote, what, ten of these little like prompts and then handed a phone to someone and said, go do this thing right. It's just before a youth group.

    00:05:04:25 - 00:05:28:10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's super simple. And they were rewarded with 22,000 views. Moving on to the third church here that you've probably never heard of is my friend David Carpenter at Harrodsburg. Students in, Kentucky and I ran across with David's dude on social, and David is absolutely crushing it on social media. He's in a modest and normal sized church.

    00:05:28:12 - 00:05:35:25

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And the dude is got some chops when it comes to, like, editing and stuff like that. But what I want you to see on this particular post is, look,

    00:05:35:28 - 00:05:47:00

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    he's just like, this is the first, photo based post, right? And I remember when I was talking to David, I was like, how do you capture photos? He's like, I just got a decent camera, and I put it in someone's hands.

    00:05:47:00 - 00:06:11:22

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And I said, get after it. And he said, you're bound to get at least something usable, right? And so he's got this picture of this kid with his hands up, and then he uses this caption here, and then he says, yep, no youth ministry. Super simple. How difficult would this be for you to go through the archives of a post that someone has taken a picture of, find this and post it like

    00:06:11:25 - 00:06:16:07

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    super easy, super simple, and then, furthermore, he has this one.

    00:06:16:14 - 00:06:20:07

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    These are.

    00:06:20:10 - 00:06:39:21

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Like this is a sermon clip. He sets a camera up in the back of the room. I asked him about it. He's like, I got a camera again. Paid like less than $500 for a decent camera. And he's like, I got like a a few dollar adapter, put it into the soundboard, and now I just take the audio, I link them up together, and then I create sermon clips from it.

    00:06:39:21 - 00:06:50:26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Right. We prerecorded our messages. And so I use that and then I use a service like opus clip down below, which you could also check that out. Check out the link if that's something you're interested in. But David, I know he just does this himself using Adobe Premiere

    00:06:50:26 - 00:06:55:10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Pro. He's got skills in it. And so he puts sermon clips together for himself, for his church.

    00:06:55:16 - 00:07:09:02

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Like this is so simple. It's pictures of your student ministry is picture of yourself, right. Once again no social PAC here. All students, all custom, all faces within your own context. You my friend, you could be doing this

    00:07:09:05 - 00:07:16:18

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    semester number four. Like a Russa missionary church. My friend Andrew is on a cohort at one point. And he's actually been on the podcast before as well.

    00:07:16:18 - 00:07:49:05

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I'll link his episode right up here. Andrew, what I love about his, his videos is same thing. He just he just decided to start taking it seriously. So let me show you this first post type from Andrew.

    00:07:49:08 - 00:08:07:22

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    This one's funny because look at it. If you look at this, it says throwing items on my intern, I guess is what is item four? So this is a series post. So if you look back at, Andrew's, feed, you'll notice that he's done this before with his intern. So the two of them, they just have a blast filming content together.

    00:08:07:24 - 00:08:09:00

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    The other one I like

    00:08:09:00 - 00:08:24:14

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    from Andrew's, church is this one. Check it out.

    00:08:24:17 - 00:08:40:03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Yeah. So this is interview styles. When I, when I talked to Andrew, when I interviewed Andrew, he said this is like the main thing that they do. They send this dude around and he takes a little tiny mic and he interviews students with certain questions. And, this is one of the lowest hanging fruit. Easy things to do.

    00:08:40:03 - 00:08:57:00

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Like how difficult would this be for anyone for you to hand off to any volunteer, any student in your ministry? You grab a decent sound microphone link down. Below is my microphone guide and you take your cell phone camera look. There's like this light here shining through. Like it's that that's like that's just raw. Real. And like, you don't need polish.

    00:08:57:00 - 00:09:13:21

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    You don't need a studio. You don't need, like, an amazing camera with an amazing lens. You just need a cell phone. You probably have access to it. And then the fifth and final, one is I will humbly submit my own student ministry you've maybe heard of. If you've been listening to this podcast, let me give you a couple of examples of what we do.

    00:09:13:21 - 00:09:21:23

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Number one, very simple.

    00:09:21:25 - 00:09:35:25

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    This is a transition style video. It's so simple. You just take the video of the burger's thing and you link it to something back behind it. You try and match it up. So simple, so easy. And you're inviting students to your context, to your church.

    00:09:35:28 - 00:09:40:13

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    The second thing I'll submit to you, and neither this one here is not my idea.

    00:09:40:13 - 00:10:04:13

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I've got to give a shout out to our resident Cody. He created a vlog style, video called disciples. He's a, disc golf, lover. And so him and our intern, they go through and they do different, like, disc golf challenges. And I will let you know, like, if you notice here, like, some of these have some pretty crazy views, 271 views.

    00:10:04:13 - 00:10:22:21

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    He also did a series style video similar to what Andrew did over at Walker Russo, where he shot, disc of like a different, number. So like day one, one shot, day two, two shots, day three, three shots over the roof of our building until he made it. And if he didn't make it, he was going to get his head shaved during our winter weekend.

    00:10:22:24 - 00:10:41:09

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And he made it to like two days before something like that. And so, he went crazy on it. I'll link that video down below in the description so that you can see that one. But that was a really, really good series. And another great way just to reinforce this, on our our YouTube channel, which has all of our sermon series, but a different style of a piece of content.

    00:10:41:12 - 00:10:51:29

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And again, like this is a good example. I'm the youth pastor. I didn't have any bandwidth or idea around this. He did. I said, go for it, man. Cut him loose and

    00:10:51:29 - 00:11:04:05

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    he's owned it straight away. And so this is what you can do when you lean into hybrid. Once you start doing things, people will notice and they'll have ideas, and then you can just cut them loose to go do those things.

    00:11:04:07 - 00:11:17:14

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And all of these are examples of my hybrid strategy. And I'll just be honest, like impact Todd's at Lexington. David's like, they're not following me. They're just leaning in to digital and

    00:11:17:18 - 00:11:41:22

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    social media because they're trying to speak their students language. In fact, the goal of all of this church digital and social media. Brady Scheer, he recently closed down his daily social media pack because he said, we're in a new era of social media called the syndication era of social, and his contention is that it's transitioning from social to just straight up media.

    00:11:41:26 - 00:12:01:25

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Here's the good news my seasonal social media pack helps blend the two between the set it and forget it. That's what he's sun setting in his in his business. He's like, we're not doing the done free stuff anymore. That's from a different era of social. But youth pastors are still busy and sometimes they just need help and they just need something that they can turn to quick and in a pinch.

    00:12:02:01 - 00:12:22:16

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so I'll give you some of those that you can fall back on. But more importantly, I will help coach you through and even give you assets for man on the street for transition style videos for Bible trivia. Whether you want to do interview style or whether you want to like do yourself selfie style video and spiritual content that's like Devo style, you don't need a camera in the back of the room like David.

    00:12:22:16 - 00:12:46:28

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    You just need a cell phone and you just take the script and you create devotional style content to, with or for your students on social media. If you look back through the ten highlighted posts of these five different churches in those accounts, every single one of them that was chosen had students or leaders as a specific person in the post.

    00:12:46:28 - 00:13:06:21

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's not the Dunphy stuff that's offered anymore. That's not the era of social that we find ourself in. And so my PAC will help you if you become a $4 per month tier member, you will get that pack included, along with a weekly bonus recap podcast of my creative programing in my student ministry and what we're doing over on social media.

    00:13:06:26 - 00:13:23:20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But I'm rooting for you. You can lean into this. You can have fun. The bar has never been lower, and it's never been easier for youth pastors to jump in on this. So if I can help, check it out down below. If not, rooting for you as you go and crush social media in your ministry moving forward. Blessings on you.

    00:13:23:20 - 00:13:28:14

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And don't forget everyone as you are doing this throughout your week to stay hybrid.

    14 min
  • Episode 200: The Thing Every Youth Pastor Needs (But Can’t Afford)

    Most youth pastors don’t fail on social media because they lack passion…

    They fail because they don’t have this one thing — and honestly, most can’t afford it.

    But for my 200th episode… I’m giving it away....

    The strategy.
    The product.
    The membership.
    All of it!

    🏆 FIRST 20 FREE MEMBERSHIP

    (Until 5/28/26)
    https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry/redeem/27BC4

    50% OFF PROMO CODE FOR THE REST

    HH200

    SHOW NOTES

    Shownotes & Transcripts
    https://www.hybridministry.xyz/200

    [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE

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    --------------

    🕰️TIMECODES
    00:00 Most Youth Pastors Miss This…
    01:52 The Calendar Conundrum
    07:06 My Hybrid Strategy Explained
    09:54 What this Typically would cost
    13:38 What I'll do for you
    16:45 It's FREE!

    --------------

    TRANSCRIPT
    00;00;00;02 - 00;00;34;06
    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    After 200 episodes and working with youth pastors from really all over, I've noticed one thing and I've noticed it's the same missing piece that happens with every single youth pastor. Sure, everyone's context is a little bit different, and everyone's individual responsibilities vary by position. However, it's the same thing that tends to fail, and it's the fact that either they don't have a plan or they do have a plan, but they're still not executing the plan that's laid out for them.

    00;00;34;08 - 00;01;12;05

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And part of the problem is we don't have a plan because it doesn't feel as urgent. If you don't post to social media. Yeah. What's going to happen? But if you don't plan your Wednesday night message, that's a bit of a bigger deal. Students are going to show up. They're not going to have anywhere to go. And so what I've seen and what I've noticed, and frankly, what I've also done and implemented in my own particular context is a full proof strategy that when life gets busy, in fact, I tested it right here, an episode linked right here where I was at a conference and I had no other time on my schedule, but I

    00;01;12;07 - 00;01;33;20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    committed ahead of time during that week that I was going to post whatever my social media pack told me to post. And in that week, in less than 20 minutes, I was able to post all eight styles of posts. And that was me going above and beyond. Because what I recommend for most of you starting out is only to post three times per week.

    00;01;33;20 - 00;02;01;29

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So I estimate that if you take what I lay out, all you have to do is spend anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes per week posting on social media. And the best news of all? I'm going to tell you how so here. Here's what you need. You're busy. And the fact is, like, you know, you want to reach students and maybe even further more, you know that you want to reach students digitally.

    00;02;02;00 - 00;02;22;01

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Let me just explain why I think digital is so important. Obviously you're listening to the Hybrid Minister show, but in the last three years since I started in the context, I mean, we've doubled our in-person growth as a result, I believe, of this hybrid digital strategy. Furthermore, we've grown a YouTube channel from zero to well over a thousand subscribers.

    00;02;22;03 - 00;02;42;20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And you probably the most important thing is that we've set record numbers of baptisms in this moment and woven within our hybrid strategy is a baptism course where we help walk students through the meaning of it, why they should do it, and then how then to take a next step. So it's hybrid ministry is not just for vanity metrics and dancing on TikTok.

    00;02;42;21 - 00;03;05;28

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It really does help create and facilitate, moments of life change. And we've experienced, like I said, record in-person numerical growth as well as, record life changing markers such as baptism. And so this is why hybrid ministry is so important, and I can help walk you through it. And I believe that you as a youth pastor, you have what it takes.

    00;03;05;28 - 00;03;27;17

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And more than having what it takes, I believe that you have the the requirement to do what it takes to figure this thing out. But here's the challenge, right? Like here's your schedule. Let's say this is your normal Monday Tuesday schedule. And of course, if I had space, you know, we'd extrapolate it out beyond that. And then let's say these are five kind of like core things that that you need to do.

    00;03;27;17 - 00;03;58;03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And, I'll just show you what it looks like in, in my world. Right. So your Wednesday programing, which includes everything from like planning the worship set to team and scheduling for volunteers and your message and your game and your announcements and your graphics. Like everything for that Wednesday that takes if we're if we're just being, like, honest and generous, let's say it takes a four hour block of time.

    00;03;58;03 - 00;04;22;10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So here's your Wednesday programing and that's what you're doing and that. But let's say you maximize your lunch hour. And so for about an hour and a half you eat. But you also are hanging out with someone. So you're grabbing, let's say lunch with the volunteer. That's not nice for relational. Relational. You grab the lunch with the volunteer.

    00;04;22;13 - 00;04;46;06

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Maybe a student. If it's like a spring break type week or whatever you have. Not yet. Once checked your emails, you have absolutely no time. You haven't done that yet. And so between travel time and all that, you get back and all your administrative work, we'll just call pink. We'll just call this admin. So you got to do emails, you got to do receipts.

    00;04;46;06 - 00;05;06;19

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    You got to process your seat from the lunch or the coffee that you just had. Right. Well, now you're at 4 or 5 and maybe you know what you do. Maybe you go home. But then maybe to. Because, again, you're a good youth pastor, down here, maybe down there. So you went home for a little bit? Here.

    00;05;06;19 - 00;05;31;17

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    You picked up your family and stuff like that. But then after dinner, you went back out and, you decided to go visit a student and watch them in the wrestling meet or whatever on a Monday night. Okay. So. So that's your day. That's your Monday. Okay. But then, it's fine because Tuesday rolls around, but you, you're doing like a a citywide disciple now, and so you have a meeting at ten for that.

    00;05;31;19 - 00;05;53;05

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so you get together with the youth pastors and you hang out and you do your thing. And then you haven't yet checked your email, so you gotta check your email again. And the secretary is upset at you because you did your C yesterday. You did it wrong. So now you got to go fix that. You got to put some finishing touches.

    00;05;53;05 - 00;06;19;20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    You got to send, maybe some reminders, some emails. You got to make your slides for your Wednesday night program. Right. Once again. Oh. Your senior pastor, your senior pastor wants to meet with you. So, that takes up some more time, and then, well, you know, you want to be a good youth pastor, so on your way home, you can have coffee with that student who texted you this morning, and said, hey, can we get coffee?

    00;06;19;20 - 00;06;46;29

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so there you are. You're now getting coffee with your student. This is the problem, right? This happens week after week, day after day. And if I were to add another category over here, and let's just say we were to call it social media, you're asking yourself where in the world am I putting social media? Am I putting it down here, which is now after five family time?

    00;06;47;04 - 00;07;07;01

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Am I putting it up here? Which again? Now you're working greater than 40 hours per week? When in the world is this going to happen? And the problem, like I said, for most youth pastors is not vision, not excitement for the thing, but it's scheduling and it's figuring out where this goes. So I'm going to help you out.

    00;07;07;03 - 00;07;27;12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Okay. So what is it? What is my hybrid strategy? Well, link down below is a completely free e-book. Anyone at any time can grab that. So I would recommend and ask that you do that. However, let me just break it down for you here on the whiteboard in social media, you're asking what exactly is your hybrid strategy?

    00;07;27;13 - 00;07;53;01

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Well, for starters, the the step one of it is to become more regular on social media. My pack is basically like your fiber. Think about it. You'll get it. But what is it? It's posting more often to social media okay. Which everyone's down for that. And this is here for the end goal, right? Yeah. We want our student ministry or church social media to be a little bit more robust.

    00;07;53;01 - 00;08;22;17

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    That's the what. Well the win right. And if we look back at our calendaring segment just a minute ago, that's the real question. When is this happening? But just to answer it for you, for me, my answer is three times per week. Okay. So we're going the what is just basically more more social. How often the result is three times per week.

    00;08;22;17 - 00;08;48;10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then again you're asking where and when am I going to find the time in my calendar to create 3 to 3 times more? Don't worry, I'm going to help you out with that. And then the how. Right. And this really is how like when is this getting done? Is we're going to do this thing together, right? I have this YouTube channel, I have this podcast, this is the free version of it, but I have an entire Patreon where I walk you through how to do it.

    00;08;48;10 - 00;09;08;20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I give you the tools when, where to post, and I make it happen for you. And all you have to do is simply run the play and post when it tells you to do it. That way you get to be an amazing youth pastor, going to coffees and going to kids games and meeting with your senior pastor and planning your Wednesday night.

    00;09;08;27 - 00;09;41;05

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And I get to help build out your social media strategy and you get to simply follow the play. Now, you might be asking like, what if I have more creative bandwidth? And what if I have better ideas than you? I presume that you probably do. In that moment, instead of following my play, you simply post one of your ideas or one of your students ideas, or one of your volunteer's ideas, and you don't post one of mine because you do have creative energy, because you do have creative bandwidth, because you do have better ideas.

    00;09;41;08 - 00;09;55;25

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But when you get busy, this is your fallback. It's here when you need it and because I'm giving it away, you don't even have to worry about the cost. Let's look in here to the next section.

    00;09;55;27 - 00;10;21;11

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So here's why. This is expensive. You see, sometimes a system like this can cost hundreds. I mean, maybe honestly, even depending on who you end up going with, it could cost even thousands. And then on top of it, there's months of frustration as you enter into a brand new learning curve, trying to kind of figure all this out yourself and you realize, like, man, I'm a youth pastor, I'm not social media manager, content creator, or like graphic design or any of these things.

    00;10;21;11 - 00;10;40;09

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Right? So like, I broke some of this down for you because I believe that there's really like for costs. And if you're watching here on YouTube, you see them on screen. One of the costs is like if I want like a turnkey done for you social media pack in my personal opinion, one of the best on the market nucleus social done by Brady Shear himself a bet pro church tools.

    00;10;40;12 - 00;11;05;25

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's amazing. It's $49 a month for unlimited stock footage as well as a monthly social posting calendar. One of the problems, though, and I've said this a million times over with even my own pack, is that if it can be done for you, it can also be done for many. And so it's not that custom. But Brady, in my opinion, does the best job of offering something done for you that's also still good and leans into what matters on social media cost.

    00;11;05;25 - 00;11;27;24

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    This is for like churches. This is $49 a month. Most youth ministry budgets can't sustain $49 a month, nearly $600 for the year. Or you could take a course. I found this video course here just by googling, and it turns out it's like $12 a month or $84 for the year. So now we're at, you know, at $684.

    00;11;27;24 - 00;11;52;15

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Now for your entire youth ministry budget, if you want to learn. And if you're like, well, I just figured out myself, well, then then comes in the time cost, right? And like, probably you putting in ten ish hours a week of of learning and trying something new and you're going to be doing and trying some new stuff. Of course, we're in a new era where students speak in this digital native tongue, and you're going to have to kind of learn to speak at least some of that.

    00;11;52;15 - 00;12;14;20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And just at least become fluent with it. But if you're going completely from scratch with no help, like you're looking at probably ten plus hours a week to start, and then, of course, like if we look back at our calendar, where in the world is this going to go? I mean, like your calendar is already insanely full and so, like, you don't have ten plus hours.

    00;12;14;20 - 00;12;42;08

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so what again, always happens is a you're priced out from a cost standpoint and B, your time management isn't there anymore because you don't have the time to do it. This is where I believe I can provide value. So let's check this out okay. So let me prove to you how this works. So I'm going to give you a social media three month seasonal social media pack with a calendar and with the assets in order to create.

    00;12;42;08 - 00;12;58;01

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Now here's the problem with most social media packs if it's done for you, it can be done for many. And so I want to also add a custom edge to yours. And so you are going to have to get your phone out. You are going to have to get some microphones, and you are gonna have to do a little bit of filming of yourself.

    00;12;58;01 - 00;13;20;21

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Your face, your voice, or your students faces, your students voices, your volunteers voices. But some customization to your social media feeds. So it's not just a bunch of graphics. You see. That's where I think most social media packs fall short. Some designers cooking up amazing designs off in the lab that are better than anything you and I could create, but what mine does is mine helps coach you into the customization.

    00;13;20;27 - 00;13;54;00

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so you're going to post three times per week. And one of my favorite posts is a very simple we're going to call it man on the Street style post. I've created the graphics that will overlay on top of your video. So you get your phone out, you film, you chop it up, you edit it, and all you got to do is use something like an in-app editor like Capco or TikTok simply on your phone, hand it over to a student, ask them to do it, and then you take my graphic, which had the would you rather question, and you just lay it over top of it, right.

    00;13;54;02 - 00;14;27;08

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I mapped this out back in November, and that particular post only took me five minutes and my Wi-Fi was lagging like absolute mad, crazy man. So in less than five minutes I had a edited, filmed and then posted custom video. Sometimes it's going to be custom, right? And so in this three times we have two styles. We have custom, but then other times it's just going to be done for you.

    00;14;27;09 - 00;14;47;11

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's going to be plug and play. I got what to do. And you're feeling anxious. I got verse posts. I got I got other like spiritual practice type things. Those are the ones that are packs, right. That they can be done for anyone, anywhere in any context. But I also got some of these, and this is just an example of how this works.

    00;14;47;11 - 00;15;08;08

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And link down below is my full proof episode where like I said, I posted all eight styles. I have eight different styles. I have four custom, I have four done for you posted all eight of them and I let you know exactly how they performed. Here are the results actually on screen from my results episode. So this can work for you.

    00;15;08;11 - 00;15;24;01

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And what's it going to do? It's going to accomplish this goal when your calendars overrun and busy, it's still going to give you. If you can commit to less than ten minutes, I would say ten minutes per week, then this is going to do it. And how are we going to do it? We're going to walk through this together.

    00;15;24;01 - 00;15;54;03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Because if you become a member of my Patreon every single Monday, I'm going to drop a recap episode. So I'm going to be there with you every single step of the way, coaching you through it. So let's check that part out. And here's the good news. To celebrate my 200th podcast episode, which is this one that you're listening to or watching, I'm giving the first 20 people free access to everything that I offer over, on, and inside my Patreon.

    00;15;54;03 - 00;16;12;27

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Here's what's included. There is a weekly bonus podcast episode where I recap detail in outline my programing. And I'm not saying that I'm some creative genius, but I am saying that that is an attempt and that's something that we try to do. And so I explain some of the things that we offer and what we do in our programing.

    00;16;12;27 - 00;16;47;02

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Think of it as like your virtual assistant, someone just giving you ideas and then you filtering those through the lens of your ministry, your context and your programing. I will help level up your creative programing through that podcast. Additionally, I have a seasonal social media pack, so it's three months worth of posting content. Everything that we've been working through on this episode, and it is included as a part of the Patreon membership, as well as access to every post that I have and all of the shop items that are for sale over on my Patreon.

    00;16;47;02 - 00;17;14;08

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So if you're tired of trying to figure this out alone, then this is your moment. And here's how I'm going to do the first 20. You get this for free for the month of May. 2026. The rest of you, if you miss out on that first 20 moment, then I'm giving 50% off with this code. Same time frame h h standing for Hybrid Hero HH2 hundred 50% off to celebrate my 200th episode.

    00;17;14;08 - 00;17;34;12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Like I said, this is open now for three weeks, so it's a strike while the iron is hot moment. You don't need a bigger budget to reach students, you just simply need the right system. And to celebrate my 200th episode, I'm giving you access to that. My friends cheering you on, rooting for you. And as always, don't forget stay hybrid.

    19 min
  • Episode 199: 25 Youth Group Game Prize Ideas (Cheap & Fun) | FREE DOWNLOAD

    I’ve given away every one of these prizes for youth group game winners over my last 15 years of youth ministry.

    I’m going to share 7 full-proof ideas.

    Then to round out the 25 claim, I’m going to live react on how to fill this bookshelf prize idea using ChatGPT. Which, in fairness, I’m 100% stealing the shelf idea from my friend over at DYM, Josh Boldman.

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    🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
    Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
    //VIDIQ
    https://vidiq.com/hybrid

    //BEST DYM RESOURCES

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    //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

    https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

    //HYBRID MINISTRY MEGA GUIDE

    Everything I've ever learned in one blog post [FOR FREE!]
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    --------------

    🕰️TIMECODES
    00:00 Youth Ministry Prize Game Ideas
    00:38 Prize Idea #1
    01:24 Prize Idea #2
    02:04 Your Creative Programming Hacks
    03:10 Prize Idea #3
    04:55 Prize Idea #4
    05:46 Prize Idea #5
    06:59 Prize Idea #6
    07:21 Prize Idea #7
    07:39 Box of Prizes (#8-25)

    --------------

    TRANSCRIPT
    00;00;00;04 - 00;00;25;00
    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I've given away every single one of these prizes over my 15 years of youth ministry, during youth ministry and student ministry game time. And I'm going to share with you seven of my favorite and foolproof ideas. And then to round out the claim that the video, which says 25 youth Group Game Ideas. I am going to fill a bookshelf, which is, full disclosure 100%.

    00;00;25;00 - 00;00;48;12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    My friend Josh Bowman over at I Am His Idea. We're going to actually start doing this in our student ministry this fall. You get an opportunity to use the well, let me share how that works. All of this on this week's episode of the Hybrid Ministry show. And the first game idea that is foolproof is whichever team, whichever group, whichever table we set around tables in our context, whichever one of those wins, give them pizza.

    00;00;48;12 - 00;01;09;14

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    The pro. It is always clutch, right? Nobody has ever said about winning pizza for the group of people that just that just won. The kind of pizza for the group is that it's expensive. And so over time, if you give away pizza every single week to every single game winner, it's not always the most sustainable strategy for your budget.

    00;01;09;14 - 00;01;33;18

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so while it's an amazing thing to win, nobody, as you pastors maybe have the margin in their budget to give away pizza every single week, but as a one off for an elevated game, for something kind of fun, different pizza is always clutch. People who win are always pumped for it. Number two, foolproof idea that you can give away is a signed photo of one of your staff members, or yourself as the youth pastor.

    00;01;33;18 - 00;01;50;25

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    The pro is free. It cost you nothing besides ink, which if you work in a church, you know printing things off the printer is basically the one perk of getting to work as a youth pastor with in office type perks. And so use that church ink, print it off, and then sign it and give it away. That's the pro.

    00;01;50;25 - 00;02;15;19

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's completely free. The con well, I literally had a student one time say, I wish I would have one pizza like they did last week instead of this picture that you just gave me. So you do definitely run that risk. Hey, don't go anywhere. This is actually the type of stuff that I talk about over on my bonus podcast that drops every single Monday, every single week on my Patreon.

    00;02;15;19 - 00;02;33;12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Because what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to make programing more fun and more creative. I'm trying to break it every single week in a way that's different, though. We don't run the exact same service order time after time, and sometimes you just need someone else giving you ideas that you can hear, listen, and filter through into your own context.

    00;02;33;14 - 00;02;58;12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so for only $4 a month, a month, literally less than the cost of this cup of coffee, you can become a member of my hybrid Hero Patreon tier, which also gives you access to my three months Done for You seasonal social media pack, which will help you show up on social media. Because 95% of our teenagers 13 to 17 years of age are on social media, and so you get the opportunity to show up.

    00;02;58;12 - 00;03;19;02

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    We're 1 in 3 of those teenagers say that they're on social media constantly to make an impact and make a difference in their lives. So head on over link in the description to my Patreon. Check it out today because that makes it the third full proof idea is a game winner card. So think like credit card. Like plastic credit card material.

    00;03;19;05 - 00;03;43;10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    You print those out and so you pay for that through like a printing agency. And actually, I have designed five different designs. And then I've put a bat so they're either like completely white or I've put them on a background. And so link down below. I have an entire guide to this episode, and included in that guide for free is a download with these ten different card, options and ideas.

    00;03;43;16 - 00;03;59;27

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Grab them, print them. And then here's what we did. Anytime someone won, they got one of these cards. And then we created a little, currency. And so we said, if you have five of these, you get a free item at your cafe. Now, if you have if you don't have a cafe, you may have to figure out what the exchange rate is for something like that.

    00;03;59;29 - 00;04;18;02

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But they were a great motivator, right? Like they could hang onto those cards, they could collect them. They could save them. So the pro is it's like a one time costs. Right. But the other pro is that if you do use them, it's like a cafe redemption token sort of thing is that they're completely recyclable, like you'll get them back.

    00;04;18;02 - 00;04;37;26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so once you get them back in the cafe, then you turn around, you give them to your next game winner, you know, and then there's also like a hidden cost moment. So like you pay for them once and then out of the cafe proceeds is where the true like money exchange happens, but you don't feel it quite as much if you're giving it away as a member of your cafe.

    00;04;38;01 - 00;04;57;13

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    The kind. Of course, if you spam this and you only ever do this, it can grow a little bit old. So, like, it might be something to keep in your back pocket as a go to when you don't have an idea. But then still, we've in some of these other, maybe more big ticket items like pizza for the entire group, or this fourth idea, which is the best seats in the house.

    00;04;57;18 - 00;05;16;07

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    The pro this is it's incredibly easy and also pretty cheap. What you do is if you have normal rows, you create a couch and a VIP type section in your, ministry and you make more comfortable seats. And so the winning person gets to bring their friends, or the winning group gets to all go sit in best seats in the house.

    00;05;16;10 - 00;05;35;12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And if you have a way to, like, get a mini fridge or stocked with some snacks, or even give them pizza in that that best seats in the house. It's a really great way to make those people feel like VIPs for winning the night. The only con really is, just requires like a weekly setup. And so we don't do this every week, but we do reserve it every once in a while, occasionally for winners.

    00;05;35;12 - 00;05;51;15

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so that way if you have those, like cards, for example, you give those three weeks out of the month and then the fourth week out of the month, you do like, let's say like a best seat in the house or something like that. The fifth option I have is give some sort of like money currency. Okay. The pro is similar to the card thing.

    00;05;51;15 - 00;06;08;21

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's easy and it's cheap for us. We use a thing called a platypus book. The reason being that was the mascot voted on by our students over three years ago when I started here at this church. And so we put it on a dollar bill and the. You know, it's funny, I actually went to Canva to try and find a dollar template, and they won't even let you do it.

    00;06;08;21 - 00;06;26;04

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's probably some, like, federal regulations. So I created a template. It looks like this. You can go get it over on my guide along with those cards as well. And then you can put whatever you want here in the middle for us, our mascot is a platypus. Maybe you, have like, a different mascot. Use whatever mascot you have.

    00;06;26;09 - 00;06;42;08

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Maybe you want to put yourself in there. Go ahead, put yourself and you know, you could make it kind of like an office reference, like a Schrute book. And once again, you can figure out the currency. In our current context, a platypus book equals one free item from the cafe. So it's a worse exchange rate than those cards.

    00;06;42;10 - 00;07;02;04

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But again, it's just another like, another way, another idea. The con. Similar to the card game, it can grow tired. However, I will say students are motivated because they can win those and then they can redeem them instantly at the cafe that exact night or the exact time when they win the platypus book. The six idea is you can give away leftover merch or leftover swag that you have.

    00;07;02;04 - 00;07;19;21

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Maybe from a camp, maybe from a retreat. The pro is. It's probably the most real prize if someone wins a genuine good t shirt. Like that's the best real prize that we've given away so far on this episode, the con is again, it might become a little bit expensive over time, and so you do have to make sure that you can kind of manage the budget.

    00;07;19;23 - 00;07;39;05

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then the seventh foolproof idea that has never failed me is a crisp high five or the satisfaction of winning once again, the pro, it's free. It's actually so cheap it doesn't cost your budget any money. The cons is that students might, over time, if they know that that's all they're going to win, might lose their drive to.

    00;07;39;08 - 00;08;04;16

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Now, for those of you who are like incredible like payers of attention, you'll know that this episode said 25 prize ideas. And so what I want to do is I want to let you know that this idea came to me from my friend Josh Boardman, who got a cube storage sort of thing. And so I, I'm thinking maybe next fall to grab this one that you'll see linked here on screen.

    00;08;04;16 - 00;08;23;22

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Also, the link is available in my guide to this episode where you can get all these different freebies. And, he said that what they did was they filled this, 18 cube. Maybe he had less, but we're going to try 18 cubes. And so over the course of like a semester or whatever, there's a different number of prize.

    00;08;23;22 - 00;08;42;03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So the winner gets one of the items from this cube box. And he said they just got like shoes or whatever. They numbered it. They labeled it. So the kid wins. And then either they get to pick numbers, say one through 18, or they, get to spin the wheel and then whatever the wheel ends on, they win.

    00;08;42;09 - 00;09;01;10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    You can either let it deplete over time so that by the end you only have one box left, or you can, replace it every single week. And so he said there were times where he'd forget and he'd throw something random that he found in the church to give away. And so it's a great way to add some mystique and some mystery, but also not blow your budget.

    00;09;01;10 - 00;09;25;25

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Now, what I want to do is I want to react to this here in live time, because I'm going to say here in ChatGPT you can see the prompt if you're watching here on screen, help me come up with 18 hidden shoebox game price ideas that cost less than $5. Either it's laying around the church already or it's a cheap prize to put in a shoe box that goes in these 18 cube storage box shelves.

    00;09;25;25 - 00;09;43;03

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Like, for example, here's a pro tip and this might be your 26th idea, Bollman said. Sometimes he would put a can of beans in there. So let's see what ChatGPT says. And then I'm going to literally these are spitting out right here in live time. I didn't rehearse this. I never put this in ChatGPT before. You're just gonna have to trust me.

    00;09;43;09 - 00;10;05;25

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But here we go. They said in the actually worth it. Anker wins. Give a $5 Chick-Fil-A gift card. Of course. Who doesn't love Chick-Fil-A Christian chicken? You can give full size candy bar bundles. So I said make it less than $5 so that this cost you less than $5. So these are your $5 actually worth it. $5 Chick-Fil-A gift card, full sized candy bar, a cold soda plus candy combo.

    00;10;05;25 - 00;10;23;20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    That's a great idea. Takis hot Cheeto bags. Our kids go crazy for this stuff. Energy drink, if that's appropriate for your group, ChatGPT says it's appropriate for ours. We sell Celsius in our cafe or a mini snack pack box. Now keep in mind of the seven options I already said they could win a platypus book. They could win a game card.

    00;10;23;20 - 00;10;44;17

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    They could win a piece of paper that says best seats in the House, so you can recycle some of the seven ideas that we have in the shoe box. Ideas. Also, here's some like funny, right? Here's some trolls. According to I, one single mint, one ramen packet. A banana bonus is slightly brown. Now imagine we created these for 18 weeks of game winners.

    00;10;44;19 - 00;11;03;12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    We put a banana in at the beginning and it was the last one taken 18 weeks later. Months into the semester that would be discussing and hilarious old same time, a single slice of bread in a bag, a rock labeled pet Rock or a church fire, or old Bulletin that's laying around as a prize. Once again, this is where it comes in clutch.

    00;11;03;12 - 00;11;21;07

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Sometimes they can be troll gifs, sometimes they can be actually good ones like Chick-Fil-A gift cards. We got mystery drink. So random soda flavor, weird dollar store toy off brand candy that no one recognizes, or a coupon that says trade this for a better prize. That's pretty funny. And then last 17 to 18. Skip the next game.

    00;11;21;07 - 00;11;48;16

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So they automatically win the next round or 18. They get to control the room for the next 60s they get to sing a song or make a rule that's actually pretty funny. So these are 18 AI ideas. And what you could do is you can put them in, right, print them off, or go buy them or go obtain them somehow one time at the beginning of like a semester or like a certain session of time, and then put them in this 18 boxing or go nine box or whatever you want to do.

    00;11;48;18 - 00;12;12;15

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So once again, like I said, this entire list is going to be included down in the link on Patreon. There'll be a link to the 18 bookshelf. There'll be a link to the nine, bookshelf or recycle one that you have at home or laying around the office that you don't need anymore. Wrap these up, put numbers on them, and either choose for the student to pick them and replace it every week, or let them spin a wheel and let the wheel decide which item they get.

    00;12;12;15 - 00;12;37;07

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But these are 25 amazing, foolproof, youth ministry game winner ideas that don't break the bank and are actually good and actually fun. I hope you guys found this episode helpful. If you did, what would be amazing is actually if you go check out the guide over on my Patreon, that really helps more than you can imagine. Or if you don't want to leave YouTube, click the like and click the subscribe button so that you don't miss the next video.

    00;12;37;07 - 00;12;46;21

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    In the next episode, which is episode 200, it's going to be amazing. But until next time my friends. And as always, don't forget. Stay hybrid.

    13 min
  • Episode 198: I Planned Your Entire Youth Group Summer… You Don’t Have to Think

    Steal this brilliant idea - kick your feet back this summer in your youth ministry.

    I’m giving you this calendar, plus ALL these graphics away in this episode. FREE!

    Welcome to the Summer Edition of the Hybrid Ministry Show!

    👇👇FREE GRAPHICS & CALENDAR DOWNLOAD 👇👇

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/6-summer-155909228?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    SHOW NOTES

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    https://www.hybridministry.xyz/198

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    --------------

    🕰️TIMECODES
    00:00 Summer Youth Ministry Ideas
    00:20 The Context
    02:53 The Calendar
    04:21 The Gameplan (Relax, Youth Pastor, I've got your summer plan mapped out!)
    07:28 Summer Theme Youth Group Nights
    08:16 How to Unlock These Deals

    --------------

    TRANSCRIPT
    00:00:00:17 - 00:00:05:01
    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Steal this brilliant idea this summer and then

    00:00:05:03 - 00:00:08:00

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    kick your feet back. You deserve it.

    00:00:08:02 - 00:00:21:09

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I'm giving away this calendar, along with all of these graphics that you see right here on screen. For those of you watching on YouTube, welcome to the Summer calendar edition of the Hybrid Ministry Show.

    00:00:21:11 - 00:00:25:09

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. If you and I haven't had chance to meet yet.

    00:00:25:10 - 00:00:45:10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    My name is Nick Klassen. I'm a youth pastor in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth area. And, you know, 15 or so years ago when I started in youth ministry, I wouldn't have dreamed about doing youth ministry in the summer. However, summer midweek has actually become a staple, and I remember the first year where I became a believer in doing youth ministry.

    00:00:45:10 - 00:01:02:07

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Over the summer I was up. It was like a Sunday night for our youth ministry, and I was teaching, and I looked out in the crowd and I saw a girl who I hadn't seen all year long, but she was able to show up in the summer because her, competitive dance, you know, practice took a break for the summer.

    00:01:02:10 - 00:01:22:19

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so ever since that point, I've been a huge believer in summer youth ministry. Not to mention, like, we go to camp right at the beginning of our summer, May 20th 9th to June 2nd. And then to not have anything throughout the entire course of the summer just feels like such a wasted opportunity to capitalize and continue on some of that summer momentum.

    00:01:22:19 - 00:01:46:15

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So whether you have summer youth ministry or not, these are going to be some different theme ideas. And if you do have summer youth ministry in particular Wednesday nights, I've done the heavy lifting because over the last several years, in our particular context of our church, similar to other places, have been the rest of the the church shuts down so kids ministry shuts down, adult groups shut down.

    00:01:46:15 - 00:02:04:04

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    All happen on Wednesday night in a normal, cycle. On Wednesday night, like throughout the school year. But we we come back for 5 or 6 weeks from about mid-June once, like our, camp recap night is over until the end of July. Take a couple weeks off, the first few Wednesdays in August, and then we're back,

    00:02:04:11 - 00:02:06:10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    that third Wednesday in August.

    00:02:06:10 - 00:02:22:23

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And it's like our back to school bash or whatever. So if you want to meet and do something over the summer, I have mapped out six amazing events. And what happened was a couple of years ago, we were kind of coming back and realizing that we needed to drum up some momentum because the rest of the church wasn't going to be meeting.

    00:02:22:23 - 00:02:39:05

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so we looked at the National day calendar, which, if you've never done that before, there's just wild amounts of national days. There's like 8 or 10 different options on some days of, of the month. And so since the dates change every single year, for the most part, we, can kind of do a different

    00:02:39:05 - 00:02:41:04

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    like theme throughout the summer.

    00:02:41:04 - 00:02:58:00

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So we don't do themes throughout the regular year. But but during the summer will lean into different national days. And, and I've done the heavy lifting. I have found them for you. And so I'm giving away this calendar right here and and, you know, like on this calendar, right up here at the top is where we put like our summer camp.

    00:02:58:07 - 00:03:17:28

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then right here is where we do like our, our fifth grade VBS spot. You can like right in on top of this and any sort of design thing, Canva or Photoshop or PowerPoint or keynote. And then I send a transparent version after sticker mule to get a magnet printed. So. So go grab this. It's free over on my Patreon.

    00:03:18:01 - 00:03:33:18

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But in this section right here, these are the summer Wednesday nights. And if you don't meet on Wednesday nights or you're not going to be leaning into these, this is where you can put something different, that, you know, down here is where I have like our our back to school time and then our Sunday morning, right down here at the very bottom.

    00:03:33:18 - 00:03:54:05

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But, this is where I would put and where I did put our Summer Wednesday themes. Now, if you do have ones and you want to just like, adopt what I have to to give literally, I'm giving this to you. Steal these for the summer and they are yours. And if you have Wednesday nights, we start on the 24th of June, and then we skip the first for the 4th of July.

    00:03:54:08 - 00:04:10:24

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then we go through the rest of, of July, the eighth through the 29th. If you do want to meet on the first, I've added an option in there as well. And so, what's going to happen is I'm going to give you this episode now because some of you are planners and you need to get, you know, things printed and you need to get the ball rolling on some of this.

    00:04:10:28 - 00:04:29:10

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Most so giving away every single graphic. And I'm going to rattle through what these different nights are. But on July or I'm sorry, on June 19th, I would encourage you to subscribe and turn the bell on on this YouTube channel because, you know, we drop an episode every single Thursday, whether it's, in your podcast catcher or on YouTube.

    00:04:29:12 - 00:04:51:04

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So turn on notifications. I'm going to send you a reminder about the upcoming Wednesday night so that you can start getting working on, you can start planning, and then on the following Monday, over on my Patreon, my bonus show, I'm going to detail recap and outline how the entire night went. And I'm going to give you the service flow for the next upcoming night.

    00:04:51:04 - 00:05:13:20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So for example, you'll get the upcoming service flow over on Patreon, the Monday before the Wednesday night starts. So for the first one, world UFO day, I'm going to give you our entire service order. And what I always do on Patreon this summer, I'm going to, kind of like, lean harder into Patreon. So the Thursday shows are going to be quick hitters and just reminders about what's coming up.

    00:05:13:23 - 00:05:17:14

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then on Monday, we're really going to take a deep dive where we're going to answer what we did,

    00:05:17:18 - 00:05:24:00

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    what worked, what flopped, what I would change, and then give you the next week's assets. And here's my promise. I'm going to give

    00:05:24:03 - 00:05:28:23

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    you the entire service flow, everything I have planned for the upcoming Wednesday.

    00:05:28:23 - 00:05:35:28

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So I'm going to give it to you with enough time for you to actually implement the ideas that we've already come up with in our youth ministry.

    00:05:36:00 - 00:05:45:12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    All you got to do set the notifications, set the reminders, make sure you're subscribed, and you'll get these every single week. So I'll give you the service flow. I'll give you any

    00:05:45:12 - 00:05:52:29

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    of our plus up programmatic elements. For example, on one of the days being, National White

    00:05:53:03 - 00:05:56:26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Elephant Day, actually, it's not National Elephant Day. It's actually National Give Something Away Day.

    00:05:56:26 - 00:06:11:24

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And we kind of branded it around White Elephant. We're going to do like a white elephant gift exchange thing in the middle of July. But I'm going to tell you exactly what we did, how we did it, and what other elements kind of went along with it, along with the service flow and also any other kind of plus up ideas.

    00:06:11:24 - 00:06:22:22

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then some are just going to be simple, like, yo order chicken wings on National chicken wing and National Lasagna Day. I'm also going to give you, any games, videos and elements. And here's my promise. Okay? I'm not

    00:06:22:22 - 00:06:28:00

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    going to create a custom or brand new, game every single week. I might for some, I might not.

    00:06:28:00 - 00:06:49:17

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    For others, it's pretty far out. I don't know exactly what I do. I'm not promising to make something custom and new for every single episode, but my promise is, if I created, a resource in any way, shape or form, I will link it in the podcast description for free for those in the Hybrid Hero Patreon tier. If it's newly created by me, I will give it to you.

    00:06:49:17 - 00:07:03:26

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And whether it's released on dime or not, that's going to obviously be up to them as the gatekeepers. But I will give you early access. I'll just put drop box links and then if I am using something over on D, I am I will give you the link so that you can go grab it from them. I can't give that away.

    00:07:03:26 - 00:07:07:02

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It's theirs. Go give them the royalties. But I will link every single thing we

    00:07:07:05 - 00:07:24:05

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    do. I'm planning my youth services and I'm putting them out one week ahead of time on Monday, so I'll lay out the entire service flow. On Monday you'll have, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to implement that and then, operate on the same National Day schedule that I'm going to be operating on.

    00:07:24:05 - 00:07:42:21

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So, like I said, the National Day calendar, if you so choose to participate, the 24th of June is World UFO day. I've got a graphic for it. You can use it. You can, use everything that we're going to do in our ministry. Then on the first is Canada Day. So hey, why not celebrate our neighbors up north, do some Canada themed stuff?

    00:07:42:26 - 00:08:08:20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Maple sirup. And, you know, was poutine and then do, like, a Canada themed game. It'd be super fun. National ice cream. Sunday is the eighth. The white Elephant day is, national give something away day. Pie approximation day is 22 divided by seven, which is, 3.14. That is, July 22nd. And then finally on the 29th is both National Chicken Wing and National Lasagna Day Stew.

    00:08:08:20 - 00:08:32:14

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    These ideas have been incredibly successful for us. I'm literally handing them over to you. The best way for you to access that is my $4 per month Patreon tier, where I drop my bonus podcast. It also gives you access to all of our social media packs. It also gives you access to my carousel engine. $4 per month for all of that is $8 for the summer months of June and July.

    00:08:32:14 - 00:08:53:12

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Worth having everything in your programing from games to service orders and all of the creative elements. Is it worth it? You have to decide. I think it is less than $10 over the course of two months. I think it's a radically insane idea. Who says radical? I don't think I've ever said radical on this podcast before, but hey, it's episode 199.

    00:08:53:14 - 00:09:18:20

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I do wanna let you know I'm dropping this a little bit out of cycle and order. And so, next week and next episode is going to be the 200th episode, and then make sure that you set your notifications for the 19th of June, where we'll start rolling these out, and we'll start continuing to push all of these events and reminding you what's coming up on Wednesday and how you can grab the graphics and how you can lean in, and how you can celebrate these different national days on the Wednesdays.

    00:09:18:20 - 00:09:30:09

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Of those of you doing youth ministry this summer, but until next time, my friends. And as always, I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did give it a like, give us a subscribe, share it with a friend, but don't forget to stay hybrid.

    10 min
  • Episode 197: Custom vs Done-For-You Social Media for Churches

    Social Media is like the beast that never sleeps.

    In this episode, I have two experts to argue both social media philosophies.
    Should you use a pack that's done for you, so you can set it and forget it?
    Or should you focus on more custom content for your church instagram feeds?

    Find out, listen to the debate, and you decide!

    [FREE] HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE

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    SHOW NOTES

    Shownotes & Transcripts
    https://www.hybridministry.xyz/197

    //LINKS

    //OPUS CLIP
    https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

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    🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
    Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
    //VIDIQ
    https://vidiq.com/hybrid

    //BEST DYM RESOURCES

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/9-amazing-dym-142425755

    //OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS

    https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

    //HYBRID MINISTRY MEGA GUIDE

    Everything I've ever learned in one blog post [FOR FREE!]
    https://www.patreon.com/posts/hybrid-ministry-151264417?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

    --------------

    🕰️TIMECODES
    00:00 Social Media for Youth Ministry
    00:39 The Guest Today?
    01:53 Custom Social Intro
    02:52 Done For You Intro
    03:52 Why Done For You Social Media?
    05:54 Why Custom Social Media is most effective
    07:55 How Long Do You Spend on Social Media?
    10:26 Have You Raised up Volunteers?
    12:07 Done For You Closing Remarks
    13:07 Custom Social Media Closing Argument

    --------------

    TRANSCRIPT
    00:00:00:000 - 00:00:02:065
    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Youth ministry debates. Welcome to the

    00:00:02:065 - 00:00:02:112

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    fourth

    00:00:03:002 - 00:00:03:076

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    and

    00:00:03:086 - 00:00:04:075

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    debate

    00:00:04:085 - 00:00:05:008

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    episode.

    00:00:05:033 - 00:00:05:050

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And

    00:00:05:050 - 00:00:07:110

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    in this one we are talking all things

    00:00:08:013 - 00:00:10:077

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    social media, and I'm debating none

    00:00:10:096 - 00:00:11:103

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    other than

    00:00:11:113 - 00:00:27:037

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    myself. And I'm going to be taking two different stances. Stance number one is going to be on social media. That is done for you. You download it out of a pack and you just set it and forget it versus social media.

    00:00:27:037 - 00:00:39:053

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    That is custom social media that has your own voice and your own face. And we're going to be going head to head. Myself versus myself. Welcome, everybody to the Hybrid Ministry show.

    00:00:39:063 - 00:00:49:065

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Well, hey everybody, welcome to the Hybrid Minister's show. If you've not been following along, we are currently at the tail end of a playlist where we've been exploring big youth ministry

    00:00:49:075 - 00:01:05:022

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    debates. And in this one, the debate is specifically centered around social media. And rather than trying to find another opposition or another person on the other side, I figured I would genuinely argue this position from each side of the social media aisle.

    00:01:05:032 - 00:01:09:020

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Done for you versus custom for you. And so when I'm wearing a

    00:01:09:033 - 00:01:10:111

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    black shirt, I'm going to be arguing

    00:01:10:119 - 00:01:14:051

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    packs that are done for you, that are set it and forget it. Think

    00:01:14:061 - 00:01:15:080

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Sunday social, think

    00:01:15:080 - 00:01:19:015

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    nuclear social, think doing membership post.

    00:01:19:025 - 00:01:22:111

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then when I'm wearing a white shirt.

    00:01:23:000 - 00:01:38:028

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I'm going to be arguing social media. That's custom, social media that has your own flair, social media that has your own voice in your own face. And so, just like we've programed every single one of these other debate style episodes, that's how we are going to

    00:01:38:028 - 00:01:40:080

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    do this with a minute introduction and

    00:01:40:080 - 00:01:46:013

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    then two minutes of an argument, then a back and forth Q&A, followed by one minute of closing.

    00:01:46:042 - 00:01:53:030

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And welcome to the podcast to argue social media myself. Nicholas.

    00:01:53:040 - 00:02:09:105

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Yeah. So minute on the clock. So I've been in youth ministry for 15.5 years. Started out small churches in Ohio. Always seen the value and need for social media, digital ministry. In fact, I read a book, or listen to a podcast about exiles in Babylon.

    00:02:09:115 - 00:02:18:045

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It was a Barna book and talked about the value of YouTube and how the next generation is going to be asking some of the heaviest and most theologically based questions on YouTube.

    00:02:18:055 - 00:02:40:084

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So to kind of get my gears turning around YouTube, I started a little like YouTube through my church podcast, moved to a church in Chicago the first day Covid hit. And while we were there, obviously we had to come up with a digital and an innovative and innovative digital solution. And while we were doing that, it really like sparked my love, my continued love for social media, YouTube, and just digital ministry.

    00:02:40:084 - 00:02:54:060

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so kind of ever since then, I've seen the value of it. I've seen the power behind doing a good job on social media. And then then I moved to Texas. Which next guy can take it away?

    00:02:54:069 - 00:03:13:053

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Yeah. That's great. So I moved here to Texas in 2022. I came to be, one of my really good friends. His name is Darren. I came to be kind of like his right hand man and, learned a lot of stuff about digital and kind of poured into it and really, like, brought it to life here.

    00:03:13:062 - 00:03:28:021

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    In where the in the current setting that I'm serving in, last summer. So about eight months ago, at this point, he stepped away to another role, at another church, and I took over and assumed his role, which is a lot more management, and it's a lot more meetings

    00:03:28:021 - 00:03:34:114

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    and a lot more oversight of people. And so my schedule looks like this on screen here.

    00:03:34:117 - 00:03:51:098

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    This is a screenshot of my schedule. I actually sent it to him last week complaining. And I'm actually getting ready to hand social media over to a resident because I'm running out of time, no matter how well I'm mapping out and blocking my time. Social media is great, but there are other things that are also taking my attention.

    00:03:51:098 - 00:03:56:060

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So, excited to be with you today.

    00:03:56:070 - 00:04:22:029

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Yeah. Okay, so two minutes on the clock. So, I would say our goal as youth pastors is not to be content creators, not to be social media managers. But our goal as youth pastors and pastors in general, working in the church, our goal is to be disciple makers, and we should be implementing and facilitating, a system and a program that helps move students more meaningfully and significantly towards Jesus.

    00:04:22:029 - 00:04:26:038

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so I know and I believe that social media

    00:04:26:053 - 00:05:00:036

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    obviously is still important, and I believe that it has a role within the life of the local church. But I also believe that we should be primarily focusing on making disciples. And my argument for why you should consider done for you. Pax is it just while it's important, while social media can be a mechanism for life change and for disseminating the hope and the message of the gospel, I also know that as my calendar gets more and more full, as my plate gets more and more stacked up, and as I have more and more of those proverbial plates spinning, so to speak, that social media

    00:05:00:058 - 00:05:14:000

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    is one of the first things to kind of like fall off my radar and so, yeah, so I believe in social media, but I also believe in delegation. And so if you can delegate that either through a team or through a,

    00:05:14:011 - 00:05:20:101

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    just downloading a pack of especially like if you're a member, you're already paying for it like it's included.

    00:05:20:110 - 00:05:45:009

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    You should go ahead and check something like that out because, while the while like, I believe that we're busy, I believe that social media is important. I also believe that our ultimate goal is to raise up leaders and to help point people towards Jesus. And so if social media is taking that away from me, I don't want to, become less effective as a disciple maker because of social media.

    00:05:45:009 - 00:05:57:084

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so because of that, I would recommend that you grab something that's done for you, that's taken care of, and you don't even have to worry about it. And it frees up your time to be the best version. And pastor of you that you can be.

    00:05:57:094 - 00:06:23:016

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Yeah. So I would say two minutes on the clock. I would say my argument is that in social media, the goal is not to just get your announcements or your information pushed through. It's it's a very, very small part of it. In fact, the goal on social media is engagement, which my argument would be as youth pastors, as ministry leaders in churches, our goal should be engagement across the board.

    00:06:23:038 - 00:06:47:118

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    We would want people to engage not just with our church for the sake of engaging with our church. We would hope that they would engage with our church, and that's going to be helping to move and promote them towards and for life change. And so the same thing is true on social media. And just like every single time you're hanging out with a student at Starbucks, you're not only ever posting announcements in the same way that you're, or like you're hanging out at Starbucks.

    00:06:47:118 - 00:07:03:107

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    You're not only ever talking about spiritual, so if you're talking about life, you're talking about fun stuff, you're talking about interesting things. And you see, you know, the latest neighbor gets a stand up routine, like whatever that might be. And I think the same thing should be true on social media. And I think you should have a custom fingerprint of our own church.

    00:07:03:107 - 00:07:26:012

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Right. And so because of that, I think that helps drive engagement and so people respond to people, people like some of our best performing posts on social media, our faces, not graphics that we cooked up in Canva. And so the more we can get faces, my face, my leaders faces, my senior pastor's face and other students faces, that's the goal on social media.

    00:07:26:012 - 00:07:52:046

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so in the same way, like announcements are good, graphics are good, done for you. Stuff is good. But Dunphy can only take you so far because if it's done for you, it means it's also done for many. And if you're just posting something that someone else has already made, that can be done at any given church in any given context across America, only you have been called to be the youth pastor and the shepherd of your church and the students that God has entrusted to you.

    00:07:52:057 - 00:07:59:032

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So lean into the customization of that and use it to spread the message of good news and hope of Jesus.

    00:07:59:041 - 00:08:09:022

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Yeah. Okay. So I have a question for you. Nick. White shirt. Nick, how much time do you spend on social media per week?

    00:08:09:032 - 00:08:26:099

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Yeah, so let's see. Good question. I used to spend a lot of time on social media when I was editing our teaching videos. Probably took me ten hours a week between that, and then our other social media content, like our short form content, we finally built up our budget in such a way to be able to pay an editor, which I get.

    00:08:26:099 - 00:08:46:069

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    That's a luxury. Not everybody has that. I would also say, like, if you have the potential to just, like, film yourself in the back of the room with a camera. Cameras have come a long way even since I started at this church in Texas. And so you could probably get a decent camera, a decent lens, and a decent like, just, what am I looking for?

    00:08:46:069 - 00:09:01:017

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    An adapter into your soundboard? You can probably get that for a thousand $2,000. And again, you might have to work your way up for it. You might find a donor for it. If there is some money for it. But you can put a camera in the back of the room and you can film your messages, and you can use those for clips and stuff like that.

    00:09:01:017 - 00:09:14:094

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And then I also come a long way. So to answer your question and spend a lot of time when I've done a lot of the work myself, but do things like opus clip link down below if you want to check that out. If you have some sort of long form version of your message without lower thirds is going to crop it out.

    00:09:14:094 - 00:09:39:097

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Opus clip is an amazing solution that will give you clips and chunks of your teaching, and of your messages that you can sprinkle on all throughout social and listen. Maybe video is not even an option for you. Maybe just like record your sermons through soundboard and post to audio. Have an audio sermon like that's still a version of hybrid Ministry of Digital Ministry might not be the most effective just on social media, but there's even ways to do that where you have like the sound wave bar, right?

    00:09:39:097 - 00:09:59:056

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And like you can do overlays and B-roll and, and you can do your slides and stuff like that as you clip up some of the things. So like, you don't have to be hamstrung by the equipment side of your, of your life. And then that being said, I built out a whole strategy. I owned it, but then as I've owned it, I've handed it off.

    00:09:59:056 - 00:10:17:018

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So on the capturing and creation side, I have a whole team of students who are building that out every single Wednesday night. And then on the editing side, I have a whole team of students, and even some leaders and other staff members who are helping, do some of that. But I don't manage much of it anymore.

    00:10:17:018 - 00:10:29:052

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So I would say in an honest assessment, I spend less than an hour per week and have a fully customizable social media, YouTube channel, Instagram, all those things.

    00:10:29:062 - 00:10:33:003

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Yeah. I mean, my question to you, black shirted Nick would be like,

    00:10:33:003 - 00:10:45:034

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I get that you were all about done for you, but have you considered raising up volunteers to give you a hand on some of these things as you've, you know, gotten busier and lost some of your time that you used to have?

    00:10:45:044 - 00:11:21:066

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Yeah, actually, yes. I have raised up volunteers in in my space. And that's one of the reasons why, the done for youth stuff. I mean, I'm not so far down the done for you path. It's because of my own prep of raising up volunteers. So I have a couple of students, who I've raised up in who have taught how to run and do social media for themselves, and how they, can, come in at edit off of our computers, our machines, our software that we spend the money for that we've invested in.

    00:11:21:075 - 00:11:43:079

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And they have my help, my troubleshooting ability. But if I didn't have them at this current juncture, I'm not sure that I would have as much time to devote towards, you know, five, five, days a week, two posts per day, ten, ten different pieces of content. Like, I don't know that I would have that amount of time to get something like that off the ground.

    00:11:43:079 - 00:12:10:093

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    So something that's a little more done for you, something that's just a little bit more turnkey. In my current role, with the amount of direct reports I have, with the amount of people that and meetings that I've found myself in. Had I not raised up those volunteers to continue to keep doing what I'm doing as I've stepped into this new leadership role and I'm not I'm not 100% sure how well I would be at launching a brand new hybrid in social media, like kind of ministry and campaign, like right now.

    00:12:10:102 - 00:12:21:095

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Yeah. So final minute on the clock. My final closing argument is honestly my own social media pack. I don't mean for this to be like self-promotion and like a plug, but the fact of the matter is this is that I

    00:12:21:111 - 00:12:32:100

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    have a pack that has a whole done for youth section. In fact, I was just on social media not ten minutes ago, and one of the members from my cohort, I follow their youth ministry.

    00:12:32:109 - 00:12:55:086

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I ran across a takes 60s to pray post. I ran across one that I had made and I had created myself. And so I saw another youth ministry. I saw another youth pastor use my content for their own students. And that's why I would recommend this, because sometimes you have the bandwidth, sometimes you have the margin, and sometimes you have the creative energy, but other times you simply don't.

    00:12:55:086 - 00:13:09:101

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    And so you need something that's still good, that's still effective, and that's still going to push the mission of Jesus forward in your space, in your context, in your church. And you can do all that through social media and on your social channels.

    00:13:09:111 - 00:13:30:062

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Yeah, right. So my argument is that social media is best when it's custom. People respond best to faces. And you, if you're the youth pastor, you've been called to shepherd your people, which also includes putting your face on your Instagram, on your YouTube, on your TikTok, and, shameless plug my done for you and custom for you social media pack.

    00:13:30:062 - 00:13:54:048

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    I have four different seasons summer, fall, winter, spring, $17.99. Or you can become a Patreon member, which gives you access to our weekly bonus podcast. And then as a part of that $4 per month membership cost, the $17.99 social media pack will coach you through how to have a custom and hybrid social media ministry. It will give you scripts.

    00:13:54:048 - 00:14:10:089

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    It will tell you, it'll give you filming prompts. It will give you man on the street questions with the graphics and the overlays so that your social media can be custom, but it doesn't have to break the bank financially or from a time standpoint. Check it out. Link down below in the description.

    00:14:10:099 - 00:14:33:044

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Well, hey, thanks everybody for hanging out on this episode. And I think, and I hope that you're able to tell that my genuine answer is that, yes, it should be custom social media and that yes, it should be done for you. Social media. And I have the perfect tech to blend those two things together. There is information and a link down below in the show notes.

    00:14:33:044 - 00:14:53:059

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    Or if you just have questions, bro, reach out to me. Shoot me a DM. If you found this episode helpful, interesting, or at least just something comical to laugh at because I was literally debating myself just with a different outfit, then hey, go ahead and give us a like or subscribe. That would be the greatest form of payment, especially if you choose not to go check out the social media pack.

    00:14:53:068 - 00:14:57:009

    Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
    But until next time my friends. And as always, don't forget to stay hybrid.

    15 min
  • Episode 196: Lock-Ins: Ministry Gold or Total Disaster?

    Lock-ins... is there a more polarizing youth ministry topic?

    Should you do them?
    Are they valuable?
    Or are they the worst idea ever?

    In this episode, two youth pastors go head to head, and you get to decide!

    Take Advantage of Andrew's FREE Lock-in Planning Session:

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    SHOW NOTES

    Shownotes & Transcripts
    https://www.hybridministry.xyz/196

    //Lock-In Survival Guide

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/10-year-veterans-146449370?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

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    --------------

    🕰️TIMECODES
    00:00 Pro or Anti Lock-in?
    02:16 The Argument Against Lock-ins
    05:14 The Busy Youth Worker’s Guide to Social Media
    06:12 The Argument For Lock-ins
    09:11 What Do You do if Kids don’t like boardgames?
    10:56 Are Lock-ins only effective for Middle Schoolers?
    12:16 What are the “risks” vs the “rewards” of a lock-in?
    14:29 Do Lock-ins affect your Sunday morning attendance?
    16:43 The Final Argument FOR Lock-ins
    18:00 The Final Argument AGAINST Lock-ins
    19:09 You decide - who won?

    --------------

    TRANSCRIPT
    Nick Clason (00:01.102)
    Well, what is up everybody? Here I am this morning with Andrew and my new friend Ellen. Good morning everyone. How are we doing this morning?

    Ellen Partridge (00:10.995)

    Doing good.

    Nick Clason (00:12.802)

    Hey, are you guys, do you have coffee yet in your systems or is that long gone? All right, okay. They're doing pretty good, right, Michigan State?

    Andrew Jansen (00:12.964)

    Doing fantastic.

    Ellen Partridge (00:16.771)

    We're on the first cut. Go Spartans.

    Yeah, not as good as Michigan, which is a bummer, but...

    Andrew Jansen (00:23.46)

    They're doing good.

    Nick Clason (00:25.73)

    Mm, yeah. And this will drop after March Madness, so we'll all know. Comment down below, like how Michigan did. know, Michigan State, not Michigan. But I'm excited because today we are debating pro lock-in versus anti lock-in. And based on the two people that you see on your screen here, you can probably already tell who's pro lock-in.

    Andrew Jansen (00:33.591)

    it.

    Nick Clason (00:50.9)

    and who's anti-lock-in. And so I'm just so excited for you guys to get to, not only get to know these two amazing people, but also hear their positions on this. And so by random draw that happened off screen that you're gonna have to trust me because I'm a pastor and I get paid to tell the truth. Ellen, you get to go first. So one minute on the clock for you. Just introduce yourself, help the people understand your context, where you're at, how long you've been in ministry, all these types of things. Ellen, are you ready?

    Ellen Partridge (01:18.751)

    Absolutely. I'm ready.

    Nick Clason (01:21.58)

    Alright, take it away.

    Ellen Partridge (01:23.455)

    All right, everyone, my name is Ellen Partridge. I serve as the central pastor of students at Thornton Apple Valley Church. We are centralized out of Hastings at Michigan, southwest Michigan. And we are a multi-site church, but I've been in ministry for very close to two decades now. And we're in a rural context and a multi-site context. So things are a little bit different for us versus just the single site.

    And when I think about lock-ins, the thing that always comes to mind is the Halt analogy. If you're hungry, if you're angry, if you're tired, what are the things you shouldn't do, which is make decisions. And so we're gonna put students in a room where they are locked in together. You got the ones who, I have a kid in my youth ministry who at camp asked me if I could move our bedtime up to 9 p.m. I let him know that wasn't a thing, but you've got those kind of kids, and then you've got the kids who have snuck in.

    all their energy drinks and are going to be up till four in the morning. And those kids that are up are going to be picking on the kids that don't want to be up, that want to be sleeping. And then you've got a lot of that interpersonal conflict that is going on within that. And you're putting that all into a giant space where you're having to entertain them and or keep track of them as they are, you know,

    coming up with all of these grand ideas of how they're going to use their time. And I remember back to my youth group days, our youth ministry actually met in a old YMCA building, and for some reason, they did not lock the doors to the locker rooms, and then that locker room led to a empty pool. And I can't confirm or deny if there were children conceived in that pool, but there probably were.

    And it was coming from opportunities where we did lock-ins and they let us all throughout this building with lots of classrooms, lots of spaces that should have been locked that were not. And so from that perspective of hungry, angry, tired, lack of ability to, you know, keep an eye on all the students and all the places, I am very anti-lock-in.

    Nick Clason (03:43.896)

    Well, there you go. Andrew, she blew past introductions just straight into arguments. Brother, she's coming for you, right? Like she is coming in hot. So, Ellen, great argument. Man, I hope no students, babies were conceived in that pool. I don't ever want to swim there. Andrew.

    Andrew Jansen (03:49.24)

    yeah, just right past it. Yeah, she went right past it and that's okay.

    She's coming in hot, yeah, for sure. It's okay.

    Ellen Partridge (04:10.12)

    Me too.

    Andrew Jansen (04:12.365)

    Yeah, it's gross.

    Nick Clason (04:13.838)

    Tell us why Ellen's wrong and why lock-ins are a great idea. But first, give us a little bit of intro as you go. Are you ready, my friend? Let's go, take it away.

    Andrew Jansen (04:28.345)

    ready. Yeah, hit it. My name is Andrew Janssen. I am a middle school pastor in Manhattan, Kansas. Sorry, a couple years ago, we did play Michigan State and I know you probably knew that but we have nothing to talk about sports wise, hardly at all right now. So that's okay. But I love K State. I love serving in Manhattan. I am 36 years old. I've been a youth pastor for 10 years and

    I really love getting to be in Manhattan, getting to work with college students that invest in middle schoolers. That's kind of my passion. And man, I love lock-ins. just, it works within the context of our church is about 1900 people and we work with multi buildings on our campus, but not multi-site, but.

    It is just set up in a really easy way to execute and make lock-ins happen. And especially in our season right now where we have, and it changes, we have college students that graduate, but we have like 17, 18 youth coaches right now. And a lot of them enjoy staying up super late. And so it just really worked in this season to be able to have enough people there for a safe lock-in to happen.

    Middle schoolers are crazy and love staying up all night, love getting to be like, you can be at the church besides Sunday and Wednesday. And just, it was just really, really awesome. We did a New Year's Eve lock in and they just have so much fun. There's opportunities for fellowship, board games, long extended times that maybe you don't get that opportunity to play through an entire game of exploding kittens or taco cat.

    Mahomes cheese pizza, not taco cat goat cheese pizza. We all know Mahomes is the goat. But we play taco cat Mahomes cheese pizza and you get through two rounds and it's time for youth group to start. So we get to play through those games, have those conversations and invest in the students moving forward.

    Nick Clason (06:40.494)

    Great. All right, well there you have it. Like there's, each of you have laid down the gauntlet with your position, right? Andrews is based upon board games. Ellen's is based upon pools being present. And so with those two things in mind, plus everything else, do either of you have a question for the other that we can debate in a little bit more of an open forum?

    Andrew Jansen (06:55.097)

    You

    Ellen Partridge (07:10.974)

    All Andrea, I got one for you. So what do you do with the kids who are not your board game kids? What are your other activities that you're able to do? Because it sounds like you're pretty board game heavy. So how are you keeping the other kids occupied that are not interested in your board games?

    Andrew Jansen (07:27.929)

    Absolutely. I have, I try to make sure that every single second is accounted for at a lock-in. We have intentional time where it's like, they get to choose. We have our youth building has like carpet ball, foosball, ping pong. We have not a Nintendo switch too, but two Nintendo switches, which is kind of confusing, definitely. But so we have like Mario Kart and Smash Bros going.

    Nick Clason (07:49.902)

    That could be confusing,

    Andrew Jansen (07:56.882)

    I really try to get them away from screens as much as I can because we all know that battle. yeah, trying to have every single second with like some sort of activity, some sort of competition tournament. The last time I was on with Nick, we talked about the Assassin's like meta ongoing game that happens throughout the evening and having things like that where there isn't an opportunity to be bored.

    really, really is effective with middle schoolers. Because once you were right, once they're bored and exploring and they find a pool and we know what happens next, like there's just something about an empty pool. So, but with middle schoolers, that's not so much like the sneaking off and having that happen. I think that's more of a high school situation, but I just try to make sure every single second is accounted for. And that kind of helps with, you know, not having that boredom.

    board game time for the students that don't like board games.

    Ellen Partridge (08:57.362)

    And notice you keep saying middle school. You're not mentioning high school. So are you saying that lock-ins are only good for middle school or would you do one with high school?

    Nick Clason (09:06.072)

    Good question.

    Andrew Jansen (09:06.325)

    I would, that is a great question. I would do a, I would do a high school lock in for sure. I think that you do run that risk. They are a little bit more like, I can kind of put on the dad voice like the, Hey, what are you doing? And they'll just like freeze as a middle schooler. They still, you know, we'll listen to authority when it yells at them. So with high school, they're kind of a little bit more independent, a little bit more calloused and a little bit more.

    Like on their own I consider I always use this analogy of like middle schoolers are like dogs and high schoolers are like cats Like dogs are just happy that you're there and happy that you see them high schoolers. You kind of have to earn that relational like equity and I would say yes have a lock-in with high schoolers, but only do it if you have the resources and the adult volunteers and also if you're like

    this group is just like, this is a crazy group of high schoolers. It's not always a green light for that specific group of high schoolers if you just feel like that wouldn't be good. Does that make sense?

    Ellen Partridge (10:16.934)

    Yeah, it's good argument.

    Nick Clason (10:18.464)

    Andrew, you got a question for Ellen?

    Andrew Jansen (10:22.763)

    Yes, what do you feel is, like, I want you to tell me what is the, like, risk reward trade off where you feel like, hey, this is too risky to have a lock in for this type of reward.

    Ellen Partridge (10:35.422)

    Mmm.

    Ellen Partridge (10:45.35)

    Yeah, it's a great question. I would just say I'm a big fan of like doing late night activities, hanging out super late. The thing that gets me and where I feel like the risk comes in is once you hit that one, two, three, four a.m. that even, and you mentioned that you've got college leaders. I don't live in a college town and so I mostly have adult leaders. And so for me,

    I know my adult leaders are not gonna be on their A game coming into that situation. And so for me, the risk in my context is a lot higher that my leaders are gonna start maybe losing their minds or going stir crazy or sleep deprivation is gonna kick in. And it's gonna lead to students, because they're curious, ending up doing things that they don't need to do. And so for me, I would rather do a thing where it's like, hey, we're hanging out till midnight. Your parents are picking you up.

    and then maybe we do something again the next morning because then I know they're getting sleep, my leaders are getting sleep, and it also means that I'm not putting them at risk, I'm not putting my leaders at risk. And so for me, there doesn't seem to be necessarily, yes, there's the connection reward, but I wonder if that's always overshadowed by the sleep deprivation, the angry, hangry situations that can come up and also,

    I worry for my adult leaders that they're gonna say something out of their own sleep deprivation or frustration after telling the same kid eight times not to do something, that it may end up ultimately hurting a relationship that was good, and then they make a good relationship with someone that they had a bad relationship with, and so you're kind of at a net zero, is kind of how I look at

    Nick Clason (12:32.078)

    I just feel like the ultimate fact that like, I would rather sleep in my bed at two o'clock in the morning. Like that's my strongest argument for anti-lock-in. Just shooting straight. Plus I enjoy Saturdays and if I am doing a lock-in, I don't know. Also, Andrew, question for you. Do you ever notice that your Sunday morning attendance is affected post a lock-in weekend?

    Andrew Jansen (12:32.345)

    Definitely fair.

    Andrew Jansen (13:02.165)

    for sure. I mean, I tell my youth coaches, like, hey, you were just at church for 15 hours. It's OK for you to sleep in. I'll be there because I work there. And students, a lot of times parents will bring them and they might fall asleep or something during a message.

    Nick Clason (13:04.027)

    hahahaha

    Nick Clason (13:13.787)

    Yeah

    Yeah.

    Yeah.

    Nick Clason (13:28.622)

    Yeah.

    Andrew Jansen (13:29.079)

    Yeah, think it happens. There are definitely repercussions to having a lock-in, but I just think that there's just a lot of... I've seen so many good things and good conversations and relationships start at lock-ins, and it's just with a certain unchurched group of students, it's just an easy invite. It's just an easy win to get them there.

    Nick Clason (13:45.091)

    Yeah.

    Nick Clason (13:50.382)

    Yeah, which and I hear you like Sunday morning, it's like, okay, like, yeah, they didn't come on Sunday morning, which is like the senior pastor's goal. But like we had a lot more effective and fruitful time than like them sitting through a sermon or whatever, like through the lock-in and you know, the times I have done lock-ins, like it's almost always one of the number one most attended events from friends. Like we get, we would have some of our biggest.

    Ellen Partridge (14:12.242)

    Mm-hmm.

    Nick Clason (14:16.75)

    numbers and biggest reach, you know, as far as outreach is concerned. So I definitely do see like both sides for sure. So those of you listening, you're about to get your opportunity to vote. Ellen, you went first last time. Andrew, we're gonna put a minute on the clock now for you. Give us your final one minute strongest argument why Y lock-ins. Are you ready, my friend? Take it away.

    Ellen Partridge (14:30.173)

    All right.

    Andrew Jansen (14:42.008)

    I'm ready.

    Lock-ins are definitely the easiest first step in the door with a church. If you have the right resources, if you have the right volunteers, and you have a solid game plan going into it, you know your group of students. I think middle school or high school, it is an easy invite for the unchurched students. And that is kind of the lens in which I plan a lock-in.

    I don't have the whole bait and switch. Like we're going to talk to them about Jesus Christ, their Lord and savior first thing, and then just have the rest of the lock in. It is, hey, building connections, being intentional and teaching the students. That's why we're doing this. Like, Hey, we're doing this so you can bring that friend, start that relationship. And so that they associate church with fun, with safe, with

    They feel welcome and feel like they belong. There's something different happening here. And our hope is that continues on.

    Nick Clason (15:47.81)

    Great, almost a buzzer beater, but not quite. All right, Ellen, you get the final word, final say, anti-lock-in. Go ahead, take it away.

    Andrew Jansen (15:50.839)

    Almost.

    Ellen Partridge (16:00.572)

    All right, as fun as lock-ins can be in the memories that are made, the risk of students having bad memories, whether it's a leader who loses their cool, it's another student who says something they wouldn't have said because they're sleep deprived or because they're overtired, to me just doesn't equate to the reward. I am much more on the side of let's do a long.

    evening event where maybe we can start at six or seven and parents are picking up at midnight. So we're still getting that opportunity to connect with them, to have those great conversations, to have an opportunity for them to invite their friends. But at the same time, when it hits two, three in the morning, our leaders and our students are home in their beds, getting the sleep and the rest that they need. And hopefully, because they had a great time.

    We're gonna be able to see them on Sunday morning and they're able to stay plugged into that larger church community opposed from being just separate from the youth ministry.

    Nick Clason (17:05.023)

    Nice, nice. Another almost buzzer beater. Well, there you have it, my friends. You have your pro lock-in versus your anti lock-in debate. And so you guys get to be the decision makers. Those of you watching, let us know, comment down below. But without any further ado, we're gonna get out of here. For Andrew and for Ellen, I'm Nick. Thanks for watching everyone. See you next time.

    21 min

About Hybrid Ministry

From the publisher's feed

Hybrid Ministry is complicated and hard. Or is it? How do pastors and youth pastors create a vibrant extension, not replacement, of what's already happening during their weekly church services? To…